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Well I'm just going to have to say it, the world is stuffed.
I know there are a lot of bright people out there who could save it, but you know, it is being stuffed by democracy - funny that.
the Gaia man, prof lovelock, has also gone for the same thing, tho his opting for nuclear power is daft. the problem is politics. the issue is time. the fact is it has run out. we're stuffed. prepare for a nightmare future. as the beings we here are, this has profound ramifications.
I'm sick and tired of all the gabbers spruking about their precious group identities - the US, Semitics (Arabs, including Israel), France, Catholics, Muslims, Iran, Hezbollah, Tamil Tigers, China, all of them whose names slip past me much to the horror of the people involved who pump out their identities endlessly into the public sphere - I've had enough of the lot of them. Don't they realise the whole ship is going over the falls? Who gives a stuff for their precious little beliefs and problems - we're all stuffed, and while they squabble over chicken scraps on the boat floor, the monster's foot is coming down!!!!!
you all here will need to look sharp - I'll give us 5 years, then it's eveyman and woman for themselves. I only hope in this place you have learnt that little bit extra to help you find a survival niche. Cause there's no way we will be talking like this! Good luck everyone, I've just got to go and put my fish in the oven....
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Yes.
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you all here will need to look sharp - I'll give us 5 years, then it's eveyman and woman for themselves. I only hope in this place you have learnt that little bit extra to help you find a survival niche. Cause there's no way we will be talking like this! Good luck everyone, I've just got to go and put my fish in the oven....
It looks better from here.
But
There are holes in their brains
and around their chakras are chains
Instead of seeking change
they plan and plot for revenge
They say the answer is us
but they have missed the bus
~
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hhhmmm......
what ever happen I'm not taking me chances.....
yesss we are STUFFED
and, if you are right M, which I feel you are,
then this monster is coming like a wave, a tsunami.....
best to be fully awake when the wave comes, I suspect.
destiny relates, no....?
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after writing this last night, this morning I heard a talk on the radio by one of Aust leading scientists who has just written a book on the heating up of the earth. Grim stuff - he says despite anything we do now, and here in Aus we are doing absolutely nothing (the Gov and the stupid aust people who elect them, are in complete denial), there will be meters and meters added to the sea level for centuries to come. Good bye Bangladesh, New York I think I heard is also gone, Indonesia will have severe problems, Holland goodbye, etc. Refugees? boy we ain't seen nothing yet!
In Aust, almost everyone lives on the coastal strip all down the east and across the south - precisely the area that has been dropping rainfall for the last 50 years, and ever capital city is under severe water restrictions. The rain has increased in the north west - could be a good place to buy property, as almost no one lives there (fantastic place actually - Bradford country).
Let's watch what happens to the US this storm season, begun already, with the last devastated place still devastated a year on, and no money spent at all.
All the scientists in the world, save a couple of ratbags, are screaming for the politicians to act - so what do they do? They launch in nuclear industry - big bucks for their mates. 15 years lead time, and if anyone has heard Dr Helen Caldicott speak or read her book, it's a nightmare answer to a nightmare scenario. But money talks loudest still in this critical time.
Money is needed by politicians to hoodwink the idiots who vote - there you have it, modern democracy. I know - I'm surrounded by people who vote for the government because last election they actually gave $1000 odd to every family in aust, just before the election - a deliberate and blatant bribe for votes, and then they bashed the shit out of asylum seekers, including little children, plus the aboriginals and the unemployed, and the whole country applauded! It's complete and utter madness.
Then there is Iraq, and Iran soon to be bombed, House of Saud about to be overthrown, Pakistan on the verge of a coup, India expanding into Antarctica, the last virgin place left on earth, Africans breeding like wild fire into poverty and war - I suppose that's all jaundiced view, but sufficient to point out we are very far from having an intelligent global management in place to handle the environment crisis. And I haven't even touched on China.
So we little ants will need to think about finding a hole to shelter in, and playing a role in the greatest crisis to have ever confronted the human species. There is a moment in time with us now in which those who have kept alive the ancient wisdoms, need to make their voice heard by those looking for sanity in an impermanent universe. (before we each say, "I'm just going outside, I may be some time...")
m
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It's always a task for me to sit and write,my typing skills are to slow for my thoughts....
I'd much rather sit and talk...so I'll make it brief.
About six weeks ago I experienced what you could call a tsunami of dark energy(during a
meditation) I realized It's circling the Planet...how each of us responds to this is our position
as the story unravels...
Michael your five years made me think of an old song I used to listen to twenty five years ago....
Pushing thru the market square, so many mothers sighing
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying
I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies
I saw boys, toys electric irons and t.v.s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
I never thought Id need so many people
A girl my age went off her head, hit some tiny children
If the black hadnt a-pulled her off, I think she would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheels of a cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, and a queer threw up at the sight of that
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour, drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine, dont think
You knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, youre beautiful, I want you to walk
Weve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
Weve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all weve got
....Bowie....
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The planets supposed to have 9 BILLION people in 2050.
That's a lot of people.
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The planets supposed to have 9 BILLION people in 2050.
That's a lot of people.
Don't worry. Our scientists are on the case.
They are finding new ways to reduce population growth, and the population. Killing 90% off with viruses, for example. Only those who have the money to buy the cure would survive... and the scientists themselves. The cure would be very expensive, of course. >:D
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There is a purpose to my little rant on this issue. We have two parts, and although we may align more to one than the other, we still have to nurture both. These are the mystic and the activist in us.
We spend a lot of time talking about our mystic side. But it is equally important to develop our activist. For this, what is required is a special task.
It doesn't matter what the task is, what is important is that we see it not as a task to simply achieve its ostensible objective, but as an opportunity to reveal secrets about ourselves in its undertaking.
This is done by us going beyond our usual parameters, beyond our accustomed identity patterns. The value of a good task, is that it changes us - that is what this whole game is about, change. Not change determined by another person who thinks we should be more this or that. But change that is predicated on the very actions demanded by the task. This type of changes comes as a revelation that we were in fact that all along, just that no situation had allowed it to surface.
A magical task is usually identified by a teacher or guide, but the great teacher in the firmament has cast down the gauntlet. The greatest task of a life time stands before us - the time of judgement for our species. Some will stand, some will run, some will cry, some murder.
Here is a chance to squeeze ourselves into the most contorted emotional and experiential yoga positions imaginable.
For the time being, we must watch and prepare ourselves. Watch carefully the world, and the people around you. What you learn now about this, will determine your success or failure in the near future. Notice the peculiar mental and emotional waves that sweep across, as everyone lays down and feeds the wave with their bellies.
What you are looking for is the unique chance to act, opened like a door with your name on it. Do not assume what it will be - it could be working in a fish shop, or handing out pamphlets for a cause. Just be ready, and know that you carry a special piece of knowledge, that is to be disseminated in ways yet to be seen, different for all.
Don't go to sleep! Armies are marching.
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The Sun is setting behind us, darkness is taking over the land.
We are in battle formation, but outnumbered by 1:100,000.
The only road between huge mountains leads into enemy hordes.
There is no way to win.
It has been pre-determined during previous milleniums.
Under these circumstance the most important thing is to dare to charge!
Launch into the last, absolutely hopeless attack without any regrets, any doubts.
We'll lose for sure.
We have already lost.
But in the process we' might, just might, through the cubic centimetre of chance, get closer to ourselves, to that what drives us from inside.
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I share your exasperation, M, and I too have heard that if there was something we could have done about it, the time has long past now --- the meltdown of the poles is happening much faster than they predicted a couple of years ago. As I understand it, what they predicted to transpire in "50 years" has happened in 2.
Another factor I don't hear mentioned much are the solar flares. Poo me if you must, 9/11/2001 came in the midst of a megacycle -- I don't think that's a coincidence. Now what can be done about the sun? Not much at all! I'm not saying it's the primary factor -- just one of the many things that don't get enough interest.
Another thing which doesn't get addressed -- all of the nuclear activity which has already been!!! I don't see how we don't think having dropped the bombs we dropped in the 40's hasn't had long-range effects: it's not as if we had lot of experience with them and knew shit about them. Then, years and years of underground testing thereafter!
I've been out here in California the past few months, and I experienced something during the 2-week heatwave-from-hell I never have before -- groundheat. The heat wasn't just coming from above, it was coming from below. Deep below. The family here said they couldn't feel that, so you'll have to trust me --- something is heating up from the core. That's my sense. I don't understand the geophysics of it, but it's right there, in my spine.
There's a trend in the US which really blows my mind -- a whole current of folk who actually "laugh" when the words "global warming" are used. There's a brainwash-factor there, it's totally bizarre. I don't get that at all. After the hurricane season of 2005, how could anyone really still think nothing's afoot?
Maybe it's because of my own personal ions, and nothing mystical at all, but I feel it everywhere.
By the way, M, the story goes that many many bucks have been shelled out per repair of New Orleans, though a lot of those funds may have been shuttled to the wrong people. New Orleans isn't ready for another hurricane, that's for sure --- the waves of that awareness were slapping hard at the initial stage of Ernesto's track. Then the track changed. A reprieve.
The other thing is this: by the usual logic, the us should be having a hurricane season to beat the band, with the heat which hit the country, considering that the waters should have been really really warm, but we aren't. That is strange. (Knock on wood -- the season has a couple more months to go!) Speculations are few about this, though it very well could be the effect of that polar water meltdown, I don't know.
Or, if you want to go "conspiracy-theory" on it -- the folks who were manipulating the hurricanes last season were perhaps put out of business. Ha.
At any rate, the issue is extremely political. The information which is disseminated is ruled by politics, and there's a strong right-wing faction here who line up like musk-oxen to protect Bush.
Mind you, this is the country who brought back creationism as the valid purview of schools to teach.
It's good to be aware of, but near well impossible to influence, m -- I don't see any other way but mystical there, but of course, that has been tried already.
Still, though, look for an opportunity to act I will!
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Nichi, when you talk about Sun flares and cycles, do you remember that Sun is a sentient being responsible for all life in Solar system?
When I hear your ideas like the ones above, I sometimes get the feeling that they come from the mindstate where Sun is reduced to an 'objective' factor or circumstance.
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Hmm, not sure why you got that idea, e --
I definitely do see it as a sentient being!
My point was that its power was great, and yet it seems to be mostly ignored here as a factor! (In the politics of the thing.)
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Hmm, not sure why you got that idea, e --
I definitely do see it as a sentient being!
My point was that its power was great, and yet it seems to ne mostly ignored here as a factor! (In the politics of the thing.)
Then it might want to eradicate our civilization because it is a dead end. All these flares and increased UV radiation and stuff - it is its way to deal with the problem of delusions of mankind. I see it as a consequence of our previous actions. Hence, it is a remedy to which most people react in an increasingly destructive manner because of their growing disconnect from their hearts. Classic vicious cycle.
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Yes! "Disconnection" and the delusion of superiority (on any front you can think of) are at the heart of all the problems of the civilization(s) of 2006!
The institutionalization of separation is where western civilization took a deadly turn.
Vicious cycle indeed!
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It is settled then, we've lost, we're dead, doomed and monumentally stuffed. What is left, is a limited opportunity to take the maximum advantage of the remaining few years. There is little to be sad about, rather there are dry facts of life.
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It is settled then, we've lost, we're dead, doomed and monumentally stuffed. What is left, is a limited opportunity to take the maximum advantage of the remaining few years. There is little to be sad about, rather there are dry facts of life.
Exactly, and in a a million years no one will ever know we existed. So what's all that big deal. You're not sad to see a dead fly, why would you be sad seeing a dead species? What's the difference.
We killed off a couple of species and the life went on without problems. Our show is over, but the show goes on.
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1) Exactly, and in a a million years no one will ever know we existed.
We killed off a couple of species and the life went on without problems. Our show is over, but the show goes on.
1) Not quite, for the Universe will know that we (that is, the ones who strive on the path) tried!
2) We kill one species every 20 minutes. I've been here tonight for 2 hours. 6 species have vanished while I have been exerting my immense wisdom here! ;D
For us to blabber here, coal must be shoveled into power stations, or Uranium atoms broken up or huge dams must be built on rivers. All plastic comes from oil or natural gas. A lot of coloured metals and silicone must be excavated for electronics industry and so on.
Nothing comes for free. Nothing. To make it worth for Earth, we (i.e. our egos and all falseness in us) must be sacrificed as Earth sacrifices itself to give us a fighting chance to do our lot.
3) Yes, Rudi, the show will go on (probably). Somewhere, some day, somehow.
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It's not like we're destroying the universe.
Not yet, hehe.
Our stupidity has to reach a certain critical mass, where we become like a huge gigantic black hole that will suck in all the universe. That one I would like to see. >:D
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It is settled then, we've lost, we're dead, doomed and monumentally stuffed. What is left, is a limited opportunity to take the maximum advantage of the remaining few years. There is little to be sad about, rather there are dry facts of life.
Yes -- grieving isn't in the equation for me now.
I'm looking at what m said, though:
Michael: What you are looking for is the unique chance to act, opened like a door with your name on it. Do not assume what it will be - it could be working in a fish shop, or handing out pamphlets for a cause. Just be ready, and know that you carry a special piece of knowledge, that is to be disseminated in ways yet to be seen, different for all.
Don't go to sleep! Armies are marching.
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It's not like we're destroying the universe.
Not yet, hehe.
Wellll, we don't really know that either!
Could be all these ufo's folks report seeing have to do with precisely that!
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It's not like we're destroying the universe.
Not yet, hehe.
Our stupidity has to reach a certain critical mass, where we become like a huge gigantic black hole that will suck in all the universe. That one I would like to see. >:D
I guess it was Miguel Ruiz who compared presently rampaging human mind to cancer that is overtaking an organism consisting of planets and other living beings in our Solar system.
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(Or maybe extraterrestrials are rushing over to get some nice photographs: "Honey, here's the earth, before it blew up! Remember what a nice time we had there? Wonderful oceans! I'll miss the whales!")
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By the way, M, the story goes that many many bucks have been shelled out per repair of New Orleans, though a lot of those funds may have been shuttled to the wrong people.
Well that's interesting to hear Niche, as the article I read from my favourite Friday night reporter, Julian Borger, says of the $10bn promised by the federal govt, "not one dollar has arrived on the streets of New Orleans".
Anyway, as I say, the universe is impermanent, that's the game we are in. But we can find our own little island of permanence once we align with goals outside the universe, and we do that in how we act in goals inside the universe. The method of the activist is the critical part. How to transform a simple action, just like those of all the phantoms, into the very gold of reality? That's is our task to learn... for which we need a task to act, and knowledge, which has been absorbed from books and words into bones and flesh.
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djeez, that will be a real task for me. I'm not an activist by any means, I'm too lazy to care about more then myself. :-\
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you're and activist for Firefox.
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No I'm not! Yes, I am. I'm not. Yes I am!
Oh well, it's just a game I play.
Didn't you know that Firefox is the favourite browsers of the aliens?!?
(http://digilander.libero.it/rudoka/soma/ffcrop.jpg)
Anyway, if this helps the world to be a better place -and I'm sure it does :D - then I'm glad to be an activist for Firefox.
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Anyway, funny that this came up now, because it's the first time ever I actually tried advertising Firefox. Not counting the times when I say to people to use Firefox because it's better and it's safer. I never did the banner thing and everything. Last days I even thought to buy some shirts and hats and wear it. First to show that I'm a proud user, second to make the people curious, to ask questions. To make them aware that they have options.
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yep you really are an activist.
now all you need is the right cause.
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you're and activist for Firefox.
I saved his little happy face punching the IE: too cute! ;D
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Good.
Now start punching you too. ;)
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"Our global furnace is out of control. By 2020, 2025, you will be able to sail a sailboat to the North Pole. The Amazon will become a desert, and the forests of Siberia will burn and release more methane and plagues will return."
Within the next decade or two, Lovelock forecasts, Gaia will hike her thermostat by at least 10 degrees. Earth, he predicts, will be hotter than at any time since the Eocene Age 55 million years ago, when crocodiles swam in the Arctic Ocean.
"There's no realization of how quickly and irreversibly the planet is changing," Lovelock says. "Maybe 200 million people will migrate close to the Arctic and survive this. Even if we took extraordinary steps, it would take the world 1,000 years to recover
It begins with the melting of ice and snow. As the Arctic grows bare -- the Greenland ice cap is shrinking far faster than had been expected -- dark ground emerges and absorbs heat. That melts more snow and softens peat bogs, which release methane. As oceans warm, algae are dying and so absorbing less heat-causing carbon dioxide.
To the south, drought already is drying out the great tropical forests of the Amazon. "The forests will melt away just like the snow," Lovelock says.Even the northern forests, those dark cool beauties of pines and firs, suffer. They absorb heat and shelter bears, lynxes and wolves through harsh winters. But recent studies show the boreal forests are drying and dying and inducing more warming.
"People say, 'Well, you're 87, you won't live to see this,' " he says. "I have children, I have grandchildren, I wish none of this. But it's our fate; we need to recognize it's another wartime. We desperately need a Moses to take us to the Arctic and preserve civilization.
"It's too late to turn back."
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If we shall go down we shall go down with music:
here follows some info about a film with Al Gore, former vice president of the US:
An inconvenient truth (http://www.climatecrisis.net/)
it is hot stuff.
Video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2078944470709189270&q=an+inconvenient+truth&pl=true)
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There's a trend in the US which really blows my mind -- a whole current of folk who actually "laugh" when the words "global warming" are used. There's a brainwash-factor there, it's totally bizarre. I don't get that at all. After the hurricane season of 2005, how could anyone really still think nothing's afoot?
Maybe it's because of my own personal ions, and nothing mystical at all, but I feel it everywhere.
Noone should laugh - Scientist in the field are all (to 98%) in consensus about the fact that there is a period of global climate change in the terms of warming. I checked a few scientific links that are on the Wikipeda page about the film with Al Gore.
About the film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth)
The most convincing scientific paper on the subject regarding scientific consensus.
Saying:
This analysis shows that scientists publishing in the peer-reviewed literature agree with IPCC, the National Academy of Sciences, and the public statements of their professional societies. Politicians, economists, journalists, and others may have the impression of confusion, disagreement, or discord among climate scientists, but that impression is incorrect.
A meta analysis of studies concerning global warming (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686)
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I haven't been able to see it yet because it's only playing in limited theatres, so its not out here in my area. I'll probably have to wait for the DVD, but I'm probably going to buy it. I did get to see the trailer in the theatres and I was in awe.
Al Gore, no matter what folks think of him, has been very passionate about global warming from the get-go. It's not about politics but a conviction for him, he believes in it. I think people have been recognizing that, and there's scientists who are giving him kudos on the film even. I can hardly wait to see the whole thing. This is probably one of the most important films which has come out in a long time. I'm glad to see people are finally paying attention and not buying the old political hype that global warming wasn't a real threat. After Katrina hit, people began to really take notice, who originally didn't believe.
Like Hybrid cars. I'm seeing more of them now on the street. I'd get one if I could afford it. I'm hoping they'll be made more affordable eventually so I can have one and save. I've always said I don't believe the hype that an electric or solar vehicle wouldn't work, or have to be too expensive; it's a conspiracy because the oil companies have so much power in the globe, and they're not prepared to lose several billion dollars a year because consumers don't fill fuel tanks anymore. Its gonna take people saying "no more of this -- planet is more important" for folks to make the changes. Hybrids are a start at least. But people need to make changes to stop flowering up the planet, and put a halt on these companies who don't care who love the money more than the planet.
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There are parts of the wrld where you don't have to be a scientist to be able to tell that something's wrong.
My grandmother had stories about 4-5 month long winters with snow levels over 2m. Stories from her childhood, from her adult life, stories spanning 50-60 years. For her the summer was the same, the winters were the same. She could rely on the secular experience and knowledge thei ancestors passed to her.
When I was a child we re-lived those stories. There was plenty of snow to play.
When I entered in highschool just 4-5 years later, we were happy when it snowed, it was an exceptional event. We were happy to enjoy once again the snow. The last year of high school we had snow for one week.
My last winter there, just 4 years later there was no snow at all. Cold, but no snow, no "frozen".
Then we just used to tell stories from the "good ol' days", joking and laughing, but only now, looking backwards I realise how drastic the change was. In less then two decades everything changed. It can't be denied.
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Al Gore, no matter what folks think of him, has been very passionate about global warming from the get-go. It's not about politics but a conviction for him, he believes in it. I think people have been recognizing that, and there's scientists who are giving him kudos on the film even. I can hardly wait to see the whole thing. This is probably one of the most important films which has come out in a long time. I'm glad to see people are finally paying attention and not buying the old political hype that global warming wasn't a real threat. After Katrina hit, people began to really take notice, who originally didn't believe.
I would like to see it too. What Al Gore has early realized and worked for during many years is that something has to be done. He was one of the leading politicians that saw that the Kyoto agreement about pollution came through - only to find out that his own country would reject it.
He is a strong man and convinced, such men can act as ringing bells and start forceful opinions.
In my ear the Earth bell ringing has been going on since early 2003. I do not need any more evidence or conviction but hard facts can be interesting, as in any case.
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I'm flabbergasted. That Americans have to wait for Al Gore to make 'a movie' before they find out what is happening in the world. For God's sake go and see it, but that you will have to see it, to know about what he is talking about, is a terrifying indictment of the media and culture in US and other similar countries.
In the 1980's it was reasonable to be out of the link, but since the 90's the crisis for the earth and our survival in it has made it completely irresponsible to our own life force to be uninformed. For the past 3 years the panic button has been held on constantly by the huge numbers of people who have direct knowledge of all the critical issues - environmental, political, social, and economical.
So many people I know who have woken up somewhat late, are now reading the relevant books, but really for at least 10 years this information has been available to the intelligent public in a continuous stream.
I recommend everyone here know what is happening in this world now, as we are in the final phase of our own species and the earth as we know it - not to be aware can no longer be justified by some new age spiritual snobbery. It is absolutely essential to know dispassionately what is happening in your world, as you will need to make personal decisions very soon.
I don't want to push people into nightmares and anxiety attacks, I just want you to know what is happening.
It is not that difficult - go to this site and sign up for weekly delivery. That way you will get an ongoing coverage - you can just scan the headers if you don't have time for the detail, but at least you'll have a better chance of survival.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/)
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I can't remember the whole dream but someone mentioned living in California and the ground seemed to be heating up from within. Well in this dream I was on some sort of trip with people to this technological marval of a building that was shaped a lot like Badshahi Mosque (look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Badshahi_Mosque_July_1_2005_pic32_by_Ali_Imran.jpg)
But it looked totally futuristic! I mean it had the same shaped towers and all but they all looked computerized and made of metal, glass, plastic, etc. You get the idea.
Well, I was visiting this place like it was some sort of major torist attraction. I could feel the happy cheery celabration in the air, and I was impressed by the structure but I did not know what was going on. Everyone else seem to know though. So I go around exploring the place and I notice that we are walking in this sci fi bridge type thing and below the bridge I expect to see water but instead I see fire. The fire is comming in explicably from the ground. and I don't know why. Shortly after I wake up.
I had this dream while I was living in California. When I woke up that morning a near by church was on fire.
I have to admit a bit of neglence on these issues. Though I FELT very strongly something different when I was living in Cali, it kind of seemed like something would come over people at times.... I don't feel it so much here in PA but then I'm living closer to nature right now. Before I was in the middle of the city.
Also if anyone wants to keep up to date on things there is Wikinews. I love the whole wikipedia thing :)
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That Americans have to wait for Al Gore to make 'a movie' before they find out what is happening in the world.
I've read a study according to which 'independent' US media gets about 80% of its information on foreign developments from government. That is especially valid in the cases of various conflicts.
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US citizens have to read multiple newspapers to get any news of substance -- and I've seen even the reliable ones miss the boat.
I've seen "news shows" with a soft subliminal soundtrack of music by the US Navy Band.
I can watch the newschannels all day and get very little in depth on breaking stories. I like being able to watch the BBC news when I can ... but even they walk softly at times.
One thing I've been drafted into since these trips to California is hearing a lot of talk radio, and I'm telling you, it is the minority that believes that global warming is a reality.
"Global warming" has been sifted into a political issue, and in a way, it's unfortunate that Al Gore made his film here, because it can now be written off all the more to politics.
"Well, that's Al Gore for you," they say,
Then one listens to NationalPublicRadio, which is scorned by the right-wing for being liberal, and one can mindnumbingly go to sleep for the stories they don't cover.
A long time ago I started listening to news in a different way: with the gut, with a different ear than what is presented, and with as much intuition as possible. For this reason, I don't give or even listen for a hard-facts presentation myself anymore. I sniff for different things ...
We've been in trouble mentally in this country since Clinton had oral sex with an aide, and details such as the stain on her dress were big news ... but the rebuking of the Kyoto Treaty a few years later was blown off. Then, of course, 9/11 happened, and that occupied our consciousness and still does. We're interested in who killed the beauty pageant child. Our mind is in the gutter.
I'm not speaking of anyone here .. I know a couple here are brilliantly informed and know the history as well for most any current event.
I'm speaking of the mass consciousness of the US.
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I've been thinking - are you afraid of death, is that what drives you? Do you think this world is a wonderful place - only there is this bad thing that in the end we have to die.
I have to say - i don't like this world, it's all so pointless, the way it's built just mostly doesn't make any sense to me whether there is war or peace or global catastrophe or what ever. So i would be glad to get away from here. But i guess there must be some reason for coming here so i just try to bare this nonsense and clean myself of the shit.
I can't get really get so emotional about the whole global catastrophe thing. I would rather think it bring somekind of action. Would be interesting to see all that.
Now call me stupid if you wish :P
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Rubina, you don't have to get emotional about the whole catastrophe thing. Just be aware of it, understand that there is and it's happening.
It's just brings closer to you on individual level what is inevitable. Even if you survive the physical cataclism, you have simply won another couple of years of time. Nothing more.
The purpose, as I see, of this thread is to bring some action in us. We don't have time. We must act now. That's action.
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We don't have time. We must act now. That's action.
What have i been doing sofar then ??? :)
I have admit - i haven't done much of the practices that are described in cc-s books or elsewhere. Most of my practicing takes place in everyday life in normal situations. And it works! Being alive is a practice. Spirit offers me exactly the situations that i need. Though of cource that doesn't have to exclude other exercises.
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Some more to read....
Climate Approaching Point of "No Return"
Global Warming Approaching Point of No Return, Warns Leading Climate Expert
The Independent (U.K.), Jan. 23, 2005
Global warning has already hit the danger point that international attempts to curb it are designed to avoid, according to the world's top climate watchdog.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told an international conference attended by 114 governments in Mauritius this month that he personally believes that the world has "already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere" and called for immediate and "very deep" cuts in the pollution if humanity is to "survive".
His comments rocked the Bush administration - which immediately tried to slap him down - not least because it put him in his post after Exxon, the major oil company most opposed to international action on global warming, complained that his predecessor was too "aggressive" on the issue.
A memorandum from Exxon to the White House in early 2001 specifically asked it to get the previous chairman, Dr Robert Watson, the chief scientist of the World Bank, "replaced at the request of the US". The Bush administration then lobbied other countries in favour of Dr Pachauri - whom the former vice-president Al Gore called the "let's drag our feet" candidate, and got him elected to replace Dr. Watson, a British-born naturalised American, who had repeatedly called for urgent action.
But this month, at a conference of Small Island Developing States on the Indian Ocean island, the new chairman, a former head of India's Tata Energy Research Institute, himself issued what top United Nations officials described as a "very courageous" challenge.
He told delegates: "Climate change is for real. We have just a small window of opportunity and it is closing rather rapidly. There is not a moment to lose."
Afterwards he told The Independent on Sunday that widespread dying of coral reefs, and rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, had driven him to the conclusion that the danger point the IPCC had been set up to avoid had already been reached.
Reefs throughout the world are perishing as the seas warm up: as water temperatures rise, they lose their colours and turn a ghostly white. Partly
as a result, up to a quarter of the world's corals have been destroyed.
And in November, a multi-year study by 300 scientists concluded that the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and that its ice-cap had shrunk by up to 20 per cent in the past three decades.
The ice is also 40 per cent thinner than it was in the 1970s and is expected to disappear altogether by 2070. And while Dr. Pachauri was speaking, parts of the Arctic were having a January "heatwave", with temperatures eight to nine degrees centigrade higher than normal.
He also cited alarming measurements, first reported in The Independent on Sunday, showing that levels of carbon dioxide (the main cause of global warming) have leapt abruptly over the past two years, suggesting that climate change may be accelerating out of control.
He added that, because of inertia built into the Earth's natural systems, the world was now only experiencing the result of pollution emitted in the 1960s, and much greater effects would occur as the increased pollution of later decades worked its way through. He concluded: "We are risking the ability of the human race to survive."
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He added that, because of inertia built into the Earth's natural systems, the world was now only experiencing the result of pollution emitted in the 1960s, and much greater effects would occur as the increased pollution of later decades worked its way through. He concluded: "We are risking the ability of the human race to survive."
Exactly. Like a rolling snowball, it will keep growing.
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"We are risking the ability of the human race to survive."
I have another stupid question. I am ready to adobt new approaches to things but right now i'd like to ask - so what if the human race dies? what's the big deal?
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It's a valid question...and I belive it may stem from frustration at watching humanities stupidity...the way I have come to understand our predicament is...as conciousness evolves...unfolds, through different stages of evolution like a developing embryo,the right enviroment is required for completion of that phase of growth ...If we lose the human form we have to continue somewhere else.(no one beats the rap!!!) If one really had
a choice,would they stay stuffed in a womb for 9 months to be born into this?and I mean this...the madness the unknowing,the suffering,the beauty,the love,the mystery,the truth of being,the possibility of seeing beyond the finite prison of matter...all that can be done in the human form...as frustrating as that is...that's the hand we have been dealt,as Cohen said "well I've been where your hanging and I think I can See how your pinned when your not feeling Holy your lonliness says that you've sinned"...that's a general statment
about the human condition and our inability through our lack of knowledge to develop and maintain an engauging understanding of the process in which we find ourselves...
"Life wasn't meant to be easy"
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I have started to think about being here in this world as an opportunity not as a commitment. Works much better than the intimidation with death. I am far more motivated of the idea that i have this short period during which i have the chanse to evolve. and i can use this chanse or not, in the end it doesn't matter. When people talk about death and we don't have time and things like that, it only makes me feel like i should run like crazy from here to there and desperatley try to find Spirit. Guess i don't like 'musts'.
PS. I like Leonard Cohen, listen to him very often
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http://www.flp1.forever-loved.net/CallingAllAngels.html
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I have started to think about being here in this world as an opportunity not as a commitment.
It is an opportunity.
A warrior uses everything in his tonal, even the threat of a catastrophe can be used.
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A warrior uses everything in his tonal, even the threat of a catastrophe can be used.
Yes it can be used - if it works
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"if" ??
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"if" ??
different things work for different people
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My questioning was not about the "things" or the "different people", R, it was about the "if", like it's only a possibility, these tools of the warrior. It's much more than that. It's a necessity.
Everything in the Naguals' world works around it. It even makes "humanities stupidity" make sense. As an example, my maybe-future daughter in law and I were talking about the numbness of most humanity, how people screw themselves up so easily in their less-than- mindful habits. She is a healer and gets "plugged up" now and then and becomes very exhausted. I reminded her fervently to work on healing self on a regular basis. The "stupid" ones cannot receive our full capacity to help if we become weak from helping so many others. Examination of Intent, especially our own Intent also, is a very necessary tool for the warrior, one which aids in the impeccability of our individual actions. We're only human but still not.
tom
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My questioning was not about the "things" or the "different people", R, it was about the "if", like it's only a possibility, these tools of the warrior.
I don't think i understand what you mean.
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Nichi said that a warrior uses everything in his tonal, even the threat of catastrophe. You replied, "Yes it can be, if it works."
You sounded doubtful. I was only illustrating how manipulation of the tonal is not a possibility but an actual tool.
Life is an opportunity but, to this warrior, it is the vehicle toward achieving a great end.
What I am trying to say, R, is that there are only two kinds of people to me. Ones who do certain things and ones who HAVE to do certain things. Maybe this is my definition of "warrior".
There is no "if" to me about this matter. t
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Nichi said that a warrior uses everything in his tonal, even the threat of catastrophe. You replied, "Yes it can be, if it works."
What i meant is that a thing can be used as a tool if it works (gives a result). if it doesn't work then there is no point of using it. then it would be smart to choose some other tool that works. that's what i mean when i said that people are different. one specific tool can work for one person but has no use for the other.
btw - it was Jahn who said that a warrior uses everything in his tonal... ;)
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I follow you. Thanx. Yeh, it was Jahns' quote. My mistake.
What I have learnt about "tools", in either the physical or non-physicial realms, is that it is not the user but, rather, the tool which needs to be known, also. Like you implied, what works for one person may not work for another. Yet a warrior, one who knows the potential of themselves, must focus on the tool for what it has to reveal to them by their use of it. What I am implying is, Rubina, that I have to remind myself often not to rush to judgement on such things as spiritual/nagual tools. It took me many years and many attempts at recapitulation and self-stalking to realize just what is involved in the practice of such powerful forms of art. I had to grow within the tool. Decades of attempted impeccability taught me to wake up in my recapitulation and realize that the act was alive, of and in itself. I can now live new moments in my past when before I could only recollect. I cannot change anything with "the past", but I can pick out details which previously escaped my awareness. The knowledge from "then" is now not hidden because of my new identity with such things, areas of my perception which were only latent. So the "tool", in other words, needed extensive handling before I could begin to perceive the possibilities awaiting my discovery.
t
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What i meant is that a thing can be used as a tool if it works (gives a result). if it doesn't work then there is no point of using it. then it would be smart to choose some other tool that works. that's what i mean when i said that people are different. one specific tool can work for one person but has no use for the other.
btw - it was Jahn who said that a warrior uses everything in his tonal... ;)
I suppose that you are on the right track Rubina but let me make myself clear. What is meant by everything?
It is meant that everything in our tonal have an option to serve us as a tool for growth. I'll mention a few.
A relationship. Relations to parents are a common approach to healing and growth, but also, relatives, partners and friends serve very well.
Any work situation, since it involves interaction, team work and hiearchical structures, opportunities to a career etc.
Our car or other vehicle that we use. Maintenance, Pirsig wrote a whole book about it - Zen, and the art of motorcycle maintenace. It hasn't to be an old Triumph, it can be any bicycle or simple car.
The apartment, house or garden - I just mention Feng Shui and you can fill in the rest.
These are the basic - near us areas.
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Now the magic in this with using everything in tonal is that if you start with one piece and improve that - the others will follow. Well the oil will not be renewed in your car engine unless you change it but there are other energetical multiple effects.
Another thing is to not overlook the importance among details. Remember that we "work" in a complete system. We cannot afford to neglect one part and only focus on other. I am not arguing with you R on this because I talk about another angle of this.
you are right in "if" its work to a certain extent.
Par example: I have never joined any political party, I saw no progress or growth available in that. I didn't join the army for the same reason but went to jail instead. So these things are not in my tonal and I simply do not work with them as a tool, to be politically involved for instance was nothing useful for me.
Tom on the other hand is a Vietnam vet, and for sure he have had the opportunity to include that experience in his growth. So there is our choices and other happenings that put forward things in our tonal that we can use for our personal growth.
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I suppose that you are on the right track Rubina but let me make myself clear. What is meant by everything?
It is meant that everything in our tonal have an option to serve us as a tool for growth.
Yes of course, the word everything didn't cause problems for me, i just said it was you who said it, not Nichi.
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Yes of course, the word everything didn't cause problems for me, i just said it was you who said it, not Nichi.
Thanks,
but please note that I wrote some more on the subject in my next post to develop the idea "everything" compared to your statement "if it works".
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Our car or other vehicle that we use. Maintenance, Pirsig wrote a whole book about it - Zen, and the art of motorcycle maintenace. It hasn't to be an old Triumph, it can be any bicycle or simple car.
I had this book once, it seemed really interesting, but it was too hard English for me at that time.
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I had this book once, it seemed really interesting, but it was too hard English for me at that time.
What a pity. It is three stories in one.
His physically tour across the USA with his 11 year old son as passenger on his old Triumph.
His mentally, philosophically tour from ancient Greek philospohy and forward towards some kind of illumination about "Quality".
He talks a lot about "Phaidros" the Wolf from the country that challenge Platon (I think it was that way).
Then there is this lesson how to work with a motorcycle. And also that the book begins with him being released from the Asylum. So he travels back and forth in his own personal history - a kind of great recap.
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If we shall go down we shall go down with music:
here follows some info about a film with Al Gore, former vice president of the US:
An inconvenient truth (http://www.climatecrisis.net/)
it is hot stuff.
Video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2078944470709189270&q=an+inconvenient+truth&pl=true)
Well today I went and watched this movie. It started to show this week. Al Gore is doing a good job and explains a lot. For Gore the interest for the global warmingstarted with a professor that was his teacher in the late 1960's. This prof. had made scientific field research on the CO2 prevalence in the Pacific. There was a steady rising curve since the start in the late 1950s.
The situation is more severe than I ever thought. It multiplies, the forests, the dries, the increased water temperature. And then the North Pole together with Greenland is is, yes what is it? A sad unavoidable receipt that there is going to be a great change.
He ends with some examples how we can change this development - but I am afraid that it is too late to change from car to buses, from ordinary lamps to low energy lamps ...
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Go Al!!
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Don't worry. Our scientists are on the case.
They are finding new ways to reduce population growth, and the population. Killing 90% off with viruses, for example. Only those who have the money to buy the cure would survive... and the scientists themselves. The cure would be very expensive, of course. >:D
That's strange: while scientists are trying methods to eliminate people for reducing the population, in Italy the government gives money to the couples who decide to have more than 1 child.....
This means they will reduce population where they decide ( for example Africa, China, India)...
I believe this selective mechanism is set up since a long time ( HIV, bird flue....)
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That's strange: while scientists are trying methods to eliminate people for reducing the population, in Italy the government gives money to the couples who decide to have more than 1 child.....
This means they will reduce population where they decide ( for example Africa, China, India)...
I believe this selective mechanism is set up since a long time ( HIV, bird flue....)
What is this selective mechanism needed for? Does it work, considering that the world already consumes every year 20% more resources than is regenerated by nature (this is not to mention resources that are not regenerated at all - like oil, gas, etc.)?
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Some factual information on the world:
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/asialpr2005.pdf
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/lpr2004.pdf
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What is this selective mechanism needed for? Does it work, considering that the world already consumes every year 20% more resources than is regenerated by nature (this is not to mention resources that are not regenerated at all - like oil, gas, etc.)?
The resources will finish in any case...But until they exists will be concentrated in the Western world..
Im sure they already found the alternative to most important resources and the only thing that remains to do is to use it.. Just like we dont wake up and find in our garden a big tree that the day before there wasnt , so changements dont happen suddenly but slowly and inesorably....
I apply the "nothing dies, everything is trasforming" point of view.
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Nobody can replace the nature, right?
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Nobody can replace the nature, right?
Right.
The Earth changes with us, with the vibrations we send to her; not forgetting she has its own that act on all living beings over her surface and inside her.
What i wanna say is that we are connected.
We have to change our way to obtain things.
We now are used to obtain thing in a painful and greedy way. That's why things are hurting us and the planet...cos we dont have in our hearts the desire to share, but just to accumulate for ourselves.
Alias...the egoism is killing.
When i say we have to share what we get i mean it from any source. (be it the nature, be it the neighbour..)
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Cool! ;)
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US population hits 300 million, but is it sustainable?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1834360.ece
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 11 October 2006
The population of the United States will pass 300 million today, or tomorrow. No one knows exactly where, no one know precisely when. It is a milestone for sure but is this a cause for celebration or anxiety?
Some American commentators are already saying the landmark is a chance to note the US is perhaps the only country in the developed world where the economy is being bolstered by a population that is growing at a discernable rate. But many experts say passing the 300 million milestone should be a wake-up call that demands a reappraisal of the extraordinary, unparalleled rate of consumption by the world's largest economy and its third largest by population.
As an economic model for the rest of the world to follow - in particular the rapidly developing economies of China and India - it is unsustainable, they say.
On a global scale the average US citizen uses far more than his or her fair share of the planet's resources - consuming more than four times the worldwide average of energy, almost three times as much water and producing more than twice the average amount of rubbish and five times the amount of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming. The US - with five per cent of the world's population - uses 23 per cent of its energy, 15 per cent of its meat and 28 per cent of its paper. Additional population will mean more people seeking a share of those often-limited resources.
It may be that America's citizen number 300,000,000 will be an undocumented migrant, born to undocumented parents somewhere in the South or the West, where population growth is the fastest. Almost one-third of America's annual population growth of between 0.9 per cent and 1 per cent is the result of immigration - much of it illegal.
"America is the only industrialised nation in the world experiencing significant population growth," Victoria Markham, the director of the Centre for Environment and Population (CEP), says in a new report. "The nation's relatively high rates of population growth, natural resource consumption and pollution combine to create the largest environmental impact, felt both within the nation and around the world." She adds: " The US has become a 'super-size' nation, with lifestyles reflected in super-sized appetites for food, houses, land and resource consumption. 'More of more' seems to characterise modern-day America - more people than any generation before us experienced, more natural resources being utilised to support everyday life and more major impacts on the natural systems that support life on earth."
Some commentators believe this growth has a modest impact on the nation's resources and can bring many benefits. Greg Easterbrook, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based, independent research and policy institute, recently wrote: "What should not worry us about continuing US population growth ... is the question of whether we can handle it - we can," he said.
Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group also based in Washington, said: "In times past, reaching such a demographic milestone might have been a cause for celebration - in 2006 it is not. Population growth is the ever-expanding denominator that gives each person a shrinking share of the resource pie. It contributes to water shortages, cropland conversion to non-farm uses, traffic congestion, more garbage, overfishing, crowding in national parks, a growing dependence on imported oil and other conditions that diminish the quality of our daily lives."
Mr Brown said there was also a global perspective to America's rapacious model of consumption. In addition to foreign policy decisions at least influenced by a desire to secure diminishing resources, he said the US was setting an example to the developing world that was unsustainable. "We used to think of the developing countries as places that did not consume very much ... But it is starting to change and they are beginning to behave like us and heading for income levels like us," he said.
If China's economy continued to grow at 8 per cent a year, Mr Brown said, income levels in that country would equal the 2004 US level by 2031, by which time China's population would stand at 1.45 billion.
If current consumption rates were multiplied to take into account its population growth, China's paper consumption would be double the current total world production of paper and its vehicle fleet would be 1.1 billion; the world's current total fleet is 800 million.
"What China is teaching us is that the Western economic model is not going to work for China and if it will not work for China it will not work for India and in the long-term ... it will not work for us as well," he said.
It was in 1915 that the US population reached 100 million. Fifty-two years later, in 1967, it reached 200 million. It has taken just 39 more years for the milestone of 300 million to be achieved.
1915: US population reaches 100 million
The population of America hit the 100-million mark in 1915, two years before President Woodrow Wilson would enter the First World War. Americans were stunned by the sinking of the British liner, 'Lusitania', enthralled by Charlie Chaplin and arguing about immigration. "There is here a great melting pot in which we must compound a precious metal," said Wilson, as a million European immigrants poured into the US each year.
The 'great white hope' Jess Willard beat black boxing champion Jack Johnson in a dubious bout in Havana; Marines were dispatched to Haiti after a mob killed its president and the Ku Klux Klan was reestablished as a 'benevolent' organisation.
1967: US passes 200 million
By 1967, when the US population hit 200m, the US was up to its neck in the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight title for refusing the draft, dozens were killed in race riots in Detroit, and San Francisco was beguiled by the Summer of Love.
Eugene McCarthy said he would run for president, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was passed allowing for a transfer of power to the vice-president if the president was incapacitated and three Apollo astronauts burned to death during a simulation at Cape Canaveral. The millionth telephone was installed in the US. Hit films included The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night and Bonnie and Clyde.
Supersize nation: how America is eating the world
300m Expected population of the United States by the end of this week
75 Life expectancy for men in the US. Women are expected to live until 80
63 Life expectancy for men in the developing world. Women are expected to live until 67
395m Projected population of the US by 2050
1,682m3 US annual water consumption per capita
633m3 The world's annual water consumption per capita
545m3 The developing world's annual water withdrawals per capita
5lbs Amount of waste each US resident produces per day. That compares with about 3lbs per person per day in Europe, and about 0.9-1.3lbs per person a day in the developing world
$39,710 US Gross National Income per head, 2004
$8,540 World's GNI per head
$4,450 Developing world's GNI per head
19.8 US carbon dioxide emissions per capita, in metric tonnes
3.9 World's carbon dioxide emissions per head, in tonnes
1.8 Developing world's carbon dioxide emissions per head, in tonnes
58bn Number of burgers consumed by Americans every year
54m Number of Americans who are obese
300,000 Deaths per year related to obesity
678lbs US annual paper consumption per head
115lbs The corresponding figure for the world
44lbs The figure for the developing world
204m number of vehicles on US roads
37% Percentage of the total cars in the world on America's roads
1 in 7 Barrels of world oil supply used by US drivers
24m Number of Americans who drive SUVs
7,921 US energy consumption per capita, 2001, expressed in kilograms of oil
1,631 World's energy consumption per capita, in kilograms of oil
828 Corresponding figure for the developing world
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It appears that our own technology too has some dark hidden sides.
Basically we poison the earth, water and air around ourselves with our own computers, households electronics and other stuff. Something called e-waste, when we carelessly throw out old electronics, and are not handled correctly.
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It appears that our own technology too has some dark hidden sides.
Basically we poison the earth, water and air around ourselves with our own computers, households electronics and other stuff. Something called e-waste, when we carelessly throw out old electronics, and are not handled correctly.
Well we got recycling stations. And very handy for me they built a new one 1 mile from here. Went there with a computer screen and a keyboard this very Saturday. Also threw away a broken chair and some surplus from the garden.
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Delusions of Separation
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS:
Delusions of Separation
Very few people seem to have noticed that we are a species gone mad, which
itself is an expression of the extent of the collective insanity we have fallen
into.
by PAUL LEVY
Aparticipatory Delusional Syndrome (ADS) is based on the deluded assumption that
we are separate from and not participating in helping to create the very
situation we find ourselves in. In my new book, The Madness of George W. Bush: A
Reflection of our Collective Psychosis, I point out that the underlying dynamic
that is in-forming events in our world is to be found within the human psyche.
As more of us are able to illumine, recognize and articulate the nature and
dynamics of the deeper psychological process that is creating our experience in
the world, the more effectively we become able to deal with our world crisis. As
more of us awaken to the deeper, underlying psychological process which animates
events in our world, the more we will be able to consciously connect with each
other in increasingly more creative ways so as to transform this process, both
within ourselves, as well as in the outside world.
Seeing the nature of the deeper psychological process that is playing out in our
world is to find its “name,” which is to get a “handle” on it, so to speak. This
is the power of the Word, the Logos. Just like in mythology, when we know the
“demon’s” name, we strip it of its power. To differentiate ourselves from a
process that we are unconsciously acting out compulsively, is to separate from
it and see it “objectively,” which is to simultaneously be liberated from it,
and hence, free from its harmful effects. Finding the name of the deeper process
that is revealing itself in, as and through our world is to shed light on the
darkness that is wreaking havoc in our world. Shedding light on darkness is a
genuine illumination, a birthing of consciousness. Once illumined, the darkness
can no longer act itself out (destructively) through our unconscious. Adding
consciousness to the mix changes everything.
Carl Jung was well aware that the greatest danger facing our species is to fall
into our unconscious together and become collectively mad; he never tired of
warning about this. Our species has undoubtedly fallen into the very collective
psychosis that Jung was warning us about (the fact that we are destroying the
biosphere, the very life support system of the planet, being one “small”
example). Very few people seem to have noticed that we are a species gone mad
(it is certainly not part of our planetary dialogue), which itself is an
expression of the extent of the collective insanity we have fallen into. Our
madness has become normalized, as it is so pervasive we have become habituated
to it.
I would like to name the underlying psychological “dynamic” that is one of the
main foundations and causes of the malevolence that is playing out in our world
“Aparticipatory Delusional Syndrome,” or ADS for short. ADS is based on the
deluded assumption that we are separate from and not participating in helping to
create the very situation we find ourselves in. Existing deep within the
collective unconscious of humanity, ADS is a timeless, archetypal process that
has continually re-iterated itself in and over time through countless
manifestations in our world. ADS is at the heart of creating the illusion that
we are separate from the very universe in which we live.
An example: Due to my wound, I feel separate from and unavailable to my
girlfriend. Of course, she feels our lack of connection, and this activates her
deepest fears and wounds. She then unconsciously acts out her wound in a way
that is truly ugly to look at, and I feel repulsed. This just furthers my
justification for why I should withdraw, which in turn constellates her wound,
ad infinitum. In this self-created feedback loop, I am reacting to the mirrored
reflection of my own inner disassociation, woundedness and shadow.
All the while, I am convinced I am reacting to an objective fact, (i.e., my
girlfriend being just so wounded), as I have all the “evidence” I need of the
seemingly objective existence of my perception. I don’t realize, however, the
role that I am playing in her manifesting in this way. I am asleep to my
participation in how my girlfriend is “showing up.” I am unaware that my
girlfriend exists in “co-relation” to myself, instead imagining that she exists
in a void, separate from myself. To have ADS is to react to how we ourselves are
evoking our world as if it objectively exists and is separate from ourselves. To
have ADS is to not recognize the role that we are playing in dreaming up what we
are reacting to.
People who have fallen prey to ADS reinforce one another's mad delusion that
they exist separate from the universe and that the problem exists outside of
themselves. Any of us, at any moment, to the extent we fall into our unconscious
and become entranced by the reality-creating function of our own mind, become
bewitched by our own projections and the meanings we imbue them with and fall
prey to ADS. Who among us can honestly say that we have never fallen into our
unconscious and reacted against our own reflection as it appears in the outside
world? Pervading the entire field of consciousness, ADS exists within each one
of us in potential at any moment. To the extent that we don’t realize our
complicity in what is playing out in our world, we have fallen prey to ADS. The
realization of our susceptibility to this psychic malady is, paradoxically, the
very awareness that immunizes us from it.
Like a self-replicating fractal, ADS is playing itself out in multiple
dimensions simultaneously, which is to say it expresses itself on the personal,
as well as the collective level. Both individuals, such as President Bush, and
nations (take your pick), can be so fully taken over by ADS that they can be
said to be embodying and incarnating this syndrome. This underlying
psychological syndrome, a malady existing within the very depths of the psyche,
is revealing itself in the outside world for all who have eyes to see, through
those it takes over to be its instruments.
ADS is very seductive, as it is not that what we are seeing when we have ADS is
not true, for the universe sends forth all of the evidence we need to convince
us of the seemingly “objective” truth of our perception. What we are seeing is
really happening. The only problem is that we are placing a false meaning upon
what is happening to us. When we have ADS, we are mis-interpreting the nature of
our experience. Thus, ADS is a “semantic syndrome” which subtly but
significantly alters the way our mind gives meaning to and contextualizes our
experience of the universe. When we are stricken with ADS, we react to our
perceptions and interpretations as if they exist inherently and independently in
the object (the world), instead of realizing they are revealing the subject
(ourselves).
An example: With regards to the recent war in the middle east between Israel and
its neighbors, it is not that what Israel’s supporters are seeing is not true.
Yes, Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. And yes, there are many of
Israel’s neighbors that want it destroyed. And yes, rockets are being fired into
Israel’s cities, killing and terrorizing innocent civilians. These are facts
that can’t be argued with. The seemingly objective nature of what they are
seeing makes supporters of Israel fall under a self-generated spell, however.
They don’t understand that, yes, the evidence they are using for their
justification to wage war against their neighbors is true, but it doesn’t mean
what they think it means. Israel’s faithful supporters are entranced by their
own perceptions and under a spell of their own making if they fail to recognize
the role that Israel is playing in evoking the very situation that it is
violently reacting to. Due to their psychic blindness, Israel’s supporters are
not recognizing how, by its years-long over the top military abuses of its
power, Israel is evoking the very figures that want to destroy it. By its
actions, Israel is complicit and playing a participatory role in calling forth
the very crisis it is reacting against. It is as if Israel is suffering a
collective form of trauma that it is acting out on the world stage.
Israel is an example of a nation that collectively has ADS (except of course,
the Israelis who realize the madness of what their country is acting out on the
world stage). Seen as a nation-state taken over by ADS, could it not be more
obvious that as Israel acts out this malady, it makes itself more vulnerable and
hurts itself (as well as its neighbors)? How ironic, in its fear of its
neighbors wanting to destroy it, Israel might be destroying itself, unwittingly
creating a fear-based self-fulfilling prophecy. The similarity to what America,
led by George Bush in his “war on terror,” is playing out on the world stage
immediately comes to mind.
Of course, the “terrorists” who are reacting against Israel (or America) are
just as much infected by ADS- (please see my article “Middle East Madness,”
available on my website awakeninthedream.com). The question does arise, however,
who is the real terrorist? (The answer goes something like this: the terrorist
is a role in the field, which means it exists deep inside of everyone in
potential. At different moments each party in the conflict plays this role).
Inherent in having ADS is “not knowing” we have it, as it always works through
our unconscious. ADS insinuates itself through our perceptions of both ourselves
and the world in such a way that it hides itself from being discovered. Just
like with a vampire, when we add consciousness to ADS and “see” it, however, we
take away its power over us.
When we have ADS, we don’t realize that we ourselves are “doing” something which
is helping to generate the very thing which we are reacting against. When we
have ADS, we don’t realize that we ourselves are “doing” something which is
helping to generate the very thing which we are reacting against.
(Interestingly, the inner meaning of the word “karma” is one’s own “doing”).
When we have ADS we experience ourselves as passive observers of the universe,
cut off from our genuine power. Lacking insight into our own creative power
invariably constellates our own power to turn against us, whether within
ourselves or from the seemingly outside world.
As quantum physics has pointed out, the power of our consciousness to
participate in the moment-to-moment materialization of the stuff of this
universe is primary. In ADS, we are unconsciously using our divine power of
creating our world in a way that is not only not serving us, but is destroying
ourselves. Left untreated, ADS is ultimately self-destructive, as it destroys
all of its “members,” as well as those under its sphere of influence (which in
this case, is all of us).
ADS effectively immobilizes and renders inoperative our ability to self-reflect,
as it relates to the world through the fixed and non-negotiable lens of
assumptions that the world “objectively” exists in a certain way, independent of
ourselves. Anyone who sees differently than the person/group/nation stricken
with ADS is concretized as wrong, seen as a threat and demonized. ADS stunts our
consciousness to such a degree that we develop a rigid and inflexible worldview
that can only “object” to it’s solidified “objectifications” with frustration,
narcissistic rage, and feelings of injustice and victimization.
ADS is an expression of a disease of consciousness itself, an illness that
exists deep within the collective unconscious soul of humanity which is
crippling our ability to evolve as a species. Being a disease of consciousness,
ADS can only be healed through the agency of consciousness itself. This is to
say that ADS can only be cured through the expansion of consciousness that it is
demanding of us by its revelation.
When we have ADS, we feel ourselves to be the passive victims of our universe.
Instead of being in touch with how we are helping to conjure up and are
complicit in the problematic nature of our situation, we always see the cause of
our problems as being outside of ourselves. In an unconscious “reflex,” we then
try to “attack” the problem from the wrong point of view (externally), instead
of approaching its source, which is within ourselves. When we react out of such
inverted, Orwellian logic, we are secretly playing the role of the victimizer
disguised as the victim, as we unconsciously act out our unhealed abuse onto
others. It goes without saying that when we fall into this infinite regression,
we invariably wind up terrorizing others, as well as ourselves. ADS is thus one
of the fundamental processes that feeds, supports, evokes, and literally creates
terrorism.
And of course, need I restate the obvious, another crystal clear example of ADS
is the figure of George Bush and the Americans who support him in his deluded
worldview. Being a figure who embodies the utterly immoral abuse of power
towards anyone who disagrees with or threatens his self-serving agenda, Bush and
his gang are dreaming up the rest of the world to be “enemy combatants.” Being
in a position of power, Bush is terrorizing the world, which “dreams up” the
world to be terrifying, as if he is looking at a mirrored reflection of what he
himself is doing. And of course, once he, in his perverse logic, feels justified
to terrorize the world because of the terror in the world, the world then
instantaneously gets dreamed up to be against him, which just feeds his
pathological will to power in an utterly perverse, self-generating, and
never-ending feedback loop. This entire process is a reflection of the
disassociated state of Bush’s inner psychological landscape being played out on
the world stage.
This compulsion to dominate other people allows Bush and Co. to become
“instruments” of evil, as they continually breed fear and terror in the greater
field, which simultaneously reinforces and feeds their pathology, like a
self-replicating, parasitic virus. ADS is one of the core, underlying
psychological dynamics that fuels the evil that is spreading in our world like
(death-creating) wildfire.
Because of his position of power, Bush is the portal through which darker forces
are incarnating themselves in our world. Completely taken over by and therefore
fully embodying ADS, Bush is allowing himself to be used, like a puppet on a
string, to serve the underlying agenda of the very darker forces he imagines he
is trying to destroy. Bush is fighting against his own shadow, which is not only
a battle that can never be won, but is a form of madness that invariably leads
to self-destruction. By trying to kill the terrorists, Bush has become the
world’s greatest terrorist.
ADS is a psychic form of AIDS. Like in AIDS, in ADS, the immune system of, in
this case the psyche, in trying to heal itself (by reacting to its own
reflections, for example), is actually destroying itself in the process. Just
like in auto-immune disease, the immune system of the psyche falls under an
illusion, and in its state of confusion, is tricked into creating the very
problem it is trying to resolve. In ADS, the immune system of the psyche, in its
attempts at protecting itself against attacks, attacks projected aspects of
itself which appear to be “other,” invariably leading to the self-destruction of
the very life it is trying to protect.
ADS is contagious, and easily spreads within groups of people, or even nations.
People who have fallen prey to ADS mutually feed into and off of the
unconsciousness in each other. They reciprocally reinforce each others’ mad
delusion that they exist separate from the universe and that the problem exists
outside of themselves. ADS, when acted out en masse, manifests itself as a
collective psychosis, as we are currently witnessing.
When we recognize how ADS is playing out in our world, whether it be in
ourselves, or in the world at large, we have added consciousness to an
unconscious process that was getting acted out in life. When we connect with
each other and recognize ADS’s fingerprints, we become collectively mobilized
and empowered so as to not fall prey to its dangers. Like nuclear
meta-physicists, we are then able to liberate, unleash and transform the energy
that was locked up in our unconscious, compulsive re-creation of ADS into
loving, creative energy with which to “engage” (and thereby be in “intimate
relationship”) with the world.
We can only recognize ADS when we realize that we are not separate from each
other as well as the universe at large, but, as quantum physics points out, we
are “active participants” in creating and calling forth the very universe we
co-inhabit. We are interconnected creative beings who are actively, whether we
realize it or not, co-creating our lives together. When enough of us realize our
interdependence, we can “conspire to co-inspire” each other into deeper, more
stabile and coherent levels of lucidity in the dream of life. Like T cells
uniting to fight a deadly cancer, we can collaboratively come together and
connect with each other and help ourselves heal the psychic blindness that has
infected our greater body politic and is causing it to turn against itself in
tragically destructive ways.
Something is being revealed to us by the madness that we are collectively
playing out on the world stage. The “cure” for Aparticipatory Delusional
Syndrome is nothing other than the expansion of consciousness which it is
propelling us into by its revelation. This is to say that ADS is, in disguised
form, a catalyst for human evolution. Hidden in ADS is the revelation of its own
re-solution. Everything depends upon our recognizing what ADS is showing us
about ourselves. How utterly paradoxical, the very dynamic that is destroying
our species is simultaneously (potentially) awakening us to our true nature.
A final clarifying note: As those of you know who have read my book, I am
calling the psycho-spiritual “disease” of the soul that is incarnating in our
world Malignant Egophrenia, or ME disease for short. ADS is one of the primary,
underlying psychological “dynamics” or “engines” that fuels the “malignant”
aspect of “malignant egophrenia.”
Paul Levy, a pioneer in the field of spiritual awakening, is a healer in private
practice, assisting others who are awakening to the dream-like nature of
reality. He is the author of The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of our
Collective Psychosis, which is available at his website awakeninthedream.com. He
may be reached at paul@awakeninthedream.com. © Copyright 2006 Paul Levy.
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Interesting, Tio!!
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I'd guess this is one the first forecasts of such an extensive wipeout.
Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout
By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.
James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatized earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people.
"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."
"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added.
Scientists say that global warming due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport could boost average temperatures by up to 6C by the end of the century causing floods, famines and violent storms.
But they also say that tough action now to cut carbon emissions could stop atmospheric concentrations of CO2 hitting 450 parts per million -- equivalent to a temperature rise of 2C from pre-industrial levels -- and save the planet.
Lovelock said temperature rises of up to 8C were already built in and while efforts to curb it were morally commendable, they were wasted.
"It is a bit like if your kidneys fail you can go on dialysis -- and who would refuse dialysis if death is the alternative. We should think of it in that context," he said.
"But remember that all they are doing is buying us time, no more. The problems go on," he added.
REFUGE
Lovelock adopted the name Gaia, the Greek mother earth goddess, in the 1960s to apply to his then revolutionary theory that the earth functions as a single, self-sustaining organism. His theory is now widely accepted.
In London to give a lecture on the environment to the Institution of Chemical Engineers, he said the planet had survived dramatic climate change at least seven times.
"In the change from the last Ice Age to now we lost land equivalent to the continent of Africa beneath the sea," he said. "We are facing things just as bad or worse than that during this century."
"There are refuges, plenty of them. 55 million years ago ... life moved up to the Arctic, stayed there during the course of it and then moved back again as things improved. I fear that this is what we may have to do," he added.
Lovelock said the United States, which has rejected the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions, wrongly believed there was a technological solution, while booming economies China and India were out of control.
China is building a coal-fired power station a week to feed rampant demand, and India's economy is likewise surging.
If either suddenly decided to stop their carbon-fuelled development to lift their billions of people out of poverty they would face a revolution, yet if they continued, rising CO2 and temperatures would kill off plants and produce famine, he said.
"If climate change goes on course ... I can't see China being able to produce enough food by the middle of the century to support its people. They will have to move somewhere and Siberia is empty and it will be warmer then," he said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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you all here will need to look sharp - I'll give us 5 years, then it's everyman and woman for themselves.
There was a huge Internet break-down in Asia couple of days ago. An earthquake near Taiwan thrashed 7-8 gigantic cables and large parts of Asia went off-line and it will take a loooong time repair all of it.
So - everyman and woman for themselves - can be taken literally. Once the wires and/or power go, that's it.
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so it could turn out that my work with my homepage is useless... sad... but i could live with it :)
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This author seems to have taken the five year option...
Over 4.5 Billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by
2012
Hydrate hypothesis illuminates growing climate change alarm
Compiled by John Stokes
A recent scientific theory called the "hydrate hypothesis" says that
historical global warming cycles have been caused by a feedback loop,
where melting permafrost methane clathrates (also known as "hydrates")
spur local global warming, leading to further melting of clathrates and
bacterial growth.
In other words, like western Siberia, the 400 billion tons of methane in
permafrost hydrate will gradually melt, and the released methane will
speed the melting. The effect of even a couple of billion tons of methane
being emitted into the atmosphere each year would be catastrophic.
The "hydrate hypothesis" (if validated) spells the rapid onset of runaway
catastrophic global warming. In fact, you should remember this moment when
you learned about this feedback loop-it is an existencial turning point in
your life.
By the way, the "hydrate hypothesis" is a weeks old scientific theory, and
is only now being discussed by global warming scientists. I suggest you
Google the term.
Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing the Earth to
warm, the central debate has shifted to when we will pass the tipping
point and be helpless to stop the runaway Global Warming.
There are enormous quantities of methane trapped in permafrost and under
the oceans in ice-like structures called clathrates. The methane in Arctic
permafrost clathrates is estimated at 400 billion tons.
Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2, and the
atmosphere currently contains about 3.5 billion tons of the gas.
The highest temperature increase from global warming is occurring in the
arctic regions-an area rich in these unstable clathrates. Simulations from
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) show that over half
the permafrost will thaw by 2050, and as much as 90 percent by 2100.
Peat deposits may be a comparable methane source to melting permafrost.
When peat that has been frozen for thousands of years thaws, it still
contains viable populations of bacteria that begin to convert the peat
into methane and CO2.
Western Siberia is heating up faster than anywhere else in the world,
having experienced a rise of some 3C in the past 40 years. The west
Siberian peat bog could hold some 70 billion tonnes of methane. Local
atmospheric levels of methane on the Siberian shelf are now 25 times
higher than global concentrations.
By the way, warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons have caused
microbial activity to increase dramatically in the soil around the world.
This, in turn, means that much of the carbon long stored in the soil is
now being released into the atmosphere.
Releases of methane from melting oceanic clathrates have caused severe
environmental impacts in the past. The methane in oceanic clathrates has
been estimated at 10,000 billion tons.
55 million years ago a global warming chain reaction (probably started by
volcanic activity) melted oceanic clathrates. It was one of the most rapid
and extreme global warming events in geologic history.
Humans appear to be capable of emitting CO2 in quantities comparable to
the volcanic activity that started these chain reactions. According to the
U.S. Geological Survey, burning fossil fuels releases more than 150 times
the amount of CO2 emitted by volcanoes.
Methane in the atmosphere does not remain long, persisting for about 10
years before being oxidized to CO2 (a greenhouse gas that lasts for
hundreds of thousands of years). Chronic methane releases oxidizing into
CO2 contribute as much to warming as does the transient methane
concentrations.
To summarize, human activity is causing the Earth to warm. Bacteria
converts carbon in the soil into greenhouse gasses, and enormous
quantities are trapped in unstable clathrates. As the earth continues to
warm, permafrost clathrates will thaw; peat and soil microbial activity
will dramatically increase; and, finally, vast oceanic clathrates will
melt. This global warming chain reaction has happened in the past.
Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rose by a record amount over the past
year. It is the third successive year in which they have increased
sharply. Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken
place, but fear the trend could be the first sign of runaway global
warming.
Runaway Global Warming promises to literally burn-up agricultural areas
into dust worldwide by 2012, causing global famine, anarchy, diseases, and
war on a global scale as military powers including the U.S., Russia, and
China, fight for control of the Earth's remaining resources.
Over 4.5 billion people could die from Global Warming related causes by
2012, as planet Earth accelarates into a greed-driven horrific
catastrophe.
Bibliographic reference courtesy of Brad Arnold who has an extensive
research background on Global Warming.
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That's a steep one.
Yet nobody knows the precise dynamics, might as well be correct theory.
Adding a mystical element to it - Siberia, i.e. Russia is the one that determines the process.
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We all gonna die!?!?!?!?!?!
eventually
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We all gonna die!?!?!?!?!?!
eventually
sounds like a plan! :)
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I hope i'll get to conquer few mountains first ;D
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sounds like a plan! :)
What is plan B?
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What is plan B?
None. The gate of death will be walked through in any case. The question is what happens after that.
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What gate? I thought there was only such a thing if one was not watching ones' gait.
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THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.
All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.
The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.
Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.
On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.
District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.
"It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about."
He expected birds would return to the area once the problem - natural or man-made phenomenon - was fixed but said it was vital the cause was identified.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process.
Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.
Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died.
Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning.
She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day.
"It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said.
"It was like a moonscape, just horrible. But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."
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What a nightmare!
:'( :'( :'(
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Europe, Italy
The latest pull from the authorities.
All the provinces in north of Italy, almost half the country declared a day without cars. This Sunday in all the cities that adhere to this initiative cars are not allowed in.
The main reason is (they say) is reducing the smog over the cities. It is not new here.
Here in Rome, last summer we had a whole lot of "Ecological Sundays" and occasionally traffic on Thursday was limited to odd/even plate numbers. :D
It is growing, now half of the country adhered to this: while the decision was left to the cities, almost all of them adhered - and that's a good sign.
The best thing in it that I still have to find someone who is against this. Some are annoyed by this, some are skeptic, but everyone agrees that it can't be a bad thing. For some it's just a small nuisance, for others it's a way to take action.
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Friday I passed the exam for the driving license. I bought the car some months ago, but I had to follow this driving school and do two exams - theory and practice. :D
It's Sunday and I just came back from driving alone in the city. We don't have the block today, and the traffic early in the morning is minimal. I practiced a bit more.
I had a lot of fun. ;D
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Friday I passed the exam for the driving license. I bought the car some months ago, but I had to follow this driving school and do two exams - theory and practice. :D
It's Sunday and I just came back from driving alone in the city. We don't have the block today, and the traffic early in the morning is minimal. I practiced a bit more.
I had a lot of fun. ;D
Hey - that's great news R!
I have just returned from a driving lesson that I have for my son. So I am kind of into that theory and practice stuff too. Found a schedule on Internet where there are 16 different exercises that we try to follow.
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Jahn, what are the "exercises" for, losing weight or driving?
Ha
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Friday I passed the exam for the driving license. I bought the car some months ago, but I had to follow this driving school and do two exams - theory and practice. :D
It's Sunday and I just came back from driving alone in the city. We don't have the block today, and the traffic early in the morning is minimal. I practiced a bit more.
I had a lot of fun. ;D
Go Rudi, yay!
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Purple Haze
by Joshua Kurlantzick
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040830&s=kurlantzick083004
he Grand Hotel offers some of the finest accommodations in Urumqi, the frontier capital of Xinjiang, the vast western province of China bordering Central Asia. A swanky first-floor bar swarms with Chinese businessmen dressed in expensive suits, sipping Johnnie Walker. A twentieth-floor fitness club caters to Chinese yuppies trying out gleaming new Nikes but never working hard enough to sweat out their hair gel. But there is one thing the Grand Hotel doesn't offer: a view. When I got to my eighteenth-floor suite, the bellboy showed me the room's amenities--satellite television, a plethora of little liquors--and proudly pulled back the drapes so I could get a good look at downtown Urumqi, a beautiful city. Unfortunately, I could see little through the gray air. Few buildings were visible, though I knew they were there, just outside my window. The bellboy smiled. "Nice view," he said.
Sad to say, he was right. Of the several weeks I have spent in Urumqi, that day was one of the clearest. Later that afternoon, some of the smog lifted, and I could see the stunning mountains surrounding the city, a rarity. Meanwhile, on the road outside Kashgar, a city southwest of Urumqi, mines and construction outfits belched smoke into the broad desert sky, making the air a thick particulate soup; when I ran a wet cloth over my face, it turned black, as if I'd been in a West Virginia mineshaft. My driver, and everyone else in a taxi with me, incessantly coughed and spit soot and phlegm on the car floor. And Xinjiang is hardly unique. For years, Western observers and some Chinese have worried about China's enormous problems: a sclerotic economy clogged by mountains of nonperforming loans; a rapacious gerontocracy allowing its people slightly more freedom while simultaneously cracking down on groups that organize against the state. But largely ignored has been perhaps China's biggest looming disaster: The Middle Kingdom is hurtling toward environmental catastrophe--and perhaps an ensuing political upheaval.
Already, most Chinese cities make Los Angeles look like a Swiss village. In Beijing last week, I choked on hot, dust-filled air--a normal occurrence in summer, when plague-like sandstorms from China's expanding deserts wash over the capital. In Guiyu, a city in southern China known for its electronics-recycling industry, the Los Angeles Times reports that peasants work atop mountain-sized piles of toxic refuse. Even in Shanghai, one of China's most progressive cities, I have passed water systems full of trash, oil, and feces, and many days the acrid, gray air has stung my eyes. The numbers are even more depressing. Sixteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China. Two-thirds of China's cities don't meet World Health Organization air-quality standards. Reports released by Chinese health experts have suggested that just living in these places is like smoking two packs of cigarettes per day and that, in some cities, 80 percent of children may suffer from lead poisoning--80 percent! Beijing's air has more carbon monoxide than Los Angeles and Tokyo combined. By 2020, 550,000 Chinese will be dying prematurely of chronic bronchitis caused by airborne pollution.
Rural areas are in trouble, too. Between 1994 and 1999, China's Gobi Desert expanded by more than 20,000 square miles, moving within 150 miles of Beijing, reducing groundwater supplies--and causing brutal dust storms that often spread over much of Asia. "No country has ever faced a potential ecological catastrophe on the scale of the dust bowl now developing in China," Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a leading international environmental group, has said. According to The River Runs Black, an outstanding new book by Elizabeth Economy, a China scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, five of China's biggest rivers are "not suitable for human contact." China's wastewater pollution may increase as much as 290 percent by 2020.
In a country historically viewed in the West as attuned to the Earth--American acolytes of Buddhism often cite its respect for nature--how have things gone so wrong? Contrary to common belief, even traditional Confucian scholars saw nature as a force to be tamed, not preserved; and Mao famously pooh-poohed environmental problems, so Chinese leaders never built strong environmental institutions. And, over the past two decades, the country has gone through history's most rapid industrialization with virtually no controls; China's equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency has a staff of only 300, one-fiftieth that of its American counterpart. Coal powers nearly 70 percent of Chinese industry, compared with less than 25 percent in the United States, and Chinese consumers are feverishly buying cars with lax emissions controls--the number of cars on the road is doubling every four years, creating unchecked congestion. Corrupt Communist Party officials profit from unregulated construction, China's tissue-thin legal system barely constrains developers, and the massive construction that results is destroying forests and contributing to desertification. In Kashgar, Chinese firms are madly tearing down old, eco-friendly mud-brick homes built around airy courtyards to build acres of flashy new glass and steel shopping centers. Kashgar contractors strew trash everywhere.
What's more, as unemployment has risen, Beijing has tried to keep the economy moving with a series of massive--and massively destructive--infrastructure projects, including the world's biggest dam and its longest bridge. (In 2002, state investment in the economy rose 25 percent even as foreign economists touted the liberalization of Chinese private business.) In Xinjiang, China has built an unnecessary railroad across the lightly populated province, as well as an economically unviable oil pipeline.
But the ecological destruction is spawning a grassroots environmental movement that might have a positive impact. Ecological destruction in Poland, the Soviet Union, and other countries in communist Eastern Europe helped spark political change. Economy notes how, in Krakow in the 1980s, Polish intellectuals, trade-union members, and environmentalists banded together to push the government to upgrade local factories that were heavy polluters--the same coalition of activists that later took on the state directly. In the ussr, meanwhile, huge protests developed in 1986 over a project to divert the Siberian River--a project that was causing massive pollution.
Similar things may be happening in China. Already tens of millions of farmers in the central provinces, sites of the worst desertification, stand to lose their farms. But, as the U.S. Embassy in Beijing notes in a report titled "The Grapes of Wrath in Inner Mongolia" (Inner Mongolia is a Chinese province), "China's 21st-century 'Okies' have no California to escape to." Without an unpopulated frontier for the migrants, they are coming to provincial capitals and to Beijing, where, like Poles and Russians in the '80s, they vent their anger at the government. China's Ministry of Public Security has admitted that the number of large protests in China almost tripled between 1993 and 1999 (the most recent statistics available), with many taking place in cities where workers fired from state industries are joining forces with migrating farmers who lost their fields. Similarly, recent battles between farmers and industry over water scarcity have led to large, often violent, antigovernment protests.
And, unlike religious groups like Falun Gong or small political organizations like the China Democracy Party that have challenged Beijing, the environmental movement is relatively well-organized. Though security forces harass anyone who might threaten the Communist Party, they have not cracked down as hard on the greens because, until recently, China's leadership did not consider environmental groups "political" organizations. "The environmental NGO definitely gets more space," Yi Wen, a program officer for the activist group Green River, told reporters last year. Taking advantage of this permissive attitude, more than 2,000 environmental NGOs have organized in China. These dynamic green groups, legal aid centers, and crusading media outlets have energized grassroots activism and suggested to ordinary Chinese that, ultimately, only democracy will bring down corrupt officials and solve environmental problems. Their message is getting through: According to Economy, Li Xiaoping, executive producer of "Focus," a Chinese investigative news program, says peasants now come to the "Focus" studios to beg them to investigate environmental problems caused by local officials. And one day, perhaps, a massive environmental meltdown will empower these green groups, as Chernobyl catalyzed Soviets. Maybe then I will be able to see out the window at the Grand.
Joshua Kurlantzick is a special correspondent for The New Republic.
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Jahn, what are the "exercises" for, losing weight or driving?
Ha
Ok some other translation joke I suppose ???. In the military we do "exercises", that is supposed to be "training", sometimes the military year is even called "the Exercise". We train different in traffic situations of course. Thanks T I shall check that word.
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Yeh, the U.S. military uses exercises and maneuvers for such operations. Kinda loke practice for the potential real thing.
Besides, I was just messing with you. Weather here is rough all around with more to come. Ice, heavy snow, below freezing, still. Reminds me of the winters when I was a kid, or maybe it just seemed worse back then.
I love it, actually. t
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He bravely fought for environment and our better future... :)
An example why democracy does not stand a chance.
Gore faces up to inconvenient truth over his electricity bill
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2311302.ece
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 28 February 2007
Al Gore - Oscar winner and the world's best-known anti-global warming warrior - has been accused of not living up to his lofty standards when it comes to his own opulent mansion in his home state, Tennessee.
According to the right-wing Tennessee Centrer for Policy Research, the former vice-president "deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy". Mr Gore's 20-room mansion in Nashville, it says, consumes more electricity in a month than the average American household in a whole year.
The attack comes amid fevered speculation about a possible Gore run for the White House next year, with even former President Jimmy Carter urging him to enter the race. As his supporters argue, Mr Gore has been emphatically "on the right side" of the two biggest issues of the day in the US, the war in Iraq and the climate change crisis. But his personal domestic environmental record leaves much to be desired, TCPR claims.
In his award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, the Mr Gore calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home, it notes. But while the average US household consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy, the Gore home used nearly 221,000 kWh, more than 20 times the national average.
Since the film's release, his home's energy consumption has increased from about 16,200 kWh per month in 2005 to 18,400 kWh per month last year.
"As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk," Drew Johnson, the Centre's president, declared. Mr Gore paid almost $30,000 (£15,300) for gas and electricity at his Nashville home last year.
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He bravely fought for environment and our better future... :)
An example why democracy does not stand a chance.
This is not the time or the place, Eric, for me to debate this issue with you. I have some beliefs to which I strongly hold about this issue, and Mr. Gore, and democracy. They differ from yours, it seems.
Mr. Gore is not what he seems, and he has a similar odor about him as the methane flatulence from a bovine digestive system, which scientists have also shown has a greater effect than man on causing global warming.
Hollywood gloms on like it always does to emotional issues, to sell movies. The emotional side of politics gloms right back for its own publicity and famous faces. Incestuous is a kind euphamism.
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Here's how I see it...While "factions" attempt to make this a political game, there is huge denial afoot about what is happening. So "Gore" is not the point, "Bush" is not the point.
I only hope the sun has a sense of humor as it keeps trying to taste us with its tongues. I'll bet you anything Sun couldn't care less who is Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Muslim, Christian, etc etc, and when the time comes, will lick a whole stream of all of the above up and then spit it out. When it happens, it won't matter much to which camp belongs whom. We will be forced at that point, for our own survival, to work together.
And maybe that's the lesson.
I only hope the means by which we can have cross-global communication will still be viable at that time.
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Unfortunately, so far we have only been wallowing in self-deception and illusions. Politicians are good at selling them and we won't buy anything else except the one about bright future and the great possibilities and expectations we have. :)
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I only hope the sun has a sense of humor as it keeps trying to taste us with its tongues.
toast, not taste; or toast and taste
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toast, not taste; or toast and taste
This from a guy who's avatar looks like a screaming moldy piece of toast?
LOLOL!!!
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"Toast" sounds good to me! ;D :-*
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Please have a look on why politicians trigger something within you guys - if it does.
Al Gore may perhaps do the absolutely correct choice and may not contribute one cc of CO2 to global warming if he does what I think he does. In my perfect world I would belive that instead of oil Al Gore is heating his mansion with electricity. In my perfect world one can produce green electricity, that is power from waterfalls and windmills. So if he buys all his electricity from green power plants, like I do, then he still is the good guy. (Like me ;D )
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Jan, how likely is that Al Gore is a truly green guy? :)
(http://www.pewclimate.org/images/figure20.gif)
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It is he who purchase every green kWh!
Btw that was an old graph from 1999 the green production has exploded since that ;)
and then let us cheat a bit and count nuclear plants to the green power family, at least they do not contribute much to the global warming.
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Christian Science Monitor reported on Feb. 25, 2004, "At least 94 coal-fired electric power plants - with the capacity to power 62 million American homes - are now planned across 36 states."
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The Big Green Fuel Lie
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2328821.ece
George Bush says that ethanol will save the world. But there is evidence that biofuels may bring new problems for the planet
By Daniel Howden in Sao Paolo
Published: 05 March 2007
The ethanol boom is coming. The twin threats of climate change and energy security are creating an unprecedented thirst for alternative energy with ethanol leading the way.
That process is set to reach a landmark on Thursday when the US President, George Bush, arrives in Brazil to kick-start the creation of an international market for ethanol that could one day rival oil as a global commodity. The expected creation of an "Opec for ethanol" replicating the cartel of major oil producers has spurred frenzied investment in biofuels across the Americas.
But a growing number of economists, scientists and environmentalists are calling for a "time out" and warning that the headlong rush into massive ethanol production is creating more problems than it is solving.
To its advocates, ethanol, which can be made from corn, barley, wheat, sugar cane or beet is a green panacea - a clean-burning, renewable energy source that will see us switch from dwindling oil wells to boundless fields of crops to satisfy our energy needs.
Dr Plinio Mario Nastari, one of Brazil's leading economists and an expert in biofuels, sees a bright future for an energy sector in which his country is the acknowledged world leader: "We are on the brink of a new era, ethanol is changing a lot of things but in a positive sense."
In its first major acknowledgment of the dangers of climate change, the White House this year committed itself to substituting 20 per cent of the petroleum it uses for ethanol by 2017.
In Brazil, that switch is more advanced than anywhere in the world and it has already substituted 40 per cent of its gasoline usage.
Ethanol is nothing new in Brazil. It has been used as fuel since 1925. But the real boom came after the oil crisis of 1973 spurred the military dictatorship to lessen the country's reliance on foreign imports of fossil fuels. The generals poured public subsidies and incentives into the sugar industry to produce ethanol.
Today, the congested streets of Sao Paolo are packed with flex-fuel cars that run off a growing menu of bio and fossil fuel mixtures, and all filling stations offer "alcohol" and "gas" at the pump, with the latter at roughly twice the price by volume.
But there is a darker side to this green revolution, which argues for a cautious assessment of how big a role ethanol can play in filling the developed world's fuel tank. The prospect of a sudden surge in demand for ethanol is causing serious concerns even in Brazil.
The ethanol industry has been linked with air and water pollution on an epic scale, along with deforestation in both the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests, as well as the wholesale destruction of Brazil's unique savannah land.
Fabio Feldman, a leading Brazilian environmentalist and former member of Congress who helped to pass the law mandating a 23 per cent mix of ethanol to be added to all petroleum supplies in the country, believes that Brazil's trailblazing switch has had serious side effects.
"Some of the cane plantations are the size of European states, these vast monocultures have replaced important eco-systems," he said. "If you see the size of the plantations in the state of Sao Paolo they are oceans of sugar cane. In order to harvest you must burn the plantations which creates a serious air pollution problem in the city."
Despite its leading role in biofuels, Brazil remains the fourth largest producer of carbon emissions in the world due to deforestation. Dr Nastarti rejects any linkage between deforestation and ethanol and argues that cane production accounts for little more than 10 per cent of Brazil's farmland.
However, Dr Nastari is calling for new legislation in Brazil to ensure that mushrooming sugar plantations do not directly or indirectly contribute to the destruction of vital forest preserves.
Sceptics, however, point out that existing legislation is unenforceable and agri-business from banned GM cotton to soy beans has been able to ignore legislation.
"In large areas of Brazil there is a total absence of the state and no respect for environmental legislation," said Mr Feldman.
"Ethanol can be a good alternative in the fight against global warming but at the same time we must make sure we are not creating a worse problem than the one we are trying to solve."
The conditions for a true nightmare scenario are being created not in Brazil, despite its environment concerns, but in the US's own domestic ethanol industry.
While Brazil's tropical climate allows it to source alcohol from its sugar crop, the US has turned to its industrialised corn belt for the raw material to substitute oil. The American economist Lester R Brown, from the Earth Policy Institute, is leading the warning voices: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its two billion poorest people who are simply trying to stay alive is emerging as an epic issue."
Speaking in Sao Paolo, where the ethanol boom is expected to take off with a US-Brazil trade deal this Thursday, Fabio Feldman, said: "We must stop and take a breath and consider the consequences."
Biofuel costs
When Rudolph Diesel unveiled his new engine at the 1900 World's Fair, he made a point of demonstrating that it could be run on peanut oil. "Such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time," he said.
And so it has come to pass that US President George Bush has decreed that America must wean itself off oil with the help of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and other suitable crops.
At its simplest, the argument for biofuels is this: By growing crops to produce organic compounds that can be burnt in an engine, you are not adding to the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The amount of CO2 that the fuel produces when burnt should balance the amount absorbed during the growth of the plants.
However, many biofuel crops, such as corn, are grown with the help of fossil fuels in the form of fertilisers, pesticides and the petrol for farm equipment.
One estimate is that corn needs 30 per cent more energy than the finished fuel it produces.
Another problem is the land required to produce it. One estimate is that the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year.
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Any way we turn - we always have our back in the back!
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The view from the other side:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=440049&in_page_id=1965
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They are both parts of the belief system of science, and they are both rife with manifestations of the belief of duplicity.
Either way matters not...
WE CREATE OUR REALITY.
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Todd, you've gone off the charts here.
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When I see you say this, I feel the same way as I did when the Christian faction got the "genesis" version of creation back into the classroom.
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Nonsense.
Regradless of your opinion the Earth proceeds with its processes in cooperation with another sentient being Sun.
You only create your opinion/belief.
One of us is expressing a belief sytem, the other is making a statement about Consciousness. Neither of us are right or wrong.
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Todd, you've gone off the charts here.
Why? I presented an equally valid and opposite belief held by respected scientists. My point in this thread is that both positions are expressions of belief systems and their resulting perceptions, and both are acceptable as such.
Then I emphasized my point in this, that both are limitations on our reality creation.
I can imagine a chart with more room to accomodate the rest of the bell curve.
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When I see you say this, I feel the same way as I did when the Christian faction got the "genesis" version of creation back into the classroom.
That's okay, even though I'd disagree with the use of force and fear in promulgating my points of view, and I'd prefer to be more impeccable in my comparisons.
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Why? I presented an equally valid and opposite belief held by respected scientists. My point in this thread is that both positions are expressions of belief systems and their resulting perceptions, and both are acceptable as such.
Then I emphasized my point in this, that both are limitations on our reality creation.
I can imagine a chart with more room to accomodate the rest of the bell curve.
This is what I see ....
Action] Re: Destiny, Fate, and Accidents by nichi Today at 04:08:45 PM
[Action] These are both beliefs: WE"RE STUFFED!!! & GLOBAL WARMING IS A LIE by Gunslinger Today at 04:02:47 PM
[Action] GLOBAL WARMING IS A BALDFACED LIE by Gunslinger
You're in fierce disagreement with the points of view held by most of the folks here, and you demonstrated that in large caps. That's what's off the charts. Plus, everything you've been posting is an attempt to persuade, nay, evangelize. It isn't simply expressing your point of view -- you're arguing, and wish to see others "get it".
Me, I don't particularly care if someone is in agreement with me. You care ....
I'm not even addressing the veracity of what you're saying about "global warming". It's inconceivable to me, walking outdoors and feeling the difference on my skin, and seeing the difference in the sky with my own eyes, that anyone would question it. I don't even need to look at graphs and such: I know, in every fibre of my being, that there are extreme changes afoot.
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I presented an equally valid and opposite belief held by respected scientists.
There is a difference.
You talk out of your mental.
Many here feel and see the ongoing changes.
That's what Toltec thing is about - the aim of all the hard work is to percieve directly without the need to make mental/rational assumptions.
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Actually, I don't really care who's right or wrong in the climate debate. I don't care whether people argree with me, either. I am concerned with making a point, and that's acceptable, as it is true of everyone else who posts in this thread.
To step back and realize that I responded in a thread with an all caps subject line, with an all caps subject line would be advisable. I intended to have the effect that it did. People react automatically to beliefs opposite to their own strongly held beliefs. That's one way they create their own reality. The provocation was intentional. The reaction was automatic and without intent. It also illustrates the power of beliefs, which was also my intent.
It would be nice if someone would "get it", but it's acceptable if no one does.
The vehicle for all of this was a link to an article in which perfectly rational and educated scientists hold the viewpoint inoppposite to the predominant viewpoint in this thread, and by most people in POLITICAL POWER.
Behind this brazen provocation is another little nugget. Our beliefs are subject to the beliefs held by the mass consciousness. And as always, our beliefs influence our perception, especially the more so if they are strongly held.
Even deeper is a vein of gold, that we are creating climate change and other huge changes not in what we physically manifest, but in what we spiritually are creating and provoking, and that is a greater awareness of our power to create and a greater awareness of who and what we are. Climate change, whether it's caused by man, natural earth processes or cosmic rays, scientifically speaking, or not, is OUR creation to be showing ourselves our own nature and abilities.
Thank you for your attention.
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Actually, I don't really care who's right or wrong in the climate debate. I don't care whether people argree with me, either. I am concerned with making a point, and that's acceptable, as it is true of everyone else who posts in this thread.
To step back and realize that I responded in a thread with an all caps subject line, with an all caps subject line would be advisable. I intended to have the effect that it did. People react automatically to beliefs opposite to their own strongly held beliefs. That's one way they create their own reality. The provocation was intentional. The reaction was automatic and without intent. It also illustrates the power of beliefs, which was also my intent.
This is exactly what I'm talking about, if what you are saying is true. This is amorality and irresponsible communication, if you're doing it for any effect other than the expression of your own heart. This place is above flowering with people's heads.
When I sign on as your student, feel free to flower with my head -- it will be implicit in the contract.
Otherwise, if you are indeed playing games as you're saying, please don't waste my time.
As for your stance on global warming, you aren't alone -- spin doctors such as Rush Limbaugh are applauding you.
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When anyone, even such as you, signs up to be my student, shoot me. How is it irresponsible to make a point by illustratrion? Since when did you or any one else in here become a defender of morality. Who's morality? I repeat--I did not do this to you. I only provoked you to do it to yourself. If you didn't want to be, you didn't have to be.
I cannot flower with anyone's head unless they let me, even if that was my intent. And, if anyone in here feels that their head was flowered with, then perhaps they should be looking at self, and not me, for the fornicator.
I would be wasting your time if I was arguing about whether global warming is true or a lie. That notwithstanding, if you don't want to be wasting your time, ignore the thread.
Rush Limbaugh and Al Gore can both get stuffed, or not. It doesn't matter. They are both purveyors of beliefs I do not hold. That being said, it matters not.
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Todd, when you state, as you have, that you were intending to be provocative, and were looking for a certain effect, rather than just stating your viewpoint, you're flowering with people's heads. That doesn't mean anyone was really "flowered with" -- it's more about you than about anyone else.
It's my impression that something more is afoot there, with the large caps, which has nothing at all to do with "global warming".
You have an agenda, and it permeates everything you write. That is not hard to see. It's clear especially when you have gone into "coaching" mode, be it with whomever. On some level, I know you are trying out the application and expression of your "belief" stance. Seeing how it works out in real-time, with others.
Many of us here are endeavoring to transcend the analytical and the rational and the mental plane, though, and your position puts us right back into it. So, it will likely be met with opposition of one sort or another, here.
We need to take a break here --- I'm closing this for now, for Michael's perusal and reopening, if he sees fit.
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Thanks Vicky, sometimes a break is needed to let everyone sit back and calm down.
I'm unlocking this now, so just keep your comments thoughtful, and balanced.
'A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.'
m
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Cool beans, boss.
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You have an agenda, and it permeates everything you write. That is not hard to see. It's clear especially when you have gone into "coaching" mode, be it with Rubina, Ian, Tommy, or Daphne. On some level, I know you are trying out the application and expression of your "belief" stance. Seeing how it works out in real-time, with others.
Speaking for myself.. since I was mentioned... I do not have any issue with Todd/Gunslinger. I rather enjoy our exchanges. I find them stimulating. What I do with them "after" is part of my own growth. One could say I have an "agenda" in that respect too!! :D
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Speaking for myself.. since I was mentioned... I do not have any issue with Todd/Gunslinger.
Same here ::)
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Gosh! Y'all are gonna embarass me. :-[
;D
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Speaking for myself.. since I was mentioned... I do not have any issue with Todd/Gunslinger. I rather enjoy our exchanges. I find them stimulating. What I do with them "after" is part of my own growth. One could say I have an "agenda" in that respect too!! :D
Actually, sorry your name was mentioned: I corrected that. It wasn't about you. The rest, I've pursued with Todd off the board, good friends that we are, for several years now.
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is this still an open thread?
if so I would like to say that Vicky is right that there is little values in debates. We are much beyond that. However one should be aware of that to bring in the large issues of today, wounding, beliefs and the dream of the Planet, global warming etc one really put in a heavy weight here. All these things are very dense and require some strength to deal with. It is already clear that a few have issues to deal with regarding these matters and perhaps this should be addressed in the first place but not in terms of opinions but in terms of the energy behind.
NOW, it is settled that the increase of human produced CO2 HAS an effect on the climate - it is not much to debate. We, or some of us, "feel" the change, Mother Earth is talking to us, that is complementary info to the facts that CO2 emissions is quadrupled above any previous known "natural" period. So there is even less to debate, our knowingness. And I can tell you that the bell after the Tsunami was what got me on the toes. Time is short to do something of value for the rest. Cut out the crap and get to work!
What is the problem?
. .
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Eric:
Me: I presented an equally valid and opposite belief held by respected scientists.
Eric: There is a difference. Me: Between what and what? Two camps of opposing views within the same belief system? Or being aware that they are two sides of the same coin? And it's the belief system that I'm emphasizing that is coloring people's SEEING here.
Eric: You talk out of your mental. ME: In a manner of speaking. I interpret what I do as talking THROUGH my mental. My mental faculties translate really well what my subjective awareness experiences. I have a different style and intent than some people. My style and their's are both perfectly acceptable, if not well tolerated.
Eric: Many here feel and see the ongoing changes. ME: I do too. I recognize, also, the beliefs that color that feeling and seeing, and that's what I'm pointing out. Also, I have a different set of premises than some others in here about the nature of essence and our part of it. My SEEING there is acceptable, as is that of others. My interpretation is thus different, because I see Consciousness in Essence as the source of creation. There are no other gods before me, so to speak.
Eric: That's what Toltec thing is about - the aim of all the hard work is to percieve directly without the need to make mental/rational assumptions.
ME: That is your intent, which is perfectly acceptable and I appreciate the value of that. For me, the aim of my hard work, (even though it's a challenge, I find it fun, must of the time) is to make as many connections as I can between the parts of myself, to remove the veil of separation between the ME that is this focus and all my other focuses, counterparts, and alternate selves. I acknowledge that this physical focus requires perception, and is built out of beliefs that color or filter that perception. It is also relevant that perception is not the only way we have to obtain information--I'm speaking of our inner senses. It is not necessary to filter those through my beliefs in order to be aware of that knowledge. It is necessary to filter those through my beliefs, and the beliefs of others in order to objectivvely transmit that information to others.
In summation,
There are SEERS here. Some are not SEEing the filters before their metaphorical eyes. They put their posts in this forum to express their interpretation of what they see. I suppose it is for comment in response, and not necessarily in agreement with them, either. I could be wrong.
We each have different styles of SEEING and interpretation. All are valid. Some toleration of each of those is efficient and impeccable, for some purposes of this forum, and our reasons for posting, whatever those are.
I think we all are seeing and feeling the changes in our environment. I hope there are some people open to different points of view.
We each have our individual reasons and intent for our self discovery, different models and beliefs that we find efficient for each of us. We each are blind to a certain extent to how those models and beliefs limit our creativity, and our interpretations of what we see, perceive, and create, and how we interpret to others that seeing and percieving, and the creation of our realities. We also start from different premises and conceptualizations of existence. Those too also affect our seeing and percieving, and the creation of our realities.
The whole purpose of this excercize and reason for being here is to point this out. And that also includes my self understanding of this. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
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You should add for the purposes of objectivity that those who do not see will never fully understand what seers talk about. For them it will always be only a mental concept.
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Duly noted and added. ;D
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That's the trick: live 4th way - and you'll understand.
Live Toltec - and you'll understand.
Live any tradition fully - and you'll understand.
Do mental - and mental you'll have.
Simple.
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ahem, yepp
huh??? ???
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I think that Eric means we understand by doing, feeling, and thinking. Not just one, alone.
Is that accurate, Eric?
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Can living be reduced to doing, feeling and thinking?
I mean living.
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‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is Barroso’s green message
David Charter, and Rory Watson in Brussels
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1480366.ece
The right to own a gas-guzzling car was indignantly compared with other fundamental human freedoms, such as the choice of a sexual and family life, by José Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission yesterday.
Mr Barroso was challenged about his ownership of a large SUV (sports utility vehicle), minutes after warning Europe’s leaders that the eyes of the world would be upon them tomorrow at a summit at which he wants to set ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gases.
He denied that his choice of vehicle contradicted Commission plans to limit CO2 emissions from cars to 130 grammes per km.
His personal Volkswagen Touareg 4x4 pumps out 265 g/ km but he argues that it is mostly used by his wife, Margarida. On official business he tends to use a top-of-the range Mercedes with CO2 emissions of 270 g/km.
He said: “I never see myself as an example. A moralistic approach is not mine. We are setting public targets and should avoid giving certificates of good behaviour to individuals.”
Asked whether he should set an example in his own vehicle choice, he added: “People are responsible and should take their decisions.
“If you start on the environment you could go on to the family, sexual, etc. You have to respect the law and what we are doing is pushing for a more ambitious law.”
The proposed target of 130 g/km CO2 across all cars sold in Europe by 2012 would leave manufacturers free to produce big cars, provided that average emissions met the target.
Friends of the Earth Europe said: “Mr Barroso claims to be committed to fighting climate change while driving a big gas-guzzling car in the narrow roads of Brussels. As a high-profile politician he should be making significant changes to his own lifestyle.”
Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London, said: “The Commission’s own website urges people to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint. I recommend that Mr Barroso reads the website and gives some political leadership on climate change.”
Other politicians in Europe have adapted their travel habits. David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, for example, offsets his flights.
Mr Barroso was speaking at a preview of the two-day leaders’ summit in Brussels that will consider ambitious climate change goals, including a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and a target to use 10 per cent more biofuels. A call for a binding target of 20 per cent for renewable energy across Europe is being resisted by the Poles and the Czechs.
Mr Barroso declared: “This is an opportunity for European leaders to match intentions with deeds, to turn words into actions. ”
Mr Barroso said that tackling climate change “must be a defining mission for the European Union for the future” and featured in the Berlin declaration on March 25, a statement of EU achievements in the 50 years since it was formed.
Clear the air
CO2 emissions in g/km
Toyota Prius hybrid: 104
Fiat Panda 1.1: 135
Mini Cooper: 174
Renault Scenic: 205
Ford Mondeo 2.0: 218
VW Tuareg: 265
Rolls Royce Phantom: 327
Source: Vehicle Certification Agency
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Can living be reduced to doing, feeling and thinking?
I mean living.
The words, "doing, thinking, and feeling" are my expressions in language of the DOING of living, as you put it.
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I'm not going to argue with this. My point in this excercise is that arguments for one side or the other are pointless. Arguing beliefs is silly. They matter not.
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It doesn't matter which beliefs we use. One set is as good as another, because good and bad (a belief system) doesn't matter, either.
What does matter is what we create. The beliefs we use to filter our reception and projection of energy into perception only matter for the purpose of creating that perception. What matters is what we intend to perceive, and thus create.
It doesn't matter that I hold strong beliefs in democracy. And, my beliefs about democracy are not absolute. They are purely for the choices in my experience.
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Your beliefs twist and distort your perception.
Hence your precise language does not reflect the world as it is.
Simple.
Yours do, too.
NEENER NEENER NEENER!
Silly goose!!
The world is what you make it to be.
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Does the falling tree make a sound with no one to hear it? ~Yes.
Does the sound depend upon my awareness of it or my intent? ~No.
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Yes, that's what this thread is about. Only, it goes far deeper down the rabbit hole than just beliefs about destroying the world via man-made CO2.
How far we want to go down there depends on us, my friend.
Indulge this request, Eric. Let's each refrain from making any assumptions about how far the other of us has gone down that hole. Deal?
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Does the falling tree make a sound with no one to hear it? ~Yes.
Does the sound depend upon my awareness of it or my intent? ~No.
My point is, whether it makes a sound, or not, depends partly on our beliefs as to whether it does, or does not. How that shakes out partly determines whether we hear it, or not.
Interesting side issues are whether we intend to hear it or not, and whether and how we are aware of the sound.
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That's very true, Eric. "IT DEPENDS ON THE ENERGY YOU PUT OUT THERE."
Why, are you conceding that at least I create my own reality?
*snork*
If I can, so can you. You do.
*laughs with you, not at you*
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That is acceptable. Have a good evening.
Namaste'
Todd
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Classic
March 3, 2007
Guest Columnist
An Afghan Policy Built on Pipe Dreams
By RORY STEWART
The international community’s policy in Afghanistan is based on the claim that Afghans are willing partners in the creation of a liberal democratic state. Senator John McCain finished a recent speech on Afghanistan by saying, “Billions of people around the world now embrace the ideals of political, economic and social liberty, conceived in the West, as their own.”
In Afghanistan in January, Tony Blair thanked Afghans by saying “we’re all in this together” and placing them in “the group of people who want to live in peace and harmony with each other, whatever your race or your background or your religion.”
Such language is inaccurate, misleading and dangerous.
Afghans, like Americans, do not want to be abducted and tortured. They want a say in who governs them, and they want to feed their families. But reducing their needs to broad concepts like “human rights,” “democracy” and “development” is unhelpful.
For many Afghans, sharia law is central. Others welcome freedom from torture, but not free media or freedom of religion; majority rule, but not minority rights; full employment, but not free-market reforms. “Warlords” retain considerable power. Millions believe that alcohol should be forbidden and apostates killed, that women should be allowed in public only in burqas. Many Pusthu clearly prefer the Taliban to foreign troops.
Yet, senior officials with long experience with Afghanistan often deny this reality. They insist that Taliban fighters have next to no local support and are purely Pakistani agents. The U.N. argues that “warlords” have little power and that the tribal areas can rapidly be brought under central control. The British defense secretary predicted last summer that British troops in Helmand Province could return “without a bullet fired.” Afghan cabinet ministers insist that narcotics growth and corruption can be ended and the economy can wean itself off foreign aid in five years. None of this is true. And most of them half-know it.
It is not only politicians who misrepresent the facts. Nonprofit groups endorse the fashionable jargon of state-building and civil society, partly to win grants. Military officers are reluctant to admit their mission is impossible. Journalists were initially surprisingly optimistic about transforming Afghanistan. No one wants to seem to endorse a status quo dominated by the Taliban and drugs. Humankind cannot bear very much reality, particularly in Afghanistan.
Does it matter? Most people see our misrepresentations as an unappealing but necessary part of international politics. The problem is that we act on the basis of our own lies. British soldiers were killed because they were not prepared for the Helmand insurgency. In the same province, the coalition recommended a Western-friendly technocrat as governor; he was so isolated and threatened he could barely leave his office. Hundreds of millions of dollars invested in anticorruption efforts, and the police and the counternarcotics ministry, has been wasted on Afghans with no interest in our missions. Other programs are perceived as a threat to local culture and have bred anger and resentment.
Still others have raised expectations we cannot fulfill, betraying our friends. I experienced this in Iraq, where I encouraged two friends to start gender and civil society programs; we were unable to protect them, and both were killed. Even when we fail, instead of recognizing the errors of the initial assessment and the mission, we blame problems in implementation and repeat false and illogical claims in order to acquire more money and troops.
The time has come to be honest about the limits of our power and the Afghan reality. This is not to counsel despair. There is no fighting in the streets of Kabul, the Hazara in the center of the country are more secure and prosperous than at almost any time in their history, and the economy grew last year by 18 percent. These are major achievements. With luck and the right kind of international support, Afghanistan can become more humane, prosperous and stable.
But progress will be slow. Real change can come only from within, and we have less power in Afghanistan than we claim. We must speak truthfully about this situation. Our lies betray Afghans and ultimately ourselves. And the cost in lives, opportunities and reputation is unbearable.
Rory Stewart’s latest book is the “The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.” He runs the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul and is a guest columnist this month.
How precise: :)
Humankind cannot bear very much reality, particularly in Afghanistan.
The problem is that we act on the basis of our own lies.
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Even conservative estimates are becoming increasingly pessimistic.
UN climate report will warn of risk species
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 1:25am BST 06/04/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/06/nspecies06.xml
Nearly a third of the world's species of animals and plants will be at risk of extinction by climate change within 50 years, United Nations scientists and governments are expected to say in a report published today.
The report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to predict the loss of thousands of species in temperature-sensitive biodiversity hot spots such as the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Australia, if temperatures go on rising.
For some species, such as corals, there will no longer be a climate that is suitable for them to survive. Others, like the North American rock rabbit, the pika, may be unable to reach distant regions that are more suitable.
In Europe the species expected to be challenged include the Spanish imperial eagle, the dunnock, crested tit and Scottish crossbill.
The final draft of the "policy-makers' summary" of the report on impacts of climate change, seen by The Daily Telegraph, gives higher certainty than before to the predictions of likely consequences of continued fossil fuel emissions at present levels.
Sources close to the groups negotiating the wording of the summary said last night that there was a "great rift" between Saudi Arabia and the United States and other countries over the emphasis given to predictions, including those of species extinction.
Saudi Arabia was said to be trying to insert text emphasising the benefits of warming for crop production in the far north of Europe and Siberia.
The US was said to be trying to have a map of the world showing significant observed changes in global temperatures since 1970 taken out of the report altogether. Sources close to the discussions said talks were expected to go on all night.
Unlike IPCC Working Group I's report in January on the science of climate change, which predicted a three-degree global average temperature rise by 2100, Working Group II's report contain the specifics of how the world will be affected by warming temperatures over a century.
The report says the world's poor will be in the front line against climate change, facing death and injury due to heat waves, floods, storms and droughts.
It predicts that the worst affected regions of the world will be the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, small low-lying islands, and the deltas of the major Asian rivers.
Michael Meacher, the former environment minister and stalking horse challenger to Gordon Brown, said that neither the Government nor the Tory leader David Cameron had "fully grasped the scale of the challenge, let alone proposed any serious way of meeting it".
He added: "Man-made climate change is the single greatest threat facing the world. But so far our policies have been marked by timidity and inadequacy."
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And governments...they just spin and fiddle...
UN agreement on severity of climate change
By Richard Holt and agencies
Last Updated: 3:06pm BST 06/04/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=1231A3R2XF2UJQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/04/06/nclimate106.xml
Climate change will cause severe droughts and food shortages for billions of people unless governments act now, UN experts have agreed.
An agreement was reached after an all-night session in Brussels during which key sections were deleted from a draft report.
Scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings.
"It has been a complex exercise," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises.
Five days of negotiations came to an end when the delegates removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that come about with every rise of one degree Celsius.
There were also disagreements over the level of scientific reliability attached to key statements.
But in the end there was little doubt about the science, which was based on 29,000 sets of data, much of it collected in the past five years.
The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised many of the objections to the phrasing, often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.
The final IPCC report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming, mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.
It said up to 30 per cent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1980s and '90s.
Areas that now suffer a shortage of rain will become even drier, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, it said.
The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines.
Negotiators pored over a 21-page draft summary which was intended as a policy guide for governments.
The summary pares down the full 1,500-page scientific assessment of the evidence of climate change so far and the impact it will have on the Earth's most vulnerable people and ecosystems.
Though weakened by the deletion of some elements, the final report "will send a very, very clear signal" to governments, said Yvo de Boer, the UN's leading climate change official.
The summary will be presented to the G8 summit of the world's richest nations in June, when the European Union is expected to renew appeals to US President George W Bush to join in international efforts to control emissions of fossil fuels.
This year's series of reports by the IPCC are the first in six years from the prestigious body of some 2,500 scientists, formed in 1988.
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Tigers fading fast in last stronghold
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2437266.ece
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 10 April 2007
Hope is fading in the fight to save the tiger in India, the animal's last stronghold, according to Indian conservationists. Resurgent poaching and feeble official protection have combined to put the animal, India's national symbol, on the road to extinction, say the country's leading tiger experts in a BBC documentary to be screened tomorrow.
They allege that the current Indian government simply does not have the political will to take the strong action now necessary to prevent the world's biggest cat from vanishing, in the face of an onslaught of illegal hunting.
Official tiger protection measures, they say, are a mixture of mismanagement, inept science and ineffective enforcement plus a continuing unwillingness to admit the truth about plunging populations of the species.
Tiger numbers, which officially stand at nearly 4,000, are rapidly falling and may actually have dropped below 1,200, says Valmik Thapar, the conservationist who is the Indian tiger's best known champion. "I think we are living with the last tigers of India," he tells the BBC2 documentary, Battle To Save The Tiger.
The disappearance of India's wild tigers one of the world's most charismatic animal species would mark one of the most sinister milestones yet in the history of the degradation of the earth's environment by people.
It would also be a humiliation for India, demonstrating that a great country was unable to conserve a key part of its wildlife heritage. Although concern for the animals goes back decades, it has only become apparent recently that the plight of the Indian (or Bengal) tiger is critical.
This is because in 1973 the Indian government launched Project Tiger, a powerful and ambitious conservation programme which was very successful for more than 20 years. Personally backed by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, it succeeded in more than doubling the country's tiger population from 2,000 to more than 4,300.
However, in recent years it has become clear that the original impetus behind Project Tiger had been lost and the programme had fallen apart a situation graphically illustrated by the revelation in 2005 that every tiger at the country's premier reserve, Sariska in Rajasthan, had been killed. Tigers in other reserves were also shown to have been hunted out, although the government was claiming they were still there.
Last year the Indian government finally scrapped Project Tiger, and replaced it with a new body, the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
But the conservationists in the programme, which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, allege that this is even weaker than the body it has replaced.
Karan Singh, a senior politician and an early chairman of Project Tiger, compares the situation 30 years ago with today. "Why were we successful? Because Indira Gandhi's political will was behind it," he says. "Everyone knew round the country if something goes wrong, Indira Gandhi was there, and was going to take them to task. But I don't think that the government of India as such today has that sort of commitment or that sort of passion. The current decline continues, and if we are unable to reverse the process, then it is only a matter of time before the tiger disappears."
Valmik Thapar, the author of numerous books on Indian natural history, said the responsibility for the tiger's survival was "100 per cent" that of the Indian government. "If the government wants to save tigers it can, if it doesn't want to save tigers, it'll allow them to go extinct," he said.
He specifically complains that major posts in environmental agencies are being left unfilled. "We are aware that we're facing the worst tiger and wildlife crisis in the history of our country, so what do we do to make matters worse? We leave the key positions in our federal governance mechanism vacant," he said.
"The result is that never before in the history of this country has wildlife and forest governance been at such a low ebb. In such a situation, it is inevitable that our tigers, leopards, lions and other wildlife will vanish."
According to the documentary, produced and directed by Mike Birkhead for the BBC Natural History Unit, the current poaching of Bengal tigers is being driven by two markets the market for tiger bones, used in traditional Chinese medicine, and for tiger skins, used in ceremonial dress in Tibet. Both skins and bones are being smuggled out of India, and the trade is lucrative in the extreme a skin can fetch £10,000, while the bones fetch about £3,000 per kilogram.
The tiger,Panthera tigris, is the biggest of the "big cats". At the start of the 20th century, there were probably 100,000 tigers in the world, with about 40,000 in India, their main stronghold. There were then eight sub-species of tiger, but the Balinese became extinct in 1937, the last Caspian was shot in 1970 and the Javan succumbed to habitat loss and hunting in the 1980s.
All five remaining sub-species the Bengal, the Amur (in Asian Russia), the Indochinese, the South China and the Sumatran are classed by the World Conservation Union as critically endangered. The official total world population now is between 5,000 and 7,000, but those figures were compiled nearly a decade ago. The true world total is likely to be very much lower.
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Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article2465960.ece
By Kathy Marks in Sydney
Published: 20 April 2007
Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.
The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.
A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.
Lovers of the Australian landscape often cite the poet Dorothea Mackellar who in 1904 penned the classic lines: "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains." But the land that was Mackellar's muse is now cracked and parched, and its mighty rivers have shrivelled to sluggish brown streams. With paddocks reduced to dust bowls, graziers have been forced to sell off sheep and cows at rock-bottom prices or buy in feed at great expense. Some have already given up, abandoning pastoral properties that have been in their families for generations. The rural suicide rate has soared.
Mr Howard acknowledged that the measures are drastic. He said the prolonged dry spell was "unprecedentedly dangerous" for farmers, and for the economy as a whole. Releasing a new report on the state of the Murray and Darling, Mr Howard said: "It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise. We must all hope and pray there is rain."
But prayer may not suffice, and many people are asking why crippling water shortages in the world's driest inhabited continent are only now being addressed with any sense of urgency.
The causes of the current drought, which began in 2002 but has been felt most acutely over the past six months, are complex. But few scientists dispute the part played by climate change, which is making Australia hotter and drier.
Environmentalists point to the increasing frequency and severity of drought-causing El Niño weather patterns, blamed on global warming. They also note Australia's role in poisoning the Earth's atmosphere. Australians are among the world's biggest per-capita energy consumers, and among the top producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Despite that, the country is one of only two industrialised nations - the United States being the other - that have refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The governments argue that to do so would harm their economies.
Until a few months ago, Mr Howard and his ministers pooh-poohed the climate-change doomsayers. The Prime Minister refused to meet Al Gore when he visited Australia to promote his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He was lukewarm about the landmark report by the British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, which warned that large swaths of Australia's farming land would become unproductive if global temperatures rose by an average of four degrees.
Faced with criticism from even conservative sections of the media, Mr Howard realised that he had misread the public mood - grave faux pas in an election year. Last month's report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted more frequent and intense bushfires, tropical cyclones, and catastrophic damage to the Great Barrier Reef. The report also said there would be up to 20 per cent more droughts by 2030. And it said the annual flow in the Murray-Darling basin was likely to fall by 10-25 per cent by 2050. The basin, the size of France and Spain combined, provides 85 per cent of the water used nationally for irrigation.
While the government is determined to protect Australia's coal industry, the drought is expected to shave 1 per cent off annual growth this year. The farming sector of a country that once "rode the sheep's back" to prosperity is in desperate straits. With dams and reservoirs drying up, many cities and towns have been forced to introduce severe water restrictions.
Mr Howard has softened his rhetoric of late, and says that he now broadly accepts the science behind climate change. He has tried to regain the political initiative, announcing measures including a plan to take over regulatory control of the Murray-Darling river system from state governments.
He has declared nuclear power the way forward, and is even considering the merits of joining an international scheme to "trade" carbon dioxide emissions - an idea he opposed in the past.
Mr Howard's conservative coalition will face an opposition Labour Party revitalised by a popular new leader, Kevin Rudd, and offering a climate change policy that appears to be more credible than his. Ben Fargher, the head of the National Farmers' Federation, said that if fruit and olive trees died, that could mean "five to six years of lost production". Food producers also warned of major food price rises.
Mr Howard acknowledged that an irrigation ban would have a "potentially devastating" impact. But "this is very much in the lap of the gods", he said.
How UN warned Australia and New Zealand
Excerpts from UN's IPCC report on the threat of global warming to Australia and New Zealand:
"As a result of reduced precipitation and increased evaporation, water security problems are projected to intensify by 2030 in south and east Australia and, in New Zealand, in Northland and eastern regions."
* "Significant loss of biodiversity is projected to occur by 2020 in some ecologically rich sites, including the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland's tropics. Other sites at risk include the Kakadu wetlands ... and the alpine areas of both countries."
* "Ongoing coastal development and population growth in areas such as Cairns and south-east Queensland (Australia) and Northland to Bay of Plenty (New Zealand) are projected to exacerbate risks from sea-level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding by 2050."
* "Production from agriculture and forestry by 2030 is projected to decline over much of southern and eastern Australia, and over parts of eastern New Zealand, due to increases in droughts and fires."
* "The region has substantial adaptive capacity due to well-developed economies and scientific and technical capabilities, but there are considerable constraints to implementation ... Natural systems have limited adaptive capacity."
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yes, well...
we are entering a nightmare.
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yes, well...
we are entering a nightmare.
:-*
My rattle sings for all of you there.
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yes, well...
we are entering a nightmare.
True for you in Australia. I've read some schocking articles about the lack of water, naughty Sun due to lack of Ozone and then all these wild fires. And I agree with E, it seems to be accelerating. We had another storm today, not that heavy, but it is one too many ...
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An island made by global warming
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2480994.ece
By Michael McCarthy, Environmental Editor
Published: 24 April 2007
The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.
Several miles long, the island was once thought to be the tip of a peninsula halfway up Greenland's remote east coast but a glacier joining it to the mainland has melted away completely, leaving it surrounded by sea.
Shaped like a three-fingered hand some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it has been discovered by a veteran American explorer and Greenland expert, Dennis Schmitt, who has named it Warming Island (Or Uunartoq Qeqertoq in Inuit, the Eskimo language, that he speaks fluently).
The US Geological Survey has confirmed its existence with satellite photos, that show it as an integral part of the Greenland coast in 1985, but linked by only a small ice bridge in 2002, and completely separate by the summer of 2005. It is now a striking island of high peaks and rugged rocky slopes plunging steeply to a sea dotted with icebergs.
As the satellite pictures and the main photo which we publish today make clear, Warming Island has been created by a quite undeniable, rapid and enormous physical transformation and is likely to be seen around the world as a potent symbol of the coming effects of climate change.
But it is only one more example of the disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet, that scientists have begun to realise, only very recently, is proceeding far more rapidly than anyone thought.
The second-largest ice sheet in the world (after Antarctica), if its entire 2.5 million cubic kilometres of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 metres, or more than 23 feet.
That would inundate most of the world's coastal cities, including London, swamp vast areas of heavily-populated low-lying land in countries such as Bangladesh, and remove several island countries such as the Maldives from the face of the Earth. However, even a rise one tenth as great would have devastating consequences.
Sea level rise is already accelerating. Sea levels are going up around the world by about 3.1mm per year - the average for the period 1993-2003. That is itself sharply up from an average of 1.8mm per year over the longer period 1961-2003. Greenland ice now accounts for about 0.5 millimetre of the total. (Much of the rest of the rise is coming from the expansion of the world's sea water as it warms.)
Until two or three years ago, it was thought that the break-up of the ice sheet might take 1,000 years or more but a series of studies and alarming observations since 2004 have shown the disintegration is accelerating and, as a consequence, sea level rise may be much quicker than anticipated.
Earlier computer models, researchers believe, failed to capture properly the way the ice sheet would respond to major warming (over the past 20 years, Greenland's air temperature has risen by 3C). The 2001 report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was relatively reassuring, suggesting change would be slow.
But satellite measurements of Greenland's entire land mass show that the speed at which its glaciers are moving to the sea has increased significantly in the past decade, with some of them moving three times faster than in the mid-1990s.
Scientists estimate that, in 1996, glaciers deposited about 50 cubic km of ice into the sea. In 2005, it had risen to 150 cubic km of ice.
A study last year by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology showed that, rather than just melting relatively slowly, the ice sheet is showing all the signs of a mechanical break-up as glaciers slip ever faster into the ocean, aided by the "lubricant" of meltwater forming at their base. As the meltwater seeps down it lubricates the bases of the "outlet" glaciers of the ice sheet, causing them to slip down surrounding valleys towards the sea,
Another discovery has been the increase in "glacial earthquakes" caused by the sudden movement of enormous blocks of ice within the ice sheet. The annual number of them recorded in Greenland between 1993 and 2002 was between six and 15. In 2003, seismologists recorded 20 glacial earthquakes. In 2004, they monitored 24 and for the first 10 months of 2005 they recorded 32. The seismologists also found the glacial earthquakes occurred mainly during the summer months, indicating the movements were indeed associated with rapidly melting ice - normal "tectonic" earthquakes show no such seasonality. Of the 136 glacial quakes analysed in a report published last year, more than a third occurred during July and August.
The creation of Warming Island appears to be entirely consistent with the disintegrating ice sheet, coming about when the glacier bridge linking it to the mainland simply disappeared. It was discovered by Mr Schmitt, a 60-year-old explorer from Berkeley, California, who has known Greenland for 40 years, during a trip he led up the remote coastline.
According to the US Geological Survey: "More islands like this may be discovered if the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to disappear."
A self-governing dependency of Denmark, Greenland is the largest island in the world but is inhabited by only 56,000 people, mainly Inuit. More than 80 per cent of the land surface is covered by the ice sheet.
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On the heels of Juhani sharing with me the other day that one of the 7 remaining female amur leopards -- in the world, in time-and-space, out of a population of 24-35 -- was shot and killed in Russia, I stumble upon this item about honeybees ...
One of my coworkers mentioned that there was a swarm of bees gathered in a hedge around the parking lot of the company across the street. I desperately tried to get in touch with my common sense, but the photographer in me won out as usual.
The bees allowed me to approach fairly close at first. After about three shots they started to show a little agitation at my proximity and attention. I grabbed one more photo, then made a calm (but hasty) retreat under the close, (too close,) observation of my "fighter escorts". I was never stung, only menaced, and one bee kept ramming itself into me.
I was explaining to my friends the plight of the disappearing honeybees around the country in the safety of the Lab where we work, and telling them how any beekeeper would be glad to come collect this swarm if they were notified. I was horrified to see an exterminator in protective clothing, obviously called by the company in whose parking lot the bees were resting, spraying the swarm with insecticide.
--Stan S. (somewhere in the US)
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1985.html?theme=light
(http://imgplace.com/directory/dir1841/1177651620_7066.jpg)
I wish the location had been noted, but the editors of the site would have verified that this contributor was real. He probably did not reveal the specifics because that company would have had newscameras descending upon them, like hounds to the kill.
Our tangential unthinkingness and ignorance will be the things that tip the whole balance over, apparently.
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Yes, the lack of understanding.
One famous German said after Germany's defeat in World War II and after all the atrocities committed by Germans had became public: 'We, Germans, have always preferred to believe more than to think and understand.'
Who would like to bear the responsibility of thinking independently, acting and making mistakes, being hurt and still walking, and taking new chances?
Western culture is safety-and-comfort-culture utterly contradicting the purpose of Life.
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EU green targets will damage rainforests
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/27/wgreen27.xml
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 5:51am BST 27/04/2007
European union green fuel targets will accelerate the destruction of rainforests in South-East Asia and threaten the habitat of endangered species, such as the orang-utan.
In March EU leaders agreed to set a binding climate change target to make biofuel - energy sources made from plant material - account for 10 per cent of all Europe's transport fuels by 2020.
But the European Commission has admitted that the objective, which aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions, may have the unintended consequence of speeding up the destruction of tropical rainforests and peatlands in South-East Asia - actually increasing, not reducing, global warming.
European consumption of plant-based fuels will soar from around three million tons at present to more than 30 million tons in 2010, driving a boom in imports of cheap biofuels.
Europe is still years away from self-sufficiency in biofuels produced from straw and other waste vegetation. As a result, demand for cheap imports of fuels, such as palm oil, is expected to soar.
Countries such as Indonesia have already begun planning an increase in the production of palm oil, a development campaigners fear will see more rainforest fall to the axe and rare peat soil burned.
Andris Piebalgs, the European Energy Commissioner, has confirmed that, despite setting the biofuel target, the EU has no system to certify that imports exclude palm oil or fuel production that has resulted in the destruction of rare natural resources.
''No mandatory certification exists at present that will guarantee that tropical rainforests or peatlands in South-East Asia are not destroyed for the production of palm oil," he said.
In a written response to a European Parliament question, Mr Piebalgs went on to confess that without a scheme EU targets "would supplement the pressure caused by growth in palm oil use and would make an additional contribution to the pressure on tropical forests and peatlands".
Commission declarations that it plans to develop a "sustainability" scheme, similar to one applying to the logging of tropical woods, have been greeted with scepticism.
Chris Davies, a British Liberal Democrat Euro-MP, doubts that any EU measures can be properly policed.
''We haven't been able to halt the supply from rainforests of illegally felled timber so how can we have confidence that sustainability certificates would be worth the paper on which they are written?," he asked.
Environmentalists have called on the commission to ensure that biofuel policy does not wreak eco-destruction before setting targets.
''The biofuel policy of the European Commission is a complete mess," said a Friends of the Earth UK spokesman.
He added: "We think these targets are not only not useful but are destructive.
''Abandoning them is the only responsible thing to do." Efforts to agree international eco-standards for biofuel will be on the agenda of an EU-US summit in Washington next Monday.
Many developing countries are opposed, on free trade grounds, to green import restrictions on commodities such as palm oil and America disputes that a problem even exists, making agreement unlikely.
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Australians turn to local knowledge for rain
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/04/waus04.xml
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:15am BST 04/05/2007
As drought-stricken farmers pray for rain, Australia's weather forecasters are turning increasingly to ancient Aboriginal knowledge in their attempts to understand the country's weather.
Where meteorologists base their forecasts on satellites and synoptic charts, Aborigines observe the flight of black cockatoos and the flowering of wattle bushes.
"The cockys [cockatoos] are flocking everywhere. That's usually a good sign that rain is coming," said Jeremy Clark, an Aboriginal park ranger from the south of the country.
"The way the flora and plants and shrubs are starting to react, I'd certainly be expecting rain."
More than two centuries after Australia was colonised by Britain, there is a belated recognition that 40,000 years of Aboriginal experience in weather-watching can offer valuable lessons.
Residents of the southern, most populated parts of the country can now consult the Indigenous Weather Knowledge on the official website of the Australia's Bureau of Meteorology at www.bom.gov.au
Aboriginal weather philosophy is based on the principle that subtle changes to plants and animals provide clues about changes in the weather.
"People have been using these relationships since long before western society was under way," Dr Harvey Stern, a climatologist, said.
"We're interested to see the way they are describing the plants, the animals and the seasons all as one body of knowledge."
In the Northern Territory, when fruit bats move from bushland to river banks, Aborigines know that the rainy season is on its way. Aboriginal weathermen claim that their predictions are 90 per cent accurate and as reliable as the evening television forecasts.
Australians need all the help they can get - last month John Howard, the prime minister, said the country faced an "unprecedentedly dangerous" drought.
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Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2539349.ece
In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?
By Daniel Howden
Published: 14 May 2007
The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories.
The rampant slashing and burning of tropical forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists.
Figures from the GCP, summarising the latest findings from the United Nations, and building on estimates contained in the Stern Report, show deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3 per cent of the total.
"Tropical forests are the elephant in the living room of climate change," said Andrew Mitchell, the head of the GCP.
Scientists say one days' deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York. Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere.
No new technology is needed, says the GCP, just the political will and a system of enforcement and incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals standing than felled. "The focus on technological fixes for the emissions of rich nations while giving no incentive to poorer nations to stop burning the standing forest means we are putting the cart before the horse," said Mr Mitchell.
Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests will in the next four years alone, in the words of Sir Nicholas Stern, pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has heavy industry on a comparable scale with the EU, India or Russia and yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United States and China.
What both countries do have in common is tropical forest that is being cut and burned with staggering swiftness. Smoke stacks visible from space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images capture similar destruction from the Congo basin, across the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.
According to the latest audited figures from 2003, two billion tons of CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from deforestation. That destruction amounts to 50 million acres - or an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland felled annually.
The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere.
As the GCP's report concludes: "If we lose forests, we lose the fight against climate change."
Standing forest was not included in the original Kyoto protocols and stands outside the carbon markets that the report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed to this month as the best hope for halting catastrophic warming.
The landmark Stern Report last year, and the influential McKinsey Report in January agreed that forests offer the "single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon emissions".
International demand has driven intensive agriculture, logging and ranching that has proved an inexorable force for deforestation; conservation has been no match for commerce. The leading rainforest scientists are now calling for the immediate inclusion of standing forests in internationally regulated carbon markets that could provide cash incentives to halt this disastrous process.
Forestry experts and policy makers have been meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week to try to put deforestation on top of the agenda for the UN climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, this year. Papua New Guinea, among the world's poorest nations, last year declared it would have no choice but to continue deforestation unless it was given financial incentives to do otherwise.
Richer nations already recognise the value of uncultivated land. The EU offers €200 (£135) per hectare subsidies for "environmental services" to its farmers to leave their land unused.
And yet there is no agreement on placing a value on the vastly more valuable land in developing countries. More than 50 per cent of the life on Earth is in tropical forests, which cover less than 7 per cent of the planet's surface.
They generate the bulk of rainfall worldwide and act as a thermostat for the Earth. Forests are also home to 1.6 billion of the world's poorest people who rely on them for subsistence. However, forest experts say governments continue to pursue science fiction solutions to the coming climate catastrophe, preferring bio-fuel subsidies, carbon capture schemes and next-generation power stations.
Putting a price on the carbon these vital forests contain is the only way to slow their destruction. Hylton Philipson, a trustee of Rainforest Concern, explained: "In a world where we are witnessing a mounting clash between food security, energy security and environmental security - while there's money to be made from food and energy and no income to be derived from the standing forest, it's obvious that the forest will take the hit."
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If anyone sees Dorothy get her to send me some red slippers!!!
Life in OZmerica just keeps getting better....
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Army Will Be Deployed To Streets Of Sydney For APEC Conference
City Centre To Become Mini-Police State For Up To Two Weeks
Random Body Searches And Detentions Without Charge
For up to two weeks in September, a huge area of Sydney's central business district, and tourist shopping mecca, will be blockaded by hundreds of police, security guards and Australia's military. Soldiers, armed with assault rifles, will allegedly be given "shoot to kill" rules of engagement to deal with security threats.
Black Hawk helicopters will patrol the skies, snipers will be positioned on the rooftops of some of Sydney's landmark buildings, train stations will be closed down and checkpoints will screen each and every person who tries to enter 'The Zone'.
In a quick series of announcements earlier this week, the state and federal government unveiled the first slab of details revealing just how severe the ultra-security will be when more than 20 world leaders, including Presidents Bush and Putin, descend on Sydney for the APEC summit in September this year.
The publicly released plans read like scenarios culled of the Orwellian police state portrayed in the movie 'V For Vendetta', and Sydneysiders are already expressing their anger and frustration at an event that they know will paralyse the city centre, while they still have to go to work and try to live their lives.
While news that Australian soldiers carrying assault rifles will be patrolling the streets of Sydney was jaw-dropping enough, we've also now learned that special legislation will be introduced, allowed under anti-terror laws, to allow police to pull people they deem to be a possible security threat off the street and detainee them without charge, for days at a time. Other Sydneysiders can look forward to the possibility of being subjected to random full body searches :
...a giant security triangle will envelop an area marked by the Sydney Opera House, Government House and the Sydney Convention Centre.
The corridor to Sydney Airport is also expected to be a declared search zone.
People who venture into the areas will be subject to random body searches during the seven-day conference, with security peaking from September 7-9 when 21 world leaders arrive to Sydney.
Additional legislation will also be introduced to allow security agencies from foreign governments to enforce their own security arrangements while in Australia, News Limited reports.
Bizarrely, the New South Wales premier, Morris Iemma, spun out a fantastic fantasy about how good the APEC summit will be for promoting Sydney internationally as a tourist destination.
Yeah, if your idea of a tourist destination is a place where the streets are locked down by armed checkpoints, where military patrols roam freely and the sky is criss-crossed by thundering Black Hawk helicopters :
Prime Minister John Howard and New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma met today to discuss transport and security for the meeting of 21 world leaders, including US President George W Bush.
The (security) measures mean three city circle train stations – St James, Museum and Circular Quay – will be closed for three days from the Friday, which will be a public holiday in Sydney.
Many other measures have yet to be made public, but other areas of the city centre will also become restricted zones and heavy security will be in place at a number of hotels.
The Sydney Opera House, Government House and the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre will be the key APEC venues.
Mr Howard and Mr Iemma said they hoped the Sydney Harbour Bridge would remain open and that disruptions on the Cahill Expressway, leading to the bridge, would be minimal.
"Some disruption is unavoidable; the only way you avoid disruption is to say that Sydney is closed for business as far as major international gatherings are concerned," Mr Howard said.
"We intend it to be a great weekend for Sydney and Australia and it will be ... both being Sydney boys, we intend to make sure it works."
Mr Iemma said Sydney would gain economically from hosting the summit and from worldwide exposure.
He said during the three days of the event Sydneysiders should attempt to live their lives as normal, but be wary of the closures and lockdowns.
"It's a balance between ensuring a successful conference, a successful gathering and ensuring the safety and security of those who will be participating," Mr Iemma said.
"And at the same time to minimise inconvenience and disruption."
This level of security is moving beyond the absurd, and is an affront to rights of Sydneysiders to move freely about their city.
Here's an idea : choose one of the dozens of isolated island resorts off Australia's east coast, rent the whole thing for a week, deploy the Navy, establish a security zone around the island and hold the APEC conference there.
It's remarkable to think that John Howard thinks APEC will stand as the jewel in the crown of his 11 year long stretch as the leader of Australia.
With free citizens being randomly selected for full body searches, or snatched off the streets of the city and bundled into vans and then held without charge, not to forget the weeks of 'rehearsals' where Black Hawk helicopters will buzz Sydney and its suburbs with thundering flights just above the tree tops, and 'persons of interests' being hauled in for questioning, Sydneysiders are going to get a full-scale taste of what it's like to live in a mini-police state.
The only Sydneysiders looking forward to the APEC summit, and all the delays, hassles and rights violations that will result, are the prime minister and the premier.
Of course, neither of them have to worry about being stuck in gridlock for hours at a time, while fleets of police-escorted presidential motorcades plough through the city centre, as they can always hide away in the back of a speeding ambulance to get to where they want to go. It wouldn't be the first time either of them have beat the gridlock using this method. Solely for "security reasons" of course It's not the type of stuff that concerns Somarians (to much)
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wow!! and they say Africa is mad.... ::)
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Jesus, army on the streets! These guys are not trained to deal with conflict situations with maximum caution and minimum necessary force (like police). Why couldn't they bring in minimum of army (say, flying surveillance assets) and more police from other cities)? :o
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not a good time to visit Sydney...
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not a good time to visit Sydney...
Indeed, who would like to meet all theses Bushes and Putins of this world? :)
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Yikes.
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Here are a few URL'S to some interesting articles on collapse (civilization)
http://carolynbaker.org/archives/the-spirituality-of-collapse-by-carolyn-baker?print=yes
http://carolynbaker.org/archives/preparing-for-collapse-three-things-you-can-do-a-book-review-by-carolyn-baker
http://solari.com/campaign/coming_clean.htm
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George has finally come good - i was hoping he would speak up, and i hadn't seen so till now. The Aust ABC (public broadcaser) has been forced by its government stacked board to air this BBC show.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climatechange-sceptics-shouldnt-bluff-the-world/2007/05/23/1179601487039.html (http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climatechange-sceptics-shouldnt-bluff-the-world/2007/05/23/1179601487039.html)
Too much at stake to let climate-change sceptics bluff the world
George Monbiot
May 24, 2007
Were it not for dissent, science, like politics, would have stayed in the Dark Ages. All the great heroes of the discipline - Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein - took tremendous risks in confronting mainstream opinion. Today's crank has often proved to be tomorrow's visionary.
But being one thing does not always lead to being another. Being a crank does not automatically make you a visionary. There is little prospect, for example, that Dr Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, the South African health minister who has claimed that AIDS can be treated with garlic, lemon and beetroot, will one day be hailed as a genius.
The problem with The Great Global Warming Swindle, which the ABC plans to screen and which caused a sensation when it was broadcast in Britain earlier this year, is that to make its case it relies not on visionaries, but on people whose findings have been proven wrong. The implications could not be graver. Thousands of people could be misled into believing there is no problem to address.
The film's main contention is that the rise in global temperatures is caused not by greenhouse gases but by changes in the sun's activity. It is built around the premise that in 1991 the Danish atmospheric physicist Dr Eigil Friis-Christensen discovered that recent temperature variations on Earth coincided with the length of the cycle of sunspots: the shorter they were, the higher the temperature. Unfortunately, he found nothing of the kind. A paper published in the journal Eos in 2004 reveals that the finding was the result of incorrect handling of data. The truth is the opposite: temperatures have continued to rise as the length of the sunspot cycle has increased.
So Friis-Christensen developed another means of demonstrating that the sun was responsible, claiming to have discovered a remarkable link between cosmic radiation influenced by the sun and global cloud cover. This is the mechanism the film proposes for global warming. But, again, the method was exposed as faulty. It relied on satellite data which did not measure global cloud cover.
So the hypothesis changed again. Without acknowledging that his previous paper was wrong, Friis-Christensen's co-author, Henrik Svensmark, declared there was a correlation not with total cloud cover but with low cloud cover. This, too, turned out to be incorrect. Then, last year, Svensmark published a paper purporting to show that cosmic rays could form tiny particles in the atmosphere. Accompanying it was a press release that went way beyond the findings reported in the paper to claim the study showed that past and present climate events are the result of cosmic rays.
This doesn't seem to have troubled the makers of the program, who report the cosmic ray theory as if it trounces all competing explanations.
The film also says man-made global warming is disproved by conflicting temperature data. Professor John Christy speaks about the discrepancy he found between temperatures at the Earth's surface and temperatures in the troposphere (or lower atmosphere). But the program fails to mention that in 2005 his data was proved wrong, by three papers in Science magazine.
Christy said last year he was mistaken. He was one of the lead authors of a paper that states the opposite of what he says in the film. Previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere have been used to challenge the reality of human-induced global warming. Specifically, it was said surface data showed substantial warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde (weather-balloon) data showed little or no warming above the surface. This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected.
Until recently, when found to be wrong, scientists went back to their labs to start again. Now, emboldened by the global denial industry, some, like the filmmakers, shriek censorship.
There is one scientist in the film whose work has not been debunked: the oceanographer Carl Wunsch. In the film he appears to support the idea that increasing carbon dioxide is not responsible for rising global temperatures. But Wunsch says he was misrepresented by the program, and misled by the people who made it.
Cherry-pick your results and choose work which is outdated and discredited, and anything and everything becomes true. The twin towers were brought down by controlled explosions; homeopathy works; black people are less intelligent than white people; species came about through intelligent design. You can find lines of evidence which appear to support these contentions and professors who will speak in their favour. This does not mean that any of them are correct.
You can sustain a belief in these propositions only by ignoring the overwhelming body of contradictory data. To form a balanced, scientific view, you have to consider all the evidence, on both sides of the question. The failure to understand the scientific process just makes the job of whipping up a storm that much easier. The less true a program is, the greater the controversy.
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Kookaburra in the Coal Mine
By Kelpie Wilson
Thursday 24 May 2007
A recent trip to Australia to cover a conference on agrichar allowed me to see the Australian drought crisis on the ground and talk to a few Australians about their thoughts on climate change. Agrichar is an agricultural technique that sequesters carbon, see Birth of a New Wedge.
The conference took place in Terrigal, New South Wales, a beach town just north of Sydney. Out on the blue horizon, I could see an endless train of coal ships headed for the booming economies of Asia. Coal is Australia's No. 1 export and a mainstay of the economy. But at the same time, as a major contributor to global warming, it is undermining almost every other source of wealth in the country.
A few days after I arrived, Prime Minister John Howard suggested a solution for the multi-year drought that is shriveling Australia's farmland: "Pray for rain," he said. Only a superabundance of rain can head off the government's plans to cut off irrigation to thousands of farms that are dependent on Australia's largest river system, the Murray-Darling basin.
Howard is not willing to admit, however, that global warming is the cause of the drought. At most, he says "there does appear to be a change in the weather pattern." He said Australia might be "going back to a drier period," but he is conspicuously alone in that assessment. Unlike hurricane Katrina, whose global warming origins were more strongly debated, most Australians blame the drought on human-caused climate change.
Scientist Tim Flannery, whom Howard named "Australian of the year," speaking at the Agrichar Conference, said that, despite some encouraging recent rainstorms, "it is extremely unlikely that enough rain will fall this winter to let the Murray-Darling river system be used for agriculture."
Flannery, in his book "The Weather Makers," has an explanation for the severe drought. For the first 146 years of European habitation in southwest Australia, winter rainfalls were reliable, he says, but everything changed in 1975, when winter rainfall began a decline of ten to twenty percent. Half of the decline is due to global warming, which has pushed the temperate weather zone farther south, and half has come from destruction of the ozone layer over the South Pole.
Twenty percent may not seem like a big decline, but the agricultural systems in many regions of Australia were finely balanced, and the drop has been enough to do them in. Farmer Ed Fagan, who has seen his pastures destroyed by drought, said, "We're on a knife edge."
While not recognizing its cause, Howard clearly sees the need to do something about the drought, which nicked nearly one percent off Australia's economic growth last year. Other than praying for rain, his solutions are all techno-fixes. He wants to spend six billion Australian dollars on a new piping system, and he wants to transfer control of the river to the federal government. But the state of Victoria is resisting that control. More efficient management of a dwindling resource may not be able to accomplish much anyway. According to the "Economist," the Murray-Darling river system is already one of the best-managed in the world. There's not a lot of efficiency to be gained, because just about every drop that can be squeezed out of the Murray-Darling already has been squeezed.
If irrigation is cut off this year, the biggest damage will be to the perennial trees and vines that produce Australia's valuable fruit, nut and grape harvests. Wine production was down by 50 percent in many areas this year, but if irrigation is cut off, vines and trees will die and farmers will have to start over.
In the wheat belt, Australian farmers have deployed new high-tech, no-till methods that use precision sowing tractors guided by GPS. By not disturbing soil, they retain more moisture. Without such advances, last year's poor harvest of 10 million tons of wheat (a normal year produces 25 million tons) would have been much worse. But high-tech solutions can't substitute for an absolute lack of water.
Agriculture is not the only sector of the Australian economy being hit. Water restrictions are causing power bills to go up. More than 800 megawatts of coal-fired generating plants have been shut down because there is not enough water to run steam turbines and cooling towers. Large hydropower schemes have also had to reduce output. Roman Domanski of the Energy Users Association of Australia said that if the drought goes on, high power prices would "decimate a lot of industries." He said the economic penalty of the drought was equivalent to adding a carbon tax of forty dollars a ton. That's an interesting comparison because ultimately a high carbon tax may be the only cure for Australia's climate ills.
Mining is being hit as well. The city of Orange, New South Wales, was recently asked to put itself on water restrictions in order to supply the local gold mine with water and save 450 jobs. Mines throughout the country have had to cut back production or redesign water systems.
Most of the areas that I visited in coastal New South Wales were not under the most severe water restrictions, but I heard stories of towns where all water is trucked in. In Brisbane, a city of 2.8 million, people are limited to 140 liters of water each per day. You can't wash a car or fill a child's wading pool.
Animals are suffering too. The conservation group Birds Australia reports that the drought has slashed bird numbers, including many small birds and endangered species. In some cases, large birds have been able to fly to better areas. When I saw a huge white form swoop in front of me on a busy Sydney street, it turned out to be a sulphur-crested cockatoo. "They've been invading the city and wreaking havoc on gardens," I was told. But they are just searching for water, like every other creature on the parched continent.
John Howard, stuck in denial mode, has only nuclear power and so-called "clean coal" to offer as a solution. But Australians don't seem to be buying it. Polls show that more than 90 percent see global warming as a critical issue and prefer solar technology to nuclear power.
There will be an election in Australia this fall. Howard's challenger is Kevin Rudd of the New Labor Party. Rudd has called for an emissions-reduction target of 60 percent by 2050, although he has yet to outline a set of policies to get there. As a labor leader, he has the coal and uranium miners to satisfy, as well as the greens. But because Howard's Australia has joined with Bush's America in a coalition of the "unwilling to join Kyoto," Rudd would be a definite improvement, and this could be an important election.
I asked a number of people how they thought the election would go. Ray O'Grady, a farmer who attended the agrichar conference, said, "I saw Al Gore's movie six months ago and I said to myself as I walked out of the theater - this will change Australian politics. All my life, I have never voted for anything but conservatives. But this time I'm thinking differently."
But when I asked him if climate change would swing the federal election to Rudd in the fall, he wasn't so sure his fellow Australians would be with him. "People are going to take a look at mortgage rates and vote their pocketbooks," he said. "Australia has a high level of personal debt."
Peter Shenstone is a director of the Australian environmental group Planet Ark. Peter showed me around the Planet Ark headquarters in the Blue Mountains, which is a model of sustainable building and drought-tolerant landscaping. The complex provides all of its own power and water, using solar panels and windmills. Peter said that the people in Australia are "way ahead of government." He said the response to climate change needs to be "on a war footing," but he wouldn't talk about the election because his organization is studiously nonpartisan. Instead, he is recruiting an army of tree planters through Planet Ark's tree-planting programs. The solution to the drought and to climate change, he says, is to plant 60 billion trees. "People say there's no water," he said, "but we can reverse the positive feedback loop by planting trees, and the water will come back."
Mike, an information technology manager who shared a table with me at a crowded café in Sydney, had little faith in government by either party to solve global warming. "Politicians can't do anything because they always have another election in three years," he said. He sees business as leading the way because "they can afford to take the long-term view."
Part of Mike's cynicism was, he told me, due to what happened to Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam back in 1975. I didn't know much about that, but I had a hunch I could find out more in John Pilger's Australian history, "A Secret Country," which I'd seen in the airport bookstore. I picked up a copy and read it during my journey home.
Gough Whitlam's government was elected in 1972, the first Labor government in 23 years. One of the first things Whitlam did was to pull Australia out of Vietnam. He also demanded more information about secretive US military installations in the outback, including a nuclear facility at a place called Pine Gap. The US grew concerned that Whitlam would close its bases in Australia, and launched what Pilger calls a "coup," that resulted in Whitlam's ouster in 1975.
Pilger does a meticulous job of documenting the details of the CIA's campaign against Whitlam. It's a chilling story involving letter bombs, ginned-up scandals, bought-off union leaders, opposition campaign slush funds and plenty of help from Rupert Murdoch's newspapers. You can also read a shorter version of the story in William Blum's "Killing Hope."
In a March 2007 article in the New Statesman titled, "Australia: the 51st State," John Pilger describes Murdoch's continuing influence, especially his support for the conservative John Howard and for Australia's involvement in the US war in Iraq.
But now we hear that Murdoch has gone green. Last week, Rupert Murdoch announced that all of his operations would slash their energy consumption and, with the help of purchased carbon offsets, become carbon neutral. In addition, his media companies will start promoting awareness about climate change.
If indeed governments have no more power than what corporations like Murdoch's allot to them, then I suppose we should celebrate Murdoch's initiative. But on the other hand, when you look closely into the history of how he has operated you learn that after helping to toss out Whitlam, Murdoch didn't back the conservative opposition. Instead, he helped the next Labor government into power: the CIA-friendly government of Bob Hawke. He is a master at subverting social movements to his own purposes.
One view of Rupert Murdoch is that he simply hates to back losers. In that case, it's somewhat comforting to know that he sees global warming as a winning issue. But it's also important to ask how he will skew public awareness toward solutions that bring him and others of his class personal advantage, but aren't necessarily the best for the planet. Our best hope is that people will continue to be way out ahead of both government and News Corporation, and be actively involved in leading the way.
Here in America, we have to wait until 2008 for our referendum on the climate and war policies of the Bush administration. Many Australians I met seemed to feel that the land down under is perpetually behind the rest of the world. But this year Oz has a chance to take the lead and be the first to turn the losers out.
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I'm sorry if people think i'm depressing, but for christ sake i hope someone out there is depressed about what is happening!
Friday night here, and the flowering server won't even let me onto the forum - it's a sign as far as i'm concerned, of what i'm feeling - where we are headed?
where do i start?
iran and the sunnis!!! iran and al-Qaida!!!!! that's the end of it in the middle east. and sweet old usa who we love to snigger at, lost up their own arses when the world is in the most serious political melt-down since ww2.
oh! if george could be impeached and someone of intelligence could save the situation - i'll pray, that's all i can do. really it is now up to usa to save the world - god did i say that?
russia's cyber warfare against estonia - Juhani! what the f is going on over there?
putin is soon to go i hear, i bet he doesn't. russia's on the move, china's on the move, the idiot muslim states are on the move, get ready for tet offencive iraq style, the collapse of saud and pak, along with all the other string-along arab states who have tied their shoe-strings to the west.
and that doesn't even begin to deal with the global warming and oil crisis.
what about our new ducks? our new rooster? my new drum? the end of living.....
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I'm sorry if people think i'm depressing, but for christ sake i hope someone out there is depressed about what is happening!
You're definitely not alone.
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The feeling against george in the us is getting increasingly negative, even by conservatives --- but consider this. Next year is election-year. Were there to be impeachment-proceedings, it would get red-taped so long that it would be time for elections by then.
Meanwhile --- prayer, indeed.
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that may be to late - even now. a new scientific report is saying we have passed the global warming tipping point
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I'm sorry if people think i'm depressing, but for christ sake i hope someone out there is depressed about what is happening!
Yes, it looks as if the summer will be sort of turning point or something.
iran and the sunnis!!! iran and al-Qaida!!!!! that's the end of it in the middle east. and sweet old usa who we love to snigger at, lost up their own arses when the world is in the most serious political melt-down since ww2.
oh! if george could be impeached and someone of intelligence could save the situation - i'll pray, that's all i can do. really it is now up to usa to save the world - god did i say that? get ready for tet offencive iraq style
Heh, how thoughts echo, I've been thinking along the same lines. Iran supplies Taliban, Iran prepares for activating tens of thousands of trained and disciplined Shia soldiers in Iraq. Tet offensive Iraqi style, indeed.
The US politicians are bickering, but non of them realises they are now in counterinsurgency war. It will take years and years to win in Iraq. Gen Petraeus is perfect for the job (and only US has the resources), but will they let him? Jesus, how that snake is biting its tail!!!
russia's cyber warfare against estonia - Juhani! what the f is going on over there?
Nothing too bad - they only try to overload servers here. Pretty low-level effort. Nothing too sophisticated.
putin is soon to go i hear, i bet he doesn't. russia's on the move, china's on the move, the idiot muslim states are on the move, get ready for tet offencive iraq style, the collapse of saud and pak, along with all the other string-along arab states who have tied their shoe-strings to the west.
Does not look promising at all.
and that doesn't even begin to deal with the global warming and oil crisis.
what about our new ducks? our new rooster? my new drum? the end of living.....
Will manage and pull through. :)
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that may be to late - even now. a new scientific report is saying we have passed the global warming tipping point
The global warming we are experiencing now (because there IS a warming going on) is the effect of the human activity 20 years ago. The effect of what we did in the past decade and what we are doing now is yet to come.
Think about it.
Thoughts from within (http://www.voiceyourself.com/03_thoughtsfromwithin/03_movie.php)
Turn on your speakers.
Am am not worried, though.
-
Good advice...Turn your speakers on...
Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Jai guru deva
Jai guru deva
It's time to move on....
-
Nothing too bad - they only try to overload servers here. Pretty low-level effort. Nothing too sophisticated.
well it was serious enough for the EU summit to give Putin a blast, saying that to attack one member of the EU meant attacking the EU itself. Putin is none to happy.
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The feeling against george in the us is getting increasingly negative, even by conservatives --- but consider this. Next year is election-year. Were there to be impeachment-proceedings, it would get red-taped so long that it would be time for elections by then.
Meanwhile --- prayer, indeed.
I've said it before.. even here... We lack a "no confidence" vote here in our system. Something should happen when approval ratings hit a low. (his is all time from what i understand) Call a vote right now, here and today and see if he is still elected...... They say this country is for the people, by the people.... That is a bunch of horse shit.. If it was then there wouldn't be an electorate that can be manipulated by party controled houses in the states. In other words, if the republicans are in control of a house senate, they can maipulate the electoral into their own favor. And it happens.
It is why when Gore had the majority vote back in 2000, Bush still won the electoral.
It is very concerning.
Don't get me started on this. I could be up in arms with this provided the proper revolutionary curcimstances that I believe this country really needs.
-
You need to have your ass shot at
before you start criticizing
something
much larger and greater
than some world conflict
or leader.
Have you had to lay
your balls
on the line before?
People die all day, every day
for a right to.
OM
-
You need to have your ass shot at
before you start criticizing
something
much larger and greater
than some world conflict
or leader.
Have you had to lay
your balls
on the line before?
People die all day, every day
for a right to.
OM
I'm glad that I have not had to kill another man. I have fought a different kind of war and done a bit different kind of things to other people (in line of duty). I don't think it is a prerequisite to expressing one's deep unhappiness with the state of things around.
As far as I see, prerequisites are the ability to feel that something is badly wrong and the courage to live according to one's feelings and submit not to domestication that tries to persuade you that 'things are being taken care of'. They are not, and we know it so very painfully sharply.
-
Stuff yourselves on this. Perform this one task and you will fullfill yourselves and many many people around you. This is what i have been doing all night for Sunday's Memorial get together with my family (the second since my brother has been killed in Iraq). Baking cookies. Not just any cookies. Cookies that have power, influence. Make a batch of these and give them away. After you do this. You will know what I mean. They are special cookies. Read carefully the recipe and follow to the "t"
Do this. You can know what I mean if you do so.
1 Cup of butter
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups flour
1 cups light brown sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cups sugar
9 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the
butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with
flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips,
Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart
on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 40 - 50
-
Yum!!!
-
the second since my brother has been killed in Iraq
sorry to hear that elliot. this madness affects everyone in one way or another, and many are dying or maimed. it is not just iraq, it is everywhere. we live in a world of violence as well as beauty.
i have longed for a humanity that didn't think its normal to kill. i can't see any way out, we are where we are. there are those who want by any means, and those who'se job it is to man the front lines to try to hold insanity at bay.
the lines unfortunately are not so easily drawn - the madness festers in all countries and governments, in all communities and in ourselves.
some of us have to fight back with guns, some with cookies, and some with the ultimate weapon - inner freedom. and sometimes with all of those.
-
so your serious. you gotta be shot at to have an opinion. wow... i say up in arm. I mean it. been shot at?? sure. got knicked in the chin. been stabbed in the arm .... shrapnel in the ankle. common mutter floweras! put me to sleep!!.... If my path of heart sees injustice... My brothers dead from Iraq. Best friend won't walk again, ever.
(this is not the time or place)
Hang on!
-
CO2 'rising three times faster than expected'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/04/neco04.xml
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 8:33am BST 04/06/2007
Global emissions of carbon dioxide are increasing three times faster than scientists previously thought, with the bulk of the rise coming from developing countries, an authoritative study has found.
The increase in emissions of the gases responsible for global warming suggests that the effects of climate change to come in this century could be even worse than United Nations scientists have predicted.
The report, by leading universities and institutes on both sides of the Atlantic, will create renewed pressure on G8 leaders who are meeting this week in Heiligendamm, on Germany's Baltic coast.
Top of the agenda are proposals by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, to halve global emissions by 2050.
There were violent clashes at the weekend in the nearby city of Rostock between police and protesters during a march by tens of thousands demonstrating about the summit.
The latest study was written by scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States, the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, as well as institutes in France and Australia.
It shows that carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing by three per cent a year this decade, compared to a 1.1 per cent a year rise in the 1990s. Three quarters of this rise came from developing countries, with a particularly rapid increase in China.
The rise is much faster than even the most fossil-fuel intensive scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) during the 1990s.
It suggests that IPCC reports this year predicting reduced harvests, dwindling water supplies, melting glaciers and the loss of species may actually be understated.
It also comes after the International Energy Agency warned recently that China was likely to overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases by 2010, rather than a decade later as previously assumed.
Both China and India are resisting any move that could curb their growth.
Meanwhile, President George W Bush indicated last week that he did not favour the European Union's proposed approach of trying to limit the temperature rise to below two degrees centigrade.
He still opposes the use of "cap and trade" financial mechanisms, which Europeans believe are the only way of transferring clean technologies to the developing world.
However, he has indicated a willingness to "lead" talks to devise a post-Kyoto treaty that would include the world's top 15 polluters by the time he leaves office in early 2009.
A report by leading aid charities, including Oxfam and Christian Aid, will say today that between one billion and four billion people are likely to suffer from drought and 250 million run short of food if average temperatures rise by more than two degrees.
Antonio Hill, of Oxfam, said: "G8 counties face two obligations in this year's summit - to keep global warming below two degrees and to start helping poor countries to cope with harm already caused."
-
DISEASE OF THE HEART
Europeans were stupefied,
left in awe of the beauty
and horrified
when they encountered
what looked to them
like heaven and hell
in the totally different world
of our many civilizations
Our civilizations that were
in most ways vastly superior
to the European homelands
Europeans broke into our
Anahuac world: as thieves
swords drawn, greed in their eyes
carrying in their souls
poorly disguised barbarisms,
conveniently hidden perversions,
theological aberrations,
and as they said, explained to us,
"we have a disease of the heart
that can only be cured by gold"
Europeans had the advantage of
horse, canon, armor, sword
and the mastery of lies
and the secret weapon of the smallpox
weapon of mass destruction
which would eventually kill 95% of our population,
23 million would be killed by Europeans
in Mexico and "Central America",
and then another 10 million would be killed
in what is now called Canada and the United States of America.
We had the disadvantage of
civilized expectations our of these Europeans.
They saw opportunity for exploitation
slaves, wealth
and glories beyond imagination.
They only need to kill and enslave the legitimate
owners of this continent.
We had no idea
of the size of the genocide,
cultural castration and
the theft
that we were about to encounter
They justified their crimes
by bogusly claiming that Christ
and civilization were on their side
They pointed to and exaggerated human sacrifices
and our Anahuac Creator and claimed
that our Anahuac Creator was the devil,
the devil in the multiple disguises
that we adored as Our Creator
They claimed our visions of the Creator were
abominations that their God
Jesus and Mary
could not endure
and as the reason for
the European's guilt-free genocide
and theft soon began
They said that domination under a European master
would bring the semblance
of the man-god, Christ, into our lives
It brought unlimited wealth
into their European lives
an exchange sanctioned
by their heaven and
their blood-lusting Christ
They did not understand the world
that they had entered,
entered as murdering trespassers
and thieves, obsessed
with gold and wealth
Before they came,
Ometeotl, Our Creator, was our obsession
Every breath and our total existence
was dedicated to honoring,
understanding, and repaying Ometeotl
for having given life to us
We had no concept of wealth
or private ownership
or any understanding that land
could be owned by individuals
We had our cities of ten, fifty and
350 thousand people
in the high plateaus
and the low jungles
Cities with paved streets,
night lighting, street maintenance
the world's first
universal mandatory education,
universities, libraries, and
all were matching
or surpassing
the best of European civilization
We bathed daily. Europeans never
bathed in all their lives
in those days.
We honored Ometeotl.
They honored themselves,
while pretending to honor their man-God.
We found obsessive
devotion to beauty
in flowers,
birds,
song and poetry
They were obsessed with wealth
To us, Ometeotl was all
Wealth was to be given away
There was no devil,
no evil in nature,
only in man
We sacrificed our lives
for the love of Ometeotl and our people
We learned from Europeans
the monstrous possibilities
that the evil of man was capable of
We learned it all too well, too late
We live it all too well, today
Olin Tezcatlipoca
Poems for Education and Liberation (http://www.mexica-movement.org/timexihcah/poem.htm)
Though I fear it may be too late....
-
Impressive writing!
Though, what I do not like is its focus on blaming Europeans.
They were barbarians, but not much worse than any other human being.
-
Impressive writing!
Though, what I do not like is its focus on blaming Europeans.
They were barbarians, but not much worse than any other human being.
I know what you mean. It could certainly be a valid antipathy for this poet's people, but it is probably a mistake to be so narrow in scoping out a particular group in all of history.
"Greed" knows no color or group, really, eh? It's an equal opportunity blight!
-
I know what you mean. It could certainly be a valid antipathy for this poet's people, but it is probably a mistake to be so narrow in scoping out a particular group in all of history.
"Greed" knows no color or group, really, eh? It's an equal opportunity blight!
Paulo Coelho has said that our hand is a hand of a devil and a hand of an angel.
The destructive seed is in every human being as is the Buddha seed.
I guess that poet's people had some 'old seers' among them, did some human sacrifice and might have played a game with human heads.
-
I read the whole thing.. more separatism.. sigh - its rather sad.. exchanging one form of control for another..
About the education and liberation, yes. There are many places in the world that could do with a bit of education and liberation, not confined to the Americas. However.. as long as some form of "nationalism" is the goal.. history will repeat itself.. that is, assuming we will have the time to have history..
KNOWLEDGELIBERATION (http://www.mexica-movement.org/timexihcah/KNOWLEDGELIBERATION.htm)
-
Rare Cyclone Batters Middle East
June 6, 2007—There's a storm raging in the Middle East—and this one has nothing to do with religion or politics.
A NASA satellite image shows Cyclone Gonu bearing down on the Gulf of Oman on June 5, 2007. At the time, the tropical storm had reached Category 4 status, with sustained winds of 155 miles (250 kilometers) an hour.
The storm weakened as it neared Oman on Wednesday morning but still battered the normally quiet seaside capital of Masqat (Muscat) with torrential rains and howling gusts reaching 62 miles (100 kilometers) an hour (map of Oman). Thousands were forced to evacuate, and many of the region's oil installations had to be shut down.
Gonu—which means "bag made of palm leaves" in the langauge of the Maldives—is the strongest storm to threaten the Arabian Peninsula since record-keeping started in 1945, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
"Historical record in that part of the world doesn't go back that far, because these types of storms are very, very unusual for this part of the world," Julian Heming, a meteorologist at the British Ministry of Defense's weather-tracking agency, told AP.
"It's likely that parts of Oman have never experienced storms like this." According to NASA, the last storm of this size to form over the Arabian Sea was a cyclone that moved along the coast of India between May 21 and May 28, 2001.
Forecasters say Iran will be the next country in Gonu's path, and hundreds of people are already being evacuated from coastal areas. Meanwhile, Iranian officials say the storm will not stop oil operations in the Persian Gulf.
—Victoria Jaggard
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/images/070606-cyclone-gonu_big.jpg)
-
MI6 probes UK link to nuclear trade with Iran
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2099634,00.html
Mark Townsend, crime correspondent
Sunday June 10, 2007
The Observer
A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan, The Observer can reveal.
Anti-terrorist officers and MI6 are now investigating a wider British-based plot allegedly to supply Iran with material for use in a nuclear weapons programme. One person has already been charged with attempting to proliferate 'weapons of mass destruction'.
During the 20-month investigation, which also involved MI5 and Customs and Excise, a group of Britons was tracked as they obtained weapons-grade uranium from the black market in Russia. Investigators believe it was intended for export to Sudan and on to Iran.
A number of Britons, who are understood to have links with Islamic terrorists abroad, remain under surveillance. Investigators believe they have uncovered the first proof that al-Qaeda supporters have been actively engaged in developing an atomic capability. The British company, whose identity is known to The Observer but cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, has been wound up.
A Customs and Excise spokesman said: 'We continue to investigate allegations related to the supply of components for nuclear programmes including related activities of British nationals.'
It is not clear whether all of those involved in the alleged nuclear conspiracy were aware of the uranium's ultimate destination or of any intended use.
British agents believe Russian black-market uranium was destined for Sudan, described as a 'trans-shipment' point. The alleged plot, however, was disrupted in early 2006, before the nuclear material reached its final destination.
Roger Berry, chairman of Parliament's Quadripartite Committee, which monitors arms exports, said: 'With the collapse of the Soviet Union there was always the question over not just uranium but where other WMD components were going and how this could be controlled. Real credit must go to the enforcement authorities that they have disrupted this. The really worrying aspect is that if one company is involved, are there others out there?'
Politically, the allegations hold potentially huge ramifications for diplomatic relations between the West and Tehran. Already, tensions are running high between Iran, the US and the European Union over the true extent of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran refuses to suspend its nuclear programme in the face of mounting pressure, arguing its intent is entirely peaceful and solely aimed at producing power for civilian use.
Investigators are understood to have evidence that Iran was to receive the uranium to help develop a nuclear weapons capability. 'They may argue that the material is for civilian use but it does seem an extremely odd way to procure uranium,' said Berry.
Alleged evidence of Sudan's role will concern British security services. The East African state has long been suspected of offering a haven for Islamist terrorists and has been accused of harbouring figures including Osama bin Laden who, during the mid-Nineties, set up a number of al-Qaeda training camps in the country.
Details of the plot arrive against a backdrop of increasing co-operation between Sudan and Iran on defence issues, although the level of involvement, if any, of the governments in Khartoum and Tehran in the alleged nuclear plot is unclear.
However, circumstantial evidence suggesting that elements within both countries might be colluding on military matters has been mounting in recent months. A Sudanese delegation visited Iran's uranium conversion facility in February, while the East African country reportedly recently signed a mutual defence co-operation pact with Iran, allowing Tehran to deploy ballistic missiles in Sudan.
-
Deadly storms hit Australian city 'like a quake'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070610/wl_afp/australiaweather;_ylt=As.qrOK_B608huQZE9S6rGwfYhAF
Sun Jun 10, 9:45 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Rescue workers are urging thousands of people to evacuate their homes after deadly storms lashed Australia's east coast, leaving parts of one city looking like an earthquake had struck, officials said Sunday.
After days of torrential rains, flood waters surged into areas north of Sydney, isolating towns, swamping farms, homes and businesses and causing millions of dollars in damage.
The death toll rose to nine when police found the body of a man who died after he was swept into a storm water drain on a flooded road.
Authorities earlier found the body of a man who died when his car was swept off a highway into a swollen creek.
His wife and three young children, aged two, three and nine, who were travelling with him, also died when the road collapsed underneath them, but their bodies had been found earlier.
Although bringing much-needed rain to Sydney and towns to its north, the storms have wreaked havoc since slamming into the city and the Central Coast and Newcastle to the north on Friday.
Among the dead are a 29-year-old man crushed when a tree fell on his car near Newcastle and a couple who perished when their vehicle was swept off a bridge while crossing a flooded river in the Hunter Valley.
Officials said Newcastle looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake.
"What I saw were parts of Newcastle that resembled the kind of damage that followed the (1989) earthquake," New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said after visiting the city.
"Construction sites and scaffolding, debris on roads, abandoned cars, homes that were damaged, trees having fallen on homes, extensive damage. It was quite disbelieving," he added.
The 1989 earthquake packed a magnitude of 5.6 and killed 13 people.
Newcastle resident Harry Gregory told The Sunday Telegraph he fled his home after his bed and fridge started to float in the flood waters.
"Everything's ruined," he said. "I have a lounge (sofa) stuck in my front fence and I have got no idea who it belongs to."
Emergency workers evacuated 400 people from their homes along the Central Coast overnight, including by boat and helicopter, and were Sunday urging some 5,000 residents in Maitland, to the north, to seek shelter away from rising flood waters.
State Emergency Services spokesman Steve Delaney said the Hunter River could peak at 11 metres (36 feet) higher than normal later in the day.
"This will meet their predictions. It won't go below. It will meet their predictions by midnight tonight," he told ABC radio.
"So there is a real, clear possibility that the levy might overtop this evening."
Meanwhile, the clean-up began in Newcastle and flood waters were receding in Singleton.
Accompanied by gale force winds, the storms have driven a massive freighter aground in Newcastle, forced the suspension of ferry services in Sydney Harbour and blacked out tens of thousands of homes.
Prime Minister John Howard said those affected by storms and flooding would be entitled to cash payments in addition to natural disaster funding offered by the state government.
"I know I speak for every Australian in saying that the country is thinking of you and we're heartbroken by the loss of lives and the tragic circumstances in which a number of people have lost their lives," he said.
"It is an immense disaster."
Maritime officials said salvage crews were hopeful that the 30,000-tonne vessel Pasha Bulker, still stranded on a Newcastle beach after running aground amid huge seas on Friday, could be refloated as violent conditions eased.
"There's every hope that a plan to safely remove the ship from the beach will be progressed pretty quickly," spokesman Neil Patchett said.
Are you OK, antipodes? :)
They write here that a new storm is coming and around 1,000 people are being evacuated. Is it so?
-
The wrath of 2007: America's great drought
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2643033.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 11 June 2007
America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still.
From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water.
In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter, with immediate knock-on effects on water supplies for the populations of Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The human impact, for the moment, has been limited, certainly nothing compared to the great westward migration of Okies in the 1930 - the desperate march described by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath.
Big farmers are now well protected by government subsidies and emergency funds, and small farmers, some of whom are indeed struggling, have been slowly moving off the land for decades anyway. The most common inconvenience, for the moment, are restrictions on hosepipes and garden sprinklers in eastern cities.
But the long-term implications are escaping nobody. Climatologists see a growing volatility in the south-east's weather - today's drought coming close on the heels of devastating hurricanes two to three years ago. In the West, meanwhile, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests a movement towards a state of perpetual drought by the middle of this century. "The 1930s drought lasted less than a decade. This is something that could remain for 100 years," said Richard Seager a climatologist at Columbia University and lead researcher of a report published recently by the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While some of this year's dry weather is cyclical - California actually had an unusually wet year last year, so many of the state's farmers still have plenty of water for their crops - some of it portends more permanent changes. In Arizona, the tall mountains in the southern Sonoran desert known as "sky islands" because they have been welcome refuges from the desert heat for millennia, have already shown unmistakable signs of change.
Predatory insects have started ravaging trees already weakened by record temperatures and fires over the past few years. Animal species such as frogs and red squirrels have been forced to move ever higher up the mountains in search of cooler temperatures, and are in danger of dying out altogether. Mount Lemmon, which rises above the city of Tucson, boasts the southernmost ski resort in the US, but has barely attracted any snow these past few years.
"A lot of people think climate change and the ecological repercussions are 50 years away," Thomas Swetnam, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, told The New York Times a few months ago. "But it's happening now in the West. The data is telling us that we are in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States." Across the West, farmers and city water consumers are locked in a perennial battle over water rights - one that the cities are slowly winning. Down the line, though, there are serious questions about how to keep showers and lawn sprinklers going in the retirement communities of Nevada and Arizona. Lake Powell, the reservoir on the upper Colorado River that helps provide water across a vast expanse of the West, has been less than half full for years, with little prospect of filling up in the foreseeable future.
According to the NOAA's recent report, the West can expect 10-20 per cent less rainfall by mid-century, which will increase air pollution in the cities, kill off trees and water-retaining giant cactus plants and shrink the available water supply by as much as 25 per cent.
In the south-east, the crisis is immediate - and may be alleviated at any moment by the arrival of the tropical storm season. In Georgia, where the driest spring on record followed closely on the heels of a devastating frost, farmers are afraid they might lose anywhere from half to two-thirds of crops such as melons and the state's celebrated peaches. Many cities are restricting lawn sprinklers to one hour per day - and some places one hour only every other day.
The most striking effect of the dry weather has been to expose large parts of the bed of Lake Okeechobee, the vast circular expanse of water east of Palm Beach, Florida, which acts as a back-up water supply for five million Floridians. Archaeologists have had a field day - dredging the soil for human bone fragments, tools, bits of pottery and ceremonial jewellery thought to have belonged to the natives who lived near the lake before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century.
Environmentalists are not entirely upset, because the lake is notoriously polluted with pesticides and other farm products that then poison nearby rivers. River fish stocks in the area are now booming.
Nothing, though, was so strange as the fires that broke out over about 12,000 acres on the northern edge of the lake at the end of May. They were eventually doused by Tropical Storm Barry last weekend. State water managers, however, say it will may take a whole summer of rainstorms, or longer, to restore the lake.
The great Dust Bowl disaster
The Dust Bowl was the result of catastrophic dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American prairies in the 1930s. The fertile soil of the Great Plains had been exposed by removal of grass during ploughing over decades of ill-conceived farming techniques. The First World War and immense profits had driven farmers to push the land well beyond its natural limits.
When drought hit, the soil dried, became dust, and blew eastwards, mostly in large black clouds. This caused an exodus from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains, with more than half a million Americans left homeless in the Great Depression.
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Are you OK, antipodes? :)
They write here that a new storm is coming and around 1,000 people are being evacuated. Is it so?
I'm OK here, its down south and on the coast they are getting it. Newcastle and Maitland, and Sydney too I suppose. I will say though it was a weather pattern that I have not seen before, not that I'm an expert, but I know enough to know it is not common - a great swirl of weather off the east coast out from Sydney. Still I haven't seen much made of that yet.
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Military plan against Iran is ready'
By YAAKOV KATZ
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181228588702&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power.
Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to "go nuclear."
# Israel successfully launches Ofek 7 spy satellite
# JPost special: US candidates talk tough on Iran
A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.
Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities.
On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its support of Iraqi insurgents.
"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."
According to a high-ranking American military officer, the US Navy and Air Force would play the primary roles in any military action taken against Iran. One idea under consideration is a naval blockade designed to cut off Iran's oil exports.
The officer said that if the US government or the UN Security Council decided on this course of action, the US Navy would most probably not block the Strait of Hormuz - a step that would definitely draw an Iranian military response - but would patrol farther out and turn away tankers on their way to load oil.
On Sunday, the Israel Air Force held joint exercises with visiting US pilots, but IDF sources dismissed speculation that the drills were connected to an attack on Iran.
The US officer said that perhaps even more dangerous to Israel and the Western world than Iranian nukes was the possibility that a terrorists cell associated with al-Qaida or global jihad would acquire a highly radioactive "dirty bomb" or a vial of deadly chemical or biological agents. The officer said al-Qaida was gaining a strong foothold in the Middle East and that Israel was being surrounded by global jihad elements in Lebanon, Jordan and Sinai.
"Iran is a state-sponsored type of terrorism that can be dealt with," he said, adding that it was far more difficult to strike at the source of an isolated terrorist cell.
To combat this threat, the US Navy has come up with a plan for a "1,000-ship navy" - a transnational network composed of navies from around the world that would raise awareness of maritime threats and more effectively thwart sea-based terrorism and the illicit transfer of arms by sea.
"The idea is to allow free trade and to prevent criminal and terror activity at sea," the officer said.
A smaller-scale example of the US Navy's vision is NATO's Active Endeavor antiterrorism operation based in Naples. Israel plans to send an officer to be stationed there in the coming months. NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of Mediterranean countries to work together in Naples to share information on naval terrorism and suspicious vessels in the region.
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it was a weather pattern that I have not seen before, not that I'm an expert, but I know enough to know it is not common
There will be more of this.
Right now, it's absolutely strange here.
Whereas our humidity usually runs 85-95%, it is currently at 52%. The temperature for the past 2 days has been running at an average 20 degreesF lower than it was and usually does. The sky is overcast, and the leaves have a drooping, bluish tint. It could be worse, but these things are the fisherman's cues that something is coming. Wish I had a barometric pressure guage.
Yesterday, I read that there were 4 different tropical cyclones forming in the Atlantic: today, all the info on that has disappeared. Is it a function of the new NWS policy to withhold info, or did all those troughs/ridges dissipate? The maps look pretty good. But something is afoot.
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What were the signs of approaching Apocalypse described in Bible?
I remember one of them was water turning into blood (red) in rivers and seas.
Here you are: South-East China
(http://image.newsru.com/pict/id/large/965560_20070614165532.gif)
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You mean, South-east China will be apocalypsed?
wow
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You mean, South-east China will be apocalypsed?
wow
Nah, we all will be!
But from China it will come... :)
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China passes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,2107001,00.html
John Vidal and David Adam
Wednesday June 20, 2007
The Guardian
(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/06/19/China372x192.jpg)
China has overtaken the US as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world's politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.
China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen next year.
But according to figures released yesterday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which advises the Dutch government, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China's recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those of the US.
The agency said China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes. But per head of population, China's pollution remains relatively low, about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.
China's surge to 8% more than the US was helped by a 1.4% fall in the latter's CO2 emissions during 2006, which, analysts say, is down to a slowing US economy.
Jos Olivier, a senior scientist at the agency who compiled the figures, said: "There will still be some uncertainty about the exact numbers, but this is the best and most up to date estimate available. China relies very heavily on coal and all of the recent trends show their emissions going up very quickly."
China's emissions were 2% below those of the US in 2005.
The new figures include only CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production. They do not include sources of other greenhouse gases such as methane from agriculture and nitrous oxide from industrial processes.
They exclude other sources of CO2 such as aviation and shipping as well as deforestation, gas flaring and underground coal fires.
Dr Olivier said it was difficult to find reliable estimates for such emissions, particularly from developing countries. But he said including them would be unlikely to topple China from the top spot. "Since China passed the US by 8% [last year] it will be pretty hard to compensate for that with other sources of emissions," he said.
To work out the emissions figures, he used data issued by the oil company BP earlier this month on the consumption of oil, gas and coal across the world during 2006, as well as information on cement production published by the US Geological Survey.
Cement production, which requires huge amounts of energy, accounts for about 4% of global CO2 production from fuel use. China's cement industry, which produces about 44% of world supply, contributes almost 9% of Chinese CO2 emissions.
The announcement came as negotiations to produce a climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto protocol when it expires in 2012 are delicately poised. The US refused to ratify Kyoto partly because it made no demands on China, and a major sticking point of the new negotiations has been finding a way to include both countries, as well as other rapidly developing economies such as India and Brazil. Tony Blair believes the best approach is to develop national markets to cap and trade carbon, which could then be linked.
Earlier this month, China unveiled its first national plan on climate change after two years of preparation by 17 government ministries.
Rather than setting a direct target for the reduction or avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions, it aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20% by 2010 and to increase the share of renewable energy to some 10% as well as to cover roughly 20% of the country's land with forest.
But it stressed that technology and costs are big barriers to achieving energy efficiency. What China needs, said a government spokesman, is international cooperation in helping it move toward a low-carbon economy.
Chinese industries have been hesitant to embrace unproven clean coal technologies which are still in their infancy in developed countries.
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Slovak Republic 40,1 C in shadow
Czech Republic 36 C (and for the first time in history there were tornadoes there)
Romania 40-45 C
Moldova 40 C
Ukraine 40 C
Computers stop, people die, roads melt, hospitals are over loaded, cars simply break down.
No changes expected for next 10 days.
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Strongest rains in century
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44010000/jpg/_44010913_peter_stewart3.jpg)
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44010000/jpg/_44010915_sara_hitchcock2.jpg)
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44010000/jpg/_44010451_richard_evans3.jpg)
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44011000/jpg/_44011633_dom_stringer.jpg)
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One must stay discreet here, but today, the elected leader of the u s a, who is out of office in the end of 2008, signed an executive order making it possible for the gov't to seize the property and bank accounts of individuals, should those individuals render 'too much protest' about that conflagration over in the land which is the opposite of the middle-west.
Very scary stuff.
Enough said.
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One must stay discreet here, but today, the elected leader of the u s a, who is out of office in the end of 2008, signed an executive order making it possible for the gov't to seize the property and bank accounts of individuals, should those individuals render 'too much protest' about that conflagration over in the land which is the opposite of the middle-west.
Very scary stuff.
Enough said.
Welcome to the Soviet Union!
How difficult it is for a USAtian to move to Canada?
Get the hell out of there!
That's a clear sign to start moving.
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A 21st century catastrophe
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 24 July 2007
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2795635.ece
Flood-ravaged Britain is suffering from a wholly new type of civil emergency, it is clear today: a disaster caused by 21st-century weather.
This weather is different from anything that has gone before. The floods it has caused, which have left more than a third of a million people without drinking water, nearly 50,000 people without power, thousands more people homeless and caused more than £2bn worth of damage - and are still not over - have no precedent in modern British history.
Nothing in the past hundred years, in terms of flooding caused by rainfall, has been as bad. According to the Environment Agency, even the previous worst case, the extensive floods of spring 1947, which were aggravated by the vast snow melt that followed an exceptionally hard winter, has been surpassed.
"We have not seen flooding of this magnitude before," said the agency yesterday. "The benchmark was 1947, and this has already exceeded it." And the 1947 floods were said to have been the worst for 200 years.
Most remarkable of all is the fact that the astonishing picture the nation is now witnessing - whole towns cut off, gigantic areas underwater, mass evacuations, infrastructure paralysed and grotesquely swollen rivers, from the Severn and the Thames downwards not even at their peaks yet - has all been caused by a single day's rainfall. A month's worth and more in an hour. It is obvious that the Government and the civil powers, from Gordon Brown down to the emergency services, are struggling to cope, not only with the sheer physical scale of the disaster itself, but with the very concept of it. It is entirely unfamiliar. It is new. Yet it is exactly what has been forecast for the past decade and more.
No one can yet attribute the flood events of the past week, or indeed, those of June, when Yorkshire suffered what Gloucestershire and Worcestershire are suffering now - again from one single day's rainfall - directly to global warming. All climates have a natural variability which includes exceptional occurrences.
But the catastrophic "extreme rainfall events" of the summer of 2007, on 24 June and 20 July, are entirely consistent with repeated predictions of what climate change will bring.
It is nearly 10 years since the scientists of the UK Climate Impacts Programme first gave their detailed forecast of what global warming had in store for Britain in the 21st century - and high up on the list was rainfall, increasing both in frequency and intensity.
This was thought most likely to happen in winter, with summers predicted to be hotter and dryer. But yesterday Peter Stott of the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, an author of a new scientific paper linking increases in rainfall to climate change, commented: "It is possible under climate change that there could be an increase of extreme rainfall even under general drying."
The paper by Dr Stott and other authors, reported in The Independent yesterday, detects for the first time a "human fingerprint" in rainfall increases in recent decades in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere - that is, it finds they were partly caused by global warming, itself caused by emissions of greenhouse gases.
The public as a whole appears not to have taken the extreme rainfall predictions on board, thinking of climate change in terms of hotter weather. But the science community has been fully aware of it, and has steadily reinforced the warnings.
One of the most important came from a group of experts commissioned to look at the risks by the Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David King, under the Government's Foresight Programme, in 2004. Their report, Future Flooding, said that unless precautions were taken, more severe floods brought about by climate change could massively increase the number of people and the amount of property at risk. Yet once again, this hardly penetrated the public consciousness.
Amidst all the news of communities being overwhelmed by water yesterday, one very significant announcement, from Gordon Brown and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, was that the Government is setting up an independent inquiry to look at the flood events of June and July.
Its report will be immensely important and may prove a milestone in terms of the British public's appreciation of the reality of climate change. It will doubtless focus on the key problem in terms of flood response - there is no one minister, or other person, in overall charge - but it may also take a view of the disaster in terms of global warming, and may well come to the conclusion that we are already witnessing the future. The floods of 2007 may eventually be regarded as a wake-up call to the warming climate's rapidly approaching effects.
Nobody saw them coming. But that appears to be the way of a changing climate. In April 1989 Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, gave her Cabinet a seminar on global warming at No 10 and one of the speakers was the scientist and green guru James Lovelock. A reporter asked him afterwards what would be the first signs of global warming. He replied: "Surprises." Asked to explain, he said: "The hurricane of October 1987 was a surprise, wasn't it? There'll be more."
The floods of 2007 were a surprise as well, and if Dr Lovelock is right, there'll be more of them too. Welcome to the weather of the 21st century.
The flood of 1947
The Great Flood of 1947, the previous worst inundation caused by rainfall in Britain, swamped almost all of the rivers in the South, Midlands and the North-east, submerged 700,000 acres of land and caused an estimated £4bn worth of damage (in today's money).
The deluge was predominantly caused by the rapid thaw of snow and ice that had covered much of England after a particularly long and cold winter. The weather patterns that caused the thaw also caused a number of torrential downpours, exacerbating the flooding.
The timing could not have been worse; Britain was still recovering from the war. Rationing was harsh, deprivation widespread and the economy was teetering. What made the catastrophe even more unfortunate was that it occurred before the era of flood insurance.
The flooding started across the South, from Somerset to Kent, as many rivers broke their banks. By 14 March, parts of west and north-east London had been submerged. The next day, the river Thames overflowed its banks at Caversham, near Reading, and around the Lea Valley to the east of London.
By the end of the month, an estimated 100 000 homes had been flooded, hundreds of thousands of people displaced and the year's crops largely wiped out.
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A new law has been passed in the US wherein the gov't can now wiretap and read the emails of "ordinary citizens" who have communication internationally -- without a warrant.
I have nothing to hide, and I pity whoever might be reading mine ... boring stuff! Is a way around that through these forums? (Though I suppose installing one of those keystroke-hack-measuring-thingies is always a possibility for them.)
At any rate, now is not the time for political jokes, t'would seem.
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At any rate, now is not the time for political jokes, t'would seem.
...or you should emigrate to stay sane. ;)
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...or you should emigrate to stay sane. ;)
...but, where to go?
Seems a good deal of 'opportunities' of other countries out there, but many have their own 'issues' as well....seems just trading one program for another.
That being said, responsibilities keep me where I'm at ;)
z
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Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Ireland ... those come to mind for me, not that such a move would be easy or even possible at the moment.
Could always work on it, though...
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...but, where to go?
You'll realise the difference between the US and the rest of the world only when you see the US from outside.
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don't count on Australia just yet - wait till after the next election.
Julie and I want to move to India.
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Now that's interesting...
China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:48am BST 08/08/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.
"Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order," he added.
He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.
"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.
The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".
She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.
Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.
"The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles," he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.
The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.
Henry Paulson, the US Tresury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and "could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation".
Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.
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Travellers from US face EU crackdown
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f490402c-4518-11dc-82f5-0000779fd2ac.html
By Tobias Buck in Brussels and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: August 7 2007 22:56 | Last updated: August 7 2007 22:56
US business travellers and tourists flying to the European Union are facing the threat of the same laborious registration requirements that Washington has demanded of Europeans in the latest US security crackdown.
In its first reaction to the new US visa law, the European Commission said it was “considering” a so-called electronic traveller authorisation scheme – similar to the American plan – that would require foreigners heading to the EU to give notice of their travel plans before departure.
The threat has been conveyed to senior US officials and lawmakers, with one letter sent last month stressing that a European system would “of course operate on a reciprocal basis”.
A spokesman for the EU executive said no final decision had been taken, but the idea had received “new impetus” by the adoption of a US counter-terrorism bill last week that requires travellers to give US authorities at least 48 hours’ notice of their plans to visit the country.
George W. Bush, US president, signed the law last Friday in spite of repeated appeals by the Commission and European business groups to reconsider the measures. The law will tighten scrutiny of travellers from the 26 developed countries whose citizens do not at present require visas to enter the US, including Britain, France, German and most other western European countries.
Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the US was “comfortable” with the EU having a reciprocal system. “It would lend itself to increasing baseline security for air travel throughout the west,” he said.
European business groups voiced sharp criticism of the US law. Carlos González, an international relations adviser at Business Europe, a pan-European federation that lobbies on behalf of more than 16m companies, said: “This measure is a setback for business travellers and we are concerned about it. Business travel to the US is a very regular activity.” The law demands the screening of all air and sea freight at foreign ports before being shipped to the US.
The German Industry Federation, BDI, hit out at the screening requirements enshrined in the law. “We are following with concern the tightening of security measures in the US, which impose a burden that is not justified by the benefits,” said the BDI’s Carsten Kreklau.
The federation added that the law “contradicted all existing customs security initiatives, which are based on targeted risk analysis”. According to BDI data, it takes about 10 minutes to scan each container – meaning that the screening of a large cargo ship “could easily result in an additional delay of 1,600 hours [nearly 70 days]”.
The spokesman for Franco Frattini, EU commissioner for justice and home affairs, said Brussels had asked the US for more information about the details of its plans – some of which have been left open in the legislation.
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I wonder about all this. Has the U.S. started a cause for more fear of the bad guys in the world or just raised awareness levels of the potential threats? Is keeping our guard up worth any price or has the U.S. just imagined it all, as a lot of the media posed, so that U.S. control in the world can be enhanced? Or am I just misunderstanding the whole lot? i.e., has the U.S. thrown petrol on the once-small fire of the bad guys?
Then I laugh here and wonder if the "bad guys" is a concept us warmongers, polluters and wasters here in the U.S. just use to cover up our sins of glut and destruction?
I personally feel my country is slowly yet steadily falling from within and a couple generations down the proverbial road are in deep do-do.
:(
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There is a bit of everything, Tom. Exaggerated fear of terrorists exists as do terrorists plotting acts of terror. Yet the basis of the US approach to enhancing its security is: 'Every man for himself!' Some guys in the US government sincerely believe that some strange 'Fortress America' could exist in our interdependent, integrated world. Instead of cooperation with other countries they throw up more distrust, more checks, more spying, more infringements on various rights. They think their fear is external and can be conquered by exterminating its external source.
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Yep, that's what we've grown to know because of the 2 World Wars we placed ourselves in. Our might has been for the good, in the past, at least. The Intent is there but how our gov't is structured, the leaders are elected by popularity and not always by extent of experience. But, as the educated ones here have always said, we may have a messed up gov't but show me one that is better and will still fight even if the consequences are dire. A kinda, damned if you do or damned if you don't secenario, yet I am far, far from being a global expert on anything, man. I just know that the bad guys are out there, alive and well, even if in the extreme minority, and want to do harm for seemingly senseless reasons. Maybe, wayyyyy off into the future, we'll have some kinda Star Trek thing, a world council with sensible power, I dunno. It ain't gonna happen anytime soon, though, that's for sure. It's just that I really don't know if there's anyone in our gov't that I can really trust, whatever THAT means. So, I watch my own health, help others when I can and keep my moral and spiritual strengths and sight in line as much as I can. May the Great Spirit help us all somehow maintain our global balance before we poison ourselves to a point of non-reversal. t
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Very true words, Juhani.
I've been fortunate to travel a great deal, and having spent years outside the U.S. in other countries I've seen how other's view the U.S. My view has changed as well....
Thanks again for the reminder!
z
You'll realise the difference between the US and the rest of the world only when you see the US from outside.
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I personally feel my country is slowly yet steadily falling from within and a couple generations down the proverbial road are in deep do-do.
interesting point tom. there is an issue here of, has the US changed in the last 20 years? I certainly feel Australia has changed.
The point is that we grow older somehow believing our country is still the same as what we knew in our formative years. We want to believe that, plus any change happens slowly. We cling to a belief that 'underneath' the spirit of a country is still the same. That is being questioned by observers more qualified than I, certainly to do with the USA.
In Australia, I still look to the gum trees, the natural world, and turn away when I see clear-felled slabs of country. But I am slowly coming around to seeing that Australians are not the people I used to know.
This is hard to qualify, but more and more I feel uncomfortable in my own country. One reason I like India is that they still resist being 'proper'. I see a quality there that I recall from the wider Aust country, if not the city dwellers. An easy going distaste for authority and more than anything, a spontaneous friendliness. However, India is also changing.
I don't buy the argument that I am just an old fogey, who can't change with the times. The times are going downhill, and I am not so stupid to realise the quality of mind in my country is dropping.
I heard the other day, a younger person criticising us who always say this is not how it used to be - she said, its current, it what's happening now - forget the past and live in the now!
Well, it's impoverished. That is obvious to me. All I can do is to keep alive the love of inner wealth and ramshackle beauty, in my own little space. I know I am not alone! There are still many, of all ages, who can tell real wealth from sham facade.
I expect it has always been thus.
from my little ramshackle life...
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I've been in a few nightclubs, and the sentiment is quite familiar.
Is that the future?
Nightclubs are hell. What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2147663,00.html
Charlie Brooker
Monday August 13, 2007
The Guardian
I went to a fashionable London nightclub on Saturday. Not the sort of sentence I get to write very often, because I enjoy nightclubs less than I enjoy eating wool. But a glamorous friend of mine was there to "do a PA", and she'd invited me and some curious friends along because we wanted to see precisely what "doing a PA" consists of. Turns out doing a public appearance largely entails sitting around drinking free champagne and generally just "being there".
Obviously, at 36, I was more than a decade older than almost everyone else, and subsequently may as well have been smeared head to toe with pus. People regarded me with a combination of pity and disgust. To complete the circuit, I spent the night wearing the expression of a man waking up to Christmas in a prison cell.
"I'm too old to enjoy this," I thought. And then remembered I've always felt this way about clubs. And I mean all clubs - from the cheesiest downmarket sickbucket to the coolest cutting-edge hark-at-us poncehole. I hated them when I was 19 and I hate them today. I just don't have to pretend any more.
I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.
Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.
Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.
Drugs render location meaningless. Neck enough ketamine and you could have the best night of your life squatting in a shed rolling corks across the floor. And no one's going to search you on the way in. Why bother with clubs?
"Because you might get a shag," is the usual response. Really? If that's the only way you can find a partner - preening and jigging about like a desperate animal - you shouldn't be attempting to breed in the first place. What's your next trick? Inventing fire? People like you are going to spin civilisation into reverse. You're a moron, and so is that haircut you're trying to impress. Any offspring you eventually blast out should be drowned in a pan before they can do any harm. Or open any more nightclubs.
Even if you somehow avoid reproducing, isn't it a lot of hard work for very little reward? Seven hours hopping about in a hellish, reverberating bunker in exchange for sharing 64 febrile, panting pelvic thrusts with someone who'll snore and dribble into your pillow till 11 o'clock in the morning, before waking up beside you with their hair in a mess, blinking like a dizzy cat and smelling vaguely like a ham baguette? Really, why bother? Why not just stay at home punching yourself in the face? Invite a few friends round and make a night of it. It'll be more fun than a club.
Anyway, back to Saturday night, and apart from the age gap, two other things stuck me. Firstly, everyone had clearly spent far too long perfecting their appearance. I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety. I'd still secretly like to be them, of course, but at least these days I can temporarily erect a veneer of defensive, sneering superiority. I've progressed that far.
The second thing that struck me was frightening. They were all photographing themselves. In fact, that's all they seemed to be doing. Standing around in expensive clothes, snapping away with phones and cameras. One pose after another, as though they needed to prove their own existence, right there, in the moment. Crucially, this seemed to be the reason they were there in the first place. There was very little dancing. Just pouting and flashbulbs.
Surely this is a new development. Clubs have always been vapid and awful and boring and blah - but I can't remember clubbers documenting their every moment before. Not to this demented extent. It's not enough to pretend you're having fun in the club any more - you've got to pretend you're having fun in your Flickr gallery, and your friends' Flickr galleries. An unending exhibition in which a million terrified, try-too-hard imbeciles attempt to out-cool each other.
Mind you, since in about 20 years' time these same people will be standing waist-deep in skeletons, in an arid post-nuclear wasteland, clubbing each other to death in a fight for the last remaining glass of water, perhaps they're wise to enjoy these carefree moments while they last. Even if they're only pretending.
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Dean strengthens to Category 3 Hurricane
Dean strengthens to category 3 'major' hurricane
31 minutes ago
MIAMI (AFP) - Hurricane Dean intensified and developed into a category three hurricane Friday with winds reaching 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center announced.
The massive storm plowed through the eastern Caribbean on a direct course for Jamaica and the tourist-heavy tip of the Yucatan peninsula after battering the Lesser Antilles before dawn Friday with heavy rains and winds gusting over 170 kilometers (105 miles) per hour, according to reports from Martinique.
"Dean strengthens into a major hurricane with 125 mph winds," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in a special bulletin.
At 1745 GMT Dean, the first hurricane of the nearly three-month old Atlantic tropical storm season, was located 280 kilometers (175 miles) west of Martinique and 480 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The storm is moving toward the west at 35 kilometers (22 miles) per hour and is expected to cross Jamaica Sunday.
The prime minister of Jamaica was holding an emergency meeting of the disaster preparedness committee Friday to prepare for the hurricane, which could disrupt general elections scheduled for August 27.
Earlier Friday in numerous parts of Martinique violent winds blew off roofs, smashed windows and tore billboards from their posts, local media reports said.
It dumped rain backed by heavy winds in Antigua at the northern end of the Lesser Antilles.
"Right now it's very windy, but it's okay," Lisa, a decorator, told AFP by telephone.
"People are watching the news and buying supplies, or just waiting in hurricane shelters," she said, declining to give her last name.
"We appreciate this rain," she added. "Because it was very dry and we need water for agriculture and drinking water as well."
Rains reaching 13 centimeters (five inches) were predicted for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and the center warned they could cause dangerous flash floods and mudslides.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070817/ts_alt_afp/usweatherhurricane_10
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Cat 4 I've now read.
this one looks unusual. like a galaxy I've seen
(http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/16/images/tb_dean_300.jpg)
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well it was serious enough for the EU summit to give Putin a blast, saying that to attack one member of the EU meant attacking the EU itself. Putin is none to happy.
I was all shout-n-scream politics: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/cyber-war-and-e.html
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I was all shout-n-scream politics: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/cyber-war-and-e.html
Interesting, but why we should believe him instead of believing those he says we shouldn't believe, I'm not sure.
I could well be wrong, but...
I am inclined to agree with him tho for two reasons. One is that little more was heard of it, meaning it was just a flash in the pan. two is that the IT community belongs to the so-called elite. they are very competent and intelligent people in the main, although naturally there are exceptions. This is why little happened with the Y2K bug, not because it wasn't a serious problem, but because competent programmers got to work and fixed most of the issues before they became problems.
I felt the same way about the recent stock market crash. this is in the financial sector. For all their hubris, mostly these people are very competent at their jobs. It was shareholders that flipped - esp the mechanical ones.
I know there are instabilities with the intelligent elite in their work areas, but that is a problem of too narrow focus. If we are looking for a tipping point, I expect it less in these areas. Politics also has intelligent people, but they have to sway the ignorant to stay in power. So they will act contrary to their own intelligence.
The two main tipping points I see are still the Islamic countries, and global warming. By Islamic I mean Pakistan - teetering - and the Iraq fallout. Some good commentators on Iraq I have heard recently are now saying that the US change in tactics is way to late - it will fail due to that, and the result is highly unpredictable, with a rush-to-carve-up likely. Turkey wants to wipe out the Kurds, Iran wants to topple Saudi, Pak wants to drop the big one on India. Hopefully the elite in all these countries will talk sense into the politicians, but it is too close to the brink for my liking. i just watch in horrified fascination.
Big business I am not so concerned about. They will destroy for short term gain - wipe out the fish, trees and pollute the unregulated etc. But there are also a lot of intelligent elite in big business, and again, aside from murdering anyone who stands in the way of profit, they will try to save themselves eventually - they have self interest in survival.
Radical religious in ALL countries have no such survival leverage, and politicians are happy to go over the waterfall as long as they are leading. the real menace for the future, the real tipping point, is the dreaming population in all countries, who refuse to awaken to the imminent nightmare. Such is human nature.
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Interesting, but why we should believe him instead of believing those he says we shouldn't believe, I'm not sure.
my relative is a top IT man in this country and he dealt with this attack. he said same things before i found this writing. it was not sophisticated nor existential stuff, this cyber attack. measures to deal with it were planned and ready well ahead - international experience is public after all. politicians decided to use it for wider publicity.
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Interestingly after writing this assessment last night, I have just heard Paul Keating on the radio this morning (he was quite an unusual previous Prime Minister and Treasurer, who always had a 'world' view). His assessment was that China is the big security threat, not the Islamic states. And that APEC was twiddling its thumbs on this major security issue.
He also said that the US has wasted it cold war victory - in the space since, it had failed to set up a secure power balance in the world.
My personal view has been that rising prosperity in China has changed the political landscape there. People who have something to lose, or aspire to with more likelihood, are less keen to risk it in mad-cap political ventures. You might say the Iraq war disproves that, but really that was not a threat to US itself, whereas Taiwan and Japan, esp now with Putin flying nuclear war planes around the place - these are highly risky and dangerous postures and environment.
So Paul could be right about China, but my watching of it seems to indicate they have enough on their plate, without another expansion.
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Good insight!
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Nothing to be optimistic about
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/balscore.pdf
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Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/04/climatechange
David Adam, environment correspondent
Guardian Unlimited
Tuesday September 4 2007
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced.
Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone.
So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.
If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.
Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver, said: "It's amazing. It's simply fallen off a cliff and we're still losing ice."
The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began thirty years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002.
Dr Serreze said: "If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our childrens' lifetimes."
The new figures show that sea ice extent is currently down to 4.4m square kilometres (1.7m square miles) and still falling.
The previous record low was 5.3m square kilometres in September 2005. From 1979 to 2000 the average sea ice extent was 7.7m square kilometres.
The sea ice usually melts in the Arctic summer and freezes again in the winter. But Dr Serreze said that would be difficult this year.
"This summer we've got all this open water and added heat going into the ocean. That is going to make it much harder for the ice to grow back."
Changes in wind and ocean circulation patterns can help reduce sea ice extent, but Dr Serreze said the main culprit was man-made global warming.
"The rules are starting to change and what's changing the rules is the input of greenhouse gases."
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and I see Blackwater wants to open up a big new facility next door to nichi's mother place
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and I see Blackwater wants to open up a big new facility next door to nichi's mother place
Blackwater - that private military company?
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yes
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Shockwaves from melting icecaps are triggering earthquakes, say scientists
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2941866.ece
By Daniel Howden, in Ilulissat, Greenland
Published: 08 September 2007
High up inside the Arctic circle the melting of Greenland's ice sheet has accelerated so dramatically that it is triggering earthquakes for the first time.
Scientists monitoring the glaciers have revealed that movements of gigantic pieces of ice are creating shockwaves that register up to three on the Richter scale.
The speed of the arctic ice melt has accelerated to such an extent that a UN report issued earlier this year is now thought to be out of date by its own authors.
The American polar expert Robert Correll, among the key contributors to the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report issued in February, described the acceleration as "massive".
Estimates of the likely rise in sea levels this century vary, and the IPCC published a conservative range of between 20cm-60cm. But those estimates are now heavily disputed, with many scientists insisting that new data collected since the IPCC report suggested a rise closer to two metres. Professor Correll said there was now a "consensus" that a significant acceleration in the loss of ice mass has occurred since the last report.
The revelations came at a conference in the north of Greenland, which has drawn world religious leaders, scientists and environmentalists to the Ilulissat Icefjord. Ilulissat is home to the most active glacier in Greenland and it was one of the immense icebergs that calve from it on a daily basis that is believed to have sunk the Titanic. The Arctic is acknowledged as the fastest warming place on earth.
The local Inuit population, whose lives have been drastically altered by the changing climate, were yesterday led in a silent prayer for the future of the planet by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the organiser of the arctic symposium and spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians.
Greenland's ice cap is immense, the second largest in the world, and its break-up would be catastrophic. The packed ice is up to two miles thick and its total collapse into the ocean would raise worldside sea levels by seven metres.
At the Ilulissat Icefjord, 250km north of the Arctic Circle, the advance of the glacier into the sea is now visible to the naked eye. "It's moving toward the sea at a rate of two metres an hour," said Professor Correll. "It's exuding like toothpaste, moving towards us at 15 kilometres per year."
One day's worth of the Ilulissat ice would provide enough fresh water to supply the largest cities in the world for a whole year – and yet it amounts to only 7 per cent of Greenland's total melt.
As the glaciers thaw, pools of water are forming, feeding fractures in the ice, down which the water flows until it hits the bedrock.
"These so-called moulins are phenomenal," said Professor Correll, who said they had been remarkably scarce when he first visited the glacier in 1968. "Now they are like rivers 10 or 15 metres in diameter and there are thousands of them."
He compared the process to putting oil underneath the ice to make it move forward faster.
As the reality of the unprecedented thaw becomes apparent, the consequences are outstripping the capacity of scientific models to predict it.
Earthquakes, or glacial ice quakes, in the north-west of Greenland are among the latest ominous signs that an unprecedented step change is under way. The Finnish scientist Veli Albert Kallio is one of the region's leading ice experts and has been tracking the earthquakes.
"Glacial earthquakes in north-west Greenland did not exist until three years ago," he said.
The accelerating thaw and the earthquakes are intimately connected, according to Mr Kallio, as immense slabs of ice are sheared from the bed rock by melt water. Those blocks of ice, often more than 800m deep and 1500m long, contain immense rocks as well and move against geological faults with seismic consequences. The study of these ice quakes is still in its infancy, according to Professor Correll, but their occurence is in itself disturbing. "It is becoming a lot more volatile," said Mr Vallio. Predictions made by the Arctic Council, a working group of regional scientists, have been hopelessly overrun by the extent of the thaw. "Five years ago we made models predicting how much ice would melt and when," said Mr Vallio. "Five years later we are already at the levels predicted for 2040, in a year's time we'll be at 2050."
This dramatic warming is being felt across the Arctic region. In Alaska, earthquakes are rocking the seabed as tectonic plates – subdued for centuries by the weight of the glaciers on top of them – are now moving against each other again.
In the north of Sweden, mean temperatures have risen above zero for the first time on record.
Professor Terry Callaghan has been working in the remote north of the country at a research station which has been taking continuous readings for the past 100 years. His recent findings tally with the accelerating pace of change elsewhere.
"Mean temperatures have remained below zero here since medieval times," said Professor Callaghan. "Now, over the past 10 years we have exceeded zero, the mark at which ice turns to water." Professor Correll said: "We are looking at a very different planet than the one we are used to."
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Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/31/climatechange.food
. 'Ignorance, need and greed' depleting soil
. Experts warn competition will lead to conflict
* Ian Sample in science correspondent
* The Guardian
* Friday August 31 2007
Climate change and an increasing population could trigger a global food crisis in the next half century as countries struggle for fertile land to grow crops and rear animals, scientists warned yesterday.
To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined, the experts said.
But in many countries a combination of poor farming practices and deforestation will be exacerbated by climate change to steadily degrade soil fertility, leaving vast areas unsuitable for crops or grazing.
Competition over sparse resources may lead to conflicts and environmental destruction, the scientists fear.
The warnings came as researchers from around the world convened at a UN-backed forum in Iceland on sustainable development to address the organisation's millennium development goals to halve hunger and extreme poverty by 2015.
The researchers will use the meeting to call on countries to impose strict farming guidelines to ensure that soils are not degraded so badly they cannot recover.
"Policy changes that result in improved conservation of soil and vegetation and restoration of degraded land are fundamental to humanity's future livelihood," said Zafar Adeel, director of the international network on water, environment and health at the UN University in Toronto and co-organiser of the meeting.
"This is an urgent task as the quality of land for food production, as well as water storage, is fundamental to future peace. Securing food and reducing poverty ... can have a strong impact on efforts to curb the flow of people, environmental refugees, inside countries as well as across national borders," he added.
The UN millennium ecosystem assessment ranked land degradation among the world's greatest environmental challenges, claiming it risked destabilising societies, endangering food security and increasing poverty.
Some 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. Among the worst affected regions are Central America, where 75% of land is infertile, Africa, where a fifth of soil is degraded, and Asia, where 11% is unsuitable for farming.
The majority of soil erosion is caused by water, either through flooding or poor irrigation, with the rest lost to winds. Farming practices such as ploughing also damage soil, as does repeated planting in fields, which depletes the soil of nutrients.
"You can sum it up as need, greed and ignorance," said Andrew Campbell, an Australian environmental consultant. "Some pressures on soil resources come from simple human needs, where people don't have any option but to grow crops or farm animals. But in other instances world markets demand produce, so farmers try to meet those markets. And sometimes, there will be land that's cleared that should not have been, or grazed when it shouldn't have been. All these place great pressures on soil resources."
He warned that increased competition over depleted resources would lead to conflict - "and the losers will inevitably be the environment and poor people".
According to the UN's food and agriculture programme, 854 million people do not have sufficient food for an active and healthy life.
The global population has risen substantially in recent decades. Between 1980 and 2000 it rose from 4.4bn to 6.1bn and food production increased 50%. By 2050 the population is expected to reach 9bn.
The threat of a food crisis is exacerbated by fears over energy security, with many countries opting to plant biofuel crops in place of traditional food crops. India, for example, has pledged to meet 10% of its vehicle fuel needs with biofuels.
Andres Arnalds, of the Icelandic soil conservation service, said the pressures on food production would have knock-on effects all over the world because of the international links in food supply.
Mr Campbell said: "If we can improve agricultural practices across the board we can dramatically increase our food production from existing lands, without having to clear more or put more pressure on soils. Simple things like good crop rotation, sowing at the right time of year, basic weed control, are what is needed. They're very well known but not always used."
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Extinction Crisis Escalates: Red List Shows Apes, Corals, Vultures, Dolphins All In Danger
Science Daily — Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken, according to the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation.
One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), said: “This year’s IUCN Red List shows that the invaluable efforts made so far to protect species are not enough. The rate of biodiversity loss is increasing and we need to act now to significantly reduce it and stave off this global extinction crisis. This can be done, but only with a concerted effort by all levels of society.”
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is widely recognized as the most reliable evaluation of the world’s species. It classifies them according to their extinction risk and brings into sharp focus the ongoing decline of the world’s biodiversity and the impact that mankind is having upon life on Earth.
Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme, said: “We need to know the precise status of species in order to take the appropriate action. The IUCN Red List does this by measuring the overall status of biodiversity, the rate at which it is being lost and the causes of decline.
“Our lives are inextricably linked with biodiversity and ultimately its protection is essential for our very survival. As the world begins to respond to the current crisis of biodiversity loss, the information from the IUCN Red List is needed to design and implement effective conservation strategies – for the benefit of people and nature.”
Some highlights from this year’s IUCN Red List
Decline of the great apes
A reassessment of our closest relatives, the great apes, has revealed a grim picture. The Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) has moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered, after the discovery that the main subspecies, the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), has been decimated by the commercial bushmeat trade and the Ebola virus. Their population has declined by more than 60% over the last 20-25 years, with about one third of the total population found in protected areas killed by the Ebola virus over the last 15 years.
The Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) remains in the Critically Endangered category and the Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Endangered category. Both are threatened by habitat loss due to illegal and legal logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations. In Borneo, the area planted with oil palms increased from 2,000 km2 to 27,000 km2 between 1984 and 2003, leaving just 86,000 km2 of habitat available to the species throughout the island.
First appearance of corals on the IUCN Red List
Corals have been assessed and added to the IUCN Red List for the very first time. Ten Galápagos species have entered the list, with two in the Critically Endangered category and one in the Vulnerable category. Wellington’s Solitary Coral (Rhizopsammia wellingtoni) has been listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The main threats to these species are the effects of El Niño and climate change.
In addition, 74 seaweeds have been added to the IUCN Red List from the Galápagos Islands. Ten species are listed as Critically Endangered, with six of those highlighted as Possibly Extinct. The cold water species are threatened by climate change and the rise in sea temperature that characterizes El Niño. The seaweeds are also indirectly affected by overfishing, which removes predators from the food chain, resulting in an increase of sea urchins and other herbivores that overgraze these algae.
Yangtze River Dolphin listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)
After an intensive, but fruitless, search for the Yangtze River Dolphin, or Baiji, (Lipotes vexillifer) last November and December, it has been listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The dolphin has not been placed in a higher category as further surveys are needed before it can be definitively classified as Extinct. A possible sighting reported in late August 2007 is currently being investigated by Chinese scientists. The main threats to the species include fishing, river traffic, pollution and degradation of habitat.
India and Nepal’s crocodile, the Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is also facing threats from habitat degradation and has moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered. Its population has recently declined by 58%, from 436 breeding adults in 1997 to just 182 in 2006. Dams, irrigation projects, sand mining and artificial embankments have all encroached on its habitat, reducing its domain to 2% of its former range.
Vulture crisis
This year the total number of birds on the IUCN Red List is 9,956 with 1,217 listed as threatened. Vultures in Africa and Asia have declined, with five species reclassified on the IUCN Red List. In Asia, the Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) moved from Near Threatened to Critically Endangered while the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) moved from Least Concern to Endangered. The rapid decline in the birds over the last eight years has been driven by the drug diclofenac, used to treat livestock.
In Africa, three species of vulture have been reclassified, including the White-headed Vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis), which moved from Least Concern to Vulnerable, the White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) and Rüppell’s Griffon (Gyps rueppellii), both moved from Least Concern to Near Threatened. The birds’ decline has been due to a lack of food, with a reduction in wild grazing mammals, habitat loss and collision with power lines. They have also been poisoned by carcasses deliberately laced with insecticide. The bait is intended to kill livestock predators, such as hyenas, jackals and big cats, but it also kills vultures.
North American reptiles added
After a major assessment of Mexican and North American reptiles, 723 were added to the IUCN Red List, taking the total to 738 reptiles listed for this region. Of these, 90 are threatened with extinction. Two Mexican freshwater turtles, the Cuatro Cienegas Slider (Trachemys taylori) and the Ornate Slider (Trachemys ornata), are listed as Endangered and Vulnerable respectively. Both face threats from habitat loss. Mexico’s Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake (Crotalus catalinensis) has also been added to the list as Critically Endangered, after being persecuted by illegal collectors.
Plants in peril
There are now 12,043 plants on the IUCN Red List, with 8,447 listed as threatened. The Woolly-stalked Begonia (Begonia eiromischa) is the only species to have been declared extinct this year. This Malaysian herb is only known from collections made in 1886 and 1898 on Penang Island. Extensive searches of nearby forests have failed to reveal any specimens in the last 100 years.
The Wild Apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris), from central Asia, has been assessed and added to the IUCN Red List for the first time, classified as Endangered. The species is a direct ancestor of plants that are widely cultivated in many countries around the world, but its population is dwindling as it loses habitat to tourist developments and is exploited for wood, food and genetic material.
Banggai Cardinalfish heavily exploited by aquarium trade
Overfishing continues to put pressure on many fish species, as does demand from the aquarium trade. The Banggai Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni), which is highly prized in the aquarium industry, is entering the IUCN Red List for the first time in the Endangered category. The fish, which is only found in the Banggai Archipelago, near Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been heavily exploited, with approximately 900,000 extracted every year. Conservationists are calling for the fish to be reared in captivity for the aquarium trade, so the wild populations can be left to recover.
These highlights from the 2007 IUCN Red List are merely a few examples of the rapid rate of biodiversity loss around the world. The disappearance of species has a direct impact on people’s lives. Declining numbers of freshwater fish, for example, deprive rural poor communities not only of their major source of food, but of their livelihoods as well.
Species loss is our loss
Conservation action is slowing down biodiversity loss in some cases, but there are still many species that need more attention from conservationists. This year, only one species has moved to a lower category of threat. The Mauritius Echo Parakeet (Psittacula eques), which was one of the world’s rarest parrots 15 years ago, has moved from Critically Endangered to Endangered. The improvement is a result of successful conservation action, including close monitoring of nesting sites and supplementary feeding combined with a captive breeding and release programme.
Background information
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies species according to their extinction risk. It is a searchable online database containing the global status and supporting information on more than 41,000 species. Its primary goal is to identify and document the species most in need of conservation attention and provide an index of the state of biodiversity.
The IUCN Red List threat categories are the following, in descending order of threat:
Extinct or Extinct in the Wild;
Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable: species threatened with global extinction;
Near Threatened: species close to the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened without ongoing specific conservation measures;
Least Concern: species evaluated with a low risk of extinction;
Data Deficient: no evaluation because of insufficient data.
Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct): This is not a new Red List category, but is a flag developed to identify those Critically Endangered species that are in all probability already Extinct but for which confirmation is required (for example, through more extensive surveys being carried out and failing to find any individuals).
The total number of species on the planet is unknown; estimates vary between 10 - 100 million, with 15 million species being the most widely accepted figure. 1.7 - 1.8 million species are known today.
People, either directly or indirectly, are the main reason for most species’ decline. Habitat destruction and degradation continues to be the main cause of species’ decline, along with the all too familiar threats of introduced invasive species, unsustainable harvesting, over-hunting, pollution and disease. Climate change is increasingly recognized as a serious threat, which can magnify these dangers.
Major analyses of the IUCN Red List are produced every four years. These were produced in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Key findings from major analyses to date include:
The number of threatened species is increasing across almost all the major taxonomic groups.
IUCN Red List Indices, a new tool for measuring trends in extinction risk are important for monitoring progress towards the 2010 target. They are available for birds and amphibians and show that their status has declined steadily since the 1980s. An IUCN Red List Index can be calculated for any group which has been assessed at least twice.
Most threatened birds, mammals and amphibians are located on the tropical continents – the regions that contain the tropical broadleaf forests which are believed to harbour the majority of the Earth’s terrestrial and freshwater species.
Of the countries assessed, Australia, Brazil, China and Mexico hold particularly large numbers of threatened species.
Estimates vary greatly, but current extinction rates are at least 100-1,000 times higher than natural background rates.
The vast majority of extinctions since 1500 AD have occurred on oceanic islands, but over the last 20 years, continental extinctions have become as common as island extinctions.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by World Conservation Union.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070912152659.htm
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Yes, one species disappears in every 20 minutes. Some we have never known.
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i did hear this on the radio this morning... depressing.
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while I'm waiting for some processing to complete, I'd like to offer my assessment of another of the storms approaching - the world financial situation.
For some time now, as a portfolio manager, I have felt the economic and general business structures in the world are insufficiently stable for long term sustainability. The reasons are many, but certainly the whole shareholder short term maximisation philosophy is a strong failing.
I expect it will all collapse, but not in the near future. The reason being because coming out of the 1990's the international business community put in a big effort to fix some of the immediate problems. I may touch on these another time. So in the short term, I am looking for a serious meltdown, but not a complete collapse. And I keep watching for the indications this meltdown could occur soon.
It nearly happened with the Asian crisis, then again with the 11 Sept crisis. There have been more since, but not as serious.
Now we are faced with the US sub-prime loans crisis caused international credit crunch. World share prices have been extremely volatile. One reason for this is that there are so many now who play the rises and falls on the stock markets, that they amplify the volatility.
The big question, is is this crisis sufficient to push the world into a meltdown? i don't believe so, even though the US looks very doggy, especially with inflation in both US and China on the increase - meaning the Fed's hands are restrained in its ability to use interest rates to pull the US out of a nose dive. Strong reasons for a recession in the US through next year.
The really interesting thing, is that with a controlled effect in the US (ie, not all happening in a bang) the rest of the world is discovering just how little it now needs the power of the US market to sustain international growth. China, India and the EU are now huge internal markets and rival the US in economic size and significance. There is little to match the US in its sophistication and single country market size, but it is becoming increasingly economically irrelevant.
There are political consequences of this. I expect the US's time in it's unilateral world scene is now finished - what could have been done, and what wasn't done... ah well.
We haven't seen the end of the sub-prime fall out, in the US or internationally. I don't expect it on its own will deliver the knockdown blow, but it has weakened the world financial markets, even though it has not flowed across into the 'real' economy of most countries except US, where consumer confidence and employment levels are beginning to show consequences.
But should another major problem arise at this point, then we are in for strife. What could that be? The inflation problem is growing, but most analysts think that can be carried. There is always the possibility of a major storm or earthquake, in some financially critical area. Then we have the political instabilities of China and Pakistan.
My concern is the US bombing of Iran. I know they want to, but I expect the new faces in the advisory positions of the White House are yelling caution especially during this sub-prime instability. We know Saudi Arabia and Israel are pressuring Bush to level Iran's military and general power functionality, before the US leaves Iraq, or the mess there will be far greater than it already is. I really do expect Bush will have to do it, madness tho it is - he just will not tolerate leaving office with a nuclear Iran in power in the wider Middle East.
That will blow the petrol prices out of the water, and bring the whole card pack crashing down. Unless he holds off till the Financial markets are stable again, and even then talk it through so the markets are ready.
The reason I raise this economic instability issue, is because although the tsunami on the horizon is Global Warming, it is the combined impact of more than one catastrophe at the same time, that is going to bring about a total collapse which will leave us wandering the hills. So more than ever now, we have to watch the sub-plots as well as the main one.
I am not alone in this concern of a multiple 'perfect storm' event. Big business is also gearing up on how to prepare, and there have been some notable books. We should also be alert to the wider world scene, as it is coming under pressures now in ways it has never before in human history, except way back in the ice-ages.
my processing is finished - i'm off.
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Two days of tsunami warnings in the Indian Ocean .... yesterday's quake off of Sumatra was an 8.4. Another one today...
Another powerful quake strikes Indonesia
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago
PADANG, Indonesia - The second powerful earthquake in as many days shook western Indonesia Thursday, collapsing buildings in a coastal city and triggering tsunami alerts around the region.
At least nine people were killed and 49 injured in the twin tremors, which caused tall buildings to sway in at least three countries.
On Wednesday, an 8.4-magnitude earthquake shook Southeast Asia. That tremor triggered a small non-destructive tsunami off the coastal city of Padang on Sumatra, the Indonesian island ravaged by the 2004 tsunami disaster. A tsunami warning was issued for wide areas of the region and nations as far away as Africa.
Thursday's magnitude-7.8 quake rattled the same area of Sumatra and caused extensive damage in Padang.
"Many buildings collapsed after this morning's quake," Fauzi Bahar, the mayor, told El Shinta radio. "We're still trying to find out about victims."
Thousands of frightened people piled in trucks or sought shelter on high ground.
Rafael Abreu, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado, said Thursday's quake did not appear to be an aftershock to the temblor the day before. But the centers of both were close together.
"We are not calling it an aftershock at this point. It's fairly large itself. It seems to be a different earthquake," Abreu said.
"The quake seems to be pretty shallow," he said. "These are the quakes that can produce tsunamis."
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning, lifted it and then reissued it. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning that unusual waves could hit Christmas Island early Thursday, but locals said there was no sign of a tsunami about an hour after the predicted time.
"The danger has passed," said Linda Cash, a manager at the Christmas Island Visitors Center. "There was no wave or damage or anything."
However, Cash said police were out early Thursday warning people to stay away from the beaches.
The USGS said the new quake was centered about 125 miles from Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra. It occurred at a shallow depth of about six miles and struck at 6:49 a.m.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii warned Thursday's quake had the potential to generate a destructive regional tsunami along coasts within 600 miles of the epicenter. It advised authorities to take immediate action to evacuate coastal areas.
After Wednesday's quake, frightened people fled their homes and ran inland, fearing a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Sumatra that struck a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean. That disaster killing an estimated 230,000 people in a dozen nations, most of them in Aceh province on Sumatra.
"Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction," Wati Said reported by cell phone from Bengkulu, a town 80 miles from the quake's epicenter. "We think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes, it will not touch us here. ... Everyone is afraid."
One witness, Budi Darmawan, said a three-story building near his office fell.
"I saw it with my own eyes," he told El Shinta radio.
Telephone lines and electricity were disrupted across a large swath of Indonesia, making it difficult to get information about damage and casualties.
Death tolls released by several agencies ranged from five to nine. Rustam Pakaya, the chief of Health Crisis Center, gave the latter figure, which was based on information gathered from local hospitals, clinics and regional health offices. He said at least 49 people were injured.
The first quake was felt in at least four countries, with tall buildings swaying in cities up to 1,200 miles away. It was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, further rattling residents.
Telephone lines and electricity were disrupted across a large swath of Indonesia, making it difficult to get information about damage and casualties.
Suhardjono, a senior official with the local meteorological agency who like most Indonesians uses only one name, said a small tsunami, perhaps 3-feet high, struck Padang about 20 minutes after the quake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported a small wave.
But most of the damage appeared to come from the ground shaking.
Two people died when a car dealership collapsed in Padang and another was killed by a fire on the fourth floor of a damaged department store, a witness, Alfin, said by phone. Excavation machinery was being used to search the rubble for survivors, he said.
The undersea temblor hit around 6:10 p.m. at a depth of 18 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, office workers streamed down stairwells as tall office buildings swayed. High-rises also were affected in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Sensitive to the 2004 tsunami disaster, governments issued alerts as far away as Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, telling people to leave beaches. People in Mombasa, Kenya, crowded into buses after hearing the warning over the radio.
Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center sent cell phone text messages alerting hundreds of officials in six southern provinces, and after the danger past broadcast a statement on television to reassure the public.
In India, officials said the tremor was not felt in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, some of which are just 150 miles north of the quake's epicenter. But an alert was issued and authorities were told to take precautions, said Dharam Pal, the regional relief commissioner.
Sri Lankans were told to move at least 660 feet inland.
In Australia, the tsunami warning was lifted after only small rises in the sea level were measured at Cocos Island and the Christmas Islands.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake
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Grim and scary stuff, M..
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I've understood that most of our 'money' is belief. Values of shares, options, etc. are all based on beliefs in the state of economy, its prospects and so on. It is about walking in the air.
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i'm about to buy an electric bycicle, i have a car that goes with gpl (propane gas), so i guess i don't have to worry about petrol prices ::)
but even if i should, i won't :P
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no, you need to worry about accidents.
bikes are dangerous, esp for people with nothing in their heads.
and esp in traffic!
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no, you need to worry about accidents.
bikes are dangerous, esp for people with nothing in their heads.
and esp in traffic!
life is dangerous, not bikes :P
besides if one has nothing in their heads everything else is dangerous... cars too
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and women
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*cackles*
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As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
BEIJING, Aug. 25 — No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.
But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source.
“It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” says Wang Jinnan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers. “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.”
China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles originates in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research.
More pressing still, China has entered the most robust stage of its industrial revolution, even as much of the outside world has become preoccupied with global warming.
Experts once thought China might overtake the United States as the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases by 2010, possibly later. Now, the International Energy Agency has said China could become the emissions leader by the end of this year, and the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency said China had already passed that level.
For the Communist Party, the political calculus is daunting. Reining in economic growth to alleviate pollution may seem logical, but the country’s authoritarian system is addicted to fast growth. Delivering prosperity placates the public, provides spoils for well-connected officials and forestalls demands for political change. A major slowdown could incite social unrest, alienate business interests and threaten the party’s rule.
But pollution poses its own threat. Officials blame fetid air and water for thousands of episodes of social unrest. Health care costs have climbed sharply. Severe water shortages could turn more farmland into desert. And the unconstrained expansion of energy-intensive industries creates greater dependence on imported oil and dirty coal, meaning that environmental problems get harder and more expensive to address the longer they are unresolved.
China’s leaders recognize that they must change course. They are vowing to overhaul the growth-first philosophy of the Deng Xiaoping era and embrace a new model that allows for steady growth while protecting the environment. In his equivalent of a State of the Union address this year, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao made 48 references to “environment,” “pollution” or “environmental protection.”
The government has numerical targets for reducing emissions and conserving energy. Export subsidies for polluting industries have been phased out. Different campaigns have been started to close illegal coal mines and shutter some heavily polluting factories. Major initiatives are under way to develop clean energy sources like solar and wind power. And environmental regulation in Beijing, Shanghai and other leading cities has been tightened ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
Yet most of the government’s targets for energy efficiency, as well as improving air and water quality, have gone unmet. And there are ample signs that the leadership is either unwilling or unable to make fundamental changes.
Land, water, electricity, oil and bank loans remain relatively inexpensive, even for heavy polluters. Beijing has declined to use the kind of tax policies and market-oriented incentives for conservation that have worked well in Japan and many European countries.
Provincial officials, who enjoy substantial autonomy, often ignore environmental edicts, helping to reopen mines or factories closed by central authorities. Over all, enforcement is often tinged with corruption. This spring, officials in Yunnan Province in southern China beautified Laoshou Mountain, which had been used as a quarry, by spraying green paint over acres of rock.
President Hu Jintao’s most ambitious attempt to change the culture of fast-growth collapsed this year. The project, known as “Green G.D.P.,” was an effort to create an environmental yardstick for evaluating the performance of every official in China. It recalculated gross domestic product, or G.D.P., to reflect the cost of pollution.
But the early results were so sobering — in some provinces the pollution-adjusted growth rates were reduced almost to zero — that the project was banished to China’s ivory tower this spring and stripped of official influence.
Chinese leaders argue that the outside world is a partner in degrading the country’s environment. Chinese manufacturers that dump waste into rivers or pump smoke into the sky make the cheap products that fill stores in the United States and Europe. Often, these manufacturers subcontract for foreign companies — or are owned by them. In fact, foreign investment continues to rise as multinational corporations build more factories in China. Beijing also insists that it will accept no mandatory limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, which would almost certainly reduce its industrial growth. It argues that rich countries caused global warming and should find a way to solve it without impinging on China’s development.
Indeed, Britain, the United States and Japan polluted their way to prosperity and worried about environmental damage only after their economies matured and their urban middle classes demanded blue skies and safe drinking water.
But China is more like a teenage smoker with emphysema. The costs of pollution have mounted well before it is ready to curtail economic development. But the price of business as usual — including the predicted effects of global warming on China itself — strikes many of its own experts and some senior officials as intolerably high.
“Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich,” said Ren Yong, a climate expert at the Center for Environment and Economy in Beijing. “We have to deal with them while we are still poor. There is no model for us to follow.”
In the face of past challenges, the Communist Party has usually responded with sweeping edicts from Beijing. Some environmentalists say they hope the top leadership has now made pollution control such a high priority that lower level officials will have no choice but to go along, just as Deng Xiaoping once forced China’s sluggish bureaucracy to fixate on growth.
But the environment may end up posing a different political challenge. A command-and-control political culture accustomed to issuing thundering directives is now under pressure, even from people in the ruling party, to submit to oversight from the public, for which pollution has become a daily — and increasingly deadly — reality.
Perpetual Haze
During the three decades since Deng set China on a course toward market-style growth, rapid industrialization and urbanization have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty and made the country the world’s largest producer of consumer goods. But there is little question that growth came at the expense of the country’s air, land and water, much of it already degraded by decades of Stalinist economic planning that emphasized the development of heavy industries in urban areas.
For air quality, a major culprit is coal, on which China relies for about two-thirds of its energy needs. It has abundant supplies of coal and already burns more of it than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. But even many of its newest coal-fired power plants and industrial furnaces operate inefficiently and use pollution controls considered inadequate in the West.
Expanding car ownership, heavy traffic and low-grade gasoline have made autos the leading source of air pollution in major Chinese cities. Only 1 percent of China’s urban population of 560 million now breathes air considered safe by the European Union, according to a World Bank study of Chinese pollution published this year. One major pollutant contributing to China’s bad air is particulate matter, which includes concentrations of fine dust, soot and aerosol particles less than 10 microns in diameter (known as PM 10).
The level of such particulates is measured in micrograms per cubic meter of air. The European Union stipulates that any reading above 40 micrograms is unsafe. The United States allows 50. In 2006, Beijing’s average PM 10 level was 141, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. Only Cairo, among world capitals, had worse air quality as measured by particulates, according to the World Bank.
Emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal and fuel oil, which can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as acid rain, are increasing even faster than China’s economic growth. In 2005, China became the leading source of sulfur dioxide pollution globally, the State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, reported last year.
Other major air pollutants, including ozone, an important component of smog, and smaller particulate matter, called PM 2.5, emitted when gasoline is burned, are not widely monitored in China. Medical experts in China and in the West have argued that PM 2.5 causes more chronic diseases of the lung and heart than the more widely watched PM 10.
Perhaps an even more acute challenge is water. China has only one-fifth as much water per capita as the United States. But while southern China is relatively wet, the north, home to about half of China’s population, is an immense, parched region that now threatens to become the world’s biggest desert.
Farmers in the north once used shovels to dig their wells. Now, many aquifers have been so depleted that some wells in Beijing and Hebei must extend more than half a mile before they reach fresh water. Industry and agriculture use nearly all of the flow of the Yellow River, before it reaches the Bohai Sea.
In response, Chinese leaders have undertaken one of the most ambitious engineering projects in world history, a $60 billion network of canals, rivers and lakes to transport water from the flood-prone Yangtze River to the silt-choked Yellow River. But that effort, if successful, will still leave the north chronically thirsty.
This scarcity has not yet created a culture of conservation. Water remains inexpensive by global standards, and Chinese industry uses 4 to 10 times more water per unit of production than the average in industrialized nations, according to the World Bank.
In many parts of China, factories and farms dump waste into surface water with few repercussions. China’s environmental monitors say that one-third of all river water, and vast sections of China’s great lakes, the Tai, Chao and Dianchi, have water rated Grade V, the most degraded level, rendering it unfit for industrial or agricultural use.
Grim Statistics
The toll this pollution has taken on human health remains a delicate topic in China. The leadership has banned publication of data on the subject for fear of inciting social unrest, said scholars involved in the research. But the results of some research provide alarming evidence that the environment has become one of the biggest causes of death.
An internal, unpublicized report by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning in 2003 estimated that 300,000 people die each year from ambient air pollution, mostly of heart disease and lung cancer. An additional 110,000 deaths could be attributed to indoor air pollution caused by poorly ventilated coal and wood stoves or toxic fumes from shoddy construction materials, said a person involved in that study.
Another report, prepared in 2005 by Chinese environmental experts, estimated that annual premature deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution were likely to reach 380,000 in 2010 and 550,000 in 2020.
This spring, a World Bank study done with SEPA, the national environmental agency, concluded that outdoor air pollution was already causing 350,000 to 400,000 premature deaths a year. Indoor pollution contributed to the deaths of an additional 300,000 people, while 60,000 died from diarrhea, bladder and stomach cancer and other diseases that can be caused by water-borne pollution.
China’s environmental agency insisted that the health statistics be removed from the published version of the report, citing the possible impact on “social stability,” World Bank officials said.
But other international organizations with access to Chinese data have published similar results. For example, the World Health Organization found that China suffered more deaths from water-related pollutants and fewer from bad air, but agreed with the World Bank that the total death toll had reached 750,000 a year. In comparison, 4,700 people died last year in China’s notoriously unsafe mines, and 89,000 people were killed in road accidents, the highest number of automobile-related deaths in the world. The Ministry of Health estimates that cigarette smoking takes a million Chinese lives each year.
Studies of Chinese environmental health mostly use statistical models developed in the United States and Europe and apply them to China, which has done little long-term research on the matter domestically. The results are more like plausible suppositions than conclusive findings.
But Chinese experts say that, if anything, the Western models probably understate the problems.
“China’s pollution is worse, the density of its population is greater and people do not protect themselves as well,” said Jin Yinlong, the director general of the Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety in Beijing. “So the studies are not definitive. My assumption is that they will turn out to be conservative.”
Growth Run Amok
As gloomy as China’s pollution picture looks today, it is set to get significantly worse, because China has come to rely mainly on energy-intensive heavy industry and urbanization to fuel economic growth. In 2000, a team of economists and energy specialists at the Development Research Center, part of the State Council, set out to gauge how much energy China would need over the ensuing 20 years to achieve the leadership’s goal of quadrupling the size of the economy.
They based their projections on China’s experience during the first 20 years of economic reform, from 1980 to 2000. In that period, China relied mainly on light industry and small-scale private enterprise to spur growth. It made big improvements in energy efficiency even as the economy expanded rapidly. Gross domestic product quadrupled, while energy use only doubled.
The team projected that such efficiency gains would probably continue. But the experts also offered what they called a worst-case situation in which the most energy-hungry parts of the economy grew faster and efficiency gains fell short.
That worst-case situation now looks wildly optimistic. Last year, China burned the energy equivalent of 2.7 billion tons of coal, three-quarters of what the experts had said would be the maximum required in 2020. To put it another way, China now seems likely to need as much energy in 2010 as it thought it would need in 2020 under the most pessimistic assumptions.
“No one really knew what was driving the economy, which is why the predictions were so wrong,” said Yang Fuqiang, a former Chinese energy planner who is now the chief China representative of the Energy Foundation, an American group that supports energy-related research. “What I fear is that the trend is now basically irreversible.”
The ravenous appetite for fossil fuels traces partly to an economic stimulus program in 1997. The leadership, worried that China’s economy would fall into a steep recession as its East Asian neighbors had, provided generous state financing and tax incentives to support industrialization on a grand scale.
It worked well, possibly too well. In 1996, China and the United States each accounted for 13 percent of global steel production. By 2005, the United States share had dropped to 8 percent, while China’s share had risen to 35 percent, according to a study by Daniel H. Rosen and Trevor Houser of China Strategic Advisory, a group that analyzes the Chinese economy.
Similarly, China now makes half of the world’s cement and flat glass, and about a third of its aluminum. In 2006, China overtook Japan as the second-largest producer of cars and trucks after the United States.
Its energy needs are compounded because even some of its newest heavy industry plants do not operate as efficiently, or control pollution as effectively, as factories in other parts of the world, a recent World Bank report said.
Chinese steel makers, on average, use one-fifth more energy per ton than the international average. Cement manufacturers need 45 percent more power, and ethylene producers need 70 percent more than producers elsewhere, the World Bank says.
China’s aluminum industry alone consumes as much energy as the country’s commercial sector — all the hotels, restaurants, banks and shopping malls combined, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Houser reported.
Moreover, the boom is not limited to heavy industry. Each year for the past few years, China has built about 7.5 billion square feet of commercial and residential space, more than the combined floor space of all the malls and strip malls in the United States, according to data collected by the United States Energy Information Administration.
Chinese buildings rarely have thermal insulation. They require, on average, twice as much energy to heat and cool as those in similar climates in the United States and Europe, according to the World Bank. A vast majority of new buildings — 95 percent, the bank says — do not meet China’s own codes for energy efficiency.
All these new buildings require China to build power plants, which it has been doing prodigiously. In 2005 alone, China added 66 gigawatts of electricity to its power grid, about as much power as Britain generates in a year. Last year, it added an additional 102 gigawatts, as much as France.
That increase has come almost entirely from small- and medium-size coal-fired power plants that were built quickly and inexpensively. Only a few of them use modern, combined-cycle turbines, which increase efficiency, said Noureddine Berrah, an energy expert at the World Bank. He said Beijing had so far declined to use the most advanced type of combined-cycle turbines despite having completed a successful pilot project nearly a decade ago.
While over the long term, combined-cycle plants save money and reduce pollution, Mr. Berrah said, they cost more — and take longer — to build. For that reason, he said, central and provincial government officials prefer older technology.
“China is making decisions today that will affect its energy use for the next 30 or 40 years,” he said. “Unfortunately, in some parts of the government the thinking is much more shortsighted.”
The Politics of Pollution
Since Hu Jintao became the Communist Party chief in 2002 and Wen Jiabao became prime minister the next spring, China’s leadership has struck consistent themes. The economy must grow at a more sustainable, less bubbly pace. Environmental abuse has reached intolerable levels. Officials who ignore these principles will be called to account.
Five years later, it seems clear that these senior leaders are either too timid to enforce their orders, or the fast-growth political culture they preside over is too entrenched to heed them.
In the second quarter of this year, the economy expanded at a neck-snapping pace of 11.9 percent, its fastest in a decade. State-driven investment projects, state-backed heavy industry and a thriving export sector led the way. China burned 18 percent more coal than it did the year before.
China’s authoritarian system has repeatedly proved its ability to suppress political threats to Communist Party rule. But its failure to realize its avowed goals of balancing economic growth and environmental protection is a sign that the country’s environmental problems are at least partly systemic, many experts and some government officials say. China cannot go green, in other words, without political change.
In their efforts to free China of its socialist shackles in the 1980s and early 90s, Deng and his supporters gave lower-level officials the leeway, and the obligation, to increase economic growth.
Local party bosses gained broad powers over state bank lending, taxes, regulation and land use. In return, the party leadership graded them, first and foremost, on how much they expanded the economy in their domains.
To judge by its original goals — stimulating the economy, creating jobs and keeping the Communist Party in power — the system Deng put in place has few equals. But his approach eroded Beijing’s ability to fine-tune the economy. Today, a culture of collusion between government and business has made all but the most pro-growth government policies hard to enforce.
“The main reason behind the continued deterioration of the environment is a mistaken view of what counts as political achievement,” said Pan Yue, the deputy minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration. “The crazy expansion of high-polluting, high-energy industries has spawned special interests. Protected by local governments, some businesses treat the natural resources that belong to all the people as their own private property.”
Mr. Hu has tried to change the system. In an internal address in 2004, he endorsed “comprehensive environmental and economic accounting” — otherwise known as “Green G.D.P.” He said the “pioneering endeavor” would produce a new performance test for government and party officials that better reflected the leadership’s environmental priorities.
The Green G.D.P. team sought to calculate the yearly damage to the environment and human health in each province. Their first report, released last year, estimated that pollution in 2004 cost just over 3 percent of the gross domestic product, meaning that the pollution-adjusted growth rate that year would drop to about 7 percent from 10 percent. Officials said at the time that their formula used low estimates of environmental damage to health and did not assess the impact on China’s ecology. They would produce a more decisive formula, they said, the next year.
That did not happen. Mr. Hu’s plan died amid intense squabbling, people involved in the effort said. The Green G.D.P. group’s second report, originally scheduled for release in March, never materialized.
The official explanation was that the science behind the green index was immature. Wang Jinnan, the leading academic researcher on the Green G.D.P. team, said provincial leaders killed the project. “Officials do not like to be lined up and told how they are not meeting the leadership’s goals,” he said. “They found it difficult to accept this.”
Conflicting Pressures
Despite the demise of Green G.D.P., party leaders insist that they intend to restrain runaway energy use and emissions. The government last year mandated that the country use 20 percent less energy to achieve the same level of economic activity in 2010 compared with 2005. It also required that total emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants decline by 10 percent in the same period.
The program is a domestic imperative. But it has also become China’s main response to growing international pressure to combat global warming. Chinese leaders reject mandatory emissions caps, and they say the energy efficiency plan will slow growth in carbon dioxide emissions.
Even with the heavy pressure, though, the efficiency goals have been hard to achieve. In the first full year since the targets were set, emissions increased. Energy use for every dollar of economic output fell but by much less than the 4 percent interim goal.
In a public relations sense, the party’s commitment to conservation seems steadfast. Mr. Hu shunned his usual coat and tie at a meeting of the Central Committee this summer. State news media said the temperature in the Great Hall of the People was set at a balmy 79 degrees Fahrenheit to save energy, and officials have encouraged others to set thermostats at the same level.
By other measures, though, the leadership has moved slowly to address environmental and energy concerns.
The government rarely uses market-oriented incentives to reduce pollution. Officials have rejected proposals to introduce surcharges on electricity and coal to reflect the true cost to the environment. The state still controls the price of fuel oil, including gasoline, subsidizing the cost of driving.
Energy and environmental officials have little influence in the bureaucracy. The environmental agency still has only about 200 full-time employees, compared with 18,000 at the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States.
China has no Energy Ministry. The Energy Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s central planning agency, has 100 full-time staff members. The Energy Department of the United States has 110,000 employees.
China does have an army of amateur regulators. Environmentalists expose pollution and press local government officials to enforce environmental laws. But private individuals and nongovernment organizations cannot cross the line between advocacy and political agitation without risking arrest.
At least two leading environmental organizers have been prosecuted in recent weeks, and several others have received sharp warnings to tone down their criticism of local officials. One reason the authorities have cited: the need for social stability before the 2008 Olympics, once viewed as an opportunity for China to improve the environment.
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Check the different years:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/01/world/middleeast/20070901_AFGHAN_GRAPHIC.html
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yes, e, that is creeping up on us all.
now they are saying UK has its own mortgage crisis, and thus the world is looking to India, China and Asia in general to pull the world through. Your quoted article on China is a situation we are well aware of, but would rather not know about - every now and then some idiot like that comes along and rubs our nose in it - grim stuff.
As for India, well, I have been there - don't expect too much too soon. They are also choking.
It has reached the point now, after the northern rock debacle, that funds in anything are a risk. the financial stability is teetering on its own hubris, balanced on a global environmental catastrophe.
I'd better hurry and finish my book before the market vanishes.
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I'd better hurry and finish my book before the market vanishes.
Sound advice!
I remember reading that China has sent some 850,000 private military contractors and employees of various mineral resources producing companies to Africa. They will dig up that continent as well.
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Well, they learned the right things, I'm afraid.
Wouldn't Western societies do the same even now if they were poor?
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Much of the imbalance in the World economy comes from "over flow" from the oil producing middle east. A surplus of money that look for investments and good interest rates. Look at Dubai, what a explosion of wealth and money. The Dubai market tried to buy The Swedish Stock market in Stockholm but Nasdaq was the first prospective buyer and The Dubai offer was considered somewhat hostile even if their offer were better in terms of money. So the result and solution was that Nasdaq and Dubai creates a holding company and take over the Swedish stockmarket together. Qatar, another little oil country, has been involved in the deal too.
Who owns old Harrods in London? Who borrows money to the US? Who wants to buy the small petrol companies in the US.
But it is right, in the future it is China that will have the greates single influence on the World economy. They could create a crisis any day right now buy simple selling all the dollars they have, but it would not serve them so they don't.
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Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2512105.ece
ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.
Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.
Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.
But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.
Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.
News of the secret ground raid is the latest piece of the jigsaw to emerge about the mysterious Israeli airstrike. Israel has imposed a news blackout, but has not disguised its satisfaction with the mission. The incident also reveals the extent of the cooperation between America and Israel over nuclear-related security issues in the Middle East. The attack on what Israeli defence sources now call the “North Korean project” appears to be part of a wider, secret war against the nonconventional weapons ambitions of Syria and North Korea which, along with Iran, appears to have been forging a new “axis of evil”.
The operation was personally directed by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, who is said to have been largely preoccupied with it since taking up his post on June 18.
It was the ideal mission for Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and legendary former commander of the Sayeret Matkal, which shares the motto “Who Dares Wins” with Britain’s SAS and specialises in intelligence-gathering deep behind enemy lines.
President Bush refused to comment on the air attack last week, but warned North Korea that “the exportation of information and/or materials” could jeopard-ise plans to give North Korea food aid, fuel and diplomatic recognition in exchange for ending its nuclear programmes.
Diplomats in North Korea and China said they believed a number of North Koreans were killed in the raid, noting that ballistic missile technicians and military scientists had been working for some time with the Syrians.
A senior Syrian official, Sayeed Elias Daoud, director of the Syrian Arab Ba’ath party, flew to North Korea via Beijing last Thursday, reinforcing the belief among foreign diplomats that the two nations are coordinating their response to the Israeli strike.
The growing assumption that North Korea suffered direct casualties in the raid appears to be based largely on the regime’s unusually strident propaganda on an issue far from home. But there were also indications of conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials and intelligence reports reaching Asian governments that supported the same conclusion, diplomats said.
Jane’s Defence Weekly reported last week that dozens of Iranian engineers and Syrians were killed in July attempting to load a chemical warhead containing mustard gas onto a Scud missile. The Scuds and warheads are of North Korean design and possibly manufacture, and there are recent reports that North Koreans were helping the Syrians to attach airburst chemical weapons to warheads.
Yesterday, while Israelis were observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the military was on high alert after Syria promised to retaliate for the September 6 raid. An Israeli intelligence expert said: “Syria has retaliated in the past for much smaller humiliations, but they will choose the place, the time and the target.”
Critics of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, believe he has shown poor judgment since succeeding his father Hafez, Syria’s long-time dictator, in 2000. According to David Schenker, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he has provoked the enmity of almost all Syria’s neighbours and turned his country into a “client” of Iran.
Barak’s return to government after making a fortune in private business was critical to the Israeli operation. Military experts believe it could not have taken place under Amir Peretz, the defence minister who was forced from the post after last year’s ill-fated war in Lebanon. “Barak gave Olmert the confidence needed for such a dangerous operation,” said one insider.
The unusual silence about the airstrikes amazed Israelis, who are used to talkative politicians. But it did not surprise the defence community. “Most Israeli special operations remain unknown,” said a defence source.
When Menachem Begin, then Israeli prime minister, broke the news of the 1981 Osirak raid, he was accused of trying to help his Likud party’s prospects in forthcoming elections.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Likud today, faced similar criticism last week when he ignored the news blackout, revealed that he had backed the decision to strike and said he had congratulated Olmert. “I was a partner from the start,” he claimed.
But details of the raid are still tantalisingly incomplete. Some analysts in America are perplexed by photographs of a fuel tank said to have been dropped from an Israeli jet on its return journey over Turkey. It appears to be relatively undamaged. Could it have been planted to sow confusion about the route taken by the Israeli F-15I pilots?
More importantly, questions remain about the precise nature of the material seized and about Syria’s intentions. Was Syria hiding North Korean nuclear equipment while Pyongyang prepared for six-party talks aimed at securing an end to its nuclear weapons programme in return for security guarantees and aid? Did Syria want to arm its own Scuds with a nuclear device?
Or could the material have been destined for Iran as John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has suggested? And just how deep is Syrian and North Korean nuclear cooperation anyway?
China abruptly postponed a session of the nuclear disarmament talks last week because it feared America might confront the North Koreans over their weapons deals with Syria, according to sources close to the Chinese foreign ministry. Negotiations have been rescheduled for this Thursday in Beijing after assurances were given that all sides wished them to be “constructive”.
Christopher Hill, the US State Department negotiator, is said to have persuaded the White House that the talks offered a realistic chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean war, in which more than 50,000 Americans died. A peace deal of that magnitude would be a coup for Bush – but only if the North Koreans genuinely abandon their nuclear programmes.
The outlines of a long-term arms relationship between the North Koreans and the Syrians are now being reexamined by intelligence experts in several capitals. Diplomats in Pyongyang have said they believe reports that about a dozen Syrian technicians were killed in a massive explosion and railway crash in North Korea on April 22, 2004.
Teams of military personnel wearing protective suits were seen removing debris from the section of the train in which the Syrians were travelling, according to a report quoting military sources that appeared in a Japanese newspaper. Their bodies were flown home by a Syrian military cargo plane that was spotted shortly after the explosion at Pyongyang airport.
In December last year, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah quoted European intelligence sources in Brussels as saying that Syria was engaged in an advanced nuclear programme in its northeastern province.
Most diplomats and experts dismiss the idea that Syria could master the technical and industrial knowhow to make its own nuclear devices. The vital question is whether North Korea could have transferred some of its estimated 55 kilos of weapons-grade plutonium to Syria. Six to eight kilos are enough for one rudimentary bomb.
“If it is proved that Kim Jong-il sold fissile material to Syria in breach of every red line the Americans have drawn for him, what does that mean?” asked one official. The results of tests on whatever the Israelis may have seized from the Syrian site could therefore be of enormous significance.
The Israeli army has so far declined to comment on the attack. However, several days afterwards, at a gathering marking the Jewish new year, the commander-in-chief of the Israeli military shook hands with and congratulated his generals. The scene was broadcast on Israeli television. After the fiasco in Lebanon last year, it was regarded as a sign that “we’re back in business, guys”.
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From The Times
September 24, 2007
La Nina threatens to wreck world’s weather
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2517868.ece
Experts predict a run of severe weather in the coming months, with devastating floods striking some parts of the world while severe droughts afflict other regions, as the climate phenomenon known as La Niña gathers momentum.
A chronic drought afflicting southern California and many southeastern states of America could be exacerbated, with Los Angeles heading for its driest year on record. In contrast, western Canada and the northwestern US could turn colder and snowier. Mozambique, southeast Africa, and northern Brazil may face exceptionally heavy rains and floods, while southern Brazil and much of Argentina suffer drought.
La Niña could even rearrange the pattern of sea ice around the Antarctic, pushing the ice pack towards the Pacific side of the continent. Already, torrential rains have triggered severe floods across a huge swath of Central Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Uganda in the east.
Rupa Kumar Kolli, chief of world applications at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, predicts that the worst of La Niña is yet to come. “This La Niña is now in its developing phase and getting stronger, and we can expect it to peak this coming December and January,” he said. Whether this episode of La Niña will make itself felt in Britain and continental Europe this winter is not certain. “We tend to get a mild end to winter with La Niña, but it’s not a strong signal,” said Adam Scaife, at the Hadley Centre of the Met Office in Exeter.
Met Office scientists have found that La Niña is likely to have played a part in the abysmal British summer. By upsetting the usual track of the high-altitude jet stream towards Britain, it delivered barrages of slow-moving Atlantic depressions with torrents of rain. La Niña may also have been involved in the spectacular Asian monsoon this summer, leading to floods that killed about 1,000 people in India and Bangladesh. And it allows hurricanes to develop - already this month the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico have experienced two monstrous Category 5 storms. Another hurricane broke the record for the fastest intensification of a storm.
La Niña occurs when the tropical seas of the Pacific off the coast of Latin America cool down, while the waters turn warmer towards Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia. That lurch in ocean temperatures can send weather systems into havoc over vast areas, delivering huge deluges of rain over the Far East and tropical Australia, while western parts of Latin America turn much drier than usual. This is the flip side of El Niño, although La Niña lasts for a shorter time, usually no more than a year.
The way that La Niña casts its spell over the globe, from the Pacific to the rest of the world, is known as a “tele-connection”. By disrupting sea temperatures, pressure systems and winds over the Pacific, it interferes with the atmospheric circulation around the tropics. This sends out waves in the atmosphere, like casting a stone into a pond, which can change the strength and position of jet stream winds several miles high. In this way the Pacific can have a huge impact on the weather far from the tropics.
Any rainfall promised for Australia?
They don't exclude hurricanes in Mediterranean...
From The Times
September 24, 2007
Warm waters may trigger Mediterranean hurricane
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/uk_and_roi/article2518264.ece
Anyone going on holiday to the Caribbean or southern coasts of the US needs to be aware of the risk of hurricanes, especially at this time of year. But tourists to the Mediterranean may need to watch out for hurricanes in the future.
This year brought the fastest intensification of a hurricane, when Humberto exploded from a tropical depression to a hurricane in just 16 hours. In 2005 there was a record number of hurricanes, including the most intense one yet on record.
Tropical cyclones also are cropping up in unexpected places: in 2004, the first hurricane appeared in the South Atlantic and struck the coast of Brazil, and a year later Hurricane Vince formed near the Madeira islands in the Atlantic and became the first known hurricane to hit Spain.
Climate change might be responsible for altering these areas where tropical cyclones develop. A recent study looked at climate change forecasts and revealed for the first time a risk of a tropical cyclone development over the Mediterranean as the waters there warmed up.
Although there were large uncertainties in the forecasts, the heat stored in the sea is expected to boost the intensity of storms, eventually triggering Mediterranean hurricanes.
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that is interesting e, because I had heard that we were coming to the end of the La Nina phase. I may have this wrong, and I can ask my neighbours who own the property, as they watch it like a hawk. What I heard, was that we should have had our increased rains from this swing, but we didn't get them, and now we are about to swing back to the opposite, meaning dry - in Aust there is huge panic about the dry - it is about to devastate the entire rural sector.
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hard times we live!
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Three Gorges: China is warned of 'catastrophe'
By Clifford Coonan in Shenzhen, southern China
Published: 27 September 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3001651.ece
An ecological disaster looms around the Three Gorges Dam, a potent symbol of China's social, economic and technological progress, despite years of insistence the project is safe. The banks of the mighty Yangtze are being eroded by the weight of the water behind the dam, hazardous landslides blight the area as water levels fluctuate wildly and huge waves crash against riverbanks.
Ever controversial since planning of the project began decades ago – it sparked the biggest political debate in communist China's history – the massive project is as potent a symbol of centrally planned technical prowess as you will find.
The left side of the dam began generating power in 2005, and turbines on the right side started sending electricity to the power grid earlier this month but the dream of cheap and efficient hydropower is turning sour.
While the dam has served as a barrier against seasonal flooding on the lower reaches of the Yangtze and the hydroelectricity generated has led to a decrease of 100 million tons of carbon emissions, the benefits have come at a potentially disastrous ecological and environmental cost. A group of experts and political grandees at a conference in the central Chinese city of Wuhan agreed the dam had had a "notably adverse" impact on the environment of the reservoir and along the Yangtze river since last year and "if no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe", the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Frequent geological disasters have threatened the lives of those who live around the reservoir area, said Huang Xuebin, head of flood control. He described landslides around the reservoir that had produced waves as high as 50 metres, which crashed into the adjacent shoreline, causing even more damage.
Tan Qiwei, vice-mayor of the huge metropolis of flood-threatened Chongqing – the biggest city in the world by some reckonings – said the shore of the reservoir had collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 kilometres of land had caved in.
The Hubei vice-governor, Li Chunming, said clear water discharged from the dam had also threatened protective embankments downstream.
The State Council's director of the dam project, Wang Xiaofeng, said: "We can by no means relax our vigilance... or profit from a fleeting economic boom at the cost of sacrificing the environment."
The Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao said the dam's ecological and environmental woes were primary problems to be addressed.
For environmental activists such as the journalist Dai Qing, whose book Yangtze! Yangtze! earned her 10 months in a maximum security prison and the threat of the death sentence, the official admission that the dam is a potential environmental disaster was received with bitter irony.
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Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: September 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/world/asia/28water.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the primary water source for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running dry. The underground water table is sinking about four feet a year. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater.
Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. A new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.
“People who are buying apartments aren’t thinking about whether there will be water in the future,” said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for 20 years to raise public awareness about the city’s dire water situation.
For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.
China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.
One example is grain. The Communist Party, leery of depending on imports to feed the country, has long insisted on grain self-sufficiency. But growing so much grain consumes huge amounts of underground water in the North China Plain, which produces half the country’s wheat. Some scientists say farming in the rapidly urbanizing region should be restricted to protect endangered aquifers. Yet doing so could threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and cause a spike in international grain prices.
For the Communist Party, the immediate challenge is the prosaic task of forcing the world’s most dynamic economy to conserve and protect clean water. Water pollution is so widespread that regulators say a major incident occurs every other day. Municipal and industrial dumping has left sections of many rivers “unfit for human contact.”
Cities like Beijing and Tianjin have shown progress on water conservation, but China’s economy continues to emphasize growth. Industry in China uses 3 to 10 times more water, depending on the product, than industries in developed nations.
“We have to now focus on conservation,” said Ma Jun, a prominent environmentalist. “We don’t have much extra water resources. We have the same resources and much bigger pressures from growth.”
In the past, the Communist Party has reflexively turned to engineering projects to address water problems, and now it is reaching back to one of Mao’s unrealized plans: the $62 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project to funnel more than 12 trillion gallons northward every year along three routes from the Yangtze River basin, where water is more abundant. The project, if fully built, would be completed in 2050. The eastern and central lines are already under construction; the western line, the most disputed because of environmental concerns, remains in the planning stages.
The North China Plain undoubtedly needs any water it can get. An economic powerhouse with more than 200 million people, it has limited rainfall and depends on groundwater for 60 percent of its supply. Other countries, like Yemen, India, Mexico and the United States, have aquifers that are being drained to dangerously low levels. But scientists say those below the North China Plain may be drained within 30 years.
“There’s no uncertainty,” said Richard Evans, a hydrologist who has worked in China for two decades and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and China’s Ministry of Water Resources. “The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues.”
Outside Shijiazhuang, construction crews are working on the transfer project’s central line, which will provide the city with infusions of water on the way to the final destination, Beijing. For many of the engineers and workers, the job carries a patriotic gloss.
Yet while many scientists agree that the project will provide an important influx of water, they also say it will not be a cure-all. No one knows how much clean water the project will deliver; pollution problems are already arising on the eastern line. Cities and industry will be the beneficiaries of the new water, but the impact on farming is limited. Water deficits are expected to remain.
“Many people are asking the question: What can they do?” said Zheng Chunmiao, a leading international groundwater expert. “They just cannot continue with current practices. They have to find a way to bring the problem under control.”
A Drying Region
On a drizzly, polluted morning last April, Wang Baosheng steered his Chinese-made sport utility vehicle out of a shopping center on the west side of Beijing for a three-hour southbound commute that became a tour of the water crisis on the North China Plain.
Mr. Wang travels several times a month to Shijiazhuang, where he is chief engineer overseeing construction of three miles of the central line of the water transfer project. A light rain splattered the windshield, and he recited a Chinese proverb about the preciousness of spring showers for farmers. He also noticed one dead river after another as his S.U.V. glided over dusty, barren riverbeds: the Yongding, the Yishui, the Xia and, finally, the Hutuo. “You see all these streams with bridges, but there is no water,” he said.
A century or so ago, the North China Plain was a healthy ecosystem, scientists say. Farmers digging wells could strike water within eight feet. Streams and creeks meandered through the region. Swamps, natural springs and wetlands were common.
Today, the region, comparable in size to New Mexico, is parched. Roughly five-sixths of the wetlands have dried up, according to one study. Scientists say that most natural streams or creeks have disappeared. Several rivers that once were navigable are now mostly dust and brush. The largest natural freshwater lake in northern China, Lake Baiyangdian, is steadily contracting and besieged with pollution.
What happened? The list includes misguided policies, unintended consequences, a population explosion, climate change and, most of all, relentless economic growth. In 1963, a flood paralyzed the region, prompting Mao to construct a flood-control system of dams, reservoirs and concrete spillways. Flood control improved but the ecological balance was altered as the dams began choking off rivers that once flowed eastward into the North China Plain.
The new reservoirs gradually became major water suppliers for growing cities like Shijiazhuang. Farmers, the region’s biggest water users, began depending almost exclusively on wells. Rainfall steadily declined in what some scientists now believe is a consequence of climate change.
Before, farmers had compensated for the region’s limited annual rainfall by planting only three crops every two years. But underground water seemed limitless and government policies pushed for higher production, so farmers began planting a second annual crop, usually winter wheat, which requires a lot of water.
By the 1970s, studies show, the water table was already falling. Then Mao’s death and the introduction of market-driven economic reforms spurred a farming renaissance. Production soared, and rural incomes rose. The water table kept falling, further drying out wetlands and rivers.
Around 1900, Shijiazhuang was a collection of farming villages. By 1950, the population had reached 335,000. This year, the city has roughly 2.3 million people with a metropolitan area population of 9 million.
More people meant more demand for water, and the city now heavily pumps groundwater. The water table is falling more than a meter a year. Today, some city wells must descend more than 600 feet to reach clean water. In the deepest drilling areas, steep downward funnels have formed in the water table that are known as “cones of depression.”
Groundwater quality also has worsened. Wastewater, often untreated, is now routinely dumped into rivers and open channels. Mr. Zheng, the water specialist, said studies showed that roughly three-quarters of the region’s entire aquifer system was now suffering some level of contamination.
“There will be no sustainable development in the future if there is no groundwater supply,” said Liu Changming, a leading Chinese hydrology expert and a senior scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A National Project
Three decades ago, when Deng Xiaoping shifted China from Maoist ideology and fixated the country on economic growth, a generation of technocrats gradually took power and began rebuilding a country that ideology had almost destroyed. Today, the top leaders of the Communist Party — including Hu Jintao, China’s president and party chief — were trained as engineers.
Though not members of the political elite, Wang Baosheng, the engineer on the water transfer project, and his colleague Yang Guangjie are of the same background. This spring, at the site outside Shijiazhuang, bulldozers clawed at a V-shaped cut in the dirt while teams of workers in blue jumpsuits and orange hard hats smoothed wet cement over a channel that will be almost as wide as a football field.
“I’ve been to the Hoover Dam, and I really admire the people who built that,” said Mr. Yang, the project manager. “At the time, they were making a huge contribution to the development of their country.”
He compared China’s transfer project to the water diversion system devised for southern California in the last century. “Maybe we are like America in the 1920s and 1930s,” he said. “We’re building the country.”
China’s disadvantage, compared with the United States, is that it has a smaller water supply yet almost five times as many people. China has about 7 percent of the world’s water resources and roughly 20 percent of its population. It also has a severe regional water imbalance, with about four-fifths of the water supply in the south.
Mao’s vision of borrowing water from the Yangtze for the north had an almost profound simplicity, but engineers and scientists spent decades debating the project before the government approved it, partly out of desperation, in 2002. Today, demand is far greater in the north, and water quality has badly deteriorated in the south. Roughly 41 percent of China’s wastewater is now dumped in the Yangtze, raising concerns that siphoning away clean water northward will exacerbate pollution problems in the south.
The upper reaches of the central line are expected to be finished in time to provide water to Beijing for the Olympic Games next year. Mr. Evans, the World Bank consultant, called the complete project “essential” but added that success would depend on avoiding waste and efficiently distributing the water.
Mr. Liu, the scholar and hydrologist, said that farming would get none of the new water and that cities and industry must quickly improve wastewater treatment. Otherwise, he said, cities will use the new water to dump more polluted wastewater. Shijiazhuang now dumps untreated wastewater into a canal that local farmers use to irrigate fields.
For years, Chinese officials thought irrigation efficiency was the answer for reversing groundwater declines. Eloise Kendy, a hydrology expert with The Nature Conservancy who has studied the North China Plain, said that farmers had made improvements but that the water table had kept sinking. Ms. Kendy said the spilled water previously considered “wasted” had actually soaked into the soil and recharged the aquifer. Efficiency erased that recharge. Farmers also used efficiency gains to irrigate more land.
Ms. Kendy said scientists had discovered that the water table was dropping because of water lost by evaporation and transpiration from the soil, plants and leaves. This lost water is a major reason the water table keeps dropping, scientists say.
Farmers have no choice. They drill deeper.
Difficult Choices Ahead
For many people living in the North China Plain, the notion of a water crisis seems distant. No one is crawling across a parched desert in search of an oasis. But every year, the water table keeps dropping. Nationally, groundwater usage has almost doubled since 1970 and now accounts for one-fifth of the country’s total water usage, according to the China Geological Survey Bureau.
The Communist Party is fully aware of the problems. A new water pollution law is under consideration that would sharply increase fines against polluters. Different coastal cities are building desalination plants. Multinational waste treatment companies are being recruited to help tackle the enormous wastewater problem.
Many scientists believe that huge gains can still be reaped by better efficiency and conservation. In north China, pilot projects are under way to try to reduce water loss from winter wheat crops. Some cities have raised the price of water to promote conservation, but it remains subsidized in most places. Already, some cities along the route of the transfer project are recoiling because of the planned higher prices. Some say they may just continue pumping.
Tough political choices, though, seem unavoidable. Studies by different scientists have concluded that the rising water demands in the North China Plain make it unfeasible for farmers to continue planting a winter crop. The international ramifications would be significant if China became an ever bigger customer on world grain markets. Some analysts have long warned that grain prices could steadily rise, contributing to inflation and making it harder for other developing countries to buy food.
The social implications would also be significant inside China. Near Shijiazhuang, Wang Jingyan’s farming village depends on wells that are more than 600 feet deep. Not planting winter wheat would amount to economic suicide.
“We would lose 60 percent or 70 percent of our income if we didn’t plant winter wheat,” Mr. Wang said. “Everyone here plants winter wheat.”
Another water proposal is also radical: huge, rapid urbanization. Scientists say converting farmland into urban areas would save enough water to stop the drop in the water table, if not reverse it, because widespread farming still uses more water than urban areas. Of course, large-scale urbanization, already under way, could worsen air quality; Shijiazhuang’s air already ranks among the worst in China because of heavy industrial pollution.
For now, Shijiazhuang’s priority, like that of other major Chinese cities, is to grow as quickly as possible. The city’s gross domestic product has risen by an average of 10 percent every year since 1980, even as the city’s per capita rate of available water is now only one thirty-third of the world average.
“We have a water shortage, but we have to develop,” said Wang Yongli, a senior engineer with the city’s water conservation bureau. “And development is going to be put first.”
Mr. Wang has spent four decades charting the steady extinction of the North China Plain’s aquifer. Water in Shijiazhuang, with more than 800 illegal wells, is as scarce as it is in Israel, he said. “In Israel, people regard water as more important than life itself,” he said. “In Shijiazhuang, it’s not that way. People are focused on the economy.”
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Baltic Sea Severely Polluted, Experts Warn
from
Deutsche Welle
Campaigners from the World Wildlife Fund have said that the Baltic Sea north of Germany is turning into a "death zone," warning that around 70,000 square kilometers of water are uninhabitable.
Towns on the Baltic Sea are normally idyllic places of retreat, but the waters lapping toward them have become more than a little mucky.
The World Wildlife Fund in the Baltic seaport of Stralsund said this week that low oxygen levels have rendered around 70,000 square kilometers of the sea uninhabitable (the total area of the Baltic Sea is 422,000 square kilometers, i.e. 1/6 of it is dead).
The main culprit polluting and strangling the waters is fertilizer, said Jochen Lamp, head of WWF in Stralsund. He said fertilizer nitrates are leaking into the Baltic Sea from farms and estuaries.
In addition, across one sixth of the Baltic, algae flowers now bloom where plants and animals once lived -- with serious consequences for the ecosystem.
"On the top of the water it looks like a normal sea, but on the bottom, there is very little which still lives," he said.
Waste being dumped into Baltic Sea
However, Dietrich Schulz of the German Federal Environment agency said that fertilization runoff from crops is not the biggest issue.
Schulz, who is part of a group working on ways to lessen the impact of animal by-products on the Baltic, said that the water near the new EU states in Eastern Europe, and in Belarus and Russia, suffers from another problem.
"The bigger problem is that the animal farms in the area have no place to discard their waste, so the farmers tend to just discharge it into the water," he said.
In November, experts will present the Baltic Action Plan to the Helsinki Commission, a collaboration of all the countries that surround the Baltic, in November.
Calls for sustainable practices
Good agricultural practices could be binding for EU members, but we also have Russia and Belarus as members of the Helsinki Commission and they are not within the EU schemes, Schulz said. "So we have to define other standards and respect the Russian and Belrussian positions," he added.
The EU cross-compliance controls -- the trade-off of agricultural subsidies for environmentally friendly practices -- will cut funding for animal farms with antiquated waste management systems in old EU states starting in October.
But, this will not go into effect for the new EU member states until 2013.
Experts say the real problem is increasing and uncontrolled agricultural production in the new EU states.
They are calling for a binding and sustainable agricultural policy for the entire Baltic Sea region.
...there. the time of Man is running out so very fast and the end will be ugly - drowning in own crap
...always the same - learning through experience - and there is one monumental EXPERIENCE heading our way
...yes, the remaining time...must be put in good use...i'll put it in good use
...nothing left to say in this thread...
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...there. the time of Man is running out so very fast and the end will be ugly - drowning in own crap
...always the same - learning through experience - and there is one monumental EXPERIENCE heading our way
...yes, the remaining time...must be put in good use...i'll put it in good use
...nothing left to say in this thread...
... except to mention "The Final Solution" or "Some Inconvenient Math"
This week that follows (w 41) we pass what is called The Overshoot day - it is the day when we pass the limit what the Earth can provide to us human in one year. The rest of the year we borrow resources from the future. Resources that we deplete.
The Overshoot day (http://www.livescience.com/environment/061010_overshoot_day.html)
All this can be calculated in energy terms and some has tried to estimate use of resources in the equation of Ecological footprint where the Western societies use more per capita than not so developed countries etc. You probably know all this. My point is that we were at break even back in 1987 when the total population was around 5 billion. Today we are about 6,6 billion people that consume the resources in a more or less wasteful manner.
The World Population (http://medindia.net/patients/calculators/worldPopulation.asp)
Now - fortunately noone has yet come up with the idea to solve this minus equation by using The Ecological Suicide. We simply reduce the population back to a limit where it still is possible to feed us (with oil :-\ ). Food seems not to be the problem because overweight is more common than starving, so that problem is only a transferrence issue.
Anyway, to get in some balance we ought to reduce our mass with 1,4 billion people. But that is a average, for each westerner savings are greater and Africans can almost be left alone in this solution because they consume so little.
So up to the front - who wants to save the world! Be a good ecological fool and commit suicide. If noone does it freely perhaps we can have random selections as TV-shows each weekend ... :P
The calculation: On oct the 10th there is about 22 % days left of the year, 22 % of 6,6 billion gives roughly 1,4 billion.
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jahn, our sea is as good as dead:
The current area of dead bottoms, which are found in the Gulf of Finland, in the Baltic Proper, the Belt Sea and the Kattegat, is 100 000 km2, which is about one third of the entire area of the sea floor. Anoxic conditions in the bottom water also cause sediment-bound phosphorus to be released into the water. The brackish character of the Baltic Sea also plays an important role in its ecology. Water circulation in the Baltic Sea is weak. Surface water movement is most affected by winds, a significant factor in water mixing and distribution of pollutants. In winter, the Baltic Sea is largely ice-covered, which renders it even more vulnerable to the effects of pollution. Finally, many rivers bringing freshwater, especially to the Baltic Sea Proper, also carry with them many polluting substances.
http://www.baltic.vtt.fi/demo/balful.html
the fact, that somebody still eats fish caught in that dirt pond (though, i've heard that in sweden eating any fish from the baltic sea is forbidden to pregnant women) and somebody still swims in it is largely caused by ignorance. since 1980s they've known how bad the sea has been and nobody did anything substantial - they only bought us some time. the preference is clear - welfare NOW, and to hell with future and respect for nature.
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The only thing that makes me wonder is that there still seem to be people hoping that it all could be reversed somehow.
Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 03 October 2007
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3021309.ece
Parts of the Arctic have experienced an unprecedented heatwave this summer, with one research station in the Canadian High Arctic recording temperatures above 20C, about 15C higher than the long-term average. The high temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice in September to the lowest levels ever recorded, a further indication of how sensitive this region of the world is to global warming. Scientists from Queen's University in Ontario watched with amazement as their thermometers touched 22C during their July field expedition at the High Arctic camp on Melville Island, usually one of the coldest places in North America.
"This was exceptional for a place where the normal average temperatures are about 5C. This year we frequently recorded daytime temperatures of between 10C and 15C and on some days it went as high as 22C," said Scott Lamoureux, a professor of geography at Queen's.
"Even temperatures of 15C are higher than we'd expect and yet we recorded them for between 10 and 12 days during July. We won't know the August and September recordings until next year when we go back there but it appears the region has continued to be warm through the summer."
The high temperatures on the island caused catastrophic mudslides as the permafrost on hillsides melted, Professor Lamoureux said. "The landscape was being torn to pieces, literally before our eyes."
Other parts of the Arctic also experienced higher-than-normal temperatures, which indicate that the wider polar region may have experienced its hottest summer on record, according to Walt Meir of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
"It's been warm, with temperatures about 3C or 4C above normal for June, July and August, particularly to the north of Siberia where the temperatures have reached between 4C and 5C above average," Dr Meir said.
Unusually clear skies over the Arctic this summer have caused temperatures to rise. More sunlight has exacerbated the loss of sea ice, which fell to a record low of 4.28 million square kilometres (1.65 million square miles), some 39 per cent below the long-term average for the period 1979 to 2000. Dr Meir said: "While the decline of the ice started out fairly slowly in spring and early summer, it accelerated rapidly in July. By mid-August, we had already shattered all previous records for ice extent."
An international team of scientists on board the Polar Stern, a research ship operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, also felt the effects of an exceptionally warm Arctic summer. The scientists had anticipated that large areas of the Arctic would be covered by ice with a thickness of about two metres, but found that it had thinned to just one metre.
Instead of breaking through thicker ice at an expected speed of between 1 and 2 knots, the Polar Stern managed to cruise at 6 knots through thin ice and sometimes open water.
"We are in the midst of a phase of dramatic change in the Arctic," said Ursula Schauer, the chief scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, who was on board the Polar Stern expedition. "The ice cover of the North Polar Sea is dwindling, the ocean and the atmosphere are becoming steadily warmer, the ocean currents are changing," she said.
One scientist came back from the North Pole and reported that it was raining there, said David Carlson, the director of International Polar Year, the effort to highlight the climate issues of the Arctic and Antarctic. "It makes you wonder whether anyone has ever reported rain at the North Pole before."
Another team of scientists monitoring the movements of Ayles Ice Island off northern Canada reported that it had broken in two far earlier than expected, a further indication of warmer temperatures. And this summer, for the first time, an American sailing boat managed to traverse the North-west Passage from Nova Scotia to Alaska, a voyage usually made by icebreakers. Never before has a sail-powered vessel managed to get straight through the usually ice-blocked sea passage.
Inhabitants of the region are also noticing a significant change as a result of warmer summers, according to Shari Gearheard, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre. "People who live in the region are noticing changes in sea ice. The earlier break-up and later freeze-up affect when and where people can go hunting, as well as safety for travel," she said.
Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said: "We may see an ice-free Arctic Ocean in summer within our lifetimes. The implications... are disturbing."
The North-west Passage: an ominous sign
The idea of a North-west Passage was born in 1493, when Pope Alexander VI divided the discovered world between Spain and Portugal, blocking England, France and Holland from a sea route to Asia. As it became clear a passage across Europe was impossible, the ambitious plan was hatched to seek out a route through north-western waters, and nations sent out explorers. When, in the 18th century, James Cook reported that Antarctic icebergs produced fresh water, the view that northern waters were not impossibly frozen was encouraged. In 1776 Cook himself was dispatched by the Admiralty with an Act promising a £20,000 prize, but he failed to push through a route north of Canada. His attempt preceded several British expeditions including a famous Victorian one by Sir John Franklin in 1845. Finally, in 1906 Roald Amundsen led the first trip across the passage to Alaska, and since then a number of fortified ships have followed. On 21 August this year, the North-west Passage was opened to ships not armed with icebreakers for the first time since records began.
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I have nothing to hide, and I pity whoever might be reading mine ... boring stuff! Is a way around that through these forums? (Though I suppose installing one of those keystroke-hack-measuring-thingies is always a possibility for them.)
If you really want to make an effort not to be watched on the net you might start reading this: http://www.fravia.com/noanon.htm
I'm not terribly concerned about it, but perhaps I should.
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jahn, our sea is as good as dead:
http://www.baltic.vtt.fi/demo/balful.html
the fact, that somebody still eats fish caught in that dirt pond (though, i've heard that in sweden eating any fish from the baltic sea is forbidden to pregnant women) and somebody still swims in it is largely caused by ignorance. since 1980s they've known how bad the sea has been and nobody did anything substantial - they only bought us some time. the preference is clear - welfare NOW, and to hell with future and respect for nature.
A new fish has come to enter the mud. It came with ships and are now expanding in the south of the Baltic sea.
I know it is a awful situation, and if we, all caring countries, cannot have a healthy sea around our coasts, who can? And now the Russians want to stir up the mud by building a gaz connection to Germany!
Pregnant women, well they got many things to check. The last news was that eating fish as such is more healthier than not, even if it come from the Baltic as long as it is not more than 2 times per week. But what the h-ll, you seldom find fish from the Baltic, the fish at the supermarket comes from the whole world. The only thing we eat that is local is sweet water fish and herring. Pickled herring (or Sill as we call it) is a big deal here, it is mostly consumed to christmas and midsummer but also used as a delicate first course all year around. Herring with onions (classic), with mustard (a best seller), with garlic and about ten other mixes is available. It has some similarities with Sushi. And the Sill should be served with potatoes , knäckebröd (hard bread) and schnaps (Swedish vodka).
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Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&feed=rss.news
At the start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an event he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and declares the romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing."
To the eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe.
In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.
The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.
Marcus Juhanisen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, said his group has been monitoring the Garbage Patch for 10 years.
"With the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the perfect environment for trapping," Juhanisen said. "There's nothing we can do about it now, except do no more harm."
The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco.
Ocean current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the world few will ever see, but the majority of its content is generated onshore, according to a report from Greenpeace last year titled "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans."
The report found that 80 percent of the oceans' litter originated on land. While ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves into the waters (sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority of sea garbage begins its journey as onshore trash.
That's what makes a potentially toxic swamp like the Garbage Patch entirely preventable, Parry said.
"At this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues. ... The long-term solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home and change our consumption habits."
Parry said using canvas bags to cart groceries instead of using plastic bags is a good first step; buying foods that aren't wrapped in plastics is another.
After the San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned the use of plastic grocery bags earlier this year with the problem of ocean debris in mind, a slew of state bills were written to limit bag production, said Sarah Christie, a legislative director with the California Coastal Commission.
But many of the bills failed after meeting strong opposition from plastics industry lobbyists, she said.
Meanwhile, the stew in the ocean continues to grow.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is particularly dangerous for birds and marine life, said Warner Chabot, vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group.
Sea turtles mistake clear plastic bags for jellyfish. Birds swoop down and swallow indigestible shards of plastic. The petroleum-based plastics take decades to break down, and as long as they float on the ocean's surface, they can appear as feeding grounds.
"These animals die because the plastic eventually fills their stomachs," Chabot said. "It doesn't pass, and they literally starve to death."
The Greenpeace report found that at least 267 marine species had suffered from some kind of ingestion or entanglement with marine debris.
Chabot said if environmentalists wanted to remove the ocean dump site, it would take a massive international effort that would cost billions.
But that is unlikely, he added, because no one country is likely to step forward and claim the issue as its own responsibility.
Instead, cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is left to the landlubbers.
"What we can do is ban plastic fast food packaging," Chabot said, "or require the substitution of biodegradable materials, increase recycling programs and improve enforcement of litter laws.
"Otherwise, this ever-growing floating continent of trash will be with us for the foreseeable future."
How to help
You can help to limit the ever-growing patch of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean. Here are some ways to help:
Limit your use of plastics when possible. Plastic doesn't easily degrade and can kill sea life.
Use a reusable bag when shopping. Throwaway bags can easily blow into the ocean.
Take your trash with you when you leave the beach.
Make sure your trash bins are securely closed. Keep all trash in closed bags.
Texas' area is 680 000 sq km, i.e. garbage island has an area of 1.3 million sq km and weight of 3.5 million tons - 3 tons/sq km. Plastic...
Hmm...
Australia has total area of 7.6 million sq km, US 9.8 million sq km.
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That is a thing I have wondered about for a while. Humanitarians and social scientists say that humans can do really many things. Natural scientists say there are physical limits to what can be done. The size of population and the available territory are such physical variables (I've been trained as an engineer and for me they matter much more than any other variable, intention or factor). It seems so clear and inevitable that population growth must destroy and take over the habitats of wild animals, and when it comes to choosing - human or animal? - the choice is made before the question is asked.
Yet the lingering hope...amazing how it refuses to die in the face of inevitable.
Mahendra Shrestha: The heartbreaking fate of India's symbol of strength
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3112842.ece
Published: 31 October 2007
As its national emblem, the tiger symbolises India's strength and natural beauty. And this makes the new tiger population estimate of between 1,300 and 1,500 even more heart breaking. It is also truly shocking, for it is less than half of the estimates from the 1990s.
The method used to calculate previous estimates was controversial and this resulted in a dangerous complacency regarding the need proactively to protect India's tigers, their prey and their habitats. This new figure is the outcome of a rigorous sampling procedure. It is the realistic figure today and it is one which everyone, from the Indian authorities to conservationists, needs to accept.
Saving tigers is increasingly challenging in today's India, as it seeks to juggle the livelihood of its rural population, its speedy economic growth and at the same time protect its natural assets. But it is a challenge that must be met. And there are historic precedents to suggest that real success is possible. The 1972 estimate of 1,872 tigers prompted the launch of an extensive tiger conservation effort, with strong political support. It was one of the most successful wildlife conservation efforts for the recovery of tigers and numbers recovered to 3,750 within two decades. But after that step forward, it has been many steps back and the population has declined.
Lower tiger numbers underscore the precarious situation of tigers throughout Asia, since India has always been the tiger's stronghold. The number of tigers in captivity around the world now far exceeds the population in the wild, and a recent study found that the area in the wild in which tigers are able to roam is down by 40 per cent on what it was in the 1990s.
This gloomy picture calls for tiger conservation efforts to be urgently re-evaluated, especially in light of the new demographic and economic changes seen in Asia. Economic growth in the region has enabled a large emerging middle class to afford expensive tiger parts and products and sparked a resurgence of illegal trade in tiger parts, intensifying the poaching pressure on tiger reserves in Asia.
The capacity of government institutions needs revamping to address the emerging threats. The establishment of the Wildlife Crime Bureau in India is encouraging, but regional co-operation such as ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network is essential to curb the trans-border illegal trade.
Strong and lasting commitments from governments, NGOs, development agencies and others are critical to save tiger lands. The tiger population in India includes many small populations and tigers in small and isolated reserves are always vulnerable. Habitats must be protected, embedded into the larger landscape with very little or no human intervention, so a viable tiger population can survive. Winning the support of people living in the surrounding communities is critical and so conservation efforts need to benefit local people – they need to see why they should save tigers.
There were about 100,000 tigers in Asia at the beginning of the last century and if we are to prevent the last animals from dying out in this century then we need nothing short of a miracle. But every miracle must start somewhere, and it is these initial steps that India must now take.
Mahendra Shrestha trained as a forester in India and is now the director of Save The Tiger Fund, based in Washington DC
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We cultivate our wolfs. Happy if it comes a pair from Finland or Russia over to us.The situation is better now than what it was some decades ago. In 1992 we had less than 20 wolfs left but now, thanks to heavy restrictions on hunting and natural inflow we will have about 200 the coming years.
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Well, in North America they have 4,7 hectares to support the life standard of one person, in India they have a half tennis court feeding one person. Nordic countries are clearly countires with very high life standard, but do you really think Sweden does not consume its nature? C'mon, it is clear as clear as daylight that Nordic states have ecological footprints among top ten-top fifteen in the world.
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All this can be calculated in energy terms and some has tried to estimate use of resources in the equation of Ecological footprint where the Western societies use more per capita than not so developed countries etc. You probably know all this.
We travel a lot because it is a long distance country. And as I wanted to say before that our ecological foot print is above average for most countries - but - and that is a big but we are leading in recycling, using biogas, windmills for electricity and above all we have - thanks to nature - very much green electricity from water.
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do you really think Sweden does not consume its nature?
There is no good transferring system for ecological use (misuse) - so we have problems. But Sweden is rich in many ways and if this global warming continous in a somewhat structured way you will soon be able to buy wine from Swedish vineyards.
One of our greatest assets is the woods and therefore much efforts are spent on them. The greatest problem is about the water quality.
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We cultivate our wolfs. Happy if it comes a pair from Finland or Russia over to us.The situation is better now than what it was some decades ago. In 1992 we had less than 20 wolfs left but now, thanks to heavy restrictions on hunting and natural inflow we will have about 200 the coming years.
Jahn, recently viewed on the Discovery channel about how the environment of our Yellowstone National Park has changed since wolves were replanted there a couple of decades ago after being nearly exterminated about 40 - 50 yrs. ago by ranchers. Now that they are back the populations of moose, deer, elk, rabbit, mice, etc. are back down, which means more vegetation growth for migrating and nesting birds of many species. With more vegetation there is less erosion of the land and rivers are running deeper, making the fish populations increase. With all this and more us humans are realizing a little at a time here in the U.S. just how much we impact our ecology by one "little" less than logical and un-thought-through decision.
Thank heaven these wonderful creatures are back on our protected species list.
Also, CNN has been running this series, "Planet in Peril", which is quite astounding, with regards to how the globe is actually warming up right now and all the unbelievable affects upon it from various sources. Hopefully, all this change over the last decade is a normal and cyclic phenomena. The next generation will surely have its hands full, don't you think?
t2
t2
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Nope, not buying this reasoning - if you do not consume your own nature and resources, then these resources come from elsewhere. Makes little difference if it is Swedish forest of rainforest. It is just pure physics.
Of course we are a bad guy. On all the things we buy, clothes, tools, kitchen stuff it says: Made in China. I was just saying that we increase our nature resources here, we do not cut more than what we export.
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Jahn, recently viewed on the Discovery channel about how the environment of our Yellowstone National Park has changed since wolves were replanted there a couple of decades ago after being nearly exterminated about 40 - 50 yrs. ago by ranchers. Now that they are back the populations of moose, deer, elk, rabbit, mice, etc. are back down, which means more vegetation growth for migrating and nesting birds of many species. With more vegetation there is less erosion of the land and rivers are running deeper, making the fish populations increase.
That is good news! Balance, and everything get in order.
Hopefully, all this change over the last decade is a normal and cyclic phenomena.
I am afraid not dear Tommy,
this is it ...
~.~
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Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu (yes, adieu)
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I'll hang my harp on the weeping willow tree,
And may the world go well with thee.
Groups to Monitor Whales in Beaufort Sea
By DAN JOLING (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 06, 2007 7:57 PM EST
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Endangered humpback and fin whales swam hundreds of miles north of their usual habitat this summer in what environmentalists say is another sign of the effects of global warming and the shifting Arctic ecosystem.
Humpbacks were spotted over the summer in the Beaufort Sea east of Barrow, the northernmost community in the United States, and last year in the Chukchi Sea, west of the Beaufort and north of the Bering Strait, said Robin Cacy, a spokeswoman for the federal Minerals Management Service.
The agency oversees lease sales for offshore petroleum drilling in federal waters, including sales scheduled for 2008 in the Chukchi Sea and 2009 in the Beaufort Sea.
Some of the whales were spotted by observers involved with the oil industry, others by observers involved with barge traffic.
Cacy also said fin whales were detected this summer by acoustic monitoring in the Chukchi Sea, more than 300 miles north of their normal range. Both humpback and fin whales normally stay south of the Bering Strait in Alaska waters.
Environmental groups are calling for more study of the endangered animals' habits before industrial activity is allowed to expand off Alaska's northern shores.
No one was expecting humpbacks near the activity connected to Outer Continental Shelf lease sales, said Brad Smith, a protective resources biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"We didn't anticipate that they'd been encountered in any of the OCS exploration activity that we're doing this year," Smith said.
Minerals service spokesman Gary Strasburg said a sighting of an endangered species in a new area would not mean an immediate change in how the agency regulates petroleum exploration. It will take more time to determine whether the presence of humpbacks is a trend, and if so, for the agency determine the appropriate response, he said.
Brendan Cummings, ocean programs director for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the humpback sightings may indicate a recovering population expanding its range - or desperate animals in search of food.
Deborah Williams, a former Department of Interior special assistant for Alaska and now an advocate for finding solutions to climate change, said the presence of humpback and fin whales so far north has significant implications.
"We now have even more compelling reasons to protect the Arctic Ocean and the species dramatically affected by climate change," she said.
Other species that use the Chukchi Sea are behaving differently because of climate change, Cummings said. He cited gray whales seeking new feeding areas, and walrus congregating on Alaska's northwest shore this summer instead of on pack ice that had receded far beyond the continental shelf.
"It looks like the populations are suffering from it," he said. "All signs point to global warming. That would be the first suspect of why the whales are there."
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in December proposed listing polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Environmental groups had filed a petition stating that polar bears could become extinct by the end of the century because their sea ice habitat is melting away due to global warming. A final listing decision is due in January.
Sheela McLean, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service in Juneau, said humpbacks range widely and have been previously spotted on the Russian part of the Chukchi Sea. However, humpbacks are not usually associated with pack ice, so sightings farther north might be shifts in distribution caused by climate change, she said.
This year was a record low year for pack ice. The National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder in September recorded 1.65 million square miles of sea ice. That's 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.
Permits issued in 2007 for exposure of marine mammals to noise from seismic activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas covered neither humpback nor fin whales, said Smith, the fisheries service biologist. He added, however, that whales including grays and bowheads are covered, and that adding the other species might not increase the conditions placed on exploration.
The sensitivity of bowhead whales, which remain close to sea ice and are hunted in limited numbers by Eskimo whalers, is considered equal to or greater than the sensitivity of humpbacks, Smith said.
Cummings does not agree with that assessment of humpbacks - or with the government's protective measures in general.
"These are animals that are entirely dependent on sound," he said of humpbacks.
Permits issued don't take into account the federal government's own research indicating how easily whales can be deflected from their intended paths, Cummings said. The noise could have consequences for whales' feeding behavior, especially mothers migrating with their young.
"We don't believe that permits issued to date in the Beaufort Sea comply with the spirit or the letter of the Marine Mammal Protection Act or the Endangered Species Act," Cummings said.
Full-grown humpback whales average more than 40 feet long and weigh 25 to 35 tons. Fin whales are longer and more slender, growing to nearly 88 feet - second only to blue whales.
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...for the first time in Finnish history.
So it is contagious - blaming others for one's troubles...and shooting the bloody bastards for that good...
Some people in this country say that one just cannot escape the 'most democratic culture in the world' anywhere any more...
Fatal shooting at Finnish school
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7082795.stm
Eight people have been killed and at least 10 others injured in a shooting at a school in southern Finland, police have said.
The incident took place in Tuusula, some 50km (30 miles) north of the capital Helsinki.
Finnish police said an 18-year-old man killed five boys, two girls and the female principal of Jokela High School.
The gunman shot himself in the head and is in hospital in a critical condition, police said.
About a dozen other people are being treated for injuries. Police have not identified the gunman but a teacher said he was a student at the school.
Police responded to a call made at 1144 (0944 GMT) and made contact with the gunman when they arrived at the school 11 minutes later, said Timo Leppala, the officer in charge of the police operation.
"Police ordered him to surrender, to which he answered by shooting towards the police," Mr Leppala said.
He described a scene of chaos with students jumping from school windows and running for shelter as more police arrived.
It is not clear when the gunman shot himself in the head.
Police said he was armed with a .22 calibre pistol for which he obtained a license on 19 October. He did not have a criminal record and "was from an ordinary family," a police spokesman said.
A Tuusula municipality spokeswoman said the gunman opened fire during a lesson at Jokela secondary school, which has 400 pupils between 12 and 18.
'Ran in opposite direction'
Kim Kiuru, a Jokela teacher, said the head teacher announced over the school public announcement's system just before noon (1000 GMT) that all students should remain in their classrooms.
"I stayed in the corridor to listen to more instructions having locked my classroom door," Mr Kiuru told Finland's YLE radio.
"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small calibre handgun in his hand through the doors toward me after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction."
"It felt unreal - a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."
Mr Kiuru said he saw a woman's body as he fled the building. He said he then told his students to "jump out of the windows... and all my pupils were saved".
YouTube video
A video called "Jokela high school massacre 11/7/2007" was posted on the YouTube website by an 18-year-old man during the past two weeks.
The video shows a picture of a building by a lake and two photos of a young man holding a gun.
Going by the username Sturmgeist89, the person who posted the video calls himself a "social Darwinist" who would "eliminate all who I see unfit". "Sturmgeist" means storm spirit in German.
The video has now been removed from the website and police have not yet commented on it.
He had also reportedly posted on another website a rambling manifesto.
In it he said: "death and killing is not a tragedy... Not all human lives are important or worth saving."
He wrote that he was acting alone and nobody is to blame for his actions. "This is my war: one man's war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world."
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...for the first time in Finnish history.
So it is contagious - blaming others for one's troubles...and shooting the bloody bastards for that good...
Some people in this country say that one just cannot escape the 'most democratic culture in the world' anywhere any more...
Stormgeist89
That was MSN name on the guy that killed six schoolmates, one nurse and the headmaster in Finland the other day.
He was one year younger than my kids (from -88).
Innocence among the kids is gone.
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I wonder about that rage - shoot the bloody laughing bastards! It sounds like spirits are having a field day in these trotured and twisted minds. Where do they come from? How do they get access to these minds? Mass culture? Hollywood?
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I wonder about that rage - shoot the bloody laughing bastards! It sounds like spirits are having a field day in these trotured and twisted minds. Where do they come from? How do they get access to these minds? Mass culture? Hollywood?
This type of murder is only the collective dysfunction in manifestation.
It is built on alienation, hate and a bulk of misperceptions. Teenagers of today are under a heavy pressure and to take a extreme position build the ego ID. They believe in their dysfunctional ID and are able to manifest.
One professional investigator from the Police said that they are good to shoot, even better than the usual cop or officer. That their hit rate for each bullet is much higher than average is because they have trained in these war games. The step to real guns is little and therefore they are that good of killing ... sad that is ... I think.
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Computer games? Well, well, well. I forgot about these. They are a good method of turning human being into an automaton fired up by couple pretty basic emotions.
These automatons are a wet dream of many politicians. Simple to rule, easy to keep satisified.
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I feeling depressed tonight - been reading The Guardian again. Julie tries to not read it.
really, i can't see any hope for this species. i know there are bright spots, but they serve to only mask the growing dark spots.
honestly, Iraq is more than a disaster - it is perhaps the greatest living nightmare on our planet, and what do the people of the 'western' countries care?
we are facing very nasty stuff, from many directions.
OH well... into the valley of darkness...
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I feeling depressed tonight - been reading The Guardian again.
...
OH well... into the valley of darkness...
I try to stick to a specific type of optimism. :)
"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death . . . I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing."
was written on the gates of Kadena air force base that operated these planes:
(http://www.area51zone.com/aircraft/sr71_high.jpg)
There was also that English merchant navy sailor who has gone to history from the convoy PQ-17 during WW II. When his ship was sunk and he was in the icy water of North Sea (and had about 1-2 minutes of life left), one warship passed him (and could not stop because of the onslaught of German air force) that sailor shouted: 'Ahoy, ship! Which bloody way I have to swim to get to Murmansk?!'
(he had hundreds of miles to go...)
I guess that's pretty much all one can do given the circumstances (but there are more examples of a spirited approach to the inevitable that I admire :)).
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I feeling depressed tonight - been reading The Guardian again. Julie tries to not read it.
really, i can't see any hope for this species. i know there are bright spots, but they serve to only mask the growing dark spots.
honestly, Iraq is more than a disaster - it is perhaps the greatest living nightmare on our planet, and what do the people of the 'western' countries care?
we are facing very nasty stuff, from many directions.
OH well... into the valley of darkness...
Hi, Michael.
Was just browsing some of the forum, and was drawn to this post in particular, largely because I have felt much the same thing recently. Was talking to my SO (Wendy) last night, and we joked about the possibility of moving to Mexico, Canada, or even Australia. Of course... the problem is global, and we realize that, and yet... it seems that there has been a rather noticeable change of atmosphere & attitude here over the past couple of years that is rather darkly profound in its implications.
When I walk the streets of Los Angeles and really *see* the people there, I realize that the luminous cocoons of the majority are "weakened" - and in many cases, I have observed what appears to be an actual "fracture". While this type of energetic issue has always existed, I have never seen it so prevalent as it has become of late - and when I do my own gnosis-connection to the place of silent knowing, the words that accompany this *seeing* of a fractured cocoon are: "The spirit is injured, yet the body still lives."
I bring this into the discussion not as a criticism of these folks, but maybe as a bit of evidence that can speak to WHY we are seeing such an upswing of "darkness" of the human heart. I don't see it as something that any of us can "fix", and at times I feel precisely the same as you have mentioned here - that there is no hope for this species. Probably all too true.
What I do see, however, is that there might actually be two (or more) different species of humans on the planet right now. Or, more accurately, a mutation/evolution within the human species. For whatever reasons (whether personal, spiritual or genetic), it may be that the damage I am seeing to the luminous cocoons of many MIGHT result in a die-back. I don't like thinking in those terms, but there it is. When the cocoon is that damaged with regard to its ability to connect with spirit, the end result is that the organism will eventually become incompatible with life. The scary thing is that I also suspect that these "fractured" individuals not only realize this on some level, but they ALSO see the fracturing in OTHERS like themselves... and so they set out to destroy one another almost as if by some inner programming mechanism that drives an agenda of which no one is consciously aware, but nonetheless exists. Sort of like what occurs when too many rats are placed in the same cage - they begin to prey on one another.
The other side of this is that I do still see a LOT of healthy, vibrant cocoons walking around - just normal people going through their day to day lives, still maintaining some energetic connection to spirit, even if not in any sort of "organized" way, not in any way that could even be categorized. Just people who still have the potential & ability to be connected to the infinite in some manner.
No real conclusions here. Just felt drawn to connect with this thread, so I'm tossing these observations out there. Recently, as I was doing some gazing/seeing with regard to this phenomenon of "fractured" cocoons, I also received some information from the place of silent knowing, which basically said, "The battle has already been fought. That which will survive, already HAS."
I'm still pondering that message, but what it seemed to be saying is, basically, that which is infinite and eternal cannot be obliterated by the darkness. And yet... here we are, nonetheless facing the darkness, wondering what lies beyond it.
D
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"The battle has already been fought. That which will survive, already HAS."
Yes, that realisation has been loud and clear, lately. The die is cast and Rubico crossed.
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What I do see, however, is that there might actually be two (or more) different species of humans on the planet right now.
Hello Della, good to see you drop in.
yes i have entertained the same feelings myself.
i could even jump to saying it obvious, except that it has probably always been so. anyway, it is a view i do share, and in this time, its consequences are perhaps more relevant.
your comment about die-back. We had that here with the gum trees in our region - wiped out a lot of trees - esp those that were exposed. No one ever really found the cause, despite many bright suggestions. That may well be the case with humans.
unfortunately, what i see is that the fractured ones are still pumping the steam on a ship headed for the falls, and the healthy ones are on the same ship.
This could result in a very frightening scenario. Many of us are contemplating the same - looking around, for some place of survival. In The Guardian, George Monbiot is talking about a book called The Road by Cormac McCathy. Survival in a world without its biosphere - I suspect we will see many more of these books and films soon.
Tasmania looks good.
This fracturing you speak of - I have also been observing it in the younger online or wired generation. But also in the older generation, as I have been in retirement home hostels of late, as Julie's mother has just moved into one, and it is obvious to see one or two among them, who are alive, while the rest are completely out of it. Age and illness has not that much to do with this.
First, I sense we become short-sighted by the practice of using Death - essential as it is, it makes us impatient, and telescoping 'seeing' into too short a time span. Survival, is more than physical.
Second, I also sense, that a battle is growing between these sub-species. For too long the healthy species have been passive in the world, consenting to play only a technical role - ie making sure the details work where they can manage it. But in times of emergency, they are often seen to come forth and act. This emergency is unprecedented, and I see many are restless, and seeking ways to act in their own field. The Red people are awaking to redress their own failure of so long ago.
All I can do is to focus on my own field, yet how far does that really extend?
we are building a time ship - a vehicle that can span time. we are not the first or the only ones, but the task draws in the will of many to seek the deepest of truths, and creates a vibrancy, beyond the powers of the individuals. I walk around during the day, and feel myself fed by this vibrancy. But it is of such a unique quality that it can only live on the continued efforts of the individuals to 'go beyond their boarders'. As soon as they cease to push into their perimeters, and settle back to chew on old self-reflections, they sabotage the time ship, and all can feel it. this is about the birth of a planet.
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Now - fortunately noone has yet come up with the idea to solve this minus equation by using The Ecological Suicide. We simply reduce the population back to a limit where it still is possible to feed us (with oil :-\ ). Food seems not to be the problem because overweight is more common than starving, so that problem is only a transferrence issue.
Anyway, to get in some balance we ought to reduce our mass with 1,4 billion people. But that is a average, for each westerner savings are greater and Africans can almost be left alone in this solution because they consume so little.
I was wrong - there have been these kind of discussions, and one of the "Eco radicals" is a Finnish environmentalist Pentti Linkola. A guy that may have inspired the youn Finnish murder at a school earlier this week.
So I checked a Internet page
Eco Radicals Want Better Living Through Mass Death
Jun 20, 2006 by Deroy Murdock (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652736/posts)
"Most ecologists want to make life easy for butterflies and waterfalls. Who can argue with that? Some environmental extremists, however, think what Earth really needs is fewer people. In some cases, billions fewer.
We’re no better than bacteria!” University of Texas biologist Eric Pianka recently announced. “Things are gonna get better after the collapse because we won’t be able to decimate the Earth so much,” he added. “And, I actually think the world will be much better when there’s only 10 or 20% of us left.
William Burger, Ph.D., “Still, adding over seventy million new humans to the planet each year, the future looks pretty bleak to me. Surely, the Black Death was one of the best things that ever happened to Europe: elevating the worth of human labor, reducing environmental degradation, and, rather promptly, producing the Renaissance. From where I sit, Planet Earth could use another major human pandemic, and pronto!”
Finnish environmentalist Pentti Linkola calls humanity a sinking ship with 100 passengers and a lifeboat for 10. “Those who hate life try to pull more people on board and drown everybody. Those who love and respect life use axes to chop off the extra hands hanging on the gunwale.” "
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It's sound reasoning - if the field can sustain a village of 20 people, but 20 inhabitants give birth to 5 while only 2 die annually - what happens? It is clear that soon somebody will be starving and in the long run everybody will starve.
What amazes me, is that these people are so skilled in deceiving themselves by appealing to God, prophets, miracles and whatnot, or even simpler - nobody gives a damn about what happens beyond the time span of two days. It is such a mess in these heads! That is truly amazing. 'Very human', indeed.
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Good to be here! :) Thanks.
Regarding die-backs... we've had a huge die-back of honeybees here in the US, and probably worldwide from what I have been able to determine. Many possible causes have been cited, but the jury is still out... Scary stuff, of course. Without the bees, the food chain is compromised, so... though it probably doesn't do much good, I've planted a LOT of flowering cactus in my garden and keep them well-watered so they will blooom. I've noticed a few rather scroungy-looking bees, but nowhere near the numbers we were seeing a year ago.
As you say... we can only focus on our own field... but indeed, how far does it extend?
Perhaps it's a somewhat solitary path, but it is good to find others traveling in similar directions. Somehow, some small speck of optimism says there is some hope in that. :)
BTW - I'd be interested in hearing more of your thoughts on the time ship.
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Hi Della - the Time Ship - I just let that slip. It's still a bit early yet. We have to see if the craft is sea worthy first. Still, it is time to raise it... time is running out.
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Hi Della - the Time Ship - I just let that slip. It's still a bit early yet. We have to see if the craft is sea worthy first. Still, it is time to raise it... time is running out.
That's cool - no problem. *heh* (Am reading this sitting in my motorhome, dressed in full pirate attire, awaiting the start of the Ren faire this morning... I find that oddly and rather wonderfully validating... somehow.) :)
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well well, what can one say? perhaps it is indeed time to speak of it....
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re the bees, i have heard more on this recently. we in Aust don't have the problem you do in the US, so we are exporting bees to US (which is pissing off the US breeders, or those of them left). But this has left us short here, as bees are going overseas instead of into honey making.
yes, they don't know the answer, but they are saying there has been a lot of paranoid hype about it, and some press that has been downright inaccurate. personally, I think there is good reason to be paranoid, and it's not just because of the bees.
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Bees were few in Sweden too this summer but instead we could count a significant increase of bumble-bees.
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since all the news on bees, I been watching the bees here too. I don't know that here we have a shortage (so to speak). My garden was full of them in spring; they particularly like my Australian bottle brush tree flowers and bulbinella flowers!! Don't know where they keeping their honey though..
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Einstein once remarked that "if bees were to disappear, man would only have a few years to live." Should we be really worried about the death of bees?
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that is apparently one of the furphies - Einstein never said anything of the kind according to the reports I heard, but it sure sounds good!
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personally, I think there is good reason to be paranoid, and it's not just because of the bees.
;)Amen to that! Being a person who studies words, I've often felt that "paranoid" is just a term devised by the consensus reality to describe a person who is more keenly aware of subtle messages than most. *heh*
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;)Amen to that! Being a person who studies words, I've often felt that "paranoid" is just a term devised by the consensus reality to describe a person who is more keenly aware of subtle messages than most. *heh*
Hey D!
Eh, like I've said before, just becaue I'm paranoid doesn't mean somethings still not out to get me ;)
z
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;)Amen to that! Being a person who studies words, I've often felt that "paranoid" is just a term devised by the consensus reality to describe a person who is more keenly aware of subtle messages than most. *heh*
Apropos paranoia.
Remember the story about Saddam Hussein (or was it Lenin)?
The big dictator's friends and relatives was concerned about the health of their leader, they thought he had shown some sign to be paranoid and to have severe psychological stress so they called a Dr that was supposed to do some tests without being revealed.
Well the Dr studied Hussein (and/or Lenin) for quite some time and then reported back to the group. I got good news he said, your leader is not sick. But then he told them:
- I got bad news as well - Everybody is after him!
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Apropos paranoia.
Remember the story about Saddam Hussein (or was it Lenin)?
The big dictator's friends and relatives was concerned about the health of their leader, they thought he had shown some sign to be paranoid and to have severe psychological stress so they called a Dr that was supposed to do some tests without being revealed.
Well the Dr studied Hussein (and/or Lenin) for quite some time and then reported back to the group. I got good news he said, your leader is not sick. But then he told them:
- I got bad news as well - Everybody is after him!
That's pretty funny! Thanks for the laugh - I needed one today. :D
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Just wanted to say hi. It's been a long time. I read your book and enjoyed it. Your post above made me think of a section in your book regarding a red hearse, and a baby crib and something you wrote about "the nagual having a wicked sense of humor". Earlier this year on a drive with a friend to Myrtle Beach/Charleston, I recalled some things in your book and decided to give it a try....
Hey, Chance! Good to see you here! :)
Also, thanks for sharing with me the anecdotes of your adventure. I've really found that that little trick of "creating reality" works - seeming to reveal the underpinnings of the active force of intent. So, that sense of humor of the nagual just keeps me smiling most of the time.
I can't recall if I included this in the book or not, but one of the most "successful" attempts at this type of creation/manifestation occurred while Wendy and I were on a freeway in Los Angeles, heading home late at night. I said to her that I wanted to see a lion. Her reaction was not particularly optimistic... until we came around a bend in the freeway, only to see a HUGE sign comprised entirely of lights, in the shape of a lion's head - the sign on the roof of the theater where THE LION KING was playing (of which we had no knowledge).
What's interesting to me is that you were actively LOOKING for these manifestations and they were forthcoming. In my own experiments, I've found that I literally have to put out the intent and then release it (in other words, almost forget about it) and then it will be forthcoming. On the times when I've tried to actively LOOK for the objects I have intended, the success rate is much lower. I can only attribute that to the possibility that by releasing the energy, I am allowing it to go forth & manifest, whereas by "holding" the energy, perhaps I am "restricting" its natural flow.
But if your efforts are any indication, it certainly seems that it works either way - which is very cool! I'm glad to know that, as it gives me a new perspective for my own ongoing experiments in that direction.
A good friend of mine was razzing me recently, and basically said, "Well, pumpkins & cribs are all fine and good, but why not manifest a doorway to another world, or a wise old man like don Juan."
When I thought about that in meditation later that night, I found myself laughing out loud. That's the work we're ALL doing, I realized. We are the doorway and each of us is our own don Juan when we can really make that connection to the higher self/double - the gnosis of silent knowing.
That just left me with a big grin on my face for quite awhile. :)
Good to hear from you - and glad you liked the book!
Della
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Powerful cyclone kills 242 in Bangladesh
By PARVEEN AHMED, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago
DHAKA, Bangladesh - A cyclone killed 242 people and left much of southern Bangladesh cut off from the rest of the country before heading inland and losing strength Friday, officials said.
Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves, spawning a 4-foot water surge that left low-lying areas and some offshore islands under water, according to Nahid Sultana, an official at a cyclone control room in the capital, Dhaka.
But by early Friday, the cyclone had weakened into a tropical storm and was moving across the country to the northeast, the department said, adding that while skies remained overcast, wind speed had fallen to 37 mph.
The cyclone flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, uprooted trees, electricity and telephone poles, and destroyed crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts, local government officials and witnesses said.
The worst hit areas were communities in southern Bangladesh where most of the victims were killed by falling trees or debris from collapsing homes, while some drowned after falling off boats, Sultana said.
Much of the region remained without electricity and phone lines Friday, while blocked roads, rails and rivers left many areas cut off.
Power and communications in Dhaka were also down. Strong winds uprooted trees, snapped power and telephone lines, and sent billboards flying through the air, injuring several people, said Ashraful Zaman, another official at the cyclone control room.
At least 650,000 coastal villagers moved Thursday to cyclone shelters where they were given emergency rations, Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official, told reporters in Dhaka.
On Friday, government and volunteer agencies dispatched relief and medical teams to the affected areas, where they had already sent dry foods, medicines, tents and blankets, he said.
Operations remained suspended at the country's two main seaports — Chittagong and Mongla — while ferry services and flights were yet to resume in the coastal region, authorities said.
The storm spared India's eastern coast, where the weather was calm Friday. India's Meteorological Department had forecast heavy rain and flooding in West Bengal and Orissa states.
Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area borders eastern India and is famous for the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, a world heritage site that is home to rare Royal Bengal Tigers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
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I figured that first death count was too low ...
Over 2,200 die in Bangladesh cyclone
By PARVEEN AHMED, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 18, 6:03 AM ET
DHAKA, Bangladesh - The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, officials said Sunday, while rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields.
The government deployed military helicopters, naval ships and thousands of troops to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission following Tropical Cyclone Sidr. The U.S. and other countries also offered assistance.
At least 2,206 people have died since the storm struck Bangladesh on Thursday, said Selina Shahid of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. The toll could rise still higher as more information comes in from battered regions.
Disaster Management Secretary Aiyub Bhuiyan met Sunday with representatives from the United Nations and international aid groups to discuss the massive relief effort.
"The donors wanted to know about our plan and how they can come forward to stand by the victims," Bhuiyan told reporters. "We have briefed them about what we need immediately."
Rescuers struggled to clear roads and get their vehicles through, but many found the way impassable. "We will try again ... on bicycles, and hire local country boats," M. Shakil Anwar of CARE said from the city of Khulna.
At least 1.5 million coastal villagers had fled to shelters where they were given emergency rations, said senior government official Ali Imam Majumder in the capital, Dhaka.
The worst-hit area was Bagerhat district, where 610 people died, said Ashraful Zaman, an official at a cyclone monitoring center in Dhaka.
"We have seen more bodies floating in the sea," fisherman Zakir Hossain from the country's southwest said, after reaching shore with two decomposing bodies he and other fishermen had found on their way.
Sidr's 150 mph winds smashed tens of thousands of homes Thursday in southwestern Bangladesh and ruined crops just before the harvest season. Ferries were flung ashore like toy boats.
Aid organizations said they feared food shortages and contaminated water could lead to widespread problems if people remain stranded.
Storms batter impoverished, low-lying Bangladesh every year, often killing large numbers of people. This time a government early warning program saved a vast number of lives, U.N. Resident Coordinator Renata Dessallien said in a statement.
However, property damage was massive. Many evacuees who returned home Saturday found their bamboo-and-straw huts flattened.
"We survived, but what we need now is help to rebuild our homes," said Chand Miah of the small island of Maran Char.
An estimated 2.7 million people were affected and 773,000 houses were damaged, according to the Ministry of Disaster Management. Roughly 250,000 cattle and poultry perished, and crops were destroyed along huge swaths of land.
The government said it has allocated $5.2 million in emergency aid for rebuilding houses.
Several countries pledged to help.
The U.S. government has provided $2.1 million in initial emergency relief, White House press secretary Dana Perino said, noting that President Bush offered condolences to victims.
She said that the ships USS Essex and the USS Kearsage were en route to Bangladesh to help with relief operations, and that the U.S. would airlift 35 tons of non-food items such as plastic sheeting and hygiene kits.
The United Nations released $7 million, while the German government offered $731,000. The European Union released $2.2 million, and British officials said they would give $5 million.
The Rome-based World Food Program was rushing in food, and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society was sending thousands of workers to stricken areas.
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They say it is over 3,000 already and rising. This is not the last we'll hear from Bangladesh. There are 150.5 million people, most parts of Bangladesh are less than 12 metres (39 ft) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 50% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 metre (3 ft). Numbers tell the extent of inevitable holocaust.
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I've seen a couple of stories out of the States in the last week
about gunmen always referred to as "shooters" going on a
rampage through shopping malls,churches and schools.
Then I saw this story about a presidential candidate,who likes
guns ....and religion...the best mix....I wonder if the "shooters"
feel like the angels help them to?...mass psychosis....
But what about angels? As I've noted previously and elsewhere, Huckabee gave a rather intriguing speech at the NRA in September, during which he deftly merged his heartfelt evangelical beliefs with his deep passion for gun rights and hunting. He recalled the time he was in an antelope hunting contest in Wyoming. After several hours of stalking prey on a miserably cold, windy and snowy day, Huckabee had his chance. An antelope was 250 yards away, but right at the edge of his range as a "Shooter". Then a miracle happened....praise the lord!!!!
I decided that one way or the other, this hunt is about to be over, because I can't stand any more of this cold. And somehow, by the grace of God, when I squeezed the trigger, my Weatherby .300 Mag, which has got to be the greatest gun, I think, ever made in the form of a rifle -- for my sake in hunting, I've never squeezed the trigger and not gotten something -- did its work, and somehow the angels took that bullet and went right to the antelope, and my hunt was over in a wonderful way.
Thanks to those angels, that elk was dead.
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Unbelievable, eh?
As dramatic as these incidents are, I'd like to think that the mindset you're describing isn't the majority in the us. (I could be wrong.) But there is a thread, no doubt about it, of good old boys, who praise the lord and pass the beer and ammunition.
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Beautiful and treacherous, ice storms aren't something all parts of the us are prepared for.
Ice storm causes blackouts, 17 deaths
By KEN MILLER, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago
OKLAHOMA CITY - A wintry storm caked the center of the nation with a thick layer of ice Monday, blacking out more than 600,000 homes and businesses, and more icy weather was on the way. At least 17 deaths in Oklahoma and Missouri were blamed on the conditions, with 15 of them killed on slick highways.
A state of emergency was declared for all of Oklahoma, where the sound of branches snapping under the weight of the ice echoed through Oklahoma City.
"You can hear them falling everywhere," Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway.
The National Weather Service posted ice and winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Missouri declared an emergency on Sunday and put the National Guard on alert.
Oklahoma utilities said a half-million customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling tree branches, the biggest power outage in state history, and utilities in Missouri said more than 100,000 homes and business had no power there.
"If you do the math, probably one out of three Oklahomans has no electricity at this point," said Gil Broyles, a spokesman for Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility.
Roughly 11,000 customers were blacked out in southern Illinois and more than 5,000 had no electric heat or lights in Kansas, where Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared a statewide state of emergency.
At O'Hare International Airport, about 100 flights were canceled by Monday afternoon, with delays of about 45 minutes, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride. No flights were canceled at Midway Airport, but a handful of flights were delayed about an hour, she said.
Ice was as much as an inch thick on tree limbs and power lines in parts of the region.
Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.
Tulsa International Airport had no power for about 10 hours and halted flight operations for the day, and most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled because of icy runways. Greyhound bus passengers were stranded overnight at a shelter in a church in Tulsa, and were joined by some local residents who had no heat.
Portions of Interstate 35 and Interstate 44 were shut down early Monday afternoon in Oklahoma City after ice-laden power lines collapsed and fell into the roadways.
Oklahoma utility officials said it could be a week or more before power was fully restored.
"This is a big one. We've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company. "It looks like a war zone."
The Oklahoma City suburb of Jones, a town of 2,500 people, had low water pressure because there was no electricity to run well pumps, and firefighters said an early morning fire destroyed most of the community's high school.
Since the storm began, Tulsa firefighters have responded to dozens of structural fires, most attributable to the storm, said Sheryl Lovelady, a city spokeswoman. One person was killed by smoke inhalation in a storm-related fire, she said; she did not provide details.
The icy weather stretched into the Northeast, where many schools across upstate New York were closed or started late because of icy roads.
On ice-covered Interstate 40 west of Okemah, Okla., four people died in "one huge cluster of an accident" that involved 11 vehicles, said Highway Patrol Trooper Betsey Randolph.
Ten other people died on icy Oklahoma roads, and Missouri had two storm-related deaths — one on a slippery highway and another when a tree limb fell on a 92-year-old man's head. In addition, a homeless person died of hypothermia in Oklahoma City, the state medical examiner's office said.
___
Associated Press writers Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City, Marcus Kabel in Springfield, Mo., John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., and Cheryl Wittenauer in St. Louis contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm
Slideshow (http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Ice-storm-hits-US/ss/events/us/121007icestorm/s:/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm;_ylt=AjUdnOMZHy_1N1V.KNVuUYhH2ocA)
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I wonder when these two reach guaranteed Mutual Assured Destruction and start to live on the edge.
India 'Star Wars' plan risks new arms race
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2227455,00.html
· Missile defence would protect big cities by 2010
· Plan revealed as Pakistan tests short-range missile
Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondent
Friday December 14, 2007
The Guardian
India aims to have a missile defence system able to track and shoot down incoming warheads by 2010, scientists in the capital announced yesterday, in a move that analysts say could spark a new arms race in the region.
The announcement would see India join an elite club of countries that have such military capabilities - with the US, Russia and Israel. It came just days after Pakistan tested a cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
India's top military scientist, Dr VK Saraswat of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, said: "If I keep quiet and wait for [a missile] to fall on my city and then start sending my own deterrent missile ... a lot of damage is done. It is essential you have a system which will first take on that kind of a threat.
"Because we have a ballistic missile defence system ... a country which has a small arsenal will think twice before it ventures," he added, in an apparent reference to nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.
Last week the Indian military demonstrated its missile defence systems by shooting down a warhead off its east coast. Saraswat said that within three years, major cities such as Delhi and Mumbai would be under a protective shield.
India is also beefing up its armoury. It has announced a nuclear-capable missile with a range of 3,700 miles - far enough to hit Beijing or Rome.
Analysts say Pakistan's rapid build-up of short- and medium-range missiles is of special concern to India despite an ongoing peace process between the two.
K Subrahmanyan, a writer on defence issues, said that India needed to raise the "uncertainty levels for Pakistan".
"Pakistan is acquiring advanced missile technology from China. No missile defence system is perfect, but if we can knock out three out of every five warheads, it means our adversary has to fire more rockets. It is a means of deterrence."
Analysts in Pakistan say such thinking is hastening an arms race. "The first impulse is to ask how does Pakistan get [a missile defence system]," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a defence analyst. "The next will be to increase the number of missiles to make sure it has enough to evade the shield."
Other countries are also racing to develop "Star Wars" technologies. This year, after Tokyo saw North Korea test ballistic missiles and conduct a nuclear test, Japan's parliament authorised $2.5bn (£1.3bn) to develop a missile defence system. The US, which has run 36 missile defence tests since 2001, has authorised an annual spend of a half a trillion dollars on a missile shield.
There are no indications of the cost of the Indian missile defence system, but many analysts say there are better uses for India's money. "The US can afford such follies, but a developing country like India cannot," said Bharat Karnad from Delhi's Centre for Policy Research. "We should be getting more missiles, not finding ways of shooting them down."
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Had to laugh at this one...
Woolworths and Coles must be behind
on their profit margins
EVERY Australian household should stockpile at least 10 weeks' worth of food rations to prepare for a deadly flu pandemic, a panel of leading nutritionists has warned.
World health experts now agree a pandemic is inevitable and will spread rapidly, wiping out up to 7.4 million people globally and triggering rapid food shortages.
Australia is expected to be among the first countries hit because of its proximity to Asia and high levels of international traffic.
But Woolworths and Coles, the nation's two major supermarket chains, will run out of stock within two to four weeks without a supply chain – or even faster if shoppers panic.
This has prompted a team of leading nutritionists and dietitians from the University of Sydney to compile "food lifeboat" guidelines to cover people's nutritional needs for at least 10 weeks.
Their advice – published in the Medical Journal of Australia – would allow citizens to stay inside their homes and avoid contact with infected people until a vaccine becomes available.
The lifeboat includes affordable long-life staples such as rice, biscuits, milk powder, Vegemite, canned tuna, chocolate, lentils, Milo and Weet-Bix.
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glad they included chocolate - life would be hard without Quetzalcoatl's old favourite.
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Had to laugh at this one...
Woolworths and Coles must be behind
on their profit margins
EVERY Australian household should stockpile at least 10 weeks' worth of food rations to prepare for a deadly flu pandemic, a panel of leading nutritionists has warned.
World health experts now agree a pandemic is inevitable and will spread rapidly, wiping out up to 7.4 million people globally and triggering rapid food shortages.
Australia is expected to be among the first countries hit because of its proximity to Asia and high levels of international traffic.
But Woolworths and Coles, the nation's two major supermarket chains, will run out of stock within two to four weeks without a supply chain – or even faster if shoppers panic.
This has prompted a team of leading nutritionists and dietitians from the University of Sydney to compile "food lifeboat" guidelines to cover people's nutritional needs for at least 10 weeks.
Their advice – published in the Medical Journal of Australia – would allow citizens to stay inside their homes and avoid contact with infected people until a vaccine becomes available.
The lifeboat includes affordable long-life staples such as rice, biscuits, milk powder, Vegemite, canned tuna, chocolate, lentils, Milo and Weet-Bix.
Did they mention what strain of flu virus? Here in the states, we're are dealing with MRSA, a potentially dangerous Staph Infection. A friend of my sister had it...she kept fighting it and eventually died after a year. It would clear up and then it just kept coming back. http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00735.html
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She was a courageous woman!
Benazir Bhutto Killed In Attack
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1298475,00.html
Updated:13:52, Thursday December 27, 2007
Pakistan Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack at a political rally.
"At 6.16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party at Rawalpindi General Hospital.
"She has been martyred," said party official Rehman Malik.
The explosion went off just after Ms Bhutto left the rally in Rawalpindi, minutes after her speech to thousands of people.
Sky News sources say Bhutto was shot in the neck and the chest as she got into her vehicle and then the gunman blew himself up.
Her supports have smashed windows at the entrance to the hospital where she was being treated, some calling "Dog, Musharraf, dog!".
It is the first major attack since President General Pervez Musharraf lifted emergency rule two weeks ago.
At least 15 people died in the attack in the heart of Pakistan's military and parliamentary district.
Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford said from Pakistan the country's upcoming January elections would "most likely be postponed or cancelled" because of the attack.
"The entire political scene in Pakistan will be torn apart. She will become a martyr in many people's eyes."
"This is an end of a dream for them."
"I really don't think she ever thought it would come to this"
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yes, I think one would have to say she was courageous.
She was also a nasty piece of work, who came from a nasty family scene. Ruthless political, landowner family who had no problem murdering their own family members for political reasons. I don't know all the details of her background, but I have heard others speak who's opinion and knowledge I feel confident of enough to have formed the opinion that her path to and through power was a very dirty business.
God, Pak is building into one almighty nightmare for the world. They could do with some good old middle-class democracy, instead of Landowner and Military power bases. Can't see it happening. The Taliban has grown very strong there.
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yes, I think one would have to say she was courageous.
She was also a nasty piece of work, who came from a nasty family scene. Ruthless political, landowner family who had no problem murdering their own family members for political reasons. I don't know all the details of her background, but I have heard others speak who's opinion and knowledge I feel confident of enough to have formed the opinion that her path to and through power was a very dirty business.
God, Pak is building into one almighty nightmare for the world. They could do with some good old middle-class democracy, instead of Landowner and Military power bases. Can't see it happening. The Taliban has grown very strong there.
Yes, I have heard the same things about Benazir Bhutto - she really was a ruthless power-wielder around whom suspicions of corruption and many more crimes floated constantly.
However, her decision to try to do something in that increasingly Talibanised country makes me admire her courage. It seems that it is enough to be a woman with some social aspirations in Pakistan to have a bunch of murderous lunatics coming after you.
Pakistan is changing quickly. I saw former Pakistani ambassador to UK speaking on BBC channel and pointing that world has largely missed latest developments in Waziristan. He said that increasing numbers of soldiers refuse to fight Taliban and prefer surrender. He said that it might be a sign of things to come...
...Taliban armed with nuclear weapons?
That would be a rupture point in post WWII history then.
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Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Tuesday January 22, 2008
The Guardian
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.
Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".
The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.
"The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible," the authors argued in the 150-page blueprint for urgent reform of western military strategy and structures. "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."
The authors - General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and Nato's ex-supreme commander in Europe, General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former top soldier and ex-chairman of Nato's military committee, General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff, Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff, and Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the general staff and the defence staff in the UK - paint an alarming picture of the threats and challenges confronting the west in the post-9/11 world and deliver a withering verdict on the ability to cope.
The five commanders argue that the west's values and way of life are under threat, but the west is struggling to summon the will to defend them. The key threats are:
· Political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism.
· The "dark side" of globalisation, meaning international terrorism, organised crime and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
· Climate change and energy security, entailing a contest for resources and potential "environmental" migration on a mass scale.
· The weakening of the nation state as well as of organisations such as the UN, Nato and the EU.
To prevail, the generals call for an overhaul of Nato decision-taking methods, a new "directorate" of US, European and Nato leaders to respond rapidly to crises, and an end to EU "obstruction" of and rivalry with Nato. Among the most radical changes demanded are:
· A shift from consensus decision-taking in Nato bodies to majority voting, meaning faster action through an end to national vetoes.
· The abolition of national caveats in Nato operations of the kind that plague the Afghan campaign.
· No role in decision-taking on Nato operations for alliance members who are not taking part in the operations.
· The use of force without UN security council authorisation when "immediate action is needed to protect large numbers of human beings".
In the wake of the latest row over military performance in Afghanistan, touched off when the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said some allies could not conduct counter-insurgency, the five senior figures at the heart of the western military establishment also declare that Nato's future is on the line in Helmand province.
"Nato's credibility is at stake in Afghanistan," said Van den Breemen.
"Nato is at a juncture and runs the risk of failure," according to the blueprint.
Naumann delivered a blistering attack on his own country's performance in Afghanistan. "The time has come for Germany to decide if it wants to be a reliable partner." By insisting on "special rules" for its forces in Afghanistan, the Merkel government in Berlin was contributing to "the dissolution of Nato".
Ron Asmus, head of the German Marshall Fund thinktank in Brussels and a former senior US state department official, described the manifesto as "a wake-up call". "This report means that the core of the Nato establishment is saying we're in trouble, that the west is adrift and not facing up to the challenges."
Naumann conceded that the plan's retention of the nuclear first strike option was "controversial" even among the five authors. Inge argued that "to tie our hands on first use or no first use removes a huge plank of deterrence".
Reserving the right to initiate nuclear attack was a central element of the west's cold war strategy in defeating the Soviet Union. Critics argue that what was a productive instrument to face down a nuclear superpower is no longer appropriate.
Robert Cooper, an influential shaper of European foreign and security policy in Brussels, said he was "puzzled".
"Maybe we are going to use nuclear weapons before anyone else, but I'd be wary of saying it out loud."
Another senior EU official said Nato needed to "rethink its nuclear posture because the nuclear non-proliferation regime is under enormous pressure".
Naumann suggested the threat of nuclear attack was a counsel of desperation. "Proliferation is spreading and we have not too many options to stop it. We don't know how to deal with this."
Nato needed to show "there is a big stick that we might have to use if there is no other option", he said.
The Authors:
John Shalikashvili
The US's top soldier under Bill Clinton and former Nato commander in Europe, Shalikashvili was born in Warsaw of Georgian parents and emigrated to the US at the height of Stalinism in 1952. He became the first immigrant to the US to rise to become a four-star general. He commanded Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq at the end of the first Gulf war, then became Saceur, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, before Clinton appointed him chairman of the joint chiefs in 1993, a position he held until his retirement in 1997.
Klaus Naumann
Viewed as one of Germany's and Nato's top military strategists in the 90s, Naumann served as his country's armed forces commander from 1991 to 1996 when he became chairman of Nato's military committee. On his watch, Germany overcame its post-WWII taboo about combat operations, with the Luftwaffe taking to the skies for the first time since 1945 in the Nato air campaign against Serbia.
Lord Inge
Field Marshal Peter Inge is one of Britain's top officers, serving as chief of the general staff in 1992-94, then chief of the defence staff in 1994-97. He also served on the Butler inquiry into Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and British intelligence.
Henk van den Breemen
An accomplished organist who has played at Westminster Abbey, Van den Breemen is the former Dutch chief of staff.
Jacques Lanxade
A French admiral and former navy chief who was also chief of the French defence staff.
The time is bloody running out.
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They are writing that there was a ruthless and spectacular post office robbery in Göteborg. Robbers had assault rifles and left explosive devices behind (at the police station) to slow down pursuit. Apparently, the robbers also set cars on fire to complicate pursuit. Sounds almost like a war to my ears.
You wouldn't quite expect such a stuff in Nordic countries. Yet they also say that in Finland (where there was that school shooting with eight killed) the number of threats to schools keeps growing dramatically.
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The five commanders argue that the west's values and way of life are under threat, but the west is struggling to summon the will to defend them.
That sounds like an Ancient Rome under attack of barbarians. Then also many calls were voiced to defend the 'Roman values', defend the 'empire'. Yet Romans never listened to these calls. Their army consisted of the people recruited from various tribes and Romans themselves had lost faith in the 'Roman values'. Besides - these values had been defended for centuries and it all seemed probably so incredibly pointless after having been done so many times. So Roman values were left behind.
I wonder if it is the same situation repeating itself in different time - West/white man has fought endless number of wars for god knows how many values and reasons. Isn't there - deep down - utter weariness of these words; of hollow calls to arms to defend something that has been already so thoroughly experienced that it has lost its value? Although Western culture increasingly propagates total sclerosis, does its utmost to shorten the attention span, and tries to erase any historical memory (just look at what and how they teach in schools!), knowledge of the past lives on inside every person. Though we never learned some things in schools, we know them through a very long experience and thus these things are not unknown, but known. There is no reason to make an effort in defence of things letting us experience the past again. One cannot defend yesterday.
Thus - who cares - over and above the concern for personal security?
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Amazon's rescue reversed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2246547,00.html
Space imaging gives the lie to Brazil's recent 'great achievement' of halting rainforest destruction
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Friday January 25, 2008
The Guardian
In a world of climate change and general environmental degradation, it was one ecological disaster that had apparently been averted.
After decades of steady obliteration, the tide appeared to have turned against the illegal deforestation that has disfigured the world's largest tropical rainforest. Brazil's president, Lula da Silva, went on the radio in August to trumpet the breakthrough. His environment minister, Marina Silva, hailed "a great achievement for Brazilian society".
Yesterday, however, the good news came to a halt when ministers admitted that after three years on the wane deforestation had once again risen sharply.
Article continues
Government satellite images show that at least 1,280 sq miles (3,235 sq kilometers) of rainforest were lost between August and December last year, mainly because of soy planting and cattle ranching. Environment ministry officials believe the true figure could be as high as 2,700 sq miles (7,000 sq kilometers).
"Never before have we detected such a high deforestation rate at this time of year," said Gilberto Câmara, the head of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which is responsible for monitoring the Amazon region. "We had never seen this before in Amazonia."
The Brazilian Amazon has been decimated by a combination of loggers, farmers and ranchers over the last 40 years. Environmentalists say as much as 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed, mostly since the 70s. A further 40% could be lost by 2050 if that trend is not reversed, they estimate.
Yesterday, after Lula called an emergency cabinet meeting, officials announced a crackdown on loggers and farmers. João Paulo Capobianco, the executive secretary of the environment ministry, said the figures were "extremely worrying".
They show that the state with the highest level of deforestation is Mato Grosso, an agricultural frontier that produces the bulk of Brazil's soy exports.
Paulo Adario, the Amazon director of Greenpeace in Brazil, said government measures had brought some success but that "what the government does not control is the economic reality. It is the economy that controls deforestation. Each time the prices of meat and soy rise so does deforestation."
Adario said it was particularly worrying that the rise had taken place towards the end of the year, a period when traditionally less deforestation takes place because rain makes cutting or burning down trees more difficult.
Environmental campaigners first began to voice concern over a possible rise in deforestation in May last year. In September the Guardian flew over the north of Mato Grosso and the south of Para with a group of Greenpeace activists. In both regions signs of increasing deforestation were easy to spot. In Mato Grosso vast tracts of land smouldered, clearing the way for soy plantations. The landscape was littered with fallen, scorched trees scattered like matchsticks. In Para state a web of illegal dirt roads was visible, meandering through the relatively intact rainforest towards newly cleared areas.
In the Amazonian frontier town of Novo Progresso one of the region's leading farmers, Agamenon da Silva Menezes, described government plans to eradicate deforestation as "the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard.
"It is definitely going to rise," he said.
Marina Silva, the environment minister, yesterday announced a new anti-deforestation drive focusing on 36 areas. One of these is Sao Felix do Xingu, a cattle ranching town in the state of Para, where the mayor recently banned the use of motorcycle helmets because gunmen employed by powerful ranchers had used them to disguise their identities when carrying out killings. Also on the list is Colniza, an agricultural town in Mato Grosso, which has Brazil's highest murder rate.
Silva compared the government's attempts to preserve the rainforest to a doctor trying to save a patient: "Sometimes a doctor does everything he can for the patient but there are variables," she said. "So the doctor adjusts the medication."
"The government needs to act now," said Adario. "Otherwise the measures will have an effect one year, and the next the patient's fever will return and he will end up back in hospital."
Backstory
Generous US subsidies for biofuel crops are a big factor behind the sudden deforestation. Thousands of US farmers have switched from soya to maize to produce ethanol, which has increased the world soya price and encouraged Brazilian farmers to clear forests for soya farms and buy up large expanses of cattle pasture.
This has pushed ranchers further into the Amazon and made cattle food more costly, creating another incentive for forest conversion to pasture.
A report in the journal Nature warned that 40% of the Amazon could be lost by 2050 if the trends continue. Much of the soya is shipped to Europe to feed cattle.
John Vidal
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Why is the world's biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean?
by Jacob Silverman
http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It's the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.
The gyre has actually given birth to two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas [source: LA Times]. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and collects trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000-mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Research flights showed that significant amounts of trash also accumulate in the Convergence Zone.
The garbage patches present numerous hazards to marine life, fishing and tourism. But before we discuss those, it's important to look at the role of plastic. Plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world's oceans [source: LA Times]. The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic [source: UN Environment Program]. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, about 10 percent ends up in the ocean [source: Greenpeace]. Seventy percent of that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor [source: Greenpeace]. The rest floats; much of it ends up in gyres and the massive garbage patches that form there, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore.
The main problem with plastic -- besides there being so much of it -- is that it doesn't biodegrade. No natural process can break it down. (Experts point out that the durability that makes plastic so useful to humans also makes it quite harmful to nature.) Instead, plastic photodegrades. A plastic cigarette lighter cast out to sea will fragment into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic without breaking into simpler compounds, which scientists estimate could take hundreds of years. The small bits of plastic produced by photodegradation are called mermaid tears or nurdles.
These tiny plastic particles can get sucked up by filter feeders and damage their bodies. Other marine animals eat the plastic, which can poison them or lead to deadly blockages. Nurdles also have the insidious property of soaking up toxic chemicals. Over time, even chemicals or poisons that are widely diffused in water can become highly concentrated as they're mopped up by nurdles. These poison-filled masses threaten the entire food chain, especially when eaten by filter feeders that are then consumed by large creatures.
Plastic has acutely affected albatrosses, which roam a wide swath of the northern Pacific Ocean. Albatrosses frequently grab food wherever they can find it, which leads to many of the birds ingesting -- and dying from -- plastic and other trash. On Midway Island, which comes into contact with parts of the Eastern Garbage Patch, albatrosses give birth to 500,000 chicks every year. Two hundred thousand of them die, many of them by consuming plastic fed to them by their parents, who confuse it for food [source: LA Times]. In total, more than a million birds and marine animals die each year from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and other debris.
Besides killing wildlife, plastic and other debris damage boat and submarine equipment, litter beaches, discourage swimming and harm commercial and local fisheries. The problem of plastic and other accumulated trash affects beaches and oceans all over the world, including at both poles. Land masses that end up in the path of the rotating gyres receive particularly large amounts of trash. The 19 islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, including Midway, receive massive quantities of trash shot out from the gyres. Some of the trash is decades old. Some beaches are buried under five to 10 feet of trash, while other beaches are riddled with "plastic sand," millions of grain-like pieces of plastic that are practically impossible to clean up.
Most of this trash doesn't come from seafaring vessels dumping junk -- 80 percent of ocean trash originates on land [source: LA Times]. The rest comes from private and commercial ships, fishing equipment, oil platforms and spilled shipping containers (the contents of which frequently wash up on faraway shores years later).
Some efforts can help to stem the tide of refuse. International treaties prohibiting dumping at sea must be enforced. Untreated sewage shouldn't be allowed to flow into the ocean. Many communities and even some small island nations have eliminated the use of plastic bags. These bags are generally recyclable, but billions of them are thrown away every year. On the Hawaiian Islands, cleanup programs bring volunteers to the beaches to pick up trash, but some beaches, even those subjected to regular cleanings, are still covered in layers of trash several feet thick.
Scientists who have studied the issue say that trawling the ocean for all of its trash is simply impossible and would harm plankton and other marine life. In some areas, big fragments can be collected, but it's simply not possible to thoroughly clean a section of ocean that spans the area of a continent and extends 100 feet below the surface [source: UN Environment Program].
Nearly all experts who speak about the subject raise the same point: It comes down to managing waste on land, where most of the trash originates. They recommend lobbying companies to find alternatives to plastic, especially environmentally safe, reusable packaging. Recycling programs should be expanded to accommodate more types of plastic, and the public must be educated about their value.
In October 2006, the U.S. government established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Monument. This long string of islands, located northwest of Hawaii, frequently comes into contact with the Eastern Garbage Patch. After the creation of the monument, Congress passed legislation to increase funding for cleanup efforts and ordered several government agencies to expand their cleanup work. It may be an important step, especially if it leads to more government attention to a problem that, while dire, has only received serious scientific attention since the early 1990s.
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An old friend of mine today forwarded me this email going around. On the surface, it looks like some white people whining, but the underbelly of it is so dark I can barely describe it.
Yes, in these "modern" times, laying in wait, pretending to be against the "politically-correct" police, are these pockets of white-power racists in this country. If the "nukes" proliferating all over the world and the disastrous effects associated with global warming don't send us to the stone age, this mentality will. Watch out!
(I'll only keep this up for a less than a day, because it's so disgusting I don't want to taint this place. But I thought it was an eye-opener, to demonstrate the primitive thread of hatred which exists in the US. And this is mild, believe me .. it can get much much worse. This is entry-level white supremacy bullshit.)
...removed as promised
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I am afraid that we have the same problem here too.
And I am afraid that we are not that happy with our African immigrants either or all the people from Iraq. But this is a new problem, there was no problem with immigrants before 1990 or -95. Things has gone very fast and all immigrants does not get job so they get criminal. They, from the middle east and Kurdistan, Turkey, treat their women very bad, even kill their daughters if they find a reason like that she want to adopt western standards, get a boy they do not approve of etc.
So we aborginals keep the distance and integration becomes harder for those that doesn't get a job.
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Jahn, a friend of mine back in the 90's married a Turk. He was gloriously handsome, kind, genteel, educated, western-ized, and poetic, but there was one little problem (which broke them up): he maintained, without blinking an eye, without a shred of doubt, that it would be his duty to kill his daughter if she became sexually active before she was married. He meant it!
Now there is a culture clash for sure .. perhaps even a matter for Human Rights in the World.
This thing I posted above, unfortunately, goes back to the roots of the US. It's not new at all. It runs deep, too. My state, Virginia, is full of it.
This friend of mine who sent me this is an ex, actually. He had/has this secret life. It was wise of him to never disclose it to me, because in that sort of intimacy I could never stay quiet. There are these groupings of vigilante-types... they've always been here, long before we were worried about tefforists and war. Some of them wear pointed masks:
(http://www.old-picture.com/united-states-history-1900s---1930s/pictures/Ku-Klux-Klan.jpg)
(http://www.adl.org/NR/rdonlyres/eeu4nhdltqxa2fdwm52wcewcesppa6ml2xf6bxvod7ugcigomnzrqjgfqaywvpusyw76ov3qvsnkec/katrinacartoons.gif)
So what's happened here, post-9/11, is that those who were racist all along are couching their "concerns" in the drive to secure our borders. But I guarantee you, those good old boys were "goin' to the meetin" long before 9/11.
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Isn't there a bit of acknowledgement of reality in the complaints of that 'white boy'? I mean, there are always two sides to the confrontation?
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Isn't there a bit of acknowledgement of reality in the complaints of that 'white boy'? I mean, there are always two sides to the confrontation?
Some would agree with you, Juhani. They would call it "reverse discrimination." They don't get very far in their quest, typically, to make that case.
I'm looking at the implicit message in the thing ... it wasn't necessary, for example, to haul out all those epithets. Hatred is easy to sniff out ... and this stuff was entrenched long before the country implemented "affirmative action".
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Hatred or not, but there is difference in world views and cultures. When you bring people from, say 15th century Afghanistan, to your country, you cannot seriously talk about 'integration'. It is impossible. For example, contemporary Western society simply will not tolerate 'honour killings' mentioned by Jahn.
Integration seems to be failing everywhere in Western societies. I doubt, if the integration ever has actually occurred - maybe immigrant minorities were initially simply to small to elicit sufficient response from host societies.
The political correctness is in this context merely an attempt to plaster over the gap...and monumentally sickening it can be with all its mindlessness and inability to acknowledge the real problems.
The whole point is about world views and ways of changing them.
The path shows at every step how very hard it is even in the case of one person.
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Hatred or not, but there is difference in world views and cultures. When you bring people from, say 15th century Afghanistan, to your country, you cannot seriously talk about 'integration'. It is impossible. For example, contemporary Western society simply will not tolerate 'honour killings' mentioned by Jahn.
Integration seems to be failing everywhere in Western societies. I doubt, if the integration ever has actually occurred - maybe immigrant minorities were initially simply to small to elicit sufficient response from host societies.
The difference between Europe and the US on this assimilation of multiple cultures has this paradox about it, one that I don't think can be ignored:
White society in the US is the interloper! It was accomplished through the attempted genocide, conquering and internment of native americans -- it was built on the backs of African slaves in the 18th and 19th century. Strange that we whites could view ourselves as "hosts".
I realize it's "realistic" to see it that way .. that the culture we brought is simply the conquering culture, and "that is that". But what is the conquering culture? My observation is that it is an amorphous thing in the US, this "white" identity -- it could mean anything: very few know the roots of their DNA...
What is its identity, beyond its deeply puritannical and christian roots? I couldn't even identify for you what is a good puritan, christian culinary dish!
It is the mixture of everything. It really is! Until that mixture is celebrated and embraced as a strength rather than a source of revulsion, there will always be trouble.
Most of my childhood occured in Paterson, New Jersey, 20 minutes from New York City. I would walk home from school and smell dinners cooking along the way. There was a Puerto Rican block, a German block, a Greek block, an Italian block, a Hebrew block: everyone's mother spoke a different language. Our neighbors came from India. I loved that as a kid, and I thought that that was the way-the-world-was, and when I came to the South, I was shocked at the sea of white people, all dressing alike. When my mother brought me to my Junior High School, I saw all the (white) girls, all wearing the same sort of shoes, skirts, and blouses, and I honestly exclaimed to my mother: "I didn't know this school had uniforms!" It was so boring and homogenized and soulless. And the call for conformity to it set me back decades.
Of course, I was a child and didn't know any better.
What is white culture? I'll be darned if I know! It's in charge, I don't doubt it, but what the hell is it?
You can say you're Estonian, Jahn can say he's Swedish, but we interlopers don't really know from whence we came. It's a rare few... I have no "traditional costume" I can bring out of the closet to celebrate. So what are my roots, what is my culture? Indentured servants, starving diasporans? Ancestors who were on the lam? Secrets no one dares mention: that's my culture. I don't think I'm unique there.
The political correctness is in this context merely an attempt to plaster over the gap...and monumentally sickening it can be with all its mindlessness and inability to acknowledge the real problems.
Agreed.
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What is white culture? I'll be darned if I know! It's in charge, I don't doubt it, but what the hell is it?
You can say you're Estonian, Jahn can say he's Swedish, but we interlopers don't really know from whence we came. It's a rare few... I have no "traditional costume" I can bring out of the closet to celebrate. So what are my roots, what is my culture? Indentured servants, starving diasporans? Ancestors who were on the lam? Secrets no one dares mention: that's my culture. I don't think I'm unique there.
It's simpler - you're American in relation other nationalities. If you said that 'American' is your 'identity', I'd say you have some role-specific expectations of self. You as an 'American' have your specific role to play with regard to 'non-Americans' - e.g. tell them how it is in America (that is quite something - call the US America while there are more countries around)
In international relations 'America' has been a 'bastion of freedom against bloody commies', 'democracy', 'superpower', 'liberal market economy', etc.
When we talk about 'culture', we could proceed from this:
Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate,") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity.
Culture is manifested in music, literature, painting and sculpture, theater and film and other things.[1] Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture)[2], anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, culture thus includes technology, art, science, as well as moral systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture
Hollywood, Big M, McWorld, more than half of senators not having passports, Dubya, JFK, political correctness, country that has never had a Ministry of Culture, puritanic land that has turned pornography into a massive industry, NBA champions call themselves world champions, while the 'Dream Teams' have been whipped pretty impressively at real World Championships and Olympics, etc.
There it is - culture.
There must be some more positive aspects about it as well as 300 million people must produce something positive as well, yet about the overall balance of 'good' and 'bad' I wouldn't tell.
The US used to be 'melting pot': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_Pot
But it has apparently ceased to be one.
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What the flower are you personally doing to make it better?
Disassociate myself from my country and culture as well as from other stuff society (either local or global) yearns to impose.
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One last thought... to anyone who feels energy around this entire thread about "we're stuffed".
What the flower are you personally doing to make it better?
Hmm.. I don't know that it will make anything better... but do you feel better for venting? (often, I do!) ;)
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It's simpler - you're American in relation other nationalities. If you said that 'American' is your 'identity', I'd say you have some role-specific expectations of self. You as an 'American' have your specific role to play with regard to 'non-Americans' - e.g. tell them how it is in America (that is quite something - call the US America while there are more countries around)
In international relations 'America' has been a 'bastion of freedom against bloody commies', 'democracy', 'superpower', 'liberal market economy', etc.
When we talk about 'culture', we could proceed from this:
Hollywood, Big M, McWorld, more than half of senators not having passports, Dubya, JFK, political correctness, country that has never had a Ministry of Culture, puritanic land that has turned pornography into a massive industry, NBA champions call themselves world champions, while the 'Dream Teams' have been whipped pretty impressively at real World Championships and Olympics, etc.
There it is - culture.
There must be some more positive aspects about it as well as 300 million people must produce something positive as well, yet about the overall balance of 'good' and 'bad' I wouldn't tell.
The US used to be 'melting pot': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_Pot
But it has apparently ceased to be one.
Fair warning about my reactive post here. I am going to vent a little, at Juhani and at myself and at others. It is my $.02 worth at this specific moment in time and that is all it is worth. That said, I felt the urge to respond to Juhani in regards to his last post here.
Juhani,
When you generalize in the negative way you sometimes do regarding "300,000,000 Americans", you appear to show either ignorance or perhaps subconsciously, you are simply dealing with petty issues inside yourself that you can't acknowledge.
There are definitely good people here in the US and there are "bad" people... that is life and it has always been so.
From a historical perspective, I see the US as the one great chance the world at large had to "get things right". We obviously didn't. And we... the "collective we" that includes those of my blood and those of your blood.. simply flowered it up.
I hate to generalize, but in this case I will. I think the "melting pot" is more a reflection of the world.... the term in one sense means many came together to become one... and we didn't get it right.
And being an American, the state of America is partially a reflection me, but it is also a reflection of you and your country and your culture and your idioms and dogma and whatever the flower else is wrong with you and your society and society at large. This is the accelerated you and yours and mine.
You seem to hate America. That is certainly OK. There are many things about America that I do not like.. and conversely, there are many things I love.
My thought right now is that when you feel such things, maybe you should take a look in your mirror... ask yourself what it is you seem to despise so, perhaps you'll see a bit of yourself.
I won't post on this subject again, nor will I debate anyone on this because it does not matter one bit what I think or what you think. The world is what it is.... you own what it is as much as I do, or anyone else in the US or the world at large.
One last thought... to anyone who feels energy around this entire thread about "we're stuffed".
What the flower are you personally doing to make it better?
Disassociate myself from my country and culture as well as from other stuff society (either local or global) yearns to impose.
Last post from me on this...
Your "disassociation" as you phrase it, seems very clear from your energies "associated" with your string of posts in this thread. Think about it for just a moment, if you are so damn disassociated with it, why do you have so much energy around it?
I am through venting... and I may be wrong, but I may be right.
Peace and love to you...
One thing to remember .. this thread was forged by Michael to look at and become aware of the current tides and problems: in the world and in mass consciousness. I can't speak for Michael, but I do believe the intent was "awareness" of the problems.
Naturally, when one is speaking of problems, the thing takes on a negative air ... the nature of the beast, so to speak.
We haven't gotten too much into problem-solving, and I believe the consensus at one point came down to this: there are no solutions, and these are all words-to-the-wise to be used or eschewed for one's own future survival. For some, it has been stated (and not just for the US) that eventual flight was the solution.
That is to say, find that mountain now. Find that island now. Create your future haven now ...
I might have more comments later, but I suppose it would be good for all of us to observe in ourselves what inflames us, and to recognize antipathy in ourselves when it's present.
It's all learning.
We're all learning.
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Hmmm....looks like another Silver Bullet moment ;)
http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=2933.msg23317#msg23317
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When you generalize in the negative way you sometimes do regarding "300,000,000 Americans", you appear to show either ignorance or perhaps subconsciously, you are simply dealing with petty issues inside yourself that you can't acknowledge.
Or it's simply watching the trends.
It's easier to talk about what a mass of 300,000,000 people do, then to talk about what 300,000,000 poeple do individually.
This is much along the lines of the concept of Asimov's Foundation series (thanks Juhani, a very nice addition imho). It's almost useless to talk about what the "good" people are doing, when the mass is made up of the "bad" people. What we (neither "good", neither "bad") can do is to watch where the world is heading as a result of the actions of the "bad" people. The good people are bugs in the system, small errors that cause slightly deviations. Ghosts in the shell. We can acknowledge their presence but you can't rely on them.
Trends are made by "bad" people.
For me humans are idiot regardless of the race. The presence of a few non-idiot human won't make humans less idiot.
As for the other subject, I only see it as a reflection of the world we live in. Personally I would find this poem not more and not less disgusting then a political brochure for the elections. I don't have disgust because I don't care about either of those.
The world is what it is.... you own what it is as much as I do, or anyone else in the US or the world at large.
I don't own the world, I'm just a trespasser. While I certainly have my part in creating the madness, my goal is very simple. Be in this world, but not of this world. It's been already said, that it's fundamental.
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It's an emotionally charged issue when discussing race, nationality and country.
We can't change others, only improve ourselves (which is a entire topic in and of itself.)
Conflict will arise, and I was going to post the comments below in the 'Conflict' thread but didn't get around to it. Just two cents from the peanut gallery. ;)
Conflict...
Is there any true 'conflict' external to us?
Seems to me there's only conflict within ourselves.
We just 'externalize' it by ‘thinking’ of past or future events...either our own 'thinking,' or from a re-action to an external source. But the conflict is within us.
Now, if we choose to externalize this, and take it out on someone else, I call that a 'fight,' or disagreement, not conflict. The conflict is within us. Our outward expression of this conflict is then deemed 'disagreement.' Thus more 'thinking.'
There is no conflict in the Absolute Universe, only in our relative worlds (perceptions.)
We are not separate, but together in the Universal Universe.
When we are 'separate,' it's our minds, egos, 'thinking' we are separate, thus conflict, then externalization.
z
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just so long as we all remember that identity is not only who we believe we are, but also who we believe we are not:
It's simpler - I'm not American in relation other nationalities. If I said that 'non-American' is my 'identity', you'd say I have some role-specific expectations of self. I as a 'non-American' have my specific role to play with regard to 'Americans' - e.g. tell them how it is outside America.
The idea of freeing ourselves from our culture's claim on us, as emotive identity, also means freeing ourselves from emotive views of other cultures. We are more powerfully attached to what we consider we are 'definitely not'. We are more identified by what we despise, than what we admire.
In a conversation like this, Gurdjieff would call Stop! So we can all look at our emotions, and physical postures - like it or not, we are revealing ourselves... just so long as you know.
What has not been established first however, in this current debate, is why should we free ourselves from either our culture, or our 'not-our' culture? If we don't agree in that then we are barking up the wrong creek without a paddle, all over the place like wet dogs on lino.
And then of course, intelligent debate is at grave risk of vanishing like a fart in a fan factory.
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It's simpler - I'm not American in relation other nationalities. If I said that 'non-American' is my 'identity', you'd say I have some role-specific expectations of self. I as a 'non-American' have my specific role to play with regard to 'Americans' - e.g. tell them how it is outside America.
That's a good one!
I'd rather formulate it this way:
It's simpler - I'm not American in relation other nationalities. If I said that 'non-American' is my 'identity', you'd say I have some role-specific expectations of self. I as a 'non-American' have my specific role to play with regard to 'Americans' - e.g. tell them how America looks from outside America.
Estonia fares no batter in this context - sometimes Swedes and Finns show us how we look: little greedy nation trapped by historical fears, thoroughly focused on some aspects of 'pesent' - e.g. making money on oil transit and creating tremendous risk of killing large part of Baltic Sea in one major tanker disaster. This is not to mention other destruction we wreck continuously using our modest capabilities.
I keep stalking myself, Michael, when I say stuff like this. That's the purpose of this thread, isn't it?
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What has not been established first however, in this current debate, is why should we free ourselves from either our culture, or our 'not-our' culture? If we don't agree in that then we are barking up the wrong creek without a paddle, all over the place like wet dogs on lino.
Yes, why?
Because culture or non-culture are forms of social conditioning?
As the forms of social conditioning, they interfere with perception?
Anything interfering with perception stands in the way of accessing the knowledge directly and therefore on the way of expanding awareness as well?
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So where is the place of pride in one's own culture, for a person dedicated to spirit?
Is there a place?
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So where is the place of pride in one's own culture, for a person dedicated to spirit?
Is there a place?
Yes, there is, but not for 'culture' as a whole, but only for certain aspects of it - or should I rather say 'certain aspects of our beingness'? There are things we do that bring us close to Earth, close to Spirit. It is an ancient energy inside us. That is valuable, but these traditions and energy are not even parts of modern culture, but are tucked away somewhere in the back corner of the closet of memory.
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In my own travels with this Clan Soma, I've found it very educational and enlightening learning how the US is viewed by the world. Even though I had taken a critical stance myself already, the disdain held in general has tested every "ism" and sentimentality in me. All in all, I have found that constant testing an excellent stalking tool.
I think even Krishnamurti said that one of the great evils in this world was nationalism. Rudi pointed out that to be in this world but not of it was our intended state of being ... and with that I agree.
Still, there have been points from time to time, where dispassionate criticism has gone over some line, and one gets the sense that there is a bit of zeal involved and more than a sporting interest. When someone tells me that I can't escape my national karma, and that bombs (and whatever disaster) are going to befall me, and I will have deserved it, and ha ha ha .... there is more "emotion", however disguised, than "dispassion" would seem to warrant. It moves from "watching the trends" to "Die, you sucker", however it might get pulled back into some "disinterested" facade. "Die you sucker" has intent behind it, beyond the kind of healthy program-liberation in which toltecs engage.
It's been a challenge to me, and my own survival instincts have kicked in during all of it. Even if I understand the viewpoint of the predator, I still want to live ...
To those who don't live in the US, I'd say this ... you don't know the experience of being on the receiving end energetically of "Die you sucker" -- relentlessly, from multiple sectors. Even from our sibling Clan members .. even from groups/countries who are our friends. Furthermore, neither do most of the 300 million Americans. Only a fair few of us are aware -- only a few of us 'know'. As my original post here was describing, we are far too involved in our own petty in-fighting to see the larger picture.
Which brings me back to my original description of the white supremacists ... Having cut my teeth on a fair amount of doom-prophesy (Mary Summer Rain and Sun Bear come to mind), I forgot to mention in that post that this was predicted .. that this racism/eventual call to violence was one of the signs ...
And that's why I posted what I posted ... More signs...
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We are not separate, but together in the Universal Universe.
When we are 'separate,' it's our minds, egos, 'thinking' we are separate, thus conflict, then externalization.
z
So which foot shall you chose to stand on?
We are not separate - that is true fromthe view of energy, a universal point of view.
But man of today has his little ego and has made that pretender to the boss. The little ego is separated - and that is the truth.
So which of this is reality today - separetedness or not?
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Most of my childhood occured in Paterson, New Jersey, 20 minutes from New York City. I would walk home from school and smell dinners cooking along the way. There was a Puerto Rican block, a German block, a Greek block, an Italian block, a Hebrew block: everyone's mother spoke a different language. Our neighbors came from India. I loved that as a kid, and I thought that that was the way-the-world-was,
And I love such stories and to hear that so many cultures can be together in such a peaceful way.
and when I came to the South, I was shocked at the sea of white people, all dressing alike. When my mother brought me to my Junior High School, I saw all the (white) girls, all wearing the same sort of shoes, skirts, and blouses, and I honestly exclaimed to my mother: "I didn't know this school had uniforms!" It was so boring and homogenized and soulless. And the call for conformity to it set me back decades.
Of course, I was a child and didn't know any better.
But you made a perfect observation, didn't you.
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What is white culture? I'll be darned if I know! It's in charge, I don't doubt it, but what the hell is it?
You can say you're Estonian, Jahn can say he's Swedish, but we interlopers don't really know from whence we came. It's a rare few... I have no "traditional costume" I can bring out of the closet to celebrate. So what are my roots, what is my culture? Indentured servants, starving diasporans? Ancestors who were on the lam? Secrets no one dares mention: that's my culture. I don't think I'm unique there.
Well Swedes are spread all over Europe and Swedes are a mix from all Europe but that happened some hundred years ago. Vikings ruled in Russia for some hundred years so you can see "Swedish" girls from Ukraina. Finland still has their Swedish talking society. And then the Englishmen, my father told me that he once visited a pub in Scotland and there sat a man at a table that where a precise copy of his own father, my grandfather. Many vikings settled in Scottland, England and on Eire.
Immigrants has come in waves and the greatest was Germans and Walloons during the 16th and 17th century. In the 1950's Italians were recruited to our industry, then came Polish and Slovenians workers. The Finnish came too but few settled, they work here for some 10 years and then return. Estonians do not go to Sweden they prefer to work in England. That was a background to the DNA mix.
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To those who don't live in the US, I'd say this ... you don't know the experience of being on the receiving end energetically of "Die you sucker" -- relentlessly, from multiple sectors.
Try being a "white South African..", not to mention the Judaic roots!! :D
... an excellent stalking tool if ever there was one!! ;)
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Try being a "white South African..", not to mention the Judaic roots!! :D
... an excellent stalking tool if ever there was one!! ;)
Indeed, Daphne! :-*
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So which foot shall you chose to stand on?
We are not separate - that is true fromthe view of energy, a universal point of view.
But man of today has his little ego and has made that pretender to the boss. The little ego is separated - and that is the truth.
So which of this is reality today - separetedness or not?
Both ;D
It's my opportunity to balance the relative and Absolute.
z
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So where is the place of pride in one's own culture, for a person dedicated to spirit?
Is there a place?
Okay, I'm going to go out on a bit of a Toltec limb here and say that I personally do not believe there IS such a place for a "warrior". Toltec limb, like I said.
My reasoning is this: a warrior strives to release her personal history, and to my way of *seeing*, any form of cultural pride is directly connected to some sense of "identity" that 1) has NOTHING to do with self; and 2) probably carries with it not only the baggage of one's own personal history, but the personal history of an entire nation/culture.
When someone says to me, "I'm proud to be an American!" I generally have 2 levels of response. On the surface level, I know what they mean, so I normally wouldn't try to contradict them. They need that sense of Rah Rah Rah or whatever it is that swells their chest with pride, and it is not up to me to take that from them. But at a deeper level, I wonder if they have any awareness at all that to make such a blanket statement can EASILY be misinterpreted. Does he mean he is proud of our space program, or he is proud of our violent and often bigoted history?
For someone on a spiritual path, it seems to me that "cultural pride" could easily be just another term for self-importance, for it has always seemed to me that a warrior is truly a man without a country in the truest sense. To claim cultural pride may also be seen (whether correctly or misinterpreted) as a way of saying, "I'm better than you!" And as we all know, those are fightin' words even if they are not really intended in such a manner.
So, for me the answer is in the question, Michael. :) There is no place for 'cultural pride' for someone on a spiritual path, because a warrior's deepest roots are in the nagual - where there are no boundaries, no countries, no limitations.
Just my 2 cents worth, out here on the Toltec limb. :)
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well put QS!
2) probably carries with it not only the baggage of one's own personal history, but the personal history of an entire nation/culture.
very good point!
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(I'll only keep this up for a less than a day, because it's so disgusting I don't want to taint this place. But I thought it was an eye-opener, to demonstrate the primitive thread of hatred which exists in the US. And this is mild, believe me .. it can get much much worse. This is entry-level white supremacy bullshit.)
And now a day has passed by ...
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And now a day has passed by ...
Thanks for the reminder, Jahn. Email removed.
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Okay, I'm going to go out on a bit of a Toltec limb here and say that I personally do not believe there IS such a place for a "warrior". Toltec limb, like I said.
My reasoning is this: a warrior strives to release her personal history, and to my way of *seeing*, any form of cultural pride is directly connected to some sense of "identity" that 1) has NOTHING to do with self; and 2) probably carries with it not only the baggage of one's own personal history, but the personal history of an entire nation/culture.
When someone says to me, "I'm proud to be an American!" I generally have 2 levels of response. On the surface level, I know what they mean, so I normally wouldn't try to contradict them. They need that sense of Rah Rah Rah or whatever it is that swells their chest with pride, and it is not up to me to take that from them. But at a deeper level, I wonder if they have any awareness at all that to make such a blanket statement can EASILY be misinterpreted. Does he mean he is proud of our space program, or he is proud of our violent and often bigoted history?
For someone on a spiritual path, it seems to me that "cultural pride" could easily be just another term for self-importance, for it has always seemed to me that a warrior is truly a man without a country in the truest sense. To claim cultural pride may also be seen (whether correctly or misinterpreted) as a way of saying, "I'm better than you!" And as we all know, those are fightin' words even if they are not really intended in such a manner.
So, for me the answer is in the question, Michael. :) There is no place for 'cultural pride' for someone on a spiritual path, because a warrior's deepest roots are in the nagual - where there are no boundaries, no countries, no limitations.
Just my 2 cents worth, out here on the Toltec limb. :)
What do you say, when someone says, "I'm proud to be a Toltec Warrior", or "I'm proud to be a member of Soma...or TSW, or YAW, or the Girl Scouts, or the National Rifle Association". Does it really matter? Every single group will give you some kind of history, baggage, whatever you want to call it. When we start using the knowledge we extract...as it relates on a spiritual level, then we see how important it is to combine. You can't separate them...there aren't Two worlds, there is only One. In order for it all to work cohesively, they must be combined, and delt with equally. You can't ignore one and expect the other to evolve.
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What do you say, when someone says, "I'm proud to be a Toltec Warrior", or "I'm proud to be a member of Soma...or TSW, or YAW, or the Girl Scouts, or the National Rifle Association". Does it really matter? Every single group will give you some kind of history, baggage, whatever you want to call it. When we start using the knowledge we extract...as it relates on a spiritual level, then we see how important it is to combine. You can't separate them...there aren't Two worlds, there is only One. In order for it all to work cohesively, they must be combined, and delt with equally. You can't ignore one and expect the other to evolve.
There is no hard-and-fast "rules" as i see it. Everyone comes to their "path" along the journey of life differently. Some, to go forward on their path, releasing history is rather imperative. For others, remembering history is. This is when we get beyond the cliche's and look to our own path with a sharp eye and open heart.
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What do you say, when someone says, "I'm proud to be a Toltec Warrior", or "I'm proud to be a member of Soma...or TSW, or YAW, or the Girl Scouts, or the National Rifle Association". Does it really matter?
That's my point - I don't think anyone seriously on a spiritual path would need to express "pride" in any sort of group in the first place, because to "belong" to one thing would mean excluding something else. So when Michael asked "is there a place for..." my answer was, "No, I do not see that there IS a place for cultural or 'group' pride for someone on a spiritual path."
Every single group will give you some kind of history, baggage, whatever you want to call it.
Exactly - which is why claiming "pride" in the group is rather dangerous for anyone on a spiritual path.
When we start using the knowledge we extract...as it relates on a spiritual level, then we see how important it is to combine. You can't separate them...there aren't Two worlds, there is only One. In order for it all to work cohesively, they must be combined, and delt with equally. You can't ignore one and expect the other to evolve.
Yes, I've said for years that there is only one world. And yet... to use the terminology "they must be combined" and "dealt with equally" implies that there is something TO combine... which means some manner of separation has occurred.
That's precisely why I think "cultural pride" or "group pride" (whatever the group) is just an expression of self-importance, ego and a need to "belong" to something "bigger" than oneself. Being part of something doesn't HAVE to involve attachment, though it usually does. The moment I align myself as a Christian or a Jew, as a Republican or a Democrat, as a believer or a non-believer, I have embraced an attachment and excluded my potential for totality.
Sure, we live in a world where such attachments may be necessary or even desirable as a means to survival, but at the end of the day when a warrior strips off all attachments & stands naked before the mirror, s/he belongs to nothing and no one other than herself.
That's pretty much what I meant awhile back when I said I had declared myself a "nation of one." 8)
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Quote from: Serafina on Today at 09:26:53 AM
What do you say, when someone says, "I'm proud to be a Toltec Warrior", or "I'm proud to be a member of Soma...or TSW, or YAW, or the Girl Scouts, or the National Rifle Association". Does it really matter?
That's my point - I don't think anyone seriously on a spiritual path would need to express "pride" in any sort of group in the first place, because to "belong" to one thing would mean excluding something else. So when Michael asked "is there a place for..." my answer was, "No, I do not see that there IS a place for cultural or 'group' pride for someone on a spiritual path."
Quote from: Serafina on Today at 09:26:53 AM
Every single group will give you some kind of history, baggage, whatever you want to call it.
Exactly - which is why claiming "pride" in the group is rather dangerous for anyone on a spiritual path.
Quote from: Serafina on Today at 09:26:53 AM
When we start using the knowledge we extract...as it relates on a spiritual level, then we see how important it is to combine. You can't separate them...there aren't Two worlds, there is only One. In order for it all to work cohesively, they must be combined, and delt with equally. You can't ignore one and expect the other to evolve.
Yes, I've said for years that there is only one world. And yet... to use the terminology "they must be combined" and "dealt with equally" implies that there is something TO combine... which means some manner of separation has occurred.
That's precisely why I think "cultural pride" or "group pride" (whatever the group) is just an expression of self-importance, ego and a need to "belong" to something "bigger" than oneself. Being part of something doesn't HAVE to involve attachment, though it usually does. The moment I align myself as a Christian or a Jew, as a Republican or a Democrat, as a believer or a non-believer, I have embraced an attachment and excluded my potential for totality.
Sure, we live in a world where such attachments may be necessary or even desirable as a means to survival, but at the end of the day when a warrior strips off all attachments & stands naked before the mirror, s/he belongs to nothing and no one other than herself.
That's pretty much what I meant awhile back when I said I had declared myself a "nation of one."
Thanks Della...you make me smile :-*
The separation is only within the One...it's like trying to keep the oil and vinegar together...shake continually ;)
There are endeavors in this life that we fight to fulfill. We go into these endeavors with full awareness. IMO, these are not attachments. They are strategy for assimilation to further ones path. You can still be a "nation of one" while mingling amongst the masses.
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there is a 'controlled folly' type of pride one is allowed.
I do this often, with a special smile on my face - no one ever seems to get what it means. It allows me to experience the benefits of feeling proud to be standing in a group, to experience and enjoy the group's pride, while knowing the whole thing is bollocks.
and there is another word, or another meaning to 'pride'. a sense of having pride in being alive. but that is not group pride.
Gurdjieff had an excellent metaphor or things like group pride or any other identity issue. he described the new system of moving through the universe in a space ship. They realised one day, these inter-galactic people, that to propel the ship via one's own power, was too great a burden, for such long distances.
So instead, all they had to do was allow their ship to be pulled gravitationally by each large planet or sun roughly in the direction they wished to go. Then just before they crossed that critical threshold passed which they would be sucked into the denser gravitational power field of that planet/sun (read identity), they would refocus the ship to another planet/sun, and allow it to pull them towards it - till again, just before that critical threshold, they would re-focus again on another.
This way they used the innate attractive force of each object along their intended path, to 'pull' them through the universe, rather than self-power the whole way.
The trick was knowing when to pull out, before you inevitably donned the identity badge of the object - read group. By balancing alignment with the attractive forces in one's world, one is then able to borrow the enthusiasm of an object (like a job, a family, a nation, a religion, a sport club). That way we get to experience the world, pick out the juicy eyes of each passing energetic package, but always move on... forever moving on.
you should realise that underneath all this is a very dangerous message. It leads to becoming disconnected to our 'world' - esp our social world, but also our entire world of meaning. Juan once said, even his teachings to CC were folly. We cut ourselves off on a very deep level, till there is only one link left, our stem.
If you aren't ready for that adventure, best to go slowly, or not at all.
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It seems to me that Don Juan used his Yaqui origin the same way. He found connection to Earth (or at least got closer to Earth) through being Yaqui, but threw all accompanying baggage over board.
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Trends are made by "bad" people.
Very powerful statement that resonates in me very strongly!
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Thought it would be nice to have some good news for a change in here. Though it will no doubt be controversial to all these branches of the government.
Judge: Navy not exempt from sonar ruling
By ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press Writer
53 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that may harm whales, despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act" and a court injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision.
"We disagree with the judge's decision," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "We believe the orders are legal and appropriate."
The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating the no-sonar zone. The Navy's attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.
Environmentalists have fought the use of sonar in court, saying it harms whales and other marine mammals.
"It's an excellent decision," said Joel Reynolds, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is spearheading the legal fight. "It reinstates the proper balance between national security and environmental protection."
The Navy last week wrapped up a training exercise by the carrier strike group of the USS Abraham Lincoln in which sonar was used. There are currently no task force training exercises off the coast of California using sonar.
When he signed the exemption, Bush said complying with the law would "undermine the Navy's ability to conduct realistic training exercises that are necessary to ensure the combat effectiveness of carrier and expeditionary strike groups."
Said Reynolds: "I've always felt that the president's actions were illegal in this case, and the judge has affirmed that point of view with the decision today."
The judge also wrote that she has "significant concerns about the constitutionality of the President's exemption," but that a ruling based on constitutionality was not needed to reinstate the injunction.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had been expected to rule on the future of the Navy exercises last month. After Bush's decision, the appeals court sent the issue to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for reconsideration.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore did not say what the military's next legal move may be.
Government attorneys can appeal Cooper's decision to the 9th Circuit or could ask the appeals court to allow sonar exercises until the appeal is resolved.
Scientists have said that loud sonar can damage the brains and ears of marine mammals, and that it may mask the echoes some whales and dolphins listen for when they use their own natural sonar to locate food.
The Navy maintains that it already minimizes risks to marine life and has employed sonar for decades without seeing any whale injuries. The sonar is essential for tracking submarines, it said.
Navy not exempt from sonar ruling (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mail/ts/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080205/ap_on_re_us/navy_sonar)
On that last paragraph, the navy lies... They've taken heat for whale beachings here for the last several years. I can't remember which year, I'll have to look up the article in my forum, but a whole pod of whales beached on the Outer Banks, right after some sonar-testing to which the navy reluctantly admitted. There were events right in the same time period off the Florida coast as well ... The navy didn't deny their sonar-testing -- what they wouldn't concede was that it was harmful to the whales. And then, they said as much as this: "Too bad if it did hurt them: we're not going to stop."
So this latest ruling is pretty amazing. I wonder if Bush's "exemption" will really be over-ridden. We shall see!
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The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html
(http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00015/05RubbishGraphic_15022a.jpg)
By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent, and Daniel Howden
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.
The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Juhanisen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added.
The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.
Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.
He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"
Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade.
Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's findings.
"After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems."
Professor Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute.
Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said.
According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.
Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic,
Dr Juhanisen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles – the raw materials for the plastic industry – are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Juhanisen.
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Biofuels make climate change worse, scientific study concludes
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/biofuels-make-climate-change-worse-scientific-study-concludes-779811.html
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Friday, 8 February 2008
Growing crops to make biofuels results in vast amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere and does nothing to stop climate change or global warming, according to the first thorough scientific audit of a biofuel's carbon budget.
Scientists have produced damning evidence to suggest that biofuels could be one of the biggest environmental con-tricks because they actually make global warming worse by adding to the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide that they are supposed to curb. Two separate studies published in the journal Science show that a range of biofuel crops now being grown to produce "green" alternatives to oil-based fossil fuels release far more carbon dioxide into the air than can be absorbed by the growing plants.
The scientists found that, in the case of some crops, it would take several centuries of growing them to pay off the "carbon debt" caused by their initial cultivation. Those environmental costs do not take into account any extra destruction to the environment, for instance the loss of biodiversity caused by clearing tracts of pristine rainforest.
"All the biofuels we use now cause habitat destruction, either directly or indirectly. Global agriculture is already producing food for six billion people. Producing food-based biofuel, too, will require that still more land be converted to agriculture," said Joe Fargioine of the US Nature Conservancy who was the lead scientist in one of the studies.
The scientists carried out the sort of analysis that has been missing in the rush to grow biofuels, encouraged by policies in the United States and Europe where proponents have been keen to extol biofuels' virtues as a green alternative to the fossil fuels used for transport.
Both studies looked at how much carbon dioxide is released when a piece of land is converted into a biofuel crop. They found that when peat lands in Indonesia are converted into palm-oil plantations, for instance, it would take 423 years to pay off the carbon debt.
The next worse case was when forested land in the Amazon is cut down to convert into soybean fields. The scientists found that it would take 319 years of making biodiesel from the soybeans to pay of the carbon debt caused by chopping down the trees in the first place.
Such conversions of land to grow corn (maize) and sugarcane for biodiesel, or palm oil and soybean for bioethanol, release between 17 and 420 times more carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels, the scientists calculated.
"This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question 'is it worth it?' Does the carbon you lose by converting forests, grasslands and peat lands outweigh the carbon you 'save' by using biofuels instead of fossil fuels?" Dr Fargione said.
"And surprisingly the answer is 'no'. These natural areas store a lot of carbon, so converting them to croplands results in tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere," he said.
The demand for biofuels is destroying the environment in other ways. American farmers for instance used to rotate between soybean and corn crops but the demand for biofuel has meant that they are growing corn only. As a result, Brazilian farmers are cutting down forests to grow soybean to meet the shortfall in production.
"In finding solutions to climate change, we must ensure that the cure is not worse than the disease," said Jimmie Powell, a member of the scientific team at the Nature Conservancy.
"We cannot afford to ignore the consequences of converting land for biofuels. Doing so means we might unintentionally promote fuel alternatives that are worse than the fossil fuels they are designed to replace. These findings should be incorporated into carbon emission policy going forward," Dr Powell said yesterday.
The European Union is already having second thoughts about its policy aimed at stimulating the production of biofuel. Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, admitted last month that the EU did not foresee the scale of the environmental problems raised by Europe's target of deriving 10 per cent of its transport fuel from plant material.
Professor John Pickett, chair of the recent study on biofuels commissioned by the Royal Society, said that although biofuels may play an important role in cutting greenhouse gases from transport, it is important to remember that one biofuel is not the same as another.
"The greenhouse gas savings that a biofuel can provide are dependent on how crops are grown and converted and how the fuel is used," Professor Pickett said. "Given that biofuels are already entering global markets, it will be vital to apply carbon certification and sustainability criteria to the assessment of biofuels to promote those that are good for people and the environment. This must happen at an international level so that we do not just transfer any potentially negative effects of these fuels from one place to another."
Professor Stephen Polasky of the University of Minnesota, an author of one of the studies published in Science, said that the incentives currently employed to encourage farmers to grow crops for biofuels do not take into account the carbon budget of the crop.
"We don't have the proper incentives in place because landowners are rewarded for producing palm oil and other products but not rewarded for carbon management. This creates incentives for excessive land clearing and can result in large increases in carbon emissions," Professor Polasky said.
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Oils ain't Oils
"For civilization, you need agriculture, and for agriculture, you need topsoil. But the topsoil is gone! Agriculture survives only by dumping synthetic fertilizers on dead soil, and those fertilizers depend on oil, and the easily extracted oil is also gone. If the industrial system crashes just a little, we'll have no oil, no fertilizer, no agriculture, and therefore no choice but foraging and hunting."
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I heard a man on the radio, who is head of one of the big oil companies, saying that when oil reaches between $150 to $200 dollars a barrel, that will trigger rationing. Fuel will need to be restricted for essential services. He expects that by the end of 2008.
He was saying, what will happen in the large spread-out western cities like US and Australia have? When people will be unable to drive for food or work, from the outer suburbs, which are already poorly serviced? He was describing how we still do not fully understand the implications of an oil rationing crisis.
And there is a new report from the scientific community out, which was front page of The Guardian recently, where they are now mapping the tipping points. They believe it is most likely too late now to save the Arctic sea ice (bye bye polar bears), which will be gone in 10 years. No ice left in the northern hemisphere at all in 25 years time. The Amazon and the Boreal forests gone in 50 years due to drying out, so never mind the land clearing for Bio-fuel. Indian monsoons will fail regularly, from today on.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/05/climatechange
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/02/05/World_Tipping_map_0502.pdf
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There is only one thing worth keeping in mind.
Once a report said that the changes that we're experiencing with the climate are the results (read: main cause. Not the only one, but the main one) of the human activity 20-30 years ago.
Considering that ecosystem and Earth it's a large scale system it makes sense that the cause and effect process evolves on a larger scale too, taking years and decades.
Then just think how the human activity has changed in the past decade. Did we extract less oil? Cut less forest? Produce less garbage? Produce less CO2? No, we didn't.
In the light of all these reports, try to imagine the impact of the last 10 years on the Earth's ecosystem. Try to imagine the effects 20-30 years from now.
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Good points, Rudi!
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In the light of all these reports, try to imagine the impact of the last 10 years on the Earth's ecosystem. Try to imagine the effects 20-30 years from now.
It will be HOT!
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I was at the salon last week and I happened to pick up an old issue of Travel & Leisure magazine. I read this article and found it interesting. I bolded the most interesting part to me...this warming trend has happened before. At a time when there were no cars, no emissions, no industry pollution, no swirling gigantic toilet bowls of garbage in the ocean.
Could it only be just time for a correction? The question is...who's doing the correcting?
Is it possible to embrace Mother Earth and accept her for what she's become ... rather than looking upon her with Disgust? Turn the tides :-*
The Melting Point
A vast expanse of ice fringed with settlements, Greenland is a lure for adventure travelers—and at the heart of our global warming fears. Jeff Wise reports on this chilly siren of the north.
From November 2007
By Joe Wise
The signs were subtle at first. The harbor, which used to reliably freeze solid, stayed ice-free one winter, and then the next. The coastal sea-ice routes, used by trucks to carry supplies to remote villages, began to melt. The nearby glacier quickened its retreat up the fjord. The tundra flowers bloomed early. And then, in a signal as unequivocal as the return of the geese in spring, came the ultimate evidence that global warming was serious business: incoming flocks of international journalists and politicians. "Last week we had the Danish prime minister and the president of the European Commission," Piitannguaq Pedersen, booking agent for the Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat, told me when I visited in June. "We’ve also had the BBC and the Washington Post."
When it comes to climate change, Greenland is the front line. Climate scientists confirm what the locals have been saying for a decade: Greenland’s weather is getting warmer (by nearly 4 degrees in the last 15 years), and it’s wreaking monumental changes on the island’s icy environment. And that, perversely, has translated into a kind of celebrity. Movies like An Inconvenient Truth and books such as Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe have given Greenland a star turn as the leading image of potential ecological disaster.
Curiously, just as the world’s attention is fixed on Greenland and its receding ice cap, tourism here is taking off, rising by a full 10 percent in the past two years. In May, Air Greenland debuted its first-ever direct service from the United States, a twice-weekly, four-hour flight between Baltimore and the air hub of Kangerlussuaq, on the island’s west coast. The flight serves an ever growing number of adventure travelers in search of untouched locations to explore. And then there are the rubberneckers, driven by a morbid fascination with Greenland’s dangerous, melting beauty. I fell squarely into both camps.
Within 24 hours of landing at Kangerlussuaq—a tiny settlement alongside a huge, decommissioned American airbase—I was bumping along the dirt road that leads to the edge of the ice sheet. The landscape was stark and comfortless, a series of bare, glacier-rounded hills softened by patches of tundra and a few musk oxen, shaggy goatlike beasts swathed in curtains of long, silky brown hair.
The place seemed so indifferent to human existence that it felt almost extraterrestrial. Yet the last 4,000 years have brought at least eight waves of migration. The Norse, under Juhani the Red, settled in 982 and scratched out a living for more than four centuries before vanishing. The Inuit, who last migrated from present-day Canada at about the same time, survived, and today their descendants account for 85 percent of the population. Many make their living as fishermen, living in small settlements scattered along the southwestern coast, in the narrow habitable band squeezed between the ocean and the vast ice cap.
Four-fifths of the world’s largest island is covered by this ice, which is up to two miles thick and the size of Western Europe. At first glance, however, it’s rather unimpressive. After disembarking some 15 miles from Kangerlussuaq, I clambered over a tumbled gravel landscape and caught a glimpse of the fabled ice sheet: a field of dirty snow that stretched to a nearby ridge. I climbed higher, and at the top of an ice hillock I found the view I was looking for: an unearthly, rolling whiteness that stretched on and on and on—350 miles, to the island’s eastern edge. The only sound was the wind and the tinkling of rivulets of meltwater, seeping out of cracks in the ice and gathering themselves into a small stream.
Kangerlussuaq overlapped with a visit by Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, one of Denmark’s leading ice physicists. Like most visiting scientists, she stopped by Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS), a logistics hub housed on the edge of the airstrip. In April, KISS will be particularly busy, thanks to the latest International Polar Year, the fourth since 1882. During each of these periods, teams of scientists from around the world pool their resources to study a wide variety of arctic and antarctic phenomena. This "year" (it runs until March 2009), one of their focuses is on the impact of climate change. "I think that all scientists agree that global warming is man-made," Dahl-Jensen says. "The uncertainties in the discussion come when we predict what happens in the future."
That’s where her research comes in. Dahl-Jensen is heading up a 14-nation project to extract some of the deepest, oldest ice from the bottom of the cap. "We want to drill an ice core that contains the unbroken record from the period 115,000 to 130,000 years ago," she says. "That’s a period when the average temperature over Greenland was nine degrees warmer than it is now." With our climate heating up, the core could indicate how much—and how quickly—the ice cap will melt in the decades ahead.
According to current estimates, if the ice sheet reacts today the way it did then, Greenland will lose one-third of its ice. That process appears to be already under way. Models show that within this century, global sea levels could rise anywhere from seven inches to two feet, and some scientists say they could go even higher. And that may be just the beginning. Recent measurements indicate that Greenland is losing 200 billion tons of ice per year, a rate that’s twice as fast as that of a decade ago. If the whole thing melts (a catastrophic scenario that could take anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand years, depending on whom you ask), scientists estimate that the worldwide sea level could rise 23 feet. So even if you don’t get to Greenland, sooner or later, Greenland may come to you.
From kangerlussuaq, I flew north, my face pressed against the airplane window as I watched the empty landscape roll past. The uninhabited valleys of tundra, dotted with unfished lakes and cut by undammed streams, seemed a rugged and primeval Eden. In the summer sun, the land appeared benign, but the weather here is changeable and often unimaginably harsh, plunging in the long dark of winter to sub-zero temperatures for months at a stretch.
We were already well into our descent when we skimmed over the Ilulissat Icefjord, a chaotic jumble of bergs and sea-ice rubble. This is where the ancient ice of the inland sheet flows out through a glacier and calves off into the ocean. Fifteen years ago, it moved at a rate of 3.5 miles per year, releasing enough fresh water to supply New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island combined. Today, it’s flowing twice as fast.
Just north of the ice fjord lies the town of Ilulissat ("icebergs," in Inuit), with a population that in Greenland makes it a megalopolis: 6,000, or a ninth of the island’s total population. For centuries, the town’s cold, fertile waters have spawned a rich harvest of halibut, seal, and whale. Now they draw travelers. Tour boats wind their way among the massive bergs that loom outside the harbor mouth, and carry passengers up to the Eqi glacier, whose calving creates mini-tsunamis with each falling chunk. Walk a mile south of town and you’ll find the cove of Sermermiut, near an Inuit settlement site hemmed in by an ever creeping palisade of icebergs.
In Ilulissat, where a tidy collection of brightly painted houses sits upon barren outcroppings of gray rock, civilization at its most cultured resides alongside wilderness at its most raw and brutal. In the Pisifik department store, you’ll find the latest clothes and electronics flown in from Denmark, while down the street a sinewy hunter hacks a seal carcass into pieces for sale. But the town’s true heart is the harbor, home to its lifeblood, the fishing fleet.
I wandered down, and asked a pair of Inuit fisherman if they had noticed a change in the weather. "We used to be able to dogsled to Disko Island, across 30 miles of sea ice," 56-year-old Daniel Jorgensen said. He spoke through a translator, in Greenlandic, an Inuit tongue. "We haven’t been able to do that since 1990." Nearby, hunters loaded plastic tubs with raw whale meat cut into cubes a foot across. Jorgensen agreed with all the other fishermen I talked to: Greenland has become indisputably warmer over the last decade or so. This has made it difficult to reach traditional ice-fishing sites by dogsled. On the other hand, it’s now possible to take boats out fishing year-round, and the reindeer herds, with more to feed on, are growing.
So it has always been in the Arctic. One resource vanishes; another reveals itself. In nature, such change is constant. Only this time, the circumstances of this change are deeply unnatural.
That night I went outside and climbed to the top of a rock outcropping on the shore. It was midnight and cold, the temperature a few degrees above freezing, but the sun was bright in the sky to the north. Mist hung over a scattering of icebergs, and the low-angled light gave them a mystical, otherworldly appearance. Further off lay a number of settlements, each smaller, and smaller still, until all that was left was the empty frozen expanse, and beyond, the North Pole. For one blissful moment, it seemed impossible to believe that any human could touch—let alone alter—this kingdom of ice.
Jeff Wise is a Travel + Leisure contributing editor.
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That’s where her research comes in. Dahl-Jensen is heading up a 14-nation project to extract some of the deepest, oldest ice from the bottom of the cap. "We want to drill an ice core that contains the unbroken record from the period 115,000 to 130,000 years ago," she says. "That’s a period when the average temperature over Greenland was nine degrees warmer than it is now." With our climate heating up, the core could indicate how much—and how quickly—the ice cap will melt in the decades ahead.
Question: what were the causes of the warm up 115,00 to 130,000 years ago?
Answer: Something. For convenience's sake let's call it X
Q: Were there significant human activity at that time?
A: Probably not.
Q: Is there significant human activity now?
A: Definitely yes..
Q: Could be that the present warm up is caused by external (cyclic) causes?
A: Yes, it could. Let's call it again X
Q: Does the human activity have some effect on the Earth's ecosystem? If yes what?
A: Most likely. Let's call the causes Y.
Q: So what is causing the current warm up and in what measure? Let's call the effects Z. We don't fully understand it yet. In fact I would say that we have no idea.
A: The equation becomes X + Y = Z
Q: How the heck you solve an equation with three unknown variables?
I'm not worried about the Mother Earth. I'm not saying that the present warm up is caused solely by the human activity, and more over I'm not saying that we are destroying her. She's going her own way, and we can't just destroy her.
What we're destroying is our image of the world, and since we with that we are this image we destroy ourselves with it.
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The Dumbing Of America
Call Me a Snob, but Really, We're a Nation of Dunces
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901_pf.html
By Susan Jacoby
Sunday, February 17, 2008; B01
"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.
This is the last subject that any candidate would dare raise on the long and winding road to the White House. It is almost impossible to talk about the manner in which public ignorance contributes to grave national problems without being labeled an "elitist," one of the most powerful pejoratives that can be applied to anyone aspiring to high office. Instead, our politicians repeatedly assure Americans that they are just "folks," a patronizing term that you will search for in vain in important presidential speeches before 1980. (Just imagine: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.") Such exaltations of ordinariness are among the distinguishing traits of anti-intellectualism in any era.
The classic work on this subject by Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," was published in early 1963, between the anti-communist crusades of the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late 1960s. Hofstadter saw American anti-intellectualism as a basically cyclical phenomenon that often manifested itself as the dark side of the country's democratic impulses in religion and education. But today's brand of anti-intellectualism is less a cycle than a flood. If Hofstadter (who died of leukemia in 1970 at age 54) had lived long enough to write a modern-day sequel, he would have found that our era of 24/7 infotainment has outstripped his most apocalyptic predictions about the future of American culture.
Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture (and by video, I mean every form of digital media, as well as older electronic ones); a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.
First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels.
Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book -- fiction or nonfiction -- over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.
Does all this matter? Technophiles pooh-pooh jeremiads about the end of print culture as the navel-gazing of (what else?) elitists. In his book "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," the science writer Steven Johnson assures us that we have nothing to worry about. Sure, parents may see their "vibrant and active children gazing silently, mouths agape, at the screen." But these zombie-like characteristics "are not signs of mental atrophy. They're signs of focus." Balderdash. The real question is what toddlers are screening out, not what they are focusing on, while they sit mesmerized by videos they have seen dozens of times.
Despite an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at encouraging babies as young as 6 months to watch videos, there is no evidence that focusing on a screen is anything but bad for infants and toddlers. In a study released last August, University of Washington researchers found that babies between 8 and 16 months recognized an average of six to eight fewer words for every hour spent watching videos.
I cannot prove that reading for hours in a treehouse (which is what I was doing when I was 13) creates more informed citizens than hammering away at a Microsoft Xbox or obsessing about Facebook profiles. But the inability to concentrate for long periods of time -- as distinct from brief reading hits for information on the Web -- seems to me intimately related to the inability of the public to remember even recent news events. It is not surprising, for example, that less has been heard from the presidential candidates about the Iraq war in the later stages of the primary campaign than in the earlier ones, simply because there have been fewer video reports of violence in Iraq. Candidates, like voters, emphasize the latest news, not necessarily the most important news.
No wonder negative political ads work. "With text, it is even easy to keep track of differing levels of authority behind different pieces of information," the cultural critic Caleb Crain noted recently in the New Yorker. "A comparison of two video reports, on the other hand, is cumbersome. Forced to choose between conflicting stories on television, the viewer falls back on hunches, or on what he believed before he started watching."
As video consumers become progressively more impatient with the process of acquiring information through written language, all politicians find themselves under great pressure to deliver their messages as quickly as possible -- and quickness today is much quicker than it used to be. Harvard University's Kiku Adatto found that between 1968 and 1988, the average sound bite on the news for a presidential candidate -- featuring the candidate's own voice -- dropped from 42.3 seconds to 9.8 seconds. By 2000, according to another Harvard study, the daily candidate bite was down to just 7.8 seconds.
The shrinking public attention span fostered by video is closely tied to the second important anti-intellectual force in American culture: the erosion of general knowledge.
People accustomed to hearing their president explain complicated policy choices by snapping "I'm the decider" may find it almost impossible to imagine the pains that Franklin D. Roosevelt took, in the grim months after Pearl Harbor, to explain why U.S. armed forces were suffering one defeat after another in the Pacific. In February 1942, Roosevelt urged Americans to spread out a map during his radio "fireside chat" so that they might better understand the geography of battle. In stores throughout the country, maps sold out; about 80 percent of American adults tuned in to hear the president. FDR had told his speechwriters that he was certain that if Americans understood the immensity of the distances over which supplies had to travel to the armed forces, "they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin."
This is a portrait not only of a different presidency and president but also of a different country and citizenry, one that lacked access to satellite-enhanced Google maps but was far more receptive to learning and complexity than today's public. According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."
That leads us to the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation.
There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on specific tests will not do the job. Moreover, the people who exemplify the problem are usually oblivious to it. ("Hardly anyone believes himself to be against thought and culture," Hofstadter noted.) It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality. If this indeed turns out to be a "change election," the low level of discourse in a country with a mind taught to aim at low objects ought to be the first item on the change agenda.
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When I first glimpsed at this article posted by Juhani I was certain I'd read it before. Then, I looked a bit closer, and noticed it was a newer article. I knew I had read about this years ago, and did a search for 'dumbing down of America'.
Some interesting links:
http://www.rockypatterson.com/DUMBING/index.html
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/pages/book.htm
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2007/03/06/dumbing-down_of_america
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15280.htm
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14971 (This is a great little quiz)
I'd be interested in how those living outside of the U.S. are progressing...
I'll do my part tonight...we have an exhibition at the County Parks and Rec. Center. This location is in a 'challenging' neighborhood, and does a great job of keeping the kids off the street. Hopefully our sharing in this martial arts demonstration will give them just a bit more to think about, as opposed to stabbing another with a knife.
z
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I'd be interested in how those living outside of the U.S. are progressing...
We all follow the US example - it is not that much about what single individuals want, but what the IT-based mass culture does to a majority of people in an absolutely irresistible manner. Our schools refuse to accept the education of the US and UK schools as equal to ours, but the effect of mass culture is eroding the school system from inside - new waves of our pupils are less and less receptive to intellectual development.
I have looked at our uni programmes and it is absolutely clear that the generation previous to mine was really taught to think independently and solve problems creatively. I was taught much more like an artisan.
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Ok...I'm a little confused ??? ...and maybe I'm just "special", and then maybe my son is "special" too! But I doubt it ;)
Here is an example of my nine year old son's fourth grade science homework. The only part I had to help him with, was directing him where to find conversion charts for grams/ounces (found in the back of everyone's day-planner). The teacher said they could use a calculator for this project, and I told my son to use the long division he was currently being taught in math. Then I let him use the calculator. I thought it was advanced for a fourth grader, but maybe this type of homework is standard in other parts of the world ... I don't know ... you all tell me. :)
My son doesn't attend public school, nor does attend the ritzy private school. He goes to a Catholic school where the teachers are generally recruited from the public school system. So I don't believe it's the quality of information being presented to the children that is inferior, but the habits they develop in retaining that information. In a nutshell, "laziness". There's a misperception that teachers should be solely responsible for All teaching. In actuality this is the Parents responsibility, IMO.
Some of the previously posted articles, again IMO, are pure hype written by "creative writers", who obviously need some special attention of their own ;) Just because they author it, doesn't make it true. And there's usually the hidden agenda of religious, political or monetary gain ...interesting when you find out it's usually All of the above.
Let's tell everyone how dumb they are .. and ,oh, btw, let's make some money while we're doing it. The smart get smarter and the dumb get dumber, eh? Hmmm ... sound familiar? ... considering 1% of the american population controls 40% of all it's wealth. Just take a look at our Federal Reserve (the privately owned Bank of America) and it's owners. Quite a "close-knit" group! Talk about politics, religion and money ... Ha!
Always consider the "source". Find out Their "hidden agenda".
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So I don't believe it's the quality of information being presented to the children that is inferior, but the habits they develop in retaining that information. In a nutshell, "laziness".
That's the dumbness defined. Regardless of how talented people are, if they are unable to retain information, access and process retained information, they are unable to grasp things, they are unable to truly learn.
But the inability to concentrate for long periods of time -- as distinct from brief reading hits for information on the Web -- seems to me intimately related to the inability of the public to remember even recent news events. It is not surprising, for example, that less has been heard from the presidential candidates about the Iraq war in the later stages of the primary campaign than in the earlier ones, simply because there have been fewer video reports of violence in Iraq. Candidates, like voters, emphasize the latest news, not necessarily the most important news.
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I heard an interesting interview with a prof recently, who claimed that the environmental crises that now confront us, have shown that Democracy is incompatible with the future. If there is to be a future, Democracy has proved itself incapable of securing it. He said, most of us in the know, have known for the past 20 years that we were facing a critical species survival event, and yet it has done mostly nothing - he says Democracy is built upon Capitalism, and as such is ineffective in the face of such a crisis as we now are experiencing.
He was no fonder of the other non-democratic alternatives from the past, many of which are still with us, and who also have not responded appropriately to the enormity of the situation.
It resonates with my own thoughts - Democracy has to be financed by those who have vested interests in the status quo, and also has to be voted in by people who have no knowledge of what is beyond their own suburb and family.
A friend of mine recently visited, who didn't believe one iota in the environmental doom scenario. I asked him if he read any newspapers or listened to any radio information programs - no, he avoids all that because it's too heavy.
So this man, who is a barber in a small coastal town, who reads and listens to nothing except 60's music, believes he knows better than all the scientists of the world put together. And that is Democracy, unfortunately. He like so many similar people who have not taken the trouble to inform themselves, vote.
I don't know - I don't have a better system myself, but I do know that there are a lot of very clever people in the world who are trying to find a better system, and with some results. I have heard of numerous alternatives that could come through, but in the end, its still only humans.
Speaking of which, I always admire traffic roundabouts - there's a clever idea that works surprisingly well below a certain level of traffic. It demonstrates to me that a clever system can assist the stupidity of humanity to remain in balance.
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I just received an email from Capt. Paul Watson (he is in the Antarctic on board the Steve Irwin chasing the Japanese whalers). He was commenting on the moment he realised humanity (read: capitalism / democracy - that power / manipulation nexus where capitalism is a kind of STD of democratic constructs) .
Anyrate, Cpt Paul tells of the moment many years ago when a dying whale looked him in the eye (his own eye being at sea level as he was in an inflatable trying to get between the Russian harpoon ship and the whale) . It was a moment that had him commit his life to acting 'intelligently'.
A large male had been harpooned with an explosive charge in his chest on returning to defend a thrashing female and her calf - both harpooned minutes before....This massive whale then rose out of the water and loomed up over the inflatable about to slam down on it ...and Paul - in the inflatable thinks ...ahhhh....my whale saving days are over. I'll let Capt. Paul describe it himself here.
The whale rose out of the water, lower jaw open and towered above me ready to fall forward and crush me. He was so close I could have reached out and wrapped my fingers around one of the six inch long teeth. His breath was hot on my face and it was then that I looked into a solitary eye and in that eye, an eye the size of my fist, I saw understanding, I saw compassion and I saw pity.
That whale understood what I was there for. Instead of coming forward to crush me, I saw his muscles move and with his dying strength I saw him fall back and begin to slide into the sea. I saw my own reflection in his eye as that infinitely wise orb disappeared beneath the waves.
And I saw pity. Not for himself or his kind but for us. We were killers without reason or passion, thinking little of the life we were extinguishing, killers devoid
of empathy, devoid of feelings.
And I thought, why were the Russians killing these whales? Primarily for spermaceti oil used for lubricating machinery under high temperatures. And one of the uniquely Human inventions that the oil was being used for was the manufacture of intercontinental nuclear ballistic missiles and that was when a realization hit me that we were insane.
We were killing great intelligent sentient feeling socially complex creatures to produce a weapon meant for the mass incineration of human beings and we were being condemned as violent eco-terrorists for opposing this depraved lunacy.
Captain Paul Watson
Master - The Steve Irwin
Master - The Farley Mowat
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
www.Seashepherd.org
It seems to me activism at this level is a type of stalking in a sea of petty tyrants. All power.
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A man cut down a tree and rejoiced. Indeed, what is holy?
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/02/26/j1.jpg)
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Ahhhh....to see what you saw.
A great gift.
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Ahhhh....to see what you saw.
A great gift.
No, it wasn't me who cut the tree (if you meant that).
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A man cut down a tree and rejoiced. Indeed, what is holy?
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/02/26/j1.jpg)
Beautiful!!!
It reminds of a recent event that happened here at the house. We had run out of firewood so decided to cut down an Ash Tree out back. I'd say it was somewhere between 40-60 years old. It's been a long time since I've seen a tree fall, and this one didn't want to.
A wedge was taken out of one side of the tree in the direction that we wanted it to fall - any other direction and it may have taken down a building. Then my boyfriend went around to the other side of the tree and started cutting through it. The blade on the chainsaw was not quite long enough to go all the way through so another cut had to be made. Once the cut was all the way through the tree just stood there tall and strong. We ofcourse were a bit nervous because we need a wedge and a maul that we really didn't have. As my boyfriend went looking for something to use I stood with my eyes closed and communed with the tree. Thanking it, asking it to give itself for our warmth. What I saw was a tall blue light - the "heart" of the tree. Standing strong!
Well soon a makeshift wedge and a large hammer helped in dropping the tree, and I let out a loud " TIMBER" as she fell to the ground.
When I looked at the stump you could see the heart of the tree, a darker would about 1/2 the size of the tree in the middle of the stump.
:D
But I can't imagine if I had seen a being like that in the tree!
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A large male had been harpooned with an explosive charge in his chest on returning to defend a thrashing female and her calf - both harpooned minutes before....This massive whale then rose out of the water and loomed up over the inflatable about to slam down on it ...and Paul - in the inflatable thinks ...ahhhh....my whale saving days are over. I'll let Capt. Paul describe it himself here.
The whale rose out of the water, lower jaw open and towered above me ready to fall forward and crush me. He was so close I could have reached out and wrapped my fingers around one of the six inch long teeth. His breath was hot on my face and it was then that I looked into a solitary eye and in that eye, an eye the size of my fist, I saw understanding, I saw compassion and I saw pity.
That whale understood what I was there for. Instead of coming forward to crush me, I saw his muscles move and with his dying strength I saw him fall back and begin to slide into the sea. I saw my own reflection in his eye as that infinitely wise orb disappeared beneath the waves.
Moving stuff xero. It is curious how many people are so moved by their interactions with whales. I'm sure many here would know of the famous book, 'Gifts of Unknown Things'. They have a profound affect on us, as those who have been involved in helping beached whales always speak of.
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This is like a plot used in some B grade science fiction movie :
Doomsday Vault for World's Seeds Is Opened Under Arctic Mountain
By Lewis Smith
The Times Online
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Ten tonnes of seeds were deposited hundreds of feet inside a frozen mountain yesterday as part of a scheme to preserve all the world's crops.
Seeds from varieties of potatoes, barley, lettuce, aubergines, black-eyed pea, sorghum and wheat were among the first to be placed in the doomsday vault inside the Arctic circle.
A specially prepared box of rice originating from 104 countries was the first to be deposited in the vault, where it will be kept at minus 18C (minus 0.4F). Thousands more species will be added as organisers attempt to get specimens of every agricultural plant in the world.
Three chambers have been built 125 metres (400 feet) inside a mountain close to the town of Longyear-byen in Svalbard, a Norwegian island about 500 miles (800 kilometres) from the North Pole.
An opening ceremony was conducted at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries were placed inside. The first day's deposits comprised 268,000 samples and filled 676 boxes.
The project is intended to provide a failsafe against disaster so that if a seed collection is destroyed in its natural habitat there is an alternative source of supply. Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is behind the initiative, said that by preserving as many varieties as possible the options open to farmers, scientists and governments were maximised. "The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world's crop diversity," he said.
Many varieties of seed kept in the vault are no longer used commercially but it is possible that they will prove invaluable as world conditions change,.
The facility has been designed to keep seeds safely frozen for centuries and, at 130 metres up, the mountain is high enough to be safe even from catastrophic rises in sea levels. Similarly, amid the worst levels of global warming, in which the permafrost of the Arctic island would start melting, the seeds will be safe for up to 200 years.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Prime Minister, said: "With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilisation."
During the opening ceremony he unlocked the vault and, helped by Professor Wangari Maathai, the Nobel prize-winning environmentalist, placed the first seeds inside. Politicians and experts from around the world attended the ceremony at the vault, which is big enough to store 4.5 million samples, adding up to 2 billion seeds.
Some seeds will be viable for a millennium or more, including barley, which can last 2,000 years, wheat 1,700 years, and sorghum almost 20,000 years. Dr Maathai said: "The significant public interest in the seed vault project indicates that collectively we are changing the way we think about environmental conservation."
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Interesting sharing here x... the whales and the seeds.. thank you
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Once upon a time, in the Land of Fools, a stranger to the country found that the branch of a tree had broken and was about to destroy a dam full of water.
He seized the branch and held on to it. Soon afterwards a party of people of the Land of Fools came walking by. They said: "What are you doing with this branch?"
He answered: "How lucky you have arrived! Help me to lift this branch, for otherwise the dam will be broken, and we shall all die." They laughed and laughed. finally the wisest among them said: "Dear friends! This is a delicious moment; savor it. Not only does this man, talking about a branch, imagine that we are stupid enough to think that it has some relevance to a dam--but he imagines that by relating it to an ancient fear of ours he will make us obey him!"
And so, in paroxysms of laughter, the people of the Land of Fools went on their way.
The end of the story is exactly what you think it is.
as collected by Idries Shah
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IT IS the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.
Millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages loom and crop prices spiral ever upwards.
And for the first time in history, say experts, the impact is spreading from the developing to the developed world.
More than 73 million people in 78 countries that depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming for the world'', according to WFP officials.
At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, all of which will need extra help. The threat of malnutrition is the world's forgotten problem'', says the World Bank as it demands urgent action.
The bank points out that global food prices have risen by 75% since 2000, while wheat prices have increased by 200%. The cost of other staples such as rice and soya bean have also hit record highs, while corn is at its most expensive in 12 years.
The increasing cost of grains is also pushing up the price of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. And there is every likelihood prices will continue their relentless rise, according to expert predictions by the UN and developed countries.
High prices have already prompted a string of food protests around the world, with tortilla riots in Mexico, disputes over food rationing in West Bengal and protests over grain prices in Senegal, Mauritania and other parts of Africa. In Yemen, children have marched to highlight their hunger, while in London last week hundreds of pig farmers protested outside Downing Street.
If prices keep rising, more and more people around the globe will be unable to afford the food they need to stay alive, and without help they will become desperate. More food riots will flare up, governments will totter and millions could die.
Food scarcity means a big increase in the number of people going hungry,'' says the WFP's Greg Barrow. Without doubt, we are passing through a difficult period for the world's hungry poor.'' The WFP estimates it needs an additional $500 million to keep feeding the 73 million people in Africa, Asia and central America who require its help. We need extra money by the middle of 2008 so we don't have to reduce rations,'' says Barrow.
He also points out that age-old patterns of famine are changing. "We are feeding communities of people we didn't expect to feed," he explains.
As well as being rural, the profile of the new hungry poor is also urban, which is new. There is food available in the markets and shops - it's just that these people can't afford to buy it. This is the new face of hunger.'' The food shortages will also affect western industrialised nations such as Scotland, Barrow says. Scarcity means that some foods will get very expensive, or disappear from supermarkets altogether, meaning a move to seasonal, indigenous vegetables.'' Of the 36 countries named last month as currently facing a food crisis, 21 are in Africa. Lesotho and Swaziland have been afflicted by droughts, Sierra Leone lacks widespread access to food markets because of low incomes and high prices, and Ghana, Kenya and Chad among others are enduring "severe localised food insecurity".
In India last year, more than 25,000 farmers took their own lives, driven to despair by grain shortages and farming debts. "The spectre of food grain imports stares India in the face as agricultural growth plunges to an all-time low," warns India Today magazine.
The World Bank predicts global demand for food will double by 2030. This is partly because the world's population is expected to grow by three billion by 2050, but that is only one of many interlocking causes.
The rise in global temperatures caused by pollution is also beginning to disrupt food production in many countries. According to the UN, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate instability.
Last year Australia experienced its worst drought for over a century, and saw its wheat crop shrink by 60%. China's grain harvest has also fallen by 10% over the past seven years.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that, over the next 100 years, a one-metre rise in sea levels would flood almost a third of the world's crop-growing land.
A recent analysis by the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, also pinned blame for the global food crunch'' on the accelerating demand for allegedly green biofuels and the world's growing appetite for meat.
Ms a very inefficient way of utilising land to produce food, delivering far fewer calories, acre for acre, than grain. But the amount of meat eaten by the average Chinese consumer has increased from 20 kilograms a year in 1985 to over 50 kilograms today. The demand for meat from across all developing countries has doubled since 1980.
The world's grain stocks are at their lowest for 30 years, Cameron warns. "Some analysts are beginning to make some very worrying, very stark predictions. And these analysts say politicians should start to rank the issue of food security alongside energy security and even national security."
Another key driver is the soaring cost of oil, which last week topped $105 a barrel for the first time. As well as increasing transport costs, oil makes crop fertilisers more expensive.
According to the World Bank, fertiliser prices have risen 150% in the past five years. This has had a major impact on food prices, as the cost of fertiliser contributes over a quarter of the overall cost of grain production in the US, which is responsible for 40% of world grain exports.
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'A greater hurricane now'
Posted: March 21, 2008
Vestiges of bayou culture disappearing in Katrina's aftermath
By Cain Burdeau -- Associated Press
GRAND BAYOU, Louisianna (AP) - When Ruby Ancar talks about her fishing village on the bayou, she says a divine hand has protected her Atakapa-Ishak kinfolk for generations.
But Grand Bayou is forsaken these days, 30 months after Hurricane Katrina washed over it and dragged one of Louisiana's last authentic outposts of bayou culture into a world defined by insurers, money lenders, building code enforcers and government auditors.
''We're facing a greater hurricane now than we did with Katrina, with the bureaucracy,'' Ancar, 60, said, gesticulating passionately and flashing a toothy grin as she glided down the bayou in a boat. ''The government - that's our hurricane right now that we're in.'' Before Katrina, Grand Bayou and its 25-odd families of Atakapa-Ishak American Indians lived in a parallel world, in concert with moon cycles and migrations of shrimp. This living museum, where there are no roads and everyone travels by boat, is facing extinction.
Post-storm government aid has been nearly nonexistent, villagers said, leaving the entire village unable to return to their homes.
''We were hanging onto that little village out there, but I think the hurricane took the last wind out of us,'' said Louis Thompson, known as ''PU.''
Thompson commanded the communal boat, a banana-yellow water taxi tied up since the storm. ''It was a school boat, medical boat, grocery boat, just about everything else boat,'' he said.
Grand Bayou's state of despair resembles that of the Lower 9th Ward, 40 miles away in New Orleans. Both are lifeless. Both are poor. Both were colorful enclaves of traditional Louisiana culture.
They are exhibits in a pattern emerging since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005: the widening gap between rich and poor in rebuilding.
''The similarities have to do a lot with economic challenges. If these people were middle or upper income in general, they would have the resources to go back and build their houses,'' said Shirley Laska, a University of New Orleans sociologist.
The gap between rich and poor is plainly evident on the horizon of wind-blown marsh grass at Grand Bayou.
A mile away, the community of weekend sport fishermen and retirees at Happy Jack is bouncing back.
A recent survey showed that of Happy Jack's approximately 83 waterfront homes, only about 11 showed no sign of being rebuilt. Shaded docks, automatic boat lifts, jet skis and personal watercraft abound.
''This place is built probably better than before the storm,'' said Willie Bullock, who retired from the Navy and moved to Happy Jack with his wife. ''I love it here. This is where I was meant to be.''
Down the gravel road, Brad Schmit, a 35-year-old sun-bronzed fishing guide, was void of complaints, too. ''Business is good,'' Schmit said, ''about the same as before the storm.''
Things are so normal, it's hard to tell Katrina made landfall just 15 miles south of Schmit's busy fishing camp where stressed-out city folk come to get away. The offices, shower room, patio and boat deck are rebuilt, smell new; guides and customers lounge and talk of fish, nature and the gleaming fiberglass boats; and brand- new pickup trucks await to take everyone back to comfortable, high-tech homes in the city.
Happy Jack is growing. Excavators have prepared ground for 60 more lots that will be up for sale by the summer.
''In the last two days we've had two different parties from the Florida area telling us, 'This is where we like to fish,''' Diana Alfortish, a real estate broker for the developer, said recently.
The significance is not lost at Grand Bayou: An uncomfortable circle of outsiders and development is drawing tighter.
On a recent short-sleeves winter day, during a break in the shrimp harvest, Dwight Reyes Sr. stepped off his boat, where he's lived with his wife since Katrina wrecked their home, and surveyed the neat-and-clean silhouette of Happy Jack.
''Weekend warriors, that's all that is,'' Reyes sneered.
He turned his back, and paced back and forth through the dock yard, scattering roosters and ducks camped out in beached skiffs, heaps of rope and nets, rusting boat parts and assorted junk.
''They're people with all kinds of money and all kinds of help,'' he said, attempting to explain why Grand Bayou looks like a ghost town sinking into the marsh.
He stopped and grinned. He'd found the right aphorism. ''They've got a smile from ear to ear; we've got a frown.''
His wife, Theresa, bent-over and grim-faced, stewed seafood on a stove on the boat deck in a washed-out smock and said nothing.
''I've got fed up with trying,'' Reyes said, and sneered at the state-managed, federally funded flagship of the hurricane recovery, the Road Home program.
''Everywhere you go, they turn you down. I just got off the phone a while ago with [Road Home] telling me I need papers for this. I'm tired of faxing paper in.''
Turning reminiscent, he looked at the bayou and said he used to like to trawl its placid, moon-burnished waters for shrimp on hot, critter-noisy nights.
''Doing this here at night, it makes you sick,'' he spat out. ''You don't see a light in none of the houses. You don't see nobody outside hollering at you, asking if you're doing any good.''
Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, is familiar with Grand Bayou's problems.
''When I took office a year ago, nothing had been done on Grand Bayou,'' he said. ''To me, they were forgotten.''
He said Road Home wasn't equipped for people living on the margins of society, in funky wooden properties on the water with no road to reach them.
''It's hard to get their hands around the value of their property,'' Nungesser said.
Recovery officials say they haven't forgotten Grand Bayou.
''We have been out in that community really hard,'' said Gentry Bran, spokesman for ICF International, the company that oversees Road Home under a $756 million contract. ''I would challenge the concept they're not getting assistance from the Road Home.''
A sample, though, of five Road Home applicants interviewed by The Associated Press suggests money has been slow to reach Grand Bayou's 25 families. Two applicants had received grants while three others hadn't. Road Home would not disclose how much money each applicant got nor give an idea about how much money in all has gotten to Grand Bayou.
Back on the bayou, time has stopped.
Dock and home are broken and twisted. The ''Hallelujah Hotel,'' where visiting ministers stayed during revival services, is a pile of debris on the waterfront. Farther down the bayou, the Pentecostal Light Tabernacle Church is closed, its pastor gone.
''PU,'' the school boat driver, lives in a trailer in town, as do many others. Children of working age have left. They're in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Memories are all that remains, like boating across the bayou to grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner and kitchen chatter in French patois.
Grand Bayou now counts on charity.
The Mennonite Disaster Service, a volunteer network of the Anabaptist church, has rebuilt Ancar's home and plans to build five new homes and renovate another one.
''The location of their homes, the shrimping and fishing, and their lives are bound together, woven together. We want to honor their way of life and location choice, just like anyone else in the parish,'' said Paul Unruh, a Mennonite social worker.
Unruh said building costs will be high because of post-storm requirements, such as raising homes 10 feet and tougher building standards.
Ancar thinks she can pioneer the return.
''We're going to be campers on my floor until the homes are rebuilt,'' she said. ''It doesn't take long to build a house.''
But the march back home is proving difficult for Ancar, who has not yet moved into her rebuilt home from her FEMA trailer in town.
The problem? Her budget is so tight she'll find it hard to pay a new $20 hurricane-related monthly surcharge the power company is tacking onto bills.
Found at Indian Country Today (http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416889)
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I had been reading a reference to the following article (or blip -- not even a proper article) when I came into a ton of other information, some of which follows. It's not really "news" to me: just a reminder that this world is insane. Don't really know what to do with the information other than to share. Has this woman been executed yet? I can't seem to find the answer, but in the end, it turns out to be so typical that it isn't a leading story. (That is really insane.)
Saudi Arabia: Muslim Courts Sentence ‘Witch’ to Death
Adrian Morgan
Saudi Arabia is busy exporting its narrow and backward version of Islam – Wahhabism- to mosques and Islamic seminaries around the world. Yet Saudi Arabia is a country where women are second class citizens, and people can be executed for witchcraft. On Friday November 2, 2007, an Egyptian pharmacist was decapitated with a sword in Riyadh after being found "guilty" of sorcery. Mustapha Ibrahim worked in Arar, a city in the north of Saudi Arabia, and was said to have tried to separate a married couple.
Ibrahim had been accused by another foreign resident of using magic to separate him from his wife. The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) then reported that "evidence" was retrieved from Mustapha Ibrahim's home. This included black magic books, a candle emblazoned with the words "to summon devils" and "foul-smelling herbs." SPA stated that Ibrahim "confessed to adultery with a woman and desecrating the Koran by placing it in the bathroom."
Mustapha Ibrahim's case was reported in April 2007, when mosque-worshippers accused him of placing copies of the Koran in washrooms, but sorcery had not then been mentioned by the Saudi media.
Though it is too late to save Mustapha Ibrahim, an illiterate woman of (apparent) Jordanian origins who is currently incarcerated in Quraiyat Prison is facing death for being a "witch." Fawza Falih was arrested in Quraiyat on May 4, 2005 by the notorious muttawa or mutaween, the religious police from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV).
These men beat her so badly during her interrogation that at one stage she had to be hospitalized. She was held by the religious police at a detention center for 35 days. This, according to Human Rights Watch, violated a 1981 royal decree which forbade the CPVPV from interrogating and detaining suspects in their centers. There are 486 CPVPV centers across the kingdom, with 10,000 religious police.
Fawza Falih was convicted in April 2006 in Quraiyat in the north of Saudi Arabia of witchcraft, even though no such official crime is said to exist in Saudi law. She was convicted by Islamic clerics acting as judges, and "testimony" was provided by "witnesses." One man claimed that he was rendered impotent by Fawzah, who had cast a spell upon him. A divorced woman said that Fawzah had cast a spell and predicted that her ex-husband would come back. This witness said the man returned to her in the month that had been predicted by the woman. She was officially convicted of "witchcraft, recourse to jinn (supernatural beings), and slaughter" of animals.
A court verdict from October 10, 2006 quoted from her "confession." It read: "I take 1,500 Riyal ($400) for each act of which I send half to the magician Abu Tal'a according to the agreement, for Abu Tal'a said to me, 'If you do not bring the money, by God, you will become possessed by jinn like dogs.' " Abu Tal'a was the man who was said to have tutored her in the skills of witchcraft.
Later, Fawzah retracted her "confession" in court, claiming that it had been extracted by force. She also claimed that as she was illiterate, she had been unaware of the contents of the confession document, which she had been made to sign with her fingerprint. The contents of the confession were never, she claims, read out to her.
An appeals court ruled that as she had retracted her confession, she could not be sentenced to death "for 'witchcraft' as a crime against God." Despite this, judges in a lower court then reversed that decision, sentencing her to death on a "discretionary" basis. This was done to better the "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."
She has now exhausted all legal rights of appeal.
Human Rights Watch has issued a letter to King Abdullah bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Saud, as only he now has the power to reverse the death sentence upon the woman.
The letter states that Fawzah Falih was prevented from having her son attend her court case, even though he was named as her official legal representative. After her arrest, her family had also hired a lawyer called Abdullah al-Suhaimi. The head of the CPVPV's interrogation committee refused to let this lawyer have access to her.
This is the "justice" of Saudi Arabia, and as it was enacted by Wahhabi clerics, it also displays the barbarism and lack of human rights within Wahhabi Islam. In March 2007, Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, president of the CPVPV said: "he commission plays a large role in capturing people who practice sorcery or delusions since these are vices which affect the faith of Muslims and cause harm to both nationals and expatriates. The commission has assigned centers in every city and town to be on the lookout for these men.
As for their fate, they are arrested and then transferred to concerned authorities. The commission also has a role in breaking magic spells, which are found in the sea. We cooperate with divers in this aspect. After the spells are found, they are then broken using recitations of the Holy Qur'an. We do not use magic to break magic spells, as this is against the teachings of Islam as mentioned by the Supreme Ulema. But we use the Qur'an as did the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)."
Unaware of any irony, in October 2007 Saudi Arabia's "Human Rights Commission" announced that it would be lecturing Europe on its ill-treatment of Muslims and its "Islamophobia."
It seems never to have crossed the minds of these people that incidents such as this case against Fawzah Falih are issues that genuinely create Islamophobia.
http://thewomenofislam.blogspot.com/2008_02_19_archive.html
Insanity (http://thewomenofislam.tripod.com/War_on_Women.pdf)
Insanity (http://thewomenofislam.tripod.com/honormurders.pdf)
Insanity (http://thewomenofislam.tripod.com/types.pdf)
Insanity (http://thewomenofislam.tripod.com/female_genital_mutilation1.pdf)
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I am coming to wonder if the Games will be cancelled. I can see the Chinese digging their heels in more and more, which will only outrage everyone else in the world more and more.
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Bumper crops = higest prices??????
Oil x Subprime + Recession = KABOOMMMM!!!!
Rice prices in Thailand, the world's top exporter, have surged to $US1,000 a tonne, feeding concerns about food security as far as the United States after export curbs by governments worldwide.
The surging price of food and fuel has sparked riots in Africa and Haiti and raised fears that millions of the world's poor will struggle to feed themselves. Some analysts, however, attribute much of the surge to panic buying by both consumers and governments rather than a dire shortage of supply.
After this week's over five per cent jump, rice prices stand nearly three times higher than the start of the year. With no sign of the rally relenting, as traders expect more buyers to come into the market, government anxiety about social unrest from the soaring cost of Asia's staple will deepen.
The crisis, started with India's imposition of export curbs to protect domestic supplies last year, was felt in the United States this week, with a few major retailers saying they had started to notice signs of panic buying.
Sam's Club, a unit of retail giant Wal-Mart, said it was capping sales of 20-pound (9 kg) bulk bags of rice at four bags per customer per visit to prevent hoarding.
The previous day, rival Costco Wholesale Corp said it had seen increased demand for items such as rice and flour as customers, worried about global food shortages, stocked up.
"Everywhere you see, there is some story about food shortages and hoarding and tightness of supplies," said Neauman Coleman, an analyst and rice broker in Brinkley, Arkansas.
In Bangkok, some traders said Thai 100 per cent B grade white rice, the world's benchmark, could hit $US1,300 a tonne due to unsated demand from number-one importer the Philippines, which fell well short of filling a 500,000 tonne tender last week.
There is also a big question mark over Iran and Indonesia, two countries that normally buy as much as 1 million tonnes of Thai rice each year but which have bought nothing so far in 2008 because of the soaring prices.
Even though some analysts say the price, part of a wider global rally in crop prices, is based on jittery governments rather than fundamentals, Thailand's top exporters say the world is now set for an era of expensive food.
"Prices will remain firm for the rest of the year," Chookiat Ophaswongse, head of the Rice Exporters Association in Bangkok, told Reuters.
Rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade climbed 2.5 per cent on Wednesday to an all-time high of $US24.85 per hundredweight.
However, grain futures tumbled four per cent to a five-month low due to expectations of a large global wheat crop in 2008.
With the northern hemisphere harvest only two months away, officials said planting had started well in Western Australia after good rains, while India said a record harvest and bulging government stocks meant no imports were needed this year.
China's top wheat-growing provinces of Henan and Shandong were also looking at a bumper winter harvest after recent rains, the Xinhua news agency said.
Brazil on Wednesday became the latest country to suspend rice exports, following in the footsteps of India and its close rival for the mantle of world number-two supplier, Vietnam.
Thailand, which accounts for nearly a third of all rice traded globally, has said repeatedly it would not impose any curbs, a stance that has earned it plaudits from the World Bank for being a "responsible international trading partner".
"Thailand has even gone the extra mile to explore additional land for rice production," James Adams, the bank's Vice President for East Asia Pacific, said in a statement.
The Asian Development Bank and free-trade advocates have criticised the export curbs as an overreaction that has distorted the market.
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I flew a few days back over the Baltic Sea and was gobsmacked by the extent of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growth in water. It is only spring yet and the water is cold, but the western part of the sea is in a horrifying state already.
The total area of the Baltic Sea is 430,000 square kilometres, and, according to Finnish researchers, from 70,000-100,000 square kilometres of it have become lifeless.
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some of you may find this article interesting, by George Monbiot about Murdoch and China
Strange case of Murdoch's lost empire (http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/strange-case-of-murdochs-lost-empire/2008/04/25/1208743246275.html)
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Wow. Look what I didn't stress about today, so blurring I was. Don't know if that's good or bad, but it sure is different. Suffolk is just 30 minutes away. Some could make it in 20.
3 tornadoes rip through Virginia.; more than 200 people hurt
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago
SUFFOLK, Va. - Russ McCrocklin has been through it all before. When Hurricane Ivan hit Florida a few years ago, he had to wait until the next day to see if he would have a home to return to. His house was fine then, but McCrocklin fears he won't be so lucky this time around.
McCrocklin and others will assess damage to their homes and businesses Tuesday, a day after three tornadoes ripped through Virginia leaving smashed homes, tossed cars and more than 200 injured residents behind. Many, like McCrocklin, spent the night in emergency shelters.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency, which frees up resources for those areas hit hardest. Kaine will visit some of the most damaged areas on Tuesday.
The twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a fickle, zigzagging path 25 miles long through neighborhoods, obliterating some homes and spraying splintered wood across lawns while leaving those standing just a few feet away untouched.
Keith Godwin lives in the same neighborhood as McCrocklin. He, his wife and two kids took shelter in the bathroom of their home after he looked out the window and saw the funnel cloud.
The Godwins' home is fine except for some debris, as are the rest of those on their side of the street. Those across the street were badly damaged, including two houses completely wiped off their foundations and one that was tossed on top of another home.
"All that's left is a concrete slab," Godwin said.
Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the tin roof was rolled up like a sardine can. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot were on top of others.
"It's just a bunch of broken power poles, telephone lines and sad faces," said Richard Allbright, who works for a tree removal service in Driver and had been out for hours trying to clear the roads.
The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Brunswick County, about sixty miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."
The Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path of destruction, Jackson said. It struck first, at about 1 p.m., said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield.
The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.
The tornado believed to have caused damage over a 25-mile path from Suffolk to Norfolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Rusnak said.
At least 200 were injured in Suffolk and 18 others were injured in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond, said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Jennifer Haines and her two young girls hid in a cubbyhole in the interior of her house in Suffolk. The tornado hit about three blocks away.
"It sounded like someone shuffling a giant deck of cards or a herd of wild animals coming through. You could feel the house shaking and hear the wind coming in through the cracks in the windows," Haines said.
"It was so scary I felt like I was having a heart attack."
Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 injured people were being treated there. Three were admitted and were in fair condition.
"We have lots of cuts and bruises" and arm and leg injuries, he said. The hospital's windows were cracked, apparently by debris from a damaged shopping center across the street.
Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several localities where the weather service had issued a tornado warning. Sgt. Michelle Cotten of the Virginia State Police said a twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.
About 3,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers remained without service Monday night, mostly in the Northern Neck.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather
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Wow. Look what I didn't stress about today
LOL :-* :-*
;)
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It all happened when I was sleeping. :)
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Should we paraphrase Bill Clinton: 'It's the welfare, stupid!'?
Swedish Company Drills for Oil Under Baltic
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/international/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?nyheter=1&programid=2054&Artikel=2039388
An investigation by Swedish Radio news shows that there is strong support for plans to begin drilling test holes for oil in the Baltic Sea.
The Swedish company Oljeprospektering applied to the government for permission to bore two test holes off the cost of Gotland.
Greenpeace have criticised the plans saying the Baltic is an extremely sensitive marine environment that is already under pressure from other industrial activities.
The company say they have a 30 percent chance that the test holes will show positive results. They estimate to find 350 barrels of oil worth up to 16 billion U.S. dollars.
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That is a good price per barrel.
We have such envy toward the Norwegians that bath in their gold from oil.
Now to be serious - they had some oil production on Gotland (the largest island in the Baltic) some 10 or 15 years ago, so there can be productive spots.
I do not think a off shore oil production is such a big threat to the sea. All ships that clean their tanks in the sea are a threat though. And also these plans on a gaz pipeline across the bottom from Russia down to Germany - that is really a heavy intrusion on the sensitive water area. They are all ready building a harbor for that project on Gotland. :P
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It all happened when I was sleeping. :)
Probably the best way to pass a Tornado :D
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Iran Ends Oil Transactions In U.S. Dollars
OPEC's Second-Largest Producer Now Pegs Petroleum To Euros And Yen
TEHRAN, Iran, April 30, 2008
Iranian oil workers seen at Tehran's oil refinery, Iran, Nov. 17, 2007. Although OPEC has traditionally tied its price of oil to U.S. dollars, Iran has announced it has shifted sales of its oil to euros and yen.
Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.
Oil is priced in U.S. dollars on the world market, and the currency's depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves.
"The dollar has totally been removed from Iran's oil transactions," Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told state-run television Wednesday. "We have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in non-dollar currencies."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the depreciating dollar a "worthless piece of paper" at a rare summit last year in Saudi Arabia attended by state leaders from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Iran put pressure on other OPEC countries at the meeting to price oil in a basket of currencies, but it has not been able to generate support from fellow members — many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.
Iran has a tense relationship with the U.S., which has accused Tehran of using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development and providing support to Shiite militants in Iraq that are killing American troops. Iran has denied the allegations.
Iranian oil officials have said previously that they were shifting oil sales out of the dollar into other currencies, but Ghanimifard indicated Wednesday that all of Iran's oil transactions were now conducted in either euros or yen.
"In Europe, Iran's oil is sold in euros, but both euros and yen are paid for Iranian crude in Asia," said Ghanimifard.
Iran's central bank has also been reducing its foreign reserves denominated in U.S. dollars, motivated by the falling value of the greenback and U.S. attempts to make it difficult for Iran to conduct dollar transactions.
U.S. banks are prohibited from conducting business directly with Iran, and many European banks have curbed their dealings with the country over the past year under pressure from Washington.
However, the U.S. has been wary of targeting Iran's oil industry directly, apparently worried that such a move could drive up crude prices that are already at record levels.
Iranian analysts say Tehran can withstand U.S. pressure as long as it can continue its oil and gas sales, which constitute most of the country's US$80 billion in exports.
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New Scientific Study Shows Solar Activity Affects Humans Physical and Mental State
by Mitch Battros - Earth Changes Media
A recent study published today in the NewScientist, indicates a direct connection between the Sun's solar storms and human biological effect. The conduit which facilitates the charged particles from the Sun to human disturbance -- is the very same conduit which steers Earth's weather ----- The Magnetic Field. Yes, animals and humans have a magnetic field which surrounds them -- in the very same way the magnetic field surrounds the Earth as a protector.
Here is what the NewScientist article says: "Many animals can sense the Earth's magnetic field, so why not people, asks Oleg Shumilov of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia. Shumilov looked at activity in the Earth's geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found that it grouped into three seasonal peaks every year: one from March to May, another in July and the last in October. Surprisingly, he also found that the geomagnetism peaks matched up with peaks in the number of mood disorders i.e. depression, anxiety, bi-polar (mood swings) and even suicides in the northern Russian city of Kirovsk over the same period."
The connection between charged particles (solar flares, cme's) and its effect on animals and humans was outlined extensively back in 2003 as addressed in my book 'Solar Rain - The Earth Changes Have Begun'. This phenomenon is also captured in my published 'Equation': Sunspots => (charged particles) Solar Flares => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human Disruption (mitch battros) as it refers to "human disruption".
The NewScientist study goes on to state: "The most plausible explanation for the association between geomagnetic activity and depression and suicide is that geomagnetic storms can desynchronize circadian rhythms and melatonin production," says Kelly Posner, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in the US. The pineal gland, which regulates circadian rhythm and melatonin production, is sensitive to magnetic fields. "The circadian regulatory system depends upon repeated environmental cues to [synchronize] internal clocks," says Posner. "Magnetic fields may be one of these environmental cues."
The pineal gland, which regulates circadian rhythm and melatonin production, is sensitive to magnetic fields. "The circadian regulatory system depends upon repeated environmental cues to [synchronize] internal clocks," says Posner. "Magnetic fields may be one of these environmental cues."
For those of you who have been following ECM over the years noticed I have added the following statement to all my newsletters, and will discuss in greater detail at scheduled conferences:
"I have begun to note it is not just the "external" (earth changes) which is shifting, but humans as well. Remember: we too have magnetic fields which surround each of us. I think it is not unrealistic to conjecture what is happening "externally" is also happening "internally" . I believe current science will acknowledge this notion, showing the Sun's "charged particles" and its influence on Earth's magnetic field is the impetus of change. In-like, this same causal effect occurs with human magnetic fields ushering in a change or "transition" . Perhaps this is what our Mayan elders are trying to tell us---
We are coming into "cycle 24" which was predicted "live" on ECM Radio Hour by NASA stating cycle 24 will be up to 50 percent stronger than "Cycle 23" in which we witnessed the largest solar flare ever recorded. This means larger earth changing events in the way of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and various storms. But it also means we (humans) will be bombarded with charged particles via severe geomagnetic storms from the Sun." (Mitch Battros)
You must also read my Free article titled: "Magnetic Fields, The Sun, and TMS"
http://earthchanges media.com/ publish/article- 9162513169. php
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Cyclone in Myanmar kills at least 10,000
Published: May 5, 2008 at 6:29 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, May 5 (UPI) -- The death toll from the cyclone that slashed through Myanmar has soared to more than 10,000 people, the Southeast Asian nation's government said Monday.
The government also said thousands more were injured and missing in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which slogged through Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta packing dangerous rains and winds of more than 130 miles per hour, Radio New Zealand reported Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the government would accept international assistance, and aid shipments were being prepared.
The United Nations says Myanmar's military government agreed to allow U.N. aid agencies to operate in the country formerly known as Burma to help survivors.
"The U.N. will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible," said Paul Risley of the World Food Program.
Thousands of survivors lack shelter, drinking water, power and communications, Radio New Zealand reported. Thousands of buildings have been flattened, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted.
Government officials initially said 351 died, but increased the toll to nearly 4,000 early Monday, then raised that number again to at least 10,000. Win warned the toll could rise again.
Despite the destruction, government leaders said a constitutional referendum would be conducted Saturday.
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some of you know I have this theory, that natural disasters, esp earthquakes, but storms also, visit near a place of human drama on a wide scale. Not always, not necessarily, but enough to make me wonder.
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I hear what you're saying, M -- as if the earth feels the drama and responds. (But who knows, the human drama may have been a response to the pending doom anyway.)
On the other hand, I think we need to be careful when pointing a finger. It gets too close to a "Yeah, they deserved that disaster, hrmph" mindset, and you know what always comes when we make judgments like that. Our own chickens come home to roost anon. (At least, that's been my experience.)
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All about theories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65c6tfuvyxo
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Now how about that...radicals in paradise.
Nuclear Plant Shut Over Explosives
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1316692,00.html
Updated:14:40, Wednesday May 21, 2008
A nuclear power station in Sweden has been sealed off after a worker was stopped at the entrance with a plastic bag containing traces of explosives.
Investigators took the man, a welder who was scheduled to do work at the Oskarshamn plant, in for questioning.
They later arrested a second man because "there is some uncertainty about who owns the bag", a spokesman said.
Plant operator OKG downplayed the incident, saying there was no threat to the safety of the plant, about 150 miles south of Stockholm
Police said the man carried a plastic bag with an unknown amount of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, an explosive used in the London bombings in 2007.
A plant spokesman said there were no explosives inside the bag, but traces of the explosive substance were found on the bag's handle.
A bomb squad was sent to the plant to investigate the findings.
Police set up a security perimeter with a 1,000ft (300m) radius around the plant, but workers already inside were not evacuated.
The plant continued to operate normally.
The Oskarshamn plant has three nuclear reactors, which produce about 10% of Sweden's electricity supply.
A bit about the history of this explosive stuff: Triacetone triperoxide (TATP)
Terrorist explosive blows up without flames
* 10:55 31 January 2005
* Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
* Jenny Hogan
An explosive sometimes used by terrorists does not burn when it detonates. Instead, its molecules simply fall apart. The chemist who has discovered this is so concerned by its implications that he has decided to abandon this line of research.
Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) has been used by suicide bombers in Israel and was chosen as a detonator in 2001 by the thwarted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid. Now calculations by Ehud Keinan from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa show that most of its explosive force comes from a rapid release of gas rather than a burst of energy.
In conventional high explosives such as TNT, each molecule contains both a fuel component and an oxidising component. When the explosive detonates, the fuel part is oxidised and as this combustion reaction spreads it releases large amounts of heat almost instantaneously.
TATP molecules are made up of fragments that could react in a similar way. But Keinan says that videos showing samples of TATP being detonated show that it can do so without producing any flame.
Oxygen and ozone
His team's calculations indicate why. Explosions are driven by the reaction that takes the least energy to start. In this case it is not oxidation but disintegration. The TATP molecule sheds acetone units, setting free the oxygen atoms that bound them together to form the gases oxygen and ozone. It also releases just enough energy to spread the reaction to the next molecule.
One molecule of TATP produces four of gas, giving TATP its explosive power. Just a few hundred grams of the material will produce hundreds of litres of gas in a fraction of a second.
"It's different to conventional explosives," agrees Jimmie Oxley, a chemist at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, US, who has studied TATP and worked with Keinan on other projects. But it is not unique. The decomposition of azide, for example, which produces nitrogen gas but little heat, is used to fill airbags for cars.
TATP turns out to be the most extreme example so far, and it may be possible to design molecules that behave as an even more powerful explosive. But the idea does not appeal to Keinan. "I don't want to continue this kind of research," he says. Instead, he plans to work with security agencies to develop a device that can detect TATP.
Journal reference: Journal of the American Chemical Society (DOI: 10.1021/ja0464903)
Some stuff - TATP - was used by failed British shoe bomber on plane, and people who wanted to detonate 10 passenger planes over Atlantic.
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I give up, says Brazilian minister who fought to save the rainforest
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/i-give-up-says-brazilian-minister-who-fought-to-save-the-rainforest-828310.html
By Daniel Howden, Deputy Foreign Editor
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists.
"She was the environment's guardian angel," said Frank Guggenheim, executive director for Greenpeace in Brazil. "Now Brazil's environment is orphaned."
In a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the "lungs of the planet" were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies. "Your Excellency was a witness to the growing resistance found by our team in important sectors of the government and society," she wrote.
The decision by Ms Silva to walk away five years on from her triumphant unveiling as a minister in President Lula's first term has underlined just how far the former trade union hero's administration has drifted from the promises made in its green heyday.
"Her resignation is a disaster for the Lula administration," said Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva, of Conservation International. "If the government had any global credibility in environmental issues, it was because of minister Marina."
The Latin American giant's supposed progress on environmental protection has unravelled in the past year as revelations of record levels of deforestation, violent land disputes and runaway forest fires have followed in quick succession. The worldwide boom in agricultural commodities has created an unparalleled thirst for land and energy in Brazil, and the result has been a potentially catastrophic land grab into the world's largest remaining rainforest. The Amazon basin is home to one in 10 of the world's mammals and 15 per cent of its land-based plant species. It holds more than half of the world's fresh water and its vast forests act as the largest carbon sink on the planet, providing a vital check on the greenhouse effect.
Since President Lula won a second term Ms Silva found herself a lone voice in a government acutely aware that its own political future depended on the vast agribusiness interests she was trying to rein in. The final breakdown in her relationship with the President came after he gave the green light to massive road and dam-building projects in the Amazon basin, and a plan she drafted for the sustainable management of the region was taken from her and handed to a business-friendly fellow minister.
Marcelo Furtado, the campaign director for Greenpeace Brazil, said the resignation was "disastrous" and blamed it on the government's Amazon policy and pressure to ease environmental regulations on factories.
"Although Lula has adopted the environmental talk, the practice is development at whatever cost," he said. Next week, the Amazonian city of Alta Mira will host the largest ever gathering of indigenous leaders in a bid to stop a massive hydroelectric dam being built on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon. Although the government claims no decision has been made on the Bel Monte project it's believed to have already committed itself to the construction despite experts warning of potentially dire environmental consequences.
The resignation brings a sad close to Ms Silva's relationship with President Lula, whose personal story closely mirrors her own remarkable journey as the daughter of an impoverished rubber tapper who rose to be a government minister and internationally recognised environmental champion. Ms Silva spent her childhood drawing rubber sap from trees and hunting and fishing to help support her large family in the Amazonian state of Acre. It was only heavy metal poisoning from polluted water and the contraction of tropical diseases that brought her to the city as an illiterate 16-year-old. Working as a maid, she taught herself to read and put herself through university, emerging as a vocal figure in the rubber tappers' union and a close ally to Chico Mendes, the movement's inspirational leader whose brutal murder would cause an international outcry.
Together the pair led a campaign to halt the disastrous deforestation and rampant eviction of forest-dwelling communities to make way for the logging and ranching that still threaten the Amazon.
The tappers' idea of creating sustainable reserves where forest people can make a livelihood from extractive industries has become a global model for managing forests and Acre now has a two-million-hectare reserve.
Health problems Ms Silva inherited from her youth have led to long periods in hospital but in 1994 she became the first rubber tapper elected to Brazil's senate. The winner of inter-national awards, including the Goldman prize, she has also provided credibility on environmental issues for her former boss.
Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil, said her greatest legacy may be her decision to walk away. "The emperor is naked now: Lula no longer has a smokescreen to show a policy and implement the opposite of it. He will have a problem, since Marina was perfect for him: she accepted anything he imposed and at the same time acted as a green seal for the Brazilian government."
Andrew Mitchell, a leading forests expert and director of the Global Canopy Programme, said: "The Amazon provides the vital rainfall on which Brazil's crops and hydropower depend, as well as regulating the global climate for the rest of us; losing all that is too big a price to pay."
Enemies of the Amazon rainforest
RANCHING
The explosion of cattle ranching exactly mirrors the dramatic increase in deforestation. The world's leading beef exporter has ignored the link and pumped more money into slaughter houses with the help of the World Bank.
MINING
The soaring price of gold and minerals has revived old mines and spurred the creation of hundreds of new ones. Major mining projects not only require large clearings in the forest, they also leave a toxic legacy of pollution.
DAMS AND ROADS
Every study shows that more roads bring more people and destroy more forest. But the cycle continues. There is noevidence that massive hydroelectric dams deliver benefits to communities or cheap electricity.
SOYA
The worldwide boom in agricultural commodities has bitten enormous chunks out of the rainforest. Vast soy plantations supply the demand for livestock feed and bio-fuels, and make a fortune for agribusiness giants.
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Short vid clip worth a quick look
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto_movie080307
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Survivalists:
Survivalists prepare amid energy fears (http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080525/NEWS/976217852/1008/news)
more Extreme survivalists:
Survivalists P1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yOkt-v0Goc)
Survivalists P2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcV-6J6ByQE&feature=related)
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If you are reading this, you have access to the Internet and most likely also have something to eat, and you are lucky to not have been forced into making major sacrifices. The situation is grave for most people on this planet, however, as activist Pablo Ouziel eloquently puts it in its proper perspective:
People in Haiti are eating mud cakes because of the soaring food prices, the people in Gaza have no electricity, in Afghanistan, the only royal visit they receive, is of a British prince dressed in military gear going to kill on Afghan soil. In India, the farmers are committing suicide due to failed harvests of genetically modified Monsanto crops. Around the world, people are rioting because of lack of food or basic human necessities. Yet in the west, we can move around freely, we can cross borders and fly our budget airlines from capital to capital, observing the comforts of western existence. Organized streets, clean cars, wonderful shopping malls, great monuments, everything is civilized and could be admired, that is, if it was honest. But it isn't, it is morally wrong and deep down we all know it. We know it, but we just don't want to do anything about it, because we are comfortable.
So far, we are comfortable on the immoral 'winning' side of this unfair global equation. But everything has a limit and as pressure is put on humanity as a whole, it might be soon that a critical mass is reached and even the lucky ones will pay the consequences.
The prices of oil, food and basic commodities are rising as a result of intentional manipulation. But we are not supposed to believe in conspiracies, so the manufacturers of our conventional wisdom have offered a few explanations. Remember the Peak Oil propaganda? Is it not now 'common sense' to nod in agreement whenever suggests that fossil fuel reserves are scarce? But the truth is different. There is no shortage of gasoline or gas and many agree that it is speculation that has been inflating the price of oil. According to Michael Waldron, chief oil strategist of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, oil supply "is outpacing demand growth" and "inventories have been building since the beginning of the year", while new fields are being opened in Saudi Arabia. So what is really going on then? Mike Whitney has provided one of the best explanations in a recent article, which we recommend you read in its entirety, and of which we reproduce a couple of paragraphs here:
The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating trading in oil futures to determine whether the surge in prices to record levels is the result of manipulation or fraud. They might want to take a look at wheat, rice and corn futures while they're at it. The whole thing is a hoax cooked up by the investment banks and hedge funds who are trying to dig their way out of the trillion dollar mortgage-backed securities (MBS) mess that they created by turning garbage loans into securities. That scam blew up in their face last August and left them scrounging for handouts from the Federal Reserve. Now the billions of dollars they're getting from the Fed is being diverted into commodities which is destabilizing the world economy; driving gas prices to the moon and triggering food riots across the planet.
For months we've been told that the soaring price of oil has been the result of Peak Oil, fighting in Iraq, attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria, labor problems in Norway, and (the all-time favorite) growth in China. It's all baloney. Just like Goldman Sachs prediction of $200 per barrel oil is baloney. If oil is about to skyrocket then why has G-Sax kept a neutral rating on some of its oil holdings like Exxon Mobile? Could it be that they know that oil is just another mega-inflated equity bubble - like housing, corporate bonds and dot.com stocks - that is about to crash to earth as soon as the big players grab a parachute?
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My information, which I have been monitoring on this subject from a number os sources, is that:
Food prices: caused by numerous factors, including drought in Aust, planting out vast areas for Bio-fuel, poor rains in Asia etc, but also speculation as described above. ie. not just one factor. It seems there have been good rains for the Asian crops (this is esp important for rice), and a bumper crop is expected in the next few months, but they think the food prices will not fall to pre-hike levels - most likely because of the speculators, but also Australia's drought has not broken.
Oil: the passing of Peak Oil in the last year was called by some respectable sources, although others still say it is a year of two away. The effect of Iraq, the increased demand by Asia, are definite facts affecting the hike in Oil, but the major reason is that the market has awoken to the Peak Oil effect, and are thus buying up now - US is hoarding vast amounts - but mostly it is a factor of perceived future shortage, which is exactly how markets operate. This has been fuelling the coffers of Oil companies (which is why I am about to buy some more shares in them).
At the price of $150- 200 per barrel, it becomes financially viable to extract oil from other sources - sand and rock etc - of which there are really vast amounts. This means that although oil may not drop, it is unlikely to rise much beyond $200. But when markets are involved, and politics and speculations get into the game, anything is possible.
A neutral rating on Exxon would not seem odd, when you take into account they are the only oil company in the world that has not adopted alternative energy postures, to prepare for the shift that is occurring. That is also why their shareholders have finally jacked up, and have now demanded an outsider hold a Board position, because their Board is locked into last century, and shareholders see their value in risk unless they change their approach.
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Next oil, water is the big challenge for the future.
Irrigating crops will be a memory - I have just read about "virtual water" and how that can solve the problem. I got a hint when I read the report about ecological trace that Juhani gave a link to. There I saw some very high consumption rates of water caused by irrigation. I mean in Sweden we got plenty to bath in and flush down our WCs. But we don't grow rice or cotton. Irrigation is used for strawberries not wheat or oat. Spain is in a huge water debt right now. Barcelona is going dry while Italy is flooded. Water will come more by random in the future.
Virtual water - Wikipeda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water)
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Good Lord, chaos is prevailing! Where are all these heavenly forces? Why do they let Devil to prevail???
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One remark by a minor Israeli cabinet officer hinting at a possible US or Israeli attack on Iran has sent oil prices up by a record $11/barrel to a record $139 per barrel Friday. That should tell us what would happen if the Bush administration were crazy enough to attack Iran, or to let its vassal state of Israel do it.
Most analysts say an actual attack on Iran would send oil almost immediately to past $300 per barrel--a level that would strangle economies worldwide and send the world into an economic collapse not since the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs kicked off the Great Depression. The repercussions of that would be staggering.
America, which runs on oil, would grind to a halt. Gasoline and home heating oil would double or triple in price, leading to desperation in the coming winter for those living north of the Mason-Dixon line, and to a mass exodus of the elderly from Florida and Arizona, where air-conditioning would no longer be affordable.
In China, an economy almost wholly dependent upon the manufacture of goods for sale to American consumers, hundreds of millions of workers would suddenly find themselves unemployed. With their remittances to their peasant relatives halted, half the country would be kicked back to the pre-capitalist era, only without guaranteed wages, homes, food and healthcare. It is likely that unrest unprecedented since the Cultural Revolution would erupt.
The Middle East would explode.
In Iraq, Shia fighters would rise up in solidarity with their Shia neighbor, Iran, and begin attacking American forces in Iraq in earnest, probably making the Tet Offensive in 1968 Vietnam look like a picnic. Where the US had half a million troops in Vietnam in that offensive, the military is already stretched to the breaking point in Iraq, with supply lines barely defended.
It makes you wonder what is going on in the higher reaches of the US bureaucracy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has in the past intimated that he's no fan of war with Iran, just sacked the two top men in the Airforce--the most gung-ho of the service branches in terms of Iran war mongering. The unprecedent surprise firing of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and the Air Force's top officer, Gen. T Michael "Buzz" Moseley, was officially blamed on their poor handling of the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal, in the wake of last year's unauthorized and improper removal from storage and cross-country aerial transfer of six nuclear-armed cruise missiles in launch position on a B-52 Stratofortress, and the discovery this year of an earlier "inadvertent" shipment of ICBM missile warhead nuclear triggers to Taiwan. While it is possible that those two incidents were the cause of the firings, there remain serious unanswered questions about both incidents, and particularly about the cruise missile flight.
As I reported earlier on this site and in Counterpunch magazine and American Conservative magazine, there were a half dozen unexplained deaths of US airmen, including two suicides, which occurred just before and after that flight last August 30, none of which were investigated at least publicly by the Pentagon or the FBI according to local prosecutors and medical examiners contacted. A number of experts in nuclear weapons handling have said that it would be "impossible" for the six warheads to have been removed from guarded bunkers at Minot AFB in North Dakota, mounted on cruise missiles, loaded onto launch pylons under the wing of a B-52, and flown to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, all as a "mistake."
This leads inexorably to the question: What was being planned for those warheads, if they were not being removed from storage by mistake, and if they were being moved without the knowledge of the top brass, including Gates, at the Pentagon? Recall that the only reason anyone learned about the incident was that it was reported outside the military chain of command to a reporter at Military Times newspaper by several Air Force whistle-blowers upset by what they were seeing.
We already witnessed the sudden resignation from the post of CentCom Command of Adm. William Fallon, whose outspoken opposition to the Bush/Cheney administration's talk of attacking Iran led to his being pushed aside in favor of the more pliant Gen. David Petraeus. Fallon was pushed out by Iran war hawks because of his opposition to an attack. Were the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff forced out by Gates because of their pro-attack position?
Plenty to ponder here, but the concerns of oil speculators, who have driven up the price of oil by 8.6 percent (and the stock market down by 3.2 percent) in a single day, in large part on war rumors, should have us all concerned.
It's not just about the price of gasoline.
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Next oil, water is the big challenge for the future.
Irrigating crops will be a memory - I have just read about "virtual water" and how that can solve the problem. I got a hint when I read the report about ecological trace that Juhani gave a link to. There I saw some very high consumption rates of water caused by irrigation. I mean in Sweden we got plenty to bath in and flush down our WCs. But we don't grow rice or cotton. Irrigation is used for strawberries not wheat or oat. Spain is in a huge water debt right now. Barcelona is going dry while Italy is flooded. Water will come more by random in the future.
Virtual water - Wikipeda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water)
Kris and I were just discussing this on a trip to Utah this weekend. His father has been saying for years that water is going to be a huge commodity. The elixir of the Earth ;) Find a great well and guard it with your life. A secluded place in the forest (or wherever) with a well ... the basics of life is what it will eventually boil down to. There are many alternative power sources, but when the plug is pulled, when the world "crashes", water is what will keep us alive.
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Water is coming, that's for sure.
What has been reported here about last Friday, has been a real concern alright - someone today said $50/barrel is about the realistic mark at present, but the price is not just based on supply costs. Again, a huge amount of speculation is inflating the volatility.
I take on board the 'attack on Iran' effect, and it is to be compounded that since then Olmert himself has said he will not rule out an attack - I take that to mean it is not a possibility, it is very likely and very soon.
But I don't feel so sure the effect is what is described above - possibly; definitely to some extent, but maybe not to the extent predicted there. Still, degrees perhaps don't matter - it is so bad now, that the world will convulse... because it is already.
Oh well, it will be as it will be, and we will have to wear it. (I glad I invested some more in the Oil companies)
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I was surfing around looking for info. on starlings (I found a dead one on my porch this morning :( ...) and I ran into this: http://www.runyourcarwithwater.com/?hop=watertt
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interesting Ang - but more interesting for me as a web page designer, was Rachel (in shorts! - it's winter here) talking in the bottom right. I like that - I just imaging I could have a dog or cat speaking like that - I'll have to look at something similar.
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interesting Ang - but more interesting for me as a web page designer, was Rachel (in shorts! - it's winter here) talking in the bottom right. I like that - I just imaging I could have a dog or cat speaking like that - I'll have to look at something similar.
Heh ... priorities, eh? I think it's a very short skirt, though. ;)
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Digital copyright: it's all wrong (http://www.smh.com.au/news/perspectives/digital-copyright-its-all-wrong/2008/06/09/1212863545123.html)
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interesting Ang - but more interesting for me as a web page designer, was Rachel (in shorts! - it's winter here) talking in the bottom right. I like that - I just imaging I could have a dog or cat speaking like that - I'll have to look at something similar.
I have seen a lot of that on Web advertisements lately. It's really cool and the best thing is that you can turn the speaker (person) off if you don't want to listen!
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Salmonella> Salmonella Outbreak Investigations > Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul
Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul
Information updated June 12, 2008
Click Here for Advice to Consumers
CDC is collaborating with public health officials in many states, the Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of human Salmonella serotype Saintpaul infections. An epidemiologic investigation comparing foods eaten by ill and well persons has identified consumption of raw tomatoes as the likely source of the illnesses. The specific type and source of tomatoes is under investigation; however, the data suggest that illnesses are linked to consumption raw red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes, and products containing these raw tomatoes.
Since April, 228 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 23 states: Arizona (19 persons), California (2), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Georgia (7), Idaho (3), Illinois (29), Indiana (7), Kansas (5), Michigan (2), Missouri (2), New Mexico (55), New York (1), Oklahoma (3), Oregon (3), Tennessee (3), Texas (68), Utah (2), Virginia (9), Vermont (1), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (3). These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization. Among the 161 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 1, 2008. Patients range in age from 1 to 88 years; 47% are female. At least 25 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been officially attributed to this outbreak. However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death.
Only 3 persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during the same period in 2007. The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout much of the country. Because of inherent delays in reporting and because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely many more illnesses have occurred than those reported. Some of these unreported illnesses may be in states that are not on today’s map.
Clinical features of Salmonella Infection
Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12–72 hours after infection. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. The illness usually lasts 4 – 7 days. Although most people recover without treatment, severe infections may occur. Infants, elderly persons, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When severe infection occurs, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other body sites, and can cause death. In these severe cases, antibiotic treatment may be necessary.
Advice to consumers
At this time, FDA is advising U.S. consumers to limit their tomato consumption to those that are not the likely source of this outbreak. These include cherry tomatoes; grape tomatoes; tomatoes sold with the vine still attached; tomatoes grown at home; and red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes from specific sources listed at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html*. Consumers should be aware that raw tomatoes are often used in the preparation of fresh salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo, are part of fillings for tortillas, and are used in many other dishes.
Customers everywhere are advised to:
Refrigerate within 2 hours or discard cut, peeled, or cooked tomatoes.
Avoid purchasing bruised or damaged tomatoes and discard any that appear spoiled.
Thoroughly wash all tomatoes under running water.
Keep tomatoes that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, raw seafood, and raw produce items.
Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot water and soap when switching between types of food products.
FDA recommends that U.S. retail outlets, restaurants, and food service operators offer only fresh and fresh cut red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes and food products made from these tomatoes from specific sources listed at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html#retailers*. Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached from any source may be offered.
FDA information on this investigation can be found at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html*
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didn't i say, watch out for those tomatoes
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didn't i say, watch out for those tomatoes
LOL
You did!
::)
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Tomato
(http://f.postimees.ee/f/2008/06/17/50290t41h0bf8.jpg)
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I was talking to a man from Iran a few days ago - a very refined person with a distinctly honest and genuine mien, very proud of his culture's heritage.
But actually, things look grim. I can't see it not happening, as I said some time back - they won't let it go by, and I feel they are ready to strike. Iran has been bothering the powers for some time, and these people don't muck around.
We in for rough ride.
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Estonian tomato
(http://www.postimees.ee/foto/3/2/1584234848c46125fb2_3.jpg)
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I was talking to a man from Iran a few days ago - a very refined person with a distinctly honest and genuine mien, very proud of his culture's heritage.
But actually, things look grim. I can't see it not happening, as I said some time back - they won't let it go by, and I feel they are ready to strike. Iran has been bothering the powers for some time, and these people don't muck around.
We in for rough ride.
On top of it, the us president has written in one of those edicts ... that in the event of a new war, elections (or inaugurations) may be postponed. A man with an agenda he is, and I suspect its name is Iran.
To boot, he's proposing drilling now, now that gas is up to 4.50 a gallon and rising, in offshore and arctic places about which had been voted 'no' and protested prior to 9/11.
A conspiracy theorist could easily present him as a man-with-a-plan. Could it be so, that an elected president would bring war and choke out the country's economy, all to carry out some plan he had all along? Needless to say, profits are tremendous in the oil biz.
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9/11 was a orchestrated Pearl Harbouring of conspirators.
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Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding
By DOUG WHITEMAN
Associated Press Writer
In this photo released by Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Schools as a part of independent investigation report, a Mount Vernon student with a branded cross on his arm is shown. A public school teacher taught creationism in his science class and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators. Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom and continued to preach his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators, the report also said.
(http://media.kansascity.com/smedia/2008/06/20/15/Teacher_Bible.sff.embedded.prod_affiliate.81.jpg)
Mount Vernon City Schools
In this photo released by Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Schools as a part of independent investigation report, a Mount Vernon student with a branded cross on his arm is shown. A public school teacher taught creationism in his science class and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators. Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom and continued to preach his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators, the report also said.
The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.
School board members voted 5-0 to fire Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater. Board attorney David Millstone said Freshwater is entitled to a hearing to challenge the dismissal.
Freshwater denies wrongdoing and will request such a hearing, the teacher's attorney, Kelly Hamilton, told the Mount Vernon News.
School board members met a day after the consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc. released its report on the teacher's case.
The report came a week after a family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on a child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.
Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.
"With the exception of the cross-burning episode. ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.
Several students interviewed by investigators described Freshwater, who has been employed by the school district located 40 miles northeast of Columbus for 21 years, as a great guy and their favorite teacher.
But Lynda Weston, the district's director of teaching and learning, told investigators that she has dealt with complaints about Freshwater for much of her 11-year term at the district, the report said.
A former superintendent, Jeff Maley, said he tried to find another position for Freshwater but couldn't because he was certified only in science, the report said.
Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students' arms in December, the report said. Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an "X," not a cross. But pictures show a cross, the report said.
Other findings show that Freshwater taught that carbon dating was unreliable to argue against evolution.
Teacher accused of burning cross on student's arm
From Nkechi Nneji, CNN
(CNN) -- School administrators in Ohio voted Friday to begin the process of firing a middle school teacher accused of burning a cross into a student's arm and refusing to keep his religious beliefs out of the classroom.
A middle school student in Ohio says his teacher branded a cross on his arm.
The Mount Vernon School Board passed a resolution to terminate the employment of John Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher for the past 21 years.
Freshwater, according to an independent report, used an electrostatic device to mark a cross on the arm of one of his students, causing pain to the student the night of the incident and leaving a mark that lasted for approximately three weeks.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, the student's family has filed a lawsuit.
Freshwater was also reprimanded several times for refusing to move his Bible from his classroom desk and teaching creationism alongside evolution, according to the 15-page independent report. The report also cites evidence that Mr. Freshwater told his students that "science is wrong because the Bible states that homosexuality is a sin and so anyone who is gay chooses to be gay and is therefore a sinner."
The Board of Education of the Mount Vernon City School District met in special session Friday to address the case.
Freshwater has the option to contest the process by requesting a formal hearing before the Board of Education. Neither Freshwater nor his attorney could be reached by CNN for comment.
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From Three Days of the Condor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Days_of_the_Condor)
Higgins: It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?
Joe Turner: Ask them?
Higgins: Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!
WASHINGTON — President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, asserting that those steps and others would lower gasoline prices and “strengthen our national security.”
Skip to next paragraph
Bush’s father signed a presidential executive order in 1990 banning coastal oil exploration, and Mr. Bush’s brother Jeb was an outspoken opponent of offshore drilling when he was governor of Florida.
Now, though, President Bush is considering retracting his father’s order. Although the chief White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Mr. Bush “is not taking any executive action” on Wednesday, two people outside the White House said such a move was under serious consideration, and a senior White House official did not dispute their account.
“This is a strong point of discussion inside the White House,” said Representative John E. Peterson, a Pennsylvania Republican who has been asking Mr. Bush for years to rescind his father’s action. Mr. Peterson is also leading an effort in Congress to repeal its ban.
Offshore drilling is blocked by two bans, one imposed by Congress and the other by the first President Bush’s executive order. Asked why the current President Bush did not act at once to lift the order imposed by his father, Keith Hennessey, the director of the president’s economic council, told White House reporters, “He thinks that probably the most productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem.”
But the Institute for Energy Research, a nonprofit research organization that promotes “free-market energy and environmental policy,” has called for Mr. Bush to rescind the executive order and chided him on Wednesday for not doing so. “The president has chosen to speak softly when American consumers need him to wield a big stick,” the group’s president, Thomas J. Pyle, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This was a missed opportunity.”
Later, a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, defended Mr. Bush’s refusal so far to lift the executive order. “The President turning his key alone isn’t going to do it,” Mr. Fratto said. “But he made perfectly clear that he will turn that key, that he will lift, or that he will announce the withdrawal if Congress can take action.”
With oil selling for more than $130 a barrel in the commodity markets and no end in sight to high gasoline prices, Mr. Bush, a former oilman from Texas who came into office vowing to address an impending energy shortage, does not want to end his presidency in the midst of an energy crisis.
No one knows for certain how much oil is in the moratorium area. The federal Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 75 billion barrels of oil in the United States may be found in all areas of the country that are now off limits for development, and that 21 percent of this oil — or about 16 billion barrels — is covered by the offshore moratorium.
Mr. Bush’s new stance on offshore drilling will inject him squarely into the presidential campaign, by putting the full weight of the White House behind Mr. McCain at a time when the candidate is trying to demonstrate presidential stature. But it will also expose Mr. McCain to accusations from Democrats that a McCain presidency would be akin to a Bush third term.
At the same time, the move will put the onus on Democrats, many of whom have long been staunchly opposed to offshore drilling. And it is likely to exacerbate the 30-year-old standoff in Washington over whether domestic drilling or conservation is the way to end American dependence on foreign oil.
That debate has grown especially acute in recent weeks, with the White House in “I told you so” mode. In a speech to the United States Chamber of Commerce last week, Vice President Dick Cheney said, “We should hear no more complaining” from opponents of domestic drilling, whom he called “part of the problem.”
Senator Reid responded by calling the vice president “Oil Man Cheney,” saying: “So all that Cheney can talk about, the Oil Man Cheney can talk about, is drilling, drilling, drilling. But there is not enough oil in America to make that the salvation to our problems.”
After hearing of Mr. Bush’s proposal on Tuesday night, Mr. Reid affirmed his opposition, saying, “The Energy Information Administration says that even if we open the coasts to oil drilling that won’t have a significant impact on prices.”
After President Bush’s remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Reid said: “The facts are clear. Oil companies have already had ample opportunity to increase supply, but they have sat on their hands. They aren’t even using more than half of the public lands they already have leased for drilling. And despite the huge tax breaks President Bush and Republican Congresses have given oil and gas companies to invest in refineries, domestic production has actually dropped.” And the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said, “The president’s proposal sounds like another page from the administration’s energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased.”
The Congressional moratorium was first enacted in 1982, and has been renewed every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer continental shelf, 3 miles to 200 miles offshore. Since 1990, it has been supplemented by the first President Bush’s executive order, which directed the Interior Department until 2000 not to conduct offshore leasing or pre-leasing activity in areas covered by the legislative ban. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the offshore leasing prohibition until 2012. One person familiar with the deliberations inside the White House said that Mr. Bush was briefed on Tuesday by his top aides, including Joshua B. Bolten, the chief of staff, and that the aides recommended lifting the executive order.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are proposing several bills to undo the ban. They differ on how close to shore drilling could begin, but all would give states a veto on oil exploration within 100 miles of their coastlines. Ms. Perino said Mr. Bush believed Congress should pass one of the bills, so the federal government and the states could work together to share revenues from exploration.
The issue does not fall entirely along party lines. One prominent Republican opponent of drilling, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, does not intend to change his stance, a spokesman said Tuesday. In Houston, meanwhile, Mr. McCain, who has long been at odds with Mr. Bush on another environmental issue, climate change, tried to distance himself from the White House.
In a speech to oil industry executives and business and community leaders, the senator implicitly criticized Mr. Cheney, who in 2001 dismissed conservation as a “personal virtue.” Mr. McCain said the next president would have to break with the policies of the past, adding, “In the face of climate change and other serious challenges, energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue.”
On the issue of offshore drilling, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain’s domestic policy adviser, said the senator had supported the moratorium until a compromise was reached in late 2006 between the federal government and Gulf Coast states that permitted oil and gas exploration in a vast area mostly 100 miles from shore.
“Prior to that, he favored the moratorium as a way to support states’ opposition to exploration,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin said.
But Mr. Obama, campaigning in Michigan, swiftly pointed out that Mr. McCain had supported the moratorium during his 2000 presidential run. “His decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
Idea of Offshore Drilling Seems to Be Spreading
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By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 19, 2008
MIAMI — Gov. Charlie Crist stepped on the third rail of Florida politics this week when he abandoned his opposition to drilling offshore for oil and natural gas. But surprise, surprise, he did not die.
His call for cautious reconsideration, in fact, is spreading.
In the Capitol and along the coast here minds once closed to offshore drilling have been cracked open by the prospects of safer drilling technology and an awareness that dependency on foreign oil has heavy costs.
“It’s something we need to do because of the bigger picture,” said State Senator Burt L. Saunders, chairman of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee. “We need more energy independence.”
Governor Crist’s position appears to line up with Senator John McCain’s call for an end to the federal moratorium that prevents coastal drilling. With President Bush now in support, Democrats say the proposal is a gimmick that will blow back against the Republicans.
But the public debate over drilling suggests that the political landscape has changed.
Several elected and appointed Florida Republicans have publicly shifted their positions in the past week. Senator Mel Martinez said Tuesday that he would consider drilling as long as it is at least 50 miles off the coast. Nicki Grossman, vice chairwoman of the Florida Tourism Commission, said Wednesday that the high price of gasoline might be more of a threat than drilling.
Mr. Saunders, a Republican from Naples, said his opinion started to change after oil rigs near Louisiana survived Hurricane Katrina without major spills that reached the shore.
He did not mention that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did cause 124 smaller spills that released more than 700,000 gallons of petroleum products, according to Coast Guard estimates.
But, he said, the cost-benefit analysis has changed because current proposals would push drilling up to 150 miles offshore.
“Initially, we were talking about drilling very close to the Florida coastline and we were talking about technology that had not necessarily been proven,” he said. “Not anymore.”
Most of the discussion about Florida drilling has centered on the Gulf Coast. The National Petroleum Council estimates that beneath the Gulf of Mexico’s eastern edge, there might be 36.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.2 billion barrels of oil — numbers that would require extensive exploration to verify.
In the area’s beach communities, opposition to drilling has been a constant. Environmentalists have long predicted a catastrophe, with ruined beaches and marine ecosystems.
But some people wonder whether the conventional wisdom has become outdated. Dan Rowe, president of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors bureau, said, “You can no longer just dismiss it out of hand” because gasoline prices and drilling technology have changed.
In Mexico City Beach, a three-mile strip of sand and water with about 1,200 residents, some were unsure. “Before, it didn’t seem like the way to go,” said Jason Adams, 38, the owner of Marquardt’s Marina. “Now I have to think about it a little bit more.”
Mr. Adams said he knew it would take years for drilling to produce results.
A 2007 Department of Energy study found that access to coastal energy deposits would not add to domestic crude oil and natural gas production before 2030 and that the impact on prices would be “insignificant.”
But Mr. Adams said he was studying the issue because when it comes to energy “we need to be more independent.”
Similar views could be heard in California, where 33 offshore oil operations are part of the daily vista for residents of the south and south-central coast.
“I work at the beach, I wouldn’t want anything to jeopardize that,” said Pat Kennedy, 23, a lifeguard on the Buena Ventura State Beach south of Santa Barbara. But, he said, “we probably need to drill here to be less dependent on foreign countries.”
The shifting opinions may reset if oil prices drop. Ms. Grossman at the Florida Tourism Commission said many business owners still fear that drilling will ruin the state’s beaches. “Now, the only possible mitigating factor is that we’re also afraid of losing business because of gas prices,” she said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and some other Republicans opposed to drilling have also held their ground. Ray Sansom, who is in line to become speaker of the Florida House, representing the coastal town of Destin, said Wednesday that he still opposes drilling. And former Gov. Jeb Bush, in an e-mail message, said that while he supported Mr. Bush’s efforts to develop domestic energy sources, “this does not diminish the long-term need to conserve and develop alternative sources of energy.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have pounced. The Florida Democratic Party said Tuesday that Governor Crist switched sides because he is “desperate to be Mr. McCain’s running mate.”
Then on Wednesday the state’s Democratic delegation in Congress released a statement accusing Republicans of pandering to the public’s frustration with gasoline prices and selling out to “big oil.”
Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, said drilling could become a reality because the Republicans are breaking ranks.
“It used to be a unified front,” she said. “What’s particularly frustrating is there is now a crack in the armor.”
Felicity Barringer contributed reporting from San Francisco, and Christine Jordan Sexton from Tallahassee, Fla.
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UN chief: Strike on Iran would cause conflagration in Mideast
The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired Saturday that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a "ball of fire" and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.
The comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came in an interview with an Arab television station aired Saturday, a day after U.S. officials said they believed recent large Israeli military exercises may have been meant to show Israel's ability to hit Iran's nuclear sites.
"In my opinion, a military strike will be the worst... it will turn the Middle East to a ball of fire," ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television. It also could prompt Iran to press even harder to seek a nuclear program, and force him to resign, he said.
Iran on Saturday also criticized the Israeli exercises. The official IRNA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying that the exercises demonstrate Israel "jeopardizes global peace and security."
Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean earlier this month, U.S. military officials said Friday.
Israel's military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran, saying only that it regularly trains for various missions to counter threats to the country.
But the exercise the first week of June may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record on the matter.
The New York Times quoted officials on Friday as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver, flying more than 900 miles, roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action.
The United States also says it is seeking a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the threat the West sees from Iran's nuclear program, although U.S. officials also have refused to take the threat of military action off the table.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused to comment on the Israeli maneuvers in an interview with National Public Radio aired Saturday but said: "We are committed to a diplomatic course."
Russia's foreign minister warned Friday against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons with the a program, which Tehran says is for generating power.
One Israeli lawmaker on Saturday urged caution, saying that the world should first do more to toughen and broaden the sanctions against Iran to persuade its leaders to halt the nuclear program.
Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Israel's parliament, suggested steps including banning Iranian planes, ships and sports delegations from entering Western countries.
"There's a long way to go before diplomatic efforts are exhausted," Hanegbi said. "The sanctions aren't very strong, they are very shallow, there's a lot of room for enhancing them."
In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published Wednesday, Olmert said the current international sanctions against Iran would probably not succeed alone, saying there were "many things that can be done economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily."
Asked if Israel was capable of taking military action against Iran, Olmert said, "Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind."
Meanwhile, reaction to the Israeli exercises rippled across other parts of the Gulf.
In Dubai, the government-owned Khaleej Times newspaper warned in an editorial Saturday that an attack on Iran by Israel or the United States would have "disastrous consequences for the region."
"A nuclear Iran is in nobody's interest, but military action and armed rehearsals will also not be tolerated," the paper said.
The U.S. and many Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. Iran has rejected the charges saying its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity not a weapon.
A U.S. intelligence report released late last year concluded that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program, but Israeli intelligence believes that is incorrect and that work is continuing.
There is precedent for unilateral Israeli action. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility to end dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. And last September, Israel bombed a facility in Syria that U.S. officials have said was a nuclear reactor being constructed with North Korean assistance.
Continued at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/21/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Israel.php
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Flooding strands 100-plus barges on Mississippi
By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
WINFIELD, Mo. - The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy.
"We're basically experiencing total shutdown," said Larry Daily, president of Alter Barge Line Inc. of Bettendorf, Iowa.
While the bottleneck is costing him and other barge operators tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue per day, June is a slow shipping period on the river compared with the late-summer harvest, the shutdown is expected to last only a few weeks, and it involves primarily non-perishable goods. So no major damage to the economy is expected.
Among the freight being held up: corn and soybeans headed downstream for New Orleans, where grain is loaded onto ships for export. Construction supplies and petroleum products headed upstream on the Mississippi are not getting through either.
Because of the high water, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed 13 locks along the upper Mississippi since June 12. As of Friday, nine locks remained closed, a roughly 215-mile stretch between Illinois City, Ill., and Winfield, Mo., northwest of St. Louis.
The situation along the Mississippi in Missouri was improving Friday as government forecasters predicted crests sharply below 1993's record levels. Several communities up and down the Mississippi were still under inundated, however, including Lincoln County, Mo., where 300 to 350 homes were flooded after the water flowed over or through the levees.
In Old Monroe, 45 miles north of St. Louis, retired steelworker Bob Scott watched as the river puddled at the edge of his front yard. But he said he thought the river had stopped rising and his home might come through the flood unscathed.
"It's kind of harrowing, a lot of sleepless nights, worried about your property," said Scott, 61. "You work all your life for what little bit you get."
The locks use huge electric motors to open and close gates and valves, floating the barges up and down to different levels of the river as they make their way up and down the river. When the river floods, the Corps removes the motors to protect them from the water. When the locks shut down, barges can still move between them, but no farther.
Typically, a towboat pushes as many as 15 barges, each of them 12 feet high and 200 feet long, lashed together with steel cable. A single barge carries the equivalent of about 55 tractor-trailers.
Last year, between June 12 and July 1, 180 tows (a "tow" is a towboat and its set of barges) carried more than 2.5 million tons of goods through now-closed Lock 25 at Winfield. During that same period, 166 tows carrying 2.3 million tons of cargo passed through Lock 19, at Keokuk, Iowa, now closed, too.
As of Thursday, eight to 10 tows were stranded or sidelined on the upper part of the Mississippi River, said Lynn Muench, senior vice president at American Waterways Operators, an industry group.
"On a typical day at this time of year, there would be 40 to 60 tows on the upper Mississippi River, and the average tow carries the equivalent of 900 semi-trucks of product," she said.
Daily, the Iowa barge operator, said that he had 100 barges and two boats stranded at places along the river with such cargo as corn, soybeans, fertilizer, cement, animal feed, scrap metal and wind turbine towers. He estimated his business was losing $25,000 a day, and said that could rise to $40,000 when two more of his boats go idle soon.
The federal Maritime Administration Office said a long shutdown could add millions to the cost of moving grain and other commodities, but since the jam is expected to last only a few weeks, "no significant economic impact is foreseen for the region."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding_stranded_barges
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From Three Days of the Condor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Days_of_the_Condor)
Strange coincidence, I recalled this movie at the dinner an hour ago and we talked a bit about it. Max von Sydow that has a small part in it is a Swedish actor, trained by Bergman ("The Seventh Seal" for instance). I said "actors usually wants to play the bad guy" and took that movie and Sydows role as an example. It was a good film, so long ago it is worth to watch again.
btw about films and TV series I am just checking out the "Singing Detective" from 1986 at Amazon com and I will probably order it tomorrow. Highly recommended as one of the most crazy entertainment pieces in the old detective genre.
The Singing Detective (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singing_Detective)
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Von Sydow made the movie! He was great. You're right: the movie does hold up after all this time.
(Not familiar with the "Singing Detective" -- tell us how it is!)
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Von Sydow made the movie! He was great. You're right: the movie does hold up after all this time.
(Not familiar with the "Singing Detective" -- tell us how it is!)
The Singing Detective is a TV-serie of Dennis Potter from -86 about a detective Philip Marlow. Potter suffered from severe psoriasis and the head charadter (played by Michael Gambon) has the same disease and are hospitalized. It is a strange mix when doctors and nurses suddenly start to sing and the lines between dreams, fiction and reality is erased. Surrealistic and well made (BBC).
"As a result of constant pain, a fever caused by the condition, and his refusal to take medication, Marlow falls into a fantasy world involving his Chandleresque novel, The Singing Detective, an escapist adventure about a detective (also named "Philip Marlow") who sings at a dance hall and takes "the jobs the guys who don't sing" won't take."
"Several of the actors play different parts: Marlow and his alter-ego, the singing detective, are both played by Gambon. Marlow as a boy is played by Lyndon Davies. Patrick Malahide plays three central characters - the contemporary Finney (who Marlow thinks is having an affair with his ex-wife, played by Janet Suzman); the imaginary Binney (a central character in the murder plot); and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father who has an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman). Steadman plays both Marlow's mother, and the mysterious "Lili", one of the murder victims."
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D94NQ1GWL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
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"With oil selling for more than $130 a barrel in the commodity markets and no end in sight to high gasoline prices, Mr. Bush, a former oilman from Texas who came into office vowing to address an impending energy shortage, does not want to end his presidency in the midst of an energy crisis."
I read somewhere that the US with its 300 mill citizens use 40 percent of all oil produced.
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Michael Gambon played in an HBO serial on Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was Johnson, and his performance was very impressive. Hard to picture him as this singing detective, hehe --- but then again, he's Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films!
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Estonian tomatoes:
(http://www.ilm.ee/client/failid/galerii25556.jpg)
(http://f.postimees.ee/f/2008/06/03/46533t41hebe1.jpg)
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Time to invest in oil shares! :) (there is always time for gallows humour!)
U.S. Says Israeli Exercise Seemed Directed at Iran
http://www.nytimes.com
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 20, 2008
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.
The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.
Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country’s air force “regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel.”
But the scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies. A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.
A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
“They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know,” the Pentagon official said. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”
Several American officials said they did not believe that the Israeli government had concluded that it must attack Iran and did not think that such a strike was imminent.
Shaul Mofaz, a former Israeli defense minister who is now a deputy prime minister, warned in a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Israel might have no choice but to attack. “If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack,” Mr. Mofaz said in the interview published on June 6, the day after the unpublicized exercise ended. “Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable.”
But Mr. Mofaz was criticized by other Israeli politicians as seeking to enhance his own standing as questions mount about whether the embattled Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, can hang on to power.
Israeli officials have told their American counterparts that Mr. Mofaz’s statement does not represent official policy. But American officials were also told that Israel had prepared plans for striking nuclear targets in Iran and could carry them out if needed.
Iran has shown signs that it is taking the Israeli warnings seriously, by beefing up its air defenses in recent weeks, including increasing air patrols. In one instance, Iran scrambled F-4 jets to double-check an Iraqi civilian flight from Baghdad to Tehran.
“They are clearly nervous about this and have their air defense on guard,” a Bush administration official said of the Iranians.
Any Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would confront a number of challenges. Many American experts say they believe that such an attack could delay but not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. Much of the program’s infrastructure is buried under earth and concrete and installed in long tunnels or hallways, making precise targeting difficult. There is also concern that not all of the facilities have been detected. To inflict maximum damage, multiple attacks might be necessary, which many analysts say is beyond Israel’s ability at this time.
But waiting also entails risks for the Israelis. Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed fears that Iran will soon master the technology it needs to produce substantial quantities of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
Iran is also taking steps to better defend its nuclear facilities. Two sets of advance Russian-made radar systems were recently delivered to Iran. The radar will enhance Iran’s ability to detect planes flying at low altitude.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in February that Iran was close to acquiring Russian-produced SA-20 surface-to-air missiles. American military officials said that the deployment of such systems would hamper Israel’s attack planning, putting pressure on Israel to act before the missiles are fielded.
For both the United States and Israel, Iran’s nuclear program has been a persistent worry. A National Intelligence Estimate that was issued in December by American intelligence agencies asserted that Iran had suspended work on weapons design in late 2003. The report stated that it was unclear if that work had resumed. It also noted that Iran’s work on uranium enrichment and on missiles, two steps that Iran would need to take to field a nuclear weapon, had continued.
In late May, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran’s suspected work on nuclear matters was a “matter of serious concern” and that the Iranians owed the agency “substantial explanations.”
Over the past three decades, Israel has carried out two unilateral attacks against suspected nuclear sites in the Middle East. In 1981, Israeli jets conducted a raid against Iraq’s nuclear plant at Osirak after concluding that it was part of Saddam Hussein’s program to develop nuclear weapons. In September, Israeli aircraft bombed a structure in Syria that American officials said housed a nuclear reactor built with the aid of North Korea.
The United States protested the Israeli strike against Iraq in 1981, but its comments in recent months have amounted to an implicit endorsement of the Israeli strike in Syria.
Pentagon officials said that Israel’s air forces usually conducted a major early summer training exercise, often flying over the Mediterranean or training ranges in Turkey where they practice bombing runs and aerial refueling. But the exercise this month involved a larger number of aircraft than had been previously observed, and included a lengthy combat rescue mission.
Much of the planning appears to reflect a commitment by Israel’s military leaders to ensure that its armed forces are adequately equipped and trained, an imperative driven home by the difficulties the Israeli military encountered in its Lebanon operation against Hezbollah.
“They rehearse it, rehearse it and rehearse it, so if they actually have to do it, they’re ready,” the Pentagon official said. “They’re not taking any options off the table.”
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Bolton: Israel to strike Iran after US elections
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132667211&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Israel is likely to attack Iran in the time between the November presidential election in the US and the inauguration of the new president, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the Daily Telegraph in an interview published Tuesday.
However, Bolton said he did not believe the US would take part in such a strike. "It's clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility," he said. "I don't think it's serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don't think it's in the cards."
"The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defenses," Bolton said.
"They're also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgment is they would not want to do anything before our election because there's no telling what impact it could have on the election."
Waiting for a new president, however, would cause problems for Israel, according to Bolton. "An Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy," he said. "With McCain they might still be looking at a delay."
Bolton said that the Arab world would publicly denounce such an attack but would privately be pleased.
Referring to Israel's ability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program, Bolton said the key was to break Iran's control over the nuclear fuel cycle. "That could be accomplished for example by destroying the uranium conversion facility at Esfahan or the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz," he said.
"That doesn't end the problem but it buys time during which a more permanent solution might be found.... How long? That would be hard to say. Depends on the extent of the destruction."
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Estonian tomatoes:
(http://lennuki.planet.ee/staff/keerist01.jpg)
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Just heard, and just realised - the sparrows have disappeared... all over the world
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Just heard, and just realised - the sparrows have disappeared... all over the world
disappeared?
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Just heard, and just realised - the sparrows have disappeared... all over the world
? There are several here -- a flock of them, just about -- in the backyard here right now.
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disappearing - but significantly so.
actually we used to have a big flock in the garden, and now I think about it, I've hardly seen any for some time.
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They must have all come to Thunder Bay! Because we have a ton of them in our yard each morning.
:-*
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disappearing - but significantly so.
actually we used to have a big flock in the garden, and now I think about it, I've hardly seen any for some time.
Yes, they've been talking about it and in some places changes are already dramatic.
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You Californians are at it again!
Will you never stop playing with matches?
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You Californians are at it again!
Will you never stop playing with matches?
This time, lightning was the culprit. Or so they say, anyway.
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Being on holidays gives me quite a bit of time to read. I'm now going through books analysing the changes world has been undergoing since 2001. There have been projects like Pax Americana aka The New American Century, (http://World Islam), etc. Russia is definitely looking back at Soviet times when Soviet military might scared everybody.
American neo-cons were probably the only ones trying to move on, trying ot build something that has not been before, though, it was probably envisioned as a solutions to cope with growing Indian-Chinese might. However, the idea of Pax Americana does not differ from ancient Rome that sought to comprehensively defeat every single enemy in order to feel safe (and thus enlarge their empire).
Radical Islam seeks going back no less than by one millenium. They want Pax Islam and return of the prospering Caliphate.
Russians want back the honour and power of their lost Czarist-Communist empire. They hark back from few decades to one century.
There were some German soccer fans that raised the slogan 'Ein Folk, Ein Team, Ein Goal' at the European soccer championships that suspiciously reminded a bit older 'Ein Folk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer'.
Where is this glorious past, where are these nice times we could play with our world and play World Wars? Why the hell is the world so screwed up? not that the answer is unknown :)
(http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=521&size=550x550_mb&ptp_photo_id=3806249)
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I heard a program on the Neo-cons, esp the British members, and I found them very interesting - the Bush cohort were probably not the best example of their ideas, but nonetheless, I think they did represent where that movement was headed. That Japanese guy who was the main public figure - he gave me the creeps, and still does, even after he jumped ship. I saw an interview with him recently - I think he may have a new book out - but he refuses to consider the thousands of lives and deaths that just get thrown away while they spruik their grand ideas.
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Yes, the Japanese! They have now sacked 250 teachers in Tokyo who tried to talk about crimes Japanese forces have committed in World War II.
In new history book, they totally deny Nanking and other atrocities. As schools have quite a bit of freedom in setting up their ceremonies and curriculum in Japan, this year they played the hymn of Imperial Japanese Army from World War II at graduation in one school. Teachers who refused to stand up got sacked, the headmaster of the school watched them like a hawk.
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I remember his name now - Francis Fukuyama
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I remember his name now - Francis Fukuyama
That's the 'end of history'-guy. He is a former Department of State official wrote after the end of Cold War a book that said that after the collapse of Soviet Union the only form of functional society was democracy with liberal market economy. He argued that the whole world would turn into one rather sooner than later as there were no credible alternatives. That moment was to become 'The end of history'.
Now that you said it, I do not wonder that he jumped the wagon of neo-cons. There's not much difference between his ideas and theirs.
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he was the intellectual force for the neo-cons, but when the Iraq war went bad he turned traitor (according to them), and said it was all wrong - well not all of it. idiot.
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on the same subject:
Never say die: return of the warriors (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/never-say-die-return-of-the-warriors/2008/07/01/1214678038502.html)
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But the simple answer is not necessarily to vote Democrat: "I worry that Barack Obama worries that he won't be trusted by the American people on national security and he may be looking for an action to define himself. So Obama could end up looking a lot like a neocon."
It is easy to make fun of the neocons, but Washington is alive with the concern that they may yet have the last laugh.
That is a good point - as security thinking in the US is so very military-centred and so very threat (read: scare) - driven, Obama will be forced to at least try to look like a man with a six-shooter.
I have been wondering about other parallels between Pax Romana and Pax Americana
Below is a 'politically correct' career pattern of Roman senators (CURSUS HONORUM) from the second century BC.
1. 10 years of military service in cavalry or on the staff of a relative/family friend need to qualify for political office. (In practice this rule may not have been rightly enforced)
2. Age 30: Quaestor (total number of such positions in Republic: 8-12). Duty: financial administration at Rome and in the provinces; acted as second in command to governors
3. Age 36: Aedile (positions: 4). Duty: No military responsibility, but administrative role at Rome; an optional post.
4. Age 39: Praetor (positions: 6). Duty: Judicial function at Rome; commanded provinces not allocated to consuls; usually controlled one legion+allies (5,000 men+), but occasionally larger forces
5. Age 42: Consul (positions: 2). Duty: Most senior executive officers of state; governed larger provinces and given command in all major wars; usually controlled two legions+two allied alae
6. Censor (positions: 2 every 5 years). Duty: No actual military command, but most prestigious magistracy reserved for most distinguished ex-consuls.
All positions were held only for one year (that did not apply to Senat of Republic).
To sum up: you had to be a military man to become politician in later life a rise to high positions. As there were no political parties as we know them in Rome and political/power struggle all was rather family/clan-centred, ancient Rome looks very America-like to me. Regardless of party affiliation, the men like Eisenhower, JFK, Carter, Bush senior, Bush junior, McCain, etc., would all be eligible for consulship and subsequently for senator's seat in Roman Republic...
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I was taken by the comment that they are as sus of Israel as Iran - I didn't know that. It's their ex-left streak coming through.
The author of this article, Peter Hartcher, is a security/politics commentator, and a good commentator - quite balanced.
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The G.W. Seesaw
"Spin-orbit coupling" to blame; effects could last decades.
A new paper published by the Astronomical Society of Australia is warning of upcoming global cooling due to lessened solar activity. The study, written by three Australian researchers, has identified what is known as a "spin-orbit coupling" affecting the rotation rate of the sun. That rotation, in turn, is linked to the intensity of the solar cycle and climate changes here on Earth.
The study's lead author, Ian Wilson, explains further, "[The paper] supports the contention that the level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 - 30 years."
According to Wilson, the result is a strong, rapid pulse of global cooling, "On each occasion that the Sun has done this in the past the World’s mean temperature has dropped by ~ 1 - 2 C."
A 2 C drop would be twice as large as all the warming the earth has experienced since the start of the industrial era, and would be significant enough to impact global agriculture output.
Earlier this year, astronomers from around the world noted solar activity was suspiciously low; some began predicting global cooling at that time. Since then, activity has remained far below average, with it now being over two months since a single sunspot has appeared on the surface of the sun.
In May, a team of German climatologists published research stating that, due to "natural effects", global warming would halt for up to 15 years.
The new paper appears in the June issue of PASA, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
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I have heard about this, and also heard from a climatologist on the radio, who was quite angry at these people for their suggestions this effect would be as great at they are predicting. I haven't heard more since, but it is one to watch - I expect there will be some response from the thousands of scientists grappling with all the complexity of this climate/carbon crises.
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Here's my take on the current tittering global economic elephant.
US is obviously in dire straits, although technically they aren't in recession yet, but most commentators seem to think the technical stuff is old hat. Things look grim. (Still, don't forget, the low US dollar is giving a huge boost to US exports.)
Nonetheless, the US economy is huge, and has weathered this kind of downturn before without too much trouble. One thing this time is consumer confidence is very low, but that may just be because of how high it was before the property bubble burst.
The issue that has occupied the minds of many non-US commentators, esp Aust ones, is whether the world economy is going to see the US economy sink with little or no impact on the global scene. If so, this would have global-political consequences, as the US is no longer seen as the power influence in that area it once was.
So in Aust, we watch China, where we sell all our minerals and other resources, which is causing big problems in Aust, as we are getting inflation not from internal factors, but because all this money is pouring in through mining companies, and generally not getting into the pockets of the masses. And the Govt is unable to distribute it's growing surplus because that would increase inflation and mortgage interest rates.
Europe looks to be going from strength to strength, and Asia is taking off like a rocket. China sells most of its product within its own country, and when you add the rest of Asia to that, it really doesn't need the US, except the Chinese have all their money stashed in US equities - they don't want to see the US go down.
So all that looks fine, till you add in the oil price. This is the second wild card, the first being the sub-prime property rupture. Oil prices affect everyone, but it is exacerbating the US recession, which currently expected to be mild, could escalate - eg we have trouble with the big three motor car companies, GMH, Ford and Toyota, with GMH about to go bankrupt. I don't think we have seen the bottom of the US recession yet.
Resources in Aust took a hiding on the stock market a few days ago, precisely because of the oil price - the cost of doing business, as well as everything else, is going through the roof, and the hit on resources is the first sign that the market sees the whole US insulation paradigm as a possible fantasy.
Will oil continue to climb? And what will the US Government do about it? I cannot see them sitting back with all their power, while their own country collapses due to oil - I mean that is a material good, that one you can take with weapons.
The scare over oil is having one good outcome - US is growing very vocal against Israel's intention to bomb Iran. Not sure how much that will affect the Israelis, who see Iran's nuclear ambition as much more than an economic issue. I can't see Israel doing nothing, no matter what. Before or after the US election? Obama recently made some overtures to Israeli gitters about what will happen after the election, but I gather they see Bush as their best buddy in a very long while, and unlikely to be repeated for some time, which may mean they will act sooner than later. But even Bush has the gitters over what an Iranian attack will cause.
This leaves us with the big wild card - the climate. It's impact is unpredictable. But one super blow to a major city, will really test the whole ship's bones, to say nothing of the coming north-hemisphere summer's water and food issues. The UK Guardian has released a suppressed UK Government report showing the bio-fuel industry is to blame for about 80% of the recent rise in global food prices. Suppressed because they didn't want to embarrass the Bush administration which has been placing the effect at 3%.
onward we plod ... into the valley of death, one way or another.
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I found an interesting comparison outlined by Gwynne Dyer who stated that hollowed out large empires worried about their dwindling authority and prestige have been excessively focused on military effort. He named as examples Roman and British empires.
Interestingly, the US is currently responsible for almost half of world's military spending...while depending itself on excessive influx of money and brains from abroad. The US technical superiority is largely (I'd say primarily) based on brains bought from abroad. Nowadays we see that there simply aren't technical fixes for global problems. Loss of faith in certain technical/modernist world view is just behind the corner...
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August, 1st
rings a bell to anyone?
I will explain later why I'm asking
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August, 1st
rings a bell to anyone?
I will explain later why I'm asking
Yeah... I remember it happened last year
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I've just seen the correct details of that Bio-fuel report I mentioned above:
"BIOFUELS have forced global food prices up by 75 per cent - far more than previously estimated - a confidential World Bank report reveals.
The damning, unpublished, assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally respected economist at the global financial body. The figure emphatically contradicts the United States Government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3 per cent to food price rises. It will add to pressure on Washington and governments across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing the US President, George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot spot with the White House," one source said on Thursday."
for anyone interested:
Biofuels send food costs soaring: report (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/biofuels-send-food-costs-soaring-report/2008/07/04/1214951041638.html)
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Some thoughts I found interesting. In comparison to (at worst) one-fifth of the US voters, Dubya might be an incredibly intelligent and shrewd man! :)
Although American voters are not generally swayed by foreign issues, the future of Israel and of the Middle East is of great interest to one large voting bloc: those among the born-again Christians who subscribe to the belief that we are living in the End of Times, and who insist that the United States support the most extreme expansionists in Israel because they actively look forward to to a great war in the Middle East. They hope not to have experience that war themselves, since they expect to be swept up to heaven in the Rapture, but the forces of the anti-Christ - the leading suspects for this role are the United Nations, the Muslim world, the 'axis of evil', or the European Union - will ravage the world during the seven years of Tribulation until they are defeated in great final battle with the forces of goodness in the valley of Armageddon, in northern Israel. At this point, just before Messiah returns to walk the earth for a thousand years, all the world's Jews will either convert to Christianity or be destroyed, but at the earlier points in the script the Israelis are needed to fulfill the prophecies: they must conquer the rest of 'Biblical lands' (most of the Middle East) and build the Temple on the site in Jerusalem now occupied by the al-Aqsa Mosque. And the United States must help them accomplish these goals.
An estimated 15-18% of American voters belong to churches or movements that follow these teachings, and since it would be virtually unthinkable for them to vote Democratic, they make up as much as third of the country's potential Republican voters.
When President Bush had the temerity to ask Prime Minister Sharon to withdraw his tanks from the West Bank city of Jenin in 2002, he reportedly received a 100,000 angry e-mails from Americans who believe these prophecies, and he never mentioned the matter again.
In the view of End-Timers it is their Christian duty to help realize prophecies that will bring on the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth by supporting the expansion of Israel and the expulsion of the Palestinians from the land of God gave to Jews - and they must not slow down to by working for peace. As televangelist Jim Robinson said when delivering the opening prayer at a Republican National Convention:'There will be no peace until Jesus comes. Any preaching of peace prior to this return is heresy. It is against the word of God. It is anti-Christ.'
Gwynne Dyer (2005) Future: Tense. The Coming World Order, pp.158-159
One cannot but laugh unstoppably!
Some have said: Vox populi - vox Dei, 'Democracy guarantees the expression of the free will of the people', etc
What a world do we live in! :)
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I note Dyer's book is 2005. This argument was quite strong a few years ago. The question I am wondering is whether this group of US Christian End-Timers is as politically effective in the current election climate.
They were very active, and cashed-up. Israel itself had to put some distance between themselves and this group, despite all their money and influence, as they were just to much of a loose cannon. Their influence on Bush was very strong, because that was how the Republican (Karl Rove) machine had structured their power base.
But there has been considerable falling out amongst this religious power base. This has become a huge problem for McCain, as he is not a legitimate Republican in the mould required by the far right, and the religious fanatics.
I am curious myself if they will still the force they were previously, in this new election, and if there is still some aspect of their influence in the current Israel/Iran sabre rattling. Anything is possible in the US it would seem.
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Be afraid, be very afraid as End-Timers have been seen in uniform...
Jerry Boykin
(http://www.nndb.com/people/357/000058183/boykin_church.jpg)
http://www.nndb.com/people/357/000058183/
AKA Lieutenant General William G Boykin
Born: c. 1949
Birthplace: New Bern, NC
Gender: Male
Religion: Born-Again Christian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Military
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Pentagon's resident Jesus freak
Military service: US Army (1971-2007, Lt. Gen.)
In late 2003, Maj. General William G. Boykin (serving as Deputy Undersecretary for Intelligence under Stephen Cambone) took a lot of heat when the press suddenly noticed a bunch of his wacky statements. Before being placed in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the former Delta Force commander had recently made several in-uniform appearances at church congregations to explain why Jesus is on America's side.
* Speaking of Somali militia leader Osman All Otto, captured in 1993: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol." After this comment started drawing flak, Boykin backpedaled: "Comments to Osman Otto in Mogadishu were not referencing his worship of Allah but his worship of money and power; idolatry."
* Regarding the convoluted election of President George W. Bush: "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this." On another occasion, Boykin put it this way: "George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States. He was appointed by God."
* In a slideshow program he presented at various church groups, Boykin showed a photo he had taken from a helicopter over Mogadishu in 1993 depicting black patches in the sky. "Whether you understand it or not, it is a demonic spirit over the city of Mogadishu. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not a fake, that's not a farce."
* Another comment from the slideshow: "Well, is he (Osama bin Laden) the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man (Saddam Hussein) the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He's called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan."
Regarding this last point, magician and celebrity atheist Penn Jillette responded thusly:
A guy? A guy? A guy named "Satan." We can't even find a guy named Bin Laden, and now we're looking for an evil tooth fairy? Satan's not a guy, it's just someone else's imaginary friend. How did we end up fighting a war against a sock monkey?
According to Boykin, his religious conversion broke up his marriage: "My wife of 25 years [...] walked in and said, 'I don't love you anymore, you're a religious fanatic, and I'm leaving you.'"
Wife: (div.)
University: BS Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1971)
University: Shippensburg University
Positions in DoD:
US Defense Department Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (2003-04)
US Defense Department Commanding General, Army JFK Special Warfare Center (2000-03)
US Defense Department Commanding General, Army Special Forces Command (1998-2000)
In Euronews they said that Obama is already caving in on Iraq, his promise regarding returning troops in 16 months is becoming increasingly ambiguous and conditional...
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Quantum Mechanics & Chaos Theory
Anarchist Meditations on N. Herbert's
Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics
By Hakim Bey
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
1. Scientific worldviews or "paradigms" can influence -- or be influenced by -- social reality. Clearly the Ptolemaic universe mirrors theocentric & monarchic structures. The Newtonian/Cartesian/mechanical universe mirrors rationalistic social assumptions, which in turn underlie nationalism, capitalism, communism, etc. As for Relativity Theory, it has only recently begun to reflect -- or be reflected by -- certain social realities. But these relations are still obscure, embedded in multinational conspiracies, the metaphysics of modern banking, international terrorism, & various newly emergent telecommunications-based technologies.
2. Which comes first, scientific paradigm or social structure? For our purpose it seems unnecessary to answer this question--and in any case, perhaps impossible. The relation between them is real, but acts in a manner infinitely more complex than mere cause-&-effect, or even warp-&-weft.
3. Quantum Mechanics (QM), considered as the source of such a paradigm, at first seems to lack any social ramifications or parallels, almost as if its very weirdness deprives it of all connnections with "everyday" life or social reality. However, a few authors (like F. Capra, or Science-Fictioneers like R. Rucker or R. Anton Wilson) have seen Quantum Theory both as a vindication of certain "oriental philosophies" & also as prophetic of certain social changes which might loosely & carelessly be lumped under the heading "Aquarian."
4. The "mystical" systems evoked by our contemplation of Quantum facts tend to be non-dualist and non-theocentric, dynamic rather than static: Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Tantra (both Hindu & Buddhist), alchemy, etc. Einstein, who opposed Quantum theory, believed in a God who refused to play dice with the universe, a basically Judeo-Protestant deity who sets up a cosmic speed limit for light. The Quantum enthusiasts, by contrast, prefer a dancing Shiva, a principle of cosmic play.
5. Perhaps "oriental wisdom" will provide a kind of focusing device, or set of metaphors, or myth, or poetics of QM, which will allow it to realize itself fully as a "paradigm" & discover its reflection on the level of society. But it does not follow that this paradigm will simply recapitulate the social complexes which gave rise to Taoism, Tantra or alchemy. There is no "Eternal Return" in the strict Nietzschean sense: each time the gyre comes round again it describes a new point in space/time.
6. Einstein accused Quantum Theory (QT) of restoring individual consciousness to the center of the universe, a position from which "Man" was toppled by "Science" 500 years ago. If QT can be accused of retrogression, however, it must be something like the anarchist P. Goodman's "Stone Age Reaction" -- a turning-back so extreme as to constitute a revolution.
7. Perhaps the development of QM and the rediscovery of "oriental wisdom" (with its occidental variations) stem from the same social causes, which have to do with information density, electronic technology, the ongoing collapse of Eurocentrism & its "Classical" philosophies, ideologies & physics. Perhaps the syncresis of QT & oriental wisdom will accelerate these changes, even help direct them.
8. Table of Paradigms
With Their Spritual, Political & Economic Parallels
1. Paleolithic -- shamanic -- non-authoritarian -- hunter/gatherer
2. Neolithic -- polytheistic -- authoritarian -- agricultural
3. Earth-centered Cosmos -- theistic -- monarchial/theocratic (hierarchical) -- urban
4. Sun-centered Cosmos -- monotheistic -- divine right of kings -- colonialism & imperialism
5. Mechanistic universe -- deist or atheist -- democracy, capitalism, communism -- industrial/technological
6. Relativistic universe -- Modernism -- cybernocacy -- post-industrial (electronic)
7. Quantum universe . . .
9. Just as Modernism here parallels Relativity Theory as a sort of spiritual concomitant, so "oriental wisdom" seems to attach itself to QT. But what political systems, what economics would derive from this amalgamation?
10. QT, which attempts an explanation of the reality "behind" Quantum facts, lags far behind QM itself. Unlike Relativity, QM offers no coherent ideas about "reality," only a set of statistical possibilities, tools for prediction. QM "works" -- but Quantum facts remain unexplained. The excitement of the science for non-scientists lies in the way it seems to have revived speculative philosophy as an integral part of the scientific endeavor: at present, competing theories about Quantum "reality" rival any occultist or mystical excesses for sheer madness & breathtaking incredibility. In Quantum Reality, physicist Nick Herbert outlines eight philosophies or world views, "Quantum Realities," all based on Quantum fact but all different.
11. Quantum Reality Number One (QRI) - -the Copenhagen interpretation. "There is no deep reality." Objects, everyday real things, "float on a world that is not as real." (Bohr, Heisenberg.) Emphasis on "Uncertainty," and thus comparable to Buddhist "Anti-realism" or even Berkelean Idealism. The Copenhagen "orthodox ontology" leads directly to QR2, which posits an observer-created reality in which the act of measurement gives rise to observed reality ("The moon is demonstrably not there when no one looks" -- N.D. Mermin).
12. QR3 -- "Reality is an undivided wholeness." Developed by W. Heitler. In this interpretation, "the observer appears, as a necessary part of the whole structure, and in his full capacity as a conscious being. The separation of the world into an 'objective outside reality' and 'us,' the self-conscious onlookers, can no longer be maintained. Object and subject have become inseparable from each other." According to Bohm, "One is led to a new notion of unbroken wholeness which denies the classical analyzability of the world into separately and independently existing parts. . . . The inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fun damental reality."
13. Capra's popularization of this stance in Tao of Physics explores possible leads in Far Eastern mysticism. But none of the "orientalists" have so far noted a much more relevant metaphysics in sufism, especially Ibn Arabi's doctrine of the oneness of being (wahdat al-wujud). My intuition says that Ibn Arabi might prove a goldmine to Quantum Theorists, but the "mingling of two oceans" conjured up by such an imagined confrontation would involve decades of hard labor to grasp & contain -- & so I leave it to someone else to follow up.
14. Bell's Theorem, which proves or seems to prove that Quantum Reality is "non-local," bolsters rather than deflates what we might call the taoist theory of QM, or in Herbert's phrase, QR3. Something in Bell's Theorem seems to be violating Einstein's cosmic speed limit-some superluminal aether or "field," or Faster-Than-Light particles -- or telepathic particles! So far this bizarrarie can be experimentally demonstrated only though negative inference; no laboratory "hard" evidence of such a "field" (or whatever) has been uncovered. Randomicity Theory suggests that non-local phenomena will remain inaccessible-that superiuminal signaling devices ("ansibles" in SciFi terminology) will prove impossible to decode, hence useless. However, this remains unproven. If telepathy exists, then human consciousness may already be making use of such codes.
15. QR4 -- "The many worlds interpretation" (H. Everett, 1957) suggests that the wave function never collapses -- that every possible event actually occurs, either in "our" world or in some instantaneously created "alternative universe." The Copenhagenists deny reality altogether; Everett offers infinite realities: an elegant solution, so far totally unverifiable . . . but . . . SciFi Heaven! (I wish to expropriate one of Everett's notions, the non-collapse of the wave function, for my own fanciful synthesis [see below].)
16. QR5 - -Quantum Logic. What Einstein did to Euclidean geometry, some Quantum physicist/mathematicians hope to do to Boolean (Classical) Logic. Other than making it easier to think about, I'm not sure how this new logic would relate to QR -- but it sounds like a good idea.
17. QR6 -- "Neo-realism." Einstein, Planck, Schrodinger, Bohm & de Broglie have all looked for ways to "save the phenomena," to discover & describe Quantum Reality per se, rather than take the disagreeable step of agreeing with Copenhagian anti-realisms ("Atoms are not things" -- Heisenberg. "There is no quantum world" -- Bohr.) Reconciling the neo-realist project with Quantum facts leads to some very peculiar positionssuch as maintaining that the world is real but "non-local."
18. Could it be that the quarrel between anti-realists & neo-realists arises from a semantic problem about the definition of "reality?" It looks to me as if both sides are maintaining that reality means Classical reality. Thus the Copenhagenists are forced to deny that ordinary objects exist -- an absurdity - -while the neo-realists are reduced to looking for loopholes in QM, & seem so far to have been utterly frustrated. But if QR & "ordinary reality" are both real, modalities of the same one reality, then the dichotomy vanishes like a delusion caused by bad grammar. The only problem then remaining is that of Quantum measurement, which asks in effect how "quantumstuff" "becomes" "ordinary objects?"
19. QR7 -- "Consciousness creates reality." Von Neumann posits that only one kind of stuff exists, quantumstuff, & that ordinary objects are "made" of it. At some point the wave function, the all-possible nature of quantumstuff, "collapses" into a single statistical probability, a quantum jump which somehow "creates the world." Where does this occur? The only logical answer appears to implicate human consciousness as the setting of the wave function collapse. Ironic that Von Neumann, the wizard of cybernetics & strategic game theory, should have been forced to develop a math which suggests that human consciousness must be written into any complete explanation of QR. Von Neumann's interpretation is not the same as QR2, "observer-created reality," in which the observer could as easily be a measuring device as a human being; QR2 tacitly accepts a basic dualism between a real "Classical" measuring device, and Quantum unreality itself. Nor does QR7 necessarily imply Buddhist-style anti-realism or Idealism: reality exists, but only in conjunction or "unity" with con- sciousness.
20. On one hand this trend leads to a kind of neo-Aristotelian neo-Platonism -- such as QR8, Heisenberg's "duplex world" of potentials and actualities, in which real objects appear almost as manifestations or hypostases of a Quantum Reality which is both more abstract & yet "more real" than everyday things.
21. On the other hand however Von N's "all-quantum" explanation of QR harks back to & strengthens the "taoist" arguments of QR3. Here, rather than a platonic modified non-dualism we get a strong & radical monism, in which "matter" & "consciousness" cannot be distinguished except as modalities of a single reality.
22. In effect, might one not say (as in QR4) that the wave function never collapses -- but that there still remains only one reality? That there has never been a "fall" from one into two? If QR is non-local, if "phase interference" & Bell's proof mean that all Quantum-particles which connect hologrammatical instantaneous connections with each other -- if all "matter" was originally (before the Big Bang) one dimensionless macro-particle/wave -- then all particles are implicated in all waves, & vice versa. The universe is (as Capra says, quoting Hindu sources) a seamless net of jewels, every jewel reflected in every other. The wave function collapse in this case would constitute a mathematical description of a mode of individual consciousness & its awareness of the world, its inherent implicatedness in the totality & oneness of that world -- in fact, its virtual identity with that world. The wave function collapse would then not actually describe a physical event at all; in effect, it would have never happened. The universe is now what it was & ever shall be: one reality.
23. As far as I know, this synthesis of QR3 and QR7 (lucky numbers!) violates current thinking in Quantum Theory -- & perhaps even the "Quantum facts" as well. Still . . . science marches on; things may change & become even weirder. I have a strong hunch that the ongoing study of randomicity (e.g. at thermonuclear temperatures) may shed light on QR philosophy in the near future. Another source for the next breakthrough in physics may well come from brain physiology -- provided it can tear itself away from rat-running & linguistic rat-holes & address itself to the problem of consciousness. New work on the "morphogenetic field" in biology looks promising; personally, I feel less enthusiasm for cognitive philosophy & AI research.
24. My groping attempt at a synthesis is suggested by what I call Chaos Theory, which holds to the axiom that reality itself subsists in a state of ontological anarchy. "The one gave birth to the two, the two to the 10,000 things" -- but all this IS the tao & nothing but the tao. Yin & yang have no being in themselves, but act as interpenetrating modalities of the tao. The real/unreal dichotomy enslaves us in false consciousness. Looked at from one point of view, nothing is real; from another point of view, everything is real; from another, "nothing is real except the Real"; from yet another, "I am the Real" (ana'I Haqq, a sufi "koan"). These semantricks create a set of paradoxes -- and the resolution will give us an essentially metalinguistic certainty of being's oneness. Such oneness cannot be structured or defined in any way. It has no "ruler" and no "laws" -- hence, ontological anarchy.
25. On a mathematical (or statistical) level, the chaotic nature of reality may manifest as randomicity; I suspect it manifests in the Uncertainty Principle as well. Whatever the truth of these speculations, I feel that Chaos Theory & Quantum Theory are moving closer & closer together. If this is so, then we may be able to predict some social implications of Quantum Theory as a "paradigm" -- and thus answer the questions posed in paragraph nine -- by looking at the social programme of Chaos Theory or ontological anarchy.
26. Chaos Theory, like any good theory, can be applied to anything, from physics to literary criticism -- just as it can absorb energy from any kind of source, from the heretical spiritual teachings of sufis, Ismailis, Ranters, shamans or sorcerers -- to QM itself. Thus it may provide the link, yoke, nexus or connection between QM & "oriental wisdom," & help define the paradigm we're looking for.
27. Chaos Theory predicts that Quantum Theory will fail to turn up any "hidden laws," hidden variables that restore some privileged class of objects or perceptions to a status of objective reality at the expense of other objects & perceptions. The anti-realists who recognize only the measuring device as real, & the neo-realists who yearn for a "Classical" resolution of QM's paradoxes, are simply proposing different ways of "saving the phenomena" -- or metaphorically, of preserving reality as we know it. Consensus Reality. This project seems doomed from the start -- at least, to us chaotes. The new paradigm will shatter Consensus Reality, & with it all authoritative representatives of scientific "truth."
28. This is not to claim that the "solving" of Quantum Theory will somehow result in an anarchist Utopia. The predictive power of Chaos Theory seems to falter here. After all, total destruction is as much a "type" of chaos as the most benign visions of Bakunin or Stirner. In effect the social & economic results of the new paradigm depend on forces other than those described or controlled by the paradigm, whatever its claims to absoluteness. For instance, an economy which mirrors this paradigm will almost certainly involve the abolition of "work" as we know it (a relic of Classical physics) -- but what replaces it may either enslave us more miserably than "work" could ever accomplish, or it may liberate us in harmony with the visions of "zero-work" radicals, neo-situationists & anarchists.
29. Similarly Chaos Theory can make no predictions about the development of technologies which mirror the paradigm, such as telepathic signaling, FTL spaceships, ansibles, controlled ESP or other fancies indulged in by fantasists (including me). Social change resists all such sibylline seductions, since it involves the incalculability of consciousness itself, & of human history. I can foresee Quantum dystopias as easily as Utopias.
30. Given all these caveats however. Chaos Theory still envisions a Quantum-Social-Paradigm with distinctly anti-authoritarian implications -- in one sense a reprise of the Paleolithic/shamanic worldview, in another sense wildly post-postmodern. Such a "movement" or change would transcend all current definitions of Anarchism, whether communist, syndicalist, libertarian-capitalist or individualist. So far there is no name for what I'm talking about.
31. Like Quantum Theory itself, this politique/poetique is still emergent. It can only be sensed as it emerges or begins to emerge from the "facts" of everyday life, just as Quantum Theory peeps out of the strangeness of Quantum facts. Somewhere in the welter of Quantum Theory & Chaos Theory the paradigm is already bom, & waits for us to assist at the mystery of its naming, of its transmutation from potentiality to actuality. In this action poets & physicists may play equal parts, for the glory of Quantum Theory is that by restoring consciousness to its theorems it has turned science once again into a type of "Natural Philosophy" -- or alchemy.
32. Fleshing out the vision of a world somehow based on the mind-boggling perceptions of QM linked with the alien realizations of "oriental wisdom" - -a world which lives with ideas such as non-locality, particles which travel backwards in time, alternative universes, randomicity at the heart of creation, etc. etc. . . . this is properly the work of Utopian Science Fiction -- at this point in history. Perhaps within a few years it will become the province of revolutionaries, artists, philosophers -- the unacknowledged legislators of a lawless future -- anarchs of the new paradigm.
33. QM is said to be "complete" -- but then so are all scientific systems in their moment of power. QM should by no means be fetishized either by scientists or poets, since Quantum Theory itself may hold the seeds of a paradigm which overthrows even QM. The tao which can be spoken is not the tao; the moment Quantum Theory presents itself as "complete," it must be at once attacked. Chaos theory seems to predict that Quantum Theory will flourish as long as it remains "incomplete," not tied down on any Classical (or even non-Boolean) procrustrean beds-metalogical, metalinguistic, essentially unstructured -- "free," like reality itself -- which is a state not of Anarchism but of anarchy, even to the very roots of being.
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Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23991257-25717,00.htm
Andrew Bolt
July 09, 2008 12:00am
PSYCHIATRISTS have detected the first case of "climate change delusion" - and they haven't even yet got to Kevin Rudd and his global warming guru.
Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children's Hospital say this delusion was a "previously unreported phenomenon".
"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."
(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)
"The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies."
But never mind the poor boy, who became too terrified even to drink. What's scarier is that people in charge of our Government seem to suffer from this "climate change delusion", too.
Here is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday, with his own apocalyptic vision: "If we do not begin reducing the nation's levels of carbon pollution, Australia's economy will face more frequent and severe droughts, less water, reduced food production and devastation of areas such as the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu wetlands."
And here is a senior Sydney Morning Herald journalist aghast at the horrors described in the report on global warming released on Friday by Rudd's guru, Professor Ross Garnaut: "Australians must pay more for petrol, food and energy or ultimately face a rising death toll . . ."
Wow. Pay more for food or die. Is that Rudd's next campaign slogan?
Of course, we can laugh at this -- and must -- but the price for such folly may soon be your job, or at least your cash.
Rudd and Garnaut want to scare you into backing their plan to force people who produce everything from petrol to coal-fired electricity, from steel to soft drinks, to pay for licences to emit carbon dioxide -- the gas they think is heating the world to hell.
The cost of those licences, totalling in the billions, will then be passed on to you through higher bills for petrol, power, food, housing, air travel and anything else that uses lots of gassy power. In some countries they're even planning to tax farting cows, so there's no end to the ways you can be stung.
Rudd hopes this pain will make you switch to expensive but less gassy alternatives, and -- hey presto -- the world's temperature will then fall, just like it's actually done since the day Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth.
But you'll have spotted already the big flaw in Rudd's mad plan -- one that confirms he and Garnaut really do have delusions.
The truth is Australia on its own emits less than 1.5 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide. Any savings we make will make no real difference, given that China (now the biggest emitter) and India (the fourth) are booming so fast that they alone will pump out 42 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases by 2030.
Indeed, so fast are the world's emissions growing -- by 3.1 per cent a year thanks mostly to these two giants -- that the 20 per cent cuts Rudd demands of Australians by 2020 would be swallowed up in just 28 days. That's how little our multi-billions of dollars in sacrifices will matter.
And that's why Rudd's claim that we'll be ruined if we don't cut Australia's gases is a lie. To be blunt.
Ask Rudd's guru. Garnaut on Friday admitted any cuts we make will be useless unless they inspire other countries to do the same -- especially China and India: "Only a global agreement has any prospect of reducing risks of dangerous climate change to acceptable levels."
So almost everything depends on China and India copying us. But the chances of that? A big, round zero.
A year ago China released its own global warming strategy -- its own Garnaut report -- which bluntly refused to cut its total emissions.
Said Ma Kai, head of China's powerful State Council: "China does not commit to any quantified emissions-reduction commitments . . . our efforts to fight climate change must not come at the expense of economic growth."
In fact, we had to get used to more gas from China, not less: "It is quite inevitable that during this (industrialisation) stage, China's energy consumption and CO2 emissions will be quite high."
Last month, India likewise issued its National Action Plan on Climate Change, and also rejected Rudd-style cuts.
The plan's authors, the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, said India would rather save its people from poverty than global warming, and would not cut growth to cut gases.
"It is obvious that India needs to substantially increase its per capita energy consumption to provide a minimally acceptable level of wellbeing to its people."
The plan's only real promise was in fact a threat: "India is determined that its per capita greenhouse gas emissions will at no point exceed that of developed countries."
Gee, thanks. That, of course, means India won't stop its per capita emissions (now at 1.02 tonnes) from growing until they match those of countries such as the US (now 20 tonnes). Given it has one billion people, that's a promise to gas the world like it's never been gassed before.
So is this our death warrant? Should this news have you seeing apocalyptic visions, too?
Well, no. What makes the Indian report so interesting is that unlike our Ross Garnaut, who just accepted the word of those scientists wailing we faced doom, the Indian experts went to the trouble to check what the climate was actually doing and why.
Their conclusion? They couldn't actually find anything bad in India that was caused by man-made warming: "No firm link between the documented (climate) changes described below and warming due to anthropogenic climate change has yet been established."
In fact, they couldn't find much change in the climate at all.
Yes, India's surface temperature over a century had inched up by 0.4 degrees, but there had been no change in trends for large-scale droughts and floods, or rain: "The observed monsoon rainfall at the all-India level does not show any significant trend . . ."
It even dismissed the panic Al Gore helped to whip up about melting Himalayan glaciers: "While recession of some glaciers has occurred in some Himalayan regions in recent years, the trend is not consistent across the entire mountain chain. It is, accordingly, too early to establish long-term trends, or their causation, in respect of which there are several hypotheses."
Nor was that the only sign that India's Council on Climate Change had kept its cool while our Rudd and Garnaut lost theirs.
For example, the Indians rightly insisted nuclear power had to be part of any real plan to cut emissions. Rudd and Garnaut won't even discuss it.
The Indians also pointed out that no feasible technology to trap and bury the gasses of coal-fired power stations had yet been developed "and there are serious questions about the cost as well (as) permanence of the CO2 storage repositories".
Rudd and Garnaut, however, keep offering this dream to make us think our power stations can survive their emissions trading scheme, when state governments warn they may not.
In every case the Indians are pragmatic where Rudd and Garnaut are having delusions -- delusions about an apocalypse, about cutting gases without going nuclear, about saving power stations they'll instead drive broke.
And there's that delusion on which their whole plan is built -- that India and China will follow our sacrifice by cutting their throats, too.
So psychiatrists are treating a 17-year-old tipped over the edge by global warming fearmongers?
Pray that their next patients will be two men whose own delusions threaten to drive our whole economy over the edge as well.
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On the fear-mongering topic...
Especially while I'm in California, who is in a different time zone than Virginia is, I tend to listen to a radio show as I'm drifting to sleep. It's an all-night show called Coast to Coast (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/).
The theme of the show is typically things that are "out there" -- like UFO's, aliens, conspiracy theories, cryptozoology, ghosts, all sorts of paranormal topics, and sometimes the spiritual. The main host, George Noory, is very mellow, with a lovely healing voice. But they have a trend towards covering doomsday and the pending apocalypse, and I have been suspicious of them more than once that they serve an overt fear-creation mission. It's a surprise, really:: one would think that a show so liberal as to entertain the likes of "Bigfoot" and other fantastic phenomena would be unafraid of daring to entertain PEACE.
I was particularly disturbed with the show on some national holiday 2 years ago, when they produced a show filled with subliminal, war-inciting special effects. How does it happen, that one considers and speaks of Spirit on the one hand, but supports war on the other?
This show airs as we listeners are drifting off to sleep: a vulnerable time hypnotically to have hysteria playing in the peripheral of one's hearing.
Last night, a guest was on to talk about Iran, and the nuclear possibilities therein. I listened to his cadence, and watched the mental imagery he was laying out. The images I got were of missiles shooting like stars, forming ellipses over the span of land. He paced it rhythmically. Did he do it deliberately, or was he a natural? Whatever the case, I ended up turning it off, determined to write some sort of letter to the host today.
I'm not saying there isn't a dangerous situation ready to blow between Iran and Israel -- and according to the guest last night, Russia and the US. I'm saying that there is a certain mindset and readiness conducive to its facilitation, and that is FEAR.
Yes, FEAR is here in the US, between the issues of global warming, economic doom, terrorism, war, and the fire-and-brimstone mindset of televangelists.
Some of us will have to be responsible to step above that, though, if any sort of unbending intent can be effective. (And who knows, maybe it won't be effective.)
Addendum:
I live in Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Virginia, which houses the "largest military installation in the world". Like many of my co-citizens, I was duly alarmed around the time of 9/11. Surely my area would be a ground zero, I thought. Surely we would be a target. So I couldn't understand why there was no vigilance apparent, in guarding certain areas, around the bases, around the airports. And initially, when I flew in January 2002, security was minimal. Why wasn't there the appropriate response, I wondered? Where was the vigilance? Or was it the case that "powers-that-be" knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, in the end? I'll always wonder.
Spend one night listening to the radio. Do you ever sit with your radio at night, slowly turning the dial, picking up all manner of stations, some not in your own native language and you don't comprehend? But you can tell what the topic is. These stories -- these ongoing narratives -- these plots -- are what fills our brain. And on some level, in spite of the apparent gravity of the matter, it's in truth as grave and serious as the whisperings at the beauty salon. Is the world really ending, or is it good soap opera?
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On the fear-mongering topic...
Yes, FEAR is here in the US, between the issues of global warming, economic doom, terrorism, war, and the fire-and-brimstone mindset of televangelists.
Is it like this all over the world? I notice this "fear" even in TV advertisements. There is not One advertisement that isn't fear-based. Whether it's "you won't get a girlfriend if you don't use this deodorant", to "you won't be attractive if you don't wear these clothes". Or ... god forbid if you fart in front somebody, "you better use this anti-gas concoction" ... or "are you feeling depressed, are you tired at night, but can't sleep, do you have ED?" ... "you better see your doctor because you surely need one of these drugs." Law firms, car sales, infomercials on what workout machines to use, "so we don't get fat" ... "aren't we afraid of getting fat?"
The whole idea of these tactics and that they actually Work is scarey in itself!!!
Some of us will have to be responsible to step above that, though, if any sort of unbending intent can be effective. (And who knows, maybe it won't be effective.)
Sometimes I think it's too little, too late ... every person for them-self ... and then I see glimpses of people who can See, but they're not sure What they're seeing ... in that I see Hope. But only time will tell.
Is the world really ending, or is it good soap opera?
Drama ... Soap Operas ... Ha! The world is not going to end ... human existence, as we know it, will end ... of course, imho.
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"Spend one night listening to the radio. Do you ever sit with your radio at night, slowly turning the dial, picking up all manner of stations,"
heh, I have listened to American radio at the hotel room late evening when I was in Texas 2003. It was funny, so different from here. Ok the music stations wasn't but I tuned in to some stations that dealt with religious matters. At least I heard some strange long conversation about a religious or philosophic topic that I have forgotten.
"Is it like this all over the world? I notice this "fear" even in TV advertisements."
I think fear is more pronounced in the US society than in many other Western societies. Much is built on social correctness and competition, so far from the wise from the East that you can get. But I also see that the US has a difficult time, illegal immigration, a great class divide with a large part of the population outside the insurance system, being at war, having the greatest oil dependence per capita in the world, fraud and uncertainity in the economic sector (real estate) etc. And this all together creates a subconscious fear that manifest in different areas and in media.
So the saviour is entering the scene in the name of Change. But will that solve the problem? Many of these fearful situations take decades to straightening up. And behind all lies this nervous feeling of a coming crash. As you describe it. An interesting development to follow for all I suppose.
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Speaking of the US ... I saw a feature news-story which got me to thinking last week or so.
First of all, I was surprised to learn that since 9/11 and the advent of the Iraq War, the sale of SUV's has risen. They are great gas-guzzlers, and we'll see that trend reversing now, with gas up to almost 5 dollars a gallon, threatening to rise to 10 dollars. But what insanity was this anyway -- what kind of denial is this in this country that we seem to be comforted by the action of war? Forget all those threats of global warming -- el presidente has taken care of it by attacking Iraq.
I actually heard a radio talk host call "these people who are interested in developing solar-powered energy" liberal socialists! (dirty terms to him). Alternative energy-explorations, cast as the ravings of "the damned leftists". Who is paying him? What ignorance and disease is this mindset?
But behind every cloud a silver lining, if we'll but use it. The feature story I heard last week described how companies which the US farmed out, like to China, are now folding up because they can't afford to pay the exorbitant shipping costs, due to the rise in gasoline-prices. So the mother company here in the US now had to revamp the old factory which was abandoned when they farmed out to China, and lo and behold:: jobs! What do you know .. if we took the bull by the horns, this could be a mixed blessing from which we could benefit. Who knows, if we really got serious about it, we might improve the educational system too, which has somehow allowed the minds of americans to rot. We'd have to think again. We could use this as a good thing, in other words. A productive thing.
Make farm-tractors, not bombers.
</the old hippie's 02>
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I actually heard a radio talk host call "these people who are interested in developing solar-powered energy" liberal socialists! (dirty terms to him). Alternative energy-explorations, cast as the ravings of "the damned leftists". Who is paying him? What ignorance and disease is this mindset?
About 4 years ago I read about an electric car (Chevrolet) that would be available to the public in a couple of years. This car ran on an electric powered battery that recharged itself on long trips. Great, eh?!! I waited for it to come out, and one day last year I was talking to my older brother about this car. He said that they had "scrapped" that car. Evidently they test ran a fleet of these cars through a car rental service and guess what?! ... they never needed maintenance! They were too Perfect! They called all of the cars back and disassembled them. I was in disbelief, but as my brother and I discussed, there's no way our government would let a product like that into the public market. It's all about the almighty dollar (which isn't very almighty at the moment). Imagine the loss of jobs and oil profits for Dubya and friends. It would be too soon, too fast. So they introduce Hybrids ... still using gasoline along with electric. And from what I've heard, these hybrids can be very expensive to maintain. My opinion is that alternative energy is coming and Dubya and his friends want to make as much $$$ as they can right Now on oil ;)
But behind every cloud a silver lining, if we'll but use it. The feature story I heard last week described how companies which the US farmed out, like to China, are now folding up because they can't afford to pay the exorbitant shipping costs, due to the rise in gasoline-prices. So the mother company here in the US now had to revamp the old factory which was abandoned when they farmed out to China, and lo and behold:: jobs! What do you know .. if we took the bull by the horns, this could be a mixed blessing from which we could benefit. Who knows, if we really got serious about it, we might improve the educational system too, which has somehow allowed the minds of americans to rot. We'd have to think again. We could use this as a good thing, in other words. A productive thing.
Our company is looking forward to the return of domestic production in the apparel industry. We use mostly domestic contractors right now, so we'll still be able to keep our pricing competitive, maintain quality, and most likely increase our revenue. We've also been able to take business from huge corporations who are cutting their staffs like mad, trying to keep their profits up. These big corporations are letting go of small orders that we handle productively and profitable. We're Busy ... a good thing! ;D
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Ah... I should inform you guys about who Andrew Bolt is.
He belongs to the 'rabid right' commentators, who were the obsessive journalist cynics who paraded as cheer leaders for the previous right wing government. They find themselves still trying to flog a dead horse in Australia - trying to defend the previous government's anti-climate change, pro-big business, pro US Iraqi invasion, etc position.
Bolt continues to have a buck each way - I have watched him on TV taking a balanced line, then he puts out his commentries in the Australian - a right wing newspaper here.
I would be very sceptical of anything he writes - in fact I wouldn't even read his stuff myself. You will find it's not his nouns, but his adjectives that are the problem.
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On the issue of fear - to fear being run over by a car as you cross a busy street is excellent motivation to be alert. Fear is intimately linked to survival.
The big problem with fear is when it incapacitates us rather than quickens us, when we become fearful of things which have little chance of affecting us, and when be become obsessed with fear. It seems to me people who have little to be concerned about are the ones who fall prey to irrational fears more than those who live in very dangerous situations.
Should humanity be afraid of a global change that 99% of all experts in the field hold to be coming to us very quickly? I mean what have we to lose?
India and Australia are a good case - current predictions indicate both these countries will be come unliveable.
It was interesting to hear the scientists who study dramatic earth interference techniques - like changing the nature of the whole globe's atmosphere, where we would never see a blue sky ever again. The have some highly dramatic techniques up their sleeve, which they all kept secret for a long time as it freaks out too many people. But they changed their mind, and recently held a conference to discuss their ideas. They said, what changed their mind on the secrecy of their ideas, was the fact that the politicians who run the world, were obviously not moving fast enough to turn the course we are headed for, and it would not be long before the populations of earth would be crying out for anything that could quickly stop complete annihilation of the all life. It would be desperation point, sometime this century, and so they should at least be ready, and have examined the viability of their different techniques.
Myself? Well I confess to not liking pain.
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on irrational fears, we have another case here in Aust - a known paedophile was accused in a case which the judge threw out for two reasons - one that the child identified a completely different man to this guy, so the chance of conviction was very unlikely, and two, the media had taken up such a drama hoopla that the judge said he could never get a fair trial.
Well, this poor guy can go nowhere. Every place he goes - even to small towns way out in the country - the public have been thrown into a frenzy, much to the newspapers' delight. So he ends up in a suburb in Brisbane, and a mob descend on the house he is in to agitate. One man said he can never take his child for a walk in the park, because this man is in the neighbourhood, under constant surveillance I should add. So there you have hundreds of people locking their children indoors all over Brisbane because of this 'terror' which is lurking there.
never mind that most child abuse is from members of their own family.
It seems people are trigger ready to fly into a panic over things which are irrelevant, but when it come to things they should fear, they don't care.
As I have said - we're stuffed. I can't see human nature changing - they'll panic about some poor guy who's being hounded to suicide, but the pollution and forest destruction and warning by the scientific community - nah! who cares about that. And the politicians know, so they won't do anything either. Lemmings, every last one of them. Certainly not a wagon any sane person would want to hitch their horse to.
Julie has just returned from a trip on the trains through NSW and Vic, with exposure to Sydney and Melbourne and staying with a racist snob of an aunt in Melbourne. She has returned with a very depressing view of Australians - worse than she had imagined. Fat, selfish, gross, stupid, ignorant and proud of it!
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Speaking of the false accusation of child abuse, m, (shiver), there is the oddest trend here in California, of reporting accusations of child abuse before the trial. Every week, new cases are plastered over the local news. (We don't hear that much of it back in Virginia.) In the last one, it was reported that the same girl who had one teacher convicted was now making accusation about the next one, whose reputation otherwise is sterling. It was never mentioned that this girl might be falsely accusing (because what adult would not be extremely cautious around her due to her history?) -- rather, it was reported as if it really happened.
There's a horror -- to be thrown into the prisons, where child abusers perpetually meet with violence from the other inmates, all on a false accusation.
This is what comes of the state having too much power in the family: the kids learn how to manipulate the system.
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Ah... I should inform you guys about who Andrew Bolt is.
He belongs to the 'rabid right' commentators, who were the obsessive journalist cynics who paraded as cheer leaders for the previous right wing government. They find themselves still trying to flog a dead horse in Australia - trying to defend the previous government's anti-climate change, pro-big business, pro US Iraqi invasion, etc position.
Bolt continues to have a buck each way - I have watched him on TV taking a balanced line, then he puts out his commentries in the Australian - a right wing newspaper here.
I would be very sceptical of anything he writes - in fact I wouldn't even read his stuff myself. You will find it's not his nouns, but his adjectives that are the problem.
Precisely! I put his stuff up as an example of how being stuffed looks like. :)
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Julie has just returned from a trip on the trains through NSW and Vic, with exposure to Sydney and Melbourne and staying with a racist snob of an aunt in Melbourne. She has returned with a very depressing view of Australians - worse than she had imagined. Fat, selfish, gross, stupid, ignorant and proud of it!
Y'all sound like the USA ... did you know that Australia rated #1 this year as the fattest country, taking the Americans down a notch in the Obesity stats ... we came in number two ;)
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Fat, selfish, gross, stupid, ignorant and proud of it!
Could be said about many of us too. Unfortunately.
But here the mob is the supreme upper middle class, though few are fat but they have a naughty pen and they stir up media about this and that. To judge criminals before the trials is also very common.Together these are the signs that people are frustrated and they want to hit somebody.
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didn't know that Panthera, but there you go - can well believe it.
mind you, it's not being fat I mind, its the whole smug ignorance trip that is the problem with humanity currently.
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Y'all sound like the USA ... did you know that Australia rated #1 this year as the fattest country, taking the Americans down a notch in the Obesity stats ... we came in number two ;)
So the US population improve. ;D
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I drove past that rabble of social thuggery laying siege to the abode of 'that strange, twitching little man' who was recently released back into the community. Passing through a mob of self-righteous people who feel so obliged to protect the community from the growing spread of zombie predators that lurch out of the shadows ... is a disquieting experience.
And its all because the judge 'didn't get it right' .
Still, why should i care. I can drive past and go home and watch telly. Which i did...but first
A funny thing happened on the way to the electronic forum.
Curiously, 20 k down the road i picked up a young girl hitch-hiking ( a rare thing these days on the eastern sea board) . A sweet person. She told me she was out on the road going on 'an adventure' . I felt obliged to caution her about ...well, you know....being out on the road alone...and the risks of unpackaged adventure. I stopped myself voicing that psychological obtrusion, as I realised I had just witnessed it in action just up the road. The media sucking up the dirt and dispersing it as a fine dust all over the lounge rooms of ...the eastern sea board.
So I took her home.
Back up into the valley.
Where i introduced the family and after a little wine she she went to sleep in the old caravan. She got up early and spent the day walking in the hills.
I saw her briefly later that day, as she caught a lift in the little 4x4 of my fanatical (well... highly zealous, shall we say) Muslim neighbour from Moon Mountain. (that's what we locals call it, anyway)
She had met him and his newly arrived Iranian wife whilst bathing in the high creek above the cascade, up on Moon Mountain.
Anyway, they were going to drop her at the train station so she could return to Brisbane. Apparently, her adventure had'happened'. So...anyrate, she felt she could now return and try and console her flat mate. Their friend, a girl, was murdered five weeks ago in West End.
Curious world. Its beyond my ken.
But, I must go up to the high creek again... soon.
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Good job, xero!
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So the US population improve. ;D
Hardly! ;)
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I drove past that rabble of social thuggery laying siege to the abode of 'that strange, twitching little man' who was recently released back into the community. Passing through a mob of self-righteous people who feel so obliged to protect the community from the growing spread of zombie predators that lurch out of the shadows ... is a disquieting experience.
And its all because the judge 'didn't get it right' .
Still, why should i care. I can drive past and go home and watch telly. Which i did...but first
A funny thing happened on the way to the electronic forum.
Curiously, 20 k down the road i picked up a young girl hitch-hiking ( a rare thing these days on the eastern sea board) . A sweet person. She told me she was out on the road going on 'an adventure' . I felt obliged to caution her about ...well, you know....being out on the road alone...and the risks of unpackaged adventure. I stopped myself voicing that psychological obtrusion, as I realised I had just witnessed it in action just up the road. The media sucking up the dirt and dispersing it as a fine dust all over the lounge rooms of ...the eastern sea board.
So I took her home.
Back up into the valley.
Where i introduced the family and after a little wine she she went to sleep in the old caravan. She got up early and spent the day walking in the hills.
I saw her briefly later that day, as she caught a lift in the little 4x4 of my fanatical (well... highly zealous, shall we say) Muslim neighbour from Moon Mountain. (that's what we locals call it, anyway)
She had met him and his newly arrived Iranian wife whilst bathing in the high creek above the cascade, up on Moon Mountain.
Anyway, they were going to drop her at the train station so she could return to Brisbane. Apparently, her adventure had'happened'. So...anyrate, she felt she could now return and try and console her flat mate. Their friend, a girl, was murdered five weeks ago in West End.
Curious world. Its beyond my ken.
But, I must go up to the high creek again... soon.
Lovely story!
;D
:-*
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You did give her quite an adventure, x!
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Fat, selfish, gross, stupid, ignorant and proud of it!
Sounds like all of our talk shows and reality shows here ... who are the ultimate indicator of whom we've become here, imho. Sad, very sad.
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At the same time, don't we see an ever growing number of spiritually minded folks? It's even echoed in the movies that are coming out now and the TV shows that are on. We now begin to share our gifts with the world like we never could before and talk of things that at one time would have us burned. Everywhere there is talk of new awareness of new days dawning. Indigo, Crsytal and Rainbow children all over the World many many dreamers, healers and Shaman are seeing this world in a new and different light. There is an increase in Global meditations and mass awakenings occurring. I see it is a beautiful time to be here.
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(((((((((Lori Ann)))))))))))
Namaste
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At the same time, don't we see an ever growing number of spiritually minded folks? It's even echoed in the movies that are coming out now and the TV shows that are on. We now begin to share our gifts with the world like we never could before and talk of things that at one time would have us burned. Everywhere there is talk of new awareness of new days dawning. Indigo, Crsytal and Rainbow children all over the World many many dreamers, healers and Shaman are seeing this world in a new and different light. There is an increase in Global meditations and mass awakenings occurring. I see it is a beautiful time to be here.
I Love your positive attitude Lori-Ann :)
I met with a good friend the other night. She’s like a little sister to me. Kris joined up with us also. The discussion started out catching up on what each of us was going through in our daily lives and then Mina (my friend) started describing her frustration with life … how she could see her life as a web all tangled up … how she needed to clear and untangle this web, and how there must be more to life than what she was going through. Kris and I just smiled at each other. We’ve never really spoken that much about our paths to her, nor others for that matter, because as you say, people tend to see it as “different”, threatening to their “secure” world. But our conversation turned and as Kris and I spoke of some of our experiences, Mina also opened up. It was rather amazing! By the end of the evening we were all “aglow”. We decided to get together again sometime soon.
What a refreshing treat to sit face to face and converse freely, listening, questioning, respecting each other’s expressions of thought and experience.
It’s the little experiences like this that give me great Hope for future generations and erase some of that frustration/cynicism brought on by the powers that govern our society. It takes time as all evolutionary processes do, I suppose.
Ang
:-*
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At the same time, don't we see an ever growing number of spiritually minded folks? It's even echoed in the movies that are coming out now and the TV shows that are on. We now begin to share our gifts with the world like we never could before and talk of things that at one time would have us burned. Everywhere there is talk of new awareness of new days dawning. Indigo, Crsytal and Rainbow children all over the World many many dreamers, healers and Shaman are seeing this world in a new and different light. There is an increase in Global meditations and mass awakenings occurring. I see it is a beautiful time to be here.
LightConnection (http://www.lightconnection.org/aboutlc.html)
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LightConnection (http://www.lightconnection.org/aboutlc.html)
;D
Thanks!
:-*
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;D
Thanks!
:-*
I was going through my IE favorites today, for cleaning away old ones but then found this and let it remain. Now I thought it resonated with your post.
Perhaps too much positive New Age and nice loving kindness for such an old traveller like me but why not let the flowers blossom up? - It appear to be serious people behind that Light connection homepage. So let the collective balm of our prayers and unconditional love soothe our worn souls ...
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I was going through my IE favorites today, for cleaning away old ones but then found this and let it remain. Now I thought it resonated with your post.
Perhaps too much positive New Age and nice loving kindness for such an old traveller like me but why not let the flowers blossom up? - It appear to be serious people behind that Light connection homepage. So let the collective balm of our prayers and unconditional love soothe our worn souls ...
...Too much positive... nice loving kindness ;)
;D
:-*
The power of unconditional love is the strongest. There are many many people on the planet who represent love and try to live it as best they can. These people may use different terminology and have different belief systems. These are like the different languages we speak, but the message is the same for many of us. Love is the most important thing, and the shared belief in the basic goodness in all of us. It is through the love and caring and basic kindness toward one another that each of us can make a different. All the things that seem to be small add up :)
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Who calls the shots and have all these children come up with any alternatives? There are too many of us - humans - and we consume too much.
In autumn colours are always brightest.
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You did give her quite an adventure, x!
he's always doing that to people he meets
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This is where it all began, post the Kyoto Treaty abdication and prior to 9-11. Some suspicious sorts might wonder if this has been behind everything bush has done in his administration:
Bush tries to blame Congress for high energy costs
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday tried to pin the blame on Congress for soaring energy prices and said lawmakers need to lift long-standing restrictions on drilling for oil in pristine lands and offshore tracts believed to hold huge reserves of fuel.
"It's time for members of Congress to address the pain that high gas prices are causing our citizens," the president said. "Every extra dollar that American families spend because of high gas prices is one less dollar they can use to put food on the table or send a child to college. The American people deserve better."
With gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, Bush and his Republican allies think Americans are less reluctant to allow drilling offshore and in an Alaska wildlife refuge that environmentalists have fought successfully for decades to protect. Nearly half the people surveyed by the Pew Research Center in late June said they now consider energy exploration and drilling more important than conservation, compared with a little over a third who felt that way only five months ago. The sharpest shift in attitude came among political liberals.
Democrats say they are for drilling, but argue that oil companies aren't going after the oil where they already have leases. So why open new, protected areas? they ask. Democrats say there are 68 million acres of federal land and waters where oil and gas companies hold leases, but aren't producing oil.
"Americans are fed up every time they go to fill up and they're right to demand action. But instead of a serious response, President Bush and his allies simply repeat the same old line more drilling," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in the Democrats' radio address.
"Democrats support more drilling," he said. "In fact, what the president hasn't told you is that the oil companies are already sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands with the potential to nearly double U.S. oil production. That is why in the coming days congressional Democrats will vote on 'Use It or Lose It' legislation requiring the big oil companies to develop these resources or lose their leases to someone else who will."
"But we know that drilling by itself will not solve the problem of high gas prices," Van Hollen said. "We cannot drill our way to energy independence."
He cited Democrats' calls to tap the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, because it is full and "America's rainy day is now." And he said the country must focus on new energy policies that focus on alternatives to oil.
Bush said that Democrats are at fault and that "Americans are increasingly frustrated with Congress' failure to take action.
"One of the factors driving up high gas prices is that many of our oil deposits here in the United States have been put off-limits for exploration and production. Past efforts to meet the demand for oil by expanding domestic resources have been repeatedly rejected by Democrats in Congress."
Bush repeated his call for Congress to lift the restrictions, including a ban on offshore drilling. A succession of presidents from George H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton to the current president have sided against drilling in these waters as has Congress each year for 27 years, seeking to protect beaches and coastal states' tourism economies.
No, it couldn't be the case that alternate forms of energy should be developed -- it has to be the oil.
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Who calls the shots and have all these children come up with any alternatives?
There is so much info available Juhani to answer your question, but here's a little bit.
The Rainbow Children seem to be here to implement the Divine Will, they will use their strong will and energy to build the new world on the foundation of peace and harmony the crystal children are laying down. And the crystal children are only able to lay down that foundation because the indigo children have alrady forged the path and broken down all of the old barriers! There is a pattern that is emerging within the soul groups of children that are coming into this world, and as we watch them, we can get a very good idea of where our world is headed.
In the new world which the Indigos are ushering in, we will all be much more aware of our intuitive thoughts and feelings. We won't rely so much upon the spoken or written word. Communication will be faster, more direct, and more honest, because it will be mind to mind. Already, increasing numbers of us are getting in touch with our psychic abilities. Our interest in the paranormal is at an all-time high, accompanied by books, television shows, and movies on the topic.
Special Message for Indigos
This message is for all indigo children and indigo adults. You are here on earth right now for a very important reason. You may be confused as to why there are people suddenly talking about "new children" with special psychic powers. This is understandable, because never before has such a massive event as the spiritual awakening of millions of souls occurred in modern history. There are many theories as to why like-minded humans as yourself are being incarnated on the earth at this time. You do not need to be confused, frightened, or skeptical about who you are. It has been noted, thanks to several variables, tests and statistics that every child being born these days is a "new child" and I say new child because not only are there people such as you called indigos, which indicates the indigo in your aura, but there are also newer children with a little different mindset and purpose called crystal children and an even newer form of human called rainbow children which are the greatest blessing that are occurring on this planet right now. However, since this message is to indigos such as yourself, I wish to make you aware of who you are, why you feel the way you do, and what your mission is for this life.
You are an old soul whose spirit has lived before on this planet, but in other bodies throughout history. As you completed each life, the illusion of death and the fragmenting of your conscious and unconscious mind (your soul and your spirit) made you forget all that you accomplished previously and even who you were. Of course, there are some of you who remember your more recent past life or at least you did until about the age of 5. There are several ways to help you remember those past lives and the reason you should remember them is not because it would be something interesting to know, but because it will identify exactly where you left off on your spiritual journey before your organic body failed you. It will better help you understand that you are indeed a special soul who was on some sort of spiritual journey and you must come back to that path and continue it because the planet needs you more than ever. All indigos as yourself have been on a spiritual journey of some sort previously and have been guided by a much higher power to incarnate all at once right now, at this point in linear time. This is extremely exciting and something that you may doubt at first but as you find out more about yourself, through such techniques as past life regression, astral projection, lucid dreaming, chakra cleansing, kinesis, and meditation, you will come to understand more fully your self and your role in the world.
You may feel angry. You may feel that the system is something that you need to destroy and build up a new order for the world. This is something that is felt by all indigos and is why there is such a rise in youth standing up to the old authority that exists everywhere on the planet. Indigos such as yourself have been said to be the "warrior spirits" who are to break down the old world order and establish a new peaceful order that has nothing to do with what exists now. You are clearing a path for the so-called crystal children who are quite different from you because they are in no way warrior spirits but tranquil peacemakers who will shift the global consciousness to the frequency of pure unconditional love. Indigos can become enlightened and raise their frequencies to that of crystal children and you can also turn into a crystal child, but this is not easy. For most of you indigos, staying an indigo child will be good enough and in fact, it is not expected that you do any more than is expected from you at this time. You have enough on your mind to do, such as break down the old barriers that have kept humans away from their true selves and their spirituality. You are the ones that will completely transform the world we live in. The planet's future is in your hands, please remember this so that there will be a future for us and for those who will be born after us.
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That's not an answer - who votes and who makes decisions in important places?
I have heard much of that stuff you post - it is merely unrealised potential. These stories and and heralded messages are just like in the beginning of 1990s, but how many actually heeded them? Minority and even less have have made a serious progress.
They MIGHT do something, but there are competing forces and time is running out.
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That's not an answer - who votes and who makes decisions in important places?
That is my answer. ;)
These are the next generations...
Change is happening now.
;D
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I understand it is a matter of faith to you. It's fine. Eventually, time will tell, time always tells. Just remember - Jesus brought us a great message, and look where we are now. Maniacs running around. The message became distorted and twisted beyond recognition.
I hope, humanity will not go back to the telepathic tyranny of a kind of 'old seers', introduced by these more capable children. The egos and installations of these kids evolve in the very present world where their parents and whole societies have been thoroughly hooked up...
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Interesting mentioning the next generations...
they have one enormous task before them.
Can't see them looking back at the current world with any fondness.
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I understand it is a matter of faith to you. It's fine. Eventually, time will tell, time always tells. Just remember - Jesus brought us a great message, and look where we are now. Maniacs running around. The message became distorted and twisted beyond recognition.
I hope, humanity will not go back to the telepathic tyranny of a kind of 'old seers', introduced by these more capable children. The egos and installations of these kids evolve in the very present world where their parents and whole societies have been thoroughly hooked up...
Its not a matter of faith for me as you say Juhani, but I have no desire to explain.
Interesting mentioning the next generations...
they have one enormous task before them.
Can't see them looking back at the current world with any fondness.
And they do not.
But they are aware...
Which is more than I can say for many before them.
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::) :-*
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End-Timers trying to launch the Last War?
President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4322508.ece
As Tehran tests new missiles, America believes only a show of force can deter President Ahmadinejad
Uzi Mahnaimi in Washington
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.
“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.
Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets.
“It’s really all down to the Israelis,” the Pentagon official added. “This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn’t believe that anything but force will deter Iran.”
The official added that Israel had not so far presented Bush with a convincing military proposal. “If there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green,” he said.
There was also resistance inside the Pentagon from officers concerned about Iranian retaliation. “The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the source said.
Complicating the calculations in both Washington and Tel Aviv is the prospect of an incoming Democratic president who has already made it clear that he prefers negotiation to the use of force.
Senator Barack Obama’s previous opposition to the war in Iraq, and his apparent doubts about the urgency of the Iranian threat, have intensified pressure on the Israeli hawks to act before November’s US presidential election. “If I were an Israeli I wouldn’t wait,” the Pentagon official added.
The latest round of regional tension was sparked by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which fired nine long and medium-range missiles in war game manoeuvres in the Gulf last Wednesday.
Iran’s state-run media reported that one of them was a modified Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which has a claimed range of 1,250 miles and could theoretically deliver a one-ton nuclear warhead over Israeli cities. Tel Aviv is about 650 miles from western Iran. General Hossein Salami, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander, boasted that “our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch”.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said she saw the launches as “evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one”, although the impact of the Iranian stunt was diminished on Thursday when it became clear that a photograph purporting to show the missiles being launched had been faked.
The one thing that all sides agree on is that any strike by either Iran or Israel would trigger a catastrophic round of retaliation that would rock global oil markets, send the price of petrol soaring and wreck the progress of the US military effort in Iraq.
Abdalla Salem El-Badri, secretary-general of Opec, the oil producers’ consortium, said last week that a military conflict involving Iran would see an “unlimited” rise in prices because any loss of Iranian production — or constriction of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz — could not be replaced. Iran is Opec’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia.
Equally worrying for Bush would be the impact on the US mission in Iraq, which after years of turmoil has seen gains from the military “surge” of the past few months, and on American operations in the wider region. A senior Iranian official said yesterday that Iran would destroy Israel and 32 American military bases in the Middle East in response to any attack.
Yet US officials acknowledge that no American president can afford to remain idle if Israel is threatened. How genuine the Iranian threat is was the subject of intense debate last week, with some analysts arguing that Iran might have a useable nuclear weapon by next spring and others convinced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is engaged in a dangerous game of bluffing — mainly to impress a domestic Iranian audience that is struggling with economic setbacks and beginning to question his leadership.
Among the sceptics is Kenneth Katzman, a former CIA analyst and author of a book on the Revolutionary Guard. “I don’t subscribe to the view that Iran is in a position to inflict devastating damage on anyone,” said Katzman, who is best known for warning shortly before 9/11 that terrorists were planning to attack America.
“The Revolutionary Guards have always underperformed militarily,” he said. “Their equipment is quite inaccurate if not outright inoperable. Those missile launches were more like putting up a ‘beware of the dog’ sign. They want everyone to think that if you mess with them, you will get bitten.”
A former adviser to Rice noted that Ahmadinejad’s confrontational attitude had earned him powerful enemies among Iran’s religious leadership. Professor Shai Feldman, director of Middle East studies at Brandeis University, said the Iranian government was getting “clobbered” because of global economic strains. “His [Ahmadinejad's] failed policies have made Iran more vulnerable to sanctions and people close to the mullahs have decided he’s a liability,” he said.
In Israel, Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, has his own domestic problems with a corruption scandal that threatens to unseat him and the media have been rife with speculation that he might order an attack on Iran to distract attention from his difficulties. According to one of his closest friends, Olmert recently warned him that “in three months’ time it will be a different Middle East”.
Yet even the most hawkish officials acknowledge that Israel would face what would arguably be the most challenging military mission of its 60-year existence.
“No one here is talking about more than delaying the [nuclear] programme,” said the Pentagon source. He added that Israel would need to set back the Iranians by at least five years for an attack to be considered a success.
Even that may be beyond Israel’s competence if it has to act alone. Obvious targets would include Iran’s Isfahan plant, where uranium ore is converted into gas, the Natanz complex where this gas is used to enrich uranium in centrifuges and the plutonium-producing Arak heavy water plant. But Iran is known to have scattered other elements of its nuclear programme in underground facilities around the country. Neither US nor Israeli intelligence is certain that it knows where everything is.
“Maybe the Israelis could start off the attack and have us finish it off,” Katzman added. “And maybe that has been their intention all along. But in terms of the long-term military campaign that would be needed to permanently suppress Iran’s nuclear programme, only the US is perceived as having that capability right now.”
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Antarctic ice shelf collapse 'imminent'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-imminent-866504.html
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter.
The European Space Agency says new satellite pictures show that the Wilkins shelf – the largest to be threatened so far – is "hanging by its last thread". Extending for approximately 5,600 square miles, it has been held in place by a thin ice bridge connecting it to an island, but this is now fracturing.
The shelf, which lies near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, had not been expected to collapse until the early 2020s. It provides further evidence that the planet is warming more quickly than predicted.
Scientists are stunned that it is continuing to melt in the depths of winter, and believe that warm water is welling up from the ocean to attack it from underneath. So far seven shelves on the peninsula have collapsed due to climate change.
On Friday, President Bush – who last week told the G8 summit "Goodbye from the world's greatest polluter" – defied a 2007 ruling by the US Supreme Court to take action on global warming under the Clean Air Act.
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Well, what can one say?
Australian climate report like 'disaster novel': minister
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080706/sc_afp/australiaclimatedrought
SYDNEY (AFP) - Heatwaves, less rain and increased drought are the likely prospect for Australia, according to a new report on climate change which the agriculture minister said read like a "disaster novel".
The report, by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, found that the world's driest inhabited continent is likely to suffer more extreme temperatures due to climate change.
It said that exceptionally hot years, which once occurred every 20 to 25 years, were more likely to hit every one or two years. And the hotter weather could begin as soon as 2010.
Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the assessment indicated that the risk of drought would double, as would the area of Australia declared to be in drought.
"Parts of these high level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report," he told reporters.
"What's clear is that the cycle of drought is going to be more regular and deeper than ever."
The report is part of a government review of drought policy.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the report, which found that the area of Australia having an exceptionally hot year could increase from just under five percent to as much as 95 percent, was "very disturbing".
"The analysis shows that the extent and frequency of exceptionally hot years have been increasing rapidly over recent decades and this trend is expected to continue," the report concluded.
Rainfall, which has been falling since the 1950s -- partly due to climate change -- is also likely to decline with southern Australia and the southern island of Tasmania among the worst affected, it said.
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http://theshockingtruth.ws/
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Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths
The great mystery of bee deaths has been solved. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin. Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die offs in Germany and France.
Although the bee die offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit is pending against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with Imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer's request to sell Clothianidin.
Clothianidin and Imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees. The spokesperson for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, stated, "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."
Not a Surprise
That neonicotinoids are potent neurotoxins, especially in insects, is unsurprising. They were developed for precisely that purpose. Bayer says that their use is safe for bees, when used according to instructions. This involves using a glue that keeps the pesticides stuck to the seeds on which they're used.
There are many problems with this. Agribusiness corporations are known to evade anything that costs them money. The glue costs money. The equipment and personnel required to apply it costs money. More careful pesticide application to try to keep it from becoming airborne costs money. Obviously, both unscrupulous agribusiness farmers and unknowing small farmers -- not to mention home gardeners -- will, at least occasionally, not use the glue.
Even then, it's impossible to believe that a fair amount of these pesticides won't become airborne. Further, their residue will poison the soil. It will be passed on into foods, which means that insects will come into contact with it there.
Pharmaceutical Connection
Isn't it interesting that a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, Bayer, also makes a product that is a poison by design? Bayer is not an exception. Many, if not most, do business in both arenas. That alone should give pause for thought.
Here's a list of corporations -- not expected to be complete -- that profit in both pharmaceuticals and pesticides:
* American Home Products
* AMVAC
* Astra Zeneca
* Aventis
* BASF
* Bayer
* Dow Chemical
* Dupont Chemical
* Merck
* Monsanto
* Novartis
* Pharmacia
Is it an accident that most of Big Pharma also manufactures pesticides? Is there a connection between the two types of products? Do the pharmaceutical arms of these corporations profit on the illness caused by the pesticide arms? These questions are rhetorical. We'll let the reader decide.
Mythical Disease
Mike Adams has humorously shown with his Disease-Mongering Engine ((http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-mong...), which creates new diseases at the push of a mouse button, how easily phony diseases can be created to sell pharmaceuticals and fatten the pocketbooks of the medical world. The same technique has been used to cloak massive bee die-offs with an air of mystery.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a false name that serves to mislead the public into believing that there's a new, mystery disorder, probably something very complex, that needs tons of money to be thrown at it so that every possible angle can be studied. The reason is simple. By misdirecting the public, and apparently many professionals too, the real reason for bee die-offs is obscured.
This is very much like the misleading pseudoscience that supposedly debunks global climate change by giving a false impression that there is no consensus among scientists. By stirring pesticides into a mix of other supposedly possible causes, such as bacterial infections, fungal infections, and environmental stress, a false controversy is created. That results in precious time being wasted, while we really do move into a world without bees. At the same time, money is being thrown at scientists, who should know better, but being just as human as the rest of us, they're tempted.
Eventually, the real cause starts to become obvious, as is happening now in bee die-offs. However, the guilty party, the one making obscene profits by selling neurotoxic poisons that destroy the earth, launches a campaign of disingenuous lies, misdirection, and lawsuits to continue to sell their contaminants as long as possible.
Meanwhile, we're being told that we must prepare to live in a world without bees, as if it's inevitable. All because of Colony Collapse Disorder, a cleverly marketed nonexistent disease. We live in fear of the implications of no bees, when the real threat is poisons manufactured for the sole benefit of obscene profits.
How to Avoid These Pesticides
Neonicotinoids are used in agribusiness and home gardens. To help the reader avoid these products, we are providing their generic names, along with as many brand names as could be found.
The neonicotinoids include: acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam.
Acetamiprid and dinotefuran are manufactured by many companies. Thiamethoxam is made by Syngenta. Only Bayer makes clothianidin and imidacloprid.
Brand names for imidacloprid include: Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.
Brand names for clothianidin include: Gaucho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena.
Brand names for acetamiprid include: Assail, Intruder, Adjust.
Brand names for thiacloprid include: Calypso.
Brand names for thiamethoxam include: Actara, Cruiser, Helix, Platinum, Centric.
http://www.naturalnews.com/023679.html
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A good article for those wondering where all this climate change scepticism is coming from:
The climate change smokescreen (http://www.smh.com.au/news/global-warming/the-climate-change-smokescreen/2008/08/01/1217097533885.html)
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This denial is like a disease. I've recently lost a friend, more or less, over our differences on the topic. (I didn't have that many to lose, heheh.) It was completely unexpected, the disagreement, which bled into everything. Very strange.
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This denial is like a disease. I've recently lost a friend, more or less, over our differences on the topic. (I didn't have that many to lose, heheh.) It was completely unexpected, the disagreement, which bled into everything. Very strange.
They (who live in denial) refuse to look into the eyes of possibility of losing their fuzzy and fluffy world full of saved Willies (whose fin actually never straightens again after captivity). I had lately an interesting discussion with one chap who claimed that he is living his last incarnation in this world, but steeply refused to discuss climate change and all associated things.
But when I tried to extend into the area of how we, humans, manage to transform all amazing messages brought to us by amazing beings like Jesus et al into utter violent perversions and then screw things up beyond recognition using these messages as shields...well, you can imagine his reaction. :)
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I asked don Juan if trees also had projections like that.
"They do," he said. "Their projections are, however, even less friendly to us than those of the inorganic beings. Dreamers never seek them, unless they are in a state of profound amenity with trees, which is a very difficult state to attain. We have no friends on this earth, you know."
He chuckled and added, "It's no mystery why."
"It may not be a mystery to you, don Juan, but it certainly is to me."
"We are destructive. We have antagonized every living being on this earth. That's why we have no friends."
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Fertilisers kill all ocean life in spread of ‘dead zones’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4534966.ece
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter
Aquatic dead zones, stretches of water where little or nothing can survive, have increased by a third in little over a decade. More than 400 dead zones were identified last year, covering a total area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand.
The dead zones suffer from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, which scientists believe is caused by fertilisers washing off the land. When hypoxia sets in, it can drive away tens of thousands of marine animals and, in severe cases, kill them.
Scientists believe that hypoxia ranks with overfishing and habitat destruction as one of the most damaging problems facing sealife.
Since the Sixties, when there were 49 dead zones, the number has increased rapidly and from 1995 to 2007 it rose from 305 to 405. Among the most alarming outbreaks of hypoxia were those in major fishing areas of the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea. One of the largest was identified at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was 8,500 square miles.
“Dead zones were once rare. Now they’re commonplace. There are more of them in more places,” said Professor Robert Diaz, of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, in the United States. He said that dead zones were rarely “a naturally recurring event”.
In a paper published in the journal Science, Professor Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg, of the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, said that dead zones “now rank with overfishing, habitat loss and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems”. They wrote: “There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine eco-systems that has changed so drastically over such a short time.”
According to the scientists, the dead zones occur when nutrients used to enhance farmland, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, wash into the sea and fertilise huge blooms of algae. When dead, the algae are eaten by bacteria, which absorb oxygen from the water as the algae decompose.
The scientists said that keeping fertilisers out of the sea was the best way to reduce the number of dead zones.
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On the bee issue - I heard on radio this week a man who has just published a book on this problem. I was interested to hear if he validated the chemical toxicity cause which was posted here recently, I think by Lori.
He didn't, in fact he said the reasons are still a mystery, and is speculating it is likely to be caused by multiple factors. He did mention the toxicity issue, and said it could be a 'threshold' after a long build up, but they were more looking for a highly toxic substance occurring in very small amounts, if that theory was to be found to be accurate.
He went through all the usual issues which have been put forward - none of them hypothetical: all are problems that are weakening the bees.
He also went into the consequences - likely to be devastating beyond our anticipations.
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When I think of how small a bee is, and then how things like heavy perfumes, pesticides, sprays, dyes, chemicals and preservatives etc make me feel, I can only imagine that thes things must likely have some affect on insects as well.
Are there animals alive that arent affected by the cehmicals and poisons we put into our bodies and our environement? I doubt it. How can we be so stubborn and/or ignorant to keep ignoring these signs?
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MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/20/uksecurity.terrorism1
Exclusive: Sophisticated analysis says there is no single pathway to violent extremism
* Alan Travis, home affairs editor
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday August 20 2008 19:01 BST
MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian.
The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.
It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable" and simply reflect the communities in which they live.
The "restricted" MI5 report takes apart many of the common stereotypes about those involved in British terrorism.
They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they "mad and bad".
Those over 30 are just as likely to have a wife and children as to be loners with no ties, the research shows.
The security service also plays down the importance of radical extremist clerics, saying their influence in radicalising British terrorists has moved into the background in recent years.
The research, carried out by MI5's behavioural science unit, is based on in-depth case studies on "several hundred individuals known to be involved in, or closely associated with, violent extremist activity" ranging from fundraising to planning suicide bombings in Britain.
The main findings include:
• The majority are British nationals and the remainder, with a few exceptions, are here legally.
Around half were born in the UK, with others migrating here later in life. Some of these fled traumatic experiences and oppressive regimes and claimed UK asylum, but more came to Britain to study or for family or economic reasons and became radicalised many years after arriving.
• Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices.
Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes.
MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.
• The "mad and bad" theory to explain why people turn to terrorism does not stand up, with no more evidence of mental illness or pathological personality traits found among British terrorists than is found in the general population.
• British-based terrorists are as ethnically diverse as the UK Muslim population, with individuals from Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Caucasian backgrounds.
MI5 says assumptions cannot be made about suspects based on skin colour, ethnic heritage or nationality.
• Most UK terrorists are male, but women also play an important role. Sometimes they are aware of their husbands', brothers' or sons' activities, but do not object or try to stop them.
• While the majority are in their early to mid-20s when they become radicalised, a small but not insignificant minority first become involved in violent extremism at over the age of 30.
• Far from being lone individuals with no ties, the majority of those over 30 have steady relationships, and most have children.
MI5 says this challenges the idea that terrorists are young men driven by sexual frustration and lured to "martyrdom" by the promise of beautiful virgins waiting for them in paradise. It is wrong to assume that someone with a wife and children is less likely to commit acts of terrorism.
• Those involved in British terrorism are not unintelligent or gullible, and nor are they more likely to be well-educated; their educational achievement ranges from total lack of qualifications to degree-level education. However, they are almost all employed in low-grade jobs.
The researchers conclude that the results of their work "challenge many of the stereotypes that are held about who becomes a terrorist and why".
Crucially, the research has revealed that those who become terrorists "are a diverse collection of individuals, fitting no single demographic profile, nor do they all follow a typical pathway to violent extremism".
The security service believes the terrorist groups operating in Britain today are different in many important respects both from Islamist extremist activity in other parts of the world and from historical terrorist movements such as the IRA or the Red Army Faction.
The "UK restricted" MI5 "operational briefing note", circulated within the security services in June, warns that, unless they understand the varied backgrounds of those drawn to terrorism in Britain, the security services will fail to counter their activities in the short term and fail to prevent violent radicalisation continuing in the long term.
It also concludes that the research results have important lessons for the government's programme to tackle the spread of violent extremism, underlining the need for "attractive alternatives" to terrorist involvement but also warning that traditional law enforcement tactics could backfire if handled badly or used against people who are not seen as legitimate targets.
The MI5 authors stress that the most pressing current threat is from Islamist extremist groups who justify the use of violence "in defence of Islam", but that there are also violent extremists involved in non-Islamist movements.
They say that they are concerned with those who use violence or actively support the use of violence and not those who simply hold politically extreme views.
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SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW CONTINUED BREAKUP OF TWO OF GREENLAND’S LARGEST GLACIERS, PREDICT DISINTEGRATION IN NEAR FUTURE
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/boxice.htm
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers monitoring daily satellite images here of Greenland’s glaciers have discovered break-ups at two of the largest glaciers in the last month.
They expect that part of the Northern hemisphere’s longest floating glacier will continue to disintegrate within the next year.
A massive 11-square-mile (29-square-kilometer) piece of the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland broke away between July 10th and by July 24th. The loss to that glacier is equal to half the size of Manhattan Island. The last major ice loss to Petermann occurred when the glacier lost 33 square miles (86 square kilometers) of floating ice between 2000 and 2001.
Petermann has a floating section of ice 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide and 50 miles (80.4 kilometers) long which covers 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers).
(http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/greenland_tmo_2003186.jpg)
What worries Jason Box, an associate professor of geography at Ohio State, and his colleagues, graduate students Russell Benson and David Decker, all with the Byrd Polar Research Center, even more about the latest images is what appears to be a massive crack further back from the margin of the Petermann Glacier.
That crack may signal an imminent and much larger breakup.
“If the Petermann glacier breaks up back to the upstream rift, the loss would be as much as 60 square miles (160 square kilometers),” Box said, representing a loss of one-third of the massive ice field.
Meanwhile, the margin of the massive Jakobshavn glacier has retreated inland further than it has at any time in the past 150 years it has been observed. Researchers believe that the glacier has not retreated to where it is now in at least the last 4,000 to 6,000 years.
The Northern branch of the Jakobshavn broke up in the past several weeks and the glacier has lost at least three square miles (10 square kilometers) since the end of the last melt season.
The Jakobshavn Glacier dominates the approximately 130 glaciers flowing out of Greenland’s inland into the sea. It alone is responsible for producing at least one-tenth of the icebergs calving off into the sea from the entire island of Greenland, making it the island’s most productive glacier.
Between 2001 and 2005, a massive breakup of the Jakobshavn glacier erased 36 square miles (94 square kilometers) from the ice field and raised the awareness of worldwide of glacial response to global climate change.
The researchers are using images updated daily from National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites and from time-lapse photography from cameras monitoring the margin of these and other Greenland glaciers. Additional support for this project came from NASA.
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Exclusive: Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-scientists-warn-that-there-may-be-no-ice-at-north-pole-this-summer-855406.html
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Friday, 27 June 2008
It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00035/polar_35097a.jpg)
The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.
Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.
This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.
"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out," said Dr Serreze.
Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.
This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.
"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season started with even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August," he said.
Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. "There's a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it's certainly feasible, but it's not guaranteed," Dr Lindsay said.
The polar regions are experiencing the most dramatic increase in average temperatures due to global warming and scientists fear that as more sea ice is lost, the darker, open ocean will absorb more heat and raise local temperatures even further. Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.
"Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it's not happened before," Professor Wadhams said.
There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water 'polynya' – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.
Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.
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World Bank Updates Poverty Estimates for the Developing World
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:21882162~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html
August 26, 2008—New poverty estimates published by the World Bank reveal that 1.4 billion people in the developing world (one in four) were living on less than US$1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981.
The new numbers show that poverty has been more widespread across the developing world over the past 25 years than previously estimated, but also that there has been strong—if regionally uneven—progress toward reducing overall poverty.
Looking at the new estimates from the perspective of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of internationally agreed development targets, the developing world is still on track to halve extreme poverty from its 1990 levels by 2015. This is the first of eight critical goals.
“However, the sobering news—that poverty is more pervasive than we thought—means that we must redouble our efforts, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Justin Lin, Chief Economist of the World Bank and Senior Vice President, Development Economics.
Updated poverty estimates are published by the Bank every few years, based on the most recent global cost-of-living data as well as on country surveys of what households consume.
Improved cost-of-living data for developing countries
“Our latest revision of poverty numbers is the largest revision yet because of important new data revealing that the cost of living in the developing world is higher than we thought,” said Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank’s Development Research Group.
Ravallion refers to new information published earlier this year on the comparative prices of goods and services (such as food, housing, transport and so on) across many countries, expressed as internationally comparable exchange rates known as purchasing power parities (PPPs).
The latest PPPs—for 2005—were made available by a global statistical initiative called the International Comparison Program (ICP). The improvements in the design, implementation and analysis of the ICP price surveys for 2005 mean that the new PPPs are more reliable than older data from 1993 and 1985, which underestimated the cost of living in developing countries.
More accurate estimates of poverty
In the light of these new data, the Bank’s estimates of the extent of poverty in the developing world have also been revised upward across the entire period of research (1981 to 2005).
“The new estimates are a major advance in global poverty measurement because they are based on far better price data for assuring that poverty lines are comparable across countries,” said Shaohua Chen, senior statistician in the Development Research Group.
An earlier estimate of poverty—of 985 million living below the former international poverty line of $1 a day in 2004, down from 1.5 billion in 1981—was based on 1993 cost-of-living data which was the best available at the time.
The new poverty numbers, which show that 400 million more people lived below the poverty line in 2005 than earlier thought, are benchmarked to the revised international poverty line of $1.25 a day in 2005 prices. This line is a good standard for assessing extreme poverty because it is the average of the national poverty lines for the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries.
“The new international poverty line is not intended to replace national poverty lines,” said Ravallion. When measuring poverty and discussing appropriate policies in a specific country one should naturally use a poverty line considered appropriate to that country, which need not accord with our international line.”
A forthcoming supplement to World Development Indicators will report poverty estimates using both the national poverty lines for each country as well as the new international poverty line that helps assess poverty comparably across all regions and countries.
By mid-September, complete country-level data will also be available on PovcalNet, a website that is currently being updated. This interactive research tool can be used to replicate Bank poverty estimates and test alternative assumptions, such as the poverty line or country groupings.
Overall progress at the global level
Ravallion’s paper on the new numbers, co-authored with Shaohua Chen, is titled “The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty.” (Read the paper, or the shorter, bulleted brief here (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Poverty-Brief-in-English.pdf))
The authors find that, though the estimate of the number of poor has increased, the rate of poverty reduction in the developing world is still as strong as when poverty was viewed from the lens of the 1993 price data.
Poverty has been declining at the rate of about one percentage point a year, from 52 percent of the developing world’s population in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005. This is no small achievement, given that the number of poor fell by 500 million in this period.
“Yet even at this rate, about a billion people will still live on less than $1.25 a day in 2015,” said Ravallion. “And many of those who escaped 1.25-a-day poverty across 1981-2005 would still be poor by the standards of rich or even middle-income countries.”
Also, lags in survey data availability mean that the new estimates do not yet reflect the potentially large impact on poor people of rising food and fuel prices since 2005.
An uneven picture across developing regions
Poverty in East Asia—the world’s poorest region in 1981—has fallen from nearly 80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day in 1981 to 18 percent in 2005 (about 330 million), largely owing to dramatic progress in poverty reduction in China.
$1.25 a day poverty in South Asia has also fallen, from 60 percent to 40 percent over 1981-2005, but this has not been enough to bring down the region’s total number of poor, which stood at about 600 million in 2005.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the $1.25 a day poverty rate has shown no sustained decline over the whole period since 1981, starting and ending at 50 percent. In absolute terms, the number of poor people has nearly doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to 380 million in 2005. However, there have been signs of recent progress; the poverty rate fell from 58% in 1996 to 50% in 2005.
In middle-income countries, the median poverty line for the developing world—$2 a day in 2005 prices—is more relevant. By this standard, the poverty rate has fallen since 1981 in Latin America and the Middle East & North Africa, but not enough to reduce the total number of poor.
The $2 a day poverty rate has risen in Eastern Europe and Central Asia since 1981, though with signs of progress since the late 1990s.
A constant effort to improve data
“Data are never perfect, though they are getting better over time,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the Bank’s Development Data Group. “The World Bank works constantly with partners in developing countries to improve data quality and access to data.”
An example of statistical improvement is the addition of price surveys for China to the 2005 round of the ICP. Many developing economies did not participate in earlier ICP rounds, but the 2005 ICP covered 146 countries including China.
The quality of the price data being collected has also improved over time, with product listings being specified in much greater detail. For example, in the 2005 ICP surveys, six different kinds of rice were classified by eight price-determining characteristics to ensure comparability between countries. In total, more than 1,000 products were included in the price surveys.
Ravallion notes that the scope and availability of household surveys of income and consumption have also improved vastly. “The latest poverty estimates draw on 675 household surveys for 116 developing countries, representing 96 percent of the developing world,” he said. “Yet 20 years ago we could only do these calculations properly for 22 countries. That is great progress in our knowledge about poverty in the world.”
From the brief:
A great many people remain poor and vulnerable in all regions
•At the current rate of progress there will still be 1 billion people living below $1.25 per day in 2015.
•Most of the 600 million people who escaped absolute poverty by the $1.25 per day standard over 1981-2005 are still poor by the standards of middle-income developing countries, and certainly by the standards of what poverty means in rich countries.
•And the Bank’s estimates suggest less progress in getting over the $2 per day hurdle. Indeed, we have seen no change in the number of people living below $2 per day at around 2.5 billion, between 1981 and 2005, although the number has fallen since the late 1990s (having risen prior to that).
•The number of people living between $1.25 and $2 has doubled from about 600 million to 1.2 billion between 1981 and 2005.
•Clearly a great many people remain vulnerable to aggregate economic contractions including rising food and fuel prices since 2005.
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Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that youve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows youve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
And everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when youve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that its moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But theres gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
And everybody knows that youre in trouble
Everybody knows what youve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows its coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows
(Leonard Cohen)
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Thanks for posting this, M. The Eagles or Don Henley redid this song,
and I never knew Leonard Cohen wrote it!
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Watched Barak's acceptance speech the other day.
I have to say he has a talent, that man.
Don't mean a thing, when he has to apply his rhetoric if he gets the job. Still, he has a powerful voice.
But you know, I also got a very creepy feeling.
We have a university in our town, and there is currently a big fight between the Chancellor who is a business man, and wants to turn the uni into a business model, and the Vice-Chancellor who is an academic, and is supported by all the students, staff and academics. There is likely to be big trouble, because the Chancellor is usually an honorary position, but this man is extremely aggressively pursuing a neo-liberal policy, and is not about to be pushed aside. He is due for re-election to another 3 year term by the Uni Council.
Today I read in the local paper, a letter promoting this Chancellor's agenda. It reeked of that neo-liberal, business/money/privatisation mind frame. I realised these people are not going to give up. The population in Australia has turned, and I can see the main population in US is also fed up with this mind frame.
There is no real philosophical alternate position that has the clout of the neo-liberal economical agenda. People are turning away from it out of a deep sense of nausea.
But as I say, the powers that are pushing the agenda of multi-national interests do not care for the sensibilities of the public - they are convinced of their rightness, to the extent they will do anything to stop those who stand in their way.
An articulate, charismatic, highly popular leader from the Left, is a red rag to a bull - the thing that will raise the hackles on the backs of their vermilion necks. They are in no mood for another idiot like Kennedy, and especially one without clay feet.
it bothers me...
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I feel the same way. :(
I don't pay much attention to American politics, but I do have a sense of ....
ominousness.....
doom...
Ya know that heavy shoulder feeling, like someone is pushing on you, holding you down.
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They're going to destroy him politically before he gets elected.
The campaign commercials against him are "deep". Not true, but deep. They've put him "in league" with an old Weatherman (violent/criminal leftist group) from the 70's. They've accused him of not "really" being American -- after all, they say, he spent some of his time in Indonesia as a child.
Much is made of his name, and word-plays on the similarity between "obama" and "bin laden" are rampant on church signs. There is constant innuendo that he isn't "really" Christian, but Muslim. It is some of the most disgraceful appeal to the lowest common denominator I've ever seen.
I watched one of the more eminent news anchormen interview him and chide him as if he was a child.
And then, the most obvious thing, which, I'm sad to say, even hits some of my family. Those who have been closet racists all this time have not been open to one thing he has said during the entire campaign.
America will get the president it deserves.
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He gathered 84,000 people into a stadium for that historic speech and over 40,000,000 people viewed it on television ... viewed by more people than the Olympics opening ceremony.
An assembly of "change", or a huddle of "fear"?
Are we ever given quality choices in elections? I equate it to voting for student council in grade school. It's a popularity contest, imo.
An interesting statement Obama made on 60 minutes last night. He said one of the reasons he chose his running mate, Joe Biden, was that if something happened to him, Biden could step in to be President. That was kind of spooky to me.
Of the two ... I like Obama. He has always questioned lobbyists and big government. He will start the ball rolling.
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I like Obama too, but not for historical "reasons". I, intuitive female and watcher of the masses, usually make my decisions based on campaign behavior. It's the perfect time and way to observe their ethics and reactions to extra stress. So far as I'm concerned, McCain started out playing the dirty pool, and crying a lot of sour grapes. I felt neutral about him up until that point.
OB is wise to look at that possibility, about the vice-president, but how sad. I fear his insight there is prescient.
It's grim to strategically consider this: but for that same reason alone, he should have picked Hillary as his running mate. Enough people dislike her, such that his survival would be less shaky, then. But these are dark and gruesome considerations.
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I'm just listening to a program on a US Christian/political organisation called The Family.
Dear me, some nasty stuff you guys have over there.
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I don't know much about 'The Family', per se. From what I just looked up, sounds like
Illuminati-type stuff. Not surprising.
While I was thumbing through things, encountered this televangelist, Paula White.
As unappealing as her aesthetic might be to me or to you, it's easy to observe
how she works a crowd -- and how much that crowd wants to be worked.
With the right words ... anything can happen in the us.
http://www.youtube.com/v/QLvpbfXOqeg&hl=en&fs=1
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Looks like an each way bet these days....
Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century
Drop in solar activity has potential effect for climate on earth.
The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.
The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth.
According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749.
But this year -- which corresponds to the start of Solar Cycle 24 -- has been extraordinarily long and quiet, with the first seven months averaging a sunspot number of only 3. August followed with none at all. The astonishing rapid drop of the past year has defied predictions, and caught nearly all astronomers by surprise.
In 2005, a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson attempted to publish a paper in the journal Science. The pair looked at minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun. By extrapolating forward, they reached the startling result that, within 10 years, sunspots would vanish entirely. At the time, the sun was very active. Most of their peers laughed at what they considered an unsubstantiated conclusion.
The journal ultimately rejected the paper as being too controversial.
In the past 1000 years, three previous such events -- the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums, have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a "mini ice age". For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season shortens, yields drop, and the occurrence of crop-destroying frosts increases.
Other researchers have proposed solar effects on other terrestrial processes besides cloud formation. The sunspot cycle has strong effects on irradiance in certain wavelengths such as the far ultraviolet, which affects ozone production. Natural production of isotopes such as C-14 is also tied to solar activity. The overall effects on climate are still poorly understood.
What is incontrovertible, though, is that ice ages have occurred before. And no scientist, even the most skeptical, is prepared to say it won't happen again.
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I've seriously wondered why the tracking of "solar flares" and solar cycles ends up going underground. I would think they would jump on it: it would take the pressure off them for greenhouse emissions, really. But then, they'd have to entertain "the kill shot". Is it that the powers-that-be fear a panic reaction?
Here's a cool site which follows the sun:
http://www.spaceweather.com/
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It looks like Sun is making up is mind as to what to do with the idiots called humans.
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hmm, if only personifications of natural forces pertained to anything outside the shallow human mind obsessed with its own reflection
lets make up some more gods in our image, and worship the shit out of them - that should help
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f179/donnalethal/Narcissus_cropped.jpg)
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Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."
Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.
"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."
~continued at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_iraq_war
Whoa, Nellie!
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Get your drinks folks, get your snacks and deck chairs. We are in for good show.
First the Olympics, then the US erection, then the plug hole: it'll be water polo for everyone who enjoys a healthy fight.
(Which reminds me, I need a new pair of boots.)
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http://www.youtube.com/v/XHP0iVQ0e8s&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/yjpAIsAou3E&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/vkyxwOBm5t0&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/F2zrJuBDc-8&hl=en&fs=1
Yes, those were some of the left-ish commentators. Here are a couple of the right's:
http://www.youtube.com/v/djfwM6KqmM8&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/L4C32PI_6og&hl=en&fs=1
This isn't about the election, but it is a good example of the level of commentary of rightist Fox News's Bill OReilly -- he is truly insane.
http://www.youtube.com/v/H7Nt8MQaKko&hl=en&fs=1
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Get your drinks folks, get your snacks and deck chairs. We are in for good show.
First the Olympics, then the US erection, then the plug hole: it'll be water polo for everyone who enjoys a healthy fight.
(Which reminds me, I need a new pair of boots.)
Dont forget the diapers for your ass-ociations, and make sure they are dependable and not leaky squeaky
everybody loves the lowest common denominator.. that party began an infinitely long time ago, but dont worry - its still new and stillborn.. so you can always abort if you need to
icarus liked em too
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these YouTubes are getting out of hand - I'm not getting any work done!
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self-control is a bitch with whips and chains, more on that later with youtube alternative
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hmm, if only personifications of natural forces pertained to anything outside the shallow human mind obsessed with its own reflection
lets make up some more gods in our image, and worship the shit out of them - that should help
So absolutely true! Sun is a furnace where hydrogen burns into helium releasing heat that warms the rock called earth covered with a thin layer of green algae/nature, and spinning around the sun in vacuum. There are wise beings dwelling on that rock who know that even leaves do not fall in the forest when not looked upon. How could there be anything over and above that? There couldn't.
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Whats over and above you is what is under your feet when you run from yourself
but dont let me stop you, i wouldnt even want to
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Whats over and above you is what is under your feet when you run from yourself
but dont let me stop you, i wouldnt even want to
Cheers!
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Enjoy the wine ;D
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Enjoy the wine ;D
Thank you so much!
(http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/pm/421933_p~Cheers-Posters.jpg)
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Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame.
Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions. The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.
With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.
The data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.
William Chapman, a researcher with the Arctic Climate Research Center at the University of Illinois, tells DailyTech that this year the Arctic was "definitely colder" than 2007. Chapman also says part of the reason for the large ice loss in 2007 was strong winds from Siberia, which affect both ice formation and drift, forcing ice into warmer waters where it melts.
Earlier predictions were also wrong because researchers thought thinner ice would melt faster in subsequent years. Instead, according to the NSIDC, the new ice had less snow coverage to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, resulting in a faster rate of ice growth.
Most concern has focused on the Arctic regions, rather than Antarctica. Recent research has indicated Antarctica is on a long-term cooling trend, for reasons which remain unclear.
Earlier this year, concerns over global warming led the US to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.
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September 4, 2008
Record ice loss in August
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Following a record rate of ice loss through the month of August, Arctic sea ice extent already stands as the second-lowest on record, further reinforcing conclusions that the Arctic sea ice cover is in a long-term state of decline. With approximately two weeks left in the melt season, the possibility of setting a new record annual minimum in September remains open.
Overview of conditions
Arctic sea ice extent on September 3 was 4.85 million square kilometers (1.87 million square miles), a decline of 2.47 million square kilometers (950,000 square miles) since the beginning of August.
Extent is now within 370,000 square kilometers (140,000 square miles) of last year’s value on the same date and is 2.08 million square kilometers (800,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure1_thumb.png)
Conditions in context
In a typical year, the daily rate of ice loss starts to slow in August as the Arctic begins to cool. By contrast, in August 2008, the daily decline rate remained steadily downward and strong.
The average daily ice loss rate for August 2008 was 78,000 square kilometers per day (30,000 square miles per day). This is the fastest rate of daily ice loss that scientists have ever observed during a single August. Losses were 15,000 square kilometers per day (5,800 square miles per day) faster than in August 2007, and 27,000 square kilometers per day (10,000 square miles per day) faster than average.
This August's rapid ice loss reflects a thin sea ice cover that needed very little additional energy to melt out.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure2_thumb.png)
Regional ice loss contributes to decline
What part of the Arctic contributed most strongly to the rapid August decline? Through spring and early summer, ice losses were largest in the Beaufort Sea. In August, the pattern of ice loss changed, with the greatest ice losses shifting to the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas.
The shift in location of maximum ice losses was fueled by a shift in atmospheric circulation. A pattern of high pressure set up over the Chukchi Sea, bringing warm southerly air into the region and pushing ice away from shore. August air temperatures in the Chukchi Sea (at 925 millibars pressure, roughly 750 meters [2,500 feet] in altitude) were 5 to 7 degrees Celsius (9 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal. Ice loss in the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas averaged 14,000 square kilometers (5,400 square miles) per day faster than in 2007.
Sea ice also experienced an unusual retreat north of Ellesmere Island during August. Partial collapse of ice shelves in the region attended this retreat. Visit the Trent University press release at: http://www.trentu.ca/newsevents/newsreleases_080903iceshelf.php.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure3_thumb.png)
Warm ocean temperatures
Mike Steele and Wendy Ermold from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory Polar Science Center have been closely monitoring sea surface temperatures in the Arctic.
Positive sea surface temperature anomalies for August 2008 correspond with areas of ice retreat. When the ice melts, it exposes open water that absorbs solar energy; the warm ocean waters then favor further sea ice melt. An interesting phenomenon, in this regard, is that sea ice this August has been drifting into the Beaufort Sea only to melt when it encounters these warm ocean waters.
As autumn comes to the Arctic, the ocean will begin to lose its heat back to the atmosphere. This means that regions of high sea surface temperatures seen in August will be manifested as above-average air temperature in corresponding regions as autumn unfolds.
To view both August 2008 and 2007 sea surface temperature anomalies, click on Figure 4.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure4_thumb.png)
August 2008 average extent compared to past Augusts
Arctic sea ice extent averaged over the month of August was 5.36 million square kilometers (2.07 million square miles). This is 1.64 million square kilometers (633,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 August average,
However, August 2008 was still 67,000 square kilometers (26,000 square miles) above August 2007, despite the record-breaking rate of decline over the past month. Why would this be? The best explanation for this is that this summer did not experience the "perfect storm" of atmospheric conditions seen throughout the summer of 2007.
Even though August ice extent was above that of August 2007, the downward trend for August ice loss has now gone from -8.4% per decade to -8.7% per decade.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure5_thumb.png)
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Well here's my take on the state of play as we see it unfolding in this new twist.
To begin, I'm surprised Iran hasn't been bombed by now. I know it was going to be a very tricky manoeuvre if the Israelis had to do it alone, but still I would have expected them to act by now, and why they haven't is food for thought.
I wonder just how the US elections is being factored into this: wouldn't look good to do it during a US election ... or would it? It could play into Republican hands - tough men at the helm in dangerous times etc. But then it might look like, Oh not again! Which may backfire and play into Democrat hands. Hard to say really.
I'd bet there has been words from both camps to the Israelis that, just wait, we'll fix em after the election, no matter which side wins. But you never know, George may just 'have' to act yet.
So that one is just on simmer. Russia/Georgia worked well for McCain, so that was a nice one, but who knows what it will mean 'going forward' as everyone enjoys saying these days. Then the Polish debacle. I hear they have been working on that defence bullshit since 1946. Actually everyone loves that one - the Russians and the US because it's a gigantic open cheque book for the 'military complex' - big bucks to your mates type of affair.
But now, a new lesion is rupturing in the fabric, and one that isn't quite in control. Pakistan. That old crim, Bhutto's husband is now the President. After he ripped off squillions last time, you'd have thought they would have shuffled him quietly away. But sanity is not prevailing in Pak.
The Indians were outraged before, at the billions in cash and military equipment that was flowing into Pak from US. And why? What did they get out it? Zilch! Except for a giant bucket of trouble.
We now see the NATO forces are finally fed up, and have crossed the Afghan/Pak border - God knows why it has taken this long. One can only assume Musharraf was a wily old devil - took the money, and did absolutely nothing to change things in Pak. What a rort!
The Taliban are in control of huge sections of the country. The Security forces (ISI) are a law unto themselves, and now we have the politics back into the old volatility. It is a very dangerous mix, and I bet the US is mightily concerned - I'd say they are whispering into the military top brass right now as we speak. The US, or India, or anyone, can not afford Pak to flip on its head - they have too much weaponry and influence.
The question is, can anyone do anything in that place? Keeping a lid on it is the only possibility, and that isn't going to make the fracturing forces inside the country go away. The only good news from there, is that the vast majority do not want the Islamists to take over. That hasn't stopped anyone before though.
So, will we see the US elections out of the way before some major upheaval? Somehow I doubt it, as it will be too useful for the Republicans, who, lets face it, despite the polling, are set to be turfed out of power on their ears. They don't like it, and you can bet they will be scouring the globe for anything to play their way. They are desperate, and desperate men do desperate things.
Now we hear the US Govt is going to take over Freddy and Fanny! Where will all the money for that come from? What will the Japs say about it - asking when their money is coming back from funding the Iraq war? But what else can the Govt do? It has to bail them out - their hands are tied. If they collapse, it'll likely sink the whole global financial ship.
And then there are the hurricanes...
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icarus liked em too
I focused the magnifying glass
That brought the downfall of Icarus.
Balloons were easy; a simple pin;
Or a knife in the case of the Zeppelin.
That blade was the cause of many a prang
In the early days of stick and string.
I am the Gremlin.
I was there.
Making mischief in the air
And always will be wherever man
Flies in the face of Creation's plan.
Arthur Brown/Robert Calvert
Catch a Falling Starfighter
(http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/images/RC-CLatS.jpg)
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Track Nine
Song 5 CATCH A FALLING STARFIGHTER
Catch a falling Starfighter
put it in the pocket of your jeans
you can use it as a cigarette lighter
or as an opener for a can of beans.
Catch a falling Starfighter
shine it up and wear it on a chain
you will find that it will be much brighter
if you empty out its contents
down the drain.
Catch a falling Starfighter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd0CbIwRd1Q)
(( I see myself a hero when one wing falls away ... and more to explore ... )) (http://www.aural-innovations.com/robertcalvert/works/calvertworks2.htm)
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Found after 300m years: rainforest fossils show how climate change could look
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4710608.ece
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00395/fern-385_395821a.jpg)
A series of fossilised forests the size of small cities have provided prehistoric evidence of how tropical rainforests are destroyed by global warming.
The fossil remains represent the first rainforests grown on the planet and their demise more than 300million years ago “points to the future” of the modern-day Amazon.
Six petrified forests, dating from 303.9 million to 309 million years ago, have been discovered in coalmines in the United States. Because they straddle a period of intense global warming researchers have been able to see the effects of climate change on an ancient landscape.
One forest that stretched 10,000 hectares (100 sq km) is the largest fossil forest yet found, dwarfing a 1,000ha forest that was announced last year as the biggest.
Howard Falcon-Lang, of the University of Bristol, said that the forests were frozen in time and show changes in the tree cover before and after the global warming began.
Fossils reveal that the landscape now deep beneath Illinois and Kentucky was covered in huge club moss trees, horsetails and ferns 309 million years ago. Once global warming had taken place 306.5 million years ago, the landscape altered enormously and the trees were replaced with “weedy ferns”.
“These are the remains of the first rainforests to evolve on our planet,” Dr Falcon-Lang said at the British Association yesterday. “They had lush rainforest vegetation, not dissimilar to the Amazonian rainforest. These are the largest fossil forests in the world. It's quite extraordinary to find a forest landscape preserved for miles.”
The forests were buried during earthquakes and the vegetation was swiftly preserved as the sea rushed in and buried it under sediment. Proof of their existence can now be seen in more than 50 mines where the coal seams have been dug out.
Walking along the mine tunnels was an extraordinary experience, Dr Falcon-Lang said: “The coal represents the soil on which this rainforest was growing. The trees are on the roof. You can see roots hanging down.”
He said it appeared that the huge trees suffered enormous stress and died out when faced by global warming. “We are beginning to show there appears to be a threshold in ancient rainforest systems beyond which the whole system begins to unravel quite quickly,” he said.
“The rainforest dramatically collapses during this period of warming. This was very, very extreme global warming. Giant club moss trees vanished overnight to be replaced by rather weedy fern vegetation. All this points to the fate of the Amazon.”
-
Track Nine
Song 5 CATCH A FALLING STARFIGHTER
Catch a falling Starfighter
put it in the pocket of your jeans
you can use it as a cigarette lighter
or as an opener for a can of beans.
Catch a falling Starfighter
shine it up and wear it on a chain
you will find that it will be much brighter
if you empty out its contents
down the drain.
:-*
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You don't eat - you are stuffed, you try to eat - you are stuffed.
From The Times
September 8, 2008
Green activists 'are keeping Africa poor'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4699096.ece
Mark Henderson, Science Editor
Western do-gooders are impoverishing Africa by promoting traditional farming at the expense of modern scientific agriculture, according to Britain's former chief scientist.
Anti-science attitudes among aid agencies, poverty campaigners and green activists are denying the continent access to technology that could improve millions of lives, Professor Sir David King will say today.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Europe and America are turning African countries against sophisticated farming methods, including GM crops, in favour of indigenous and organic approaches that cannot deliver the continent's much needed “green revolution”, he believes.
Speaking before a keynote lecture tonight to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he is president, Sir David said that the slow pace of African development was linked directly to Western influence. “I'm going to suggest, and I believe this very strongly, that a big part has been played in the impoverishment of that continent by the focus on nontechnological agricultural techniques, on techniques of farming that pertain to the history of that continent rather than techniques that pertain to modern technological capability. Why has that continent not joined Asia in the big green revolutions that have taken place over the past few decades? The suffering within that continent, I believe, is largely driven by attitudes developed in the West which are somewhat anti-science, anti-technology - attitudes that lead towards organic farming, for example, attitudes that lead against the use of genetic technology for crops that could deal with increased salinity in the water, that can deal with flooding for rice crops, that can deal with drought resistance.”
Sir David, who stepped down in December as the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, will use his presidential address to the BA Festival of Science in Liverpool to accuse governments and NGOs of confused thinking about African development.
“Solutions will only emerge if full use is made of modern agricultural technology methods, under progressive, scientifically informed regulation,” he will say. “The most advanced form of plant breeding, using modern genetic techniques, is now available to us. Plant breeding needs to meet a range of demands, including defences against evolving plant diseases, drought resistance, saline resistance, and flood tolerance. The problem is that the Western-world move toward organic farming - a lifestyle choice for a community with surplus food - and against agricultural technology in general and GM in particular, has been adopted across Africa, with the exception of South Africa, with devastating consequences.”
His remarks will place him in direct opposition to former Whitehall colleagues. The Government endorsed recently the International Assessement of Agricultural Science and Technology, a report from 400 scientists and development experts published in April, which championed small-scale farming and traditional knowledge. The exercise was led by Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Sir David said that its findings were short-sighted. “I hesitate to criticise Bob Watson, who I admire enormously, but I think that we have been overwhelmed by attitudes to Africa that for some reason are qualitatively different to attitudes elsewhere.
“We have the technology to feed the population of the planet. The question is do we have the ability to understand that we have it, and to deliver?” Sir David, who was born and brought up in South Africa, added: “I think there is a tremendous groundswell of feeling that we need to support tradition in Africa. What that actually means in practice is if you go to a marketplace in a lovely town like Livingstone in Zambia, near Victoria Falls, you will see hundreds of people with little piles of their crops for sale.
“This is an extremely inefficient process. The sort of thing we're seeing existed in this country hundreds of years ago. I don't believe that will lead to the economic development of Africa.”
He will cite the example of rice that can resist flooding, which has been developed by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Its development has been held up for several years because scientists felt they could not use GM techniques, such is the scale of Western-influenced opposition to the technology.
He will also accuse green groups such as the UN Environment Programme of agitating against new technologies on the basis of speculative risks, while ignoring potential benefits.
“For example, Friends of the Earth in 1999 worried that drought-tolerant crops may have the potential to grow in habitats unavailable' to conventional crops. The priority of providing food to an area of the world in greatest need appears to not have been noted.For decades, approaches to international development have been dominated by this well-meaning but fatally flawed doctrine.”
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These Objects of Contempt Are Now Our Best Chance of Feeding the World
Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to productivity a small farm is unbeatable
by George Monbiot
I suggest you sit down before you read this. Robert Mugabe is right. At last week's global food summit he was the only leader to speak of "the importance of land in agricultural production and food security". Countries should follow Zimbabwe's lead, he said, in democratising ownership.
Of course the old bastard has done just the opposite. He has evicted his opponents and given land to his supporters. He has failed to support the new settlements with credit or expertise, with the result that farming in Zimbabwe has collapsed. The country was in desperate need of land reform when Mugabe became president. It remains in desperate need of land reform today.
But he is right in theory. Though the rich world's governments won't hear it, the issue of whether or not the world will be fed is partly a function of ownership. This reflects an unexpected discovery. It was first made in 1962 by the Nobel economist Amartya Sen, and has since been confirmed by dozens of studies. There is an inverse relationship between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per hectare. The smaller they are, the greater the yield.
In some cases, the difference is enormous. A recent study of farming in Turkey, for example, found that farms of less than one hectare are 20 times as productive as farms of more than 10 hectares. Sen's observation has been tested in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, Java, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay. It appears to hold almost everywhere.
The finding would be surprising in any industry, as we have come to associate efficiency with scale. In farming it seems particularly odd, because small producers are less likely to own machinery, less likely to have capital or access to credit, and less likely to know about the latest techniques.
There's a good deal of controversy about why this relationship exists. Some researchers argued that it was the result of a statistical artefact: fertile soils support higher populations than barren lands, so farm size could be a result of productivity, rather than the other way around. But further studies have shown that the inverse relationship holds across an area of fertile land. Moreover, it works even in countries such as Brazil, where the biggest farmers have grabbed the best land.
The most plausible explanation is that small farmers use more labour per hectare than big farmers. Their workforce largely consists of members of their own families, which means that labour costs are lower than on large farms (they don't have to spend money recruiting or supervising workers), while the quality of the work is higher. With more labour, farmers can cultivate their land more intensively: they spend more time terracing and building irrigation systems; they sow again immediately after the harvest; and they might grow several crops in the same field.
In the early days of the green revolution, this relationship seemed to go into reverse: the bigger farms, with access to credit, were able to invest in new varieties and boost their yields. But as the new varieties have spread to smaller farmers, the inverse relationship has reasserted itself. If governments are serious about feeding the world, they should be breaking up large landholdings, redistributing them to the poor and concentrating their research and their funding on supporting small farms.
There are plenty of other reasons for defending small farmers in poor countries. The economic miracles in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan arose from their land reform programmes. Peasant farmers used the cash they made to build small businesses. The same thing seems to have happened in China, though it was delayed for 40 years by collectivisation and the Great Leap Backwards: the economic benefits of the redistribution that began in 1949 were not felt until the early 80s. Growth based on small farms tends to be more equitable than growth built around capital-intensive industries. Though their land is used intensively, the total ecological impact of smallholdings is lower. When small farms are bought up by big ones, the displaced workers move into new land to try to scratch out a living. I once followed evicted peasants from the Brazilian state of Maranhão 2,000 miles across the Amazon to the land of the Yanomami people, then watched them rip it apart.
But the prejudice against small farmers is unchallengeable. It gives rise to the oddest insult in the English language: when you call someone a peasant, you are accusing them of being self-reliant and productive. Peasants are detested by capitalists and communists alike. Both have sought to seize peasants' land, and have a powerful vested interest in demeaning and demonising them. In its profile of Turkey, the country whose small farmers are 20 times more productive than its large ones, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation states that, as a result of small landholdings, "farm output ... remains low". The OECD states: "Stopping land fragmentation ... and consolidating the highly fragmented land is indispensable for raising agricultural productivity." Neither body provides any supporting evidence. A rootless, half-starved labouring class suits capital very well.
Like Mugabe, the donor countries and the big international bodies loudly demand that small farmers be supported, while quietly shafting them. Last week's Rome food summit agreed "to help farmers, particularly small-scale producers, increase production and integrate with local, regional, and international markets". But when, earlier this year, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge proposed a means of doing just this, the US, Australia and Canada refused to endorse it as it offended big business, while the United Kingdom remains the only country that won't reveal whether or not it supports the study.
Big business is killing small farming. By extending intellectual property rights over every aspect of production, and by developing plants that either won't breed true or don't reproduce at all, big business ensures that only those with access to capital can cultivate. As it captures both the wholesale and retail markets, it seeks to reduce its transaction costs by engaging only with major sellers. If you think that supermarkets are giving farmers in the UK a hard time, you should see what they are doing to growers in the poor world. As developing countries sweep away street markets and hawkers' stalls and replace them with superstores and glossy malls, the most productive farmers lose their customers and are forced to sell up. The rich nations support this process by demanding access for their companies. Their agricultural subsidies still help their own large farmers to compete unfairly with the small producers of the poor world.
This leads to an interesting conclusion. For many years, well-meaning liberals have supported the fair trade movement because of the benefits it delivers directly to the people it buys from. But the structure of the global food market is changing so rapidly that fair trade is now becoming one of the few means by which small farmers in poor nations might survive. A shift from small to large farms will cause a major decline in global production, just as food supplies become tight. Fair trade might now be necessary not only as a means of redistributing income, but also to feed the world.
monbiot.com
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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Free trade (with tremendous agricultural subsidies in the Western countries) is definitely a way to kill the poor. However, the productivity of land is another matter. I'd reckon that modern companies employing GM species harvest more from an area unit than small farms (there are also studies supporting this claim). The trick is that they invest more to be able to do that. Small farms cannot even reach that level.
Considering the extent of starvation and the impact of climate change, the prospect is that GM species and intensive agriculture ought to provide in absolute terms more food than any other way of farming, but there are many obstacles:
-overall resistance to GM stuff and respective culture (at what King takes a go)
-start-up cost
-Western hunger for profit: e.g. the US company Monsanto tried to sell to India more productive GM rice that did not give any seed meaning that Hindus had to buy new plants every bloody year
So the technology is there to at least alleviate the problems in the short-term, but... there is no solution for over-population and climate change in the long-term.
...or do you think that small farms are the answer? I'd guess they would be useful after the collapse of civilisation, but they cannot possibly cope with over-populated, over-consumed earth.
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Obama and the Palin Effect
Deepak Chopra
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision
Look at what she stands for:
Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.
Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
”Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness
Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow — we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
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How interesting, and I had no idea Chopra does psycho-spiritual-political analysis. Hope he says more. Thanks, T!
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Free trade (with tremendous agricultural subsidies in the Western countries) is definitely a way to kill the poor. However, the productivity of land is another matter. I'd reckon that modern companies employing GM species harvest more from an area unit than small farms (there are also studies supporting this claim). The trick is that they invest more to be able to do that. Small farms cannot even reach that level.
Considering the extent of starvation and the impact of climate change, the prospect is that GM species and intensive agriculture ought to provide in absolute terms more food than any other way of farming, but there are many obstacles:
-overall resistance to GM stuff and respective culture (at what King takes a go)
-start-up cost
-Western hunger for profit: e.g. the US company Monsanto tried to sell to India more productive GM rice that did not give any seed meaning that Hindus had to buy new plants every bloody year
So the technology is there to at least alleviate the problems in the short-term, but... there is no solution for over-population and climate change in the long-term.
...or do you think that small farms are the answer? I'd guess they would be useful after the collapse of civilisation, but they cannot possibly cope with over-populated, over-consumed earth.
You have raised a few issues here Juhani. The latest round of the Trade Talks fell apart, and from what I read, for good reason - the old story of the poorer countries being ripped off.
As for the the two articles above which you and I posted about land use. This is outside my expertise, but I see this is not a debate on purely emotive grounds. In both cases scientific studies or assessments are used to opposite results. Who do we believe?
I accept that farming practices which speak of better tools and resources are not really in question. What Monbiot is questioning is the difference between small farms verses mega-farms. I am certainly open to his argument on that, but again, I would need to hear numerous experts in the area, to make a definite decision.
What I am observing, and becoming concerned about, is the GM argument. I recently heard a radio program by a man who has just written a book, much along the lines of your article's content.
He began by saying Africa is held back by outdated farming practices. He even accepted the whole male-female issue which is so important in this analysis. He also said they needed tooling, seed, fertiliser, water and so on ... all good stuff. But then he moved to what was obviously his primary point - GM seeds.
The argument seems to be following a pattern around this issue.
One of the first claims put out is that GM seed will save the world's population from starvation, and so it should be adopted on humanitarian grounds. I have been watching this one, and although I can't recall the details, I have finally heard sufficient from those who are experts in the field, that this argument is complete bullocks. It simply doesn't hold up under informed analysis - not even close. this argument has been traced directly to Monsanto promotional material.
The next claim is that the reason people are resistant to GM is because they are firstly resistant to new innovations - always have been from the 'earth going around the sun', to steam trains, to aeroplanes to every new significant modification of our 'old ways' and our old mind. Then it moves to the particular resistance to genetic engineering as another example of the latest of 'innovation horror'.
The final point in this thread is that, as with all the previous leaps in technology, humans will eventually overcome their superstition, and adopt it with relish. Meaning, it is only irrational superstition which is causing the antagonism against GM (or GE - they can't seem to get that set) crops.
So the outcome is that the white middle class (the latest group to be targeted for ridicule by the right wing think tank fuelled agenda to clear away all resistance to multi-national organisations profit making freedom) is causing the famines of Africa by their petty indulgent and superstitious fantasies. It is this last step that alerts me to smelling something rotten in the state of Denmark.
What bothers me is that scientists are being corralled into propagating these arguments, often when it is not their area of expertise whatsoever. I sense there is a big trick being foisted upon an unsuspecting science community, by the power and influence of Monsanto, which I might add is unbelievably ruthless and enormous.
It doesn't take much intelligence to see that humanity is not always resistant to technological changes - what about the mobile phone, even when told it is dangerous to health! We have always been suspicious of some changes and willing to accept others. It is stupid to lump all technological change into one basket. Certainly there has been irrational suspicion, just as there has been irrational adoption. The pattern of resistance to such changes is not uniform - it has always been a case by case basis.
Also people have been burned before - there are so many cases where scientific/technological innovations or new substances have proved disastrous. We all know now that everything which comes from the 'lab' is not to be trusted. Most of it is, but I feel people now have a much more fine-grained perception of these innovations. To attempt to lump GM crops in with every other scientific discovery is disingenuous - meaning it is a ploy with ulterior motives.
The same then applies to resistance to genetic engineering. Not all GE creates suspicion. It has been shown that in the field of Health, we are very happy to trial new GE products. Also it is inaccurate for Monsanto to try to present their specific Roundup-ready GM seeds under the banner of all GE. There are many many GE research and products that are welcomed by the wider community, and many of which they are suspicious. Again it is a case by case, and people are right to go slow in many situations, before we can't turn back
But it is the Monsanto GM seeds that are really causing such a stir, and people have a right to identify that specific product for scrutiny and sceptical concern - there are very many good reasons to be cautious about it.
So I am not buying the whole argument that if we all don't buy one multi-national's product, we are somehow mired in superstition, and worse, guilty of mass starvation in Africa - that is an emotive argument unworthy of a true scientist. I like to hear the reports and assessments of many different sides of this debate - and I expect that to be ongoing for many years yet.
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...and something serious....
a post from another forum regarding the US economy...
"Sure, there were kamikazi missions, but I don't think any American in 2001 thought that passenger planes would be used as missiles against buildings in Manhattan. When you listen to the real-time coverage of the event, it's clear that broadcasters were thinking what Americans were thinking: how could a small plane crash into the World Trade Center on such a clear and beautiful morning. Terrorism was just not in our imaginings. If you are saying that the rest of the world believed it could happen, then that is just proof that Americans were living in another world. And, I don't know about the Australian press, but here in the United States, the major news media is owned by 3 or 4 corporations. That's right: 3 or 4 corporations own the broadcast television networks and the newspapers and the radio stations. And so on any given day, Americans will hear the same 3 or 4 stories, and that's it. There will be the token 4 minute wrap-up of the events in Iraq, maybe 3 minutes on the latest suicide bombing in the Middle East, 4 minutes on the economy (stock market wrap-up maybe 1 minute plus 2 minutes on some other portion of the economy -- lately, that's been the foreclosure figures and housing data), then another 4 minutes on some human interest story, usually medical. That's right: about 16 minutes of hard news. The remaining minutes of the 30-minute newscast will be commercials (at least 10 minutes) and then some fluff, usually related to programming on that network. That's it. Even CNN will cover the same stories, over and over. You can watch CNN for 1 hour and then you'll know everything they are covering. Americans are starved for news. We only hear the words "Europe" whenever there's some bombing or a US president or presidential candidate happens to be over there. So, no, Americans aren't paying any attention to what's going on in the wider world. In fact, you could say that the US media is paying LESS attention to what is going on in the outside world than they were in 2001.
So most Americans are completely unaware that the US is heading into a depression. No, the US govt. won't let us fall into a depression! No, the gov. will come to the rescue! Except that this time, the US govt. doesn't have any money to rescue the US economy because the US economy has been propped up for the past 7 years by Chinese and Russian loans. What's going to happen when the US can't get any more loans from Russia and China? What's going to happen when those Social Security checks can't be written? What's going to happen when the funds to pay our soldiers aren't available? It's unthinkable. And so the govt. will do what it has to do to write those checks: the govt. will print more money. That's what a 0% interest rate means -- the govt. is printing money. That will lead to hyperinflation. That will lead to a further devaluing of the dollar. That will lead to the greatest depression the US has ever known.
Think it can't happen? Read this link from CNBC, of all places. It is an interview with the head of a private investment group, Tyche, on the future of the US economy: http://www.cnbc.com//id/26656750. This investment group is telling its investors that the US is headed into a depression, and it's taking Europe with it. Europac, another private investment group, has been telling its investors for at least 2 years that the US is headed into a depression; in fact, Europac forecast the housing crisis 5 years ago! These private investment firms are not looking for govt. handouts, so their only purpose in issuing such forecasts is to make money for their investors.
Of course, there is another alternative for the US govt: widening the war in the Middle East. I'm not sure how that would get more money for the US, but it will quell the unrest in the US.
To all of you in Australia or other parts of the world, take heed: the only real threat any presidential administration fears in the US is annihilation at the polls. If the stock market crashes in September/early October, this election is over. The Republicans lose control and will not recover. Do you think Karl Rove and the other Republicans running the Bush administration will allow that to happen? Because the ONLY thing that will cause Americans to vote for a Republican AFTER a stock market crash or a collapse of the economy will be WAR. And obviously the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are not enough -- it will take a MAJOR WAR. One nuclear exchange somewhere "over there" and Americans will "rally around the flag" and elect a Republican.
By the way, if the stock market crashes, don't expect the news media to call it a "crash." There will be all kinds of efforts under way to give it a different meaning. For example, most economists would call a 9,000 DOW to be a "crash" (from the height of last October of 14,000+ to 9,000 was being called a "crash" last December). If the stock market goes to 9,000, economists will be saying that we are in a severe downturn, and they will imply that only a loss to 5,000 would be considered a crash. They will say things like, "Well, we are certainly at a low point, but we don't think the market will get much lower and so we will avoid a crash." Then, when the DOW goes to 6,000, they will talk about "we don't think the market will get much lower and so avoid a crash." These economists will have you thinking that a stock market crash means that the DOW has to go to zero.
And, no, I don't think Bush is in control of this govt. I don't think Bush was ever in control of this govt. I think Bush is a figure-head for the shadow govt. You just have to look at him today to understand the man is impotent."
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Just moving sideways here.
The movie 'Zero' was aired here in Oz last week. Many people don't believe the official 9/11 tale. What is the general view on in U.S.? Except for various YouTube expose, it seems national pride and indignation leaves little room for true debate and investigation. Except for occasionally decrying and discrediting the 'conspiracy loonies' my diet of American media sources finds an absence of mainstream media analysis. Meanwhile, the leverage provided by 9/11 continues to be pivotal in the antics and policies of U.S. politicians and industrialists. As one commentated noted, 9/11 has become a brand name for a reactionary doctrine. It is always there - just about anything can be blamed on it or predicated on avoiding the next 'attack'. Terrorism is a perfect enemy. Everywhere! anyone! anytime ! - classic black magic.
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try listening to countless accounts from eyewitnesses, and then going even deeper.. this is almost all mainstream media stuff - it just got buried.. the powers that be cant afford disruption beyond a certain point
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2461177575671329682&hl=en&fs=true
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Just moving sideways here.
The movie 'Zero' was aired here in Oz last week. Many people don't believe the official 9/11 tale. What is the general view on in U.S.? Except for various YouTube expose, it seems national pride and indignation leaves little room for true debate and investigation. Except for occasionally decrying and discrediting the 'conspiracy loonies' my diet of American media sources finds an absence of mainstream media analysis. Meanwhile, the leverage provided by 9/11 continues to be pivotal in the antics and policies of U.S. politicians and industrialists. As one commentated noted, 9/11 has become a brand name for a reactionary doctrine. It is always there - just about anything can be blamed on it or predicated on avoiding the next 'attack'. Terrorism is a perfect enemy. Everywhere! anyone! anytime ! - classic black magic.
The "official 9/11 tale" hasn't seen much questioning, you're right, except by fringe conspiracy-theorists. I've seen even liberal commentators hold out that last matter of belief, that it was perpetrated by Al-Qaeda, not by anyone in the US government -- shadow or otherwise. Yet there are some fishy aspects, like Bin Laden's family being secretly planed out of here while air traffic was down in the days following. The rumor was that Bush was behind that whisking himself. Likewise, he was negotiating to sell our ports to Saudi Arabia in the years following 9/11. He went forward with a pre-emptive war, lying to the people, and gave himself a lot of executive privileges in the course of his term. Not to mention, the timing of the thing was so perfectly behind his walk-out from the Kyoto Treaty Conference. And interestingly, new Alaska pipelines were being proposed and rejected by environmentalists in the same week-2 weeks of 9/11. Good timing for 9/11, so we pay less attention to those things. These stories fade away, out of our awareness.
If I am following the news, I am very frustrated by watching several networks' broadcasts and knowing there are holes in the picture. To make a composite picture, in order to get understanding, requires reading international sources, and even then ...
It's an interesting topic. Does the media create our viewing-interest, or does it reflect it? Do we not have excellent analysis because powers-that-be derail it through misinformation and disinformation, or do we not have excellent analysis because our minds are in the gutter, following the underpants of child molestation- and kidnap-victims instead? We follow red herrings, like illegal immigration, which originated as a hot issue in order to keep the "tefforists" out, but which evolved into a racist movement against the Latino population (at least that's how the latinas view it!)
And then, X, there are the conspiracy theorists, like the Coast to Coast AM radio show, who seem eccentric and willing to entertain just about anything, but who, I've finally gleaned, support the entire system through fear-mongering.
The average joe will support the commander-in-chief, but our particular commander-in-chief has done so many outrageous things, contrary to the "philosophy of the founding fathers", that even the average joe has to either take pause or climb into the mindset of denial.
It's a fragmented mess, in short.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/FnkdfFAqsHA&hl=en&fs=1
Above is a speech from the last president that was assassinated, JFK.
You must pit research v.s. conjecture. The issue of "paranoia" is always at the forefront in conspiratorial scenarios, specifically because for most people, the only response they have to an unknown situation they cannot control is: fear. However the popular caricature of any hidden cabal or secret society casts a disparaging light on such things and makes them an easy target for either ridicule or over-exaggeration (depending on ones personal bent), which of course serves the purpose of concealment quite naturally. What most tend to forget is that anytime people get together to share favors with one another, it is a conspiratorial scenario. Its always been a simple matter of "you scratch my back, i'll scratch yours". The cliché mythologies and so forth are weapons of confusion, taken up by the populace and wielded upon themselves with gladness. It is much easier to dismiss an actual threat as an imagined one.. and when the lines are blurred, human nature comes into play. Many people who are at the summit of ruling power have access to long established knowledge of its succession and methodologies. These people are very learned students of human nature, and that is how they exploit it. Some of them have had untold amounts of wealth for centuries, and they intend to keep it that way. That is why so much of the entire world's economic wealth is concentrated in so little of its actual population.
The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.
But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.
Today no war has been declared--and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.
If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.
It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions--by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.
Nevertheless, every democracy recognizes the necessary restraints of national security--and the question remains whether those restraints need to be more strictly observed if we are to oppose this kind of attack as well as outright invasion.
For the facts of the matter are that this nation's foes have openly boasted of acquiring through our newspapers information they would otherwise hire agents to acquire through theft, bribery or espionage; that details of this nation's covert preparations to counter the enemy's covert operations have been available to every newspaper reader, friend and foe alike; that the size, the strength, the location and the nature of our forces and weapons, and our plans and strategy for their use, have all been pinpointed in the press and other news media to a degree sufficient to satisfy any foreign power; and that, in at least in one case, the publication of details concerning a secret mechanism whereby satellites were followed required its alteration at the expense of considerable time and money.
The newspapers which printed these stories were loyal, patriotic, responsible and well-meaning. Had we been engaged in open warfare, they undoubtedly would not have published such items. But in the absence of open warfare, they recognized only the tests of journalism and not the tests of national security. And my question tonight is whether additional tests should not now be adopted.
The question is for you alone to answer. No public official should answer it for you. No governmental plan should impose its restraints against your will. But I would be failing in my duty to the nation, in considering all of the responsibilities that we now bear and all of the means at hand to meet those responsibilities, if I did not commend this problem to your attention, and urge its thoughtful consideration.
On many earlier occasions, I have said--and your newspapers have constantly said--that these are times that appeal to every citizen's sense of sacrifice and self-discipline. They call out to every citizen to weigh his rights and comforts against his obligations to the common good. I cannot now believe that those citizens who serve in the newspaper business consider themselves exempt from that appeal.
I have no intention of establishing a new Office of War Information to govern the flow of news. I am not suggesting any new forms of censorship or any new types of security classifications. I have no easy answer to the dilemma that I have posed, and would not seek to impose it if I had one. But I am asking the members of the newspaper profession and the industry in this country to reexamine their own responsibilities, to consider the degree and the nature of the present danger, and to heed the duty of self-restraint which that danger imposes upon us all.
Every newspaper now asks itself, with respect to every story: "Is it news?" All I suggest is that you add the question: "Is it in the interest of the national security?" And I hope that every group in America--unions and businessmen and public officials at every level-- will ask the same question of their endeavors, and subject their actions to the same exacting tests.
And should the press of America consider and recommend the voluntary assumption of specific new steps or machinery, I can assure you that we will cooperate whole-heartedly with those recommendations.
Perhaps there will be no recommendations. Perhaps there is no answer to the dilemma faced by a free and open society in a cold and secret war. In times of peace, any discussion of this subject, and any action that results, are both painful and without precedent. But this is a time of peace and peril which knows no precedent in history.
II
It is the unprecedented nature of this challenge that also gives rise to your second obligation--an obligation which I share. And that is our obligation to inform and alert the American people--to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well--the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.
No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.
I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers--I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: "An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
This means greater coverage and analysis of international news--for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local. It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission. And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security--and we intend to do it.
III
It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.
And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.
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Such brilliance and eloquence.
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Just moving sideways here.
The movie 'Zero' was aired here in Oz last week. Many people don't believe the official 9/11 tale. What is the general view on in U.S.? Except for various YouTube expose, it seems national pride and indignation leaves little room for true debate and investigation. Except for occasionally decrying and discrediting the 'conspiracy loonies' my diet of American media sources finds an absence of mainstream media analysis. Meanwhile, the leverage provided by 9/11 continues to be pivotal in the antics and policies of U.S. politicians and industrialists. As one commentated noted, 9/11 has become a brand name for a reactionary doctrine. It is always there - just about anything can be blamed on it or predicated on avoiding the next 'attack'. Terrorism is a perfect enemy. Everywhere! anyone! anytime ! - classic black magic.
I lived in NY for four years in the late 80's. I have a good friend that still lives there. She was the first person I called that morning of the attacks. It was chaos to say the least. She ended up walking home to Brooklyn via the Brooklyn bridge. Terrorized for sure!
A few years ago, I mentioned a conspiracy to my friend and she said, "you really don't believe that our own government would do such a thing, do you?" She immediately ended the conversation saying she could no longer speak to me about it. We haven't really been as close as we used to be. A shame ... she was a great mentor to me as a friend and co-worker. We went through many tough times together during our mid-20's ... always had each others backs :)
We are taught to trust ... to a fault. And when you ask questions you ... heh! you get fired ;) ... or fired upon. People think we actually live a democracy. I see news stories about topics that interest Me. Like the teenage boy who could heal by using what he called x-ray vision. he could actually see tumors and abnormalities inside people without the help of traditional x-ray equipment. Then Poof! ... the story is gone ... vaporized off the web pages of the local news site. Just like the pharmaceutical commercials .... just like this BS with McCain selecting Palin (I mean, come on, do you really think he's targeting intelligent women? Hell no, he's targeting all those redneck men that normally don't vote, who think she's "hot" ... Yikes!) Our culture involves lots of brainwashing using subliminal techniques.
Hardly anybody is "Awake".
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try listening to countless accounts from eyewitnesses, and then going even deeper.. this is almost all mainstream media stuff - it just got buried.. the powers that be cant afford disruption beyond a certain point
I haven't finished watching your video, but this type of demolition has been done in Las Vegas for many years now ... long before 9-11 ....
http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/stardustvideo.htm
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(http://logo.cafepress.com/6/387694.2404036.JPG)
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Demolition of buildings has been going on long before Las Vegas as well - its a standard way of removing high rise structures inside cities.
What is perhaps more telling is something like Operation Northwoods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a false flag conspiracy plan, proposed within the United States government in 1962. The plan called for CIA or other operatives to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Castro-led Cuba. One plan was to "develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington".
This operation is especially notable in that it included plans for hijackings and bombings followed by the use of phony evidence that would blame the terrorist acts on foreign governments.
The plan states, "The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere." Operation Northwoods was drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and signed by then-Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, and sent to the Secretary of Defense.
Several other proposals were listed, including the real or simulated actions against various U.S military and civilian targets. Operation Northwoods was part of the U.S. government's Operation Mongoose anti-Castro initiative. It was never officially accepted or executed.
Most people simply cant accept these kinds of things as reality. It would be way too disruptive to their personal comfort zone. They will either ignore it or lash out against it, either way it is dismissed in their minds.
However, some of us exist outside the comfort zone. We cannot be affected by its disruption, because we are its disruption.
8)
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Wait 'til next month when China and Russia cut us off. Can you say "civil uprising" ... and it won't be for "change", it'll be because ppl are just PISSED OFF! People are already tearing up their houses that are being foreclosed, then leaving them un-sellable. I've seen quite a few ... you can feel the anger still left in the house ... it's eerie. Now the automobile dealerships are re-financing cars ...heh! It's an upside-down world we live in .. debt upon debt upon debt ... it can't go on indefinitely.
Ike was nothing. I think what y'all are feeling is much bigger ... I've been feeling it too. It's so strong, it's making me feel physically ill. Ike was a symbol of the massive spread of deception and how far this "issue" actually reaches. It's huge, it's global and the consequences devastating ... that's what I Saw. On one hand I hope I'm wrong, and on the other, it may be time ....
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America desperately needs another revolution, however for one to actually be successful it cannot be a violent one because the government already has that aspect totally covered. It would take a legion of extremely proficient and masterful computer hackers to entirely undermine the infrastructure of the current system. But the window for this opportunity is closing quite quickly.
Also, the current state of the American populace is not the same as it was during the original revolution. People of this era are soft, complacent, and lulled by the drone of modern civilization. They have bought into the ideas sold to them quite readily, and are very happy with trading freedom and liberty for comfort and "security". They would rather watch some "reality show" than participate in actual reality.
If McCain and his scarlet woman are elected, it would not be a good omen. That man is already at deaths door, he wouldn't have much of a personal problem with jump-starting the apocalypse - plus the dude was tortured as a POW. Republicans are notoriously supportive of the Holy Turf War in the middle east, profiting in manifold ways from the childish territorial disputes of tribal peoples each claiming "the Holy Land" as divine right by their "One, True God". Modern Christianity in general has an odd global death wish in which they want that Rapture to occur, planet be damned.. literally. They will look for any reason to believe that the book of revelation is some kind of prophecy for global events, rather than the symbolic esoteric vision it describes. Its quite ridiculous how twisted they truly are.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter when the prophecy itself becomes self-fulfilling. That trajectory has been intensified for many hundreds of years now. Its indelibly etched in the mind of the Christianized western world. It infects the very fibers of their being.
“Every generation needs a new revolution.”
- Thomas Jefferson (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)
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I haven't seen the film xero spoke of, so I know nothing about it.
However I have heard of the theory that the whole thing was a US plot of some kind, and certainly that is the current street-belief in most Arabian countries.
Personally, despite a good deal of proffered 'evidence', I would find it very hard to swallow. Not that I wouldn't put it past vested interests in the US to go in for such stuff - after all they bumped a President off without much concern.
All the same, somehow I doubt it. Now, as for 'allowing' it to happen, well that's a different matter, but even still...
[edited to add... mind you, I wouldn't be surprised to find it was an inside job... nothing would surprise me about these people who seek to mould history their way - it has been going on for a long time.]
On to the election, it has occurred to me that the Michael Palin's sister event on the republican side, may be a gift to the Democrats. Since she entered the fray on the comedian's side, I feel a lot safer for Obama living to the poll.
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Here ... do what the republicans do ... make your own electoral map ;) ....
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=1
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We are watching some extraordinary events in the financial sector currently. There hasn't been something like this since the 1930's. It is quite spooky.
If that Insurance firm goes under, then who know what will follow. I think the US Govt has run out of money.
I haven't heard anyone yet speaking of a fundamental flaw in the Capitalist narrative. The most I heard was reflection that Bill's deregulation of the financial markets may have been a mistake... but I feel there is more at stake in this than simply regulation. Especially coming at this time.
This market rupture is occurring as a flagship of some deep changes that are coming to the way we arrange our collective agreement.
You know I sense that across the world, heads are talking - this is a global emergency crisis. The big boys will be burning the midnight oil for the next few days, to find some way out of this. And be sure they will try the only thing they can - throw money at it. Another war might help the Republican cause, as this economic nightmare is their worst nightmare, but it won't help resolve the crisis.
But will money do the trick? I heard the Japs have tossed a few billions into their market, but to date, the markets have just soaked up every billion the reserves can toss.
Don't underestimate their ability to squeeze out of this one, but every squeeze of the last decade has only compounded the next crisis. Which is why Greenspan is on the nose these days, for buying his way out of the dot com debacle: setting the foundation for the current debacle.
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It is funny how various analysts strive to justify current events: "Capitalism without a bankruptcy is like a religion without hell." :)
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But will money do the trick? I heard the Japs have tossed a few billions into their market, but to date, the markets have just soaked up every billion the reserves can toss.e.
In the backwater of a scientific paper I have analysed the Japanese economy in the regression during the early 1990's which they shared with Sweden and Finland. Their (greater) problem was that they did not deal with the "bad or grey money" problems, they simply wasn't inclined to acknowledge the bad deals and that was afoot back then. Sweden and Finland addressed the whole "cancer" properly while Japan was half -hearted in that sense. Leading to a much slower recovery of the Japanese finances.
Now it looks bad in the US, real bad actually, but I have not the full figures to comment on Lehman Brothers and the muscles of Fed to handle it all. Interest rates will go down over here while risk rates will go up, so this two rates will equal the level in short terms.
jamir
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Not that secret order, it seems...
Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan
Simon Tisdall
The Guardian,
Friday September 12 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/12/usforeignpolicy.usa
· Fear of escalating regional conflict
· White House seeks British backing
A secret order issued by George Bush giving US special forces carte blanche to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistani territory raised fears last night that escalating conflict was spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan and could ignite a region-wide war.
The unprecedented executive order, signed by Bush in July after an intense internal administration debate, comes amid western concern that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and its al-Qaida backers based in "safe havens" in western Pakistan's tribal belt is being lost.
Following Bush's decision, US navy Seals commandos, backed by attack helicopters, launched a ground raid into Pakistan last week which the US claimed killed about two dozen insurgents. Pakistani officials condemned the raid as illegal and said most of the dead were civilians. US and Nato commanders are anxious to halt infiltration across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border of insurgents and weapons blamed for casualties among coalition troops. The killing of a US soldier in eastern Afghanistan yesterday brought American losses in 2008 to 112, the deadliest year since the 2001 intervention. The move is regarded as unprecedented in terms of sending troops into a friendly, allied country.
But another American objective is the capture of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader held responsible for organising the 9/11 attacks. He and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are thought to be hiding in the tribal areas of north and south Waziristan.
Bush's decision to extend the war into Pakistan, and his apparent hope of British backing, formed the background to a video conference call with Gordon Brown yesterday. "What's happening on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan is something where we need to develop a new strategy," Brown said before talking to Bush.
Brown said he would discuss the border issue with Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, who visits Britain next week.
Bush's unusual move in personally calling the prime minister for an Afghan strategy discussion has led to speculation that the US president was trying to line up British support for the new policy, including the possible involvement of British special forces in future cross-border incursions.
Bush's executive order is certain to cause strains with some Nato allies fearful that a spreading conflict could bring down Pakistan's weak civilian government and spark a wider war. Last night there were indications of open disagreement.
James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman, said the alliance did not support cross-border attacks or deeper incursions in to Pakistani territory.
"The Nato policy, that is our mandate, ends at the border. There are no ground or air incursions by Nato forces into Pakistani territory," he said.
Nato has 53,000 troops in Afghanistan, some of which are American. But the US maintains a separate combat force dedicated to battling al-Qaida and counter-terrorism in general. Nato defence ministers are due to discuss Afghanistan in London next week.
Last week's raid, and a subsequent attack on Monday by a Predator drone firing Hellfire missiles, provoked protests across the board in Pakistan, with only Zardari among leading politicians refusing to publicly condemn it.
Pakistan's armed forces chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said the army would defend the country's sovereignty "at all costs". He went on: "No external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan."
He denied there was any agreement or understanding to the contrary. His comments were widely interpreted as a warning to Zardari not to submit to the American importunity. But his tough words also raised the prospect of clashes between US and Pakistani forces if American military incursions continue or escalate.
Until now, Washington has regarded Pakistan as a staunch ally in the "war on terror" that was launched in 2001. But the alliance has been weakened by last month's forced resignation of the army strongman, former general Pervez Musharraf, and his replacement by Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower.
Polls suggest most Pakistanis favour ending all counter-terrorism cooperation with Washington, which is blamed for a rising civilian casualty toll in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, joined the chorus of condemnation yesterday. He reportedly told state media Kayani's warning that unilateral US actions were undermining the fight against Islamist extremism represented the government's position.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs, and Robert Gates, defence secretary, told Congress this week that victory in Afghanistan was by no means certain and the US needed to take the fight to the enemy inside Pakistan.
Mullen called for a "more comprehensive strategy" embracing both sides of the border. "Until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming," he said.
US and Pakistani forces have clashed by accident in the past during operations to root out militants, although sections of the Pakistani military and intelligence services are said to harbour deep resentment about perceived American interference.
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Pakistan is a nuclear state...
Pakistan orders troops to fire on US cross-border raids
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/16/pakistan.afghanistan
Mark Tran and agencies
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday September 16 2008
Army official says field commanders have been told to take action against further raids launched from Afghanistan
Pakistan's military said today its forces had received orders to fire on US troops if they entered Pakistani territory, after a cross-border raid inflamed public opinion.
The country's civilian leaders, who have taken a tough line against militants, have insisted Pakistan must resolve the dispute with the US through diplomatic channels. But the military has taken a more robust line.
General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, told the Associated Press that after a cross-border assault in the south Waziristan region earlier this month, the military told its field commanders to take action to prevent any similar raids.
"The orders are clear," Abbas said in an interview. "In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire."
The remarks mark a sharp deterioration in military relations between the US and Pakistan, which have been close allies in the "war on terror" since the September 11 attacks seven years ago.
The Bush administration has shown increasing impatience over what it considers Pakistan's incapacity or unwillingness to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaida fighters operating on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Pakistan insists it is doing what it can. It has about 100,000 troops in the restive north-west and suicide bombers are inflicting an increasingly deadly toll on the Pakistani army.
American officials have confirmed that their forces carried out a raid near the town of Angoor Ada but have given few details. Abbas said Pakistan's military had asked for an explanation but received only a "half-page" of "very vague" information that did not identify the intended target. Pakistani officials have said the raid killed about 15 people, and Abbas said they all appeared to be civilians.
He would not say whether General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who replaced Pervez Musharraf as head of the army last year, personally made the decision on orders to fire on US troops or if it had been discussed with US officials.
The army spokesman played down reports that Pakistani forces yesterday shot at US helicopters after they penetrated national air space. Abbas insisted no foreign troops had crossed the border and that "trigger-happy tribesmen" had fired the shots.
Pakistani troops based nearby fired flares to see what was going on, he said. The US military in Afghanistan said none of its troops were involved in such an incident yesterday.
As the US steps up its military activity in the sensitive tribal area, Pakistani officials have warned that an increase in cross-border raids will achieve little and fuel the insurgency in Pakistan. Some complain that the country is being made a scapegoat for the failure to stabilise Afghanistan.
In a rare public statement last week, Kayani said Pakistan's sovereignty would be defended "at all cost". Abbas said Pakistani officials had to consider public opinion, which was increasingly anti-American and had some sympathy for rebels claiming to fight in the name of Islam.
"Please look at the public reaction to this kind of adventure or incursion," Abbas said. "The army is also an extension of the public and you can only satisfy the public when you match your words with your actions."
Last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said a new strategy for Afghanistan was needed that incorporated the tribal territory. George Bush is believed to have signed a secret order allowing US forces to operate in the tribal area, even though the UN mandate for international forces in Afghanistan does not extend into Pakistan.
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And now we're playing the game of Monopoly ... care to buy Park Place ;) Now the Government is picking up "foreclosures".
Ok, I'm no financial genius, but ... 85B - for AIG, plus 200B for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae ... hmmm let's see that's 285B divided by ... how many working Americans? .... Oh, and don't forget we already have trillions of existing debt. $trillions,000,000,000,000.00!!!!!!
Hey Dubya ... please send me my shareholders account statement.
Government steps in again, bails out AIG with $85B
WASHINGTON - Another day, but not just another bailout. This one's a stunning government takeover.
In the most far-reaching intervention into the private sector ever for the Federal Reserve, .....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_bi_ge/aig
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well it is falling apart as we talk.
I expect now we will see a line of heavy dominoes falling. Each one bringing the rest closer to the edge.
I have to tell you, it does not look good.
Now we here can all say, what's that to me? It means you can't find a job, and your savings, if you have any, are in great risk. It also means the likelihood of social disruption - meaning, watch out!
I did hear, the Govts of the world still have a lot more money left to throw at this, so perhaps we will live to worry again.
For the first time this morning, I heard someone saying the whole basis of modern financial architecture is now in question, straight after someone else saying, the free market will fix it.
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It is interesting to me, all these game analogies.
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For the first time this morning, I heard someone saying the whole basis of modern financial architecture is now in question, straight after someone else saying, the free market will fix it.
Some say it is to do with globalisation. Growing interconnectedness means that when the ancient Rome came down, the rest of the world kept functioning due to not being tightly connected to Rome economically (there were 70 million people living in Roman empire).
Nowadays we live in a global village and global economy - it is expected to came down so that nothing stays out of the collapse.
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Whoa! Chinese used to curse each other by saying: "May you live in interesting times!" :)
For those who take interest in interesting times - selection of articles on Afghanistan-Pakistan:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/14/alqaida.military
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/15/pakistan.afghanistan1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/15/pakistan.usforeignpolicy
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-seeking-sole-command-of-natos-war-against-the-taliban-934256.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-hours-after-sovereignty-pledge-934247.html
Yeah, cool! There are 150 million people in Pak and a few nukes as well. I guess, we should invade that place! :)
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well it is falling apart as we talk.
I expect now we will see a line of heavy dominoes falling. Each one bringing the rest closer to the edge.
I have to tell you, it does not look good.
Now we here can all say, what's that to me? It means you can't find a job, and your savings, if you have any, are in great risk. It also means the likelihood of social disruption - meaning, watch out!
I did hear, the Govts of the world still have a lot more money left to throw at this, so perhaps we will live to worry again.
For the first time this morning, I heard someone saying the whole basis of modern financial architecture is now in question, straight after someone else saying, the free market will fix it.
Domino - yes, as much values just fly away all monetary connections are risks. So - no surprise that some Swedish banks had great loans to, and claims on, Lehmans.
Saw now that The European Central Bank, together with England, Canada and more will add 120 billion USD to keep up financial values and Japan add another 60 billions!
Swedish central bank has taken time out this day to check the situation, it has been a rush on Swedish treasury bills.
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Russian stock exchange will remain closed until Friday and Russians are putting in 500 billion (US $20 billion) of their currency to keep their papers afloat. All these billions remain, however, a candy money (as my friend says) aimed at public perceptions as the total weight of the system is measurable in trillions...
I like the action! Whoa, how it all is shaking and rattling! Storm's rising!
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Russian stock exchange will remain closed until Friday and Russians are putting in 500 billion (US $20 billion) of their currency to keep their papers afloat. All these billions remain, however, a candy money (as my friend says) aimed at public perceptions as the total weight of the system is measurable in trillions...
I like the action! Whoa, how it all is shaking and rattling! Storm's rising!
I can't share your excitement fully - I hope this stays to be a lesson and not the final hit. But as I've said - it is a beuty even in pain and sorrow.
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I can't share your excitement fully - I hope this stays to be a lesson and not the final hit. But as I've said - it is a beuty even in pain and sorrow.
I have lived for so long with absolutely clear knowledge that the whole thing will come crashing down in my lifetime. Might be that I (we) have the front row tickets to this greatest drama of all. :)
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I have lived for so long with absolutely clear knowledge that the whole thing will come crashing down in my lifetime. Might be that I (we) have the front row tickets to this greatest drama of all. :)
I am happy to at last got the front row ticket to my own life. What happens at Wall Street - it can be interesting -and who doesn't enjoy a good drama? But when criminals and fools ruin your fortune it is not that funny. Let us keep us updated shall we.
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I am happy to at last got the front row ticket to my own life. What happens at Wall Street - it can be interesting -and who doesn't enjoy a good drama? But when criminals and fools ruin your fortune it is not that funny. Let us keep us updated shall we.
Absolutely, that's why we came into this life, didn't we? To see and play out the drama! :)
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Socialism is being called in to save Capitalism.
When will the poor realise they are underwriting the wealthy?
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I shall tell a little story.
My unit was about to move in 1992 to a new built house next to the University hospital area. The company that had built the house was unable to finish it because they got no more loans.
Then the big finacial crash hit the Swedish economy and much of the problem was over estimated real estate. We moved in to that new building (3rd floor of three) and new owners made it ready (it was second floor that was not ready). On first floor a new government own company moved in, their name was "Securum", the name stem from the latin word of security and to save. This company (i e government) had taken the majority of "bad loans" on real estate from the banks, of which this house was one object. This is exactly what is going on in the US right now. The Federal state plan to take over the bad part in house mortgage and then they will get so much out of it as they can in long term. I am sure that they will create similar "Securum" institutions.
The guys at Securum in our house worked for about 4 years until they had get rid of all objects in the South East of Sweden, including our house ;D . It was really serious guys, people that we never got to know, I can't rememebr a single face actually. And one day they were simply gone and Securum as such vanished.
In Sweden today it is in some cases still possible to borrow 100% of a house that you have bought, however the bank will know what size your shoes have before they give you the top loans. The rule of thumb is that you should be able to handle a loan that has a 3 percent higher interest rate than what is the present rate.
jmr
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Aya!
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Kris posted this on RS as well ... it doesn't look good ....
Here's a link to an article of how we may have managed to get where we are:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10279
Listed below here are some comments from another discussion group on where we may be heading:
I have some bad news about the economy. The rescue plan that the Bush Administration is planning and that Congress is deliberating this weekend is not going to work. When the plan was announced, the market picked up and we had what can be called "irrational exuberance" by investors. The stock market soared and the week ended less than 100 points lower than it began.
The plan asks for $700 billion of bad mortgage loans to be purchased by the US government and held until the housing market stabilizes and the government can sell those mortgages for, hopefully, a profit. Sounds good, right? These banks that are being dragged down by these bad debts can unload them on the US government and then proceed with a healthier balance sheet. Taxpayers will need to pay for the funds to buy these bad loans from the banks, but when the homes are resold in 10-15 years at a profit, then that profit will be returned to the US taxpayer. So far, sounds good.
Here's the problem: which banks are going to get to unload their bad loans? Is the US Treasury going to allow ALL banks to unload their bad mortgages, or just those banks that are in trouble (i.e., banks like Washington Mutual). Is there going to be a limit on how much bad debt each individual bank can unload on the American taxpayer? Citibank, for example, has hundreds of billions of dollars in potentially bad debt -- can Citibank unload all of its hundreds of billions of dollars or just 50 billion, or 100 billion? If the limits are set too high, then only a few banks will be allowed to participate before the program runs out of money and the Treasury has to go back to Congress to ask for more money. Set it too low and banks won't be able to clear enough of their bad debts to change their balance sheets.
But there are two problems that are even more serious:
1. About 60% of the mortgages made during 2005-2007 in California were so-called option loans. This means that the buyer put no money down and paid a very low teaser rate. The buyer had the option of paying (a) a monthly payment composed of both principal and interest or (b) a monthly payment of interest only. Those option mortgages are set to reset in the next couple of months. Many of those homes are going to go into foreclosure. What is going to happen to the housing market when these new foreclosures hit? We'll be back in the same situation we are in now. The rescue plan does NOTHING to take care of foreclosures or appraisals or the housing market.
2. Credit default swaps. I think I may have given an explanation of credit default swaps earlier, but it's a bet (called a "hedge") that a certain institution will or will not fail. It's a bet. AIG was heavily involved in credit default swaps. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were heavily involved in credit default swaps. Once the US took over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG, owners of those credit default swaps were put on notice that they had approximately 30 days to redeem that paper. The takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae occurred on September 7. That makes October 7 the 30th day anniversary when those credit default swaps will be required to be auctioned off. THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT THESE INVESTMENT BANKS HAVE INVESTED IN CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS IS 3X WHAT THEY HAVE INVESTED IN "TOXIC" MORTGAGES. THREE TIMES! It is estimated that there are $3 trillion in credit default swaps that are going to have to be redeemed.
This is why we are not out of the woods yet. The Bush Administration rescue plan will give us some time to try to figure out what to do, but it's pretty clear that if the Bush Administration is going to bail out toxic mortgages, then they are going to bail out credit default swaps (which have no real collateral). That means the bailout plans could end up costing American taxpayers as much as $5 trillion. $5 trillion! This bailout plan requires the US debt to be raised to $11 trillion. The credit default swaps could add 40% more to the national debt. We are bankrupting our economy. Taxes on everyone will have to be raised. And none of this takes into account the rising number of baby boomers who will be retiring and getting Social Security and Medicare in the next 5 years. We won't have money for health care plans, for infrastructure projects, and we may not even have enough money for our national defense. Whether our economy collapses this year or in 2010-2012, it will collapse because there isn't any money to pay for these bailouts without increasing taxes on businesses and individuals by at least 40%. In other words, look at your paycheck, identify the amount of money withheld for Federal income taxes and multiply that by 4 -- that is how much will be withheld from your paycheck in 2 years, whether McCain or Obama is in the White House.
By the way, from what I've read, the reason this mother of all bailouts was needed is because CHINA refused to inject any more money in the US treasury on Wednesday night.
pipa.com/
z
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This article is from an Australian newspaper called "The Australian"
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
Phil Chapman | April 23, 2008
THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.
What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.
Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.
All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.
There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770.
It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years.
This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.
It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.
The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.
Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.
That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern.
It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.
There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.
Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases.
There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet.
The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.
The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.
The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027.
By then, most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining.
Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions of refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time.
If the ice age is coming, there is a small chance that we could prevent or at least delay the transition, if we are prepared to take action soon enough and on a large enough scale.
For example: We could gather all the bulldozers in the world and use them to dirty the snow in Canada and Siberia in the hope of reducing the reflectance so as to absorb more warmth from the sun.
We also may be able to release enormous floods of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) from the hydrates under the Arctic permafrost and on the continental shelves, perhaps using nuclear weapons to destabilise the deposits.
We cannot really know, but my guess is that the odds are at least 50-50 that we will see significant cooling rather than warming in coming decades.
The probability that we are witnessing the onset of a real ice age is much less, perhaps one in 500, but not totally negligible.
All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.
It will be difficult for people to face the truth when their reputations, careers, government grants or hopes for social change depend on global warming, but the fate of civilisation may be at stake.
In the famous words of Oliver Cromwell, "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
Phil Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer who lives in San Francisco. He was the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut.
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Last year it was in October, now Earth overshoot day is in September, today.
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There is a guy named David Rothkopf that now are promoting his new book Superclass, in which he claims there are about 6000 persons ruling the world more or less. He mention three Swedes while the majority are in the US. He believes that the ongoing financial crisis will change many of the former candidates.
"David Rothkopf is the widely acclaimed author of "Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power". He is the president and chief executive of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm; a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and a teacher of international affairs at Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs."
http://us.macmillan.com/superclass (http://us.macmillan.com/superclass)
“The activities of a growing cosmopolitan elite are having profound effects. They can be highly desirable when they promote international cooperation or more problematic when the interests of the elites diverge from those of their citizens. David Rothkopf’s Superclass skillfully probes these issues and many more and should be read by all those concerned with the international economy and the evolving global system.” —Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury."
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Things are really warming up now....
Heavy Snow Fall In South Africa Blamed On Global Warming
Phantom warming still cited as NASA sounds alarm bells on greatly reduced solar activity
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Sept 23, 2008
Unexpected snowfall and freezing temperatures in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa has been described by so called climate experts as a feature of global warming.
The country experienced its coldest night on record two nights ago — in the spring time.
The adverse weather has shocked and surprised many locals, with forecasters warning that worse conditions could follow.
The snow is part of a continuing pattern of cold snaps across the continent that has also seen unprecedented ice storms in Kenya, resulting in 4 inch deep hail covering the ground.
The cold snap arrives on the back of the Sun reaching a milestone not observed in nearly 100 years - the entire month of August passed without a single sunspot being noted.
NASA will today hold a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun’s solar wind is at a 50-year low. A statement already released by the space agency has stressed that "the sun’s current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system."
Lack of solar activity in 2008 has coincided with evidence of a cooling trend across the world.
Earlier this year, China experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels, Sydney experienced its coldest August for 60 years and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades.
Rapid decrease in solar activity is an event that has always preceded so called mini-ice age periods throughout history, no wonder then that many scientists are predicting prolonged global cooling.
Not those at the South African department of environmental affairs, however.
In a South African Independent article titled "Warming has a hand in recent wild weather", Joanne Yawitch, the deputy director general in the department of environmental affairs and tourism, noted that "climate change", as in man made climate change, was playing a role in the adverse weather patterns: "What it raises for South Africa is the ability to develop a [resilience] to weather changes and how to deal with these," she said.
The comments echo those of World Wildlife Fund development and sustainability program manager Paul Toni, who recently told reporters in Australia that "The freezing temperatures are proof of the urgent need to cut carbon pollution."
That’s right - in case you weren’t aware of the new climate change catch-all explanation, man made CO2 emissions now cause global cooling as well as global warming.
Indeed, all weather events, be it snow, rainfall, storms, hurricanes, typhoons or earthquakes are also now caused by CO2 emissions. This is because none of the current weather trends fit in with the notion that has been pushed for the best part of a decade now that an overall heating of the Earth mandates the poor and middle classes be hit with multiple forms of lifestyle restriction and CO2 taxation in order to save the planet.
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Please become updated. Now bail out of the Big Banks is accepted but ...
Is $700 billion enough? Sept 25
Author Marc Faber on whether the Bush administration's $700 billion plan is enough to remedy the economic crisis. (http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2008/09/25/intv.bailout.plan.faber.cnn?iref=videosearch)
"Faber was born in Zurich and schooled in Geneva, Switzerland. He studied Economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, obtained a Ph.D. in Economics magna cum laude[1]. Faber resides in Thailand and is best known for the Gloom Boom Doom newsletter and web site featuring "Dance of Death" paintings created by Kaspar Meglinger.
During the 1970s Faber worked for White Weld & Company Limited in New York City, Zürich, and Hong Kong. He moved to Hong Kong in 1973. He was a managing director at Drexel Burnham Lambert Ltd Hong Kong from the beginning of 1978 until the firm's collapse in 1990. In 1990, he set up his own business, Marc Faber Limited. Faber now resides in Thailand, though he keeps a small office in Hong Kong.
Faber has gained a reputation as a contrarian investor. He has become a frequent speaker on various TV programs and forums in recent years. He is very bearish on the long-term outlook for the U.S dollar because he believes that the excessive money supply by Fed is inflationary and detrimental to the currency's value. He is very bullish on the long-term outlook for commodities."
And Tai Pan lives in Hong Kong, I see much Tai Pan in Marc Faber.
Because in Hong Kong one know what is sound business and what business is bad. US has a lesson to learn there.
Interwiev with Marc Faber in Sept 2007
http://forum.globalhousepricecrash.com/index.php?showtopic=23048 (http://forum.globalhousepricecrash.com/index.php?showtopic=23048)
http://philip9876.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/marc-fabers-comment-on-the-us-economy/ (http://philip9876.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/marc-fabers-comment-on-the-us-economy/)
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Russians put into their banks additional...$60 billion...
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Russians put into their banks additional...$60 billion...
Billions of what currency?
The Swedish Riksbank has made a Swap deal of 10 billions USD with the US central bank. The increased value of dollars come from the tight situation and then it can be good to have first access to USD.
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Billions of what currency?
The Swedish Riksbank has made a Swap deal of 10 billions USD with the US central bank. The increased value of dollars come from the tight situation and then it can be good to have first access to USD.
US $
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US $
It is real shaky, isnt't it and we are the last to know.
Wall(et) street is down and out.
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Tai Pan ....Sounds Right
Coastal Taipan
Oxyuranus scutellatus
Main Prey:
exclusively mammals; small rodents (Melomys spp., Rattus spp., Mus musculus), bandicoots (Isoodon macrourus, Perameles nasuta) and quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus)
Venom:
strongly neurotoxic; the third most toxic terrestrial snake venom known.
potentially dangerous; apply first aid and seek urgent medical attention for all suspected bites; responsible for many human deaths. two subspecies - O. scutellatus scutellatus from Australia, O. scutellatus canni from New Guinea.
Similar Species:
Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis), which has a shorter, more rounded head and different scale counts; Mulga Snake (Pseudechis australis), which has a broader head, different scale counts and lacks orange/pink belly blotches.
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Not that easy...saving the world, that is...
Republicans refused to endorse a $700 billion dollar package.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4829757.ece
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From Times Online
September 26, 2008
Pakistan and US troops exchange fire
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4829370.ece
American and Pakistan troops have exchanged fire over the Afghan border, US officials have confirmed.
In the first serious exchange between forces acknowledged by the US, Pakistani soldiers fired at American helicopters escorting Afghan and U.S. ground troops along the volatile border, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries which have been allies in the war on terrorism.
Attempting to play down the incident, President Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president said only flares were fired at foreign helicopters which he said had strayed across the border from Afghanistan into his country.
The five-minute exchange, which could have easily escalated into a much bigger conflict, could heighten tensions at a time the United States is stepping up cross-border operations in a region known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
It also came as new Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was in New York meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday.
Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine patrol in the eastern province of Khost when they received small arms fire from the Pakistani border post, according to a U.S. military spokesman in Bagram. There was no damage to aircraft or crew, officials said.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith said the helicopters had been escorting U.S. troops and Afghan border police. When the helicopters were fired on, the ground forces fired rounds meant not to hit the Pakistani troops, but to make certain that they realized they should stop shooting; Rear AdmiralSmith said from Centcom headquarters in Florida.
The Pakistani forces fired back during a skirmish that lasted about five minutes. The joint patrol was moving about a mile inside Afghanistan, with the helicopters flying above, he said.
The Pakistani military disputed the U.S. version, saying its troops fired warning shots when the two helicopters crossed over the border — and that the U.S. helicopters fired back.
"When the helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistani territory, own security forces fires anticipatory warning shots. On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back," a Pakistani military statement said.
In New York, President Zardari said his military fired only flares at foreign helicopters that he claimed had strayed across the border from Afghanistan.
Mr Zardari said before his meeting with Ms Rice that his forces fired only as a way "to make sure that they know that they crossed the border line."
Later, in an emotion-charged speech at the U.N. General Assembly, President Zardari vowed to continue the fight against terrorists but warned against allied incursions into Pakistan.
"Just as we will not let Pakistan's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbors, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said.
"Unilateral actions of great powers should not inflame the passions of allies," he said.
The Pakistani military said the matter was "being resolved" in consultations between the army and the NATO force in Afghanistan. A NATO statement said the militaries were "working together to resolve the matter."
The shooting comes amid a string of cross-border incidents, including a raid by American commandos into Pakistan's tribal areas on September 3 that angered many in Pakistan, and the apparent crash landing because of possible mechanical failure of a U.S. spy drone this week in Pakistan's tribal areas.
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(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JJWGDDZ3L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
James Clavell - Tai Pan (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0440184622/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link)
"Money! I'll need money. Can you make a small loan Tai Pan? Struan was already holding up a small bag of gold ..."
pp 509
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we are building a time ship - a vehicle that can span time. we are not the first or the only ones, but the task draws in the will of many to seek the deepest of truths, and creates a vibrancy, beyond the powers of the individuals. I walk around during the day, and feel myself fed by this vibrancy. But it is of such a unique quality that it can only live on the continued efforts of the individuals to 'go beyond their boarders'. As soon as they cease to push into their perimeters, and settle back to chew on old self-reflections, they sabotage the time ship, and all can feel it. this is about the birth of a planet.
A few days ago I drove in our long autumn night. Stars came out and they were bright. Fog shifted from fields to road making it occasionally looking like a thin dark thread running through the cloud of vat.
I thought about that ship - ship built on common efforts to pierce the borders of known. I did wish it to succeed. I did wish it would take off. I did try to look at the power that has called me in existence and tried to see that I was walking the path I am meant to.
...That very moment I saw a falling star in the black sky above the road in front of me. I had never seen such a bright and beautiful one. It was as bright as flare and it had a long flaming tale. So it went...it burned for a long time.
I had a wish and the star fell.
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...That very moment I saw a falling star in the black sky above the road in front of me. I had never seen such a bright and beautiful one. It was as bright as flare and it had a long flaming tale. So it went...it burned for a long time.
I had a wish and the star fell.
Nice!
Shooting stars.. good signs!
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Indeed. I would like you to keep in mind that the question about being on the right path involved how I talked to you in couple of other threads. That night I realised that I should have said it all in a most direct fashion at the very moment you walked through the door of Soma again.
I say this to avoid any misunderstandings in the future and that I intend to be much more direct than so far.
I appreciate that. Thank you.
What is it you wish you would have said?
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Yep... WE'RE STUFFED !!!
Full to the gills.
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Yep... WE'RE STUFFED !!!
Full to the gills.
You mean I'm putting out crap? That is a possibility I keep in mind. It could be my mirror that is utterly distorting the picture.
I tried to get a sense of what would it be to leave this place - pulling myself out of here - and saw how much blinking (in others and myself) I caused and realised how strong is the connection.
Believe me, I would not write stuff like that if I saw any better option to get out this impasse. But then again, maybe I'm just deepening the impasse and all I would have to do is to learn to live with as is.
PS Some here remeber how it felt when one massively-posting character appeared in Toltec Nagual (can't name the Voldemort! :)). I have had for a while eerily similar feeling...
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The whole thing reminds me of a set up of one movie.
The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.
...
[staring at the cherry blossoms while dying] Perfect. They... are all... perfect...
Katsumoto
The Last Samurai
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Worth a look....
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=676-wftOu94
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To me it seems you are totally obsessed, Juhani. it comes out again and again, but you don't seem to recognize the pattern. don't understand why it all bothers you so much. and i don't understand what good it will make, to tell Lori "you do this wrong and you do that wrong and overall everything is wrong with you". Is that an effective way of teaching? Have you ever seen a teacher with thiskind of approach? You can't be a teacher because you only blame.
btw - i don't hink it is possible for someone to learn, if someone comes and says exactly what is wrong with them and what they should do and how they should act. Imagine, someone comes and tells you exactly what you have to do and what is wrong with you. Do you listen?
I tried to get a sense of what would it be to leave this place - pulling myself out of here - and saw how much blinking (in others and myself) I caused and realised how strong is the connection.
My observation has been, that it is good to pull myself away from here sometimes, i wouldn't want to get stuck here and come here everyday like there's nothing else more inportant in my life.
The connection could be just something like of dependence. If there is a real connection, it wouldn't matter if you stay away for a year and then come back.
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Could well be, Taimi, that I have only wasted energy on the futile resistance to the inevitable. Could well be.
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While you spent your time indulging and seeking the short-cut with the disaster called Derek, your frequency dropped, while that of those who pushed forward - rose. Gap is there. You have more to pick up than to teach - basically you could be an example of what happens when one falls for illusions.
One thing more - trying to convert everything around you into a pink mushy world of your recovery after another adventure, is not the thing I appreciate. You don't push into unknown - your main concern seems to be with making the world more acceptable and pink for you.
I would have ended with questions: What do you want from here? You have been here before and you left: what should make us believe that you are any more serious in your actions than before? Why should I take you seriously at all? You need a doctor - get one. Why are you here?
Thanks for your opinion on my life, path and healing.
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To me it seems you are totally obsessed, Juhani. it comes out again and again, but you don't seem to recognize the pattern. don't understand why it all bothers you so much. and i don't understand what good it will make, to tell Lori "you do this wrong and you do that wrong and overall everything is wrong with you". Is that an effective way of teaching? Have you ever seen a teacher with thiskind of approach? You can't be a teacher because you only blame.
btw - i don't hink it is possible for someone to learn, if someone comes and says exactly what is wrong with them and what they should do and how they should act. Imagine, someone comes and tells you exactly what you have to do and what is wrong with you. Do you listen?
My observation has been, that it is good to pull myself away from here sometimes, i wouldn't want to get stuck here and come here everyday like there's nothing else more inportant in my life.
The connection could be just something like of dependence. If there is a real connection, it wouldn't matter if you stay away for a year and then come back.
Thank you Taimi
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Thanks for your opinion on my life, path and healing.
That is my opinion. I have been increasingly harsh in expressing it. I apologise for the pain caused. I hoped to show you something, hoped for some realisation. I should not have done it, should not have said it - it was all unreasonable.
Be well and heal your wounds!
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Thank you Juhani.
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Worth a look....
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=676-wftOu94
Thanks for the link.
Operation "Lunar freedom" was a goodie.
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Thank you Juhani.
Do you feel any better? I removed a few things I spat out in anger and wrapped these spots in light.
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Do you feel any better? I removed a few things I spat out in anger and wrapped these spots in light.
That was nice of you. I feel fine, though throughout this whole scenario I have been working on not taking anything personally, so what would have jabbed at me in the past didn`t actually hurt so much.
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That's good.
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Weeeeeee.... free fall
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Weeeeeee.... free fall
free falling, yes ... now it is sharp ... recession ....
Free Falling - Tom Petty (HQ Audio) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726Zf-zin-s) 8)
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Four infants in China have died and at least 53,000 are reportedly ill, many seriously so, having been fed milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. A three-year old girl in Hong Kong is also ill, but has now been released from hospital, she was the first reported case outside mainland China. Major formula milk producer Nestle says none of its products in China has been contaminated with melamine, although the Hong Kong government says it has found the contaminant in the company’s milk formula.
I guess it’s no surprise that this scandal has emerged after, rather than before or during, the Olympic Games, but that is not something that would be peculiar to China. Governments the world over try to manage bad news and China certainly does not have a monopoly on cover-ups. If melamine is the primary contaminant, then regardless of claims that other compounds may be present, long-term use (six months or so) would be enough for this toxic compound to accumulate in an infant and lead to toxic effects such as kidney stones. The LD50, or acute toxic dose is not entirely relevant if an infant is being fed contaminated milk day after day. Incidentally, LD50 is a measurement per kilogram of body mass, so it is not higher for people than it is for rats, although it may be different because of differences in our body’s biochemistry.
Some info on recalls of products containing melamine:
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/me...-food-list.html
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Oct 2, 2008
Melamine Contaminated Food ListPosted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 2 Comments; add your comment
Before you check out the following items, please click here first to grab the Sciencebase newsfeed, I’ll be updating the melamine news over the coming days. The RSS newsfeed system allows you to keep up to date with a website, without having to check back.
As this problem continues to roll along, here is a melamine contaminated food list plucked from the latest news results on the subject:
Powdered baby milk.
HK finds melamine in Chinese-made cheesecake.
Cookies With Melamine Found in Netherlands.
Mr Brown coffee products.
Manufacturing giant Unilever recalls melamine tainted tea.
Melamine Detected in Two More Ritz Snacks.
More Chinese-made sweets recalled in Japan.
White Rabbit brand Chinese candy contaminated: Asian health officials.
Lipton, Glico and Ritz the latest businesses to be affected by milk powder scandal.
Hong Kong finds traces of melamine in Cadbury products.
Recalled Melamine Milk Products include Asian versions of Bairong grape cream crackers, Dove chocolate, Dreyers cake mix, Dutch Lady candy, First Choice crackers, Kraft Oreo wafer sticks, M&Ms, Magnum ice cream, Mentos bottle yoghurt, Snickers funsize, Yili hi-cal milk, Youcan sesame snacks and others. Testing of some of those has already proven negative.
Melamine Found in More China-Made Products, including Heinz DHA+AA baby cereal.
305 Chinese dairy-based products temporarily banned in Korea.
US bloggers have gone so far as to uncover dozens of products recalled in China that were still on the shelves of their local supermarkets.
31 new milk powder brands found tainted.
It is a little bit scary, but if you ask me, it's good news really. Reminds us to be on the look out and become more aware of what we put into our bodies...
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Red List of endangered species - thousands of species at risk of disappearing
By Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 06/10/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/06/earedlist106.xml
The world is in the grip of an extinction crisis with thousands of species at risk of disappearing forever.
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/graphics/2008/10/06/earedlist106.jpg)
Tasmanian Devil moved from Least Concern to Endangered (left), the Iberian Lynx has a population of just 84-143 adults (middle) and the Caspian Seal moved from Vulnerable to Endangered (right)
In the world's oceans and seas the situation is even worse with one in three marine mammals under threat.
Amphibians are also in severe trouble with 366 species added to the 2008 Red List. There are now 2,030 species - one in three - either threatened or extinct.
And a representative sample of reptiles shows that over one in five face a battle to survive.
Life on Earth is disappearing fast with man inflicting most of the damage, according to the most comprehensive report of its kind drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
On land more species face oblivion because of loss of habitat, hunting and climate change while in the oceans pollution and the side effects of fishing are taking a huge toll.
An international research team made up of more than 1,700 experts in 130 countries compiled data for the world's 5,487 mammalian species including for the first time marine mammals. All the world's birds and amphibians were also assessed.
It revealed that at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction and at least half are in decline.
But because there is insufficient information on more than 800 species the figure could be much higher.
The areas of the world that have the richest biodiversity - such as south and south-east Asia - are among the most threatened and where mammals face a bleak future. The report said 79 per cent of primates species in the region are threatened with extinction.
The Red List reveals that 29 species have been flagged as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) which means that in all probability - but not confirmed - that the creature is extinct. It includes Cuba's Little Earth Hutia (Mesocapromys sanfelipensis), a small rodent, which has not been seen in almost 40 years.
There are 188 mammals in the Critically Endangered highest threat category which is only a step down from extinction. It includes the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus), which is down to a population of just 84-143 adults.
Almost 450 mammals are listed as Endangered which is the next category down including the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), which moved from Least Concern to Endangered after the global population plummeted by more than 60 per cent in the last 10 years due to an infectious facial cancer.
Habitat loss and degradation caused by agriculture and deforestation affects 40 per cent of the world's mammals and is most extreme in central and south America, west, east and central Africa, Madagascar, and in south and south-east Asia.
Over harvesting is wiping out larger mammals, especially in south-east Asia, but also in parts of Africa and south America.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN director general, said: "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the eco-systems where they live.
"We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."
Jan Schipper of Conservation International and lead author of a Red List article in Science, said: "The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 per cent.
"This indicates that conservation action backed by research is a clear priority for the future, not only to improve the data so that we can evaluate threats to these poorly known species, but to investigate means to recover threatened species and populations."
But the IUCN report - the first since 1996 to include the conservation status and distribution of animals around the world - claims that species can be pulled back from the brink of extinction if conservation measures are taken.
The Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes) moved from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered after a successful reintroduction by the US Fish and Wildlife Service into eight western states and Mexico from 1991-2008.
And the Wild Horse (Equus ferus) moved from Extinct in the Wild in 1996 to Critically Endangered this year after successful reintroductions started in Mongolia in the early 1990s.
Overall, the IUCN Red List now includes 44,838 species of flaura and fauna of which 16,928 (38 per cent) are threatened with extinction.
Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, Critically Endangered, 4,770 are Endangered and 8,912 are Vulnerable to extinction.
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Jahn, what are the news regarding Swedbank? They say it is in danger of going under - big investors pulling money out. It happens to be the largest bank on these corners. :)
Damn, I like the globalised world! You really don't have to think here. It starts to rattle in one end, and it will invariably come to you!
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Jahn, what are the news regarding Swedbank? They say it is in danger of going under - big investors pulling money out. It happens to be the largest bank on these corners. :)
Damn, I like the globalised world! You really don't have to think here. It starts to rattle in one end, and it will invariably come to you!
Swedbank have been active across the Baltic sea yes. And now the credit boom is over, so there have been some nasty rumours and they have a lower trend than most other banks here. But The Baltic countries only account for about 15 % of Swedbanks annual turnover.
Now Swedebank can't fall thanks to the national finance security system, and no such actions has been mentioned. Big news today are that Stockholm OMX exchange falled 7 %. The Government increased the security for bank accounts with 100%. from about 27 000 Euro to 54 000 Euro which is in line with what other European countries has as security.
The Swedish Riksbank have now in a few weeks increased their loans to the market with 40 billions Euro (360 billions SEK). Some of these actions are directed to the household sector and short term loans on 3 and 6 months. A new auction is planned to the end of October.
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Yes, I guessed that Swed would be hard to knock over, Sweden has such a state involvement in business! The stuff I heard today was from some financial insiders. They warned about potential liquidity crisis in Swed and it controls over 50% of market here. Craiky, these guys are amazing - they tried to get me to invest into US for two years (and it was the next day after Lehmann went down!)! Stunning nerve they have! Sheer admiration to these money-stalkers! :)
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Whoa, rollercoaster is in full speed!
Russian markets went down 20% (!!!) today, and the oil price dropped below $90/barrel. Jesus, these guys will suffer!
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Yes, I guessed that Swed would be hard to knock over, Sweden has such a state involvement in business! The stuff I heard today was from some financial insiders. They warned about potential liquidity crisis in Swed and it controls over 50% of market here. Craiky, these guys are amazing - they tried to get me to invest into US for two years (and it was the next day after Lehmann went down!)! Stunning nerve they have! Sheer admiration to these money-stalkers! :)
You are a bit wrong about "state involvement in business", it depends on what area we study. What we have is a security against banks going bankruptcy, as I wrote about in some other post one effect of the Finnish-Swedish bank crisis in 1992. Companies work with high integrity.
What we also have regarding loans to households to finance their real estate is a tough examination of the ability to pay the mortgage. The standard has been that those with large loans should be able to handle a interest rate of 2 percent more than the actual rate. This is good now when the rates has raised with more than 2 percent within the last two years.
You mention lehmans, some local government has probably lost significant amount of investments because of the crisis on Wall Street and I know that some local governments had their insurances in AIG. It is like an octupus, and I am afraid that we have not seen the full effects yet.
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Whoa, rollercoaster is in full speed!
Russian markets went down 20% (!!!) today, and the oil price dropped below $90/barrel. Jesus, these guys will suffer!
That the oil price will drop is one good thing, but at the same time the USD has become 20 percent more expensive within a few months. There is a lack of dollars. So the oil drops 25 % while the dollar increase 20 % which means that very little happens to the gasoline price for us.
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That the oil price will drop is one good thing, but at the same time the USD has become 20 percent more expensive within a few months. There is a lack of dollars. So the oil drops 25 % while the dollar increase 20 % which means that very little happens to the gasoline price for us.
I wonder if that changed our gas prices here...
I'll keep an eye open on my way to work. :)
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That the oil price will drop is one good thing, but at the same time the USD has become 20 percent more expensive within a few months. There is a lack of dollars. So the oil drops 25 % while the dollar increase 20 % which means that very little happens to the gasoline price for us.
Yeah, but Russia pretty much has a one-sector economy. Stocks are in free fall and oil gets cheaper...
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Yeah, but Russia pretty much has a one-sector economy. Stocks are in free fall and oil gets cheaper...
Simply because there is less request for diesel, the wheels has stopped. Very few buy a new car and noone transport goods to companies that doesn't produce. In Russia the drop of 25% per barrel is not affected by the USD because they got heir own oil so the decrease is more pronounced out on the market while we in Sweden has the dollar wall between.
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Local news today:
"The Swedish Riksbanks offer of new loans met a rather modest request /.../ and the result indicate that there is no acute situation for the Swedish banks today. That says Annika Winsth, senior analyser at Nordea bank. "If the situation was serious there would have been more orders and the interest rate would have been higher"
I hope that these, under the circumstances good news, can calm down my brother Juhani in Estonia :).
However, there is also a underlying request from the banks here that the Swedish Riksbank continues to stimulate the system. So it is not over yet.
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Not quite sinking yet! :)
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Not quite sinking yet! :)
Swedish economy has been very strong the last years and the Government finances are very strong. However, in International recession small countries like Sweden are hit more than for example EU. On the other hand the Euro currency are a burden itself, so today I am happy that we have our own currency. There are som bad situations in Ireland, Spain, the Baltic and even in more countries, I am not fully updated. But as I said we will suffer in the short run much more than those countries that have Euro but we have a better chance to get out of the whole mess ... shit, this is a serious crash!
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Icelanders are screaming for help:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4881378.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4888293.ece
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It appears that Russian markets lost yesterday over US $105 billion. Some say it is on the brink of collapse.
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I'm not sure we have been in this neck of the woods before.
Exciting.
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I'm not sure we have been in this neck of the woods before.
Exciting.
Depends on which perspective one has. :(
Though it was forecasted, it is a misery when it happens.
I Hope it ends with a crash and not a complete collapse. Perhaps some of the the oil schejks could act and encourage the market with buying too? After all they are more solvent than many national banks together. And then we have China, they could at least stimulate the Hang Seng indices in Hong Kong. It is Finance and Properties that goes down the most. China have the money so they have just to start to buy - a great fall does not benefit them either.
Heh, so what is the conclusion in short terms?! US and EU in the knee of oil schejks and China, that is a kind of (after all expected) power swap.
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Whoa! Russians opened their stock market and it fell 12% the first minute! My friend compared the global economy to a monumental pyramid scheme. :)
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We are into the thick of it now. No one knows where this will end. They are saying by every country fully guaranteeing their bank's deposits, which Ireland and Greece have done as well as many others giving the nod, it will unfreeze the inter-organisational credit flow.... and all will be well.
Excuse me if I sound a little sceptical. Iceland is about to declare national bankruptcy! I've never heard of that before.
It is most likely members of this forum will be affected severely by this crisis. That means some may not be able to connect up. But worse than that, they may be plunged into serious financial problems, meaning much more than money.
We should respond. In the only way we know how to: send a ring of protection around the members of Soma, that they will at least find their Path in what follows.
I expect this forum will remain open - I have paid for another year, and anyway it is quite cheap, which is why we had so many problems (which have reduced significantly I should add).
But this is an anti-room of world-waves. This is where we apply all that we have been practising... well, at least talking about.
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Well, as for myself, our government is about to raise the pension age to 67 that is 2 years over the average lifespan for an average Estonian male. So I have only 50% chance of even reaching the age where the savings ought to sustain me. We talked about it with Tiina and it all seems to go the way we guessed long ago - no happy idle old age on the horizon. Thus it is the esoteric path of dance with the death embodied - what matters is now.
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We should respond. In the only way we know how to: send a ring of protection around the members of Soma, that they will at least find their Path in what follows.
That could be done. Chances could be enhanced a bit.
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It is most likely members of this forum will be affected severely by this crisis. That means some may not be able to connect up. But worse than that, they may be plunged into serious financial problems, meaning much more than money.
We should respond. In the only way we know how to: send a ring of protection around the members of Soma, that they will at least find their Path in what follows.
I expect this forum will remain open - I have paid for another year, and anyway it is quite cheap, which is why we had so many problems (which have reduced significantly I should add).
But this is an anti-room of world-waves. This is where we apply all that we have been practising... well, at least talking about.
Agreed!
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We should respond. In the only way we know how to: send a ring of protection around the members of Soma, that they will at least find their Path in what follows.
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Iceland freezes all bank share trades
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23564262-details/Iceland+freezes+all+bank+share+trades/article.do
Nick Goodway
07.10.08
Click here!
Trading in the shares of all Iceland's banks and financial institutions was suspended on the Nordic Exchange today ahead of a long-awaited bailout plan from the government.
The Icelandic krona fell 7% to a record low of 174 against the euro.
Prime Minister Geir Haarde had been looking at a variety of solutions including the potential merger of the main three banks: Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir, which was partially nationalised last week.
Kaupthing and Landsbanki both run internet savings accounts — Kaupthing Edge and Icesave — in the UK. Their competitive rates have attracted thousands of British depositors.
The Icelandic government today said it is drafting a plan to deal with the financial crisis engulfing the country as banks agreed to sell off some of their foreign assets.
Business Affairs Minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson told state radio a draft of the plan is “well on its way”. It is expected to see further sell-offs of foreign-owned assets including Singer & Friedlander, Kaupthing's City investment bank, which has already seen potential buyers circling. Last week Landsbanki sold stockbroker Teather & Greenwood and corporate finance boutique Bridgewell.
The Icelandic banks are big lenders to British entrepreneurs ranging from Robert Tchenguiz to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
Kaupthing is also one of the prime movers behind Baugur, the Icelandic retail investor that owns Hamleys, Karen Millen, Debenhams and Oasis in the UK High Street.
Baugur chief executive Gunnar Sigurdsson admitted that any enforced merger of Icelandic banks may affect the firm's loans but denied any exposure to the wider problems in the country's economy.
He said: “We are worried for our family and friends in Iceland, but not for Baugur. While it is true we borrow from the Icelandic banks, our UK operations are performing strongly.”
Haarde held talks all yesterday with bankers and pension-fund officials. One solution being discussed was that the country's pension funds, which have assets of ¤12 billion (£9.3 billion), could be called upon to bail out the banks.
Iceland has a population of 300,000 and its economy is worth around $20 billion (£11.4 billion) a year, while the three main banks hold assets worth more than 10 times that.
But the economy has been thrown into turmoil with the krona plummeting, imports dropping and inflation soaring.
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Iceland nationalises another bank
http://news.smh.com.au/business/iceland-nationalises-another-bank-20081008-4w1p.html
October 8, 2008 - 7:04AM
Iceland has nationalised the second of its three largest banks, locked its currency into a fixed exchange system and sought a large loan from Russia to fend off potential national bankruptcy.
"The Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA) has, under powers granted by the Icelandic parliament, proceeded to take control of Landsbanki," Iceland's second-biggest bank, the government agency said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Geir Haarde unveiled emergency laws to save the country's economy, including allowing the government to take control of all banks and financial institutions, take over assets, merge institutions and force institutions to declare bankruptcy.
"There is a very real danger ... that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy," Haarde said in a televised address.
The nationalisation of Landsbanki came just a week after the government took 75 per cent of the country's third-largest bank, Glitnir, and as the biggest bank Kaupthing said it had received a 500 million euros ($A951.75 million) loan from the central bank "to facilitate operations."
Iceland, long dependent on its fishing industry, is a nation of just 313,000 people whose banks have invested aggressively abroad in recent years, enabling it to experience ballooning prosperity and become one of the world's wealthiest nations.
Soaring growth in Iceland's finance sector, whose assets represent eight times the country's gross domestic product, however made the icy island particularly vulnerable to the current global financial turmoil.
Banks and investment funds are interlinked through cross share dealings so any damage to one side has an automatic knock-on effect on other institutions.
As the country boomed, the economy has overheated, with inflation soaring to 14.5 percent and the central bank increasing its main interest rate sharply to 15.5 percent as a result.
The IFSA on Tuesday stressed that its takeover of Landsbanki was "a necessary first step in achieving the objectives of the Icelandic government and parliament to ensure the continued orderly operation of domestic banking and the safety of domestic deposits.
"Landsbanki's domestic branches, call centres, cash machines and Internet operations will be open for business as usual," it said.
The bank meanwhile insisted it had "not been put into liquidation but is in receivership which gives it a temporary protection from payment of debts and obligations as they fall due.
"The objective ... is to ensure the continued operations of the commercial banking operations of Landsbanki ... in Iceland," the bank said, adding that "a public notice to debtors will not be issued."
The central bank also said Tuesday it was negotiating a loan from Russia of 4 billion euros ($A7.61 billion).
"This loan significantly bolsters the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank of Iceland and thus underpins the stability of the exchange rate of the krona," it said.
The central bank also pegged the plunging krona Tuesday to a basket of currencies, weighted to reflect their importance in the country's trading profile, in an attempt to stabilise the unit and peg back inflation.
"The exchange rate of the krona has depreciated sharply in recent weeks and is now lower than is compatible with a balanced economy," the bank said in a statement, adding that the one euro would now buy 131 krona.
Since the beginning of the year, Iceland's currency has plunged 33 per cent, losing 12.3 per cent since Monday alone.
In yet another move to stabilise the markets, the IFSA said Tuesday it would with immediate effect ban short selling of shares on the Reykjavik stock exchange.
Short selling occurs when investors sell stock they do not yet own in order to profit later from an anticipated fall in prices, something critics say can be used to manipulate share prices.
Trading in nearly all financial shares, including all the major banks, meanwhile remained suspended on the Reykjavik stock exchange Tuesday after a full day of non-trading Monday.
Haarde tried to prepare Icelanders for the worst in his speech Monday, saying the authorities' task in coming days was to "make sure that chaos does not ensue if the Icelandic banks become to some extent non-operational."
He also tried to put the crisis into perspective.
"We need to explain to our children that the world is not on the edge of a precipice and we all need to find an inner courage to look to the future."
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We are into the thick of it now. No one knows where this will end. They are saying by every country fully guaranteeing their bank's deposits, which Ireland and Greece have done as well as many others giving the nod, it will unfreeze the inter-organisational credit flow.... and all will be well.
Excuse me if I sound a little sceptical. Iceland is about to declare national bankruptcy! I've never heard of that before.
The Swedish Riksbank will support one of the Iceland banks that are located in Sweden.
As Juhani found out:
"Soaring growth in Iceland's finance sector, whose assets represent eight times the country's gross domestic product, however made the icy island particularly vulnerable to the current global financial turmoil.
Banks and investment funds are interlinked through cross share dealings so any damage to one side has an automatic knock-on effect on other institutions.
As the country boomed, the economy has overheated, with inflation soaring to 14.5 percent and the central bank increasing its main interest rate sharply to 15.5 percent as a result."
An increased unemployment are ahead here now, Volvo gave notice today to about another 3 000 employees which will make a total of 6 000 this year that has to go.
It is most likely members of this forum will be affected severely by this crisis. That means some may not be able to connect up. But worse than that, they may be plunged into serious financial problems, meaning much more than money.
We should respond. In the only way we know how to: send a ring of protection around the members of Soma, that they will at least find their Path in what follows.
I expect this forum will remain open - I have paid for another year, and anyway it is quite cheap, which is why we had so many problems (which have reduced significantly I should add).
But this is an anti-room of world-waves. This is where we apply all that we have been practising... well, at least talking about.
Yes, let us try to create a protective aura around our small group.
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Yes, let us try to create a protective aura around our small group.
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Well, as for myself, our government is about to raise the pension age to 67 that is 2 years over the average lifespan for an average Estonian male. So I have only 50% chance of even reaching the age where the savings ought to sustain me. We talked about it with Tiina and it all seems to go the way we guessed long ago - no happy idle old age on the horizon. Thus it is the esoteric path of dance with the death embodied - what matters is now.
I suppose that you belong to "upper class" - professor and all - so the average life span in your country is perhaps a poor predictor for you in that sense. Professors here quite often want to remain in the academic system so they can extend their regular work from 65 to 67 without any special arrangement but after that they inevitable become Emeritus professors and only guaranteed 20 or 30 percent of their normal salary from the University. However it is possible to obtain own funding and thereby significant increase the salary, along with the pension.
The average life span is now about 79 for males and 80 for women in Sweden.
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Marc Faber says US bailout won't stop recession, buy gold!
Posted: 30-09-2008
"INTERNATIONAL. Any proposal to rescue the US financial system will fail to avert a recession said Marc Faber, the Swiss fund manager and Gloom Boom & Doom editor and publisher, now based in Thailand.
A stock rally in the event that a package is approved will be temporary and should be used as 'an opportunity' to sell, said Faber.
"The rejection of the package is good because it shows that some people in the US are still sane," Faber said in a phone interview with Bloomberg. "A bailout will not buy the US a way out. The government is less powerful than markets in fixing this mess."
"Most of the investment community are focusing on the financial crisis," Faber told TV newswire last night.
"But what they should be focusing on is that earnings will continue to disappoint for a long time, and that global growth is going to go down substantially. Most economies already today are in recession."
Noting that the US Dollar should continue to find support as investors rush to try and re-pay their debts "I think gold will be a relatively good investment under any kind of scenario until the US government bans the ownership of Gold in the United States.
"They are very good at changing the rules of the game – now banning short sales [of financial and other US equities].
"So yes – physical gold, you should own. Not derivatives with Citigroup, J.P.Morgan, UBS and investment banks, but physical and outside the US."
Any rebound in equities triggered by an eventual rescue package for the US financial system will not lead to 'new highs' for stock markets.
"We live in very uncertain times and nobody knows the extent of the damage from the slowdown of credit growth," he said. "It will be good to diversify."
The economy probably shrank in the third quarter. A further contraction is likely in the next two quarters, some economists predicted, making the recession the longest since 1981-82. "
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Economy is sucha weird thing, I don't understand much about it. It all seems so artificial. According to my understanding life could be very simple... ::)
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Faber Says Rate Cuts Will Fail to Stem Equities Rout (Update2)
By Ian C. Sayson
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Investor Marc Faber said a series of coordinated interest-rate cuts by central banks including the Federal Reserve to ease the economic effects of the global financial crisis won't halt a worldwide slide in equities.
``Artificially low interest rates'' that encouraged consumers and banks to take on more debt were the main cause of the credit-market turmoil that caused the failure of Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc."., according to Faber, who predicted the 1987 stock-market crash
"The slashing of interest rates will not help very much,'' Faber, who manages $300 million, said in an interview in Manila. "They may cushion somewhat the decline but make matters worse.''
The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank each cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point in a bid to unfreeze global credit markets. The deepening credit crisis caused a worldwide sell-off in stocks that has dragged the MSCI World Index down by 35 percent this year.
The Bank of Japan, which didn't participate in the move, said it supported the action. Switzerland also took part. Separately, China's central bank lowered its key one-year lending rate by 0.27 percentage point.
Today's decision follows a global meltdown that sent U.S. stock indexes heading for their biggest annual decline since 1937. Japan's benchmark today had the worst drop in two decades. Policy makers are aiming to unfreeze credit markets after the premium on the three-month London interbank offered rate over the Fed's main rate doubled in two weeks to a record.
Speculative Investments
Policy makers are reducing rates as economies weaken around the world. The International Monetary Fund said the global economy is heading for a recession in 2009 and increased its estimate of losses from the financial crisis to $1.4 trillion.
The Fed cut its key rate to 1.5 percent, a level last seen in September 2004. Low interest rates on deposits have pushed consumers to speculate on higher yields in other assets including stocks, real estate and commodities, Faber said.
"``Had central banks around the world kept interest rates that encourage saving we won't have these problems today,'' the investor [Faber]said.
Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, told investors to sell U.S. stocks a week before 1987's so-called Black Monday crash, according to his Web site, and recommended buying gold at the start of its six-year rally.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ian C. Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 8, 2008 10:02 EDT
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I suppose that you belong to "upper class" - professor and all - so the average life span in your country is perhaps a poor predictor for you in that sense. Professors here quite often want to remain in the academic system so they can extend their regular work from 65 to 67 without any special arrangement but after that they inevitable become Emeritus professors and only guaranteed 20 or 30 percent of their normal salary from the University. However it is possible to obtain own funding and thereby significant increase the salary, along with the pension.
The average life span is now about 79 for males and 80 for women in Sweden.
That is a bit of optimistic assessment. :) Life in academe in Estonia differs considerably from that of our Nordic neighbours. It tends to be pretty hard and cut-throat here. One has to run faster and faster to stay at one place.
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It all seems so artificial. According to my understanding life could be very simple... ::)
I agree.
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Economy is sucha weird thing, I don't understand much about it. It all seems so artificial. According to my understanding life could be very simple... ::)
Household economy, one has better to learn early.
National economy, business economy, bank economy, health economy or world economy, that is very much academic stuff.
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That is a bit of optimistic assessment. :) Life in academe in Estonia differs considerably from that of our Nordic neighbours. It tends to be pretty hard and cut-throat here. One has to run faster and faster to stay at one place.
I see.
Well I belong to a unit that has no faculty allowance at all so we have had our ups and downs. As now the health sector increase it demands for assessments and expert participation it is easier to get funding on short and middle term basis. But I must say it can worry me a bit when changing clients.
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Frederick the Great cursed his fleeing troops at the battle of Kolin:
Rascals, Do You want to live forever?!
Encouraging, isn't it? :)
Or this one from Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly (US Marines) from the Battle of Belleau Wood, when, besieged, outnumbered, outgunned, and pinned down, he led his men in attack, shouting:
Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?
:)
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I am as mystified as others about this global financial crisis. It is all happening deep in the financial sector, and it is very serious, but it hasn't really broken through into most people's lives yet. It is like hearing on the radio of a tsunami coming - everything still looks quite pleasant around, but you just know you have to get to high ground as fast as possible.
I don't understand how Iceland can be affected by selling a home to someone in the USA who has no ability to repay the loan. I would like to hear more from those who do understand, but I am getting the feeling that no one does know - it's all speculation.
I can see that fear has now taken hold in the credit channels, and fear is what brings depressions. Fear is obvious on the currency markets. First the USD has been falling since 2002, and the AUD was riding high. Now the AUD has dropped like a rock, and the USD is rising. People with billions are running scared, hither and thither. The US economy was looking dodgy for many years. So what happens - it finally gets much much worse, and what do people do? They pull their money back to USD - they buy into the very economy that is in the worst situation. It doesn't make sense, except when seen from a fear-emotion perspective.
I find myself sitting back and watching this with bewilderment.
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Over here in Canada, we usually get pretty excited when the American dollar falls. Because that means that we can go shopping across the line and get real cool clothes for next to nothing. And booze and gasoline for cheap as well.
:P
Edit:
(I should add here, I'm just playing around, I know this is very serious to some people. 8) )
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My simple understanding is that it is like credit cards; having lots of credit cards and using one to pay off the next, until the whole pack of cards (so to speak) falls. If an individual were to do that, they would be considered 'irresponsible'. When banks and companies do that, its called 'investments'. Basically.. its gambling.
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I am as mystified as others about this global financial crisis. It is all happening deep in the financial sector, and it is very serious, but it hasn't really broken through into most people's lives yet. It is like hearing on the radio of a tsunami coming - everything still looks quite pleasant around, but you just know you have to get to high ground as fast as possible.
I don't understand how Iceland can be affected by selling a home to someone in the USA who has no ability to repay the loan. I would like to hear more from those who do understand, but I am getting the feeling that no one does know - it's all speculation.
I can see that fear has now taken hold in the credit channels, and fear is what brings depressions. Fear is obvious on the currency markets. First the USD has been falling since 2002, and the AUD was riding high. Now the AUD has dropped like a rock, and the USD is rising. People with billions are running scared, hither and thither. The US economy was looking dodgy for many years. So what happens - it finally gets much much worse, and what do people do? They pull their money back to USD - they buy into the very economy that is in the worst situation. It doesn't make sense, except when seen from a fear-emotion perspective.
I find myself sitting back and watching this with bewilderment.
Iceland: overextending. For number of years researchers have been wondering about that state. In terms of population, it is not even small, it is a microstate. Yet, in terms of economy, it is a fishery superstate, and it has grown into a serious banking state.
But what supports that banking? What is the weight of domestic economy behind it? GDP of 20 billion USD? It is the size of Estonian economy! :)
It is still small, it is microscopic for such an ambition, and therefore Iceland's banking reminds me of a stock bubble we had here a few years ago. Then people bet on rising stock and bought it using loan money (and used the very stock they bought as a guarantee).
Similarly, Icelanders gambled on the growth of foreign economies, and when it stopped, their whole country ran into trouble.
Greed and lack of critical view of self. Trying to punch above one's weight.
Signs have been there for some time to see.
A chill wind blows through Iceland bank's success story
Nick Mathiason on problems at Kaupthing, lender to London's property boom
Sunday 04 May 2008
It is the bank that likes to say yes to some of the UK's most adventurous entrepreneurs. From Iceland but now embedded in London's West End, Kaupthing has in the past eight years been among the most aggressive lenders to property moguls and maverick business personalities.
But as the commercial property market heads closer to the abyss, many are questioning whether Kaupthing has bitten off more than it can chew. Its extensive client list includes TV chef Gordon Ramsay, who borrows money to expand his restaurant empire. Fashion retailer Karen Millen, Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter and exotic real estate tycoon Robert Tchenguiz are all long-standing customers.
'The entrepreneurial spirit serves as a mainstay in our business,' says its London chief executive, Armann Thorvaldsson. 'The possibilities are limitless.'
Indeed, the list of Kaupthing deals is impressive. It backed a Tchenguiz-led acquisition of Somerfield in 2005 for £1.5bn, a business that now is on the market. It also advised Mike Ashley on his £134m acquisition of Newcastle United 12 months ago which, according to reports, is also available. Among its most valued borrowers are the Candy brothers, developers of thousands of luxury flats in some of London's most desirable locations. Kaupthing is also supplying the funding for what will be Europe's tallest building, the Shard of Glass, next to London Bridge.
In short, it has played a significant role in the spectacular growth of property in London since 1997, propelled by a boom that turned Iceland into one of Europe's fastest-growing economies, and the sixth-richest per capita in the world.
But London property insiders say Kaupthing has significantly eased back on lending, amid concerns that real estate, which last year saw values fall by 20 per cent, could plunge even further. These fears were confirmed last week when the Bank of England warned that the UK's big banks stand to lose as much as a fifth of their profits as the commercial property market implodes.
The Bank sounded the alarm on a £5bn-plus wave of defaults that could engulf the financial sector. If this happens many believe Kaupthing is among the most exposed, as it takes equity positions in some of the businesses it lends to.
Kaupthing, though, points out that compared to other banks it is a relatively small property lender. It is understood that its loan book stands at over £500m. It also says that any issues that Tchenguiz faces will not affect it because Tchenguiz did his biggest deals with other institutions.
Yet last week's first-quarter results did not make comfortable reading. The group as a whole turned a profit in its capital markets division of £91.3m into a loss of £30m, although profits in its treasury operation more than trebled.
Earlier this year Kaupthing was pressured by Icelandic authorities to drop a £2.34bn takeover of Dutch financial group NIBC amid concerns that the bank has become too stretched.
Alexandre Birry, director of financial institutions at ratings agency Fitch, said: 'Kaupthing has been subjected to negative market sentiment but, unlike US banks, it's not been triggered by sub-prime or structured products. It does have some exposure to structured products, but it's manageable. Our focus is on long-term trends. They have been growing in capital markets and investment banking. Obviously the outlook here is weaker.'
Analysts are impressed by how the bank meets its targets on reducing costs. It has now cut its asset finance business and commodity trade finance unit and by getting out of these businesses will free up liquidity in excess of £1bn. The capital will be reinvested to further grow the core UK business.
The bank will now focus on providing financial services to small and medium-sized businesses and to high net worth individuals. It has also transferred its property and corporate banking operations in Leeds and Manchester to London and Birmingham.
Recently, the credit market has priced in a high risk for Icelandic banks, sending their funding costs to record levels. Kaupthing has been among the hardest hit. Its five-year credit-default swap spreads, which measure the cost of insuring against default on its debt, are high compared with rivals , though they have fallen recently.
It is a long way from its purchase of investment manager Singer & Friedlander for £547m in 2005, when Kaupthing announced plans to double its London staff to 900. Now thoughts of expansion are furthest from its mind.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
I like the thing about the USD. :) It reminds me of people with 5-minute memory being locked into a ward of mental hospital.
USD is doing miserably - sell it!
Buy Euro, buy whatever!
Crisis breaks out!
What do we do????
We need safe currency!
What is safe?
Safe is what we don't have!
Safe is USD!
Buy USD!
Nothing else is available anyway!
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Shitstorm cotinues: Tokyo down 11%, Dow 6.5%
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Over here in Canada, we usually get pretty excited when the American dollar falls. Because that means that we can go shopping across the line and get real cool clothes for next to nothing. And booze and gasoline for cheap as well.
:P
Edit:
(I should add here, I'm just playing around, I know this is very serious to some people. 8) )
On Canada:
Canada's housing bubble could soon burst: Merrill Lynch
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=04fe6225-ae78-4e70-84e0-6d340844ab01
Eric Beauchesne , Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
OTTAWA - Canadian households are nearing the financial tipping point that Americans reached two years ago, which plunged their housing market into the deepest recession since the Great Depression, a senior Bay Street economist warned Wednesday.
It may just be a matter of time before the Canadian housing market tanks like the U.S. market did, Merrill Lynch Canada economist David Wolf said, warning that Canadian households are now nearly as overextended as households in the U.S., and even more so than those in Britain, prior to the bursting of the housing market bubbles in those countries.
"What worries us is that Canadian households have been running a larger financial deficit than households in either the U.S. or the U.K.," Wolf said in a commentary, noting that in 2007 Canadian household net borrowing amounted to 6.3 per cent of disposable income, which was higher than in Britain and not far off the seven per cent peak in the U.S. in 2005, prior to the bursting of that country's housing bubble.
The concern of a deep housing market meltdown in Canada was dismissed as unwarranted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as overly pessimistic by another Bay Street analyst and a senior real-estate industry economist.
"We will not see such a situation here as we see in the U.S.," Harper said, stressing that both the housing and consumer markets and financial institutions in Canada are "much stronger" than in the U.S.
Wolf conceded that the fear of a U.S.-style housing meltdown here, challenges the view that Canadian borrowers and lenders have been more conservative than those in the U.S. and that their debt load is somehow more sustainable.
"We fear, however, that it may simply be a matter of time," he said, suggesting that the recent fall in Canadian home prices and the increase in unsold homes on the market are warning signs that are being overlooked because of continued mortgage lending here.
The underlying cause of the U.S. housing market collapse and in turn that country's financial crisis was that U.S. banks lent people too much money, Wolf said.
"It's horribly clear in retrospect how excessive the lending in the U.S. was," he said.
"But it couldn't have been clear while it was happening, because the banks kept doing it, and the market kept accommodating it," he added, suggesting that may explain the continued strong growth in mortgage lending here.
But as is the case here now, there were danger signals there, including the growing household financial deficit, he said.
"From this perspective, the absence of a Canadian credit crunch to date may be cause for concern, not comfort," Wolf said, questioning how can it be a good thing that mortgage debt continues to grow at a double-digit pace as housing prices decline. "We believe that markets remain overly sanguine with respect to the prospects for the Canadian housing market, the financial sector and the overall economy."
The report is not the first to warn that Canada's housing market is not immune to a sharp downturn, but it is one of the most pessimistic to date.
BMO Capital Markets recently warned that housing prices here need to fall nearly 10 per cent more than they already have to bring them back into line with household incomes, while a study by the University of British Columbia said that in some major cities prices would have to plunge 25 per cent.
In August, sales of existing homes in Canada were down nearly 20 per cent from a year earlier and prices on average were down 5.1 per cent.
However, BMO economist Douglas Porter said Wednesday a deep and broad-based Canadian housing market meltdown, as happened in the U.S., is unlikely.
"I'm somewhere between the meltdown camp and everything's hunky-dory," Porter said.
The Canadian housing boom was supported more by economic strength coming from the commodity boom than by the loose lending practices that fuelled the U.S. market, Porter said. And mortgage lending practices here were more conservative than in the U.S., with only a few lenders "dipping their toes" into subprime market.
While some further decline in Canadian housing prices is to be expected, a greater threat to the housing market here than over-extended household finances would be a serious recession in the overall U.S. economy, Canada's main export market, Porter said.
"There is a risk that the U.S. economy is going to go through a deeper downturn," he added.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty suggested that could happen if U.S. legislators fail approve the government's proposed $700-billion bailout package for financial institutions hit by the fallout from the collapse of that country's housing market.
"There would be a major global financial market issue," Flaherty told an editorial board meeting with the National Post.
Canadian Real Estate Association chief economist Gregory Klump also said that "Canadian real estate is not near a similar tipping point and market collapse."
"The Canadian housing market remains a very different animal than the U.S. housing market," Klump said.
"Recent year-over-year declines in . . . price reflects lower activity in some of Canada's priciest housing markets in Western Canada," he said. "Home prices are still rising in the overwhelming majority of Canada's major markets."
He also noted that unlike in the U.S., where hundreds of thousands of jobs have disappeared, Canada's job market is stable, while interest rates are also expected to remain stable and may even ease.
"Both of these do not suggest an imminent flood of distress sales due to household financial stress," Klump said.
The news out of the U.S. Wednesday suggested that the housing market there is still searching for a bottom, with sales of existing homes falling 2.2 per cent in August, wiping out much of the 3.5 per cent gain the month before, and with prices falling to 9.5 per cent below their year earlier levels.
While the inventory of unsold homes on the market declined for the second straight month, TD Bank economist Ian Pollick noted that it is still "double the historical average and further articulates that more correction is necessary in the housing market, before conditions truly improve."
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Pak's in money trouble as well
Pakistan seeks US funding to avoid bankruptcy
Pakistan has dispatched its top finance officials on a mission to raise billions of dollars from its closest allies in a last ditch bid to stave off bankruptcy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/3166421/Pakistan-seeks-US-funding-to-avoid-bankruptcy.html
By Isambard Wilkinson in Karachi and Damien McElroy in Dubai
Last Updated: 7:08PM BST 09 Oct 2008
Shaukat Tareen, the prime minister's finance adviser, and Shamshad Akhtar, the governor of the central bank, have travelled to Washington to secure a £6 billion American and British-backed lifeline.
Oil-rich Gulf states have been lined up to match Western funds with extra billions to ensure that the country, which until recently touted itself as the next Asian Tiger, avoids a balance of payments crisis.
Mr Tareen, a suave former banker, was appointed this week to spearhead the last ditch bid to after it was revealed that state reserves had halved since democratic elections earlier this year. He has given himself four weeks to salvage the economy. High oil prices have combined with endemic corruption and mismanagement to push Pakistan to the brink of bankruptcy.
The country's middle class shifted massive amounts of capital overseas as a crisis of confidence in Pakistan's long term future took hold following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last December.
A leading Pakistani private banker in Dubai, who has acted as handmaiden to the exodus, said the collapse and replacement of former President Pervez Musharraf's regime had amounted to a devastating double blow. "Capital flight has got be stopped if the country is to be turned around," he said. "But people take their cues from the leaders. The looters are back in charge and if they won't repatriate their money from Swiss bank accounts why should we keep our money in Pakistan?"
While Pakistan's economy has repeatedly been on the brink since independence in 1947. the stakes have never been higher. The nuclear armed state has failed to contain an Islamic insurgency despite mobilising its army.
The new President Asif Ali Zardari, Miss Bhutto's widower, had hoped to raise a cash infusion at a 'friendly states' summit in the United Arab Emirates next month. But the economy has unravelled too quickly to wait.
"We have been here in the past but now Pakistan urgently needs balance of payments support," said the treasurer of a leading international bank in Karachi. "We need some action this month."
Saudi Arabia and the conservative Arab monarchs have signalled their willingness to divert part of their sovereign wealth funds to shore up Pakistan. Gulf support will come at a price with the Emirates determined ensure its own food security by buying up huge tracts of Sindh and Punjab provinces.
Islamabad will be expected to grant blanket exemptions on exports from its farms to the Gulf in return – an unpopular move when 25 per cent inflation has forced the poor to assemble in huge crowds for government subsidised wheat.
Pakistan has fallen a long way from the golden years of the Musharraf government, which appeared to have found a formula for success. His regime provided six years of currency stability as the economy grew six per cent a year, doubling the gross domestic product.
Wholesale bank privatisation boosted the spending power of the middle class but the money poured into a property and stock market boom that has now evaporated.
Karachi, the country's economic capital, has borne the brunt of the collapse. From its highs last year when it attracted almost $1 billion of foreign investment, the stock market has been practically shuttered.
Its youthful mayor, Mustafa Kamal has had to scrap grand plans for large scale projects that would improve the infrastructure for its 18 million people. "First it was inflation, then Musharraf's political problems, then Zardari's election and now security," he said. "People are looking for things to settle down."
The flaws in substituting a consumer-led boom for broad-based growth are summed up in the lamentable state of Karachi's electricity network. It was privatised in 2005 in a widely-criticised auction that failed to secure pledges of extra investment.
Despite needs of 3,000 megawatts a day, Karachi receives 2,200. The sweltering port city endures daily blackouts that last between four and six hours, leading to grim comparisons with post-war Baghdad.
Meanwhile, two separate bombings targeting police killed 10 people in Pakistan on Thursday.
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People don't lose their sense of humour. Somebody already put Iceland on eBay. :)
LONDON (Reuters) - Great scenery and wildlife but financial situation in need of repair -- collect in person.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081010/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_financial_iceland_ebay_2
Iceland, which is going cap in hand to Russia for a 4 billion euro (3.2 billion pound) loan to bail out its failed banks, was offered for sale as a wholesale lot on eBay on Friday.
Bidding started at 99 pence but had reached 10 million pounds ($17.28 million) by mid-morning on Friday.
Globally renowned singer Bjork was "not included" in the sale, according to the notice, but there were nonetheless 26 anonymous bidders and 84 bids.
"Located in the mid-Atlantic ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland will provide the winning bidder with -- a habitable environment, Icelandic Horses and admittedly a somewhat sketchy financial situation," the notice read.
Bidders' questions included: "Do you offer volcano/earthquake insurance?," "Is it possible that my payment will be frozen?," and "Will you accept C.O.D. as a form of payment?"
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On Canada:
About Canda, it really depends where you live, some places are booming like most of Saskatchewan for eg, and a lot of Alberta. Ottawa is not Canada.... We're a big country and Ottawa is where the Politicians live so that gives you an idea of how not-canada that is. :-X
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First the USD has been falling since 2002, and the AUD was riding high. Now the AUD has dropped like a rock, and the USD is rising. People with billions are running scared, hither and thither. The US economy was looking dodgy for many years. So what happens - it finally gets much much worse, and what do people do? They pull their money back to USD - they buy into the very economy that is in the worst situation. It doesn't make sense, except when seen from a fear-emotion perspective.
Not exactly,
USD has risen well over 10 percent within a month "thanks to the crisis" that is mainly because there is a lack of dollars*. Their national debt has risen from 2 percent of GDP in 1998 to 8 percent now. The US Economy will go down harsh and this is not wanted worldwide. As the dollar go up export to US will be more expensive and the recession is tightening. As Mark Faber says, a nation built on consumption, and we (in a sense by our industries as Volvo and SAAB) provide their consumption.
Both Ford (Volvo) and GM (SAAB) fell heavily today. We start to see the end of Swedish car production. A Pity since we are even making Cadillacs here.
*Meaning investors sell stocks and want dollars instead, they simply "buy dollars", or realize their assets in pure money. It is said that stock market in Sweden has lost 40% of it's value since new year but all those that have sold their shares; either buy (transform their assets in) gold, different currencies, other more safe papers as Governement bonds etc. That is one reason why the Swedish Riksbank and other Central banks has increased the auction on Governement bonds with many, many billions.
Conclusion is that the stock market is a big loser but values in terms of money, real estate and "safe paper" (if there is any?) has increased almost equal. Not equal - but at least the real loss isn't reflected by the stock market crash because much values are simply transferred to other areas. Does that analysis sound fairly comfortable :)
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About Canda, it really depends where you live, some places are booming like most of Saskatchewan for eg, and a lot of Alberta. Ottawa is not Canada.... We're a big country and Ottawa is where the Politicians live so that gives you an idea of how not-canada that is. :-X
The argument being...?
Ottawa at the beginning of news means that this is where the news is originating from, but...not really limited to. :)
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Amid the woes, some good news:
Beneath the financial crisis waits a nastier beast (http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/whats-waiting-when-markets-settle-down/2008/10/12/1223749846530.html)
Writing in The National Review, Michelle Malkin blames the crisis on illegal immigrants and Hispanics who were "greedy" enough to seek subprime loans. Blogging for the same publication, Mark Krikorian wonders if Washington Mutual's demise was caused by its propensity for employing Latinos and gays. On Fox News, Neil Cavuto blames congressmen who were "pushing for more minority lending" without disclosing that "loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster".
The audacity is extraordinary. Suddenly, this crisis is something poor blacks and Hispanics have inflicted on rich white people. That is beginning to sound, well, Germanic.
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Sounds like something Fox News would say -- our right-wing news station!
The National Review would tend to have a little more class, but ... they're right-wing too.
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A had a small dinner party Friday night. I invited those from my area living the closest to me. I wanted to feel the energy directly that surrounds my woodland.
We spoke of many things.. politics included. To be honest with you.. it was a bit scarey. The state of my fellow woods people is that of great fear and hurt... of blind fear.
I sat mostly silent, sending each person love as they spoke and my heart listened to the words with ears within.
Im walking lightly the direction of a vision.. one that started for me long ago. This dinner party was a clear chalk board given to those who surround me to leave their whispers .. a board I reflect upon today for my direction.
I received the following in my email this morning.. it reflects strongly the words of those who ate dinner at my table just days before. My stomache tightens as I read such sickness.. may my strength be met with clarity to stand tall admist such overwhelming hurt.
FWIW.. this was sent to me from Texas.. so its obviously not rooted in small town Maine but spreading like a wild fire of fear/hate.
-=-
Can a muslim be a good American
I received this from a good friend of mine I'm very interested in American politics and have had some walls come up the more I hear of Barak Obama. I thought this was worth repeating although I don't know the person who originally started this e-mail..
This is very interesting and we all need to read it
from start to Finish and send it on to anyone who will read
it. Maybe this is why our American Muslims are so quiet and
not speaking out about any atrocities. Can a good Muslim be
a good American? This question was forwarded to a friend
who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is
his reply:
Theologically - no . . . Because his allegiance is
to Allah, The moon God of Arabia
Religiously - no. . . Because no other religion is
accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256)(Koran)
Scripturally - no. . . Because his allegiance is to
the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
Geographically - no . Because his allegiance is to
Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no. . . Because his allegiance to Islam
forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews
Politically - no. . . Because he must submit to the
mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of
Israel and destruction of America , the great Satan.
Domestically - no. . Because he is instructed to
marry four Women and beat and scourge his wife when she
disobeys him (Quran 4:34)
Intellectually - no. . Because he cannot accept the
American Constitution since it is based on Biblical
principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no. . . Because Islam, Muhammad,
and the Quran does not allow freedom of religion and
expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every
Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually - no. . . Because when we declare
'one nation under God,' the Christian's God is
loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as
Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The
Quran's 99 excellent names.
Therefore, after much study and deliberation....
Perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS
in this country. - - - They obviously cannot be both
'good' Muslims and good Americans.
Call it what you wish it's still the truth. You
had better believe it. The more who understand this, the
better it will be for our country and our future. The
religious war is bigger than we know or understand .. .
And Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our
President? You have GOT to be kidding! Wake up America !
Obama even says if he wins the election, he will be
sworn in on the Quran---not a Bible!
Footnote: He was sworn in on the Quran for his
current office and he refuses to pledge allegiance to the
United States or put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played! The Muslims have said they will
destroy us from within. Hello! Having a Muslim president
would seem to fit the bill! Will you trust this man with
our national secrets?
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That's atrocious!
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At one point in the evening I went to turn some music to softly blanket the night. I flipped thru my satalite channels and found a new one listed.. Obama's message.. or something like that.
As the talk in the other room still lingered.. I smiled and in a joking way.. asked if they would like to listen to it.
I caught the eyes of my husband and he grinned back.. knowing my heart of the matter.
He had also stayed silent and listened curiously of the hatred in the room growing with passion.
He answered me, as he rolled his eyes "I bet its in Arabic" and we both burst out laughing which sent the hate inward for reflection pretty quick.
Ended the talk of politics pretty quick as our guests sqirmed slightly.
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Tricky position, Jen! (Careful there... this fever is the stuff of which mobs are made!)
((((((((Blanket of Safety and Love Over You and Yours! :-* :-*)))))))))
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These attitudes are fostered purposely, and many just pick them up thoughtlessly.
They are a sign of desperation by the Republican hard right, because they know that as it stands now, Obama is going to sweep the polls:
Democrat Barack Obama, propelled forward by mounting economic concerns among Americans, now leads his Republican rival John McCain 53 per cent to 43 per cent, a new opinion poll showed today.
Authors of the ABC News/Washington Post survey said historically, no presidential candidate has been able to come back from an October deficit this large in pre-election polls dating back to 1936.
But what these attitudes do show, is a growing likelihood that some will take matters into their own hands. McCain knows this, and has never been a friend of this type of attitude in America, so he has tried to put a stop to it, but I fear it has grown too strong to be stopped. Whether it will translate into some event, is the question.
I watched this in Australia with our last election, where the right couldn't help themselves - they kept doing what they always did, but the times had changed. people had had enough, and a growing nausea could be felt, which tossed out the people who peddle this spirit.
We will see, but I hope sanity prevails.
Your story Jen is a good one, as it demonstrates something I have been wanting to speak about. How do we behave in the face of all this drama about us? That is what this whole thread is about. We have to hone our purpose within the world, not just in isolation. And we do that in a special way.
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My roommate stands in the doorway of my room, working himself into a frenzy over this stuff. Our politics are the same, as it happens, but his fever is far more insane. Luckily he is able to hear, "Listen to yourself!"
But he is a closet vigilante, you see.
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Put people under pressure and you'll see what they're made of.
Idiocy has a knack of getting its way.
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We have to hone our purpose within the world, ot just in isolation.
Gave a presentation today to a bunch of high-level people from various sectors of our state. Showed them how in Georgia (btw did anybody notice a five-day war there during Olympics? - I did not talk about deliberately ;)) politics substituted statesmanship, how the destiny of nation was gambled, and the nation was thrown 15 years back in time.
Where are the bloody guts of people when they need to decide the fate of many?
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We need OUR money, you BET we gonna use ANTI-TERROR LAWS!
Icelandic losses met by seizure
By Jerome Taylor
Monday, 13 October 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/icelandic-losses-met-by-seizure-959290.html
The Icelandic assets seized by the UK Government under anti-terror laws are more than enough to pay back British savers caught up in the country's banking collapse. At least £4bn is thought to have been frozen in the immediate aftermath of the collapse, £1bn more than councils, charities and individual savers stand to lose.
The decision to invoke anti-terror laws was described by the Icelandic Prime Minister, Geir Haarde, as a "completely unfriendly act".
But the news that the British Government looks capable of paying off any losses with seized assets appeared not to have calmed local councils, many of which have invested millions of pounds in Icelandic saver accounts. This week representatives of local authorities which have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in investment banks will meet the Icelandic ambassador in the hope that they can win assurances that their investments in the bankrupted country will be repaid.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said an estimated 108 councils had deposited almost £800m in Icelandic banks. The LGA has already had a meeting with the British Government and won a promise that authorities facing severe short-term difficulties will receive assistance.
Fears have been raised by unions that some councils may have used Icelandic accounts to hold payroll. Although no council has admitted salaries are at risk, Braintree in Essex is thought to be one council in such a position. Unison, which represents local government workers, has written to the LGA expressing "grave concern" about any salary shortages that may possibly result from the collapse.
Meanwhile, the billionaire businessman Sir Phillip Green looks set to invest up to £2bn in a troubled Icelandic retailing group that owns House of Fraser, Karen Millen and Hamleys. Sir Philip has held talks with the Icelandic government about buying debt from the retailing group Baugur, thought to have lost over £1bn in the crisis. Sir Philip, who owns Bhs and Topshop, described Baugur as "fundamentally sound".
The tycoon criticised the "barrage" of negative news in the media, which he described as "fundamentally unhelpful" to Britain's economic recovery.
"We have not yet seen significant corporate collapse," he said. "We haven't seen significant unemployment. Do I think there are pressures in the economy? Of course. But if we keep frightening everybody it will feed on itself."
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Gave a presentation today to a bunch of high-level people from various sectors of our state. Showed them how in Georgia (btw did anybody notice a five-day war there during Olympics? - I did not talk about deliberately ;)) politics substituted statesmanship, how the destiny of nation was gambled, and the nation was thrown 15 years back in time.
Where are the bloody guts of people when they need to decide the fate of many?
Yes that incident was hot stuff in Sweden both the minister of defence and the minister of foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, were active in media some weeks then to clarify details.
It is difficult because EU support Georgien while on the other hand most states wants to be on dicussion terms with Russia.
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It is difficult because EU support Georgien while on the other hand most states wants to be on dicussion terms with Russia.
Yes, and Georgian leadership behaved like damn gamblers. They decided to give in to their ambitions and fears, and militarily challenge Russia.
-
I'm in free...free falling...
Icelandic stock market plunges a massive 76 per cent as the rest of the world enjoys huge gains
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1077417/Icelandic-stock-market-plunges-massive-76-cent-rest-world-enjoys-huge-gains.html
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:28 PM on 14th October 2008
The Icelandic Stock Market plunged a massive 76 per cent today in stark contrast to markets elsewhere around the world.
As shares in the UK, Asia and Europe soared after record gains on Wall Street last night, Iceland's blue chip index crashed through the floor.
It is the market's first day of trading since last Wednesday and the fallout from the almost total collapse of its financial sector came home to roost immediately.
Despite trading remaining suspended in six banks, there were huge losses which will take the Icelandic economy even closer to collapse.
Officials are in Russia today asking for an emergency loan - potentially worth billions of euros - to shore up its finances.
Iceland has already asked the International Monetary Fund for help to ease the crisis and ministers have suggested it should join the EU to safeguard the economy.
Frozen credit markets have brought the country to its knees and the Government is battling to keep the banking system afloat.
The state has been forced to takeover three of the country's largest banks in recent weeks, freezing accounts held by individuals, charities and public sector bodies in Britain.
Individual investors have had their savings guaranteed by the Treasury, but the councils appear certain to lose their investments. Charities are believed to have lost £120 million.
The Bank of England is loaning £100million to the British arm of collapsed Icelandic bank Landsbanki to help repay British savers.
Talks are also under way between Treasury officials and the Icelandic government to try and get back the money lost by town halls.
Over the past decade, Iceland's financial sector bloomed to bring unprecedented prosperity to its 300,000 population.
It won favour with foreign savers and investors because of its attractive interest rates but the global financial crisis has left the entire country foundering.
Beat Siegenthaler, chief strategist emerging markets at TD Securities in London, said today: 'It is clear that Iceland will need substantial foreign aid in order to prevent further major damage to the economy.'
Today's shares plunge came as it emerged city middlemen may have profited from the loss of British taxpayers' money in the banking crash.
One major broking firm has acknowledged that commissions could have been paid by the failed Icelandic banks in return for investments made by local councils and other public sector organisations.
Evidence has emerged that firms acting as paid financial consultants to town halls may have advised officials on investments.
Concerns over the role of financial advice firms were raised as the council that lost the most - Kent - began an inquiry into how it came to put £50million into the collapsed institutions.
Leaders called in accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers to 'independently assess the advice given to Kent County Council and to review the operation of the internal control process'.
Councils were in many cases advised on their investment policies by independent firms.
One, Butlers, is part of ICAP, the City broker run by Tory Party treasurer Michael Spencer.
ICAP said yesterday it was 'possible' that it had received commission from Icelandic banks on investments made by councils advised by Butlers.
A spokesman said that Butlers - retained by 130 councils - does not take commission from banks or give direct investment advice.
However Kent said in a statement that it had 'regular meetings with Butlers, our advisers'.
The other major adviser to councils and other public bodies is Sector Treasury Services, a subsidiary of the Capita group, which has contracts with 250 authorities.
Sector has said it does not advise councils on where to invest. However, this is contradicted in documents obtained by the Mail.
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I'm in free...free falling...
But you should know E that the stock market on Iceland only fell 2 %.
The other 70 percent was counting in the Iceland banks that are set to zero at the moment, and no trade are allowed with bank stocks there.
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But you should know E that the stock market on Iceland only fell 2 %.
The other 70 percent was counting in the Iceland banks that are set to zero at the moment, and no trade are allowed with bank stocks there.
True, Financial Times even says that the actual drop after re-levelling the market with three banks nationalised constituted 0.5%, but the overall blue-chip drop was nevertheless 76%. It says quite a bit about what the Icelandinc blue-chip index is made of.
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True, Financial Times even says that the actual drop after re-levelling the market with three banks nationalised constituted 0.5%, but the overall blue-chip drop was nevertheless 76%. It says quite a bit about what the Icelandinc blue-chip index is made of.
B a n k s, eeh.
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Yeah, and no economy lives only on shylocks.
It is interesting, though, that Dubya is planning nationalisation of the Wall Street. :)
-
Pak on the verge of collapse?
New intelligence report says Pakistan is 'on the edge'
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53926.html
By Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment.
A U.S. official who participated in drafting the top secret National Intelligence Estimate said it portrays the situation in Pakistan as "very bad." Another official called the draft "very bleak," and said it describes Pakistan as being "on the edge."
The first official summarized the estimate's conclusions about the state of Pakistan as: "no money, no energy, no government."
Six U.S. officials who helped draft or are aware of the document's findings confirmed them to McClatchy on the condition of anonymity because NIEs are top secret and are restricted to the president, senior officials and members of Congress. An NIE's conclusions reflect the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.
The NIE on Pakistan, along with others being prepared on Afghanistan and Iraq, will underpin a "strategic assessment" of the situation that Army Gen. David Petraeus, who's about to take command of all U.S. forces in the region, has requested. The aim of the assessment — seven years after the U.S. sent troops into Afghanistan — is to determine whether a U.S. presence in the region can be effective and if so what U.S. strategy should be.
The findings also are intended to support the Bush administration's effort to recommend the resources the next president will need for Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at a time the economic crisis is straining the Treasury and inflating the federal budget deficit.
The Afghanistan estimate warns that additional American troops are urgently needed there and that Islamic extremists who enjoy safe haven in Pakistan pose a growing threat to the U.S.-backed government of Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
The Iraq NIE is more cautious about the prospects for stability there than the Bush administration and either John McCain or Barack Obama have been, and it raises serious questions about whether the U.S. will be able to redeploy a significant number of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan anytime soon.
Together, the three NIEs suggest that without significant and swift progress on all three fronts — which they suggest is uncertain at best — the U.S. could find itself facing a growing threat from al Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups, said one of the officials.
About the only good news in the Pakistan NIE is that it's "relatively sanguine" about the prospects of a Pakistani nuclear weapon, materials or knowledge falling into the hands of terrorists, said one official.
However, the draft NIE paints a grim picture of the situation in the impoverished, nuclear-armed country of 160 million, according to the U.S. officials who spoke to McClatchy.
The estimate says that the Islamist insurgency based in the Federally Administered Tribal Area bordering Afghanistan, the suspected safe haven of Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, is intensifying.
However, according to the officials, the draft also finds that the Pakistani military is reluctant to launch an all-out campaign against the Islamists in part because of popular opposition to continuing the cooperation with the U.S. that began under Pervez Musharraf, the U.S.-backed former president, after the 9/11 attacks.
Anti-U.S. and anti-government sentiments have grown recently, stoked by stepped-up cross-border U.S. missile strikes and at least one commando raid on suspected terrorist targets in the FATA that reportedly have resulted in civilian deaths.
The Pakistani military, which has lost hundreds of troops to battles and suicide bombings, is waging offensives against Islamist guerrillas in the Bajaur tribal agency and Swat, a picturesque region of the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. U.S. officials said insurgent attacks on Pakistani security forces provoked the Pakistani army operations.
The Pakistan general staff also remains concerned about what it considers an ongoing threat to its eastern border from its traditional foe, India, the draft NIE finds, according to the U.S. officials.
For these reasons, they said, the army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, wants the new civilian coalition government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to provide the military with political cover by blessing a major anti-insurgency crackdown.
However, the ruling coalition, in which President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto, holds the real authority, has been preoccupied by other matters, according to the draft NIE.
These include efforts to consolidate its power after winning a struggle that prompted its main rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, to leave the ruling coalition.
Moreover, widespread anti-U.S. anger has left the coalition deeply divided over whether to unleash a major military assault on the Islamists, the U.S. officials said.
The government is also facing an accelerating economic crisis that includes food and energy shortages, escalating fuel costs, a sinking currency and a massive flight of foreign capital accelerated by the escalating insurgency, the NIE warns.
The Pakistani public is clamoring for relief as the crisis pushes millions more into poverty, giving insurgent groups more opportunities to recruit young Pakistanis.
(Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article.)
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Jen, thought you'd find interesting that there is a counter-campaign to the one you received in your email. I just received this --
Please watch the video, sign and forward. Words can't describe how disgusting it's become. Stop the Hate! Don't let McCain and Palin undo the decades spent fighting for civil rights and equality in our country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: info@bravenewfilms.org
Sent: 10/14/2008 11:39:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Tell McCain to End the Politics of Hate
1. Watch the video
2. Sign the petition
3. Send the video to your friends
Dear Susan,
We'd like to talk about the pressing issues facing our country: the woeful economy, rising unemployment, the housing crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we can't talk about them because John McCain and Sarah Palin have distracted us with the politics of hate and fear.
Instead of discussing the real issues plaguing Americans, McCain and Palin have turned to fear-mongering and race-baiting, stoking the prejudices of their supporters. The situation has become so critical that we've teamed up with Color of Change to put an end to these dangerous mob scenes.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5mdIPNB8t8
http://www.youtube.com/v/U5mdIPNB8t8&hl=en&fs=1
Things have gotten so out of control that some conservatives have come forward to denounce McCain and Palin's hate-mongering. In an Op-Ed for The Baltimore Sun, Frank Schaeffer writes: "John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence."
Here's how you can take action:
Sign the open letter calling on McCain and Palin to reject the politics of hate.
Sign up for a free video subscription and get the latest on the real McCain.
Send this video to your friends, and post it on your blogs and networking sites like Digg, where it will effectively reach those outside the choir.
Don't let McCain and Palin undo the decades spent fighting for civil rights and equality in our country.
Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team
------
Brave New Films is supported by members like you, please consider making a donation. You can get all our latest videos via email, RSS, iTunes or YouTube here. To stop receiving updates from us, click here. We are located at 10510 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 and info@bravenewfilms.org.
With feelings this intense, I'm sensing a no-win situation. Either Obama will lose, and that hate-mentality will take a greater hold than it ever has.
Or Obama will win, and then have to dodge the logical outcome of all this rolling intensity.
In either case, it does not bode well.
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Zeitgeist: Addendum
http://m1e.net/c?85760000-AgPQOLcmungug%403678743-c0Y5lTpmmUTZI
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Fishing for answers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/17/iceland-creditcrunch
Jon Henley
The Guardian,
Friday October 17 2008
Once one of the poorest, most isolated countries in Europe, Iceland shot to prosperity in the 1990s, its companies buying up everything from Hamleys to West Ham United and Saks Fifth Avenue. Now, it is on the brink of financial ruin. Where did it all go wrong? And how can it survive economic meltdown? Jon Henley reports
The fish, of course, were first. The banks didn't come until much, much later, and with them the high-interest savings accounts and insanely leveraged investment vehicles, and the marauding young men with names such as Thor and Björgólfur whose debt-driven raids on bastions of the British high street made them, for a few brief years, the stars of the global credit party.
But always, out there, were the fish. And as a shell-shocked Iceland now stares national bankruptcy full in the face, it's to the fish that it will have to return. And maybe to Björk. But more of her later.
There are no two ways about it, Reykjavik docks smell. Pay the taxi driver, in coins stamped with the image of an alarmingly large cod, open the car door and you're assailed by an overpowering stench of herring, haddock, halibut, saithe, whiting and something called deep sea redfish.
Up the stairs, in an air-conditioned office with a picture window that looks out across clear water to the looming slopes of Mount Esja,
Eggert Gudmundsson, boss of the country's biggest fishing business, HB Grandi, is in philosophical mood.
"All this, what has happened," he says, "it has not been led by that big a group of people. We are hardworking, we Icelanders, but we are also a bit excitable. We are maybe more hunters than farmers. If we see a way to make quick money, we will jump. And a lot of people, that's true, jumped. Now we are all going to have to work very hard together to get ourselves out of this. We will have to go back to what we know."
A few hundred yards away, just off Reykjavik's main shopping street, in a chaotic studio scattered with shining skulls, acrylic-coated ravens and T-shirts bearing the apposite message He Who Fears Death Cannot Enjoy Life, the artist Jón Saemundur Anderson is thinking out loud, too.
"There's shame, yes," he says, "and humiliation. And anger at the country losing so much, all because a few boys were playing around with other people's money. But this whole thing, this long big spending spree, it was just a phase, you know? It hasn't changed Iceland. This could even be good for us. Take us back to what we really are."
Palme Vidar, with the wisdom of 73 years, is equally ruminative. "This is a small country," he says. "We have always swung, between feast and famine. There have been terrible times before, too, when the sheep bubble burst and the herring fleet failed. We always hang on. And you know, we were not going in a good direction. When I was a boy, if you went to the harbour to fish and you got wet, you could not fish again until the next day, because you had only one pair of trousers. Today people have too many trousers."
There's a lot of thinking going on in Iceland these days.
In 1936, the poets WH Auden and Louis MacNeice came here for the summer. Iceland was, at that time, one of the poorest, most inward-looking and isolated countries in Europe. This bleak volcanic outcrop in the middle of the North Atlantic was, for them, "holy ground", ancient and mystical. Auden delighted in the dreamlike qualities of the landscape, but was dismayed by the insularity of the people, their life and culture.
The food was dreadful, he complained, especially the putrefied shark's meat in sour milk. The outside world seemed not to touch a population numbering fewer than 120,000 (even today, Iceland has barely 300,000 inhabitants, not much more than, say, Doncaster). Reykjavik itself, Auden moaned, was "the worst possible sort of provincial town as far as amusing oneself is concerned, and there was nothing to do but soak in the only hotel with a licence".
He wouldn't recognise it now, that's for sure. In the clean and, for the moment, still-prosperous streets of Reykjavik, Porsches jostle for parking space with enormous new 4x4s. Designer bars, all black leather, cream walls and ironically stuffed animals, rub shoulders with concept stores piled high - really - with Icelandic fashion. Restaurants offer "modern Icelandic cuisine", which turns out to be fish cooked in an exotic and over-complicated manner, but at least looks pretty cool.
The transformation was absurdly swift. In 1943, Iceland was still a forgotten outpost of Denmark. In the 70s, it fought a series of nasty little fishing wars with Britain (and won, which might perhaps give Gordon Brown pause for thought when the lawsuits start flying - as they may well do - over his freezing of Icelandic banks' assets in the UK). It had no functioning stock market until 1990. Then, in the mid-1990s, it privatised its banks, slashed corporation tax, and a couple of Viking entrepreneurs made a shedload of money in Russia. From nowhere, Iceland suddenly topped the UN Human Development Index last year as the most developed country in the world, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development declared it, per capita, the fifth richest nation on earth. Icelandic companies owned everything from Hamleys to West Ham United to Saks Fifth Avenue. Since then, obviously, it's all gone a bit pear-shaped.
"Things just get worse every day," sighs Erla Hlynsdottir, standing, understandably bemused, outside the clapboard former restaurant from where the prime minister has just addressed the nation. "I have nothing, actually, so I've nothing to lose. But you wake up each morning and there's something else bad. First one bank's nationalised, then two, then all three. Then we ask Russia for help. Then your government says it's suing us. The stock market shuts. And now we're banging on the doors of the International Monetary Fund. How deep in this really are we?"
Pretty deep, is the answer. Iceland (or, to be fairer, a few dozen risk-happy Icelandic bankers and businessmen) has borrowed way, way too much, piling up debts worth maybe 10 times the country's entire GDP. Worse, it borrowed cheap and it borrowed abroad, which looked a good deal at the time but is now terrible, because in a global credit squeeze those debts cannot be refinanced.
The national currency, as Professor Olafur Isleifsson of the University of Reykjavik puts it, has gone "a very long way south" and won't be coming back any time soon, so even if those debts could be rolled over, there aren't enough kronur in Iceland to make the repayments.
Since the Reykjavik stock market has also sunk without trace (it reopened this week after a short closure, and instantly plunged 76%) and inflation is firmly in double-digit territory, the question is quite simply whether the government can possibly bail everyone out. At present, it seems not. An International Monetary Fund rescue package looks inescapable.
Twenty years ago, a world financial crisis might barely have touched Iceland. Today though, it is, in the economists' phrase, globally engaged. And while by a cruel irony it never even touched the toxic sub-prime stuff that proved everyone else's downfall, it is still the meltdown in microcosm: driven, like the rest of us, to the brink of ruin by profit-hungry risk-takers who had closed their eyes to the dangers of what they were doing. Iceland is suffering more than the rest of us because, proportionately, it is so much more exposed.
If a couple of banks go bust in America, observes the country's ever-courteous prime minister, Geir Haarde, "it's dramatic, but not fatal". If a couple of banks go bust in Iceland, on the other hand, "that's this country's entire financial sector disappeared". What Iceland has learned from this whole frightening experience, he wearily concludes, "is that it is not wise for a small country to take a lead in international banking".
Iceland is certainly heading for hard times. The private jets (there were once so many that a local MP fought for flight restrictions at the airport); the Range Rovers bought with baskets of Japanese yen and Swiss francs; the magnums of Veuve Clicquot and Louis Roederer in the designer bars; the foreign holidays to Mexico and Grand Bahama are history. In the newpaper small ads, desperate men are now offering up to £3,500 to anyone prepared to take their new car - and the foreign loan that paid for it - off their hands.
But this will cut deeper than that. The discount Bonus supermarket has enough imported food left for about a fortnight, and the manager is not sure quite where the foreign currency will come from to buy more. According to the Icelandic trade federation, foreign suppliers are suddenly demanding payment up front. Shipments of food, medicines and oil are being given priority, but there is a real chance that Iceland will soon be running short of such "non-essential" goods as clothes.
"It's going to be very tough for a lot of ordinary people who understand nothing of all this," says Asbjörn Jonsson, a third-generation fisherman. "People are afraid. Ordinary, cautious Icelanders invested their savings in bank stocks, thinking they'd be more secure. Now we don't know what will happen tomorrow, let alone next month. Well, we know now that money is not made in banks. It's made by real people working hard at real jobs."
Throughout these few rollercoaster months of credit crunch, stockmarket turmoil and, finally, wholesale inter-government rescue of the global financial system, economists, commentators and (mainly left-leaning) politicians have been suggesting that it would mark the end of the unbridled, deregulated capitalism unleashed in the Thatcher-Reagan years; the death of the masters of the universe and their unreal, incomprehensible "fictitious economy". Things will have to get real again.
If that's so, then Iceland might, eventually, be all right. "The fundamentals are good," is the mantra being endlessly repeated on the streets of Reykjavik, from prime minister to banker to economist to struggling small businessman to student. And it is, largely, true. At least, unlike some countries one could name, Iceland has a real economy. Finnur Oddsson, managing director of the chamber of commerce, describes it with a fluency born of much recent practice.
Iceland, he says, has spectacular natural resources: the fish, of course, but also a surfeit of green energy (the island is a world leader in geo-thermal power, heating more than 90% of its homes this way and attracting big investment from energy-intensive industries such as aluminium). The average age is just 37, unemployment currently (though maybe not for much longer) stands at 1%, and women account for 46% of the workforce.
"It's going to be a long and rocky road getting out of this," predicts Oddsson. "But longer term, Iceland is solid. For crying out loud, we're only exploiting about 30% of our energy potential right now - if we increase that, we can virtually write our own GDP."
(Tourism looks like being an increasingly important little earner, too: what with the krona now being worth half was it was in April, interest in flights to Iceland from the UK alone is up 400% in a month.)
Gudmundsson also has reason to be optimistic. "I've just come from a meeting with the company's employees," he says. "They were worried; I told them they needn't be. Look: what Iceland needs above all is a sustainable source of foreign currency, which means exports. Fish are half of Iceland's exports, and this company is 10% of Iceland's fishing business: we are responsible for one in every 20 euros Iceland earns. We're a company this country really cannot do without."
There is a big issue, all concede, in the vulnerability of the krona. Iceland's future security is, unquestionably, in the euro, but that is unlikely to happen without some form of EU membership, now being seriously envisaged in Icelandic political circles for pretty much the first time. Unfortunately, the last thing the all-important fishing industry wants is to place its well-managed stocks in the hands of the catastrophe that is EU fisheries policy.
"But something's got to change," says Helga Jónsdóttir, a literature student and part-time waitress, striding along a wind-lashed pavement to work. "This can't be allowed to happen again. We got in out of our depth, that seems plain. Maybe in this new kind of world where everything is connected we just need to be a part of something bigger. We need security."
And Björk, then? A short walk from the stench of the docks is Hotel 101, the hippest of Reykjavik's many boutique hotels, and its bar, quite the coolest in a town that, over the past 10 years, has acquired a somewhat unlikely reputation for cutting-edge culture. (The hotel, by the way, was designed by Ingibjörg Pálmadóttir, wife of Jon Asgeir Jóhannesson, whose investment outfit Baugur bought half the British high street - and now may end up in big trouble unless it can flog its debts to the boss of Bhs, Sir Philip Green, or someone like him.)
Sitting in the bar is young Charlie Strand, a half-British, half-Icelandic photographer and writer who has just published a book, Project: Iceland, chronicling the lives of some of the artists, musicians and designers in the vanguard of this unexpected flowering of far-Nordic talent. He's not altogether sure where it all comes from, he admits.
"Maybe it's because the arts are so new here, there's no tradition anyone has to follow. The landscape, nature, definitely has something to do with it: there's a kind of mental freedom here, a desire to do things your own way. There's no celebrity culture, none at all. That helps. And no one makes real money being an artist in Iceland, which says a lot about their real motivation. But it's true to say there's a very unusual level of creativity here. And there's beginning to be a big interest in it from abroad."
If Björk Gudmundsdóttir is "the grand queen of edge", Strand lists a host of other musicians following in her wake: Sigur Rós, of course, but plenty of other critically acclaimed Icelandic acts are now capable of filling a venue with knowledgeable fans almost anywhere in the world: Mugison, the dance act GusGus, rockers Minus. "There are bands here," sighs Strand, "if they were in England, seriously, they'd be millionaires, in a fortnight."
Visual artists such as Hrafnhildur Arnadóttir, the Icelandic Love Corporation and Ragnar Kjartansson are exhibiting abroad to rave reviews; young Icelandic fashion designers are now working with big name collections in Paris, Antwerp and New York, and selling far beyond the country's borders. For a place a very long way from anywhere and with about as many inhabitants as Cardiff, it is, genuinely, an accomplishment.
Can it help pull Iceland out of its present trough? Maybe not, quite yet, financially. Jón Saemundur's T-shirts are worn by the likes of Metallica, Placebo and Quentin Tarantino; his work, inspired by 14 years of living with HIV, is on display at the Icelandic National Gallery; he performed on stage this summer at Glastonbury. But he too has watched aghast in recent months as the amount he owes on his foreign-currency mortgage has doubled.
In times like this, though, he says, creativity is important. "Our culture can give us strength," he says. "We are proud people, you know, and we've been through worse. When the volcano went up, a couple of hundred years ago, people were living in holes in the ground. There was never money here, not until well after the war. We can feed ourselves, you know. We have a lot of fish."
That's all nice and sound about returning to one's roots, etc., BUT...is there ENOUGH cod left in the seas? Will they empty seas in order to restore their wealth?
They're fishing superpower, these hunter-vikings.
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I have been trying to make sense of this crisis. Two things are becoming apparent.
First, one thing has become obvious, those 'in the know' - meaning Central bankers, IMF, big business and Government treasury officials - are very very worried. Why? Surely now with these massive credit backing moves by UK, EU and US, we should be getting back to business as usual, aside from the fact that US has been heading into recession, which it was doing before all this began... so what's news there?
The reason for the cold hand of fear over the hearts of those in the know has now been revealed. It is called CDS. Credit Default Swaps.
I won't go into the technical details, except to say this was a clever method devised by the capital markets, behind the scenes, which they thought would protect them against risky financial dealings. These financial dealings are 'assets' which get traded between large financial institutions, and in themselves are estimated to be around $10trn.
The CDS's which are also traded, and which were supposed to provide security behind these asset trades, but which instead have done the opposite, by becoming nearly worthless, are estimated at around $55trn. A market valuation more than twice the size of the combined GDP of US, Japan and EU.
A whole that size in the global financial markets, is beyond the capacity of taxpayer's funds to rescue. All governments are impotent to heal this one. That's why the faces of certain people have been drained of blood.
The second thing is what does this mean?
It means the economic paradigm, plus the architecture which has grown from it, is now defunct. It also means the political paradigm of the 'right' has now been completely discredited. This is why McCain is losing in the US elections. People know - even if not the details, they know intuitively.
The implications of this are still only beginning to dawn on people. But we are at one of those major turning points in the history of our species. We are entering a new era, in which the community is replacing the individual. This is the crisis of the 'selfish gene'.
This can be witnessed in the US elections, where Republicans can't compete on issues like the Iraq war, or the economic situation, so they are having to fall back on the old ongoing civil war within the US. The Culture war.
They think they can stir up the Red tide against the Blue revolution of the 60's. But times have changed. It's not the 60's or the 80's anymore. People are scared. Lies will no longer win elections. This is now more a moral crisis than an economic one.
We stand at the end of the beginning, and from here on, we will watch the heart of humanity being tested.
The big boogie looming over this crisis, is world government. How long will humanity put off this obvious necessity? And where will the people and the ideas and the architecture come from, which will usher in such a phase?
Personally, I sense this crisis is just the softener. The storms that are coming will be far larger.
The world of humanity is now facing two revolutions - economic and spiritual. It is truly an exciting time to be living. But the weird thing, behind all this, is that the solution for each individual hasn't changed since the dawn of time. The mind, and the techniques, and the emphasis - these shift with the ages. But the real work has been the same, and remains the same.
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The world of humanity is now facing two revolutions - economic and spiritual. It is truly an exciting time to be living. But the weird thing, behind all this, is that the solution for each individual hasn't changed since the dawn of time. The mind, and the techniques, and the emphasis - these shift with the ages. But the real work has been the same, and remains the same.
I thought about this the other day. I thought even if aliens landed on Earth, this wouldn't change it, the work on self is still the same.
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Yes, billions thrown at rescue are candy money compared to gaps with the size of trillions.
Cool time indeed! :) Time to have guts and effect the change where there are no known recipes for success...one just has to dare!
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In either case, it does not bode well.
Quite similar to my feeling about America today.
Even if Barack Obama wins the (s)election it is difficult to see that it would make that promised change. A great part of the citizens see him as a potential texxorist with a hidden agenda. How fruitful is that? A colored president is perhaps just too much for a great part of the society - andthat is contra productive. Add to this a extremely vulnerable situation in finance and the national budget. It is a slope for the US people whoever that hold the steering wheel.
Whoever that will run the US, what we see now is the beginning of the US Yang cycle, Yang means contraction/concentration opposed to, widening/expansion. The US will in the short future start to withdraw from global politics and focus on their own. Meaning that they close down a lot of engagement that they have today in many many countries. Also this will lead to a recession for the world economy but in longer terms of the next 10 years.
(Heh, this forum will not allow the word t e r r o r i s t so it transform it to tefforist, therefore you see my "texxorist")
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I have been trying to make sense of this crisis. Two things are becoming apparent.
First, one thing has become obvious, those 'in the know' - meaning Central bankers, IMF, big business and Government treasury officials - are very very worried. Why? Surely now with these massive credit backing moves by UK, EU and US, we should be getting back to business as usual, aside from the fact that US has been heading into recession, which it was doing before all this began... so what's news there?
The reason for the cold hand of fear over the hearts of those in the know has now been revealed. It is called CDS. Credit Default Swaps.
I won't go into the technical details, except to say this was a clever method devised by the capital markets, behind the scenes, which they thought would protect them against risky financial dealings. These financial dealings are 'assets' which get traded between large financial institutions, and in themselves are estimated to be around $10trn.
The CDS's which are also traded, and which were supposed to provide security behind these asset trades, but which instead have done the opposite, by becoming nearly worthless, are estimated at around $55trn. A market valuation more than twice the size of the combined GDP of US, Japan and EU.
A whole that size in the global financial markets, is beyond the capacity of taxpayer's funds to rescue. All governments are impotent to heal this one. That's why the faces of certain people have been drained of blood.
Very good information M. Half true and half speculation though. The central banks has one tool they always can use, in states like EU and Scandinavia it is a rare option though, "God forbidden". But one can always try to bail out debth with the painful price of inflation, and simply printing too much money while paying the debths. Like Zimbabwe the last decade and Germany in the 1920's and many other countries last century in South America and elsewhere. I do not think any country up here will use it, and Eu will never do it, but it is a option or rather a risk if things get crazy.
The US dollar has been almost 30 percent more expensive since this spring and we have suddenly an a all time high on the Euro. That is the price to have a own currency. However, this makes our export industry cheap and secure jobs. But a low exchange rate tend to increase the inflation rate. What we (Swedes) may see in the near future is a recession (car industry, health care sector, house building etc) and low interest rates combined with an imported inflation.
As a sidenote The Swedish Riksbank is the oldest Central Bank in the World, so we have a few more lessons than many others. But "best of all" we had a bank and real estate crisis in the early 1990's that cleaned up a lot and made new rules for loans. They wrote the other day that our banks do what they shall do, lend money to trade and industry and people that are more or less able to pay the rent for the loans. Nevertheless, Standard and Poor has lowered Swedbank from it's AA position and another large bank announced great loss of billions in bonds. However all banks are making profits and are balanced with enough liquidity so far.
The second thing is what does this mean?
It means the economic paradigm, plus the architecture which has grown from it, is now defunct. It also means the political paradigm of the 'right' has now been completely discredited. This is why McCain is losing in the US elections. People know - even if not the details, they know intuitively.
The implications of this are still only beginning to dawn on people. But we are at one of those major turning points in the history of our species. We are entering a new era, in which the community is replacing the individual. This is the crisis of the 'selfish gene'.
This can be witnessed in the US elections, where Republicans can't compete on issues like the Iraq war, or the economic situation, so they are having to fall back on the old ongoing civil war within the US. The Culture war.
They think they can stir up the Red tide against the Blue revolution of the 60's. But times have changed. It's not the 60's or the 80's anymore. People are scared. Lies will no longer win elections. This is now more a moral crisis than an economic one.
I agree completely, and I didn't know that the situation was so infected until I saw the video in this thread.It is a right wing dinosaur that are about to die.
We stand at the end of the beginning, and from here on, we will watch the heart of humanity being tested.
The big boogie looming over this crisis, is world government. How long will humanity put off this obvious necessity? And where will the people and the ideas and the architecture come from, which will usher in such a phase?
Personally, I sense this crisis is just the softener. The storms that are coming will be far larger.
The world of humanity is now facing two revolutions - economic and spiritual. It is truly an exciting time to be living. But the weird thing, behind all this, is that the solution for each individual hasn't changed since the dawn of time. The mind, and the techniques, and the emphasis - these shift with the ages. But the real work has been the same, and remains the same.
We can make a difference, like Jen do, like E do, like V do, like L do, like you and I do and like everybody all else here can do. We can do a difference because we have a physical body, and we can talk, we can listening, we can write, encourage, explain, read and sleep and continue to be connected to our genuine part.
Our Souls count minutes in this "war of change" and we can be great assets simply by doing the things that we want to do.
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;D
Our Souls count minutes in this "war of change" and we can be great assets simply by doing the things that we want to do.
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Zeitgeist: Addendum
http://m1e.net/c?85760000-AgPQOLcmungug%403678743-c0Y5lTpmmUTZI
So please xero, give us a 2 sentences summary why we should watch this 2 hour movie.
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That's all nice and sound about returning to one's roots, etc., BUT...is there ENOUGH cod left in the seas? Will they empty seas in order to restore their wealth?
They're fishing superpower, these hunter-vikings.
I am sorry Juhani, but I have no time to read your quote - what did it say. Can you make a summary or a personal conclusion of it?
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I am sorry Juhani, but I have no time to read your quote - what did it say. Can you make a summary or a personal conclusion of it?
I clenaders have discovered that their banks have been washed out and situtation is worsening day by day. They need hard currency and something real to export. Now they are remembering that they have a huge fishing industry and turning their eyes full of hope in that direction.
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I clenaders have discovered that their banks have been washed out and situtation is worsening day by day. They need hard currency and something real to export. Now they are remembering that they have a huge fishing industry and turning their eyes full of hope in that direction.
Well, their fishing industry is merely peanuts to their speculations in bank adventures.
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So please xero, give us a 2 sentences summary why we should watch this 2 hour movie.
1. Because it outlines how the 'system' we accept as 'our society' stuffed and shafted us.
2. Because it suggests another way of thinking about this economic predicament and would lend a focus to the dialogue taking place on Soma.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L3QVn4JyYA&feature=related
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Zeitgeist: Addendum
http://m1e.net/c?85760000-AgPQOLcmungug%403678743-c0Y5lTpmmUTZI
Wealth in the US is so disproportionate ... it's disgusting. Wall street has crashed ... now people are "crashing"... the only way they know how ... into each other. When US citizens finally realize that their government is no more than a glorified mafia, the "have-nots" are going to go after the "haves". I don't think it will be a pretty sight, but it's inevitable. It will be a necessary event of "balance", and "adjustment".
The "powers that be" have already planted the seed of anger within the Republican presidential campaign. "Divide and conquer" ... so they think. Will it backfire? I guess we'll find out.
It is a right wing dinosaur that are about to die.
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Wealth in the US is so disproportionate ... it's disgusting. Wall street has crashed ... now people are "crashing"... the only way they know how ... into each other. When US citizens finally realize that their government is no more than a glorified mafia, the "have-nots" are going to go after the "haves". I don't think it will be a pretty sight, but it's inevitable. It will be a necessary event of "balance", and "adjustment".
If I was in the position to give anyone advice right now, :P what I'd say is turn off the TV for a few days, don't read the paper, don't talk politics, then see how (or if) your life has really changed...
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Zeitgeist: Addendum
http://m1e.net/c?85760000-AgPQOLcmungug%403678743-c0Y5lTpmmUTZI
Here's the Zeitgeist Movie...
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgeist+movie&emb=0#
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Our Souls count minutes in this "war of change" and we can be great assets simply by doing the things that we want to do.
let's dream a brand new world
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let's dream a brand new world
Namaste'
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that is what we are doing here
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that is what we are doing here
:-*
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We can't just dream it here ... the dream belongs to Everyone. Dream BIG everyone ... it's time.
Ang :-*
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When we see God in each other we will be able to live in peace.
—Mother Teresa
(http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/135/077_OINT~Intention-Posters.jpg)
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Peace In The World
If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
— Chinese Proverb
(http://logo.cafepress.com/3/793877.3272603.jpg)
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Peace In The World
If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
— Chinese Proverb
(http://logo.cafepress.com/3/793877.3272603.jpg)
;D
This is the last post I will read before going to bed.
Thanks Jennifer
love you
:-*
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Good Morning and Sweet dreams!
Love you too. :-*
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1. Because it outlines how the 'system' we accept as 'our society' stuffed and shafted us.
2. Because it suggests another way of thinking about this economic predicament and would lend a focus to the dialogue taking place on Soma.
Ad notam ;D
The first part of this film Zeitgeist Addendum is about criminality, corruption, how to build an empire with dollars, economic hitmen, jackals and war as means to reach the goal. Poverty and deforestation are some results of this criminality. The film also deals with “Monetarism” as the common denominator in different political systems.
Dollar-bill, a bill is a debt (a credit). Money is exchanged on agreement, best would be to take out the salary in coins or gold. Paper itself has very little value while metal always has a value.
To lend money is to be in debt. As our prime minister said after the financial crash in Sweden 1992 and also named his book with: “The one that are in debt is not free”.
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The Zeitgeist Addendum paints much very black – like that old man saying that politicians cannot solve problems – now they can at least create problems ;D. But as you will see politicians has one instrument to solve a problem. They can distribute welfare to the society through taxes, and companies as well as citizens pays taxes.
We must remember that there are societies that function and care for their citizens quite fair. Therefore they are called “Welfare states”, welfare is built by using taxes as an instrument to distribute wealth to all citizens regardless of their position in the life cycle and the society ladder. Inequality within a country is a greater health problem than inequality between countries. In terms of justice though we can of course put on another eye glasses if we acknowledge that country A is poor because country B exploit the resources of country A. But that is another problem, that is foreign affairs. “Our problem” within our country is to build a society that care for the citizens, healthy people provide more benefit than sick people or dead people, (I didn’t say profit but that could be the case too).
I refer to Prof Richard Wilkinsson below, he is a very vivid and interesting scholar that I have had the pleasure of to listening to a couple of times. With the aim to put his findings in a more conspicuous way he once asked the audience how they would judge the leaders of a society; if they once a year allowed the military to take some lorries with soldiers on the lorry platform and drive in among the public and shoot people and thereby kill a certain amount of the population.
Wilkinsson says that inequality kills and that it is one of the government’s most important tasks to reduce (great) spans of inequality.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5134BX3H0DL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_AA219_PIsitb-sticker-dp-arrow,TopRight,-24,-23_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Introduction (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0415092353/ref=sib_fs_top?ie=UTF8&p=S00E&checkSum=1pvEefNdsNtz0Skb8%2F42vD4wxbHxsodPGQpUF4BpbWQ%3D#reader-link)
Review: Richard G Wilkinson, The Impact of Inequality (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/jul/30/highereducation.news1)
“So Greece, with half the GDP per head, has longer life expectancy than the US, the richest and most unequal country with the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. The people of Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh.”
“Homicide rates (and other crimes) track a country's level of inequality, not its overall wealth. The fairest countries have the highest levels of trust and social capital. The American states that have the more equal income distribution also have most social trust: New Hampshire, the most equal, is least likely to agree that "most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance". “
http://www.who.int/social_determinants/commissioners/baum_article/en/index.html
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The first part of this film Zeitgeist Addendum is about criminality, corruption, how to build an empire with dollars,
I should correct myself, I started to watch the movie on about 20 minutes. The first part is about banks and bills.
On a seminar with Joseph Agassi* he told us with great conviction that "Money is an institution" - well when watching this movie it become more clear "How money is an institution".
*Heh, I have met him and his wife in a series of table seminars when I still was a PhD student. I attended these round table seminars because I thought that was the best seminiars my deptartment would ever create. He is from Israel and that perhaps color some of his scientific views and choice of topics to discuss but from my narrow perspective he were a a very interesting scholar and a entertainer at the same time, like a true man of the World, a real global citizen.
Joseph Agassi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Agassi)
"According to Agassi, democracy is so outstanding that no matter what the agenda is, it is still best. He developed further the methodology of critical rationalism which he adopted from Popper. According to him, critical rationalism gives the possibility to rationalists to account for checks and balances and democracy within their rationalism"
"Agassi has written widely on global politics and on the methodology to implement global politics. His methodology is consistently procedural, without having requests for systematic procedures. His demands from those that design global politics are minimalist: small methodological changes may lead to large scale achievements. "
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Now, in the first 20 minutes of the Addendum movie there is a questionable example. It is about these original 10 billion that leads to the split of exessive inheritance in the relation 1 to 9 billion dollars. The narrrator then draw a few less likely assumptions; because the guy that lend 9 billions would probably not deposit the whole sum back into the bank, he would probably buy something for that money, build something, invest in his firm and so on. And by that the bank will have less liquidity to lend on.
The money cycle out of thin air will stop earlier, the original 10 billions will not lead to 90 billions as suggested in the movie.
I would like to add that we had one year of deflation in Sweden in 1994. That is something rare and a option not mentioned in the movie.
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I'm listening to the audio clips on the left side of the home page. Refreshing ideas!!
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/support.htm
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I like Colin Powell, not for what he have done but because he was a friend to our minister in foreign affairs, Anna Lind, and that he has a couple of old Volvo Amazon cars that he maintain (warms my heart).
When I look at the USA, Colin Powell is one of my "promise guys" if anyone understand that. Now he made some controversial statement, by voting on Obama instead of Mc Cain (He is supposed to vote as a Republican).
Powell take a stand (http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/usavalet/article3574389.ab)
(http://www.philseed.com/images/volvo-amazon-1956.jpg)
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I like Colin Powell, not for what he have done but because he was a friend to our minister in foreign affairs, Anna Lind, and that he has a couple of old Volvo Amazon cars that he maintain (warms my heart).
When I look at the USA, Colin Powell is one of my "promise guys" if anyone understand that. Now he made some controversial statement, by voting on Obama instead of Mc Cain (He is supposed to vote as a Republican).
Powell take a stand (http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/usavalet/article3574389.ab)
That's going to carry a lot of weight for Obama.
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That's going to carry a lot of weight for Obama.
I think Powell is very tough in his analysis and arguments and perhaps many listen to him from both parties.
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Spirituality for Apocalyptic Times
by Robert V. Thompson
Nearly 135 years ago, Mark Twain said, “October is a particularly dangerous month to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”
The tenuous nature of speculation in the stock market is perhaps a metaphor for the tenuous nature of life itself. From unanticipated joy to unexpected pain, from temporary calm to inexplicable chaos—the markets imitate life.
The dismal news of recent weeks is vaguely reminiscent of the days surrounding 9/11. Remember? The airlines stopped flying, the stock market crashed, for a few days, life came to a halt.
Although the financial crisis of 2008 is not as unnerving as the experience of 9/11 we keep hearing financial news that heightens anxiety and dampens the spirit. In these uncertain times it is clear that Yogi Berra was right: The future isn’t what it used to be.
Few would deny that recent events have triggered a palpable fear, fear, anxiety—even dread.
We find ourselves in an apocalyptic moment.
Apocalyptic moments have interrupted the lives of human beings as long as human beings have been around. These moments come in a variety of forms but the result is always the same—the end of one reality is the birth of another.
The art of spirituality is to, as the cliché says, go with the flow. But this is easier said than done.
To “go with the flow” is an idea that has its roots in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism. Here’s the rub. One cannot go with the flow unless one is willing to detach from the external circumstances of life.
For many people, especially in the West, equate detachment with being aloof or not caring about people.
This is not the meaning of spiritual detachment.
Most of us enjoy a good movie. We enter the theater and sit down with our popcorn and coke and hope to be transported to another world, for a couple of hours, anyway. If the movie is really good, we laugh, we cry, we feel fear and joy. Sometimes the heart beats fast. Sometimes we sigh. But when the movie ends we read the credits, get up and go on.
Spirituality is the art of being able to view the comedies and dramas of our lives the way we watch a movie.
The art of detachment is expressed nowhere better than in the story told by the ancient Taoist master, Hui Nan Tzu.
Here is the story he told.
A poor farmer's horse ran off into the country of the barbarians. When all his neighbors gathered to offer their condolences, the farmer said, "How do you know that this isn't good fortune?"
After a few months the horse returned with a barbarian horse of excellent stock. All his neighbors offered their congratulations, but the farmer said, "How do you know this isn't a disaster?"
The two horses bred , and the farmer became rich in fine horses. The farmer's son spent much of his time riding them. One day the farmer’s son fell off the horse and broke his hip. Again, all his neighbors offered the father their condolences, but the farmer answered, "How do you know that this isn't good fortune?
Another year passed and the Barbarians invaded the frontier. All the able bodied young men were conscripted, but because of his broken hip, the farmer’s son could not go and fight. All of the young men were killed in the war—except of course, the farmer’s son.
After telling this story, Hui Nan Chu asks the question, "Who can tell how events will be transformed?"
Nothing that happens to us is the last thing to happen to us. Learning to go with the flow, being carried by the Tao occurs when we detach ourselves from the idea that the last thing that has happened is the most important thing. But the truth is, the last thing is never the final thing. There's always more to the story.
The art of spirituality is seeing that life is one drama after another. The last thing that happened to you is just the last thing, it’s never the final thing.
We are all actors in a bigger story than that of our own little dramas. To understand this is to be liberated from being controlled by external circumstances.
The art of spirituality is learning how to bend without breaking.
The art of spirituality is learning how to play our own transient part in the inimitable eternal story of life.
In Thornton Wilder’s classic play, Our Town, one of the characters says, “There's something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being." When we awaken to this way down deep of the eternal within us, we let go of our attachments to the external and open to a deeper reality. In each and every one of us there is a wholeness that’s hidden beneath the surface circumstances of our lives.
When we touch this truth we are able to say, no matter what is happening in the world around me—I know that all is well with my soul.
Spirituality is the process by which we touch this hidden wholeness.
What matters is not what happens to us, but our ability to touch this hidden wholeness.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1390-Chicago-Spirituality-Examiner~y2008m10d20-Spirituality-For-Apocalyptic-Times
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How very funny it is - the best hope offers no hope. :) It seems that we, humans, are hellbent on destroying earth - one of the organs of our solar system. That'll take time, but meanwhile we busy ourselves with accelerating destruction of organs of Earth.
Look from whatever end you like, but we are monumentally stuffed.
Remains to be seen who'll do the ultimate sacrifice, i.e. will there be any being willing to pay the price.
The Times
October 20, 2008
Environment will wither whoever win US election
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4974536.ece
Tom Baldwin and Lucy Bannerman in Washington
Eager anticipation of the next American president offering a dramatically different policy on climate change is being tempered by the chill winds of the financial crisis.
Barack Obama or John McCain will inherit a blighted economy, a ballooning deficit set to reach $1 trillion and a political landscape in upheaval from the market turmoil of recent weeks.
Environmental groups are already bracing themselves for delays or disappointment on action to tackle global warming which, they say, will inevitably be seen as having an impact on American jobs.
Steve Clemons, a director at the liberal think-tank The New America Foundation, said that whoever succeeds President Bush is “going to have a horrible time”. He added: “They are not going to be able to do everything they said they were going to do. The economic constraints were always going to be huge, even before the current crisis. Now, with the drama over the financial markets, when the next president is sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office he will have to weigh up different programmes, cut back and pare down.”
Already there is talk of plans for universal healthcare or expensive tax cuts being reconsidered, while Britain is among the international governments alarmed over what the crisis may mean for hopes of getting a breakthrough deal on climate change. Mr Obama has proposed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 80 per cent by 2050 and wants to fund a ten-year, $150 billion energy independence programme by selling carbon-use permits to industry through a European-style cap and trade system. Mr McCain is not far behind, promising cuts of 60 per cent by 2050.
Diplomats acknowledge that the prospects of securing Congressional agreement for such measures are diminished. Gordon Brown is known to be concerned about how little time the next president will have to focus on the issue before heading to Copenhagen in December next year where a new international treaty on climate change will be negotiated.
The last such summit produced the Kyoto Protocol that Mr Bush rejected because it would disadvantage American workers unfairly against those in China and India.
A bi-partisan effort to introduce significant cuts in America’s carbon use failed to pass the Senate this year and state-wide measures have recently been marked by their modesty. In Michigan, for example, legislation was introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 6 per cent over the next 12 years.
Even though Democrats — who are more inclined to fight global warming — are expected to tighten their grip on Capitol Hill after the elections in November, they will still encounter opposition from Rust Belt states and those heavily reliant on coal, as well as lobbying from industry and unions.
“Right now, I don’t think that will be our primary concern,” said Hank Cox, of the National Association of Manufacturers. “If a truck is coming straight at you, that’s your main worry, not the truck coming round the bend that might get to you eventually.
“The next thing is getting consumers out of their lairs to start consuming again.” Against these, carbon emission schemes are a distant concern, Mr Cox said. “If the economy remains in the same suspended animation that it is now, there will be a reluctance to undertake any expensive new legislative regimes.”
Frank O’Donnell, of Clean Air Watch, said: “The state of economic turmoil throws up a whole new question mark over climate change legislation. It was already an uphill struggle and the state of the economy has made the angle of that hill even steeper.
“I’m not expecting any economic-wide effort to introduce the cap and trade measures to come bouncing on to the Senate floor any time soon. It’s like turning a great battleship around. I know the next president will have to ease it around in the right direction.”
The British Government has spent more than three years paving the way for the next president by chipping at the road block the US has long represented on getting a binding agreement — designed to “penetrate every layer of American society”.
Dozens of MPs have been dispatched to sell the virtues of a cap and trade system to state legislatures, while the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, has preached the environmental stewardship of God’s creation to evangelical leaders of the Religious Right.
The TUC and the CBI have told their American counterparts how new jobs — and fortunes — can be found in carbon-efficient technology. Retired American generals have been lectured about the security implications of being too reliant on Middle Eastern oil.
Even the Royal Family has got involved, with the Prince of Wales lobbying Congress and the White House on the issue. Mr Obama will send observers to the climate change conference in Poland in December and Susan Rice, his foreign policy adviser, told The Times: “This will remain one of our priorities.”
John Ashton, the British special representative on climate change, said: “We’ll have to fight harder.”
The British Embassy in Washington said that extra staff had been hired to prepare for a new offensive on climate change. “Both candidates are talking about the energy crisis, and that is encouraging. We have to be very focused on the benefits that green jobs can bring. The economic turbulence will mean people focusing very hard on whether they can afford to do it — we will say they cannot afford not to.”
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Spirituality for Apocalyptic Times
by Robert V. Thompson
Nearly 135 years ago, Mark Twain said, “October is a particularly dangerous month to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”
From the Swedish Wikipeda (my translation)
The 19th October in 1987 has been called the "Black Monday" when stock markets fell dramatically worldwide. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell with 22,6 % that day. The fall was the next largest in the global stock market history next after the 11th December in 1914 when DIJA fell with 24 percent.
On the Black Monday in 1987 Stockholm went down with over 20 percent and in the end of the year the stock markets in Hong Kong had decreased with nearly 46 percent, Australia with almost 42 percent, Great Britain with 26 percent, the US 23 percent and Canada also close to 23 percent.
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From the Swedish Wikipeda (my translation)
The 19th October in 1987 has been called the "Black Monday" when stock markets fell dramatically worldwide.
Heh, that is 21 years ago, three quarters of a full Saturn cycle.
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Here's my latest summery.
We are now into phase two of the crunch. Basically phase one was the credit crisis which swept the western world, behind the scenes. The quick action - compared to 1929 - of funds injection and backing, caught the wave just as it was about to toss the world into an abyss.
That crisis is essentially over, unfortunately however a deeper layer is creeping forward - the hidden derivatives crisis. Will that break? No one is sure - maybe, maybe not.
Phase two happened like this. US stock markets rebounded on the news that all major governments had stepped up to guarantee the banks, and inject fiscal stimulus packages. That lasted as I watched, about two to three days. Then US investors looked around, and all of a sudden (?? stupid people) recalled that US was heading into a recession before all this happened. Main Street was not only crumbling, but the Financial Crisis had exacerbated the decline. They sold stocks again. And they have been selling ever since.
This second wave is now beginning to break on the developing world economies. Most of them, including some of the vulnerable second tier countries like the Baltic states and Iceland, do not have the reserves to step in and halt the slide. This covers Africa, South America, Asia and East Europe.
It appears that the 'new power' countries, China, India and Brazil, have the stability to withstand the worst of this second wave, but the rest collapsed last week.
The comment from the experts is that if this hasn't affected you yet, it will soon.
Some curious details:
In Australia, BHP Billiton and RIO are very upbeat about their future resources business with Asia. ANZ bank is confident that Australian banks and property values will hold. Local supermarket giant Woolworths is showing a record profit.
This is all tied to the question of whether Asia will crumble at last, after withstanding the first wave. Most commentators seem to think only the big two, India and China, will escape, and the rest will crash.
Vast sums of money are racing for cover across the world. Where to? To the big economies, and away from the small - 'big is safe' is the mantra. The biggest is US bonds market which is why the US dollar has risen. But many sober analysts are rolling their eyes at this - USA is on the brink of national bankruptcy. Those bonds may soon become worthless. The problem for large investors is where to park trillions of dollars of cash - huge amounts can be lost in an hour by being in the wrong place.
Jahn is correct about inflation solving some problems, but at a cost, and no country want to go that way. The problem is that no one can work out whether this downturn will be accompanied by inflation of deflation. This is a mystery right now, and it does make a big difference.
On the moral side, we have Gordon Brown and Sarkozy stepping forward in a bold leadership move, to initiate a new global financial and business paradigm. But is it really new? More to the point, are they putting forward a drastic revolution or a patch-up job?
It's a patch-up job.
Reason is, that despite all the hoopla, the pain is insufficient to leverage big changes. The old guard are still entrenched, and so is their philosophy. A little regulation and a little centralisation - that should fix things and then we'll be back to business as usual.
Witness the sneaky assault by the US on the credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF boss - highlighting an internal investigation about his affair. That man has been too vocal recently, and needs to be put in his place - recall what happened to Joseph Stiglitz.
Witness the scandal of the huge bonuses and payouts in the Wall Street banking sector, of over $70bn! - money coming straight from taxpayers funds into the pockets of bank employees. Why? Because they don't get it - they believe this is a short hiccup in the gravy train, which will soon be back to normal.
The changes being evoked by this roll of crisis, are just too dramatic for anyone to contemplate. For God's sake, I haven't even heard anyone mention the Tobin tax yet.
I feel the human race is now entering a valley which will change the face of our species for many centuries to come. This will reveal itself over the next 50 years, and possibly in a much shorter time than that. Personally I do hope the global economy doesn't collapse in a pile of shit, because gradual change is more effective and lasting than violent change - on a social scale that is.
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now we sit and watch....
I think I heard the leaders are going to get together on Nov 15th - it'll all be over by then me thinks.
This week will be critical. The Asians and George had a get-together, and seems like it was all talk. With George still holding on to his undies.
I hear them speak of, 'is it going to be a V, W, U or L shaped recession.... or a total catastrophe'.
What we watch for at this point is the 'extra', coming in from the side. This is what you always should look out for when ever you are stretched to the absolute limit - something happens to test your real mettle.
An unrelated event, that comes in from left wing, and spins the whole crazy parade into complete anarchy.
There are lessons to be learnt in all this about these so-called companions we share our species name with. And about ourselves. So long as it is only in the news, it's fairly safe, but if it's the neighbours that are going rabid... best you keep an eye out.
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Heh, in terms of physics, it looks as if the initial pulse from the US has been sent, and now the closed space vibrates.
We do live in a closed space/system here, in physical life on Earth and it occurs to me that thinking that we were in some sort of open system has been one of the major illusions so far. The ideas of continuous economic growth, these weird security and risk-management instruments like CDS and others - how could anyone expect them to work in closed and finite space with finite resources? :)
Some waves are returning and they make the US shake a bit more strongly... We'll see how much of a resonance we'll get. I would expect several waves of reverberations to follow.
I'm looking at Russia now as they are running into a liquidity crisis. Their banks experience cash shortages and they simply wouldn't pay when people want to withdraw their money. There are penalties being instituted for those who want to end their deposits before set date.
That is an 11 time zone-state spanning the space from the Baltic Sea to Pacific.
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Australia's Stern review warns of runaway global warming
Carbon emissions are rising so fast that the world has no chance of hitting climate targets, says Australian economist
David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk,
Monday October 27 2008 13.28 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/27/climate-change-australia
Carbon pollution levels are rising so fast that the world has no realistic chance of hitting ambitious climate targets set by Britain and the G8, an influential report to the Australian government has warned.
The report, from economist Ross Garnaut, says existing carbon goals, such as those in Britain's climate change bill, are based on out-of-date emissions figures, and are so ambitious that they could wreck attempts to agree a new global deal on global warming.
Garnaut says that nations must accept a greater amount of warming is inevitable, or risk a failure to agree that "would haunt humanity until the end of time."
The report, billed as the Australian Stern review, uses recent estimates of booming carbon emissions that were not included in last year's report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), or the 2006 report from Sir Nicholas Stern on the economics of the problem.
Since 2000, the Garnaut report says, global carbon emissions from fossil fuel use have grown by 3% each year, as economies of developing countries including China have boomed. This compares to annual growth rates of 2% through the 1970s and 1980s, and just 1% in the 1990s.
The report, published today, predicts that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise by more than 3% each year until 2030.
The worst case considered by the IPCC was that world carbon dioxide emissions would rise by 2.5% each year — a scenario often criticised as too pessimistic. Most government projections and discussions are based on the milder IPCC "median" scenario, which sets an annual growth rate of just 2%.
Garnaut says the recent spike in emissions reflects a "platinum age" for the world economy, with growth exceeding the "golden age" of the 1950s and 1960s. And he says the trend raises "serious questions" about suggested climate targets.
Britain and Europe are pushing for the world to agree to limit carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million (ppm), which they say could avoid dangerous climate change. The level is currently more than 380ppm, up from 280ppm before the industrial revolution, and rising by more than 2ppm each year.
The framework for such an agreement was established at UN negotiations in Bali last year, and will be discussed in Poland this December. Analysts say a new treaty must be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen, late next year, for it to enter into force in 2012, when the existing Kyoto protocol expires.
The Garnaut report says developed nations including Britain, the United States and Australia would have to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 5% each year over the next decade to hit the 450ppm target. Britain's climate change bill, the most ambitious of its kind in the world, calls for reductions of about 3% each year to 2050.
Garnaut, a professorial fellow in economics at Melbourne University, said: "Achieving the objective of 450ppm would require tighter constraints on emissions than now seem likely in the period to 2020 ... The only alternative would be to impose even tighter constraints on developing countries from 2013, and that does not appear to be realistic at this time."
The report adds: "The awful arithmetic means that exclusively focusing on a 450ppm outcome, at this moment, could end up providing another reason for not reaching an international agreement to reduce emissions. In the meantime, the cost of excessive focus on an unlikely goal could consign to history any opportunity to lock in an agreement for stabilising at 550ppm, a more modest, but still difficult, international outcome. An effective agreement around 550ppm would be vastly superior to continuation of business as usual."
Experts say that a 450ppm goal could limit temperature rise to 2C, while 550ppm would commit the world to 3C warming, which the IPCC warned would inflict drought and famine on hundreds of millions of people and devastate wildlife.
Friends of the Earth said: "A target of 550ppm of carbon dioxide is a recipe for disaster and even the lower target of 450ppm will mean we will face runaway climate change. The Arctic sea ice and Himalaya glaciers are already disappearing and the permafrost bomb is looming. We need much deeper cuts. Professor Garnaut has described strong targets as delusional, but he continues to feed a delusional policy debate that recognises the problem but doesn't want to implement the solution."
The report, which was released by the Australian government last month, comes after climate scientists criticised carbon targets as having no scientific basis and potentially leading to "dangerously misguided" policies.
Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows at the Tyndall centre for climate change research at Manchester University say global carbon emissions are rising so fast that they would need to peak by 2015 and then decrease by up to 6.5% each year for atmospheric CO2 levels to stabilise at 450ppm, which might limit temperature rise to 2C. Even a goal of 650ppm - way above most government projections - would need world emissions to peak in 2020 and then reduce 3% each year.
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First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin...
From Times Online
October 28, 2008
US says attack on village was 'warning to Syria'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5030766.ece
Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent
An unprecedented American airborne attack on a Syrian village was intended to send a warning to Damascus to take stronger action against Iraq-bound foreign jihadists operating on its soil.
The warning came as senior officials in Washington gave their clearest briefings yet on the purpose of the raid, despite the continued official silence from the Pentagon and State Department.
“You have to clean up the global threat that is in your backyard and if you don’t do that, we are left with no choice but to take these matters into our own hands,” one senior official told reporters on conditional of anonymity.
Officials said that Abu Ghadiyah, the Iraqi national targeted and allegedly killed in the attack, had run a network channelling foreign fighters, weapons and funds into Iraq since 2004.
Abu Ghadiyah, whose full name is Badran Turki Hishan al-Mazidh, was appointed as al-Qaeda in Iraq’s commander for Syrian logistics by the organisation’s late founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He came from a family of smugglers in Anbar Province, Iraq.
“He ran one of the largest and most productive foreign fighter networks out of Syria and was directly responsible for hundreds of foreign fighters who killed thousands,” the official said. Syria has had plenty of opportunity to deal with the jihadist problem itself, he said but “eventually you can’t wait for guys like that to come back across the border and kill scores of Iraqis or worse, your own forces.”
The timing of the attack startled many, coming so soon after American praise for Syrian efforts to stemming the flow of jihadists over the border. While the number of foreign fighters crossing the border has fallen down to just 20 per month from 120 per month last year, analysts say Damascus has done little to stop money and weapons flowing into Iraq.
Intelligence officials in Washington, speaking anonymously, said the Central Intelligence Agency had hurriedly ordered the raid at the weekend after confirming Abu Ghadiyah’s location in the village of Sukkariyah in the Abu Kamal area.
Two dozen American commandos flew to Sukkariyah in four Black Hawk helicopters and disembarked, fighting a brief gun battle with Abu Ghadiyah and members of his cell. Officials said it was unclear whether Abu Ghadiyah had died on the battlefield or after being taken into American custody. A Syrian villager who witnessed the incident said he had seen two men taken away in the helicopters when the commandos flew off. Despite Syrian outrage and the threat of retaliation by Syrian troops, officials did not rule out mounting such a raid again.
“As targets present themselves and are identified…they become more and more at risk. Just like in Pakistan, there will be steps taken to deal with it,” a senior official said.
Similar justifications have been employed for the change in strategy along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border with American troops using Afghanistan to launch both air and missile attacks on suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan.
Washington’s patience with its allies in Islamabad waned amid growing evidence of Pakistan’s direct involvement in tefforist attacks such as the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The CIA’s discovery of Pakistani intelligence service involvement sparked a furious diplomatic showdown in Islamabad earlier this year.
Much of what the US knows about the Syrian link comes from the intelligence gleaned from a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda house in Iraq house in Sinjar, on the Iraqi side of the border, in the summer of last year.
Documents there revealed names and details of more than 500 foreign fighters who had entered from Syria, and of at least 95 Syrian “co-ordinators” who helped channel the jihadists across the border. Many of them were from tribal families active in the smuggling trade who appeared to be motivated by money rather than ideological sympathy. The documents revealed Abu Kamal, the area of Sunday’s raid, as a key conduit point.
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He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it, is a fool
A little update: lots of talk, nothing changes...
World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch
• Two planets need by 2030 at this rate, warns report
• Humans using 30% more resources than sustainable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats
Juliette Jowit
The Guardian,
Wednesday October 29 2008
The world is heading for an "ecological credit crunch" far worse than the current financial crisis because humans are over-using the natural resources of the planet, an international study warns today.
The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (£2.5tr) to $4.5tr every year - double the estimated losses made by the world's financial institutions as a result of the credit crisis - say the report's authors, led by the conservation group WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund. The figure is based on a UN report which calculated the economic value of services provided by ecosystems destroyed annually, such as diminished rainfall for crops or reduced flood protection.
The problem is also getting worse as populations and consumption keep growing faster than technology finds new ways of expanding what can be produced from the natural world. This had led the report to predict that by 2030, if nothing changes, mankind would need two planets to sustain its lifestyle. "The recent downturn in the global economy is a stark reminder of the consequences of living beyond our means," says James Leape, WWF International's director general. "But the possibility of financial recession pales in comparison to the looming ecological credit crunch."
The report continues: "We have only one planet. Its capacity to support a thriving diversity of species, humans included, is large but fundamentally limited. When human demand on this capacity exceeds what is available - when we surpass ecological limits - we erode the health of the Earth's living systems. Ultimately this loss threatens human well-being." Speaking yesterday in London, the report's authors also called for politicians to mount a huge international response in line with the multibillion-dollar rescue plan for the economy. "They now need to turn their collective action to a far more pressing concern and that's the survival of all life on planet Earth," said Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the president of WWF International.
Sir David King, the British government's former chief scientific adviser, said: "We all need to agree that there's a crisis of understanding, that we're removing the planet's biodiverse resources at a rate which is as fast if not faster than the world's last great extinction."
At the heart of the Living Planet report is an index of the health of the world's natural systems, produced by the Zoological Society of London and based on 5,000 populations of more than 1,600 species, and on an "ecological footprint" of human demands for goods and services.
For the first time the report also contains detailed information on the "water footprint" of every country, and claims 50 countries are already experiencing "moderate to severe water stress on a year-round basis". It also shows that 27 countries are "importing" more than half the water they consume - in the form of water used to produce goods from wheat to cotton - including the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands.
Based on figures from 2005, the index indicates global biodiversity has declined by nearly a third since 1970. Breakdowns of the overall figure show the tropical species index fell by half and the temperate index remained stable but at historically low levels. Divided up another way, indices for terrestrial, freshwater and marine species, and for tropical forests, drylands and grasslands all showed significant declines. Of the main geographic regions, only the Nearctic zone around the Arctic sea and covering much of North America showed no overall change.
Over the same period the ecological footprint of the human population has nearly doubled, says the report.
At that rate humans would need two planets to provide for their wants in the 2030s, two decades earlier than the previous Living Planet report forecast just two years ago. This figure is "conservative" as it does not include the risk of a sudden shock or "feedback loop" such as an acceleration of climate change, says the report. But it warns: "The longer that overshoot persists, the greater the pressure on ecological services, increasing the risk of ecosystem collapse, with potentially permanent losses of productivity."
In the 1960s most countries lived within their ecological resources. But the latest figures show that today three-quarters of the world's population live in countries which consume more than they can replenish.
Addressing concerns that national boundaries are an artificial way of dividing up the world's resources, Leape says: "It's another way of reminding ourselves we're living beyond our means."
The US and China account for more than two-fifths of the planet's ecological footprint, with 21% each.
A person's footprint ranges vastly across the globe, from eight or more "global hectares" (20 acres or more) for the biggest consumers in the United Arab Emirates, the US, Kuwait and Denmark, to half a hectare in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Afghanistan and Malawi. The global average consumption was 2.7 hectares a person, compared with a notional sustainable capacity of 2.1 hectares.
The UK, with an average footprint of about 5.5 hectares, ranks 15th in the world, just below Uruguay and the Czech Republic, and ahead of Finland and Belgium.
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Unrelated to any of the most recent posts, I want to share I've had a strong inspiration in the past couple of weeks to send to/wish/pray for/visualize/otherwise petition the higher powers-who-be, or the highest energetic, cosmic forces, to blanket Obama in wisdom, strength, fortitude, and peace. May he have the best possible counsel.
I see possibilities, and great tests for him. May he succeed --- may all of us succeed.
~fwiw
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Unrelated to any of the most recent posts, I want to share I've had a strong inspiration in the past couple of weeks to send to/wish/pray for/visualize/otherwise petition the higher powers-who-be, or the highest energetic, cosmic forces, to blanket Obama in wisdom, strength, fortitude, and peace. May he have the best possible counsel.
I see possibilities, and great tests for him. May he succeed --- may all of us succeed.
~fwiw
Perhaps you'd like to join in the Monthly Global Meditation coming up on the first of the Month. Wisdom, and peace and love could be sent to the rest of the world as well. ;D
(I know this isn't really a Soma 'thing', but your post reminded me...so I mentioned)
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Four Winds Society [mailto:fourwinds@thefourwinds.com]
Date: den 28 oktober 2008 22:45
Till: jamir
Subject: Conference Call Reminder, Wednesday October 29th
The Mayan Prophecies speak of the time on or around November 11th, 2008 as a time of great emergence, of moving into the “Sixth Day”. This new day will be a very fruitful time in preparation for the great galactic alignment of 2012. We are currently in the very darkest hour of the night before the breaking of the dawn. We must be vigilant and attentive without engaging the world with drama. Now is the time to heal ourselves and our culture, to reevaluate and reexamine all belief structures, to cull what needs to be shifted and to allow ourselves to be renewed and reborn with this approaching new day.
If we do not complete this process of purification and healing, the breaking down of old structures, this breaking down will happen at the literal and physical level. The year 2008 is the “shakedown year”. We must bring our power and attention to examine what no longer serves us. We must be dismembered and walk with ethics in the world. The prophecies foretell that the individuals who take this leap will rise out of the creative juices of the rich, dark mother earth and flourish.
In this upcoming conference call, Dr. Alberto Villoldo will discuss how we can break free of our fight or flight instincts, hold firm to our values and move courageously forward into a time of unfettered possibility - into the dawn of new thinking.
Please join us:
Wednesday, October 29th
Call will be held at 5:00 pm MDT (Utah, USA)
To Listen dial (616) 883-8400
Enter Access Code: 429628572#
Long Distance charges will apply
Check your local time: www.timeanddate.com
This call will be recorded and available for download
on our website within 48 hours of the conference.
Link to our Conference Call Archive page >
________________________________________
The Four Winds Society | PO Box 680675 | Park City | UT | 84068
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I wonder how the decision will be made on whether to break down the physical world or not. If it means that majority of humans must be on board, I'd guess there's little chance of averting the cataclysm.
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Four Winds Society [mailto:fourwinds@thefourwinds.com]
Please join us:
Wednesday, October 29th
Call will be held at 5:00 pm MDT (Utah, USA)
To Listen dial (616) 883-8400
Enter Access Code: 429628572#
Thanks Jamir,
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I wonder how the decision will be made on whether to break down the physical world or not. If it means that majority of humans must be on board, I'd guess there's little chance of averting the cataclysm.
Well then, we must find a way to go down laughing! :D
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Why exactly laughing?
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Why exactly laughing?
Exactly laughing because I'm not going to live my last days in utter terror.
It's maya, anyway.
The wheel turns one way, and disaster is at hand.
It shifts another, and the day is saved.
There is no certainty.
So I feel obliged to enjoy myself as much as possible -- to grab every moment of gusto I can.
Laughter oils the wheels, for me.
Laughter and singing.
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How about that?
RAND Lobbies Pentagon: Start War To Save U.S. Economy
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b55_1225399574
EXCLUSIVE: Shocking proposal urges military leaders to attack major foreign power
Paul Joseph Watson & Yihan Dai
Thursday, October 30, 2008
According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American eco More..nomy and prevent a recession.
A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression.
The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets.
The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
Current directors of RAND include Frank Charles Carlucci III, former Defense Secretary and Deputy Director of the CIA, Ronald L. Olson, Council on Foreign Relations luminary and former Secretary of Labor, and Carl Bildt, top Bilderberg member and former Swedish Prime Minister.
Carlucci was chairman of the Carlyle Group from 1989-2005 and oversaw gargantuan profits the defense contractor made in the aftermath of 9/11 following the invasion of Afghanistan. The Carlyle Group has also received investment money from the Bin Laden family.
Reportedly, the RAND proposal brazenly urged that a new war could be launched to benefit the economy, but stressed that the target country would have to be a major influential power, and not a smaller country on the scale of Afghanistan or Iraq.
The reports have prompted a surge of public debate and tension in China about the possibility that a new global conflict is on the horizon.
China’s biggest media outlet, Sohu.com, speculated that the target of the new war would probably be China or Russia, but that it could also be Iran or another middle eastern country. Japan was also mentioned as a potential target for the reason that Japan holds the most U.S. debt.
North Korea was considered as a target but ruled out because the scale of such a war would not be large enough for RAND’s requirements.
The reported RAND proposal dovetails with recent comments made by Joe Biden, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and others, concerning the “guarantee” that Barack Obama will face a major “international crisis” soon after taking office.
It also arrives following a warning from Michael Bayer, chairman of a key Pentagon advisory panel, who echoed the statement that the next administration will face an international crisis within months of taking office.
One would hope that good people, or at least sane people who don’t wish to start a global nuclear war, will oppose the RAND proposal, such as top the military generals who threatened to quit if Bush ordered an attack on Iran. Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, quit in March last year as a result of his opposition to Bush administration policy on Iran.
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As I said in another post, just returned from watching this film on the play Titanic. Others there said the play was far superior to the movie, aside from the audio-visuals.
It was revealing to me about myself, how uncomfortable I felt during the second act, which as all after they had hit the iceberg. They stood around talking and moaning about whose fault it was or about being left behind or whatever. I have been aware of this event for a long time, and the issue of why people didn't rip the ship apart to make rafts etc. Instead they stood there singing and crying while it sank - I experience great anxiety at that kind of wasted opportunity in an emergency.
When there really is no way out, I become very calm - I am not afraid of dying. Quite the contrary. But I can't stand the thought of throwing away precious opportunities out of lack of keenness and awareness, or simple lack of spunk.
Friday night I went to dinner with two friends who had just returned from a year's holiday living in Paris, on long service leave. Wandering aimlessly (in my view) about the streets, eating good French food and sucking up the ambience. These people are very intelligent, academics in Sociology and Philosophy, and yet they are completely oblivious to the impending doom. So they squander their precious time in some romantic dream-scape, while the ship is sinking.
There is the Economic meltdown, which very likely could turn into a world depression. In front of the environmental meltdown, which most likely will result in a global catastrophe. But these are only the many faces of Death, which is silently stalking us, right now as we post blithely on this forum.
How long will it be before one of us dies? We have know each other for many years now, so the odds must be building - who will it be?
What are we doing that will make us feel our precious time is not wasted in fantasy?
The economy and the environment are only tricks we use to help us wake up - the real groper in the dark will not be avoided.
On the Titanic, they had about 1 to 2 hours - an eternity, and a split second.... just like the remainder of our life.
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How long will it be before one of us dies? We have know each other for many years now, so the odds must be building - who will it be?
It won't be for any of us to say, will it?
It's good to not be in the romantic dreamscape, but pretending to be on the committee of the grim reaper is the other extreme.
I mean, to view events like the 2004 tsunami, katrina, the financial meltdown, the global meltdown, etc, with sporting interest seems like some macabre act of vampirism. It's beyond stalking ... there's something in it which says "f-k you", to me. In other words, it feels more diabolical than helpful, to me.
Why does it feel diabolical to me? Because there are those here who feel so "certain" and "right" about the doom-prediction. Do those of you who feel so sure ever consider that your own projections into the matter intensify and feed the possibility of your accuracy?
But then again, I'm perhaps in a more dangerous area than most of the folks here -- below sea level, on the coast, privy to hurricanes, an excellent "ground zero" per military interests, downwind from D.C. and NYC. So maybe I don't have the same luxury others here seem to have, and don't really find it all that sporting to assess "Who?" it will be. It's too close to home, perhaps.
I don't expect my "emotional" reaction to count for anything there, but as the bets go on increasingly, here, I feel like mounting the sacrificial slab myself, just to end the suspense. Then everyone can diabolically analyze that!
A loss is a loss .... this ain't Las Vegas.
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But these are only the many faces of Death, which is silently stalking us, right now as we post blithely on this forum.
Who's blithe?
What are we doing that will make us feel our precious time is not wasted in fantasy?
I suppose you'll laugh, but what I was doing was posting on this forum! Connecting internationally, to spread and extend some reaching hand of ethereal hope or at least awareness, thereby increasing the sense of a global kind of unity. So fool me, eh? The thing you're calling "blithe" and "fantasy"-ridden were my very efforts to create a different reality.
And if that didn't work, then I would die a little better for the connection.
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One of my wings is in the sky;
I have trailed the other below.
Have I not drunk Soma?
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It won't be for any of us to say, will it?
It's good to not be in the romantic dreamscape, but pretending to be on the committee of the grim reaper is the other extreme.
I mean, to view events like the 2004 tsunami, katrina, the financial meltdown, the global meltdown, etc, with sporting interest seems like some macabre act of vampirism. It's beyond stalking ... there's something in it which says "f-k you", to me. In other words, it feels more diabolical than helpful, to me.
Why does it feel diabolical to me? Because there are those here who feel so "certain" and "right" about the doom-prediction. Do those of you who feel so sure ever consider that your own projections into the matter intensify and feed the possibility of your accuracy?
But then again, I'm perhaps in a more dangerous area than most of the folks here -- below sea level, on the coast, privy to hurricanes, an excellent "ground zero" per military interests, downwind from D.C. and NYC. So maybe I don't have the same luxury others here seem to have, and don't really find it all that sporting to assess "Who?" it will be. It's too close to home, perhaps.
I don't expect my "emotional" reaction to count for anything there, but as the bets go on increasingly, here, I feel like mounting the sacrificial slab myself, just to end the suspense. Then everyone can diabolically analyze that!
A loss is a loss .... this ain't Las Vegas.
When the shit hits the fan, we will all have to make our stand right where we are.
There aren't and won't be any safe zones.
I've been giving a lot of thoughts lately, and kind of think of it this way (using the toltec analogy):
In past small groups of warriors formed a group to journey into the unknown, the nagual. While it is a dangerous task, they had the comfort of a safe place they could return to. They journied until the group was able to withstand the definitive journey.
In contrast, now, the nagual, the eternity is coming to pay us a visit. I think it will be much like a judgement day (except that you won't be judged by your sins :p).
We won't have the luxury of safe zones those small groups had.
However what we need to do is not much different.
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How long will it be before one of us dies? We have know each other for many years now, so the odds must be building - who will it be?
Thought precisely about it yesterday and today. Even visualised the situation where some us were gone to the other side. Felt the gaps. Felt very real.
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Hope is driven by fear.
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Hope is driven by fear.
So does the work. :p
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So does the work. :p
;)
Liked your words about making the stand wherever we'll be when the shit hits the fan!
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I suppose you'll laugh, but what I was doing was posting on this forum! Connecting internationally, to spread and extend some reaching hand of ethereal hope or at least awareness, thereby increasing the sense of a global kind of unity. So fool me, eh? The thing you're calling "blithe" and "fantasy"-ridden were my very efforts to create a different reality.
I'm not laughing V. What's the point of having a place like Soma, of being folks who can see and have the power to affect change, if we don't use it?
Do those of you who feel so sure ever consider that your own projections into the matter intensify and feed the possibility of your accuracy?
Possible isn't it?
Which is why I choose not to engage in the fear mongering and the doomsday predictions. I'd rather focus my attention and energy on things such as those you mentioned above.
Hope is driven by fear.
I do believe that fear can spur hope in some instances, but to say that hope is driven by fear may be missing out on some of the reasons, the point of having hope. Hope creates a glimmer of light in the darkness that can be as a beacon in the night, and from that glimmer great things can often manifest.
;D
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When the shit hits the fan, we will all have to make our stand right where we are.
There aren't and won't be any safe zones.
I've been giving a lot of thoughts lately, and kind of think of it this way (using the toltec analogy):
In past small groups of warriors formed a group to journey into the unknown, the nagual. While it is a dangerous task, they had the comfort of a safe place they could return to. They journied until the group was able to withstand the definitive journey.
In contrast, now, the nagual, the eternity is coming to pay us a visit. I think it will be much like a judgement day (except that you won't be judged by your sins :p).
We won't have the luxury of safe zones those small groups had.
However what we need to do is not much different.
It's exactly what we should be doing, R!
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It's exactly what we should be doing, R!
We ought to start from looking into and thinking about 'unthinkable'.
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We ought to start from looking into and thinking about 'unthinkable'.
I do that 24-7, E.
And?
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I do that 24-7, E.
And?
Have you conquered your fear? Your post about 'diabolical approach' suggested that you live in fear.
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Have you conquered your fear? Your post about 'diabolical approach' suggested that you live in fear.
What is conquering fear? Ceasing to have it? if so, no, I haven't conquered it. Why should I? I need it, in order to rightly assess the situations as they come up.
Do you think a warrior is fearless?
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Do you think a warrior is fearless?
No, but not dominated by it either.
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No, but not dominated by it either.
Agreed.
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I will use my snake story: There are a lot of snakes around where I live, and one particularly is perhaps the deadliest in the world - normally considered so not due to its potency of poison, which is none the less way up there with the best, but due to its volatile nature... no sleepy fellow this one.
Some people would come to visit me and we would go for a walk in the hot summer day, through the long grass etc.
Most visitors would not even think much about snakes, and when I dutifully would warn them, they were often frozen with the horror at the prospect. (I like that 'horror at the prospect' - good name for something.)
One of my friends used to prance off gaily into the bush saying, "I never think about snakes, and they don't appear."
Good luck with that one, I used to think to myself - there was no point in telling her as she didn't like being told anything.
Myself, born of a sunny disposition, was never troubled, but I do recall when I changed my own view.
It was reading of Rolling Thunder who had the same problem when taking people through the scrub. He used to say, "With any luck we will see a snake... I really like snakes." And when he did, he was delighted, as not only did he have no fear of snakes, but he loved to dance with them. What he did have for snakes was respect.
The existence of a lurking danger ... death in any of its many forms ... is a boon beyond measure, as it brings us many gifts. The gift of respect, awareness, plus the opportunity to realise our fears and transform them. Fears unacknowledged are like beacons to the feared.
Rolling Thunder showed me many years ago, that the real posture is edge. If we have not edge, we are sitting ducks.
Everything I have tried to do in Soma, can be reduced to convincing members of the profound power and beauty of edge, and how to gain it!
As they say, "Edge is a woman alone."
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We have to not only survive, but to use these economic and environmental waves to our ultimate benefit. Part of that is to shake off our middle-class dream, and focus on survival. The other part is to take refuge in the Nagual. That means take refuge in Spirit. We pit against the despair of our world, our link to real meaning and purpose in life.
It is no longer a game. We have to begin practising for real what we have only being dabbling with up till now.
We will need every grain of awareness and flexibility we have stored.
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responses being predictable...well...they are.
two can play at that game ;)
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(http://www.leonardshoup.com/shop_image/product/125101.jpg)
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Oh shoot -- thought it was a "woman alone"! :P
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that's the other side ;)
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When the shit hits the fan, we will all have to make our stand right where we are.
There aren't and won't be any safe zones.
I've been giving a lot of thoughts lately, and kind of think of it this way (using the toltec analogy):
In past small groups of warriors formed a group to journey into the unknown, the nagual. While it is a dangerous task, they had the comfort of a safe place they could return to. They journied until the group was able to withstand the definitive journey.
In contrast, now, the nagual, the eternity is coming to pay us a visit. I think it will be much like a judgement day (except that you won't be judged by your sins :p).
We won't have the luxury of safe zones those small groups had.
However what we need to do is not much different.
"There is no decent place to stand,
in a massacre." (LC)
Good point Rudi - the ability to have a safe place to retreat to is very essential, for an individual or a group. It is all very well to say we have to provide for that internally, and that is true. But it is also a strategic necessity to have it in the physical, and I have give much thought to that.
Yet it is also true that it may very likely be a luxury we find ourselves without.
Another quote from Cohen, Julie told me about yesterday, is that he is supposed to have said somewhere, "You think America is bad, wait till you see what comes next."
In all this confusion, uncertainty and speculation, a safe place would be very handy. First we need a place in our own mind, where nothing matters, and we can relax - we are not responsible for the world, nor even our own survival in the final account ... it is all a passing dream.
I would love to find a physical retreat that could slip past the turmoil. I have spoken before of the Sufis, who existed in some of the most turbulent parts and times - they split into three groups to survive:
The first removed themselves, and set up habitation in remote and secret valleys. The second went underground, kept their practices and purpose hidden. The third joined the oppressors, and tried to bring sense and wisdom to their leaders (most of those were killed).
In times like we are contemplating, not all of humanity goes rabid. Many people genuinely seek something of deeper meaning in their life. There is an opportunity for us to play a constructive and beneficial role with such people. It may be some time yet before a collapse, and in that time, we could find for a change, that there is a place for people like us, which did not exist in the mad days of greed, money and fast lanes.
Perhaps the qualities we aspire and value, which have been dismissed and denigrated till now, could once more find favour among the more mature and serious minded. There could very likely be an important task for us, a role to play in the wider arc of humanity.
In there, we may find a temporary safe place. Just don't rely on it too much - we will all have to become children of the wilderness again one day.
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two can play at that game ;)
Watson, what would you deduce from this: we are on our beds and looking up and we see a starry sky?
Sherlock, it is a clear and beautiful night!
Yes, Watson, but it also means that our tent has been stolen! ;)
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And so comes to an end the networking era - cyberworld becomes too much of a jungle.
I was told a few days ago that the most advanced spyware settles on the boot sector of a computer and cannot be removed even with the change of operation system. In Russia, there is something called Russian Business Network that develops incredibly sophisticated spyware and they sell the service of infecting and enslaving computers. They can also organise cyber assault on any server.
Trojan virus steals banking info
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7701227.stm
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
The details of about 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have been stolen by a virus described as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created".
The Sinowal trojan has been tracked by RSA, which helps to secure networks in Fortune 500 companies.
RSA said the trojan virus has infected computers all over the planet.
"The effect has been really global with over 2000 domains compromised," said Sean Brady of RSA's security division.
He told the BBC: "This is a serious incident on a very noticeable scale and we have seen an increase in the number of trojans and their variants, particularly in the States and Canada."
The RSA's Fraud Action Research Lab said it first detected the Windows Sinowal trojan in Feb 2006.
Since then, Mr Brady said, more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit cards have been compromised from financial institutions in countries including the US, UK, Australia and Poland.
The lab said no Russian accounts were hit by Sinowal.
"Drive-by downloads"
RSA described the Sinowal as "one of the most serious threats to anyone with an internet connection" because it works behind the scenes using a common infection method known as "drive-by downloads"."
Users can get infected without knowing if they visit a website that has been booby-trapped with the Sinowal malicious code.
Mr Brady said the worrying aspect about Sinowal, which is also known as Torpig and Mebroot, is that it has been operating for so long.
"One of the key points of interest about this particular trojan is that it has existed for two and a half years quietly collecting information," he said. "Any IT professional will tell you it costs a lot to maintain and to store the information it is gathering.
"The group behind it have made sure to invest in the infrastructure no doubt because the return and the potential return is so great."
RSA's researchers said the trojan's creators periodically release new variants to ensure it stays ahead of detection and maintain "its uninterrupted grip on infected computers."
While RSA's lab has been tracking the trojan since 2006, Mr Brady admitted that they know a lot about its design and infrastructure but little about who is behind Sinowal.
"There is a lot of talk about where it comes from and anecdotal evidence points to Russia and Eastern Europe. Historically there have been connections with an online gang connected to the Russian Business Network but in reality no one knows for sure."
That he said is because the group is able to use the web to cloak its identity.
Infection
In April 2007, researchers at Google discovered hundreds of thousands of web pages that initiated drive-by downloads. It estimated that one in ten of the 4.5 million pages it analysed were suspect.
Sophos researchers reported in 2008 it was finding more than 6,000 newly infected web pages every day, or about one every 14 seconds.
RSA's fraud action team said it noticed a spike in attacks from March through to September this year.
That is backed up by another online security company called Fortinet. It said from July 2008 to September 2008 the number of reported attacks rose from 10m to 30m. This included trojans, viruses, malware, phishing and mass mailings.
"The explosion in the number of attacks is alarming," said Derek Manky of Fortinet.
"But trojans are just one of the players in the game wreaking havoc in cyberspace."
Remedies
While attacks are on the increase, there are some simple steps that users can take to protect their information besides using security software.
"We have a saying here which is 'think before you link,'" said Mr Manky.
"That just means observe where you are going on the web. Be wary of clicking on anything in a high traffic site like social networks.
"A lot of traffic in the eyes of cyber criminals means these sites are a target because to these people more traffic means more money," he said.
RSA also urged users to be wary if their bank started asking for different forms of authentication such as a social security number or other details.
"People think not clicking on a pop up or an attachment means they are safe. What people don't realise now is that just visiting a website is good enough to infect them."
RSA said it is co-operating with banks and financial institutions the world over to tell them about Sinowal. It has passed information about the virus to law enforcement agencies.
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One of my friends used to prance off gaily into the bush saying, "I never think about snakes, and they don't appear."
Good luck with that one, I used to think to myself - there was no point in telling her as she didn't like being told anything.
;D ;D
Blinders on.
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Strangely I meet her again only recently, after many years. She didn't look like she had been bitten, but there was definitely something not right.
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Strangely I meet her again only recently, after many years. She didn't look like she had been bitten, but there was definitely something not right.
Perhaps a case in line with the Law of attraction, meaning she had the blinders on in other areas too, and suddenly Life made an example that that narrow sight is not how we navigate in reality. there must be some decent acknowledgement to our inherited patterns.
I am Mr pre-Cautious to the verge of silliness, waistbell and suspenders is my melody. Low exposure to the level of being dull ... might consider a higher risk level after all ... all these years ... as alive I mean.
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A link to a site that's worth a quick read
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10783
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This Global Cooling theory:
I have been keeping an eye out to see if main-stream science responds to it, but to date have seen very little. It remains a very marginal view within the scientific community, although it does not seem to attract to it the ulterior motive questions that the Global Warming sceptics do. (The sceptics have jumped on the bandwagon but not sure if that is the main characters or only the hoi polloi.)
I assume the reason is because most science concerned with the global warming issue are involved with empirical research. The empirical evidence is currently overwhelmingly in support of a warming crisis spiralling out of control. I heard of a new study only recently which exacerbates the problem by many degrees over previous estimates.
One area of interest has been that the South Pole ice cap has not been melting at the speed of the North, and they believe this is due to the hole in the ozone layer, which is closing.
The Global Cooling theory, is just that - still largely a theory. Primarily a prediction based on sun activity observations and past records. I have seen one critique of this theory, in which the science was disputed - not the basis, but the degree of effect needed to produce the cooling consequence.
There is also some question about the man who began the whole thing - that his ideas have been wildly extrapolated beyond his original paper. All that is outside my expertise, so I can't judge. But apparently he was highly critical of everyone jumping to assume every twist in climate was due to global warming - I admit I am inclined to do that myself.
One thing that does provide some empirical data is that apparently the rise and rise of global warming over a very long time, took a dive in 2007. This is exactly where the Global Cooling people step in - it is supposed to begin from 2007 I read.
However, the reason for a drop in the acceleration of warming in 2007 is not considered by most scientists as a result of sun activity or lack there of. It is attributed to the SOI - La Nina cooling of the southern ocean.
For myself, I would love to see a cooling, as the current trend is alarming to say the least. I can only rely on the experts in the field, and they are 99% backing the warming version.
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A link to a site that's worth a quick read
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10783
"Global warming (i.e, the warming since 1977) is over. The minute increase of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere (0.008%) was not the cause of the warming—it was a continuation of natural cycles that occurred over the past 500 years."
Forget it, (read - bs)
I've got a lot info on my own plus inside information from a guy that work with climate policy. He is a leader for a scientific center that work with climate changes, also a national expert and as such frequently consulted in International work how to change pollution patterns.
He says, that it is no doubt among scientists what is going on. However the scientific community always welcome alternative explanations. But today no such alternative explanation has been recognised as valid.
In my opinion we are lucky if the temperature cycle is moving toward an ice age that would compensate a bit for the human induced warming.
What many forget is to look beyond the temperature rising and also count the increase of extreme weather events. More flooding, more dry periods, more hurricanes etc. The extreme weather events has risen most significant the last 10 years.
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Ozone hole over Antarctica grows again
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/04/poles-climatechange
John Vidal
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday November 04 2008
Stratospheric levels of harmful CFCs will take between 40 and 100 years to dissipate and have only dropped a few per cent since reaching a peak in 2000, scientists warn
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2008/11/04/ozone460.jpg)
The ozone hole on November 1: the hole is recovering from its September minimum. Image: Nasa
The ozone hole over Antarctica grew to the size of North America this year – the fifth largest on record – according to the latest satellite observations.
US government scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say this year's ozone hole reached its maximum level on September 12, extending to 10.5m sq miles and four miles deep. That is bigger than 2007 but smaller than 2006, when the hole covered over 11.4m sq miles.
Scientists blamed colder-than-average temperatures in the stratosphere for the ozone hole's unusually large size this year. "Weather is the most important factor in the fluctuation of the size of the ozone hole from year to year," said Bryan Johnson, a scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, which monitors ozone, ozone-depleting chemicals, and greenhouse gases around the globe. "How cold the stratosphere is and what the winds do determine how powerfully the chemicals can perform their dirty work."
The main cause of the ozone hole is human-produced compounds called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which release ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine into the atmosphere. The Earth's protective ozone layer acts like a giant parasol, blocking the sun's ultraviolet-B rays. Though banned for the past 21 years to reduce their harmful build up, CFCs still take many decades to dissipate from the atmosphere
The 1987 Montreal Protocol and other regulations banning CFCs reversed the build-up of chlorine and bromine, first noticed in the 1980s.
"These chemicals – and signs of their reduction – take several years to rise from the lower atmosphere into the stratosphere and then migrate to the poles," said NOAA's Craig Long, a research meteorologist at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction. "The chemicals also typically last 40 to 100 years in the atmosphere. For these reasons, stratospheric CFC levels have dropped only a few per cent below their peak in the early 2000s."
"The decline of these harmful substances to their pre–ozone hole levels in the Antarctic stratosphere will take decades," said NOAA atmospheric chemist Stephen Montzka of the Earth System Research Laboratory. "We don't expect a full recovery of Antarctic ozone until the second half of the century."
Starting in May, as Antarctica moves into a period of 24-hour-a-day darkness, winds create a vortex of cold, stable air centred near the South Pole that isolates CFCs over the continent. When spring sunshine returns in August, the sun's ultraviolet light sets off a series of chemical reactions inside the vortex that consume the ozone. The colder and more isolated the air inside the vortex, the more destructive the chemistry. By late December the southern summer is in full swing, the vortex has crumbled, and the ozone has returned – until the process begins anew the following winter.
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Beekeepers protest over hive deaths
More money for research demanded as disease, mites and weather wipe out insects
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/beekeepers-protest-over-hive-deaths-992276.html
In top-to-toe white outfits with distinctive veiled hoods, they do not look like the usual kind of protesters to march on Downing Street.
But today Britain's beekeepers will stride down Whitehall to demand government action to halt the alarming decline in honey bee numbers seen over the last year.
Two billion bees – one in three of Britain's honey bee colonies – have been lost over the past 12 months, in the worst losses ever seen in the UK. Yet the causes are unclear, and the apiarists fear there is nothing to prevent a similar devastation this winter – but the Government, they say, is letting it happen.
Hundreds of members of the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) from all over the country will deliver a petition to No 10 signed by more than 140,000 members of the public, calling for an immediate increase in research funding – from what the BBKA terms the "paltry" £200,000 currently spent annually on bee health research, to £1.6m annually for the next five years.
The association claims that pollination by bees would be worth £825m to the agricultural economy over the same period, and says they are asking for less than 1 per cent of that. But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that it cannot afford it.
"The increased funding we are asking for is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of pounds the government has found for bank bailouts," said Tim Lovett, the BBKA president. "Bees are probably one of the most economically useful creatures on earth, pollinating a third of all we eat. They provide more than 50 per cent of pollination of wild plants on which birds and mammals depend. We must identify what is killing them, and that means research."
Paul Temple, vice-president of the National Farmers' Union, said honey bees were an underpinning component of the British countryside – "whether it's heather moorland, a hedgerow, an orchard or a field of beans."
He said: "Our bee farmers and beekeepers are the custodians of every single honey bee in our countryside, and they are facing devastating bee health problems. To solve these problems we need comprehensive and co-ordinated research to be undertaken urgently. And one thing is clear, current levels of government funding are nowhere near enough to support such research."
Rowse Honey, the UK's leading honey company, warns that English beekeepers' honey will run out in the supermarkets by Christmas, and has committed £100,000 to support research into bee health at Sussex University.
Other industry groups are expected to help, but the BBKA says this does not relieve the Government of its responsibility to provide research funding.
The cause of the enormous losses of the last year is thought to be a combination of disease, linked to a particularly virulent hive pest, the varroa mite, and the appalling weather of the last two summers, which has also hit other insects hard. But the exact nature of the disease varies between hives, and the beekeepers feel that research to understand the processes by which colonies are lost is urgent and essential.
"Without beekeepers to look after them there would be no honey bees in the UK," Mr Lovett said. "Despite the best efforts of our members, bees are suffering as the varroa mites who weaken colonies and spread viruses are becoming resistant to treatments. This is all on top of the bad weather, especially the wet summers, over which we have no control. There is currently no 'magic bullet' for controlling varroa. We must have more research."
In the UK there are about 44,000 beekeepers who manage about 274,000 hives, which produce 6,000 tonnes of honey a year. The varroa mite reached the UK in 1992 and now infests 95 per cent of hives. Untreated colonies die in three to four years.
The apiarist: 'You expect losses, but nothing like this'
Robin Dartington has kept bees for 45 years and is used to losses in the winter but not on the scale he has experienced over the past year. He has lost nine of his 20 colonies in Hitchin, Hertfordshire (a colony is the swarm of bees in a hive). "You might expect losses of perhaps 10 per cent, but nothing like this," he said. "It's very depressing." The National Bee Unit found his bees had died from a combination of a virus associated with the varroa mite and a stomach disorder. "We need more research into what the diseases are, which are becoming endemic and in what combinations."
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For myself, I would love to see a cooling, as the current trend is alarming to say the least. I can only rely on the experts in the field, and they are 99% backing the warming version.
It's hard to know who the experts are these days....
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
Snow in London
A sudden cold snap brought snow to London in October
# Read more from Christopher Booker
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought
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That doesn't give me any cause for reassurance on Global Cooling, as that article was written by Christopher Booker who is under a bit of a cloud himself:
The patron saint of charlatans is again spreading dangerous misinformation (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/controversiesinscience.health)
Plus some of the things mentioned I have also seen in Andrew Bolt's article recently, who also is a climate change sceptic and of poor credibility.
But we shall see. This is an event that is marching forward weekly, so such matters will resolve soon.
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Well, they might argue about the temperatures of the last month or even the last year, but that's merely a folly. One ought to look at the long-term trends. One month might be a bit warmer, a bit cooler, but it has only a minor or negligible effect on the developments of decades or centuries.
Besides, one can look at many more parameters of change. The paper below uses the introduction of fresh water to world seas to measure warming - more rain, melting of ice, etc.
Current warming sharpest climate change in 5,000 years: study
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (AFP) Nov 07, 2008
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/081107015509.jyzwrbrq.html
Research on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of human civilization 5,000 years ago, according to studies published Thursday.
Researchers from Cornell University studied the increased introduction of fresh water from glacial melt, oceanic circulation, and the change in geographic range migration of oceanic plant and animal species.
The team, led by oceanographer Charles Greene, described "major ecosystem reorganization" -- or "regime shift" -- in the North Atlantic, a consequence of global warming on the largest scale in five millennia.
"The rate of warming we are seeing (now) is unprecedented in human history," said Greene, whose research appears in the November 2008 issue of the journal Ecology.
In order to forecast the path of climate change, Greene and colleagues have been reconstructing major episodes of warming and cooling in the Arctic over the past 65 million years.
They have found in the paleoclimate record periods of rapid cooling, with average temperatures plunging by 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees F) within just decades or even years.
But the rise in temperatures over the past five decades is unmatched since the onset of human civilization, Greene said.
The paleoclimate data gives the scientists more insight into the impact of melting Arctic ice sheets and glaciers on the North Atlantic oceanic system.
They have found "extensive" shifts in the geographic range of numerous plant and animal species.
For instance, the massive Arctic fresh-water melt in the past 10 years has helped one species of microscopic algae move from the Pacific ocean to the North Atlantic.
The last time that algae appeared in the North Atlantic was 800,000 years ago, the Cornell research found.
The increase of fresh water can have a huge impact on the ecosystems of the Atlantic continental shelf, for instance extending the growing seasons of phytoplankton and microscopic drifting animals fundamental to the food chain.
"Such climate-driven changes can alter the structure of shelf ecosystems from the bottom of the food chain upwards," according to Greene.
In another example, the collapse in the last century of cod populations in the north Atlantic is partially due to overfishing, but also partly due to Arctic glacial melt adding more fresh and colder water to the ocean, which stifles cod reproduction.
At the same time, the research noted, less cod and colder water benefited shrimp and snow crab populations.
"As climate changes, there are going to be winners and losers, both in terms of biological species and different groups of people," said Greene.
The Cornell studies also focused on the way the introduction of more freshwater in the north Atlantic can disrupt circulation patterns further south.
"When Arctic climate changes, waters in the Arctic can go from storing large quantities of fresh water to exporting that fresh water to the North Atlantic in large pulses, referred to as great salinity anomalies," Greene explains.
By modeling the current changes, the Cornell researchers posited that the highly saline water of the deep North Atlantic will likely not be heavily affected by the "pulses" of fresh water during the 21st century.
"Continued exposure to such freshwater forcing, however, could disrupt global ocean circulation during the next century and lead to very abrupt changes in climate, similar to those that occurred at the onset of the last ice age," the studies said.
"If the Earth's deep ocean circulation were to be shut down, many of the atmospheric, glacial and oceanic processes that have been stable in recent times would change, and the change would likely be abrupt," said Greene.
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An example of a very telling long-term trend:
Even though August ice extent [in Arctic] was above that of August 2007, the downward trend for August ice loss has now gone from -8.4% per decade to -8.7% per decade.
(http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20080904_Figure5_thumb.png)
Monthly temperatures jump up and down, but the long-term trend in ice cover does not lie.
He [Lorien] explains that to live forever means to give up everything else--love, companionship, friendship--since those will come and go. Only races with a much shorter life span can truly appreciate these things and experience them for all they are worth.
We, with our short lifespans cling to momentary things hoping they represent the eternity and that the momentary change or fluctuation is a major change. But it is not.
"You should embrace that remarkable illusion," he [Lorien] tells her. "It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received."
...and a lot of fluff will follow. :)
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Meanwhile, above-mentioned Dr Hansen has come up in Open Atmospheric Science Journal with a pretty drastic suggestion: it is likely that the CO2 concentration has already been reached where the catastrophic climate change has become an inevitability. Thus, now we might talk about mitigation of disaster and not averting it.
Here's the abstract of the paper
Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?
pp.217-231 (15) Authors: James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha, David Beerling, Robert Berner, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Mark Pagani, Maureen Raymo, Dana L. Royer, James C. Zachos
Abstract
Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ∼3°C for doubled CO2, including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ∼6°C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, the planet being nearly ice-free until CO2 fell to 450 ± 100 ppm; barring prompt policy changes, that critical level will be passed, in the opposite direction, within decades. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.
Some graphs from the paper:
(http://image.newsru.com/pict/id/large/1117956_20081119153744.gif)
(http://image.newsru.com/pict/id/large/1117957_20081119153744.gif)
(http://image.newsru.com/pict/id/large/1117958_20081119153745.gif)
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Very interesting these recent posts - notice something about Christopher Booker article:
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
I read about the activist's case, and was in admiration of the jury's realisation of the situation - this marks a change when the populace is finally waking up.
What is interesting about how these people work - notice the veiled and not so veiled imputed ridicule of the man who is trying to get the world to wake up to the catastrophe - implying that if he is suspect, then the whole case of global warming is suspect. Even besmirching him by associating him with that far left radical Al Gore, and we all know how he lied about his facts.... etc.
So when we then hear:
Meanwhile, above-mentioned Dr Hansen has come up in Open Atmospheric Science Journal with a pretty drastic suggestion
We immediately think, Oh that's that guy again - now we may have intellectually dismissed the criticisms, but emotionally we retain a sense of devaluation of whatever he is now saying.
Also notice that I and others do the same thing with the sceptics - once I have identified who is an outspoken critic of those who raise warning bells against the establishment, I then devalue all their subsequent comments - who knows, they may now have struck a truth, but the damage is done.
Such is the way of human nature, and we need to watch that very closely, because we are too easily led by emotive words to dismiss things which are in truth of great value. George Carlin uses the same techniques - again just because he uses witty and humorous scorn, does not mean what he says is right.
Always we have to look carefully at what is presented, strip back the emotive coverings, and look with a sober mind at what someone is trying to sell us. Presentation is no guarantee of truth - but unfortunately a life time diet of entertainment on TV has created the conditions for the snake-oil salesman to do with us what they like.
This is the big argument scientists are putting against those new supped up science-entertainment Discovery channels. They don't like their science turned into Hollywood as it decapitates the critical faculty.
We have to be awake, not asleep in the hands of spinners.
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Yes, independent critical thinking is the key. One must do the effort.
Booker puts forward a simple argument - global warming means that the temperature must rise. Hence, we must be able to detect it, but measurements of single months and years jump around like frogs on a hot pan. Thus, the claim of warming is unsubstantiated. He totally skips the long-term perspective (where these single measurements have much less importance) and other indicators of warming.
Meanwhile Hansen argues his case using CO2 concentration (leading to a gradual average temperature rise) and fast and slow feedback mechanisms. Other chaps add other strong arguments supporting warming and the big picture is so clear as to leave only a concrete timeline and finer aspects of change undetermined.
In sum, Booker's case becomes utterly hollow - it loses its substance like a melting snow.
I'd say paying a continuous interest to the dispute on warming yields threefold interesting information:
1. It shows quite a bit of human nature and the ongoing processes in humanity
2. It might provide an idea of WHEN things will go out of balance
3. It might provide an idea of WHAT and HOW is likely to happen in the vicinity of readers of this thread.
I omit any hope or chance of reversing or avoiding the massive change.
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Meanwhile Hansen argues his case using CO2 concentration (leading to a gradual average temperature rise) and fast and slow feedback mechanisms. Other chaps add other strong arguments supporting warming and the big picture is so clear as to leave only a concrete timeline and finer aspects of change undetermined.
The new measurement is Carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) and Equivalent carbon dioxide (or CO2e) used so they can add the pollution of a range of gases that add to the warming as methane for example*. Methane will be released in greater extent from both the tundra and the oceans.
There is a big fixation on "warming" and increased temperatures while I say that in the short term the increase of "extreme weather situations" will create more direct harm and will be a greater problem. Flooding in Europe, Dry periods, dry where it should be rain and rain where it should be dry. Snow in Spain and Greece but green winters in the North, the increase of hurricanes and so on.
*Carbon dioxide equivalency is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture and amount of greenhouse gas, the amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming potential (GWP), when measured over a specified timescale (generally, 100 years). Carbon dioxide equivalency thus reflects the time-integrated radiative forcing, rather than the instantaneous value described by CO2e.
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"If the Earth's deep ocean circulation were to be shut down, many of the atmospheric, glacial and oceanic processes that have been stable in recent times would change, and the change would likely be abrupt," said Greene.
Unfortunately the deep ocean circulation start with the ice in the Arctic. A full cycle takes 5000 years and this cycle include the creation of the Monsun period in India and other repeated weather phenoma that we take for granted.
No ice ---> no streams. no streams, or different streams ----> more chaos in the weather system.
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Yes, precisely, chaos and unusual events are the imminent concern as the weather system is shifting toward a new equilibrium.
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I'm depressed... it's summer here... or it's supposed to be... it frigging freezing.
Just looked at the SOI - seems to be following exactly the pattern of last summer, which for us means wet and cold.
So much for global warming... I'm going to bed - best thing for a freezing afternoon. ;)
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I'm depressed... it's summer here... or it's supposed to be... it frigging freezing.
Just looked at the SOI - seems to be following exactly the pattern of last summer, which for us means wet and cold.
So much for global warming... I'm going to bed - best thing for a freezing afternoon. ;)
We have a massive snowstorm here - right behind the window. They say nothing ever goes according to our expectations. Have a nice visit to dreamland! :)
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I'm depressed... it's summer here... or it's supposed to be... it frigging freezing.
Just looked at the SOI - seems to be following exactly the pattern of last summer, which for us means wet and cold.
So much for global warming... I'm going to bed - best thing for a freezing afternoon. ;)
The process of global warming affects the globe as a whole. In the begining the dynamics of this process involve the shifting of the seasons - where there are seasons. Then there will be no seasons at all.
As the ice caps melt on the poles the cold water moves down/up cooling down the tropical zones, thanks to the laws of the thermodynamics. This process makes the seasons to shift or change, generally they get messed up.
But don't worry, once there's nothing more to melt, things will get stable - with or without seasons.
The question I ask myself is: will the humanity (and civilization) be still here?
In my place (Romania) I've seen winter becoming like autumn in about 5 years. Every year we had less snow, and the last winter I was there there was no snow at all. So much for global cooling.
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Today 23-11-08 they had the heaviest snowfall all season...the season ended some weeks ago
Snowy Mountians N.S.W. Australia....that's why it's cold at Michaels...it's almost summer....hang in.
Gale force winds and snow hit NSW
November 23, 2008 - 10:28AM
Advertisement
Weather conditions across Australia's south-east appear to be easing after the region was battered over the weekend by gale force winds, flooding and snow.
State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers have been busy in NSW, Victoria and Queensland's south-east helping people after several days of ferocious storms brought down trees on cars, buildings and roads.
A severe weather warning and blizzard conditions in Alpine areas persisted in NSW on Sunday, but a low pressure system was expected to move east late on Sunday.
In NSW, gale force winds were most severe in Sydney's western suburbs with the SES responding to 380 calls for help.
At least 10cm of snow fell around the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and a small number of roads were closed, including between Bathurst and Oberon.
SES Central West Region Controller, Craig Ronan, said the weather conditions were particularly unseasonable.
"It's very unusual the week before summer to have such weather conditions," Mr Ronan said.
An SES spokesman told AAP there had been no significant damage.
The flood threat has eased in Victoria's south-east and the SES says it is not predicting major flooding.
"We are keeping a watching brief on Gippsland but are only expecting minor to moderate flooding and don't predict major flooding at this stage," SES spokesman Allan Briggs said.
The SES received 387 calls for help in Victoria over the weekend, including 262 in Melbourne, mostly involving fallen trees damaging property.
Catchments received a good soaking with 60mm of rain falling across Melbourne's water storages, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior forecaster Scott Williams said.
Snow fell in Victorian Alpine areas and forced road closures. Falls Creek resort spokesman Ian Talbot told AAP more than 20cm of snow had "blanketed the resort" Sunday morning.
"It was very cold overnight, it got down to minus six degrees celsius and residents said it looked like the middle of winter," he said.
"It's very rare to get enough for road closures at this time of year."
A 12-day adventure race involving an 800km trek over NSW and Victorian high country has been stalled due to the bad weather, with 120 people involved now holed up in the tiny Victorian Alpine town of Tintaldra.
In Queensland, a severe weather warning for the state's south-east corner was cancelled on Saturday evening after the latest storm in a week of wild weather passed.
Three women were hurt in separate accidents - one of whom was in a serious condition after being hit by a tree - as a result of ferocious winds battering the region on Saturday afternoon.
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Mystery of the vanishing sparrow
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/mystery-of-the-vanishing-sparrow-1026319.html
The Independent offered £5,000 for a convincing theory about why the house sparrow was dying out in cities. The answer seems to lie with falling insect numbers, reports Michael McCarthy
Thursday, 20 November 2008
It's taken eight-and-a-half years – but The Independent's £5,000 prize for explaining the disappearance of the house sparrow from our towns and cities finally has a serious entry, with a serious theory.
Insect decline, featured prominently in this newspaper last Saturday, is offered as the reason for the biggest bird mystery of modern times by a group of four scientists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), De Montfort University in Leicester and Natural England, the Government's wildlife agency.
Their theory, put forward in a scientific paper to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Animal Conservation, is based on intensive research in Leicester, showing that sparrow chicks were starving in their nests because their parents could not find enough insects to feed them. So many chicks were dying that the birds' population level as a whole was declining.
The £5,000 prize was offered for a peer-reviewed paper published in a scientific journal, which – in the opinion of our referees – would account for the disappearance of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus, from towns and cities in Britain. The referees are the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and Dr Denis Summers-Smith, an internationally renowned expert on sparrows. (It was stated at the time that researchers from the RSPB and BTO would not be precluded from entering.) The referees will now be considering the paper to see if it does indeed account for a remarkable wildlife enigma.
House sparrows in Britain have declined by 68 per cent since 1977, but the decline has been overwhelmingly an urban one. Although still relatively plentiful in small towns in the countryside and by the sea, in many major conurbations, sparrows have disappeared. Numbers started falling in cities in the mid-1980s and the species has virtually vanished from central London – for example, St James's Park holds all the common garden birds such as blue tits, robins and blackbirds, but sparrows, which were once plentiful, died out in the park in the late 1990s. There was no obvious cause. House sparrows are also disappearing from Bristol, Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as Hamburg, Prague and Moscow but curiously, they are faring better in Paris and Berlin.
When The Independent launched its campaign, many potential reasons for the decline were suggested by readers, which included increased predation by cats, magpies and sparrowhawks (all of which have increased in our cities); disease contracted from bird food such as peanuts; increased use of pesticides; collective suicide; radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former USSR; the disappearance of sparrow nesting places as houses were modernised and gardens were tidied up or concreted over as car ports, and a decline in insects. (Although adult sparrows are seed-eating birds, the young need insect food in the first few days of their lives).
The last two potential causes – lack of nesting places and insect shortage – have always seemed the most likely (although many people blame magpies and other predators for declines in small birds, both the RSPB and the BTO say this is not borne out by the figures).
A leading proponent of the insect shortage theory was Dr Summers-Smith, a retired engineer from Guisborough in Cleveland, and the author of the standard monograph on the house sparrow, and several other sparrow books. He felt that chick starvation might well be the cause of the fall in numbers as a whole, although he was unable to prove it.
This appears to have been borne out in the new paper. The lead author, Dr Will Peach from the RSPB, said: "Each pair of house sparrows must rear at least five chicks every year to stop their numbers falling.
"But in our study, too many chicks were starving in their nests. Others were fledging [leaving the nest] but were too weak to live for much longer than that. If the birds nested in areas rich in insects, they did much better.
"Where there were few insects, young house sparrows were likely to die. Young house sparrows need insects rather than seeds, peanuts or bread to survive."
Dr Vincent, then of De Montfort University in Leicester, said: "This is one of the most mysterious and complex declines of a species in recent years. The study highlights that sparrow chicks are hatching but they aren't surviving.
"This is partly down to the loss of green spaces within British cities through development on green space, tree removal and the conversion of front gardens for parking. The loss of deciduous greenery within urban areas may have made life much more difficult for birds like house sparrows that need large numbers of insects to feed their young."
Phil Grice, senior ornithologist at Natural England, said: "This study highlights the importance of using native varieties of plants in our urban green spaces which, in turn, support large numbers of insects that are important in the diet of house sparrows and a range of other birds that we love to see in our gardens".
The paper, Reproductive success of house sparrows along an urban gradient, by W J Peach, K E Vincent, J A Fowler and P V Grice, is now being sent to our referees and we shall report soon on their verdict.
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I'm depressed... it's summer here... or it's supposed to be... it frigging freezing.
Just looked at the SOI - seems to be following exactly the pattern of last summer, which for us means wet and cold.
So much for global warming... I'm going to bed - best thing for a freezing afternoon. ;)
And then today was a beautiful warm sunny day!
How it changes so quickly.
We went for a long walk to an area we have never been before (actually we got a bit lost in the bush, which was nice).
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And then today was a beautiful warm sunny day!
How it changes so quickly.
We went for a long walk to an area we have never been before (actually we got a bit lost in the bush, which was nice).
I'm jealous! It's late fall here, and we have had only one or two days when temps were sufficiently cold for even a light sweater. I've been in tank top & sandals all summer, and it seems to be continuing. So maybe it's neither global warming nor global cooling. Maybe summer and winter have simply traded hats and decided to play in each others' playgrounds for awhile. You're getting my fall and I'm getting your summer. Weird. *heh*
I love the rain and the colder weather. Figures I live in the desert, eh? :-\
Stay warm!
D
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They forecast an "extreme warm winter" here in the North with an average temp. of 2 to 3 dg celsius above the normal, but my guts tells me that we will have a real cold period starting in the middle of January, lasting at least 3 weeks. Betting is free ... ;D
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I've been in tank top & sandals all summer
I asked Julie about this - I never hear of men wearing tank tops. or blouses, spencers, panties...
men seem to wear tea-shirts, shirts, singlets and underpants.
Julie said, 'but what about American men?'
we all wear sandals though, except there is a new fashion of extra high-heeled shoes for women - apparently aside from destroying the bodies of women, it lifts their bum and supposedly makes them look sexy - it makes them look like they are about to fall over in my eyes.
Ah, the desert - yes I could easily live in the desert ... one day I may just do it.
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a real cold period starting in the middle of January
That's some gut you have there Jahn - forecasting that far ahead. If so, it may mean a heat wave here - that would be nice.
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So now they are saying the total bail-out cost is 8 trillion dollars. The other figure I heard is 4 trillion dollars - what's a few trillion among friends?
Does this factor in the Iraq debt?
I am aware to date the bail-out is only asset swapping, and not a real cost, but that will come with Obama's package. Nonetheless, the sheer size of these deficit figures must now constitute the greatest threat to the world economy.
Sure we are all contemplating that life will go on without the US, but what has happened, is that vast sums of money have been sucked out of the global share market - it has gone into two main areas, first is to prop up hedges for sound overseas investments in real assets, but the second into US Treasury Bonds - that's where the US Government is getting the money to fund the bail-outs.
Now if the US becomes a serious economic basket case, the back-wash from its sinking will swamp all other economies. Too much money is invested in it.
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So now they are saying the total bail-out cost is 8 trillion dollars. The other figure I heard is 4 trillion dollars - what's a few trillion among friends?
Does this factor in the Iraq debt?
I am aware to date the bail-out is only asset swapping, and not a real cost, but that will come with Obama's package. Nonetheless, the sheer size of these deficit figures must now constitute the greatest threat to the world economy.
Sure we are all contemplating that life will go on without the US, but what has happened, is that vast sums of money have been sucked out of the global share market - it has gone into two main areas, first is to prop up hedges for sound overseas investments in real assets, but the second into US Treasury Bonds - that's where the US Government is getting the money to fund the bail-outs.
Now if the US becomes a serious economic basket case, the back-wash from its sinking will swamp all other economies. Too much money is invested in it.
Treasury bonds are paper, no better than dollar bills. As I stated in some other post the value of money is based on an agreement. When the currency change the underlying agreement change. Take Zimbabwe dollars for instance, noone belives in that currency, the paper is more valuable than the million Zimbabwi dollar that is printed on it. So investments in bonds or money can be risky, far more than real assets. It is an interesting period ahead to see how the G8 countries will handle the crisis. The Bail out plans is a temporary fix, the structure must change and someone has to eat the sour apples. More than 50 000 jobs has vanished from Wall street since spring, that is a good example on change.
As the Oracle said - those that continue to work from ego desires will still have a lesson to do. That goes for governments too. The good thing is that countries has to cooperate on a higher level if they shall manage to keep the system from collapse.
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Terror attacks in Mumbai
Mumbai: In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 80 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports.
The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city's top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai's additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed.
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Treasury bonds are paper
That's right, and if US's deficit caused national bankruptcy, all those bonds will be worthless.
Mumbai: this is an extraordinary event. It goes way beyond a few bombs and spontaneous train firing riots. This is an all-out assault. I can't imagine how the Indians will respond.
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Terror attacks in Mumbai
Mumbai: In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as tefforists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 80 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports.
The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city's top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai's additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed.
Good lord!
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101 dead, 320 wounded in Mumbai and several hostage situations.
India's response is a question to consider, indeed. It might be twofold - official actions and ethnic/religious cleansing launched by Hindu radicals. In 1992 Hindu radicals razed a 16th-century Babri Mosque, sparking widespread Hindu-Muslim riots that left more than 3,000 people dead.
Official line of India on using force shows signs of toughening. On 19 Nov 2008, Indian warship INS Tabar opened fire and sank a pirate vessel near Oman...later it turned out to have been Thai fishing ship attacked by pirates.
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If true, it might mean war, or something (quite radical) happening inside Pakistan.
The captured terrorists have spilled the beans. They came directly from Karachi, Pakistan in a fishing trawler used by smugglers. They belonged to the ISI-trained group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with local support given by Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who lives under ISI protection in Karachi. They had directions to key locations including the specific addresses of guest houses used by Israelis.
BTW, one of the terrorists called an Indian TV station. I can clearly hear a Pashtun accent.
This is clearly done by the ISI because the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers were due to meet Thursday for the next round of peace talks. The Pakistani hardliners do not want the civilian government to "cave in" to India, as they see it.
One of the TV channels interviewed people in a fishermen's slum saying that they saw 15-20 people wearing jackets and backpacks jump ashore from a fishing trawler and then split up into two groups after their leader spoke on the phone to someone. A government official said that there were at least 10 bad guys inside the Taj Mahal hotel.
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Indian newspapers are still saying police are not confirming anything about these attackers.
But they are saying they know all about them - just not telling.
It is still going on at two locations.
I expect that guy you quoted is probably right, but this is not something that will be a mystery for long
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Probably not. Hopefully they won't go nuclear.
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It's clear now that the person you quoted Juhani, is only voicing the stereotypical belief of most Hindus - it's all there, ISI, Dawood, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pak. They always say that, yet in this case...
The "Deccan Mujaheddin" decoy is now being seen as that.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied involvement.
"The statement by India's normally cautious and restrained prime minister, Manmohan Singh, that groups based across the border, a thinly-disguised reference to Pakistan, has also galvanized the strategic and security community into examining Islamabad's role in the region that has already been subjected to scrutiny in the past."
So all the signs are pointing to Pak and that means ISI. This attack is very different - training, military weapons, and the targeting of foreigners indicates a global angst agenda, not a local home-grown gripe. And that points to Al K or Afghan Taliban. Will this madness never end.
I keep thinking of Leopolds. What an icon of travellers respite. We've sat there ourselves... to think they walked in shooting there, gives me the creeps.
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Will this madness never end.
I am afraid not, those are the times in the revelation.
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A Sisyphus task would be to command someone to separate radical elements of ISI from Taliban. These two are so intertwined - in ISI's strategic equation Pak-friendly Afghanistan is a must to balance Russia in the west and India in the south.
Now that Americans seem to be unable to rein in their flying terminators, such a sentiment is growing in the whole Pak.
War always polarises society, always. Eventually there will be no moderates.
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The training of these attackers seems to have been way above the average and their equipment and level of prepapration suggest somebody's strong supportive hand being involved. One Indian commando said that they seemed to be familiar with the tactics of Indian troops.
Death toll climbs past 150 as city reels from terror attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/29/mumbai-terror-attacks-terrorism2
Randeep Ramesh, Vikram Dodd, and Daniel Pepper in Mumbai
guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 29 2008 00.01 GMT
The Guardian, Saturday November 29 2008
The death toll after three days of violence in Mumbai rose past 150 as shroud-wrapped bodies were ferried last night from the smouldering remains of a luxury hotel and an ultra-orthodox Jewish centre freed from the clutches of Islamist militants.
More than 300 people were injured in the battles that began when gunmen took to the streets of India's financial capital late on Wednesday, spraying bullets and throwing grenades to spread terror across the city.
They ended up invading several Mumbai landmarks: two luxury hotels and a Jewish house of prayer - a new phenomenon for India, but a familiar pattern from attacks inspired by militant Islamism.
Yesterday the death toll of foreigners reached 16, including a father and daughter from the US in India for a yoga retreat. British officials said at least 100 Britons were caught up in the attacks, with more than 40 held hostage or forced to hide in their rooms to save their lives.
Last night Indian forces fired grenades at the Taj Mahal hotel where at least one gunman continued to elude Indian commandos through the maze of corridors and rooms. The militant was believed to have been using human shields to taunt and evade Indian security forces, and a bag captured from the gunmen revealed a stockpile meant for a long siege: 400 rounds of ammunition, grenades, identity cards, rations, $1,000 (£650) in cash and international credit cards.
A member of India's elite marine commando unit said the scene inside the hotel was grim. The commander, his face disguised by a black scarf and sunglasses, said he had seen 50 bodies, including 12 to 15 in one room. "Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere," he said.
Indian commandos had cleared the last of the gunmen from the Oberoi-Trident hotel early yesterday afternoon, freeing 200 exhausted guests.
Special forces had less luck in the battle for the Jewish centre. Their raid on the premises began with a team abseiling from a helicopter on to the roof of the apartment complex but ended with five hostages dead. Television pictures last night showed dead bodies spread across beds in the building.
Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said last night the bodies of three women and three men were found, including some who had been bound.
India pointed the finger of blame at Pakistan, with the foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, saying "initial evidence" showed "elements with links to Pakistan are involved". India has long blamed its neighbour for nurturing jihadi groups to fight in the disputed Kashmir region.
In 2006 another coordinated bombing spree on Mumbai's railway killed more than 180 commuters. Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group patronised by Pakistan in the past, was blamed at the time.
But Indian ministers yesterday appeared to be saying that they were accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not the state itself.
Pakistan has denied involvement and condemned the attacks. The country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, telephoned India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to reassure him of his support in the battle against terrorism. Zardari condemned the attacks, saying "non-state actors" were responsible.
In an unprecedented step, Pakistan agreed to let the head of the its military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency go to India to share information with investigators there.
The British government, meanwhile, was investigating whether two of the attackers could be British citizens of Pakistani origin. Asked about the possibility of any British link to the Mumbai attacks, Gordon Brown said it was "too early" to reach any conclusions.
Taj Mahal hotel
By yesterday the five-star hotel was into its third day as the centre of a war zone with ambulances parked outside to ferry away the dead and the injured. One military chief said up to 15 bodies may be inside one room alone. Special forces were firing into the old part of the hotel building, and were having to take cover from gun and grenade attacks from tefforists still at large.
All day, gun battles broke out between commandos trying to flush out the last tefforists in the building. The tefforists were so well equipped that, more than 48 hours after the siege began, they were able to return fire and lob grenades at the Indian forces trying to kill and capture them. The number of tefforists still holed up in the Taj was unclear. They were believed to be on the first floor of the old building and medics at the scene said that hostages were being held and used as human shields. Outside, troops took cover behind vehicles and trees as gun battles continued for hours and smoke billowed from the hotel.
Ambulances parked outside the Taj were waiting for the casualties. Neville Bharucha, of the Parsi ambulance service, said bodies were inside the hotel but could not be recovered because tefforists were still at large. He had been briefed by security officials about the situation inside, he said: "There are dead bodies in the old Taj building. They are all lying there, they are the guests. We can't recover the bodies because of the tefforists. They are still holding human shields."
The chief of an Indian commando unit at the hotel said the tefforists were "very determined and remorseless", and ready for a long siege. He said the Taj was filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen. "To try to avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful," he said, adding that the hotel was a grim sight.
Sajjad Karim, 38, a Tory MEP staying at the hotel who hid from the gunmen in a barricaded basement room, landed back in Britain yesterday, describing the ordeal as "one you can never prepare yourself for". Speaking at Manchester airport, as he hugged his children aged eight and six, he said: "Seeing that you weren't alone in the situation and there were very many other people with you in the same desperate circumstances - you give one another strength."
Oberoi Trident
Indian special forces yesterday ended the siege at the Oberoi hotel and said 24 bodies had been found.
Commandos killed two militants and freed 143 guests, including Britons and other foreign nationals. About 40 Britons were believed to have been caught up in the attack on the Oberoi, and consular officials quickly took them away from the scene as the siege ended.
"I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife," said Mark Abell, with a huge smile on his face after emerging from the hotel. He had locked himself in his room during the siege. "These people here have been fantastic, the Indian authorities, the hotel staff," he said.
JK Dutt, director general of India's elite national security guard, said: "The hotel is under our control."
Well-dressed foreigners and Indians, some dragging their suitcases, were escorted into waiting buses and cars.
One foreign member of the hotel staff left holding a baby in his arms, others wept as police showed them photographs of dead relatives for identification. As the evening wore on some relatives were allowed into the Oberoi to search for missing loved ones. A delegation from the United States consulate also entered the hotel to search for its nationals.
Jewish centre
Throughout the day crowds grew around Nariman House, Mumbai's Jewish centre, jostling for a view of the yellow five-storey building. Every hour or so police cleared the street, and just as quickly people filled back into the spaces along the alleys, lanes, rooftops and roads.
They came to watch Indian commandos dropping from a helicopter about 20 metres on to the roof and the deadly denouement of an assault on the tefforists who lay within.
A pattern had emerged early on with bursts of gunfire from pistols, machine-guns and sniper rifles lasting 15 minutes, cascading into the facade and windows of the building before an eerie silence was restored for half an hour. This continued until evening fell. Then the commandos finally entered the shell of the building.
Snipers continued shooting before a succession of rockets were fired. At 5.30pm there was a huge explosion on the fourth floor, sending the crowds to the ground. Commandos then proceeded into the flat, emptying ammunition clips in quick succession. The siege of Nariman House was over. Outside the street filled with cheering people chanting "India is free" and "long live mother India".
Six young Israelis from Zaka, the group responsible for mopping up blood and body parts from the scenes of suicide attacks in Israel, arrived. It was then confirmed that five hostages were dead. They included Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the Brooklyn-based directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai. The remains of two gunmen were also found.
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Sounds like that death toll will climb much higher than 150 before it's all said and done.
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Funny story about how combinations of colons and brackets will save the world. :)
Barack Obama's hopes of change are all in the mind
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/27/climate-change-carbon-emissions
The US president-elect needs to tackle human behaviour before he can tackle climate change, says psychologist Adam Corner
* Adam Corner
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 27 2008 00.01 GMT
* Article history
Barack Obama swept to power on a platform of change, with bold promises including an 80% reduction in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Clearly, though, targets and intentions are only part of the story when it comes to tackling climate change.
For America to reduce its emissions by four-fifths, an awful lot of citizens are going to have to be persuaded to change their behaviour — something notoriously difficult to achieve.
While the effect that human activity has on the environment is a question for climate scientists, the effect that humans have on each other is something that social scientists are better qualified to assess. The good news is that the process of persuasion is one that has been studied for nearly 50 years by psychologists. The bad news is that persuading people to change their environmental behaviour is not as straightforward as one might hope.
Many environmental appeals involve what social psychologists refer to as "social norms" — the standards that we use to judge the appropriateness of our own behaviour. The basic premise underlying these appeals is that people tend to act in a way that is socially acceptable.
So, if a particular behaviour (littering, for example, or driving a car with a large engine) can be cast in a socially unacceptable light, then people should be less likely to engage in that behaviour. However, a growing body of research suggests that attempting to change environmental behaviour using social norms is fraught with pitfalls and traps, so that even the best-intentioned persuasive appeal may backfire.
As Robert Cialdini and his colleagues at Arizona State University have demonstrated, the problem with appeals based on social norms is that they often contain a hidden message.
So, for example, an environmental campaign that focuses on the fact that too many people drive cars with large engines contains two messages — that driving cars with large engines is bad for the environment, and that lots of people are driving cars with large engines. This second message makes it unlikely that the campaign will work. Worse, it might even make it counterproductive: by conveying how common the undesirable behaviour is, it can give those who do not currently engage in that behaviour a perverse incentive to do so. Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn't I?
Of course, this isn't a problem confined to environmental campaigning. Recent TV licensing adverts cheerfully inform would-be television watching criminals that more than 15,000 licence-evaders were caught during Wimbledon 2008 alone — 15,000 during one tennis tournament? And that's only the ones they've caught? That's an awful lot of people not paying their TV licence, and a powerful statistic with which to "normalise" one's own behaviour.
But whereas the Orwellian TV licensing adverts can only threaten £1,000 fines, much more is at stake when it comes to getting environmental messages right. Fortunately, there is a way of harnessing the power of social norms, so that the dreaded "boomerang effect" doesn't occur.
In a recent experiment, psychologists examined the influence of social norms on the household energy consumption of residents of California. The researchers, led by Wesley Schultz, picked houses at random and then divided them into groups depending on whether their energy consumption was higher or lower than the average for that area. Some low-energy-use households received only information about average energy usage — thereby setting the social norm.
A second group of low-energy households had a positive "emoticon" (happy face) positioned next to their personal energy figure, conveying approval of their energy footprint. A third group of over-consuming households were shown their energy usage coupled with a negative emoticon (sad face), intended to convey disapproval of their higher-than-average footprint.
The researchers then measured energy consumption in the following months. As one might expect, the over-consuming households used the social norm as a motivation to reduce their energy use, but under-consuming households that had received only the social norm information increased their energy use.
Crucially, though, the under-consuming households that had received positive feedback did not show this boomerang effect: the addition of a smiley face next to their energy usage made all the difference. Despite the simplicity of the feedback, households that felt their under-consumption was socially approved (rather than a reason to relax), maintained their small energy footprint. This suggests that using social norms can be effective — but only if they are used in the right way.
Castigating the "majority" of people for driving cars with large engines, without simultaneously praising those who have chosen smaller models could spectacularly backfire. Environmental campaigns using social norms will have to be supplemented with information targeted at specific groups about the desirability of their particular behaviours. If people are doing something positive, they need to know about it.
To hit his carbon targets, Obama needs psychologists on his team, not just energy experts and economists. Otherwise "Yes We Can" will too often become "Yes we could, but now we know what everyone else is doing we maybe won't bother".
Adam Corner is psychologist at Cardiff University. His research interests include the communication of climate change.
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Luckily we have professors at our universities to research the obvious.
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Death toll climbs past 150 as city reels from terror attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/29/mumbai-terror-attacks-terrorism2
Randeep Ramesh, Vikram Dodd, and Daniel Pepper in Mumbai
guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 29 2008 00.01 GMT
The Guardian, Saturday November 29 2008
that is very disturbing - first I have heard of what went on inside those places.
our media coverage has not focused on the slaughter - they spend more time on the lucky escapes.
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The death toll keeps growing.
Mumbai terror attacks: India fury at Pakistan as bloody siege is crushed
• Lone surviving militant 'reveals terror group links'
• Death toll at 200 as hotel cleared
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/30/mumbai-terror-attacks-india3
Randeep Ramesh and Vikram Dodd in Mumbai, Jason Burke in Islamabad, and Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 30 2008 00.01 GMT
The Observer, Sunday November 30 2008
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last night after it was claimed that the only terrorist to have survived three days of deadly battles in Mumbai was from Pakistan, and that his nine fellow Islamist militants were either from that country or had been trained there.
The claims about responsibility for the attack, in which almost 200 people were killed, came from leaked police accounts that gave details of the interrogation of Azam Amir Kasab, 21, said to have been the man pictured at Mumbai's main train station carrying an assault rifle and grenades.
According to the reports, which could not be independently verified, Kasab said that the operation was the responsibility of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a jihadist group based in Pakistan, and its aim was to 'kill as many as possible' in what was intended to be India's 9/11. The claims were made as Indian special forces ended the violent sieges around Mumbai with the killing of the final three terrorists holding out in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel - where British survivors had walked through rooms strewn with bodies and 'blood and guts' as they were led to safety.
The allegations about Pakistan emerged as India was confronted with the full horror of the past few days. Reporters were allowed into the wrecked and scorched remains of the Taj Mahal and Trident-Oberoi hotels, where scores of victims had been murdered.
Public anger in India has been mounting following allegations linking Pakistan to the attacks. They include:
• Kasab's claim that militants were trained in two camps run by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan.
• Allegations that phones found on a trawler suspected of ferrying the gunmen to Mumbai had been used to contact Pakistan.
• The claim by India's minister of state for home affairs, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, that 'the investigation carried out so far has revealed the hand of Pakistan-based groups in the Mumbai attack'.
In response to the claim that the attackers were either Pakistanis or had been trained there, a senior Pakistani official said troops would be sent to the border if tensions continued to rise.
However, despite initial claims, it became increasingly certain that there was no involvement of British-based fundamentalists. Police forces across the UK denied they were investigating named individuals and Gordon Brown said there was no evidence linking any of the terrorist to the UK.
The escalating war of words between India and Pakistan has set alarm bells ringing in the United States, where President Bush convened an emergency meeting with senior security officials. President-elect Barack Obama, who has said that reconciliation between the nuclear-armed neighbours is essential to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat al-Qaeda, called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday night to offer condolences.
The cold-blooded intent of the militants has shaken India. Officials said just 10 gunmen, with enough arms and ammunition 'to kill 5,000 people', had attacked the Taj, the Trident-Oberoi, the main railway station, a popular restaurant and a cinema. In the siege of a Jewish centre, which was retaken by security forces on Friday night, the militants had bound and shot five people, including a rabbi and his wife, before they were killed.
A handful of gunmen held out for almost three days, taking hundreds of people hostage, many of them Westerners. Twenty-two of those killed were foreigners. Last night emergency services raised the prospect that many - including three Britons - were still missing from the Taj.
The gunmen set the 105-year-old hotel ablaze as they evaded scores of India's best-trained commandos. They left bodies with grenades stuffed into their mouths.
The photograph of a baby-faced militant, whom newspaper reports claim is Kasab, wearing combat trousers and swinging an AK47 in Mumbai's main railway station, is the defining image of the rampage. His victims are said to include Mumbai's anti-terror squad chief Hemant Karkare, whose body was cremated yesterday.
Under questioning, Kasab is said to have admitted to being a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan's Punjab province. 'I was trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba and asked to cause maximum casualties in Mumbai,' he is alleged to have said, referring to an organisation which India says is sending armed militants into Kashmir. Kasab was arrested on Wednesday night after his partner, said to be Ismail Khan, was shot dead.
The duo's night began when they fired on commuters in the railway station and in two hospitals. Kasab told police that they had learnt about Mumbai's geography using Google Earth.
According to Indian media reports, the captured militant said that a room booked in the Taj had been used to store explosives and ammunition ahead of the attacks. This might explain how the squads of gunmen were able to reload their weapons over more than 50 hours and appeared to have an inexhaustible supply of grenades.
Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan, yesterday appeared on Indian television in an attempt to defuse tensions. 'As President of Pakistan, if any evidence comes of any individual or group in any part of my country, I shall take the swiftest action in the light of evidence and in front of the world,' he said.
Analysts said that the omens did not look good for the peace process between India and Pakistan. 'I expect a very difficult time ahead,' said Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington. 'Anything short of a real and genuine effort to co-operate by Pakistan would send very, very bad signals - not just to India but to the US and to Europe too.'
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Washington plans mass slaughter of America's mustangs
Pressure from cattle-ranching industry could lead to more than 30,000 horses being culled
By Guy Adams in Los Angeles
Sunday, 30 November 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/washington-plans-mass-slaughter-of-americas-mustangs-1041659.html
Wild mustangs, those quintessential symbols of the American West for hundreds of years, are facing their most deadly predator yet: the pen-pushing civil servants of the US Bureau of Land Management.
Growing pressure on the horses' traditional habitat has left officials contemplating a programme of mass slaughter to reduce the number of mustangs held captive in government-run pens. More than 33,000 of the animals, almost as many as the number still in the wild, have been rounded up and taken off increasingly barren public land in recent years, to reduce pressure on grazing required by the cattle-ranching industry.
But the increasing cost of keeping them fed and watered has left the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contemplating a programme of what it calls "euthanasia" – sending healthy horses to slaughterhouses where they are likely to be turned into steak for export to France.
The proposal sparked outrage from conservationists when it was outlined in a recent Government Accountability Office report, with welfare groups accusing the BLM of holding an unnecessarily high number of mustangs in captivity in order to appease the politically powerful ranching lobby.
"They say there are too many horses left on the range, and that they need to gather them all the time," said Jerry Reynoldson of the Wild Horse Adoption Association. "But there are only 30,000 left in the wild, and they're spread over 10 states. In Nevada alone, the BLM controls 47 million acres. But the ranchers control economic forces and pay lobbyists in Washington, so they give the horses short shrift and convince the authorities that they need to be taken off the land."
Campaigners say slaughter would mark an ignominious end for a creature that arrived in North America with the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century, and which once existed in such numbers that maps of Texas from the 1700s marked many areas as simply: "vast herds of wild horses". Deanne Stillman, author of a new book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, said: "Horses blazed our trails, they fought our wars, they are the greatest icons of freedom. The word 'euthanasia' suggests that the BLM will be putting these horses out of their misery. But they are not in misery in the first place. It's the most cynical thing I've ever heard."
Today, 33,100 mustangs are left in the wild, roaming in 199 herds. Because the animals have few natural predators left and do not provide sport for hunters, government officials say a quota must be taken into captivity each year. Some of the captive horses are adopted by members of the public, but supply has outstripped demand in recent years, and the BLM says drastic action is needed to reduce the number in captivity, which cost $21m (£14m) a year to feed. "We don't want to do euthanasia, but we are up against the wall on our budget," a spokesman told USA Today.
The only hope for many horses may lie with Madeleine Pickens, wife of the Texan oil billionaire T Boone Pickens, who recently announced that she was trying to establish a million-acre refuge where all captive mustangs can be released. Her plan will see private land turned into a rural theme park where Americans can interact with the mustangs. Its announcement persuaded the BLM to grant captive horses a stay of execution until the New Year.
"We will take all the excess horses," Mrs Pickens explained, "and put them somewhere where families can see them and live among them, and camp out in teepees and have bonfires and look up at the stars and get to know this incredible aspect of our heritage."
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Tuna, mustangs: business as usual.
Is this the end of the bluefin tuna?
The most expensive fish in the sea – celebrated by Homer, venerated by the Japanese – may not survive an EU decision to maintain catch quotas in defiance of scientists, reports Michael McCarthy
Saturday, 29 November 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/is-this-the-end-of-the-bluefin-tuna-1040246.html
They are among the most legendary and majestic fish in the sea – and beyond doubt the most valuable. A decision taken this week, however, means that the bluefin tuna of the Mediterranean are probably now also the most endangered fish in the sea, with overfishing pushing the stock towards the brink of collapse.
Celebrated since the time of Homer, the mighty and meaty bluefin these days have ardent admirers on the other side of the world: the Japanese, who prize them above all other fish for use in sushi and sashimi. But so great is the Japanese demand that it is driving catches well beyond what scientists consider to be safe limits and towards commercial extinction.
Earlier this week, however, a vital opportunity to pull the bluefin back from the brink was missed when the official body charged with preventing the stock from collapsing agreed to allow catch quotas for 2009 far higher than its own scientists recommended.
Amid a chorus of protests and dismay from conservationists, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, endorsed a total allowable catch (TAC) of 22,000 tonnes for next year – while ICCAT's own scientists had recommended a TAC ranging from 8,500 to 15,000 tonnes per year, warning there were real risks of the fishery collapsing otherwise.
The scientists also urged a seasonal closure during the fragile spawning months of May and June, but the meeting agreed to allow industrial fishing up to 20 June.
The decision, which was branded "a disgrace" by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and fiercely attacked by other conservation bodies, was driven by the European Union, amid allegations that the EU had threatened developing nations with trade sanctions if they supported lower catch limits and extended closed seasons. During the meeting, the names of some countries appeared and disappeared from the more scientifically based proposals.
The EU is representing the interests of several countries who have big fishing fleets hunting the multi-million-dollar bonanza that the annual catch represents. In the lead are the French, with about 600 tuna boats, followed by the Italians, who have a fleet of about 200 vessels. It is thought that half the Italian fleet may be unlicensed boats, especially those from Calabria in southern Italy, and Sicily, where Mafia connections to some of the fishing operations are strongly suspected. Algeria, Croatia, Greece, Libya, Malta, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey are other countries with tuna fishing fleets.
The hunt is based around the spawning habits of a specific subspecies of the bluefin tuna, the eastern Atlantic bluefin, which swims every May from the Atlantic, where it spends the winter, through the Straits of Gibraltar to spawn in June and July in the warmer waters of the Mediterranean. The migration takes place in huge schools of fish which, in the past, were miles wide and millions strong – and even with today's depleted numbers it can still be a remarkable spectacle. Spawning sites, where the females releases millions of eggs at night, are scattered from one end of the Mediterranean to the other.
Intercepting the huge shoals has been done for thousands of years but, in recent years, advances in fishing technology, as well as demand, have made the contest entirely one-sided. ICATT has established rules for the fishery but conservationists claim they are being consistently broken by the hunters. For example, the use of spotter aircraft to locate the tuna shoals has been banned in the month of June since 2001 but such spotter planes have been seen operating from Libya, Malta and Italy. Similarly, drift nets have also been banned but Italian fishermen have been found to be using them.
But the most serious and frequent malpractice is exceeding catch quota limits, which is thought to happen with all countries involved in the fishery. For example, the French this year had a quota of 4,300 tonnes but are thought to have caught about 7,000 tonnes. Most of the catching is done with purse-seines, which are very large bag-like nets capable of scooping up an entire tuna school. The purse-seines allow the tuna to be taken alive and transported to tuna ranches – there are about 40 scattered about the Mediterranean – where they are fattened for the Japanese market. The greater the fat content of the fish, the higher the price the Japanese will pay. They are slaughtered in the autumn and freighted to Japan.
The tuna ranching is driven by Japanese demand, which in turn, say conservationists, is driving the overfishing. The meeting at Marrakech had a chance to bring the fishery back under control, but the decision, taken by politicians with powerful fishing groups in their constituencies, went the other way. It was fiercely attacked by groups such as WWF. "This is not a decision, it is a disgrace which leaves WWF little choice but to look elsewhere to save this fishery from itself," said Dr Sergi Tudela, head of the WWF's Mediterranean fisheries programme.
The Green Party group in the European Parliament also lashed out at the decision. "The ICCAT quotas are a death sentence for the bluefin tuna," said the Green Party MEP Raül Romeva, who attended the meeting. "It is completely unacceptable that the body responsible for managing stocks has set a TAC that is 50 per cent higher than the scientific advice. The EU had pressed for even higher catches. It is morally bankrupt for [the EU Fisheries] Commissioner Joe Borg to make noises about the need to conserve bluefin tuna before the ICCAT meeting, when the European community then proceeds to use strong-arm, bullying tactics to try to impose a maximum total catch two-thirds higher than the scientific advice.
"The EU has bankrolled the decimation of bluefin stocks by subsidising the new large fishing vessels that are responsible for overfishing, to the detriment of certain traditional fishing fleets. When the stocks are gone, the same ship owners who lobbied to overexploit bluefin tuna will come cap in hand for more EU money. This must not be allowed to happen."
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Washington plans mass slaughter of America's mustangs
Pressure from cattle-ranching industry could lead to more than 30,000 horses being culled
Hm, I heard something similar a little while before. Oh, it was with humans, right?
I have a shrewd idea that a lot less people will be outraged this time.
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UN team warns of hard landing for dollar
By Harvey Morris in New York
Published: December 1 2008 08:48 | Last updated: December 1 2008 08:48
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/12eab3b4-bf06-11dd-ae63-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
The current strength of the dollar is temporary and the US currency risks a hard landing in 2009, according to a team of United Nations economists who foresaw a year ago that a US downturn would bring the global economy to a near standstill.
In their annual report on the world economy published on Monday, the economists said the dollar’s sharp rebound this autumn had been driven mainly by a flight to the safety of the international reserve currency as the financial crisis spread beyond the US.
The overall trend remained a downward one, however, reflecting perceptions that the US debt position was approaching unsustainable levels. An accelerated fall of the dollar could bring new turmoil to financial markets.
“Investors might renew their flight to safety, though this time away from dollar-denominated assets, thereby forcing the US economy into a hard landing and pulling the global economy into a deeper recession,” the report said.
Publication of the annual survey by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, its trade organisation Unctad and UN regional bodies, was brought forward by a month in the light of the financial crisis. It was launched in Doha to coincide with the UN-sponsored development financing conference in the Qatari capital.
The UN team said that, as the financial crisis spread beyond the US, there had been a massive shift of global financial assets into US Treasury bills, driving their yields almost to zero and pushing the dollar sharply higher. At the same time, however, the US’s external debt had risen to new heights that could provoke a dollar collapse.
The report recommends reform of the international reserve system away from almost exclusive reliance on the dollar and towards a globally backed multi-currency system.
Rob Vos, a Dutch economist who heads the UN’s policy and analysis division and who is responsible for the annual economic review, said the global economic pain could be eased if governments co-ordinated a spate of stimulus packages that were already under way.
“There has been a sea change in attitudes in favour of intervention and concerted action,” he told the Financial Times. He welcomed statements from US president-elect Barack Obama’s transition team in support of spending on infrastructure.
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The current strength of the dollar is temporary
the dollar’s sharp rebound this autumn had been driven mainly by a flight to the safety of the international reserve currency as the financial crisis spread beyond the US.
The overall trend remained a downward one, however, reflecting perceptions that the US debt position was approaching unsustainable levels.
An accelerated fall of the dollar could bring new turmoil to financial markets.
The UN team said that, as the financial crisis spread beyond the US, there had been a massive shift of global financial assets into US Treasury bills, driving their yields almost to zero and pushing the dollar sharply higher. At the same time, however, the US’s external debt had risen to new heights that could provoke a dollar collapse.
Yes the stakes are high right now and have we yet seen every corps in the closet?
Todays agenda is the car industry. Rumours says that Ford that bought Volvo for 50 billions crowns some years ago are now ready to sell thewhole Volvo car industry for 20 biilion SEK, approximately 2,5 billion USD. Volvo lost 40 percent in the sales figures in their homecountry this year, SAAB fell with 35 percent while Audi for instance kept their sale at the same level as in 2007.
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From The Sunday Times
November 30, 2008
The fool’s gold of carbon trading
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5257602.ece
Jonathan Leake
It was a deal to make Alistair Darling hug himself with glee. Just as the world’s existing financial markets were hitting a five-year low two weeks ago, the Treasury raked in a cool £54m from a brand new one. The occasion was Britain’s first auction of CO2 permits. Almost 4m were knocked down to greenhouse gas emitters in a sale that was four times oversubscribed. The government expects to sell 80m more over the next four years, raising a further £1 billion.
The plan, at first glance, seems simplicity itself: by charging companies for the right to emit CO2, the government hopes to encourage them to switch to cleaner and greener technologies. It is the latest development in a global campaign to save the planet by making polluters pay.
We are witnessing the birth of the greatest and most complex commodity market the world has seen. Last year alone, permits worth more than £55 billion were traded on the world’s carbon markets – but future trading volumes, if all goes global according to plan, will dwarf these.
Carbon trading schemes originate from the Kyoto protocol on climate change agreed under the auspices of the United Nations in 1997. Governments adhering to Kyoto accept limits on the CO2 their countries can emit. To meet their pledges, they put caps on the carbon outputs of domestic companies, which have to buy annual permits to exceed them.
Permits are bought from governments or from carbon traders, who, naturally, charge a commission. For the City the arrival of carbon trading is a bonanza. The sector already employs about 3,000 people and has created a few dozen new millionaires.
Several such schemes are up and running around the world: Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme, founded in 2005, is the biggest, but others are following in Australia, the US and even China.
It sounds good news for everyone: governments, taxpayers, City boys and the environment. The reality is a great deal less rosy – indeed some of those closest to the carbon markets say openly that the system is doomed to failure.
Many carbon traders believe they could make the system work but fear the politicians who oversee it will never dare put a sufficiently high price on carbon emissions to make a difference.
Those millions collected by the Treasury, for example, came mainly from UK power companies, and the cost will be added directly to our bills, as will the cost of annual CO2 permits in future. More worrying still, carbon trading shows no sign of achieving its purpose: CO2 emissions have increased, not slackened, since the first trading schemes. What, then, is the point? Good question, particularly for the 10,000 politicians, policy-makers and civil servants arriving this week in Poznan, Poland, for the latest round of global climate negotiations. They will consider a proposal to make carbon trading one of the world’s main tools for cutting greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.
The incongruity of proposing that a brand new financial market might be able to save the world – when faith in every other kind of financial market is tumbling – needs no underlining. But there are plenty of other reasons for scepticism, too.
Jim Hansen, director of the Nasa God-dard space centre and a renowned critic of global measures to combat climate change, believes carbon trading is a “terrible” approach. “Carbon trading does not solve the emission problem at all,” he says. “In fact it gives industries a way to avoid reducing their emissions. The rules are too complex and it creates an entirely new class of lobbyists and fat cats.”
Even some of those involved in setting up the carbon markets fear they will fail in their principal aim of cutting carbon emissions. Liz Bossley of CEAG, a City consultant in carbon trading, may have helped the fledgling system to grow from nothing into a big business but she is frank about its limitations. “The fatal flaw is . . . the politicians, because they set the cap which determines the supply of CO2 credits,” she says.
“The problem is that making those caps tough enough to achieve real cuts in CO2 emissions would have all kinds of political consequences. The chances of any politician taking such a decision are negligible.” What Bossley means is that consumers – voters – have to foot the bill when the cost of permits turns up in domestic energy prices.
British consumers are already paying about £60 extra each year on their gas and electricity bills to support renewable energy. Will they take more of this medicine in the middle of the worst recession for dec-ades? Nervous politicians remember the backlash in 2000 when angry lorry drivers almost brought the country to a standstill over the fuel accelerator tax.
There’s more. Under the 1997 Kyoto deal the main 37 industrialised nations (but not America) agreed that one of the ways they could cut emissions was by financing “clean development” projects in the developing world.
The idea is certainly appealing: if a company is emitting too much CO2 it can either make cuts or pay other companies to cut their emissions instead. If it turns out to be cheaper to pay someone in China to plant a forest to absorb carbon dioxide, or a factory in India to install clean technology to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases, then this is allowed, provided the project has been approved under the UN framework convention on climate change. For each tonne of CO2 saved, the convention issues a certified emission reduction certificate, or CER. These are valuable: indeed, they are the nearest thing to currency that the carbon markets acknowledge. Each one is worth about £14.
The original plan was to create a system for transferring wealth from developed countries such as Britain and America to the Third World, hence killing two birds with one stone: cutting emissions and helping international development.
It certainly sounded good – but the reality is the most complex trading system the world has known.
The complexity naturally means the system is open to abuse. Last year The Sunday Times revealed how SRF, an Indian company that produces refrigeration gases at a sprawling chemical plant in Rajasthan, stood to make £300m from selling certificates to overseas companies including Shell and Barclays. The Indian company had spent just £1.4m on equipment to reduce its emissions – and was using the profit to expand production of another greenhouse gas, a thousand times more . Other manufacturers damaging than CO2 in India and China producing similar products are expected to earn an estimated £3.3 billion over the next six years by cutting emissions at a cost of just £67m.
Internal papers leaked from the UN show that such problems arose because the system for checking companies involved in emissions reductions schemes was seriously flawed. One official estimated that up to 20% of the carbon credits issued did not represent genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This meant that the real effect of the system had been to increase the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Nor is this all. One of the unintended consequences of the carbon trading system is a potentially huge – and massively destabilising – transfer of money and influence from the industrialised West to Russia. This is because when the Kremlin signed up to the Kyoto treaty it was given an annual emissions limit based on the horrors pumped out by filthy old Soviet industries back in 1990. Since then Russia’s industrial base has contracted so drastic-ally that it uses only a fraction of its allowances. One recent analyst’s report found that Russia has accumulated emissions permits worth about four billion tonnes of CO2. The report warned: “Russia must be singled out as a potential threat to the ability of the market to produce a meaning-ful carbon price.”
There is of course another huge incongruity in Russia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of coal, gas and oil, also in effect having control of the system for reducing emissions from these fossil fuels. It means that the West could end up paying the Russians for fuel – and then paying them again for the right to burn it.
Undeterred by these fundamental flaws, the UN is planning many more CER schemes. About 4,000 are awaiting approval, including plans for capturing methane from Indian chicken farms, Filipino pig farms and Thai coal mines. Other schemes propose destroying industrial gases at factories in China and India and cutting CO2 emissions by building wind farms in Mon-golia. One of the ideas under discussion in Poznan could result in European industry paying millions of pounds to landowners in Brazil and Indonesia not to cut down their rainforests.
It is easy to mock such schemes but the mockery hides from view the really big question, and the one that is hardest to answer: are the emerging carbon markets capable of making a significant dent in the world’s surging carbon emissions?
Lord May, a former government chief scientist, is now an influential member of the British government’s climate change committee, whose inaugural report (Building a Low-Carbon Economy – the UK’s Contribution to Tackling Climate Change) will be published tomorrow.
The report will include a full scientific and economic analysis of how Britain can achieve its target of cutting emissions by 80% by 2050, including specific reduction targets for each of the UK’s first three five-year “carbon budget” periods. Although the report will support carbon trading as a possible means of reducing emissions, May has warned that the system risks creating a false sense of security.
Speaking at the Royal Society last month, he said: “The [inclusion of] these fiscal instruments could give the misleading impression that they can deliver real emissions reductions. Sooner or later, people are going to have to realise that, in climate change, we now face something far worse than world war two.”
Some of his fellow scientists even warn that governments may soon have to accept that combating climate change is becoming incompatible with economic growth. A recent peer-reviewed paper from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the government’s leading academic research centre for global warming, warned: “Unless economic growth can be reconciled with unprecedented rates of decarbonisation, it is difficult to foresee anything other than a planned economic recession being compatible with stabilising the climate.”
At the Royal Society, Professor Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre, spelt it out: “The target set for the climate talks was to keep global temperature rises below 2C. At the moment, however, the level of emissions is rising so fast that we are heading for a world that is 4-5C warmer than now by 2100. That would be catastrophic for the environment and for humanity.”
In other words, if the scientists are right, all our efforts to fight off the recession are wrongheaded. We should be embracing it. So where does this leave the world leaders and their Sherpas, heading for Poznan with their hopes set on trading our way out of the abyss? Anderson’s answer is a shrug.
“Carbon trading may have been the answer once but not any more,” he says. “It will just take too long to achieve anything, and we no longer have the luxury of time.”
Stinking rich
For clever City boys, carbon markets are a marvellous way of turning muck into brass. Daniel Co, a Filipino pig farmer, used to shovel the dung from his 10,000 animals into ponds on his Uni-Rich Agro Industrial farm. The manure generated thousands of tons of methane, a global warming gas, but Co did not want to spend £110,000 on kit to trap the gas.
Then EcoSecurities, a British carbon trading firm, worked out that anything that captured the methane would entitle the farmer annually to nearly 3,000 “certified emission reductions” – the nearest thing to a carbon trading currency.
EcoSecurities did the paperwork for Co and gave him just over £2 per certificate. He put in the methane-capture kit, generating power and saving about £24,000 a year in utility bills. EcoSecurities sells the CERs for about £10 each to a French bank, which sells them on to power plants that need to offset emissions. The consumer pays through higher bills. A nice little earner for everyone except the poor mugs (us) at the end of the chain – but can it save the planet?
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There is already a lot of info on this event
this is a longish article with some curious
insights......
Mumbai attacks more complicated than corporate press reports
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 3, 2008, 00:24
(WMR) -- As first reported by WMR while the corporate press was uttering the “Al Qaeda” bogeyman as likely behind the terror attacks on Mumbai, the Press Trust of India (PTI) is now confirming WMR’s initial report that Pakistan- and Dubai-based criminal syndicate boss Dawood Ibrahim’s gangsters handed over the weapons and explosive material to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) terrorists to carry out the assault on targets in Mumbai.
According to PTI, one LET terrorist captured by India, Ajmal Qasab, said he and his fellow terrorists sailed from Karachi and entered Mumbai’s port area with the help of Ibrahim’s agents who run several customs facilities in Mumbai. However, there are some questions being raised about Qasab and his claims. The so-called security camera shot of Qasab, who is being billed by the media as the “lone surviving gunman,” at Chatrapathi Sivaji train terminal in Mumbai, appears fake. The angle is too narrow for a train station which would have a wider angle and be shot from higher up than the photo being shopped by the Indian police. However, according to Asian intelligence sources, Qasab may have been trained by Hindu militants and was rushed to the scene of the attack for a photo opportunity hastily arranged by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) propaganda team. One Asian intelligence source who has spent a great deal of time in Pakistan reports that he has “never seen a haircut like his [Qasab’s] in Pakistan or on either side of Line of Control in Kashmir.” He also pointed out that Qasab is a bit overweight for an average “mujad” who slim down in training by exercising and eating a sparse diet of lentils and flat bread.
An abandoned Indian fishing boat, the Kuber, discovered off the coast of Mumbai, was found to contain satellite phones and global positioning system (GPS) equipment pre-programmed with a return route to Karachi, Pakistan. The Ibrahim gangsters and LET terrorists had hijacked the Kuber and killed its crew.
It has also been revealed that the Trident-Oberoi Hotel had been chosen by the terrorists because a large number of Israeli businessmen were staying there while attending a diamond exhibition. WMR has learned from our Asian intelligence sources that a large number of Mossad officers used the Trident-Oberoii as a base of operations, along with the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Chabad House, which was also targeted by the terrorist-gangster alliance.
The Oberoi hostages were shot in the back of their heads, a typical gangland execution method preferred by Ibrahim and not the firing squad method used by LET. The outbreak of fires in rooms at the Oberoi also point to the possibility that the hotel was being used by British, American (possibly Defense Intelligence Agency), Australian, and Israeli non-official cover (NOC) agents as a base and documents were being destroyed before the hotel was fully secured by the Ibrahim-LET assailants. There was an initial report that a number of bodies of white males brought out of the Oberoi were Australians.
A report in Kashmir Times, since removed from its website, claimed that the terrorists that entered the Taj Mahal Palace hotel had identified two senior U.S. intelligence officers in the crowd. The fact that the two CIA agents were singled out lends more proof to WMR’s original report that Ibrahim was retaliating against his old CIA friends because he suspected them of working with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency to extradite him from his sanctuary in Quetta, Pakistan, to India. Ibrahim is a veteran of CIA “off-the-books” operations during the mujahedin war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and currently in CIA drug and weapons smuggling and money laundering activities in South Asia, particularly in facilitating the shipment of a bumper crop of opium from U.S.-occupied Afghanistan to enrich the coffers of CIA slush funds.
Ibrahim was also involved in supplying nuclear materials to Pakistan’s father of the nuclear bomb, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan has made no secret that the CIA was well aware of his activities and Ibrahim may be in a position to know much more about the secret networks that supplied Pakistan with proscribed materials, including nuclear-related and missile items, networks that may involve CIA channels and Turkish and Israeli criminal intermediaries.
The fate of the two CIA agents at the Taj, which was apparently being used by the CIA as an operational base, is unknown. Ibrahim’s targeting of Britons was a message sent to British MI-6 assets in ISI not to cooperate with the Americans and Indians in double-crossing Ibrahim by arranging a quick extradition “flight” from Pakistan to India.
However, Ibrahim, before he became a target for the United States, was keenly avoided by U.S. officials in connection with terrorist acts. On July 11, 2006, when Mumbai was struck by a series of deadly train bombings that killed over 200 people (the so-called “7/11” bombings), Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher was careful not to assign blame to Ibrahim. Boucher said, “Dawood Ibrahim is indeed on our list. We do think he was responsible for some of the previous crimes. I don’t know personally if he is responsible for this one or not . . .”
India is trying to boost the LET’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks while downplaying the role of Ibrahim. However, WMR has learned that LET was a mere subcontractor to Ibrahim’s criminal syndicate in order to send a message to Delhi, Washington, and London that he will not be bartered away in a side deal with Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto’s tainted widower, who is a business rival of Ibrahim in Pakistan. Zardari has made no secret of his dislike of Ibrahim, especially since the Indian expat son of a Mumbai Criminal Branch police constable is so powerful in Pakistan he is known as the “King of Karachi.”
The Indian government realizes that Ibrahim has catered for some time to India’s wealthy elite, including the nouveau riche of “Bollywood,” India’s movie-making mecca. He has served as pimp, drug dealer, moneylender at casinos (including the casinos in Kathmandu Ibrahim runs jointly with CIA assets), hitman, extortionist, import and export fixer, cop briber at amazingly reasonable fees via deals disguised as legitimate business contracts. In 1997, Ibrahim was accused of the contract murder of well-known Bollywood filmmaker Gulshan Kumar. One of Kumar’s Bollywood rivals was accused of ordering the hit on Kumar.
Ibrahim’s network in Bihar facilitates lucrative gold smuggling in and out of neighboring Nepal, a gold smuggling network that ultimately leads to Ibrahim’s gold smuggling operations in Dubai. Ibrahim also runs a lucrative gold and weapons smuggling operation in Gujarat. The Ibrahim gold smuggling operations in Dubai also mask British intelligence money laundering operations in the Caribbean and Isle of Man -- and this intelligence has been captured by National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance of both financial transactions and the reported compromise of encrypted British TOP SECRET UK EYES ONLY communications by NSA.
Ibrahim sent a lesson to Britain based on history. The weapons smuggled by Ibrahim’s men and the LET into Mumbai came through the customs house on Sassoon Dock and transferred to fast inflatable boats that landed at the Gate of India, the old British East India Company’s trade passage into India. The lucrative Indian drug trade conducted through Mumbai has been divided between Ibrahim’s Muslim gangs and the relatively new arrivals, the Russian-Israeli Mafia. The Indian drug business is largely run out of London and there has even been some cooperation between the Russian-Israeli mob and Ibrahim’s gangsters by divvying up stolen Nokia mobile phones --hijacked during the shipment process -- that are used to coordinate the drug and weapons smuggling trade.
However, WMR has learned from Asian intelligence sources that the Russian-Israeli gangsters operating out of Chabad House tried to take over Mumbai’s drug trade with the help of local Jewish mobsters so Ibrahim, while settling scores with India, the CIA, and Britain, decided to have his subcontractor LET terrorists pay a visit to Chabad House and “collect on a debt with high interest.” Ibrahim has always been careful to kill more criminals than he employs and after his attacks on Hindu and Israeli mobsters in Mumbai, the ratio has reportedly gotten better. Ibrahim eliminated practically every one of his criminal rivals in Mumbai during the 1980s and he is not about to see Hindu and Israeli crime syndicates replace him in his fiercely fought-for turf in Mumbai and other parts of India. Ibrahim’s drug and other smuggling operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Africa, and Sri Lanka have also faced new and increased competition from Russian-Israeli gangsters operating in the same regions.
In March 1993, Ibrahim launched a deadly series of car bombings in Mumbai that, like the recent attacks, were dual purpose: Ibrahim got his revenge for a Hindu massacre of Muslims in India and he wiped out Karim Lala’s criminal network in central Mumbai, one of his last rivals in the city. Lala was once Ibrahim’s boss before Ibrahim broke away to form his own crime syndicate. The perpetrators of the attacks, possessing Indian passports, arrived in Mumbai via Pakistan with valid Pakistani visas obtained from the Pakistani consulate in Dubai. The Pakistani visas showed no Pakistan entry or exit stamps, courtesy of the ISI.
The 1993 terrorists arrived in India, like their more recent colleagues, by boat from Pakistan. Indian police found an unused detonator and timing device with an unexploded bomb used by the terrorists. The FBI confirmed that the timer was of U.S. origin and part if a CIA shipment to the ISI during the 1980s Afghan war.
Due to pressure from India and INTERPOL, Dubai pressured Ibrahim into leaving the emirate in 1994. He took up residence in Karachi and often traveled to Nepal. In 2003, Iqbal Kaskar, Ibrahim’s brother, and Ibrahim’s lieutenant, Ejaz Pathan, were extradited by the United Arab Emirates to India for their roles in the 1993 Mumbai attacks.
There is also evidence that right-wing Hindu elements of the RAW were aware of Ibrahim’s hit on Mumbai beforehand but allowed it to play out in order to carry out a “soft coup” by right-wing Hindu nationalists against the Indian Congress government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Hindu nationalists are allied through lucrative business ties with prospective U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Hindu nationalists are hoping for a showdown with Pakistan and a confrontation with China. The Hindu right-wingers are also supported by the Israeli criminal and intelligence network in India.
Ibrahim and his friends in ISI may have been sending a clear message to the billionaire Tata family that owns the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The Tatas stand to make a handsome profit from the recent U.S.-nuclear deal and the fact that the Tatas are Parsees -- fire worshippers -- prompted Ibrahim to order his men to burn down the Taj Mahal hotel.
The first police official who uncovered the soft coup in New Delhi by the Hindu right-wingers was Hemant Karkare, the anti-terrorism chief of the Mumbai police. Karkare was the first target when the attacks in Mumbai began, but it is certain that his knowledge of ties between Hindu terrorists and Indian RAW intelligence in carrying out “false flag” attacks later blamed on Muslims likely earned Karkare a death sentence from the Hindus and their RAW friends. One of the terrorists caught on CCTV at the Mumbai train station was seen wearing an orange wristband, which is commonly worn by Hindu fundamentalists.
And Ibrahim has his own connections with India’s extremist Hindus. Ibrahim’s influence over and fascination with Bollywood has resulted in a friendly relationship between the “King of Karachi” and the actor-turned-Hindu extremist, Hindu Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, who has been accused of involvement in terrorist violence against Indian Muslims. Shiv Sena is connected to a gangland rival of Ibrahim’s, one of Ibrahim’s former aides, Chotta Rajan. Rajan split with Ibrahim after the 1993 Mumbai attacks.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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I'd just be a little cautious with Wayne Madsen. While perhaps not a member of the 'conspiracy within conspiracies' plot, nonetheless he skirts the border with his blurring the lines between investigative journalism and conspiracy.
I gather he does not hold the pro-Nazi nor the US Christian Loony-Right views of most die-hard conspiracy theorists, yet he seems a little sloppy with his methods:
"The angle is too narrow for a train station which would have a wider angle and be shot from higher up than the photo being shopped by the Indian police."
"according to Asian intelligence sources"
"Qasab may have been trained by Hindu militants and was rushed to the scene of the attack for a photo opportunity hastily arranged by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) propaganda team"
"One Asian intelligence source who has spent a great deal of time in Pakistan reports that he has “never seen a haircut like his [Qasab’s] in Pakistan or on either side of Line of Control in Kashmir.” He also pointed out that Qasab is a bit overweight for an average “mujad” who slim down in training by exercising and eating a sparse diet of lentils and flat bread."
These types of comments really roll my eyes. I have trouble reading on after that beginning.
Nonetheless the Dawood connection does need some clarification, so I suppose he is pushing for that, even if he does his reporting no credit with such a lot of silly and unsubstantiated inclusions.
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I have this feeling creeping up on me:
The focus of world instability has shifted from the Middle East to Pakistan.
I don't think Zardari has any real power to fix this, and his Government has power over only a portion of the country - physically they have no control of great areas of Pakistan, but worse, his secular philosophy is followed by the majority, but there is still a huge minority who are violently diametrically opposed to that.
I sense a civil war is close in Pak.
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2008 will be coolest year of the decade
James Randerson
guardian.co.uk, Friday December 5 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/05/climate-change-weather
Global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, but cooler temperature is not evidence that global warming is slowing, say climate scientists
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/maps_and_graphs/2008/12/05/06.13.08.globalairtemp.gif)
This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.
The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. "Absolutely not," said Dr Peter Stott, the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office's Hadley Centre. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends."
Prof Myles Allen at Oxford University who runs the climateprediction.net website, said he feared climate sceptics would overinterpret the figure. "You can bet your life there will be a lot of fuss about what a cold year it is. Actually no, its not been that cold a year, but the human memory is not very long, we are used to warm years," he said, "Even in the 80s [this year] would have felt like a warm year."
And 2008 would have been a scorcher in Charles Dickens's time - without human-induced warming there would have been a one in a hundred chance of getting a year this hot. "For Dickens this would have been an extremely warm year," he said. On the flip side, in the current climate there is a roughly one in 10chance of having a year this cool.
The Met Office predicted at the beginning of the year that 2008 would be cooler than recent years because of a La Niña event - characterised by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It is the mirror image of the El Niño climate cycle. The Met Office had forecast an annual global average of 14.37C.
Allen was presenting the data on this year's global average temperature at the Appleton Space Conference at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Didcot yesterday. The 14.3C figure is based on data from January to October. When the Met Office makes its formal announcement next week they will incorporate data from November. "[The figure] will differ from it, but it won't differ massively," said Stott, "We would expect the number to go up rather than down because the early parts of the year were still under the La Niña conditions."
Assuming the final figure is close to 14.3C then 2008 will be the tenth hottest year on record. The hottest was 1998 - which included a very strong El Niño event - followed by 2005, 2003 and 2002. The data are a combination of measurements from satellites, ground weather stations and buoys which are compiled jointly by the Hadley Centre and the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
In March, a team of climate scientists at Kiel University predicted that natural variation would mask the 0.3C warming predicted by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change over the next decade. They said that global temperatures would remain constant until 2015 but would then begin to accelerate.
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One Asian intelligence source who has spent a great deal of time in Pakistan reports that he has “never seen a haircut like his [Qasab’s] in Pakistan or on either side of Line of Control in Kashmir.” He also pointed out that Qasab is a bit overweight for an average “mujad” who slim down in training by exercising and eating a sparse diet of lentils and flat bread.
This snippet is actually more sensible than he has presented it. It is not just a haircut style. These guys were not your Afghan Taliban types, not the typical poor classes of Pakistan, nourished on madrassas education. They were smart, dedicated, put up a stunningly clever fight, wore jeans and Nike shoes, tourist style backpacks, Kasab wore a Versace T-shirt - ie they were angry well-educated, middle-class kids. What Pak/Indians call chikna cool, wealthy, smooth looking guys.
This, along with targeting Israeli, British, and US citizens, suggests they are fired by gross injustice.
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This snippet is actually more sensible than he has presented it. It is not just a haircut style. These guys were not your Afghan Taliban types, not the typical poor classes of Pakistan, nourished on madrassas education. They were smart, dedicated, put up a stunningly clever fight, wore jeans and Nike shoes, tourist style backpacks, Kasab wore a Versace T-shirt - ie they were angry well-educated, middle-class kids. What Pak/Indians call chikna cool, wealthy, smooth looking guys.
This, along with targeting Israeli, British, and US citizens, suggests they are fired by gross injustice.
Gross injustice or gross grievance - there seems to be a trend of various people getting raging mad in one way:
http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=460.msg32478#msg32478
or another:
Is the Financial Crisis Increasing Family Suicide Rates?
http://www.65degreesnorth.com/content/view/876/92/
By Tunji Toriola
Monday, 10 November 2008
Medical doctor and researcher Tunji Toriola looks at the recent family tragedies.
As the shock from the family suicide/murder in Oulu three weeks ago still resonates, the country is shocked to read about more family killings within a space of one week in other parts of Finland. A middle aged man shot his wife and then killed himself in Herttoniemi in Helsinki and another couple committed suicide in Porvoo. While motives are still being sought, since none of them left suicide notes, the police have tried to assure the nation that these are random acts and are not driven by the recent economic problems. According to released figures, there is usually an average of seven incidents of family murder/suicide in a year in Finland since the 1950s regardless of economic situation. Hopefully the recent trends will stop, if not, that figure may be exceeded this year.
The USA has been the country most affected initially by the recent economic troubles and health officials are on alert because they have witnessed an increasing number of suicides as a result of the financial crisis, especially since September. A financial manager who was recently laid off and lost a fortune in the stock market killed his entire family (wife and 5 kids) in a murder/suicide, an elderly widow shot herself when she was about to be evicted from her house as a result of mortgage default, a housewife whose family was about to be evicted from their house because of mortgage default left a note for the mortgage company "by the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead" and truly she shot herself. The list goes on. And it is not only in the USA. A few incidents have been reported in the United Kingdom in the last 2 months. Most memorable was a man who shot his wife, their daughter, 3 horses and dogs and then set their £1.2 million house on fire because of mounting debts.
As the financial crisis worsens, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a surge in the rate of mental illness and suicide because of the physical, emotional and mental stress involved when people lose their homes and livelihood. But does the buck stop with the financial crisis? Opinions on this differ. Studies in Europe reveal little annual change in suicide rates despite different economic changes between 1989 and 2002 but a different picture may emerge if the suicide rates in the various countries are analyzed separately especially in the Baltic countries. In Japan, however, the financial crisis of 1998 resulted in a 40% increase in suicide rates and the country is preparing for an increase in suicide rates with the present crisis.
Suicide is a maladaptive way of coping with stress and many things may initiate stress; right now, it is the financial crisis. The underlying factor may be a lack of care for people who really need help in time of need such as in the present financial crisis. Mental illnesses, especially depression are the main precipitants of suicide or suicidal ideas and according to the WHO, presently, depression is responsible for the highest burden of diseases in industrialized countries.
Also, in the European Union, 58,000 people commit suicide every year and dying from suicide accounts for second highest risk of death among young men. The present economic problems may precipitate suicidal thoughts among vulnerable people by causing chronic anxiety, panic and a feeling of helplessness. Especially among people who already suffer from depression, these feelings may be too much to handle and they may seek suicide as an easier alternative to living.
Unfortunately, in many societies, mental illnesses, including depression are still stigmatized and most people live with the disease without being diagnosed and put on treatment, hence, becoming more vulnerable during this period.
In America, the present crisis has increased the number of calls made to mental health hot-lines with most of them jammed at the moment; demand for counseling services has increased and calls to suicide prevention hot lines has increased by up to 20% in the last couple of months. Right now, people need help on how to deal with the present financial crisis and impending financial doom. Help in the form of counseling, help in the form of getting treatment to those who need it before they succumb to the idea of ending it all, help by health care workers in identifying people with depression and other mental health problems who may be more vulnerable and finally, help from family and friends in dealing with the emotional trauma.
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In America, the present crisis has increased the number of calls made to mental health hot-lines with most of them jammed at the moment; demand for counseling services has increased and calls to suicide prevention hot lines has increased by up to 20% in the last couple of months. Right now, people need help on how to deal with the present financial crisis and impending financial doom. Help in the form of counseling, help in the form of getting treatment to those who need it before they succumb to the idea of ending it all, help by health care workers in identifying people with depression and other mental health problems who may be more vulnerable and finally, help from family and friends in dealing with the emotional trauma.
What would anyone expect?
That is one of my areas of research, economic crisis and public health - and unfortunately we are only in the beginning of a depression. Not a worldwide depression but still the largest crisis since the 1930's.
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What would anyone expect?
That is one of my areas of research, economic crisis and public health - and unfortunately we are only in the beginning of a depression. Not a worldwide depression but still the largest crisis since the 1930's.
Rambling thoughts from this entire thread...
I work for a company making toys... 4 wheelers, personal watercraft, golf cars. and a sort of cross between a Jeep and a 4 wheeler. 3 mfg. plants and 3 large warehouses on our complex. We ship worldwide.
About 1800 people employed there in total. I've been watching our production schedules for the next 3 years changing almost daily... dropping of course.... next year will be about 1/2 what we did last year... as of Friday... that can and will probably change next week.
Of the 1800 people there... 600 are what we call temps... peopledhired temporarily... through outside firms. We've cut about 200 of those... the latest production numbers indicate we will let the 400 others go soon.. and then it begins on the permanent employees.
I've already had to prepare a plan for layoffs in my dept. Deciding who are the key people to keep working and the less fortunate that I have to turn lose in these frightening times. I can already see all production being done in 1 plant instead of 3.
Job's are very difficult to find now and that will get worse. I am trying to prepare myself for a lowered standard of living... not that I have such a high standard now, but I am trying to prepare myself now and I think that no matter what I might be able to do, it won't be enough.
Not related to production downturns, but indicative of the remainder of my thoughts in this post is that several weeks ago, I had to terminate an employee. He could not get along with co-workers and made threats that ciolated a zero tolerance policy the company has. The guys is very skilled and hard worker, but I think he did have some personal issues... that he needed counseling or perhaps something deeper to help with. anyway... he called me Thanksgiving Day... I answered the phone and he wanted me to call places he had applied to for work and try to get him hired. My company has a no comment requirement.. I can not give references good or bad.. I can only refer a called to our human resources department. I explained that to the guy... He told me he had lost hope of finding a job... it's only been 8 weeks... he said he is sitting in his home... thinking about this for 24 hours a day for the past 2 months... he said if I won't help him, then he only has one choice. He didn't elaborate and I did not ask. I can't give a reference for the man because of company policy and also because I could not have the thought in my mind that I had helped place a man in a place where he might do harm...
The man, Ralph, had threatened to kill a coworker for "smiling at him".... "every time I see him he smiles at me"... so he told his supervisor that he would "put a gun in the guy's mouth and pull the trigger". The man has quite an arsenal of weapons... assault rifles fitted to be fully automatic, pistols, shotguns... a 50 caliber sniper rifle he purchased earlier this year... cost him about $2,500... long range killing weapon. I had concern he might fixate on someone when he was fired... might do something crazy.... I thought if he had not found a job by the holidays... he would become... dangerous.. to himself or others.. Ralph told me Thanksgiving morning since I would not help him find a job, there was only one thing to do.... so I wonder what that is... perhaps it is to use a weapon on the co-worked who smiled at him... perhaps on the supervisor who told us what he had threatened to do... perhaps he will blame me and the HR lady who fired him... perhaps he will take his own life.. or perhaps it will be something else... the possibilities are endless... the point I am rambling on about and trying to make... is he is desperate and dangerous. I am not worried about this, concerned yes, but I don't live in fear... because there is nothing I can really do about whatever it is he does except report the conversation to HR.
Back on track.... my gut sense is that in this turn of the wheel.... things will continue to get worse for some time... who really knows how long... here in the US we have ridden a high cycle for many years.. and I believe things must find balance..
The wheel turns... things run in cycles... what goes up, must come down.... things will continue to get worse for some time... ... and I would like to think I can survive one way or another... I can hunt and fish... I can gather things growing wild, I can plant seeds... yet there is always the 1 major concern if things get really bad.
When masses of people are out of work... when fear and desperation have sunk their claws deep into the collective human mind... many will do things that they would never have dreamed of doing before... and those capable of doing horrible things will feel more freedom to do such things... respect for the life of others for those people will hold little or no value.
Survival is at the root of many fears/actions/reactions that permeate our minds and lives. Desperate people will resort to desperate means to survive. Of course we all know this....
A fleeting thought returns to me fairly often of late. I've read a few books on the Mayan calendar and the purported end date of 2012 and of course I don't know whether it does or it doesn't. The things written about in this long thread... "We're Stuffed"... all seem to point to something happening at some point in the near future, so perhaps 2012 will be a significant year. If 2012 is the end or a moment of explosive change.... and it is connected with the present state of events round the world.... the next 3 years or so could possibly truly be hell on earth.
Anyone have any credible escape plans? Asked with a smile........ cause I don't really at the moment.
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Pak hand in Mumbai events:
Ex-U.S. Official Cites Pakistani Training for India Attackers
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/asia/04india.html?_r=2&hp
WASHINGTON — A former Defense Department official said Wednesday that American intelligence agencies had determined that former officers from Pakistan’s Army and its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped train the Mumbai attackers.
But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that no specific links had been uncovered yet between the terrorists and the Pakistani government.
His disclosure came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held meetings with Indian leaders in New Delhi and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with their Pakistani counterparts in Islamabad, in a two-pronged effort to pressure Pakistan to cooperate fully in the effort to track down those responsible for the bloody attacks in Mumbai last week.
Also on Wednesday, a “fully functional” bomb was found and defused at a major Mumbai train station that had reopened days earlier, the Mumbai authorities announced. The discovery raised terrifying questions about why the authorities had failed to find it all this time.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people marched through Mumbai, both mourning the at least 173 dead and protesting the failures of Indian politicians and security services to protect citizens.
Ms. Rice strove to balance demands on both countries. She said that Pakistan had a “special responsibility” to cooperate with India and help prevent attacks in the future, here and elsewhere. At the same time, she warned India against hasty reaction that would yield what she called “unintended consequences.”
“The response of the Pakistani government should be one of cooperation and of action,” she said at an evening news conference in New Delhi with her Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee. “Any response needs to be judged by its effectiveness in prevention and also by not creating other unintended consequences or difficulties.”
Mr. Mukherjee said his government was convinced that the attackers and their “controllers” came from Pakistan. He said he had conveyed to Ms. Rice “the feeling of anger and deep outrage in India” and said that his government was prepared to act “with all the means at our disposal” to protect Indian territory and citizens.
Both American and Indian authorities have concluded that there was little doubt that the Mumbai attacks were directed by militants inside Pakistan, and Indian officials have said they have identified three or four masterminds of the attack, including a leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Yusuf Muzzamil.
But Ms. Rice said it was premature to comment on whether any particular organization was responsible for the attacks on India’s financial and entertainment capital. She described the assault last week as distinct from others that had struck India since it targeted high-profile targets, including those frequented by foreigners, and appeared to be designed to “send a message.”
Ms. Rice said Pakistan had assured her that it would cooperate with India in its search for those responsible for the slaughter in Mumbai. She said President Asif Ali Zardari “has told me he will follow leads wherever they go” but she made clear that Washington expected him to do so wholeheartedly.
“This is a time for everybody to cooperate and to do so transparently, and this is especially a time for Pakistan to do so,” she said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is officially banned in Pakistan, but it has been linked to the country’s powerful intelligence service and is believed to have moved its militant networks to Pakistan’s tribal areas.
For the moment, Mr. Zardari is playing down any links to Pakistan, including the Indian identification of the surviving attacker as a Pakistani. “We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt that he’s a Pakistani,” Mr. Zardari told CNN’s “Larry King Live,” saying that his government would take action if India produced evidence to support the claim.
He also indicated that he would turn down an Indian demand, made on Monday night, to hand over about 20 fugitives, some of them linked to organized crime, said by India to be living in Pakistan. Rather, Mr. Zardari said, they would be tried in Pakistani courts if there were evidence to support a trial.
In Islamabad, Admiral Mullen met with President Zardari; the Pakistani national security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani; and several top military officials, including the Army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, and the new intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
Admiral Mullen pressed the Pakistani leaders to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba’s network of training camps, including those in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and the organization’s guerrilla recruiting efforts, an American military official said.
In New Delhi, response to a question, Ms. Rice said that the sophistication and choice of targets in Mumbai distinguished it from previous attacks. Earlier in the day, also in response to a question, Ms. Rice was asked about any possible involvement by Al Qaeda. “Whether there is a direct Al Qaeda hand or not, this is clearly the kind of terror in which Al Qaeda participates,” she said.
The bomb was found in a bag the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the old Victoria station, one of the sites singled out for attack last week. It held about 20 pounds of explosives and was rigged with a timer, the Indian authorities said, but it was not clear whether it had not been activated or had malfunctioned.
The bag, apparently left behind by the attackers a week ago, had been collected along with a large pile of luggage that passengers had abandoned as they fled. That is where the police found it on Wednesday.
The station has been open for days, with thousands of passengers streaming through, and the discovery raised new questions about the capability of Indian security services.
There were conflicting accounts about how the bomb were found. Some reports said that the police had been tipped off by the surviving attacker, but others said a sniffer dog found it during a routine sweep of the abandoned luggage ahead of an officials visit. It was rendered neutral on the spot, the authorities said, and then subsequently removed for analysis. Train service was not disrupted for the maneuvers.
Ms. Rice’s diplomatic agenda takes place as Washington is seeking high-level cooperation in different spheres with both India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbors. Washington wants Pakistan to help defeat Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents along the border with Afghanistan.
But Pakistani security officials have threatened to withdraw troops from the lawless border region to redeploy them if India and Pakistan slide toward their fourth war since independence from Britain in 1947, Reuters reported.
In October, Washington opened a new chapter of cooperation with India when Congress gave final approval to a breakthrough agreement permitting civilian nuclear trade between the two countries for the first time in three decades.
Under the terms of the deal, the United States will now be able to sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India for peaceful energy although New Delhi tested bombs in 1974 and 1998 and never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In exchange, India agreed to open up 14 civilian nuclear facilities to international inspection, but would continue to shield eight military reactors from outside scrutiny.
Eric Schmitt reported from Washington and Somini Sengupta from Mumbai, India. Reporting was contributed by Alan Cowell from London, and Jeremy Kahn and Robert F. Worth from Mumbai.
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This may become a turning point for Pak:
200 Pakistani militants torch NATO military vehicles
http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2839776/200-Pakistani-militants-torch-NATO-military-vehicles.html
7.December 2008, 09:24
Hordes of Pakistani militants set on fire 96 trucks carrying military vehicles for western forces in Afghanistan in an attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday, police said. Security guards said they were overpowered by more than 200 militants who attacked two terminals on Peshawar’s ring road, where trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked.
"It happened at around 2.30 a.m.. They fired rockets, hurled hand grenades and then set ablaze 96 trucks,“ senior police officer, Azeem Khan, told Reuters.
Most supplies, including fuel, for U.S. and NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan, much of it through the fabled Khyber Pass that runs through the mountains between Peshawar, capital of North-West Frontier Province and the border town of Torkham.
Khan said one private security guard was killed in an exchange of fire between police and militants.
"They were shouting Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great) and Down With America. They broke into the terminals after snatching guns from us,“ said Mohammad Rafiullah, security guard of a terminal.
Last month, the government closed the main supply route to Western forces in Afghanistan for a week after militants hijacked more than a dozen trucks on the road through Khyber Pass.
There have been worrying signs this year that Islamist militancy has spread to the area from more distant tribal regions where the Taliban and al Qaeda have taken root.
Peshawar city police chief, Safwat Ghayyur, said the government planned to launch an operation against "miscreants“ in near future.
"Certainly, a plan of operation is in place as we have crafted a strategy in which we will have to go after them,“ he said.
The other main land route to Afghanistan runs from the southwestern city of Quetta through the border town of Chaman to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
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Back on track.... my gut sense is that in this turn of the wheel.... things will continue to get worse for some time... who really knows how long... here in the US we have ridden a high cycle for many years.. and I believe things must find balance..
The wheel turns... things run in cycles... what goes up, must come down.... things will continue to get worse for some time... ... and I would like to think I can survive one way or another... I can hunt and fish... I can gather things growing wild, I can plant seeds... yet there is always the 1 major concern if things get really bad.
When masses of people are out of work... when fear and desperation have sunk their claws deep into the collective human mind... many will do things that they would never have dreamed of doing before... and those capable of doing horrible things will feel more freedom to do such things... respect for the life of others for those people will hold little or no value.
Survival is at the root of many fears/actions/reactions that permeate our minds and lives. Desperate people will resort to desperate means to survive. Of course we all know this....
Thank you for sharing these analysis of the events at your job. You are in the middle of the recession so to speak while we in Europe are not. To be frank - the citizens in the US has a hard time to face before they have regained the power over their economy. The new presidency is a promising way out of the mess. International soultions will be necessary to secure a total collapse ( e g the US goes bankrupt).
A fleeting thought returns to me fairly often of late. I've read a few books on the Mayan calendar and the purported end date of 2012 and of course I don't know whether it does or it doesn't. The things written about in this long thread... "We're Stuffed"... all seem to point to something happening at some point in the near future, so perhaps 2012 will be a significant year. If 2012 is the end or a moment of explosive change.... and it is connected with the present state of events round the world.... the next 3 years or so could possibly truly be hell on earth.
Anyone have any credible escape plans? Asked with a smile........ cause I don't really at the moment.
There is no such escape option, we stand with the face toward the wind, but as Michael suggested in a previous post, it is good to have a place for retreat. My brothers and me have a cabin in the South woods near a lake where our families and friends can go - places like that will ease up our existence.
The great Bell for our Earth and mankind was 25th December 2004 when the Tsunami hit in the East Asia and took more than 200 000 lives. Ever since then my focus has been here, to engage in this group, and on my spiritual development. To be assisting and to grow and evolve with even more energy as input than ever before. Why I say "Bell" is because Earth sounded as a bell toward the Universe generated by the earthquake under the ocean. It kept ringing for several days.
According to my Inca friends a date in November this Year was also a significant day for the next three years. Otherwise I am in general sceptic to calender prophecies and similar forecasts.
Nevertheless many belive in the Sixth Sun theory:
From the Americas to Africa, from Tibet to Australasia, these times are seen as pivotal in the evolution of mankind. Ancient prophecies speak of massive earth changes and of a huge shift in Planetary Consciousness. According to the Mayan Long Count Calendar, the last date recorded is the winter solstice - 21st December 2012.
They call this the time of the Sixth Sun each sun marking the evolutionary steps of human consciousness. They also refer to this time as the end days or the end of time as we know
http://www.timeofthesixthsun.com/
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According to my Inca friends a date in November this Year was also a significant day for the next three years.
What do you think that date was, Jamir? The US election? The Mumbai events? Other?
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What do you think that date was, Jamir? The US election? The Mumbai events? Other?
You are so fast Nichi - i was just about to check it up!
"Thank you to those who joined us in prayer ceremony on 11/11 – The End of the Beginning, welcoming the new 6th day of the Mayan Calendar.
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There is no such escape option, we stand with the face toward the wind..
I've thought more than a few times, if I had the funds, I'd buy some land and prepare a place in the least inhabited area I could find, but I don't think there is a place that would really provide safety.... and what is life if we have to live it in constant fear.
I think... smiling.. was about to write what I think could be in store for mankind, but I really have no clue....
For many years after I got married, I did not want children... I had a knowing that my generation would be the last to know the "good old days" as we say in the US. I didn't want to bring a life into the world that I felt we would be facing.... But, we did make a choice... my daughter's mother and I.... to have a child... she recently turned 25 years old. I wonder what she will face.... I am trying to gently awaken her, but she is not ready to see. There are a few things I could teach her from what I've learned, but it has to be a choice one makes for themself.... to walk the path.... and honestly, I don't know that the things I know will ultimately have any value at all....
Hmm.... what to do for now.. except live in the moment... cherish the sweetness in life where we find it... and life is indeed sweet.... as hard as my life has been at times, I have known heaven on earth.... and perhaps that time is almost past.
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11/11 – The End of the Beginning, welcoming the new 6th day of the Mayan Calendar.
Ah! 11-11 -- the awakening!
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I've thought more than a few times, if I had the funds, I'd buy some land and prepare a place in the least inhabited area I could find, but I don't think there is a place that would really provide safety....
Yes about that dream! I've also had that dream.
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I've thought more than a few times, if I had the funds, I'd buy some land and prepare a place in the least inhabited area I could find, but I don't think there is a place that would really provide safety.... and what is life if we have to live it in constant fear.
The place in mind was perhaps not thought to bring "safety" but connection and solitude together with Nature. I don't know, but I have such a place myself, at least the next years.
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The place in mind was perhaps not thought to bring "safety" but connection and solitude together with Nature. I don't know, but I have such a place myself, at least the next years.
I've often thought since I was young, that I was born a century or two too late... or even more. I would have loved to be an explorer... I am driven to see what is over the horizon, around the next curve in the road or the next bend in the river.. or over the next hill....
And yeah, my desire to get away from "civil" society is in large part to connect with nature. That is where I connect most readily with Spirit.
A recurring wish the past year or so.. is that I could just walk away from all of the stuff..... and just be a hermit.. years ago, I would not have understood that desire... in me or anyone else, but now I find it would suit me well.
But..........
Something drives me to still connect with people... as hard as that is for someone with a personality like mine to do... I am a loner.... yet I hate the lonesomeness of that.... dichotomy....... yin/yang.. cycle.. turn of the wheel.. balance.. whatever.... but something drives me to want to help others awaken if I am able... part of me thinks as we learn.... we need to pass what we have learned on to others on the path.. or not yet on the path...
Trouble is... I don't know a damn thing that is of much use to me or anyone else...
So.. I am torn.... leave it all and walk into the woodlands and worry about nothing but my evolution.... or stay and fight and try to help others see there are other pathways besides the collective dream.
And truth be told, I won't do a good job at either choice.. but such is life.
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Yes about that dream! I've also had that dream.
Smiling.... I have walked in a few places where I would dearly love to spend my last days.... reality is, I will probably end my days where I am now.... there is beauty to be found in almost every place I have ever been... if I can only remember to open my eyes and see with my heart....... maybe someday I can do that more easily..... :-)
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Ancient skills 'could reverse global warming'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/ancient-skills-could-reverse-global-warming-1055700.html
Trials begin of a technique used by Amazon Indians that takes CO2 and locks it safely into soil
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Ancient techniques pioneered by pre-Columbian Amazonian Indians are about to be pressed into service in Britain and Central America in the most serious commercial attempt yet to reverse global warming.
Trials are to be started in Sussex and Belize early in the new year, backed with venture capital from Silicon Valley, on techniques to take carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the soil, where it should act as a powerful fertiliser.
The plan is to scale up rapidly into a worldwide enterprise to reverse the build-up of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, in the atmosphere and eventually bring it back to pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
The ambitious enterprise – which on Friday received its first multimillion-pound investment from California – is the brainchild of two of Britain's most successful environmental entrepreneurs: Craig Sams, one of the founders of the best-selling Green & Black's organic chocolate, and Dan Morrell, who co-founded Future Forests, the first carbon offsetting company.
They aim to grow trees and plants to absorb CO2 and then trap the carbon by turning the resulting biomass into "biochar", a fine-grained form of charcoal that can be buried in the soil, keeping it safely locked up for thousands of years.
The pre-Columbian Indians used biochar to make the poor soils of the rainforest – which otherwise quickly become exhausted – productive for harvest after harvest. It is still there today, many hundreds of years later, forming islands of black fertile earth in the otherwise unpromising ground.
But it is now being widely cited as a possible solution to global warming by scientists shocked at how climate change is taking place much faster than predicted and convinced that the world must now start not just rapidly to reduce CO2 emissions, but to get the greenhouse gas out of the air.
Among them is Professor James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and probably the world's most respected climate scientist, who believes CO2 concentrations must urgently be reduced from its present 385 parts per million to 350 if global warming is not to run out of control. International negotiations – continuing this weekend in Poznan, Poland – are aimed at stabilising them at the higher level of 450ppm.
Trees and plants soak up carbon dioxide as they grow, but release it again as they are burned or left to rot. But burning them largely in the absence of oxygen, through pyrolysis, reduces the amount of the gas emitted by 90 per cent, and stores the carbon in the charcoal instead. It also gives off energy that can be used as an efficient biofuel.
If the resulting biochar is then buried in the ground it will stay there for some 5,000 years, keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere, and nourishing the soil while it is there. It also cuts down on the use of fertilisers; reduces the emission of methane and nitrous oxides, which are also greenhouse gases, from the ground; filters out pollutants; and retains water, thus combating flooding.
The new enterprise will start with wood grown in Suffolk and with prunings from the Belize cacao trees that supply Green & Black's chocolate. But its founders hope that it will rapidly become a worldwide industry.
Mr Sams calculates that if just two and a half per cent of the world's productive land were used to produce biochar, carbon dioxide could be returned to pre-Industrial Revolution levels by 2050.
He said: "Biomass from trees and plants, which captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is a treasure to be buried in the earth."
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:)
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The more details emerge, the more it all looks like Pak operation. These men seem to have been way too well organised and trained.
The audacious attack which took a year to plan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3535801/The-audacious-attack-which-took-a-year-to-plan.html
By Rahul Bedi in Bombay and Sean Rayment, Security correspondent
Last Updated: 2:27PM GMT 08 Dec 2008
Ten terrorists dedicated to fighting for an independent Kashmir were selected for an operation from which they were likely never to return.
The tactics were relatively simple: to strike at multiple targets while simultaneously slaughtering as many civilians as possible before going "static" in three of the locations within the city.
But such a plan would require a year of planning, reconnaissance, the covert acquisition of ships and speed boats as well as the forward basing of weapons and ammunition secretly hidden inside at least one hotel.
Nothing would be left to chance. Even the times of the tides were checked and rechecked to ensure that the terrorists would be able to arrive when their first target, the Café Leopold, was full of unsuspecting tourists enjoying the balmy Bombay (Mumbai) evening.
The preparations for the atrocity began a year earlier in a remote mountain camp in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan- administered Kashmir, according to the interrogation of a 19-year-old believed to be the only member of the terrorist unit to be captured alive.
The Sunday Telegraph has been shown details of the interrogation which provide the first clues to the identity of the terrorists and the amount of detail which went into the planning of the operation.
Qasab has revealed to his interrogators that most of the volunteers spoke his native Punjabi and that all of them were given false names and were discouraged from interacting with each other beyond what was barely necessary.
During the months of training they were taught the use of explosives and close quarter combat. It was ingrained upon every man that ammunition would be in short supply and therefore every bullet should count.
The terrorists were also taught marine commando techniques such as beach landings at another camp at the Mangla Dam, located on the border between Pakistan-administered Kashmir and India's Punjab province.
Qasab revealed that once their training was complete, his team of four travelled to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where they were joined by another six terrorists, who had been trained at other camps close by.
It was in Rawalpindi that the 10-man team were briefed in detail with digitised images of their prospective targets – the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, the Jewish Centre and the Victoria Terminus railway station. Each member of the team memorised street names and routes to each location. Qasab told his interrogators that most of the targeting information came from a reconnaissance team which had selected the targets earlier in the year.
From Rawalpindi, the team then moved to the eastern port of Karachi where they chartered the merchant ship MV Alpha and headed for Bombay.
It was during this crucial phase, as the cargo ship headed into the Arabian Sea, that the terrorists appeared to almost lose their nerve. The Indian navy, Qasab revealed, were very active, boarding foreign vessels and searching their holds. The terrorists thought their plan might be compromised so on the night of 15th/16th November, the teams used their inflatable speed boats to hijack a local fishing boat, the Kuber.
Qasab also admitted to his interrogators that three of the Kuber's four crew were immediately murdered, while the ship's captain was ordered to sail for the Indian coast. When the Kuber was within five miles of the coast, the terrorists slit the captain's throat and transferred back into their inflatable speed boats and headed for the lights of Bombay.
On landing the 10-man team, stripped off their orange wind breakers and began hoisting large heavy packs onto their shoulders.
Kashinath Patil, the 72-year-old harbour master, who spotted the boats moor alongside the harbour wall was immediately suspicious and asked them what they were doing. "I said: 'Where are you going? What's in your bags?'" Mr Patil recalled. "They said: 'We don't want any attention. Don't bother us."
The terrorists then split into two-man teams and launched their attacks.
Major General RK Hooda, the senior Indian commander, acknowledged the group, the Deccan Mujadeen, were better equipped and had a better knowledge of the battleground than India's soldiers.
After the battle, one member of India's National Security Guard, who led one of the assault groups against the terrorists occupying the Taj Mahal hotel, said they were the "best fighters" he had ever encountered.
He said: "They were obviously trained by professionals in urban guerrilla fighting. They used their environment and situation brilliantly, leading us (the NSG) on a dangerous chase through various tiers of the hotel which they obviously knew well. Their fire discipline too was excellent and they used their ammunition judiciously, mostly to draw us out.
"It was amply clear they came to kill a large number of people and to eventually perish in their horrific endeavour," he said. "Negotiating with the Indian authorities or escaping was not an option for them."
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This article is interesting as it attempts to talk about "environmental justice". Poor countries say: "We did not cause the climate change, why punish and tax our economies? It is a rich man's problem, we only want to be as well off as they are."
That thought struck me. Miguel Ruiz and Kris Raphael say that one should not be that depressed because of the state of the world as it is no fault of any given individual. This article says that it might not even be the fault of poorer countries. Thus...continuing this way, we could reach the point where one can say - it is nobody's fault. It just is like it is. We did not live at the times of industrial revolution and dark times, it's a fault of those who lived then that the world has taken a direction it follows today.
Reincarnation theory posits a different view. There are deeds and there are seeds, and there are subsequent incarnations.
Wetter and wilder: the signs of warming everywhere
In the third part of our series on the eve of the Poznan conference, we look at how climate change is already changing ordinary people's lives from Australia to Brazil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/10/poznan-brazil-climate-change-environment
* John Vidal in Immaculada, Brazil
* The Guardian, Wednesday December 10 2008
* Article history
Joao da Antonio's eyes are full of tears. If good rains do not come, he says, he will pack his bag, kiss his wife and two children goodbye and join the annual exodus of young men leaving hot, dry rural north-east Brazil for the biofuel fields in the south.
Da Antonio, 19, can earn about £30 a month for 10 hours gruelling work a day cutting sugar cane to make ethanol, and more than a million small farmers like him migrate south for six months of the year because the land can no longer support them. Tens of thousands a year never return, forced to move permanently to Sao Paulo or another of Brazil's cities in search of work.
"Life here is one of suffering," Da Antonio said. "I will do anything to earn some money. None of us want to die, but the lack of water here will kill us. "
Around the world, millions of people like Da Antonio are feeling the force of a changing climate. As UN negotiations towards a global climate deal continue in Poznan, Poland, this week, evidence is emerging of weather patterns in turmoil and the poorest nations disproportionately bearing the brunt of warming.
While rich countries at the talks seek to set up global carbon trading, using financial markets to tackle - and profit from - climate change, poor countries want justice. They are seeking environmental justice: money to adapt their economies to climate changes they did not cause, and technology and resources to allow them to escape poverty while preserving their forests and ecosystems.
The fast and unpredictable shifts in weather are not threats for the future, but happening right now. "The frequency of heatwaves and heavy precipitation is increasing; cyclones are becoming more frequent and intense; more areas are being affected by droughts; and flooding is now more serious," says Sheridan Bartlett, a researcher with the International Institute for Environment and Development in a new study looking at the effects of climate change on children.
"Increasingly unpredictable weather now affects hundreds of millions of farmers, resulting in food and water shortages, more illnesses and water-borne diseases, malnutrition, soil erosion, and disruption to water supplies," she says. Such changes confound the received wisdom of how to live on the land.
North-east Brazil has always known droughts, but they are becoming longer and more frequent, say scientists and farmers. "Climate change is biting. It is much hotter than it used to be and it stays hotter for longer. The rain has become more sporadic. It comes at different times of the year now and farmers cannot tell when to plant," says Lindon Carlos, an agronomist with Brazilian group Acev.
Brazilian scientists have recorded changes in the lifecycles of plants, greater oscillations in temperature and more water shortages, all consistent with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions of a devastating 3-4C rise in temperatures within 60 years if climate change is not halted. "All the research points to it becoming drier [in north-east Brazil]. In the last 30 years temperatures have risen by 1C. There is more very heavy rainfall over short periods and more evaporation," says Eneida Cavalcanti, a desertification specialist at the Joaquim Nabuco foundation in Recife.
On the other side of the world, the changing climate is wreaking havoc in a different way on low-lying and populous Bangladesh. There, government meteorologists this year reported a 10% increase in intensity and frequency in major cyclones hitting the country - two of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded have hit the country in the last three years.
"We are getting too much water in the rainy season and too little in the dry season. All this has implications for food security," says Raja Debashish Roy, Bangladesh's environment minister.
"We are learning about climate change," said Anawarul Islam, chair of the Deara district of about 2,500 people in the far south of the county. "This village is experiencing more rainfall and flooding every year. It has led to more homeless people and more conflict. "
"It's far warmer now," says one villager, Selina. "We do not feel cold in the rainy season. We used to need blankets, but now we don't. There is extreme uncertainty of weather. It makes it very hard to farm and we cannot plan. We have to be more reactive. The storms are increasing and the tides now come right up to our houses."
The balmy Caribbean is also being churned up with increasing frequency and ferocity. This year, the region experienced eight hurricanes and five major hurricanes, the second highest ever, and the hurricane season lasted a record five months.
"A warmer climate poses in some cases insurmountable challenges to the region. We face more hurricanes, coral bleaching and flooding," said Neville Trotz, science adviser to the Caribbean community climate change centre.
Across the Atlantic, in Africa, the theme unfolds further: climate change turning already bad situations in poor countries into potential catastrophe, and driving people to absolute poverty. Alexandre Tique, at Mozambique's national meteorological institute, says: "Analysis of the temperature data gathered in our provincial capitals, where we have meteorological stations that have kept continuous data over the years, shows a clear increase in temperature. Extreme events are becoming more frequent. We now see many more tropical cyclones that bring flooding, destruction and loss of lives."
Other African communities are suffering. In the village of Chikani, in Zambia, the farmers last year prepared their fields for planting in November, as they have always done, but the rains were very late for the third year running.
"We waited, but the first drop didn't fall till December 20. After a day, the rains stopped. Three weeks later, it started to rain again. But then it stopped again after a few days. Since then, we have had no rain. We have never known anything like this before," says Julius Njame.
From the plains of Africa, to mountaintop Nepal, where there is no respite from the weather in flux. Villages like Ketbari expect a small flood to wash off the hills every decade or so, now they seem to be annual and getting more serious.
"We always used to have a little rain each month, but now when there is rain it's very different. It's more concentrated and intense. It means that crop yields are going down," says Tekmadur Majsi, whose lands have been progressively washed away by the Trishuli river.
Nepalese villagers observe the minutiae of a changing climate. Some say that forest pigs now farrow earlier, others that some types of rice and cucumber will no longer grow where they used to. The common thread is that the days are hotter, some trees now flower twice a year and the raindrops are getting bigger.
The anecdotal observations of farmers are backed by scientists who are recording in Nepal some of the fastest increases in temperatures and rainfall anywhere in the world. Many lakes in Nepal and neighbouring Bhutan, which collect glacier meltwater, are said by the UN to be growing so rapidly that they could burst their banks.
Melting glaciers are creating anxiety about water supplies across the Earth. In Tajikistan, at current rates of change, thousands of small glaciers will have disappeared completely by 2050, causing more water to flow in spring followed by what is expected to be a disastrous decline of river flow in most rivers. In Peru, temperature increases have led to a 22% reduction in the total area of its glaciers in the last 35 years.
The developing nations on the climate frontline will argue strongly in Poznan that rich countries should pay to help them adapt to climate change. But development groups such as Oxfam and Tearfund say that almost all the money pledged so far has come out of existing aid funds. With a worldwide recession, many analysts expect rich countries to resist paying more.
The UN has established two funds - the Least Developed Countries and Special Climate Change funds - to raise money for the poorest countries to adapt, but the G8 countries have only pledged $6bn (£4bn). All the money is to be diverted from existing aid money.
"Every [official development assistance] dollar that goes to climate adaptation would mean a dollar less for health and education [programmes] in developing countries," said Antonio Hill, a senior policy adviser at Oxfam.
The scale of what is needed for adaptation is immense. Bangladesh says it needs £250m over three years to adapt, Ethiopia £450m, and other countries similar amounts. Development groups estimate that a minimum $50bn a year is needed worldwide.
"The resources currently available for adaptation are grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the least developed countries who bear the brunt of increased climate variability and unpredictability resulting from climate change," said Bangladesh's finance minister, Mirza Azizul Islam.
Back in north-east Brazil, the Pernambuco state environment minister, Aloysio Coasta, says: "In 20 years' time we could be a desert region. In some communities there are no young people left at all. This is an emergency. Food production is going down in many areas."
Joao da Antonio's wife, Luiza, is resigned to becoming a "drought widow". Clearly distressed, she says: "If there is no water, then he must leave."
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Nice graph - click on various circles and see the stats:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/interactive/2008/dec/09/climatechange-carbonemissions
It's official: China is the world's bigger polluter
A new global dataset confirms China as the most prolific producer of carbon dixoide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2008/dec/08/carbonemissions-climatechange
We like stats at the Guardian, so we're delighted to be the first to publish – today – the Energy Information Administration's latest round of global emissions figures, covering the year 2006. So much so, in fact, that we created this rather amazing graphic to put the figures into perspective.
The most interesting fact contained in the new data is the change at the top of the list. China, with 6.01 billion tonnes of CO2, has finally overtaken the US, with 5.90 billion tonnes.
It was fairly clear that this was going to happen. Indeed, last year we reported on analysis by the Netherlands Environment Agency that made the same claim. But only now has China's top-spot status been confirmed as part of a complete, globally recognised dataset.
The two main sources for emissions data – the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a US government body, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) – each spend around eighteen months collating and crunching the CO2 figures for every year of data.
I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the press, but the IEA published its most recent figures a few weeks ago. By its reckoning the US still had the number one spot in 2006, with 5.70 billion tonnes compared to China's 5.61.
It's not entirely clear from the documents I have, but as I understand it, these figures are lower because only the EIA data includes the flaring of fossil fuels. This small difference aside, the two datasets show exactly the same trend: American emissions down 2% compared to 2005, with China's up 11%. So it's fairly obvious that China with be the number-one emitter in both lists when the 2007 numbers are released in a year's time.
The EIA and IEA figures both focus exclusively on emissions of CO2 from oil, coal and gas, the burning of which causes around 57% of total global greenhouse emissions according to the 2007 IPCC report. As such, they exclude CO2 emissions from deforestation and cement production as well as methane and nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture and industrial process.
Complete, up-to-date global figures for these non-fossil-fuel emissions don't exist – at least not for the developing world – but it's likely that China would remain firmly at the top of the list even if they were factored in.
Of course, Chinese emissions per person are still much lower than those of the US or the rest of the developed world. Using the EIA figures I calculate these as 4.6 tonnes of CO2 per Chinese citizen in 2006, compared to almost 20 tonnes for the average American in the same year. And that's before you consider that a large slice of Chinese emissions are the result of manufacturing goods destined for the American market.
The difference between China and the US is even more stark if you look at each country's total historical contribution to global warming. According to figures from the WRI, the US has emitted 1088 tonnes of CO2 since 1850 for each of today's Americans; this compared to just 68 historical tonnes for each living Chinese person.
So while today's new emissions figures are interesting and important, we mustn't use them to obscure the fact that global warming is primarily the responsibility of Western countries. China may finally have been confirmed as the modern world's biggest carbon emitter, but does that make it the climate change demon that some commentators like to describe?
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Nice graph - click on various circles and see the stats:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/interactive/2008/dec/09/climatechange-carbonemissions
Thaks for the link.
However we in Sweden get a good score (better than the Norwegians) it is not any true figure. That is a common fault with these popular charts and figures. It says that we have 6.4 ton CO2 per capita while the true figures is more close to 9 ton. If we include all traveling by jetplanes, workrelated and tourist travel, we pass 10 if not 11 ton per year.
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Over 650 Scientists Challenge Global Warming "Consensus"
Twelve times more than those that put their names to the IPCC report
Over 650 scientists have put their names to a US Senate Minority report that challenges the contention of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change that there is a scientific "consensus" on the causes of global warming.
Set to be released within the next 24 hours, the report features contributions from hundreds of prominent researchers, including current and former IPCC scientists, who are now speaking out in opposition of the UN's stance on climate change.
The Senate report is an updated version of a 2007 release, with over 250 more names added, highlighting how widespread dissent continues to grow in the scientific community to the alleged “consensus” that the modern warming is primarily man-made and is a crisis.
In comparison, twelve times fewer - just 52 scientists - participated in the much touted IPCC Summary for Policymakers meeting in April 2007. Climate scientists allied with the IPCC were recently caught citing fake data to make the case that global warming is accelerating.
The new Senate report will feature new peer-reviewed scientific studies and analyses refuting man-made warming fears.
Of course the fact that the establishment likes to engage in regular mass public deception by claiming the debate about global warming is over and any dissent is tantamount to holocaust denial doesn't bode well for potential media coverage of the report, unlike the ongoing UN climate conference in Poznan which is being lavished with endless media attention about the need for a global carbon tax to save the planet from the evils of plant food (CO2).
The self-proclaimed "consensus" behind man-made global warming is one enforced by threats, intimidation and ignorance, as highlighted by media coverage of last year's UN meeting in Bali, where skeptical climate scientists were shunned and ignored for daring to express an opposing viewpoint.
Following the Bali resolution to impose a global carbon tax, over one hundred prominent scientists signed a letter dismissing the move as a futile bureaucratic scheme which would diminish prosperity and increase human suffering.
Hundreds more skeptical scientists met in Manhattan last February at the first International Conference on Climate Change to discuss the side of the climate change debate that the establishment media prefers to pretend does not exist.
Did the mainstream media even acknowledge these events? Not at all, because they challenge the sacred cow that scientists uniformly agree on man-made global warming.
As we have previously reported, less than half of all published scientists endorse what has been dubbed the "consensus view".
However, President-elect Barack Obama yesterday vowed to end global warming "denial".
The following quotes, listed on the website of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, provide a taster of what will be contained in the upcoming Senate report:
“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.
“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”
Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.
“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.
“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC "are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.
“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.
“After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri's asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it's hard to remain quiet.” - Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.
“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.
“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.
“Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.
“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” - Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.
“CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.
“The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” - Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. # #
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - December 8, 2008
Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.
With a week away, and a sure sign of things to come, OWSweather.com is making preparations on the server to handle the traffic from this next event. UJEAS is in line with the majority if not all the other models in keeping a near historical arctic air mass into the Southern California region.
With a warm November, Southern California is finally ready for cold storms to make their way in. Resort level snow will be likely next week, and in pretty hefty amounts if things stay on track. OWSweather.com Meteorologist Kevin Martin predicts a 50 year event. While Martin is usually conservative on these events, the pattern highly favors it. "We are in a pre-1950 type pattern, "said Martin. "We know we are due for a winter storm sometime this year. The type we may be dealing with will be ranked up there with the known years before 1950, which set record low daytime temperatures into the forecast region. With this, may come low elevation snow."
Forecaster Cameron Venable is seeing very cold temperatures in the Los Angeles areas as well. Torrance is not usually known for winter weather, thus making this an interesting event for Venable to track.
"Temperatures in Siberia, Russia will be -81 degrees this week, "said Martin. "With those type of temperatures the arctic air mass has to spill somewhere. Our answer of the exact track will become more clear this week. All residents in the mountain communities should prepare this week for very cold, winter weather, with snow."
Indications are a second, colder storm could hit near the 18th-22nd time-frame. The details on that will have to be sorted out.
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Maine is well known for weather shifts, the elders often laugh and say.. "wish to know what the weather is.. wait a moment and it will change" but Ive been witness to this in a most dramatic and different way over the past few years..
Yesterday it was 5 degrees with windchills dipping much lower with snow flurries.. today.. 47 degrees and raining.
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Tio, where was that article questioning climate change published?
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Alex Jones Info Wars....
http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2008/101208Warming.htm
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Alex Jones Info Wars....
http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2008/101208Warming.htm
Thanks! That website is a treasure chest! :)
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CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.
How strange then that a Swedish researcher in Physics made a calculation back in 1890's on how an certain increase of carbon oxide would raise the global temperature. As we have new fresh data to apply on his 110 year old calculations we can only say one thing - his estimates were very good!
That is a statement from Science compared to emotional politics.
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Svante August Arrhenius born in Upsala 19 Feb 1859 and died 2nd Oct1927, Swedish physicist and chemist. Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Technology 1895 to 1905 and the first Swedish nobel prize winner in chemistry 1903.
It was Arrhenius that discovered the global warming effect in the year of 1896, i e the ability for carbon dioxide to reflect waves of heat back to Earth. By this discovery he explained his theory of change from ice ages and warmer periods.
Svante August Arrhenius, född i Uppsala 19 februari 1859, död 2 oktober 1927, var en svensk fysiker och kemist. Arrhenius var professor i fysik vid Stockholms högskola 1895-1905 och den förste svenska nobelpristagaren i kemi 1903. Det var Arrhenius som först upptäckte växthuseffekten år 1896, det vill säga koldioxidens förmåga att stänga inne värmestrålning. På detta sätt förklarade han sin teori om växlingen mellan istider och varma perioder beroende på växlingar i atmosfärens koldioxidhalt.
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Is it possible that the Sun may be the main factor in determining the earths
temp range and climate conditions?all scientific theory constantly changes as
more info becomes available...
Svante was a good scientist but the era in which he lived limited his research.
Svante Arrhenius
Arrhenius did very little research in the fields of climatology and geophysics, and considered any work in these fields a hobby. His basic approach was to apply knowledge of basic scientific principles to make sense of existing observations, while hypothesizing a theory on the cause of the “Ice Age.” Later on, his geophysical work would serve as a catalyst for the work of others.
In 1895, Arrhenius presented a paper to the Stockholm Physical Society titled, “On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground.” This article described an energy budget model that considered the radiative effects of carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) and water vapor on the surface temperature of the Earth, and variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. In order to proceed with his experiments, Arrhenius relied heavily on the experiments and observations of other scientists, including Josef Stefan, Arvid Gustaf Högbom, Samuel Langley, Leon Teisserenc de Bort, Knut Angstrom, Alexander Buchan, Luigi De Marchi, Joseph Fourier, C.S.M. Pouillet, and John Tyndall.
Arrhenius argued that variations in trace constituents—namely carbon dioxide—of the atmosphere could greatly influence the heat budget of the Earth. Using the best data available to him and making many assumptions and estimates that were necessary, he performed a series of calculations on the temperature effects of increasing and decreasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.
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I would be interested in any reception comments on this minority report - I mean I don't wish to read it myself, but if anyone see any responses from the mainstream scientific community who are working on this issue, it would be good if you could post a link here.
As far as I am aware, the issue of the planet heating up is no longer a contested matter for the mainstream scientists.
The issue of what effects it will have for different areas is the big interest now for most working in this area.
But the whole issue of what is causing it and what we can do about that seems to remain in some contention. The effect of human CO2 activity having a major causal effect is still being spoken of as now accepted across the board - I only heard this a few days ago by one of the leading US scientists in the field, who is visiting Australia. That is why this minority report is of interest.
What we can do about it, is of course a huge debate, on many levels and in many areas.
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Change, but at what price?
After 2008 started with panic over food prices, the world seemed to be waking up to global warming. But then the recession hit
* John Vidal
* The Guardian, Wednesday 17 December 2008
* Article history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/17/climate-change-environment-2008
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2008/12/17/Woodland460.jpg)
Ancient woodland in Britain is being felled at a faster rate than the Amazon rainforest. Photograph: Derek Croucher/Getty Images
No one could have predicted quite how dramatically 2008 would have ended. Even as President Bush was slashing his way through US environmental protection laws, president-elect Obama appointed Nobel prize-winning physicist Steve Chu as the next US energy secretary. Chu is seen as the repudiation of everything that Bush stood for, and predicts temperatures will rise by a staggering 6.1C by the end of the century if nothing is done. Although it does not mean the oil age is over, if you want a sign that 2008 was a tipping point, it could not have been clearer.
But go back to the start of the year. Empty shelves in Caracas, riots in India and Mexico, and rice shortages in Dhaka, Manila, and Kathmandu. Traders in at least 12 sub-Saharan African countries were hoarding food, and soaring maize and rice prices were leading to political instability. Governments were being forced one after the other to step in to protect supplies and control the cost of bread and dairy products.
The problem, said the analysts, was a mix of climate change and extreme weather leading to poor harvests in major grain-growing countries such as Australia. But the blame was also laid on the many millions of acres of maize, wheat and other crops planted in the US and elsewhere in 2007 to provide biofuels for cars rather than food for people. Catastrophe loomed, said the UN.
It happened slowly and out of sight of the cameras, in the burgeoning cities that are becoming the new frontline of deep poverty. Proof came one week ago, when the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that 2008 had seen the biggest increase in malnourished people in decades. According to its preliminary data, more than 960 million people - one in every six people in the world - now go to bed hungry, and 40 million suffered malnourishment in 2008 because of higher food prices.
This year will go down as the year of interlinked food shortages, climate change and the recession. But it was also the year when it may have dawned on governments that hell-for-leather, western fossil fuel-based, car-centred growth only ends in social and ecological disaster.
There was soaring air pollution, from transporting a record 622 million passengers, and near record loss of Amazon and other tropical forests. But climate change dominated the international agenda.
A flood of scientific papers showed Arctic ice melting faster than ever and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet close to becoming irreversible. Methane, one of the most damaging climate change gases, was found bubbling up from the tundra and the Arctic ocean. There were record temperatures and near-record hurricane seasons, and scientists and environment groups who believed only a year or two ago that it would be possible to just about hold global temperature to a 2C rise accepted privately that this could now be impossible.
But it also became clear in 2008 that climate change was disproportionately impacting on the poor. Subsistence farmers around the world reported a pattern of increasingly unpredictable seasons and social problems linked directly to water and higher temperatures.
In north-east Brazil, which has always been drought-prone but which has seen temperatures rise at least 1C in only 30 years, more than 1.5 million people now cannot access enough water, and must leave home to find work in the biofuel fields in the south of the country each year. In Bangladesh, Uganda, Niger, Malawi, Nepal and elsewhere people also said that temperatures were becoming hotter and rains less and less predictable.
Another trend became apparent. Rich countries, worried about fast rising global populations and dwindling food and fuel supplies, began buying up farmland in poor countries.
In the UK, environment secretary Hilary Benn said that Britain's food supplies, which come increasingly from abroad, were overdependent on oil - a situation, he said, that "must change".
But the most extreme admission of oncoming climate and food problems came from Mohamed Nasheed, the new president of the low-lying Maldives, who said he was looking for a new homeland, possibly in India, for the time when his country was swamped by rising seas.
The big, still unanswered question of 2008 was how far the financial, food and ecological crises were linked. The best evidence may come from a 1972 study. A group of economists and ecologists were commissioned to predict the consequences of a rapidly growing world population, rapid industrialisation in developing countries, and growing pollution. Their famous book, Limits to Growth, predicted widespread and growing hunger, oil shortages, and ecological and economic collapse by the mid-21st century if countries did not rethink economic growth.
Actually, for much of this year, it looked as if the rich world had begun to address sustainable development. Europe committed itself to generating 20% of all its energy from renewables by 2020, and banned incandescent light bulbs; Britain became the first country in the world to set itself a legal target of 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050; and more than 70 countries now have national goals for accelerating the use of renewable energy. Businesses, UN agencies, UK politicians and many individuals all genuinely tried to reduce emissions.
Led by Britain, pressure mounted for a global trading scheme, and Gordon Brown's forest adviser, financier Johan Eliasch, recommended that a multibillion-pound fund be set up to pay the owners of the world's rainforests not to cut them down. The irony was that a separate study by the Woodland Trust found that ancient woodland in Britain was being felled at a rate even faster than the Amazon rainforest.
Clean energy took off in 2008, and climate change mitigation became an industry, backed by the world's biggest companies. According to HSBC, companies in the climate mitigation business now generate $300bn (£201bn) in revenues each year. Last month, the International Energy Agency predicted that renewable energy would overtake natural gas to become the second largest source of power generation worldwide within two years, and that global wind and solar generating capacity would increase by more than 30%.
The energy revolution that had been predicted to start after 2015 appeared to be well under way. Architect Norman Foster designed Masdar, a car-free, solar- powered ecotopia for 40,000 people in the Arabian desert. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi's ruler, was so impressed he ordered two, at $15bn each.
In mid-summer, with oil at over $130 a barrel and government-level talk of oil supplies "peaking", there was concern that the price could top $200 a barrel. As people rushed to buy smaller cars, fit better boilers and get into wind and solar power, it seemed possible that the constant rise of emissions might genuinely be reversed. Yet by this month, the global economy was crashing its gears, and oil had dropped to under $40 a barrel.
Whether the world weans itself off oil and fossil fuels will probably determine global sustainability over the next 20 years. Low oil prices traditionally push energy efficiency off the policy agenda. Economic recessions have punctured green economic bubbles in the past. When times are tight, the wisdom goes, no one invests in new or risky technologies, and countries stick to cheap and dirty energy.
Plummeting demand
That was happening in part by the end of 2008. Plummeting demand for recycled materials, especially in China, has drastically lowered prices for old paper, plastic and metals. US and European cities were forced to scale back recycling programmes. Meanwhile, South Africa decided this month that it could not afford "clean" nuclear power stations and plans to increase massively its cheaper but dirtier coal-burning stations. Britain, too, went ahead with plans for more opencast mines.
A more optimistic group of people say the recession may not only check unsustainable growth but also provide breathing space for the world to move to more sensible policies. Governments, said leading greens, have a historic opportunity to "climate proof" their economies in response to economic troubles. Obama and Gordon Brown both said that millions of jobs could be created in green building, wind power, solar thermal and other green technologies.
They were backed by energy gurus such as Amory Lovins, co-director of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and environmental analyst Lester Brown, who argued that the needs to deal with both climate change and energy security have set renewable energy on a path that cannot be reversed.
The consensus is that 2008 was volatile and dangerously unpredictable. But if governments don't change, it may come to be seen as a calm before the storm.
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I have more on the sceptical scientists. I heard this evening an interview with Prof Freeman Dyson, about an article he wrote against the Climate Change orthodoxy.
Here is his article if you want to read it:
The Question of Global Warming (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21494)
I have not read the article, but he did in the interview explain under hard questioning, what his position is.
He says there is no doubt the planet is warming up. Also there is no doubt the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are very high.
However his primary argument was that he was not convinced that global warming was bad for us. In fact there is a good chance it will be beneficial - he gave the example of how the people in Greenland are happy that it is warmer.
He also says that it will be fifty years before we see any consequences worth noting, which is plenty of time to get a better idea of what is happening - then it will be two hundred years before any real problems arise.
He said the rise in sea levels has been happening for 10 thousand years, and is not necessarily connected with Global Warming.
But he also revealed himself as one of those who have the belief that science can find answers to the bad side-effects of Global Warming - he was very up-beat about the ability of science to solve problems. He had one idea of putting kites and balloons around some areas of Antarctica to change the wind patterns, and to direct snow to drop in the inland of Antarctica which would lower the sea levels.
I personally found his arguments silly, as I think the interviewer did also. The interviewer put to him the risk factor, which he dismissed.
My first suspicions began as the interview launched in discussing an article he had written about the Galápagos Islands. There is a growing question of whether they should retain the islands as a national park - not for humans. The settlers are growing and they want more land for themselves.
Dyson compared it to UK, thousands of years ago - what would have happened is the Brits were not allowed to occupy the whole of the British Isles? There would have been no Charles Dickens, and no Darwin. The man's a twit.
But he is one voice in this debate, and I don't think his view of harmlessness of Global Warming is the only argument these sceptical scientists have, so I will keep my ear to the ground. (Oh and he also scorned Hanson)
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Why rely on scientist in the most important matter of our time?
Are we not warriors connected to nature and Mother Earth?
So do we not have a dialogue with Nature and Mother Earth of our own eeh?
So what does that dialogue tells us ....:
About "Global warming", "deforestation", "general pollution", "extreme weather situations" etc.
What does Mother tell you?
~.~ ~.~
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Why rely on scientist in the most important matter of our time?
Are we not warriors connected to nature and Mother Earth?
So do we not have a dialogue with Nature and Mother Earth of our own eeh?
So what does that dialogue tells us ....:
About "Global warming", "deforestation", "general pollution", "extreme weather situations" etc.
What does Mother tell you?
~.~ ~.~
This is the argument Julie uses - surely it's obvious what's humans are doing to the planet...
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Why rely on scientist in the most important matter of our time?
Are we not warriors connected to nature and Mother Earth?
So do we not have a dialogue with Nature and Mother Earth of our own eeh?
So what does that dialogue tells us ....:
About "Global warming", "deforestation", "general pollution", "extreme weather situations" etc.
What does Mother tell you?
~.~ ~.~
;D
~.~
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This is the argument Julie uses - surely it's obvious what's humans are doing to the planet...
And ... what is our answer/connection/dialogue connection tell us.
Women ... they usually have the most eminent connection to Mother Earth, what else can one expect?
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Why rely on scientist in the most important matter of our time?
Are we not warriors connected to nature and Mother Earth?
So do we not have a dialogue with Nature and Mother Earth of our own eeh?
So what does that dialogue tells us ....:
About "Global warming", "deforestation", "general pollution", "extreme weather situations" etc.
What does Mother tell you?
~.~ ~.~
We rely on 'scientists' to connect to this forum.. perhaps Mother also relies on scientists to connect to other forms of 'forums' eh?
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Very good photos http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/)
Seemed suitable for this thread (there's a gellery under each photo).
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He also says that it will be fifty years before we see any consequences worth noting, which is plenty of time to get a better idea of what is happening - then it will be two hundred years before any real problems arise.
When I was 10 I used to build snowmen, to ride the sledge on the hill side, to slide on the icy snow and generally I haven't seen the soil for 3 months.
When I was 14 the sledge got rusty between two rides. And it is *not* a figure of speech!!
When I was 18 we had snow less then 5 times in a year, and I was glad if I could find enough to make a snow ball.
When I was 22 the whole winter we had not seen one snow flake.
It's one decade, and these are changes that are definitely worth noting!
In my place people used to sow in the late autumn and wait for the snow to cover the seeds. The snow kept the seeds from freezing until the spring, when they would break and grow much faster.
Not having snow impacted the whole agriculture.
The old traditions, based on the cycle of the seasons, the secular experiences gathered from the study of the whether phenomenons, in less then a decade became useless, obsolete or even detrimental.
And then this scientist has the courage to talk about "changes worth noting".
I actually hope people will continue to live in denial, this way they won't prevent the inevitable. (as absurd this might sound)
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We rely on 'scientists' to connect to this forum.. perhaps Mother also relies on scientists to connect to other forms of 'forums' eh?
Not sure that I am following in what you say Daphne. Mother Earth has no other connection to scientists more than they are a part of the ecological system upon her.
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What does Mother tell you?
There is two things that she tells me, one about her condition in general and the other concerning (the in bodies living part of) mankind as a whole. The direction is not exactly favorable for either part but in cosmic terms we might say that it is a temporary status of transition. No one is really hurt.
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When I was 10 I used to build snowmen, to ride the sledge on the hill side, to slide on the icy snow and generally I haven't seen the soil for 3 months.
When I was 14 the sledge got rusty between two rides. And it is *not* a figure of speech!!
When I was 18 we had snow less then 5 times in a year, and I was glad if I could find enough to make a snow ball.
When I was 22 the whole winter we had not seen one snow flake.
It's one decade, and these are changes that are definitely worth noting!
In my place people used to sow in the late autumn and wait for the snow to cover the seeds. The snow kept the seeds from freezing until the spring, when they would break and grow much faster.
Not having snow impacted the whole agriculture.
The old traditions, based on the cycle of the seasons, the secular experiences gathered from the study of the whether phenomenons, in less then a decade became useless, obsolete or even detrimental.
And then this scientist has the courage to talk about "changes worth noting".
I actually hope people will continue to live in denial, this way they won't prevent the inevitable. (as absurd this might sound)
Good observations there R.
In Sweden we still talk about the "Green winters" back in the early 1970:s and I remember leaves were on the trees as late as in November the year of 1978. Some years though the Polar wind from the North may hit us and we can still have real winters.
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Not sure that I am following in what you say Daphne. Mother Earth has no other connection to scientists more than they are a part of the ecological system upon her.
What I mean, is that for those that may not feel that connection directly, other means of transmitting information are available.. ie scientists.
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And ... what is our answer/connection/dialogue connection tell us.
Women ... they usually have the most eminent connection to Mother Earth, what else can one expect?
I could have been clearer on this one. It has to do with our sexes. While men have a top down sex (from heaven to earth) women have a reflection of the same from Earth up through the womb. later, I shall perhaps clarify with some pictures from a book of teachings of Universal dada.
Anyway it all leads to that women as such are more connected to Earth and men has a bit greater connection to Heaven. Nothing is more worth than the other, it has only to do with how we pick up the same energies. This is of course on a general level, individuals may deviate a bit. However this has less to do of how much part of us that is masculine and feminine flow, that part is another dimension of our beings. What I talk about is more the biological - heaven (Sun) energy flow intake.
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What I mean, is that for those that may not feel that connection directly, other means of transmitting information are available.. ie scientists.
Which leaves them as a hopeless prey to the mental body ;D
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For anyone interested in the India/Pakistan troubles, here is an excellent article by Arundhati Roy:
The Monster in the Mirror (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-monster-in-the-mirror/2008/12/18/1229189805526.html)
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It is a very thoughtful insight. There are no quick fixes, no shortcuts in sight, and the road to better world passes only through the darkest corners of human mind. Reading such articles confirms over and again the statement that traveller ought to have no nationality, no allegiance to any country, no fixed beliefs.
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In the US, we have a couple of television series with extended families:
"CSI" and "Law and Order". "CSI" = Crime Scene Investigation, and is almost exclusively focused on the details of forensic investigation. The grosser and more rotting the flesh, the better. Of the Law-and-Order series/offshoots, one in particular is focused almost exclusively on forensic information: "Law and Order: Sexual Victims Unit". Also popular are several criminal case investigation shows of the non-fictional ilk.
My problem, around which my hair gets the most raised, is with the show "Sexual Victims Unit." Many shows have been instruction manuals for the would-be-depraved, in my view. They give ideas where there might have been none, and plenty of tips about what evidence not to leave.. The reason I get tuned into that is not because I'm a woman, and in the usual "victim" population -- but because I've mingled with dark ones myself. I have an acquaintance with a certain amount of depravity, and I know a subculture therein. The "SVU" show goes much farther than the parameters of the subculture -- which is already de-spiriting enough. It would surprise the kinkiest-of-kinky people, and give those who are predators inspiration.
Likewise, the same "how-to" and "gee-what-a-good-idea" value in my view goes to articles like this:
Homeland Security forecasts 5-year threat picture
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press.
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks are considered the most dangerous threats that could be carried out against the U.S. But those threats are also the most unlikely because it is so difficult for al-Qaida and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots, according to the internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013.
The al-Qaida terrorist network continues to focus on U.S. attack targets vulnerable to massive economic losses, casualties and political "turmoil," the assessment said.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remains "the highest priority at the federal level." Speaking to reporters on Dec. 3, Chertoff explained that more people, such as terrorists, will learn how to make dirty bombs, biological and chemical weapons. "The other side is going to continue to learn more about doing things," he said.
Marked "for official use only," the report does not specify its audience, but the assessments typically go to law enforcement, intelligence officials and the private sector. When determining threats, intelligence officials consider loss of life, economic and psychological consequences.
Intelligence officials also predict that in the next five years, terrorists will try to conduct a destructive biological attack. Officials are concerned about the possibility of infections to thousands of U.S. citizens, overwhelming regional health care systems.
There could also be dire economic impacts caused by workers' illnesses and deaths. Officials are most concerned about biological agents stolen from labs or other storage facilities, such as anthrax.
"The threat of terrorism and the threat of extremist ideologies has not abated," Chertoff said in his year-end address on Dec. 18. "This threat has not evaporated, and we can't turn the page on it."
These high-consequence threats are not the only kind of challenges that will confront the U.S. over the next five years.
Terrorists will continue to try to evade U.S. border security measures and place operatives inside the mainland to carry out attacks, the 38-page assessment said. It also said that they may pose as refugees or asylum seekers or try to exploit foreign travel channels such as the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 34 countries to enter the U.S. without visas.
Long waits for immigration and more restrictive European refugee and asylum programs will cause more foreigners to try to enter the U.S. illegally. Increasing numbers of Iraqis are expected to migrate to the U.S. in the next five years; and refugees from Somalia and Sudan could increase because of conflicts in those countries, the assessment said.
Because there is a proposed cap of 12,000 refugees from Africa, officials expect more will try to enter the U.S. illegally as well. Officials predict the same scenario for refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Intelligence officials predict the pool of radical Islamists within the U.S. will increase over the next five years due partly to the ease of online recruiting means. Officials foresee "a wave of young, self-identified Muslim 'terrorist wannabes' who aspire to carry out violent acts."
The U.S. has already seen some examples of these homegrown terrorists. Recently five Muslim immigrants were convicted of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in a case the government said demonstrated its post-Sept. 11 determination to stop terrorist attacks in the planning stages.
The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah does not have a known history of fomenting attacks inside the U.S., but that could change if there is some kind of "triggering" event, the Homeland assessment cautions.
A 2008 Interagency Intelligence Committee on Terrorism assessment said that Hezbollah members based in the U.S. do local fundraising through charity projects and criminal activity, like money laundering, smuggling, drug trafficking, fraud and extortion, according to the homeland security assessment.
In addition, the cyber terror threat is expected to increase over the next five years, as hacking tools become more sophisticated and available. "Youthful, Internet-savvy extremists might apply their online acumen to conduct cyber attacks rather than offer themselves up as operatives to conduct physical attacks," according to the assessment.
Currently, Islamic terrorists, including al-Qaida, would like to conduct cyber attacks, but they lack the capability to do so, the assessment said. The large-scale attacks that are on al-Qaida's wishlist — such as disrupting a major city's water or power systems — require sophisticated cyber capabilities that the terrorist group does not possess.
But al-Qaida has the capability to hire sophisticated hackers to carry out these kinds of attacks, the assessment said. And federal officials believe that in the next three to five years, al-Qaida could direct or inspire cyber attacks that target the U.S. economy.
Counterterrorism expert Frank Cilluffo says the typical cyber attack would not achieve al-Qaida's main goal of inflicting mass devastation with its resulting widespread media coverage. However, al-Qaida is likely to continue to rely on the Internet to spread its message, said Cilluffo, who runs the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.
Officials also predict that domestic terrorists in the forms of radical animal rights and environmental extremists will become more adept with explosives and increase their use of arson attacks.
Homeland Security says..... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081225/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/homeland_threat_forecast)
I get all sorts of ideas reading this... Hmmm, the terrorists could pose as animal rights activists, for that matter ... etc. etc. etc. etc. What the hell good does it do me? Not one of these things could I prevent from happening. There is no way to become prepared for any of these nifty projections/suggestions -- except to leave the country. In the interim, who is the tefforist? All these extreme groups, or the Associated Press (or whatever powers are behind the AP?)?
Is it the mass-media manipulation which comes before the escalation of more war, perhaps? Or are we just f*ucked? I can just hear my old sociology professor telling us that we'd be sadly mistaken to think it was a coincidence that this article got released on Christmas Day.
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Attenborough alarmed as children are left flummoxed by test on the natural world
Attenborough alarmed as children are left flummoxed by test on the natural world (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/attenborough-alarmed-as-children-are-left-flummoxed-by-test-on-the-natural-world-882624.html)
By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent
Friday, 1 August 2008
Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey.
Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The study also found that playing in the countryside was children's least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors.
The survey asked 700 children to identify pictured flora and fauna. Just over half could name bluebells, 54 per cent knew what blue tits were and 45 per cent could identify an oak. Less than two-thirds (62 per cent) identified frogs and 12 per cent knew what a primrose was.
Children performed better at identifying robins (95 per cent) and badgers, correctly labelled by nine out of 10.
Sir David Attenborough warned that children who lack any understanding of the natural world would not grow into adults who cared about the environment. "The wild world is becoming so remote to children that they miss out," he said, "and an interest in the natural world doesn't grow as it should. Nobody is going protect the natural world unless they understand it."
Fergus Collins, of BBC Wildlife Magazine, said the results "reinforce the idea that many children don't spend enough time playing in the green outdoors and enjoying wildlife – something older generations might have taken for granted".
A surprisingly large number of children incorrectly identified the bluebells as lavender, and the deer was commonly misidentified as an antelope.
The newt, recognised by 42 per cent, was mistaken for a lizard while the primrose was thought to be a dandelion.
Experts blamed the widening gulf between children and nature on over-protective parents and the hostility to children among some conservationists, who fear that they will damage the environment. They said that this lack of exposure to outdoor play in natural environments was vital for children's social and emotional development.
Dr Martin Maudsley, play development officer for Playwork Partnerships, at the University of Gloucestershire, said that adults had become too protective of wild places: "Environmental sensitivities should not be prioritised over children."
He said: "Play is the primary mechanism through which children engage and connect with the world, and natural environments are particularly attractive, inspiring and satisfying for kids. Something magical occurs when children and wild spaces mix."
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They forecast an "extreme warm winter" here in the North with an average temp. of 2 to 3 dg celsius above the normal, but my guts tells me that we will have a real cold period starting in the middle of January, lasting at least 3 weeks. Betting is free ... ;D
It may count as a fairly good forecast. It started during the X-mas days with some freezing degrees and the New Year night was rather cold (-5 C in the morning) and today we have the coldest day this winter down toward -10 C degrees Celsius in the early morning. However the important stuff is, that what has happened, is what I expected; the North wind would start to flow down on us and that will usually means a longer period of real cold temps. So that is what they forecast now on the weather news, up to ten days with North wind and a steady period with temperatures below zero. So I "felt" this period would come in about two weeks, though it seems like it will end after about two weeks from now and by that lasted for three weeks. :)
As a note I can say that this first week in January has been rather warm many years lately. If the West or even the South wind rules it can be common with degrees between +5 to +10 C.
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Today we had the coldest day for several years -16 C (+3 F) and colder it may very well be the next days. Perhaps down to -20 C (-4F).
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Today we had the coldest day for several years -16 C (+3 F) and colder it may very well be the next days. Perhaps down to -20 C (-4F).
Ew I hate the cold. It snowed again the other day (I know hate cold im here in WA), and snow ive learned really is a pain, scrape off windows and slip all over. But it hasnt gotten THAT cold out here. But this cold here is enough, im at work under my blanket, wearing three shirts/sweaters, so I am not adapted well to the cold.
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Ew I hate the cold. It snowed again the other day (I know hate cold im here in WA), and snow ive learned really is a pain, scrape off windows and slip all over. But it hasnt gotten THAT cold out here. But this cold here is enough, im at work under my blanket, wearing three shirts/sweaters, so I am not adapted well to the cold.
I think that snow is wonderful and the best weather in winter is when the air is dry around -5 C (23 F).
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03/01/2009 - 21:25:07
A strong earthquake has hit north-eastern Afghanistan, a quake that rattled the capital Kabul for about a minute, according to officials.
The US Geological Survey says today’s quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 and was located in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan in the Hindu Kush mountains. The area is often hit by earthquakes, but is sparsely populated.
A Badakhshan police official, Fazel Ahmad Naderi, says the quake was strong but noted that his cell phone still worked, meaning that towers had not been toppled. The quake hit about 12.50am local time and Naderi says he will not know about damage until daylight.
The quake rattled buildings in Kabul, about 160 miles (260km) south-west of the epicentre.
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Depression among the young at alarming level, says charity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/05/mental-health-depression-young
• Nearly half regularly feel stress, finds Prince's Trust
• Situation likely to worsen as recession takes hold
* Mary O'Hara
* The Guardian, Monday 5 January 2009
* Article history
A significant number of young people are depressed or struggling to cope and the situation is likely to worsen as recession takes hold, according to a report by the Prince's Trust. One in 10 16- to 25-year-olds polled by the charity for its Youth Index study said they felt that life was meaningless, and more than a quarter (27%) said they were always or often down or depressed. Almost half of all those surveyed (47%) said they were regularly stressed.
The trust, which interviewed more than 2,000 young people across Britain, said the results were "alarming". Young people not in work, training or education were worst affected, the research found.
Some 37% of those outside paid employment or education admitted to being frequently down or depressed, while 27% said their lives had no purpose. With young people expected to bear the brunt of job losses over the coming year, the findings are likely to raise concerns among policymakers.
Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince's Trust, said the study revealed "an increasingly vulnerable generation". Paul Brown, a director at the trust responsible for the research, added: "We already have evidence that young people are likely to be disproportionately affected during a recession. We also know that young people often have problems, especially those without supportive families. That one in 10 young people think their life is not worth living is a really worrying thing to see quantified."
Brown said the Prince's Trust, which provides support to about 40,000 young people a year, is introducing a new mental health awareness programme for team leaders in local projects to identify early signs of distress.
Peter Kellner, of YouGov, which conducted the research, said the majority of young people had a generally positive outlook on life. He warned, however, that the serious concerns of the "core" of unhappy people under the age of 25 "need to be addressed". He added that failing to take the issue seriously "would be storing up big problems for the future".
Concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of young people have risen sharply following reports about the emotional fragility of the current generation of children and teenagers, and problems around violence and knife crime.
In April last year the Children's Society's Good Childhood Inquiry, a state-of-the-nation overview of childhood, said in an interim report that more than a quarter (27%) of the 8,000 14- to 16-year-olds it interviewed regularly felt depressed. The inquiry, a two-year rolling programme of research, also reported that just 9% of adults felt children are happier today than when they were growing up.
The final report, by Lord Richard Layard, the economist and author of the book Happiness, is due to be published at the end of this month. The Prince's Trust research could raise additional concern because it suggests that the emotional malaise already identified by the Children's Society in younger teenagers is stretching into early adulthood.
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Boy, 4, Shoots Babysitter For Stepping On His Foot
http://cbs2.com/national/shooting.babysitter.ohio.2.900762.html
JACKSON, Ohio (AP) ― Police say a 4-year-old boy in southern Ohio shot his babysitter because the sitter accidentally stepped on his foot. Police said 18-year-old Nathan Beavers and several other teenagers were babysitting several young children in a mobile home in Jackson on Sunday when the shooting occurred.
Witnesses told police the 4-year-old retrieved the shotgun from a bedroom closet and shot Beavers. Police said the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot.
Beavers was hospitalized with minor pellet wounds to his arm and side.
Police say another teen was also injured with shotgun pellets.
Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen said authorities are investigating the shooting. The child has not been charged.
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I think that snow is wonderful and the best weather in winter is when the air is dry around -5 C (23 F).
I admire you for being able to handle the weather like that. It is a serious task for being able to do it.
One thing though, snow is beautiful, I will give you that - it has a very magical side to it.
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Juhani, hope you dont mind me asking the question - but do you post these horrible stories on this thread cause you want others to be as miserable as you and hate the world and people in it as much as you do? Why do you post these things in here?
I certainly understand they are what is going on in the world - and you're certainly free to post such things. But - really I feel that - as you do this, you only make yourself sicker. Like your AP is completely stuck on the horror show of the world. And you cannot move your head.
You know, what you focus on - all this world and everyone in it, will be cosmic dust oneday if it makes you feel better. Dont get so hooked on the show presented. There are many other worlds within this world. But you dont stop the world will make you mad and drag you down with it.
(http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20081218/i/r3181082202.jpg?x=400&y=234&q=85&sig=_TAa_LErst_8nwqyEyQOwA--)
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Great Barrier Reef growing at slowest rate for 400 years
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4060204/Great-Barrier-Reef-growing-at-slowest-rate-for-400-years.html
They are the rainforests of the sea, providing food and shelter for millions of marine creatures.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:38PM GMT 01 Jan 2009
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01214/Great_Barrier_Reef_1214731c.jpg)
Fish in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years. Photo: REUTERS
But now tropical coral reefs are facing a renewed - and hidden - threat from environmental change which is stunting their growth, claim scientists.
Researchers looking at the world's biggest and best preserved reef - the Great Barrier Reef - found that it is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years.
While the damage is not visible to the naked eye scientists believe it is a "very worrying" indicator which could spell disaster for the biodiversity of the seas.
Corals, which absorb calcium from the sea to make their hard stone like structure, grow in yearly cycles and using x-rays scientists can measure the annual growth rings.
They have discovered that while growth between 1900 and 1970 increased, it has subsequently started to decline at a rapid rate.
Professor Glenn De'ath, who carried out the research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, believes that the increased acidification of the sea due to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the main culprit.
With CO2 levels expected to double in the next 50 years, he believes the changes in the biodiversity are "imminent"
The team, which published the findings in the journal Science, looked at a total of 328 colonies spanning the 1,600 mile long reef which is off the north east coast of Australia.
They found that calcification rates increased 5.4 per cent between 1900 and 1970, but have dropped 14.2 per cent from 1990 to 2005, mainly due to a slowdown in growth from 1.43 centimetres per year to 1.24 centimetres per year.
Clive Wilkinson, global coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, said decline is "here and now and over the past decade, not some time in the future, as we predicted."
"This has been happening under our noses," he added.
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Professor Glenn De'ath
Interesting name, remind me of Death, and also Da'ath.
Ah, well, what can you do. Easy come easy go for the stubborn who wish to indulge in suffering:
(http://www.plotinus.com/images/kabala.jpg)
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Btw I should add, they got depressing, glum looking faces like... someone I know... just ... someone...
I wonder... who...
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01214/Great_Barrier_Reef_1214731c.jpg)
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http://www.youtube.com/v/8Jo29zxDaQ4&hl=en&fs=1
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Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'
Poll of international experts by The Independent reveals consensus that CO2 cuts have failed – and their growing support for technological intervention
By Steve Connor, Science Editor and Chris Green
Friday, 2 January 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-scientists-its-time-for-plan-b-1221092.html
An emergency "Plan B" using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary.
The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This "geoengineering" approach – including schemes such as fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate algal blooms – would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions.
What has worried many of the experts, who include recognised authorities from the world's leading universities and research institutes, as well as a Nobel Laureate, is the failure to curb global greenhouse gas emissions through international agreements, namely the Kyoto Treaty, and recent studies indicating that the Earth's natural carbon "sinks" are becoming less efficient at absorbing man-made CO2 from the atmosphere.
Levels of CO2 have continued to increase during the past decade since the treaty was agreed and they are now rising faster than even the worst-case scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body. In the meantime the natural absorption of CO2 by the world's forests and oceans has decreased significantly. Most of the scientists we polled agreed that the failure to curb emissions of CO2, which are increasing at a rate of 1 per cent a year, has created the need for an emergency "plan B" involving research, development and possible implementation of a worldwide geoengineering strategy.
Just over half – 54 per cent – of the 80 international specialists in climate science who took part in our survey agreed that the situation is now so dire that we need a backup plan that involves the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. About 35 per cent of respondents disagreed with the need for a "plan B", arguing that it would distract from the main objective of cutting CO2 emissions, with the remaining 11 per cent saying that they did not know whether a geoengineering strategy is needed or not.
Almost everyone who thought that geoengineering should be studied as a possible plan B said that it must not be seen as an alternative to international agreements on cutting carbon emissions but something that runs in parallel to binding treaties in case climate change runs out of control and there an urgent need to cool the planet quickly.
Geoengineering was dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but it has recently become a serious topic of research. Next summer, for example, the Royal Society, in London, is due to publish a report on the subject, led by Professor John Shepherd of the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University. Professor Shepherd was one of the scientists who said that a plan B was needed because he was now less optimistic about the prospects of curbing CO2 levels since Kyoto was agreed, and less optimistic about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with the expected CO2 increases. "Geoengineering options... must not be allowed to detract from efforts to reduce CO2 emissions directly," said Professor Shepherd, who studies the interaction between the climate and oceans. In answer to the question of whether scientists were more optimistic or less optimistic about the ability of the climate system to cope with increases in man-made CO2 without dangerous climate change, just one out of the 80 respondents to our survey was more optimistic, 72 per cent were less optimistic, and 23 per cent felt about the same.
Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism, is one of those who is less optimistic. He believes that a plan B is urgently needed. "I never thought that the Kyoto agreement would lead to any useful cut back in greenhouse gas emissions so I am neither more nor less optimistic now about prospect of curbing CO2 compared to 10 years ago. I am, however, less optimistic now about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with expected increases in atmospheric carbon levels compared with 10 years ago," he told The Independent. "I strongly agree that we now need a 'plan B' where a geoengineering strategy is drawn up in parallel with other measures to curb CO2 emissions."
Among those who oppose geoengineering is Professor David Archer, a geophysicist at Chicago University and expert on ocean chemistry. "Carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere will continue to affect climate for many millennia," he said. "Relying on geoengineering schemes such as sulphate aerosols would be analogous to putting the planet on life support. If future humanity failed to pay its 'climate bill' – a bill that we left them, thank you very much – they would bear the full brunt of climate change within a very short time."
Gummer set for green role
The former Tory cabinet member who publicly fed his daughter a beefburger during the outbreak of so-called "mad cow disease" is in line for a leading role in helping the Government fight against global warming, writes Nigel Morris.
John Gummer, who served as Environment Secretary in the previous Conservative government, has been shortlisted for the post of chairman of the Committee on Climate Change. He is one of three candidates being discussed in Whitehall to succeed Baron Turner of Ecchinswell. The others are Rachel Lomax, a former Treasury official who has recently retired as a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Sir John Harman, former chairman of the Environment Agency.
Mr Gummer, 69, has been a Conservative activist for almost half a century and has spent 34 years as an MP. He represents the safe seat of Suffolk Coastal. A 16-year spell in government culminated with his promotion by John Major to Environment Secretary, when he was regarded as a pioneering minister, introducing the landfill tax and the fuel-price escalator.
Mr Gummer said last night he knew nothing about the vacant post.
Fixing the planet Could technology help save the world?
Injecting the air with particles to reflect sunlight
Volcanic eruptions release huge amounts of sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere, where they reflect sunlight. After Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, sulphates reflected enough sunlight to cool the Earth by 0.5C for a year or two. The Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen suggested in 2006 that it may be possible to inject artificial sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere – the stratosphere. However, the idea does not address ocean acidification caused by rising CO2 levels. There may be side-effects such as acid rain and adverse effects on agriculture.
Creating low clouds over the oceans
Another variation on the theme of increasing the Earth's albedo, or reflectivity to sunlight, is to pump water vapour into the air to stimulate cloud formation over the sea. John Latham of the United States National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado is working with Stephen Salter of Edinburgh University and Mike Smith at Leeds to atomise seawater to produce tiny droplets to form low-level maritime clouds that cover part of the oceanic surface. The only raw material is seawater and the process can be quickly turned off. The cloud cover would only affect the oceans, but still lower global temperatures.
Fertilising the sea with iron filings
This idea arises from the fact that the limiting factor in the multiplication of phytoplankton – tiny marine plants – is the lack of iron salts in the sea. When scientists add iron to "dead" areas of the sea, the result is a phytoplankton bloom which absorbs CO2. The hope is that carbon taken up by the microscopic plants will sink to deep layers of the ocean, and be taken out of circulation. Experiments support the idea, but blooms may be eaten by animals so carbon returns to the atmosphere as CO2.
Mixing the deep water of the ocean
The Earth scientist James Lovelock, working with Chris Rapley of the Science Museum in London, devised a plan to put giant tubes into the seas to take surface water rich in dissolved CO2 to lower depths where it will not surface. The idea is to take CO2 out of the short-term carbon cycle, cutting the gas in the atmosphere. Critics say it may bring carbon locked away in the deep ocean to the surface.
Giant mirrors in space
Some scientists suggest it would be possible to deflect sunlight with a giant mirror or a fleet of small mirrors between the Earth and the Sun. The scheme would be costly and prompt debate over who controls it. Many scientists see it as contrary to the idea of working with the Earth's systems.
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Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism, is one of those who is less optimistic.
Quasi-living organism? Damn. I guess the Earth wont be his witness.
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You don't say... Even sex sales drop in hard times :)
US porn industry seeks multi-billion dollar bailout
Porn baron Larry Flynt is seeking a $5 billion bailout from Washington to rejuvenate the industry, which he says is suffering because of the economic downturn.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4165049/US-porn-industry-seeks-multi-billion-dollar-bailout.html
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 12:55AM GMT 08 Jan 2009
The Hustler magazine founder has teamed up with fellow adult entertainment mogul Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild video series, to approach Congress for the same kind of financial assistance recently approved for car manufacturers.
The pair have asked the 111th Congress, which convened on Tuesday with the economy at the top of its agenda, "to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America" with a bailout.
"Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses, (and) we feel we deserve the same consideration," Francis said in a statement.
"In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."
"The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three," Owen Moogan, a spokesman for Flynt, told CNN.
"The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine."
In an interview with entertainment news website TMZ, Francis admitted the move was more of a "precautionary measure" than an emergency rescue, "but as long as the government is handing out money, we want to be there to take it."
The pair acknowledge that although DVD sales and rentals have dropped 22 per cent over the past year, online traffic has continued to grow. "The 13-billion-dollar industry is in no fear of collapse," they say. "But why take chances?" Francis, who was last year freed from almost a year in jail after pleading no contest to child abuse and prostitution charges in a plea deal, told CNN they planned to deliver the request "to our congressmen and (Secretary of the Treasury Henry) Paulson" by the end of Wednesday.
"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt said in a statement. People were "too depressed to be sexually active", which was "very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such, but they cannot do without sex." He said the only way Congress could "rejuvenate" America's sexual appetite was "by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly." There was no response from Congress to the request.
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Oh good old Larry Flynt. I saw today he's suing his nephews, family trouble and the courts. He's always liked courts and attention.
I dont think Larry's fears are founded in this case. Rest assured, American, good times or bad, will never stop flowering. And it will be the last thing all will be doing before an angry bomb is dropped on us - if ever happens. Say goodbye to all loved ones, flower and be gone. Its the American way, and all the America haters cannot take that, out of America. Peace and Love night all, saying goodbye to my thirty-something self. next time you see me ill be a snake with new skin :)
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From The Times
January 10, 2009
Weather Eye: Europe in grip of brutal freeze
Paul Simons
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article5484774.ece
Europe was in the grip of a brutal freeze this week. Huge snowfalls on Wednesday caused widespread travel disruption and were blamed for at least 12 deaths across Europe. While England shivered in temperatures dropping to minus 12C (10F), Berlin froze in minus 21C (-6F) and Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, recorded minus 23C (-9F). This outbreak of intense cold was blamed on a large high-pressure system, stretching from the UK to southern Russia, that dragged down cold Siberian air.
Ice skaters were out on frozen canals in the Netherlands, icebreakers had to clear Rotterdam port, and a rare snowfall on Thursday in southern France left Marseilles with 29cm (11.4in) of snow while Milan was swamped under snow 30cm (12in) deep. But the skiing in the Alps is superb, with cold conditions and fresh snowfalls leaving pistes in great shape.
At the other extreme, heat waves have struck Australia with temperatures soaring above 40C (104F) and a state of emergency declared near Sydney as wildfires took hold. In New Zealand, Christchurch nearly broke its highest temperature record of 35.9C (96.6F) on Thursday.
The rainy season across the Far East has left the Philippines deluged since Tuesday, setting off floods and landslides affecting 46,000 people.
South America is also experiencing a severe wet season, with heavy downpours lashing Peru and Brazil. But weeks of heavy rainfalls in Brazil’s southeastern region has benefited the coffee plantations, which are enjoying a bumper crop.
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The carbon cost of Googling
Climate researchers say two Google searches emit 7g of CO2 – the same as boiling an electric kettle. Do their numbers add up?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jan/12/carbon-emissions-google
Can two Google searches really produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling enough water in an electric kettle for a cup of tea? That's what Alex Wissner-Gross, an environmental fellow at Harvard University, is claiming. "Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power," says Wissner-Gross in forthcoming research about the environmental impact of computing, which calculates that every Google search produces 7g of CO2. "Google are very efficient, but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy."
It should probably be noted at this point that Wissner-Gross is also the co-founder of Enernetics, and its associated website www.CO2stats.com, which, according to the Boston Business Journal, allows "websites to get analysis of how energy-efficient they are and sells carbon offsets to help them reach a neutral status". So let's first congratulate Wissner-Gross on getting himself and his company talked about all over the internet, including here. But does his claim stack up?
Without any published data to hand it's hard to tell. All Google is saying is that it is takes the issue seriously, but that "the energy used per Google search is minimal". It adds: ""In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query." (If this is true, it surely makes a mockery of Wissner-Gross's claims as there's no way an average computer uses as much power as an electric kettle when it's boiling water.)
So let's do some crude sums based on what we know and what is being claimed. Google receives millions of search queries every day from all over the world. Estimates vary about quite how many queries it receives, but they seem to range from 200m up to 500m. Let's, for the sake of argument, take the top figure as a worst-case scenario.
If Wissner-Gross is correct then 3,500 tonnes of CO2 (500m x 0.000007 tonnes) are emitted every day through all of us performing Google searches. Or put another way, 1.28m tonnes a year. That's about the same as Laos emits each year, the 151st biggest emitting country in the world.
I'm torn between thinking that this sounds like an awful lot – "Shock: Google emits as much as a country!" – or whether it doesn't sound too bad, given, for right or wrong, how integral Google now is to many of our lives. What is certain is that the environmental impact of information technology as a whole is considerable and ever rising.
A widely quoted figure is that the global ICT sector produces as much CO2 each year as the global aviation industry – about 2-3% of total global emissions. It is helpful, therefore, that Wissner-Gross's claim is at least providing a needed spur to debating the ICT sector's impact, and how best to reduce it.
Ultimately, though, I suspect this particularly quotable nugget will have little impact on the searching habits of internet users. Nor should it, really. We can each monitor how much electricity our own computers use – and aim to keep it at a minimum – but it can only ever be Google's responsibility about how much power its servers and related hardware use. Perhaps there's even an argument for saying that internet searches have helped to reduce net emissions by greatly reducing the need to make physical journeys in search of information, say, a trip to the local library or bookshop?
(NB: At least one cup of tea was consumed during the making of this blog.)
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It seems that there is a statistically reliable change of temperature to support the warming claim.
Scientists Refute Argument Of Climate Skeptics
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090109115047.htm
ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2009) — Scientists at the GKSS Research Centre of Geesthacht and the University of Bern have investigated the frequency of warmer than average years between 1880 and 2006 for the first time. The result: the observed increase of warm years after 1990 is not a statistical accident.
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/01/090109115047-large.jpg)
Global monthly and annual mean near-surface temperatures between 1850 and June 2008 in relation to the average temperature in the period between 1961 and 1990, based on the air temperature measurement data of weather stations. (Credit: HadCRUT)
Between 1880 and 2006 the average global annual temperature was about 15°C. However, in the years after 1990 the frequency of years when this average value was exceeded increased.
The GKSS Research Centre asks: is it an accident that the warmest 13 years were observed after 1990, or does this increased frequency indicate an external influence?
Calculating the likelihood
With the help of the so called "Monte-Carlo-Simulation“ the coastal researchers Dr. Eduardo Zorita and Professor Hans von Storch at the GKSS-Research Centre together with Professor Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern estimated that it is extremely unlikely that the frequency of warm record years after 1990 could be an accident and concluded that it is rather influenced by a external driver.
The fact that the 13 warmest years since 1880 could have occurred by accident after 1990 corresponds to a likelihood of no more than 1:10,000.
These likelihood can be illustrated by using the game of chance "heads or tails": the likelihood is the same as flipping a coin and getting 14 heads in a row.
Climate is more complicated than a game
"In order to understand and statistically analyse the climate system and its interaction between the ocean, land, atmosphere and human activity, the comparison with a game of chance is no longer sufficient.
The natural sequence of warm and cold years no longer functions according to the simple principle of 'zero or one,'" explains the GKSS scientist Dr. Eduardo Zorita about the challenges of his calculations, because the climate system possesses some inertia.
An example: After a warm year milder years tend to follow, since the oceans have stored some heat. This natural inertia must also be included in the calculations.
"Our study is pure statistical nature and can not attribute the increase of warm years to individual factors, but is in full agreement with the results of the IPCC that the increased emission of greenhouse gases is mainly responsible for the most recent global warming“, says Zorita in summary
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Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40 below zero
By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer Amy Forliti, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago
MINNEAPOLIS – Temperatures crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. Thermometers read single digits early in the day as far south as Kansas and Missouri, where some areas warmed only into the teens by midday.
The ice and snow that glazed pavement was blamed for numerous traffic accidents from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp during the night in the Gary area.
Still, some Minnesotans took it as just another winter day, even in the state's extreme northwest corner where thermometers bottomed out at 38 degrees below zero at the town of Hallock and the National Weather Service said the wind chill was a shocking 58 below.
"It's really not so bad," Robert Cameron, 75, said as he and several friends gathered for morning coffee at the Cenex service station in Hallock. "We've got clothing that goes with the weather. ... We're ready and rolling, no matter what."
"It's so beautiful. There's not a cloud in the sky," said Keith Anderson, 66. But he said that's not stopping him from skipping town at the end of the week to spend a couple of months in Nevada and Arizona.
Outside, one of the station's gas pumps froze up at least once, and assistant manager Terrie Franks had to go out to apply deicer spray.
"You definitely have to have gloves on because touching the cold metal — your hands are frozen," Franks said by telephone.
The weather service warned that exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when the wind chill is 40 degrees below zero or colder.
At about 8 a.m., temperatures were minus 40 in International Falls and minus 35 in Roseau. Farther south, Minneapolis hit 18 below zero with a wind chill of 32 below and black ice was blamed for numerous accidents.
In neighboring North Dakota, Grand Forks dropped to a record low of 37 below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.
Schools were closed because of the cold as far south as Iowa, and authorities in Grand Rapids, Mich., went out urging the homeless to seek shelter.
The leading edge of the cold air was expected to strike the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South late Tuesday and Wednesday. And meteorologists warned that a second wave could drop temperatures into the single digits Thursday and Friday in the mid-Atlantic region.
The storm that blew through the upper Midwest on Monday dropped 6 inches of snow on Minot, N.D., on top of about a foot that fell late last week, and Bismarck collected 4 inches. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks all broke snow records for December, each with more than 30 inches. They were outdone by Madison, Wis., which accumulated a record 40 inches for the month, the weather service said Tuesday.
Road departments have had little time to clear away the snow between storms.
"Four-wheel drives are useless — people are just snowed in," said Rhonda Woodhams, office manager for Williams County, N.D. "People are calling in saying they're out of milk and diapers for their kids, or they have doctor appointments they need to get to. We're doing our best. And we don't need no more snow."
"It's like a sea of whiteness; people can't see the road," said Rebecca Arndt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Mankato. "When the white fluffy stuff starts to blow, it is not pretty."
What was left of that snowstorm was blowing eastward along the Great Lakes, and the weather service posted winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio's northwest corner. Up to 11 inches of new snow was possible in Detroit.
Winter weather advisories were in effect from North Dakota to Ohio and northeast into northern New England.
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Yes! Brrrrrrrr Its coming my way slowly.. 3 dog nights
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Aborigines 'to bear brunt of climate change'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/aborigines-to-bear-brunt-of-climate-change-1334629.html
AP
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
(http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00112/aborigine_112642t.jpg)
Australian federal and state governments urged to act immediately to "mitigate some of the worst impacts of climate change in these communities"
Aborigines in the harsh Outback will be among the Australians hardest hit by climate change, with higher rates of disease likely and spiritual suffering too when forced to see their ancestral lands ravaged, according to an expert report.
The report published in the most recent Medical Journal of Australia urges federal and state governments to act immediately to "mitigate some of the worst impacts of climate change in these communities".
"Elevated temperatures and increases in hot spells are expected to be a major problem for indigenous health in remote areas, where cardiovascular and respiratory disease are more prevalent and there are many elderly people with inadequate facilities to cope with the increased heat stress," the authors wrote.
Higher rates of dengue fever, a mosquito-spread virus, and communicable diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, which are common in hot and dry conditions, may increase with climate change unless new preventative action is taken, said the report.
It also said that because of Aborigines' close connection to tribal land, land degradation due to climate change will make indigenous inhabitants "feel this 'sickness' themselves."
Co-author Donna Green said today she had found indigenous populations in the United States, Canada and New Zealand had similar connections to tribal lands which impact upon their health.
"The psychological well-being of indigenous people is frequently connected to the well-being of the land, the spiritual connection and the whole cohesion of the community itself," said Ms Green, a New South Wales University climate change researcher.
Australian National University indigenous health expert Amanda Barnard said she agrees with many of the report's conclusions, including that indigenous medical services have inadequate resources.
"It's true indigenous people in remote and rural areas - there's just not access to services yet," said Ms Barnard, who did not contribute to the report.
As one of the world's hottest and driest continents, most experts agree Australia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, such as drier and more extreme weather patterns.
Aborigines are an impoverished minority in Australia's population of 21 million and die on average 17 years younger than their fellow Australians, often as a result of preventable or treatable diseases such as diabetes.
The report was written by Ms Green, Australian National University researcher and rural medical doctor Ursula King and indigenous land manager Joe Morrison.
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Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army
America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country's "rapid and sudden collapse" at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels, according to the US army.
By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 5:00PM GMT 16 Jan 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/4271720/Mexico-in-danger-of-collapse-says-US-army.html
A report on the "Joint Operating Environment", compiled by the army's high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico's army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.
"Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico," reads the US army's report.
"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."
Mexico, with a population of 110 million, provides America with more migrants than any other country. It also lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America, notably Colombia, which remains the world's biggest source of cocaine.
If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.
"Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone," says the report.
Mexico's crime gangs have retaliated for Mr Calderon's offensive by targeting members of the security forces for murder. Dozens of soldiers have been beheaded. Many ordinary police officers and security officials accept bribes from the drug rings. This corruption, which may reach into the highest levels of the government itself, is a crucial factor obstructing Mr Calderon's campaign. Ultimately, it may also have the effect of destroying the state itself.
The US army's report stresses that countries can collapse very quickly, pointing to the example of Yugoslavia which broke up during the civil wars of 1991 - 95. "The collapse of Yugoslavia into a chaotic tangle of warring nationalities suggests how suddenly and catastrophically state collapse can happen - in this case a state which had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, and which then quickly became the epicentre of the ensuing civil war."
Mr Calderon won Mexico's presidency by a tiny margin of less than one per cent during a controversial election held in July 2006. Despite this slender mandate, he has made the fight against organised crime the central goal of his leadership.
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If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.
I dont know what the hell they're talking about. Mexico already is a failed state - and folks coming over with the organized crime and gangs - they've already done that. Mexican Mafia has been in this country on the other side of the border, for many years. Who the hell do they think they're kidding. There is no control of the borders - and if anything - there are border agents who get paid off quite heavily to let all sorts of things pass. its totally corrupt.
Me lived in Arizona for over thirty years - me know well.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/7K_9K0JvxOQ&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K_9K0JvxOQ
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Here is the poor little flowering spotted owl.
(http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/Three-week-old-spotted-owl-hatchlings-388.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Strix_occidentalis_lucida.JPG/400px-)
The spotted owl actually became an icon for people to get off their ass and do something to save a creature. People did not just whine and indulge they actually did something about it.
But see now? Its been rescued from extinction - but another breed of owl wants to take it out. Now humans may have caused it more suffering cause now other owls dont like it and want to make it extinct - do we make those owls extinct to save the spotted owl? LOL
(http://www.nbbd.com/photos/birds1/BarredOwl.jpeg)
(http://www.dfw.state.or.us/swwd/barred_owl.jpg)
Barred Owl = Black magician, 'evil sorcerer owl.' Nemesis, blood thirsty killer of cute spotted owls. Sinister
Life is damned folly, isnt it? Save an owl and another breed of owl comes along to wipe it out and threaten it - those damn owls are just like humans huh? heh.
The Spotted Owl's New Nemesis
An epic battle between environmentalists and loggers left much of the spotted owl's habitat protected. Now the celebrity species faces a new threat—a tougher owl
By Craig Welch
Photographs by Gary Braasch
Eric Forsman tramped across the spongy ground with one ear tipped to the tangled branches above. We were circling an isolated Douglas fir and cedar stand near Mary's Peak, the highest point in Oregon's Coast Range, scouring the trees for a puff of tobacco-hued feathers. I had come to see one of the planet's most-studied birds—the Northern spotted owl—with the man who brought the animal to the world's attention.
Forsman stopped. "You hear it?" he asked. I didn't. Above the twitter of winter wrens I caught only the plunk of a creek running through hollow logs. Then Forsman nodded at a scraggly hemlock. Twenty feet off the ground, a cantaloupe-size spotted owl stared back at us. "It's the male," he whispered.
Before I could speak, Forsman was gone. The 61-year-old U.S. Forest Service biologist zipped down one fern-slippery hill and up another. For years, he'd explained, this bird and its mate pumped out babies like fertile field mice, producing more offspring than other spotted owls in the range. Forsman wanted to reach their nest to see if this year's eggs had hatched—and survived.
Every chick counts, because spotted owls are vanishing faster than ever. Nearly 20 years after Forsman's research helped the federal government boot loggers off millions of acres to save the threatened owls, nature has thrown the birds a curveball. A bigger, meaner bird—the barred owl—now drives spotted owls from their turf. Some scientists and wildlife managers have called for arming crews with decoys, shotguns and recorded bird songs in an experimental effort to lure barred owls from the trees and kill them.
To Forsman and other biologists, the bizarre turn is not a refutation of past decisions but a sign of the volatility to come for endangered species in an increasingly erratic world. As climate chaos disrupts migration patterns, wind, weather, vegetation and river flows, unexpected conflicts will arise between species, confounding efforts to halt or slow extinctions. If the spotted owl is any guide, such conflicts could come on quickly, upend the way we save rare plants and animals, and create pressure to act before the science is clear. For spotted owls "we kind of put the blinders on and tried to only manage habitat, hoping things wouldn't get worse," Forsman said. "But over time the barred owl's influence became impossible to ignore."
When I finally hauled myself up to Forsman, yanking on roots for balance, I found him squatting on the ground looking at the curious female spotted owl. The bird, perched unblinking on a low branch not ten feet away, hooted a rising scale as if whistling through a slide flute. Her partner fluttered in and landed on a nearby branch.
Both creatures stared intently at Forsman, who absently picked at a clump of fur and rodent bones—an owl pellet regurgitated by one of the birds. Moments later the female launched herself to a tree crevice some 40 feet off the ground. Her head bobbed as she picked at her nest. Over the next hour, we looked through binoculars hoping to spy a chick.
It was here, not half a mile away, above a trickle of runoff called Greasy Creek, that Forsman saw his first spotted owl nest in 1970. He had grown up chasing great horned owls in the woods outside an old strawberry farm near Eugene, and as an undergraduate at Oregon State University he prowled the forests in search of rare breeds. One day he shimmied up a tree and poked his head inside a crack. He escaped with brutal talon marks on his cheek and one of the earliest recorded glimpses of a spotted owl nest. He also scooped up a sick chick—its eyes were crusted shut—planning to nurse it back to health and return it to its nest. When he came back, though, the adult birds had vanished, so Forsman raised the baby bird himself. It lived in a cage outside his home for 31 years.
Drawn by the romance of this obscure creature that hides in dark woods, Forsman became a spotted owl expert. He was the first to note that the birds nest primarily in the cavities of ancient trees or in the broken-limbed canopies of old-growth forests, where they feast on wood rats, red tree voles, flying squirrels and deer mice. Logging of the Pacific Northwest's conifers accelerated during the post-World War II housing boom and continued afterward. Forsman and a colleague, biologist Richard Reynolds, warned Congress and the U.S. Forest Service that shrinking forests threatened the owl's existence. They sent one of their first letters, to then-Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon, in 1973.
The owl population crash finally began in the 1980s, about the time the environmental movement was finding its footing. In an effort to save what remained of the old-growth forests the birds needed to survive, radical environmentalists pounded steel or ceramic spikes into firs, which threatened to destroy chain saws and mill blades. They donned tree costumes to attract attention to their cause and crawled into tree platforms to disrupt logging. Counter-protests erupted. In angry mill towns, café owners provocatively served "spotted owl soup" and shops sold T-shirts and bumper stickers ("Save a Logger, Eat an Owl"). There were lawsuits, and, in 1990, the Northern subspecies of spotted owl came under the Endangered Species Act (two subspecies in other parts of the country were not affected). A sweeping federal court ruling in 1991 closed much of the Northwest woods to logging. By the end of the century, timber harvest on 24 million acres of federal land had dropped 90 percent from its heyday. The spotted owl crystallized the power of the species-protection law. No threatened animal has done more to change how we use land.
Yet the protection would prove insufficient. Throughout their range, from Canada to California, Northern spotted owls are disappearing three times faster than biologists had feared. Populations in parts of Washington are half what they were in the 1980s. So few birds remain in British Columbia that the provincial government plans to cage the last 16 known wild spotted owls and try to breed them in captivity. "In certain parts of its range," says Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist of the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, "the spotted owl is circling the drain."
Barred Owls, meanwhile, are thriving. Farther south in the Oregon woods, I crunched through dead leaves behind Robert Anthony, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist, and David Wiens, a wildlife science graduate student at Oregon State. Wiens swept an antenna through the forest, weaving it in and out of snarled branches below overcast skies. Within minutes he pulled up short. The source of his signal looked down from upslope—a barred owl. He'd outfitted the bird with a transmitter the year before.
Half a dozen years earlier, Wiens whispered, spotted owls occupied this patch of forest. "Then barred owls were found and they've kind of taken over," he said. Spotted owls have not been seen here since.
Most of the evidence that barred owls are harming spotted owls is circumstantial; that's why Wiens and other researchers traipse the woods daily, studying how the two species fight for space and food. Still, the trend is clear. Rocky Gutiérrez, a University of Minnesota wildlife biologist, wrote in 2006 that "despite the paucity of information, many biologists now feel that the barred owl is the most serious current threat to the spotted owl."
Both barred and spotted owls, along with great gray owls and rufous-legged owls, belong to the genus Strix, medium-sized birds that lack the hornlike tufts of ear feathers common to many other owls. They are so closely related that they sometimes crossbreed, blurring species boundaries and diluting spotted owl genes. More often, though, when barred owls move in, spotted owls just disappear.
Where spotted owls are finicky eaters, barred owls consume almost anything, including spotted owls. Barred owls, typically 20 percent larger than their rivals, may take over spotted owl nests or slam into their breasts like feathery missiles. "The barred owl is the new bully on the block," DellaSala says. A few years ago, a naturalist in Redwood National Park observed the aftermath of a murderous encounter: a barred owl with a tuft of mottled feathers clinging to its talons flapping near a decapitated, partially gnawed spotted owl. When scientists dissected the spotted owl's body, they saw that it had been sliced and perforated, as if by talons.
No one knows precisely why the bigger birds came West. Barred owls originally ranged from Florida to Maine and west to the treeless expanse of the Great Plains. Sometime in the 20th century, the birds skipped west, possibly across Canada. Perhaps they followed settlers who suppressed fire, allowing trees to grow and providing nesting pockets. Some scientists blame the influx of barred owls on climate change; a few suggest it's a natural range expansion. In 1990, barred owls in a forest west of Corvallis, Oregon, occupied less than 2 percent of spotted owl sites; today, barred owls nest in 50 percent of them. Barred owls have yet to saturate Oregon and California, but in a part of Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest set aside for the smaller bird, barred owl nests outnumber spotted owl sites by a third. When barred owls invaded the Olympic Peninsula, spotted owls moved to higher, steeper forests with smaller trees and less food—"like moving from the Sheraton to some dive motel," DellaSala says.
To count owls, which are nocturnal and hard to find, researchers do a lot of hooting; when the birds call back, biologists plunge into the forest toward the sound, usually at a sprint, stopping every so often to call out and listen again, the hoots echoing back and forth through the woods until human and bird wind up face to face. For spotted owls, the sound is vaguely like a cross between a muted rooster call and a French horn: "hoot-hootoot-hoo." For barred owls, the tone is similar but the call is longer and patterned differently: "hoot-hoot-wahoot, hoot-hoot wahoo." For a time, some researchers hoped that spotted owls were just clamming up around barred owls and there were actually more than they thought. But that hope has largely faded. "There's evidence that spotted owls decrease vocalizations in response to barred owls," says Forest Service biologist Stan Sovern. "But honestly, I don't think spotted owls can just be silent somewhere and stay there. Part of their natural history is calling back and forth to one another."
Predictably, perhaps, loggers, timber companies and politicians seized on the barred owls as evidence that logging wasn't to blame for the spotted owl's plight. They have called for a return of chain saws to federal woods, so far without success. But years of efforts by the Bush administration to jump-start logging in the Pacific Northwest remain the subject of courtroom skirmishes between the timber industry, conservation groups and several federal agencies.
Yet far from saying that the logging restrictions were a mistake, owl biologists largely insist that more forests must be spared, especially since heavy logging continues on state and private land. As Wiens and I peered across a timbered ridge, craning to see the barred owl's nest, Anthony said, "If you start cutting habitat for either bird, you just increase competitive pressure."
When barred owls started moving into spotted owl habitat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially proposed killing hundreds of the invaders. After an outcry from scientists and the public, wildlife managers instead plan to launch smaller studies to see if culling barred owls prompts the spotted birds to return. Even proponents of the approach acknowledge that the idea raises a thorny question: When is it appropriate to kill one species to help another?
Scientists and wildlife officials have taken extreme measures when species collide. Government marksmen on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam shoot rubber bullets and explode firecrackers to drive away sea lions fattening up on endangered salmon. Downriver, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been relocating a colony of Caspian terns, which feast on endangered salmon and steelhead. In 2005, government contractors shot Arctic foxes outside Barrow, Alaska, to protect ground-nesting shorebirds. Not long ago, government-sponsored hunters in central Washington killed coyotes that preyed on the world's last remaining pygmy rabbits.
A scientist in California collecting museum specimens recently shot a few barred owls near abandoned spotted owl nests. Two weeks later, a spotted owl returned to the area. "He flew up, sat in the branch and was sitting there, like, ‘Where's my mouse?'" says Kent Livezey, a wildlife biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service and a member of the scientific work group trying to design barred owl control experiments. "He'd been hanging around."
Joe Buchanan, a biologist at Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife, advocates targeted hunts if the evidence indicates that culling barred owls creates havens for spotted owls. But he acknowledges there are limits: "We can't push barred owls back to the Mississippi River."
Forsman supports shooting barred owls only to determine a cause-effect relationship between the two birds. Anything beyond that strikes him as impractical. "You could shoot barred owls until you're blue in the face," he said. "But unless you're willing to do it forever, it's just not going to work."
It would be several weeks before Forsman could tell for certain, to his delight, that the pair of spotted owls near Greasy Creek had again defied the odds and reared two young hatchlings. Yet Forsman isn't sanguine about the spotted owl's chances, particularly in northern areas like the Olympic Peninsula, where the barred owl concentration is high. "Whether barred owls will completely replace spotted owls...it's not clear," he says. "I would say the most optimistic view is that at some point we'll end up with a population that's largely barred owls, with a few scattered pairs of spotted owls."
Yet after nearly four decades of tracking these birds, Forsman won't discount nature's capacity to surprise again. "No one really knows how this will play out in the long run," he says. Some elements of life in these ancient moss-draped forests remain shrouded in mystery.
Craig Welch lives in Seattle and is writing a book about wildlife thieves.
Gary Braasch's most recent book is Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World
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There is a purpose to my little rant on this issue. We have two parts, and although we may align more to one than the other, we still have to nurture both. These are the mystic and the activist in us.
We spend a lot of time talking about our mystic side. But it is equally important to develop our activist. For this, what is required is a special task.
It doesn't matter what the task is, what is important is that we see it not as a task to simply achieve its ostensible objective, but as an opportunity to reveal secrets about ourselves in its undertaking.
This is done by us going beyond our usual parameters, beyond our accustomed identity patterns. The value of a good task, is that it changes us - that is what this whole game is about, change. Not change determined by another person who thinks we should be more this or that. But change that is predicated on the very actions demanded by the task. This type of changes comes as a revelation that we were in fact that all along, just that no situation had allowed it to surface.
A magical task is usually identified by a teacher or guide, but the great teacher in the firmament has cast down the gauntlet. The greatest task of a life time stands before us - the time of judgement for our species. Some will stand, some will run, some will cry, some murder.
Here is a chance to squeeze ourselves into the most contorted emotional and experiential yoga positions imaginable.
For the time being, we must watch and prepare ourselves. Watch carefully the world, and the people around you. What you learn now about this, will determine your success or failure in the near future. Notice the peculiar mental and emotional waves that sweep across, as everyone lays down and feeds the wave with their bellies.
What you are looking for is the unique chance to act, opened like a door with your name on it. Do not assume what it will be - it could be working in a fish shop, or handing out pamphlets for a cause. Just be ready, and know that you carry a special piece of knowledge, that is to be disseminated in ways yet to be seen, different for all.
Don't go to sleep! Armies are marching.
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I believe it was established some time ago that all viewpoints in the overall discussion are worthwhile, so long as we can express them without scorn.
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Now see, per the example - see what can occur when humans get involved? Now some are contemplating killing the barred owl, to save the spotted one, using strategy like killing seals to save a particular 'endangered salmon.'
Species may do what it will, and im not against saving a species but some of this shit is playing god and it backfires, Kill one to save another - hola!
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Now as that uselessness has been addressed, I would like to get back to the 'flowering spotted owl.'
I have no issues with the owls of war. That is their issue. The overall issue is, while im totally for helping to save a creature - which is fine, when does it go too far? Shall we go grab our guns, exercising our amendment right to bear arms, and kill the barred owl, to save the spotted owl? Is this an environmentally good thing to do? I mean, these our owls-on-owls.
What is the issue between the owls really about right now with humans involved? Well, lotsa folks who had private property - their property actually became under siege and they lost their rights to it per the spotted owl and trying to save it. So you can only imagine, folks are pretty peeved their own land, was restricted, and now, the barred owl has come forth, to infiltrate and take over the land, because the spotted owl isnt strong enough to take it on.
But the thing is, as the spotted owl is moving out, would it have done just that, when say, folks began lumbering up their land? Maybe, maybe not. But the main thing is, this got mighty political, and because so much money was dumped into saving a species which may go extinct anyways, now some folks are ready to grab guns and kill off the barred owl cause they're pissed off. Its nuts, its folly - and I do question per what occured back then when the spotted owl began getting attention - and made a national icon - was it ever really threatened to begin with?
So im very careful when it comes to environmentalists declaring a species threatened. And also, if its an inevitable extinction (humans arent the only reason species go extinct mind you - but certainly we are big on it), well regardless, we'll probably have our turn at extinction - the cockroach will probably outlive us ALL on the planet earth - above all species, so who knows?
This issue with the spotted owl reminds me of the old story of DJ when Carlos moved the snail. Carlos interfered with it. When we interfere with extinction of animals, we could actually be causing more harm than good, by playing god.
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Times Online
January 17, 2009
Met Office forecasts a supercomputer embarrassment
Jonathan Leake, Science and Environment Editor
A new £33m machine purchased to calculate how climate change will affect Britain, has a giant carbon footprint of its own
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5536973.ece
For the Met Office the forecast is considerable embarrassment. It has spent £33m on a new supercomputer to calculate how climate change will affect Britain – only to find the new machine has a giant carbon footprint of its own.
“The new supercomputer, which will become operational later this year, will emit 14,400 tonnes of CO2 a year,” said Dave Britton, the Met Office’s chief press officer. This is equivalent to the CO2 emitted by 2,400 homes – generating an average of six tonnes each a year.
The Met Office recently published some of its most drastic predictions for future climate change. It warned: “If no action is taken to curb global warming temperatures are likely to rise by 5.5ºC and could rise as much as 7ºC above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Early and rapid reductions in CO2 emissions are required to avoid significant impacts of climate change.”
However, when it came to buying a new supercomputer, the Met Office decided not to heed its own warnings. The ironic problem was that it needed the extra computing power to improve the accuracy of its own climate predictions as well as its short-term weather forecasting. The machine will also improve its ability to predict extreme events such as fierce localised storms, cloudbursts and so on.
Alan Dickinson, Met Office Director of Science and Technology, said: “We recognise that running such massive computers consumes huge amounts of power and that our actions in weather and climate prediction, like all our actions, have an impact on the environment. We will be taking actions to minimise this impact.”
Dickinson believes, however, that the new computer will actually help Britain cut carbon emissions on a far greater scale than those it emits. He said: “Our next supercomputer will bring an acceleration in action on climate change through climate mitigation and adaptation measures as a consequence of a clearer understanding of risk. Ultimately this will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”
Machines like the Met Office’s new computer are important tools in the battle to slow climate change. They are the only way to assess the potential impact of rising CO2 levels over the coming years and decades.
This is because producing even a short-range weather forecast requires billions of calculations, something that would take weeks to do by hand. Computers enable forecasts to be generated in time to be useful.
Dickinson said: “Our existing supercomputer and its associated hardware produce 10,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, but this is a fraction of the CO2 emissions we save through our work. We estimate that for the European aviation industry alone our forecasts save emissions close to 3m tonnes by improving efficiency.
“Our next supercomputer will bring an acceleration in action on climate change through climate mitigation and adaptation measures as a consequence of a clearer understanding of risk. Ultimately this will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”
When it is finally completed, around 2011 the Met Office machine will be the second most powerful machine in Britain with a total peak performance approaching 1 PetaFlop — equivalent to over 100,000 PCs and over 30 times more powerful than what is in place today.
However, supercomputers and data centres require vast amounts of power – a problem that increasingly confronts the global information technology industry. Last week Google admitted its systems generate 0.2g of CO2 per search, even though each one lasts just 0.2 seconds.
The Met Office in numbers
- performs 125 trillion calculations each second
- £260 million benefit to the UK economy from Met Office forecast
- 74 lives saved a year through our forecasts
- it will make out four-day forecasts as good as our one-day forecasts 30 years ago
- it is the second most powerful supercomputer in the UK
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::)
EDIT>
So as not to offend anyone with the presence of only a smilie, I should add:
I think it's funny that Britiains have spent 33 million pounds on a machine to calculate how climate change will affect Britain.
Also rather ironic is that this super computer to measure climate change will also be contributing to what (some) sicentists say is causing it.
HELLO!!
::)
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So, the new man is installed, and has moved strongly with some interesting actions and words.
But I see the vultures are circling and ready to do him in at the slightest mistake - not a good sign for the nation's sailing this growing crises.
The panic has returned to the Financial markets and the year looks one to bunker down and work hard.
I am so pleased some sanity is gaining prestige in the world - may it sustain and grow!
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So, the new man is installed, and has moved strongly with some interesting actions and words.
But I see the vultures are circling and ready to do him in at the slightest mistake - not a good sign for the nation's sailing this growing crises.
The panic has returned to the Financial markets and the year looks one to bunker down and work hard.
I am so pleased some sanity is gaining prestige in the world - may it sustain and grow!
Aahh, the Great question is how he will be able to handle;
the Intelligence
the Men of money
and the great decline.
I was quite impressed though about how many citizens that attended the ceremony. Millions came that day, something similar has never been seen before.
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Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic 'cooling'
Research 'kills off' climate sceptic argument by showing average temperature across the continent has risen over the last 50 years
* Damian Carrington
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 January 2009 18.00 GMT
* Article history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/21/global-warming-antarctica
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/1/21/1232560639012/West-Antarctic-in-red-has-002.jpg)
West Antarctica, shown in red, has warmed far more than the east over the last 50 years Photograph: EJ Steig/Nasa
Scientists have solved the enigma of the Antarctic apparently getting cooler, while the rest of the world heats up.
New research shows that while some parts of the frozen continent have been getting slightly colder over the last few decades, the average temperature across the continent has been rising for at least the last 50 years.
In the remote and inaccessible West Antarctic region the new research, based on ground measurements and satellite data, show that the region has warmed rapidly, by 0.17C each decade since 1957. "We had no idea what was happening there," said Professor Eric Steig, at the University of Washington, Seattle, and who led the research published in Nature.
This outweighs the cooling seen in East Antarctica, so that, overall, the continent has warmed by 0.12C each decade over the same period. This matches the warming of the southern hemisphere as a whole and removes the apparent contradiction.
The issue, which had been highlighted by global warming sceptics, was an annoyance, said Steig, despite the science having been reasonably well understood. "But it has now been killed off," he said.
Gareth Marshall, climatologist at British Antarctic Survey, commented: "This work allows us to look at the continent as a whole, which we have not been able to do before with confidence. It fills a big hole in the data in West Antarctica – it is the final piece in the jigsaw."
The rapid warming now revealed in the west concerns some scientists. The new analysis suggests the West Antarctic ice sheet, like that in Greenland, is precariously balanced, said Professor Barry Brook at the University of Adelaide. "Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few metres of sea level rise this century, with disastrous consequences," he said.
It was well known that a small part of Antarctic was warming – the peninsula that protrudes northwards towards South America and is the site of many research stations. But researchers knew that East Antarctica had cooled a little in recent decades and thought that might be the case across the continent's great mountain range in West Antarctica.
Temperature records have been taken on the ground since the first weather stations were built in 1957. But all but two of the 42 are very close to the coast and therefore give no information on the vast interior of the continent. Satellite data, in contrast, can take the temperature of the entire region by measuring the intensity of the infrared radiation reflected from the snow pack and has been available since 1980.
Steig's team found the mathematical relationships between the weather station data and satellite data, tested them, and then used them to go back in time to estimate temperatures across the continent back to 1957. Their statistical model has now been validated by an ice core drilled into the Rutford ice stream in West Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey, from which temperature records can be measured. That independent work also came up with a warming of 0.17C a decade for the region, and stretched the trend back to at least 1930.
The cooling seen in East Antarctica is caused in part by the ozone hole that opens each year in the atmosphere. The ozone hole causes an increase in westerly winds which, by a complex interaction of wind, sea and ice, results in lower temperatures in the east. Emissions of ozone-destroying gases have now almost been eliminated and the hole is expected to recover by mid-century. When that happens, there will be a rapid catch up of temperatures, says Marshall.
The 2007 report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the impact of greenhouse gas emissions could be seen on every continent bar Antarctica. The new work, along with another recent study, now clearly shows that the rising temperature of the continent cannot be explained by natural climate variation alone.
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This research has been challenged by (non-sceptics) experts in the field - heard an interview, the person was an academic expert who pointed out numerous unexplained oddities that this research has no answer to, so he was still not convinced as to its full accuracy, although he welcomed the work being done.
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My friend who worked for years in MIT told me something along the same lines about atmospheric research. There are so many fluctuations and the whole thing is so very statistical and probabilistic that several very extensive independent studies are needed to conclusively prove something.
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We had this winter a temperature jump of nearly 20 degrees Celsius (from -13 to +7) taking place in 6-8 hours. From the last winter, I remember a jump from -17 to +4. It seems that it really isn't about surviving the extremes, but the roller coaster as a whole. I see older people seriously struggling with it.
Heavy weather: What climate change really means for Britain
Wash-out summers, big chills, extreme heatwaves. Each time the weather goes mad, we're given the same reason: climate change. Is that the whole story? Archie Bland investigates
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/heavy-weather-what-climate-change-really-means-for-britain-1515557.html
Monday, 26 January 2009
In 1992, Tom Clarke became an apprentice gardener with the National Trust. He was a bright student, but he didn't want to be stuck in an office job: he wanted to use his hands, and he loved the outdoors. He didn't know exactly what he would be doing at the age of 35, some 17 years later, but it's safe to assume that he might have hoped to have graduated past the intricacies of lawn mowing.
Today, Clarke is the assistant head gardener at the National Trust's Trelissick Garden in Cornwall, but he has to think about mowing the lawn all the time. "In the old days, the mower would get put back in the shed for two or three months a year," he explains. "Around now, it'd be gathering dust. But now we cut grass 12 months of the year, right through the season. It's incredible really." The trend has created significant amounts of additional work for gardeners all over the country, upped repair and labour costs for organisations such as the National Trust, and knackered more than a few industrial lawnmowers. On the surface, the explanation is simple enough: milder winters mean grass that grows all year round. To Clarke, there is one clear culprit: climate change.
That's bad enough. But as we emerge from one of the bitterest cold snaps in recent memory, Tom Clarke and his colleagues are faced with a still knottier problem, and one that's simultaneously utterly concrete and infuriatingly abstract: even though the impact of climate change is so visible, even though the vast majority of world's climate scientists agree that our world is heating up, the local effects are extremely difficult to predict. To phrase the problem a different way, just when we think that we know something about the future of the climate, weather seems to be more baffling than ever.
Says Clarke: "We've had the hottest summer, the wettest summer – every other month seems to be a record breaker in a different direction. There's so much confusion. And it's hard to grasp that climate change doesn't just work in one direction. Last week it was minus seven, and this week it's 12 degrees different from that. Even a lot of quite tender plants can deal with cold weather. But the unpredictability kills them."
That makes it hard for gardeners like those at Trelissick to plan for the future. Today, they are facing a host of problems that can be attributed to global warming. Their beech trees, crucial to the classically English feel of the garden, can't put down secure roots in the soil left too damp by the heavier showers that come with warmer weather; Clarke spent last Monday hacking at two recently fallen trees with a chainsaw. The drainage for the garden's paths, laid to what seemed like worst-case-scenario specifications in the 19th century, is totally inadequate for the downpours that are more and more commonplace today. And the host of pests and plant diseases that thrive in warmer conditions are hardly helping.
But the problem of working out how carbon emissions will affect us in the future arises from the same difficulty that gives Tom Clarke such a headache. The problem is, even though experts can say with a high degree of certainty that significant warming is going to happen – and even predict what an average temperature will do over a 10-year period half a century hence – the numbers don't often mean much for our daily lives. Long-term, global trends aren't much use when you want to know whether your holiday cottage on the south coast needs a sun terrace or triple glazing.
Short-term weather events such as recent freezing winter can always override the subtler, more gradual effects of climate change, modifying them in ways that make it hard to figure out exactly what could be done to mitigate their impact. Even if we could allow for that distortion, climate scientists say, there are too many variables to make precise short-term predictions, to second guess the weather. "There are all these unknown unknowns," says Roger Street, technical director of the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). "We understand the system better than we used to," he says, referring to the global patterns that, together, shape the weather and climate around the world, "but knowing more doesn't necessarily make things easier – it just brings to light more and more complicated things that are going on. We may actually increase the uncertainty." If you've ever wondered why, in an age when meterological websites can give you a five-day forecast tailored to your postcode, weather reports still have the ability to leave you stranded in flip-flops during a downpour, or sweating under jumper and jeans on freakishly hot days, this increased uncertainty may offer some level of explanation.
In spite of that frustrating fact, UKCIP is ploughing ahead with a simulation that ought to be crucial to the people scratching their heads over how best to deal with global warming. Already sufficiently delayed to have had to change its name from UKCIP08 to UKCP09, it's the first such study since 2002, and the information it provides is supposed to help businesses and institutions work out what they need to do. But the scientists running the simulation are so antsy about the uncertainty in their model that they have taken a step back. In the 2002 version, they put a firm numerical value on the effect of climate change in any given year. This time round, they're hedging their bets by offering an estimated percentage chance for each possible result.
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"More and more people are starting to use this information to adapt to the changes that are coming," says Street."We want to give people better information, and that means a better understanding of the uncertainty that lies behind it." The people he's talking about range from bridge builders to the Health and Safety executive – and private businesses. But to those getting their hands dirty, such explanations are not particularly helpful. "Five years ago," says Tom Clarke, taking refuge in a shed from the icy wind outside, "everyone was saying we'd all be growing olives down here. Well, that hasn't happened. All you seem to be able to guarantee is that things will be changeable."
This isn't the whole story, of course. While predictions of local conditions for particular days, months and even years are often unreliable, scientists have become very good at making long-term global projections of how the climate is going to behave. The model they use is remarkably simple. Climatologists take figures drawn from current weather conditions, and feed them into their model to produce a prediction for half an hour's time. Then they reinsert those figures into the model and repeat the process – and so on, until they have a decade's worth of data.
Since the models split the planet into relatively small chunks to work out these results, and since there are a great many half hours to go before the commonly used 2050 yardstick, such sums require enormous computing power. But, with the right equipment and the right figures in the first place, the results are accurate enough to be useful. "There will still be variability," says Street. "We don't predict the weather on 15 July 2051. But what we can do is talk about what the climate's likely to be in July in the 2050s."
In 2007, the Met Office made use of an innovative technique that took into account the short-term impact of oceans on the climate. It bridged the gap between long-range predictions and ordinary weather forecasts to produce a set of numbers that projected the likely climate until 2015. That decadal model warns us to expect a warm period around the world, after a few years in which global temperatures have remained flat. But on the specifics of what might happen in the UK, it wasn't so helpful. Says Mat Collins, a climate scientist at the Met Office's Hadley Centre, which produced the predictions: "There are just more competing effects at a local scale. There are more uncertainties, and the sources of the uncertainty change more."
Then there's that problem of computer capacity. Global models are commonly produced by dividing the surface of the planet into 300km cubes, and working out how each of those cubes will interact with those near it. Even that requires huge processing power – and blocks of that size are far too big to be of any use when trying to distinguish what will happen on the Cornish coast from what will happen in the Midlands.
The UKCIP projections, on the other hand, will subdivide those 300km blocks into 25km cubes, a level of detail twice that of the 2002 study. In theory, this will make it significantly more helpful to the organisations hoping to use it to plan for the future. But we still don't know what it's going to say. And even when we do, the expression of its results as a range of possibilities will simply underline the difficulty of directly connecting the effects of climate change with the weather that we'll see in the next few years. "We have a range of uncertainty," says Kay Jenkinson, communications director at UKCIP, "and the next set of information will make it more apparent what that range is. But real life being what it is, it could be that the real answer lies outside that. And we won't know what it is until we get there."
"On these very short time scales the large variations in weather just dominate the slower signal of climate change," adds Mat Collins. And he warns that whatever the report says, its data will still be hard to use. "People are going to have to use the information in a different way from what they've been expecting. It's more complete, but it won't be any easier to apply."
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This is not to say that there won't be plenty of people trying to use it. Among them will be professor Jean Emberlin, director of the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at the University of Worcester. Just as gardeners have been exasperated by an increasing workload as a result of plants growing for more of the year, Emberlin has noted an increase in problems among hay fever sufferers as summers have lengthened, allowing grass more time to flower.
Meanwhile, the tree pollen season that used to start at the beginning of April now starts at the end of March, prolonging the agony for some at the beginning of the summer. Other allergenic plants spreading to the UK mean the number of sufferers is likely to rise considerably. "It's the opposite of a vaccination," Emberlin says. "People become sensitised to it. You're exposed to increasing amounts and so you become more allergic."
Emberlin predicts an increase in the proportion of the population suffering the hay fever from a little over 20 per cent today to nearer double that within a couple of decades, and says that we need more allergists to grapple with the problem. Unfortunately, the climate data to support the case isn't entirely there. "There are all sorts of ways we could unravel long-term variations from short-term trends," she says. "But the accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the climate change predictions."
Scientists and gardeners such as Emberlin and Tom Clarke are not the only people who would like to be able to predict the future a little more accurately. Climate change will be of huge significance to property developers, and not just when they install a miniature wind farm in a millionaire's roof garden. In the long term, a hotter country will need a different sort of housing stock; in the short term, warmer weather and higher wind speeds mean that houses will need to be built with a correspondingly greater degree of flexibility.
The same is true of bridges and roads. It's nothing to worry about, says professor Steve Denton, who chairs the committee responsible for European bridge standards and advised the Highways Agency on its climate change adaptation strategy, however, "current designs in the UK use data based on historic records. And so at the moment when we design structures we don't take account for future changes in climate," or what they might mean for bridges' structural integrity. What's more, he adds, while climatologists can make estimates of temperature that are sufficient for the purposes of bridge building, they are less able to make useful estimates of changes in wind speed.
Still, although "There's no room to be complacent, there's no need to panic," Denton says cheerfully. "And this data is very powerful for decision-makers compared with what we've had in the past."
Road builders will have to factor in the changing climate when considering what kinds of concrete to use on a motorway. The road builder Tarmac is already working with UKCIP to try to figure out what the future effects will be on the surfaces it produces. And according to Tarmac director of technology Colin Loveday, the problem for the company's engineers is not so much heat as rain, which, by falling in much heavier downpours, can worm its way into cracks in the bitumen that might have remained undisturbed.
That effect will require a not-inconsiderable additional 5 per cent expenditure on new roads – and will also make old roads less stable. "There have been a number of failures on reasonably recently constructed motorways and trunk roads because the drainage isn't good enough," says Loveday. "We've changed the Highways Agency guidance, and we're sending a message out to all [those responsible for] construction standards to tell them that they need to be future-proofed." Unfortunately, the information that is needed to judge that future-proofing is not complete. According to Loveday, "The point [for UKCIP] is that if they gave a single value, they'd be liable. What they've done is to produce a range – so that you're responsible for your own risk assessment."
For something as important as the safety of a road surface, of course, manufacturers are loathe to tolerate any risk, for fear of accidents and litigation. The Health and Safety Executive is a similarly zealous organisation, and says that it will take note of the new report's conclusions when they emerge, to see what impact they may have on workplace accidents – but the organisation's Futures team, which has a specific remit to figure out what new risks might come into play in the years ahead, doesn't see the report as a useful contribution to its work. "We search for clues as to what's going to be a problem all over the place," says Peter Elwood, a member of the unit. "But the effects of climate change aren't clear in the timeframe we study. In Futures," he adds cryptically, "The one thing we don't try to do is predict the future."
Still, if figuring out whether we might all be drowned at our desks half a century hence is beyond the HSE's purview, Elwood is willing to hazard a guess at some near-term problems. "Outdoor workers are going to have a greater potential for skin cancer if they're in the sun," he says. "Employers will have to make sure that they're well covered up, and they aren't out in the heat for too long."
If you work indoors, meanwhile, you needn't think you've escaped the risks to your welfare. Whereas once the concern was making sure that offices were warm enough in the cold weather, the greater problem, Elwood says, will be keeping them cool when it's hot – without wasting too much precious energy on air conditioning units. It's just another expense for the ethical employer, but employees hoping for the occasional extra day off will be disappointed: the right to leave the workplace should the temperature exceed a certain level is nothing but an urban myth, unless you find yourself in "serious, imminent and unavoidable danger". (No, your neighbour taking his shoes off at the desk doesn't count.)
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The programme for the next few years seems clear in only one regard: the news isn't great, and the changes that we're set to encounter will reach into every area of our lives. But if the prospect of a sweltering Britain seems like a grim – if distant – one, take heart. It's not all bad. Even if we were to ignore the many things we can still do to mitigate the risks of climate change, and accept our fate, there will always be silver linings. Mike Roberts, for one, has reasons to be grateful for the coming heat: he's a winemaker, and his business looks set to grow considerably, as the British gloom that we're all so used to gives way to something closer resembling a European climate.
"We planted in 1994," Roberts says, "and we have noticed the change since then. It certainly makes grape-growing easier." The only blot on his landscape at the RidgeView Wine Estate on the Sussex Downs is a phalanx of French competitors, heading from Champagne to the south of England with their eye on the future. One small producer, Didier Pierson, has already moved across the English Channel to Hampshire, where he has started to produce sparkling wine; other champagne houses are sniffing around plots of land that cost a fraction of their equivalents back in France. But none of them has taken the plunge: the way the weather is going to change isn't yet clear enough to justify the risk.
Roberts is sure they will move in the end. "They're walking the downs now, but they'll jump in eventually," he says. "The climate there is making the drink more acidic, and that's making it harder to produce the attributes we're used to in champagne. All we need to add to our wines to compete is a bit of history."
His confidence in such uncertain times is refreshing. But not all of his colleagues working in British booze production are so optimistic. Champagne's gain is cider's loss, and apple farmers in the South-west are worried that even as stickier summers make pub-goers long for a more refreshing drink, the conditions they need will be lost.
Melvin Dickinson of Westons Cider in Herefordshire, who worked on an industry report that raised worrying questions about the future for the drink, strikes a familiar note: the great problem is not knowing exactly what will happen. "We'll get hailstorms at times when you're not expecting them, or high winds when you're not expecting them, and that can have a devastating impact on the crop," he says. "We don't know exactly how it will work, but there's no magical answer."
Pomologist, orchard keeper and fellow report author Liz Copaz adds that the great problem is the irregularity of the coming winter seasons, which won't give the trees the chance to "sleep" between fruiting periods. Says Copaz: "The worst thing probably is the unpredictability of it all – not knowing if you're going to get the sort of seasons that your trees like. If you upset the annual cycle of things what we might be getting into is a period of cropping coming every other year. We haven't seen that in modern orchards before."
By 2050, perhaps none of this will seem terribly important. Perhaps we'll all be wearing wellingtons to work and sunscreen on Christmas Day; and the only question we'll be asking about drinks is whether there's a source of clean water anywhere near our improvised huts.
But in the meantime, before that hopefully avoidable apocalypse strikes, the picture is a peculiar and hazy one. We'll be blowing our noses and reaching for the Clarityn in March and October; we'll be visiting National Trust properties that have begun to resemble colonial outposts somewhere at the furthest extremes of the British Empire; we'll be driving across wobbly bridges and crossing fingers for a day off from our dangerously hot workplaces, the better to go home and enjoy a glass of local champagne in our tropically lush back garden. At least, we might be. We still can't say for sure.
Weather Facts
38.5C on 10 August 2003, the mercury hit the highest level ever recorded in the UK, at Faversham in Kent
-26.1C the coldest temperature ever recorded in England, on 10 January 1982, in Newport, Shropshire
Winter arrived early in 1885; snow fell in London on 25 September that year
279mm of rain fell on Britain's wettest day, at Martinstown, Dorset, on 18 July 1955
173mph gusts of wind whipped past the Cairngorm Automatic Weather Station in the Scottish Highlands on 20 March 1986, the strongest on record
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We had this winter a temperature jump of nearly 20 degrees Celsius (from -13 to +7) taking place in 6-8 hours. From the last winter, I remember a jump from -17 to +4. It seems that it really isn't about surviving the extremes, but the roller coaster as a whole. I see older people seriously struggling with it.
We've been dealing with the same thing here.
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We've been dealing with the same thing here.
It sounds like a sort of (natural) selection mechanism has been turned on. I have seen quite a few middle-aged people being in distress because of it. I wonder if the term 'fittest' (who are expected to survive) will increasingly mean 'fluid' or 'adapting'.
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We've been dealing with the same thing here.
Here, too.
One day last week we had such a cold of 47 below C and then a couple days later 2 above.
It's been like this all Season. Yesterday for eg we had a cold cold day, had been going on four three days in a row temps of 30 below. Then suddenly yesterday afternoon, temps soared to relatively warm minus 9 C.
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It sounds like a sort of (natural) selection mechanism has been turned on. I have seen quite a few middle-aged people being in distress because of it. I wonder if the term 'fittest' (who are expected to survive) will increasingly mean 'fluid' or 'adapting'.
fluid or adapting.. yes I think so.
The weather here is holding the hand of poor economy as well... households are going thru their heat supplies much quicker with less finance to make up for it. Makes for an interesting collective.
Stress seems to be escalating shadows.. love being the only flashlight in the dark.
Cleansing in a manner- I dare not say.
Forecast says.. 20 inches of snow today!
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Stress seems to be escalating shadows.. love being the only flashlight in the dark.
Galactic midnight is yet a few years away. I wonder if it will be love or some extreme adaptation that will carry the day. World has so many means to strip humans of all their illusions and mental stuff in almost no time.
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Galactic midnight is yet a few years away. I wonder if it will be love or some extreme adaptation that will carry the day. World has so many means to strip humans of all their illusions and mental stuff in almost no time.
lol I see love as an extreme adaptation :P
World has so many means to strip humans of all their illusions and mental stuff in almost no time.
Yep
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lol I see love as an extreme adaptation :P
That's a tricky one in several respects as experience has shown. :)
Mostly love is seen as a powerful emotion.
Unconditional love is a thing in its own right - some have equated it with the Eagle's Command or Intent - and thus living in it and in full alignment with it means by no means the same things as in the case of emotion. Could be rather on the contrary - utter solitude and acts that are perceived as negative by others.
The unconditional love is probably the most extensive adaptation for a human being that is tough to accomplish under any circumstances.
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;)
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;)
(http://www.wiradjuri-dreaming.com.au/DM-Pictures/DM-P000003.jpg)
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Climate change 'irreversible', warn scientists
Climate change is irreversible and projects to prevent temperature rises will have no impact for at least thousand years, scientists have warned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4358167/Climate-change-irreversible-warn-scientists.html
Last Updated: 12:39PM GMT 27 Jan 2009
Contrary to popular opinion, halting carbon emissions will not see temperatures reduce before the year 3000, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory.
Nevertheless, Susan Solomon, who led the research, said cutting emissions remained important.
She added: "People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years - that's not true."
Ms Solomon is lead author of an international team's paper reporting irreversible damage from climate change, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
She defines irreversible as change that would remain for 1,000 years even if humans stopped adding carbon to the atmosphere immediately.
Ms Solomon said: "Climate change is slow, but it is unstoppable - all the more reason to act quickly, so the long-term situation does not get even worse."
In recent years Britain has seen regular instances of flash flooding.
The latest findings were announced as US President Barack Obama ordered reviews that could lead to greater fuel efficiency and cleaner air, saying the Earth's future depends on cutting air pollution.
Alan Robock, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, agreed with the research, adding: "It's not like air pollution where if we turn off a smokestack, in a few days the air is clear.
"It means we have to try even harder to reduce emissions."
In her paper Ms Solomon, a leader of the International Panel on Climate Change and one of the world's best known researchers on the subject, noted that temperatures around the globe have risen and changes in rainfall patterns have been observed in areas around the Mediterranean, southern Africa and south-western North America.
Warmer climate also is causing expansion of the ocean, which is expected to increase with the melting of ice on Greenland and Antarctica, she said.
"I don't think that the very long time scale of the persistence of these effects has been understood," Ms Solomon added.
Global warming has been slowed by the ocean, but that good effect will wane over time with seas eventually helping keep the planet warmer, she said.
Climate change has been driven by gases in the atmosphere that trap heat from solar radiation and raise the planet's temperature.
Carbon dioxide is the most important of those gases because it remains in the air for hundreds of years.
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BELLAMY/DUCHAMP: World is getting colder
It's the sun, not CO2, that's to blame
David J. Bellamy and Mark Duchamp
Friday, January 30, 2009
After the wet and cold centuries of the Little Ice Age (around 1550-1850 A.D.), the world's climate recuperated some warmth, but did not replicate the balmy period known as the Middle Age Warm Period (around 800-1300 A.D.), when the margins of Greenland were green and England had vineyards.
Climate began to cool again after World War II, for about 30 years. This is undisputed. The cooling occurred at a time when emissions of C02 were rising sharply from the reconstruction effort and from unprecedented development. It is important to realize that.
By 1978 it had started to warm again, to everybody's relief. But two decades later, after the temperature peaked in 1998 under the influence of El Nino, climate stopped warming for eight years; and in 2007 entered a cooling phase marked by lower solar radiation and a reversal of the cycles of warm ocean temperature in the Atlantic and the Pacific. And here again, it is important to note that this new cooling period is occurring concurrently with an acceleration in CO2 emissions, caused by the emergence of two industrial giants: China and India.
To anyone analyzing this data with common sense, it is obvious that factors other than CO2 emissions are ruling the climate. And the same applies to other periods of the planet's history. Al Gore, in his famous movie "The Inconvenient Truth," had simply omitted to say that for the past 420,000 years that he cited as an example, rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere always followed increases in global temperature by at least 800 years. It means that CO2 can't possibly be the cause of the warming cycles.
So, if it's not CO2, what is it that makes the world's temperature periodically rise and fall? The obvious answer is the sun, and sea currents in a subsidiary manner.
The tilt of Earth, the shape of Earth's orbit (distance to the sun), and Earth's "wobble" as it turns around the sun are all important factors in the cyclical recurrence of ice ages and interglacial periods. It has been observed that ice ages last about 100,000 years, and warm interglacials only 12,000. And within these warm periods, variations in solar activity cause shorter periods of less-pronounced warming and cooling.
There is no way to know for sure if the present cooling period will last several decades or 100,000 years. Russian scientists have just warned that a fully-blown ice age is not to be ruled out, as about 12,000 years have elapsed since the end of the last one.
Entering a new ice age would be a disaster for humanity: billions of people could die from lack of food, from the cold, and from the collapse of the world economy, social strife, war, etc.
And if what's ahead of us is only a little ice age, the consequences would still be pretty dire. World food reserves are already low, and we can barely feed the current population of the planet. Surfaces of arable land used for bio-fuels and biomass are increasing. Cool and wet summers would cause crop failures as they did in the Little Ice Age (as a result, starving Parisians had taken to the streets, soon sending their king to the guillotine). Winter frost would also bring its share of misery, destroying fruits and vegetables on a large scale.
Let's just hope we'll only have a few years of cooling, and that another warming period will follow. But it may be wishful thinking. In any case, there will be hardship during the cold cycle, whatever its length.
As President Obama takes office, and as the European Union is about to waste one trillion euros to de-carbonize the economy (in a bid to stop nonexistent man-made global warming) they would be well-advised to perform a reality check on what's currently happening to the climate. Talking to independent scientists about the positive properties of CO2 (plant food that enhances crops) would also be a good idea.
If they don't, we may be in for mass starvation. And let's not forget that the world population is increasing by about 78 million every year.
David J. Bellamy is a professor at three British universities and an officer in several conservation organizations. Mark Duchamp, a retired businessman, has investigated global- warming theory and written more than 100 articles.
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David J. Bellamy?
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Parched: Australia faces collapse as climate change kicks in
Geoffrey Lean and Kathy Marks report on the worst heatwave in the country's history
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/parched-australia-faces-collapse-as-climate-change-kicks-in-1522529.html
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Leaves are falling off trees in the height of summer, railway tracks are buckling, and people are retiring to their beds with deep-frozen hot-water bottles, as much of Australia swelters in its worst-ever heatwave.
On Friday, Melbourne thermometers topped 43C (109.4F) on a third successive day for the first time on record, while even normally mild Tasmania suffered its second-hottest day in a row, as temperatures reached 42.2C. Two days before, Adelaide hit a staggering 45.6C. After a weekend respite, more records are expected to be broken this week.
Ministers are blaming the heat – which follows a record drought – on global warming. Experts worry that Australia, which emits more carbon dioxide per head than any nation on earth, may also be the first to implode under the impact of climate change.
At times last week it seemed as if that was happening already. Chaos ruled in Melbourne on Friday after an electricity substation exploded, shutting down the city's entire train service, trapping people in lifts, and blocking roads as traffic lights failed. Half a million homes and businesses were blacked out, and patients were turned away from hospitals.
More than 20 people have died from the heat, mainly in Adelaide. Trees in Melbourne's parks are dropping leaves to survive, and residents at one of the city's nursing homes have started putting their clothes in the freezer.
"All of this is consistent with climate change, and with what scientists told us would happen," said climate change minister Penny Wong.
Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country's blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.
Many factors put Australia especially at risk. Its climate is already hot, dry and variable. Its vulnerable agriculture plays an unusually important part in the economy. And most people and industry are concentrated on the coast, making it vulnerable to the rising seas and ferocious storms that come with a warmer world.
Most of the south of the country is gripped by unprecedented 12-year drought. The Australian Alps have had their driest three years ever, and the water from the vast Murray-Darling river system now fails to reach the sea 40 per cent of the time. Harvests have fallen sharply.
It will get worse as global warming increases. Even modest temperature rises, now seen as unavoidable, are expected to increase drought by 70 per cent in New South Wales, cut Melbourne's water supplies by more than a third, and dry up the Murray-Darling system by another 25 per cent.
As Professor David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said last week: "The heat is unusual, but it will become much more like the normal experience in 10 to 20 years."
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David J. Bellamy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bellamy
Mark Duchamp:
http://www.iberica2000.org/Es/Articulo.asp?Id=1228
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bellamy
Mark Duchamp:
http://www.iberica2000.org/Es/Articulo.asp?Id=1228
And?
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(AFP) – Snow storms brought travel chaos to western Europe on Monday closing London-Heathrow airport after one jet slid off a taxiway and at least five people were killed in storm incidents.
Two climbers died on Mount Snowdown in Wales and three people were killed in accidents and from the cold in Italy.
London lay under 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow, the most recorded in the British capital in 18 years. The storms also hit France and Spain, closing roads and rail tracks, and spread as far south as Morocco.
A Cyprus Airways plane with 104 passengers came off the icy taxiway at Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport.
"The plane had safely landed and was making its way to the stand and the front wheel went on to the grass area," a spokeswoman for airport operator BAA said. No injuries were reported.
Both runways were closed, however, and Heathrow halted all flights until at least 5:00 pm (1700 GMT).
British Airways called off all short-haul flights for Monday. A number of other British airports were closed or had cancellations and severe delays.
Eurostar advised passengers against travelling between London and Paris on high-speed trains because of snow delays.
British regional trains were badly hit and London underground and bus services came to a near standstill.
Thousands of schools closed around the country and an army of snow ploughs and gritters worked to clear roads.
The British Highways Agency advised against all but essential travel but there was still a 54 mile (87 kilometre) tailback on the M25 orbital road north of London, reports said.
"It's absolute madness going in to work, but at least I can say I tried," said Bree McWilliam, an Australian policy analyst who experienced her first ever snowfall as she struggled into work.
Three people were killed by the cold and torrential rainstorms in Italy. One man died from the cold in the northern town of Lecco, another was killed in Sicily when his car was swept away by a river.
About 500 people were evacuated from their homes in Cosenza in the southern region of Calabria, while snow also forced the cancellation of about 20 flights from Rome and Milan.
Air France cancelled about 30 flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport and other flights were delayed. One runway was closed at Paris-Orly causing big delays.
Some French high-speed trains were cancelled and those that did run were ordered to slow. France's roads agency also urged motorists to cancel non-essential journeys, with some roads impassable around Paris and in the east around Strasbourg where dozens of accidents were reported.
Up to 20 centimetres of snow also fell in parts of Switzerland while part of the road around the San Bernardino tunnel was closed.
In Belgium, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) of traffic jams were reported during the morning rush hour around Brussels and other main cities.
Snowfalls snarled traffic in several parts of Spain including the Madrid area where two highways were temporarily closed, the National Travel Administration Department (DGT) reported.
A storm packing winds of more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour injured about a dozen people in southern Spain, emergency services said.
Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises from flying debris as the storm knocked down tree branches and advertising billboards and tore off parts of roofs, a spokeswoman said.
In the Mediterranean port of Malaga, winds ripped off part of the roof from the city's main bus station. Four people were injured, including one in a serious condition.
At Estepona, near Marbella, the storm knocked down a circus tent during a performance Sunday night, slightly injuring five members of the public.
In Ireland, snow caused hazardous driving conditions and flights to Britain were disrupted. Ireland's Meteorological Office warned of "heavy snowfall" expected later Monday.
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I think this article is a good overview of the
way in which the establishment or anyone
with a political or economic agenda can use a
campaign of questionable scenarios and information
(there have been many in the last decade) to shape the
perception of the masses in such a way that they
may be more effectively brought into line with the
vision that the big movers and shakers have for humanity.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton/goreerrors.html
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Curious topic:
“Red Herring” - Al Gore, The Climate Sceptics And The BBC (http://www.ukwatch.net/article/red_herring_al_gore_the_climate_sceptics_and_the_bbc)
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plot thickens:
Climate Change Myths (http://www.anythingbutconservative.com/climate-change-myths.html)
Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html)
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It's amazing how strong a grip economy has on world!
Poor Brazilians rejoice as loggers return to pillage the rainforest
Twelve months ago, troops and police drove illegal loggers out of the Amazon in an effort to halt deforestation. A year later, the sawmills are starting to reopen - and unemployed locals couldn't be happier. Tom Phillips reports from Tailândia
* Tom Phillips
* The Observer, Sunday 15 February 2009
* Article history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/amazon-deforestation-brazil
Deep in the heart of the Amazon, the loggers are back. Last week, as darkness and a blizzard of insects descended on the remote town of Tailândia, hundreds of evangelicals crowded into a Pentecostal church on its main thoroughfare. Outside, battered Mercedes lorries rattled through the shadows, packed with thick tree trunks and kicking red dust up into the evening air. Inside, the congregation took to its feet and gave thanks for the return of a modest prosperity.
Exactly one year ago, in February 2008, Tailândia became the first Amazonian town to be targeted as part of Operation Arc of Fire - an unprecedented government clampdown on illegal logging launched after satellite images indicated an alarming rise in deforestation. Troops swept into this notorious logging outpost, closing down the sawmills and facing down the local people.
Hundreds of heavily armed police agents took to the streets alongside environmental agents who fined sawmill owners. The idea, officials said, was to "send a message" to illegal loggers: the illicit destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest would no longer be tolerated.
Twelve months on, the clampdown is a distant memory. "The city is growing, the commerce is growing," said Wilson Pereira, the Pentecostal pastor. "The sawmills have started up again [and] the people have gone back to work."
The consequences of the logging are well known. Environmentalists estimate that nearly 20% of the Brazilian Amazon has been destroyed. Deforestation accounts for almost 20% of the world's annual carbon emissions and activists say that Brazil is responsible for about 40% of that.
But when an industry supplies a region's economic lifeblood, shutting it down is not so simple. Last year's crackdown triggered chaos in the dusty frontier town of almost 65,000 residents where officials claim that between 70% and 95% of local residents are dependent on logging income.
More than 2,000 protesters took to Tailândia's streets, blocking its main avenue with burning tyres and tree trunks. Environmental agents fled, returning only when heavily armed police had quelled the rioters with a hail of rubber bullets and tear gas. "Not even in the slums of Rio and São Paulo do they have operations that size," Edson Azevedo, the town's deputy mayor, complained. "Not even the narco-traffickers have faced what happened here in Tailândia."
In a town that claims Brazil's fifth highest murder rate, the prospect of active social strife was real.
Many locals are still bitter. "There is nothing here for me, nothing," said Fernando da Conceição, 57, a former sawmill worker from north-eastern Brazil, who has been reduced to begging in the town's bars and restaurants since losing his job following Operation Arc of Fire.
But a year on things are slowly returning to normal. The Federal Police and the National Security Force have gone and the loggers are gradually starting up again, breathing at least some of the old life back into the area's economy.
Azevedo claimed that many loggers had headed to other, more remote parts of the Amazon. But, off the record, locals say most of them are simply reopening their operations in Tailândia.
The signs that illegal logging has returned are everywhere. Tractors can be seen dragging newly felled trees around sawmills, and when night falls the growl of lorry engines fills the air, as lumber and loads of charcoal are transported through town on their way to mills or river barges farther north.
After last February's raid many hoteliers feared they would go bust but several are now expanding. And at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God the pews are filled with relieved worshippers. "There was this crisis," said pastor Pereira, who witnessed the social problems caused by the government raid at first hand on his evangelical visits to poverty-stricken members of his congregation. "But after that ... some [of the sawmills] have opened up again and the people have been able to go back to work."
Government officials concede that many illegal charcoal factories and some sawmills have reopened. Walmir Ortega, environment secretary in the Amazonian state of Pará where Tailândia is located, said there had been "a considerable improvement" in the region but admitted "many of the aspects that we confronted last year are still there".
"We are a long way from reaching a final solution [to rainforest destruction]," said Ortega, whose house was put under police protection after the raid in Tailândia. "We are talking about a state that you could fit several United Kingdoms inside. It is a gigantic territory, with huge access problems. There are regions that are 1,000, 1,500km away from [state capital] Belém."
In an interview with the Observer last week, Brazil's environment minister, Carlos Minc, insisted operations such as Arc of Fire were bearing fruit. In the eight months since he took office, Minc said, deforestation had fallen by 40% as a result of constant operations and other government measures intended to encourage "sustainable" forestry projects. But Minc, who has accompanied 14 anti-deforestation operations, admitted that police operations alone would not solve the problem. "We need more people, more operations and more economic alternatives," he said. "I need at least another 1,000 federal police agents in the Amazon, at least another 1,500 environmental inspectors."
There are only 107 environmental agents in Pará, Brazil's second largest state, which covers more than 1.2m square kilometres. "I have 300 environmental agents to take care of the Amazon. The Amazon is the size of Europe. This really is ridiculous," Minc said.
According to Minc, the Brazilian government is studying a number of new measures aimed at reducing deforestation by 70% by 2017. There is talk of a new "war council" charged with dealing with deforestation. The council, which will involve monthly meetings between ministers and the head of the Federal Police, will be officially created by the president, Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva, in the coming weeks, Minc said. However, he also said he was disturbed by rumours that his ministry's budget could be cut by 75%, partly as a result of the global financial slump.
On the streets of Tailândia, environmental objectives come a poor second to the desire to earn a decent living. "I went to the sawmill I used to work at today and he [the boss] said there was no work. [The environmental agency] Ibama closed him down," said Conceição, the former sawmill worker.
The only reason he would not leave Tailândia for good was because his former boss was, like others in the region, planning to reopen in coming weeks now that the government forces are fighting deforestation elsewhere. "He said I should come back in one month."
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Lost Generation
http://www.youtube.com/v/42E2fAWM6rA&hl=en&fs=1
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(http://buriedshiva.com.au/assets/positiveglobalwarm.jpg)
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Lost Generation
neat -
I think this is called optimism that springs from pessimism,
because there is no where else to go.
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Pankaj Mishra is Julie's favourite author.
I just read this from him in the Guardian - I have often pondered on the failure of Democracy, so it is interesting to hear these thoughts from Pankaj Mishra. To often we blame the leaders, forgetting they have a huge groundswell of support from the people.
Behind the violence in Gujarat, Gaza and Iraq is the banality of democracy
The moral deviancy of our elite no longer shocks. What is dispiriting is its tacit endorsement by electoral majorities.
o Pankaj Mishra
o The Guardian, Wednesday 11 February 2009
In his memoir, Secrets, Daniel Ellsberg describes how he decided to risk years in prison by leaking the Pentagon Papers, the top-secret record of American decision-making on Vietnam, to the New York Times. Hoping that his wife, Patricia, would help him make up his mind, Ellsberg showed her a few memos on bombing strategies crafted by his former superiors at the Pentagon. She was horrified by some of the phrases in the documents: "a need to reach the threshold of pain"; "salami-slice bombing campaign"; "the objective of persuading the enemy"; "ratchet"; "one more turn of the screw". "This is the language of torturers," she told Ellsberg. "These have to be exposed."
I recalled this scene while reading about Israel's objectives in its assault on Gaza, as defined by the country's political and military leaders and its western supporters. Speaking to a delegation from the Israeli lobby Aipac, President Shimon Peres confirmed that "Israel's aim was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel". Writing in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman, who had previously explained that the US invasion of Iraq was meant to say "suck on this" to the Muslim world, agreed that "the only long-term source of deterrence is to exact enough pain on the civilians".
Perhaps it is no longer shocking that elected leaders and mainstream journalists in democracies seem to borrow their tone and vocabulary from Ayman al-Zawahiri and Hassan Nasrallah - after all, the war on terror, now officially declared a "mistake", unhinged some of our best writers and thinkers. What is more bewildering and dispiriting than the moral deviancy of our political elites is its tacit endorsement by large democratic majorities.
Democracy, loudly upheld as a cure for much of the ailing world, has proved no guarantor of political wisdom, even if it remains the least bad form of government. In 2006 the Palestinians voted for Hamas, whose doctrinal commitment to the destruction of Israel makes peace in the Middle East even less likely. Given the chance, majorities in many Muslim countries would elect similarly intransigent Islamist parties to high office.
But majority opinion in older and presumably more mature democracies often doesn't seem much more sensible: the violence approved by it makes much of the devastation caused by terrorists and dictators seem minor by comparison. Initially, at least, Americans overwhelmingly supported George Bush's catastrophic forays in the Middle East. Operation Cast Lead was blessed by a remarkably high proportion of Israelis, who since 1977 have freely elected a series of leaders - Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon - tainted by involvement in terrorist groups and war crimes, and appear ready to extend their imprimatur to the obstreperously racist Avigdor Lieberman.
When last week in Ha'aretz the Israeli historian Tom Segev judged Israeli "apathy" towards the massacre in Gaza as "chilling and shameful", he brought on deja vu among Indians. In 2002 the Hindu nationalist government of Gujarat supervised the killing of more than two thousand Muslims. The state's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who green-lighted the mass murder, seemed a monstrous figure to many Indians; they then watched aghast as the citizens of Gujarat - better-educated and more prosperous than most Indians - re-elected Modi by a landslide after the pogrom. In 2007, a few months after the magazine Tehelka taped Hindu nationalists in Gujarat boasting how they raped and dismembered Muslims, Modi again won elections with contemptuous ease. Though prohibited from entering the US, Modi is now courted by corporate groups, including Tata, and frequently hailed as India's next prime minister.
As the Israeli right looks likely to be the latest electoral beneficiary of state terror, it is time to ask: can the institutions of electoral democracy, liberal capitalism and the nation-state be relied upon to do our moral thinking for us? "Trust in the majority," they seem to say, but more often than not the majority proves itself incapable of even common sense.
It is true that thoughtlessness and apathy rather than malicious intent on the part of majorities helps their representatives to perpetrate or cover up such atrocities as Gujarat, the blockade of Gaza, or the occupation of Kashmir - forms of violence less obvious or written about than 9/11, Saddam Hussein's regime, and the recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai. But this doesn't make thoughtlessness and apathy less destructive in actuality than the malevolence of despots and terrorists.
Hannah Arendt's phrase "banality of evil" refers precisely to how a generalised moral numbness among educated, even cultured, people makes them commit or passively condone acts of extreme violence. Arendt marvelled at "the phenomenon of evil deeds, committed on a gigantic scale, which could not be traced to any particularity of wickedness, pathology or ideological conviction in the doer, whose only personal distinction was a perhaps extraordinary shallowness".
Shallowness and ignorance have been our lot in the mass consumer societies we inhabit, where we were too distracted to act politically, apart from periodically deputing political elites to take life-and-death decisions on our behalf. We were shielded from many of the deleterious consequences, which worked themselves out on obscure people in remote lands. The free world's economic implosion is bringing home the intolerable cost of this collective deference to apparently efficient elites and anonymous, overcomplex institutions.
It is too easy to blame Bush, who told Americans to go spend and consume while he ratcheted up pain levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the grotesquely overrated technocrats running banks and businesses. As the New York Times columnist Frank Rich reminded Americans last week: "We spent a decade feasting on easy money, don't-pay-as-you-go consumerism and a metastasizing celebrity culture. We did so while a supposedly cost-free, off-the-books war, usually out of sight and out of mind, helped break the bank along with our nation's spirit and reputation."
The prosperity many democracies enjoyed lulled citizens into political torpor. The prospect of economic collapse has persuaded a majority of Americans to exercise more individual judgment than they showed while re-electing Bush in 2004. But collective failures of the kind Barack Obama spoke of in his stern inaugural speech will continue to occur among citizens of other democracies - and they will have no Obama to exhort them to personal responsibility.
In any case, economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-examination or renew the appeal of truly participatory democracy. They are more likely to make authoritarianism attractive, as European democracies in the 1930s and Russia in recent times demonstrated. Many Indians and Israelis seem set to elect, with untroubled consciences, those who speak the language of torturers and terrorists. More disturbingly, these corrupted democracies may increasingly prove the norm rather than the exception.
• Pankaj Mishra is author of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet
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Electoral majorities and their choices...
It is one of the main arguments of Al-Qaeda ideologists for propagating indiscriminate use of violence. They say that in democracies the actions of governments express the wishes of voters. Thus voters are inseparable part any aggression undertaken by the government. Thus - everybody in a democratic society is a combatant and, thereby, a legitimate target.
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So...to ask Chinese to cut their emissions would mean less consumer goods for the West?
West blamed for rapid increase in China's CO2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/23/china-co2-emissions-climate
• Consumer exports behind 15% of emissions - study
• Campaigners suggest new criteria for climate deal
* Duncan Clark
* The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009
* Article history
The full extent of the west's responsibility for Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases has been revealed by a new study. The report shows that half of the recent rise in China's carbon dioxide pollution is caused by the manufacturing of goods for other countries - particularly developed nations such as the UK.
Last year, China officially overtook the US as the world's biggest CO2 emitter. But the new research shows that about a third of all Chinese carbon emissions are the result of producing goods for export.
The research, due to be published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, underlines "offshored emissions" as a key unresolved issue in the run up to this year's crucial Copenhagen summit, at which world leaders will attempt to thrash out a deal to replace the Kyoto protocol.
Developing countries are under pressure to commit to binding emissions cuts in Copenhagen. But China is resistant, partly because it does not accept responsibility for the emissions involved in producing goods for foreign markets.
Under Kyoto, emissions are allocated to the country where they are produced. By these rules, the UK can claim to have reduced emissions by about 18% since 1990 - more than sufficient to meet its Kyoto target.
But research published last year by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) suggests that, once imports, exports and international transport are accounted for, the real change for the UK has been a rise in emissions of more than 20%.
China, as the world's biggest export manufacturer, is key to explaining this kind of discrepancy. According to Glen Peters, one of the authors of the new report at Oslo's Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research, about 9% of total Chinese emissions are the result of manufacturing goods for the US, and 6% are from producing goods for Europe.
Academics and campaigners increasingly say responsibility for these emissions lies with the consumer countries.
Dieter Helm, professor of economics at Oxford University, said "focusing on consumption rather than production of emissions is the only intellectually and ethically sound solution". "We've simply outsourced our production," he added."
By contrast, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc), argues that these "embedded emissions" in Chinese-produced goods are not the UK's."The UK calculates and reports its emissions according to the internationally agreed criteria set out by the UN," it says.
However, the Decc admitted to the Guardian that "the footprint associated with the UK's consumption has risen".
Even if world leaders did agree a deal based on consumption rather than production of CO2, it is unclear how national figures would be calculated.
Jonathon Porritt, head of the Sustainable Development Commission, said: "Ultimately, the only place to register emissions is in the country of origin - in this case, China. Otherwise, the whole global accounting system for greenhouse gases will be undermined by the complexity of double-accounting."
The difficulty of measuring exported emissions is reflected in the fact that the new research focuses on the years 2002 to 2005. Relevant trade data is not yet available for subsequent years.
However, Dieter Helm believes these challenges can be overcome with political will. "It's complicated but there are ways of taking consumption into account, such as a border tax on carbon transfer," he said.
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My latest summary:
We are now in the position of massive government stimulus packages across the globe.
These are the old way (well, as old as the 1930's depression and that prig Maynard Keynes) to put the kick back into the ticker of the nation's economy. And by all accounts that is likely to have a really big boost effect....
for about a month if we're lucky.
The problem is that this global depression (time to stop piddling around with recession) is not like the previous ones. There is one huge elephant in the room whose sitting fair and square on the whole body-economic of the whole world - the US banks.
The stimulus packages are designed to get confidence up, and everyone spending. Only one problem remains - there is no money to spend, because the banks are clinging to it like priests to their crucifixs. They are scared shitless they are going bankrupt. And they are.
There is an answer - the Swedes did it the 1990's - Nationalise the banks.
Horror! Panic, fear, outrage - surely you don't mean Communism? America will never allow its government to turn Communist!
Say what they like, if the big US banks are not secured, all that stimulus money is down the drain. If they don't Nationalise, then they better find an alternative. And very very fast!
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There is an answer - the Swedes did it the 1990's - Nationalise the banks.
Now we take it slowly. We haven't nationalised any banks - but we had a Bank emergency office that the Government created where the banks could get "help". The deep crisis that started in the autumn of -92 followed after several years with a overheated economy. In one way our years of depression in the early and mid 1990's were easier to handle than this global one.
I have written about this before and what the government did back then was both to lend money to the banks with low interest rate and to pick out the risk investments. The risk investments were handled by a setup of temporary "companies" that "bought" the risk deals in real estate and then sold these buildings during a period of 5 years. This emergency action didn't cost the tax payer much, in fact it is said that it turned out to be zero.
They (The Riksbank/Central bank) rescued an investment bank lately with the same approach only that this time they took over the bank completely for a period because it was bankrupt. It took a bit more than 3 months to sell the bank and with a small exception of one customer they got all the money in return. We could say that this affair (with The Carnegie investment bank) was our close parallell to the Lehman Brothers.
The policy is to,
- not let any bank go bankrupt
- not own banks in long term, but short term it can be necessary (has only happened once).
- pump money into the system while at the same time keep down the inflation rate
- lower the interest rates
- hang out banks that not lower their interest rates
- encourage employment before unemployment etc.
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Thanks Jamir - temporary nationalisation is the option I was referring to, but I am no expert in the options - it is just one, and as you point out, the Swedes adopted a raft of measures.
The point is that the US is dithering on effective options, partially due to their fear of the nationalisation bogey. Brittan is pushing for more government ownership and control, but the US has baulked at any hint of interference with the free market philosophy, even temporarily.
The point is that something has to be done very fast, as the whole large bank's problems have not gone away. Many countries, like Japan, Australia etc, have highly stable and secure banking sector, but that has not stopped them from being dragged into the mire.
It is questionable as to whether any government has the funds to bail out a complete collapse of the debt swap nightmare - we are talking $50-60 trillion. So immediate action to secure the big US banks is critical, lest we slide into an entire inner-banking melt down.
I am watching the Australian Govt doing like the US and many others - pouring funds into their economy. But this disease is like a cancer of the financial heart of the global economy. I am not seeing any signs that sufficiently swift actions are being taken to address the structural and immediate problems in the core of the financial-blood flow.
There have been attempts. Gordon Brown was pushing for action, but being stalled by the US, in many of these recent G20's and Davos meets, which have all been a waste of time. Because the huge end of town is putting enormous pressure on the US Govt to not interfere in the free market system.
These super-top executives are racing around the world, meeting every government official with influence, to stem the movement into bail-out funds with strong ownership conditions.
I expect very soon you will see another massive bank throw up it's arms, like the RBS, but even bigger.
My concern is that Obama's success in cultural change and so much else, will be crippled if his stimulus package is not effective, and it won't be if the big banks are not fixed.
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I hate to be right, in this case, but the truth is rolling down the road like a semi out if control.
AIG's problems are not due to it's old style insurance business.
It is deeply entangled in the debt swap scene:
Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).
It has actually been insuring these damn things.
Now a large Swiss bank is collapsing - can't recall the name. And other big names are being rumoured.
Hedge Funds are gathering to pull down all the teetering banks like vultures.
The fall out from AIG, for those who don't know, has sent the DOW below 7000.
The US government does not have access to the level of funding needed to prop up this debacle.
There are very clever people in the fray who lets hope will find a solution - but they will need to act quickly.
And like a dying beast gasping for one last erection, Rush Limbaugh looks to be taking over the Republican philosophical podium. Could anything be more sad and pathetic? When will these people get it?
It's over.
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I noticed the huge deficit for AIG and got the feeling that the whole finacial system is like a leaking bucket. The Swedish Riksbank has announced a zero interest rate coming later in this spring. Last year we had a drop in GNP 0f 4,5%, which is about the same drop as one of the crisis year in the 1990's (1994). That year we had a deflation.
One good thing if the wheels stop - the pollution will be considerable lower.
Volvo trucks, which is one of our most successful export industr,y is an indicator of what is going on. The order intake fell to almost zero the last months of 2008 and they have made an notice to reduce their staff with approximately 50%.
Heh, the Australian homepage for Volvio trucks
http://www.volvo.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Home.htm (http://www.volvo.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Home.htm)
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Pakistan:
The attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team marks a turning point in Pak's inner battle for identity and control.
Up until now, the Taliban consortium has been content to attack US and UN convoys, big wealthy hotels, India, Kashmir, and opponents in the Swat valley. This now is an attack on the Pakistan people themselves - an assault on the culture.
Most Pakistanis tended to see the fight against the Taliban consortium as the US business, and that they had no interest in doing that for them. They have been in denial for many years, while the array of different extreme Islamist groups has not only grown, but critically recently has come together under the leadership of one man.
They have been growing in power, and now they are ready. The attack on the cricketers marks the beginning of their push to take over Pakistan.
These Taliban groups were recently wiped out in the political arena during the elections - they have no popular support. But they have guns, and they have terror. Plus they have friends in high places.
Pakistan is still struggling to come to terms with this reality, and their President is not up to the task. The democratic political parties are in deadly combat with each other, and the time is ripe - expect to see much more. Already the Taliban has escalated their assaults and bombings in the Swat valley, at the same time as the government has given them more concessions to Sharia Law. This all since the cricketers assault. They have also bombed the Sufi shrines - their primary opponents on the moderate side of Islam.
Plus they are winning in Afghanistan.
It will not be long before foreign troops are in Pakistan. Already Zardari has asked the US to use it's drones to bomb Taliban forces in the border regions.
GFC:
The banking crisis is growing. I bet the nationalisation/control issue was exactly what Brown went to see Obama about. The flow of money is dry, and big changes are needed. All these interest rate cuts are no longer doing anything - because the banks get their money from the big US and European banks - only so much can be passed on by way of interest cuts, as the banks simply can't get enough money except at huge expense.
The core financial blood flow has been turned off. We ain't seen nothing yet.
Will Obama go to the next G20 summit? Maybe, maybe not, but if he doesn't the slide will turn into a free fall. And even if he does, the same will happen, because even he doesn't have the power or the money.
There is a big crunch coming not just for the people - but for those who have been running this show behind the scenes for many decades. They do not want to change their beliefs, and lose their power.
Plus their political arm, the right wing parties, still haven't got it - they are playing a dangerous game of spoiling all recovery attempts in the hope that they will fail, and thus allow them to regain political power. I see the same thing in US as in Aust.
We are in for a rough year. Lets hope it will only be one.
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We are in for a rough year. Lets hope it will only be one.
Seven.
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Carbon cuts 'only give 50/50 chance of saving planet'
As states negotiate Kyoto's successor, simulations show catastrophe just years away
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Monday, 9 March 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/carbon-cuts-only-give-5050-chance-of-saving-planet-1640154.html
The world's best efforts at combating climate change are likely to offer no more than a 50-50 chance of keeping temperature rises below the threshold of disaster, according to research from the UK Met Office.
The key aim of holding the expected increase to 2C, beyond which damage to the natural world and to human society is likely to be catastrophic, is far from assured, the research suggests, even if all countries engage forthwith in a radical and enormous crash programme to slash greenhouse gas emissions – something which itself is by no means guaranteed.
The chilling forecast from the supercomputer climate model of the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research will provide a sobering wake-up call for governments around the world, who will begin formally negotiating three weeks today the new international treaty on tackling global warming, which is due to be signed in Copenhagen in December.
The treaty, which is due to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, is widely seen as the Last Chance Saloon for the community of nations to take effective action against the greatest threat the world has ever faced. But the Met Office's new prediction hits directly at the principle guiding all those hoping for an effective agreement, with the European Union in the lead: that of stopping the warming at two degrees Centigrade above the "pre-industrial" level (the level of average world temperature pertaining two hundred years ago).
Today, world average temperatures stand at about 0.75C above the pre-industrial, and many scientists and politicians agree that further increases have to be stopped at 2C if catastrophic impacts from the warming are to be avoided, ranging from widespread agricultural failure and worldwide sea level rise, to countless species extinctions and irreversible melting of the world's great ice sheets.
But the Hadley Centre's simulation indicates that even if global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas causing the warming, were to be slashed at a very high rate the chances of holding the rise at the C threshold are no better than even. The scenario, prepared for Britain's Climate Change Committee, the body recommending the UK's future carbon "budgets", visualises world CO2 emissions peaking in 2015, and then falling at a top rate of 3 per cent a year, to reach emissions of 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
At the moment, global emissions are thought to be rising at nearly 3 per cent a year – so turning that into a 3 per cent annual cut would be a gigantic slashing of what the earth's factories and motor vehicles are pumping into the atmosphere. There is as yet nothing remotely like that on the table for potential agreement in Copenhagen, and if a deal of this ambition were to be done, it would be regarded as a triumph.
Yet even with that, the Hadley Centre research suggests, the chances of keeping the rise down to about 2C by 2100 would be only 50-50. Furthermore, the simulations suggest that there is a worst-case scenario – about a 10 per cent chance – of the rise by the end of the current century reaching, even with these drastic cuts, a level of 2.8C above the pre-industrial, which is well into disaster territory.
With any action that is slower than the scenario above, the likeliest outcome is a much higher eventual temperature – and in fact, the model indicates that each 10 years of delay in halting the rise in global emissions adds another 0.5C to the likeliest end-of-the-century figure. So if emissions do not peak and start to decline until 2025, we can expect a 2.6C rise by 2100, and if the decline only begins in 2035, the figure is likely to be 3.1C – even with 3 per cent annual cuts.
These new figures suggest quite unambiguously that the world is on course for calamity unless rapid action can be taken which is far more drastic than any politicians are so far contemplating – never mind the general public.
If action is sluggish or non-existent, the model suggests that climate change is likely to cause almost unthinkable damage to the world; under a "business-as-usual" scenario, with no action taken at all and emissions increasing by more than 100 per cent by 2050, the end-of-the-century rise in global average temperatures is likely to be 5.5C, with a worst-case outcome of 7.1C – which would make much of life on earth impossible. "Even with drastic cuts in emissions in the next 10 years, our results project that there will only be a 50 per cent chance of keeping global temperatures rises below 2C," said Dr Vicky Pope, the Met Office's Head of Climate Change Advice.
"This idealised emissions scenario is based on emissions peaking in 2015 and changing from an increase of 2-3 per cent per year to a decrease of 3 per cent per year. For every 10 years we delay this action another 0.5C will be added to the most likely temperature rise. If the world fails to make the required reductions, it will be faced with adapting not just to a 2C rise in temperature but to 4C or more by the end of the century."
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Pakistan:
The attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team marks a turning point in Pak's inner battle for identity and control.
This is not our kind of Islam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/mar/09/terrorism-islam-sharia-pakistan
Sharia law was introduced to Pakistan undemocratically and without debate – but people are too frightened to protest
Fatima Bhutto
guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 March 2009 13.00 GMT
Last week, Pakistan earned another point on its scorecard as the world's most dangerous country. During what was supposed to be the start of a Lahore test match series, masked gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing five policemen and injuring several players. Not even cricket is safe in Pakistan now. In response, typically, Pakistan's government claimed shock at the violence. There was no mention of the warnings that the government had received of a potential attack, no mention of the violence that has rampaged across Pakistan's cities, and no talk of the almost casual escape the gunmen made, caught by CCTV cameras in the area. Instead, the interior minister, a feckless man with no political experience, declared that Pakistan was "in a state of war". Well, yes. It is. It has been at war for some time now.
In February, the government capitulated to the demands of Islamic militants who have been fighting the state in the Swat Valley for over a year and promised the promulgation of Sharia law in the valley. There was no vote, no referendum, no democracy in the matter. The government, who cannot fight the militants in Swat – it is too busy assisting the flight of Predator drones from internal airbases and making sure they hit their targets in Waziristan – just declared that federal law would be replaced by Sharia. No room for dissent or choice was given. The decision, however, is a redundant one; Pakistan's 1973 constitution stipulates that no law contrary to Islam can be enacted in the land.
It would seem that Pakistan is losing, quite rapidly, the battle against jihadist ideology. We now have our own, home grown, Taliban – the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban party. And now our country, one that was founded as a safe haven for Muslims, has become synonymous with the frightening prospect of Islamic militancy.
But the Islam I know is absent from Pakistan today. It's an Islam that western pundits might call moderate, but it seems pretty radical to me. It's an Islam that is peaceful and tolerant, a faith that derives its strength from poetic ghazals by Rumi, Hafez, and Iqbal, one that was once questioning and has the limitless power to be so again. That Sufi Islam, which has its roots in the shrines in Sehwan Sharif in the heart of Sindh, has been booted out of Pakistan. Instead, it has been replaced with fundamentalist, Taliban style, Wahhabi-inspired Islam, the kind that thrives on beheadings and fatwas, in short the very scary (Saudi) kind. Nato must be thrilled.
In February, a 42-year-old Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak was beheaded by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. His murder was videotaped and released to the public. Poland reacted with understandably fury: "The Pakistani government doesn't control these terrorists, these murderers" said the nation's foreign minister. That was before Sharia law was forced upon the Swat Valley. The Taliban executioners called it revenge for Poland's troops in Afghanistan. On Thursday, suspected Taliban militants blew up the shrine of a 17th century Sufi poet in Peshawar. Rahman Baba, the Sufi saint, is celebrated as one of the great poets of the Pashto language. He had nothing to do with troops in Afghanistan. But women frequented the shrine, and this, says the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, is an abomination. If we are not careful, girls' schools – over 200 of which have been blown up or destroyed in the North-West Frontier Province since this government took over – music, kite flying, women in the workplace, short-sleeved shirts, chess, teddy bears and poetry are next to go.
However, while millions of Pakistanis have taken umbrage at the depiction of their country's new super-militant status, not enough Pakistanis have taken a stand against the Talibanisation of their country. It has become unpatriotic to speak against Islam in any form in today's Pakistan. In Karachi, responses to the government's declaration of Sharia law in Swat have been muted. No one dares to say the unthinkable – it's a dangerous step. It was taken undemocratically. This is not our kind of Islam. It doesn't represent us, not in Pakistan.
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Creepy commercial for Israel's missile sales to India
It's a freak show,look at them dancing between the
missiles.The Israeli arms firm Rafael displayed this
Bollywood dance number-based marketing video at
the recently held Aero India 2009 in Bangalore.
We really are stuffed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQOLO4U5iQ
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From The Times
March 12, 2009
85 per cent of Amazonian rainforest at risk of destruction, researchers warn
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5888846.ece
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00501/Amazon_501698a.jpg)
A houseboat lies on a drying river bed that was once the Parana de Manaquiri River, a tributary of the Amazon River
The Amazonian rainforest is likely to suffer catastrophic damage, even with the lowest temperature rises forecast under climate change, researchers have decided.
The damage will be so severe that it will cause irreversible changes to the world’s weather patterns, which is expected to bring more storms, floods and heat waves to Britain.
Up to 40 per cent of the rainforest will be lost if temperature rises are restricted to 2C, which most climatologists regard as the least that can be expected by 2050.
Climate change researchers issued the assessment of the forest’s fragility after discovering a time-lag in the effects of temperature rises on the forest.
It had previously been thought that the trees and other vegetation, and the vast range of animals living among them, would be safe if temperatures rose no more than 2C. Researchers have now found that even 2C will destroy large tracts of the forest but that the die-back is slow and will take up to a century to have its full effect.
A 3C rise is likely to result in 75 per cent of the forest disappearing and a 4C rise, regarded as the most likely increase this century unless greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced, will kill off 85 per cent of the forest.
Chris Jones, of the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, told a scientific conference in Copenhagen that the time delay had masked the full impact of temperature rises. He led a team of researchers who calculated that 20 to 40 per cent of the forest will be killed off by 2050 if there is a 2C rise.
“We are committed to losing a fair degree of the forest,” Dr Jones told scientists. “Everything above 1C commits us to some forest loss.”
Until Dr Jones presented his findings it had been assumed that the Amazonian rainforest was safe from severe climate-related loss until temperatures rose more than 3C. However, the slowness of forests to respond to change hid the likely real impact.
A 1C temperature rise is expected to be reached in the 2020s. Temperatures have already risen 0.75C above pre-industrial levels and so much greenhouse gas is in the atmosphere that a further 0.6C is already guaranteed.
Vicky Pope, the head of climate change advice at the Met Office Hadley Centre, said the findings showed that the threat to the forest was much higher than expected.
“Impacts could be much worse than previously thought,” Dr Pope said in Copenhagen, where scientists have been meeting to discuss the latest research into climate change and its effects. “Even if temperature rises are limited to 2C above pre-industrial levels, as much as 20 to 40 per cent of the Amazonian rainforest could be lost if this temperature is sustained for 100 years or more.”
Trees will be lost to the rise in temperatures because as forests warm up, evaporation rates increase and they begin to dry out. Over several decades the drier conditions will kill off the trees.
Other research presented at the conference showed that there is a significant chance that even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, temperatures may not start falling for at least a century.
Peter Cox, of the University of Exeter, said of the finding that at least a fifth of the Amazonian rainforest was almost certainly doomed. “Ecologically it would be a catastrophe and it would be taking a huge chance with our own climate. The tropics are drivers of the world’s weather systems and killing the Amazon is likely to change them for ever. We don’t know exactly what would happen but we could expect more extreme weather,” Professor Cox said.
Destroying the Amazonian rainforest would also turn what was now a significant carbon sink into a significant source of carbon, he said. “It would amplify global warming significantly. Just as an example, at the moment deforestation adds about a fifth of the world’s carbon to the atmosphere.”
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I expect Pakistan military will take over within days. The political scene is a nightmare - the PM and the head of the military both know how serious the whole thing is, and they have put in sterling efforts over the last few days, but unfortunately Zardari and Sharif are both as corrupt as each other.
The US now sees Pak as the most serious crises threatening world security. Expect action very soon.
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Leading climate scientist: 'democratic process isn't working'
David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 March 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/18/nasa-climate-change-james-hansen
Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said.
Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: "The first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.
"The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I'm not surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of time."
Hansen said he was taking part in the Coventry demonstration tomorrow because he wants a worldwide moratorium on new coal power stations. E.ON wants to build such a station at Kingsnorth in Kent, an application that energy and the climate change minister Ed Miliband recently delayed. "I think that peaceful actions that attempt to draw society's attention to the issue are not inappropriate," Hansen said.
He added that a scientific meeting in Copenhagen last week had made clear the "urgency of the science and the inaction taken by governments".
Officials will gather in Bonn later this month to continue talks on a new global climate treaty, which campaigners have called to be signed at a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December. Hansen warned that the new treaty is "guaranteed to fail" to bring down emissions.
Hansen said: "What's being talked about for Copenhagen is a strenghening of Kyoto [protocol] approach, a cap and trade with offsets and escape hatches which will be gauranteed to fail in terms of getting the required rapid reduction in emissions. They talk about goals which sound impressive, but when you see the actions are such that it will be impossible to reach those goals, then I can understand the informed public getting frustrated."
He said he was growing "concerned" over the stance taken by the new US adminstration on global warming. "It's not clear what their intentions are yet, but if they are going to support cap and trade then unfortunately i think that will be another case of greenwash. It's going to take stronger action than that."
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Yep, he's not wrong.
Except about one-person-one-vote being Democracy - where do people get these funny ideas?
I'm not being cynical, Democracy is a complex balance of many factors - one-person-one-vote is only one component of that complex, and was never intended to be more that that.
But as for Democracy failing this issue - he is not the first, but he is a major convert to the direct action community.
I would join them myself if I hadn't realised it's all futile - I have just purchased a new pair of Scarpa boots, now all I need is a flint striker.
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This is from 2007, when Howard was still PM, but I don't recall hearing that there were plans to evacuate Australia ... was this true?
http://www.youtube.com/v/Edlsy8r2FXo&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edlsy8r2FXo&feature=related
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Well it did rain, so this is now put on the back burner. However there are Government processes in action to investigate the long term possibility of a major shift of the population from the south to the north. Climate change is making the major cities uninhabitable, due to water shortages.
But it has not received much public discussion - that depends on a wider drought situation, which hasn't happened since 2007. Of course it will, but there is still a large amount of climate change scepticism in Australia.
Nonetheless, the intelligent people with sufficient funds, across the world, are moving to New Zeeland now. The influx of such people has become a public statistic in New Zeeland.
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Worth a watch if you haven't seed it...
Vandana Shiva - The Future of Food and Seed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3I9HkS0mvM
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Italy muzzled scientist who predicted quake
Reuters
By Gavin Jones Gavin Jones – 2 hrs 26 mins ago
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing more than 100 people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic.
The government on Monday insisted the warning, by seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani, had no scientific foundation but Giuliani said he had been vindicated and wanted an apology.
The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome.
Vans with loudspeakers drove around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after Giuliani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor's anger.
Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.
"Now there are people who have to apologize to me and who will have what has happened on their conscience," Giuliani told the website of the daily La Repubblica.
Giuliani, who lives in L'Aquila and developed his findings while working at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in the surrounding Abruzzo region, said he was helpless to act on Sunday as it became clear to him the quake was imminent.
"I didn't know who to turn to, I had been put under investigation for saying there was going to be an earthquake."
AGENCY REASSURED TOWNSPEOPLE
As the media asked whether, in light of his warnings, the government had protected the population properly, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seemed on the defensive at a news conference.
He said people should concentrate on relief efforts for now and "we can discuss afterwards about the predictability of earthquakes."
Italy's Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L'Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.
"The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L'Aquila," the agency said in a statement on the eve of that meeting.
It said it saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless carrying out "continuous monitoring and attention."
The head of the agency, Guido Bertolaso, referred back to that meeting at Monday's joint news conference with Berlusconi.
"There is no possibility of predicting an earthquake, that is the view of the international scientific community," he said.
Enzo Boschi, the head of the National Geophysics Institute, said the real problem for Italy was a long-standing failure to take proper precautions despite a history of tragic quakes.
"We have earthquakes but then we forget and do nothing. It's not in our culture to take precautions or build in an appropriate way in areas where there could be strong earthquakes," he said.
91 dead, 1,500 injured in central Italy quake (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090406/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_earthquake)
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Rudolf....
All's well where you are?
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(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20090406/capt.photo_1239017550948-1-0.jpg?)
Original 'Schindler's List' found in Sydney (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090406/ts_afp/australiagermanyhistorywwiiholocaustschindler)
SYDNEY (AFP) – A list of Jews saved by Oskar Schindler that inspired the novel and Oscar-winning film "Schindler's List" has been found in a Sydney library, its co-curator said.
Workers at the New South Wales State Library found the list, containing the names of 801 Jews saved from the Holocaust by the businessman, as they sifted through boxes of Australian author Thomas Keneally's manuscript material.
The 13-page document, a yellowed and fragile carbon typescript copy of the original, was found between research notes and German newspaper clippings in one of the boxes, library co-curator Olwen Pryke said.
Pryke described the 13-page list as "one of the most powerful documents of the 20th Century" and was stunned to find it in the library's collection.
"This list was hurriedly typed on April 18, 1945, in the closing days of WWII, and it saved 801 men from the gas chambers," she said.
"It?s an incredibly moving piece of history."
She said the library had no idea the list was among six boxes of material acquired in 1996 relating to Keneally's Booker Prize-winning novel, originally published as "Schindler's Ark".
The 1982 novel told the story of how the roguish Schindler discovered his conscience and risked his life to save more than 1,000 Jews from the Nazis.
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg turned it into a film in 1993 starring Liam Neeson as Schindler and Ralph Fiennes as the head of an SS-run camp.
Pryke said that, although the novel and film implied there was a single, definitive list, Schindler actually compiled a number of them as he persuaded Nazi bureaucrats not to send his workers to the death camps.
She said the document found by the library was given to Keneally in 1980 by Leopold Pfefferberg -- named on the list as Jewish worker number 173 -- when he was persuading the novelist to write Schindler's story.
As such, it was the list that inspired Keneally to tell the world about Schindler's heroics, she said.
Pryke said she had no idea how much the list was worth.
Schindler, born in a German-speaking part of Austria-Hungary in 1908, began the war as a card-carrying Nazi who used his connections to gain control of a factory in Krakow, Poland, shortly after Hitler invaded the country.
He used Jewish labour in the factory but, as the war progressed, he became appalled at the conduct of the Nazis.
Using bribery and charm, he persuaded officials that his workers were vital to the war effort and should not be sent to the death camps.
Schindler died relatively unknown in 1974, but he gained public recognition following Keneally's book and Spielberg's film.
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Rudolf....
All's well where you are?
I know hope hes ok that earthquake was a bad one.
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He was just here moments ago, so I'm thinking the best!
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He was just here moments ago, so I'm thinking the best!
;D
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Speaking of the Prez (in another thread)....
He's wrapping up his tour and coming back now, but I got a very bad feeling when I heard him quoted on the news yesterday. He was trying to reassure the Islamic community (in Turkey), and made mention of his father being a Muslim. It's an understandable sharing, but I "saw" factions in the US taking the ball and running with it in a dangerous way. It's not that it's "news", but I'm telling you -- psychologically and psychically, he's making such strides that he stands to be a real threat to the status quo and undercurrent in the US.
Let us see him absolutely protected and safe from harm.
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090407/D97DK5AO0.html
Obama ends Turkish visit with student town hall
Apr 7, 8:10 AM (ET)
By MARK S. SMITH
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Barack Obama wrapped up his first foreign trip as president with a request of the world: Look past his nation's stereotypes and flaws. "You will find a partner and a friend in the United States of America," he declared Tuesday.
"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told college students in Turkey's largest city. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."
Promising a "new chapter in American engagement" with the rest of the world, Obama said the United States needs to be more patient in its dealings. And he said the rest of the world needs a better sense "that change is possible so we don't have to always be stuck with the same arguments."
The students formed a tight circle around the new U.S. president, who slowly paced a sky-blue rug while answering their questions. He promised to end the town hall-style session before the Muslim call to prayer.
Obama rejected "stereotypes" about America, including that it has become selfish and crass. "I'm here to tell you that's not the country I know and not the country I love," the president said. "America, like every other nation, has made mistakes and has its flaws, but for more than two centuries it has strived" to seek a more perfect union.
He repeated his pledge to rebuild relations between the United States and the Muslim world.
"I am personally committed to a new chapter in American engagement," Obama said. "We can't afford to talk past one another and focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us."
Obama's message was being warmly received by Arabs and Muslims. In an interview published Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem called his words "important" and "positive."
The questions for Obama at the town hall meeting were polite and rarely bracing, though one student asked whether there was any real difference between his White House and the Bush administration. Obama cautioned that while he had great differences with Bush over issues such as Iraq and climate change, it takes time to change a nation as big as the United States.
"Moving the ship of state is a slow process," he said.
The Turkish stop capped an eight-day European trip that senior adviser David Axelrod called "enormously productive" - including an economic crisis summit in London and a NATO conclave in France and Germany.
Axelrod said specific benefits might be a while in coming. "You plant, you cultivate, you harvest," he told reporters. "Over time, the seeds that were planted here are going to be very, very valuable."
Picking up on his consultant's theme later, Obama told the college students he sees nothing wrong with setting his sights high on goals such as mending relations with Iran and eliminating the world of nuclear options - two cornerstone issues of his trip.
"Some people say that maybe I'm being too idealistic," Obama said. "But if we don't try, if we don't reach high, we won't make any progress."
Obama's final day in Turkey also featured a meeting with religious leaders and stops at top tourist sites in this city on the Bosporus that spans Europe and Asia. Accompanied by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he toured the Hagia Sophia museum and the Blue Mosque.
At the Blue Mosque, just across a square and manicured gardens from Hagia Sophia, the president padded, shoeless like his entire entourage in accordance with religious custom, across the carpeted mosque interior. All around were intricate stained-glass windows and a series of domes, thick columns and walls entirely covered in blue, red and white tile mosaic. Again, he appeared to speak little, as he was schooled in what he was seeing by a guide. He spent about 40 minutes at both places.
At his Istanbul hotel, Obama met with Istanbul's grand mufti and its chief rabbi, as well as Turkey's Armenian patriarch and Syrian Orthodox archbishop.
In many respects, Obama's European trip was a continental listening tour.
He told the G-20 summit in London that global cooperation is the key to ending a crippling recession. And at the NATO summit in France and Germany, he said his new strategy for Afghanistan reflects extensive consultation.
In Ankara, Turkey's capital, Obama told lawmakers their country can help ensure Muslims and the West listen to each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtatxyR9cIQ&feature=channel_page
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"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told college students in Turkey's largest city. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."
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Obama is the Dr and the World is his patient.
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Look past his nation's stereotypes and flaws. "You will find a partner and a friend in the United States of America," he declared Tuesday.
"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told college students in Turkey's largest city. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."
Promising a "new chapter in American engagement" with the rest of the world, Obama said the United States needs to be more patient in its dealings. And he said the rest of the world needs a better sense "that change is possible so we don't have to always be stuck with the same arguments."
"I am personally committed to a new chapter in American engagement," Obama said. "We can't afford to talk past one another and focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us."
Obama cautioned that while he had great differences with Bush over issues such as Iraq and climate change, it takes time to change a nation as big as the United States."Moving the ship of state is a slow process," he said.
"Some people say that maybe I'm being too idealistic," Obama said. "But if we don't try, if we don't reach high, we won't make any progress."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtatxyR9cIQ&feature=channel_page
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America is going to have to change it's self-image - they won't like that, but circumstance is coming up powerfully behind to validate Obama's direction.
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America is going to have to change it's self-image - they won't like that, but circumstance is coming up powerfully behind to validate Obama's direction.
I agree with that one, definitely.
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(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/f/0c/f0c4b807f141ced949b46fde74617828.jpeg?x=426&y=200&xc=1&yc=1&wc=426&hc=200&q=85&sig=eN6VrSu_P2ylMztVfxgsiA--)
Obama in Baghdad, tells troops Iraq must take over
Barack Obama Presidential Transition Play Video ABC News – Obama
Praises Troops for 'Extraordinary Achievement'
Slideshow:Obama makes surprise visit to Iraq Play Video Video:Bombings rattle Baghdad ahead of Obama visit AP Play Video Video:Sustained mode in Iraq Reuters AP – President Barack Obama greets military personnel at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 7, … By JENNIFER LOVEN and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers Jennifer Loven And David Espo, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 3 mins ago
BAGHDAD – Flying unannounced into a still-dangerous war zone, President Barack Obama told U.S. troops and Iraqi officials alike Tuesday it is time to phase out America's combat role in a conflict he opposed as a candidate and has vowed to end as commander in chief.
Iraqis "need to take responsibility for their own country," Obama told hundreds of cheering soldiers gathered in an ornate, marble palace near Saddam Hussein's former seat of power.
"You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement," he told the troops, saluting their efforts during six years of American fighting and losses.
Just hours before he arrived, a deadly car bomb exploded in Baghdad, underscoring the continuing peril despite a recent decline in violence. But the mood was festive as Obama spoke to some 600 troops, quickly gathered for his visit.
"We love you," someone yelled from the crowd of photo-snapping men and women in uniform.
"I love you back," responded the president, repeating a sequence that played out at hundreds of campaign stops on his successful run for the White House last year.
Obama met with top U.S. commanders as well as senior Iraqi leaders on a visit of a little more than four hours that was confined to Camp Victory, the largest U.S. military base in a war that began in 2003 and has cost the lives of 4,265 members of the U.S. military. Many thousands more Iraqis have perished.
A helicopter flight to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles distant was scrapped, but White House aides attributed the change in travel plans to poor weather rather than security concerns.
After a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama said he had "strongly encouraged" Iraqis to take political steps that would unite political factions, including integrating minority Sunnis into the government and security forces.
Al-Maliki told reporters, "We assured the president that all the progress that has been made in the security area will continue."
American commanders told the president the country is experiencing a relatively low level of violence, although the car bomb explosion in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad was evidence of a recent resurgence. Obama flew from Turkey, the next-to-last stop on an eight-day itinerary that also included Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic.
Aides said Obama chose to visit Iraq rather than Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are also in combat, in part because it was close to Turkey and in part because of upcoming Iraqi elections.
In his remarks to the troops, Obama made no mention of the Afghanistan conflict — where he has decided to commit 21,000 additional troops — and it was not known whether it came up in his meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander, and other officers.
Obama announced plans in February to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on a 19-month timetable, although a force as large as 50,000 could remain at the end of that period to provide counterterrorism duties.
He said that for the next year and a half, the United States will be a "stalwart partner" to the Iraqis. And yet, he said, "they have got to make political accommodations. They're going to have to decide that they want to resolve their differences through constitutional means and legal means. They are going to have to focus on providing government services that encourage confidence among their citizens.
"All those things they have to do. We can't do it for them."
By contrast, little more than a week ago, the president announced a revamped Afghanistan strategy that calls for stamping out the Taliban and al-Qaida and broadening the mission to include pressure on neighboring Pakistan to root out terrorist camps in its lawless border regions.
"We spend a lot of time trying to get Afghanistan right, but I think it is important for people to know that there is still a lot of work to do here," Obama said shortly after Air Force One touched down in the Iraqi capital.
Earlier, before departing Istanbul, the president told students, "Moving the ship of state takes time." Referring to his long-standing opposition to the war, he said, "Now that we're there," the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."
The military is in the process of thinning out its presence ahead of a June 30 deadline under a U.S.-Iraq agreement negotiated last year that requires all American combat troops to leave Iraq's cities. As that process moves forward, the increase in bombings and other incidents is creating concern that extremists may be regrouping.
While Obama spent much of the past week overseas grappling with the worldwide economic crisis and the war in Afghanistan, a constant theme of the trip was his determination to turn a new page in U.S. relationships abroad after eight years of the Bush administration.
Nowhere was that intention more evident than in Iraq, where a Bush-ordered invasion in 2003 began as a quick rout of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein before gradually turning into a murderous environment for U.S. troops.
Obama said American forces had "performed brilliantly ... under enormous strain."
"It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis," he said as an estimated 600 troops cheered. "They need to take responsibility for their country."
In Europe, he and other world leaders pledged cooperation to combat a global recession, and he appealed with limited success for additional assistance in Afghanistan, a war he has promised to intensify. The new president drew large crowds as he offered repeated assurances that the United States would not seek to dictate to other countries.
"I am personally committed to a new chapter of American engagement. We can't afford to talk past one another, to focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us." Obama said before leaving Turkey. The visit to a nation that straddles Europe and Asia was designed to signal a new era. He had pledged as a candidate to visit a majority-Muslim nation in his first 100 days in office.
President George W. Bush paid several trips to Iraq while in office, and on his last, in December, he had to duck shoes hurled in his direction at a news conference by an Iraqi journalist. By coincidence, the Iraqi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday for the man, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, now sentenced to one year in jail rather than three.
___
David Espo reported from Washington. AP writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed from Baghdad.
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Let us see him absolutely protected and safe from harm.
Protection he certainly does have. ;)
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So now the scenario grows very ugly. I mentioned before the imminent collapse of the Pakistani government, which was stalled by the President capitulating to good sense. That was a flash in the pan. Now begins the real deal.
The military/intelligence in Pak no longer follows orders from the elected government. The gloves are off - the US is not bullshitting to anyone about this anymore, least of all Pakistan.
The game plan is to create a regional security to persuade the Pakistan government to relinquish it's now publicly stated position of using terrorism for defence. A terrorism that is about to consume its sponsor. But the flaw in the soup is that the Pakistan government has no control - the military is the only large organised power, and even they only control a third of the country. George Gittoes is back from filming in the Swat valley - he said while travelling with the elite Pak commando troupes, he observed they were all pro-Taliban. This is a case where convincing anyone in authority of anything, is futile. The avalanche is coming very soon.
And it will be an avalanche that the world will not be able to stand back from. The dangers confronting all countries is overwhelming and frightening - we are not talking bout 10 mill people in Iraq, or 10 mill people in Afghanistan. We are talking 170 million people and shit-loads of nuclear and conventional weaponry. This is big.
My prayers go to those who are struggling to rein in this beast.
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Dang!
:(
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090411/wl_time/08599189064600
Cows With Gas: India's Contribution to Global Warming
(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20090326/capt.photo_1238043201748-1-0.jpg?x=213&y=142&xc=1&yc=1&wc=410&hc=273&q=85&sig=CCIVWdWS2ZmpUcwiC9Vqww--)
– This picture taken on MArch 14 shows a farmer watering his cattle in the village of Purushwadi, 140 miles …
Confronting Climate Change ABC News By MADHUR SINGH / NEW DELHI
Madhur Singh / New Delhi – Sat Apr 11, 2:00 am ET
Indolent cows languidly chewing their cud while befuddled motorists honk and maneuver their vehicles around them are images as stereotypically Indian as saffron-clad holy men and the Taj Mahal. Now, however, India's ubiquitous cows - of which there are 283 million, more than anywhere else in the world - have assumed a more menacing role as they become part of the climate change debate.
By burping, belching and excreting copious amounts of methane - a greenhouse gas that traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide - India's livestock of roughly 485 million (including sheep and goats) contribute more to global warming than the vehicles they obstruct. With new research suggesting that emission of methane by Indian livestock is higher than previously estimated, scientists are furiously working at designing diets to help bovines and other ruminants eat better, stay more energetic and secrete lesser amounts of the offensive gas. (See pictures of India's largest ruminant: the Asian elephant.)
Last month, scientists at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad in western India published a pan-India livestock methane emission inventory, the first ever, which put the figure at 11.75 million metric tons per year, higher than 9 million metric tons estimated in 1994. This amount is likely to increase as higher incomes and consumption rates put more pressure on the country's dairy industry to become even more productive. (See pictures of China's cow town.)
Already the world's largest producer of milk, India will have to yank up production from the current 100 million metric tons to 180 million metric tons by 2021-22 to keep pace with growing population and expanding disposable incomes. Livestock such as cows, buffalo, goats, sheep, horses and mules are indispensable to India's rural economy - whether yoked to plow land, raised for milk and manure, or harnessed to pull carts to move goods and people. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the animals contribute 5.3% to total GDP, up from 4.8% during 1980-81. But, says Dr. K.K. Singhal, head of Dairy Cattle Nutrition at the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal in northern India, "while livestock plays a crucial role in the economy, global warming is becoming a huge worry. We're trying to find indigenous solutions, because our realities are very different from the West." (See the 10 things you should know about the world's cheapest car: India's Nano.)
For starters, most Indian livestock is underfed and undernourished, unlike robust counterparts in richer countries. The typical Indian farmer is unable to buy expensive dietary supplements even for livestock of productive age, and dry milch cattle and older farm animals are invariably turned out to fend for themselves. Poor quality feed equals poor animal health as well as higher methane production. Also, even when western firms are willing to share technology or when western products are available, these are often unaffordable for the majority in India. For instance, Monensin, an antibiotic whose slow-release formula reduces methane emission by cows, proved too expensive for widespread use in India. So the emphasis for Indian scientists is on indigenous solutions. "We know we cannot count on high quality feed and fodder," says Singhal, "No one will be able to afford it. What we have done instead is develop cheaper technologies and products." One example is urea-molasses-mineral blocks that are cheap, reduce methane emission by 20%, and also provide more nutrition so they're easier to sell to illiterate farmers who don't know a thing about global warming but want higher milk yields.
Most dietary interventions work by checking methogens - microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments such as cows' guts, where they convert the available hydrogen and carbon (byproducts of digestion) into methane, a colorless, odorless gas. "We encourage well-to-do farmers to use oilseed cakes which provide unsaturated fatty acids that get rid of the hydrogen," Dr. Singhal says. Another solution is herbal additives. Some commonly used Indian herbs such as shikakai and reetha, which go into making soap, and many kinds of oilseeds contain saponins and tannins, substances that make for lathery, bitter meals but block hydrogen availability for methogens. Dr Singhal says they are used in small quantities and the cows don't seem to mind the taste. "Imagine how much potential they'd have in the international market," he says. (See pictures of India's biodegradable dishware.)
Several other institutions, such as the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP) in Bangalore, are also researching herbs. "We're studying the effect of tannin compounds from various easily-available sources like tealeaves. We're also studying prebiotic and probiotic feed supplements," says Dr K.T. Sampath, director, NIANP. Other institutes, such as the New Delhi-based The Energy Research Institute (TERI), are working on methane capture strategies. One long-running project has been biogas production - cow dung is utilized to make biogas for use in kitchens and even compressed biogas for use in vehicles. "Biogas plants have been very successful," says R.K. Rajeshwari, a fellow at TERI, "Farmers are able to use biogas in their kitchens, to light lamps and to even drive vehicles." Such projects, she says, have been particularly successful at gaushalas, cow shelters supported by donations from the devout and by government grants, of which there are 4,000 across India now. Most gaushalas are for abandoned, dry and aged cattle, of which there are many since killing cows is illegal in all but two states (the communist-ruled West Bengal and Kerala). "This way they are put to some use at least," says Rajeshwari, "And by replacing conventional sources of energy, they help prevent global warming."
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About 300 million people live in the US. Out of that - since there is a high rate of obesity (and I fell into this realm thanks to meds but its temporary lol), we also contribute to the farts like the cows.
Imagine that tho, the cow population of india, close to the human population of the USA. Amazing trivia!
~~editing my goofy math
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Rioting follows state of emergency in Thai capital (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_thailand_politics;_ylt=AhLUkCNu6J7nSmSdnhbxrDOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJscmZqNmF1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNDEyL2FzX3RoYWlsYW5kX3BvbGl0aWNzBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDOQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNyaW90aW5nZm9sbG8-)
BANGKOK – Swarms of anti-government protesters attacked the prime minister's car, seized control of major intersections in the capital and commandeered buses, bringing new chaos to the Thai capital as the country's ousted leader threatened to return from exile to lead a revolution.
The government declared a state of emergency Sunday but, without the intervention of security forces, it was unclear how any bans could be enforced.
In front of the city's biggest luxury mall, demonstrators danced atop two armored personnel carriers they had forced to a stop, waving flags and shouting "Democracy." The red-shirted crowd swarmed around the vehicles and demanded the keys from the unhappy soldiers inside.
"Sorry, can't find them," came a muffled reply. The protesters drifted off, and the vehicles left.
The uncertain encounter — and others like it across Bangkok, where security forces stood by while protesters ran rampant — reinforced that three years of turmoil between alternating governments and protesters opposed to them seemed ready to peak again. As night fell, demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva controlled many streets in the city center. Police vans at some intersections were abandoned and looted.
Outside the Interior Ministry earlier in the day, a furious mob attacked Abhisit's car with poles, stones and even flower pots as it slowly made its escape. At least six people were injured, including two security guards for the prime minister, and one of Abhisit's top political aides and his driver. Police in riot gear nearby did nothing.
Protests were also reported in areas of northern and northeastern Thailand, with one group threatening to blockade the main bridge linking Laos and Thailand across the Mekong River.
Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, regarded by most of the protesters as their leader, called for a revolution and said he might return from overseas exile to lead it.
"Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country," he said in a telephoned message broadcast on loudspeakers to followers who surrounded the prime's minister office.
Political tensions have simmered since Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 for alleged corruption and abuse of power. He remains popular for his populist policies in the impoverished countryside, while his opponents — many in urban areas — took to the streets last year to help bring down two pro-Thaksin governments, seizing Bangkok's two airports in November for about a week.
The pro-Thaksin demonstrators, calling themselves the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, say Abhisit's four-month-old government took power illegitimately and want new elections. They also accuse the country's elite — the military, judiciary and other unelected officials — of undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
The emergency decree bans gatherings of more than five people, forbids news reports considered threatening to public order and allows the government to call up military troops to quell unrest.
"The government can't do anything. There are too many of us. We will show them what tens of thousands of unarmed civilians can do. The people will finally rule our beloved Thailand," said Lada Yingmanee, a 37-year-old housewife at one of the protest sites.
Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said soldiers and police were being moved to more than 50 key points in the city, including bus and railway stations. He said the military presence was not a sign of an imminent coup — a common feature of Thai political history.
Abhisit, in an address televised just before midnight Sunday night, called on the public not to panic and to cooperate with the government to end the crisis.
Sitting at a meeting table with Cabinet ministers and top military and police officers, he declared that "the military and the police are friends of the people. They do not want to use violence. They are simply enforcing law and order."
"In the next three to four days, the government will keep working to return peace and order to the country," he said, without detailing what measures would be employed.
Abhisit earlier vowed swift legal action against protesters who stormed the venue of an East Asian Summit in the beach resort of Pattaya on Saturday. Thai authorities had to evacuate the Asian leaders by helicopter. He said five arrest warrants have been issued for leaders of resort protest.
A protest leader who spearheaded Saturday's demonstrations, Arisman Pongruengrong, was taken into custody Sunday and flown by helicopter to a military camp for questioning, said police spokesman Maj. Gen. Suport Pansua.
Tourism Council of Thailand Chairman Kongkrit Hiranyakit predicted that the country would lose at least 200 billion baht ($5.6 billion) as foreign tourists shunned the country as they did after the airport take-overs. Tourism is Thailand's major foreign currency earner and one they can't afford to ignore as it grapples with the shock of the global economic crisis.
At Saturday's summit, more than 1,000 demonstrators broke through a wall of unarmed soldiers, smashed through the convention center's glass doors and ran through the building, blowing horns, waving Thai flags and shouting demands for Abhisit to resign.
They declared victory after Abhisit canceled the summit, where leaders of regional powers China, Japan and India, and the U.N. secretary-general and president of the World Bank, planned to discuss the global financial crisis.
Analysts say it will now be difficult for Abhisit to regain control — if he is even the one running the country.
"It remains to the seen if the security forces can control the situation. It is unlikely anyone can because there are so many splits and so many power brokers," said Charnvit Kasetsiri, one of Thailand's most prominent historians. "No one seems to be in charge within the establishment, the government and the military."
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About 3 million people live in the US.
My my, what a tiny population you have there.
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My my, what a tiny population you have there.
Oh I meant 300 mil, sorry LMAO
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Maybe they eat a lot of beans at barbeques like americans, I feel gassy with the potluck we had at work lol, I got an hour to go guys, for those who didnt have to work today *rasberries to you*
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So now the scenario grows very ugly. I mentioned before the imminent collapse of the Pakistani government, which was stalled by the President capitulating to good sense. That was a flash in the pan. Now begins the real deal.
The military/intelligence in Pak no longer follows orders from the elected government. The gloves are off - the US is not bullshitting to anyone about this anymore, least of all Pakistan.
The game plan is to create a regional security to persuade the Pakistan government to relinquish it's now publicly stated position of using terrorism for defence. A terrorism that is about to consume its sponsor. But the flaw in the soup is that the Pakistan government has no control - the military is the only large organised power, and even they only control a third of the country. George Gittoes is back from filming in the Swat valley - he said while travelling with the elite Pak commando troupes, he observed they were all pro-Taliban. This is a case where convincing anyone in authority of anything, is futile. The avalanche is coming very soon.
And it will be an avalanche that the world will not be able to stand back from. The dangers confronting all countries is overwhelming and frightening - we are not talking bout 10 mill people in Iraq, or 10 mill people in Afghanistan. We are talking 170 million people and shit-loads of nuclear and conventional weaponry. This is big.
My prayers go to those who are struggling to rein in this beast.
A few years ago there was a bit of news somewhere that the US Special Forces and a few other branches practised precision strike scenarios against Pak nuclear installations with the aim of preventing them from falling into wrong hands. But the nukes themselves are only the tip of the iceberg.
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It will be interesting to see what Obama will do. Kennedy launched the Bay of Pigs. Obama has been enthusiastic about withdrawing from Iraq and even Afghanistan. Yet he has sanctioned 'top secret' flights of unmanned bombers to Pak. Will he let Pak go under and do nothing?
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Obama seems to be enthusiastic about getting into fight.
Barack Obama vows to 'dismantle' al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan
President Barack Obama set out a bold new strategy to "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday by raising the US military force in Afghanistan to more than 60,000 personnel.
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 11:59PM GMT 27 Mar 2009
In his first major announcement as America's new commander-in-chief, Mr Obama said the situation in Afghanistan was "increasingly perilous" and required an extra 4,000 soldiers to join the additional 17,000 combat troops the United States had already committed to tackle the most dangerous provinces in eastern Afghanistan, and Helmand and Kandahar in the south.
The US President sent a mesasge to extremists as he promised to rout out the "cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within" by increasing aid to the country to $1.5 billion (£1 billion) a year over five years.
Britain was likely to be pressed to send up to 2,000 more combat troops, bringing its force levels to 10,000 in southern Afghanistan. Mr Obama was expected to appeal directly to Gordon Brown when they meet at the G20 summit in London next week.
Mr Obama resisted sending in the 30,000 reinforcements initially recommended by military commanders and said he would reassess troop levels over the next year.
It marked the moment when Mr Obama took "ownership" of the war in Afghanistan and responsibility for its end, but he did not repeat an earlier reference to finding an "exit strategy". Some on the Left feared that it could doom his presidency in the way that Vietnam affected President Lyndon Johnson's. Mr Obama said the 4,000 extra troops would be deployed in a training role with the Afghan police and the national army, which the US wanted to double in size to 134,000 men in the next two years.
But the scale of the challenge in building an indigenous professional fighting force was underlined when an Afghan soldier shot and killed two coalition troops before killing himself.
Violence in Pakistan – the problems of which Mr Obama said must be tackled for progress to be made in Afghanistan – also raged with a suicide bomber killing 50 people at a mosque.
Mr Obama insisted that "this is not simply an American problem". Appealing to America's allies for a greater commitment to Afghanistan, and justifying the extra troops to his domestic audience, he described the region as "an international security challenge of the highest order" and said that the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan as "the most dangerous place in the world".
"attacks in London and Bali were tied to al-Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and Kabul," he said.
"If there is a major attack on an Asian, European or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan."
The announcement was part of a comprehensive new policy to deal with both Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
"Al-Qaeda and its allies, who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks, are in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Mr Obama said in ominous tones, telling Americans that the Afghan war was not an overseas adventure "of choice" like Iraq but directly linked to protecting the US.
"Intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaeda is planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan.
"And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged, that country will again be a base for te r r orists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can."
He announced the setting up of a regional group on Afghanistan that would include Iran, whose nuclear ambitions and desire to eradicate Israel led to it being ostracised by the US.
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he doesn't have a choice
it's more odd that Europe still doesn't get it
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he doesn't have a choice
it's more odd that Europe still doesn't get it
I'd say Europe gets it, but does not want to bother for two reasons:
1) it gets bloodier and bloodier there, Taliban is coming from Pak with vengeance (last year coalition losses grew by 40% and in the front line British units the loss rate is claimed to be as high as 11% which is as high as in World War II)
2) the US had in Iraq almost no idea about what counterinsurgency means (after Vietnam they said in Pentagon: 'No more such wars - from now on we do only clean big wars!' Then they pretty much sank into a voluntary institutional Alzheimer's and preferred to forget all their experience from small wars). Thus, being their ally means also getting into a long-term trouble.
All in all, one can choose: either get in trouble with the US or without the US. :) The second option seems more attractive as nobody knows when and if Al-Qaeda will strike and there is no need to argue for sending and paying for troops in Afghanistan. Thus, uncertain danger against the certain mess. Which one is preferable in short-term (till next elections)? Politics as usual.
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Green fuels produce twice as much carbon as fossil fuels
Green fuels could produce twice the carbon emissions of the fossil fuels they replace, environmentalists claim.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenertransport/5153781/Green-fuels-produce-twice-as-much-carbon-as-fossil-fuels.html
Last Updated: 9:34PM BST 14 Apr 2009
Friends of the Earth said rules introduced a year ago which require a certain percentage of UK transport fuels to be made up of the "green" fuels could, instead of cutting emissions, have created an extra 1.3 million tonnes of CO2.
The emissions could have come from the "indirect" impacts of biofuels, for example the cutting down of forests for food production which had been displaced from land turned to growing crops to make ethanol or biodiesel.
But supporters of biofuels said that in the first year of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), the industry had shown it was possible to produce sustainable fuels in the UK.
The Renewable Energy Association also warned against the Government's policy of slowing down the planned increases in the levels of biofuels in the fuel supply over concerns about their impact - as it must meet an EU target of 10 per cent renewables in transport by 2020.
And the REA criticised the rules brought in on reporting how sustainable biofuels are - because they allow companies to say the origins and sustainability of the fuels are "unknown".
Today, a year on from the introduction of the RTFO, the amount of biofuels required in fuels rises from 2.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent, a smaller increase than originally planned following concerns over their effects.
Friends of the Earth claimed that rather than reducing climate change emissions, the RTFO could be producing the equivalent emissions to putting an extra half a million cars on the road.
The environmental group's executive director Andy Atkins said: "Until ministers can do their sums properly and prove that growing crops for fuel actually cuts carbon, the Government should stop biofuels being added to UK petrol and diesel.
"Trying to cut emissions by adding biofuels to petrol is like trying to cut down on beer by lacing your pints with vodka.
"One year on, it's clear the biofuels obligation is a failure. Investing in first class public transport is a much better way to reduce emissions on our roads."
But Clare Wenner, of the REA, said: "We really have been able to demonstrate that UK biofuels can make the grade on carbon savings and being produced sustainably.
"It can be done and we are doing it, in the face of competition from Brazil and everywhere else."
But she said a mistake in the drafting of the rules, which reduced the amount of biofuels actually needed in the system, had been an "absolute disaster" for the industry, pushing UK businesses to the wall and leading to job losses.
She said the Government should show greater support for the UK industry, because the country was having to rely heavily on imports - with less control over how sustainable the products were.
She said the rules which allowed companies to say it was "unknown" how sustainable the products were were "completely unacceptable".
And while she welcomed signals that the Government wanted to boost the production of electric cars, because "transport needs everything thrown at it", she said their contribution would be small - and only "green" if the power came from renewable sources.
She said the Government planned to use the EU average for renewable electricity generation - 15% of total electricity - to calculate the contribution of electric vehicles, which is permitted under European rules.
But in the UK the amount of power generated from sources such as wind was only a third of that, some 5%, so the carbon savings of such vehicles would be over-egged, she warned.
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Taliban just 60 miles from Pakistani capital
Pakistani Taliban fighters have moved into territory only 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, where security forces have been put on high alert.
By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad
Last Updated: 1:15PM BST 10 Apr 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5136218/Taliban-just-60-miles-from-Pakistani-capital.html
More than 100 hundred militants moved out of Swat region, where the government signed a peace deal with militants in February, into neighbouring Buner.
They overran six villages and clashed with local tribesmen who had formed a militia to repel the militants.
Analysts fear Taliban fighters aim to cut off the motorway that runs between Islamabad and Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Local media reports have noted a surge of attacks and movements of militants towards Islamabad.
Earlier this week a militant commander claimed in a report published in an al-Qaeda newsletter that the Taliban will not stop until they have captured Islamabad.
Officials have strengthened security in the capital amid fresh threats of attack following a recent upsurge in Islamist violence and suicide bombings.
Embassies restricted movements of their staff and sent out advisory notices to citizens over fears of a possible copycat attack in the style of last November's siege in the Indian financial capital Mumbai.
The US embassy said that "due to heightened security" routine consular services were suspended in Islamabad on Friday but that staff were "continuing to provide emergency services to any American citizens that require them.
"We advised embassy staff to avoid restaurants, hotels, shopping centres and other public places," said embassy spokesman, Lou Fintor.
State media reported that a meeting between school staff and council officials agreed to install special gates and CCTV cameras at entry and exit points of schools, and to control traffic outside the buildings.
"There is a high alert," said a senior police officer, Nematullah Kundi.
"We have stepped up security in the city, in and around the diplomatic enclave and the area near the parliament building, which is the declared Red Zone," he said.
"Extra guards have also been deployed at schools in the Red Zone and elsewhere in the city," he added.
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EPA finds greenhouse gases pose a danger to health (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090417/ap_on_go_ot/epa_climate;_ylt=Aig_ALAQYz8TUMB1YH8SdgSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJjdDljc2k4BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNDE3L2VwYV9jbGltYXRlBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNmdWxsbmJzcHN0b3I-)
WASHINGTON – The EPA on Friday declared that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases sent off by cars and many industrial plants "endanger public health and welfare," setting the stage for regulating them under federal clean air laws. The action by the Environmental Protection Agency marks the first step toward requiring power plants, cars and trucks to curtail their release of climate-changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said while the agency is prepared to move forward with regulations under the Clean Air Act, the Obama administration would prefer that Congress addressed the climate issue through "cap-and-trade" legislation limiting pollution that can contribute to global warming.
Limits on carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases would have widespread economic and social impact, from requiring better fuel efficiency for automobiles to limiting emissions from power plants and industrial sources, changing the way the nation produces energy.
In announcing the proposed finding, Jackson said the EPA analysis "confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations" and warrants steps to curtail it.
While EPA officials said the agency may still be many months from actually issuing such regulation, the threat of dealing with climate change by regulation could spur some hesitant members of Congress to find another way to address the problem.
"The (EPA) decision is a game changer. It now changes the playing field with respect to legislation," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., whose Energy and Commerce subcommittee is crafting broad limits on greenhouse emissions. "It's now no longer doing a bill or doing nothing. It is now a choice between regulation and legislation."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee responsible for climate legislation, said EPA's action is "a wake-up call for Congress" — deal with it directly through legislation or let the EPA regulate.
Friday's action by the EPA triggered a 60-day comment period before the agency issues a final endangerment ruling. That would be followed by a proposal on how to regulate the emissions.
The agency said in its finding that "in both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem" and that carbon dioxide and five other gases "that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."
The EPA concluded that the science pointing to man-made pollution as a cause of global warming is "compelling and overwhelming." It also said tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change.
The EPA action was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling two years ago that said greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and must be regulated if found to be a danger to human health or public welfare.
The Bush administration strongly opposed using the Clean Air Act to address climate change and stalled on producing the so-called "endangerment finding" demanded by the high court in its April 2007 ruling.
The court case, brought by Massachusetts, focused only on emissions from automobiles. But it is widely assumed that if the EPA must regulate emissions from cars and trucks, it will have no choice but to control similar pollution from power plants and industrial sources.
Congress is considering imposing an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions along with giving industry the ability to trade emission allowances to mitigate costs. Legislation could be considered by the House before the August congressional recess.
In addition to carbon dioxide, a product of burning fossil fuels, the EPA finding covers five other emissions that scientists believe are warming the earth when they concentrate in the atmosphere: Methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
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So you get to read it...
Glenn Greenwald
The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV
(updated below - Update II)
The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow's exposés:
Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.
By whom were these "ties to companies" undisclosed and for whom did these deeply conflicted retired generals pose as "analysts"? ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox -- the very companies that have simply suppressed the story from their viewers. They kept completely silent about Barstow's story even though it sparked Congressional inquiries, vehement objections from the then-leading Democratic presidential candidates, and allegations that the Pentagon program violated legal prohibitions on domestic propaganda programs. The Pentagon's secret collaboration with these "independent analysts" shaped multiple news stories from each of these outlets on a variety of critical topics. Most amazingly, many of them continue to employ as so-called "independent analysts" the very retired generals at the heart of Barstow's story, yet still refuse to inform their viewers about any part of this story.
And even now that Barstow yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting -- one of the most prestigious awards any news story can win -- these revelations still may not be uttered on television, tragically dashing the hope expressed yesterday (rhetorically, I presume) by Media Matters' Jamison Foser that "maybe now that the story has won a Pulitzer for Barstow, they'll pay attention." Instead, it was Atrios' prediction that was decisively confirmed: "I don't think a Pulitzer will be enough to give the military analyst story more attention." Here is what Brian Williams said last night on his NBC News broadcast in reporting on the prestigious awards:
The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and the arts were awarded today. The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting. Las Vegas Sun won for the public service category for its reporting on construction worker deaths in that city. Best commentary went to Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, who of course was an on-air commentator for us on MSNBC all through the election season and continues to be. And the award for best biography went to John Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine, for his book "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House."
No mention that among the five NYT prizes was one for investigative reporting. Williams did manage to promote the fact that one of the award winners was an MSNBC contributor, but sadly did not find the time to inform his viewers that NBC News' war reporting and one of Williams' still-featured premiere "independent analysts," Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was and continues to be at the heart of the scandal for which Barstow won the Pulitzer. Williams' refusal to inform his readers about this now-Pulitzer-winning story is particularly notable given his direct personal involvement in the secret, joint attempts by NBC and McCaffrey to contain P.R. damage to NBC from Barstow's story, compounded by the fact that NBC was on notice of these multiple conflicts as early as April, 2003, when The Nation first reported on them.
Identically, CNN ran an 898-word story on the various Pulitzer winners -- describing virtually every winner -- but was simply unable to find any space even to mention David Barstow's name, let alone inform their readers that he won the Prize for uncovering core corruption at the heart of CNN's coverage of the Iraq War and other military-related matters. No other major television news outlet implicated by Barstow's story mentioned his award, at least as far as I can tell.
The outright refusal of any of these "news organizations" even to mention what Barstow uncovered about the Pentagon's propaganda program and the way it infected their coverage is one of the most illuminating events revealing how they operate. So transparently corrupt and journalistically disgraceful is their blackout of this story that even Howard Kurtz and Politico -- that's Howard Kurtz and Politico -- lambasted them for this concealment. Meaningful criticisms of media stars from media critic (and CNN star) Howie Kurtz is about as rare as prosecutions for politically powerful lawbreakers in America, yet this is what he said about the television media's suppression of Barstow's story: "their coverage of this important issue has been pathetic."
Has there ever been another Pulitzer-Prize-winning story for investigative reporting never to be mentioned on major television -- let alone one that was twice featured as the lead story on the front page of The New York Times? To pose the question is to answer it.
UPDATE: Media Matters has more on the glaring omissions in Brian Williams' "reporting" and on the pervasive impact of the Pentagon's program on television news coverage. Williams' behavior has long been disgraceful on this issue, almost certainly due to the fact that some of the "analysts" most directly implicated by Barstow's story are Williams' favored sources and friends.
On a different note, CQ's Jeff Stein responds today to some of the objections to his Jane-Harman/AIPAC/Alberto-Gonazles blockbuster story -- quite convincingly, in my view -- and, as Christy Hardin Smith notes, the New York Times has now independently confirmed much of what Stein reported.
UPDATE II: For some added irony: on his NBS News broadcast last night suppressing any mention of David Barstow's Pulitzer Prize, Brian Williams' lead story concerned Obama's trip to the CIA yesterday. Featured in that story was commentary from Col. Jack Jacobs, identified on-screen this way: "Retired, NBC News Military Analyst." Jacobs was one of the retired officers who was an active member of the Pentagon's "military analyst" program, and indeed, he actively helped plan the Pentagon's media strategy at the very same time he was posing as an "independent analyst" on NBC (h/t reader gc; via NEXIS). So not only did Williams last night conceal from his viewers any mention of the Pentagon program, he featured -- on the very same broadcast -- "independent" commentary from one of the central figures involved in that propaganda program.
On a related note, Howard Kurtz was asked in his Washington Post chat yesterday about Mike Allen's grant of anonymity to a "top Bush official" that I highlighted on Saturday, and Kurtz -- while defending much of Allen's behavior -- said: "I don't believe an ex-official should have been granted anonymity for that kind of harsh attack."
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Global warming 'slowed by pollution'
Pollution is protecting the world from climate change, according to two new studies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5202877/Global-warming-slowed-by-pollution.html
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:42AM BST 23 Apr 2009
The first study found that the hole in the ozone layer, caused by the use of CFCs, has prevented the melting of Antarctica even as the rest of the world warms.
A separate study found that plants absorb more carbon dioxide under polluted skies, therefore slowing global warming.
Scientists said the findings made it even more important to cut carbon emissions in the future as pollution from CFCs and other sources is expected to decrease.
The survey of Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey and Nasa found sea ice in the South Pole has increased at a rate of 100,000 square kilometres (38,601 square miles) a decade over the last 40 years even as the ice cap in the North Pole melts.
The scientists said the reason was the hole in the ozone layer, caused by the use of CFCs. The ozone layer absorbs heat in the atmosphere, but the emergence of the hole – almost the size of North America – has cooled temperatures, resulting in more ice.
However following a ban on CFCs the hole in the ozone layer is expected to repair, causing temperatures in the South Pole to rise again.
The study of plants by scientists from across the UK, including the Met Office, found that "global dimming" caused by polluted skies over the last 40 years has increased the ability of plants to absorb carbon dioxide by as much as a quarter. The study published in Nature said this is because the diffusion of sunlight means the land receives light from different directions rather than just directly from the sun. As a result, plants are able to convert more of the sunlight energy into growth, trapping carbon dioxide as they do so, because more leaves are in the sun.
The increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, may have helped to slow global warming. However as the world cuts pollution it will speed up again.
Both studies concluded that it was even more important to cut carbon emissions in the future as the reduction in pollution will mean global warming is speeding up.
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April 21, 2009, 12:27 pm
Atmospheric CO2 and Methane Still Building
By Andrew C. Revkin
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/atmospheric-co2-and-methane-still-building/
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3536/3462291241_5aa11c3853.jpg?v=0)
The graph shows recent monthly mean carbon dioxide measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (recent months are preliminary data).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reporting that the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, the two most important greenhouse gases released through human activities, rose in 2008.
The agency’s preliminary summary of greenhouse gas trends consolidates data from 60 monitoring stations around the world. A variety of factors shapes how much of these two gases remains in the atmosphere after they are emitted, which is one reason the global economic recession hasn’t become evident in the data yet, N.O.A.A. researchers said.
The concentration of carbon dioxide has reached 386 parts per million in the air. The pre-industrial peak in concentrations was 280 parts per million (UPDATE: for at least the preceding 650,000 years or so). Some scientists, notably James Hansen of NASA, say that a long-term target for the atmospheric concentration of the gas should be 350 parts per million. In this century, given continuing growth in the use of fossil fuels, many climate scientists see the concentration exceeding 450 parts per million or even 550 parts per million before stabilizing and — someday, perhaps — declining.
Methane levels rose in 2008 for the second consecutive year after a 10-year plateau. As the agency put it, “Atmospheric concentrations increased by 4.4 molecules for every billion molecules of air, bringing the total global concentration up to 1788 parts per billion.” Methane persists only a few years in the air, but is about 25 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
In a printed statement, Pieter Tans of the agency’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., said the only way to stop growth in the atmospheric concentration of the gases is to reduce emissions enough that natural processes can keep pace. “Think of the atmosphere and oceans taking in greenhouse gases as a bathtub filling with more water than the drain can empty, and the drain is very slow,” Dr. Tans said.
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Gore, Gingrich face off on climate
Gore endorses House global warming bill
Lisa Lerer – Fri Apr 24, 11:26 am ET
Former Vice President Al Gore pushed Congress to find the “moral courage” to create a cap-and-trade system, endorsing a sweeping climate change proposal as “one of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced in the Congress.”
“I believe this legislation has the moral significance equivalent to that of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s,” he said in testimony delivered to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday morning.
Gore’s testimony will be followed today by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who plans to blast the bill as “wrong for our national security ... wrong for our economy,” while detailing his own 38-point climate change plan — which he pitches as “green conservatism.”
The two party leaders are testifying back to back after days of hearings that included dozens of witnesses from business, government and environmental groups to testify on the controversial legislation. Friday’s panel included former Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, who supported taking action on climate change but cautioned against moving too quickly.
The panelists lend star power to climate change legislation establishing a cap-and-trade system, an idea backed by the administration, environmentalists and some business groups. But the proposal faces serious opposition from Republicans and some Democrats worried that new regulations could hurt the already-struggling economy by raising energy costs for consumers and business.
“I am not satisfied that this bill has adequate protections for our workers and our industries” former Energy Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) told Gore. Dingell and other Democrats from Rust Belt states fear that forcing companies to buy carbon emissions could push trade-sensitive, fossil-fuel intensive industries such as steel and paper overseas.
Gore, a Nobel Prize winner who now heads several environmental groups, argued that the climate change legislation could address the three largest threats facing the country: the climate crisis, the economic downturn and national security threats.
He praised draft legislation introduced three weeks by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, increasing funding for renewable fuels and modernizing the electricity grid.
But Waxman and Markey’s proposal, said Gingrich, closes off domestic sources of energy like shale oil resources in the Rocky Mountains and will raise energy prices on consumers and business.
“Make no mistake about it: This bill amounts to a $1 [trillion] to $2 trillion energy tax levied on a struggling economy, which is destructive and wrong,” Gingrich said in prepared testimony, echoing Republican concerns that a cap-and-trade system would increase electricity prices.
Gore, meanwhile, argues that global warming has caused a number of environmental changes, including more severe hurricanes, increased flooding and the acidification of oceans.
Three weeks ago, Waxman and Markey unveiled an outline of draft legislation that would establish a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide and set new standards for renewable energy.
The proposal takes a slightly more aggressive stance than the Obama administration, recommending a 20 percent cut from 2005 carbon emission levels by 2020. The Obama budget targets a 14 percent cut over the same period.
But their draft avoids some of the most difficult questions, like whether pollution credits will be auctioned off or given away to polluting companies. It also doesn’t address how the revenue collected from the cap-and-trade system would be spent or used to offset higher energy bills for consumers.
Gore said the legislation must “include adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship.”
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Wow.
Mexico shuts schools, museums to stop flu outbreak
Swine Flu Cases May Be Related to Flu Outbreak in Mexico News 8 San
Diego AP – People wear surgical masks as a precaution against infection at a bus stop in Mexico City, Friday, April … By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 35 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital Friday in hopes of containing a swine flu outbreak that authorities say killed at least 20 people — and perhaps dozens more. World health authorities worried openly that the strange new virus could become a global epidemic.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California.
Mexico put the confirmed toll at 20 dead, but 40 other fatalities were being probed, and at least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected flu, the health department said.
Scientists said the virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.
"We are very, very concerned," spokesman Thomas Abraham said.
"We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human," he said. "It's all hands on deck at the moment."
President Felipe Calderon cancelled a trip and met with his Cabinet to coordinate Mexico's response.
The government planned to administer its remaining 500,000 vaccines from the flu season to health workers, the highest risk group, although it is not known how effective they are on swine flu. It said it also has enough oseltamivir, the generic name of Tamiflu, to treat 1 million people, but the medicine will be strictly controlled and handed out only by doctors.
The CDC says Tamiflu and Relenza do seem effective against the new strain. Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said the company is prepared to immediately deploy a stockpile of the drug if requested. Both drugs must be taken early, within a few days of the onset of symptoms, to be most effective.
Authorities urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection.
They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks, and authorities at Mexico City's international airport were questioning passengers to try to prevent anybody with possible influenza from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.
But the CDC said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.
"We certainly have 60 deaths that we can't be sure are from the same virus, but it is probable," said Health Secretary Jose Cordova. He called it a "new, different strain ... that originally came from pigs."
Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It's possible that more vulnerable populations — infants and the aged — had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.
All eight of the California and Texas residents recovered from symptoms that were like those of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea.
Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a pandemic, a worldwide spread of a killer disease. A new virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.
The most notorious flu pandemic is thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19. Two other, less deadly flu pandemics struck in 1957 and 1968.
Nobody can predict when pandemics will happen. Scientists had been concerned about swine flu in 1976, for example, and some 40 million Americans were vaccinated. No flu pandemic ever appeared, but thousands of vaccinated people filed claims saying they'd suffered a paralyzing condition andother side effects from the shots.
In recent years, scientists have been particularly concerned about birds. There have been deaths from bird flu, mostly in Asia, but the virus has so far been unable to spread from person to person easily enough to touch off a pandemic.
Closing the schools across the metropolis of 20 million kept 6.1 million students home from day care centers through high schools, and thousands more were affected as colleges and universities closed down. Parents scrambled to juggle work and family concerns due to what local media said was the first citywide schools closure since Mexico City's devastating 1985 earthquake.
Authorities also advised capital residents not to go to work if they felt ill, and to wear surgical masks if they had to move through crowds. A wider shutdown — perhaps including shutting down government offices — was being considered.
"It is very likely that classes will be suspended for several days," Cordova said. "We will have to evaluate, and let's hope this doesn't happen, the need to restrict activity at workplaces."
Mexico's initial response in its overcrowded capital brought to mind other major outbreaks — such as when SARS hit Asia. At its peak in 2003, Beijing was the hardest-hit city in the world. Schools, cinemas and restaurants were shuttered to prevent the spread the deadly respiratory virus, and thousands of people were quarantined at home.
In March 2008, Hong Kong ordered more than a half million young students to stay home for two weeks because of a flu outbreak. It was the first such closure in Hong Kong since the outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Lillian Molina and other teachers at the Montessori's World preschool scrubbed down their empty classrooms with Clorox, soap and Lysol on Friday between fielding calls from worried parents. While the school has had no known cases among its students, Molina supported the government's decision to shutter classes, especially in preschools.
"It's great they are taking precautions," she said. "I think it's a really good idea."
Still, U.S. health officials said it's not yet a reason for alarm in the United States. The five in California and two in Texas have all recovered, and testing indicates some common antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.
Schuchat of the CDC said officials believe the new strain can spread human-to-human, which is unusual for a swine flu virus. The CDC is checking people who have been in contact with the seven confirmed U.S. cases, who all became ill between late March and mid-April.
The U.S. cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.
CDC officials described the virus as having a unique combination of gene segments not seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
Health officials have seen mixes of bird, pig and human virus before, but never such an intercontinental combination with more than one pig virus in the mix.
Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The virus may be something completely new, or it may have been around for a while but was only detected now because of improved lab testing and disease surveillance, CDC officials said.
The virus was first detected in two children in southern California — a 10-year-old boy in San Diego County and a 9-year-old girl in neighboring Imperial County.
It's not known if the seasonal flu vaccine Americans got this winter protects against this type of virus. People should wash their hands and take other precautions, CDC officials said.
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yes, yikes.
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It makes me think that some of these viruses are man-made. These pandemics feel like it to wipe out populations with an overpopulation crisis on the planet. Like the AIDS virus - from monkeys my ass. Why is it where they were doing 'vaccinations' the virus began to boom. Regular vaccinations. So I dont always trust even govt vaccinations and so forth, cause one way of wiping out folks is by a virus and then if you cant trace its origin or even patient zero, then what can you do?
Im of course no doc or expert on viruses and so forth, but still this shit in mexico is shady to me. From swines, from monkeys. It really makes me wonder if sometimes some govts initiate silent bombs to kill folks off.
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Genetic analysis of the virus indicates it is highly unusual: It is a hybrid that resulted from a combination of four different viruses -- one that typically infects people, one that originated in North American birds and two from pigs in Europe and Asia.
"This combination has not been recognized before in the U.S. or elsewhere," Schuchat said.
Although the cases all are scattered along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials have not identified any cases in Mexico. But they are continuing to investigate.
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Genetic analysis of the virus indicates it is highly unusual: It is a hybrid that resulted from a combination of four different viruses -- one that typically infects people, one that originated in North American birds and two from pigs in Europe and Asia.
"This combination has not been recognized before in the U.S. or elsewhere," Schuchat said.
Although the cases all are scattered along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials have not identified any cases in Mexico. But they are continuing to investigate.
Yep, exactly, there are folks who know how to manufacture viruses. Use people in mexico as guinea pigs for practice. Germ warfare, why not? Its a silent bomb. You wanna take out a whole country and stuff, do germ warfare, cause then whos gonna know who dropped that bomb?
So it makes you wonder when you hear about things like that. And then, why along the mexican border? its on the border, moreso than throughout mexico at the moment. Hm.
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Threat to European biodiversity 'as serious as climate change'
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009
Juliette Jowit
Most of Europe's species and habitats are in poor condition and the risk of extinction continues to rise, environment chiefs are to warn at a major biodiversity conference in Athens this week
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2009/4/24/1240589242922/-Dormouse-001.jpg)
A dormouse hibernates in its nest. Photograph: George McCarthy/© George McCarthy/CORBIS
The natural world across Europe is suffering a crisis as serious as the threat of climate change, Europe's environment chiefs are to warn this week.
A report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) to be published next month sounds the alarm that most species and habitats across the continent are in poor condition and the risk of extinction continues to rise.
New figures for the UK also show that even the most important and rare plants and animals are suffering: eight out of 10 habitats and half of species given the highest level of European protection are in an "unfavourable" condition.
Species at risk in the UK range from insects like the honeybee and swallowtail butterfly, to mammals and birds at the top of the food chain such as the otter and the golden eagle, said the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH).
The losses threaten to undermine vital ecosystem services like clean water and fertile soils, which underpin both quality of life and the economy, said Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA's executive director.
"Much of our economy in Europe relies on the fact we have natural resources underpinning everything," McGlade told the Guardian. The losses of wildlife and habitat are a threat to being able to live sustainably within the enviroment in the future, she said. "Some of the losses are irreversible."
McGlade will present findings from the agency report at a major conference next week called by the European environment commissioner Stavros Dimas. He is worried that the European commission has failed to meet a pledge to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, and recently warned "the loss of biodiversity is a global threat that is every bit as serious as climate change".
"The reasons that we are losing biodiversity are well known: destruction of habitats, pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and, most recently, climate change," Dimas will tell the conference in Athens. "The compound effect of these forces is terrifying."
At another high-level conference in London on Wednesday, organised by the CEH, leaders from business, government, academics and NGOs will warn that ecosystems underpin human lifestyles from air, water and food to resources for industry.
Professor Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientific adviser and president of the Royal Society, said: "Our massive and unintended experiment on the planet's reaction to unsustainable levels of human impacts is approaching crisis point. The future is not yet beyond rescue, provided we take appropriate action with due urgency."
The EEA report says although there have been some conservation successes, including halting the decline of common songbirds, the "overall status and trends of most species and habitats give rise to concern".
Figures for the habitats and species awarded special protection under the EU habitats directive reveal that across 40 countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union, 50-85% of habitats and 40-70% of species were in an "unfavourable" condition, and many more could not be assessed because of a lack of information.
Across Europe, the biggest declines from 1990 to 2000 had been for bogs and fenland, heathland and coastal habitats. Woodland, forests and lakes had grown, but these increases were dwarfed by the biggest habitat expansion, which was "constructed, industrial, artificial habitats".
Populations of some European common birds stopped falling in the 1990s, but all groups of birds had fallen in numbers since 1980, and other species groups like butterflies, amphibians and pollinating insects had declined dramatically, said the report.
The report notes that habitats and species in the habitats directive were chosen because they were under threat, and so were harder to conserve.
"Ecosystems generally show a fair amount of resilience," it adds. "Beyond certain thresholds, however, ecosystems may collapse and transform into distinctly different states, potentially with considerable impacts on humans."
Reforms to be put to the conference in Athens include better management of protected areas, which now make up more than 17% of the European Union territory; targets for economic sectors, such as transport, to ensure they do not have a negative impact on the environment; and more work on putting a "value" on ecosystem services so conservationists can argue their case against developers, said McGlade.
"This is not about putting a price on everything, it's a value. This will transform the discussion because somebody can say 'you're eating away at our capital - grassland', or whatever the landscape or species is."
In a statement, Defra, the UK environment department, said the government fully supported strong international targets, but said many conservation schemes were working.
"For example, England's Sites of Special Scientific Interest are in better condition than ever at 88.4% in favourable or recovering condition compared with 57% in 2003," it added.
Globally, last year's annual "red ist" of endangered species from the IUCN conservation organisation warned that the world's mammals face an extinction crisis, with almost one in four of 5,487 known species at risk of disappearing forever.
Some UK species at risk
Mammals - Dormouse, otter
Birds - Golden eagle, cuckoo
Insects - Swallowtail butterfly, garden tiger moth, stag beetle
Amphibians - Great crested newt
Pollinators - Honeybee, several kinds of bumblebee
Source: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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"Much of our economy in Europe relies on the fact we have natural resources underpinning everything," McGlade told the Guardian.
Well, well, well - it took its time! How about natural resources underpinning all economies in the world? :)
Hilarious!
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why should I be optimistic?
Krishna wanted the war to happen so a whole pile of earthling people would die - so he could try something new.
Why should I hope for the best?
Naturally I want things to grow and flourish - that is only human.
But when it begins to look like a balls-up, why not opt for replacement instead of repair?
I mean, it's only death - what's so big about that?
I murder rats, mosquitoes, ants, cockroaches, rabbits, foxes, bacteria, white-tailed spiders, silver-fish, moth grubs, white-ants, weeds and viruses of all kinds ... the list goes on - I'm a mass murderer, a serial killer of the worst kind. Is God any different?
I eat lettuce, potatoes, flesh, beans, broccoli, eggs ... the list goes on. You know, I seem to have to murder just to stay alive!
Why not murder the human race and start again?
Hitler had a similar idea - maybe he was right.
dust to dust - is it any wonder I love deserts?
and desserts?
I'm going off to eat another murdered living thing ...
I ask you in all seriousness - prove to me that a fly is less worthy of life than a human.
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I ask you in all seriousness - prove to me that a fly is less worthy of life than a human.
Personally I cannot prove this, because it is not true for me.
What you say sounds a lot like an article I read recently by Adi da. He says
For the Love
A talk by Adi Da Samraj
November 26, 1984
On this day a remarkable dialogue took place between Adi Da Samraj and Aniello Panico, who, at that time, was serving in the kitchen at Adidam Samrajashram in Fiji. Aniello had discovered a large rat there—surrounded by the corpses of five mice, whose heads had been chewed off. Repelled, Aniello had asked Adi Da for one of the cats on the island to "take care" of this rat.
ANIELLO: Now, everybody here would call it a mouse, but I'm from New York, and I know it was a rat! He was easily six inches long. He was looking at us and thinking he was as cute as Mickey Mouse.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: They are cute, Aniello. I don't mind them.
ANIELLO: But, Master, he wasn't alone. There were four or five little mice with their heads eaten off! This killer was trying to look cute, as if he were at Disneyland, but that devil had eaten those little mice's heads off.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Eating beings is always disturbing—not necessarily the eating, but the witnessing of the eating. There is nothing I can do about this, Aniello. This world is dreadful. Do you have any idea what is happening in conditional nature?
All beings are My own. Yet, you must sacrifice them in order to live. You beings, you humans here, require the murdering of living beings to eat and survive. You must come to terms with this fact. To do so you must come to terms with your own life and death and accept the fact that you are a sacrifice, and that conditionally manifested existence is not merely a jolly time. All of you could potentially die a painful death and live a painful lifetime. By entering into relationship with Me, I am Giving you another slice of possibility.
Do not become overly disgusted by the manifestations of non-human creatures, Aniello. Accept your own state and the fact that you, in a sense, eat heads and require the pain of beings to live. Beyond that, know that you must accept the pain of life and death. You are a sacrifice. To exist in this form is revolting, treacherous, and potentially painful. Some few may slide through with comparatively little pain and die in bed, but of the beings on this planet, how many do?
Human beings are not gods and goddesses here. All suffer the fate of animals. All must come to terms with this and, out of compassion, relieve as many as possible from that destiny.
Do you know how many dreadful deaths human beings have suffered compared to your mice? There have been much worse. And how many fear death? How many fear that kind of death? Everyone does. All are meat and can be eaten. Luckily for you, you get to Commune with Me and live the Truth and be Delighted and experience Ecstasy while manifest in mortal form.
So you have the potential to do something different, but you do not have the potential to not sacrifice. Conditionally manifested existence is participation in sacrifice, and there is no reason to be righteous about that fact. You should be humbled by the knowledge. You cannot even breathe without sacrificing self-conscious beings. You cannot walk or move, you cannot live from day to day, without taking life in some form. You may eat an orange or a bit of lettuce in your salad. Look at your plate. Look at the sacrifice. Do not be guilty about it. Know it. You are not yet so different from the rat. You eat heads, too. You are revolting. You are flesh. You are to be sacrificed. You are a sacrifice in your most precious form, that to which you would most dearly cling. You are! Be revolted, but be illumined by your knowledge. Make changes. Devote your sacrifice to changing existence. Do not be happy about it, but do not be righteous either. This is My advice, Aniello.
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A flu pandemic ... hmm ... imagine the instantaneous results ... stop the damage being currently done in our environment in a matter of a few weeks. Maybe it's the "Save the Earth" activists. ;)
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I ask you in all seriousness - prove to me that a fly is less worthy of life than a human.
Banana flies has done a lot for human resarch. We owe them something in return.
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Banana flies has done a lot for human resarch. We owe them something in return.
Flies do a lot for the turning of the World. Decomposition is no small affair.
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why should I be optimistic?
Krishna wanted the war to happen so a whole pile of earthling people would die - so he could try something new.
Why should I hope for the best?
Naturally I want things to grow and flourish - that is only human.
But when it begins to look like a balls-up, why not opt for replacement instead of repair?
I mean, it's only death - what's so big about that?
I murder rats, mosquitoes, ants, cockroaches, rabbits, foxes, bacteria, white-tailed spiders, silver-fish, moth grubs, white-ants, weeds and viruses of all kinds ... the list goes on - I'm a mass murderer, a serial killer of the worst kind. Is God any different?
I eat lettuce, potatoes, flesh, beans, broccoli, eggs ... the list goes on. You know, I seem to have to murder just to stay alive!
Why not murder the human race and start again?
Hitler had a similar idea - maybe he was right.
dust to dust - is it any wonder I love deserts?
and desserts?
I'm going off to eat another murdered living thing ...
I ask you in all seriousness - prove to me that a fly is less worthy of life than a human.
At last! I've waited for years to hear that...
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I do it as a practice to avoid killing the creatures, great and small. I will of course scrub bacteria off lol, but its just about being more conscious of being a human being and what it entails. Its that simple. So I dont mindlessly kill. Its a good mindful practice to save a spider vs squash it.
I cant prove that a fly is more or less worthy of life c ause cant see his or her karma and all she did. Just cause they're gross to us doesnt mean they are actually gross. Just their function in the world to lay maggots and eat rotting corpses and stuff like that.
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There's something fishy in this whole thing, like how they knew it was a pandemic from the get-go. Something's wrong with this picture.
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – 14 mins ago
GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
Nations from New Zealand to France also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the east coast Canadian province had confirmed four "very mild" cases of swine flu in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.
"It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread," Strang said.
The news follows the World Health Organization's decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a "public health emergency of international concern."
A senior World Health Organization official said the agency's emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the extent to which the virus has spread before deciding whether to increase the pandemic alert beyond phase 3.
The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security.
Mexico's health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but so far no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
WHO's emergency committee is still trying to determine exactly how the virus has spread, Fukuda said
"Right now we have cases occurring in a couple of different countries and in multiple locations," he said. "But we also know that in the modern world that cases can simply move around from single locations and not really become established."
Raising the pandemic alert phase could entail issuing specific recommendations to countries on how to halt the disease. So far, WHO has only urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic potential" because the virus can pass from human to human.
Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice.
"Countries are encouraged to do anything that they feel would be a precautionary measure," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said. "All countries need to enhance their monitoring."
New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico "likely" had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu in two regions are currently under investigation. All recently returned from Mexico.
Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.
Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival from an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until the cause of the fever is determined.
Tokyo's Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico.
Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms — using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. It said it was ready to quarantine suspected victims if necessary.
Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy, Poland and Venezuela also advised their citizens to postpone travel to affected areas of Mexico and the United States.
Symptoms of the flu-like illness include a fever of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.
The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission.
No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.
Russia banned the import of meat products from Mexico, California, Texas and Kansas. South Korea said it would increase the number of its influenza virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the U.S.
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Makes you wonder if its a good idea to avoid eating pork.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2008/08/17/20080817vip-gober0817.html
Global warming aside, fresh water dwindling2 commentsby Patricia Gober - Aug. 17, 2008 12:00 AM
Arizona State University
According to a study published in the July 14, 2000, issue of Science, one-third of the world's population is water-stressed, with 8 percent classified as severely water-stressed, including the western United States and northern Mexico, South America, India, China, Africa surrounding the Sahara Desert, and southern Africa and Australia.
"Water stress" has profoundly different meanings in developed and developing countries. In Africa and many parts of Asia, it means inadequate water for drinking, sanitation and crops. In emerging economies such as India and China, it translates as an inability to meet the dietary and lifestyle aspirations of a growing middle class.
Water stress in richer nations, and in places such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, means an inability to sustain a growth economy and support lavish oasis-style lifestyles featuring irrigated lawns, outdoor swimming pools, artificial waterfalls and urban lakes.
Per capita water withdrawal and use vary widely according to a country's technological capacity and economic profile, but almost two-thirds of all water withdrawn from Earth's rivers and streams is used for agriculture. Agriculture accounts for 85 percent of "consumptive uses" overall: water that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into crops, or consumed by humans or livestock. Domestic households use an additional 10 percent, industry uses 20 percent, and nearly 4 percent is lost from evaporation at reservoirs.
The problem of water stress has other facets, as well, such as the often-overlooked environmental needs of plants, animals and natural landscapes, or the flow of "virtual water" contained in trade goods. It takes 57 gallons of water to produce a pound of corn and 855 gallons of water to produce a pound of corn-fed beef, meaning that exporting corn and beef is equivalent to exporting water. World trade can therefore be a mechanism to exacerbate or relieve water stress.
Water stressors
Future water demand, with or without climate change, will grow substantially.
According to the Population Reference Bureau, the world will grow by 6.6 million to 8 million by 2025, and by up to 9.3 million in 2050, with nearly all growth occurring in developing countries lacking capacity to increase water supplies or improve delivery.
The world is also rapidly urbanizing, creating additional stress by concentrating demand in small areas. Currently, the developed world is more than 70 percent urbanized, whereas less than 40 percent of the population of Africa and Asia is urban. However, 50 percent of Africans and Asians and 60 percent of the world will live in urban areas by 2030.
As needs grow, cities will intensify aquifer drawdown and divert more distant surface-water flows, leading to potential conflicts between sectors, people, regions and countries. One need only consider the approximately 2 million people displaced by China's Three Gorges Dam or the depleting aquifer that Israel currently shares with its neighbors to see the potential outcomes of such shifts.
The rising middle class in many developing countries also stresses water supplies by demanding better diets and urban lifestyles, although the overall relationship between economic development and water demand remains controversial because the efficiency associated with higher levels of development and technology can also reduce water use.
Climate change has the potential to alter both water supply and demand. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment report in 2007, increasing temperatures suggest increased evaporation and decreased stream flows, as well as rising seas that could contaminate freshwater estuaries and groundwater resources. Increasingly variable precipitation will likely mean more frequent high-intensity droughts and floods and less available rainfall in arid and semiarid regions, including Arizona.
The energy-water nexus
Water and energy are closely intertwined, a relationship that is often overlooked. Water provides the steam driving nuclear turbines. It cools thermal plants and powers hydroelectricity. Concurrently, loads of energy go toward desalinating, pumping and moving water. Producing 1 kilowatt of electricity requires an estimated 36 to 53 gallons of water, depending on whether fossil fuel or nuclear plants are used.
Large-scale desalination plants require substantial amounts of energy and specialized, expensive infrastructure, making them accessible for Middle Eastern countries with large energy reserves - Saudi Arabia's desalination plants account for about 24 percent of total world capacity - but non-viable for places that are poor, deep in the interior or at high elevation. Unfortunately, many of the world's most severe water problems occur in such places.
The water-energy relationship limits the usefulness of high-energy solutions in addressing climate-induced water shortages. It also significantly expands and alters the climate-change debate. We have long recognized that energy is a global resource, and it is now becoming clear that water, too, is global. Rich countries, trading virtual water and using energy to solve water-shortage problems, may accentuate global warming and water stress in poor countries.
Politics of water
Water stress and competition are among the oldest causes of conflict in human history. The Los Angeles aqueduct/pipeline bombings from 1907 to 1913 (an effort to prevent diversions of water from the Owens Valley) and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement's attacks on Israeli diversion pumps in 1965 are but two modern examples.
Dams can lead to destabilizing population displacements, particularly among poor and indigenous populations, and international tensions. Ten million to 60 million people have been displaced by dams in China, and, closer to home, damming the Colorado River has exacerbated water-management conflicts between Mexico and the United States.
Recent conflicts over water have focused on perceived inequities associated with water development, and for the 1 billion people who lack access to safe drinking water and the 2.4 billion who lack adequate sanitation, climate-induced water stress may well devolve into humanitarian crises and mass population displacements in the future.
Final thoughts
Water resources are in crisis, with or without climate change, because, barring unforeseen technological advances in desalination, Earth's freshwater supply is limited and geographically variable.
Pressure upon it, already increasing over the past 50 years because of rapid population growth, urbanization, globalization, extreme poverty and woeful governance, will only increase with global climate change. Meanwhile, easy-fix technological solutions, with their high energy requirements, are not affordable for poor countries and may even exacerbate global warming.
Patricia Gober is a professor of geographical sciences and sustainability at Arizona State University and co-director of the Global Institute of Sustainability's Decision Center for a Desert City, providing research and education focused on water- management decisions in central Arizona. For more information, visit: dcdc.asu.edu.
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Makes you wonder if its a good idea to avoid eating pork.
Ever since the Willie Pickton story broke in Canada, I've been a little leery of eating Pork. :o
Ya know, though there is something you CAN do if you really are worried about getting sick from the food you eat. You can bless your food (and water) before you put it in your mouth. Spiritual folks have known this forever, and Indians do this too. But Scientific evidence now supports the idea that you can actually change the properties of the food you are about to consume by blessing it and or praying to/for it before you ingest it. Not a bad idea, today.
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Not a bad idea at all. My sis and family say grace even in public before eating food and does a small prayer beforehand.
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Not a bad idea at all. My sis and family say grace even in public before eating food and does a small prayer beforehand.
Eh, that's not exactly what I am talking about, but along the same lines, I guess.
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Eh, that's not exactly what I am talking about, but along the same lines, I guess.
Well its still a blessing of the food, they do ask "Dear Lord Bless this food we are about to receive...." like that.
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Well its still a blessing of the food, they do ask "Dear Lord Bless this food we are about to receive...." like that.
I was thinking of doing it yourself, sending energy and positive vibes into your food or water. I guess asking the 'Lord' to do it would work, too. Assuming the Lord was listening and willing to do it. heh
;)
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There's something fishy in this whole thing, like how they knew it was a pandemic from the get-go.
Answered my own pondering here -- it all goes to how pandemic is defined:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic can start when three conditions have been met:
* Emergence of a disease new to a population.
* Agents infect humans, causing serious illness.
* Agents spread easily and sustainably among humans.
A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic, because the disease is not infectious or contagious.
Interestingly (and I think this has already been mentioned), this virus is a combination of pig, bird, and human dna. It's a designer-virus, like the aids virus (which was cow-and-pig dna). Was the designer some mad scientist whose experiment was forgotten, or a bioterrorist, or nature? This is the question. Whether warfare or mad science, it's still nature, though, n'est-ce pas? (We forget that, as we are part of nature, that our own acts, bizarre and unpleasing though they often are, are nature too. We just have the sociopath's secret malaise -- guilty that we manipulated a thing, seeming to render the outcome unreal.)
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heard a program this morning on flu viruses.
there are two kinds - seasonal and pandemics.
Seasonal viruses begin in East Asia, and travel to Europe, then North America, or down to Australia. There is enough lead time to get the anti-flu immunisations out, as they know what is coming. But they die in Australia because there is nowhere else to go. So each year's virus is different to the last.
From North America, they travel to South America, but there is a longer lead time again on that, so in South America there is some confusion as to whether to treat with last season's antivirals or this season's. Then they die in South America.
Pandemics can begin anywhere, and they spread not so logically. Seasonal viruses are mostly variations of the last pandemic.
Whatever the origin of this one, it has all the properties of a what they always fear - pigs being closer to humans. Seems this is a mix of bird and swine viruses, mutated with human influenza. Already people are catching it directly from other humans, meaning it has mutated into a pure human adaptation.
the only good thing is that the deaths have so far been only in Mexico, meaning it may not be that big a killer internationally.
Looks like pretty big scare though. Glad I don't hold shares in airline companies.
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Swine flu epidemic enters dangerous new phase
AP
Ground Zero for Swine Flu Play Video ABC News – Ground Zero for Swine Flu
Karya Lustig, center, training manager at La Clinica de la Raza, trains clerks AP – Karya Lustig, center, training manager at La Clinica de la Raza, trains clerks Mayra Torres, left, and …
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO and PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writers E. Eduardo Castillo And Paul Haven, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 49 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.
The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States.
The virus poses a potentially grave new threat to the U.S. economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery. A widespread outbreak could batter tourism, food and transportation industries, deepening the recession in the U.S. and possibly worldwide.
The suspected number of deaths rose to 149 in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with nearly 2,000 people believed to be infected.
The number of U.S. cases rose to 48, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal. Other U.S. cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 73 cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.
While the total cases were still measured in hundreds, not thousands, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the epidemic was entering an extremely dangerous phase, with the number of people infected mushrooming even as authorities desperately ramped up defenses.
"We are in the most critical moment of the epidemic. The number of cases will keep rising, so we have to reinforce preventative measures," Cordova said at a news conference.
The WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.
Its alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004, and Monday was the first time it was raised above Phase 3.
"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," as the virus has already spread to several other countries, said WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.
Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting its spread.
Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.
It could take 4-6 months before the first batch of vaccines are available to fight the virus, WHO officials said.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid global fears of a pandemic, an epidemic spread over a large area, either a region or worldwide.
President Barack Obama said the outbreak was reason for concern, but not yet "a cause for alarm."
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that so far the virus in the United States seems less severe than in Mexico. Only one person has been hospitalized in the U.S.
"I wouldn't be overly reassured by that," Besser told reporters at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, raising the possibility of more severe cases in the United States.
"We are taking it seriously and acting aggressively," Besser said. "Until the outbreak has progressed, you really don't know what it's going to do."
U.S. customs officials began checking people entering U.S. territory. Millions of doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile were on their way to states, with priority given to the five already affected and to border states. Federal agencies were conferring with state and international governments.
"We want to make sure that we have equipment where it needs to be, people where they need to be and, most important, information shared at all levels," said Janet Napolitano, head of the Homeland Security Department.
"We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic," Napolitano said.
She said travel warnings for trips to Mexico would remain in place as long as swine flu is detected.
Mexico canceled school at all levels nationwide until May 6, and the Mexico City government said it was considering a complete shutdown, including all public transportation, if the death toll keeps rising. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Alarcon said employers should isolate anyone showing up for work with fever, cough, sore throat or other signs of the flu.
Even some of Mexico's most treasured national holidays were affected by the swine flu alert.
Authorities announced Monday the cancellation of the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, in which people in period costumes celebrate Mexican troops' defeat of a French army on May 5, 1862. The national labor umbrella group announced the cancellation of Mexico City's traditional May 1 parade and the National Institute of Anthropology and History said all of its 116 museums nationwide would be closed until further notice.
Amid the warnings, the Mexican government grappled with increasing criticism of its response. At least two weeks after the first swine flu case, the government has yet to say where and how the outbreak began or give details on the victims.
The health department lacked the staff to visit the homes of all those suspected to have died from the disease, Cordova said.
Cordova said 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.
He said tests show a 4-year-old boy contracted the virus before April 2 in Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm.
The farm is run by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a joint venture half owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Inc. Spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine flu in its herd or its employees working anywhere in Mexico.
Mexico's Agriculture Department said Monday that its inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico.
As if the country did not have enough to deal with, Cordova's comments were briefly interrupted by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in southern Mexico that rattled already jittery nerves and sent mask-wearing office workers into the streets of the capital.
Aside from the confirmed cases, 13 are suspected in New Zealand, and one is suspected in both France and Israel.
European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico and parts of the United States, although Besser said that including the U.S. in the advisory seemed unwarranted at this time.
State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Vassiliou's remarks were his "personal opinion," not an official EU position, and therefore the department had no comment.
"We don't want people to panic at this point," Wood said.
The U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country by air, land and sea, and the State Department warned U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. It said those who live in Mexico should avoid hospitals or clinics there unless they have a medical emergency.
The best way to keep the disease from spreading, Besser said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well. He said authorities are not recommending that people wear masks at work because evidence that it is effective "is not that strong."
Besser said about 11 million doses of flu-fighting drugs from a federal stockpile have been sent to states in case they are needed. That's roughly one quarter of the doses in the stockpile, he said.
There is no vaccine available to prevent the specific strain now being seen, he said, but some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.
If a new vaccine eventually is ordered, the CDC already has taken a key preliminary step — creating what's called seed stock of the virus that manufacturers would use.
Many of the cases outside Mexico have been relatively mild. Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.
European and U.S. markets bounced back from early losses as pharmaceutical stocks were lifted by expectations that health authorities will increase stockpiles of anti-viral drugs. Stocks of airlines, hotels and other travel-related companies posted sharper losses.
WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley singled out air travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.
Governments in Asia — with potent memories of previous flu outbreaks — were especially cautious. Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.
In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
China, Russia and Ukraine were among countries banning imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three U.S. states that have reported swine flu cases, while other countries, such as Indonesia, banned all pork imports.
The CDC says people cannot get the flu by eating pork or pork products.
Germany's leading vacation tour operators were skipping stops in Mexico City as a precaution. The Hannover-based TUI said trips through May 4 to Mexico City were being suspended, including those operated by TUI itself and through companies 1-2 Fly, Airtours, Berge & Meer, Grebeco and L'tur.
Japan's largest tour agency, JTB Corp., suspended tours to Mexico through June 30. Russian travel agencies said about a third of those planning to travel to Mexico in early May had already canceled.
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US flu deaths seen as likely as outbreak spreads
– Containing the Swine Flu Outbreak
WASHINGTON – More fell ill with swine flu in the U.S. and deaths seem likely as governments around the world on Tuesday intensified steps to battle the outbreak that has killed scores in Mexico.
President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the fast-spreading disease. Cuba banned flights to Mexico, where public life is being altered dramatically by illness.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office was investigating the recent deaths of two men for links to swine flu. So far, no deaths linked to the disease have been reported outside Mexico. And the number of students who have fallen ill at a New York City school hit by the outbreak climbed to several hundred, officials said.
"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta.
Besser said the U.S. has 64 confirmed cases across five states, with 45 in New York, one in Ohio, two in Kansas, six in Texas and 10 in California.
But states are reporting more illnesses that could be linked to the flu.
New York has the largest number of swine flu cases, with a heavy concentration at a Catholic school in Queens section of New York City, where students recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico.
Several hundred students have fallen ill at that school, city officials said Tuesday.
There also were indications that the outbreak may have spread beyond the school, with two people hospitalized and officials closing a school for autistic kids down the street. Those two hospitalizations are in addition to the five hospitalizations announced by the CDC, including three in California and two in Texas.
"It is here and it is spreading," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."
Cuba banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is believed to have killed more than 150 people. Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, cracked down even further on public life, closing gyms, swimming pools and pool halls and ordering restaurants to limit service to takeout. Earlier, the city shut down schools, state-run theaters and other public places.
But for all the government intervention, health officials around the world suggested the flu virus strain was spreading so fast that efforts to contain it might prove ineffective.
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.
Obama's request for $1.5 billion in emergency funds would help build drug stockpiles and monitor future cases as well as help international efforts. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the flu outbreak requires "prudent planning" and not panic.
Cuba was the first country to impose an outright travel ban. But the United States and a number of other countries, including Canada, Israel, France and the European Union's disease control agency have warned against nonessential travel to Mexico.
The swine flu already has spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO to raise its alert level on Monday but not call for travel bans or border closings.
Around the world, officials hoped the outbreak would not turn into a full-fledged pandemic, an epidemic that spreads across a wide geographical area.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States.
But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which humans may have no natural immunity.
New Zealand reported that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico had contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.
Israel's Health Ministry confirmed two swine flu cases in men who recently returned from Mexico. One has recovered and the other was not believed to be in serious danger, health officials said.
Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.
With the virus spreading, the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.
"We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday.
On Capitol Hill, a Senate panel held an emergency meeting on the disease.
"Based on the pattern of illness we're seeing, we don't think this virus can be contained. ... But we do think we can reduce the impact of its spread, and reduce its impact on health," Rear. Adm. Anne Schuchat, the CDC interim science and public health deputy director, told a Senate Appropriations health subcommittee.
"There's a lot of anxiety right now across the country," subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.
"It's important for people to know there's a lot that we can do," Schuchat told Harkin. "The investments that have been made in preparedness are making a difference."
Still, she warned, not only might the disease get worse, "it might get much worse."
"We don't have all the answers today," she added.
__
Associated Press writers Peter Orsi, Julie Watson and E. Eduardo Castillo, in Mexico City; Mike Stobbe in Atlanta; Mary Clare Jalonick, David Espo, Philip Elliott and Matthew Lee in Washington; Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Frank Jordans and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Maria Cheng in London and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
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why should I be optimistic?
Krishna wanted the war to happen so a whole pile of earthling people would die - so he could try something new.
Why should I hope for the best?
Naturally I want things to grow and flourish - that is only human.
But when it begins to look like a balls-up, why not opt for replacement instead of repair?
I mean, it's only death - what's so big about that?
I murder rats, mosquitoes, ants, cockroaches, rabbits, foxes, bacteria, white-tailed spiders, silver-fish, moth grubs, white-ants, weeds and viruses of all kinds ... the list goes on - I'm a mass murderer, a serial killer of the worst kind. Is God any different?
I eat lettuce, potatoes, flesh, beans, broccoli, eggs ... the list goes on. You know, I seem to have to murder just to stay alive!
Why not murder the human race and start again?
Hitler had a similar idea - maybe he was right.
dust to dust - is it any wonder I love deserts?
and desserts?
I'm going off to eat another murdered living thing ...
I ask you in all seriousness - prove to me that a fly is less worthy of life than a human.
::)
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US flu deaths seen as likely as outbreak spreads
– Containing the Swine Flu Outbreak
WASHINGTON – More fell ill with swine flu in the U.S. and deaths seem likely as governments around the world on Tuesday intensified steps to battle the outbreak that has killed scores in Mexico.
President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the fast-spreading disease. Cuba banned flights to Mexico, where public life is being altered dramatically by illness.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office was investigating the recent deaths of two men for links to swine flu. So far, no deaths linked to the disease have been reported outside Mexico. And the number of students who have fallen ill at a New York City school hit by the outbreak climbed to several hundred, officials said.
"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta.
Besser said the U.S. has 64 confirmed cases across five states, with 45 in New York, one in Ohio, two in Kansas, six in Texas and 10 in California.
But states are reporting more illnesses that could be linked to the flu.
New York has the largest number of swine flu cases, with a heavy concentration at a Catholic school in Queens section of New York City, where students recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico.
Several hundred students have fallen ill at that school, city officials said Tuesday.
There also were indications that the outbreak may have spread beyond the school, with two people hospitalized and officials closing a school for autistic kids down the street. Those two hospitalizations are in addition to the five hospitalizations announced by the CDC, including three in California and two in Texas.
"It is here and it is spreading," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."
Cuba banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is believed to have killed more than 150 people. Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, cracked down even further on public life, closing gyms, swimming pools and pool halls and ordering restaurants to limit service to takeout. Earlier, the city shut down schools, state-run theaters and other public places.
But for all the government intervention, health officials around the world suggested the flu virus strain was spreading so fast that efforts to contain it might prove ineffective.
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.
Obama's request for $1.5 billion in emergency funds would help build drug stockpiles and monitor future cases as well as help international efforts. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the flu outbreak requires "prudent planning" and not panic.
Cuba was the first country to impose an outright travel ban. But the United States and a number of other countries, including Canada, Israel, France and the European Union's disease control agency have warned against nonessential travel to Mexico.
The swine flu already has spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO to raise its alert level on Monday but not call for travel bans or border closings.
Around the world, officials hoped the outbreak would not turn into a full-fledged pandemic, an epidemic that spreads across a wide geographical area.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States.
But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which humans may have no natural immunity.
New Zealand reported that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico had contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.
Israel's Health Ministry confirmed two swine flu cases in men who recently returned from Mexico. One has recovered and the other was not believed to be in serious danger, health officials said.
Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.
With the virus spreading, the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.
"We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday.
On Capitol Hill, a Senate panel held an emergency meeting on the disease.
"Based on the pattern of illness we're seeing, we don't think this virus can be contained. ... But we do think we can reduce the impact of its spread, and reduce its impact on health," Rear. Adm. Anne Schuchat, the CDC interim science and public health deputy director, told a Senate Appropriations health subcommittee.
"There's a lot of anxiety right now across the country," subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.
"It's important for people to know there's a lot that we can do," Schuchat told Harkin. "The investments that have been made in preparedness are making a difference."
Still, she warned, not only might the disease get worse, "it might get much worse."
"We don't have all the answers today," she added.
__
Associated Press writers Peter Orsi, Julie Watson and E. Eduardo Castillo, in Mexico City; Mike Stobbe in Atlanta; Mary Clare Jalonick, David Espo, Philip Elliott and Matthew Lee in Washington; Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Frank Jordans and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Maria Cheng in London and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
I heard this tonight on the news as well. I guess they say this every year (since this article is from 2005). I did some research and found the article below, which sounds more truthful. There's something else going on ... this flu situation sounds like a distraction of some sort ... maybe a 'controlled fire' got out of hand ... or maybe some connection to our big 'war on drugs' in mexico ;) ... of course, just my opinions.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/miller_flu.html
Annual Flu Deaths: The Big Lie
By Neil Z. Miller
http://www.thinktwice.com/flu_lie.htm
Every year, just prior to the impending "flu season," the CDC and their acquiescent media pawns terrorize the American public with false claims regarding annual flu deaths. The CDC boldly asserts that 36,000 people die every year from the flu. Such scare tactics are calculated to increase flu vaccine sales. However, according to the CDC's own official records documented in National Vital Statistics Reports, only a few hundred people die from influenza (flu) on an average year. And many of these deaths occur in people with preexisting conditions, weakened immune systems, and the elderly. For example, in 2002, 753 people died from the flu. The year before, in 2001, just 257 people died from the flu. (Fifty-nine percent of these deaths occurred in people 75 years or older; 75 percent occurred in people 55 years or older.) To put these numbers in perspective, 3,454 Americans died from malnutrition in 2001 -- 13 times greater than the number of flu deaths! That same year, there were 4,269 deaths attributed to asthma, a condition some studies have linked to vaccines.
To rationalize this discrepancy between the true number of deaths caused by influenza every year (as documented in the CDC's own National Vital Statistics Reports) and the outrageously exaggerated bogus number of flu deaths promoted by the CDC, officials claim that flu often leads to pneumonia and that many deaths from pneumonia are really deaths caused by flu. Apparently the CDC has a secret formula for estimating how many pneumonia deaths (officially listed in the CDC's own National Vital Statistics Reports as deaths from pneumonia, not flu) are really deaths caused by flu. Adding to the confusion, influenza is caused by a virus; pneumonia is caused by bacteria. The CDC's own website takes great pains to emphasize their differences. More importantly, the CDC has a pneumonia vaccine. So why doesn't the CDC promote their pneumonia vaccine? In 2002, 65,231 people died from pneumonia; in 2001, 61,777 people died from pneumonia. If everyone took a pneumonia vaccine, especially the elderly and others most susceptible to the disease, wouldn't they be protected? Why is the CDC promoting a flu vaccine to protect against pneumonia, especially when one disease is caused by a virus and the other by bacteria? Also, how many people who died from pneumonia received a flu vaccine? How many received a pneumonia vaccine?
There are three main types of flu virus, and each type can mutate, or change, from year to year. Thus, there are literally thousands of possible strains. (Each strain is thoroughly analyzed and given a proper name, often a title associated with the place where it was initially discovered.) Every year health officials produce a new flu vaccine containing three mutated strains of flu virus. To determine which strains to use, officials travel to China at the beginning of the year to assess circulating flu viruses in that region of the world. They try to guess which strains will reach the United States by the end of the year. Production begins, and the new vaccine is usually available by October.
Flu "experts" often guess wrong. For example, in 1994 they predicted that Shangdong, Texas, and Panama strains would be prevalent that year, thus millions of people were vaccinated with a flu shot that contained these viruses. However, when winter arrived, the Johannesburg and Beijing strains of influenza circulated through society. The vaccine was ineffective. This happened again in 1996, and again in 1997. More recently, the vaccine created for the 2003-2004 flu season contained flu strains that did not circulate through society that year. Officials were once again forced to admit that millions of people were vaccinated with an ineffective vaccine. Yet, flu fatalities did not increase during these years. For example, in 1996, 857 people died from the flu; in 1997, 745 people died from the flu -- typical annual numbers.
In 2004, flu vaccine manufacturers were unable to produce enough flu shots to accommodate everyone who wanted a flu vaccine. (Several batches were contaminated and had to be destroyed.) Thus, only half of the population that is normally vaccinated against influenza (approximately 45 million people versus 90 million during an average year) received the vaccine. If influenza is truly a deadly disease, as officials claim, the 2004-2005 flu season should be catastrophic. If, as the CDC claims, 36,000 people die every year from the flu when 90 million people are vaccinated against the disease, how many more will die when only 45 million people are "protected?" I predict that flu fatalities will not increase. In fact, flu (and pneumonia?) fatalities may even decrease during this rare period when the American population is "under-vaccinated" against influenza.
Note: The article above was written in early 2005. On December 10, 2005, the British Medical Journal published a report acknowledging the veracity of this article by substantiating the claim that CDC flu death figures are completely bogus, hyper-inflated to scare the public and sell more flu vaccine.
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There's something else going on ... this flu situation sounds like a distraction of some sort .
That's my sense too -- that it is a distraction. For what would depend on what what was being covered in the media right before it.
Things which come to mind:
~peacemaking with Cuba
~disclosures of the nature of the torture in Guantanamo
~something which has fallen into a black hole of my mind
</my conspiracy theory>
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Well war on drugs, lets face it, the folks with money own the border patrol. Many border patrol agents get paid good who caved in - how do you think the drug cartels get thru? By the dishonest ones, and of course the tunnels they have.
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That's my sense too -- that it is a distraction. For what would depend on what what was being covered in the media right before it.
Things which come to mind:
~peacemaking with Cuba
~disclosures of the nature of the torture in Guantanamo
~something which has fallen into a black hole of my mind
</my conspiracy theory>
Maybe turning our heads from the East(middle) to the South.
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But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which humans may have no natural immunity.
Not exactly correct. It should read, for which "most young" humans may have no natural immunity.
Sorry young lads but the older you are - the better probabilities to tackle that swine flu.
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Swine flu is a well known thing. US governments have had to deal with it before and there has always been that deep fear attached - e.g. Gerald Ford administration in 1970s.
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Swine flu is a well known thing. US governments have had to deal with it before and there has always been that deep fear attached - e.g. Gerald Ford administration in 1970s.
Que? Please explain, 1970 was long back ago.
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There was a global swine flu pandemic in 1918 which killed 50 million people.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm
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Que? Please explain, 1970 was long back ago.
Fear is a powerful driving force.
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html
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There was a global swine flu pandemic in 1918 which killed 50 million people.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm
What's the worst that can happen? Death? There is a way to avert it?
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What's the worst that can happen? Death? There is a way to avert it?
Don't follow the question in context -- I was corroborating your statement that governments have dealt with this flu before.
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There was a global swine flu pandemic in 1918 which killed 50 million people.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm
Shit.
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I am considering removing all references to 'swine' and 'pig' from the forum, as it seems even saying those words can spread this deadly disease.
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Don't follow the question in context -- I was corroborating your statement that governments have dealt with this flu before.
I was trying to make the point that that partiular experience from the-post WWI time tends to overshadow attitudes with regard to the flu. Yes, it is potentially lethal thing. No, there have not been outbreaks even remotely similar to that of the post-WWI one. Ford's administration's experience is a case in point. In the present case, there was story on CNN that the outbreak has been tracked down to the 'ground zero' and to the first patient - or so they claimed - who was a small Mexican boy who survived the illness.
The world is nuts - Pakistani air force is striking targets within 50 miles from capital. That is called a civil war in the nuclear country. Some people currently seriously plan strikes at Iranian nuclear objects. Flu messes around. It all is frightening from the perspective of 'What is happening to the cozy world of ours?!' From individual perspective - the ending of life has been in the script from the moment of birth.
There is no reason whatsoever to allow the fear to dominate. There isn't that much to lose.
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I was trying to make the point that that particular experience from the-post WWI time tends to overshadow attitudes with regard to the flu.
Yes, I can imagine that it does. Rather like the "plague" invoking a real revulsion and horror, even if one hasn't encountered it or heard much about it. Call it genetic memory or downright archetypal, but yes, I agree.
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Switching horses a bit.
PBS is running a documentary made a few years ago on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I saw it before. It was very impressive, if not unforgettable, and the viewer was left with all the obvious karmic ponderings.
The anniversary is August 6, so that's not why they're airing it. In a world of no accidents and big brother mind control, one really has to wonder, "Why tonight?"
If one is ever interested, even for sport, in the manipulations of the media, now is the time to pay attention. I haven't figured out yet what the main event really is, though, right now. But something is definitely afoot.
</conspiracy theory>
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In Latvia they have discussed closing 60% of hospitals due to economic crisis.
Chinese are building aircraft carriers and nuclear missile submarines.
Climate...
Nature...
New weapons...
Greed...
Fear...
Anger...
'Justice'...
'Punishing' the baddies...
Lust...
Where is the focus of all of it? Where is the 'ground zero' of these developments and driving forces?
Human mind.
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Human mind I agree, its like a conscious wave, and ive been watching some of this stuff on youtube about the mayans and incas and the hopi elders and all of the warnings, they said all this would happen. And they all agree somehow that 2012 date has singificance. All this occuring right now on the globe, its hard not to look at the elders, nod and say 'they were right.'
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Where is the 'ground zero' of these developments and driving forces?
Human mind.
Oui.
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In a different vein, just had a play-on-words in my mind which I'll share, for a little levity.
On my news page, the headline of the lead article is this:
"WHO says swine flu pandemic is imminent"
And my mind turned it around to,
'Who SAYS swine flu pandemic is imminent?'
A tiny jest on a breezy evening. ;) Bon nuit!
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I am considering removing all references to 'swine' and 'pig' from the forum, as it seems even saying those words can spread this deadly disease.
Good idea!
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Good idea!
We can't play an ostrich, can we? Stick our head into the sand and pretend bad things don't exist? I know, many do it and they allegedly live happily ever after. ;)
Good for them, but somewhere a few things about what happens in reality could also be said.
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We can't play an ostrich, can we? Stick our head into the sand and pretend bad things don't exist? I know, many do it and they allegedly live happily ever after. ;)
Feeding the frenzy is a far cry from pretending things don't exist. There is an in-between.
I think what m was saying and I agreed on was that it's not necessary to add our energy to the hype and drama and fear out there.
Our thoughts create our World. And words do even more so.
People with Power (Sorcerers) shoud be responsible with their words and energies.
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A few more of these awful words... ;)
Climate chaos predicted by CO2 study
World will have exceeded 2050 safe carbon emissions limit by 2020, scientists say
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Thursday, 30 April 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-chaos-predicted-by-co2-study-1676411.html
The world will overshoot its long-term target on greenhouse gas emissions within two decades. A study has found that the average global temperature will rise above the threshold that could cause dangerous climate change during that time.
Scientists have calculated that the world has already produced about a third of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that could be emitted between 2000 and 2050 and still keep within a C rise in global average temperatures.
At the current rate at which CO2 is emitted globally – which is increasing by 3 per cent a year – countries will have exceeded their total limit of 1,000 billion tons within 20 years, which would be about 20 years earlier than planned under international obligations. "If we continue burning fossil fuels as we do, we will have exhausted the carbon budget in merely 20 years, and global warming will go well beyond C," said Malte Meinshausen of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the study, published in Nature.
"Substantial reductions in global emissions have to begin soon – before 2020. If we wait longer, the required phase-out of carbon emissions will involve tremendous economic costs and technological challenges. We should not forget that a C global mean warming would take us far beyond the variations that Earth has experienced since we humans have been around."
It is the first time scientists have calculated accurately the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that can be released into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2050 and still have a reasonable chance of avoiding temperature rises higher than C above pre-industrial levels – widely viewed as a "safe" threshold.
The scientists found the total amount of greenhouse gases that could be released over this time would be equivalent to 1,000 billion tons of CO2. This is equivalent to using up about 25 per cent of known reserves of oil, gas and coal, said Bill Hare, a co-author of the study.
The study concluded that the world must agree on a cut in carbon dioxide emissions of more than 50 per cent by 2050 if the probability of exceeding a C rise in average temperatures is to be limited to a risk of 1 in 4.
"With every year of delay [in agreeing on further cuts], we consume a larger part of our emissions budget, losing room to manoeuvre and increasing the probabilities of dangerous consequences," said Reto Knutti of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, a member of the research team.
Myles Allen of Oxford University said the total emissions of CO2 that have accumulated in the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century are the really important figure for future climate change.
"Mother Nature doesn't care about dates. To avoid dangerous climate change we will have to limit the total amount of carbon we inject into the atmosphere, not just the emission rate in any given year," Dr Allen said.
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And how exactly makes not talking you more responsible than talking? By not saying a word 'flu' the 'flu' ceases? :) Aren't you overestimating a bit your importance to and impact on this world? :)
I do not overestimate my or anyone's impact on our World.
This is not my idea 829th, nor is it a new one. The Grandfathers say this, along with many other Wise Ones. Be careful with your words, they can be used to harm or to heal. You are responsible for the words you use. Make them count.
I am considering removing all references to 'swine' and 'pig' from the forum, as it seems even saying those words can spread this deadly disease.
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Waffle.
Rude.
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Innocent smile ;D
I do not wish to debate with you here. It is a waste of energy when there are so many other things we could be doing.
If you do not agree with me and my views, fine, but I see no reason to resort to games and I will not. This conversation is over as far as I am concerned. Enjoy the rest of your day.
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By choosing your thoughts,
and by selecting which emotional currents you will release
and which you will reinforce,
you determine the quality of your Light.
You determine the effects that you will have upon others,
and the nature of the
experiences of your life.
~ Gary Zukav - from "Seat Of The Soul" ~
:)
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Guys, lets not fight over this. Its a simple mathematics that the world is going to hell in a handbasket thanks to corporate greed. We, the regular little people, lost the reigns and its very difficult to grab them back. They've got us by the balls and the earth is being destroyed. Greenhouse effect, global warming, overpopulation (and we can thank the church for some of this, they still wont say yes to birth control so folks in mexico have ten babies a family and starve). We are going to see more diseases, more storms. Would anyone like to have been in katrina? This, right now, is our wake up call.
What can we do about it? Not a whole hell of a lot but I would like to recommend to michael, since restless soma is a public forum, that we have a public section for the earth, like one where we write things about current events, and what is happening. So instead of doing this in private, say some visitor comes by and opens their eyes to it. And does something. And it causes a boomerang effect. and write congressmen, the white house, some of these dudes have email, and let them know how you feel.
The internet and esp youtube has become a powerful medium where folks can express how they feel, and right now we're seeing many folks expressing themselves about the earth, the greed, and how we have to act on it now. It affected the polls and got obama elected, thats for certain. There are many more people who are paying attention, in the us esp after katrina and ike hit. But even folks who live in say, the southwest where im from KNOW the globe is getting hotter.
And while I do believe that the earth, like the sun and all planets are living entities, they are not the same as us. I believe that as they have their own consciousness, so do we, but thats the key, being 'conscious.' We really dont have time to fight on this issue. So im suggesting as stated, maybe discussing these issues in a public fora where more may read it.
I mean who knows, we could do that and post 2012 look back and some civilizations went under water, but wed see, hey, we at least tried to say something, did the best that we could, to get the word out, that earth was a living entity, and was gonna purge us cause we were acting like a cancer on the planet. Shes not gonna be selective in who is for her or against her, shes gonna just do whats in her nature and thats rage her storms and melt her ice and choke on all those emissions and toxins in the air.
Anyway its just an idea I had, anyone interested? Or do we just keep it in here the way it is?
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Lori and Juhani... thank you for bringing a smile to my face this morning!
Carry on!! :D
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Feeding the frenzy is a far cry from pretending things don't exist. There is an in-between.
I think what m was saying and I agreed on was that it's not necessary to add our energy to the hype and drama and fear out there.
Our thoughts create our World. And words do even more so.
People with Power (Sorcerers) shoud be responsible with their words and energies.
Lori, to add to this, both you and Juhani have points. its kinda like this I see it - we shouldnt stick our head in the sand, because we have REAL effects occuring cause of the greed and so forth. However, this can create FEAR which, on a collective conscious scale, can also possibly hail up storms and so forth. I do believe that the earth has her own consciousness, and our own collectively can contribute to it. I also accept chaos theory that one slight change in the configuration can change an effect. Just one change. So, it could be as simple as one prayer out which can stop a storm. Like when I found that spider web, and I saw that bumper sticker of texas backed up, I destroyed the web. Now, I know in logical terms, first attention, it might seem rather grandiose that I could destroy a hurricane by taking out a funnel spider web (remember it was a funnel spider web and the texas bumper sticker backed up near it). However, in sorcerers terms at second attn level, anything is possible, so I heard the voice to destroy the web and did it. Now, Ike didnt kill others like katrina, not as bad tho did kill folks, but wherre it was the size of the gulf preceding, it lost some size along the trail, it could've been worse. That was my contribution, probably amass many other prayers the whole thing wouldn't be so destructive to the whole globe.
However, its gonna take more effort, really a combo, than just plain sorcery because as it stands, due to the nature of the planet, while sure anything is possible, the crisis of the globe may be beyond sorcery. We may be able to power up and stop a storm, or hurricane or volcano and so forth. But the earth temp still rises and we still are plunging down for oil, and burning the gases, we're still doing the same things. We have YET to cut back on the cycle we're going. We havent made the necessary changes we need to make. It may or may not be too late, we dont know. I hope its not. But with things like even overpopulation, we're not going to be able to feed the world. we may be on our last legs as human beings.
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I don't think I ever said just plain sorcery was going to change the way the world is. My comment is to be wise in the way we use our words.
:)
Lori and Juhani... thank you for bringing a smile to my face this morning!
Carry on!! :D
You are welcome Daphne, though I am quite serious on this matter. It's an important one.
And while I do believe that the earth, like the sun and all planets are living entities, they are not the same as us. I believe that as they have their own consciousness, so do we, but thats the key, being 'conscious.' We really dont have time to fight on this issue. So im suggesting as stated, maybe discussing these issues in a public fora where more may read it.
Ellen, this is a great idea and maybe you've noticed that many of us are doing this already.
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The moment you can explain in your own words how exactly are your thoughts creating or un-crating the flu in your world, I might take you seriously.
I have never claimed I could uncreate a flu.
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(http://www.curlyflat.net/cartoons/L071101.gif)
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(http://www.curlyflat.net/cartoons/L261002.gif)
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LOL
Love you Micheal. Have a great vacay!
:-*
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I don't think I ever said just plain sorcery was going to change the way the world is. My comment is to be wise in the way we use our words.
:)
You are welcome Daphne, though I am quite serious on this matter. It's an important one.
Ellen, this is a great idea and maybe you've noticed that many of us are doing this already.
Oh Ive noticed it, esp at GG. But not at rs, not enough. So I pm'ed michael about opening up a new section at restless soma called Awareness of Planet Earth. Im more than willing to contribute various things about the earth and it being a living entity. I think since earth day just passed it would be a good time. So it would be a bit like this one, this thread, but it would be more geared toward awareness and track upcoming changes. Id also like to see the warnings of the elders in it, like the hopi and the incas. I can kinda bring some of my arizona knowledge from that one, so we'll see if hes game to open a section. But of course addrress how fear can add to the collective as well. We dont want to be fearful, but not ignorant either. After all the elders 'warned' us for a reason so they wanted us to fear a bit about the direction we were going. No prophecy is really carved in stone, we still have choices we can make. Course this is a global choice which is where it gets tricky. But at least we can make our mark in a public sector that way. (even if michael will follow with funny cartoons). lol
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Confirmed number of global flu cases jumps to 331
NEW: United States' confirmed cases jump to 141, CDC says
WHO: Largest outbreak of the virus is in Mexico, with 156 confirmed cases
Virus has spread to 11 countries, with hardest hit areas in Western hemisphere
WHO: No sustained human-to-human transmission outside the Americas
updated 15 minutes agoNext Article in Health »
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(CNN) -- The number of people confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus stands at 331, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Tourists sunbathe wearing surgical masks in the popular Mexican resort of Acapulco.
1 of 3 more photos » The virus, commonly known as swine flu, has spread to 11 countries, but the hardest-hit areas were in the Western hemisphere, the organization said.
"We have not seen sustained human-to-human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region," said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it had confirmed 141 cases of the flu, in 19 states, and one person has died.
Meanwhile, a WHO official said Friday there is "no doubt" that a swine flu vaccine can be made in a relatively short period of time.
"Of course we would like to have a vaccine tomorrow. We would have wanted to have it yesterday," said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.
"The reality is that from the time the potentially pandemic virus is identified, it takes between foue and six months to have the first doses of vaccine coming out of the factory and being available for immunizing people."
The largest outbreak of the virus was in Mexico, which had 156 confirmed cases, according to the WHO. It added that Mexico had nine deaths attributed to the virus.
However, Mexican officials said the death toll had risen to 12 and they suspect more than 150 deaths in the country are linked to the virus. Watch how Mexican authorities are dealing with the outbreak »
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Thursday that the country has more than 300 confirmed cases of the virus, a higher number than the WHO reported Friday.
Despite the jump in confirmed cases, a senior WHO official said Thursday that the higher totals did not necessarily mean the incidence of the disease is increasing. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO, said it could be more to do with health investigators getting through their backlog of specimens.
The latest tally was announced two days after WHO raised the pandemic threat level to 5 on a 6-step scale. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta demystify pandemics »
The level 5 designation means widespread human infection from the outbreak that originated in Mexico has been jumping from person-to-person with relative ease.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them." View images of responses in U.S. and worldwide »
In addition to Mexico and the United States, WHO said, the following countries have confirmed nonlethal cases: Austria, Canada , Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
An additional 230 cases are being investigated in the United Kingdom, and Spain has 84 suspected cases. Australia, which has had no confirmed cases, was investigating 114. See where cases have been confirmed »
In the United States, the CDC said cases had been confirmed in 19 states.
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"This is a rapidly evolving situation, a situation with uncertainty," acting CDC Director Richard Besser said at a news conference Thursday.
New York has the most confirmed cases, with 50, followed by Texas, with 28. California has 13 cases.
The state health departments in Delaware, Colorado, Georgia, Nebraska and Virginia on Thursday said they had confirmed cases: four in Delaware, one in Georgia and two each in Colorado, Nebraska and Virginia. California state officials said they had two new confirmed cases Thursday and Florida's health department said it sent three samples it can't identify to the CDC. Their counts have not been added to the national total. Go behind the scenes at the CDC »
"There are many more states that have suspected cases and we will be getting additional results," Besser said.
There still is just one confirmed death from the virus in the United States. A toddler from Mexico died at a Houston, Texas, hospital Monday.
As the virus spread to more people, officials took precautions.
Nearly 300 schools with confirmed or possible H1N1 cases were closed Thursday, affecting about 169,000 students, the U.S. Department of Education reported. No colleges or universities were known to be closed, the agency said.
Nowhere in the world is the crisis more severe than in Mexico, where the first cases were detected.
All schools have been closed throughout the nation, and the Mexico City government has shut down most public venues and ordered restaurants to serve only take-out food. That has affected about 35,000 businesses.
Department of Homeland Security Director Jane Napolitano asked parents of children whose schools closed to keep the children at home instead of taking them out in public -- where the flu could continue to spread.
"The entire purpose is to limit exposure," she said. "If a school is closed, the guidance is and the request is to keep your young ones home."
The Mexican federal government will close all nonessential government offices and businesses starting Friday.
The virus is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs and can jump to humans. Symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Learn about the virus »
But the 2009 H1N1 virus is a hybrid of swine, avian and human strains, and no vaccine has been developed for it.
Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel to or from Mexico. Egypt began culling all pigs Thursday although there have been no reported cases of swine flu in that country.
China and Russia have banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico, though the WHO says the disease is not transmitted through eating or preparing pork.
Amidst the anxiety, health officials tried to tamp down concerns.
"When you think pandemic, people tend to reflect on the pandemics from years past," said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. "A lot has changed. We are better taking care of people in hospitals, we have antiviral medications. It doesn't mean everyone's going to die."
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On a side note, I feel bad for folks in Mexico that they cant celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year.
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Forest Service closes caves to stop bat fungus
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – FILE - In this Jan. 2009 file photo, Scott Crocoll holds a dead Indiana bat in an abandoned mine in Rosendale, … By BRIAN FARKAS, Associated Press Writer Brian Farkas, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The U.S. Forest Service is closing thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in 33 states in an effort to control a fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats.
Bats have been dying at alarming rates from what scientists call "white-nose syndrome," so-named because it appears as a white powder on the face and wings of hibernating bats.
The problem was first spotted in New York and within two years has spread to caves in West Virginia and Virginia. There's no evidence the fungus is harmful to people.
Researchers believe the fungus is spread from bat to bat, but they have not ruled out the possibility that humans tromping from cave to cave might help to transmit it on their shoes and equipment, said Dennis Krusac, a biologist with the service's Southern region.
"We don't have the answers at this point," he said. "If we have answers in a year or sooner, we can open them back up."
Forest Service biologist Becky Ewing said an emergency order was issued last week for caves in 20 states from Minnesota to Maine. A second order covering the Forest Service's 13-state Southern region should be issued later this month.
The sites will be closed for up to a year, she said.
The orders follow a March request by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for people to voluntarily stay out of caves in 17 states.
Biologists are concerned the fungus could wipe out endangered Indiana, Virginia and Ozark big-eared and gray bats.
Bats play a key role in keeping insects such as mosquitoes under control. Between April and October, they usually eat their body weight in bugs per night. The loss of 500,000 bats means 2.4 million pounds of bugs aren't eaten in a year, Ewing said.
New York caver Peter Haberland said organized caving groups shouldn't object to the closures.
"For a period of a year, most people can deal with that," said Haberland, who serves on the Northeastern Cave Conservancy's board.
He said the order should have little effect in the Northeast since just a few national forests there offer caving and many caves are on private property.
Peter Youngbaer, white nose syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society, another caving group, said education will be key because many people who explore caves don't belong to organized groups.
"There is a huge concern," he said. "The recreation aspect is probably the least of our concerns."
The Forest Service order says people caught in a cave or mine face up to six months in jail and fines of up to $10,000. Ewing said Forest Service officials will enforce the bans.
Youngbaer said he isn't convinced humans help transmit the fungus, which kills the bats because it affects their hibernation habits, causing them to starve.
A study based on soil samples taken from 200 sites in 30 states should help resolve that question.
"There is no question that it's spreading bat to bat and spreading from bat to bat rapidly," he said. "If it turns out the fungus is living in the caves anyway ... humans moving around doesn't mean anything."
Many of the caves in question are in the 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, which this week announced it would extend a ban imposed last year that only affected caves considered to be at high risk for the fungus.
On Friday, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources moved to close caves on state-owned property until April even though the disease has not been found in Indiana.
Last month, officials closed all of the caves in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Krusac said the orders do not affect commercial caves on private property.
Officials in the Ozark National Forest are debating whether to impose restrictions on wild cave adventures on the forest's Blanchard Springs Caverns.
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Now see, losing bats would suck because one of the main feasts for them is mosquitos, which mosquitos carry a lot of diseases and stick their noses into skin. So they actually do a service in their existence. Even if people think of them like flying rats and are creeped out by them, losing bats means more mosquitos and more spread of diseases potentially in the future.
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Now see, losing bats would suck because one of the main feasts for them is mosquitos, which mosquitos carry a lot of diseases and stick their noses into skin. So they actually do a service in their existence. Even if people think of them like flying rats and are creeped out by them, losing bats means more mosquitos and more spread of diseases potentially in the future.
Bats are awesome!! Very cute, I love them to death~!
(http://www.vet.cornell.edu/oge/Pictures/White%20Winged%20Vampire%20bats%20Dan%20Riskin.jpg)
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Oh those are cute! But its true they do a serious service. Its all about the balance and they arent blood suckers, they eat the blood suckers!
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The battle for Pakistan is now on for young and old.
The Pak army has gone in boots and all, and Petraeus gives them two weeks - it's all or nothing for the Pak Government.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Hillary has said, don't you worry about the Pak nuclear weapons - we are looking after those. Which I take to mean that whatever happens, US will throw everything at stopping them fall into Taliban hands - if they can't save the country, at least they can do that much.
In such cases, expect the Taliban to pull off a major attempt to demoralise Pak, or the West for that matter.
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(http://www.curlyflat.net/cartoons/L220103.gif)
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(http://www.curlyflat.net/cartoons/L071202.jpg)
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Notre Dame’s Obama invite riles bishops
Conservative Catholics angered by president's abortion rights record
updated 1 hour, 36 minutes ago
This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God.
The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's "clueless" decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17.
The nation's flagship Catholic university's honoring of a politician whose abortion rights record clashes with a fundamental church teaching has triggered a reaction among the nation's Catholic bishops that is remarkable in scope and tone, church observers say.
At least 55 bishops have publicly denounced or questioned Notre Dame in recent weeks, employing an arsenal of terms ranging from "travesty" and "debacle" to "extreme embarrassment."
Paramount issue of activism
The bishops' response is part of a decades-long march to make abortion the paramount issue for their activism, a marker of the kind of bishops Rome has sent to the U.S. and the latest front in a struggle over Catholic identity that has exposed rifts between hierarchy and flock.
Bishops who have spoken out so far account for 20 percent of the roughly 265 active U.S. bishops — a minority, but more than double the number who suggested five years ago that then-Democratic presidential hopeful and Catholic John Kerry should either be refused Communion or refrain from it because of his abortion stance.
"I think they do believe the chips are down," said James Hitchock, a history professor at St. Louis University. "The election has changed the whole landscape. Now we have a strongly pro-abortion administration in power, and he's in a position to achieve what we've been trying to stave off now for years."
As for Wenski, he issued a statement and then came up with the Mass idea after angry Notre Dame graduates from central Florida asked for guidance about how to respond, he said in an interview.
"I figured, 'I'm a bishop — I'm not going to tell them to attack Notre Dame with a pitchfork,'" said Wenski, who is not among the nation's more confrontational bishops. "I'm going to tell them to go pray."
Wenski said he will not "preach a tirade against Notre Dame" during the Monday night Mass at Orlando's Cathedral of St. James. What must be atoned for, Wenski said, is complacency among U.S. Catholics about the legal killing of unborn children, which contributed to the climate that allowed Notre Dame to think it was all right to honor Obama.
Protests began quickly
Almost immediately after Notre Dame invited Obama and he accepted, anti-abortion and conservative Catholic groups launched protests, and bishops began either making statements or releasing letters written to the university president, the Rev. John Jenkins.
Former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon turned down a prestigious Notre Dame medal last week because she was to have shared the stage with Obama.
The university has emphasized that Obama will be honored as an inspiring leader who broke a historic racial barrier — not for his positions on abortion or embryonic stem cell research.
U.S. bishops have long been at the forefront of opposing legal abortion, but it's never been their sole focus. During the 1980s, the bishops issued pastoral letters on nuclear weapons, poverty and the economy, influenced by the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's concept of a "consistent ethic of life."
Many Catholic bishops, however, worried that abortion was getting shortchanged. Those who argue abortion trumps everything say that other issues are irrelevant without the beginning of life and that things like capital punishment and war are sometimes justified.
Bishops hammered that home in November 2007 with a statement on faithful citizenship that said: "The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many."
Timothy Barnes, a Colgate University political scientist, said the Notre Dame clash gives bishops a chance to promote two of their top priorities: re-emphasizing abortion at a time when the issue is waning, and stressing the Catholic character of Catholic universities.
"If you put yourself in their shoes and see Notre Dame honoring a new president, a popular president, who seems to be a new kind of political figure trying to emphasize new issues and post-partisan politics, that would be something they would want to respond to pretty aggressively," he said. "The old divisions of the old politics, in certain sectors, is focused on abortion."
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Obama backed by most Catholics
Polls show Catholics giving high job approval ratings to Obama, and Catholic attitudes about abortion and stem-cell research largely mirror the public's.
"I think the bishops who believe abortion is the ultimate litmus test look at the polls and realize Catholics are not listening to them," said the Rev. Mark Massa, co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University. "They're playing a very dangerous game because they do not have the moral authority they had before the sex abuse crisis, and they're trying to find a toehold and get heard."
So far, the Notre Dame saga doesn't seem to be resonating. Only about half of Catholics surveyed by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life from April 23 to 27 had heard about the controversy.
About half of U.S. Catholics supported Notre Dame, 28 percent said the school was wrong and 22 percent had no opinion, the poll found. People who attend Mass frequently were more likely to oppose the university's stance, and also gave Obama lower job performance marks.
R. Scott Appleby, a Notre Dame history professor, said the bishops' outspokenness points to a new litmus test — not on whether abortion should be legal but over how to fight it.
"The litmus test is on 'How do we best change the policies and work for a culture of life?" Appleby said. "Many Catholics want to be open to at least discuss with the bishops the best way to move forward on our common goal. But the bishops have imposed this particular approach and have not felt it necessary to consult the faithful fully on that."
Several bishops have taken a harder line on perceived dissent. To them, Notre Dame is defying a 2004 bishops' statement on politics that says: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
Legacy of Pope John Paul II
The bishops' response to Notre Dame also is part of the legacy of the man who appointed so many of them, said the Rev. Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Pope John Paul II sought loyal servants who "were willing to take on the world — willing to argue and debate and confront people," Reese said.
Wenski, the Orlando bishop, said bishops are not angry at Obama in this case, but the university leadership. Yet their disapproval "is also an expression of our frustration" with Obama administration decisions on funding for overseas groups that perform abortions, expanded embryonic stem cell research and "conscience clause" protections for health workers, he said.
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Read more news from across the U.S.
On being a voice on abortion, Wenski said: "We've been doing this pretty consistently. Perhaps in the past, some bishops have been a little bit too indulgent of what we tolerate in some of the dissent."
Wenski also has spoken out about banning torture and finding a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — issues he said can be common causes for bishops and the White House.
"Bishops are like most other people," he said. "We really don't want to look for conflicts or fights. "But this has been egregious enough that we have to be clear. We're standing on principle, not looking for a battle."
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From The Times
May 2, 2009
Mission to break up Pacific island of rubbish twice the size of Texas
Frank Pope, Ocean Correspondent
A high-seas mission departs from San Francisco next month to map and explore a sinister and shifting 21st-century continent: one twice the size of Texas and created from six million tonnes of discarded plastic.
Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle a monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific.
The toxic soup of refuse was discovered in 1997 when Charles Moore, an oceanographer, decided to travel through the centre of the North Pacific gyre (a vortex or circular ocean current). Navigators usually avoid oceanic gyres because persistent high-pressure systems — also known as the doldrums — lack the winds and currents to benefit sailors.
Mr Moore found bottle caps, plastic bags and polystyrene floating with tiny plastic chips. Worn down by sunlight and waves, discarded plastic disintegrates into smaller pieces. Suspended under the surface, these tiny fragments are invisible to ships and satellites trying to map the plastic continent, but in subsequent trawls Mr Moore discovered that the chips outnumbered plankton by six to one.
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The damage caused by these tiny fragments is more insidious than strangulation, entrapment and choking by larger plastic refuse. The fragments act as sponges for heavy metals and pollutants until mistaken for food by small fish. The toxins then become more concentrated as they move up the food chain through larger fish, birds and marine mammals.
“You can buy certified organic farm produce, but no fishmonger on earth can sell you a certified organic wild-caught fish. This is our legacy,” said Mr Moore.
Because of their tiny size and the scale of the problem, he believes that nothing can be solved at sea. “Trying to clean up the Pacific gyre would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went.”
In June the 151ft brigantine Kaisei (Japanese for Planet Ocean) will unfurl its sails in San Francisco to try to prove Mr Moore wrong. Project Kaisei’s flagship will be joined by a decommissioned fishing trawler armed with specialised nets.
“The trick is collecting the plastic while minimising the catch of sea life. We can’t catch the tiny pieces. But the net benefit of getting the rest out is very likely to be better than leaving it in,” says Doug Woodring, the leader of the project.
With a crew of 30, the expedition, supported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, the water company, will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to map the extent and depth of the plastic continent while collecting 40 tonnes of the refuse for trial recycling.
“We have a few technologies that can turn thin plastics into diesel fuel. Other technologies are much more hardcore, to deal with the hard plastics,” says Mr Woodring, who hopes to run his vessels on the recycled fuel.
Plastics bags, food wrappers and containers are the second and third most common items in marine debris around the world, according to the Ocean Conservancy, which is based in Washington. The proportion of tiny fragments, known as mermaid’s tears, are less easily quantified.
The UN’s environmental programme estimates that 18,000 pieces of plastic have ended up in every square kilometre of the sea, totalling more than 100 million tonnes. The North Pacific gyre — officially called the northern subtropical convergence zone — is thought to contain the biggest concentration. Ideal conditions for shifting slicks of plastic also exist in the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the North and South Atlantic, but no research vessel has investigated those areas. If this exploratory mission is successful, a bigger fleet will depart in 2010.
Mr Woodring admits that Project Kaisei has limitations. “We won’t be able to clean up the entire ocean. The solution really lies on land. We have to treat plastics in a totally different way, and stop them ever reaching the ocean.”
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Notice along the pacific sw, anyone will tell you beaches are dirty. People littler and trash beaches all the time so some of the crap probably got in the oceans via dirtybeaches and wind currents blowing it in the water.
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(http://www.curlyflat.net/cartoons/L071202.jpg)
This one's Great!!
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The BBC’s American soap Mad Men offers a rare glimpse of the power of corporate advertising. The promotion of smoking half a century ago by the “smart” people of Madison Avenue, who knew the truth, led to countless deaths. Advertising and its twin, public relations, became a way of deceiving dreamt up by those who had read Freud and applied mass psychology to anything from cigarettes to politics. Just as Marlboro Man was virility itself, so politicians could be branded, packaged and sold.
It is more than 100 days since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. The “Obama brand” has been named “Advertising Age’s marketer of the year for 2008”, easily beating Apple computers. David Fenton of MoveOn.org describes Obama’s election campaign as “an institutionalised mass-level automated technological community organising that has never existed before and is a very, very powerful force”. Deploying the internet and a slogan plagiarised from the Latino union organiser César Chávez – “Sí, se puede!” or “Yes, we can” – the mass-level automated technological community marketed its brand to victory in a country desperate to be rid of George W Bush.
No one knew what the new brand actually stood for. So accomplished was the advertising (a record $75m was spent on television commercials alone) that many Americans actually believed Obama shared their opposition to Bush’s wars. In fact, he had repeatedly backed Bush’s warmongering and its congressional funding. Many Americans also believed he was the heir to Martin Luther King’s legacy of anti-colonialism. Yet if Obama had a theme at all, apart from the vacuous “Change you can believe in”, it was the renewal of America as a dominant, avaricious bully. “We will be the most powerful,” he often declared.
Perhaps the Obama brand’s most effective advertising was supplied free of charge by those journalists who, as courtiers of a rapacious system, promote shining knights. They depoliticised him, spinning his platitudinous speeches as “adroit literary creations, rich, like those Doric columns, with allusion . . .” (Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian). The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford wrote: “Many spiritually advanced people I know . . . identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who . . . can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet.”
In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture, opposed habeas corpus and demanded more secret government. He has kept Bush’s gulag intact and at least 17,000 prisoners beyond the reach of justice. On 24 April, his lawyers won an appeal that ruled Guantanamo Bay prisoners were not “persons”, and therefore had no right not to be tortured. His national intelligence director, Admiral Dennis Blair, says he believes torture works. One of his senior US intelligence officials in Latin America is accused of covering up the torture of an American nun in Guatemala in 1989; another is a Pinochet apologist. As Daniel Ellsberg has pointed out, the US experienced a military coup under Bush, whose secretary of “defence”, Robert Gates, along with the same warmaking officials, has been retained by Obama.
All over the world, America’s violent assault on innocent people, directly or by agents, has been stepped up. During the recent massacre in Gaza, reports Seymour Hersh, “the Obama team let it be known that it would not object to the planned resupply of ‘smart bombs’ and other hi-tech ordnance that was already flowing to Israel” and being used to slaughter mostly women and children. In Pakistan, the number of civilians killed by US missiles called drones has more than doubled since Obama took office.
In Afghanistan, the US “strategy” of killing Pashtun tribespeople (the “Taliban”) has been extended by Obama to give the Pentagon time to build a series of permanent bases right across the devastated country where, says Secretary Gates, the US military will remain indefinitely. Obama’s policy, one unchanged since the Cold War, is to intimidate Russia and China, now an imperial rival. He is proceeding with Bush’s provocation of placing missiles on Russia’s western border, justifying it as a counter to Iran, which he accuses, absurdly, of posing “a real threat” to Europe and the US. On 5 April in Prague, he made a speech reported as “anti-nuclear”. It was nothing of the kind. Under the Pentagon’s Reliable Replacement Warhead programme, the US is building new “tactical” nuclear weapons designed to blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war.
Perhaps the biggest lie – the equivalent of Smoking Is Good for You – is Obama’s announcement that the US is leaving Iraq, the country it has reduced to a river of blood. According to unabashed US army planners, as many as 70,000 troops will remain “for the next 15 to 20 years”. On 25 April, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, alluded to this. It is not surprising that the polls are showing that a growing number of Americans believe they have been suckered – especially as the nation’s economy has been entrusted to the same fraudsters who destroyed it. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s principal economic adviser, is throwing $3trn at the same banks that paid him more than $8m last year, including $135,000 for one speech. Change you can believe in.
Much of the American Establishment loathed Bush and Cheney for exposing, and threatening, the onward march of America’s “grand design”, as Henry Kissinger, war criminal and now Obama adviser, calls it. In advertising terms, Bush was a “brand collapse” whereas Obama, with his toothpaste advertisement smile and righteous clichés, is a godsend. At a stroke, he has seen off serious domestic dissent to war, and he brings tears to the eyes, from Washington to Whitehall. He is the BBC’s man, and CNN’s man, and Murdoch’s man, and Wall Street’s man, and the CIA’s man. The Madmen did well.
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Good old John, keeping the mirror up.
He's not an easy catch.
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We're not judging obama after hes only been in office for 100 days are we? Then of course, got to check sources of any news you get at this time. Everyones gonna have their biases.
Michael, how would you feel if the taliban blew up the Sydney opera house full of people one night? There is still unfinished business with 911. Americans are not going to just let that shit go overnight.
Also, if people would stop flowering fighting with each other in all these stupid wars and threatening the globe (and then people call on america as an ally to help out of course), then you wouldnt see all of this drama occuring.
Obama stepped into a mess, we dont expect him to make perfect moves or fix the whole entire globe and economy overnight. So the comment 'a tough one to catch' is unacceptable. Until he really flowers up, if he does, then let it go. I do get tired of this anti-american talk (subtly or overtly) which occurs in soma, as if we're the big satan like saddam hussein called us. Just cause a bunch of muslims hate us doesnt mean america is a great satan. We dont oppress our women, we dont jail folks for their freedom of speech, they can say the president sucks and its totally allowable. If you dont like democracy move from aussie then and go live in Bejiing or something, and see if you like it better. Or Pakistan and live there and see. I think you'd rather life in the usa when push comes to shove.
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"He's not an easy catch." refers to John.
Meaning he doesn't allow himself to be bought off - he works hard to criticise every side when he sees a flaw. I'm surprised he is still alive. I don't always agree with him, but I believe he does a very good job of holding up a mirror to a side of many who don't want to see their warts, or their evil in some cases.
He recently gave Australia a severe criticism. His views are definitely one-sided, but that doesn't make them unworthy of serious consideration. People like him are needed, to keep reminding us that we must have criticism for a healthy world.
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"He's not an easy catch." refers to John.
Meaning he doesn't allow himself to be bought off - he works hard to criticise every side when he sees a flaw. I'm surprised he is still alive. I don't always agree with him, but I believe he does a very good job of holding up a mirror to a side of many who don't want to see their warts, or their evil in some cases.
He recently gave Australia a severe criticism. His views are definitely one-sided, but that doesn't make them unworthy of serious consideration. People like him are needed, to keep reminding us that we must have criticism for a healthy world.
Oh my bad. I thot you meant catching obama doing bad deeds or something. Still, he just went into the office, and you cannot expect him to be perfect overnight. Theres a lot of other people advising him. and as far as humane treatment for terrorists or taliban folk, I dont care. They torture people and all that, flower them. They may as well take what they dish out to people all the time. I remember seeing some kids drawings from afganistan of kids parents, they draw them all mutilated and bloody cause the taliban killed their parents in some public execution in front of them. They're just a bunch of thugs with guns and knives and need to be taken out. I do not care if they are human when they do not see other people, even their own people, as human. And they also destroyed all those buddhist statues in afganistan and that says something about them too.
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Everything we expirience while we're passing through
is relative ask any remnant of an indigenous culture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wo2wpT2k
Report on the Conduct of the War 1865 Vol. 3
Page 47
MASSACRE OF THE CHEYENE INDIANS
Proclamation by Governor Evans, of Colorado Territory.
PROCLAMATION.
Having sent special messengers to the Indians of the plains, directing the friendly to rendezvous at Fort
Lyon, Fort Larned, Fort Laramie, and Camp Collins for safety and protection, warning them that all hostile
Indians would be pursued and destroyed, and the last of said messengers having now returned, and the
evidence being conclusive that most of the Indian tribes of the plains are at war and hostile to the whites, and
having to the utmost of my ability endeavored to induce all of the Indians of the plains to come to said places
of rendezvous, promising them subsistence and protection, which, with a few exceptions, they have refused to
do:
Now, therefore, I, John Evans, governor of Colorado Territory, do issue this my proclamation, authorizing all
citizens of Colorado, either individually or in such parties as they may organize, to go in pursuit of all hostile
Indians on the plains, scrupulously avoiding those who have responded to my said call to rendezvous at the
points indicated; also, to kill and destroy, as enemies of the country, wherever they may be found, all such
hostile Indians. And further, as the only reward I am authorized to offer for such services, I hereby empower
such citizens, or parties of citizens, to take captive, and hold to their own private use and benefit, all the
property of said hostile Indians that they may capture, and to receive for all stolen property recovered from
said Indians such reward as may be deemed proper and just therefore.
I further offer to all such parties as will organize under the militia law of the Territory for the purpose to
furnish them arms and ammunition, and to present their accounts for pay as regular soldiers for themselves,
their horses, their subsistence, and transportation, to Congress, under the assurance of the department
commander that they will be paid.
The conflict is upon us, and all good citizens are called upon to do their duty for the defense of their
homes and families.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the Territory of Colorado
to be affixed this 11th day of August, A.D. 1864
[SEAL] JOHN EVANS.
By the governor:
S.H. ELBERT. Secretary of Colorado Territory.
A group of slaves bought from the coast of Africa at $5,000 could be sold for $25,000 in Brazil. Profit would equal about 400% during the nineteenth century. Tightepacking- More slaves they had on a ship more profit made. In 1850 about 92% of all black Americans were concentrated in the South and of all these people about 95% were slaves. Only the healthiest slaves were chosen because they had a better chance to survive the middle passage of the triangle trade and get to the destination chosen for them.
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Ah west side story. I remember being a kid watching it with Natalie Wood, I cried my eyes out at the end of it. It was just plain wrong, cause they were meant to be together. Like Romeo and Juliet.
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Climate change displacement has begun – but hardly anyone has noticed
The first evacuation of an entire community due to manmade global warming is happening on the Carteret Islands
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/may/07/monbiot-climate-change-evacuation
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/5/8/1241778614808/Rising-isea-levels-endang-001.jpg)
Rising sea levels have eroded much of the coastlines of the low-lying Carteret Islands situated 50 miles from Bougainville Island, in the South Pacific. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert /Greenpeace
Journalists – they're never around when you want one. Two weeks ago a momentous event occurred: the beginning of the world's first evacuation of an entire people as a result of manmade global warming. It has been marked so far by one blog post for the Ecologist and an article in the Solomon Times*. Where is everyone?
The Carteret Islands are off the coast of Bougainville, which, in turn, is off the coast of Papua New Guinea. They are small coral atolls on which 2,600 people live. Though not for much longer.
As the Ecologist's blogger Dan Box witnessed, the first five families have moved to Bougainville to prepare the ground for full evacuation. There are compounding factors – the removal of mangrove forests and some local volcanic activity – but the main problem appears to be rising sea levels. The highest point of the islands is 170cm above the sea. Over the past few years they have been repeatedly inundated by spring tides, wiping out the islanders' vegetable and fruit gardens, destroying their subsistence and making their lives impossible.
They are not, as the Daily Mail and the Times predicted, "the world's first climate-change refugees". People have been displaced from their homes by natural climate change for tens of thousands of years, and by manmade climate change for millennia (think of the desertification caused in North Africa by Roman grain production).
Some people ascribe the fighting in Darfur – and the consequent displacement of its people – to climate change, as people struggle over diminishing resources. But this appears to be the first time that an entire people have started leaving their homes as a result of current global warming.
Their numbers might be small, but this is the event that foreshadows the likely mass displacement of people from coastal cities and low-lying regions as a result of rising sea levels. The disaster has begun, but so far hardly anyone has noticed.
Monbiot.com
* thanks to Jon Freeman for alerting me to this story
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(http://www.bajoghli.com/rabajoghli/Albums/Venezuela/trees_water-medium.jpg)
(http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t227/firecrackling/achill.jpg?t=1242312981)
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India's ruling party wins resounding victory
AP – Congress party supporters celebrate news of early election result trends in New Delhi, India, Saturday, … By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 21 mins ago
NEW DELHI – The ruling Congress party swept to a resounding victory Saturday in India's mammoth national elections, defying expectations as it brushed aside the Hindu nationalist opposition and a legion of ambitious smaller parties.
The strong showing by the party, which is dominated by the powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, laid to rest fears of an unstable, shaky coalition heading the South Asian giant at a time when many of it neighbors are plagued by instability, civil war and rising extremism.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared victory, telling reporters that voters had given the Congress party-led coalition a "massive mandate."
The left-of-center Congress, which has long tried to balance free market reforms with a vow to protect the downtrodden in this country of 1.2 billion people, wants a "stable, strong government which is committed to secular values," he said.
The results left the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the country's other main party, vowing a period of introspection after they failed to capitalize on the economic uncertainty and increased turmoil in Pakistan, India's longtime rival.
"We will analyze these results in detail," said Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader conceding defeat. "The BJP accepts the mandate of the people of India with all humility."
With most votes counted, the Election Commission said the Congress-led alliance had won — or was leading in — races for 254 seats in the 543-seat Parliament. The BJP alliance came up short with 153. The Congress party alone, without the support of its coalition allies, had won or was leading in 204 seats, putting it far ahead of all other parties.
While the results were a clear victory for the Congress coalition it still leaves it short of the 272 seats needed to govern alone and will require the support of other parties. India has been ruled by coalition governments for most of the last two decades.
For months, polls and political observers had predicted that neither of the country's two main parties would emerge a clear winner, forcing an unstable and unwieldy coalition that could have conceivably included dozens of smaller parties.
Analysts said that Congress — which posted the best results by an individual party in nearly two decades — reaped the rewards of dramatic economic growth during their last term and a series of high-profile pro-poor programs.
"It's not just because it oversaw four years of nine percent growth. What has probably helped was that its agenda was one of inclusive growth," said Mahesh Rangarajan, a political analyst in New Delhi.
That perception also saw Congress make deep inroads into the base of their former allies, the Communist parties — a result welcomed by business leaders who said it would enable India to embrace economic reforms as it faces the global downturn.
The communists, a traditional power in Indian politics, had supported Congress for much of the previous term, but broke ties over the Indian-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement, the cornerstone of warmer relations between New Delhi and Washington.
Until their departure they repeatedly frustrated economic reforms that would have allowed India to further open up its economy.
Venu Srinivasan, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, said Congress' re-election would provide welcome stability and continuity, calling on the party to ensure reforms are "fast tracked."
President Barack Obama congratulated India on its "historic national elections," a White House statement said Saturday.
"By successfully completing the largest exercise of popular voting in the world, the elections have strengthened India's vibrant democracy and upheld the values of freedom and pluralism that make India an example for us all," it said.
While the results marked the success of the government's policies, it also heralded the next chapter in the country's deep ties to its most powerful political dynasty.
The Congress party has long said that Singh, 76, an economist and technocrat who helped open India's economy nearly 20 years ago, would return to power if it won. But the election was also a clear victory for party chief Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul, who emerged as a key strategist during the campaign and became the party's most visible face.
While a relative political newcomer, he has been increasingly viewed as a future prime minister. "This is the beginning of the real rise to power of Rahul Gandhi," said Rangarajan, the analyst.
Rahul, 38, is a scion of India's most powerful family — the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. The family was closely allied to the pacifist icon Mohandas Gandhi, though they are not related.
The election also scuttled the ambitions of the "Third Front," an alliance of regional and caste-based parties that had banded together — and which for a time had been seen as a wild card that could emerge with immense power.
Among these was Mayawati, who had made clear her ambition to be India's first low-caste politician.
Mayawati, a Dalit, or "untouchable," the social outcasts at the bottom of the caste system, has emerged as a major force in Indian politics, winning control of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state in 2007 state elections.
But she failed to replicate her success — based on an alliance of Dalits and high-caste Hindu Brahmins — in the national elections.
As results came in, celebrations erupted outside the Congress party headquarters. Party workers set off fireworks and danced in the streets carrying posters of party leader Sonia Gandhi.
"We have won a thumping majority," Congress activist Parag Jain said outside the party offices, in a leafy, elegant south New Delhi neighborhood. "Successful rule begins and ends with Congress and the Gandhi family."
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Pakistan developments:
Subsequent to this recent push against the Taliban in Pakistan, we are getting a more complex and interesting picture of the play of forces and attitudes in that country.
One of the biggest fears, esp of the US, is that the North-West based Taliban will join with the East based Punjab Islamic extremists, who were responsible for the Mumbai attack. Apparently they are not officially or sufficiently united, but I would be surprised if they were not connected.
You have to realise US's involvement in all this:
First, they are obviously worried about the nuclear weapons, especially if they have to be moved due to shifts in the security situation.
Secondly they are trying to win a war in Afghanistan, against Pakistan based Taliban. But more than that, they have run out of money, long ago, so they are financially unable to prosecute this war for much longer - they need swifter results, meaning Pakistan.
The current crises was triggered by the following:
1. Pak Govt lost the war in the North-West Provinces, esp the Swat valley, so they did a deal - Taliban can have Sharia Law if they put down their weapons. This sent shock waves through Washington, and was obviously idiotic from an external viewpoint. Internally, you need to consider that the central Pak Govt has never been able to extend the writ of normal government into these areas anyway, so some kind of Law was better than none.
2. Taliban swept into adjacent Buner valley, which was dangerously close to Islamabad, the political capital. US went ballistic.
3. Deal fell through on the Swat Sharia Law, because the Taliban refused to lay down weapons - they felt they would be wiped out if they did that.
4. Under extreme international pressure, esp from Washington, Pak army launches major strike against Taliban.
5. Pak army transfers vast swags of its military from its Indian border to the Taliban fight, under pressure and assurances from the US that India is not going to launch a strike against Pak, plus the offering of substantial funds with conditions.
A number of things have become clear:
1. The Taliban are an extremely skilled insurgency movement. Pak army is entrenched in conventional warfare.
2. Thus Pak Army uses helicopters and planes to bomb Taliban positions, in the process killing many civilians and pushing local sympathies to the Taliban. I suspect this is only a slight effect as the local population has become horrified by the brutality of the Taliban - they don't need any further proof that these people are down-right evil. It is generally considered the Pak Army is incapable of winning an insurgent war, despite a lot of US and Nato experts trying to teach them.
3. Attitudes in the rest of the country seem to be fairly casual about the Taliban - they are definitely not keen on them, but don't see them as too much of a problem.
4. The influence of Islamic extremism runs very deep within the military, which has been sympathetic, when not actively supportive and directing.
Among the educated middle class, there is a curious attitude to all this. There is a strong split around the US influence - some, called the 'elite' are pro US, while the majority see the US as a meddling interferer - highly disliked.
There is a general view that far too much fuss is being made of a few thousand Taliban, who could never overthrow the 600,000 strong Pak Military, plus Islamabad is extremely well structured from a security perspective. The idea of the Taliban being a military threat to Pakistan is absurd. Plus popular support for the Islamic extremists is running about 10% in the polls, so the Taliban are no risk politically.
They point to two issues:
1. Karachi is a far more serious vulnerability to Pak stability than the Taliban. Karachi is poor, huge (16 mill people), and riven by political violence, between the Pathans and the dominant political movement, the MQM. The Pathans are pro-Sharia Law for the Swat, being that they hail from that area anyway, and tend to be deeply conservative religiously. The MQM are secular and anti Swat deal.
My view is that once again, we have the issue being Islamic extremism, the Taliban being the current face of that impulse. So I can't see how these people believe the trouble in Karachi is not just another feature of the Taliban problem.
2. They say that the big issue in Pakistan is not military, but attitudes. There is a growing trend towards conservative Islamic practices and attitudes, which is disturbing to a mostly secular leaning population. But interestingly they often point to changes in dress and education etc being brought about through the threat of physical violence. Again, from my perspective, that means Taliban and the like's influence.
But they do say that the best response to all this is from within the vast array of sub-sects of Islam within the country. There is a dynamic struggle between these groups for dominance. But when I read about all these bewildering sub-groups, it all comes down to a single division - extremists vs moderates.
So I find Pakistan is still looking for excuses to maintain it's ignorance, that it is being swept by a wave of Islamists, led by the violent Taliban as the flag carrier. If they don't hit hard against them, who knows what future that country will suffer. And even if they can't defeat the Taliban, at least it sends a powerful symbolism that such extremism is not okay, so that perhaps all these sub-sects will get about doing their work of returning to a moderate Islam.
That is a possible achievement, but it also needs to be replicated world-wide. Unfortunately Islam has been dragging the chain in self-regulation and reformation. So the outcome still looks pessimistic.
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Will the US become a banana republic with hyper inflation??
Please listening to economist Dr Marc Faber.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loa92ZG1KV8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loa92ZG1KV8)
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Iran says it tests missile, Israel within range
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer – 28 mins ago
TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran test-fired a new advanced missile Wednesday with a range of about 1,200 miles, far enough to strike Israel, southeastern Europe and U.S. bases in the Middle East.
The announcement will not reassure the U.S. government, coming just two days after President Barack Obama declared a readiness to seek deeper international sanctions against Iran if it shunned U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama said he expected a positive response to his outreach for opening a dialogue with Iran by the end of the year.
"Defense Minister (Mostafa Mohammad Najjar) has informed me that the Sajjil-2 missile, which has very advanced technology, was launched from Semnan and it landed precisely on the target," state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He spoke during a visit to the city of Semnan, 125 miles east of the capital Tehran, where Iran's space program is centered.
Ahmadinejad is running for re-election in a June 12 vote and has been criticized by his opponents and others for antagonizing the U.S. and mismanaging the country's faltering economy.
Most Western analysts believe Iran does not yet have the technology to produce nuclear weapons, including warheads for long-range missiles. A group of U.S. and Russian scientists said in a report issued Tuesday that Iran could produce a simple nuclear device in one to three years and a nuclear warhead in another five years after that.
The study published by the nonpartisan EastWest Institute also said Iran is making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 2,200-pound nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles "in perhaps six to eight years."
Iran says its missile program is merely for defense and its space program is for scientific and surveillance purposes. It maintains that its nuclear program is for civilian energy uses only.
The solid-fuel Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile is a new version of the Sajjil missile, which Iran said it had successfully tested late last year with a similar range.
Iran's nuclear and missile programs have alarmed Israel, and the country's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pressed Obama to step up pressure on Tehran when the two met in Washington on Monday. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's elimination, and the Jewish state has not ruled out a military strike to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.
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Any place with a president called 'I'm a dinner jacket', has to be watched carefully.
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THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
WBYeats
Ga. father gets 100 years for poisoning kids' soup
JONESBORO, Ga. – A Georgia man was sentenced to 100 years in prison for poisoning his two children to extort money from Campbell Soup Co. William Cunningham was sentenced Thursday after a jury found him guilty of five counts of cruelty to children and two counts of aggravated assault, said Kellie Perry, a clerk at the Clayton County Superior Court.
The girl and boy, then 18 months old and 3 years old, were hospitalized after Cunningham fed them soup tainted with prescription drugs and lighter fluid.
On one occasion, authorities said he used the prescription drugs Prozac and Amitriptyline — both used to treat depression — to poison the children.
Cunningham was arrested in March 2006. According to prosecutors, the former dump truck driver called Campbell in January 2006 and threatened to sue the company because its soup was contaminated. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to a federal charge of making false claims against the company.
Authorities said there was no evidence the soup was tainted when it was purchased. A family member said the children may suffer lifelong respiratory problems after swallowing the poisoned soup.
The children's mother, Rhonda Cunningham, filed for divorce during the case.
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Something to think about....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbslm1h8xjI
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May 21, 2009
How long does it take a mild-mannered, anti-war, black professor of constitutional law, trained as a community organiser on the South Side of Chicago, to become an enthusiastic sponsor of targeted assassinations, 'decapitation' strategies and remote-control bombing of mud houses at the far end of the globe?
There's nothing surprising here. As far back as President Woodrow Wilson, in the early 20th century, American liberalism has been swift to flex its imperial muscle and whistle up the Marines. High-explosive has always been in the hormone shot.
The nearest parallel to Obama in eager deference to the bloodthirsty counsels of his counter-insurgency advisors is John F. Kennedy. It is not surprising that bright young presidents relish quick-fix, 'outside the box' scenarios for victory.
Obama�s course is set and his presidency is already stained the familiar blood-red
Whether in Vietnam or Afghanistan the counsel of regular Army generals tends to be drear and unappetising: vast, costly deployments of troops by the hundreds of thousands, mounting casualties, uncertain prospects for any long-term success � all adding up to dismaying political costs on the home front.
Amid Camelot's dawn in 1961, Kennedy swiftly bent an ear to the advice of men like Ed Lansdale, a special ops man who wore rakishly the halo of victory over the Communist guerillas in the Philippines and who promised results in Vietnam.
By the time he himself had become the victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's 'decapitation' strategy, brought to successful conclusion in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, on November 22, 1963, Kennedy had set in motion the secret counter-insurgency operations, complete with programs of assassination and torture, that turned South-East Asia and Latin America into charnel houses for the next 20 years.
Another Democrat who strode into the White House with the word 'peace' springing from his lips was Jimmy Carter. It was he who first decreed that 'freedom' and the war on terror required a $3.5bn investment in a secret CIA-led war in Afghanistan, plus the deployment of Argentinian torturers to advise US military teams in counter-insurgency ops in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Obama campaigned on a pledge to 'decapitate' al-Qaeda, meaning the assassination of its leaders. It was his short-hand way of advertising that he had the right stuff. Now, like Kennedy, he's summoned the exponents of unconventional, short-cut paths to success in that mission.
Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal now replaces General David McKiernan as Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal's expertise is precisely in assassination and 'decapitation'. As commander of the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) for nearly five years starting in 2003, McChrystal was in charge of death squad ops, his best advertised success being the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The phrase 'sophisticated networks' tends to crop up in assessments of McChrystal's Iraq years. Actually there's nothing fresh or sophisticated in what he did. Programmes of targeted assassination aren't new in counter-insurgency. The most infamous and best known was the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, designed to identify and eliminate cadres of Vietnam's National Liberation Front, informally known as the Viet Cong, of whom, on some estimates, at least 40,000 were duly assassinated.
In such enterprises two outcomes are inevitable. Identification of the human targets requires either voluntary informants or captives. In the latter instance torture is certain, whatever rhetorical pledges are proclaimed back home. There may be intelligence officers who rely on patient, non-violent interrogation, as the US officer who elicited the whereabouts of al-Zarqawi claims he did.
But there will be others who will reach for the garden hose and the face towel. (McChrystal, not uncoincidentally, was involved in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Camp Nama. He also played a sordid role in the cover-up of the friendly-fire death of ex-NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman.)
Whatever the technique, a second certainty is the killing of large numbers of civilians in the final 'targeted assassination'. At one point in the first war on Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s, a huge component of US air sorties was devoted each day to bombing places where US intelligence had concluded Saddam might be hiding. Time after time, after the mangled bodies of men, women and children had been scrutinised, came the crestfallen tidings that Saddam was not among them.
Already in Afghanistan public opinion has been inflamed by the weekly bulletins of deadly bombardments either by drones or manned bombers. Still in the headlines is the US bombardment of Bala Boluk in Farah province, which yielded 140 dead villagers torn apart by high explosives, including 93 children. Only 22 were male and over 18.
Perhaps 'sophisticated intelligence' had identified one of these as an al-Qaeda man, or a Taliban captain, or maybe someone an Afghan informant to the US military just didn't care for. Maybe electronic eavesdropping simply screwed up the coordinates. If we ever know, it won't be for a very long time. Obama has managed a terse apology, even as he installs McChrystal, thus ensuring more of the same.
Obama is bidding to be as sure-footed as Bush in trampling on constitutional rights
The logic of targeted assassinations was on display in Gaza even as Obama worked on the uplifting phrases of his inaugural address in January. The Israelis claimed they were targeting only Hamas even as the body counts of women and children methodically refuted these claims and finally extorted from Obama a terse phrase of regret.
He may soon weary of uttering them. His course is set and his presidency already permanently stained the ever-familiar blood-red tint. There's no short-cut in counter-insurgency. A targeted bombing yields up Bala Boluk, and the incandescent enmity of most Afghans. The war on al-Qaeda mutates into the war on the Taliban, and 850,000 refugees in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
The mild-mannered professor is bidding to be as sure-footed as Bush and Cheney in trampling on constitutional rights. He's planning to restore Bush's kangaroo courts for prisoners at Guantanamo who've never even been formally charged with a crime! He's threatening to hold some prisoners indefinitely in the US without trial.
He's even been awarded a hearty editorial clap on the back from the Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Obama deserves credit for accepting that civilians courts are largely unsuited for the realities of the war on terror. He has now decided to preserve a tribunal process that will be identical in every material way to the one favoured by Dick Cheney."
It didn't take long. But it's what we've got � for the rest of Obama-time
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Yeah ... he does need the Left to keep the pressure up because the Right won't let up - witness Dirty Dick this week. Obama walks a fine line dictated by the pressures that naturally beset a president, as opposed to those whose only job is to espouse their conviction.
But you know, somehow along the way, I have become more fascist myself. I find myself in agreement with the hard line. I know I should take a more intelligent and conciliatory approach, but really, more often than not, my patience is just growing shorter.
That's why I appreciate a few around me who still push for a more understanding and loving attitude, because my store house is running dangerously short of such items.
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NKorea threatens to attack US, SKorean warships
By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened military action Wednesday against U.S. and South Korean warships plying the waters near the Koreas' disputed maritime border, raising the specter of a naval clash just days after the regime's underground nuclear test.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that Pyongyang faced unspecified consequences because of its "provocative and belligerent" acts.
Pyongyang, reacting angrily to Seoul's decision to join an international program to intercept ships suspected of aiding nuclear proliferation, called South Korea's decision tantamount to a declaration of war.
"Now that the South Korean puppets were so ridiculous as to join in the said racket and dare declare a war against compatriots," North Korea is "compelled to take a decisive measure," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state media.
The North Korean army called it a violation of the armistice the two Koreas signed in 1953 to end their three-year war, and said it would no longer honor the treaty.
South Korea's military said Wednesday it was prepared to "respond sternly" to any North Korean provocation.
Clinton said "there are consequences to such actions," referring to discussions in the United Nations meant to punish North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
She also underscored the firmness of the U.S. treaty commitment to defend South Korea and Japan, U.S. allies in easy reach of North Korean missiles.
North Korea's latest belligerence comes as the U.N. Security Council debates how to punish the regime for testing a nuclear bomb Monday in what President Barack Obama called a "blatant violation" of international law.
Ambassadors from the five permanent veto-wielding council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as Japan and South Korea were working out the details of a new resolution.
The success of any new sanctions would depend on how aggressively China, one of North Korea's only allies, implements them.
"It's not going too far to say that China holds the keys on sanctions," said Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Seoul's Korea University.
South Korea, divided from the North by a heavily fortified border, had responded to the nuclear test by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led network of nations seeking to stop ships from transporting the materials used in nuclear bombs.
Seoul previously resisted joining the PSI in favor of seeking reconciliation with Pyongyang, but pushed those efforts aside Monday after the nuclear test in the northeast.
North Korea warned Wednesday that any attempt to stop, board or inspect its ships would constitute a "grave violation."
The regime also said it could no longer promise the safety of U.S. and South Korean warships and civilian vessels in the waters near the Korea's western maritime border.
"They should bear in mind that the (North) has tremendous military muscle and its own method of strike able to conquer any targets in its vicinity at one stroke or hit the U.S. on the raw, if necessary," the army said in a statement carried by state media.
The maritime border has long been a flashpoint between the two Koreas. North Korea disputes the line unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the end of the Koreas' three-year war in 1953, and has demanded it be redrawn further south.
The truce signed in 1953 and subsequent military agreements call for both sides to refrain from warfare, but doesn't cover the waters off the west coast.
North Korea has used the maritime border dispute to provoke two deadly naval skirmishes — in 1999 and 2002.
On Wednesday, the regime promised "unimaginable and merciless punishment" for anyone daring to challenge its ships.
Pyongyang also reportedly restarted its weapons-grade nuclear plant, South Korean media said.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel. The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also carried a similar report.
The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm.
North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.
The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 13 to 18 pounds (six to eight kilograms) of plutonium — enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.
Further ratcheting up tensions, North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles over the past two days, South Korean officials confirmed.
Russia's foreign minister said world powers must be firm with North Korea but take care to avoid inflaming tensions further.
The world "must not rush to punish North Korea just for punishment's sake," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Russia wants a Security Council resolution that will help restart stalled six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear programs and will not provoke Pyongyang into even more aggressive activity.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged officials to "remain calm" in the face of North Korean threats, said Lee Dong-kwan, his spokesman.
Pyongyang isn't afraid of any repercussions for its actions, a North Korean newspaper, the Minju Joson, said Wednesday.
"It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions," it said in an editorial. "We've been living under U.S. sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward. The U.S. sanctions policy toward North Korea is like striking a rock with a rotten egg."
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This is actually another big lesson for China.
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We've come and gone so many times... And no one really knows why or how.
Ancient Volcanic Eruptions Caused Global Mass Extinction
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2009) — A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds.
The eruption in the Emeishan province of south-west China unleashed around half a million cubic kilometres of lava, covering an area 5 times the size of Wales, and wiping out marine life around the world.
Unusually, scientists were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the eruption and directly link it to a mass extinction event in the study published in Science. This is because the eruptions occurred in a shallow sea – meaning that the lava appears today as a distinctive layer of igneous rock sandwiched between layers of sedimentary rock containing easily datable fossilised marine life.
The layer of fossilised rock directly after the eruption shows mass extinction of different life forms, clearly linking the onset of the eruptions with a major environmental catastrophe.
The global effect of the eruption is also due to the proximity of the volcano to a shallow sea. The collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions – throwing huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.
"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea it's like throwing water into a chip pan – there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," explains Professor Paul Wignall, a palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, and the lead author of the paper.
The injection of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere would have lead to massive cloud formation spreading around the world - cooling the planet and ultimately resulting in a torrent of acid rain. Scientists estimate from the fossil record that the environmental disaster happened at the start of the eruption.
"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe, a correlation that has often been controversial," adds Professor Wignall.
Previous studies have linked increased carbon dioxide produced by volcanic eruptions with mass extinctions. However, because of the very long term warming effect that occurs with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (as we see with current climate change) the causal link between global environmental changes and volcanic eruptions has been hard to confirm.
This work was done in collaboration with the Chinese University of Geosciences in Wuhan and funded by a grant from the Natural Environment Research Council, UK.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090528142827.htm
Volcanic Eruptions May Have Wiped Out Ocean Life 94 Million Years Ago
ScienceDaily (July 18, 2008) — Undersea volcanic activity triggered a mass extinction of marine life and buried a thick mat of organic matter on the sea floor about 93 million years ago, which became a major source of oil, according to a new study.
"It certainly caused an extinction of several species in the marine environment," said University of Alberta Earth and Atmospheric Science researcher Steven Turgeon. "It wasn't as big as what killed off the dinosaurs, but it was what we call an extreme event in the Earth's history, something that doesn't happen very often."
U of A scientists Turgeon and Robert Creaser say the lava fountains that erupted altered the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.
"Of the big five mass extinctions in the Earth's history, most of them were some kind of impact with the planet's surface," said Turgeon. "This one is completely Earth-bound, it's strictly a natural phenomenon."
Turgeon and Creaser found specific isotope levels of the element osmium, an indicator of volcanism in seawater, in black shale-rocks containing high amounts of organic matter-drilled off the coast of South America and in the mountains of central Italy.
"Because the climate was so warm back than, the oceanic current was very sluggish and it initially buffered this magmatic pulse, but eventually it all went haywire," said Turgeon. "The oxygen was driven from the ocean and all the organic matter accumulated on the bottom of the sea bed, and now we have these nice, big, black shale deposits worldwide, source rocks for the petroleum we have today."
According to their research, the eruptions preceded the mass extinction by a geological blink of the eye. The event occurred within 23 thousand years of the extinction and the underwater volcanic eruption had two consequences: first, nutrients were released, which allowed mass feeding and growth of plants and animals. When these organisms died, their decomposition and fall towards the sea floor caused further oxygen depletion, thereby compounding the effects of the volcanic eruption and release of clouds of carbon dioxide in to the oceans and atmosphere. The result was a global oceanic anoxic event, where the ocean is completely depleted of oxygen. Anoxic events-while extremely rare-occur in periods of very warm climate and a raise in carbon dioxide levels, which means that this research could not only help prove a mass-extinction theory, but also help scientists studying the effects of global warming.
An odd side-effect of the mass extinction, the result of the anoxic event caused as an indirect result of the underwater volcanic eruptions, was that temperatures and carbon dioxide levels on the Earth's surface actually dropped.
"Organic matter that's decaying returns components like carbon and CO2 to the atmosphere," said Turgeon. "But this event locked them up at the bottom of the ocean, turning them into oil, drawing down the CO2 levels of the ocean and the atmosphere."
After 10,000-50,000 years, the carbon dioxide levels rose again. "Business as usual," said Turgeon, adding that this might hold a warning for organic life on the planet today, he said.
"There's a bit of an analogy for what's going on today," he said. "What happens if we pump more CO2 into the atmosphere? This tells me that the oceans maybe have limited buffering capacity for CO2 ."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717095027.htm
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extinction events are not uncommon in large scheme of things.
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It's hard to get good help....
Boy chosen by Dalai Lama
As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped as by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.
Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.
He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community. A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby. In Tibetan Buddhism, a lama is one of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders, the most famous of which is the Dalai Lama.
According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually "enthroned".
At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.
By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"
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Interesting... thanks for sharing.
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By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"
This brings up some interesting points that I've wondered about from time to time. When I was in my 20s, I used to wonder what it might be like to raise a child completely oblivious to the ideas of death, just for example. Obviously not the kind of experiment one could conduct privately or personally, but nonetheless one of those curiosities.
Seems like so much of what we believe or think we "know" about life is only a result of our programming and our socialization process. Torres' comments about dancing, for example, really drive it home to me that what we accept as "normal" is really only a matter of our own consensus within the agreement.
Even though I was raised within that consensus, I, too, have often wondered what all those strange machinations actually accomplish - whether 'bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?', or putting oneself inside a small rolling box and piloting it to a large building filled with tiny cubicles where one pushes paper and punches buttons for some 'corporation'.
When we can really move our assemblage point out of our enculturated agreements, it really is a bizarre place, this thing called Earth.
In so many ways, I'm not surprised at Torres' rebellion. Guess he wants to be put back into the matrix.
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I dont know if Torres wants to be put back in the matrix, but he wants one thing the matrix wasnt big on and that is 'choice.' He was chosen, of course, and is questioning why he is chosen to be an incarnation of another lama. As he stands there looking at the options of the world, and the life they took him to (and from), he simply wants choice, to choose in the world to be who he is, not have someone choose it for him. In a way it could be seen as wanting out of a matrix that was designed to keep him enclosed. If he doesnt believe he's this lama, then it all falls apart. Perhaps as he's getting older, hes refusing to agree with it all. Monastic life isnt an easy road, its hard and does deprive one of other things in the world, maybe he needs time to be a kid and experience all he has to, sow his wild oats, get it out of his system, then maybe he can return from the other world into the other which was chose for him. Maybe then he might agree with it. When he sees over time really, the matrix isnt all its cracked up to be.
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Siddharthas father gave it a go.....
This brings up some interesting points that I've wondered about from time to time. When I was in my 20s, I used to wonder what it might be like to raise a child completely oblivious to the ideas of death, just for example.
Early life and marriage
Siddhartha, destined to a luxurious life as a prince, had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) especially built for him. His father, King Śuddhodana, wishing for Siddhartha to be a great king, shielded his son from religious teachings or knowledge of human suffering. Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati.[13]
As the boy reached the age of 16, his father arranged his marriage to Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā), a cousin of the same age. According to the traditional account, in time, she gave birth to a son, Rahula. Siddhartha spent 29 years as a Prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Siddhartha felt that material wealth was not the ultimate goal of life.[13]
Departure and Ascetic Life
The Great Departure. Gandhara, 2nd century CE.
At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace in order to meet his subjects. Despite his father's effort to remove the sick, aged and suffering from the public view, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. Disturbed by this, when told that all people would eventually grow old by his charioteer Channa, the prince went on further trips where he encountered, variously, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Deeply depressed by these sights, he sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Siddhartha escaped his palace, accompanied by Channa aboard his horse Kanthaka, leaving behind this royal life to become a mendicant. It is said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods"[14] to prevent guards from knowing the Bodhisatta's departure. This event is traditionally called "The Great Departure".
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The sad reality is that we are 6.5 billion self-absorbed, self-destructive, and rapacious primates the “third chimpanzees actually,” as asserted by Jared Diamond running amok in an orgy of buying and consuming a nearly infinite number and array of toys, gadgets, gizmos, baubles, trinkets, clothes, autos, yachts, houses, planes and on and on to the extent that to take it all in would leave one’s head spinning like a roulette wheel in Vegas; gorging upon all manner of factory “farmed,” processed, industrialized, and genetically modified “food;” creating inestimable tons of repulsively stinking “solid waste” that we cram so tightly into canyon-sized garbage dumps (euphemistically called land-fills) that it won’t decompose for tens of thousands of years; pouring, leaking, or trickling millions upon millions of gallons of sludge, sewage, toxic waste, and hazardous chemicals into streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and the ground-water; felling old-growth and rain forests with the furious rapidity of Paul Bunyan suffering a meth-induced psychosis; waging perpetual wars and thereby contaminating and obliterating vast swatches of the Earth and wreaking havoc upon myriad ecosystems; sucking vast quantities of liquefied dinosaur remains from the Earth to feed our addictions to our smog-emitting shiny metal boxes on wheels and to industrial agriculture, a planet-raping evil that has allowed the “third chimpanzee” population to grow exponentially; maintaining vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, which could at any moment annihilate hundreds of millions of humans and other animals and plunge the Earth into a dismal nuclear winter; and more. Documenting all of the outrageously reckless, selfish, and destructive activities of Homo sapiens would require a tome so large that publishing it would take a sizable notch out of one of the rapidly vanishing old-growth forests.
“Man vs. Nature”
However, being the clever little bipedal primates that we are, we have erected an artificial world within the natural world, which affords us comfort and protection and serves to shield us, for now at least, from much of the damage inflicted on the Earth by our obscenely orgiastic existence. We utilize concrete, asphalt, mortar, brick, steel, engines, computers, and a host of other materials, mechanizations, and technologies to maintain a multiply layered barrier between us and the rest of nature, content in the “knowledge” that we are unique, special, and superior to the extent that the Earth and its other inhabitants are mere objects we can use and abuse at our discretion.
Our houses, offices, schools, and cars, in which many of us spend most of our time, are hermetically sealed and “climate-controlled,” shielding us from the “deleterious effects” of direct interaction with nature. We drive and walk mostly on pavement. Our gargantuan cities and their sprawling suburbs continue to sprout up faster than fungi on a compost pile in a windowless barn, knocking out those annoying trees that block our view of the horizon; asphalting over the unkempt, insect-infested meadows; and filling up all that wasted, undeveloped land with cul-de-sac upon cul-de-sac of McMansions, row upon row of strip malls, and two convenience stores, a McDonalds, a Wendy’s and a Pizza Hut on the corner of every newly paved street. DuPont promised us better living through chemistry and they delivered a slew of disinfectants, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and various and sundry other weapons in the war to keep the feral elements at bay. Most of us participate in an economy which employs division of labor and money, further alienating us from the rest of the planet. As technology and corporations, our principal means of “fending off nature” advance and proliferate, we become more and more partitioned off from nature in a sad amplification of the alienated way in which we exist on Earth.
Television (the opiate of the masses that Marx couldn’t have foreseen) entertains, indoctrinates, desensitizes, and pacifies us. It also serves as the primary emotional and intellectual moat around our castle of artificiality. Recognizing that they capture the attention and arrest the thinking of billions of us for several hours a day, seven days a week, the corporations that determine the content of television programming take full advantage of this opportunity to ensure that consumerism, the worship of wealth, narcissism, and many other pathologies (which both the programmers and the programees have been indoctrinated to believe are “normal”) continue to infect our diseased psyches, thus enhancing their profits and preventing many of us from catching even a glimpse of the world that hasn’t been distorted by the labyrinth of funhouse mirrors that pervades our consciousness.
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Out of curiosity, what's the source on the article below? It reads like my own thoughts, so I'm just curious as to its origins.
Thanks,
D
The sad reality is that we are 6.5 billion self-absorbed, self-destructive, and rapacious primates the “third chimpanzees actually,” as asserted by Jared Diamond running amok in an orgy of buying and consuming a nearly infinite number and array of toys, gadgets, gizmos, baubles, trinkets, clothes, autos, yachts, houses, planes and on and on to the extent that to take it all in would leave one’s head spinning like a roulette wheel in Vegas; gorging upon all manner of factory “farmed,” processed, industrialized, and genetically modified “food;” creating inestimable tons of repulsively stinking “solid waste” that we cram so tightly into canyon-sized garbage dumps (euphemistically called land-fills) that it won’t decompose for tens of thousands of years; pouring, leaking, or trickling millions upon millions of gallons of sludge, sewage, toxic waste, and hazardous chemicals into streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and the ground-water; felling old-growth and rain forests with the furious rapidity of Paul Bunyan suffering a meth-induced psychosis; waging perpetual wars and thereby contaminating and obliterating vast swatches of the Earth and wreaking havoc upon myriad ecosystems; sucking vast quantities of liquefied dinosaur remains from the Earth to feed our addictions to our smog-emitting shiny metal boxes on wheels and to industrial agriculture, a planet-raping evil that has allowed the “third chimpanzee” population to grow exponentially; maintaining vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, which could at any moment annihilate hundreds of millions of humans and other animals and plunge the Earth into a dismal nuclear winter; and more. Documenting all of the outrageously reckless, selfish, and destructive activities of Homo sapiens would require a tome so large that publishing it would take a sizable notch out of one of the rapidly vanishing old-growth forests.
“Man vs. Nature”
However, being the clever little bipedal primates that we are, we have erected an artificial world within the natural world, which affords us comfort and protection and serves to shield us, for now at least, from much of the damage inflicted on the Earth by our obscenely orgiastic existence. We utilize concrete, asphalt, mortar, brick, steel, engines, computers, and a host of other materials, mechanizations, and technologies to maintain a multiply layered barrier between us and the rest of nature, content in the “knowledge” that we are unique, special, and superior to the extent that the Earth and its other inhabitants are mere objects we can use and abuse at our discretion.
Our houses, offices, schools, and cars, in which many of us spend most of our time, are hermetically sealed and “climate-controlled,” shielding us from the “deleterious effects” of direct interaction with nature. We drive and walk mostly on pavement. Our gargantuan cities and their sprawling suburbs continue to sprout up faster than fungi on a compost pile in a windowless barn, knocking out those annoying trees that block our view of the horizon; asphalting over the unkempt, insect-infested meadows; and filling up all that wasted, undeveloped land with cul-de-sac upon cul-de-sac of McMansions, row upon row of strip malls, and two convenience stores, a McDonalds, a Wendy’s and a Pizza Hut on the corner of every newly paved street. DuPont promised us better living through chemistry and they delivered a slew of disinfectants, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and various and sundry other weapons in the war to keep the feral elements at bay. Most of us participate in an economy which employs division of labor and money, further alienating us from the rest of the planet. As technology and corporations, our principal means of “fending off nature” advance and proliferate, we become more and more partitioned off from nature in a sad amplification of the alienated way in which we exist on Earth.
Television (the opiate of the masses that Marx couldn’t have foreseen) entertains, indoctrinates, desensitizes, and pacifies us. It also serves as the primary emotional and intellectual moat around our castle of artificiality. Recognizing that they capture the attention and arrest the thinking of billions of us for several hours a day, seven days a week, the corporations that determine the content of television programming take full advantage of this opportunity to ensure that consumerism, the worship of wealth, narcissism, and many other pathologies (which both the programmers and the programees have been indoctrinated to believe are “normal”) continue to infect our diseased psyches, thus enhancing their profits and preventing many of us from catching even a glimpse of the world that hasn’t been distorted by the labyrinth of funhouse mirrors that pervades our consciousness.
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Just found the article by chance copied it but not the URL
here's a link with similar content
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n78/ai_13528141/
http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780060984038?&PID=29934
hope these help....
Ha just found it...
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/heresy-of-the-first-order-we-are-the-%E2%80%9Cthird-chimpanzees%E2%80%9D/
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I'm currently reading a book called Evolution, by Stephen Baxter. It's a fictional book, fascinating, if rather long. He follows the evolution of human beings from early mammals at the time of the dinasaur extinction. He approaches it through story telling of individual 'mammals' and the different developments that brought us to the present day and will possibly take us to the future (assuming that there is one..) So far it's been all about the physical and mental and emotional development as evolution.
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Well, what did you all think of Obama's speech to the Islamic world?
I must say I am in my controlled folly version of feeling "Thank God! A sensible person at last."
But I also see the highly sneaky strategy behind the whole thing. It is very clever - isn't it amazing how the bleeding obvious can tie up the connivers in a web of their own making?
So we have people from all countries in the infamous Middle East realising they really want peace and a sensible environment for building prosperity. Will they be willing to sacrifice their extreme views and their violence? Who will be unhappy about that? The armament industry?
*please keep this man safe*
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*please keep this man safe*
M, there's a strong hate faction against him in this country --- he can do no right. They've gunned for him metaphorically from the very beginning. It's done through swollen tongues, but it's done. So indeed...
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Thanks! Some fascinating stuff indeed.
Just found the article by chance copied it but not the URL
here's a link with similar content
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n78/ai_13528141/
http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780060984038?&PID=29934
hope these help....
Ha just found it...
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/heresy-of-the-first-order-we-are-the-%E2%80%9Cthird-chimpanzees%E2%80%9D/
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I watched his entire speech and thought it was very good, and he is for real, and many believe that. But another majority believe hes the antichrist and are gonna hate him further for that speech. The ignorance will still abound and his speech is gonna fuel it, cause many fundies believe that a likeable person who can bring peace to the middle east will be the one who does the whole abomination that causes desolation deal.
Keep this man safe. Too many are seeing him with twisted eyes thanks to religious zealotry.
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Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on CNN at 1 and 5 p.m. ET Sundays.
Fareed Zakaria says President Obama's speech in Cairo was a success but he should have addressed Iraq more.
(CNN) -- President Obama delivered his long-awaited and wide-ranging speech Thursday on American and Muslim relations, offering a hand of friendship to Islam and addressing an array of quandaries and conflicts dividing the two cultures.
At Egypt's Cairo University, Obama quoted from the Quran as he expounded on Islam's glories and rights, the legitimate rights of Israel and the Palestinians, Iranian nuclear aspirations, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, women's rights, economic development, and religious rights and democracy in the Muslim world.
The address, billed as a fence-mending mission between the United States and Islam, urged those present and the people across the globe viewing the speech on television to enter a new, productive and peaceful chapter in their relationship.
Foreign affairs analyst and author Fareed Zakaria spoke to CNN about President Obama's speech.
CNN: Do you think President Obama's speech in Cairo was a success?
Fareed Zakaria: Yes. This is what President Obama does very well. Take two points of view -- communities or groups of people who look at the world differently and then build a bridge. And build that bridge without doing any disservice or disrespect to either side and to either's world view.
He's done this with whites and blacks in America, with liberals and conservatives -- and now of course on a global scale he's doing with the world of Islam and broadly speaking the rest of the world.
CNN: What was particularly resonant in his speech?
Zakaria: The way in which President Obama was able to use the symbols and symbolism of Islam and his familiarity with it was very powerful. He was able to convey to the audience and to the world that he knew Islam and understood it.
He talked about generations of his family being Muslim, he talked about the Azzan, he said "Assalam-o-alaikum" translated as "Peace be upon you." He quoted the Quran. All these might seem small things to people in the West but they resonate powerfully because they send a signal -- that "I understand you."
CNN: Does it really mean that much to "be understood?"
Zakaria: Yes. Think about it. For so long the rest of the world has been forced to understand the West, and here he was trying to convey that he as a leader of the West understood the rest of the world as well.
Watch Fareed and his guests analyze Obama's speech »
CNN: Enough feel good stuff -- what about the substance of the speech?
Zakaria: Well that was there too. What was most striking about the speech from a substantive point of view, was of course the way in which he dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Most presidents get to this issue in the sixth or seventh year of their term when they are hoping for the Nobel Peace Prize or legacy.
Obama has gotten to it just months into his presidency. He talked about it fairly and honestly. He was tough on Palestinian terrorism but equally tough on Israeli settlements.
CNN: His comments on the Israeli settlements seemed to be new direction for an American administration. Would you agree?
Zakaria: It is something of a departure from the last decade of American foreign policy. It is an energetic effort to get the Israelis to stop the settlements because they make it very difficult to negotiate peace.
He was very eloquent in his defense of Israel and the Holocaust. I think no fair-minded Israeli could feel slighted. However, there was an insistence that the settlements stop and that was a notable from a policy point of view.
CNN: Anything else strike you substantively from the speech?
Zakaria: Yes -- Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, had come to the White House hoping to get Obama to understand that Iran was at the center of all problems in the Middle East.
In this speech Iran is not framed in that manner. It only is discussed in reference to the need for nuclear-free Middle East, and even in that context, Obama talks about the legitimate right of Iran to have a nuclear capacity -- a civilian one, not a military one.
So all in all, de-emphasizing the idea that Iran is the great danger and great threat to regional peace or global peace: I don't think that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be happy.
CNN: Anything missing from the speech?
Zakaria: Something did strike me. In a strange way, the one place that Obama could take the most concrete actions that would change the dynamics within the Arab world and change America's image in the Muslim world is Iraq.
President Obama has the opportunity to create facts on the ground that will change the dynamics of politics in a major Arab nation.
Move a country from a repressive dictatorship which breeds extreme and violent opposition to democracy. He can present a model of an American engagement with a free Arab country that is productive, mutually beneficially and peaceful.
Iraq is somewhere President Obama has enormous control and leverage -- more perhaps that he does on any other issue in the Middle East.
But these are my thoughts. I have gathered an amazing group of people from around the Muslim world and the Middle East to present their perspectives on the speech. You should tune in on Sunday to hear what will surely be a lively discussion.
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Loony landing
June 6, 2009
Forty years after man went to the moon, conspiracy theorists still insist it was all a fake. It's a pattern with all the great events of history, writes John Huxley.
'If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon, If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool … " - from Man On The Moon by R.E.M.
Forty years on it remains one of mankind's crowning achievements; a moment in time and space etched forever in the memories of those old enough to have watched it happen live on murky, monochrome television pictures bounced round the world via a NSW bush tracking station.
At least, that's the official version of the Apollo moon landing on July 21, 1969, Sydney time. But Glen Nagle, the education manager for the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, is constantly confronted with a different perspective: that the man on the moon is no more than pie in the sky.
"The question of conspiracy theories crops up here every other day. Members of the public come in, and yeah, yeah, they know we're exploring the universe. But, nah, they don't believe man landed on the moon. Fifty per cent who come through have their doubts."
More disturbing is the level of disbelief among children. "I often do a quick hands-up with school groups that come through. 'Who here thinks we didn't land on the moon?' Again, about half the hands go up."
Nagle attributes such scepticism to naivety, stupidity or, more likely, misinformation. "They've probably been told to do a project on the moon landing, got on the internet and found all this conspiracy stuff pop up."
Thousands of sites - some sophisticated, some merely scatterbrained - argue the landing was a complete or partial hoax. One leading sceptic argues that man did walk on the moon, but pictures were faked to prevent the Soviet Union drawing detailed information from the real photographs.
There is no shortage of tell-tale signs that the landing was rigged, probably in a Hollywood studio. No stars can be seen. Pictures taken miles apart have the same background. The United States flag flies in the still moon air. A Perth resident even claims to have spotted a soft drink bottle in one frame.
Nor is there any shortage of US Government motives for faking it, says the Wikipedia site on "Apollo moon landing hoax conspiracy accusations" - first port of call for many amateurs boldly going in search of information.
Motives include beating the Russians, boosting support for more NASA moon shots, distracting Americans from unpopular ventures such as the Vietnam War, and fulfilling president John Kennedy's pledge to put man on the moon before 1970.
Despite comprehensive debunking, the moon landing remains among the more persistent of many thousands of conspiracy theories "out there". Each claims to expose the truth behind what "they" tell us happened. Popular targets include:
- The deaths of politicians such as John Kennedy (engineered by the CIA) and celebrities such as Princess Diana (the royal family);
- Events such as September 11 (Zionists), the global financial crisis (a secret cabal of central bankers operating from a bunker at Denver International Airport); Hurricane Katrina (then president George Bush);
- The spread of swine flu. Within days of the first case being identified, in the small southern Mexican town of La Gloria, the first conspiracy theories had been spawned, accusing authorities of burying flu dead to prevent panic, or beating up the risks to distract the world from its financial woes.
Today cases of flu conspiracy theory have reached pandemic proportions, as the myth-busting website retardzone.com reveals. Its top plague theory suggests the drug maker Baxter is the evil corporation behind "a massive conspiracy that goes all the way to the top".
No less preposterous theories can be found closer to home. Some Australians still insist Harold Holt was whisked away in a Chinese submarine, that Gough Whitlam was dismissed on CIA instructions, even that the Port Arthur massacre was staged by supporters of gun control.
So pervasive has the "conspiratorial imagination" become that it sometimes seems that Western societies have regressed, adopting a medieval attitude towards calamitous acts, says a leading sociologist, author and academic, Frank Furedi.
"Back in the Dark Ages people regarded accidents, disasters and other acts of misfortune as the work of hidden forces. Misdeeds were often said to have been caused by people who had been manipulated by evil forces. This primitive outlook is making a comeback."
Increasingly, Furedi suggests, life is interpreted through the prism of a Hollywood blockbuster - like Australia's current favourite movie, the conspiracy-riddled Angels & Demons - "where powerful, evil forces pull all the strings".
But why? As with conspiracies, there are many theories. The authors of clavius.org, another myth-busting website, suggest several reasons.
They are devised to explain variations and inconsistencies, or fill in the gaps, in official accounts. They are created for entertainment, or mischief. "Real life is boring. It's more exciting to believe that strange lights in the sky are visiting aliens and not an airliner's landing lights," they say.
They are someone's ego trip, invented to make the theorist appear intelligent, in the know, on the inside, with access to secret information unavailable to others.
And, most convincingly, they are the product of a society that distrusts authority, that increasingly contests, challenges, doubts virtually every aspect of public life; what Furedi, who teaches at the University of Kent,calls a "crisis of causality", an inability to understand and explain events.
Peter Curson an international security expert at Sydney University, says many people are overwhelmed by the complexities and perceived dangers of modern life. "They feel a loss of autonomy, that they have lost control, that they are being manipulated. In times of crisis, especially, they want answers, they want to know who is responsible, who is to blame. In some cases, they want to know who can be made a scapegoat."
In part, this sense of incomprehension, distrust and suspicion is the fault of governments and the media, whose traditional role as sources of reliable information has been eroded.
"We've been disappointed with politicians, and grown tired of the mainstream media, whom we used to rely upon to keep the bastards honest," suggests Les Posen, a clinical psychologist who monitors the impact of new technology.
Little wonder, he says, that people "play silly buggers on the internet".
That, at least, is indisputable. For all its blessings, new technology has upset the traditional hierarchy of knowledge and authority, transforming consumers of information into users and purveyors, and empowering them with audience reach and resources unimaginable a decade ago.
With tools such as Photoshop, YouTube and Facebook, everyone can be a conspiracy theorist, everyone can devise and disseminate their own moon-landing story. "That's frightening," Nagle says.
Of course, the existence of some conspiracies - the Watergate break-in, for example - is proven by thorough investigation. And innocent mistakes happen, though their effect is magnified by the internet, which spreads fiction as well as fact. Nagle quotes a virulent hoax email doing the rounds, which says that later this year Mars will appear as large as the moon in the night sky. This August, Mars will be close to Earth - though not as close as in 2003 - but will require a 75-power magnification telescope to compete with the moon viewed through the naked eye. This qualification, contained in the original official statement, has been omitted.
More worrying, obviously, is the intellectual laziness of consumers, and the wilful intention of users to deceive. "Sadly, for many people it is easier, or more convenient, to believe a lie than go to the bother of discovering the truth," Nagle says.
Some conspiracies, he concedes, are laughable, but the claim the moon landing was faked angers him. "They undermine one of the most astounding things man has done. They dishonour the Australians [primarily at the Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek tracking stations] who played an important part in bringing the pictures back."
For Nagle, they prove the observation about a sucker being born every minute.
Though some moon-landing data has gone missing, every accusation made by "deniers" has been demolished. The absence of stars? The sun was shining, cameras were set on daylight settings. The background was common? Incorrect, it was similar.
And, the flapping flag? The flag appears rippled because it had been folded for storage, and the horizontal rod from which it was suspended could not be fully extended.
But what does Nagle tell moon-landing doubters? Does he go through the minute details of the massive undertaking? Does he tell them it would probably have cost more to fake the landing than to do it?
No. "I ask them, 'do you really think that the Russians were so stupid to believe they hadn't been beaten in the space race'." They were beaten, fair and television-screen square.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/loony-landing-20090605-byhj.html?page=-1
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The reason I am saying Obama's approach is more than a good feeling of trying to do the right thing, that it is in fact a very clever strategy, is as follows.
In the last few days, an interesting development occurred in the North-Western Provinces of Pakistan. After a Taliban attack on a mosque, the local villagers mobilised, travelled to a Taliban stronghold and attacked them, killing a number of Taliban. This is a new turn of events. There are organised Taliban resistance groups supported by the Pak Govt, but this is a new turn, a spontaneous reaction from villagers.
I would say, that if it were not for the current military assault against the Taliban by the Pak army, these villagers would not have dared react this way.
I use this as an indicator that there are attitudes and forces all across the world which are only waiting for the tide to turn generally in the direction of sanity and moderation. They have not dared to act to date for two reasons. Firstly, because the great powers, esp USA, have been noticeably on the side of insanity and extremism.
Secondly because there had been a strong willingness by the general populations, to support aggressive and intolerant solutions. But this approach is now reaching its natural satiation point, and across many of the troubled countries, there is real desire to stop the killing and return to negotiated peace where people can just get on with building prosperity.
It all hinges now on one man. The world is ready, the time is right, but without that one man in the central cog of the USA Government, it would have a far more troubled path, and very likely go the opposite direction.
This can be seen state by state, but here are a few examples.
Iran: an election is brewing, and Dinner Jacket is seriously under threat from numerous moderate candidates. plus the economy has been in a dive, which is added fuel for change of President. Again the time is right - Iranians are generally fed up with being the pariah. they are a very intelligent people, and want acceptance in the modern world. Obama's initiatives are giving a huge impetus to political change in Iran.
Israel: Binyamin Netanyahu is under serious pressure, and is about to reveal a new peace initiative with the Palestinians. What has caught them off guard, is that Obama is holding out a carrot they have dearly sought ever since the founding of modern Israel: recognition and acceptance by all their Arab neighbours. For this, they are, albeit reluctantly, ready to agonise over the issues of Palestine, and settlement constructions. The return of the refugees in Lebanon is still a huge thorn in everyone's political ambitions, plus Iran's nuclear moves, but those aside (not easy), I expect you will now see major debates and even violent arguments within Israel between those who always wanted peaceful coexistence, and those who always wanted the Palestinians to clear out completely.
But also for Israelis there is another growing concern - the damage done to the world's attitude to all Jews has taken a disastrous dive in the last ten years or so. And increasingly so. There is growing pressure from the Jews everywhere, who send in so much money to Israel, to come up with some face-saving and effective solution to their Palestinian problems, and their image problems.
Palestine (dare I use that word?): there is now a real impetus to give up violence against Israelis, if only they will finally get their own state. Somehow I doubt they will so easily give up violence against themselves.
India: just to paint a different picture - for about a week, there was no mention of Obama's speech in Cairo, on the front page of the Times of India. All they were concerned about was anti-Indian racism in Australia. Conveniently ignoring their own anti-Muslim racism.
USA: what Obama is holding out to Americans for support of his policy, is for the more moderate demography, at last a sane and intelligent person in charge. But for the others, there is a the carrot that perhaps once again the USA may regain their dearly desired profile of being admired across the globe. Americans have been deeply shocked at the hate directed at them during the Bush years, and that this would be turned around, and the world would once again see them as the shining light of Democracy and a 'Force for Good' (dare I say it?), is just too much to hope for. They may be willing to just give him a little time to see if he can pull that one off.
In so many countries, the possibility that internal forces will rally to the call for a change to sanity and the cherished desire to get down to the serious business of making money, is higher now than ever before. The time is with Obama. Even China may now step in and tell the North Koreans to stop their idiocy, as the last thing they want is trouble up there, with their own economic recovery so delicately poised, and the political implications of mishandling that.
So I am saying it is actually a clever strategy. You may even soon see a big push against Wahhabism from within Islam itself, but that would have to come from Saudi Arabia, and it isn't showing any signs of happening yet. That will be a hard nut to crack.
However, across the globe, the forces against any shift from belligerence and violence are overwhelmingly strong. Even within the USA, the self-interest of the Military and Weapons industry is ready to pull all the nasty tricks it can to not lose it's power over Government funding. But the other big business industries are severely weakened, and now looking for a peaceful world economic domain, to relaunch their teetering empires.
Interesting times...
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Interesting times...
indeed they are
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The 'other mentality' in the US...
'Global warming is baloney' signs put the heat on Burger King
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/6/1/1243858141761/Burger-King-Calls-Global--001.jpg)
A row between the fast food giant Burger King and one of its major franchise owners has erupted over roadside signs proclaiming "global warming is baloney".
The franchisee, a Memphis-based company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC) that owns more than 40 Burger Kings across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, has described Burger King as acting "kinda like cockroaches" over the controversy. MIC says it does not believe Burger King has the authority to make it take the signs down.
The dispute began to sizzle last week, when a local newspaper reporter in Memphis, Tennessee, noticed the signs outside two restaurants in the city and contacted the corporation to establish if the message represented its official viewpoint. Burger King's headquarters in Miami said it did not, adding that it had ordered MIC to take the signs down.
But a few days later readers of the Memphis paper said they had seen about a dozen Burger King restaurants across the state displaying the signs and that some had yet to be taken down. Media attempts to contact MIC to establish why it was taking an apparently defiant stance were rebuffed, but the Guardian managed to grill MIC's marketing president, John McNelis.
"I would think [Burger King] would run from any form of controversy kinda like cockroaches when the lights get turned on," said Mr McNelis. "I'm not aware of any direction that they gave the franchisee and I don't think they have the authority to do it."
McNelis added: "The [restaurant] management team can put the message up there if they want to. It is private property and here in the US we do have some rights. Notwithstanding a franchise agreement, I could load a Brinks vehicle with [rights] I've got so many of them. By the time the Burger King lawyers work out how to make that stick we'd be in the year 2020."
He continued: "Burger King can bluster all they want about what they can tell the franchisee to do, but we have free-speech rights in this country so I don't think there's any concerns."
The Guardian sent a transcript of the interview to Susan Robison, Burger King's vice-president of corporate communications.
She responded: "The statement that was posted on several restaurants' reader boards in the Memphis area, and the view expressed by the franchisee on this issue does not reflect Burger King Corp's opinion … BKC has guidelines for signage used by franchisees [which] were not followed. We have asked the franchisee to remove the signage and have been told that the franchisee will comply."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/05/burger-king-global-warming-us
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Geez, what morons.
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Geez, what morons.
I was aware that there was this current here .. but just imagine: this business chose to pollute the environment fanning that cause with signs. Not even relevant to a Burger King Whopper, except that it is somehow a fitting metaphor.
Blows my mind.
Tiny steps forward .. 2 thousand steps back.
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There's a "Republican Revolution" brewing in the US. They are seeing their party will be extinct unless they take immediate radical "right view" action. They don't agree with the Democratic "left" views and policies, so they use big corporate 'power' to further their cause. If BK really didn't want the signs up, they would have them removed immediately. You'll see more corporate actions like this to basically discredit Obama and Democrats.
The world as they (Republicans) know it is changing hands .... power to the people. They don't like that at all ;)
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Australia may push swine flu to pandemic
Frank Jordans
June 10, 2009 - 5:39AM
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said a spike in swine flu cases in Australia may push it to finally announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years.
It also expressed concern about an unusual rise in severe illness from the disease in Canada.
WHO's flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the agency wanted to avoid "adverse effects" if it announces a global outbreak of swine flu.
Fukuda said people might panic or that governments might take inappropriate actions if the WHO declares a pandemic.
Some flu experts think the world already is in a pandemic and that WHO has caved in to country requests that a declaration be postponed.
"On the surface of it, I think we are in phase 6," or a pandemic, said Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general.
Chan said it was important to verify the reports that the virus was becoming established outside North America before declaring a pandemic.
"The decision to make a phase 6 announcement is a heavy responsibility, a responsibility that I will take very seriously, and I need to be convinced that I have indisputable evidence," she said.
Chan said she will hold a conference call with governments on Wednesday before making a formal announcement.
WHO said the virus has infected 26,563 people in 73 countries and caused 140 deaths. Most of the cases have been in North America, but Australia also has seen a sharp increase in recent days.
The number of cases in Australia jumped to more than 1,000 by Monday, with the vast majority reported from Victoria.
In most of the 73 countries, the new H1N1 virus has triggered only mild illness.
But the fact that some of the deaths have occurred in otherwise healthy adults has prompted the WHO to classify the outbreak as "moderate" for the time being.
"Approximately half the people who have died from this H1N1 infection have been previously healthy people," Fukuda said, adding that this was "one of the observations which has given us the most concern".
Wealthy countries such as the United States, Canada and Britain already have large stockpiles of anti-virals used to treat swine flu, but many developing countries have no supplies of the drugs and could be more vulnerable to the virus, given their struggle with widespread problems such as AIDS, malnutrition and malaria.
Some pharmaceutical companies are preparing to make a swine flu vaccine, if the WHO declares a pandemic.
If the swine flu virus were to be shown to be spreading rapidly from person to person in another world region beyond North America, such as Australia or Europe, that should trigger the conditions for the WHO to declare a pandemic, meaning the outbreak has gone global.
"We are getting really very close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation," Fukuda said.
In his weekly update on the outbreak, Fukuda also addressed reports that an unusually large number of severe cases have occurred among Canada's Inuit population.
"There are reports of infections occurring in Inuit communities with a disproportionate number of serious cases," he said.
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How hopes can be dashed in such a short time. I'm afraid Obama is now really up against it, and will have to change tactics.
Iran, it appears at this point, will return Dinner Jacket to power. That marks dark days for Iran I'm afraid, as there is no way the world can allow a nuclear weapons race in the Middle East, despite that it now looks inevitable.
And the EU has gone Right, just when you'd expect everything that has happened would have been the fault of the Right. But this possibility was darkly forecast by those who pointed to the rise of Hitler from economic woes. People tend to swing to the extreme hard line when threatened.
Plus North Korea determined to snub its nose at friendship - won't be long before US bombs will be taking out nuclear instillations. Can't see any way around this now.
Appears humanity had a glimmer of possibility there for a moment, but choose to ditch it. I expect very soon both the Palestinians and the Israelis will sabotage any moves towards a peaceful solution, as there are just too many on both sides whose identity is wedded to violence. It is human nature really - very little to do with race or nationality.
I guess we had all better just get back to our own paths and forget about the ship of the world tacking away from the precipice.
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I guess we had all better just get back to our own paths and forget about the ship of the world tacking away from the precipice.
:)
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Well well, we had better not write off Iran just yet. Somehow, for some reason, the crackdown on protesters has not been as successful as authorities would wish. This can not just be due to the extent of the unrest, there must be some internal struggles happening in whatever command structure that country has. It does not look pretty from this point - something very nasty could happen there, or else the government will indeed capitulate. The latter, I just can't see happening that easily. I do know that diaspora Iranians are very frightened for their country.
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I am fascinated by the struggle going on in Iran. The more I read about it, the more complex it gets.
This is not like reading about Somalia - Iran is home to a proud and intelligent people who are actually closer to Western society than any other Islamic state.
I am watching closely, but I'd have to say now that the old Supreme Leader's chips are numbered.
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I am fascinated by the struggle going on in Iran. The more I read about it, the more complex it gets.
This is not like reading about Somalia - Iran is home to a proud and intelligent people who are actually closer to Western society than any other Islamic state.
I had the opportunity to get to know a student from Iran during the years when I helped her to do her exam thesis and her master thesis. She was then 45 year old, married to a Swedish man, but came in the wave of the late 1980's during the war of Iran-Iraq.
Her studies was about elderly Iranians health status. These elders had arrived here to accompany their "children" that now was living with their children in Sweden. These old people from Iran had great difficulties to adopt to the new life in Sweden. They became very dependent of their relatives.
However Feresteh told me that it is a great divide in culture between the populations in the great cities and out in the countryside. As you point it out, in general, at least back then 20 years ago, Iran was the most "western" and open society in the muslim world.
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I am fascinated by the struggle going on in Iran. The more I read about it, the more complex it gets.
This is not like reading about Somalia - Iran is home to a proud and intelligent people who are actually closer to Western society than any other Islamic state.
I am watching closely, but I'd have to say now that the old Supreme Leader's chips are numbered.
I knew that same dude was gonna win and this was gonna happen. The young never get their way, and the system is always rigged. No way.
Not saying its alll young people this happend with, but still many are young, and with the interest in the other candidate, and demand for change, for that other dude to win is bullshit. The votes were tampered with. No way it was an honest election. The people who live there arents stupid. Thats what they're protesting about, and they want the world to know, they're not stupid, and they're sick of being under the regime they're under.
Democracy didnt make it that day, now people die in the streets and Iran is doing their best to shut them up, cell phones, internet, take into custody news people and the like. Its bullshit. I dont blame them for protesting.
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North Korea. It is looking ugly. Japan is reviewing its lucrative decision to hang under the US defence arc. South Korea is petrified. China is at a loss.
Seem the US has no option but to use the blitz. I can't see anyway out of it.
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Canada's dirty secret
Despite its environmentally friendly reputation, Canada's efforts on climate change rank last among the G8 nations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/canada-environment-carbon-emissions-g8
Canada has come last on a WWiF scorecard of G8 countries' efforts against climate change. That news would once have elicited at least a slightly surprised response. For several decades, Canada managed to present itself as the friendly giant of environmental issues. The 1989 Protocol on CFCs, an early turning point in combating the depletion of the ozone layer, was born in Montreal, and American environmental campaigners like Al Gore are always quick to heap praise on their northern neighbour.
But these days, Canada is looking increasingly like the dirty one of G8. The WWF report noted that Canada is one of the few countries on the scorecard whose emissions are still rising, and that Canada's Conservative government isn't doing enough to combat climate change.
Maybe some of Canada's new bad-guy image on environmental issues is just a by-product of America's new green image. Obama's presidency was always going to bump the US up a few places on environmental scorecards, almost just out of gratitude that America has at least promised not to so flagrantly and unapologetically deplete the world's natural resources.
But Obama isn't why Canada is losing its green reputation. The real reason lies in the vast Alberta oil sands. In 2008, Alberta's economically recoverable reserves were placed at 173 billion barrels, meaning that only Saudi Arabia outstrips Canada on oil reserves. But unlike Saudi Arabia, in Alberta the oil is literally in the sand. To dig it up and refine it is a process far higher in emissions than the processing of Saudi Arabian oil, and is destroying much of Alberta's northern Boreal forest along the way.
The response to the report in Canada has been less hand-wringing than one might expect. Some dismiss the finding by pointing out that even other environmental organisations have problems with WWF. Others argue that surveys like the WWF's are just penalising countries like Canada and Russia for their geographic realities – smaller countries keep their emissions down by importing oil from Canada, then criticise Canada for producing it, and so on.
On top of the recession's effect on plans for the oil sands, defenders argue that Obama's cap-and-trade proposals would severely impact Canadian oil production because the proposal will heavily penalise those who ship Canadian oil sand bitumen to the United States, given that refining the raw bitumen is so energy-intensive.
But Canada isn't being punished for its geographic reality. It is finally being called out for presenting itself as environmentally friendly, while under the Conservative government green issues have been completely sidelined, if not derided. Before becoming prime minister, Stephen Harper implied that the science of climate change was "tentative and contradictory", called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" and ranted that an "army of Canadians" was needed to defeat it. While he has proposed "made in Canada" solutions to cutting carbon emissions, Harper's main actions have been to cut programmes that promoted renewable energy like wind power. Even plans for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver risk causing environmental damage to rare forests in the nearby Eagle Ridge Bluffs.
Vancouver is consistently voted one of the world's most liveable cities, and the Canadian government intends to use the Olympics to showcase Canada's pleasant, fresh-aired way of life. But the price Canada is paying to maintain its "friendly giant" facade is increasingly being paid for by the environment.
The fact that Obama's Clean Energy and Security Act will, if passed by Congress, disproportionately hurt oil companies working with Albertan oil sands may feel like American hypocrisy to Canadians who have long watched the US's profligate environmental destruction go unchecked. But while Harper continues to disappoint on his commitments to the environment, someone has to play the bad cop to Canada.
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Prince Charles: next generation faces 'living hell' unless climate change tackled
The Prince of Wales has warned the next generation face a "living hell" unless governments tackle climate change urgently.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5781888/Prince-Charles-next-generation-faces-living-hell-unless-climate-change-tackled.html
Delivering this year's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the Prince said: "In failing the Earth, we are failing humanity."
Drawing parallels with the global financial crisis, he said Nature was the "biggest bank of all", warning the Earth is on the brink of environmental disaster.
"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too," he said. "If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it."
The Prince called for a rethinking of society's perception of the world.
"If only because, surely, we all want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren something other than the living hell of the nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon," said.
Referring to an earlier speech in March, when he said there were "less than 100 months to act" to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change, he said there are now lonely "96 months left".
He called for a new Age of Sustainability rather than our current "Age of Convenience" where the goal of unlimited economic growth is depleting finite Natural resources to dangerously low levels.
He said mankind needed to reassess the relationship with the natural world and recognise that "we are not separate from Nature – like everything else, we are Nature."
He called for greater "financial incentives and disincentives" to move innovative business ideas from the economic fringes to the mainstream.
In addition to greater corporate social and environmental responsibility, the Prince urged the Government to make greater use of "community capital – the networks of people and organisations, the post offices and pubs, the churches and village halls, the mosques, temples and bazaars".
One solution "lies in the way we plan, design and build our settlements", said the Prince. "I have talked long and hard about this for what seems rather a long time – but it is yet another case where a rediscovery of so-called "old-fashioned", traditional virtues can lead to the development of sustainable urbanism."
The Prince of Wales delivered BBC One's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St James Palace in front of a live audience. It is 20 years after his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, gave his own Dimbleby Lecture. The annual address is named after the late broadcaster, whom the Prince said "he combined a flair for language with great human insight to report on some of the most significant moments of the twentieth century – not least when he guided millions of viewers on the day television came of age, with the BBC's coverage of my mother's Coronation in 1953."
It is understood the Prince was invited to give the lecture by Mr Dimbleby's 64-year-old son Jonathan, who wrote a biography of the Prince in 1994.
Other previous Richard Dimbleby lecturers include Bill Clinton, General Sir Mike Jackson, Dame Stella Rimington and Dr Rowan Williams.
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Clinton, India's Ramesh Clash on Climate Change
GURGAON, India, July 19 -- The stage was set for a demonstration of how India and the United States could work together to reduce the impact of climate change: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton touring an environmentally-friendly "green" office building on the outskirts of the sprawling capital of New Delhi.
But the clash between developed and developing countries over climate change intruded on the high-profile photo opportunity midway through Clinton's three-day tour of India. Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh complained about U.S. pressure to cut a worldwide deal and Clinton countered that the Obama administration's push for a binding agreement would not sacrifice India's economic growth.
As dozens of cameras recorded the scene, Ramesh declared that India would not commit to a deal that would require it to meet targets to reduce emissions. "It is not true that India is running away from mitigation," he said. But "India's position, let me be clear, is that we are simply not in the position to take legally binding emissions targets."
"No one wants to in any way stall or undermine the economic growth that is necessary to lift millions more out of poverty," Clinton countered. "We also believe that there is a way to eradicate poverty and develop sustainability that will lower significantly the carbon footprint."
Both sides appearing to be playing to the Indian audience, with Ramesh taking the opportunity to reinforce India's bottom line.
Before the visit, U.S. officials were acutely aware that the Indian government has faced criticism at home for making what they considered relatively modest concessions on reducing greenhouse emissions earlier this month at a meeting of major economies. A leaked e-mail from former Indian negotiator Surya Sethi to other negotiators -- in which he asserted the decision would make India poorer -- generated a firestorm here.
Clinton was prepared to argue that countering climate change could actually lift India's economy, not undermine it. U.S. officials also believe, as one put it, that "developing countries are willing to do more than they are willing to agree to."
Todd Stern, the administration's special envoy for climate change, has accompanied Clinton on her tour of India. Though U.S. officials said that Stern's visit had been coordinated with Indian officials, the nervousness of the Indian establishment was reflected in one newspaper's headline on Saturday: "Climate Man's Visit Shocks India."
The visit to the "green" building -- the brick and sandstone headquarters of the hotel division of Indian tobacco giant ITC Ltd. -- began amicably. The building appears undistinguished from the outside, but Alwyn Noronha, an ITC executive vice president, explained to Clinton that the building has a 30 percent smaller carbon footprint than a similar-sized building, cutting energy use in half though innovations such as an L-shaped design that allows a maximum use of natural light.
Clinton likened the squat, plain-looking building -- which was constructed with U.S. assistance -- to a new version of the Taj Mahal, grandly declaring it was "a monument to the future."
After the tour was over, the American and Indian delegations settled into a conference room for a closed-door chat. Ramesh opened with a blunt statement that took four minutes to read.
"There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions," Ramesh told Clinton. He asserted that "detailed modeling" showed "unambiguous" results -- that developing country emissions would remain well below the averages of developed countries even with high growth rates.
At the meeting, Clinton responded that she "completely" understood India's argument about per capita emissions, according to the notes of a U.S. reporter permitted to observe the discussion. "On one level, it's a fair argument," she said, but she argued the per capita argument "loses force" as developing countries rapidly become the biggest emitters.
Ramesh replied that India's position on per capita emissions is "not a debating strategy" because it is enshrined in international agreements. "We look upon you suspiciously because you have not fulfilled what [developed countries] pledged to fulfill," he jabbed, calling it a "crisis of credibility."
The tone of the nearly one-hour meeting appeared to become less strained as Clinton acknowledged some of Ramesh's points and repeatedly stressed the United States was not trying to limit India's growth.
'We want an international agreement," Ramesh said, but whether one can be reached at a major climate summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen will depend on being creative, leveraging international technology and especially "international capital is going to be key."
Clinton emerged from the session to declare the discussion was "very fruitful" and she saw the potential for narrowing differences between the two countries on the contentious issue. "We have many more areas of agreement than perhaps had been appreciated," she told reporters.
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Larry tells a story today of receiving an email from his boss, of all people, which was a "joke" about setting fire to the prez and 4 other 'liberals'. As if the boss found this very funny. Setting fire ---> I never saw such a joke afoot about Bush, and lord knows he was the object of many many jokes. It's kind of alarming.
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We watched the news today and it all looked like a disaster movie: Poland, Austria, Czech Republic struck by extraordinarily strong thunderstorms (fatalities); Spain, France, Greece, Croatia struck by an incredible heat wave (temperatures reaching 40C - accidents, fires, fatalities); and it is snowing in El Salvador.
I wonder, what does it take to not notice or close one's eyes from these facts and from what they tell?
...and...the Sun is still at its low end of activity...that is about to end.
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We watched the news today and it all looked like a disaster movie: Poland, Austria, Czech Republic struck by extraordinarily strong thunderstorms (fatalities); Spain, France, Greece, Croatia struck by an incredible heat wave (temperatures reaching 40C - accidents, fires, fatalities); and it is snowing in El Salvador.
I wonder, what does it take to not notice or close one's eyes from these facts and from what they tell?
...and...the Sun is still at its low end of activity...that is about to end.
Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report (Free Online Book) (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12507)
Scary stuff -- I've only been able to take it in small doses.
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This is scary too:
Swine flu could strike up to 40 percent in 2 years
ATLANTA – U.S. health officials say swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren't successful.
Those estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mean about twice the number of people who usually get sick in a normal flu season would be struck by swine flu. Officials said those projections would drop if a new vaccine is ready and widely available, as U.S. officials expect.
The U.S. may have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available sometime in October, and U.S. tests of the new vaccine are to start shortly, federal officials said this week.
The infection estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. But influenza is notoriously hard to predict. The number of deaths and illnesses would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.
A CDC official said the agency came up with the estimate last month, but it was first disclosed in an interview with The Associated Press.
"Hopefully, mitigation efforts will have a big impact on future cases," Skinner said.
In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die from flu and its complications, according to American Medical Association estimates. Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.
The World Health Organization says as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world population. The estimates look at potential impacts over a two-year period because past flu pandemics have occurred in waves over more than one year.
WHO officials believe the world is in the early phase of the new pandemic.
First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDC believes, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 reported cases, according to numbers released Friday morning.
Because the swine flu virus is new, most people haven't developed an immunity against it. So far, most of those who have died from it in the United States have had other health problems, such as asthma.
The virus has caused an unusual number of serious illnesses in teens and young adults; seasonal flu usually is toughest on the elderly and very young children.
New swine flu illness have erupted through the summer, which is also unusual, though cases were less widespread this month. Officials fear an explosion of cases in the fall, when children return to school and the weather turns cold, making the virus easier to spread.
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We have over 42 C°, that's over 107 Fahrenheit
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We have over 42 C°, that's over 107 Fahrenheit
Oy.
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We have over 42 C°, that's over 107 Fahrenheit
Daily life is a survival game?
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Cool, there was that nagging feeling that numbers of Chinese were getting low...Only 1,2 billion (with up to 200 million being likely unaccounted) and having some 40-60 million males without mates...
China begins lifting strict one-child policy
China has taken the first step towards ending its controversial one-child policy by encouraging urban couples in Shanghai to have two children.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5901573/China-begins-lifting-strict-one-child-policy.html
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 4:51PM BST 24 Jul 2009
The easing of restrictions comes in response to concern about economic problems caused by the country's ageing population.
Shanghai is actively promoting the two-child policy as China tries to defuse a demographic time bomb caused by a shortage of young workers after 30 years of tough population growth restrictions.
The policy shift in the large coastal city marks the first time since 1979 that officials have actively encouraged parents to have more children.
If they are both single children themselves, husbands and wives in Shanghai are allowed to have two children.
While they have technically been allowed to do so before, the couples are now the target of a city-wide campaign to persuade them to make use of their extra allowance.
They will receive home visits and leaflets to promote the benefits of a second child.
The city government is worried about the rapidly rising number of elderly people and the resulting burden and drag on the Chinese economy.
"We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of ageing people and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future," said Xie Lingli, the head of Shanghai's family planning commission, to the China Daily newspaper.
The policy shift will prove popular. A recent survey released by the Shanghai family planning commission showed that more than half of 4,800 respondents, aged between 20 and 30, said would like a second child if the one-child policy was eased.
China's one-child policy was originally designed to make sure the huge country's population remained at a manageable size, given the country's relatively low water, energy and food resources.
Experts predicted earlier this week that there will be zero growth in China's population of 1.3 billion people by 2030.
The US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies warned in April that mainland China will have more than 438 million people older than 60 by 2050, with more than 100 million aged 80 and above.
The country will then have a population ratio of 1.6 working-age adults to support every person aged 60 and above, as compared with 7.7 in 1975.
Shanghai's over-60 population already numbers more than three million, or more than one-fifth of residents. But that proportion is expected to rise to around one-third by 2020.
In China, the number of citizens over 65 is forecast to more than treble from 106 million today to 329 million by 2040. This will hugely increase the cost of pensions and impose a major constraint on the future growth of China's economy.
Some economists have predicted that the stellar growth rates which have buoyed China's economy will become impossible with so many people set to leave the working population.
The demographic crisis has been compounded by government population policy which is estimated to have resulted in the birth of 400 million fewer people.
Population forecasts have shown that if the current one-child policy continues China's children of today, at the time of marriage in 20 years, could face the task of taking care of four parents and as many as eight grandparents.
At last week's Venice Biennale, Chinese artist Xing Xin has locked himself in a iron box for 49 days to protest at the one child policy which has long been criticised on human rights grounds.
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We have over 42 C°, that's over 107 Fahrenheit
Gee! Please keep that heat down South :)
Here it has been a lot of rain for several weeks so we are happy to have some normal sunny days now. Though the athmospheric humidity is rather high which makes one wet of sweat very easily.
Yes, Europe have had hard times with rain, storms and fires.
They showed this picture of hailstones large as bird eggs in the newspaper.
(http://www.expressen.se/polopoly_fs/1.1650488!slot50ArticleSmall/3447786819.jpg)
And these fires in Spain
(http://www.expressen.se/polopoly_fs/1.1650610!slot100slotWide75ArticleFull/3447786819.jpg)
Photo: Carlos Barba
I like this one with the pool as a frame, a Margerita anyone?
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Though the athmospheric humidity is rather high which makes one wet of sweat very easily.
Imagine the same thing at 35-45 C° and you get a sauna. For free. All day long. And night. For months in a row.
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Those hailstones are something else. Fires too, but the hailstones are incredible in their size.
Our weather is so wacky, esp around this time of year. I wonder what kind of storm weather we're gonna have in the gulf this year.
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I wonder what kind of storm weather we're gonna have in the gulf this year.
Well, the Atlantic's water temperature was the warmest on record for the month of June -- that doesn't bode well.
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Well, the Atlantic's water temperature was the warmest on record for the month of June -- that doesn't bode well.
Oy. No it doesnt. I dont 'feel' like its gonna be another Ike this year, but when it comes to storms I dunno. Maybe its just me being hopeful. I never wanna see say, another katrina in my lifetime if I can help it.
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Oy. No it doesnt. I dont 'feel' like its gonna be another Ike this year, but when it comes to storms I dunno. Maybe its just me being hopeful. I never wanna see say, another katrina in my lifetime if I can help it.
They've developed a habit now of covering up, so we likely won't "see" it. Last year, for example, there was a news blackout over Hurricane Ike, and answers to important questions, like how a "Category 2" storm behaved like a Category 4, got washed away, along with the bodies on Bolivar Peninsula. I'm hoping Obama's administration will do better with all that.
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In Texas, drought means conserving every last drop
(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090724/capt.4b0d5fffb7f44d78bd58d565020ba8d7.texas_drought_water_at101.jpg?x=213&y=77&xc=1&yc=1&wc=409&hc=148&q=85&sig=crdECOoAdQ9n0PXD7JChkA--)
This view from Highway 71 northwest of Bee Cave, Texas, shows boat houses and docks grounded along the … By JOHN McFARLAND, Associated Press Writer John Mcfarland, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 1 min ago
DALLAS – Off-duty police officers are patrolling streets, looking for people illegally watering their lawns and gardens. Residents are encouraged to stealthily rat out water scofflaws on a 24-hour hot line. One Texas lake has dipped so low that stolen cars dumped years ago are peeking up through the waterline.
The nation's most drought-stricken state is deep-frying under relentless 100-degree days and waterways are drying up, especially in the hardest-hit area covering about 350 miles across south-central Texas. That's making folks worried about the water supply — and how long it might last.
"The water table's fallin' and fallin' and fallin,' like a whole lot of other people around here," said Wendell McLeod, general manager of Liberty Hill Water Supply Corp. and a 60-year resident of the town northwest of Austin. "This is the worst I can recall seeing it. I tell you, it's just pretty bleak."
There are 230 Texas public water systems under mandatory water restrictions, including those in and near San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin. Another 60 or so have asked for voluntary cutbacks. Water levels are down significantly in lakes, rivers and wells around Texas.
Liberty Hill's Web site urges its 1,400 or so residents in all-red letters to stop using unnecessary water with this plea: "If we follow these strict guidelines, we may have drinking water." The town's shortage eased some with the arrival this week of 35,000 gallons a day from a nearby water system, but residents are still worried.
According to drought statistics released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 77 of Texas' 254 counties are in extreme or exceptional drought, the most severe categories. No other state in the continental U.S. has even one area in those categories. John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist at Texas A&M University, said he expects harsh drought conditions to last at least another month.
In the bone-dry San Antonio-Austin area, the conditions that started in 2007 are being compared to the devastating drought of the 1950s. There have been 36 days of 100 degrees or more this year in an area where it's usually closer to 12.
Among the most obvious problems are the lack of water in Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan near Austin, two massive reservoirs along the Colorado River that provide drinking water for more than 1 million people and also are popular boating and swimming spots. Streams and tributaries that feed the lakes have "all but dried up," according to the Lower Colorado River Authority.
Lake Travis is more empty than full, down 54 percent. All but one of the 12 boating ramps are closed because they no longer reach the water, and the last may go soon. The receding waters have even revealed old stolen cars shoved into the lake years ago, authorities said.
There's no threat to the area's drinking water supply, Rose said, but there are increased boating hazards from the "sometimes islands" that pop up when the water's low, increased risk of wildfires, and more interactions between humans and wildlife.
"We're seeing deer and armadillo and other animals in places we don't typically see them," he said. "They're starving for water and food."
At the Oasis, a popular restaurant with a deck overlooking Lake Travis, the islands are even starting to grow heavy vegetation.
"You can see all the white on the rocks where the waterline used to be," said Becca Torbert, a server at the restaurant who says the boat traffic is down, but the water's down even more.
San Antonio, which relies on the Edwards Aquifer for its water, is enduring its driest 23-month period since weather data was recorded starting in 1885, according to the National Weather Service. The aquifer's been hovering just above 640 feet deep, and if it dips below that the city will issue its harshest watering restrictions yet.
The city's not just sitting around, though. A total of 30 off-duty officers and other employees are working overtime to patrol the city looking for people illegally watering. Since April, about 1,500 people have been cited and ordered to pay fines ranging from $50 to over $1,000. Residents also are encouraged to rat out water scofflaws on the 24-hour Water Waste Hot Line.
"We don't go out in a car with sirens blazing or anything like that, but we do take the report and send out a letter saying 'You've been reported for not following water rules,'" said Anne Hayden, spokeswoman for the San Antonio Water System.
There have been smatterings of light rain in the area this week, but not enough to make much difference. But hopefully, the end is in sight. Victor Murphy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said an El Nino system is developing in the Pacific Ocean. That phenomenon is usually followed by increased rainfall in Texas in the fall.
McLeod, from Liberty City, hopes his little town can hang on till then.
"I don't know how we can," he said. "I try not to look too far ahead."
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Sun seems to have made up its mind.
World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns
Duncan Clark
New estimate based on the forthcoming upturn in solar activity and El Niño southern oscillation cycles is expected to silence global warming sceptics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/27/world-warming-faster-study
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/maps_and_graphs/2008/12/05/06.13.08.globalairtemp.gif)
The world faces a new period of record-breaking temperatures as the sun's activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted over the next five years, according to a new study.
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global-warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have levelled off or started to decline. However, the new research firmly rejects that argument.
The work is the first to assess the combined impact on global temperature of four factors: human influences such as CO2 and aerosol emissions; heating from the sun; volcanic activity; and the El Niño southern oscillation, the phenomenon by which the Pacific Ocean flips between warmer and cooler states every few years.
It shows that the relative stability in global temperatures observed in the last seven years is explained primarily by the decline in incoming sunlight associated with the downward phase of the 11-year solar cycle, together with a lack of strong El Niño events. These trends have masked the warming caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
As solar activity picks up again in the coming years, the new research suggests, temperatures will shoot up at 150% of the rate predicted by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The research, to be published in a forthcoming edition of Geophysical Research Letters, was carried out by Judith Lean of the US Naval Research Laboratory and David Rind of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Lean said: "Our paper shows that the absence of warming observed in the last decade is no evidence that the climate isn't responding to man-made greenhouse gases. On the contrary, the study again confirms that we're seeing a long-term warming trend driven by human activity, with natural factors affecting the precise shape of that temperature rise."
Lean and Rind's research also sheds light on the extreme average temperature observed in 1998. The new paper confirms that the temperature spike of that year was caused primarily by a very strong El Niño episode. A similar episode occurring in the future could be expected to create a spike of equivalent magnitude on top of an even higher baseline, thus shattering the 1998 record.
Furthermore, the study comes within days of announcements from climatologists that the world is entering a new El Niño warm spell. This development suggests that temperature rises in the next year could be even more marked than Lean and Rind's paper suggests. A particularly hot autumn and winter could add to the pressure on policy-makers to reach a meaningful deal at December's climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen.
Bob Henson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado said: "If El Niño continues to develop, it's quite possible that the Copenhagen meeting will take place during one of the warmest Decembers in the global record."
He added that the paper was a reminder that temperature patterns observed over periods of just a few years can be misleading when it comes to the bigger picture: "To claim that global temperatures have cooled since 1998 and therefore that man-made climate change isn't happening is a bit like saying spring has gone away when you have a mild week after a scorching Easter."
Temperature highs and lows
1998
Hottest year of the millennium
Caused by a major El Niño event. The climate phenomenon results from warming of the tropical Pacific and causes heatwaves, droughts and flooding around the world. The 1998 event caused 16% of the world's coral reefs to die.
1957
Most sunspots in a year since 1778
The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. The late 1950s saw a peak in activity and were relatively warm years for the period.
1601
Coldest year of the millennium
Ash from the huge eruption the previous year of a Peruvian volcano called Huaynaputina blocked out the sun. The volcanic winter caused Russia's worst famine, with a third of the population dying, and disrupted agriculture from China to France.
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Human activity is driving Earth's 'sixth great extinction event'
Population growth, pollution and invasive species are having a disastrous effect on species in the southern hemisphere, a major review by conservationists warns
Ian Sample, science correspondent
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/28/species-extinction-hotspots-australia
Earth is experiencing its "sixth great extinction event" with disease and human activity taking a devastating toll on vulnerable species, according to a major review by conservationists.
Much of the southern hemisphere is suffering particularly badly, and Australia, New Zealand and neighbouring Pacific islands may become the extinction hot spots of the world, the report warns.
Ecosystems in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia need urgent and effective conservation policies, or the region's already poor record on extinctions will worsen significantly.
Researchers trawled 24,000 published reports to compile information on the native flora and fauna of Australasia and the Pacific islands, which have six of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Their report identifies six causes driving species to extinction, almost all linked in some way to human activity.
"Our region has the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on Earth," said Richard Kingsford, an environmental scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and lead author of the report. "We have an amazing natural environment, but so much of it is being destroyed before our eyes. Species are being threatened by habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, climate change, over-exploitation, pollution and wildlife disease."
The review, published in the journal Conservation Biology, highlights destruction and degradation of ecosystems as the main threat. In Australia, agriculture has altered or destroyed half of all woodland and forests. Around 70% of the remaining forest has been damaged by logging. Loss of habitats is behind 80% of threatened species, the report claims.
Invasive animals and plants have devastated native species on many Pacific islands. The Guam Micronesian kingfisher is thought to be extinct in the wild following the introduction of the brown tree snake. The impact of invasive species is often compounded by pollution and burgeoning human populations on the islands, which have outstripped their capacity to deal with waste. Plastics and fishing gear are an ongoing danger.
The impact of humans on wildlife is likely to increase in Australasia and the Pacific islands. By 2050, the population of Australia is expected to have risen by 35%, and New Zealand by 25%, while Papua New Guinea faces a 76% increase and New Caledonia 49%.
More than 2,500 invasive plant species have colonised Australia and New Zealand, competing for sunlight and nutrients. Many have been introduced by governments, horticulturists and hunters. In addition, the report says, average temperatures in Australia have increased, in line with climate change predictions, forcing some species towards Antarctica and others to higher, cooler ground.
The report highlights several studies that point to serious threats from diseases such as avian malaria and the chytrid fungus, linked to declines in frog populations. An infectious facial cancer is spreading rapidly among Tasmanian devils and populations of the world's largest marsupial predator are believed to have fallen by more than 60% as a result.
Plants have also fared badly: a root fungus deliberately introduced into Australia has destroyed several species.
The report sets out a raft of recommendations to slow the decline by introducing laws to limit land clearing, logging and mining; restricting deliberate introduction of invasive species; reducing carbon emissions and pollution; and limiting fisheries. It raises particular concerns about bottom trawling, and the use of cyanide and dynamite, and calls for early-warning systems to pick up diseases in the wild.
"The burden on the environment is going to get worse unless we are a lot smarter about reducing our footprint," said Kingsford. "Unless we get this right, future generations will surely be paying more in quality of life and the environment. And our region will continue its terrible reputation of leading the world in the extinction of plants and animals."
Dead and buried
Cretaceous-Tertiary 65m years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction that killed nearly a fifth of land vertebrate families, 16% of marine families and nearly half of all marine animals. Thought to have been caused by asteroid impact that created Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan.
End of Triassic About 200m years ago, lava floods erupting from the central Atlantic are thought to have created lethal global warming, killing off more than a fifth of all marine families and half of marine genera.
Permian-Triassic The worst mass extinction took place 250m years ago, killing 95% of all species. Experts disagree on the cause.
Late Devonian About 360m years ago, a fifth of marine families were wiped out, alongside more than half of all marine genera. Cause unknown.
Ordovician-Silurian About 440m years ago, a quarter of all marine families were wiped out by fluctuating sea levels as glaciers formed and melted. again.
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The Republicans in USA and the Coalition in Australia - they just don't get it.
We are in a small eddy of time, where the people who can make a critical difference are in a position to do so, but are being hounded by a lunatic mob of idiots who just don't see the tidal wave. They still think it's a game of politics.
El Nino is coming, and the sun spots - the seriousness of out situation is approaching in no uncertain terms. The fools who still want to play with humanity's future in some fantasy of power gamesmanship, are doomed to humiliation. And that includes the Islamic, Hindu, Jewish and Christian extremists.
The likes of Obama just have to survive for another year or two at the most. After that, our species will have to grow up.
The battle will then be between competition for deck chairs on the Titanic - a deadly game - or cooperation and realisation that we can make the best of this if we use our intelligence. I can't see that outcome. It appears to me that it could go either way.
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The Time to Act is Now
From EcoBuddhism.org, The Buddhist Channel, May 1, 2009
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change
Carmel, NY (USA) -- Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale. Global warming, in particular, is happening much faster than previously predicted, most obviously at the North Pole.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the Arctic Ocean has been covered by an area of sea-ice as large as Australia—but now this is melting rapidly. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast that the Arctic might be free of summer sea ice by 2100. It is now apparent that this could occur within a decade or two. Greenland’s vast ice-sheet is also melting more quickly than expected. The rise in sea-level this century will be at least one meter—enough to flood many coastal cities and vital rice-growing areas such as the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
Glaciers all over the world are receding quickly. If current economic policies continue, the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau, source of the great rivers that provide water for billions of people in Asia, will disappear within 30 years. Severe drought and crop failures are already affecting Australia and Northern China. Major reports—from the IPCC, United Nations, European Union, and International Union for Conservation of Nature—agree that, without a collective change of direction, dwindling supplies of water, food and other resources could create famine conditions, resource battles, and mass migration by mid-century—perhaps by 2030, according to the U.K.’s chief scientific advisor.
Global warming plays a major role in other ecological crises, including the loss of many plant and animal species that share this Earth with us. Oceanographers report that half the carbon released by burning fossil fuels has been absorbed by the oceans, increasing their acidity by about 30%. Acidification is disrupting calcification of shells and coral reefs, as well as threatening plankton growth, the source of the food chain for most life in the sea.
Eminent biologists and U.N. reports concur that “business-as-usual” will drive half of all species on Earth to extinction within this century. Collectively, we are violating the first precept—“do not harm living beings”—on the largest possible scale. And we cannot foresee the biological consequences for human life when so many species that invisibly contribute to our own well-being vanish from the planet.
Many scientists have concluded that the survival of human civilization is at stake. We have reached a critical juncture in our biological and social evolution. There has never been a more important time in history to bring the resources of Buddhism to bear on behalf of all living beings. The four noble truths provide a framework for diagnosing our current situation and formulating appropriate guidelines—because the threats and disasters we face ultimately stem from the human mind, and therefore require profound changes within our minds. If personal suffering stems from craving and ignorance—from the three poisons of greed, ill will, and delusion—the same applies to the suffering that afflicts us on a collective scale. Our ecological emergency is a larger version of the perennial human predicament. Both as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not only from other people but from the Earth itself. As Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” We need to wake up and realize that the Earth is our mother as well as our home—and in this case the umbilical cord binding us to her cannot be severed. When the Earth becomes sick, we become sick, because we are part of her.
Our present economic and technological relationships with the rest of the biosphere are unsustainable. To survive the rough transitions ahead, our lifestyles and expectations must change. This involves new habits as well as new values. The Buddhist teaching that the overall health of the individual and society depends upon inner well-being, and not merely upon economic indicators, helps us determine the personal and social changes we must make.
Individually, we must adopt behaviors that increase everyday ecological awareness and reduce our “carbon footprint”. Those of us in the advanced economies need to retrofit and insulate our homes and workplaces for energy efficiency; lower thermostats in winter and raise them in summer; use high efficiency light bulbs and appliances; turn off unused electrical appliances; drive the most fuel-efficient cars possible, and reduce meat consumption in favor of a healthy, environmentally-friendly plant-based diet.
These personal activities will not by themselves be sufficient to avert future calamity. We must also make institutional changes, both technological and economic. We must “de-carbonize” our energy systems as quickly as feasible by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources that are limitless, benign and harmonious with nature. We especially need to halt the construction of new coal plants, since coal is by far the most polluting and most dangerous source of atmospheric carbon. Wisely utilized, wind power, solar power, tidal power, and geothermal power can provide all the electricity that we require without damaging the biosphere. Since up to a quarter of world carbon emissions result from deforestation, we must reverse the destruction of forests, especially the vital rainforest belt where most species of plants and animals live.
It has recently become quite obvious that significant changes are also needed in the way our economic system is structured. Global warming is intimately related to the gargantuan quantities of energy that our industries devour to provide the levels of consumption that many of us have learned to expect. From a Buddhist perspective, a sane and sustainable economy would be governed by the principle of sufficiency: the key to happiness is contentment rather than an ever-increasing abundance of goods. The compulsion to consume more and more is an expression of craving, the very thing the Buddha pinpointed as the root cause of suffering.
Instead of an economy that emphasizes profit and requires perpetual growth to avoid collapse, we need to move together towards an economy that provides a satisfactory standard of living for everyone while allowing us to develop our full (including spiritual) potential in harmony with the biosphere that sustains and nurtures all beings, including future generations. If political leaders are unable to recognize the urgency of our global crisis, or unwilling to put the long-term good of humankind above the short-term benefit of fossil-fuel corporations, we may need to challenge them with sustained campaigns of citizen action.
Dr James Hansen of NASA and other climatologists have recently defined the precise targets needed to prevent global warming from reaching catastrophic “tipping points.” For human civilization to be sustainable, the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). This target has been endorsed by the Dalai Lama, along with other Nobel laureates and distinguished scientists. Our current situation is particularly worrisome in that the present level is already 387 ppm, and has been rising at 2 ppm per year. We are challenged not only to reduce carbon emissions, but also to remove large quantities of carbon gas already present in the atmosphere.
As signatories to this statement of Buddhist principles, we acknowledge the urgent challenge of climate change. We join with the Dalai Lama in endorsing the 350 ppm target. In accordance with Buddhist teachings, we accept our individual and collective responsibility to do whatever we can to meet this target, including (but not limited to) the personal and social responses outlined above.
We have a brief window of opportunity to take action, to preserve humanity from imminent disaster and to assist the survival of the many diverse and beautiful forms of life on Earth. Future generations, and the other species that share the biosphere with us, have no voice to ask for our compassion, wisdom, and leadership. We must listen to their silence. We must be their voice, too, and act on their behalf.
Official website: http://www.ecobuddhism.org/buddhist-declaration.php
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Sounds like a media beat up...still if it's been talked about someone thinks it's a good idea.
The UK government is about to spend $700 million dollars installing surveillance cameras inside the private homes of citizens to ensure that children go to bed on time, attend school and eat proper meals.
No you aren’t reading a passage from George Orwell’s 1984 or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, this is Britain in 2009, a country which already has more surveillance cameras watching its population than the whole of Europe put together.
Now the government is embarking on a scheme called “Family Intervention Projects” which will literally create a nanny state on steroids, with social services goons and private security guards given the authority to make regular “home checks” to ensure parents are raising their children correctly.
Telescreens will also be installed so government spies can keep an eye on whether parents are mistreating kids and whether the kids are fulfilling their obligations under a pre-signed contract.
Around 2,000 families have been targeted by this program so far and the government wants to snare 20,000 more within the next two years. The tab will be picked up by the taxpayer, with the “interventions” being funded through local council authorities.
Another key aspect of the program will see parents deemed “responsible” by the government handed the power to denounce and report bad parents who allow their children to engage in bad behavior. Such families will then be targeted for “interventions”.
Both parents and children will also be forced to sign a “behavior contract” with the government known as Home School Agreements before the start of every year, in which the state will dictate obligations that it expects to be met.
The opposition Conservative Party, who are clear favorites to win the next British election, commented that the program does not go far enough and is “too little, too late.”
Respondents to a Daily Express article about the new program expressed their shock at the totalitarian implications of what is unfolding in the United Kingdom under the guise of social services initiatives.
“Sorry, but what the hell? Why are people not up in arms about this?,” writes one, “This is a complete invasion of privacy, and it totally ignores the fact that the state does NOT own kids. It’s not up to them how parents choose to raise their children, as long as the parents do not actively harm them. Why on earth aren’t the public rioting? It’s completely anathema to basic British freedoms.”
“Excuse me!?! What an incredible intrusion into the privacy of a family! George Orwell must be spinning in his grave right now,” writes another.
“I have one comment to make: it completely violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Human Rights Act 1998). Has this minister and his lackies even done any basic homework on basic human rights and civil liberties? Or rather they’ve just decided to completely ignore them,” adds another.
The move to install surveillance cameras inside private homes is also on the agenda across the pond. In February 2006, Houston Chief of Police Harold Hurtt said cameras should be placed inside apartments and homes in order to “fight crime” due to there being a shortage of police officers.
“I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?” Chief Hurtt told reporters.
Andy Teas with the Houston Apartment Association supported the proposal, saying privacy concerns would take a back seat to many people who would, “appreciate the thought of extra eyes looking out for them.”
If such programs come to fruition and are implemented on a mass scale then the full scope of George Orwell’s depiction of a totalitarian society is his classic novel 1984 will have been realized.
The following passage is from Orwell’s 1984;
The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
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Quite amazing approach to raising children there; very British, I'd say.
There's another side to the story as well that the article does not discuss. It is about the kids and homes where these cameras will be installed. In 2004 some 26% of 13 year old kids were regularly consuming alcohol and smoking. Many of them were not attending schools either, whereas their parents said simply: 'I cannot do anything. They don't listen to me.'
Simple. They are unable to do anything. Full stop. Responsibility dropped, concern shifted to the shoulders of anybody bothering to be concerned.
Then they introduced short arrests for parents whose children were not attending school - from 30-90 days. The idea was to remind parents about their obligations. It had a limited effect, but improved the situation.
Now they are moving deeper into such families with the aim of forcing parents to do their duty and kids behave. Most certainly it will not work - you cannot force people externally to aspire for something without their inner motivation - and the number of yobs and butterflies on the streets of British cities will remain more or less the same.
Orwellian state? Maybe. Ridiculous? Definitely.
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88 months left and counting... (http://www.onehundredmonths.org/)
Summary
We calculate that 100 months from 1 August 2008, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will begin to exceed a point whereby it is no longer likely we will be able to avert potentially irreversible climate change. 'Likely' in this context refers to the definition of risk used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to mean that, at that particular level of greenhouse gas concentration, there is only a 66 - 90 per cent chance of global average surface temperatures stabilising at 2º Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Once this concentration is exceeded, it becomes more and more likely that we will overshoot a 2º C level of warming. This is the maximum acceptable level of temperature rise agreed by the European Union and others as necessary to retain reasonable confidence of preventing uncontrollable and ultimately catastrophic warming. We also believe this calculation to be conservative. The reasons why and the assumptions behind our conclusion are detailed below.
Context: human-driven climate change
Present concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, are the highest they have been for the past 650,000 years. In the space of 250 years, the fossil fuel backed Industrial Revolution, and accompanying land-use changes, such as urbanisation and deforestation means we have released, cumulatively more than 1,800 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Currently, approximately 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released into the Earths’ atmosphere every second due to human (or ‘anthropogenic’) activity. Greenhouse gases trap incoming solar radiation. If there are more of these gases in the atmosphere, more heat is trapped causing the planet to warm. Once a certain atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is passed (often termed a 'tipping point'), global warming could accelerate. A number of positive feedback loops amplify the warming effect by a physical process triggered by the initial warming itself or the increase in greenhouse gasses. One example is the melting of ice cover which reduces the reflective ability of the Earth's surface and, by revealing a darker land surface, increases heat absorption. Other processes, such as a decreasing ability of oceans to absorb CO2 due to increasing wind strengths linked to climate change, have already been observed in the Southern and North Atlantic oceans. This increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, causing further climate change. Because of such self-reinforcing feedbacks, once a critical greenhouse concentration threshold is passed, even if human beings stop releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, global warming is likely to continue. The Earth’s climate may shift into a different state (i.e. different ocean circulation, wind and rainfall patterns) with potentially catastrophic implications for life on Earth. Such a change in the state of the climate system is often referred to as irreversible climate change.
100 months from August 2008
By using the best estimates of current greenhouse gas concentrations, emission growth rates, conservative estimates for the potentially damaging environmental feedbacks that accelerate global warming, and the maximum concentration of greenhouse gases that might prevent irreversible climate change, it is possible to estimate the length of time until this threshold is passed. CO2 is, of course, not the only gas that affects the climate. For this reason atmospheric concentration figures are often quoted to take account of other factors, including other greenhouse gasses. This is the figure given as the carbon dioxide equivalent or, CO2. Two different figures for CO2 are commonly given depending on whether it is expressing just those gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol, which is not comprehensive, or all radiative forcings that affect the amount of energy received by the climate system and hence its warming or cooling. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2) is the amount of carbon dioxide that would be required to give the same global average radiative forcing as the sum of all other forcings. Most commonly, the six greenhouse gasses covered by the Kyoto Protocol have been used to calculate CO2. However, if all anthropogenic driven radiative forcings are grouped together viz. not just those covered by the Kyoto Protocol, a more accurate estimate of the radiative forcings can be calculated. We have used the most up to date estimate from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from Working Group One on total anthropogenic radiative forcings to calculate the current CO2. This approximation also includes some negative radiative forcings (forcings that result in cooling rather than warming, but which may be shorter-term in effect). In our calculation, we have taken the concentration threshold to be 400 parts per million volume (ppm) expressed as the more complete measure of carbon dioxide equivalent. Only by stabilising emissions at this concentration is it ‘likely’ that the global average temperature change will stabilise at 2º C above pre-industrial levels. In December 2007, the likely CO2 concentration is estimated to be just under 377 ppm, based on a CO2 concentration of 383ppm - this seemingly counter-intuitive measure is explained by the proper inclusion in the CO2 figure of all emissions effecting radiative forcing - in other words both those with cooling and warming effects. In our analysis, we have assumed a 3.3 per cent annual growth rate of emissions. This is based on the average growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions over the period 2000 through to 2006. We have assumed that the other radiative forcings remain constant. The 3.3 per cent growth rate includes carbon-cycle feedbacks (decrease in the effectiveness of the land and ocean sinks in removing anthropogenic CO2) as well as direct anthropogenic emissions. Of the 3.3 per cent increase, 18 ± 15% of the annual growth rate is due to carbon-cycle feedbacks, while 17 ± 6% is due to the increasing carbon intensity of the global economy (ratio of carbon per unit of economic activity – i.e. GDP). The remaining 65% ± 16% is due to the increase in the global economic activity. As the atmospheric concentration of CO2e increases, so will the strength of carbon-cycle feedbacks. Given this we have also included the conservative, lower bound estimate for acceleration of carboncycle feedbacks.
Our analysis shows that, assuming that other anthropogenic driven radiative forcings remain constant and the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions (due to economic growth and increasing carbon intensity of the economy) remains stable – by the end of December 2016 we will exceed an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 400ppm. Our estimate is cautious. We have used the lowest estimate of carbon-cycle feedbacks. Furthermore, historically, an increase in the Earth's global average surface temperatures of just below 2º C has been considered a ‘safe’ level of warming. But, with the advancement of global climate models to three-dimensional coupled entities, with ever increasing spatial resolutions, it is now known that the impacts of climate change will manifest in more extreme local changes in temperature. For example, collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet is more than likely to be triggered by a local warming of 2.7 degrees, which could correspond to a global mean temperature increase of 2 degrees or less. The disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet could correspond to a sea level rise of up to 7 metres.
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Police beat women opposing Sudan dress code trial
By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer Mohamed Osman,
Tue Aug 4, 11:56 am ET
KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court Tuesday during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public.
Police moved in swiftly and dispersed about 50 protesters, mostly women, who were supporting Lubna Hussein, a former U.N. worker facing 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing." Some of the women demonstrators wore trousers in solidarity with Hussein while others wore more traditional dress.
Trousers are considered indecent under the strict interpretation of Islamic law, adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime which came to power after a coup led by President Omar al-Bashir in 1989. But activists and lawyers say the implementation of the law is arbitrary.
Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by the public order police on a popular cafe in Khartoum. Ten of the women were flogged at a police station two days later and fined 250 Sudanese pounds, or about $120.
But Hussein and two others decided to go on trial. She has sought to publicize her case internationally, inviting human rights workers, Western diplomats and fellow journalists to witness her trial.
"I am not afraid of flogging. ... It's not about flogging. It's not about my innocence. It's about changing the law," Hussein said, speaking to The Associated Press after the hearing Tuesday.
She said she would take the issue all the way to Sudan's constitutional court if necessary, but that if the court rules against her and orders the flogging, she was ready "to receive (even) 40,000 lashes."
Hussein wore the same clothes Tuesday she wore when arrested, including the dark-colored pants that authorities found offensive. Although she was required to wear the same outfit to court so the judge and others could see the clothing, Hussein said she's been wearing it every day to highlight her case.
In the clashes outside the courtroom, witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of Hussein's lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. No injuries were immediately reported.
"We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them," said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraas Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.
While the police broke up the demonstration outside the Khartoum Criminal Court, the judge adjourned Hussein's trial for a month to seek clarification from Sudan's foreign ministry.
At the time of her arrest, Hussein was working for the media department of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, which gives her immunity from prosecution. She submitted her resignation after her trial began last week because she wanted to go on trial to challenge the dress code law.
Defense lawyer Jalal al-Sayed told reporters Tuesday the judge wanted to know whether Hussein still has immunity because her superiors have not yet accepted the resignation.
Hussein's hearings first opened last Wednesday but immediately adjourned to give her the opportunity to resign.
Hussein has lauded her supporters, saying they showed that "Sudanese women from different political parties and groupings stand with us."
The case has drawn criticism from the United Nations. The U.N. Staff Union urged authorities last week not to flog Hussein, calling the punishment cruel, inhuman and degrading.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" about Hussein's case and said flogging was a violation of international human rights standards.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_sudan_women_flogged
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Environmental Scientist: Dr. Carl Sagan
Dr. Carl Sagan, the world-renowned astrophysicist, is professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University, a position he has held since 1968. He is author of The Dragons of Eden, published in 1977, and was the host of Public Broadcasting System's Cosmos science series in 1980.
Sagan has received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden and the Helen Caldicott Leadership Award, presented by Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament. One award that Dr. Sagan is unlikely to include in his resume is the "Chicken Little Honorable Mention," granted by the National Anxiety Center of Maplewood, New Jersey in 1991. The "honor" was bestowed on Dr. Sagan "for keeping everyone nervous with theories about nuclear winter, global warming and even the possibility of being hit by an asteroid."
Dr. Sagan was one of the early supporters of the Global Warming Theory, the proposition that the build-up of CO2, methane and refrigerant gases in the atmosphere could lead to a cataclysmic rise in the earth's temperature. He was also one of first proponents of the Nuclear Winter Theory, the proposition that nuclear war would send so much dust and debris into the atmosphere that heat from the sun would be blocked and the planet would freeze. Both theories have been hotly contested by respected members of the scientific community. A 1992 Gallup poll of scientists involved in climate research, for example, showed that 53% of the respondents did not believe global warming was occurring and 30% were undecided. Sagan has also advocated legalizing the sale of drugs.
Though Dr. Sagan is one of the most frequently cited experts on atmospheric issues by the media, his predictions are often wrong. For example, at the outset of the Persian Gulf War, Sagan warned that if Saddam Hussein delivered on his threat to set fire to Kuwait's oil wells, so much black soot would be sent into the stratosphere that sunlight would be blocked and a variation of the "nuclear winter" scenario would occur. Hussein followed through on his threat and by the close of the war over 600 wells were on fire. But the fires had little environmental or climatic effect beyond the Gulf region and virtually no ill effects globally. Peter Hobbs, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor who studied the atmospheric impact of the fires for the National Science Foundation, said that the fires' modest impact suggested that "some numbers [used to support the Nuclear Winter Theory]... were probably a little overblown."
Selected Sagan Quotes
"It was an unmistakable chimpanzee pant-hoot." - Quoted by Matt Crenson of The Dallas Morning News, November 18, 1992, commenting on the noise made by supporters of Patrick Buchanan at the Republican National Convention
"Quickly capping 363 oil well fires in a war zone is impossible. The fires would burn out of control until they put themselves out... The resulting soot might well stretch over all of South Asia... It could be carried around the world... [and] the consequences could be dire. Beneath such a pall sunlight would be dimmed, temperatures lowered and droughts more frequent. Spring and summer frosts may be expected... This endangerment of the food supplies... appears to be likely enough that it should affect the war plans..." - Sagan in op/ed he co-authored with Richard Turco, The Baltimore Sun, January 31, 1991, commenting during the Gulf War on the impact of oil well fires
"I am moderately hopeful that we can get out of this mess -- but only by changes in behavior. We have been irresponsible in technology. We've been greedy for short term goals and profits. Now, we must change." - Quoted in the Phoenix Gazette, September 26, 1989
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Im not against it. Every little bit helps during this global climate crisis, I say.
Swiss seek Pope's blessing to stop glacier melting
Reuters – Aletsch glacier, the largest glacier in the Swiss Alps is seen on August 18, 2007. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Thu Aug 6, 9:30 am ET
ZURICH (Reuters) – After centuries of praying for a local glacier to stop growing, Swiss villagers are now seeking an audience with Pope Benedict to get his blessing for prayers against the global warming that is causing it to recede.
In 1678, the inhabitants of the Alpine villages of Fieschertal and Fiesch made a formal vow to live virtuously and to pray against the growth of the Aletsch glacier, Europe's longest, which had caused a lake to flood into their homes.
To reinforce their prayers, they started holding an annual procession in 1862, when the glacier reached its longest during the mini-Ice Age Europe suffered in the mid-19th century.
But the villages now want to seek permission from Pope Benedict to change their vow as the glacier is melting fast due to climate change and have requested an audience with him.
"The residents of Fiesch and Fischertal hope that this will happen in September or October and are optimistic that the Holy Father will decide in their favor as he has repeatedly spoken out about climate change," they said in a statement.
Switzerland's glaciers shrank by 12 percent over the past decade, melting at their fastest rate due to rising temperatures and lighter snowfalls, a recent study showed.
Glaciers are a key source of water for hydro-electric plants in Switzerland as well as an important tourist attraction.
Researchers are predicting that the temperatures in the Swiss Alps will rise by 1.8 degrees Celsius in winter and by 2.7 degrees Celsius in the summer by 2050.
(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/TECH/science/08/07/global.warming/art.gulkana.usgs.jpg)
Glaciers a canary in the coal mine of global warming
(CNN) -- U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington State and
Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way.
The Gulcana glacier in Alaska is one of three glaciers considered a benchmark by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Gulcana glacier in Alaska is one of three glaciers considered a benchmark by the U.S. Geological Survey.
A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. The ongoing study is the latest in a series of reports that found glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors.
Since 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey, which published the study on its Web site, has been tracking the movements of the South Cascade glacier in Washington State and the Wolverine and Gulcana glaciers in Alaska. The three glaciers are considered "benchmarks" for the conditions of thousands of other glaciers because they're in different climate zones and at various elevations.
"These changes are taking place in Washington State and Alaska in three different climate regimes," said Edward Josberger, the lead researcher on the study with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington. "So we feel it's definitely something going on, probably on a global scale, and of course, if you look at other such measurements around the world and put it all together, yes, glaciers are retreating and retreating rapidly."
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In a telephone interview with CNN, Josberger called the unprecedented glacial melt the "canary in the coal mine."
The half-century record contains measurements of the amount of snow that has fallen on the glaciers each winter and on how much ice has melted off each summer. The data give scientists a sense of whether the glacier is getting more "healthy" or losing mass, Josberger said. They also indicate what's happening to mountain glaciers in other parts of the world, the scientist said.
"We feel it's definitely the signature of global change and climate warming," Josberger said.
The melt of glaciers is resulting in higher sea levels and affecting ecosystems and the rivers that emanate from these glaciers, Josberger said. "In terms of water supply available for people, Anchorage is fed by two glacially fed lakes. There are some very strong impacts that could happen."
The rate at which a glacier melts depends on its thickness and mass and, of course, on the temperature. Even small changes in temperature of only one to two degrees can have a significant impact on the environment, according the the National Weather Service.
"We've been using this 50-year record to interpret the changes or the response of glaciers to climate change," Josberger said. "Basically, in the past 10, 15 or 20 years these three glaciers are wasting away. The melting has far exceeded the amount of snow that falls on them in the winter, so they're retreating far up valley. And this retreat is taking place all over the Pacific Northwest and Alaska."
For example, Washington's South Cascade glacier has lost half its volume since 1960 and is predicted to lose half its current volume in 100 years.
And, if the canary analogy proves true, the ice retreat is likely occurring all over the world, too, he said.
Glacier melt will likely continue and, as it does, sea levels around the world are expected to continue rising. And that could affect people in low-lying coastal communities, forcing them from their homes and further inland, experts say.
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Less Sex, More TV Aired in India
UTTAR PRADESH, India (CNN) -- On World Population Day this year India's new health and welfare minister came out with an idea on how to tackle the population issue: Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies.
Could the remote control be a birth control method?
That statement raised eyebrows across this vast country -- but what are the realities and reactions from families who make up the second largest population in the world?
At 80-plus years old Omar Mohammed has never heard of population control.
He lives in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh and has certainly done his part in contributing to India's burgeoning population.
"Now you see I have 24 children, 13 boys and 11 girls," Omar says.
Omar believes only God can decide how many children you should have. He lifts his hands to the sky and says: "This is His command. It's not my doing, it's His doing."
On the other hand there's the Arora family in the capital city of Delhi. They have two children.
"You can't even get enough water or electricity now. So its advisable that people have only two children and then they should stop having more kids." mother Anjana Arora says.
The Aroras know a little something about population issues; their daughter was given the official title of India's one billionth citizen when she was born in 2000.
With family planning and free contraceptive programs the Indian government has long tried to encourage families to have only two children.
Overall government statistics show the birth rate is coming down. The numbers show 14 of India's 35 states have reached the two child per family target.
But the push is failing in other states, especially in villages and among the poor and illiterate where the fertility rate is as high as 3.5 children per woman.
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There are all kinds of reasons -- from the desire to continue having children until a son is born to lack of access to contraceptives.
The government's concern is that a booming population will further test already scarce resources, greatly impact the environment, and make life even harder for the poor.
According to the United Nations, India is home to 50 percent of the world's poor and on current projections, India will become the most populous country on earth sometime in the next 50 years, overtaking China.
Upon hearing about the latest idea to use electricity and television to give people something else to do besides procreate, mom Anjana Arora scoffed.
"That's a stupid thing" she said in English then switched to Hindi "The only way to change people's mentality is through education."
But not everyone is writing the idea off. "It's an idea that can really work." says A.R. Nanda.
Years ago Nanda helped draft some of India's population stabilization policies and he now runs the Population Foundation of India.
He says while education and access to health care is paramount, electrifying villages is not a bad idea.
"It gives a message loud and clear that we need to do something for the people which is people-friendly and which in a way will keep their minds from taking irrational decisions about producing more babies," Nanda says.
He says there are studies that prove it. One such survey done in 2006 by an Italian sexologist reveals couples with televisions in their bedrooms had sex half as much as those without it.
That being said Omar Mohammed, the man with 24 children had a different take.
"After watching TV," he says, "when we look at scintillating things we will probably want to make more children."
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'Many hurricanes' in modern times
Hurricanes in the Atlantic are more frequent than at any time in the last 1,000 years, according to research just published in the journal Nature.
Scientists examined sediments left by hurricanes that crossed the coast in North America and the Caribbean.
The record suggests modern hurricane activity is unusual - though it might have been even higher 1,000 years ago.
The possible influence of climate change on hurricanes has been a controversial topic for several years.
Study leader Michael Mann from Penn State University believes that while not providing a definitive answer, this work does add a useful piece to the puzzle.
The levels we're seeing at the moment are within the bounds of uncertainty.
Julian Heming, UK Met Office
"It's been hotly debated, and various teams using different computer models have come up with different answers," he told BBC News.
"I would argue that this study presents some useful palaeoclimatic data points."
Hurricanes strike land with winds blowing at up to 300km per hour - strong enough to pick up sand and earth from the shore and carry it inland.
In places where there is a lagoon behind the shoreline, this leads to "overwash" - material from the shore being deposited in the lagoon, where it forms a layer in the sediment.
Researchers have studied eight such lagoons on shores where Atlantic hurricanes regularly make landfall - seven around the US mainland and one in Puerto Rico.
Over time, Dr Mann's team believes, the number of hurricanes making landfall on these sites will be approximately proportional to the total number of hurricanes formed - so these zones provide a long-term record of how hurricane frequency has changed over the centuries.
Wind shear at altitude can prevent a tropical storm's structure developing
The last decade has seen an average of 17 hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic - earlier in the century, half that number were recorded.
But current levels were matched and perhaps exceeded during the Mediaeval Climate Anomaly (also known as the Mediaeval Warm Period) about 1,000 years ago.
"I think if there's one standout result (from this study), it's that the high storm counts we've seen in the last 10 to 15 years could have been matched or even exceeded in past periods," commented Julian Heming, a tropical storm specialist from the UK Met Office who was not involved in the new research.
"So it's worth feeding into the debate about whether what we're seeing now is exceptional or something related to multi-decadal or even multi-centennial variability; and it does tell us that the levels we're seeing at the moment are within the bounds of uncertainty."
Different strokes
Dr Mann's team also used a pre-existing computer model of hurricane generation to estimate activity over the same 1,500-year period.
The model includes three factors known to be important in determining hurricane formation: sea surface temperature in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the El Nino/La Nina cycle in the eastern Pacific, and another natural climatic cycle, the North Atlantic Oscillation.
This analysis suggests, Dr Mann argues, that the hurricane peak 1,000 years ago and the current high activity are not produced by identical sets of circumstances.
Then, he says, an extended period of La Nina conditions in the Pacific - which aid hurricane formation - co-incided with relatively warm conditions in the Atlantic.
Now, the high number is simply driven by warming waters in the Atlantic - which is projected to increase in the coming decades.
"Even though the levels of activity are similar (between 1,000 years ago and now), the factors behind that are different," said Dr Mann.
"The implication is that if everything else is equal - and we don't know that about El Nino - then warming of the tropical Atlantic should lead to increasing levels of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity."
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8197191.stm
(http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/112465_m.jpg)
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Why would Greens vote against a bill reducing carbon emissions from 5-25 per cent?
Australia's carbon reduction scheme blocked by senate
The Australian government's plan to bring in the world's most ambitious carbon emissions trading scheme has been dealt a severe blow after opposition and Green senators voted the leglistation down in the upper house.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6019376/Australias-carbon-reduction-scheme-blocked-by-senate.html
By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney
Published: 7:00AM BST 13 Aug 2009
The bill, which would have led to the introduction of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in July 2011, will return to the senate in three months. If it is blocked again, it will give the government the trigger to call a snap election on the issue, taking the country to the polls as early as December.
Liberal politicians, who hold the largest block of votes in the Senate, joined with Green and independent senators to defeat the scheme, which will force about 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluting companies to purchase carbon permits, covering 75 per cent of national emissions.
The result was expected, after all non-government senators vowed to vote against the bill in the run-up to the debate, but the government has said it will not be defeated in the long-run.
"This bill may be going down today, but this is not the end," Penny Wong, the climate change minister, told the senate.
"We will bring this bill back before the end of the year because if we don't this nation goes to Copenhagen with no means to deliver our targets," Ms Wong said before the vote.
"It's not smart to pretend this won't leave us isolated from the rest of the world, and it's not smart to undermine our transition to a low-carbon economy," she said.
Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, wants the scheme passed by parliament before global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. The plan was a key promise from his 2007 election win.
With polls showing most Australians favour action to combat climate warming, Mr Rudd's Labour party has promised emissions cuts of 5-25 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020, with the higher target dependent on a global agreement at the Copenhagen talks.
The failure of the bill was lamented by green groups. Greg Bourne, chief executive of WWF Australia, said the move had left the world in a "vulnerable position".
"It is a travesty that our parliament can't delivery the certainty which communities, business and other nations are looking for as we move towards a global deal in Copenhagen," he said.
Business leaders also complained that the delay had led to further uncertainty. Julie Toth, a senior economist at ANZ, said the result of the vote was no surprise.
"Australian businesses are to be left stranded in yet another period of uncertainty regarding the costs, opportunities, timing and other essential details of carbon trading in Australia," she said.
"This is becoming especially problematic for the energy sector, which is now long overdue for some expensive heavy infrastructure investment that can only be postponed for so long."
Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and relies on coal for about 80 per cent of electricity generation, prompting industry warnings some coal mines and coal-fired power stations will be forced to close under the carbon-trade regime.
The conservative opposition wants the scheme delayed until next year, after Copenhagen and the outcome of United States deliberations on a scheme to slash carbon emissions.
Malcolm Turnbull, the opposition leader, this week set out an alternative plan to cut carbon emissions to help prepare for a snap election, promising on Monday to deliver a greener and cheaper scheme than the government's plan.
Mr Rudd has said he prefers to serve a full three-year term, with elections due in late 2010, but analysts have said he might want an election in early 2010 to avoid a vote later in the year when unemployment is expected to peak.
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The Greens do not have the balance of power in this instance, so they can afford to stand on principle and claim the reductions and off-sets are far too lenient. They want to see much more aggressive action taken.
The decision is in the hands of the Liberals (a conservative party), as all other independents are against this bill for wild and varied reasons. It is not a set back, as the Liberals will pass it when it is re-presented in a month or two.
The conservative parties are split between those who accept such a bill is politically necessary - the people are demanding action - and those who don't believe in Climate Change. They are a bit of a blabbering mess, unfortunately for them.
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The Greens do not have the balance of power in this instance, so they can afford to stand on principle and claim the reductions and off-sets are far too lenient. They want to see much more aggressive action taken.
Interesting, wouldn't it be better to have a sparrow in the pocket than dove on the roof?
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you'd think so
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I know not all Americans are stupid.
Even on statical grounds you'd have to lay fair bets there are considerable numbers of at least reasonably intelligent Americans.
I have been trying with increasing bewilderment, to follow the general gist of the Health Care debate in the US.
I am aware of two salient reasons for the Republican argument:
1. Big business is threatened with losing their monopoly on health - pharmaceutical and insurance industry. I expect the doctors are also worried they may be forced to reduce their handsome incomes. So there are vested financial interests by a very tiny and wealthy sub-set of the population. (In Australia we call this greed.)
2. Health Care has always been seen as the last rallying point of the Conservative movement generally. It is the watershed, the ultimate Waterloo, the battle if lost, spells the destruction of their entire existence. Or so it is seen by both sides on the old political divide.
So you would expect they would not be happy.
But what has bewildered me is the level of insanity that has been escalated in this debate by the Republicans. And even then, not so much the insanity of rabid Republicans - I know such idiots exist - but that their campaign has been allowed to grow to such a degree by the remainder of Americans. That your average American actually is taking these insane attitudes as serious.
Can't Americans see they are being taken for a ride? Can't they see these forces only have their own greed at heart? How can these people be so stupid? I just don't get it.
Don't they see how critical this debate is for the future of the US, let alone the health of 90% of Americans who are being ripped off left, right and centre? If Obama loses this, he will be crippled politically, and be unable to bring through all the policies which the world, not just the US, desperately needs for the near future. I am dumbfounded at the lunacy of what is happening.
That Americans don't mind sending their money and kids down the drain in some meaningless war with Iraq, but they don't want to spend a bit to provide basic health care to millions in their own country.
That, however, is not why I am writing this. What I also see, is a deep divide in the US. I know there are many intelligent Americans, and I also know that within that group, there is a very large number of people who must be close to absolute despair for their country.
This latter group, I sense will be forced to turn away from seeking meaning and value in throwing their life into such a pool of madness that American society has become. This is perhaps not such a bad thing. This is a group who will be left now with no alternative but to seek spiritual refuge in something indestructible and inviolate - the ancient and present Path. These people are ripe.
I sense a new wave of converts to Spirit. They held out hope - Obama came along - they sweated tears of relief - now they see it was all futile - now there is only one face to turn to: the one they always knew was waiting. All they need is clear directions.
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close to absolute despair
yes
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If this is truly an honest and open forum and we all realise that
we only offer our own imperfect perception of reality...then I hope
you understand my perception that Obama is a product made by
the same people who bought you Bush for the same purpose...
to maintain the status quo....he has nothing to offer except more
of the same...he is well down the food chain when it comes to people
who make the real changes....don't touch that dial...we'll be back soon...
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We going through a similar thing here in SOuth Africa. The government, aka ANC, is determined to push through a National Health Fund that will enable anyone to get medical treatment. Problem is, they have stuffed up the public health department - less than 10% hospital managers actually know what they are doing. The rest got the job through, connections, payback and cronyism.
Now while I support a National Heal scheme in prinicple, I do not support it here. They want 85% of what I pay my private medical scheme (and private medical health is the only thing that functions here, other than private schools). 85% because I already contribute to medical scheme. Those that work and do not contribute will have to contribute 5% of their salary before tax.
The fact that government employees (at all levels) - including MP's and Ministers etc have private medical aid, and also only go to private doctors and hospitals because of the absolute mess and chaos in the public realm, seems to have eluded them. How public hospitals will manage when they cannot provide service currently, is beyond me.
It is a political tool.
Private medical aids will only be allowed to cover what is not covered by government - currently, like I said, public hospitals are a loss.
Aside from my own personal interest in this, I cannot see the private hospitals simply 'handing over' to the government - and the doctors too. public hospitals are mismanaged, short on staff, corrupt and what is not bolted down is stolen (no exaggeration). Free baby formula tins were stolen and sold by 'entrepreneurs'. They caught them, but.... depends on their connections if it'll ever get to court.
We are truly stuffed!
I could go on and on... but I'll spare you all! ;)
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It takes time to build a welfare state. First one have to decrease greed and corruption, then one have to increase trust for the "system". If you know that your money is treated well then you willingness to pay increase.
Then how to distribute the increased wealth and welfare is also a matter of many logistic and statistical operations. How much are the average citizen have to pay and how much can the poor citizen expect to get for free?
Then also remember, in many cases, that High quality health care is cheaper than health care that do not provide that high quality. Let us say that if all hospitals perform as the best quartile of hospitals for ten major public diseases, funding to the hospitals could be reduced with 10-30 percent regarding these diseases.
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The problem here is that the ANC do not really know whether they are 'socialist' or 'capitalist'. The want to be certain welfare providers, but the tax base is insufficient currently for the population. We have a situation now where the unions have gone out on strike. The majority of the working population do not belong to unions. They want increase in pay, and for weeks at a time, we have different service providers on strike - including 'essential services' which are not allowed to strike. At the same time, the unions (and the SA Communist party) are in alliance with the ANC. Bringing different parts of the country to a standstill doesn't help the government in what they are trying to do. Hard enough without the issue of the unions. South Africa (like many other countries) is currently in a recession. So all the increases given now will have to come from the taxpayer in increased taxes. Running at a huge deficit, the government are then unabke to provide essentials like promised; to those that do not have them - housing electricity, water, refuse. etc. Let alone the 500,000 (temporary type) jobs by the end of the year (promised in elections).
T decrease greed and corruption is needed here. Don't see how that will materialize though. It's really bad here, both in the public and private sector, in different ways. It's really sad. There is so much potential here, however the bigger the population, the more votes there is.
Distributing the increased wealth is not a problem here... it just doesn't go where it's supposed to go! :D
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I sense a new wave of converts to Spirit. They held out hope - Obama came along - they sweated tears of relief - now they see it was all futile - now there is only one face to turn to: the one they always knew was waiting. All they need is clear directions.
Not all americans are stupid and the majority are willing to foot forth some tax for a good health care program knowing that even how much it costs from employers can be ridiculously expensive, and in addition, the elderly get nailed massively from this. But they're trying to use scare tactics that some other forms of medicine and treatment might not be allowed, like for cancer patients and the like. Either way, the other aspect tho, is america ripe for spirit, who says they havent been spiritual at all? We've got churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, etc, all over the place. Dont think that the few, the small percentage of greedy bastards represents the whole of americans, cause they dont. They just got lucky, and in charge, and in cases say, got elected. Its like all waves we go thru, our 'representatives' forget they represent us, or try to make us think that they do, when they dont. We dont reelect them if they screw up. its all we can do if they do.
I do hope Obama doesnt back down from this, or at least finds a good solution, and not allow the republicans to make him compromise so strongly that greed wins again. I think hes trying to find something that will pass, and that will still help people who wouldnt have gotten help in the first place. So we'll see what happens. Ive been following the man myself, and reactions to him. I really hope he can pull us out of alot of things actually (like all americans want - out of this recession). Americans feel for those who have no jobs and the like. Its at the point if you have a fast food job in this economy, you're lucky.
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What many do not know, is that possibly the two major reasons the US do not have a good Public Health system are:
1. The Senate requires 60% majority to pass a bill, not 51% as everywhere else in the Democratic world.
2. Richard Nixon was impeached. Nixon was anti-Israel, and pro-National Health - one wonders... He came within a whisker of getting a National Health scheme through, but was impeached just before it could be passed.
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What many do not know, is that possibly the two major reasons the US do not have a good Public Health system are:
1. The Senate requires 60% majority to pass a bill, not 51% as everywhere else in the Democratic world.
2. Richard Nixon was impeached. Nixon was anti-Israel, and pro-National Health - one wonders... He came within a whisker of getting a National Health scheme through, but was impeached just before it could be passed.
Nixon of all bastards tried to get through such a equity task ;D
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UK suffered one casualty in Afghanistan for every vote
The British force in Helmand suffered one casualty for every Afghan vote in the area retaken from the Taliban during the bloody Panther's Claw offensive.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6094583/UK-suffered-one-casualty-in-Afghanistan-for-every-vote.html
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Published: 4:49PM BST 26 Aug 2009
It has also been disclosed that polling day in Afghanistan was the most violent during the conflict with 400 attacks across the country, including one which killed two British soldiers.
Early vote counts show that the incumbent President Hamid Karzai is likely to win the first round but not by an outright majority leading to second polling day.
Despite the British force seizing the insurgent stronghold in the Babaji area freeing 80,000 potential voters from Taliban control only 150 people turned up to vote, according to BBC figures.
Since the launch of Operation Panther's Claw in early July and up to polling day on Aug 20 the British have suffered 37 dead and an estimated 150 wounded in action in southern Afghanistan.
Part of the operation's aim had been to allow the local population to vote and 13 polling stations were set up within the district but these averaged just over 11 voters each.
But Mark Sedwill, the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, said the operation was not specifically aimed at providing security for last week's elections.
Speaking to reporters via videolink from Kabul, he said: "Panther's Claw, although timed to try to improve security for people to move around for the election, was not specifically itself about the election."
He added: "The clear phase of that operation only ended a couple of weeks before the election ... there is a long road to go until that entire area is fully secure."
Mr Sedwill said turnout was expected to be lower than the last presidential election and he accepted Taliban intimidation would have "had an impact".
The most recent polling shows Mr Karzai leads his nearest rival Abdullah Abdullah by 45 per cent to 35 per cent in votes counted.
A candidate needs to secure 50 per cent of the votes to avoid a run-off contest against his leading rival that is scheduled for 1 Oct.
The ambassador predicted that British troops could be involved in dangerous tasks for many years to come, even once they were withdrawn from the front line.
He said: "I would hope that British forces are no longer in combat roles three to five years from now because the Afghan forces should by then be big enough and capable enough to take on that front-line task."
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Looks like uranium is safer than coal.....or is this a PR ploy
to get uranium back on the agenda as the green alternative???
Fossil fuels (coal) it's gonna gitcha...Uranium will save you keep
you warm and help stop global warming.....
India's generation of children crippled by uranium waste
Observer investigation uncovers link between dramatic rise in birth defects in Punjab and pollution from coal-fired power stations
Gurpreet Sigh, 7, who has cerebral palsy and microcephaly, and is from Sirsar, 50km from the Punjabi town of Bathinda. He is being treated at the Baba Farid centre for Special Children in Bathinda Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain
Their heads are too large or too small, their limbs too short or too bent. For some, their brains never grew, speech never came and their lives are likely to be cut short: these are the children it appears that India would rather the world did not see, the victims of a scandal with potential implications far beyond the country's borders.
Some sit mutely, staring into space, lost in a world of their own; others cry out, rocking backwards and forwards. Few have any real control over their own bodies. Their anxious parents fret over them, murmuring soft words of encouragement, hoping for some sort of miracle that will free them from a nightmare.
Health workers in the Punjabi cities of Bathinda and Faridkot knew something was terribly wrong when they saw a sharp increase in the number of birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers. They suspected that children were being slowly poisoned.
But it was only when a visiting scientist arranged for tests to be carried out at a German laboratory that the true nature of their plight became clear. The results were unequivocal. The children had massive levels of uranium in their bodies, in one case more than 60 times the maximum safe limit.
The results were both momentous and mysterious. Uranium occurs naturally throughout the world, but is normally only present in low background levels which pose no threat to human health. There was no obvious source in the Punjab that could account for such high levels of contamination.
And if a few hundred children – spread over a large area – were contaminated, how many thousands more might also be affected? Those are questions the Indian authorities appear determined not to answer. Staff at the clinics say they were visited and threatened with closure if they spoke out. The South African scientist whose curiosity exposed the scandal says she has been warned by the authorities that she may not be allowed back into the country.
But an Observer investigation has now uncovered disturbing evidence to suggest a link between the contamination and the region's coal-fired power stations. It is already known that the fine fly ash produced when coal is burned contains concentrated levels of uranium and a new report published by Russia's leading nuclear research institution warns of an increased radiation hazard to people living near coal-fired thermal power stations.
The test results for children born and living in areas around the state's power stations show high levels of uranium in their bodies. Tests on ground water show that levels of uranium around the plants are up to 15 times the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits. Tests also show that it extends across large parts of the state, which is home to 24 million people.
The findings have implications not only for the rest of India – Punjab produces two-thirds of the wheat in the country's central reserves and 40% of its rice – but for many other countries planning to build new power plants, including China, Russia, India, Germany and the US. In Britain, there are plans for a coal-fired station at the Kingsnorth facility in Kent.
The victims are being treated at the Baba Farid centres for special children in Bathinda – where there are two coal-fired thermal plants – and in nearby Faridkot. It was staff at those clinics who first voiced concerns about the increasing numbers of admissions involving severely handicapped children. They were being born with hydrocephaly, microcephaly, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and other complications. Several have already died.
Dr Pritpal Singh, who runs the Faridkot clinic, said the numbers of children affected by the pollution had risen dramatically in the past six or seven years. But he added that the Indian authorities appeared determined to bury the scandal. "They can't just detoxify these kids, they have to detoxify the whole Punjab. That is the reason for their reluctance," he said. "They threatened us and said if we didn't stop commenting on what's happening, they would close our clinic.
"But I decided that if I kept silent it would go on for years and no one would do anything about it. If I keep silent then the next day it will be my child. The children are dying in front of me."
Dr Carin Smit, the South African clinical metal toxicologist who arranged for the tests to be carried out in Germany, said that the situation could no longer be ignored. "There is evidence of harm for these children in my care and... it is an imperative that their bodies be cleaned up and their metabolisms be supported to deal with such a devastating presence of radioactive material," she said.
"If the contamination is as widespread as it would appear to be – as far west as Muktsar on the Pakistani border, and as far east as the foothills of Himachal Pradesh – then millions are at high risk and every new baby born to a contaminated mother is at risk."
In the Faridkot centre last week, Harmanbir Kaur, 15, was rocking gently backwards and forwards. When her test results came back, they showed she had 10 times the safe limit of uranium in her body. Her brother, Naunihal Singh, six, has double the safe level.
Harmanbir was born in Muktsar, 25 miles from Faridkot. Her mother, Kulbir Kaur, 37, watched her slowly degenerate from a healthy baby into the girl she is today, dribbling constantly, unable to feed herself, lost in a world of her own. "God knows what sin I have committed. When we go to our village people say there is a curse of God on you, but I don't believe so," she said. "Every part of this area is affected. We never imagined that there would be uranium in our kids."
A few miles down the road in Bathinda, Sukhminder Singh, 48, a farmer, watched his son Kulwinder, 13, staring into space while curling his hands up under his chin. Tests showed Kulwinder has 19 times the maximum safe level of uranium in his body. He has cerebral palsy and has already had seven operations to unbend his arms and legs.
"The government should investigate it because if our child is affected it will also affect future generations," he said. "What are they waiting for? How many children do they want to be affected? Another generation? I can leave the house for work, but my wife is always with him. Sometimes she cries and asks why God is playing with our luck. Every morning he sends a new trouble."
Doni Choudhary, aged 15 months, is waiting to be tested, though staff say he shows similar symptoms to those who have tested positive and are treating him for suspected uranium poisoning. His mother, Neelum, 22, from the state capital, Chandigarh, says he was born with hydrocephaly. His legs are useless.
"He is dependent on others. After me, who can care for him?" Neelum asks. "He tries to speak but he can't express himself and my heart cries. When will he understand that his legs don't work? What will he feel?"
India's reluctance to acknowledge the problem is hardly unexpected: the country is heavily committed to an expansion of thermal plants in Punjab and other states. Neither was it any surprise when a team of scientists from the Department of Atomic Energy visited the area and concluded that while the concentration of uranium in drinking water was "slightly high", there was "nothing to worry" about. Yet some tests recorded levels of uranium in the ground water as high as 224mcg/l (micrograms per litre) – 15 times higher than the safe level of 15mcg/l recommended by the WHO. (The US Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum safe level of 20mcg/l.)
Some scientists have proposed that the ground water may have been contaminated by contact with granite rocks that rise above the ground about 150 miles away to the south in the Tosham hills, in Haryana state. A continuation of these rocks is believed to run deep below the thick alluvial deposits that form the plains of Punjab.
Increasing demands for water, in particular to irrigate the rice crop, have led to greater dependence on tube wells. That in turn is depleting the water table in the state at an alarming rate – by at least 30cm a year, according to one study – with the result that water is being drawn from ever deeper levels. However, this theory seems to be in conflict with evidence from parents of many of the children, who say they use the mains supply, which comes from other sources.
There have also been claims that the contamination may have been exacerbated by depleted uranium carried on the wind from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At a seminar in Amritsar in April, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, a former chief of the naval staff, suggested that areas within a 1,000-mile radius of Kabul – including Punjab – may be affected by depleted uranium. Although the prevailing monsoon winds blow either from the north-east or the south-west, there are times when a depression originating in the Mediterranean can result in rainfall in Punjab.
Meanwhile, smoke continues to pour from the power station chimneys and lorries shuttle backwards and forwards, taking away the fly ash to be mixed into cement at the neighbouring Ambuja factory. Inside the plant last week, there was ash everywhere, forming drifts, clinging to the skin, getting into the throat.
Ravindra Singh, the plant's security officer, said that most of the ash went to the cement works, while the rest was dumped in ash ponds. It would be more efficient to burn better quality coal that left less ash, he said. Every day the plant burned 6,000 tons of coal. He had no idea how much ash that generated, but the stream of lorries to take it away was continuous.
The first coal-fired power station in Punjab was commissioned in Bathinda in 1974, followed by another in nearby Lehra Mohabat in 1998. There is a third to the east, at Rupnagar.
Tests on ground water in villages in Bathinda district found the highest average concentration of uranium – 56.95mcg/l – in the town of Bucho Mandi, a short distance from the Lehra Mohabat ash pond. Such a concentration of uranium means the lifetime cancer risk in the village was more than 153 times higher than in the normal population. Tests on ground water in the village of Jai Singh Wala, close to the Bathinda ash pond, showed an average level of 52.79mcg/l. People living there said they used the ash to spread on the roads and even on the floors of their homes.
Scientists in Punjab who have studied the presence of uranium in the state have dismissed the government denials as a whitewash. "If the government says there is a high level of uranium in an area that would create havoc – they don't want to openly say something like that," said Dr Chander Parkash, a wetland ecologist working at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Both he and Dr Surinder Singh, who works at the same university and has also carried out tests on the state's ground water, said it was clear that uranium was present in large quantities and should be investigated further.
Another scientist, Dr GS Dhillon, a former chief engineer with the irrigation department, is convinced that the uranium has come from the power stations and accuses the authorities of failing to control the ash ponds, which he believes have contaminated the ground water.
Their concerns are bolstered by a report from the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia's leading state organisation for nuclear research, published last month in the Russian Academy of Sciences' Thermal Engineering journal. The report's author, DA Krylov, raised serious doubts about the safety of coal-fired thermal power stations (TPSs), concluding that radiation from ash residues and from chimney emissions built up around coal-fired power plants and posed an additional risk to those living and working in the area.
"Natural radionuclides contained in coals concentrate in ash-and-slag wastes and gas-aerosol emissions as these coals are fired at TPSs, with the result that an elevated man-made radiation background builds up around TPSs," the report stated. The situation became worse, the report said, if ash was used as a construction material or as a filling material for roads.
Always save the best for last..."only a 100 times more radiation"oh well looks like uranium wins.
A previous report in the magazine Scientific American, citing various sources, claimed that fly ash emitted by power plants "carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy", adding: "When coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels."
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Very true - nuclear industry produces incredibly toxic waste that is very difficult to process and store. Power plants are the safest and least polluting part of it.
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The Sermilik fjord in Greenland: a chilling view of a warming world
'We all live on the Greenland ice sheet now. Its fate is our fate'
Patrick Barkham at Sermilik fjord, Greenland
The Guardian, Tuesday 1 September 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/01/sermilik-fjord-greenland-global-warming
It is calving season in the Arctic. A flotilla of icebergs, some as jagged as fairytale castles and others as smooth as dinosaur eggs, calve from the ice sheet that smothers Greenland and sail down the fjords. The journey of these sculptures of ice from glaciers to ocean is eerily beautiful and utterly terrifying.
The wall of ice that rises behind Sermilik fjord stretches for 1,500 miles (2,400km) from north to south and smothers 80% of this country. It has been frozen for 3m years. Now it is melting, far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political action to combat our changing climate. If the Greenland ice sheet disappeared sea levels around the world would rise by seven metres, as 10% of the world's fresh water is currently frozen here.
This is also the season for science in Greenland. Glaciologists, seismologists and climatologists from around the world are landing on the ice sheet in helicopters, taking ice-breakers up its inaccessible coastline and measuring glaciers in a race against time to discover why the ice in Greenland is vanishing so much faster than expected.
Gordon Hamilton, a Scottish-born glaciologist from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, is packing up equipment at his base camp in Tasiilaq, a tiny, remote east coast settlement only accessible by helicopter and where huskies howl all night.
With his spiky hair and ripped T-shirt, Hamilton could be a rugged glaciologist straight from central casting. Four years ago he hit upon the daring idea of landing on a moving glacier in a helicopter to measure its speed.
The glaciers of Greenland are the fat, restless fingers of its vast ice sheet, constantly moving, stretching down into fjords and pushing ice from the sheet into the ocean, in the form of melt water and icebergs.
Before their first expedition, Hamilton and his colleague Leigh Stearns, from the University of Kansas, used satellite data to plan exactly where they would land on a glacier.
"When we arrived there was no glacier to be seen. It was way up the fjord," he says. "We thought we'd made some stupid goof with the co-ordinates, but we were where we were supposed to be." It was the glacier that was in the wrong place. A vast expanse had melted away.
When Hamilton and Stearns processed their first measurements of the glacier's speed, they thought they had made another mistake. They found it was marching forwards at a greater pace than a glacier had ever been observed to flow before. "We were blown away because we realised that the glaciers had accelerated not just by a little bit but by a lot," he says. The three glaciers they studied had abruptly increased the speed by which they were transmitting ice from the ice sheet into the ocean.
Raw power
Standing before a glacier in Greenland as it calves icebergs into the dark waters of a cavernous fjord is to witness the raw power of a natural process we have accelerated but will now struggle to control.
Greenland's glaciers make those in the Alps look like toys. Grubby white and blue crystal towers, cliffs and crevasses soar up from the water, dispatching millenniums of compacted snow in the shape of seals, water lilies and bishops' mitres.
I take a small boat to see the calving with Dines Mikaelsen, an Inuit guide, who in the winter will cross the ice sheet in his five-metre sled pulled by 16 huskies.
It is not freezing but even in summer the wind is bitingly cold and we can smell the bad breath of a humpback whale as it groans past our bows on Sermilik Fjord. Above its heavy breathing, all you can hear in this wilderness is the drip-drip of melting ice and a crash as icebergs cleave into even smaller lumps, called growlers.
Mikaelsen stops his boat beside Hann glacier and points out how it was twice as wide and stretched 300 metres further into the fjord just 10 years ago. He also shows off a spectacular electric blue iceberg.
Locals have nicknamed it "blue diamond"; its colour comes from being cleaved from centuries-old compressed ice at the ancient heart of the glacier. Bobbing in warming waters, this ancient ice fossil will be gone in a couple of weeks.
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pixies/2009/8/31/1251752470903/The-Sermilik-fjord-001.jpg)
The blue diamond is one vivid pointer to the antiquity of the Greenland ice sheet. A relic of the last Ice Age, this is one of three great ice sheets in the world. Up to two miles thick, the other two lie in Antarctica.
While similar melting effects are being measured in the southern hemisphere, the Greenland sheet may be uniquely vulnerable, lying much further from the chill of the pole than Antarctica's sheets. The southern end of the Greenland sheet is almost on the same latitude as the Shetlands and stroked by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.
Driven by the loss of ice, Arctic temperatures are warming more quickly than other parts of the world: last autumn air temperatures in the Arctic stood at a record 5C above normal. For centuries, the ice sheets maintained an equilibrium: glaciers calved off icebergs and sent melt water into the oceans every summer; in winter, the ice sheet was then replenished with more frozen snow. Scientists believe the world's great ice sheets will not completely disappear for many more centuries, but the Greenland ice sheet is now shedding more ice than it is accumulating.
The melting has been recorded since 1979; scientists put the annual net loss of ice and water from the ice sheet at 300-400 gigatonnes (equivalent to a billion elephants being dropped in the ocean), which could hasten a sea level rise of catastrophic proportions.
As Hamilton has found, Greenland's glaciers have increased the speed at which they shift ice from the sheet into the ocean. Helheim, an enormous tower of ice that calves into Sermilik Fjord, used to move at 7km (4.4 miles) a year. In 2005, in less than a year, it speeded up to nearly 12km a year. Kangerdlugssuaq, another glacier that Hamilton measured, tripled its speed between 1988 and 2005. Its movement – an inch every minute – could be seen with the naked eye.
The three glaciers that Hamilton and Stearns measured account for about a fifth of the discharge from the entire Greenland ice sheet. The implications of their acceleration are profound: "If they all start to speed up, you could have quite a large rise in sea level in the near term, much larger than the official estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would project," says Hamilton.
The scientific labours in the chill winds and high seas of the Arctic summer seem wrapped in an unusual sense of urgency this year. The scientists working in Greenland are keen to communicate their new, emerging understanding of the dynamics of the declining ice sheet to the wider world. Several point out that any international agreement forged at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December will be based on the IPCC's fourth assessment report from 2007. Its estimates of climate change and sea-level rise were based on scientific research submitted up to 2005; the scientists say this is already significantly out of date.
The 2007 report predicted a sea level rise of 30cm-60cm by 2100, but did not account for the impact of glaciers breaking into the sea from areas such as the Greenland ice sheet. Most scientists working at the poles predict a one metre rise by 2100. The US Geological Survey has predicted a 1.5 metre rise. As Hamilton points out: "It is only the first metre that matters".
Record temperatures
A one metre rise – with the risk of higher storm surges – would require new defences for New York, London, Mumbai and Shanghai, and imperil swaths of low-lying land from Bangladesh to Florida. Vulnerable areas accommodate 10%of the world's population – 600 million.
The Greenland ice sheet is not merely being melted from above by warmer air temperatures. As the oceans of the Arctic waters reach record high temperatures, the role of warmer water lapping against these great glaciers is one of several factors shaping the loss of the ice sheet that has been overlooked until recently.
Fiamma Straneo, an Italian-born oceanographer, is laboriously winding recording equipment the size of a fire extinguisher from the deck of a small Greenpeace icebreaker caught in huge swells at the mouth of Sermilik fjord.
In previous decades the Arctic Sunrise has been used in taking direct action against whalers; now it offers itself as a floating research station for independent scientists to reach remote parts of the ice sheet. It is tough work for the multinational crew of 30 in this rough-and-ready little boat, prettified below deck with posters of orang-utans and sunflowers painted in the toilets.
Before I succumb to vomiting below deck – another journalist is so seasick they are airlifted off the boat – I examine the navigational charts used by the captain, Pete Willcox, a survivor of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. He shows how they are dotted with measurements showing the depth of the ocean but here, close to the east coast of Greenland, the map is blank: this part of the North Atlantic was once covered by sea ice for so much of the year that its waters are still uncharted.
Earlier in the expedition, the crew believe, they became the first boat to travel through the Nares Strait west of Greenland to the Arctic Ocean in June, once impassable because of sea ice at that time of year. The predicted year when summers in the Arctic would be free of sea ice has fallen from 2100 to 2050 to 2030 in a couple of years.
Jay Zwally, a Nasa scientist, recently suggested it could be virtually ice-free by late summer 2012. Between 2004 and 2008 the area of "multiyear" Arctic sea ice (ice that has formed over more than one winter and survived the summer melt) shrank by 595,000 sq miles, an area larger than France, Germany and the United Kingdom combined.
Undaunted by the sickening swell of the ocean and wrapped up against the chilly wind, Straneo, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world's leading oceanographic research centres, continues to take measurements from the waters as the long Arctic dusk falls.
According to Straneo, the rapid changes to the ice sheet have taken glaciologists by surprise. "One of the possible mechanisms which we think may have triggered these changes is melting driven by changing ocean temperatures and currents at the margins of the ice sheet."
She has been surprised by early results measuring sea water close to the melting glaciers: one probe recovered from last year recorded a relatively balmy 2C at 60 metres in the fjord in the middle of winter. Straneo said: "This warm and salty water is of subtropical origin – it's carried by the Gulf Stream. In recent years a lot more of this warm water has been found around the coastal region of Greenland. We think this is one of the mechanisms that has caused these glaciers to accelerate and shed more ice."
Straneo's research is looking at what scientists call the "dynamic effects" of the Greenland ice sheet. It is not simply that the ice sheet is melting steadily as global temperatures rise. Rather, the melting triggers dynamic new effects, which in turn accelerate the melt.
"It's quite likely that these dynamic effects are more important in generating a near-term rapid rise in sea level than the traditional melt," says Hamilton. Another example of these dynamic effects is when the ice sheet melts to expose dirty layers of old snow laced with black carbon from forest fires and even cosmic dust. These dark particles absorb more heat and so further speed up the melt.
After Straneo gathers her final measurements, the Arctic Sunrise heads for the tranquillity of the sole berth at Tasiilaq, which has a population of fewer than 3,000 but is still the largest settlement on Greenland's vast east coast. Here another scientist is gathering her final provisions before taking her team camping on a remote glacier.
Invisible earthquakes
Several years ago Meredith Nettles, a seismologist from Colombia University, and two colleagues made a remarkable discovery: they identified a new kind of earthquake. These quakes were substantial – measuring magnitude five – but had been invisible because they did not show up on seismographs. (While orthodox tremors registered for a couple of seconds, these occurred rather more slowly, over a minute.)
The new earthquakes were traced almost exclusively to Greenland, where they were found to be specifically associated with large, fast-flowing outlet glaciers. There have been 200 of them in the last dozen years; in 2005 there were six times as many as in 1993.
Nettles nimbly explains the science as she heaves bags of equipment on to a helicopter, which will fly her to study Kangerdlugssuaq glacier. "It's quite a dramatic increase, and that increase happened at the same time as we were seeing dramatic retreats in the location of the calving fronts of the glaciers, and an increase in their flow speed," she says. "The earthquakes are very closely associated with large-scale ice loss events."
In other words, the huge chunks of ice breaking off from the glaciers and entering the oceans are large enough to generate a seismic signal that is sent through the Earth. They are happening more regularly and, when they occur, it appears that the glacier speeds up even more.
The scientists rightly wrap their latest observations in caution. Their studies are still in their infancy. Some of the effects they are observing may be short-term.
The Greenland ice sheet has survived natural warmer periods in history, the last about 120,000 years ago, although it was much smaller then than it is now. Those still sceptical of the scientific consensus over climate change should perhaps listen to the voices of those who could not be accused of having anything to gain from talking up climate change.
Inuit warnings
Arne Sorensen, a specialist ice navigator on Arctic Sunrise, began sailing the Arctic in the 1970s. Journeys around Greenland's coast that would take three weeks in the 1970s because of sea ice now take a day. He pays heed to the observations of the Inuit. "If you talk to people who live close to nature and they tell you this is unusual and this is not something they have noticed before, then I really put emphasis on that," he says. Paakkanna Ignatiussen, 52, has been hunting seals since he was 13. His grandparents travelled less than a mile to hunt; he must go more than 60 miles because the sea ice disappears earlier – and with it the seals. "It's hard to see the ice go back. In the old days when we got ice it was only ice. Today it is more like slush," he says. "In 10 years there will be no traditional hunting. The weather is the reason."
The stench of rotting seal flesh wafts from a bag in the porch of his house in Tasiilaq as Ignatiussen's wife, Ane, remarks that, "the seasons are upside down".
Local people are acutely aware of how the weather is changing animal behaviour. Browsing the guns for sale in the supermarket in Tasiilaq (you don't need a licence for a gun here), Axel Hansen says more hungry polar bears prowl around the town these days. Like the hunters, the bears can't find seals when there is so little sea ice. And the fjords are filled with so many icebergs that local people find it hard to hunt whales there.
Westerners may shrug at the decline of traditional hunting but, in a sense, we all live on the Greenland ice sheet now. Its fate is our fate. The scientists swarming over this ancient mass of ice, trying to understand how it will be transformed in a warming world, and how it will transform us, are wary of making political comments about how our leaders should plan for one metre of sea level rise, and what drastic steps must be taken to cut carbon emissions. But some scientists are so astounded by the changes they are recording that they are moved to speak out.
What, I ask Hamilton, would he say to Barack Obama if he could spend 10 minutes with the US president standing on Helheim glacier?
"Without knowing anything about what is going on, you just have to look at the glacier to know something huge is happening here," says the glaciologist. "We can't as a scientific community keep up with the pace of changes, let alone explain why they are happening.
"If I was, God forbid, the leader of the free world, I would implement some changes to deal with the maximum risk that we might reasonably expect to encounter, rather than always planning for the minimum. We won't know the consequences of not doing that until it's way too late. Even as a politician on a four-year elected cycle, you can't morally leave someone with that problem."
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Mexico evacuates thousands ahead of hurricane
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 49 mins ago
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Tourists fled resorts at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula as Hurricane Jimena roared their way Tuesday, but many slum dwellers concerned about looting refused to leave their imperiled shanties.
Jimena, a Category 4 hurricane with winds of near 145 mph (230 kph), could rake the region of harsh desert fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages by Tuesday evening.
Police, firefighters and navy personnel drove through shantytowns, trying to persuade some 10,000 people in the Los Cabos area to evacuate shacks made of plastic sheeting, wood, reeds and even blankets.
"For the safety of you and your family, board a vehicle or head to the nearest shelter," firefighter Ricardo Villalobos bellowed over a loudspeaker as his fire truck wound its way through the sand streets of Colonia Obrera, a slum built along a stream bed that regularly springs to life when a hurricane hits.
While the storm's eye was forecast to pass west and north of the city, another 20,000 were expected to evacuate elsewhere in the peninsula.
The Mexican government declared a state of emergency for Los Cabos and the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz and schools, many ports and most businesses were closed. Rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Mexican military prepared for post-hurricane disaster relief, and two Mexican Army Hercules aircraft loaded with medical supplies arrived.
Children ran through strong gusts of wind Tuesday waving pieces of paper and trash bags under bands of intermittent rain. Forecasters expect the hurricane to leave between 5 and 10 inches of rain in Baja, but already the dry stream beds had turned into gushing torrents.
Hank and Maureen Butt, from Los Gatos, California, snapped photos outside their Cabo San Lucas Hotel, enjoying the driving winds.
"The waves have been great," said Maureen Butt, an intensive care nurse.
"I think we're going to be out of harm's way as far as major damage," her husband said. "We're in a very good structure here."
In a nearby shantytown, Marco Nina, 24, a bricklayer, warily eyed a growing stream that rushed past his plywood and sheet metal home.
"We are here with our nerves on edge," he said. "If this hits, the roof is not going to hold. Other storms have passed but not this strong."
Local officials say Hurricane Juliet, a Category 4 hurricane that killed several people and caused $20.5 million in September 2001, was the most damaging hurricane in the storm-prone state's history. That 145-mph storm made a raging 12-day trip through Mexico and the southern United States.
Many tourists rushed to leave this vacation town, a playground for Hollywood stars where timeshares and condominiums are built up along the coast.
Hotels, which ordinarily have low occupancy this time of year, reported just a 25 percent occupancy rate. The local hotel association estimated 7,000 tourists were left in Los Cabos, a town of 58,000 residents.
But on Cabos' famous beaches, some tourists were doing just the opposite, jumping into the Pacific to play in the hurricane's big waves.
Tuesday morning, Jimena was a Category 4 storm that weakened slightly as it moved north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph), a path expected to continue for several days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was centered about 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas.
Hurricane force winds extended as far as 45 miles (75 kilometers) and tropical storm force winds extended 140 miles (220 kilometers).
Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph (250 kph).
Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Depression Kevin had top winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was expected to weaken to a remnant low later in the day or Monday night.
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How global warming sealed the fate of the world's coral reefs
David Adam
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 September
Destroyed by rising carbon levels, acidity, pollution, algae, bleaching and El Niño, coral reefs require a dramatic change in our carbon policy to have any chance of survival, report warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/02/coral-catastrophic-future
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/9/2/1251909468559/Coral-reef--An-aerial-vie-002.jpg)
An aerial view of the coastline along Hawaii Kai on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu where organic sediment is one of the major threat to the reef. Photograph: Ed Darack/Corbis
Animal, vegetable and mineral, a pristine tropical coral reef is one of the natural wonders of the world. Bathed in clear, warm water and thick with a psychedelic display of fish, sharks, crustaceans and other sea life, the colourful coral ramparts that rise from the sand are known as the rainforests of the oceans.
And with good reason. Reefs and rainforests have more in common than their beauty and bewildering biodiversity. Both have stood for millions of years, and yet both are poised to disappear.
If you thought you had heard enough bad news on the environment and that the situation could not get any worse, then steel yourself. Coral reefs are doomed. The situation is virtually hopeless. Forget ice caps and rising sea levels: the tropical coral reef looks like it will enter the history books as the first major ecosystem wiped out by our love of cheap energy.
Today, a report from the Australian government agency that looks after the nation's emblematic Great Barrier Reef reported that "the overall outlook for the reef is poor and catastrophic damage to the ecosystem may not be averted". The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, and it is not the only one.
Within just a few decades, experts are warning, the tropical reefs strung around the middle of our planet like a jewelled corset will reduce to rubble. Giant piles of slime-covered rubbish will litter the sea bed and spell in large distressing letters for the rest of foreseeable time: Humans Were Here.
"The future is horrific," says Charlie Veron, an Australian marine biologist who is widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on coral reefs. "There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise. If, and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world's marine biodiversity. Then there is a domino effect, as reefs fail so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes extinct."
Alex Rogers, a coral expert with the Zoological Society of London, talks of an "absolute guarantee of their annihilation". And David Obura, another coral heavyweight and head of CORDIO East Africa, a research group in Kenya, is equally pessimistic: "I don't think reefs have much of a chance. And what's happening to reefs is a parable of what is going to happen to everything else."
These are desperate words, stripped of the usual scientific caveats and expressions of uncertainty, and they are a measure of the enormity of what's happening to our reefs.
The problem is a new take on a familiar evil. Of the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide spewed from cars, power stations, aircraft and factories each year, about half hangs round in the thin layer of atmosphere where it traps heat at the Earth's surface and so drives global warming. What happens to the rest of this steady flood of carbon pollution? Some is absorbed by the world's soils and forests, offering vital respite to our overcooked climate. The remainder dissolves into the world's oceans. And there, it stores up a whole heap of trouble for coral reefs.
Often mistaken for plants, individual corals are animals closely related to sea anemones and jellyfish. They have tiny tentacles and can sting and eat fish and small animals. Corals are found throughout the world's oceans, and holidaymakers taking a swim off the Cornish coast may brush their hands through clouds of the tiny creatures without ever realising.
It is when corals form communities on the sea bed that things get interesting. Especially in the tropics. Yes, Britain has its own rugged coral reefs, but such deep-water constructions are too remote, cold and dark to really fire the imagination. It is in shallow, brightly light waters, that coral reefs really come to life. In the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific, the coral come together with tiny algae to make magic.
The algae do something that the coral cannot. They photosynthesise, and so use the sun's energy to churn out food for the coral. In return, the coral provide the algae with the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis, and so complete the circle of symbiotic life.
Freed of the need to wave their tentacles around to hunt for food, the coral can devote more energy to secreting the mineral calcium carbonate, from which they form a stony exoskeleton. A second type of algae, which also produces calcium carbonate, provides cement. Together, the marine menage-a-trois make a very effective building site, with dead corals leaving their calcium skeletons behind as limestone. For all their apparent beauty and fragility, just think of coral reefs as big lumps of rock with a living crust.
A fragile crust too. The natural world is a harsh environment for coral reefs. They are under perpetual attack by legions of fish that graze their fields of algae. Animals bore into their shells to make homes, and storms and crashing waves break them apart. They may appear peaceful paradises, but most coral reefs are manic sites of constant destruction and frantic rebuilding. Crucially though, for millions of years, these processes have been in balance.
Human impact has tipped that balance. Loaded with the agricultural nutrients nitrates and phosphates, rivers now spill their polluted waters into the sea. Sediment and sewage cloud the clear waters, while over-fishing plays havoc with the finely tuned community of fish and sharks that kept the reef nibbling down to sustainable levels. All of this is enough to wreck coral without any help from climate change.
Global warming, predictably, has made the situation worse. Secure in their tropical currents, coral reefs have evolved to operate within a fairly narrow temperature range, yet, in the late 1970s and 1980s, coral scientists got an unpleasant demonstration of what happens when the hot tap is left on too long. "The algae go berserk," said Rogers. Scientists think the algae react to the warmer water and increased sunlight by producing toxic oxygen compounds called superoxides, which can damage the coral. The coral respond by ejecting their algal lodgers, leaving the reefs starved of nutrients and deathly white. Such bleaching was first observed on a large scale in the 1980s, and reached massive levels worldwide during the 1997-98 El Niño weather event.
On top of a human-warmed climate, the 1997-98 El Niño, caused by pulses of warming and cooling in the Pacific, drove water temperatures across the world beyond the coral comfort zone. The mass bleaching event that followed killed a fifth of coral communities worldwide, and though many have recovered slightly since, the global death toll attributed to the 1997-98 mass bleaching stands at 16%. "At the moment the reefs seem to be recovering well but it's only a matter of time before we have another [mass bleaching event]," says Obura.
With its striking images of skeletal reefs stripped of colour and life, coral bleaching offers photogenic evidence of our crumbling biodiversity, and has placed the plight of coral reefs higher on the world's consciousness. Head along to your local swimming pool for diving lessons these days, and chances are that you will be offered a coral conservation course as well.
Katy Bloor, an instructor at Sub-Mission Dive School in Stoke-on-Trent, says many divers are not aware of the problems corals face, particularly as holiday operators tend to visit reefs in better condition. "Most have probably dived on a coral reef that they thought was a bit rubbish, but they haven't considered why," she said.
If anyone knows what they are missing out on, it should be Charlie Veron. So what does it feel like to dive on a pristine reef? "I have not seen many reefs that can be called pristine, and none exist now," he says. "But if I had to take a punt, I was diving on the Chesterfield Reefs, east of New Caledonia [in the southwest Pacific] about 30 years ago and was staggered by the wealth of life, especially big fish which were so thick that I was hardly ever able to photograph coral. That place made even remote parts of the Great Barrier Reef look second rate.
"I can only describe it like walking through a rainforest dripping with orchids, crowded with birds and mammals of bewildering variety and trees growing in extreme profusion."
Can the coral be helped? If planting more trees can regrow a forest, can coral be introduced to bolster failing reefs? There are a handful of groups working on the problem, many of which have reported encouraging results. Off Japan, scientists are farming healthy coral on hundreds of ceramic discs, which they plan to transplant onto the badly-bleached Sekisei Lagoon reef within two years. In 30 years or so, they hope the reef can recover fully.
A similar, if more low-tech, exercise is under way in the Philippine coastal community of Bolinao, where local people have broken off chunks from the healthy section of their local reef and have crudely wedged them into cracks in bleached sections. Others have cultured corals in swimming pools, and researchers in the Maldives are using giant sunken cages, connected to a low level electric current, to help coral form their chalky shells.
But the problem with all these efforts, according to Rogers at the ZSL, is that they cannot address the looming holocaust that reefs face. A new, terrible curse that comes on top of the bleaching, the battering, the poisoning and the pollution.
Remember the carbon dioxide that we left dissolving in the oceans? Billions and billions of tonnes of it over the last 150 years or so since the industrial revolution? While mankind has squabbled, delayed, distracted and dithered over the impact that carbon emissions have on the atmosphere, that dissolved pollution has been steadily turning the oceans more acidic. There is no dispute, no denial, about this one. Chemistry is chemistry, and carbon dioxide plus water has made carbonic acid since the dawn of time.
As a result, the surface waters of the world's oceans have dropped by about 0.1 pH unit – a sentence that proves the hopeless inadequacy of scientific terminology to express certain concepts. It sounds small, but is a truly jaw-dropping change for coral reefs.
For reefs to rebuild their stony skeletons, they rely on the seawater washing over them to be rich in the calcium mineral aragonite. Put simply, the more acid the seawater, the less aragonite it can hold, and the less corals can rebuild their structure. Earlier this year, a paper in the journal Science reported that calcification rates across the Great Barrier Reefs have dropped 14% since 1990. The researchers said more acidic seas were the most likely culprit, and ended their sober write-up of the study with the extraordinary warning that it showed "precipitous changes in the biodiversity and productivity of the world's oceans may be imminent".
Rogers says carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are already over the safe limits for coral reefs. And even the most ambitious political targets for carbon cuts, based on limiting temperature rise to 2C, are insufficient. Their only hope, he says, is a long-term carbon concentration much lower than today's. The clock must somehow be wound back and carbon somehow sucked out of the air. If not, then so much more carbon will dissolve in the seas that the reefs will surely crumble to dust. Given the reluctance to reduce emissions so far, the coral community is not holding its breath.
"I just don't see the world having the commitment to sort this one out," says Obura. "We need to use the coral reef lesson to wake us up and not let this happen to a hundred other ecosystems."
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Ayres Rock 'used by tourists as a toilet'
Thousands of tourists from all over the world climb Australia’s Ayres Rock every year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/6153862/Ayres-Rock-used-by-tourists-as-a-toilet.html
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01440/uluru460_1440948c.jpg)
'The most rewarding view is of Uluru, not from the top of it' Photo: REUTERS
But is seems that, once atop of the Northern Territory monolith, visitors are taking more than photographs.
Tour guides have accused some tourists of using the rock, which is considered to be a sacred site to local aborigines, “as a toilet”.
Andrew Simpson, general manager of the Aboriginal-owned Anangu Waai tour company, said tourists had been defecating on the rock.
“That’s been going on for years,” he told the Northern Territory News.
“When people climb up the top of the rock there’s no toilet facilities up there.”
The climb takes at least half a hour each way, but Mr Simpson said no matter how desperate climbers were, it was not acceptable to use the rock as a lavatory.
Ayres Rock, or Uluru, is sacred for the local Anangu people, to whom the land was handed back in 1985.
“They get out of sight ... (and) most of them have a toilet roll tucked away,” he claimed.
“They’re ******** on a sacred site.”
The allegations of misuse could increase the chances of the rock closed to climbers.
Mr Simpson’s claims were made in a submission on the draft Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park management plan, which includes a proposal to ban climbing on the 348-metre-high rock.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park called for an end to people making the arduous trek up the monolith earlier this year, citing cultural, environmental and safety concerns.
It sparked immediate debate over the future of the climb, which is seen by many as a drawcard for the 350,000 tourists who visit the rock each year.
Submissions on the plan closed last Friday. Peter Garrett, the environment minister, will consider more than 150 of them before making a decision next year.
Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, has said he believed the climb should not be closed.
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Obama's Health Care program speech to a combined sitting is for some strange reason getting little coverage over here - for such a momentous event.
I was away for two days after it, so perhaps I missed a bit.
I heard that the speech was well received in post-speech polls, but now I see there has been a massive anti-Health Care demonstration. You can see the Republicans and the Pharmos were ready.
I saw this happen in Aust once, over logging, when the aggressive demonstration of a minority swayed the government - when a massive turnout by the majority was needed to tell the loggers to piss off, simply diddn'tr happen because the leadership was lacking.
I sense that if the pro-Health Care people do not take to the streets, this opportunity will be lost.
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When it comes down to Welfare state basics, The US is 30 years behind the EU.
Canada is closer.
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I was hoping that this was something I had read in a bad dream:
Obama: Health insurance mandate no tax increase
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 14 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don't would not amount to a backhanded tax increase.
"I absolutely reject that notion," the president said. Blanketing most of the Sunday TV news shows, Obama defended his proposed health care overhaul, including a key point of the various health care bills on Capitol Hill: mandating that people get health insurance to share the cost burden fairly among all. Those who failed to get coverage would face financial penalties.
continued at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_health_care_overhaul
This is totally screwed up, and the last rub in a series of confusing edicts and actions. It's driven home to me plainly:
~If I can't afford to pay out of pocket $250-500 per month for health insurance, according to this plan, I will be fined $3,500+. If I can't pay that monthly fee, how can I pay 3.5k? And just because individuals might be classified as essentially indigent doesn't mean that they then have the wherewithal to go through the laborious red tape required to get on the welfare books. Some folks are literally stranded, or physically incapable of "going downtown" a thousand times to execute all that needs to be done. Whether it's a tax increase or not, have they lost their minds? He compares it to auto insurance, but "auto insurance" is for folks who can afford to have a car --- there's no logical comparison between the 2 types of insurances. If I don't have a car, well, then there's nothing to pay insurance for: I don't think anyone would disagree. But I do have a body, the implications of which, for me, the message comes down to this:
You're going to have to stop having that body, in order to get off this gangster grid.
There is a peccadillo of their stat-system which rarely gets pointed out: in order to be considered "unemployed", one has to either be collecting unemployment insurance or be on welfare. Which means that there has always been an underestimation of jobless folks -- always, whether there has been a Republican or Democrat in office. There is a whole world of folks who have neither unemployment insurance nor welfare, and this is the population which will be put to the screws by this action. I predict that the suicide rate will dramatically increase.
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Usually this kind of payment is linked to income, thus is adjusted at tax time. I would assume in US it is well recognised that not all unemployed are in the welfare system - in Australia they are actively discouraged from being on unemployment benefits. Its called the Help and Hassle system. The Health Care is run by the Welfare arm of Government, but not dependent on the Benefit system, although they do get greater Health perks.
The people who get the best perks from the Health System are those that qualify for the Gold Card - a returned services thing, but not all service personnel get it.
I suggest to read carefully V, as there seems to be a huge amount of deception and misinformation disseminated about this thing in your country.
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Wow. I dont know what to say. Its all screwed up, but penalties? Thats not the american way.
I hope not at least.
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Alas, I don't know enough about the Australian system to make a comparison, M, but I know what the bottom line is in this whole thing, and it threatens my freedom and my control over my life -- what little of it I had, anyway.
It takes a long time to sift through the logic of it, but it starts with HIPAA -- meaning that my medical record information is required to get inputted into an electronic database, one that all doctors and pharmacists everywhere can pull up. They DEFINITELY deceive all patients when they get patients to sign "consent" for it. They say things like, "This protects your confidentiality," and that's the biggest bullshit in the world. It deprives one of any chance of confidentiality.
When I admitted patients myself, I had to bite my tongue. They say, "this means that if you're unconscious and have an allergy to ____(hypothetical drug)___, then they'll be able to find out when they pull it up in the databanks, and therefore not administer it to you." Sounds good, right?
But it also means that if I have refused a recommended procedure, then my "refusal" goes on the books as "noncompliance": insurances can technically refuse to pay if the patient is "noncompliant", and if a course of action was deemed Against Medical Advice. "AMA" discharges often end up with a patient getting a bill it will take a lifetime to pay off.
So the doors to all alternative therapies get harder to open. So your future treaters see you as a difficult patient, and may even refuse to deal with you at all.
Obama wants everyone in the database. That was part of his platform. The next step is the chip -- and call me a hippie if you will, I REFUSE.
Now, it won't be enough that I duck doctors by my own choice -- I'll have to pay this extortion fee on top of it. I'm really pissed.
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Someone told me, and I dont know if its true, but all americans would have to have a bank account and the govt would have access to it under this plan. I dont know if its true, but if it were Id freak. If they were looking into penalties that could be a setup for seizing people's monies out of their accts for the plan.
Alas, I don't know enough about the Australian system to make a comparison, M, but I know what the bottom line is in this whole thing, and it threatens my freedom and my control over my life.
It takes a long time to sift through the logic of it, but it starts with HIPAA -- meaning that my medical record information is required to get inputted into an electronic database, one that all doctors and pharmacists everywhere can pull up. They DEFINITELY deceive all patients when they get patients to sign "consent" for it. They say things like, "This protects your confidentiality," and that's the biggest bullshit in the world. It deprives one of any chance of confidentiality.
When I admitted patients myself, I had to bite my tongue. They say, "this means that if you're unconscious and have an allergy to ____(hypothetical drug)___, then they'll be able to find out when they pull it up in the databanks, and therefore not administer it to you." Sounds good, right?
But it also means that if I have refused a recommended procedure, then my "refusal" goes on the books as "noncompliance": insurances can technically refuse to pay if the patient is "noncompliant", and if a course of action was deemed Against Medical Advice. "AMA" discharges often end up with a patient getting a bill it will take a lifetime to pay off.
So the doors to all alternative therapies get harder to open. So your future treaters see you as a difficult patient, and may even refuse to deal with you at all.
Obama wants everyone in the database. That was part of his platform. The next step is the chip -- and call me a hippie if you will, I REFUSE.
Now, it won't be enough that I duck doctors by my own choice -- I'll have to pay this extortion fee on top of it. I'm really pissed.
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They already can go into bank accounts, so yes, no doubt they'd go into them for this as well.
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Jahn, do people in Sweden have this fear that the government is out to get them?
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Well I just listened to Obama's interview, and he said:
"If you can't afford Health Insurance, then you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. If you can afford it but decide to take your chances..." etc,
basically saying those who can afford but don't want to pay, should be required to pay something, but those who can't afford it, then there will still be insurance coverage for them.
So I don't see any suggestion that if you can't afford to pay, you'll be penalised. It does appear he is bending over backwards to bring Health Insurance to those you can't currently afford it - I mean that is the whole point.
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Jahn, do people in Sweden have this fear that the government is out to get them?
Heh, No!
In fact today the government is throwing back tax money to us in many different ways just to keep up "the consumption". They have the idea that if we middle class citizens have more money we will consume more and then unemployment will not rise and all will benefit of that, which is true to some extent.
As i have said in many other posts, to pay Taxes to the State or authorities is about confidence.
We use tax money to transfer resources from the rich to the poor. If that does not work, because of system failure (corruption, too heavy weight on dollar to dollar etc.) there is no incentive for the citizen to pay. If you have confidence to your system you will feel alright to pay. As an example we do have people here that are willing to pay more taxes just to ensure that the health care system have enough, a local debate that is.
Well I must say that I can understand if the US citizens do not have confidence to their system and therefore a majority rejects new fundamental welfare constructions. The situation in the US is kind of delicate and shall not be compared to the welfare system within the EU countries. The US have another history and a different context and is a "new country". Some states in the US are closer and some states are more far from the standard that we know here.
Welfare reforms are best made in rich times while the US is in debt now and has actually no room for welfare reforms. In Sweden we made the most welfare reforms in the 1950-60’s when we we were accelerating sky high on an export market to a war-torn Europe.
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This confidence is a big thing. I'd say in Australia, we are about half way between US and Sweden. People are still quite suspicious of the Government, and this has increased since the ninties. I feel our previous Government - John Howard - did a huge damage to that confidence.
Once it has been damaged it is so difficult to repair. The community become highly suspicious of the politicians and the Government in general. It is not good, because as I have said before, the Government is the citizens only tool against the large companies and the inequalities. Once they distrust that tool, they have very little protection left, to say nothing of well-being and general health.
There is a new book out, which I have just ordered for a friend:
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, Penguin, March 2009
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"if you can't afford it", is all relative. Here we are going through a similar process re National Health. Still in its 'undercover stage', but much has been leaked. After having destroyed the Public Health system, the government now is out to destroy the private health system. The concensus amongst the ruling party is that private health will be done away with and what I pay to private health I will now pay to the government public health fund. And they will take care of my health needs. Rather frightening it is! That my private health payments are an after-tax choice of mine seems to not matter. I am not in principle amaginst National Health, God knows we certainly need something in this country. Problem is that they do have huge funds and facilities. They've just ruined and mismanaged the lot. We had the best Public Health hospitals not only in Africa, but also of a world standard. Now, there is barley any staff, and the facilities have been ruined. Recently our Public Health staff went out on strike because the conditions they work in is deplorable. There is so much theft, mismanagement and corruption. So now the government is looking to the lucrative private health system to line their coffers. How they expect to manage the new Health Fund when they can't manage what's in existence is what's getting eveyone (that pays for private health care) upset. They still have to meet with "all parties" to discuss the issue, but the leaks are frightening enough. Those that pay privately will have it diverted to public, and those that earn but do not have private health care will be forced to have it deducted from their earnings (all deductions done by employer - like taxes are) Those that currently don't pay usually do so because although they are earning (and not many earners here) private medical health is too expensive for them. Now they will be forced to pay, even though they already 'pay' in their taxes.
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There is a new book out, which I have just ordered for a friend:
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, Penguin, March 2009
Richard Wilkinsson is the right guy. I have met him a couple of times. He was visiting our Department to talk at a conference and he held a seminar. He study the world countries and another guy had a lot of figures about the differences between the states in the US.
Equity in household economics, less span between rich and poor, is an indicator of lower criminality, better health etc. compared to societies with a large span in income.
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Daphne, what you are talking about is a different issue. There has been a lot of studies on the efficient running of Public Vs Private Utilities, Health and Education included.
The point is whether the country can run a Public service efficiently and effectively. In a book review on the subject I heard, the authors found that the factors which caused good efficiency and effectiveness were not related to Private or Public. Meaning that as many Private service utilities were run badly as were Public. The point of running them well is a separate issue - being Public instead of Private is not the casual factor.
If you feel that your Government is not up to running a Public Health service well, then naturally that's the last thing you want. But that is because of the way it is set up - mechanisms put in place - and the quality of the Government. If you don't trust them to do it well, then you are right to be concerned.
There are many countries in which the Public Health system is run well. Personally I think the best systems are where they have both - get basic Health service from Public system, and improved service if you pay extra and can afford it, from the Private sector.
But the big issue across the globe now, is the cost. Both Private and Public exert huge pressure to bring down costs, and not all of that is directed to the Pharmo companies - often it is directed to the doctors, which lowers the service quality for patients.
What Public Health systems can do, is to subsidise (as well as forcing lower costs on doctors and pharmos). That is a good goal, however from what I hear, even countries who are handling that well are now in for trouble, because the costs are going up way beyond any country to subsidise.
There seems little way out, but opting for Private is going to be reduced to smaller and smaller numbers of extremely wealthy people. There is going to have to be some Public system, and unfortunately the service will be minimal. But minimal is better than nothing.
If in SA they are actually wanting to wipe out the Private Health, then that is definitely a worry. The US plan looks quite different to that. It will be very interesting to see how it ends up, because all countries are worried and watching for models which will offer better outcomes.
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In principle I am not against a Public Health system. We had a good one here that over the years has been destroyed. Our doctors and technical and nursing staff were amongst the best in the world, and were sought after by other countries. The problem here is different from the USA in that our private health is only accessable to a small minority. However, it is that small minority that currently foots the tax bill too. We are in a situation where the socialists and communists (alliance partners of the ANC) want to enforce their ideologies. Unfortunately we have to small a tax base for welfare solutions. That is not good political admittance since everything has been promised to everyone and so far not delivered. Our private health care is expensive for the majority but not too expensive for earners who priotrise their after tax earnings. The hardest hit in this will be the "middle class", a truly colour-blind class - actually the only colour-blid class in South Africa, We have our ultra rich, which today has a growing population of the previously disadvantaged, who themselves have private health care (send their kids to private schools, everything private in fact) and a growing poverty class, with unemployment. The textile workers are now out on strike for better pay, but our raw material is sent to China and brought back as manufactured goods. It is cheaper to do so and the government encourages it with all their 'deals' with China. In the meanwhile, they are baling our the industry with tax money. We have private and public schools, and 'semi' schools, which are public but have additional funds from parents to supplement government limits. Those schools are all in 'middle class' areas. They governenment now is trying to stop that so that all public schools will be the same and all teachers earn the same irrespective of ability and experience. The current public schools are doing very badly, even the government admit that, What they are doing here is instead up uplifting the whole, they are trying to bring down to the lowest common denominator.
We have just introduced a BRT system with its very running. A briliant idea since we desperately need good safe public transport. The taxi unions went out on strike. They are 'private' owned - the owners called a strike - because it will affect their business. The ones affected have been brought into consultation with the BRT and solutions have been found and are being implemented. But a whole lot of others saw an opportunity and decided to jump on the gravy train.
Our previous Minister of Finance, now a minister in the Presidency called business cowards for not standing up to the unions. Caused an uproar it did! But he is quite right. Business here is as greedy as the government. They make good bedfellows and in the process, the majority suffer. The government alliance is beset with problems. It is not that easy for a Liberation party to become a political and ruling party without some adjustment. When the unions call a strike, the main employer is the government through its local provincial and national authorities. The unions are part of the government in its tripart alliance (ANC African National Congress, COSATU - Council of South African Trade Unions - and the SACP South African Communist Party) The government is made up of Nationalists, unionists and communists and the country can't afford that. Corruption is rife and is a form of "redistribution of wealth". They know there is no way they can fulfil their promises to the voters so they distract with more meetings, more commissions and more congresses. All thats really needed is to place competent peopl in delivery positions. Were that done, and we could see an improvement in the public health sector, I don't think many would be against its implementation. We live in a unique country that requires unique solutions, and we do need access for the majority to good free (because they are not earners) basic amenities of health housing and education. We have a population problem as well as a money problem, not to mention a historical problem.
Interesting times! And my controlled folly! ;)
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Yes, each country is very different.
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"When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and - eventually - incapable of determining their own destinies."
-- Richard M. Nixon, "Classification and Declassification of National
Security Information and Material", March 8, 1972
(quoted in David Wise, "The Politics of Lying")
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Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes
David Adam, environment correspondent
The Guardian, Monday 28 September 2009
• Study says 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060
• Increase could threaten water supply of half world population
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/28/met-office-study-global-warming
Unchecked global warming could bring a severe temperature rise of 4C within many people's lifetimes, according to a new report for the British government that significantly raises the stakes over climate change.
The study, prepared for the Department of Energy and Climate Change by scientists at the Met Office, challenges the assumption that severe warming will be a threat only for future generations, and warns that a catastrophic 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060 without strong action on emissions.
Officials from 190 countries gather today in Bangkok to continue negotiations on a new deal to tackle global warming, which they aim to secure at United Nations talks in December in Copenhagen.
"We've always talked about these very severe impacts only affecting future generations, but people alive today could live to see a 4C rise," said Richard Betts, the head of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, who will announce the findings today at a conference at Oxford University. "People will say it's an extreme scenario, and it is an extreme scenario, but it's also a plausible scenario."
According to scientists, a 4C rise over pre-industrial levels could threaten the water supply of half the world's population, wipe out up to half of animal and plant species, and swamp low coasts.
A 4C average would mask more severe local impacts: the Arctic and western and southern Africa could experience warming up to 10C, the Met Office report warns.
The study updates the findings of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said the world would probably warm by 4C by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The IPCC also listed a more severe scenario, with emissions and temperatures rising further because of more intensive fossil fuel burning, but this was not considered realistic. "That scenario was downplayed because we were more conservative a few years ago. But the way we are going, the most severe scenario is looking more plausible," Betts said.
A report last week from the UN Environment Programme said emissions since 2000 have risen faster than even this IPCC worst-case scenario. "In the 1990s, these scenarios all assumed political will or other phenomena would have brought about the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by this point. In fact, CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning and industrial processes have been accelerating."
The Met Office scientists used new versions of the computer models used to set the IPCC predictions, updated to include so-called carbon feedbacks or tipping points, which occur when warmer temperatures release more carbon, such as from soils.
When they ran the models for the most extreme IPCC scenario, they found that a 4C rise could come by 2060 or 2070, depending on the feedbacks. Betts said: "It's important to stress it's not a doomsday scenario, we do have time to stop it happening if we cut greenhouse gas emissions soon." Soaring emissions must peak and start to fall sharply within the next decade to head off a 2C rise, he said. To avoid the 4C scenario, that peak must come by the 2030s.
A poll of 200 climate experts for the Guardian earlier this year found that most of them expected a temperature rise of 3C-4C by the end of the century.
The implications of a 4C rise on agriculture, water supplies and wildlife will be discussed at the Oxford conference, which organisers have billed as the first to properly consider such a dramatic scenario.
Mark New, a climate expert at Oxford who has organised the conference, said: "If we get a weak agreement at Copenhagen then there is not just a slight chance of a 4C rise, there is a really big chance. It's only in the last five years that scientists have started to realise that 4C is becoming increasingly likely and something we need to look at seriously." Limiting global warming to 2C could only be achieved with new technology to suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. "I think the policy makers know that. I think there is an implicit understanding that they are negotiating not about 2C but 3C or 5C."
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Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk
Robin McKie, science editor
The Observer, Sunday 4 October 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/arctic-seas-turn-to-acid
Carbon-dioxide emissions are turning the waters of the Arctic Ocean into acid at an unprecedented rate, scientists have discovered. Research carried out in the archipelago of Svalbard has shown in many regions around the north pole seawater is likely to reach corrosive levels within 10 years. The water will then start to dissolve the shells of mussels and other shellfish and cause major disruption to the food chain. By the end of the century, the entire Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic.
"This is extremely worrying," Professor Jean-Pierre Gattuso, of France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, told an international oceanography conference last week. "We knew that the seas were getting more acidic and this would disrupt the ability of shellfish – like mussels – to grow their shells. But now we realise the situation is much worse. The water will become so acidic it will actually dissolve the shells of living shellfish."
Just as an acid descaler breaks apart limescale inside a kettle, so the shells that protect molluscs and other creatures will be dissolved. "This will affect the whole food chain, including the North Atlantic salmon, which feeds on molluscs," said Gattuso, speaking at a European commission conference, Oceans of Tomorrow, in Barcelona last week. The oceanographer told delegates that the problem of ocean acidification was worse in high latitudes, in the Arctic and around Antarctica, than it was nearer the equator.
"More carbon dioxide can dissolve in cold water than warm," he said. "Hence the problem of acidification is worse in the Arctic than in the tropics, though we have only recently got round to studying the problem in detail."
About a quarter of the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by factories, power stations and cars now ends up being absorbed by the oceans. That represents more than six million tonnes of carbon a day.
This carbon dioxide dissolves and is turned into carbonic acid, causing the oceans to become more acidic. "We knew the Arctic would be particularly badly affected when we started our studies but I did not anticipate the extent of the problem," said Gattuso.
His research suggests that 10% of the Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic by 2018; 50% by 2050; and 100% ocean by 2100. "Over the whole planet, there will be a threefold increase in the average acidity of the oceans, which is unprecedented during the past 20 million years. That level of acidification will cause immense damage to the ecosystem and the food chain, particularly in the Arctic," he added.
The tiny mollusc Limacina helicina, which is found in Arctic waters, will be particularly vulnerable, he said. The little shellfish is eaten by baleen whales, salmon, herring and various seabirds. Its disappearance would therefore have a major impact on the entire marine food chain. The deep-water coral Lophelia pertusa would also be extremely vulnerable to rising acidity. Reefs in high latitudes are constructed by only one or two types of coral – unlike tropical coral reefs which are built by a large variety of species. The loss of Lophelia pertusa would therefore devastate reefs off Norway and the coast of Scotland, removing underwater shelters that are exploited by dozens of species of fish and other creatures.
"Scientists have proposed all sorts of geo-engineering solutions to global warming," said Gattuso. "For instance, they have proposed spraying the upper atmosphere with aerosol particles that would reduce sunlight reaching the Earth, mitigating the warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide.
"But these ideas miss the point. They will still allow carbon dioxide emissions to continue to increase – and thus the oceans to become more and more acidic. There is only one way to stop the devastation the oceans are now facing and that is to limit carbon-dioxide emissions as a matter of urgency."
This was backed by other speakers at the conference. Daniel Conley, of Lund University, Sweden, said that increasing acidity levels, sea-level rises and temperature changes now threatened to bring about irreversible loss of biodiversity in the sea. Christoph Heinze, of Bergen University, Norway, said his studies, part of the EU CarboOcean project, had found that carbon from the atmosphere was being transported into the oceans' deeper waters far more rapidly than expected and was already having a corrosive effect on life forms there.
The oceans' vulnerability to climate change and rising carbon-dioxide levels has also been a key factor in the launching of the EU's Tara Ocean project at Barcelona. The expedition, on the sailing ship Tara, will take three years to circumnavigate the globe, culminating in a voyage through the icy Northwest Passage in Canada, and will make continual and detailed samplings of seawater to study its life forms.
A litre of seawater contains between 1bn and 10bn single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, between 10bn and 100bn viruses and a vast number of more complex, microscopic creatures known as zooplankton, said Chris Bowler, a marine biologist on Tara.
"People think they are just swimming in water when they go for a dip in the sea," he said. "In fact, they are bathing in a plankton soup."
That plankton soup is of crucial importance to the planet, he added. "As much carbon dioxide is absorbed by plankton as is absorbed by tropical rainforests. Its health is therefore of crucial importance to us all."
However, only 1% of the life forms found in the sea have been properly identified and studied, said Bowler. "The aim of the Tara project is to correct some of that ignorance and identify many more of these organisms while we still have the chance. Issues like ocean acidification, rising sea levels and global warming will not be concerns at the back of our minds. They will be a key focus for the work that we do while we are on our expedition."
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US climate bill not likely this year, says Obama adviser
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 4 October 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/04/us-climate-change-bill-browner
The White House has said for the first time that it does not expect to see a climate change bill this year, removing one of the key elements for reaching an international agreement to avoid catastrophic global warming.
In a seminar in Washington, Barack Obama's main energy adviser, Carol Browner, gave the clearest indication to date that the administration did not expect the Senate to vote on a climate change bill before an international meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Browner spoke barely 48 hours after Senate Democrats staged a campaign-style rally in support of a climate change bill that seeks to cut US emissions by 20% on 2005 levels by 2020.
"Obviously, we'd like to be through the process, but that's not going to happen," Browner told a conference hosted by the Atlantic magazine on Friday. "I think we would all agree the likelihood that you'd have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we go in December is not likely."
Browner's bleak assessment deepens concerns that negotiations, already deadlocked, will fail to produce a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen. It also threatens to further dampen the prospects for a bill that was struggling for support among conservative and rustbelt Democrats.
The UN has cast the Copenhagen meeting as a last chance for countries to reach an agreement to avoid the most disastrous effects of warming. Negotiators – including the state department's climate change envoy – admit it will be far harder to reach such a deal unless America, historically the world's biggest polluter, shows it is willing to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions.
Browner's comments undercut a campaign by Democratic leaders in the Senate, corporations and environmental organisations to try to build momentum behind the bill. The day before Browner's comments, John Kerry, the former presidential candidate who is one of the sponsors of the cap-and-trade bill, told a conference he remained confident the bill would squeak through the Senate.
Her remarks also raise further doubts about how forcefully the Obama administration is willing to press the Senate for a climate bill in the midst of its struggles over healthcare.
In the last two weeks, diplomats have grown increasingly frustrated with the administration. Negotiators say they understand Obama would have to struggle to get this agenda through the Senate, but say the president has shied away from opportunities to make the case for climate change.
Obama came in for harsh criticism from environmental organisations for failing to urge the Senate to act during a speech to the United Nations summit on climate change late last month. Environmental groups called it a "missed opportunity".
"If there is no serious US legislation in place then we will have delegations arriving and getting increasingly frustrated with nothing happening," said John Bruton, the European Union's ambassador.
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Soot clouds pose threat to Himalayan glaciers
Randeep Ramesh and Suzanne Goldenberg
The Observer, Sunday 4 October 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/04/climate-change-melting-himalayan-glaciers
Glaciers in the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau that feed the river systems of almost half the world's people are melting faster because of the effects of clouds of soot from diesel fumes and wood fires, according to scientists in India and China.
The results, to be announced this month in Kashmir, show for the first time that clouds of soot – made up of tiny particles of "black carbon" emitted from old diesel engines and from cooking with wood, crop waste or cow dung – are "unequivocally having an impact on glacial melting" in the Himalayas.
Scientists say that, while the threat of carbon dioxide to global warming has been accepted, soot from developing countries is a largely unappreciated cause of rising temperatures. Once the black carbon lands on glaciers, it absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected by the snow, leading to melting. "This is a huge problem which we are ignoring," said Professor Syed Hasnain of the Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in Delhi. "We are finding concentrations of black carbon in the Himalayas in what are supposed to be pristine, untouched environments."
The institute has set up two sensors in the Himalayas, one on the Kholai glacier that sits on the mountain range's western flank in Kashmir and the other flowing through the eastern reaches in Sikkim. Glaciers in this region feed most of the major rivers in Asia. The short-term result of substantial melting is severe flooding downstream.
Hasnain says India and China produce about a third of the world's black carbon, and both countries have been slow to act. "India is the worst. At least in China the state has moved to measure the problem. In Delhi no government agency has put any sensors on the ground. [Teri] is doing it by ourselves."
In August this year Yao Tandong, director of China's Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, projected "a 43% decrease in glacial area by 2070", adding that "more and more scientists have come to recognise the impact of black carbon in glacial melting".
Black carbon's role has only recently been recognised – it was not mentioned as a factor in the UN's major 2007 report on climate change –but this month the UN environment programme called for cuts in black carbon output. In November it will publish a report stating that 50% of the emissions causing global warming are from non-CO2 pollutants.
Decreasing black carbon emissions should be a relatively cheap way to significantly curb global warming. Black carbon falls from the atmosphere after just a couple of weeks, and replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could quickly end the problem. Controlling traffic in the Himalayan region should help ease the harm done by emissions from diesel engines.
Both New Delhi and Beijing, say experts, have been reluctant to come forward with plans on black carbon because they do not want attention diverted from richer nations' responsibility to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
At a high-level forum on energy in Washington on Thursday, India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, rejected attempts to link black carbon to the efforts to reach an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Black carbon had no place in the Copenhagen negotiations towards a global pact on global warming, he said. "Black carbon is another issue. I know there is now a desire to bring the black carbon issue into the mainstream. I am simply not in favour of it."
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It's all very serious shit.
And mark my words, in the face of this calamity, nothing will be done.
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It's all very serious shit.
And mark my words, in the face of this calamity, nothing will be done.
The thing that is of practical interest, though, is how much of that cataclysm will we actually see and experience in coming years.
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The more visible countless aspects of current world crisis become, the more apparent it is that the complexity of the crisis is beyond the management capability of rational human mind. Arthur C. Clarke said through the mouth of an alien having immeasurably higher development level: 'You, humans, could manage a solar system or two at best, but 87 million stars are not for you.' It seems that even one planet is beyond us. How to balance reasonably the drive to have unlimited sex and give birth to countless babies with the finiteness of our resources? How to manage an ecosystem so complex that the most powerful computer models are only painfully crude approximations of?
In University of Kiel, they carried out an experiment with students having IQs above 160. They designed a computer model simulating a failing state in Africa. That country was plagued by various natural disasters, failing industrial and agricultural infrastructure and rapturing social fabric. The students were given all of the most advanced tools and means available to our modern society and they were asked to improve the state of that society. The best result was extension of the ongoing agony by miserable 7 years... Other attempts lead to a much faster collapse. Way too complicated...
The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use
As the international community focuses on climate change as the great challenge of our era, it is ignoring another looming problem - the global crisis in land use. From Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network
Jonathan Foley
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 October 2009 11.47 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/06/global-land-use
It's taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Collectively, we are beginning to acknowledge that our long addiction to fossil fuels — which has been harming our national security, our economy and our environment for decades — must end. The question today is no longer why, but how. The die is cast, and our relationship to energy will never be the same.
Unfortunately, this positive shift in the national zeitgeist has had an unintended downside. In the rush to portray the perils of climate change, many other serious issues have been largely ignored. Climate change has become the poster child of environmental crises, complete with its own celebrities and campaigners. But is it so serious that we can afford to overlook the rise of infectious disease, the collapse of fisheries, the ongoing loss of forests and biodiversity, and the depletion of global water supplies?
Although I'm a climate scientist by training, I worry about this collective fixation on global warming as the mother of all environmental problems. Learning from the research my colleagues and I have done over the past decade, I fear we are neglecting another, equally inconvenient truth: that we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization.
Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. We depend on agriculture to supply us with food, feed, fiber, and, increasingly, biofuels. Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight.
But we are demanding more and more from our global agricultural systems, pushing them to their very limits. Continued population growth (adding more than 70 million people to the world every year), changing dietary preferences (including more meat and dairy consumption), rising energy prices, and increasing needs for bioenergy sources are putting tremendous pressure on the world's resources. And, if we want any hope of keeping up with these demands, we'll need to double, perhaps triple, the agricultural production of the planet in the next 30 to 40 years.
Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it.
If this wasn't enough, we must also address the massive environmental impacts of our current agricultural practices, which new evidence indicates rival the impacts of climate change. Consider the following.
Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth's ice-free land surface for agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world's cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age, nothing has been more disruptive to the planet's ecosystems than agriculture. What will happen to our remaining ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, if we need to double or triple world agricultural production, while simultaneously coping with climate change?
Freshwater decline. Across the globe, we already use a staggering 4,000 cubic kilometers of water per year, withdrawn from our streams, rivers, lakes and aquifers. Of this, 70 percent is used for irrigation, the single biggest use of water, by far, on the globe. As a result, many large rivers have greatly reduced flows and some routinely dry up. Just look at the Aral Sea, now turned to desert, or the mighty Colorado River, which no longer sends any water to the ocean, for living proof. And the extraction of water from deep groundwater reserves is almost universally unsustainable, and has resulted in rapidly declining water tables in many regions of the world. Future water demands from increasing population and agricultural consumption will likely climb between 4,500 and 6,200 cubic kilometers per year, hugely compounding the impacts of climate change, especially in arid regions.
Widespread pollution. Agriculture, particularly the use of industrial fertilizers and other chemicals, has fundamentally upset the chemistry of the entire planet. Already, the use of fertilizers has more than doubled the flows of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in the environment, resulting in widespread water pollution and the massive degradation of lakes and rivers. Excess nutrient pollution is now so widespread, it is even contributing to the disruption of coastal oceans and fishing grounds by creating hypoxic "dead zones," including one in the Gulf of Mexico. Given our current practices, future increases in food demand will dramatically increase water pollution and ecosystem destruction through agricultural effluent. Ironically, the fertilizer runoff from farmlands compromises another crucial source of food: coastal fishing grounds.
Greenhouse gas emissions. Last, but certainly not least, land use is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Of the three most important man-made greenhouse gasses — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — land use and agricultural practices, including tropical deforestation, emit 30 percent of the total. That's more than the emissions from all the world's passenger cars, trucks, trains and planes, or the emissions from all electricity generation or manufacturing. Compared to any other human activity, land use and agriculture are the greatest emitters of greenhouse gasses. The vast majority comes from deforestation, methane emissions from animals and rice fields, and nitrous oxide emissions from heavily fertilized fields. Yet, for some reason, agriculture has been largely able to avoid the attention of emissions reductions policies.
The list of environmental impacts from agricultural land use goes on and on — and clearly threatens human well-being and the health of the biosphere as much as global warming. In fact, in a recent paper in Nature, a number of us documented "planetary boundaries" where large-scale environmental changes could result in catastrophic tipping points. Of those changes, an equal number were tied to climate change and CO2 emissions as were connected to land-use and agriculture.
From these newly revealed facts, it's clear that we must consider multiple inconvenient truths. The future of our civilization and our planet requires that we simultaneously address the grand challenges of climate change and land use, ultimately finding new ways to meet the needs of our economy, our security and the environment. Anything less will be a complete catastrophe.
So, what are the solutions to the global land crisis? Here are just a few to start with.
First, acknowledge the problem. Even in circles of well-informed scientists and agricultural experts, the notion that our land use and agricultural practices rival climate change as a global environmental threat comes as a big surprise. Clearly we need to have a larger international conversation about this issue, on par with the recent efforts of the climate change community and Al Gore, to give it the attention it deserves.
Invest in revolutionary agricultural solutions. The Obama administration has invested billions of dollars into new energy technology, research and infrastructure, and aggressive plans for new climate mitigation policies are being developed. These strategies are important, but I wonder where the stimulus funding for new "out of the box" agricultural research is? Where are we investing public dollars in revolutionary approaches to feeding the world, while reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture? These might include the development of new hybrid crops, designed to use water and nitrogen more efficiently, or the invention of perennial crops that don't need to be planted every year. Don't such ideas count as national priorities, too? Can't we afford to launch a "Greener" Revolution?
Bridge the artificial divide between production agriculture and environmental conservation. We cannot solve these problems by boosting agricultural production at the expense of the environment, nor can we ignore the growing need for food in the name of preserving natural ecosystems. Instead, we must find ways to simultaneously increase production of our agricultural systems while greatly reducing their environmental impacts. This is not going to be easy. Yet, drawing on the lessons from recent research, including the successes and failures of local organic practice, combined with the efficiency and scalability of commercial agriculture, will be crucial. In recent years, for example, U.S. farmers — working with agricultural experts — have dramatically improved practices in the corn and soybean belt, cutting down on erosion, nutrient loss, and groundwater pollution, even as yields have continued to increase. As a first step, advocates of environmental conservation, organic farming and commercial agriculture all need to put down their guns and work toward solving the problems of food security and the environment — with everyone at the table.
Providing for the basic needs of 9 billion-plus people, without ruining the biosphere in the process, will be one of the greatest challenges our species has ever faced. It will require the imagination, determination and hard work of countless people from all over the world, embarked on one of the noblest causes in history.
But the first step is admitting we have more than one problem.
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In University of Kiel, they carried out an experiment with students having IQs above 160. They designed a computer model simulating a failing state in Africa. That country was plagued by various natural disasters, failing industrial and agricultural infrastructure and rapturing social fabric. The students were given all of the most advanced tools and means available to our modern society and they were asked to improve the state of that society. The best result was extension of the ongoing agony by miserable 7 years... Other attempts lead to a much faster collapse. Way too complicated...
Interesting that. I wonder how the students would have done had the selection been on Emotional Intelligence and not the standard IQ? I see Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) as very much in an emotional level on development scale. Not too much on the mental level. The recent reports on Governance in Africa showed that there was not much difference between northern and southern Africa as far as those criteria went. The island states of Mauritius, Cape Verde and Seychelles were good though. Makes one wonder if all that water, separating them from the mainland, enables them to disconnect from the ravages of Africa?
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That is interesting Daphne - what exactly do you mean by saying it is an EI problem?
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Africa - at least sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa, which I am familiar with, is rather 'emotional'. Emotions rule, not the mind. A 'model' (as in the mentioned experiment) that focused on emotional intelligence may be able to assess and manage the emotions of the individual and groups so as to integrate them into a working framework that would result in the betterment of all the population, and also at the same time fulfill the emotional need. There are 2 very distinct groups in Africa, and all fall into one or other of the groups - the haves and the have-nots. Each have-not wants to be in the have group and each in the have group wants to maintain their place there and fear becoming a have-not. In the colonization of Africa, much development of the local population was missed. The development that was missed was one that the western countries went through in past ages. It is really a development thing - as a group, not as individuals because of course there are many exceptions. Kind of like a child that misses certain steps in development. The way to fix that is to go through that development stage, which in this case is the emotional stage, hence I see EI as being more value than the usual IQ.
It's a bit more complex.. :) but if a model is to be found, it needs to fit. For example, here, in South Africa, they are trying to focus on education, especially the sciences. Meanwhile, the culture of education has been destroyed as it was one of the means of resistence against "bantu" education. It's now biting them in the arse and they don't know how to get out of the mess because they are applying 'logic' to something that has an emotional content.
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Emotional world view and hard facts? Tell people fairy-tales and they will put up with growing hardship?
What if some people simply cannot grasp certain facts and complexities of the world? Why do we think everybody is able to understand, evolve and adapt? Maybe there are limits to it? Dr James Watson (one of the two men who discovered DNA structure) came up with a statement that caused a global outrage - he said that Africans have different genetic set-up that does not favour very intellectual activities. Hmm... What if he is even remotely close to truth?
If individuals die and species vanish, why exactly should nations and races be exceptions? Hasn't it been said that this cycle of human development means development of rational mind with the aim of merging the knowledge verbalised with the mind with the knowledge 'seen'?
Anyhow...I just don't believe everybody can do doctorates and everybody have equal intellectual capacities. Working in education system teaches it very clearly.
From The Sunday Times
October 14, 2007
The elementary DNA of Dr Watson
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2630748.ece
The names Watson and Crick, it has been said, have “joined Darwin and Copernicus among the immortals”. The pair’s discovery of the structure of DNA, in 1953, has been hailed by fellow Nobel laureates as the greatest single scientific achievement of the 20th century. Today the only one remaining of the two, Dr James Watson, 79, stands alone as “the godfather of DNA”.
When, sitting at a dinner in Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1996, this ageing geneticist gingerly leant over to the guest by his side – the formidable headmistress of a large girls’ boarding school – and said, “I’m looking for some girls,” he was met with an appropriately cold stare. However, when he explained he was in England to hand-pick two students, one male and one female, to live in his Long Island home with him and his wife, Liz, and work as geneticists for a year at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, it was an opportunity too good to lose. The headmistress promptly replied: “Well, funnily enough…”
It’s August and I am standing on the shimmering forecourt of the laboratory’s towering neuroscience building. “You’re doing this for the future of women in science,” my headmistress had impressed on me, 10 years earlier, as I left to start my stint at the laboratory bench. Watson, she said, had come over specifically to recruit a girl – a change from the male-dominated programme to date. Glancing up, I see a familiar figure pacing briskly over sun-drenched paving slabs towards me. At 79, Watson looks remarkably unchanged, perhaps his scant wisps of hair a touch whiter and gait a little less sure. “Ah, Charlotte,” he says enthusiastically and, pausing to give me the wide, open-mouthed smile I remember well and fixing me with intense, pale grey eyes, he presses my shoulders and plants a kiss firmly on both cheeks.
I am back in Long Island to discuss the geneticist’s latest and, he tells me, final memoir, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science. His early life and academic career, peppered with useful tips for “those on their way up” as well as those “on the top who do not want their leadership years to be an assemblage of opportunities gone astray”. And – as befits the ultimate memoir of a forthright scientist – an inflammatory epilogue with eye-popping theories that will, undoubtedly, leave ethicists choking with disbelief. We are not alone, however. A rotund thirty-something man asks for a photograph, puffing his chest and beaming proudly into the camera lens. Later, Watson tells me that the visitor was a science reporter who confided he has a form of schizophrenia.
The visitor’s trust is well founded. Standing just a few hundred metres from the building, vast construction frameworks jut above the campus. This, Watson’s latest project – an impressive $100m new-build – heralds a new era of genetics. It will soon become Cold Spring Harbor’s platform for unravelling the genetic causes of mental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. He is convinced that within 10 years “we will be able to diagnose the problem of schizophrenia by looking at the patient’s DNA”.
James Watson, or Jim, as the majority of scientists call him at the lab, has an energy that’s infectious, almost childlike. Born in Chicago in 1928 into a family who believed in “books, birds, and the Democratic party”, his outgoing character comes, he tells me, from his mother, the well-liked and extrovert Margaret – a raven-haired beauty who worked enthusiastically for the Democrats, the basement of their modest house doubling as a polling station at election time. His father, James, worked for a correspondence school and was a quiet, kind character who introduced his son to books and instigated a love of biology with early-morning birding forays in the nearby park. Watson recalls that he was conditioned to accept his father’s disdain for “any explanation that went beyond the laws of reason and science”.
Caught up in the Depression of the 1930s, he slept in tiny attic rooms with his younger sister, Betty, in the middle-class neighbourhood of South Shore, playing evening games of “kick the can” and softball in bungalow-lined streets. Skinny-framed and physically weak in his teens, his only consolation from school bullies was his parents’ empathy, encouraging constant trips to buy milk shakes to “fatten him up”. He recalls how a pupil cheerfully told him how, given his social awkwardness, “none of my classmates thought I would amount to much”.
In his picture-lined office, sitting beneath a rough paper sketch of a twisting DNA helix, Watson leans back in his chair, excitedly discussing his book. “Not being boring isn’t sufficient to be a success in this world, but certainly,” he pauses, fixing me with a brilliant smile, “it helps.” He says he hopes the book will encourage people to go into science and – tilting the cover to the light points out a hidden “Other” between the words “Boring” and “People” – “One, I’m a snob; the other, I’m a realist!” He giggles in delight.
Watson didn’t grow up thinking he was particularly gifted. “I never was one of those boy geniuses who could do maths,” he admits. But he does remember his teachers liked him, commenting that: “I must have had some spark that I didn’t know I had myself.” At the extremely young age of 15, he was admitted to the University of Chicago; his mother knew the head of admissions, he says, and “I always thought I got in because they liked my mother”. For a brilliant but awkward teenager, university was the break he needed. “A world where I might succeed using my head – not based on personal popularity or physical stature – was all that mattered to me,” he writes.
Watson prefers to eat at Winship’s, the chatty, down-to-earth laboratory bar overlooking the harbour, named after my boss of the time, whom he describes as having the “second loudest laugh I’ve ever heard after Francis Crick”. He mingles enthusiastically, hands shoved deep in dark-red knee-length shorts, an orange floppy sunhat perched on his head. He remembers, as I do, being seduced by the informal and intelligent atmosphere of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, something he first encountered as a 20-year-old biology graduate on a summer course. He says that in these early days, molecular biology was a very small field and people “didn’t know what DNA was”. He was under the spell of Max Delbrück, the charismatic young German lab director who played tennis and wasn’t “stuffy”.
For Watson, the ability to socialise is a key skill, one he believes can help propel you far beyond your peers. “Gossip is a fact of life also among scientists. And if you are out of the loop of what’s new, you are working with one hand tied behind your back.” The trait is clear among his staff, who, chatting easily at the bar, have the “ungeeky” Watson touch. My headmistress recalls the geneticist wanting a “bright but not very boffiny candidate who had lots of other interests” and who, above all, was “sociable”.
When Watson arrived in the Cavendish laboratory at Cambridge University as a 23-year-old postdoc, thirsty for the truth about the genetic material in our cells, his sociable American ways encountered Francis Crick’s “extraordinary conversational ability”, and he was hooked. Suddenly it no longer mattered what Delbrück thought: “It became what Francis thinks.” The pair freely discussed their scientific findings with other researchers at Cambridge and King’s College London, and Watson says this was essential to the pair’s ability to work out the detailed structure of the DNA molecule.
But there was someone who seemed immune to Watson’s precocious intelligence and eager collaboration: the acclaimed x-ray crystallographer Rosalind Frankin – someone described by Watson and Franklin’s estranged research colleague Maurice Wilkins, who shared the Nobel prize, as “hostile”. Whereas Watson admits to never having a problem asking for advice, writing that it is better for someone to “know my inadequacies than not to be able to go on to the next problem”. Franklin seemed unwilling to risk criticism, reportedly preferring to work on DNA in isolation, jealously guarding her results. Watson comments that “avoiding your competition because you are afraid that you will reveal too much is a dangerous course”.
As he chews a melted-cheese sandwich and sips an iced coffee in the bar, he reflects on his relationship with “Rosy”. “She was possibly somewhat Asperger’s,” he says quietly, “because she didn’t seem to even want to look at people and would hurry past them. I think she wasn’t good at knowing what other people thought and so she would insult them. She had some terrible interviews with the Medical Research Council and I think she cried afterwards. She was just awkward.” Then he softens: “I tell people, instead of feeling angry at awkward people, you realise it’s not their choice. It’s awful. And I think science selects for awkward people because you think in dealing with ideas, you don’t have to deal with people. But the moment you’re in science and you realise you can’t deal with other people, you’re at an enormous disadvantage.”
It is hard to ignore the accusations that emerged around that time. In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins received the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, but by then Franklin – whose data was so crucial to the discovery – had died at the age of 37, her life cut short by ovarian cancer. But when, in 1968, Watson wrote an account of the DNA “race” in which he revealed that Wilkins had shown him Franklin’s data without her knowledge, and compounded it by being derogatory about her physical appearance, he was slammed by feminists riled by what they believed was a blatant case of sexism. Although the prize can only be shared by a maximum of three people in one category – and Franklin’s input was readily acknowledged – they claimed her contribution had been overshadowed. When, in an interview at the time, he was asked why it mattered how a woman looked, he said: “Because it’s important” – a statement surely grounded in the genteel influences of his early life, when manners mattered, and being unkind “just wasn’t the way to behave”. And occasionally, throughout the day, his “old-fashioned” ideals come through. He describes Max Delbrück’s wife, Manny, as someone he liked very much but “not the sort of wife he needed”, adding that she was a terrible cook and would never have enjoyed the entertaining and fundraising that comes with being a university president’s wife. He also refers more than once to his disdain for women turning men into “girly men”, which means “men who don’t have the courage to say anything – it’s absurd”.
Feminists are a constant source of trouble for him. I remember him turning to me the day the headline “Abort babies with gay genes, says Nobel winner” appeared in a British broadsheet 10 years ago. Eyes wild and voice uncharacteristically strained, he asked: “What should I do about the press?” He refers to the incident again at lunch. “It was a hypothetical thing,” he explains. “If you could detect it pre-natally, could a woman abort a child who was homosexual? I said they should have the right to, because most women want to have grandchildren, period. We can’t do it, but it’s common sense. Anyways,” he says, shaking his head wearily, “it was a bad day when that headline hit. I was just arguing for the freedom of women to try and have the children they want, not what is right or wrong.”
One former pupil, an eminent biologist and staunch feminist, is outraged at his account of her in his book. He describes her as having “bolted from the room” when the ex-Harvard University president Larry Summers gave his infamous lecture suggesting that the low representation of tenured female scientists at universities might stem from, among other causes, innate differences between the sexes – an “unpopular, though by no means unfounded” theory, Watson comments. “She can criticise men; men can criticise women,” he says. “People criticise me all the time and you just take it. If you enter the public arena then you’re subject to it.” On the subject of gender equality he says, adamantly: “All I care about is great science.”
But he happily admits to appreciating a pretty smile or a well-dressed physique. A love of things aesthetic is unmistakable – pictures, glass sculptures and his elegant wife, Liz, 20 years his junior. He once said that in the early days, “almost everything I ever did, even as a scientist, was in the hope of meeting a pretty girl”. However, on the subject of science, he seems impartial. He admits that Rosalind Franklin would have seen the double helix first “had she seen fit to enter the model-building race and been better able to interact with other scientists”, and makes a point of mentioning that a former female student whose career he “certainly encouraged” – who is now a high-powered biology professor – calls him “the first real feminist for women in science”. As I sit with him, another former female student is being derided for her poor personal hygiene. He jumps to her defence: “No,” he shakes his head, dismissing it. “She was very intelligent.”
We drive in Watson’s silver-grey Volvo between tall sycamores and past the laboratory basketball court – a favourite pastime for many of the staff, fulfilling his rule to “exorcise intellectual blahs” by incorporating “plenty of physical exertion
to get outside your head regularly”. The road winds down to Ballybung, the Watsons’ peach-coloured Palladian-style home perching on the edge of Long Island Sound, which serves as a tranquil retreat from the bustling campus.
The lab is undoubtedly his second legacy. When he took on its directorship in 1967 at the age of 39, it was an ailing institution whose endowment was effectively zero, but it stands today as one of the world’s foremost genetic research institutes. Last year its budget stood at an impressive $115.4m. Success, he believes, comes from having the right objectives: “Ones that are important and which are achievable.” Is he proud of the achievement? “Yes, I always wanted anything we did to be in the top five in the world. But I achieved it by encouraging people and making people think that you’re good enough to do something very good and make sure you don’t waste your life with unimportant objectives.” He says Cold Spring Harbor couldn’t survive if the science was pedestrian: “It has to be unusual or you die.”
When he took on the directorship, he split his time between Cold Spring Harbor and his professorship at Harvard. At 39 he had been captivated by the Radcliffe sophomore Elizabeth Lewis, the young assistant in his university faculty. After a lightning romance, he memorably wrote a postcard to a close friend saying:
“19-year-old now mine.” As I wait in Ballybung’s homely kitchen, Liz breezes in clutching a bunch of sunflowers to “brighten up the hall, because they are so pretty”. A dark-haired beauty with wide-set eyes and a dazzling smile that, says Watson, “would always make me feel good”; it seems clear her intelligent and solid support contributes much to the laboratory’s success.
On late nights back from the lab, I would stumble over little presents and notes on the stairs to our annexe – timely reminders from Liz not to forget a drinks party that weekend. The Watsons, I soon discovered, never stop working. The house was invariably crammed with rich benefactors and potential donors. Unaware of funding concerns then, I find out that the new buildings I saw earlier will need an additional $100m on top of the building costs, to “attract researchers”. Jim is as blatantly direct about his fundraising tactics as about everything else. He writes: “Nothing attracts money like the quest for the cure for a terrible disease.”
But the quest for the root causes of mental illness is not driven only by a lust for the truth. Of his two sons – Rufus, 37, and Duncan, 35 – Rufus lives at home, seriously incapacitated by an ability to plan ahead. “Rufus couldn’t really do his schoolwork,” Watson says. “Even though he was bright, he could never write a term paper because he couldn’t really organise his thoughts. He can handle one day and that’s all that he wants to think about.”
Rufus was first hospitalised at the time of the 1986 meeting on the human genome. Watson realised that he would never really find out what was wrong with him until he could isolate the genes. But, as more is uncovered about the causes of schizophrenia, he wonders if he himself is to blame. “I worry that I was 42 with Rufus,” he says. “I read that the frequency of schizophrenia goes up with the age of both parents.” This leads him to expound his latest socio-biological theory, that “Viagra is fighting against evolution” – because if evolution has selected for erectile-dysfunction disorder, it is to prevent older men fathering children. He suggests that “men should store sperm at 15 to be used if they want to be fathers at 80”.
He talks of the “horror and destruction” of life that can arise from having a severely autistic child, and hopes that by diagnosing autism early, “we might prevent some [autism-prone] families having subsequent children”. His mother died young, at 57. He says her heart was weakened by rheumatic fever earlier in her life, and that his father died of lung cancer. It was the quest to understand the biology of cancer that ultimately lured him from his professorship at Harvard. As the director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, he could preside over seasoned professionals, focusing his efforts first on “recruiting scientists who cared as much as I did about the biology of cancer, and then on finding the funding they needed to make their ideas work”.
But what of the man himself? “I used to be three inches taller,” he says conspiratorially. “I used to be almost 6ft 2in and now I think I’m barely 5ft 101/2in.” His voice drops to a whisper: “You get smaller.” The other disconcerting thing for the geneticist is that, when they sequenced his DNA, he hardly had anything left of his Ychromosome – an evolutionary phenomenon that commonly occurs as men age. “I try not to think about it,” he chuckles. Acutely conscious of his physical appearance in his youth, he still finds looking at himself irksome. “The trouble is,” he says, as the photographer shows him a picture, “I don’t like the ones that look like me.” His ideal look? “Twenty-five,” he chuckles, “but I’d be satisfied with 35. A man, no matter how old, wants to think of himself as no more than 35, and to look at a wife who was 45… No! That would immediately tell you how old you are.”
As I sit on the plush tennis lawns of the nearby Piping Rock club, I am aware – as Watson powers formidable forehands cross-court – that even during his daily relaxation he is unfailingly competitive. “I play for two reasons,” he tells me. “To stay fit, and when occasionally I win a good point against a good player, I feel good.”
Does he ever reflect on his achievements?
“I don’t think back much. I’m still thinking can we find the genes for mental disease while I’m still mentally alive, and will we have stopped cancer in 10 years, and… will my tennis serve improve?”
We are waiting at a red light on the way back from tennis and, for Watson, a meeting with a potential sponsor. I remember that while I was thrilled when a sheet of familiar laboratory paper landed on my desk a few months ago, asking if I would like to interview him for his new book, I was wary of the ethical content. “If I believe something then I’ll say it,” the scientist says. “I figure, generally, at least half the time I am reflecting common sense, which is not a lie.”
Back in 1990, the journal Science commented: “To many in the scientific community, Watson has long been something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend to hold their collective breath whenever he veers from the script.” When, in 2000, he left an audience reeling by suggesting a link between skin colour and sex drive – hypothesising that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos – some journalists suggested he had “opened a transatlantic rift”. American scientists accused him of “trading on past successes to promote opinions that have little scientific basis”. British academics countered that subjects should not be off limits because they are politically incorrect. Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, said that “nothing should stop you ascertaining the scientific truth; science must be free of concerns about gender and race”.
He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”, and I know that this “hot potato” is going to be difficult to address. His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.
When asked how long it might take for the key genes in affecting differences in human intelligence to be found, his “back-of-the-envelope answer” is 15 years. However, he wonders if even 10 years will pass. In his mission to make children more DNA-literate, the geneticist explains that he has opened a DNA learning centre on the borders of Harlem in New York. He is also recruiting minorities at the lab and, he tells me, has just accepted a black girl “but,” he comments, “there’s no one to recruit.”
Watson will no doubt enthusiastically counter the inevitable criticisms that will arise. He once commented to a fellow scientist – perhaps optimistically – that “the time was surely not far off when academia would have no choice but to hand political correctness back to the politicians”. Even after a year at the lab, I am still unnerved by his devil-may-care compulsion to say what he believes. Critics may see his acceptance of “softer-science” studies – that attempt to link IQ with specific genes, but remove society and other factors from the equation – as a dangerously flippant approach to a complex issue. His comments, however, although seemingly unguarded, are always calculated. Not maliciously, but with the mischievous air of a great mind hoping to be challenged. I ask him how he placates those he offends. “I try to use humour or whatever I can to indicate that I understand other people having other views,” he explains.
As I motor back to New York, I reflect on a man who – at nearly 80 – is, and will remain, an immensely powerful and revered force in science. I wonder whether it’s possible, as his desire to shock seems so strong, that a fear of boring people really does play on his mind. Perhaps the best description of the man is from the driver. “Dr Watson’s so kind and still very young at heart,” he drawls as we leave the campus behind. “He’s got a lot of curiosity about everything and he’s always working. But to him it isn’t work: it’s a challenge to the mind. And if he runs into a problem, it’s fun time.”
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I talked to some biologists to find out what facts Watson is building his argument on. It turned out that there is a wealth of information that biologists are well aware of, but none of them is interested in publishing any of it as it will make them immediately targets for all sorts of activists.
For me the most breath taking was a fact that there are tribes in Africa that do not produce descendants with white race. To imagine - they also belong to homo sapiens, but to such an ancient strain that cannot conceive from more modern race!
Could it be, that the selection we know happened between Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal men is being played out continuously?
We are monumentally stuffed indeed as we cannot even talk about it without violating social rules and beliefs and massive amount of ill-guided emotions. Sentenced to live in lie - what a fate!
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I dare say this writing is the workings of a racist, Juhani. And how you can even fathom to consider such utter bullshit is beyond me.
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I dare say this writing is the workings of a racist, Juhani. And how you can even fathom to consider such utter bullshit is beyond me.
I never expected you to get the deeper significance of it.
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It was widely reported at the time, and yes your contacts are right - it is not a politically receptive idea. The reasons are due to the problems that have happened in the past - humanity has a tendency to use such ideas to their own fantasy and advantage. I would say they need a lot more research and comprehension before the world feels comfortable to dabble with such ideas again.
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It was widely reported at the time, and yes your contacts are right - it is not a politically receptive idea. The reasons are due to the problems that have happened in the past - humanity has a tendency to use such ideas to their own fantasy and advantage. I would say they need a lot more research and comprehension before the world feels comfortable to dabble with such ideas again.
Precisely.
The biological facts are biological facts (with no inherent social connotation) and to fit them with, e.g. views of Besant et al regarding the evolution of races so that nobody would use it as a justification for doing something is no easy task.
I wonder, however, is there really a way forward for mankind without acknowledging the death in its multitude of forms - individual, nation, race, etc.? Is there a way forward wihtout acknowledging things as they are?
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Most people in denial over climate change, according to psychologists
The majority of people in Britain are in denial about the risk of global warming in our lifetimes, according to a new study into the psychology of climate change.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6253912/Most-people-in-denial-over-climate-change-according-to-psychologists.html
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 12:01AM BST 03 Oct 2009
The Met Office has warned that if the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate temperatures will rise above four degrees C in the next fifty years.
This will cause sea level rise, droughts, floods and mass collapse of eco-systems.
However Clive Hamilton, Professor of public ethics at the Australian National University, said the majority of the population is still in denial about the risks of climate change.
He compared the situation to the psychology of the British and German populations before the Second World War and said the only way to make people change their behaviour is to "ramp up the fear factor."
Prof Hamilton applied traditional psychological reactions to the threat of future risk.
In a paper presented to an Oxford University conference this week, he said people react in three different ways to a frightening situation: denial, apathy or action.
In the case of climate change, he said a minority of people in Britain are in complete denial and refuse to believe man-made greenhouse gases are causing the temperatures to rise. He said a smaller minority are taking action by lobbying Government and adapting their lifestyles through driving less, not eating meat and generally living a low carbon lifestyle.
However, Prof Hamilton said the majority of people use "maladaptive coping strategies" such as ignoring the situation, blaming someone else or simply having a good time.
He said people do this to cope with the anxiety.
"This means telling ourselves the scientists are probably exaggerating - if it was that bad surely the Government would be doing something," he said. "Or telling ourselves it is a long way off so I will worry about it then or if I change my light bulbs it will not be my fault. It can mean blaming other people like the Chinese for building more coal-fired power stations or pleasure seeking by driving fast cars, eating exotic food and living the high life."
Prof Hamilton said scientists have played down the risks of global warming for fear of overloading people with information.
"There is a widespread belief in the scientific community that the public cannot handle the truth and so they have been pulling their punches. Global warming is unique amongst environmental problems - which are often exaggerated - in that it is now clear that the scientists have been understating the true implications."
In December more than 190 countries will meet in Copenhagen to try to thrash out a new international deal on climate change. For any agreement to be struck it is likely that rich countries will have to agree to cut carbon emissions by consuming less energy.
Prof Hamilton said scientists now have a duty to inform the public about the risks of climate change so action is taken and people are ready to adapt their lifestyles.
"There is a view we should not scare people because it makes them go down their burrows and close the door but I think the situation is so serious that although people are afraid they are not fearful enough given the science," he said. "Personally I cannot see any alternative to ramping up the fear factor."
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Is there a way forward wihtout acknowledging things as they are?
Firstly, I have taken and studied IQ tests, and found them highly questionable. Intelligence is a good idea, but measurement tests I have seen are loaded with assumptions.
Secondly, Watson subsequently said:
"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I apologise unreservedly.
"That is not what I meant. More importantly, from my point of view there is no scientific basis for such a belief."
(bold is mine)
Thirdly, he had to say this because the experts in the field came out and said all the research indicates he is completely wrong.
Fourthly, differences in races as the basis of 'superiority', tend to almost always be posited as a front for emotional immaturity. I confess to suffer from this myself, as from all I can see northern Europeans (to whom I owe my own lineage) have no sense of rhythm whatsoever. My own racial inferiority in comparison to the Africans in the area of natural rhythm still causes me to despise northern European music - an immaturity on my part that continues to get me into trouble with many associates who love European classical music. It happened last weekend at the Music Festival, when late one night I again displayed my musical racism by abusing classical music lovers as stupid. It was not appreciated and won me no friends. When will I ever learn?
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However one approaches the issue, it inevitably slides in one direction even here. I add this not for the sake of argument, but for the sake of clarification of what Watson was likely referring to. His problem is that he took it as proven and given. I said What if he is even remotely close to truth?
As to acknowledging things as they are - I mean change, rise and death of individuals, nations, races, etc. Some of them adapt (through mutations, etc., btw could mutation be a physical manifestation of Eagle's Command?) others don't.
Given his background in genetics, it is unlikely that Watson based his assessment on the old IQ test/Bell Curve controversy, as is generally assumed.
It is far more likely that Watson was referring to a genetic research on the determinants of brain size and capability. The leading current research on this topic examines a genetic evolution that occurred in human beings about 6,000 years ago and is believed to be an important contributing factor in intelligence.
Scientists who have researched this mutation have found evidence that it was geographically dispersed in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Sub-saharan Africa was geographically isolated by comparison, so the mutation occured there at a much lower incidence. This is not simple IQ sampling on racial lines - it's statistical data examining for the presence of a precise genetic trait that scientists believe to be connected to the brain's size and function.
This research appeared in one of the leading peer reviewed journals a four years ago:
"Ongoing adaptive evolution of ASPM, a brain size determinant in Homo sapiens. Science, 309:1720 (2005).
Given his credentials in DNA research, it is virtually certain that Watson was aware of this work and was likely referencing it, not the tired old IQ testing debate from psychology.
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The rhythm has to do not with genetics but has to do with culture and heart as well as intelligence has more to do with opportunity for education.
Firstly, I have taken and studied IQ tests, and found them highly questionable. Intelligence is a good idea, but measurement tests I have seen are loaded with assumptions.
Secondly, Watson subsequently said:(bold is mine)
Thirdly, he had to say this because the experts in the field came out and said all the research indicates he is completely wrong.
Fourthly, differences in races as the basis of 'superiority', tend to almost always be posited as a front for emotional immaturity. I confess to suffer from this myself, as from all I can see northern Europeans (to whom I owe my own lineage) have no sense of rhythm whatsoever. My own racial inferiority in comparison to the Africans in the area of natural rhythm still causes me to despise northern European music - an immaturity on my part that continues to get me into trouble with many associates who love European classical music. It happened last weekend at the Music Festival, when late one night I again displayed my musical racism by abusing classical music lovers as stupid. It was not appreciated and won me no friends. When will I ever learn?
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However one approaches the issue, it inevitably slides in one direction even here. I add this not for the sake of argument, but for the sake of clarification of what Watson was likely referring to. His problem is that he took it as proven and given. I said What if he is even remotely close to truth?
Hes not and this crap is only accepted by racists.
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humanity has a tendency to use such ideas to their own fantasy and advantage.
Bingo!
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Bingo!
No you didnt you did not just post the word Bingo. Go check my post on the other thread LOL I just won at bingo a minute ago at work :D
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intelligence has more to do with opportunity for education.
Curious coincidence on this - Julie is just reading a book of a woman who lived in a Sikh village back in the 1970's or 80's. She describes in agonising detail how unintelligent these people are - she puts it down to education, as she says they don't even have the mental capacity for reflective discussion - 'capacity' being a consequence of education.
What I found interesting was how these incredibly 'ignorant' people are the same ones who now in the US are racing away in the intelligence stakes, to such en extent, that Obama had to say Americans can be as good as Indians if they just make an effort.
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No you didnt you did not just post the word Bingo. Go check my post on the other thread LOL I just won at bingo a minute ago at work :D
LOL
Too funny E. Mwah! :-*
(Psychic awareness eh?)
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This is worth watching.
Pakistan's War: The Battle Within
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2009/05/20095268590483906.html
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Obama declares H1N1 emergency October 25, 2009 10:00 a.m. EDT
Hundreds of residents line up for free H1N1 vaccinations Friday at a Los Angeles, California, area clinic.
National emergency declared to deal with "rapid increase in illness"
Obama: "Potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources"
Source: Action helps states by lifting bureaucratic requirements
CDC says 16.1 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been made
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the "rapid increase in illness" from the H1N1 influenza virus.
"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Obama said in a statement.
"Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response."
The president signed the declaration late Friday and announced it Saturday.
Calling the emergency declaration "an important tool in our kit going forward," one administration official called Obama's action a "proactive measure that's not in response to any new development." Having trouble finding vaccine? Share your story
Another administration official said the move is "not tied to the current case count" and "gives the federal government more power to help states" by lifting bureaucratic requirements -- both in treating patients and moving equipment to where it's most needed.
Vaccines
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The officials didn't want their names used because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
Obama's action allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help health care facilities enact emergency plans to deal with the pandemic.
Those requirements are contained in Medicare, Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance programs, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rule.
Since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Frieden said that having 46 states reporting widespread flu transmission is traditionally the hallmark of the peak of flu season. To have the flu season peak at this time of the year is "extremely unusual."
The CDC said 16.1 million doses of H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine had been made by Friday -- 2 million more than two days earlier. About 11.3 million of those had been distributed throughout the United States, Frieden said.
"We are nowhere near where we thought we would be," Frieden said, acknowledging that manufacturing delays have contributed to less vaccine being available than expected. "As public health professionals, vaccination is our strongest tool. Not having enough is frustrating to all of us."
Frieden said that while the way vaccine is manufactured is "tried and true," it's not well-suited for ramping up production during a pandemic because it takes at least six months. The vaccine is produced by growing weakened virus in eggs.
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I have been watching carefully the situation in Pakistan. I have said before that Pak was close to break down of governance. That was argued against by many in Pak who felt it a view pushed by US to get Pak to take greater action against it's extremists.
What is curious is that there is a huge divide in attitude in Pak. A large section of the population - hard to know how large, but definitely very wide spread - believe the real problem in Pak is the US. It has always been India, but the US is now up there with the worst of the worst.
The Interior minister has just claimed that India is supporting the Taliban.
I think that the argument goes like this: terror attacks have only happened since the US have begun interfering in Pak and Afghanistan. But it seems there is a large amount of having to find someone to blame, and they can't blame Islam, and can't blame their own nation. They do blame their government - mainly for listening and doing the behest of the US.
Another argument by the sane is that Pakistan was originally set up as a secular state, and now there is this thing called the Ideology of Pakistan - which is Islam.
Most sane Pakistanis are scared shitless. They would get out if they could. The outcome looks grim.
The Pak Army has sent 30,000 (two divisions) to South Waziristan. Some think this is a big deal, but when you consider the Pak Army has around 600,000 personnel, it makes 30,000 look a bit slim.
Anyway the Army know this is do or die. Hard to imagine after all the attacks against the Army, that they will lose. I should add that the US has been helping train the Pak Army. They are a significantly different beast than a few years ago.
What is bothering Pakistanis is what happens after South Waziristan? Are they going to invade Punjab the next greatest centre of extremism? The influence and structure of Pakistan Islamists is so integrated into Pakistan military, government and society, that the eventual outcome is dire. The only result would be another military coup, but it is hard to see how that would even help.
I fear it's all down hill over there, which is something that India is very concerned about, and the rest of the world.
What is curious so far, is that the Pak media has been pretty solidly behind the military campaign. But how long for?
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Thank you M for your initiated analyse of the situation in Pakistan. A fragment of that info would have taken me 5 hours or more to gather on my own. You got the full picture so please keep us updated.
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NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and consistent with section 1135 of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5), do hereby find and proclaim that, given that the rapid increase in illness across the Nation may overburden health care resources and that the temporary waiver of certain standard Federal requirements may be warranted in order to enable U.S. health care facilities to implement emergency operations plans, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States constitutes a national emergency. Accordingly, I hereby declare that the Secretary may exercise the authority under section 1135 of the SSA to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule throughout the duration of the public health emergency declared in response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. In exercising this authority, the Secretary shall provide certification and advance written notice to the Congress as required by section 1135(d) of the SSA (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5(d)).
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
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As I understand it, this waiver enables the medical system to set up temporary outposts, so that the ER's and docs-in-the-boxes aren't completely inundated.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and consistent with section 1135 of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5), do hereby find and proclaim that, given that the rapid increase in illness across the Nation may overburden health care resources and that the temporary waiver of certain standard Federal requirements may be warranted in order to enable U.S. health care facilities to implement emergency operations plans, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States constitutes a national emergency. Accordingly, I hereby declare that the Secretary may exercise the authority under section 1135 of the SSA to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule throughout the duration of the public health emergency declared in response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. In exercising this authority, the Secretary shall provide certification and advance written notice to the Congress as required by section 1135(d) of the SSA (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5(d)).
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
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For any who are interested in the Islamic extremist situation, esp in Pakistan, this is a very insightful article.
Ideas can win the war (http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/14-ideas-can-win-the-war-zj-06)
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when such unsubstantiated claptrap comes from a respected journalist, what common sense or responsibility can one expect from the hoards of TV anchors and print journalists whose figurative 15 minutes of fame have already overstayed their cacophonic welcome.
It is a ‘fame’ gathered from cheap fist-clenching demonstrations of populist nonsense and so-called political discourses that are thoroughly anti-intellectual in nature and akin to deal more in sardonic barbs and thrilling sound bytes for an audience that seems not to have the patience, or for that matter, the capability to enjoy a more rational discourse.
TV screens and the pages of some newspapers are choked with hosts, journalists, and ‘experts’ dishing out the most worn out clichés that can be wonderful fodder for fast food spy fiction, consequently announcing the demise of any semblance left in this society to actually understand international and local politics as a dynamic science instead of reading it as a rapid-fire script of a racy James Bond film.
How is speaking about who?
Is this America, Australia, Briton, Germany, etc?
It could be - it could be so many countries today.
Something has happened in the last twenty years. I don't recall the public language of media and politicians being so rabid and utterly mindless, back in the 60s and 70s. We used to watch the news at night, and generally public political discourse was at least sensible, if not truthful.
Something has changed since the 90s, across the globe. Some element has become commonplace, and it won't go away. There is a validation of emotional ignorance as legitimate public discourse, legitimate private discourse, and legitimate personal thoughts. It is very creepy, and despite some rallying from the other side, it shows no signs of abatement.
I thought when Blair, Howard and Bush were deposed, we would return to public sanity. But instead certain politically oriented forces have decided the old rabid rhetoric was still worth stoking - I though they would soon see the error of their approach, but no, it seems they know no other way, and horror of horrors, I see the public reluctantly returning to it as valid.
For those who want to know the source of the quote:
Somersaults on air (http://blog.dawn.com/2009/10/29/somersaults-on-air/)
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Something has happened in the last twenty years. I don't recall the public language of media and politicians being so rabid and utterly mindless, back in the 60s and 70s.
This is so true! Though back then, there was still an underlying idealism and naivete, at least in the US. That quickly went downhill in the US after the Watergate trials and Kent State.
Something has changed since the 90s, across the globe. Some element has become commonplace, and it won't go away. There is a validation of emotional ignorance as legitimate public discourse, legitimate private discourse, and legitimate personal thoughts. It is very creepy, and despite some rallying from the other side, it shows no signs of abatement.
In the US, I blame all the talk shows (tv and radio) for sensationalizing/'legitimizing' the worst sort of ad hominem attacks and judgments. Literally, the lowest common denominator of human nature.
For those who want to know the source of the quote:
Somersaults on air (http://blog.dawn.com:91/dblog/2009/10/29/somersaults-on-air/)
Hmmm .. this link not working at this time, but I liked the cut of his/her jib.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. ~Samuel Clemens
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I've fixed the link - not sure what happened there:
Somersaults on air (http://blog.dawn.com/2009/10/29/somersaults-on-air/)
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I found this in my local news today. I have to admit was quite disturbed seeing how close the swine flu is coming, but also, how many died per the number who caught it. Three out of Fourteen is a high number to die, when you look at the numbers honestly
FLU: Umatilla Co. man dies from swine flu
By Herald staff
PENDLETON A man in his 30s died from H1N1 flu, the Umatilla County Health Department reported today.
He died in his home earlier this month and was not diagnosed as having H1N1 until after his death, the health department reported.
It is unclear if any underlying medical conditions played a role in his death.
The county is reporting that since Sept. 1 there have been 14 confirmed H1N1 cases and 3 deaths.
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Swine flu: I have just read an article in Dawn.com by Pakistani woman in the US - while Pakistan is fighting for it's very survival, with suicide bombs going off every day, and the complete fracturing if the country now almost inevitable, Americans are panicking about swine flu. Unless you are in Miami, where nude bathing with watching towers telescopes, and plenty of ill-gotten-gain wealth is on parade. That was what her article was about...
I am so impressed with Dawn.com, the online site of one of Pakistan's most intelligent newspapers. Not only is the site the best newspaper site I have yet seen, but the articles and news continue to fascinate me. They are really good stuff - the kind of hard, self-reflective material I would love to see even here in Australia - and we have some very good newspapers compared to the the rest of the world.
Pakistan is in a state of disintegration. But Dawn.com is insightful, as it displays to me what the world will soon be facing. A relatively small group of intelligent people will be arguing for sanity and a complete review of everything, while the remainder are maniacally heading for the cliff, while violently heckling for some utter rubbish or other.
This site is giving me the creeps - I am seeing the future of the world right there in Dawn.com, in Pakistan. Some writers are cutting to the very core of the problem, insightful to the point of pain. While referring to the madness that rages in the popular press and TV which thankfully I am spared.
Meanwhile Julie has just watched 'Into the Wild', and to her horror, went online to read the comments from Americans mostly, about this film. She couldn't believe the ignorance, stupidity and grossness of many of the commentators. Seems an echo of what I have been experiencing while observing Pakistan.
Anyway, to the point. An update of the situation in Pak.
The military offensive in Swat and South Waziristan has had consequences. Islamists extremists had originally come down from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan into Afghanistan. US invaded Afghanistan and these fighters fled to Pakistan, along with the Taliban. Now they are being attacked in Pakistan, they have nowhere to go, because they can't return to their own homeland, although they are trying to.
The Uzbeks are a nasty bunch, and the largest group of foreign fighters in Pakistan. They along with Al Qaeda and a few others are being cornered, but also spreading out - closely watched by the US.
This offensive in Pakistan is causing repercussions in all neighbouring countries as these fighters begin to infiltrate wherever they can find a loop hole.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, it is becoming obvious that the government is broke and corrupt. The Islamists have strong political influence. Okay - most Pakistanis don't want them. They want a secular government, but a minority of very active extremists can cause huge changes, especially when they use violence to get their ways.
I can't see how they will escape another Military coup, but as the Military is itself split in its allegiance to Islamists and secular ideology, don't expect much to come from them.
The US is offering them money, which they desperately need - they can't even support the refugees from Swat and South Waziristan, let alone build the infrastructure necessary for the country's future. No other friends of Pakistan will give them money as they can't guarantee it won't end up in the wrong hands. Saudi Arabia won't give them any funds either. But they don't want to take US money because it will hurt their ego too much.
Meanwhile the US is secretly giving the Military funding to help in its war with the Taliban.
I see it as a forerunner of the future all countries face, as we grapple with a global environment disaster.
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I had been wondering the same thing as Peter Hartcher.
This is a weird indictment on human nature, plus a recognition that the Right have always had a good case for just being brutal - people don't get it any other way.
What I am wondering now is 'how long mister nice guy'?
Barack may be trying friendly persuasion, but he is a very clever guy, and when he decides to apply the screws, we may see a different side of him. The Israeli issue is definitely a problem, but then it always has been - current situation is nothing new.
Also, I have the idea that all this is just the business of state - it flows back and forth.
Obama holds out his hand, only to get it bitten
Barack Obama came to power ''extending an open hand'' to America's allies and enemies alike. He must be getting tired of having to wipe the spit off it. Sure, Obama still scores phenomenally well in opinion polls across most of the world outside the US. But popularity is not translating into power to enact the change he thought we should believe in.
First, the allies.
America not only befriended Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, it installed him as President. In return, he has done a first-class job of discrediting himself and compromising his great ally.
True, Karzai grew angry at the US habit of mistakenly blowing up Afghan citizens. The Pentagon has been so single-minded in killing the enemy hiding among the Afghan people that it was all too ready to kill the Afghan people themselves as ''collateral damage''.
Far from diminishing the enemy, this policy has been strengthening it. Careless violence has been turning the entire country against the US.
But the new US policy recommended by General Stanley McChrystal is designed to change that. The top priority would be protecting the Afghan people, rather than killing the enemy.
At exactly the moment when Obama is weighing how to implement this new policy, Karzai has inflicted dreadful damage. By stealing the election he has demonstrated he is corrupt and illegitimate. He is no better than any other tinpot dictator.
The proposed election run-off on Saturday, cancelled late last night, Sydney time, was a joke. After the opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew his candidacy in protest at Karzai's refusal to sack his crony elections chief, Karzai has become the ruler of a one-party state. The entire enterprise is stripped of legitimacy. No number of troops can restore what Karzai has stolen.
Then there's Japan. Within the limitations of its pacifist post-war constitution, Japan has been a steadfast ally of America's for half a century.
It was America's ''unsinkable aircraft carrier'' in Asia, in the words of Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japan's prime minister from 1982 to 1987.
And Tokyo has gradually redefined its constitution to expand its armed forces and its global military role in support of the US.
After the US, Japan has the biggest and most sophisticated navy in the Asia-Pacific, a democratic counterweight to China. But the strength of the US-Japan alliance is suddenly in doubt. In the election in August the Liberal Democratic Party, the conservatives who had ruled Japan for all but one of the past 54 years, were removed.
The new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama of the centre-left Democratic Party, has chilled relations with the US. Indeed, he campaigned against ''US-led globalisation''.
Hatoyama is insisting on a fundamental review of US bases in Japan. The bases, host to about 40,000 US troops, are the centrepiece of US forward deployment in the Asia-Pacific. The US Defence Secretary, has warned if Tokyo reneges on its agreements with Washington "it would be immensely complicated and counterproductive''.
Further, Hatoyama has proposed a new East Asian community of countries with a common currency, a bloc to include China but not the US.
The Washington Post published this telling quote last month: ''A senior State Department official said the US had 'grown comfortable' thinking about Japan as a constant in US relations in Asia. It no longer is, he said, adding that 'the hardest thing right now is not China, it's Japan'.''
This is, potentially, a deep disturbance to the structures of US power and influence in the Asia-Pacific. It appears the US did not so much have an alliance with Japan as an alliance with the LDP. As China rises to rival US power, Japan is shrinking as a reliable US ally.
Then there is Israel. Obama set out a precondition for Middle East peace talks that Israel halt all settlement activity. But when the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defied his demand, Obama yielded.
Now Israel has offered a new policy of ''restraint'' in settlements, and the Obama Administration has agreed in order to get a start to negotiations over a peace settlement with the Palestinians. This piece of alliance mismanagement needlessly annoyed Israel and revealed American weakness.
Then there are America's rivals.
North Korea's response to the open hand? It conducted its second nuclear test and conducted provocative missile firings. It tore up its armistice with South Korea, technically restoring the Korean War, and refused negotiations. And Iran, exposed as having built a secret new nuclear plant, is unapologetic and spurning Obama's hand.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, voiced frustration with Obama in the United Nations Security Council in September. ''We live in a real world, not a virtual world, and the real world expects us to take decisions. President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
Since 2005 Iran has flouted five Security Council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993. I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good have proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,'' referring to Israel.
It's not all bad. Pakistan has yielded to Obama's pressure to pursue the Taliban seriously for the first time. But this was a response to US coercion, not to the open hand.
Obama's is truly the hardest job in the world. And despite all the goodwill in the world, he may as well use the open hand to wave goodbye to his early hopes of a happy transformation in world affairs.
Peter Hartcher is the Herald's international editor.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/obama-holds-out-his-hand-only-to-get-it-bitten-20091102-htcp.html
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You don't even have to read between the lines with this guy...
at no time did anyone say anything about wiping off the map...
maybe Israel should relocate to Montana or Florida.....
Since 2005 Iran has flouted five Security Council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993. I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good have proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,'' referring to Israel.
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H1N1
I like to keep an eye on this site ... http://www.flu.gov/whereyoulive/healthmap/
At first glance, it looks as if the entire country has the H1N1 flu, but it's just flu season ... early.
Has anyone taken into account the mental state of all these people? AND the climate change?
At the beginning of 2009, the economy basically went down the tubes ... jobs lost, homes lost, ect. I think that had a lot to do with people succumbing to sickness early in the year. And then it continued ... until the stock market started climbing ... then the cases of H1N1 went down! Hmmmm ... interesting.
Our mental state has so much to do with our physical wellness ... or sickness.
Now ... the weather patterns have been very sketchy ... extreme heat ... then extreme cold ... extreme heat ... on and on. It was well over 100 degrees here in Vegas and then the temperature dropped 30 degrees one day ... yikes! Then it climbed back up.
We have "Spring" upper respiratory problems here, and we also have a different "Fall" upper respiratory problem depending on which spores happen to be growing. Allergies run rampant here. People "Expect" to get sick here ... it's an interesting phenomena. They go to the doctor, get a Z-pac and feel better. When they could have probably used their bodies own immune system to fight off their illness and get through it themselves. We are a nation of druggies and the drugs we're being given are actually breaking down and destroying our immune systems.
I've never had a "seasonal flu shot" ... I think it's a money making racket for the health care industry.
1,000 people dead from the swine flu? Isn't that much lower than the CDC's yearly flu statistics of somewhere near 60,000 that they were touting last year? I think that was a little inflated, but I haven't heard anything about those statistics yet this year.
Our government makes rich people richer. When this all transpired in the early Spring, I'm sure contracts were signed and production quotas were designated by the powers that be. Money.
Have you checked out the stocks on these companies that are producing the H1N1 vaccine. More Money.
The number of people being infected went down ... Uh Oh ... the government might be stuck with millions of doses of vaccine. So ... they hype it up again. Just like the pharmaceutical commercials we see at least 5 times during one show on TV, for viagra or ambience (or whatever that sleeping pill is) ... they feed us with brainwashing techniques to make us think we NEED something. More Money.
Now ... I'm no rocket scientist, but just knowing a little bit about viruses and how they mutate, I would think that any vaccine cocktail made from the early Spring components would be ineffective with what's going to be our new Fall virus. I had my son get a "flu shot" last year ... he still got sick.
If people weren't getting sick ... millions, maybe billions of dollars would be lost. They are Counting on everyone getting sick. You can't make money on healthy people!
And where did this H1N1 come from? What were they doing in Mexico? I did a little research and read this story just as the Mexico virus started ... http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/21/us/genetic-material-of-virus-from-1918-flu-is-found.html
Then they put the 'puzzle pieces' together. http://www.infowars.com/print/science/1918flu.htm
And they got paid for it ..
"The UW (University Of Washington) Received Part Of A $12.7 Million Grant, Funded Largely From Congress' $1.7 Billion Biodefense Appropriation To The National Institutes Of Health, To Collaborate On The 1918 Flu Study With Mount Sinai School Of Medicine In New York And The Armed Forces Institute Of Pathology In Washington, D.C."
Wow! ... that's A LOT of money.
I wonder how much of a profit the makers of Tamiflu and other anti-virus drug manufacturers are making this year?
Follow the money.
edited : broken link
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Here's another interesting tidbit ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0
"Furthermore, One hundred and ninety nations are gathering in Copenhagen during December 14th -18th 2009 to sign a World Government Treaty. This World Government Treaty is under the guise of the 'UN Climate Change Treaty'. It is a 200 page document that states specifically a 'World Government' in the section of Annex One. Do some research you will find this to be true. Put in UN Climate Change Treaty on youtube and watch the video."
Are we getting closer to that "one world" government? Ready for your 'chip' insertion? ;)
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Here's another interesting tidbit ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0
"Furthermore, One hundred and ninety nations are gathering in Copenhagen during December 14th -18th 2009 to sign a World Government Treaty. This World Government Treaty is under the guise of the 'UN Climate Change Treaty'. It is a 200 page document that states specifically a 'World Government' in the section of Annex One. Do some research you will find this to be true. Put in UN Climate Change Treaty on youtube and watch the video."
Are we getting closer to that "one world" government? Ready for your 'chip' insertion? ;)
Boy I hope not. Big brother watching... bad enough he's got all the tools if he did want to watch us 24/7.
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Boy I hope not. Big brother watching... bad enough he's got all the tools if he did want to watch us 24/7.
OMG ... a friend just sent me this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDhDrFrs7as&annotation_id=annotation_930926&feature=iv
Heh! They can market ANYTHING, can't they ;) Something we all NEED, right? Ha! Ha!
I can see everyone lining up for this one, just like they're lining up for the swine flu vaccine. :o
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I've been looking forward to a World Government for a long time. It has to come, and seems the EU is the only place trialling the problems and the technicality. Americans seem to suffer badly from obsession with fear of their own government - I always thought Australians were a weird mod.
But at the same time it is being proven that de-centralisation is far more effective than centralisation.
Unfortunately I doubt World Governance will arrive in time to deal with a World Threat, so it's all academic. We're in for a fun ride.
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I've been looking forward to a World Government for a long time. It has to come, and seems the EU is the only place trailing the problems and the technicality. Americans seem to suffer badly from obsession with fear of their own government - I always thought Australians were a weird mod.
But at the same time it is being proven that de-centralisation is far more effective than centralisation.
Unfortunately I doubt World Governance will arrive in time to deal with a World Threat, so it's all academic. We're in for a fun ride.
Oh no. I disagree with a world government. You have to understand you're speaking from soneone from the "United States." Each state has their own separate power, but yet united. This way there can be many elected officials, but the people rule. Though the elected officials try to get us to forget that part.
A one world government is very dangerous because if you get the wrong 'one leader' who could overthrow him? Plus if one is very hungry in their power position, they could lead an entire globe the wrong way. I may have to agree with the fundies for having a fear of a one world government, and then a bad guy taking over. This could give ammo for the whole world to be taken over in corruption. I like it better the way it is, even with its troubles.
And while 'unity' seems the way to go, and it is, not in 'government.' Not that way. Not with politicians being in charge of the whole planet and all of the people. There is already 'too much government' and not enough freedom in many places. I could see it, all falling under communism in one wave, another falling under democracy with an upheaval. Government can never get it right.
A UN council with a meeting of leaders to try to keep the peace on the globe is close enough. Anything beyond that spells destruction for the world to me. IMPO.
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but the people rule.
::)
Sorry, that's funny to me!
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::)
Sorry, that's funny to me!
It is funny but its technically what the constitution says. Like I said, its just our elected officials try to get us to forget that part, of the constitution, and who is 'really' in charge. Its the people.
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I confess America does give the rest of us considerable humour.
One thing I really like: US government is corrupted by the influence of big business, and in order to protect that influence what does big business do? It tells all the people that you can't trust the government because it's corrupted by big business. This works really well, as the people become disaffected with their government, allowing big business to get on with the job of influencing the government. Nice trick.
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and who is 'really' in charge. Its the people.
I suppose that's what they'd like you to believe.....
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We already have a one-government-of-sorts in place. The big corporates. They just let the politicians and the people think that they have a say in anything. Look what happened with the "bank crisis" last year. Everyone goes up and down, like ring-a-ring-a-roses and in the end, it makes no difference what "the people" say or do; not as long as money rules.
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How is one to interpret the latest Republican victories in the US? Is this the end of Obama?
I hear a few comments - Barack's supporters didn't turn out, local issues, quantities of money, personalities and so forth.
I have another idea to throw into the mix.
I've just heard on the radio, a comment of a trend that I have been observing myself for a long time now. I first noticed this when Fish and Chip shops began to use frozen potato chips instead of fresh-cut chips. I was initially horrified at the demise of quality, but then I began hearing people speak highly of shops who sold the frozen version. Now, you can't get anything but the frozen version.
What I realised was that once we were served the lesser quality, without choice, we soon began to prefer it, because it has perceptual memory-familiarity.
I see now that many people prefer tea bags to leaf tea, and instant coffee to real coffee.
On the radio they mentioned a University Prof who at the start of every year, presented his new music students with a demonstration of a range of quality sound music - from very high fidelity down to MP3. What he has discovered that progressively each year, more students say they prefer the MP3 quality, despite it lower quality sound. Because that is the sound they have grow up with.
My point is that for many years now, the public has been presented with lower and lower quality 'sound bites' of political info, but much more importantly, they have been force-fed a political diet of simplistic, emotive and outrageous messages, which create an entertainment effect of excitation - the more outrageous the better.
The Republican party have used this neurological channel, and although many got tired of it and voted for Obama, who offers a more complex and higher quality fare, the Republicans knew if they just keep pushing the old barrel, people would eventually come back to what they have become familiar with.
It would be a mistake to see this as an American thing. This is across the whole globe - it is human nature. This is why people like me enter healing and social development as a personal task, not with any illusions as to the possibility of humanity achieving its potential.
I do barrack for Barack's vision and he's not done yet by any means, but in the end, I won't be surprised if its all relentlessly down hill.
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Afghan update.
Reading some interesting assessments. These could easily turn out wrong, but they seem pretty astute to me.
US is never going to get anywhere in Afghanistan. No one has before. The national structure is riven with corruption and opium-funded war lords. Even Hamid Karzai’s own brother is one. To rebuild the entire structure of government is a massive task - George Bush could have done it had he not gone into Iraq. But the time is past for that. So forget winning the 'hearts and minds' of the people - they can see very clearly thank you. As far as rectitude goes - the Taliban have it all.
US could go after the really bad terrorists and forget the state. Not likely, but this would push all the Taliban into neighbouring countries, who would then have serious problems. Which they will have even if Taliban win in Afghan, so that's no big deal. But without a viable authentic state in Afghanistan, all the US can do is waste money and lives on a corrupt leadership, and still not win against Taliban.
What the US have to do is to get out of Afghanistan. Obama cannot afford to be bogged down in that hell hole by the next elections in 2012. What to do?
Answer? Pakistan. If Pakistan can win their current war against the home Taliban, they are in a good position to help the US out of Afghanistan. And their pay off- control of Afghanistan.
Who else? Iran? Russia? Not bloody likely. And India is a bit too removed although they are trying desperately to get a foothold there, which is all the more reason for Pakistan to grab it.
The whole thing is a bloody mess. Pakistan, the near collapsed nation, near overtaken by Islamists nation, is the only straw of hope for the US to clear out. Thanks George.
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Obama launches yearly American Indian summits
35 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is making good on a campaign promise to have a yearly summit with American Indians to hear their concerns.
Obama is to deliver opening and closing remarks Thursday for the meeting of members of his Cabinet and tribal leaders, the first such event since 1994. Officials planned to discuss problems facing American Indians, including economic development, education, health care, public safety and housing.
"This is an opportunity for tribal leaders to interact directly with the president, and we all know working in this area that there are so many difficult and monumental issues which face Indian nations throughout our country. And frankly, the last administration did not pay any attention to these issues," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.
During the Democratic primary, Obama traveled to Indian reservations and promised health care improvements.
"I'll appoint an American Indian policy adviser to my senior White House staff to work with tribes and host an annual summit at the White House with tribal leaders to come up with an agenda that works for tribal communities," Obama said in a video address to the National Congress of American Indians' convention in Phoenix during the final days of last year's campaign. "That's how we'll make sure you have a seat at the table when important decisions are being made about your lives, about your nations and about your people."
He made good on that pledge, creating a new post within the White House. He appointed Kimberly Teehee to serve as senior policy adviser for Native American affairs within the Domestic Policy Council. Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation, previously served as an aide to Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., and worked for the Democratic National Committee.
He also tapped Dr. Yevette Roubideaux to serve as director of the Indian Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services, making her the first American Indian to head the federal agency since its founding in 1955. Roubideaux, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, worked for IHS on the San Carlos Indian Reservation and in the Gila River Indian community.
Thursday's event is an opportunity for the administration to tout its $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Some $3 billion of the economic stimulus funding was directed to tribal communities and Obama has sought budget increases for Indian health care and programs run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, officials said. They hope to develop a list of steps the administration and tribes can take to improve the quality of life on reservations.
"We won't be able to wave a magic wand and resolve all of the issues," Salazar said, "but it is a great foundation for the work that lies ahead."
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Down hill?
Are you kidding. The mass-vaccine program in Sweden is one example of the down hill phenomena. Why? Because it shows the mechanisms how people simply gives away personal power and responsibility for ones own health to the authorities. We got people in line to get the vaccine at the primary health centres, the distribution is stalling and many are upset that they do not get it. I can agree. The whole point with vaccination is that you get it before you get the virus.
Now if the swine-flu was the big Pandemia which every epidemiologist fear, then it is a good idea to vaccine as many as possible. But it isn't and people do not get the info and buy the whole fear thing. what we know so far is that the swine-flu is more harmless than the common seasonal flues that pass by each year. Why this hype to get a vaccine then? Simply because people has lost power, insight and the touch with nature.
So the political wind change in the US, away from the Obama concept of "change", that is another indication that power leaves the public in the US and they might open up for more bank bankruptcy, more unemployment , more viruses and more hardship.
For more flow - change is required. Denying change is to deny flow and to allow to be stuck in the old structures. To be stuck in an old structure and continuing with questionable behaviour means to invite unfortune, accidents and bad health. That is not always the case but now it is a rather unusual time frame of "war" from above to the below.
Found out yesterday that one very good anti-virus treatment is with silver. Yes, silver is harmless to your body but very effective in killing viruses and bacteria.
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Perhaps i should add a few comments to my last post. Macrobiotic Sensei George Oshawa said about the US people as early in the 1970’s – You are all San Paku. “San Paku” means inviting accidents. After decades of Soft drink addiction and less whole grain, and natural food consumption the average US citizen is light year MORE San Paku than back then when Oshawa was around.
San Paku is when the Iris of your eyes is above the bottom eye-lid when looking straight into the mirror. San Paku invites accidents, difficulties, separation from the flow and death.
I am not sorry to have to announce these matters. I am only sorry that it went that way, while I instead would love to annonce love to come. Sensei Oshawa also had some ideas about getting ill, but the New Age movement has infected that area too much so it is very difficult to get the macrobiotic ideas comprehensible out of the New Age context.
As with the Flow, health comes natural when a natural diet is followed. Health is the same as resistance to most viruses and infections but this knowledge is now gone so instead the public rely on mass vaccinations. They can’t see their own role in the map of health any longer and they therefore accuse us that do not take the vaccine as not being loyal to the insane vaccination program.
After a test on 50 children below the age of 3 they are now recommending all children (about 200 000 in Sweden) to get the mercury contaminated vaccine. And we know that extreme adverse effect will manifest for about 1 of ten thousand. Unfortunately the authorities have lost the connection to sound public health policy and they lack decent information and proper calculations competence to support their recommendations.
Today about 6000 persons has died from the Swin flu in the whole World and even if 600 000 had totally died Global it would be considered as a lower death rate than an ordinary seasonal flu ....! Though, I agree, it is not over yet and we expect to have the total figure in February or March - for the first wave. But nothing so far indicate that we (in little Sweden) will get a death poll above 100 which is far more less than the seasonal flu (about 10 times less). Though some hundre more persons will require respirator care. But all in all it is actually "peanuts" - we still wait for the Pandemic with a large P.
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(http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/c1117c8040381fb0aed8efd66d06676d/26-608.jpg?MOD=AJPERES)
Pak soldiers in Taliban stronghold
and where were you yesterday?
moments upon endless moments, and some of them change our lives forever ... but all are over in a second
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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama urged his nation on Friday not to jump to conclusions on the motive behind the shooting at a Texas army base as American Muslims braced for a possible backlash.
This could be nasty.
Meanwhile, a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, urged Muslims to take necessary precautions against possible hostile reactions.
‘Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from a possible backlash,’ said a statement issued by CAIR’s Washington office.
The commander of the base, Lt-Gen Robert Cone, told NBC News that, according to eyewitnesses, Mr Hasan had shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!’ before opening fire.
There is something going on here that the rest of us can not afford to deny.
But isn't it interesting that it was a woman who brought him down.
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This week, the influential Jamaat-e-Islami religious party organized a "peace march" in central Peshawar from the Khyber Bazaar, where a car bomb killed more than 30 people Oct. 9, to the Mina Bazaar. The marchers held up banners and shouted slogans denouncing the CIA, the Pentagon, the security company formerly known as Blackwater, U.S. drone attacks and American aid. There was no mention of the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
[Washington Post]
Like the Americans who voted recently for the Republicans, 'because of the economic situation'.
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This could be nasty.
That matches my observation as well.
But isn't it interesting that it was a woman who brought him down.
Yep.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/fort.hood.munley/index.html
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This could be nasty.
How come that I have become sceptic to all "muslim" "terror" "attacks" or incidents that happen in the backyard of onkel Sam?
In my personal opinion, that I got now out of the blue, Hasan was of course a planted, brainwashed CIA-agent that had a zero commission*. I am now fully aligned to any conspiracy theory that might evolve from that tragic event.
Remember where you read it first! (it will only take a couple of days until this would be the leading underground story and details will come ... or what do you think?) I say this because it has been a dry on texxorist events since the 9x11. Hasn't it? Not much of a plot from Al-Quida so why not stir up a new attack? Perfect victim target for more hate, a muslim related to deep religious cult that do not want to go to Afghanistan - poor soul. So in his despair he gun down a number of work mates. My big question: Have you seen the corpses? My second question - can you believe that the CIA might "create" identities that can be used as victims and dead in fake attacks? If you can - then you are welcome to the new world.
Three of the so called hi-jackers in 911 lived and was registered at a US Navy base.
*Zero or Null commission is when you cannot expect to return alive from the commission. Probability to survuve is set to null but if you survived - well, good for you.
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Gee!!
I have just been watching a TV-program that was really scary. It was about the "Truth movement" in Sweden and I must say that this is a very infected topic.
I must take this into consideration in my book.
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Here's a link to some radio Pod cast you might
like Jamir....
http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/nonsubscriber.php
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Jamir...what are they saying up your way about this outbreak?
I've been watching this story evolve over the last week but it's
not being talked about at all by the mainstream media....if you
do a search on the web though there's a lot of info....curious
about what you have found out....
BRUSSELS, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- An explosive outbreak of influenza in Ukraine is worrying EU member nations that border it, observers say.
Kiev has issued a call for international help in obtaining anti-viral drugs, saying 71 people have died in the past week and another 240 people hospitalized in serious condition among more than 250,000 reported cases of flu-like infection, the EUobserver reported Wednesday.
The publication said blood tests have not confirmed the presence of the H1N1 variety known as "swine flu," but the rapid pace of the infections have prompted a high level of concern among Ukraine's neighbors.
"The priority is to obtain the Tamiflu anti-viral drug, as well as antibiotics, respirators, protective masks and test kits for identifying the A/H1N1 virus," the Ukrainian government said in a statement Wednesday.
EU countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania that share land borders with Ukraine are worried, and are offering help. The EUobserver reported that Polish newspapers are saying Slovakia has already sent 200,000 protective masks to Ukraine.
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I've yet to see any mention of this outbreak
via the OZ media.....why the lack of coverage?
What's even stranger is an add campaign showing
people lining up for their flu vaccine all smiling and happy
saying I'm doing this for you.....
Reported Ukraine Fatalities Increase To 155
Recombinomics Commentary 02:08
November 9, 2009
969,247 Influenza/ARI
48,972 Hospitalized
155 Dead
The above numbers represent the latest figures from Ukraine. The increases over the weekend have slowed, but it is unclear if this reduction in the rate of increases is due to an improving situation, or just fewer reports received because of the weekend. Although Lviv still has a wide lead in all categories (see map), including 155,895 cases, the city of Kiev is now up to 60,366 and when combined with the 47,802 cases in the Kiev Oblast, the Kiev city/oblast has increased to more than 100,000 cases, which is higher than any oblast, other than Lviv. The low number of deaths there, 5, may just be a trailing number, since the largest increases in Kiev were in the past few days.
Poland is now reporting schools with high absenteeism, although media reports and government comments continue to cite contributions from seasonal flu, even though all countries in Europe are reporting seasonal flu levels at less that 1% of flu positives. Worldwide, seasonal H1N1 has been crowded out, and low levels of H3N2 in eastern Asia are rapidly declining, suggesting the H1N1 swine flu will be the dominant influenza A in humans for years or decades.
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At Harris Middle School in Yarmouth, parents of 65 percent of the students have given the school permission to inoculate their children. Fifth-graders stroll into the gym and wait their turn. Ten-year-old Gibson Harnett pulls up his left sleeve and looks at the ceiling as Jill Brown, a volunteer nurse and school parent, points the needle at his arm.
"On the count of three -- you have a nice deltoid, so this should be easy -- one, two, three...all done. How was it?" she asks.
"Good." Gibson says.
State health officials in Maine would rather see 100 percent of students inoculated against H1N1, which has been reported in all 16 counties. Four out of the 10 people hospitalized with the virus in the last week were under 18. At least 25 schools all around the state are reporting absentee rates of 15 percent or more.
But officials are pleased that 15,000 out of 190,000-plus school children have been vaccinated against H1N1 since school-based vaccine clinics began last week.
"So the fact that we were able to vaccinate eight percent in the first few days of the school vaccine campaign was astounding," says
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She says the number would have been even higher if not for delayed shipments of the H1N1 vaccine.
At many schools, 60 to 65 percent of consent forms have been returned, says Mills, who's heard of participation rates as high as 80 percent. "We've had a lot of school nurses report that the consent forms came in at 60, 65, 70 percent, they order some more vaccine, we get it to them, but then parents are showing up with the consent form and saying, 'please,' and they don't want to turn anybody away."
Mills says nationally, polls taken several weeks ago show participation rates hovering around 30 to 40 percent. Some parents say they simply do not want their children to receive vaccines.
"I honestly believe that we need to know what goes in our bodies," says Tabatha Steward of Bethel, a parent and part of the group Unlocking Autism, whose members have expressed concern that certain ingredients in vaccines can cause developmental disorders.
She was among those who tried to get the Legislature to consider a bill that would ban mandatory vaccinations. State officials say vaccinations are already voluntary, but advocates want more explicit language.
"It's a voluntary vaccine -- it's up to the parents to decide whether or not they wanted to have their child vaccinated," says Jeff Bearden, Superintendent of MSAD 35, which encompasses the towns of Eliot and South Berwick. The district expects more than half of its 2,500 students will get vaccinated against H1N1, when all the vaccine arrives.
"Do I wish all of them would have been vaccinated?" Bearden asks rhetorically. "Well, as a parent, I'm going to say yes, but that's an individual choice that parents have and some took us up on the offer and some didn't, for whatever reason."
Back at Yarmouth Middle School, school nurse Judy Berghuis says that she has been happy with how receptive parents have been to vaccinations. "There's been a lot of publicity. Poeple are concerned about their kids getting H1N1 and being in that one percent that don't do well."
She had wondered how parents would react when they heard the shots would contain thimersol. Some autism advocates say the preservative causes the condition, although public health officials say there is no connection. "And we thought maybe parents would back out but they didn't," Berghuis says. "And they stepped up and they said, 'Fine, having it with thimersol is ok.'"
It's not clear how many students need to be vaccinated against the flu to confer protection on the student body as a whole. But a study out of Emory University looking at seasonal flu vaccines suggests that when 50 percent of children get the vaccine, the risk of an epidemic drops by two thirds. When 70 percent are vaccinated, it goes to 4 percent.
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Jamir...what are they saying up your way about this outbreak?
I've been watching this story evolve over the last week but it's
not being talked about at all by the mainstream media....if you
do a search on the web though there's a lot of info....curious
about what you have found out....
Wikipeda, that is a not reliable when it comes down to the 911 pages but that is a quite good source when reporting the statistics, years, dates and names etc. Also a rather reliable source in this case regarding the statistics from the swine flu.
I use to check this update:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu_2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu_2009)
No more than a 6,400 death toll so far* and Australia (and the Pacific) seem to have had it for this wave only counting 211 deaths. Please validate if possible. I saw for instance that the figures for Central America was not completely in line with the number of deaths in Mexico. Because Mexico reported about 300 cases on their wikipeda page while the whole Central america and the Caribbean is not above 200 in these statistics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic_in_Mexico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic_in_Mexico)
Though despite these differences in numbers - this is not the Pandemic with the great P. As many experts has said it is not worse than a regular seasonal flu. The difference is that this time the elderly has low death rates while kids and young people do not. More than a third of every emergency, respirator case is a child younger than 18 years old.
As a sidenote. Two emergency cases with young children (one 4 year old) that have entered coma short after the vaccination has been reported in Sweden. Both survived after emergency care. The scary fact is that Swiss authorities do not recommend Pandemrix to people 18 years old or younger while the Swedish authorities recommend it for children, even under the age of 3 and also including pregnant women. This with a vaccine that contains mercury!?
*If we should consider the Swine flu as comparable to the HonKong flu in 1968 then we should end up with at least a million deaths worldwide.
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What's even stranger is an add campaign showing
people lining up for their flu vaccine all smiling and happy
saying I'm doing this for you.....
They are doing the same here. But more fear driven ... "I got(the vaccine) it, so I don't get it." is the tag line, and then at the end of the advertisement there's a guy at home laying on his couch all sick ... "I Got it (H1N1), because I didn't get it."
When they start advertising, it means sales are Down. Just like the pharmeceutical companies peddle their drugs here on TV. "You must be sick if you feel this way ... you need our drugs to make you feel better. Go see your doctor ... he'll hook you up."
They're going to have a huge stockpile vaccine because not everyone is getting it (the vaccine). That means huge loss of profits ... again ... just follow the money.
I think they call it "boosting the economy" ... you know, like when they start wars.
There is no concern for casualties.
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All I know is, I've never gotten a flu shot, and won't start now.
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All I know is, I've never gotten a flu shot, and won't start now.
Me neither, V.
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Reported Ukraine Cases Top One Million - 174 Fatalities
Recombinomics Commentary 18:41
November 9, 2009
Collodial Silver is a good alternative...
1,031,597 Influenza/ARI
52,742 Hospitalized
174 Dead
The latest update for Ukraine includes more than 1 million reported cases (see map). The fatalities have jumped from 155 to 174 and almost 53K have been hospitalized. The biggest jump in fatalities was in Lviv, where reported deaths rose from 63 to 74. However, the largest jump in cases was in Kiev, raising concerns that the infections were spreading east.
The increase in cases and deaths continue to support a genetic change in the H1N1 virus. However, there have been no updates on samples which were sent to London over a week ago.
The sequence silence continues to increase concerns that the large number of cases and deaths in Ukraine is linked to changes, which may involve the receptor binding domain in general and position 225 in particular.
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500 deaths in India - 14,000 infected/
I wouldn't trust those figures myself
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500 deaths in India - 14,000 infected/
I wouldn't trust those figures myself
Too high or too low?
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Collodial Silver is a good alternative...
[
That I found out too!
So now we take two sips each day with that solution.
There was a site telling how to make it on your own but I do not dare to do that yet although I have some competence in chemistry. But if these pandemieas become common I might get the stuff and start my own production.
Funny how Silver went down the drain when antibiotics came along :( . Although there is Silver in some oinments in hospital care even today. :)
The great thing with Silver is that it also attack viruses, not only bacteria. And it do not attack vital bacteria that is needed in the body, as all the bacteria that we have in our intestinal system.
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H1N1 has killed 3,900 Americans, CDC says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – H1N1 swine flu killed an estimated 3,900 Americans from April to October, including more than 500 children, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.
Better data than was previously available shows the flu pandemic has infected an estimated 22 million Americans and put 98,000 in the hospital, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Children account for 8 million of the infected, 36,000 of those hospitalized and 540 deaths.
"We think the 540 number is a better estimate for the big picture that we are getting out there," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters.
About 82 U.S. children die in an average flu season. The CDC said H1N1 has produced the worst flu season in the United States since 1997, when current measurements started.
"What we are seeing in 2009 is unprecedented," Schuchat said," Schuchat said.
The CDC said doctors need to treat severe cases quickly with antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu, made by Roche AG, Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline or for especially grave hospitalized cases, peramivir, made by BioCryst.
Schuchat stressed the pandemic was not worsening but noted that it takes time to gather data on flu cases and deaths. The count released on Thursday is not an actual reckoning of deaths but an extrapolation based on detailed data from 10 states.
CDC's previous estimate of U.S. flu deaths was 1,200.
In an average flu season, about 36,000 Americans die and 200,000 are hospitalized with 90 percent of deaths and hospitalizations among people over 65.
With H1N1, 90 percent of those infected and seriously ill are younger adults and children.
Schuchat said the pandemic would likely continue through the winter and early spring. "We have a long flu season ahead of us," she said.
Most confirmed flu cases are H1N1 and about 30 percent of people who show up at the doctor's office and are actually tested for influenza turn out to have flu, as opposed to some other infection.
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H1N1 has killed 3,900 Americans, CDC says
And that is less what the seaonal flu do on a population level.
Unfortunately, people die of the new viruses.
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These figures I would better trust, but they aren't very extensive.
36,000 die and 200,000 hospitalised in a typical flu season.
3,900 die and 98,000 hospitalised for H1N1.
But there are more than one serious strains of flu virus in a typical season.
And the flu season has only just begun in the US so the these figures for H1N1 are outside the usual flu season.
Is that a reasonable assessment?
I take the point on the age range - would cause me to ponder if I would recommend an H1N1 for a child, but this is still very small numbers - none the less, one child's death is not a number.
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Pak again
Now the Taliban have exploded a huge bomb in front of an ISI headquarters - ripped the whole cement front off the three story building.
This is not the first attack on the ISI, who are supposed to be the controllers of the Taliban behind the scenes.
They said the last assault on an ISI headquarters had to have inside connections.
Looks to me like the Pak military is in a state of internal revolution.
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They said the last assault on an ISI headquarters had to have inside connections.
Looks to me like the Pak military is in a state of internal revolution.
Too bad - isn't it.
Truly hope that they can deal with this problem.
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And the terrorist fiction farce continous ...
News of Today:
The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other self-confessed plotters in the 9/11 attacks in New York's southern district court – which includes Manhattan – is likely to present considerable challenges for the United States.
The southern district is one of the most experienced US jurisdictions in trying terrorists, but such a high profile case, so close to the emblematic epicentre of 9/11, will not only involve major security issues – both for the court house and officials involved in the trial – but will also have to consider how to deal with what is likely to be an extremely large body of classified evidence that the prosecution will want to present.Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial poses huge challenges for US judiciary (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/911-mastermind-trial-challenges-analysis)
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Please pay this interview with Usama Bin Laden from 28 September 2001, some notice. I made an extract of it today as it will be a chapter in my book about the perpetrators for the 9/11 attacks. It is not said when the interview was held but for sure it was held close after the event.
Usama bin Laden Says the Al-Qa'idah Group
had Nothing to Do with the 11 September Attacks
Interview published in newspaper Ummat
Karachi, 2001-09-28
The Al-Qaidah group had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks on the USA, according to Usama bin Ladin in an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Ummat.
Ummat: You have been accused of involvement in the attacks in New York and Washington. What do you want to say about this? If you are not involved, who might be?
Usama bin Laden: In the name of Allah (God), the most beneficent, the most merciful. Praise be to Allah, Who is the creator of the whole universe and Who made the Earth as an abode for peace, for the whole humankind. /…/
I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle. /…/
I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed. According to my information, the death toll is much higher than what the U.S. Government has stated. But the Bush Administration does not want the panic to spread. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the U.S. system, but are dissenting against it. Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country, or ideology could survive.
/…/
Then there are intelligence agencies in the U.S., which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year. This [funding issue] was not a big problem till the existence of the former Soviet Union but after that the budget of these agencies has been in danger. They needed an enemy. So, they first started propaganda against Usama and Taleban and then this incident happened. You see, the Bush Administration approved a budget of 40 billion dollars. Where will this huge amount go? It will be provided to the same agencies, which need huge funds and want to exert their importance. Now they will spend the money for their expansion and for increasing their importance.
/…/
Full article here:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/obl_int.htm
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And more daily results from my investigation.
Planes - what planes?
DW: Hello Gerard, thank you for agreeing to an email interview.
I know that many people, including myself, have read much information and disinformation about the aircraft/no-aircraft used on 11th September 2001, and it is quite confusing.
You appear to have a clear-cut picture, and are prepared to debate your opinion, so it is very kind of you to provide answers to some simple questions.
Q1. — Is it true that the official account of events on 11th September 2001 claims that four planes crashed, one into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, one into the South Tower, one into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania?
Yes.
North Tower
Q2. — What was the flight number of the plane which reportedly hit the North Tower?
American Airlines Flight 11 from Logan to LA.
Q3. — What did you discover about flight AA11 regarding which aeroplane was used, and what happened to it? Please give references to your source material.
According to official flight logs, no such flight existed on Sept 11, 2001.
The Bureau of Transportation logs every domestic flight ever scheduled from a US airport, conducted by a carrier accounting for more than 1% of domestic air traffic. All scheduled flights, whether actually completed or not must by law be reported to this database, unless the flight is cancelled more than 7 days prior to the departure date.
No such flight appears in the records.
Therefore there are three possibilities.
1. No such flight was ever scheduled
2. Such a flight was scheduled but was cancelled more than 7 days prior to the departure date.
3. If such a flight was scheduled and not cancelled more than 7 days prior, then the database has been illegally manipulated or tampered with in some way, which of course raises new questions.
In summary, the situation is that *according to official records* no such flight ever took place.
It should be noted that after this information was discovered and published as an article, the BT almost immediately shut down its data base, and when it put it back up it had moved it to a different URL without leaving a forwarding address at the old URL (the one which was given in the published article), strongly indicating consciousness of guilt. Ten months later they doctored the database to try to include the flights, although the doctored data, while now claiming that the flight was scheduled, still has it as never departing.
Thus all the evidence points to options 1 or 2, although option 3 is still a theoretical possibility.
Q4. — Has any aircraft wreckage, or black box been found at the purported crash site?
Nothing which can be identified as from an aircraft.
Q5. — Are there any official records of passengers boarding the flight?
If so, they have never been released. However, many media outlets did publish lists which purported to be official lists, but which were proven on close examination to be fabrications.
So while one can never 100% rule out the theoretical possibility that the flight existed and the theoretical possibility that somewhere there are official passenger lists, the fact that the media published fake lists and passed them off as official, leads any reasonable person to the conclusion that no such official lists exist.
Q6. — Are any recorded passengers known to be missing, or have had death certificates issued?
To my knowledge there is no official documentation, but it's certainly possible that such documentation exists. Through local enquiries I have confirmed from personal contacts that at least one person listed by the media as being on that flight is definitely missing and that his family believes that he was on the flight.
While I have seen little to prove the missing/dead status of those allegedly on the flight, I have also seen nothing to disprove it. There is a hole in that area of my knowledge of the subject.
Q7. — Is there any video or other evidence that a commercial passenger airliner hit the north tower?
No. the video shows clearly that the object was not a large passenger jet, nor a conventional plane of any type.
Exactly what it is, is difficult to tell but it appears to be some kind of highly advanced secret technology.
South Tower
Q8. — What was the flight number of the plane allegedly involved here?
United Airlines 175 from Logan to LA.
Q9. — What was the tail number of the plane allocated to that flight?
N612UA. The BTS flight logs record the tail number.
Q10. — What is the status of that registered plane today?
Valid, according to the FAA aircraft registry. Search the registry at http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/acmain.htm.
Q11. — So your research indicates that aeroplane N612UA, which was allocated to flight UA175, which is purported to have hit the South Tower is, according to official FAA records, a valid registration today?
Yes.
Q12. — Is there any aircraft wreckage or video or other evidence that a commercial passenger aircraft hit the south tower?
No wreckage.
What is not said here, but what I got in my book from Gerard Holmgren is that the destruction dates from two of the planes involved in the 9/11 attacks are dated in January 2002. Not in sept 2001 which it should be in regular air plane crashes. Why this delay in time for destruction? Etc etc the more I put my eyes on the event back then the more questions arise.
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36,000 die and 200,000 hospitalised in a typical flu season.
3,900 die and 98,000 hospitalised for H1N1.
We have about 7 000 deaths worldwide and that is extremely low regarding a ordinary flu outbreak. However I must say that hospitalisation with respitory care is higher than normal.
7 deaths so far in Sweden and 6 of these definitely belonged to risk groups that have not that easy to deal with a flu.
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And more daily results from my investigation.
Planes - what planes?
DW: Hello Gerard, thank you for agreeing to an email interview.
I know that many people, including myself, have read much information and disinformation about the aircraft/no-aircraft used on 11th September 2001, and it is quite confusing.
You appear to have a clear-cut picture, and are prepared to debate your opinion, so it is very kind of you to provide answers to some simple questions.
Q1. — Is it true that the official account of events on 11th September 2001 claims that four planes crashed, one into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, one into the South Tower, one into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania?
Yes.
North Tower
Q2. — What was the flight number of the plane which reportedly hit the North Tower?
American Airlines Flight 11 from Logan to LA.
Q3. — What did you discover about flight AA11 regarding which aeroplane was used, and what happened to it? Please give references to your source material.
According to official flight logs, no such flight existed on Sept 11, 2001.
The Bureau of Transportation logs every domestic flight ever scheduled from a US airport, conducted by a carrier accounting for more than 1% of domestic air traffic. All scheduled flights, whether actually completed or not must by law be reported to this database, unless the flight is cancelled more than 7 days prior to the departure date.
No such flight appears in the records.
Therefore there are three possibilities.
1. No such flight was ever scheduled
2. Such a flight was scheduled but was cancelled more than 7 days prior to the departure date.
3. If such a flight was scheduled and not cancelled more than 7 days prior, then the database has been illegally manipulated or tampered with in some way, which of course raises new questions.
In summary, the situation is that *according to official records* no such flight ever took place.
It should be noted that after this information was discovered and published as an article, the BT almost immediately shut down its data base, and when it put it back up it had moved it to a different URL without leaving a forwarding address at the old URL (the one which was given in the published article), strongly indicating consciousness of guilt. Ten months later they doctored the database to try to include the flights, although the doctored data, while now claiming that the flight was scheduled, still has it as never departing.
Thus all the evidence points to options 1 or 2, although option 3 is still a theoretical possibility.
Q4. — Has any aircraft wreckage, or black box been found at the purported crash site?
Nothing which can be identified as from an aircraft.
Q5. — Are there any official records of passengers boarding the flight?
If so, they have never been released. However, many media outlets did publish lists which purported to be official lists, but which were proven on close examination to be fabrications.
So while one can never 100% rule out the theoretical possibility that the flight existed and the theoretical possibility that somewhere there are official passenger lists, the fact that the media published fake lists and passed them off as official, leads any reasonable person to the conclusion that no such official lists exist.
Q6. — Are any recorded passengers known to be missing, or have had death certificates issued?
To my knowledge there is no official documentation, but it's certainly possible that such documentation exists. Through local enquiries I have confirmed from personal contacts that at least one person listed by the media as being on that flight is definitely missing and that his family believes that he was on the flight.
While I have seen little to prove the missing/dead status of those allegedly on the flight, I have also seen nothing to disprove it. There is a hole in that area of my knowledge of the subject.
Q7. — Is there any video or other evidence that a commercial passenger airliner hit the north tower?
No. the video shows clearly that the object was not a large passenger jet, nor a conventional plane of any type.
Exactly what it is, is difficult to tell but it appears to be some kind of highly advanced secret technology.
South Tower
Q8. — What was the flight number of the plane allegedly involved here?
United Airlines 175 from Logan to LA.
Q9. — What was the tail number of the plane allocated to that flight?
N612UA. The BTS flight logs record the tail number.
Q10. — What is the status of that registered plane today?
Valid, according to the FAA aircraft registry. Search the registry at http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/acmain.htm.
Q11. — So your research indicates that aeroplane N612UA, which was allocated to flight UA175, which is purported to have hit the South Tower is, according to official FAA records, a valid registration today?
Yes.
Q12. — Is there any aircraft wreckage or video or other evidence that a commercial passenger aircraft hit the south tower?
No wreckage.
What is not said here, but what I got in my book from Gerard Holmgren is that the destruction dates from two of the planes involved in the 9/11 attacks are dated in January 2002. Not in sept 2001 which it should be in regular air plane crashes. Why this delay in time for destruction? Etc etc the more I put my eyes on the event back then the more questions arise.
If this were true, then I imagine the passenger deaths from that flight would have to have been faked as well. This isn't anything I've looked into, but I seem to recall at the time there were small bios released on the passengers. If all of that was fictitious, it seems like that would be a relatively easy thing to prove, for someone with the right energy for it.
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Jahn, what struck me as odd at the time was this:
The skies were flight-free for several days following 9/11, and yet, the US is supposed to have flown out of the country Mrs. Bin Laden and her family during that time, or sanctioned her exit, making a special allowance for the flight. If they had a belief in him being the leader of this event, it seems highly likely they would have somehow hung onto her. Instead, the feeling conveyed was that they protected her.
Likewise, if he was the leader of the event, why would he have acted when she was in the country? Doesn't seem prudent.
But who knows, perhaps all of this is myth.
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Writing a book? Now that is a substantial approach. I assume you will have studied and covered the arguments from this famous article now a book:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/3491861.html
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Writing a book? Now that is a substantial approach. I assume you will have studied and covered the arguments from this famous article now a book:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/3491861.html
I read McCain's forward. Lots of patriotism in that piece.
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New geologic evidence of past periods of oscillating, abrupt warming, and cooling
10 11 2009
Guest post by Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Emeritus Professor at Western Washington University
Two hundred years ago, Charles Lyell coined the phrase “The present is the key to the past.” In today’s highly contentious issues of global climate change, we might well add “The past is the key to the future, i.e., to forecast future geologic events, we must understand past climate changes. This paper documents past global climate changes in the geologic and historic past.
Recent laser imaging of the Earth’s surface provides new evidence for abrupt, fluctuating, warm and cool climatic episodes that could not have been caused by changes in atmospheric CO2. In a paper presented at the national meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, OR, Professor Don J. Easterbrook, Professor of Geology at Western Washington University, presented new data from airborne laser imagery showing well-defined, previously unknown, multiple moraines deposited by glaciers 11,700 to 10,250 years ago.
At least 9 significant, abrupt periods of warming that resulted in retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet are documented by moraines from successive glacial retreats in the Fraser Lowland of NW Washington l(Fig. 1). In addition, smaller multiple glacier recessions are found within the more prominent episodes of glacier retreat. As indicated by the amount of glacier recession between each of the successive moraines, the warming events were of greater magnitude than those observed in recent centuries.
oscillating_climate1
Figure 1. Successive terminal moraines from short–term glacier recessions caused by climatic warming between 11,700 and 10,250 years ago.
Isotope data from Greenland ice cores and show a consistent pattern of fluctuating warm and cool periods over the past 500 years (Fig. 2). The average period of warming/cooling oscillations over the past 500 years is 27 years, remarkably similar to the period of alternation between warm and cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
oscillating_climate2
Figure 2. Paleotemperatures derived from oxygen isotope measurements of the GISP2 Greenland ice core. Red peaks are times of warming and blue are times of cooling. The average time period for each climatic oscillation is 27 years.
During the past century, two episodes of global warming and two of global cooling have occurred (Fig. 3), all of which can be tied to glacial oscillations, oceanic temperature changes, atmospheric temperature changes, and solar variation.
oscillating_climate3
Figure 3. Coincidence of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), global temperature, and glacier fluctuations in the North Cascades. Glaciers advanced during the 1880–1915 cool period when the PDO was cool, then when the PDO switched to its warm mode, global temperatures warmed, and glaciers retreated from ~1915–1945. The PDO changed from warm to cool ~1945–1977, global temperatures cooled and glaciers advanced once again. In 1977, the PDO switched from cool to warm mode, global temperatures warmed, and glaciers retreated. In 1999, the PDO changed back to its cool mode and global cooling began.
What we can learn from this geologic climate changes is that the past is indeed the key to the future. In 1999, the year after the warmest year of recent times, I projected the climate pattern from the past century and past 500 years into the future and predicted that we would be due for 25–30 years of global cooling beginning about 2000. The PDO changed from its warm to cool mode in 1999 and since then we have had global cooling, quite moderate to flat (interrupted by two warm El Ninos) and intensifying since 2007.
oscillating_climate4
Figure 4. Projection of climate changes of the last century and past 500 years into the future. The black curve is temperature variation from 1900 to 2009; the red line is the IPCC projected warming from the IPCC website in 2000; the blue curves are several possible projections of climate change to 2040+ based on past global cooling periods (1945-1977; 1880 to 1915; and 1790 to 1820). The lack of sun spots during the past solar cycle has surpassed all records since the Dalton Minimum and some solar physicists have suggested we may be headed for a Dalton or Maunder type mimimum with severe cooling.
Abstract of paper presented to Geological Society of America, Oct. 19, 2009
THE ROLE OF THE OCEANS AND THE SUN IN LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HISTORIC GLACIAL AND CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
EASTERBROOK, Don J., Dept. of Geology, Western Washington Univ, Bellingham, WA 98225, don.easterbrook [ -at -] wwu.edu
Lidar imagery of the southern part of the Fraser Lowland in WA reveals previously unknown, multiple, latest Pleistocene (Sumas Stade) end moraines overlying Everson glaciomarine drift (gmd). Multiple marine shorelines extend from about 540’ to about 100’above present sea level and are truncated by two of the oldest Sumas end moraines. These moraines are younger than the underlying Everson gmd, which is well dated at 11,700 14C yrs. B.P., and older than 11,400 14C yrs. B.P. basal bog dates behind the moraines. Recession of the ice from the outermost moraines was followed by building of at least nine end moraines, some of which clearly represent glacial readvances. Basal bog dates from a kettle in outwash from the youngest Sumas moraine has been dated at 10,250 14C yrs. B.P.
Isotope data from Greenland ice cores and historic atmospheric and oceanic temperature records show a consistent pattern of fluctuating 25-30–year warm and cool periods over the past 500 years. During the past century, five of these climate fluctuations can be tied to glacial oscillations, oceanic temperature changes, atmospheric temperature changes, and solar variation.
The question is—what drives these oscillations? The older fluctuations can be linked to changes in 14C and 10Be isotope production rates in the upper atmosphere, suggesting variation in cosmogenic radiation. Historic climatic and oceanic temperature fluctuations are associated with solar variations. The excellent correlation of glacial, climatic, oceanic, and solar variation strongly suggests cause and effect relationships. Past patterns of these variations allow projection into the future.
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What agood idea!!!
http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=8305
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The revolution within Islam.
One of the problem with Islam is that debate and counter-opinion are actively discouraged. Compare with Buddhism where debate is one of the foundational premises.
This is possibly cultural, but considering the wide coverage of Islam across the globe and the persistence of an obvious lack of internal debate on religious interpretations and principles, it appears the feature is endemic to Islam itself.
I asked Julie's past supervisor at a seminar he was giving, what about the movement for change from within Islam? I asked this because I knew of a famous gathering of international Islamic notaries somewhere in the Eremites region, where they denounced the philosophical basis of violent extremist Islamic groups.
This was on top of the recent recant from one of the foundational thinkers of violent jihad, who had been in goal in Egypt ever since the attack on Parliament there many years ago. He had completely revised his opinion on violence in Islam, and put out some statement to that extent, which was supposed to have cut significant authority from under Al Qaeda.
His response to me was that the political leaders of all Islamic nations had showed complete abnegation in taking up their responsibility of denouncing this Islamist movement. He felt that no impulse for change was ever going to come from Islamic countries.
Well, I have to agree about politicians. Even in the midst of Pakistan's war against the Taliban, even in the midst of continued popular radio, TV and demonstrations' accusations that 'no Muslim would ever do such things to another Muslim' and thus the perpetrators of these daily suicide killings is the axis of evil: India-Israel-US - still no political leader has stood up and called a spade a spade. That the perpetrators are the Taliban... it remains implied.
Some columnists are calling Pakistan the State of Denial. Some can see painfully clearly, yet one gets the feeling their voices are thin.
Two things have recently happened to change this.
At a major Muslim gathering with India, the head-honchos of Islam in India spoke out in no uncertain terms that this violent extremism is anti-Islam, against the teachings and the religion. (Mind you, if you have read the Koran, these claims are a bit of a long bow for some of us, but gratefully acknowledged nonetheless.)
Now the same has happened in Pakistan:
RAIWIND: Inayatullah Khan sits on a dusty rug and prepares to pray at Pakistan's biggest religious gathering of 400,000 Muslims, cursing the Taliban for their ‘unholy crusade’ against humanity.
Khan travelled all the way from the tribal region of South Waziristan to take part in the four-day event, one of the world's largest Islamic meetings, in Raiwind on the outskirts of Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore.
A resident of Kanigurram, a former Taliban hub that the military says it has captured during its ongoing five-week offensive in the northwest, Khan, 50, accused the Taliban of straying from the path of God and butchering Muslims.
‘They call those who refuse to follow their brand of Islam infidels, not knowing they are inviting the wrath of Allah the almighty by killing Muslims, which I call an unholy crusade,’ Khan said.
‘The Taliban are enemies of Islam and humanity and advance only an American and Indian agenda -- to destabilise Pakistan,’ said Farhan Hamad Khan, who had come from Dera Ismail Khan, where many other refugees are also living.
Who knows, perhaps the change is finally so obviously overdue that some brave souls have risked their lives to speak - I expect they will soon lose those lives for that however. The Taliban take close notice of any dissent.
It should always be remembered that Islam has never been a cohesive unit. Aside from Shia and Sunni, there have been endless splits and schisms, factions and disagreements. Even the Black Stone of Mecca itself was once stolen by a rival group, who actually had a very mystical side to them.
So will we see a change in Islam? I expect there will be - it's human nature, and the way of the weird for fashions to pass. But debate within Islam ... hmmm...
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Julie has called me to task on this - apparently Islam does in fact have a very healthy tradition of debate and questioning. That apparently is not in dispute. The current situation is seen differently.
There are issues around authority and leadership, to say nothing of Wahhabism.
I will need to put this to some experts I come across in my daily travels.
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Writing a book? Now that is a substantial approach. I assume you will have studied and covered the arguments from this famous article now a book:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/3491861.html
Writing a book is great fun, this is instead of wasting my time on computer games. I am a self appointed detective, ;D
Now there is a huge mass of info out there and I happens to have a vein to find the (in my eyes) most relevant parts in this case.
NOW, one thing that shoot beside the target is that WHEN one start to question the official report SOMEONE want you to present what really happened.
THIS is as if you were accused to have been murdered Bill Jones (I have borrowed this idea from David Griffin). OK so you and your lawyer try to convince the jury (the public) that you did not do it. Perhaps you had a perfect alibi - As: I could not have been doing it because I was drinking tea with my aunt. And your aunt confirms this and other witnesses tells that they saw you entering or leaving the place of your aunt when Bill Jones were murdered.
Ok, very well says the judge, but then WHO killed Bill Jones? If you not can tell us that we cannot set you free. That is what it is all about. I can easily prove that most of what is said happened 9/11 2001 in the US, did not happened the way mainstream media has said it happened. But noone can tell WHAT happened.
No airplanes, no hijackers, no cell phone calls from hijacked planes as first reported, No active NORAD , a lot of demolitions of buildings, a lot of changed stories, a fast removal of debris, and hundreds of more details that even make a foreigner to see this as the poorest cover up operation in the US intelligence history.
Please note that in Sweden people do know very very little about the 9/11 Truth movement.
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1940 :o ... ya know ... it's no wonder why there are so many health problems. These "industries" have been committing a slow and methodical mass murder for 70 years. I can't believe that All chemicals used in All products aren't tested yearly. This is unconscionable!
And they're worried about a little THC ... give me a break! ::)
"The chemical was first marketed in the 1940s as a plastic component and by the 1960s was used in almost all can linings to extend shelf life. Now it is one of the highest-volume chemicals in the world; at least 7 billion pounds are produced annually for use in countless products, including dental sealants, PVC water pipes, medical equipment, consumer electronics, and even cash-register receipts."
Concern Over Canned Foods (http://www.walletpop.com/consumer-reports/insurance/article/concern-over-canned-foods/770756?icid=main|main|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fconsumer-reports%2Finsurance%2Farticle%2Fconcern-over-canned-foods%2F770756)
"A congressional subcommittee determined in 2009 that the agency relied too heavily on studies sponsored by the American Plastics Council. BPA, a building block of plastics, is a component of epoxy resin used in cans and packaging. "The FDA's reliance on industry studies in determining BPA's safety must be re-evaluated in light of clear signs industry is willing to mislead the American people on this public-health issue," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Bills are pending in Congress that would ban the use of BPA in all food and beverage containers."
Money, money, money .... money ...
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Julie has met a man she really likes at the uni - he's an academic in Pakistan-India relations. She wants me to meet him, as she feels he is such a gentle and intelligent man.
Anyway, he comes from Peshawar. He wants to go home at Christmas to visit his family. They have told him he must stay away, but he is going anyway.
PESHAWAR: Doctors and nurses battle round the clock to save lives in Pakistan’s war against the Taliban, threatened with death and struggling to treat horrific injuries at a colonial-era hospital.
‘We’re under severe psychological pressure. How long will we get bodies of men, women and children, severed limbs, severed heads?’ said Sajida Nasreen, catching her breath on duty at the main hospital in the northwest city of Peshawar.
‘A dead 11-year-old was brought in, drenched in blood but his shoes shining with polish. His father came, lifted the child onto his lap, kissed him and said: ‘I sent you to school, not to die’.
‘For the first time in my career, I wept bitterly,’ said the nurse, who at 53 thought she had seen everything until Al-Qaeda-linked attacks got worse and worse, killing 2,540 people in Pakistan over 29 months.
‘Those responsible should see the situation in the hospital to understand what these blasts do,’ she added.
Lady Reading Hospital, or LRH as it is known among the 2.5 million residents of Peshawar, was founded in 1924 when Lord Reading was viceroy of India and is now one of Pakistan’s largest teaching hospitals.
On a visit to the area, his wife fell off a horse and suffered an injury, only to find proper treatment was unavailable locally. In England, she collected donations from British philanthropists and set up a hospital that ultimately took her name.
But the romance of its beginnings has vanished under the carnage witnessed in Peshawar and the surrounding North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where Taliban bombings and military offensives have been concentrated.
‘We have dealt with 49 blasts... 2,200 injured and 576 bodies in bombings,’ Doctor Ataullah Arif, surgeon in charge of the emergency ward, told AFP.
Tactics are changing. Bombings of crowded markets are beginning to maximise civilian casualties. Attacks on the army, police and paramilitary to avenge the government’s alliance in the US-led ‘war on terror’ are becoming more brazen.
‘Victims are pouring in almost daily now. We start our day with prayers that may Allah spare us from tragedy,’ said Arif.
‘We have been working under severe stress over the past two months. I can’t explain the situation in words.
‘Very often there are bodies and blood, as rows of stretchers start flowing amid shouts and screams,’ he said.
The 1,543 beds are woefully inadequate and the hospital is struggling to overcome dire shortages to build a 500-bed emergency ward.
‘In an emergency, sometimes we put two wounded on one bed and people with lesser injuries are treated on the floor or in wheelchairs,’ said Arif.
There are fears that a suicide bomber could strike the hospital, a soft target.
There are eight gates into the 30-acre compound guarded by just seven policemen, Arif says.
‘Our staff are constantly in danger. They are under severe threat from militants.We have received calls from militants, warning the staff ‘you are treating those who are our target. We will not spare you.’’
LRH chief executive, Doctor Abdul Hameed Afridi, says shortage of space is so acute that the basement was converted into a mortuary last year.
‘We face great difficulty in coping with the situation. We badly need funds, equipment and trained staff. In such a big hospital, we have just one CT scan machine and no MRI facility,’ said Afridi.
‘We need life saving drugs. LRH bears the pressure not only from NWFP but from Afghanistan. When there is a big disaster in Afghanistan casualties are also sent to Peshawar,’ he said.
Aged 25, Bibi Zakia is one of LRH’s younger nurses but has grown old quickly in the face of horror.
‘It is a human crisis. It’s a huge burden. We have to treat not only the victims, but also take care of their relatives,’ she said.
‘We are tired but I’m proud to be a nurse and I think I’m better than millions of others because I’m serving humanity.’But even hardened nurses sometimes find it difficult to cope with the magnitude of the suffering.
One particular occasion was a car bomb on October 28 that killed 118 people in Peshawar’s Meena market, frequented by women and children, in the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan for two years.
‘I remember two charred bodies of children. They looked like roast chickens. It was horrible. I couldn’t control myself. Pain and anguish filled my body and I screamed and I shouted: what was their crime?’
[dawn.com]
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Grim reaper's role in climate change denial
GEORGE MONBIOT
November 28, 2009
There is no point in denying it: we're losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease. It exists in a sphere that cannot be reached by evidence or reasoned argument; any attempt to draw attention to scientific findings is greeted with furious invective. This sphere is expanding with astonishing speed.
A survey last month by the Pew Research Centre suggests that the proportion of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the world has been warming over the past few decades has fallen from 71 per cent to 57 per cent in just 18 months.
Another survey, conducted in January by Rasmussen Reports, suggests that, due to a sharp rise since 2006, US voters who believe global warming has natural causes (44 per cent) outnumber those who believe it is the result of human action (41 per cent).
A study by the website Desmogblog shows that the number of internet pages proposing that man-made global warming is a hoax or a lie more than doubled last year. The Science Museum in London's Prove it! exhibition asks online readers to endorse or reject a statement that they've seen the evidence and want governments to take action. By early this month, 1006 people had endorsed it and 6110 had rejected it.
On Amazon.co.uk, books championing climate change denial are ranked at 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 in the global warming category. Never mind that they've been torn to shreds by scientists and reviewers, they are beating the scientific books by miles. What is going on?
It certainly doesn't reflect the state of the science, which has hardened dramatically over the past two years. If you don't believe me, open any recent edition of Science or Nature or any peer-reviewed journal specialising in atmospheric or environmental science. Go on, try it.
The debate about global warming that is raging on the internet and in the right-wing press does not reflect any such debate in the scientific journals.
An American scientist I know suggests that these books and websites cater to a new literary market: people with room-temperature IQs. He didn't say whether he meant Fahrenheit or Centigrade. But this can't be the whole story. Plenty of intelligent people have also declared themselves sceptics.
One such is the critic Clive James. You could accuse him of purveying trite received wisdom, but not of being dumb. On BBC Radio 4 he delivered an essay about the importance of scepticism, during which he maintained that ''the number of scientists who voice scepticism [about climate change] has lately been increasing''.
He presented no evidence to support this statement and, as far as I can tell, none exists. But he used this contention to argue that ''either side might well be right, but I think that if you have a division on that scale, you can't call it a consensus. Nobody can meaningfully say that the science is in.''
Had he bothered to take a look at the quality of the evidence on either side of this media debate, and the nature of the opposing armies - climate scientists on one side, right-wing bloggers on the other - he, too, might have realised that the science is in. In, at any rate, to the extent that science can ever be, which is to say that the evidence for man-made global warming is as strong as the evidence for Darwinian evolution, or for the link between smoking and lung cancer.
I am constantly struck by the way in which people like James, who proclaim themselves sceptics, will believe any old claptrap that suits their views. Their position was perfectly summarised by a supporter of Ian Plimer - author of a marvellous concatenation of gibberish called Heaven and Earth - commenting on a recent article in the Spectator magazine: ''Whether Plimer is a charlatan or not, he speaks for many of us.''
These people aren't sceptics; they're suckers.
Such beliefs seem to be strongly influenced by age. The Pew report found that people over 65 are much more likely than the rest of the population to deny that there is solid evidence that the planet is warming, that it's caused by humans, or that it's a serious problem. This chimes with my own experience. Almost all my fiercest arguments over climate change, both in print and in person, have been with people in their 60s or 70s. Why might this be?
There are some obvious answers: they won't be around to see the results; they were brought up in a period of technological optimism; they feel entitled, having worked all their lives, to fly or cruise to wherever they wish. But there might also be a less intuitive reason, which shines a light into a fascinating corner of human psychology.
In 1973 the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker proposed that the fear of death drives us to protect ourselves with ''vital lies'' or ''the armour of character''. We defend ourselves from the ultimate terror by engaging in immortality projects, which boost our self-esteem and grant us meaning that extends beyond death.
More than 300 studies conducted in 15 countries appear to confirm Becker's thesis. When people are confronted with images or words or questions that remind them of death they respond by shoring up their world view, rejecting people and ideas that threaten it, and increasing their striving for self-esteem.
One of the most arresting findings is that immortality projects can bring death closer. In seeking to defend the symbolic, heroic self that we create to suppress thoughts of death, we might expose the physical self to greater danger. For example, researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that people who reported that driving boosted their self-esteem drove faster and took greater risks after they had been exposed to reminders of death.
A recent paper by the biologist Janis L. Dickinson, published in the journal Ecology and Society, proposes that constant news and discussion about global warming makes it difficult to repress thoughts of death, and that people might respond to the terrifying prospect of climate breakdown in ways that strengthen their character armour but diminish our chances of survival.
There is already experimental evidence that some people respond to reminders of death by increasing consumption. Dickinson proposes that growing evidence of climate change might boost this tendency, as well as raising antagonism towards scientists and environmentalists. Our message, after all, presents a lethal threat to the central immortality project of Western society: perpetual economic growth, supported by an ideology of entitlement and exceptionalism.
If Dickinson is correct, is it fanciful to suppose that those who are closer to the end of their lives might react more strongly against reminders of death? I haven't been able to find any experiments testing this proposition, but it is surely worth investigating. And could it be that the rapid growth of climate change denial over the past two years is actually a response to the hardening of scientific evidence? If so, how the hell do we confront it?
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Heh,
one of the most "prominent" professors regarding climate change in Sweden "that know how and that", he have recently bought a house approximately next 400 feet next to our house.
I have already attended a lecture that he has held and I found out that he perhaps has too much focus on temperatures and CO2 levels while I would lend more focus to extreme weather occurrences’.
Perhaps I bump in on our professor during a walk some day. ;D
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Jahn, what struck me as odd at the time was this:
The skies were flight-free for several days following 9/11, and yet, the US is supposed to have flown out of the country Mrs. Bin Laden and her family during that time, or sanctioned her exit, making a special allowance for the flight. If they had a belief in him being the leader of this event, it seems highly likely they would have somehow hung onto her. Instead, the feeling conveyed was that they protected her.
Likewise, if he was the leader of the event, why would he have acted when she was in the country? Doesn't seem prudent.
But who knows, perhaps all of this is myth.
If I hasn't said it before - Forget Bin Ladin and Al-Queda as responsible for the attacks.
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Well you are still in a minority view there Jahn. And I haven't seen anything yet that has convinced me against the official version. I admit I haven't spent much time on it as it doesn't really interest me that much - I was far more fascinated by the historical symbolism.
So far every alternate view argument, text, video whatever has put me off with it's lack of substantial rigour, but more by the blatant emotionalism. Especially those videos we posted here some time ago - I couldn't bear to even watch them through, they were so obviously a slick snake-oil job, totally devoid of balance and counter argument.
Every item I have examined that has popped into my radar, I have found perfectly logical explanations for from the official majority view. The 'no-planes' theory I even found is so marginal that it is banned from most 9/11 conspiracy forums, with actual violent abuse from many of the conspiracists. I gather they feel the theory is so absurd that it devalues their entire movement - including that 9/11 truth movement you spoke of.
But this whole scene is riven by factions, as many groups have very different agendas. The victims families group are after specific answers they feel haven't been effectively addressed or totally ignored. Then there are followers of every imaginable variation, who often see each other as mad.
I do know from some academic Historians who have studied the 9/11 Commission Report, that they are extremely impressed with it. I haven't read it myself, but they tell me there is some amazing stuff in it that many people do not commonly know. It has some highly damming conclusions that the government has totally ignored.
The one overall opinion I have gained from my small amount of research, is that this event could do with a comprehensive and public commission, just like the recent one for Princes Diana, where every conspiracy accusation no matter how ludicrous or small is examined and assessed.
It does seem there are many inconclusive answers and many unanswered questions. I know that will never quell the conspiracy debate, because such a phenomenon has multiple causes, and 'official' assessment, no matter how thorough, will always be suspect in many people's minds.
The one issue which does still have even official in-conclusion is whether this was directed by Bin Laden himself. I see that the first tapes stated he had nothing to do with it, but then subsequent tapes gradually shifted to admission of being the initiator. The Muslim world still refuses to admit the authenticity of these tapes, but most western experts think they are genuine. Why one should believe one tape and not another is beyond me, as is why he should deny then admit his involvement.
I also can't believe those who see this as a CIA job - the level of deception would have to be on such a scale, that whistle-blowers would pour out of the cracks. Then there are those who think the Government 'let it happen'. It goes on and on.
Like with Princess Di, I really don't care that much. We know the anthrax was an inside job by some idiot scientist, as was the Samjhauta Express train bomb between India and Pakistan in 2007, so these things do happen.
The whole issue of 9/11 does seem to beg a new thorough public commission to address all these questions, but will it change anything?
For me, it's chasing shadows.
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Just to add - I heard an interview with a very thorough investigator of inter-government spy and intrigue cases. He followed many cases into the murky blackness. He said that this area, where Governments intrigue against each other or themselves, is one area where the further you dig, the muddier it gets - there never is any clarity resolution.
It's mud all the way down.
But one thing is for sure - the roses are blooming outside my window right now.
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But one thing is for sure - the roses are blooming outside my window right now.
And lotuses always rise above the mud :)
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It's all a bit like religion.....pick a god any god....now kill everyone who doesn't
agree with your god....it's all about ego.....and ignorance....the need to justify
the madness......god made me do it....when the penny drops there will be a
few surprises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2INIOXe_WI&feature=player_embedded
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Globalist minion Al Gore and the United Nations climate change shysters led by Phil Jones are in trouble. Last week hackers uncovered a pile of email and documents revealing what many of us already knew — the climate change agenda is based not only on easily debunked junk science, but outright lies and deception.
In the wake of the damning revelations exposed by these anonymous hackers, the climate change snake oil salesmen Gore and his complaisant entourage of now discredited scientists are in full retreat. Even the corporate media — guilty of peddling the fabrication of man-made climate change for years with the best propaganda money can buy — are desperately scrambling to put the best spin possible on the emerging travesty
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The heightened awareness of the IPCC's functioning seems precisely what now plagues the U.N.'s global warming frontman. So it's not surprising that, for all his insistence that the group's methods are spotless, he seems eager to change the subject from science. What he has chosen to talk about instead is instructive. It seems what most concerns Mr. Pachauri now is not climatology, or glaciology, or oceanography—but the way we live. "Today we have reached the point where consumption and people's desire to consume has grown out of proportion," he told the Observer, also on Sunday. "The reality is that our lifestyles are unsustainable."
Mr. Pachauri's actions speak even louder than his words. Last month, he branded the Indian environment minister "arrogant" after his office released a study that called into question whether climate-change is causing abnormal shrinkage of Himalayan glaciers. The IPCC's line is that Himalayan glaciers could be reduced by 80% or disappear entirely by 2035—but for this factoid, it cites no scientists, only the activist group, World Wildlife Fund. Now, the meteorologist and expert IPCC reviewer Madhav Khandekar says on Roger Pielke Sr.'s blog that the 2035 date may have been derived from a typo, based on a 1996 paper on snow and ice edited by V.M. Kotlyakov, which estimates the glaciers could be severely depleted or gone by 2350.
Mr. Pachauri was not available for comment as of press time, but on his personal Website last week he made clear that the science, for him, comes second. Conceding that Copenhagen was "clearly not making much headway," he advocated a focus on "the larger problem of unsustainable development, of which climate change is at best a symptom."
In other words, if Mr. Pachauri is sanguine about the undermining of the IPCC's scientific methods, it's because his chief concern isn't the science at all. Rather, to judge by his recent public statements, he is more focused on an ideological economic agenda in which climate change is little more than a useful tool. Given the cover-ups exposed by the leaked emails, we'll take Mr. Pachauri's remarks as a welcome instance of full and voluntary disclosure.
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A case of cold feet...
Gore cancels on Copenhagen lecture – leaves ticketholders in a lurch
3 12 2009
It seems the uncertainty about Copenhagen is growing. When Al baby pulls the plug, you know it’s hosed.
From Berlingske: Al Gore cancels lecture during COP15
Former U.S. vice president has canceled his event, more than 3,000 Danes have purchased a ticket.
Looks like they will get a refund though. Might be worth more as a collectors item in ten years though.
I wonder how many people have shelled out $1200 to shake Al’s hand? Maybe not enough and he couldn’t cover the expenses for his private jet?
From the Washington Post:
“Have you ever shaken hands with an American vice president? If not, now is your chance. Meet Al Gore in Copenhagen during the UN Climate Change Conference,” notes the Danish tourism commission, which is helping Mr. Gore promote “Our Choice,” his newest book about global warming in all its alarming modalities.
“Tickets are available in different price ranges for the event. If you want it all, you can purchase a VIP ticket, where you get a chance to shake hands with Al Gore, get a copy of Our Choice and have your picture taken with him. The VIP event costs DKK 5,999 and includes drinks and a light snack.”
Wait, what? How much is that in American dollars? The currency conversion says it all, too: 5,999 Danish kroners is equivalent to $1,209.
“If you do not want to spend that much money, but still want to hear Al Gore speak about his latest book about climate challenges, you can purchase general tickets, ranging in price from DKK 199-1,499 depending on where in the room you want to sit,” the practical Danes advise. “There will be large screens, so that everyone will get a good view.”
Yah, such a deal.
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I have just been listening to an interview on this whole area.
There is no certainty the release of documents from IPCC is from hackers. It may well be a disgruntled employee who was not happy with IPCC's response to FOI requests.
Anyway the comment from some who are closely involved, is that what has been revealed is not something that can be easily swept under the carpet with references to 'out of context'. However nothing that has been revealed from these leaks changes the evidence of global warming - one only has to look at the renewed ocean rising data only just released, the glacier melting (which has been disputed by India's own research, about which there is considerable scepticism in the scientific community), and the melting ice-caps.
Where the real debate is firing, is not on the basis of global warming, but on the economics. I have just read that even Dr Hansen is saying it would be best if nothing came of Copenhagen. He along with many others are begining to speak up that the whole idea of a 'trading' mechanism is going to be too cumbersome and insufficient.
Also open to far too many rorts from the rich nations and the big polluters. I have also read an interesting article about how the rich nations are ripping off the poor in this whole Climate Talk sequence of conventions.
One of the problems is that the economics is based on the concept of 'carbon pollution', but that the science behind this, although stated at 90% sure, and you could knock a bit off that for safety - say 80%, is still not fully comprehensive. So we may be altering the economics on the basis of inaccurate science.
My own view is that to sit and do nothing is stupidity.
I feel that the problem has occurred because we are in an inbetween state. For most people, the impact of earth changes hasn't hit hard enough. What has happened is too easily assumed as within historic variation.
So until it really slams into us, I don't expect much to change.
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This was gearing up to be a bllion dollar industry...when fame and fortune are
on offer anything can happen....tweak...tweak....who let that canary in here?
We reported on Saturday that among the most revealing of the "hacked" e-mails released last week was one dated November 1999, in which CRU chief P.D. Jones wrote these words to Hockey-Stick-Team leaders Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley, and Malcolm Hughes:
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Predictably, the suggestion of a climate-related data-adjusting "trick" being employed by such alarmist bellwethers ten years ago instantly raised more than a few eyebrows. And with similar alacrity, the Big Green Scare Machine shifted into CYA gear.
Almost immediately after the news hit on Friday, Jones told Investigative Magazine’s TGIF Edition that he "had no idea" what he might have meant by the words "hide the decline" a decade prior:
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It was curious for me to see Jahn's comment about his neighbour who was more focused on the CO2 levels, while Jahn was more focused on the climate.
For myself, the issue is not the CO2 levels - I really don't have much of an idea what they are talking about, although I get the gist of it. As for climate, I look at the extreme weather patterns, and even there I would not be able to say these are not more than extremes within long term global patterns. It does look odd, but then there have been many odd weather patterns even in recorded history.
The items that have caused my concern are the scientific studies of ocean temperature, sea levels, glaciers, polar ice-caps and so forth. But even with these, I am guided by the findings of the scientific community. As distinct from the sceptics community, I don't hold scientists in disdain.
The IPCC has from my observations always been ultra-conservative in their reports. They have to be because they are scrutinised and influenced by very high powered bodies - the IPCC has a political arena to report into. The scientific reports from peer-reviewed journals are giving an image far worse than what comes out of the IPCC. Study after study, with vast amounts of data, are painting a picture of sheer terror.
I recently read of Clive Hamilton in Australia, who attended a conference in Oxford on trying to imagine a world 4 degrees hotter. He said when away from the 'expert's forum', when relaxed and personal, these scientists told stories of not being able to sleep at night for the frightening future that is moving swiftly towards us.
The truth in all this is that thousands of people highly trained in measuring and analysing the indices of global changes, are to a person reporting that something of unbelievable consequences is accelerating on this planet. I recently heard a scientist claim that of all the sceptics he has seen, not a single one is involved in actual data collection/analysis - they are all arm-chair experts.
If these thousands of people deeply involved are even 10% sure, we would have a serious situation. I don't expect any calamity to befall my house - possibly put the risk at .01%, and yet I pay hundreds of dollars in house and contents insurance every year. But they are claiming 100% certainty of global warming, and 90% certainty of human/CO2 causality.
As George Monbiot says, who was personally rocked by the 'hacked' documents recently - don't take your advice from internet sites, open any issue of a peer-reviewed scientific journal if you wnat to know what is happening.
Anyway, here is a segment for a recent article from George, for your enjoyment:
But do these revelations justify the sceptics’ claims that this is “the final nail in the coffin” of global warming theory?(8,9) Not at all. They damage the credibility of three or four scientists. They raise questions about the integrity of one or perhaps two out of several hundred lines of evidence. To bury manmade climate change, a far wider conspiracy would have to be revealed. Luckily for the sceptics, and to my intense disappointment, I have now been passed the damning email which confirms that the entire science of global warming is indeed a scam. Had I known that it was this easy to rig the evidence, I wouldn’t have wasted years of my life promoting a bogus discipline. In the interests of open discourse, I feel obliged to reproduce it here.
“From: ernst.kattweizel@redcar.ac.uk
Sent: 29th October 2009
To: The Knights Carbonic
Gentlemen, the culmination of our great plan approaches fast. What the Master called “the ordering of men’s affairs by a transcendent world state, ordained by God and answerable to no man”, which we now know as Communist World Government, advances towards its climax at Copenhagen. For 185 years since the Master, known to the laity as Joseph Fourier, launched his scheme for world domination, the entire physical science community has been working towards this moment.
The early phases of the plan worked magnificently. First the Master’s initial thesis - that the release of infrared radiation is delayed by the atmosphere - had to be accepted by the scientific establishment. I will not bother you with details of the gold paid, the threats made and the blood spilt to achieve this end. But the result was the elimination of the naysayers and the disgrace or incarceration of the Master’s rivals. Within 35 years the 3rd Warden of the Grand Temple of the Knights Carbonic (our revered prophet John Tyndall) was able to “demonstrate” the Master’s thesis. Our control of physical science was by then so tight that no major objections were sustained.
More resistence was encountered (and swiftly despatched) when we sought to install the 6th Warden (Svante Arrhenius) first as professor of physics at Stockholm University, then as rector. From this position he was able to project the Master’s second grand law - that the infrared radiation trapped in a planet’s atmosphere increases in line with the quantity of carbon dioxide the atmosphere contains. He and his followers (led by the Junior Warden Max Planck) were then able to adapt the entire canon of physical and chemical science to sustain the second law.
Then began the most hazardous task of all: our attempt to control the instrumental record. Securing the consent of the scientific establishment was a simple matter. But thermometers had by then become widely available, and amateur meteorologists were making their own readings. We needed to show a steady rise as industrialisation proceeded, but some of these unfortunates had other ideas. The global co-option of police and coroners required unprecedented resources, but so far we have been able to cover our tracks.
The over-enthusiasm of certain of the Knights Carbonic in 1998 was most regrettable. The high reading in that year has proved impossibly costly to sustain. Those of our enemies who have yet to be silenced maintain that the lower temperatures after that date provide evidence of global cooling, even though we have ensured that eight of the ten warmest years since 1850 have occurred since 2001(10). From now on we will engineer a smoother progression.
Our co-option of the physical world has been just as successful. The thinning of the Arctic ice cap was a masterstroke. The ring of secret nuclear power stations around the Arctic Circle, attached to giant immersion heaters, remains undetected, as do the space-based lasers dissolving the world’s glaciers.
Altering the migratory and reproductive patterns of the world’s wildlife has proved more challenging. Though we have now asserted control over the world’s biologists, there is no accounting for the unauthorised observations of farmers, gardeners, bird-watchers and other troublemakers. We have therefore been forced to drive migrating birds, fish and insects into higher latitudes, and to release several million tonnes of plant pheromones every year to accelerate flowering and fruiting. None of this is cheap, and ever more public money, secretly diverted from national accounts by compliant governments, is required to sustain it.
The co-operation of these governments requires unflagging effort. The capture of George W. Bush, a late convert to the cause of Communist World Government, was made possible only by the threatened release of footage filmed by a knight at Yale, showing the future president engaged in coitus with a Ford Mustang. Most ostensibly-capitalist governments remain apprised of where their real interests lie, though I note with disappointment that we have so far failed to eliminate Vaclav Klaus. Through the offices of compliant states, the Master’s third grand law has been accepted: world government will be established under the guise of controlling manmade emissions of greenhouse gases.
Keeping the scientific community in line remains a challenge. The national academies are becoming ever more querulous and greedy, and require higher pay-offs each year. The inexplicable events of the past month, in which the windows of all the leading scientific institutions were broken and a horse’s head turned up in James Hansen’s bed, appear to have staved off the immediate crisis, but for how much longer can we maintain the consensus?
Knights Carbonic, now that the hour of our triumph is at hand, I urge you all to redouble your efforts. In the name of the Master, go forth and terrify.
Professor Ernst Kattweizel, University of Redcar. 21st Grand Warden of the Temple of the Knights Carbonic.”
This is the kind of conspiracy the deniers need to reveal to show that manmade climate change is a con. The hacked emails are a hard knock, but the science of global warming withstands much more than that.
www.monbiot.com
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/11/23/the-knights-carbonic/
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But the economics is now the big issue - the problem has been accepted, but the solution is now in high debate.
thus I was interested to note that just recently a scientist resigned from Australia's CSIRO (the government science body) claiming inteference in his work. He wanted to publish an article claiming the 'cap and trade' approach to emissions was wrong. But this was what the Australian government is pursuing. So as his paper was deemed 'political' they censored it (until the Greens and some others in Fed parliament found out).
Thus I was curious to see Dr Hansen claiming the same thing:
A leading scientist acclaimed as the grandfather of global warming has denounced the Copenhagen summit on climate change next week as a farce.
James Hansen, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Insitute for Space Studies, told The Times that he planned to boycott the UN conference because it was seeking a counter-productive agreement to limit emissions through a “cap and trade” system.
“They are selling indulgences there. The developed nations want to continue basically business as usual so they are expected to purchase indulgences to give some small amount of money to developing countries. They do that in the form of offsets and adaptation funds.” he said...
...He decries the cap and trade system envisaged by governments trying to “seal the deal” at Copenhagen as ineffective in stemming carbon emissions. Under such systems, governments set limits on overall emissions and polluters trade quotas among themselves.
“The fundamental problem is that fossil fuels are the cheapest form of energy. As long as they are, they are going to be used,” he said. “It’s remarkable. They refuse to recognise and address the fundamental problem and the obvious solution.”
He dismisses government announcements of national targets for greenhouse gas emissions as promises that will not be kept, noting that even Japan missed its goals under the Kyoto Protocol. He said that it would be better for the summit to fail rather than reach the type of cap and trade-based system envisaged.
“If they sign on to anything like they are talking about then it’s definitely counter-productive. Any time you start down that path, it’s time wasted. We would do better taking a year time-out and figuring out a better path.”
Dr Hansen, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York, argued that the only effective way to control global warming was to institute an increasing “carbon tax”, not “cap and trade”.
“We are going to have to move beyond fossil fuels at some point. Why continue to stretch it out longer?” he said. “The only way we can do that is by putting a price on carbon emissions. The business community and the public need to understand that there will be a gradually increasing price on carbon emissions.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece
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as for global cooling
Climate sceptics get it wrong (http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2009/12/climate-sceptics-get-it-wrong-1.html)
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The comments beneath the article were interesting ...
from what I understand the concerne was over a logo.
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There are so many facets to this event so many players with
their own agendas....one thing in common is their willingness
to distort the facts to obtain their outcomes......I guess that's
the story of humanity....Trust me I'm a climatologist!!! ;D
From Their Own Mouths: Global Warming is a Fraud
"We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public's imagination... So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." - Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Climatology, lead author of many IPCC reports
"Unless we announce disasters no one will listen." - Sir John Houghton, first chairman of IPCC
"It doesn't matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true." - Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace
"We've got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy." - Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation
"No matter if the science of global warming is all phony... climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world." - Christine Stewart, fmr Canadian Minister of the Environment
"The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe." - emeritus professor Daniel Botkin
"We require a central organizing principle - one agreed to voluntarily. Minor shifts in policy, moderate improvement in laws and regulations, rhetoric offered in lieu of genuine change - these are all forms of appeasement, designed to satisfy the public’s desire to believe that sacrifice, struggle and a wrenching transformation of society will not be necessary." - Al Gore, Earth in the Balance
"Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsiblity to bring that about?" - Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme
"A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation." - Paul Ehrlich, Professor of Population Studies
"The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can't let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization, we have in the US. We have to stop these Third World countries right where they are." - Michael Oppenheimer, Environmental Defense Fund
"Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control." - Professor Maurice King
"Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class - involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing - are not sustainable." - Maurice Strong, Rio Earth Summit
"Complex technology of any sort is an assault on human dignity. It would be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy, because of what we might do with it." - Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
"The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet." - Jeremy Rifkin, Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
"Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun." - Prof Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University
"The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil." – Sir James Lovelock, BBC Interview
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It was curious for me to see Jahn's comment about his neighbour who was more focused on the CO2 levels, while Jahn was more focused on the climate.
Well, my neighbour is a professor and director at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research at our University. He and 21 other members of that centre will attend the meetings in Copenhagen.
http://www.liu.se/news-and-events/startpage?l=en&newsitem=96841 (http://www.liu.se/news-and-events/startpage?l=en&newsitem=96841)
(http://www.cspr.se/medarbetare-lista/1.69706/LINNER.jpg)
http://www.cspr.se/?l=en&sc=true (http://www.cspr.se/?l=en&sc=true)
The one and only lecture of his that I have attended was good, but not much news for me and I think that he was too focused on the CO2-level. Now that is understandable because his research area is Policy or Political issues related to the global warming. And then you talk in terms of CO2 pollution and regulations, trading rights to pollute and costs related to the CO2 emissions.
He (Björn-Ola Linnér) is really a nice guy and has promised to report from the climate conference in Copenhagen in our local newspaper. He got an award this week from the students as the best favorite coach for PhD students this year.
(http://www.liu.se/liu-nytt/arkiv/nyhetsarkiv/1.95403/1.95407/bjornola-220.jpg)
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This is very dramatic visual of global temperatures from 1880 to 2008:
http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/environment/changing-global-temperatures/20091202-k5vv.html
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A response to climate change sceptics from Monash University.
The full response to all sceptics' claims is here:
Responses to Questions & Objections on Climate Change (http://www-personal.buseco.monash.edu.au/~BParris/BPClimateChangeQ&As.html)
But if you just want the slim summary, then this is it. But actually this is very slim - there are so many good questions responded to by the primary source above:
University tackles sceptics' arguments
DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITOR
December 7, 2009
AS WORLD leaders gather in Copenhagen, efforts to undermine public confidence in the science of climate change have intensified.
Sceptics have recently gained traction by exaggerating uncertainties in the research, said Brett Parris, a research fellow at Monash University and World Vision Australia's chief economist.
''They have been working very hard to create an impression there is a raging debate among research scientists about whether humans are contributing to climate change,'' he said. ''But that is not the case.''
With the advice of scientists, Dr Parris, who trained as a geologist, has developed a 48-page document outlining scientific responses to questions and objections proposed by sceptics.
''Those continuing to deny the links between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are using specious arguments that have been repeatedly shown to be false, weak or irrelevant in the peer-reviewed scientific literature,'' he said.
The Herald has summarised some of his document's key points:
Climate change has happened in the past and what's happening now isn't outside the bounds of natural climate variability.
MOSTLY TRUE BUT IRRELEVANT
Sea levels were around 70 metres higher 45 million years ago, and 130 metres lower 21,000 years ago, for example, but this is no reason for inaction now. Most of the strong climate changes in the past were either local or regional. If global, they took many thousands of years to occur. There is no evidence of a global temperature rise of 5 degrees in a century, as could happen now.
It was warmer during medieval times when CO2 levels were lower.
PROBABLY FALSE BUT IRRELEVANT ANYWAY
It is possible temperatures in northern Europe between 800 and 1300 were slightly warmer than at present, but this appears to have been due to a local climatic effect in the north Atlantic Ocean, and cannot explain current warming.
Climate models are unreliable.
FALSE
Climate models are not perfect but they are based on sound science and have been able to replicate past observations to a good degree of accuracy and have anticipated effects such as global cooling from big volcanic eruptions.
There was a consensus among climate scientists in the 1970s that we would soon head into another Ice Age.
FALSE
This myth is repeated endlessly. A few research papers predicted cooling, but many more didn't and greenhouse warming dominated the scientific literature even then.
Global warming ended about 1998 and it's been cooling ever since.
FALSE
This is a case of cherrypicking. The years 1997 to 1998 saw a major temperature increase due to a strong El Nino, so if this is the starting point the years immediately after are, of course, relatively cooler. If 1997 or 1999 was chosen, it would show strong warming in the following years. What matters is the underlying warming trend over decades.
Warming is the sun's fault.
FALSE
Fluctuations in solar activity influence the world's climate but their effects have been taken into account and are not enough to explain observed changes.
Climate change is due to the effects of cosmic rays.
FALSE
It is possible that cosmic rays influence cloud cover, but the latest research suggests any effect is too small to play a significant role in climate change.
Lack of warming in the lower atmosphere proves anthropogenic global warming is a myth.
FALSE
There is no longer a serious discrepancy, as claimed in a 2007 paper, between predictions of climate models and observations of the troposphere.
Coming out of the Ice Ages, the changes in CO2 came after the warming began, so CO2 doesn't affect atmospheric temperatures.
HALF TRUE BUT FALSE CONCLUSION
At the end of the Ice Ages, variations in the Earth's orbit and the angle of the axis warmed the planet again, followed 200 to 2000 years later by rising CO2. The CO2 amplified the initial warming, making the periods longer and warmer than they would otherwise have been.
Antarctica is cooling, so that proves the global climate isn't warming.
FALSE
While parts of Antarctica seem to be cooling, the continent is warming, and even the localised cooling and sea-ice expansion is consistent with climate change theory.
We should wait until there is more evidence before reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
WE'VE ALREADY DONE THAT AND THE EVIDENCE IS IN
The physics of the warming potential of greenhouse gases was worked out more than a century ago. The world is rapidly approaching points at which high risks of dangerous climate change are no longer avoidable.
Full coverage of the Copenhagen summit at smh.com.au/environment
Original article (http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/university-tackles-sceptics-arguments-20091206-kcyy.html)
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British to review data on weather after scandal
PAOLA TOTARO HERALD CORRESPONDENT
December 7, 2009
LONDON: The British Meteorological Office is to undertake a three-year reanalysis of its temperature data and has asked 188 nations - including Australia - for permission to release raw weather data in the wake of the climate-change email scandal.
The decision comes in the wake of the theft - and publication on the internet - of thousands of emails and text files from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
The emails, many of them written by its director, Phil Jones, appeared to suggest that there had been attempts to stymie the public release of information on raw data. The university has announced an investigation and Professor Jones, who denies the claims as ''rubbish'', has stood down during the inquiry.
read full article: British to review data on weather after scandal (http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/british-to-review-data-on-weather-after-scandal-20091206-kcu5.html)
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THIS is worth a read....
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/revenge_of_the_computer_nerds_1.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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Money makes the world go round the world go round...
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009 14.09 GMT
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.
The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol’s principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.
The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as “a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks”.
A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called “the most vulnerable”;
• Weaken the UN’s role in handling climate finance;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.
Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.
“It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process,” said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.
Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: “This is only a draft but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is saying is needed.”
Hill continued: “It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks.”
The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they arrive next week.
Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.
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Afraid I can't take American Thinker seriously, as a propaganda arm of the rabid US Right. I will wait till the data is officially re-assessed and peer-reviewed. Meanwhile, I'll just look out the window and at my thermometer.
As for the 'Danish text' leak. I know this is just one of many drafts, but from what I have been reading, it is nothing new to the G77+China. There has been a concerted undermining by the EU, US, UK and Australia. It all began when the US wanted to join the camp on the basis that Kyoto would be dismantled - ie. no binding measures.
I expect this may be only the first of a series of destabilising revelations of the game being pushed through by the rich nations. They are not serious about action - they are into money-politics. The answer is simple: a carbon tax. But unfortunately that is politically impossible in any country.
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Sourced from #2 of the top ten (7) approved sites that we can trust....
Climate change: Minority report
Climategate does not just demonstrate the corruption of science and peer-review; it also demonstrates the incompetence of specialists who do not understand planetary ecology
By Peter Taylor
Al-Jazeera
December 8, 2009
Some climatologists believe current rises in temperatures and melting icebergs are part of of the Earth’s natural cycles, and not induced by man-made devices [EPA]
Concern over global warming has spawned such a highly charged and polarised political movement, that real science has become sidelined in favour of sound-bites and simple messages. The real science is not as ’settled’ as some politicians would have us believe.
There is a significant minority of climate scientists who look at the data and conclude that we are dealing with natural cycles that are peaking just as they have done on a regular basis over centuries.
These scientists are heavily outnumbered by the proliferation of computer specialists who have created their own virtual planet – people trained in maths and physics who may never have handled an ice-core, tree-ring apparatus, sediments or stalagmites and all of the proxy indicators of past temperature cycles.
In my view, the UN secretariat has marginalised their careful assessment and warnings about natural cycles in favour of alarming future projections generated by the computer model.
These real climate scientists know that the last major warm period was a 1,000 years ago when the Vikings grew crops in Greenland – their graves are still solid in the permafrost.
In between then and now, Europe and China experienced a Little Ice Age – with widespread famine.
Reading the fine print
There is so much spin that you have to read the small print of the UN reports where they admit to not understanding natural cycles and what drives them.
Behind the scenes they acknowledge cycles are at work and contribute to the warming and that it is only from the model that they derive the dominance of carbon dioxide.
But the model does not easily simulate the poorly understood cycles. Satellites do a better job and having spent three years studying the data I conclude global warming is real but at least 80 per cent natural cycle and 20 per cent human emissions.
My conclusions are supported by recent climate shifts that run counter to model predictions. From the data on cycles I could predict that after 2007, when Arctic summer ice reached a record low, it would start to recover.
In 2008, it came back by 10 per cent. The majority expected it to continue its decline to ice-free status by 2015. In 2009, it grew by another 10 per cent.
Little Ice Age
The models beloved of the majority also predicted that the high-level winds, known as the jet-stream, would shift north as the globe warmed.
The jet-stream directs wet weather from the Atlantic and in 2007 they shifted south, bringing widespread flooding to Western Europe.
I have seen a minority report in Nasa’s archives which shows that the jet-stream shifts south as the magnetic field of the sun falls and this was characteristic of the Little Ice Age.
In 2007, the sun’s magnetic field fell to an all time low and this repeated through 2008 and 2009, as did the floods.
Many solar scientists point to a link between this magnetic field and climate on Earth and when the field is low, the Earth cools.
During the low in the 17th century the Thames in London froze every winter for 50 years and summers were a washout.
Chinese and Russian scientists have better knowledge of these cycles, because the cold periods induce widespread famine – and some of them see all the signs of a new Little Ice Age.
Perhaps that’s why their governments’ sovereign funds are buying huge tracts of productive land in the tropics – for food.
You may ask – if this is real science, how can the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignore it and claim the warming is caused by carbon dioxide.
Global spin?
In fact, the scientists only agreed the warming is “very likely not due to known natural causes acting alone” – and that is spun by the policy-makers and the world’s media.
The not-known natural causes are subject to high-level research programmes because real scientists know they exist and are powerful. And no real climate scientist ever said natural causes are acting alone.
Up until the recent ‘climate-gate’ scandal, I accepted that the objective data could be trusted.
But it now appears scientists upon whom the UN relies were busy manipulating the data to produce a warmer globe and to eradicate what they call ‘blips’ (i.e. cycles) that they cannot explain.
To compound matters, they then sought to undermine the Freedom of Information Act and delete their records in advance of requests for the data.
The issue of causation is crucial. The poorest people are already at risk whether the globe warms or cools.
We need action on the real and immediate threats facing human support systems from unavoidable natural climate change – but less than one per cent of resources devoted to climate are spent on adaptation, the rest goes on what will be ineffective attempts to ’stop climate chaos’.
Peter Taylor is an ecologist and author of ‘Chill: a reassessment of global warming theory’.
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Warning non-approved information source...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYf_nfJN0uU&feature=player_embedded
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Here is a page maintained by an Australian researcher
into the climate debate....I don't know if he has any
woudy wabid wight wing wascal agenda....it appeared very
thourough and well presented to me....
http://www.john-daly.com/polar/arctic.htm
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it may soon become apparent we need to stop and reaccess
the current madness being inflicted on humanity by the minorities
who stand to profit from a global tax.....
Quoting John Daly....
Much as I hate relying on a handful of data points, their consistency throughout the Atlantic is compelling. and I do not think a thousand additional data points will change the conclusion. The principal driver of the northern temperature is the heat content of Atlantic. And this is driven by long cycle trends in cold water flow from the Antarctic.
The maximal response to this is ultimately found in the Arctic where an increase in heat will eliminate perennial ice and allow warmer summers and cleared summer seas. Once this has occurred, collapse will be postponed initially when the heat content goes into decline because of the lack of perennial ice. For example. it is very reasonable that the medieval warm period cleared the Arctic and this remained true into the lare fifteenth century in the face of declining heat. When it finally held on to its winter ice over summer, the impact on the climate was dramatic and completely noticeable to contemporaneous commentators just as today we are witnessing the effects of the decline in Arctic sea ice.
The point that I wish to make is that the temperature of the water drives the atmosphere, not the other way around. Hurricane Katrina did not warm up the waters of the gulf. So if you think that there are big changes happening, look to the ocean. Every other factor is a sideshow at best even if it is a very big sideshow like the excess particulate content from coal burning.
This also makes the hypothesis that human activity is a prime driver of climate change very weak. Let us simplify it. We are not the power we think we are. On the other hand we do insist on crapping in the nest and that surely has to stop. And using all that wonderful CO2 to create a highly productive and stable agriculture is a very forgiving solution. Our descendants will merely wonder what took us so long.
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I understand that Soma is not a forum on global warming...
even though it is currently the major shaper of our
understanding of the planet on which we all live and it's fragility
under the expansion of human impact..this should not allow
unelected representatives the ability to pass laws and restictions
on every aspect of our lives....even more than now....I understand
that Soma is meant to enliven consciousness so any information
that is pertinent to that process should be submited without fear of
redefining it's appropriateness as understood by any one perspective..
nobody here has a monopoly on the truth....all are searching...
and all are equal...each has the capacity to interpet their reality as
they choose....as they live it....and experience it...to each their own...
A seminal study into global warming by those at the centre of the ClimateGate controversy is now under scrutiny, with claims that the selection of weather data from Australia may have created an exaggerated warming trend.
Australian scientist Warwick Hughes says that up to 40 per cent of the data used in the Australian study from long-term records came from urban areas where data may have been affected by the Urban Heat Island effect – the phenomenon where heat-retaining surfaces in metropolitan areas cause significant increases in temperature compared to surrounding rural areas.
Hughes claims that the important 1986 study by Professor Phil Jones and colleagues has significant flaws. Professor Jones recently stood aside from his position as Director of the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University pending an inquiry into information released in leaked emails - the so-called ClimateGate affair.
“For over 200 years Earth has been recovering from the Little Ice Age and the associated solar minimums so, of course, warming has taken place. Our position is to draw attention to what we believe are deficiencies in the Jones et al. methodologies which were important studies in the development of the global warming hypothesis,” Mr Hughes said.
“The Jones 1986 study looked at 86 Australian stations and rejected 46. Of the 40 they used 27 were examined over the short term and 13 over the long term. Of the long-term studies, five came from large cities. The 27 short-term stations were mostly only quoted from 1951 onward – regardless of what data was available. The years just post WWII were not prominently warm in Australia so an ‘automatic’ warming trend was reinforced into the CRU Australian component.”
Mr Hughes said numerous examples can be seen where records from particular sites that show warming are contradicted by weather records in nearby rural weather stations. Another anomaly in the study, he claims, is that no weather stations in New South Wales or Victoria were taken into account apart from those in capital cities.
“Those proposing huge changes to the world economy owe it to the rest of us not to use data that is contaminated by local urban heat islands,” Mr Hughes concluded.
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The problem with trying to assess John Daly's material as with any other material, is that although someone posits a view, especially a well documented view (as the others are more easily dismissed), usually you will find a contrary view in reply.
The question is how we assess which view to accept as closer to the truth.
I haven't gone into Daly's stuff, but if you want to assess it, then you need to look at those who have responded to him.
eg: What's Wrong With Still Waiting For Greenhouse? (http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~johnroberthunter/www-swg/)
So which view do we believe?
As I am not an expert myself, in matters of science instead of Government spin, I tend to side with the majority of those who are directly involved. They may be wrong, but in this case, the huge amount of data on so many different aspects, is pretty overwhelming.
But science is built on facts-analysis-dispute. The dispute process is essential to getting things right. So well thought-out arguments against the accepted opinion are important, and should not be dismissed without due consideration.
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April was regarded as a summer month this year in Sweden. Summer usually starts in July.
November was warmer than October which has never happened before, and also take into account that October was warmer than normal. Although this years October wasn't that warm as October 2005. Then we had an Indian summer and temperature well above 10 to 12 degrees Celsius. I remember Oct 2005 as very sunny and warm.
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It appears we are moving into a new phase of this global warming sequence - stories of victims.
The Pacific Island nations have been known - I think one island has already been evacuated with about 200 going to New Zealand. But now I am reading of 8000 refugees from the Sundarbans, and floods and drought from higher temperatures causing faster and earlier glacier melting.
There are some stories from China also.
Then the Met in Aust claimed the horrific Victorian fires earlier this year were of a degree previously unknown due to the higher temperatures.
I expect we will begin to see a flood of stories from across the world about Climate Change victims. I also expect people will begin to blame all their woes on it, instead of on the Government.
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2012 -The Movie
'2012' Trailer HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz86TsGx3fc)
And I can't watch it :P
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What about this? Real or propaganda?
U.S. official: Extremists seek new ways to attack U.S.
1 hr 32 mins ago
WASHINGTON – A top counterterrorism official is warning that al-Qaida and other extremists are working to test U.S. defenses and launch an attack on American soil.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter says the failed Christmas Day attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner is the starkest reminder of that threat.
Leiter said in a statement Saturday that officials "know with absolute certainty" that al-Qaida and others are trying to refine their methods.
The center is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It draws experts from the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and other agencies who try to ensure that clues about potential attacks are not missed.
Terrorism expert Harvey Kushner of Long Island University said a significant concern is that many U.S. airports don't currently have the necessary technology to protect flights from the type of explosives attack attempted on Christmas.
The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, apparently assembled an explosive device, including 80 grams of Pentrite, or PETN, in the aircraft toilet of a Detroit-bound Northwest flight, then planned to detonate it with a syringe of chemicals. Passengers intervened, and the plan failed.
"What's disturbing about this is we're almost nine years after 9/11 and billions of dollars have been spent and we don't have in place a system which can make us safe in the air," Kushner, chair of the school's Criminal Justice Department told The Associated Press. "You'll never be able to harden the targets to rule out terrorist activity. But we need to spend more money and have more concentration on the dangers in the skies."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100103/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_airline_attack
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Watch how the story continues:
"What's disturbing about this is we're almost nine years after 9/11 and billions of dollars have been spent and we don't have in place a system which can make us safe in the air,"
One might say that one good thing with the hype after 6/11 was that security arrangements got better. Now they even take your fingerprints when entering US. If that is going to make things better then it is OK but it take a hell of a waiting time for each flight to pass.
The number of US citizens that will die because of real terrorism (not false flag op.) is probably not many. The greatest threat to the North Americans regarding loss of potential life years is obesity.
The obesity pandemic in the US is even a substantial threat to the economy. So if public health is the priority more efforts should be spent on reducing obesity and less on terrorism. But that will not be the case.
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When I read Al-Quixa I read AIC. I have some gut feeling telling me they collaborate.
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Times change.
God changes cord, the melody calls to a new emotion.
We don't always know what that change is.
But we do know a few things.
We know when we are in a constricting situation, we build resentment for the walls that confine us.
We know when we work in a place full of petty-minded, soap-opera watching, ignorant, mundane, conservative and stupid people, that a storm of desire arises within us to be reach beyond - to be more!
We know when we are suffocating, that we fight like a wild, wounded tiger for air and freedom.
So to does the human race.
And within that arising of desire that spreads like a virus, the opportunities for personal perfection abound.
Then again we know when we are comfortable, and things are easy, that we grow lazy and docile.
Then again we know when we are in denial of reality, that we resist the message of escape, or even preparations for survival.
So too in human cultural phases. And we are but a small fish in a huge ocean current that is swirling or be-stilled, cascading or brooding, around us.
We too often make the mistake of thinking things are as they always have been. Old people know that times change.
What are these times?
Are we living in times of lotus-land of complacency, or denial of impending disaster?
Are we living at the end of an age, or the beginning?
Are we living in times of repressed anger, or superfluity and comfort?
Are we living in times of change?
We think our own path is a personal one - that we foster it in isolation from the turmoil of the world. Yet we forget that all things are connected, and our doorways or blockages could well be thrust upon us by the very energetic topography of our times.
That is why we watch the world, like a surfer.
Not the times of our neighbourhood, or our city, or even our social class. Beyond that - the times of vast changes upon the psych of our species.
Watch and strain to catch a glimpse of the dark currents.
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Namaste'
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Capt Paul, Capt Paul,
There is a great dark ocean beneath the broken white water of rage.
It is still - it is silent with sea-song.
There is a great elegance in violence. It produces such fine designs and nobel gestures.
But beneath lies ....lies unbroken consistency. Deep - deep is the ball-room of whales.
One day we will remember. Dismembering / Remembering / Dismembering / on and on and down it goes.
May your beard grow long with wisdom.
x
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May we not go out as phantoms in the dust.
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May we not believe in mainstream lies.
Such as ... you know what.
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Where are the Warriors -
Antarctica?
What do you think...
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And speaking of warriors.
if you have the time to salute another:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/01/08/amazon-defender-gone
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Massachusetts
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This is a crying shame, that one must stuff the Dalai Lama into a closet..
Dalai Lama's White House visit about appearances
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans a muted meeting with the Dalai Lama on Thursday in deference to Chinese anger that he is welcoming the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader into the White House at all.
What the Dalai Lama and Obama say to each other behind closed doors will matter less than how the White House portrays the president's symbolic meeting with the Buddhist monk considered a separatist by Beijing.
Chinese officials will be watching closely to see how great a stage Obama offers to his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Chinese want to know: How long will the meeting last? Will the first lady attend? Will the White House put out a written statement or answer questions about the visit at daily press briefings? Will cameras be allowed to film any part of the encounter?
"The optics of this thing are incredibly important to the Chinese," said Michael Green, former President George W. Bush's senior Asia adviser. "The Chinese government is preoccupied with protocol and how things look."
China's feelings matter because the Obama administration needs Beijing's help to confront nuclear standoffs in Iran and North Korea, to fight climate change and to boost the world's economy. U.S.-Chinese relations have been strained, most recently because of the Dalai Lama's visit and the Obama administration's approval of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its own.
Obama has to balance Chinese anger against criticism from U.S. lawmakers and activists that he buckled to Chinese demands by not meeting with the Dalai Lama when he came to Washington in October.
It may not seem inflammatory to Americans accustomed to presidential meet-and-greets, but a public Dalai Lama-Obama appearance would enrage China, which believes that official foreign contact with the monk infringes on its sovereignty over Tibet.
With China in mind, the White House appears to be opting for a low-key meeting. There is unlikely to be a joint public appearance or photo opportunity before reporters. Instead, the White House will release an official photo. The visit will take place in the Map Room, where presidents stage private meetings, not the more stately Oval Office, where Obama frequently meets with world leaders.
The Dalai Lama's envoy, Lodi Gyari, said even a private meeting with Obama is a boost for Tibetans feeling marginalized by China. Green said just the "fact that they spend time together in an intimate setting means everything for the Tibetan cause."
Although the Dalai Lama is revered in much of the world, Beijing accuses him of seeking to overthrow Chinese rule and restore a feudal theocracy in the expansive mountainous region. The Dalai Lama and analysts say that is untrue.
The Dalai Lama has met with U.S. presidents for the past two decades, but mostly in private encounters.
George W. Bush also met behind the scenes with the Dalai Lama. Bush broke with tradition in a big way, however, when he appeared at the public presentation in 2007 of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland to India in 1959 with members of his family and fewer than 100 other Tibetans during a failed uprising against China. Chinese troops had taken over Tibet in 1951.
Charles Freeman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that while he does not believe Thursday's meeting will cause lasting damage to U.S.-China relations, short-term repercussions could include a postponement of Chinese President Hu Jintao's expected visit to Washington in April.
Despite China's angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_dalai_lama
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Despite China's angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.
That is interesting as I have been viewing this as an escalation.
It is true that the US has never been happy with China, but we are witnessing a new situation currently.
China is growing stronger, more politically assertive internationally, more aggressive commercially and that includes it's naval interests, more belligerent in the IT area, and what is most concerning, more aggressively demanding all expatriate Han Chinese become agents for the Chinese Communist Party.
This has finally coincided with a situation in which it is of local political interest for Barack Obama to act overtly against China.
Financially, despite China recently significantly reducing its ownership of US Bonds, they are still joined at the hip - thus nullified. Japan is now the biggest holder of US Bonds.
One of the biggest concerns for the US is that they made a strategic mistake when they built their naval fleet - all the ships are critically interconnected via network. If that network is taken out, the US ships are rendered essentially useless. China has always been concerned that the US's readiness to interfere in any war with Taiwan, is a real obstacle to its designs on Taiwan.
Thus it has zeroed in on using its hacking skills to disable the US fleet, in case of a battle with Taiwan. US response has been to allow billion dollar sales of munitions to Taiwan, to bolster its own defences. This sent China ballistic, much more than the Dalai Lama visit. That was just the US rubbing China's nose in the fact that the US will not allow China to take over without a fight.
What has really concerned the Western nations, is that China has been using hacking skills on an unprecedented massive scale to steal Intellectual Property from Western companies. The reason is that although the goods are made in China, Chinese companies do not have the design and technical knowledge to make these goods themselves - they just make the final physical stage. By stealing the background knowledge to this huge industry, it can bypass the Western companies altogether.
Next has been an extreme concern by India over what it calls the 'string of pearls'. China is surrounding India - Burma, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Indian Ocean island ports. In response India has been accelerating its Naval build-up. Recently the US fired another shot at China by declaring India its policing agent in the Indian Ocean.
All told, the rise of China, and the aggressiveness of its policies and methods, is causing high alarm across the world - including the Developing nations.
On a positive front - there is currently great pressure on China to adjust it's currency up. And there does seem to be a likelihood that will happen soon.
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In the Twin Peaks series a man stand on a scene and says "And it is happening again", meaning another murder has taken place.
Now we have an other earthquake, actually two, there was one in Japan too.
Santiago today February 27
(http://www.dn.se/polopoly_fs/1.1053297.1267293829!images/4205784817.jpg)
(http://www.dn.se/polopoly_fs/1.1053296.1267293658!images/2090263756.jpg)
Disaster in Chile, covered by CNN
Massive quake, aftershocks hit Chile (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/index.html)
(http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/t1main.quake2.gi.jpg)
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A curious twist. Again from Al Jazeera:
Obama's Mideast Game Changer: Healthcare
By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on March 21st, 2010
This one is for all the marbles. Democrats seem poised to squeak through President Obama's landmark healthcare legislation late on Sunday, and the repercussions could be profound, especially on America's Middle East policy.
Forget for a moment that Obama's domestic approval ratings are at their lowest - less than 50 per cent - or that he has disappointed many around the world by failing to fulfil major objectives, like the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison.
By scoring a victory of this scale - one that has eluded American presidents for close to 100 years - Obama could not only bring the bounce back to the step of his administration, but provide himself the bandwidth to focus on some of the changes he campaigned on.
He can now begin to fulfil his promise to recalibrate America's relations with the Arab and Muslim world, starting with the Arab-Israeli conflict, as he promised in his Cairo speech in June 2009.
Passing healthcare reform will mean that he (or in this case, Secretary Clinton), can stride into events like Monday's AIPAC annual conference with self-confidence that they otherwise could not.
Nethanyahu had to be hoping that Obama's healthcare reform would fail. But if it passes, there is no denying that Obama will be stronger and Netanyahu will be weaker.
Consider how former President Bill Clinton failed at his biggest domestic agenda - healthcare - which not only took the wind out of his sails at home but also put him in a position of weakness with the congress in 1993 when the then-controversial Oslo negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians had only begun.
In the years that followed, it was Prime Minister Netanyahu (first iteration) who was masterful in playing to Clinton's shakiness with the US congress via AIPAC, especially when Clinton tried to gain Israeli concessions during the Lewinsky scandal. Using truly asymmetrical warfare, Netanyahu was able to court America's right-wing, which in turn frustrated Clinton's ambitions.
Clinton missed both grand prizes in the end: a healthcare law to memorialise his domestic legacy and a final status Arab-Israeli agreement to secure him a Nobel Prize.
Obama's already got one of those, deservedly or not. And if he adds healthcare to his resume, it will be much harder for Netanyahu to pull the same shenanigans should Obama finally decide to assert himself on Middle East peace.
In the end, it will come down to a simple calculus. General David Petraeus recently testified before the US Senate that Israel's ongoing violence towards Palestinians is creating a hostile atmosphere that is endangering the lives of American troops stationed in the Arab and Muslim world.
That's a simple truth that many have long believed but few dared to speak. And while some in the Jewish community have spoken out against Petraeus, the remaining two years of Obama's presidency will present an even more historic opportunity: to decide if America values its own security more than Jewish settlers and their lust for Palestinian land.
Should Obama succeed at healthcare, Americans will remember him for doing so when all others could not.
But for many around the world, the prize of an indepdendent Palestine will be the most telling, and perhaps, rewarding legacy item he could ever hope to fulfil.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/03/21/obamas-mideast-game-changer-healthcare
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One aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is that you may notice the Palestinians are not making huge fusses about getting their separate state. Sure, that would be nice, they think, but if they just wait, the issue of a separate state becomes ridiculous as they lose more land to the Israelis. I have seen some estimates of a matter of months - some wall building I gather will tip the balance.
Then what? Then it becomes a question of democracy. The quest then would be international pressure that Israel becomes a democracy - ie. that they give the vote equally to all citizens.
At that point, the Israelis will be outnumbered by the Palestinians.
Pakistan.
Heard a lecture this morning at the university about another non-democratic state, Pakistan.
He said that the Pak Army created the Taliban, with US assistance. The US actually made and published the training manuals used in the Madrassas where the Taliban trained (Taliban means 'student').
When the Taliban finally attacked the Pak Army in no uncertain terms last year - especially the GHQ - the Army went after them (for the fifth time!) with earnestness. They knew exactly where they were because they were their sponsors.
He says the Pak Taliban are now wiped out. It's over except for a few skirmishes.
He also said the Afghan Taliban are also wiped out, except for cleaning up a few remaining areas. The war is over.
So why the huge build-up of US troops?
Because the US is now nation building to embed their influence for the future. The US realise they have lost their moral authority. They still want influence in this area as it will become critical for oil and gas supplies. So they are attempting to gain influence in a 'hearts and minds' approach. The US is building roads and dams and hospitals etc.
He says the big players now are Russia, India and China, in Afghanistan.
I remain a bit sceptical - it sounds too simplistic to me. Even he admitted that after the lecture - there are so many problems, in Afghan as well as Pak, aside from the Taliban.
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The Breathing Earth simulation
Welcome to Breathing Earth. This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates. (http://www.breathingearth.net/)
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The great game rolls on.
Is the Tea Party destroying any vestige of hope for the Republicans in November's elections by pushing them so far to the right that they lose the middle ground? Or will they shift the middle ground to the right with them, and set the stage for global violent struggle for increasingly scarce resources?
Greece, Spain and Portugal have had their credit ratings downgraded. There doesn't seem any way out of this one, especially for Greece. How can the EU continue to keep these countries within its community? And how can they kick them out?
We are perhaps witnessing the second wave of the GFC beginning.
Israel is in a right pickle. They hate the Palestinians so much, which is racism pure and simple, that there appears no way out. They have three options:
1. Separate state, which the US is pushing for but lets be realistic - there is no way Israel will allow it.
2. Single Apartheid state where Palestinians are treated as second class citizens who can't vote, live in ghettos, use different roads and buildings, and are subject to a different law to Jews. This is what is happening by default, and of course it can't last. The end result of this option is a state that Israeli Jews won't want to live in because it will be run by Palestinians as the majority once the Apartheid collapses, which it will.
3. Ethnic cleansing of all non-Jews from Israel. This will be tried, and pushed for by the extreme right, but realistically it won't work in such modern times - it would be ultimately damaging for Israeli international standing and Middle-Eastern peace.
Peak oil happened in 2008 we are now informed. That was the price hike which was in reality caused by market recognition that demand had out-stripped supply. The prices only dropped due to the growing recession in the US and then the GFC. It may well have caused the GFC due to so many marginal mortgage holders in the US living on the outskirts of cities, where cheap petrol was critical to their survival. When they couldn't afford to commute for work and all other functions, they had to default on their mortgages.
This means we are about to head into a new world where the high price of world will transform the world we know. It will also cause wars of resource security, which is why China's Navy is growing at an alarming rate.
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Germany finally came to the party to help bail out Greece. Spain is officially out of recession, despite having a huge debt.
I don't think Germany had an option really, but they are definitely not happy about it - and nor should they be.
Meanwhile the Greeks are throwing a tantrum - they don't like it up 'em.
Basically this is unsustainable, and against the founding rules of the EU. The two essential rules, that debt level defaulters would be fined, and no one would be bailed out, have long since been forgotten.
Seems the EU is facing the old problem that has crippled many a person and many an institution - responsibility without power.
It will fail, but when? I think they just might get through this one, but how long before the next?
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I may have been too hopeful.
This is not looking good.
$3.9 trillion in debt, won't evaporate overnight.
Can the European Central Bank save the day? Or is the party really over now?
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OK, we see the lie of the land now.
The EU has guaranteed bail-out funds of 1 trillion dollars. Slips off the tongue so easily doesn't it - I wonder if the people who decided on this today had orgasms when they said the word?
People in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are still happy to blow themselves up for some vague idea.
Millions across the globe haven't enough food to live more than one day at a time.
People of this forum are preoccupied with their relationships.
Kali is rolling in blood.
The sea keeps crashing below the cliff I write this on.
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Am I jaded to speculate that this discovery, dating from 2006, played a part in Obama's escalation over there? Or to speculate that the US's "joy" is not philanthropic?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100614/ap_on_bi_ge/us_afghanistan_mineral_treasures
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Am I jaded to speculate that this discovery, dating from 2006, played a part in Obama's escalation over there? Or to speculate that the US's "joy" is not philanthropic?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100614/ap_on_bi_ge/us_afghanistan_mineral_treasures
I'm sure it's a factor, in the play of all parties except the Taliban.
Not sure how the US would directly benefit, except ask for some money back which would be unlikely.
But add that to the oil pipeline issue and Afghanistan plays a critical strategic role in geo-eco-politics of that whole area. So that is why Pakistan remains an effective force behind the Taliban, and why India is jumping up and down over the stupidity of the US in funding Pakistan.
I see it more as a hope by the US that this area remains in friendly hands, instead of being used against the economic benefit of the US. That is the kind of thing governments, with the power to act, would normally do - especially looking forward into an uncertain future.
But ... it's not going well in Afghanistan. The big push was a gambol, but frankly, I gather it has failed - no one has admitted that yet, but from what I pick up, it won't be long before the US just has to pull out and leave it to Pakistan and Iran to fight it out. India knows this and is very worried.
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Well, I don't consider myself up with all the issues around this, but nonetheless I'd wager that the US Administration saw this idiotic indiscretion by Stanley McChrystal as a god-send.
They have been in deep anxiety over Afghanistan all year, and longer. It has appeared that only McChrystal believed things were going well, and I suppose that was his job. But frankly it's a disaster - not just for Afghanistan but for the Democrats.
What I don't understand is why David Petraeus hasn't been given the job much sooner. He is the proven expert in counter-insurgency. Possibly the only one in the whole US military hierarchy. The US military is not set up for counter-insurgency, and has recently identified itself as counter-terrorism.
Unfortunately, even counter-insurgency is insufficient in Afghanistan's case. What is needed is nation-building, and the US has never wanted to get into that game. Probably in the past, for good reason, but alas now those skills are needed, they are noticeably absent.
The task in Afghanistan is mind-boggling, and I can't see the US and it's coalition succeeding. The forces against it are just too complex and steep. The only chance is to hold on long enough till those forces mutate sufficiently such that international terrorism is minimised as a consequence of leaving it all to themselves to sort out - because that's what will happen eventually.
Petraeus will have to rebuild the entire Afghan government - with a forceful hand - and bring that rabid mob in Pakistan into line (ie their military), who are actually who this war is against. That just for a start. I think it's impossible.
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William Dalrymple has an interesting take on the Afghanistan war.
He says that in the West this is seen as a war between Nato forces and the Taliban. But in Afghanistan, it is seen as a war between the South and the North, which has been going on since the 1970s.
The South are Pashtun - their rural conservative religious affiliation is with the Taliban, and the Taliban are Pashtun. When the US invaded Afghanistan, they deposed the Pashtun from power, and replaced them with the Northern Alliance. Thus installing the North in power, who are Tajik, Usbek and Hazara.
Thus internally the current conflict is seen as a rebellion of the Pashtun to reclaim power from the Northerners.
There is now a move by Pakistan. Essentially this is a geo-strategic move against India. India has been pouring money into Afghanistan and gaining an influential foothold, much to the horror of Pakistan. To offset this, Pakistan has been having top level talks with Karzai. Their offer is to 'deliver' the Taliban as a friendly co-exister and co-sharer of power in Afghanistan. A few provinces, a few ministries etc.
Their 'friendly' Taliban are the Haqqani wing of the Taliban, which make up a sizable proportion of the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan. The Pakistan ISI believes it can control the Haqqani. India naturally is frothing at the mouth at these developments.
Dalrymple has a neat resolution to this, which is dreaming of course. He says, let Pakistan have Afghanistan, in exchange of India having Kashmir. They could do a deal. Fat chance I reckon.
He also is sceptical that Pakistan has any real control over the Haqqani Taliban, and that the Taliban would ever be content with sharing power. Personally I'd say without Nato, Karzai is a dead duck. He doesn't seem to understand this.
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Ok, another hottest year on the record...
Met Office report: global warming evidence is 'unmistakable'
A new climate change report from the Met Office and its US equivalent has provided the "greatest evidence we have ever had" that the world is warming.
The report brings together the latest temperature readings from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean
Usually scientists rely on the temperature over land, taken from weather stations around the world for the last 150 years, to show global warming.
But climate change sceptics questioned the evidence, especially in the wake of recent scandals like "climategate".
Now for the first time, a report has brought together all the different ways of measuring changes in the climate. The ten indicators of climate change include measurements of sea level rise taken from ships, the temperature of the upper atmosphere taken from weather balloons and field surveys of melting glaciers.
New technology also means it is possible to measure the temperature of the oceans, which absorb 90 per cent of the world's heat.
The State of the Climate report shows “unequivocally that the world is warming and has been for more than three decades”.
And despite the cold winter in Europe and north east America, this year is set to be the hottest on record.
The annual report was compiled by the Met Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Both the NOAA and Nasa have stated that the first six months of this year were the hottest on record, while the Met Office believes it is the second hottest start to the year after 1998.
Dr Peter Stott, Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution at the Met Office, said “variability” in different regions, such as the cold winter in Britain, does not mean the rest of the world is not warming.
And he said 'greenhouse gases are the glaringly obvious explanation' for 0.56C (1F) warming over the last 50 years.
“Despite the fact people say global warming has stopped, the new data, added onto existing data, gives us the greatest evidence we have ever had,” he said.
Sceptics claimed that emails stolen from the University of East Anglia show scientists were willing to manipulate the land surface temperatures to show global warming.
The scientists were cleared by an independent inquiry but the ‘climategate scandal’ as it became known cast a shadow over the case for man made global warming.
Dr Stott said the sceptics can no longer question the land surface temperature as other records also show global warming.
He pointed out that each indicator takes independent evidence from at least 3 different institutions in order to ensure the information is correct. Despite variations from year to year, each decade has been warmer than the last since the 1980s.
"Despite the variability caused by short term changes, the analysis conducted for this report illustrates why we are so confident the world is warming,” he said. “When we look at air temperature and other indicators of climate, we see highs and lows in the data from year to year because of natural variability. Understanding climate change requires looking at the longer-term record. When we follow decade-to-decade trends using different data sets and independent analyses from around the world, we see clear and unmistakable signs of a warming world.”
Reports/links:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/pr20100728.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-the-climate/
Ok... this phenomenon has been apparently discussed here for years now. Some have believed, some have been scpetic. Let's say it is warming and disaster is impending...NOW WHAT?
Is anybody learning or drawing some conclusions or introducing at least microscopic changes...at personal level?
Rethorical question.
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Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from the roof of the world
Jonathan Watts in Madou
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 September 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/tibetan-plateau-climate-change
Scientists say desertification of the mountain grasslands of the Tibetan plateau is accelerating climate change
Like generations of Tibetan nomads before him, Phuntsok Dorje makes a living raising yaks and other livestock on the vast alpine grasslands that provide a thatch on the roof of the world.
But in recent years the vegetation around his home, the Tibetan plateau, has been destroyed by rising temperatures, excess livestock and plagues of insects and rodents.
The high-altitude meadows are rarely mentioned in discussions of global warming, but the changes to this ground have a profound impact on Tibetan politics and the world's ecological security.
For Phuntsok Dorje, the issue is more down to earth. He is used to dramatically shifting cloudscapes above his head, but it is the changes below his feet that make him uneasy.
"The grass used to be up to here," Phuntsok says, indicating a point on his leg a little below the knee. "Twenty years ago, we had to scythe it down. But now, well, you can see for yourself. It's so short it looks like moss."
The green prairie that used to surround his tent has become a brown desert. All that is left of the grasslands here are yellowing blotches on a stony surface riddled with rodent holes.
It is the same across much of this plateau, which encompasses an area a third of the size of the US.
Desertification
Scientists say the desertification of the mountain grasslands is accelerating climate change. Without its thatch the roof of the world is less able to absorb moisture and more likely to radiate heat.
Partly because of this the Tibetan mountains have warmed two to three times faster than the global average; the permafrost and glaciers of the "Third Pole" are melting.
To make matters worse, the towering Kunlun, Himalayan and Karakorum ranges that surround the plateau act as a chimney for water vapour – which has a stronger greenhouse gas effect than carbon dioxide – to be convected high into the stratosphere. Mixed with pollution, dust and black carbon (soot) from India and elsewhere, this spreads a brown cloud across swaths of the Eurasian landmass. When permafrost melts it can also release methane, another powerful greenhouse gas. Xiao Ziniu, the director general of the Beijing climate centre, says Tibet's climate is the most sensitive in Asia and influences the globe.
Grassland degradation is evident along the twisting mountain road from Yushu to Xining, which passes through the Three Rivers national park, the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers. Along some stretches the landscape is so barren it looks more like the Gobi desert than an alpine meadow.
Phuntsok Dorje (name has been changed) is among the last of the nomads scratching a living in one of the worst affected areas. "There used to be five families on this plain. Now we are the only one left and there is not enough grass even for us," he says. "It's getting drier and drier and there are more and more rats every year."
Until about 10 years ago the nearest town, Maduo, used to be the richest in Qinghai province thanks to herding, fishing and mining, but residents say their economy has dried up along with the nearby wetlands.
"This all used to be a lake. There wasn't a road here then. Even a Jeep couldn't have made it through," said a Tibetan guide, Dalang Jiri, as we drove through the area. By one estimate, 70% of the former rangeland is now desert.
"Maduo is now very poor. There is no way to make a living," said a Tibetan teacher who gave only one name, Angang. "The mines have closed and grasslands are destroyed. People just depend on the money they get from the government. They just sit on the kang [a raised, heated, floor] and wait for the next payment."
Many of the local people are former herders moved off the land under a controversial "ecological migration" scheme launched in 2003. The government in Beijing is in the advanced stages of relocating between 50% and 80% of the 2.25 million nomads on the Tibetan plateau. According to state media, this programme aims to restore the grasslands, prevent overgrazing and improve living standards.
The Tibetan government-in-exile says the scheme does little for the environment and is aimed at clearing the land for mineral extraction and moving potential supporters of the Dalai Lama into urban areas where they can be more easily controlled.
Qinghai is dotted with resettlement centres, many on the way to becoming ghettos. Nomads are paid an annual allowance – of 3,000 yuan (about £300) to 8,000 yuan per household – to give up herding for 10 years and be provided with housing. As in some native American reservations in the US and Canada, they have trouble finding jobs. Many end up either unemployed or recycling rubbish or collecting dung.
Some feel cheated. "If I could go back to herding, I would. But the land has been taken by the state and the livestock has been sold off so we are stuck here. It's hopeless," said Shang Lashi, a resident at a resettlement centre in Yushu. "We were promised jobs. But there is no work. We live on the 3,000 yuan a year allowance, but the officials deduct money from that for the housing, which was supposed to be free."
Their situation was made worse by the earthquake that struck Yushu earlier this year, killing hundreds. People were crushed when their new concrete homes collapsed, a risk they would not have faced in their itinerant life on the grasslands. Many are once again living under canvas – in disaster relief tents and without land or cattle.
In a sign of the sensitivity of the subject, the authorities declined to officially answer the Guardian's questions. Privately, officials said resettlement and other efforts to restore the grassland, including fencing off the worst areas, were worthwhile.
"The situation has improved slightly in the past five years. We are working on seven areas, planting trees and trying to restore the ecosystem around closed gold mines," said one environmental officer. The problem would not be solved in the short term. "This area is particularly fragile. Once the grasslands are destroyed, they rarely come back. It is very difficult to grow grass at high altitude."
The programme's effectiveness is questioned by others, including Wang Yongchen, founder of the Green Earth Volunteers NGO and a regular visitor to the plateau for 10 years. "Overgrazing was considered a possible cause of the grassland degradation, but things haven't improved since the herds were enclosed and the nomads moved. I think climate change and mining have had a bigger impact."
Assessing the programme is complicated by political tensions. In the past year, three prominent Tibetan environmental campaigners have been arrested after exposing corruption and flaws in wildlife conservation on the plateau.
Infestation
Another activist, who declined to give his name, said it was difficult to comment. "The situation is complicated. Some areas of grassland are getting better. Others are worse. There are so many factors involved."
A growing population of pika, gerbils, mice and other rodents is also blamed for degradation of the land because they burrow into the soil and eat grass roots.
Zoologists say this highlights how ecosystems can quickly move out of balance. Rodent numbers have increased dramatically in 10 years because their natural predators – hawks, eagles and leopards – have been hunted close to extinction. Belatedly, the authorities are trying to protect wildlife and attract birds of prey by erecting steel vantage points to replace felled trees.
There is widespread agreement that this climatically important region needs more study.
"People have not paid enough attention to the Tibetan plateau. They call it the Third Pole but actually it is more important than the Arctic or Antarctic because it is closer to human communities. This area needs a great deal more research," said Yang Yong, a Chinese explorer and environmental activist. "The changes to glaciers and grasslands are very fast. The desertification of the grassland is a very evident phenomenon on the plateau. It's a reaction by a sensitive ecosystem that will precede similar reactions elsewhere."
Phuntsok Dorje is unlikely to take part in any study. But he's seen enough to be pessimistic about the future. "The weather is changing. It used to rain a lot in the summer and snow in the winter. There was a strong contrast between the seasons, but not now. It's getting drier year after year. If it carries on like this I have no idea what I will do."
Additional reporting by Cui Zheng
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Mozambique used to be one of the success stories of Africa.
Mozambique's food riots – the true face of global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/mozambique-food-riots-patel
The violence in Maputo is just the latest manifestation of the crippling shortcomings of the global economy
Raj Patel
The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
It has been a summer of record temperatures – Japan had its hottest summer on record, as did South Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Pakistan and Niger are flooded and the eastern US is mopping up after hurricane Earl. None of these individual events can definitively be attributed to global warming. But to see how climate change will play out in the 21st century, you needn't look to the Met Office. Look, instead, to the deaths and burning tyres in Mozambique's "food riots" to see what happens when extreme natural phenomena interact with our unjust economic systems.
The immediate causes of the protests in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, and Chimoio about 500 miles north, are a 30% price increase for bread, compounding a recent double-digit increase for water and energy. When nearly three-quarters of the household budget is spent on food, that's a hike few Mozambicans can afford.
Deeper reasons for Mozambique's price hike can be found a continent away. Wheat prices have soared on global markets over the summer in large part because Russia, the world's third largest exporter, has suffered catastrophic fires in its main production areas. These blazes, in turn, find their origin both in poor firefighting infrastructure and Russia's worst heatwave in over a century. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin extended an export ban in response to a new wave of wildfires in its grain belt, sending further signals to the markets that Russian wheat wouldn't be available outside the country. With Mozambique importing over 60% of the wheat its people needs, the country has been held hostage by international markets.
This may sound familiar. In 2008, the prices of oil, wheat, corn and rice peaked on international markets – corn prices almost tripled between 2005-2008. In the process, dozens of food-importing countries experienced food riots.
Behind the 2008 protests were, first, natural events that looked like an excerpt from the meteorological section of the Book of Revelation – drought in Australia, crop disease in central Asia, floods in south-east Asia. These were compounded by the social systems through which their effects were felt. Oil prices were sky-high, which meant higher transport costs and fossil fuel-based fertiliser prices. Biofuel policy, particularly in the US, shifted land and crops from food into ethanol production, diverting food from stomachs to fuel tanks. Longer term trends in population growth and meat consumption in developing countries also added to the stress. Financial speculators piled into food commodities, driving prices yet further beyond the reach of the poor. Finally, some retailers used the opportunity to raise prices still further, and while commodity prices have fallen back to pre-crisis levels, most of us have yet to see the savings.
Is this 2008 all over again? The weather has gone wild, meat prices have hit a 20-year high, groceries are being looted and heads of state are urging calm. The view from commodities desks, however, is that we're not in quite as dire straits as two years ago. Fuel is relatively cheap and grain stores well stocked. We're on track for the third-highest wheat crop ever, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). While all this is true, it misses the point: for most hungry people, 2008 isn't over. The events of 2007-2008 tipped more than 100 million into hunger and the global recession has meant that they have stayed there. In 2006, the number of undernourished people was 854 million. In 2009, it was 1.02 billion – the highest level since records began. The hardest hit by these price rises, in the US and around the world, were female-headed households.
Not only are the hungry still around, but food riots have continued. In India, double-digit food price inflation was met by violent street protests at the end of 2009. The price rises were, again, the result of both extreme and unpredictable monsoons in 2009 and an increasingly faulty social safety net to prevent hunger. There have been frequent public protests about the price of wheat in Egypt this year, and Serbia and Pakistan have seen protests too.
Although commodity prices fell after 2008, the food system's architecture has remained largely the same over the past two decades. Bill Clinton has offered several mea culpas for the international trade and development policies that spawned the food crisis. Earlier this year, he blamed himself for Haiti's vulnerability to price fluctuations. "I did that," he said in testimony to the US Senate. "I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did. Nobody else." More generally, Clinton suggested in 2008 that "food is not a commodity like others… it is crazy for us to think we can develop a lot of these countries [by] treating food like it was a colour television set."
Yet global commodity speculators continue to treat food as if it were the same as television sets, with little end in sight to what the World Development Movement has called "gambling on hunger in financial markets". The recent US Wall Street Reform Act contained some measures that might curb these speculative activities, but their full scope has yet to be clarified. Europe doesn't have a mechanism to regulate these kinds of speculative trades at all. Agriculture in the global south is still subject to the "Washington consensus" model, driven by markets and with governments taking a back seat to the private sector. And the only reason biofuels aren't more prominent is that the oil they're designed to replace is currently cheap.
Clearly, neither grain speculation, nor forcing countries to rely on international markets for food, nor encouraging the use of agricultural resources for fuel instead of nourishment are natural phenomena. These are political decisions, taken and enforced not only by Bill Clinton, but legions of largely unaccountable international development professionals. The consequences of these decisions are ones with which people in the global south live everyday. Which brings us back to Mozambique.
Recall that Mozambique's street protests coincided not only with a rise in the price of bread, but with electricity and water price hikes too. In an interview with Portugal's Lusa news agency, Alice Mabota of the Mozambican League of Human Rights didn't use the term "food riots". In her words: "The government… can't understand or doesn't want to understand that this is a protest against the higher cost of living." The action on the streets isn't simply a protest about food, but a wider act of rebellion. Half of Mozambique's poor already suffer from acute malnutrition, according to the FAO. The extreme weather behind the grain fires in Russia transformed a political context in which citizens were increasingly angry and frustrated with their own governments.
Yesterday, I reached Diamantino Nhampossa, the co-ordinator of Mozambique's União Nacional de Camponeses (National Peasants Union of Mozambique). "These protests are going to end," he told me. "But they will always come back. This is the gift that the development model we are following has to offer." Like many Mozambicans, he knows full well which way the wind blows.
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http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/money-trail-links-the-war-on-terrorism-to-the-global-financial-crisis-20100829-13xjr.html
There has been much comment on the links between Osama bin Laden and the GFC (I was tickled to hear that the GFC acronym for the Global Financial Crisis is an Australian invention). Osama has been the driving force behind international Islamic terrorism, and aside from his primary focus on Saudi Arabia, he has had a fierce secondary target of Western Capitalism.
So comes the GFC, and we begin to see the connections between the 'War on Terror' and the teetering bankruptcy of Western Capitalist Nations.
This article above, by Loretta Napoleoni, is about a book on the subject she has written.
I feel she has established a valid thesis, with some bits I was not aware of. However I would have to reserve my view on the causes of the GFC. There are many causes that have nothing to do with terrorism. And those causes are significant.
However, she does draw a cogent argument of how the Twin Towers and American Outrage manipulation fed directly to the GFC.
The part I was not so aware of, and she does not outline completely in this article, is how to finance the post 11/9 War on Terror, interest rates had to be held down. I think everyone now knows of the calamitous consequences of low interest rates that produced the Sub-Prime Mortgage bubble, but most commentators point to the Dot-com and other economic crises for that.
So the War of Terror was another factor in creating the ground for the Sub-Prime blowout. You could argue it is all connected, and that is fair enough, but currently, it appears to me that GW Bush just put the icing on the cake through his government's absolute incompetence ... and the rest is history.
Now Obama is trying to salvage the situation. But again it currently appears to me that he doesn't have the power to turn around the ship of state, the ship of other states, the US and world economic magnates, nor the embedded attitudes that have been fostered by years of dedicated influence by Right-wing manipulators. So he tries to walk both sides, and neither work.
But this book outlines one fact, that the attack on the Twin Towers has had a devastating impact on the power of all Western Democracies and Russia. It has marked the turning point - Asian and South American economies are now rising, and a huge power shift is upon us. But not the attack itself - it is the response that has really done the damage. And it's not over yet.
Nonetheless, this theses sidelines the real underlying cause of the 'demise of the West'. It has been a psychological issue that has caused the problem, and it appears too few commentators are effective in addressing this. Western Civilisation is sick. Islamic Civilisation doesn't have the answer. A new cultural paradigm is required, but I don't see it. The very basis of it's acknowledgement has been destroyed.
We have become severed from an intuitive knowledge of why we exist and how we should exist. We are a species isolated.
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Yes, there is a strong argument regarding the effects of 9/11 and the demise of Western domination. One well-informed former American civil servant put it very bluntly to me:
'We, Americans, live on borrowed money. As long as others trust in our ability to manage the debt and produce innovation, we have no problem - the money will keep flowing in. However, after 9/11 our defence budgets have soared and reached unimaginable US $700 billion for FY 2010. Nobody can sustain that. Nobody. And they [people how borrow their money to the US] know it. It's just a matter of time until it will become very painful for us. Besides, we are not winning the war either. Nobody in the US is seriously interested in that.'
Another superstate is over-extending itself while losing economical viability and is about to join a long row of historical examples: Roman Empire, British Empire, Germany, Soviet Union...
Nonetheless, this theses sidelines the real underlying cause of the 'demise of the West'. It has been a psychological issue that has caused the problem, and it appears too few commentators are effective in addressing this. Western Civilisation is sick. Islamic Civilisation doesn't have the answer. A new cultural paradigm is required, but I don't see it. The very basis of it's acknowledgement has been destroyed.
We have become severed from an intuitive knowledge of why we exist and how we should exist. We are a species isolated.
Good point. With the help of globalisation the sickness called 'existential Alzheimer of mankind' has spread extremely well to every corner of the world. If previous collapses of empires and superpowers were disasters in separate states, then modern Western collapse would be a much more global phenomenon.
One can only wonder about the sheer intelligence of spirits who have managed to lock human mind so thoroughly that it is turning against itself thinking at the same time that it is crafting bright future for itself.
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The world economy will be experience many new aspects in the coming years. Inflation at the same time of deflation. Interest rates are kept low, while the surplus of dollars inflates the economy. The Gold price is rushing, a sign of global inflation, while the dollar debt increase.
Marc Faber today:
9.06.2010
All The Monetary Policies In The US Create Mis-Allocation Of Capital And Unintended Consequences
The US Federal Reserve and central banks around the world of continue money printing and the devaluation of their currencies. It is a fallacy to believe that easy money and the purchase of treasuries will boost economic activity in the US. Money will flow into equities at least over the next couple of weeks, and into commodities.
Over the last two years we eased massively in the US and where did the growth take place? In Asia. So when we talk about job creation, do you think that Intel or a small businessman will hire more people in the US because of further monetary printing?
No! they will build factories in Asia and hire poeple in Asia and all the monetary policies in the US create mis-allocation of capital and unintended consequences.
http://marcfaberblog.blogspot.com/
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The US Federal Reserve and central banks around the world of continue money printing and the devaluation of their currencies.
But we don't. Our (very small) currency has strengthened toward the dollar and the Euro the last year. However, regarding the USD I must say that it has been lower than what it is today.
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Qur'an burning: From Facebook to the world's media, how the story grew
Chronology of story's development tells cautionary tale about the power of rolling news and social media to push a marginal figure to centre stage
Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 September 2010 17.52 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/10/quran-burning-how-the-story-grew
It started as a provocative suggestion on a Facebook group – but within two months it was being described as a threat to world peace.
Terry Jones, an extremist pastor with a dwindling flock of followers in Florida, became an international hate figure, drawing universal condemnation from world leaders and prompting violent street demonstrations, when his plans to burn 200 copies of the Qur'an were revealed.
The chronology of the story's growth presents a cautionary tale on the power of rolling news and social media to push a marginal figure to the centre of the global stage.
It has led to anxiety in the media about its role but also prompted questions about how politicians and church groups handled the issue.
The germ of the story was a message, posted in July, on a Facebook group linked to a now unavailable website called Islam is of the Devil – the title of a book by Jones.
The Burn the Koran group called for followers to send photos of how they planned to burn the holy book on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The majority of commenters on the Facebook group voiced horror at the suggestion, and there was little sign of any support.
But within days, the story was picked up by the Religion News Service, which quoted Jones's claims that people had sent him copies of the Qur'an to burn.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations was asked for a response. It didn't take the bait – "We don't want to do anything that would be reactive," its director of communication said – but other religious organisations did not show such restraint.
On 25 July, Jones then cranked up publicity for the proposed book burning with an inflammatory video message on YouTube. Holding up a copy of the Qur'an, he said: "This is book is responsible for 9/11."
At this stage, the mainstream media took up the story. The Guardian's US blogger Michael Tomasky picked it up, and by the end of July there were articles on Yahoo News, while Jones had appeared on the CNN.
News of the pastor's plan spread to the rest of the world, with items featuring on the Arab satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya and in the Times of India.
On 3 August, the mayor of Gainesville, where Jones proposed to perform the stunt, urged the world's media to ignore him. Craig Lowe said Jones was part of a "tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community".
But Jones wasn't ignored, and religious groups began to condemn the proposed book burning.
The US-based National Association of Evangelicals called for the event to be cancelled. A few days later, the British group Campaign Islam posted a YouTube message claiming that the event would "wake up the [Islamic] lion from the den".
An influential Sunni authority in Egypt, the al-Azhar supreme council, accused Jones of stirring up hate.
Such statements appeared to confirm that the proposed stunt was damaging strained relations between the US and Islam.
By the time the New York Times profiled Jones on 25 August , he had already been interviewed by 150 media organisations.
But there were still few signs that the proposed burning had caused popular offence in the Muslim world until last Sunday, when 500 people in the Afghan capital, Kabul, took part in a protest. Effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.
The following day General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, issued a statement to the Associated Press, warning that images of the Qur'an burning could provoke violent retaliation against US troops.
The general's intervention pushed the story to the top of the international news agenda, where it stayed for the rest of the week.
According to the counter-terrorism expert David Schanzer, of Duke University, North Carolina, Petraeus's comments gave Jones more credibility than he deserved.
In a video discussion on Bloggingheads TV, Shanzer said: "By having the head of our entire operation in Afghanistan ask them to refrain from this action, we've brought much more attention to this fringe element than it deserves."
Ignoring Jones would have "undercut his power", Schanzer added.
Hillary Clinton and the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, joined in the condemnation, and yesterday , Obama said the stunt was "a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida".
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of Indonesia – which has the world's largest Muslim population – described it as a threat to world peace and warned that it could create violence and retaliation that would leave "many victims".
The dispute may have been defused by Jones's last-minute change of heart last night.
But there was nothing inevitable about its escalation: in 2008 another extremist pastor with a small band of followers was setting fire to a Qur'an, but nobody seemed to care.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas – a homophobic group notorious for picketing the funerals of US soldiers – burned the copy of the Qur'an on a Washington street corner. But, weary of the group's gay-bashing provocations, media organisations stayed away.
The power of individual in contemporary world. Well, the power fo one man. The lone crusader in the dangerous world of...different cultures.
He does not need to burn anything any more.
The effect is already there.
So...is it up to any given lunatic nowadays?
Whatever crazy thought, idea, plan, theory you have - publicise it, and voila...
...all of a sudden there are supporters/comrades in arms and enemies
...there is that precious sense of collective of those who 'know', of 'us', and there are those damned 'them'
...there is identity of collective (even for a short time)
Isn't this what we are observing in the world of IT technology dominated world - hamsters running faster and faster in the wheel of IT-assisted identity-making - 'us' and 'them', 'together' and 'alone'...
Yet none of the temporary coalitions of 'us' persist and one must start anew again and again
With crazier, wilder and outrageous stunts - just to catch the attention...
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The power of individual in contemporary world. Well, the power fo one man. The lone crusader in the dangerous world of...different cultures.
He does not need to burn anything any more.
The effect is already there.
So...is it up to any given lunatic nowadays?
Whatever crazy thought, idea, plan, theory you have - publicise it, and voila...
...all of a sudden there are supporters/comrades in arms and enemies
...there is that precious sense of collective of those who 'know', of 'us', and there are those damned 'them'
...there is identity of collective (even for a short time)
Isn't this what we are observing in the world of IT technology dominated world - hamsters running faster and faster in the wheel of IT-assisted identity-making - 'us' and 'them', 'together' and 'alone'...
Yet none of the temporary coalitions of 'us' persist and one must start anew again and again
With crazier, wilder and outrageous stunts - just to catch the attention...
This phenomenon, with the burning and incitement to burn, follows on the heels of another ongoing issue in the news here: the building of a mosque near Ground-Zero in NYC.
The reactions of many people have been less than noble, and I can't help but think it's a right-time-right-place sort of event. Add to the pot the timeliness of the anniversary of nine-eleven.
Nonetheless, the mentality is one of which to be aware - it's the stuff from which civil wars will be made. It's the same mentality which will be at the US-Mexico border, with firearms, and which will end up harassing the Latin-American population here. The picture isn't pretty.
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“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
~attributed (controversially) to Sinclair Lewis
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'Everyone wants a footballer' at Manchester's top celebrity haunt
Mark Townsend
The Observer, Sunday 12 September 2010
In the club where Wayne Rooney's recent troubles began, young women tell of the allure of Premier League stars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/12/panacea-manchester-club-wayne-rooney
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pixies/2010/9/11/1284239424051/Panacea-club-in-Mancheste-006.jpg)
Panacea, Manchester's favourite celebrity haunt. Photograph: Eamonn Clark/James Clarke
In her killer heels and a wraparound dress that left little to the imagination, she was dressed to turn heads. The music sped up and, right on cue, the teenager began gyrating wildly. A group of men nodded approvingly. In the adjoining booth, the scene was more or less replicated. It was almost 2am in Panacea, Manchester's most famous celebrity haunt. Here, in its narrow rectangular bar, Wayne Rooney drank until 5.30am one night last month before being spotted urinating down a wall. Now, of course, the high-profile footballer is being pilloried for a far more serious indiscretion, after alleged encounters with escort girls Jenny Thompson, 21, and Helen Wood, 23. Thompson lists Panacea as her favourite bar.
The mood had steadily grown more frantic as the night wore on. The booths lining its walls gradually became full, the orders for bottles of Cristal – a snip at £290 – mounted as the huddles of young women grew in number. Panacea is where the footballers of Manchester let their hair down.
Players from the city's two clubs are described by bar staff as "really lovely people, salt-of-the-earth types". Alex, the DJ, recently played soul and rare groove to the order of Manchester United's Ryan Giggs, who was out celebrating his wedding anniversary. Two young women reminisce about their meeting with Manchester City forward Carlos Tevez in the bar a few weeks earlier.
"We save up all week to come down here," said Rachel, 20, from Farnworth, north of Manchester. "It's the only place you can really dress to impress. Everyone wants to bag a footballer. If you get a footballer you've made it."
Panacea bears frequent witness to the mating ritual of the wannabe Wag. They arrive mostly in threes – if one pulls, then the other two can comfort each other. A favourite drink is the Gold Digger, a cocktail named in honour of those who flock to the bar hoping to snare a rich footballer. Midnight signals the onset of dancing, the trigger for much gyrating in front of the booths where the footballers often sit. Wannabe Wags have to compete in a tough environment to secure the players' attention.
"Footballers don't understand subtlety,' says part-time media student Claire, 22. She drums her acrylic-tipped fingers on the bar and then demonstrates by hitching up her skirt, exposing several more inches of deeply tanned thigh. She pouts outrageously, then starts moving suggestively to the beat. Her hair is big and blond, and her make-up – even in the dim orange glow of the bar – is bold.
In the sartorial stakes, she explains, less is very much more for a wannabe Wag. "That's how you get talking to them and looking like you've got more money than you have. I know girls who spend their entire wages every week to come here on the off-chance.
"Yeah, I've met footballers," she adds, "but you're not getting names."
For many of the young women, a night at Panacea is equivalent to a job interview, an opening audition for their career choice. Claire says that becoming a Wag is an ambition taken as seriously as an economics degree.
Emily Nemen, 20, from Bolton, said: "You've got a whole generation of schoolgirls whose ambition is getting off with a footballer. That's it – their only aspiration. They have a job only to save up enough money to come here."
Another group knew escort Thompson from her schooldays. "It was a bit of a surprise to see her in the paper, but no surprise she got into that lifestyle. She wanted to be a Wag when she was 16," said Melanie Best, 20.
Thompson was, by varying accounts, good at her job. In Panacea she met plenty of footballers, earning her the monicker "Premiership Jen" for her talent in hooking top-flight players.
Critics deride what they see as an unsavoury extension of Britain's lascivious, materialistic, celebrity-obsessed culture. Many liken it to a form of anti-feminism, where young women brag about relying on a bloke for their income and identity. "It's the death of female ambition," said one 20-year-old woman, an economics undergraduate at Oxford University, at the club to celebrate a friend's birthday.
Others at the club said Rooney's alleged relationship with Thompson was just the latest footnote in the narrative detailing rich, high-profile footballers and good-time girls.
Many of the young women at Panacea had, like Thompson, come from Manchester's satellite towns: Rochdale, Bury and Bolton. The recession has hit such towns hard – they have some of the highest unemployment rates in the UK. Opportunities are few. Many of their young men aspire to become a Premier League footballer; these days, their sisters dream of bagging one.
Several days before the allegations of Rooney's adultery became public, a small internet business began trading, largely unnoticed. Yet the launch of becomeawag.com in August offers proof that targeting footballers is a career option for a growing number of young women.
The website invites women to send in personal details, including pictures, which are then forwarded to footballers who say yes or no to a date. Just 10 days after it started operations, the site already has 15 footballers, including nine from the Premier League, on its books and has seen scores of women express an interest in signing up (for a fee of £19.99).
Founder Daniel Hall said: "Once women wanted to be princesses, then film stars, now they want to be a Wag. An awful lot of women want the lifestyle – and the money."
Rooney earns £20,000 a day, more than the annual income of many of those drinking in Panacea. "Kiss-off" fees – paid by footballers to keep the lips of their conquests sealed – are reportedly as high as £30,000. None of the women who spoke to the Observer in Panacea would spill the beans about whether they had "landed" a player. Neither did any expect footballers to be faithful.
Sympathy for Coleen Rooney, the ordinary-girl-done-good, was in short supply. "She's done so well out of it. She's on television, has a clothing range, she's set for life. She'll make money out of this. He'll come back," said Rachel, teetering dangerously in her 6in heels.
Claire said many of her peers dismissed the idea of faithful footballers; they expect to get cheated on and so they cheat themselves. "The whole scene is inspired by infidelity, it's part of the deal," she said. You accept it.
"It's a question of supply and demand. There would be no demand for valuable footballers if there wasn't a never-ending supply of girls who'd do anything to cop off."
The women seem largely normal, down-to-earth and aware of their behaviour. A surprising ratio were privately educated like Thompson, who attended Bolton's £1,555-a-term Lord's Independent school. None appeared to be working for one of Manchester's many escort agencies such as Briefly Yours, Angels4You, Dreams Manchester and the Bond Girls, the self-styled "agency with a licence to thrill".
Last night Manchester's footballers will have been out on the town again. The circus continues. United's players were just down the road in Liverpool while rivals City played at home. No names yet – but hours later some of their stars might already have been playing away.
...to have sex with a bastard, fix him in the process, and live with a 'poodle'...
...there is a better suggestion: have sex with a bastard, get his money and enjoy life...
There are new and bright career choices available. :)
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Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Juhani M Conway
reviewed by Robin McKie of The Observer
Rachel Carson is generally viewed as an environmental heroine, a courageous campaigner whose book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the dangers of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Hers was a success story, the tale of a woman who highlighted a serious problem – that the anti-mosquito agent DDT was building up in the food chain where it was killing millions of birds and animals – and who helped introduce a global ban on use of the chemical.
At least that is the common appreciation of Carson. However, a brief search of her name on the internet today produces an unexpected response. According to many websites, Carson – by all accounts a pleasant, amiable woman – was a mass murderer who killed more people than the Nazis. This dramatic claim is based on her campaign against DDT, which, it is alleged, has led to the deaths of countless Africans from malaria.
"Millions of people around the world suffer the painful and often deadly effects of malaria because one person sounded a false alarm," states one site set up by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "That person is Rachel Carson." Another site goes further: "Fifty million dead," while a third claims: "More deaths likely." Others compare Carson to Hitler or Stalin.
As an appraisal of Carson's achievements, this is a fairly shocking piece of revisionism and, as the authors of Merchants of Doubt make clear, it also is a false one. DDT was banned not just because it was accumulating in the food chain but because mosquitoes were developing resistance to it. The pesticide was losing its usefulness long before it was taken out of commercial production.
So why this hysterical vilification? Why these sudden denunciations of Carson? The answer – provided by Oreskes and Conway in this painstakingly assembled but nevertheless riveting piece of investigative reporting – is simple. The far right in America, in its quest to ensure the perpetuation of the free market, is now hell-bent on destroying the cause of environmentalism.
According to this distorted view of life, environmentalists are watermelons – green on the outside, red on the inside – who want to impose regulation, "the slippery slope to socialism", on the use of tobacco, ozone-destroying chemicals and greenhouse gases. "And in the demonising of Rachel Carson, free marketeers realised that if you could convince people that an example of successful government regulation wasn't, in fact, successful – that it was actually a mistake – you could strengthen the argument against regulation in general," state Oreskes and Conway.
Hence the monstering of Carson's reputation, an act of deliberate misinformation, say Oreskes and Conway, that has become the hallmark of a group of far-right institutions that are funded by businesses and conservative foundations and supported by a coterie of rightwing scientists who believe ecological threats are made up by lefty researchers as part of a grand plan to expand government control over our lives. These are the villains of Merchants of Doubt, and the same names pop up throughout its pages: scientists such as Fred Seitz, Robert Jastrow and Bill Nierenberg, along with the institutes through which they, and their kind, have lent their services to a range of rightwing, free-market foundations and institutions including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the source of that anti-Carson diatribe that I quoted earlier. When not funded by the tobacco industry, many of these outfits often receive backing from fossil-fuel companies such as Exxon.
In these campaigns, a common strategy is evident: discredit the science, spread confusion and promote doubt, tactics that were introduced in the 70s to combat plans to limit smoking – whose links to cancer were by then becoming unambiguous – and which have been refined and used in battles to combat acid rain, ozone-layer depletion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Real science is dismissed as "junk" while misrepresentations are offered in its place. Thus cancer is triggered by many different causes, not just smoke, it was argued – even though the tobacco industry was, by this time, admitting in private that there was indeed a definite link between smoking and serious disease. Similarly acid rain was blamed not on its real cause, the by-products of burning fossil fuels, but on volcanic eruptions, which were also said to be the cause of the depletion of the ozone layer.
In each case, experts offered briefings to journalists and politicians and their claims were accepted, with little qualification, by an acquiescent media happy to establish the idea that there were real divisions among mainstream scientists where none actually existed. In short, we have been led by the nose and have meekly accepted the outpourings of a small, dedicated group of rightwing propagandists who have found themselves pushing, all too easily, at open doors. As Oreskes and Conway point out: "Who among us wouldn't prefer a world where acid rain was no big deal, the ozone hole didn't exist and global warming didn't matter? Such a world would be far more comforting than the one we actually live in. We may even prefer comforting lies to sobering facts. And the facts denied by our protagonists were more than sobering. They were downright dreadful."
Thus the tactics – the spreading of doubt and confusion – of a small group of cold war ideologues have worked their way across America and have now crossed the Atlantic so that the public in both the US and the UK are more confused than ever about the truth on a series of key scientific issues, in particular global warming, even though scientists have become more certain about the accuracy of their efforts.
In many ways, it is a tough message to stomach, though there is no doubt that Oreskes and Conway deserve considerable praise for this outstanding book and for exposing the influence of these dark ideologues. Merchants of Doubt – which includes detailed notes on all sources – is clearly and cleanly outlined, carefully paced and is my runaway contender for best science book of the year.
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The far right in America, in its quest to ensure the perpetuation of the free market, is now hell-bent on destroying the cause of environmentalism.
Yep.
Hence the monstering of Carson's reputation, an act of deliberate misinformation,
Appalling on so many levels.
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It occurred to me that much can be put at the feet of the Free Speech tenet of the US Constitution. Obviously there were good reason for including this tenet, but perhaps the authors were not aware of the use to which it would be put.
The idea that people can say anything, right or wrong, is not shared by most other countries, and so most other nation's citizens are not fully prepared for the level of scepticism such a tenet requires. And I doubt most American citizens are prepared either.
In most democratic countries there is a generally shared agreement that there exist limits to publicly expressed views. This is a big issue with the laws in most countries and is constantly under review, but nonetheless there exists this commonly shared sense of appropriateness. What the English call 'cricket'.
It is simply 'not cricket' to stoop to certain levels of public perfidy. Basically it is a social fabric of ethics. So I sense many such people are not prepared for the outright lying that has become common place in US public discourse. We tend to presume if it were completely wrong someone would be sued. And if they haven't been officially shut up, then there must be some truth to defend the views.
I feel that most US citizens are more prepared for outright bullshit to be common public practice - I could be wrong there. But I don't think they are any better buttressed via education, to a healthy level of discernment, that must accompany the tenant of Free Speech for a sane balance.
I have watched in Australia how Right politicians and commentators have taken up the US model, albeit at a lesser degree. I still feel most Australians would be shocked at outright lying by public commentators, but they have learnt to live with extreme twisting of attitudes.
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The country without corruption. Is that true some may ask?
The country with the greatest proportion of immigrants from Iran and Iraq. is that true some may ask?
The country of equity.Is that true some may ask?
The country of Peace and all the best qualities that you can name. Is that necessary some may ask? (to name all of the good qualities that this little country have).
Now we are having the big election.
And of course there are great questionmarks about the outcome.
On Sunday night we know the outcome and I shall keep you updated.
http://www.euractiv.com/en/elections/rival-coalitions-dead-heat-swedish-election-approaches-news-497202
Rival coalitions in dead heat as Swedish election approaches
Published: 27 August 2010
With general elections in Sweden less than a month away, the governing centre-right coalition and opposition centre-left bloc are locked in a dead heat, according to pollsters, who argued that "anything can happen between now and 19 September".
Background
According to statistics compiled by the Fondation Robert Schuman's European Elections Monitor, seven million Swedes will go to the polls in forthcoming general elections to elect 349 MPs.
Of these, 497,000 Swedes - representing 9% of all voters - will be voting for the first time on 19 September – a 15% increase in comparison to the last general elections, held on 17 September 2006.
Furthermore, 132,780 Swedes living abroad will be taking part in the election.
The incumbent centre-right 'Alliance' government is made up of the Moderate Party (97 seats), the Centre Party (29 seats), the Liberal People's Party (28 seats) and the Christian Democrats (24 seats). The coalition's total seats numbered 178.
The main opposition bloc – the 'Red-Green' coalition – consists of the Social Democrats (130 seats), Left party (22 seats) and the Green Party (19 seats). Its total seats numbered 171.
The latest Swedish Television (SVT) 'Voter Index', which produces an average aggregate poll from all the main existing polls – puts the country's two main parties, the centre-left Social Democrats and centre-right Moderates, neck-and-neck as they enter the electoral end-game.
Underpinning this dead heat is a statistical tug-of-war that has been taking place since the last election in September 2006.
Government bounces back
Following its ground-breaking victory that year – only the second time in 70 years that the forces of the centre-right had wrestled power from the dominant Social Democrats - the Alliance government has fallen well behind the red-green opposition in the polls.
Indeed, early 2008 polls showed the three opposition parties leading the government by a huge margin of 20 percentage points. Since then, however, this lead has reversed, boosted in part by the government's solid performance at the helm of the EU from July to December 2009.
In recent weeks, polls have shown that the government is marginally in the lead. So close are the two parties – the Alliance is on 47.8% and the red-greens are on 46.6% - that polling experts told leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter that "this election is far from decided. Anything can happen between now and 19 September".
A first female PM?
Arguably the most interesting political story centres on the leader of the Social Democrats, Mona Sahlin. Sweden, which has one of the most aggressively egalitarian societies in the world and one of the highest proportions of female elected representatives, has never had a female leader.
However, as noted by the Fondation Robert Schuman's European Elections Monitor, Sahlin is still not very popular among Swedes, and in fact "faces strong competition" from Maria Wetterstrand, the extremely popular Green spokesperson, to become the main female 'face' of the centre-left.
Conversely, the Moderates led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who have chosen the motto 'Framåt tillsammans' (Forwards together), enjoy a high level of popularity, but this was achieved to the detriment of the other three Alliance parties.
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Stumbled into this today...
Ottawa tightens muzzle on climate change, tar sands
Alberta (& Saskatchewan)
Documents reveal scientists need approval from minister's office before speaking with major media - a measure one researcher calls 'Orwellian'
By MARGARET MUNRO, Postmedia News
September 13, 2010
The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.
Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need "pre-approval" from Minister Christian Paradis's office to speak with national and international journalists. Their "media lines" also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained through access-to-information legislation.
The documents say the "new" rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.
They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest.
"It's Orwellian," says Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at University of Victoria. The public, he says, has a right to know what federal scientists are discovering and learning.
Scientists at NRCan, many of them world experts, study everything from seabeds to melting glaciers. They have long been able to discuss their research, until the rules changed in the spring.
"We have new media interview procedures that require pre-approval of certain types of interview requests by the minister's office," wrote Judy Samoil, NRCan's western regional communications manager, in a March 24 email to colleagues.
The policy applies to "high-profile" issues such as "climate change, oilsands" and when "the reporter is with an international or national media organization (such as the CBC or a Canwest paper chain)," she wrote. The Canwest papers are now part of Postmedia Network Inc.
The documents show the new rules being so broadly applied that one scientist was not permitted to discuss a study in a major research journal without "pre-approval" from political staff in Paradis's office.
NRCan scientist Scott Dallimore co-authored the study, published in the journal Nature on April 1, about a colossal flood that swept across northern Canada 13,000 years ago, when massive ice dams gave way at the end of the last ice age.
The study was considered so newsworthy that two British universities issued releases to alert the international media. It was, however, deemed so sensitive in Ottawa that Dallimore, who works at NRCan's laboratories outside Victoria, was told he had to wait for clearance from the minister's office.
Dallimore tried to tell the department's communications managers the flood study was anything but politically sensitive. "This is a blue sky science paper," he said, noting: "There are no anticipated links to minerals, energy or anthropogenic climate change."
But the bureaucrats in Ottawa insisted. "We will have to get the minister's office approval before going ahead with this interview," Patti Robson, the department's media relations manager, wrote after a reporter from Postmedia News approached Dallimore.
Robson asked Dallimore to provide the reporter's questions and "the proposed responses," saying: "We will send it up to MO (minister's office) for approval."
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ottawa+tightens+muzzle/3514943/story...
http://oilsandstruth.org/ottawa-tightens-muzzle-climate-change-tar-sands
It occurred to me that much can be put at the feet of the Free Speech tenet of the US Constitution. Obviously there were good reason for including this tenet, but perhaps the authors were not aware of the use to which it would be put.
The idea that people can say anything, right or wrong, is not shared by most other countries, and so most other nation's citizens are not fully prepared for the level of scepticism such a tenet requires. And I doubt most American citizens are prepared either.
In most democratic countries there is a generally shared agreement that there exist limits to publicly expressed views. This is a big issue with the laws in most countries and is constantly under review, but nonetheless there exists this commonly shared sense of appropriateness. What the English call 'cricket'.
It is simply 'not cricket' to stoop to certain levels of public perfidy. Basically it is a social fabric of ethics. So I sense many such people are not prepared for the outright lying that has become common place in US public discourse. We tend to presume if it were completely wrong someone would be sued. And if they haven't been officially shut up, then there must be some truth to defend the views.
I feel that most US citizens are more prepared for outright bullshit to be common public practice - I could be wrong there. But I don't think they are any better buttressed via education, to a healthy level of discernment, that must accompany the tenant of Free Speech for a sane balance.
I have watched in Australia how Right politicians and commentators have taken up the US model, albeit at a lesser degree. I still feel most Australians would be shocked at outright lying by public commentators, but they have learnt to live with extreme twisting of attitudes.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/Muh-nJVhVEE?fs=1
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Fascinating the layers of intimidation and stone-walling in the above video. And if outright lies aren't offensive, you then have the insult to the intelligence - like when Senator Trip Pittman said he'd be a lot more worried about "sharks than dispersants."
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I have been reading about this - imagine Sweden bordering on xenophobic political change!
What I find odd is that this is what happened in the Australian elections - the country was split, with the Right playing the 'race card' as we say here, in the shape of the 'boat people' refugees. This was a pure irrational whip up of anti-'other' emotion, which became a major factor in the election. (for god's sake, we are an island - only the most daring can reach us)
But I see this accentuation of polarisation in politics, resulting in hung parliaments and coalition governments - not sure what that means for exigencies of our times.
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Sweden elections end in hung parliament, rise of far-Right
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/8012411/Sweden-elections-end-in-hung-parliament-rise-of-far-Right.html
Swedish elections on Sunday night ended in a hung parliament after the rise of a far-Right group narrowly prevented the conservative-liberal coalition government from winning an outright majority in Sweden’s parliament.
The result, which gave FredJuhani Reinfeldt's Moderate-led alliance the largest share of seats in the Riksdag, was the worst result since 1914 for the Social Democrats, effectively ending the party's 80 year domination of Swedish politics.
Official preliminary results showed Mr Reinfeldt’s centre-Right coalition winning 173 seats in the 349-seat parliament and the Social Democrat led Left-Green coalition with 156 seats.
However, the big news of the night for a country which has long prided itself as being one of the most tolerant in Europe was that the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD) looked set to win 20 seats, their first entry to the national parliament.
Despite winning the largest share of the vote, Mr Reinfeldt’s coalition could face weeks of horse-trading after both his conservative-liberal alliance and the opposition left-Green bloc ruled out working with the far-Right.
“If this result stands we will have an uncertain situation,” said a government spokesman.
Before polling opened, Mr Reinfeldt had pleaded for a clear majority amid fears that in the event of a hung vote far-Right MPs from the SD party could play a “kingmaker” role in forming a new government.
“Don’t expose Sweden to this experiment. Make sure they don’t get any power,” he said of the far-Right.
Bjorn Soder, the SD’s secretary, said his party was ready to start talking. “Swedish politics has been silent too long as immigration has continued unchecked, we want to change that and are prepared to talk to any of the parties in order to forward our politics,” he said.
Mr Reinfeldt’s campaign, built on popular tax cuts and healthy public finances, has been closely watched by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, who is a personal friend and close political ally of the Swedish leader.
His inconclusive victory has been overshadowed by the rise of the SD, a previously marginal group, which entered the mainstream by demanding cuts to immigration and by describing Islam as Sweden’s biggest national security threat since the Second World War.
Its election broadcasts, showing burka-clad Muslim women jumping the queue to take benefits from white Swedish pensioners, fuelled resentment over waves of immigration which have changed the make-up of Sweden, a once-homogenous Scandinavian country, where one in seven residents is now foreign-born.
“The immigration policy is the most important issue in this election and we want that to be debated and we want the other parties to change their policy,” said Jimmie Akesson, the group’s leader.
Success for the Swedish far-Right has followed a string of electoral gains for the far-Right across Europe in countries including the Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Britain.
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Swedish Neo-Nazi Party Wins Local Seat
Sep 20, 2010 17:27 CEST
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/pressroom/expo/pressrelease/view/swedish-neo-nazi-party-wins-local-seat-477657
In the shadow of the Sweden Democrats' highly publicized electoral success last night, Expo have learned that the neo-Nazi party Svenskarnas parti (The Swedes' Party) have won a seat in the Grästorp municipality in western Sweden. The party, founded in 1994 under the name Nationalsocialistisk front, has thus won its first local mandate.
Party leader Daniel Höglund has accomplished what no one thought possible: making room for a neo-Nazi party in a democratically elected assembly. But when the Swedish Election Authority presented its final tally of Grästorp, it was revealed that Svenskarnas parti had indeed won 2,8 percent of the vote. The 102 votes were enough to secure one mandate for the party. The chairwoman of the local electoral board, Agnetha Wallander, confirms the result.
Two years ago, the party was known under the name Nationalsocialistisk front. It was dismantled and relaunched under a new name, Folkfronten (The People's Front), in November 2008. The purpose of this makeover was to appeal to a broader range of prospective voters. The vulgar anti-Semitism was toned down, the annual celebration of Adolf Hitler's birthday scrapped and the Nazi symbols removed. Instead, the party began to focus on criticizing multiculturalism, portraying themselves as a radical alternative to the Sweden Democrats.
This is the first time since the 1940's that Sweden has seen a Nazi party in a democratically elected assembly.
So the social democrat rule has been ended and new voices are surfacing.
No illusions about welfare paradise and tolerance.
Tolerance has been found wanting and highly conditional.
Sweden has Northern Europe's largest neonazi movement and it is actively spreading to neighbouring states.
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The election ended up with a bit tricky situation. The right wing alliance kept the lead over the red-green wing but as the new party "Swedish democrats" entered the Parliament the right Alliance did not achieve full majority. This has lead to speculations about new constellations but the winning party (actually 4 parties) does not need to make any declarations until 5th October.
That the extreme party "Swedish democrats" got a bit more than 5% of the votes (3% last election in 2004) and by that entered the Parliament should not be such a surprise for the established parties. Immigration problems are obvious and surprisingly, even immigrants join the "Swedish democrat party". However, no one wants to cooperate with them so we shall see how this develops. In Denmark a similar party was elected to the Parliament in 2001 and they have, ten years later, a heavy role in the political system. So this "problem" has to be handled with care and action. Otherwise the Swedish democrats will be twice as strong in the next election. That is much the consensus summary in Sweden today.
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Sweden has Northern Europe's largest neonazi movement and it is actively spreading to neighbouring states.[/i]
BS
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BS
Read the reports of your very own SÄPO. You could also read annual reports of Baltic security services. It is all there - in black and white. Primary sources.
In Estonia, for example, these extreme right movements really began to flourish only after tightening contacts with Swedish neonazis.
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Neo-Nazi bomb plot linked to Auschwitz sign theft
Thieves contracted by a neo-Nazi group that planned to sell sign to fund attacks in Sweden, newspaper claims
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/30/auschwitz-sign-stolen-terror-plot
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2009/12/21/1261358655148/Arbeit-Macht-Frei-sign-at-001.jpg)
The Auschwitz sign before it was stolen Photograph: Irek Dorozanski/Reuters
It sounds like the plot of a Steig Larsson thriller: a band of eastern European criminals is contracted to steal an iconic piece of Nazi memorabilia, which is then sold to a mysterious collector to finance a neofascist bomb attack on the Swedish parliament.
But today it emerged that Swedish investigators are helping Polish detectives investigate the theft of the sign from Auschwitz, amid reports that the robbery was linked to a rightwing terror plot.
The wrought iron plaque reading Arbeit Macht Frei (work sets you free) which spanned the entrance at the former Nazi death camp was wrenched from the gate on 18 December, and recovered three days later, cut into three pieces, in a forest in northern Poland.
The robbery prompted Poland to declare a state of emergency, and provoked impassioned calls for the sign's return from concentration camp survivors and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
The five men being held in police custody in Krakow in connection with the theft have been described by Polish prosecutors as common criminals who had apparently acted for financial gain.
But according to the Swedish daily Aftonbladet, the men were contracted by a neo-Nazi group which planned to sell it on to a third party, a foreign rightwing extremist or collector of Nazi memorabilia, with the aim of using the funds to finance a string of attacks in Stockholm.
Boguslawa Marcinkowska, the spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office in krakow, said: "The evidence that we have so far points to there being links with Sweden". Polish state television TVP1 quoted official sources saying that Swedish neo-Nazis were behind the theft.
Poland's justice minister, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, said: "The investigations have taken on a much broader dimension than we had initially thought".
The Swedish justice ministry has confirmed that it is helping the Polish police with investigations after the state prosecutor's office in Krakow lodged an official application asking for its help.
Separately, the Swedish security service Säpo, confirmed that it was investigating an alleged neo-Nazi plot to blow up the Riksdagen, the parliament building in Stockholm, as well as the foreign ministry and the home of the prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. The aim of the plot, according to Säpo, was to create as much disruption as possible ahead of the 2010 parliamentary elections. It would not confirm or deny reports of a possible connection between the plot and the Auschwitz sign theft.
Polish investigators, who said from the start of the inquiry that they suspected the mastermind of the robbery operated outside Poland, would only say today that he or she "came from a European country".
The five suspected robbers, aged between 25 and 39, all have criminal records but none is suspected of having a neo-Nazi background. They were reportedly set to receive a total of 20,000 zlotys (£4,320) to share between them for the theft. The police told the Polish press agency PAP that they believe a foreign national, possibly the person who ordered the theft, visited the former death camp prior to the robbery in order to be able to plan it in detail.
The theft was carried out without attracting the attention of nightwatchmen or being caught on CCTV cameras. But in their haste to make off with the sign, the thieves dropped the letter i from the word Frei. It was found in the snow nearby.
The wider plot has the whiff of a thriller by the late Swedish writer Larsson, not least because he was an expert on right-wing extremism, a subject which he wove into many of his books.
Larsson sought to expose neo-Nazi activity in Sweden, forming in 1995 the group Expo-foundation, following eight murders for which neo-Nazis were held responsible. For several years the scene was considered small but particularly brutal.
There are plans next month to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in which around 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, died. Blacksmiths are meanwhile working on repairing the sign, which stands as a cynical commentary on the Holocaust, in time for the event.
Concern about the safety of the Auschwitz site, which is now a memorial and museum, has prompted local authorities to promise to install more close circuit television cameras and to review its security procedures.
Publicity surrounding the robbery has attracted financial donations from around the world.
Swedish connection
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The election ended up with a bit tricky situation. The right wing alliance kept the lead over the red-green wing but as the new party "Swedish democrats" entered the Parliament the right Alliance did not achieve full majority. This has lead to speculations about new constellations but the winning party (actually 4 parties) does not need to make any declarations until 5th October.
That the extreme party "Swedish democrats" got a bit more than 5% of the votes (3% last election in 2004) and by that entered the Parliament should not be such a surprise for the established parties. Immigration problems are obvious and surprisingly, even immigrants join the "Swedish democrat party". However, no one wants to cooperate with them so we shall see how this develops. In Denmark a similar party was elected to the Parliament in 2001 and they have, ten years later, a heavy role in the political system. So this "problem" has to be handled with care and action. Otherwise the Swedish democrats will be twice as strong in the next election. That is much the consensus summary in Sweden today.
I am having some trouble understanding this Swedish election Jahn - the names are misleading.
Which was the traditional party in power - or at least most recently?
Which is the party which has been pushing the immigrant issue?
Which part has won? Or has no one party won?
Which is the Left and which the Right parties?
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Talking to a Republican
I have had an opportunity to converse for couple of hours with a high-ranking Republican. He was an extraordinary man: talented, powerful, knowledgeable, successful, very charismatic. Talking to him and hearing his views on various world issues was a gift. Imagine a strong and confident man telling you of the ideas and plans on how to manage various problems, solve them, achieve positive change and then tackle next problems.
He exuded strength, confidence and most of all – certainty. World was clear-cut. Good-bad, ‘ours’-‘theirs’, right-wrong – it was all clear, settled, beyond doubt.
What an attractive setting, what a temptation it was to indulge oneself into his train of thought!
World was about states, non-state actors like tefforists, individuals, non-governmental organisations were of little effect. World affairs have to be managed through states and tools for doing it are known, tested and effective. Ways for dealing with threats and problems are known and it is about the will to apply oneself or one’s nation.
Such clarity! Such an irresistibly attractive certainty! Exuding confidence!
Like a siren singing and tempting: ‘Just get into my cocoon of clear and certain world view and you will be as happy and powerful as I am’.
That’s how they sell themselves and their agenda – certainty, clarity and strength to effect the required changes.
I have also talked to Democrats and basked in the warmth of their sales pitch as well. It is different, but I leave that for another time.
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I am having some trouble understanding this Swedish election Jahn - the names are misleading.
Which was the traditional party in power - or at least most recently?
Which is the party which has been pushing the immigrant issue?
Which part has won? Or has no one party won?
Which is the Left and which the Right parties?
The" Alliance" is the right wing and they have been ruling since 2006. A coalition led by Mr Reinfeldt.
The opposition is lead by the social democrats and Mrs Sahlin. Now, she have not convinced the voters that she is a better prime minister than Reinfeldt. The Alliance has been quite successful to minimize the effects of the global crisis.
Now one has to know that the Social Democrats built this country and have, with few exceptions, had the majority in politics since the 1930's. The Social Democrats made their worst electiion since 1914 or something, only getting about 30% of the votes.
The extreme party, that has their focus on the immigrant problem is the Swedish democrats, a party that have many similarities in other extreme right wing parties in Europe. The close as you can get to a fascist party, I suppose. They got about 5% of the total votes.
"Which part has won? Or has no one party won?"
The two parts are the Alliance, with four conservative parties and Mr reinfeldt as prime minister and the opposition that consist of three parties, the Social Democrats plus the left wing party (before the Berlin wall went down they was called the Communist party) and then the Green party which is by nature not either right or left wing but care for the ecological issues.
The delicate situation is that all votes are not registered yet and there can be significant changes popping up in the middle of this week. The winner so far is the prime minister party and his alliance.
I hope that this summary answers your questions.
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Talking to a Republican
Yes, I know that - I've heard them on the radio a few times. It is so seductive to just fall in line - the certainty is really something to die for.
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Thanks Jahn - that clears it up a bit for me.
The" Alliance" is the right wing and they have been ruling since 2006. A coalition led by Mr Reinfeldt.
The opposition is lead by the social democrats and Mrs Sahlin. Now, she have not convinced the voters that she is a better prime minister than Reinfeldt. The Alliance has been quite successful to minimize the effects of the global crisis.
Now one has to know that the Social Democrats built this country and have, with few exceptions, had the majority in politics since the 1930's. The Social Democrats made their worst electiion since 1914 or something, only getting about 30% of the votes.
The extreme party, that has their focus on the immigrant problem is the Swedish democrats, a party that have many similarities in other extreme right wing parties in Europe. The close as you can get to a fascist party, I suppose. They got about 5% of the total votes.
"Which part has won? Or has no one party won?"
The two parts are the Alliance, with four conservative parties and Mr reinfeldt as prime minister and the opposition that consist of three parties, the Social Democrats plus the left wing party (before the Berlin wall went down they was called the Communist party) and then the Green party which is by nature not either right or left wing but care for the ecological issues.
The delicate situation is that all votes are not registered yet and there can be significant changes popping up in the middle of this week. The winner so far is the prime minister party and his alliance.
I hope that this summary answers your questions.
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Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead
The collapse of the talks at Copenhagen took away all momentum for change and the lobbyists are back in control. So what next?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/20/climate-change-negotiations-failure
The closer it comes, the worse it looks. The best outcome anyone now expects from December's climate summit in Mexico is that some delegates might stay awake during the meetings. When talks fail once, as they did in Copenhagen, governments lose interest. They don't want to be associated with failure, they don't want to pour time and energy into a broken process. Nine years after the world trade negotiations moved to Mexico after failing in Qatar, they remain in diplomatic limbo. Nothing in the preparations for the climate talks suggests any other outcome.
A meeting in China at the beginning of October is supposed to clear the way for Cancún. The hosts have already made it clear that it's going nowhere: there are, a top Chinese climate change official explains, still "huge differences between developed and developing countries". Everyone blames everyone else for the failure at Copenhagen. Everyone insists that everyone else should move.
But nobody cares enough to make a fight of it. The disagreements are simultaneously entrenched and muted. The doctor's certificate has not been issued; perhaps, to save face, it never will be. But the harsh reality we have to grasp is that the process is dead.
In 2012 the only global deal for limiting greenhouse gas emissions – the Kyoto protocol – expires. There is no realistic prospect that it will be replaced before it elapses: the existing treaty took five years to negotiate and a further eight years to come into force. In terms of real hopes for global action on climate change, we are now far behind where we were in 1997, or even 1992. It's not just that we have lost 18 precious years. Throughout the age of good intentions and grand announcements we spiralled backwards.
Nor do regional and national commitments offer more hope. An analysis published a few days ago by the campaigning group Sandbag estimates the amount of carbon that will have been saved by the end of the second phase of the EU's emissions trading system, in 2012; after the hopeless failure of the scheme's first phase we were promised that the real carbon cuts would start to bite between 2008 and 2012. So how much carbon will it save by then? Less than one third of 1%.
Worse still, the reduction in industrial output caused by the recession has allowed big polluters to build up a bank of carbon permits which they can carry into the next phase of the trading scheme. If nothing is done to annul them or to crank down the proposed carbon cap (which, given the strength of industrial lobbies and the weakness of government resolve, is unlikely) these spare permits will vitiate phase three as well. Unlike the Kyoto protocol, the EU's emissions trading system will remain alive. It will also remain completely useless.
Plenty of nations – like Britain – have produced what appear to be robust national plans for cutting greenhouse gases. With one exception (the Maldives), their targets fall far short of the reductions needed to prevent more than two degrees of global warming.
Even so, none of them are real. Missing from the proposed cuts are the net greenhouse gas emissions we have outsourced to other countries and now import in the form of manufactured goods. Were these included in the UK's accounts, alongside the aviation, shipping and tourism gases excluded from official figures, Britain's emissions would rise by 48%. Rather than cutting our contribution to global warming by 19% since 1990, as the government boasts, we have increased it by about 29%. It's the same story in most developed nations. Our apparent success results entirely from failures elsewhere.
Hanging over everything is the growing recognition that the United States isn't going to play. Not this year, perhaps not in any year. If Congress couldn't pass a climate bill so feeble that it consisted of little but loopholes while Barack Obama was president and the Democrats had a majority in both houses, where does hope lie for action in other circumstances? Last Tuesday the Guardian reported that of 48 Republican contenders for the Senate elections in November only one accepted that man-made climate change is taking place. Who was he? Mike Castle of Delaware. The following day he was defeated by the Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell, producing a full house of science deniers. The enlightenment? Fun while it lasted.
What all this means is that there is not a single effective instrument for containing man-made global warming anywhere on earth. The response to climate change, which was described by Lord Stern as "a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen", is the greatest political failure the world has ever seen.
Nature won't wait for us. The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that the first eight months of 2010 were as hot as the first eight months of 1998 – the warmest ever recorded. But there's a crucial difference. In 1998 there was a record El Niño – the warm phase of the natural Pacific temperature oscillation. The 2010 El Niño was smaller (an anomaly peaking at roughly 1.8C, rather than 2.5C), and brief by comparison to those of recent years. Since May the oscillation has been in its cool phase (La Niña): even so, June, July and August this year were the second warmest on record. The stronger the warnings, the less capable of action we become.
Where does this leave us? How should we respond to the reality we have tried not to see: that in 18 years of promise and bluster nothing has happened? Environmentalists tend to blame themselves for these failures. Perhaps we should have made people feel better about their lives. Or worse. Perhaps we should have done more to foster hope. Or despair. Perhaps we were too fixated on grand visions. Or techno-fixes. Perhaps we got too close to business. Or not close enough. The truth is that there is not and never was a strategy certain of success, as the powers ranged against us have always been stronger than we are.
Greens are a puny force by comparison to industrial lobby groups, the cowardice of governments and the natural human tendency to deny what we don't want to see. To compensate for our weakness, we indulged a fantasy of benign paternalistic power – acting, though the political mechanisms were inscrutable, in the wider interests of humankind. We allowed ourselves to believe that, with a little prompting and protest, somewhere, in a distant institutional sphere, compromised but decent people would take care of us. They won't. They weren't ever going to do so. So what do we do now?
I don't know. These failures have exposed not only familiar political problems, but deep-rooted human weakness. All I know is that we must stop dreaming about an institutional response that will never materialise and start facing a political reality we've sought to avoid. The conversation starts here.
Right, you cannot change the world...
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Perhaps, though it was fascinating last week in Australia to see BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers come out in favour of a Carbon Tax.
Now this is no ordinary man. He is the head of the largest mining company in the world. He has never spoken publicly before to my knowledge. BHP weathered the GFC very well, as distinct from RIO.
His public expression of the inevitability of Carbon Tax in one form or another, and the need for Australia to adopt it or be left behind, sent ricochets around the world. You could hear God change chords - the debate has shifted.
Big business knows the writing is on the wall, and the sooner governments fall in line the better for them, because they are moving already - they see that global industry is now in a new era and those who drag the chain will be left behind.
Marius Kloppers with his European accent has the quiet power of a deity in the world of business. Mostly because he never says anything.
Don Argus, the recently resigned Chairman of the Board of BHP - the 'old man' of BHP - has always been in favour of a Carbon Tax, and is now engaged with the current Labor Government to review its Resources Tax.
Times are changing despite the flopping back and forth of Governments. Too late unfortunately.
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Read an interesting article last night on the rise of Asia - especially China and India.
Some experts on these economies were reported on, which gives a perspective that is being completely missed by the Western world.
USA and Europe? Forget them - they are no longer in the ball game by a degree that is simply incomprehensible. The level of economic activity along with the growth demand in Asia is of a quantity that vastly exceeds anything the world has ever seen.
They say to comprehend Asia, you have to understand what is called BFN.
B stands for 'Big' and N for 'Numbers'.
"Dines, an old China hand at just 53 thanks to starting in 1978, professes dismay at the West's conceit in its dealings with China. We just don't get it, don't understand how fundamentally the game has changed, how little China needs of us."
"An example of his examples: if you've been half tuned-in to the state of the world, you'd know that more cars are sold in China now than the US. That's already history. The insight that's worth thinking about is that car ownership penetration in China is only 3 per cent, 80 per cent of buyers are purchasing their first-ever car and 90 per cent pay cash. Not only is it a massive market, it's ungeared and untapped."
"Over the past 30 years, nearly 400 million Chinese have moved to the cities. There are some 170 Chinese cities now with more than one million residents compared with only 35 in all of Europe. The urbanisation process has a long way to run with another 300 to 400 million people expected to move from the country to the city over the next 20 years. A typical 90 square-metre apartment in China requires about six tonnes of steel. Every tonne of steel requires around 1.7 tonnes of iron ore and more than half a tonne of coking coal. You can work it out from there.
And that's just high-rise apartments. China is building railways like no-one ever has and every 10km of metropolitan subway requires about 75,000 tonnes of steel. And so on."
He also said the Commonwealth Games debacle in India is front page news, but don't let that fool you. India is a vast economy, close on the heals of China with labour-intensive growth.
The world economic power structure has shifted, and no one seems to notice. He said if you think you know about Chindia, you don't know half of it!
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"We just don't get it, don't understand how fundamentally the game has changed, how little China needs of us."
That is an interesting statement.
I have mostly been looking at India's and China's military developments and...the weird thing is...that they seem to need us quite a bit equipment-wise. No, they do not need Western equipment as such, but they need it as an example for copying. All China's latest combat aircraft have been pretty much without an exception either clones or cross-breeds of Western aircraft. There are many other newly-unveiled items of war machinery that are nothing but clones and facsimiles of things built either in Europe or the US.
Then there are cars... Well, decide for yourself:
China rolls out a Rolls-Royce Copy
http://realitypod.com/2010/04/china-rolls-royce-copy/
Luxury British car maker Rolls-Royce is considering legal action after a Chinese company unveiled a prototype limousine that is a dead ringer for the Rolls-Royce Phantom and which would sell for about a fraction of the price.
Geely Automobile, one of China’s major independent car makers, launched its GE – which stand for “Geely Excellence” – at last week’s Shanghai Auto Show, and the sedan attracted much interest for its resemblance to the Rolls-Royce model.
The glossy black Geely GE, still a prototype, comes with some of the Phantom’s signature features, including the Grecian temple grille, down-sloping rear deck, and even a badge that looks like the iconic Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy winged mascot.
The GE also comes with a knock-off of the Rolls-Royce’s “starry-night” headliner – the interior roof detail above the passenger seat, which features hundreds of fibre-optic lights to give the impression of a star-spangled night sky.
“In one sense it’s quite complimentary, but we have to be protective of our brand image,” Rolls-Royce spokesman Andrew Ball told The News, a British newspaper based in Portsmouth. “We’re having a bit of a chat with our lawyers about where we could take it.”
On its website, Geely also says the GE is “reinventing the classic”, without saying which classic car it is reinventing.
Geely spokesman Zhang Xiaoshu told the AFP news agency that the GE was set to go on sale within three years, probably for about 1 million yuan ($200,000), which could be up to a sixth less than a Phantom, depending on Chinese taxes.
The GE has one key feature not found in the Phantom: the passenger compartment has just one seat, dubbed the throne. The front compartment seats two.
Zhang admitted that there were some similarities but insisted the GE was an original.
“As it were, they are actually different … people may feel they are the same at the first glance, but the details are certainly different,” he said.
ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM
BUILT: Goodwood, Sussex
PRICE: £250,000
ENGINE: Mammoth 6.75litre V12
LENGTH: 19ft 2 inches
TOP SPEED: Artificially restricted to 150mph / 0-62mph: 5.7 seconds
FEATURES:
Original ‘Grecian-style’ large grille. Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, also dubbed ‘The Flying Lady’. Romantic ‘starlight Headliner’ in roof to emulate night sky. Drip dry umbrellas hidden in rear doors. 9 standard wood veneers. 44,000 different exterior colours.
Cashmere blend headliner. Lambswool rugs Special soft leather interior
THE GEELY EXCELLENCE
BUILT: Zhejiang, China
PRICE: circa £30,000
ENGINE: 3.5litre V6
LENGTH: 17ft 6 inches.
TOP SPEED: 110mph (estimated) 0-62mph: 10 seconds (estimate)
FEATURES:
Single rear ‘throne’. Pastiche ‘Grecian-style’ large grille. Flying Lady-style mascot
Romantic ‘starlight Headliner’ in roof to emulate night sky. Glass interior divider
Pure wool carpet. ‘Six star’ safety. Cigar store. Refrigerator. Wine cabinet
Rolls:
(http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/real-rolls-royce.jpg)
(http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/article-1172635-0499205E000005DC-371_224x423.jpg)
Clone:
(http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Geely_GE-2711898.jpg)
(http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lady.jpg)
Is it all about Chinese being in need of 'us' - the 'other' - to identify with or against? Hard to tell, but the more I look at what they do technology and society-wise, the more it looks as if they need somebody to compare with, to copy from and to better. Take 'us' away from them and...
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I suppose you are aware Juhani of the huge technological 'stealing' that China has been doing intensively for the past ten or twenty years especially. It is not just factories setting up next door to the top brand name production factories in China, making direct duplicates. It is also the IT hacking that has predominantly targeted Corporate Intellectual Property secrets.
First thing I would say is that the artical I read explained:
"the United States' share of China's exports is 20 per cent so the much ballyhooed American consumer is only good for 0.3 per cent of China's GDP growth - growth that runs along in double digits or close to it even in the Great Recession.
That's only part of it. The stuff China exports to the US is mainly low value-added – clothing, toys, electronic gadgets. About half of China's exports now go to the developing world and that half has higher value-added content – power stations, mining machinery and the like."
Meaning this has moved from imitation to high level production and now export - even to the US, California is looking to purchase trains from China - no doubt copies of Western trains.
Second thing, China has a big problem with creative, innovative thought. I could go into lengths about this, but suffice to say their entire culture from a long way back has been about reproducing what is asked for, and reproducing the works of the 'masters' whoever they may be. Julie's Chinese students plagiarise shamelessly, but it wasn't long before we discovered they are taught to do this from birth - imitation of others is what they do. New thinking is strongly discouraged.
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Second thing, China has a big problem with creative, innovative thought. I could go into lengths about this, but suffice to say their entire culture from a long way back has been about reproducing what is asked for, and reproducing the works of the 'masters' whoever they may be. Julie's Chinese students plagiarise shamelessly, but it wasn't long before we discovered they are taught to do this from birth - imitation of others is what they do. New thinking is strongly discouraged.
Precisely, that is what is so very strange about them. It is as if they do not need 'us' (as Westerners) to fuel their economy and fill their wallets, but they need 'us' to show them where to go technology- and society-vise.
If there is time, it might be interesting to take a look at their strategic thought in comparison to, say, the US. The US talks about domination, changing and shaping the world. Harnessing opportunities, changing and being ready for change (at least at the declaratory level).
Chinese aim at stability and control. Everything must be controlled. World must be stable. No sudden turns, no unexpected events. That's why quite a few observers are not that worried about them having such a large share of the US debt - they would not go radical about it as they are too concerned with stability.
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Exactly - I have been fascinated to observe how they exercise their new economic power in other countries. Julie and I have had extensive debates about this.
One one hand they are not interested in changing the 'way of life' of other countries as the USA has done, but on the other hand they are obsessed with 'Soft Power'. But their Soft Power is not like that of the USA. India by contrast has unfathomable depths of Soft Power resources (eg Bollywood and their colourful culture) but seem to not get the point they should employ it strategically.
On the one hand China's economic influence in other nations (being watched closely in the Pacific) shows no signs of being interested in influencing anything except pure business. And their pure business has no environmental or social conscience. But on the other hand they shamelessly fund ruling parties in those countries, mainly by building new political or military buildings for them. But they don't seem to care which party they support - it's all about economic leverage in the end.
The big issue is the 'string of pearls' where they are surrounding India with highly funded infrastructure. If you look carefully however, it is not so much India they are trying to surround, although they do often speak of destroying India's power, it is securing economic resource supply lines that they are concentrating on.
What is causing the West to be caught off-guard, is that they are not exercising their economic power in the way the West would expect. So the Western powers are a bit confused about what is going on, and don't know quite know how to respond. This has huge security implications for USA's over-blown military budget.
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Some Westerners say that Chinese are 'value-free', i.e. interested only in making money. There are over 800,000 Chinese working in various African countries and Chinese soldiers have been witnessed in Zimbabwe quelling protests. As you said, in return for resources they supply friendly regimes with nearly everything, including their own military power.
Some Republicans have claimed that AFRICOM was established for countering Chinese influence in Africa. Yet the issue of US assistance being 'value-ladden' in contrast of Chinese 'nearly unconditional' help is a huge problem for Americans. They just can't bypass their own Cold War time legislation tying assistance to export of democracy.
Somebody is getting, is or has been stuffed, indeed.
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Read the reports of your very own SÄPO. You could also read annual reports of Baltic security services. It is all there - in black and white. Primary sources.
In Estonia, for example, these extreme right movements really began to flourish only after tightening contacts with Swedish neonazis.
I do not deny that there exist Swedish nazist, but they are rare.
Ok, one of them got elected with 102 votes (2,7%) in a municipality of 5000 inhabitants.
As we say over here, the Nazi ideas are dead. It belong to the past. After all we have a long tradition of peace and democracy in this country that is rooted in the mass conciouseness.
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Swedish connection
Yes there was,
but we talk about criminal individuals, not political parties.
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The delicate situation is that all votes are not registered yet and there can be significant changes popping up in the middle of this week. The winner so far is the prime minister party and his alliance.
Unfortunately, there have been some mistreat with the votes here and there so at least one county is under consideration of re-election.
The Reinfeldt government has been only some hundred votes from majority and question marks are still at hand how this shall develop.
If there gonna be a minority government some strategies has been suggested to not let the Swedish democrats getting any significant role. As it appears now, the Red Green coalition will not be invited to the government, the Green party is the closest party to get invited, if so.
So I am afraid that it will take another week before the election is settled in Sweden.
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Talking of Nazis, I heard two things about them recently.
The first is a curiosity. A local film critic (who is quite good actually ) reviewing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel - something about playing with fire - said at first she was disappointed with TGWTDT because it left so much out of the book. One of things she said it left out was Stieg Larsson's account of the Nazis in Sweden. I have no idea what that means, as I haven't read the book.
She saw the film again on TV and really liked it, so long as she treated it as different to the book. She also liked the sequel about fire.
The second was most interesting. This man (who writes articles for the New Republican occasionally, which really put me on guard, but he did come across very sensible and reasonable - not a raving neo-liberal or anything like that) spoke of how during WWII, the Nazis in Germany, under the direct support of Hitler, set up a project with the Muslim Brotherhood, from Egypt.
Now you would need to know who the Muslim Brotherhood are. If you don't, then enough to know that the entire Islamist extremism had its first manifestations from the Muslim Brotherhood. They wrote the main philosophy of the movement which has become recently controversial as one of the main thinkers, who I believe is still in prison, wrote a recant of many of the founding principles. I expect things have move too far now for his recant to have much influence, and especially as the Taliban and the Saudi wahabis now do the major generation of Islamist influence.
But the thing this man pointed out, was that the Nazi-Islam project was successful in reworking basic Nazi fascist principles into an Islamic paradigm. Those early founders of the Muslim Brotherhood returned to Egypt infused with new ideas. What is amazing is that it was reworked so well, that we don't now see any connection, but if you think carefully you can see that modern Islamist thought is really just European fascism dressed up in Arab clothes.
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As we say over here, the Nazi ideas are dead. It belong to the past. After all we have a long tradition of peace and democracy in this country that is rooted in the mass conciouseness.
What you say, is words, what is happening in Sweden, is re-animating of this thinking. Extreme right in parliament and neonazi on local council talk of different feelings and thoughts among population. Why else would they vote for these extreme rightists (first neonazi elected since 1940s, i.e. apparently you have had nazis in charge before) and not vote for that traditional ruling party of Sweden called social democrats?
Peace and democracy in ethnically and culturally homogenous country is a common phenomenon. Now, however, when Europe is increasingly multiethnic and multicultural, you see all that democractic paradise and tolerance evaporating.
As I said, Sweden has a largest neonazi movement among Nordic countries according to SÄPO (http://www.thelocal.se/20508/20090707/). They might be rare in comparison to other views, but the size has its effect and considering Swedish historical flirt with eugenics and other stuff, I would not be too surprised to see neonazis getting more and more support.
You say, you have the mass consciousness of people turned democractic. Human psyche can never be fixated on anything permanently (except in cases of some illnesses). I doubt the irreversibility of democractic Sweden and I think it is being reversed right under our eyes, right now. If Sweden were a paradise as you say, why would Jews leave Malmö?
http://www.thelocal.se/24632/20100127/
Malmö's mayor seems to live according to some irrelevant hyper-democratic principles (opposing both Zionism and anti-Semitism, with the emphasis apparently on the former), while things go sour right under his nose:
http://www.thelocal.se/25228/20100226/
On top of that irony, Mona Sahlin, who tried to discipline that hyper-democractic mayor: http://www.thelocal.se/25210/20100225/ ...lost the elections.
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What psychology can teach us about our response to climate change
Calls to 'save the planet' or 'do it for our grandchildren' do not engage people, says psychology professor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/sep/23/climate-change-psychology-response-scepticism
Tonight at the Royal Society's lecture hall in central London, Prof David Uzzell will present this year's joint British Academy/British Psychological Society annual lecture. The title of the talk is one that should interest anyone keenly involved in the climate debate: "Psychology and Climate Change: collective solutions to a global problem".
Uzzell is based at the University of Surrey's Department of Psychology and was appointed as the UK's first Professor of Environmental Psychology in 2000. I spoke to him ahead of his lecture and asked him to summarise its themes:
Psychology has a lot to offer the climate change debate. To date, the emphasis from psychologists has largely focused on behaviour-change strategies. This makes sense: if you are interested in changing people's personal behaviour, a psychologist is probably the person you need to speak to. But my concern over the last few years is just how effective this is. It is effective up to a point, but is it really going to bring in the returns that we need to address the very serious problems of climate change?
My line is that we can try to change behaviour, but it might be more effective to change the conditions that encourage our behaviours. There is a debate being had within psychology that we should aim for environmentally significant behaviour as opposed to environmentally convenient behaviour. Not focusing on turning lights off etc, but instead concentrating on things such as buying energy-efficient appliances.
But I would take this further: psychologists now need to work with other disciplines, such as engineering, sociology etc. We need to have a much better understanding of the conditions which lead to unsustainable behaviour. It's no good the government saying to us that for journeys less than a mile you should walk or use public transport because when you are trying to juggle demands, such as your job and children within limited time, you are probably going to take your car. We need to change the conditions rather than attack individual behaviours.
There's been a lot of finger-wagging and people resent that. They also notice the contradictions. One of the things that came out of a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs survey in 2007 was that we would do more if the government did more. We see double standards. People also need feedback on how they're doing. People need to know explicitly what the benefits are of what they are being asked to do. People are not interested in concepts such as "saving the planet" or "doing it for their grandchildren". People want impacts that are concrete, immediate and personal to them. They need to see how it's benefiting them. If they are being asked to make - what they see in their terms, at least - as a sacrifice, they need to see what the benefit is to them.
Much of this might seem like basic common sense, but Uzzell says he will also talk about why people choose to "distance" themselves from climate change:
Work over the past 15 years or so has shown that people think the environment is worse the further away it is from them. We've seen the same results in Britain, Slovakia, Australia, and Ireland. We've done it with children, with urban people, rural people. We consistently get the same results. The problem - both cause and effect - is always somewhere else.
We've also found that people think the problems will be worse in the future. And when we ask what the causes of the environmental problems are we get interesting results. If you ask people to rank causes, you find the highest scores for 'inaction by government' or the 'actions of industries'. You also see the 'industrialisation of developing countries', the 'poverty of developing countries', and 'overpopulation' as ranking highly. Overall, what you see is a tendency to distance the causes from themselves.
Rejecting climate change as a problem is, in a way, a coping strategy. Another aspect is that recent events, such as the UEA emails affair, the failure of COP15 at Copenhagen etc, give people a convenient reason to discount climate change as a threat. It gives them a permission to deny.
We shouldn't be surprised that people see climate change as remote and impersonal to them. We shouldn't be talking about how our lives will become somehow poorer through climate change, but instead be talking about it could help us to become healthier, happier and enable us to live in a better environment.
Ultimately, we have to present alternatives and opportunities. If there is no other genuine option than to drive your car, then people will continue to drive. We know as psychologists that people are resistant to change so we must address this.
It's fascinating to see some of the "psychological phenomenon" that the authors highlight to help explain why so many people chose to reject climate change as a risk. I'll list their headings here, but do try and read the paper (http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2010BAMS2957.1) for the full explanations:
* Psychological nonequivalence of mathematically equivalent information
* Influence of affective processing of information
* Discounting the importance of future events
* The differential impact of losses and gains
* Construction of mental models for representing problems
* Reliance on confirmatory evidence
In conclusion, the authors also present four examples of "food for thought" to any climate scientist wishing to disseminate their findings to the wider community:
1) Sampling issues: clarity about the source and representativeness of samples of evidence that your audience and you are using to form inferences and draw conclusions.
2) Framing issues: methods for presenting science should engage cognitive and emotional processing, in a balanced manner, and try to make distant future outcomes concrete.
3) Comprehending the problem and solution: communicators should take into account the "mental model" held by members of their audience and tailor presentations accordingly.
4) Consensus building: the process and public perception of reaching a consensus about the science needs to be effective, transparent, and objective.
Food for thought, indeed.
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This bullshit about Sweden is actually quite annoying. We are not the best society in the world but I can assure that the Nazi movement is completely dead political here. The Nazis that still operates are criminals. And only a guy that has his living based on fear in the society, as believing in terrorism as a real threat, would believe 100% what our security police is telling. They are making moneyon the same fear.
If you would like to do something to reduce pre-mature mortality in the western society, fighting terrorism is a peanut. Fight obesity instead. Do not scare people of a threat that is close to invisible an uncalcuable in mortality statistics. No one has died because of terrorism in Sweden since 1975. And none has died in the US the last 20 years because of "real tefforism".
The original Nazi movement in Germany was a Death cult. And such cults will always attract people.
What is naive in politics today is the "surprise" that the Swedish Democrats got in to the parliament. There is a 4% barrier and they got 3.5% in last election (2006) and 5.3 in this. Big surprise for the established parties.
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As I said, Sweden has a largest neonazi movement among Nordic countries according to SÄPO (http://www.thelocal.se/20508/20090707/). They might be rare in comparison to other views, but the size has its effect and considering Swedish historical flirt with eugenics and other stuff, I would not be too surprised to see neonazis getting more and more support.
I know Juhani that you think Sweden is shit but that do not give you the right to spread stinking lies or far out speculations.
when Europe is increasingly multiethnic and multicultural, you see all that democractic paradise and tolerance evaporating.
In the same sentence please also mention that Sweden have the largest proportion of immigrants of all the Nordic countries. And what about Your country? How many people from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia have you in your neighborhood? Figures very welcome. Old Sweden is taking the big shit from the US aggressions by giving immirants from countries at war a decent place to live. A fact that you have not mentioned at all, how is that in scientific objecitivity mr prof?
And we (I say we but I do not agree) have tried to try to care for refugees from many different infected parts of the world and that has obviously a price = Immigration alien parties get into the parliament. People are tired of the segregation and the increase of criminality that this unintegration has resulted in.
But you make it to a problem of a new direction into fascism and less democracy. As we say here - you are out bi-cycling. You are not giving the whole picture so you can continue to spread your lies and far out speculaations that feed your role -to bring fear into society instead of truth.
You do not share this immigrant problem in the Baltic, do You? On the other hand you got your own problem, recession. And being angry on the Swedish banks for the hype that you (and probaly them) created.
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I rest my case. :)
Now SÄPO is generating lies.
Warrior clinging to an image of his country that is 30-40 years old and refusing to see it for what it is in the 21st century.
You haven't got a shot for freedom if you stay attached like this.
Remember, one of the fundamental truths is that warrior has no country, no nationality, no...?
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I rest my case. :)
Now SÄPO is generating lies.
Warrior clinging to an image of his country that is 30-40 years old and refusing to see it for what it is in the 21st century.
You haven't got a shot for freedom if you stay attached like this.
Remember, one of the fundamental truths is that warrior has no country, no nationality, no...?
I am not clinging, I only try to describe what is around.
You feed on lies regarding tefforism, your whole position is about to keep that threat alive. The big problem in society is not tefforism, it is obesity.
Obesity kill people, tefforism does not. Become real, face reality and not SF.
Now - dear E, please answer, which you so often refuse to do, How many immigrants do you have in your country from, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan? In percent of your very, very tiny population?
Sweden got about half a million refugees from these, and similar countries. That is about five percent of the population here and then we have another 5 percent that is older regarding the time for coming to this country. So about 10 percent of the inhabitants in Sweden is refugees or immigrants the two last decades, any comment professor?
Could this rather large proportion of refugees have any impact of how people vote when they see and experience that these people does not (have the capability to) integrate and become full members of the society? That we as social engineers, and well educated also regard this new segregation as a social problem that the Swedish society has failed to address.
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Now SÄPO is generating lies.
Well, when do you know they tell the truth? It is all secrets - you know!
After all you are an expert in the field. PRAVDA!
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I am not clinging, I only try to describe what is around.
You feed on lies regarding tefforism, your whole position is about to keep the feed. The big problem in society is not tefforism, it is obesity.
Obesity kill people, tefforism does not.
Now - dear E, please answer, which you so often refus to do, how many immigrants do you have in your country from, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. In percent of you very, very little population??
We got about half a million refugees from these countries. That is about five percent of the population and then we have another 5 percent that is older regarding the time for coming to this country. So about 10 percent of the inhabitants in Sweden is refugees or immigrants the two last decades, any comment professor?
Don't you see at all how attached you are to the 'old Svedala' - the country without corruption, etc.
The country without corruption. Is that true some may ask?
The country with the greatest proportion of immigrants from Iran and Iraq. is that true some may ask?
The country of equity.Is that true some may ask?
The country of Peace and all the best qualities that you can name. Is that necessary some may ask? (to name all of the good qualities that this little country have).
Pretty ridiculous assertions, I would say. A country without corruption? Do you want examples from Sweden?
Greatest proportion of your immigrants are from Iran and Iraq? It seems to have been your choice to take them in and now rightist parties want it to stop and possibly some of them back home.
Equity? Capitalist country of equity? Rightist governments are generally against equity. They are in charge.
Peace and the best qualities? You are no more peaceful than, say, France. So what?
But you have already totally killed any possibility of discussion by dismissing your own security service. You do not expect seriously that I would discuss any of this any further? :)
I just did pointing out some things that are quite prominent now. The rest is up to you.
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Don't you see at all how attached you are to the 'old Swedala' - the country without corruption, etc.
Pretty ridiculous assertions, I would say. A country without corruption? Do you want examples from Sweden?
Greatest proportion of your immigrants are from Iran and Iraq? It seems to have been your choice to take them in and now rightist parties want it to stop and possibly some of the back home.
Equity? Capitalist country of equity? Rightist governmenst are generally against equity. They are in charge.
Peace and the best qualities? You are no more peaceful than, say, France. So what?
But you have already totally killed any possibility of discussion by dismissing your own security service. You do not expect seriously that I would discuss any of this any further? :)
I just did pointing out some things that are quite prominent now. The rest is up to you.
Sorry,
but I did not hear the immigration figures from your country.
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But you have already totally killed any possibility of discussion by dismissing your own security service. You do not expect seriously that I would discuss any of this any further? :)
So what is that eminent with our security service!?
After all - you are talking about the Swedish security service, and that must be shit likewise. :P
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Sorry,
but I did not hear the immigration figures from your country.
You won't either.
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Guys dont argue over this. You're friends!
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Guys dont argue over this. You're friends!
testosterone ;)
Jahn has to stick up for himself against Juhani's bullying attempts.
Now you wouldn't want them to be just a couple of poodlefakers, would you Ellen?
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testosterone ;)
Jahn has to stick up for himself against Juhani's bullying attempts.
Now you wouldn't want them to be just a couple of poodlefakers, would you Ellen?
http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=9718.msg66452;topicseen#msg66452
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testosterone ;)
Jahn has to stick up for himself against Juhani's bullying attempts.
Precisely. And in the process come into terms with the fact that 'old Svedala' has until 1976 had laws enforcing eugenics as well. Not to mention the fact that Sweden is only second to Hitler's Germany in numbers of their own sterilised people per capita. Social democrats have been well into cooking that dish: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/mar1999/euge-19m.shtml (if the source is doubtful, let me know and I will find an iron-hard undeniable source - this information is directly from Swedish archives :) ).
I have never liked hypocrisy...
Preacher should always check the mirror...
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Precisely. And in the process come into terms with the fact that 'old Svedala' has until 1976 had laws enforcing eugenics as well. Not to mention the fact that Sweden is only second to Hitler's Germany in numbers of their own sterilised people per capita. Social democrats have been well into cooking that dish: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/mar1999/euge-19m.shtml (if the source is doubtful, let me know and I will find an iron-hard undeniable source - this information is directly from Swedish archives :) ).
I have never liked hypocrisy...
Preacher should always check the mirror...
History, history ... one cannot take the 1920's to 1940's as a representative to what is up today. A Norwegian co-worker just told us that they found a handful of Nazi coat-tail symbols and the like, when cleaning up the attic at home (in Norway).
As for your screwed up link, one of the few things that appear to be correct is:
"The Swedish Institute for Racial Biology was opened in Stockholm in the early 1920s. It emerged as part of a worldwide interest in eugenics--the notion that human stock could be improved by selective breeding, much like cattle."
And
" in the 1950s, the rate of sterilisations doubled. In some cases, sterilisation was also made a condition of obtaining an abortion.
Now in Psychiatry they still gives ECT treatment (Electric Chockwave Treament) as in the Ken Kesey book and movie the “Cuckoo’s nest” - and how beneficial is that? Kick the TV if it doesn't work.
One has to remember that the Social Democrats never have been pro-Nazi. They are a left wing party that abroad sometimes is confused with communists. Now we got our own communist party "The Left party", although even they have washed away the communist label as it, after 1989-90, is not any option, to become a Soviet ally and the like.
But what has all this castration business to do with politics and Swedish democracy? The authorities has made mistakes or even sharper, they have done criminal acts toward innocent people. Acts that noone citizen have voted for or approved to. Acts that were hidden for the public as it was made in institutions toward retarded and in some cases toward criminals.
In the mirror? Well, well, I would never vote for anyone that recommended castration. But as a coincidence, in our coming report to the government (top secret results of course, please do not tell anyone) we do not include studies that have treatment that castrate the offenders (child molesters) with the aim to reduce recidivism of re-offense. We exclude these studies simply because of the reason that such treatment is not used any more (in Sweden that is, cannot gurantee how frequent it could be elsewhere). No matter the positive outcome of castration for reducing re-offense in sex crime.
That is my an my group's mirror regarding such nasty things.
As a sidenote regarding the case of child molesters there are this voluntary, some time called, "chemical castration" which is a medical therapy that minimizes sexual interest. But so far this treatment is only offered on a free will basis (best results then). And if the convicted end the treatment, they will go back to normal status, so the treatment is both voluntary and reversible. There you got a glimpse of Sweden Today. What we study is the effects of Cognitive Beahaviour Therapy (CBT). Sleep well (the demons in Sweden has vanished).
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Do not compare electirc shock therapy to compulsory sterilisation on the basis of complaint of neighbour, the latter could be considered a crime against humanity. There is quite a bit of dirty laundry to wash in that old moralising Sweden living in self-deception or then just cynically hiding or whitewashing all these racist moments of the past.
History never goes away, but leaves imprint on subconscious and some attitudes persist.
How does Sweden fare here?: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/ar07p2_en.pdf
or in 2010:
In Sweden, while an increasing number of Swedes reported positive experiences with immigrants, attitudes towards Muslims have become more hostile, and Swedes are increasingly suggesting that the headscarf should be banned in workplaces.
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/AR_2010-conf-edition_en.pdf
So you still consider the rise of these neonazis an accident? Your social democrats with their desire to control society do not differ that much from neonazis.
Do you want to make a bet that in 2011 things will escalate/worsen further?
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testosterone ;)
Jahn has to stick up for himself against Juhani's bullying attempts.
Now you wouldn't want them to be just a couple of poodlefakers, would you Ellen?
Well I dont know what a poodlefaker is honey, lol :D :D
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Well I dont know what a poodlefaker is honey, lol :D :D
Somebody pretending to be a poodle, while being a jackal. ;)
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History never goes away, but leaves imprint on subconscious and some attitudes persist. How does Sweden fare here?: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/ar07p2_en.pdf
Do not compare electirc shock therapy to compulsory sterilisation on the basis of complaint of neighbour, the latter could be considered a crime against humanity. There is quite a bit of dirty laundry to wash in that old moralising Sweden living in self-deception or then just cynically hiding or whitewashing all these racist moments of the past.
So you still consider the rise of these neonazis an accident? Your social democrats with their desire to control society do not differ that much from neonazis. ;)
From here, my humble observations is first:
the people that engage in neo-nazi parties are in the age of 15 to 25, that these young men (because it is about 98% men) do not differ very much from football huligans. Meaning that they are prone to assualting other 15 to 25 year old men.
Second: i would say that the neo-nazi movement (of 15 to 25 year old men) was stronger in the mid 1990's. it appears that the geist has left this nazi-wing since then.
There is this "White Power Music" (Vit makt) that emanates from Sweden and can be regarded as a "problem". However, "selling music" is a long tradition in Sweden. We have ABBA, Europe and many artists and groups that make millions if not billions in tax for the Swedish society, it is worldwide a great seller. So if White Power and the neo-nazis has 0.5 percent of that market, i would not be surprised. It is political music.
But as I said, there seem to be less activity now regarding that type of music and even less activity among the neo-nazi parties, compared to 15 years ago. This despite the fact that one Nazi actually got elected with 120 votes into the leading of one community with 5000 inhabitants.
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You won't either.
Why is that?
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But as I said, there seem to be less activity now regarding that type of music and even less activity among the neo-nazi parties, compared to 15 years ago. This despite the fact that one Nazi actually got elected with 120 votes into the leading of one community with 5000 inhabitants.
Wrong, statistics prove it firmly...and elections as well.
The problem is that your (neo)nazi social democrats, while liking to control society do not deliver on ethnic purity. The rightists at least promise it openly. But they would not deliver as well - so the violence will keep escalating.
Nowadays nobody can keep a lid on society like your social dems and others used. Chaos will keep growing.
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Why is that?
Because you were/are unable to argue - the only valid sources are Jahn Mikael's sources and if he does not like other sources, they are crap. Be they SÄPO, Swedish king or God himself. ;)
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Do not compare electirc shock therapy to compulsory sterilisation on the basis of complaint of neighbour, the latter could be considered a crime against humanity.
Of course, it was a crime, at least it was utterly paternalistic without any support from the population. And that is the question here, why do you pursue this event? It was not any political consensus about that maltreatment, it has nothing to do at all with the elections in Sweden! It has only to do with your discontent with Sweden and I hope the other members can identify this "charge".
Your social democrats with their desire to control society do not differ that much from neonazis.
Now the Social Democrats consist of people that are very reasonable and friendly. If they should hear from a person that they were alike neo-nazis they would put up an UFO/maniak warning.
There is no such connection. Perhaps I should have a seminar at your institution to clear out a few misunderstandings? heh, the Social Democrats (our whole labor force in the 1950's) equal neo-nazists, where does such ideas come from????
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The problem is that your (neo)nazi social democrats,
Don't you confuse them with the Swedish Democrats. Because they are anti-muslim and accused of being fascist.
Social democrats are Olof Palme, the Palestine case, Cuba as friend and so on - is it that that disturbe you. The Commie connection that the Social democrates have had.
I know that you hate the Soviets and admire the Americans. Is that were the shoe gets too tight and the Social democrats become Nazist?
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Well I dont know what a poodlefaker is honey, lol :D :D
Neither did I - I don't think there's a comparable word in US idiom...
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Of course, it was a crime, at least it was utterly paternalistic without any support from the population. And that is the question here, why do you pursue this event? It was not any political consensus about that maltreatment, it has nothing to do at all with the elections in Sweden! It has only to do with your discontent with Sweden and I hope the other members can identify this "charge".
Without support of population??? Until 1976??? Are you...??? If population/social dems were against it...??? You must be kidding me...? Where is your clear thinking, old man? There were always neighbours who complained...quietly...secretly...
Now the Social Democrats consist of people that are very reasonable and friendly. If they should hear from a person that they were alike neo-nazis they would put up an UFO/maniak warning.
There is no such connection. Perhaps I should have a seminar at your institution to clear out a few misunderstandings? heh, the Social Democrats (our whole labor force in the 1950's) equal neo-nazists, where does such ideas come from????
That friendliness is their way of control. Nice way to domesticate people, condition them socially. You must be friendly to anybody immigrating into Sweden, you must conform to their rules. You cannot deviate, you must live in that aquarium of theirs regardless of what you think.
As to the structure of your labour market, then any knowing political scientist would say there is quite a bit in common with how Nazi Germany operated, how governments made deals with big business that state would grow high quality labour force in return for reasonably high taxes. That has been traditional set-up in Sweden. NATIONAL socialism...and in 1950s sterilisation was at its peak... ;)
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Don't you confuse them with the Swedish Democrats. Because they are anti-muslim and accused of being fascist.
Social democrats are Olof Palme, the Palestine case, Cuba as friend and so on - is it that that disturbe you. The Commie connection that the Social democrates have had.
I know that you hate the Soviets and admire the Americans. Is that were the shoe gets too tight and the Social democrats become Nazist?
You still cannot argue. ;)
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Somebody pretending to be a poodle, while being a jackal. ;)
LOL Thanks Juhani :)
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The message is not particularly new nor original, but the source is interesting. Kogi wisemen Mamos spend their entire childhood in the dark.
Their way of looking at things as at natural materials reorganised is really a thing I like.
Not many people in developed countries are able to see their new cars this way.
Save the planet – a message from another world
The first member of a remote Colombian tribe ever to set foot in Britain brings a stark ecological warning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/27/kogi-warn-the-west
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/9/27/1285605038442/Jacinto-Zabareta-in-north-006.jpg)
Jacinto Zabareta in north London and members of the Kogi people in Colombia. Photograph: Guardian
Jacinto Zarabata sits in a suburban back garden in north London and unselfconsciously uses a stick to probe the inside of a gourd, which is shaped like a rather phallic mushroom with a bright yellow cap. The first member of the Kogi people of Colombia ever to visit Britain is wearing traditional rough cotton clothes and has a cloth bag slung over each shoulder as he chews toasted coca leaves.
It would be easy to view Jacinto as a noble savage; an exotic being from a pristine indigenous culture still living in impenetrable pockets of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world. But this small, self-assured spokesman for the Kogi soon subverts that stereotype. As he answers my first question in fluent Spanish, he delves into one bag, extracts a camera and takes a photograph of me.
Jacinto has made the journey to Britain because the Kogi have embarked on an unusual and ambitious mission. They are making a movie about their way of life – but not for themselves, as part of some kind of do-gooding community workshop; it is for us, and it carries an uncompromising message. One of very few indigenous American people to resist the ravages of Spanish conquistadors, Christian missionaries and, now, eco-tourists, militias, drug lords and heavy industry, the Kogi have observed frightening changes to their homeland in recent decades. The glaciers are melting, storms have increased in ferocity, there are landslides and floods, followed by droughts and deforestation. The Kogi, who live by a complex set of spiritual beliefs, are the "elder brother" and guardians of this, the heart of the earth, and they believe we in the west ("little brother") are destroying the planet. They have come to warn us, before it is too late.
Jacinto, who is a spokesperson for the Mamos, the Kogi spiritual leaders who have a unique wisdom forged by an entire childhood spent living in the dark, arrived in London the previous night. He is staying with Alan Ereira, who made a BBC documentary, The Heart of the World, about their life 20 years ago. What are Jacinto's first impressions of our society?
"The first thing that is noticeable to me is that this is still the world," he says. "What's visible is construction, what you have made. This is not something we, the Kogi, are used to seeing. You give precedence to the use of a thing rather than its source. That's the intellectual error. Ultimately, it's all nature." From Jacinto's viewpoint, when we glance at a car we might assess its cost and the status conferred on its driver. We don't recognise it as a clever piece of engineering of resources that once lay inside the earth.
The Kogi are witnessing some of this extraction first hand. Coal mining in the Sierra Nevada has boomed in recent decades (fuelled in part by the demand for cheap foreign coal in post-miners' strike Britain). Over centuries, they survived the wars waged on them by retreating further into the mountains, through dense rainforest and cloud forest dubbed "El Infierno" by settlers. There are still no roads to the Kogi's traditional settlements (Jacinto's home does not exist on official maps), but global capitalism is slowly conquering the Kogi's isolation.
Not that Jacinto does not embrace victimhood. He highlights the positive developments for their culture. When Ereira's film was broadcast around the world in 1990, there were 12,000 Kogi. Now there are 18,000. After centuries witnessing their lands being plundered, they have been returned significant traditional areas and sacred sites by the Colombian government. Last month Juan Manuel Santos, the country's new president, visited the Kogi to be blessed by the Mamos before his official inauguration. "In a sense, the Kogi are trying to take over the Colombian government and build a sense of responsibility into the president himself," says Ereira. "The Kogi are saying, 'How are we going to sort the world out?' They must be the most proactive indigenous people on earth."
In Ereira's documentary, the Kogi's message was ahead of its time: they warned of climate change, and that "little brother's" (the west's) hunger for energy and material possessions was "cutting out of the eyes and ears" of the great mother (the earth). But we didn't listen. And so, 18 months ago, Ereira received a phone call out of the blue from the Kogi (Spanish-speakers such as Jacinto use mobile phones when they visit westernised cities; there is little reception in the mountains), demanding his immediate presence. Ereira thenreturned to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, trekking on a mule through the rainforest. He was taken to sacred sites he had never been allowed to visit before and the Kogi, some of whom had received training with video cameras and broadcast a series of seven-minute documentaries on Colombian television, explained their new film-making mission.
When Ereira returned, he found the Kogi's heartland remarkably unchanged. "You don't see the transformation you see in Amazonian traditional societies, where you have an impoverished western urban culture in indigenous villages. You don't see the T-shirts and baseball caps. The Kogi's identification with their culture is phenomenally strong. The belief of the Mamos in their responsibility for taking care of the world is absolute, and it's the duty and function of the rest of their society to ensure they do that. That's not broken down."
But it has been changed by the growing relationship between the indigenous community and the government. Increasingly, a few salaried Kogi who speak Spanish and work as local officials have the power to get things done. Ereira wonders if this will undermine the traditional authority of the Mamos – and if the Kogi's unique way of thinking is at risk. "It's a perception of reality which is contained in their language and is utterly different from ours. My fear is that the moment you mess with it in any way, it's lost. You probably can't hold that experience if you speak Spanish because the conceptual world is totally different. You're at risk of losing this last trace, this philosophical reserve."
Jacinto, however, does not fear for the future of Kogi culture. "There has always been an attempt to bring other ideas and thoughts into our way of life," he says. Doesn't he worry that the Kogi will be drawn to the bright lights of westernised cities, such as nearby Santa Marta? "No," he says. "The Mamos have authority over people. People can experience other cultures but they have an obligation to return. If they don't, the authorities are obliged to go down [the mountain] and get them." Doesn't Jacinto crave cars, houses and restaurants? "At this particular moment there isn't that need," he says, gravely. "But I can envisage a time when we may adopt certain things."
One thing they have adopted is filmmaking – the Kogi believe a movie is their best hope not only of telling little brother where he is going wrong, but showing him. This time, however, the Kogi's film is not being masterminded by Ereira: "They decided after the first film that this was the best way to connect with the world," he explains. "But they realised that to be in our hands was just not a good idea." So Ereira is assisting, and seeking funding for the project, which will be completed next summer. Judging by the Kogi's trailer, the authentic voice of an indigenous people makes for compelling viewing but the BBC have not expressed an interest, so instead, Ereira and the Kogi are planning a movie release. Footage of the Kogi conducting rituals beneath a spectacular tree is straight out of Avatar. "Avatar has done great work for this," Ereira says. "Twenty years ago, the Kogi were pushing on a wheel that had just started to turn. Now that wheel is really rolling and they are part of the zeitgeist."
The Kogi may not feel under attack culturally, but in their mountain environment "a lot has changed" in the last two decades, according to Jacinto. "The Sierra is the heart of the world. It functions the same way as our own heart does – it sustains the organism," he says. "There has been snow melt, landslides and earthquakes. People are damaging the sacred places from where the damage can be restored."
Why is little brother so greedy? Jacinto chuckles and rubs his gourd, a sign he is thinking. (The mushroom shaped cap on the gourd, which men carry to symbolise their connection with the womb, is a sign of his accumulated thought.) "Habit," he says, finally. "That ambition to have more doesn't have a framework. It's just a drive to accumulate. The habit is a competitive one. 'What everyone else has I must have too, otherwise everyone else has power over me.' The consequences are evident, but it doesn't seem obvious to you," Jacinto says. "You can go and live in space, that's fine, but you don't seem to be able to go back to the understanding of how to live harmoniously with the earth. That's something you've forgotten."
Yet the Kogi hope we can still reconnect, by seeing the value they place on thinking and their spiritual world. "When you understand that, you begin to understand yourself a bit more," Jacinto says. "Originally, the great mama brought us into being so we would be guardians of nature. You, the little brother, was given this knowledge of how to treat the earth and the water and the air. At some point there was divergence and you, the little brother, went on a different path.
"We, by example, don't live like you do. You come to the Sierra, there are no factories, there is no industrial agriculture. Now we really want you to look at the images of how we live."
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The message is not particularly new nor original, but the source is interesting.
It is interesting. Thanks, E.
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Kogi movie trailer (http://alunathemovie.com/en/)
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As for your screwed up link, one of the few things that appear to be correct is:
"The Swedish Institute for Racial Biology was opened in Stockholm in the early 1920s. It emerged as part of a worldwide interest in eugenics--the notion that human stock could be improved by selective breeding, much like cattle."
As you did not like the above link, here you get better one - a whole PhD (based on data from Swedish National Archives) has been waived on the subject of eugenics/sterilisation. Here is its brief summary and review: http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/nordeuropaforum/1999-2/ekerwald-hedvig-43/XML/
What do we see:
1) It was a State policy - sterilisations were mostly initiated and carried out by the State
2) practically all people sterilised by the end of 1950s were coerced into sterilisations, whether anybody was sterilised voluntarily after that, is highly questionable
3) The victims of sterilisation were the lowest classes of Swedish society with women constituting 60-95% of all people sterilised depending on the time period between 1935 and 1975
4) Sterilisation was clearly gender and class-specific, less race specific (well, how many non-European Swedes were there in Sweden then? Yet there have been
hints regarding systematic sterilisation of Saami people)
5) The grounds for making decisions of sterilisation were cultural and not medical: A third major result is that the categorisations seemed scientific but in reality were not so. The medical language and the doctors were at the centre of the practice of the sterilisation laws of 1934 and 1941, not the jurists. Runcis has a clever analysis of the mechanisms of categorisation. She criticizes the above mentioned Broberg and Tydén for taking the concept ‘feeble-minded’ to correspond to our concept ‘intellectually disabled’ (p.27). It might seem that ‘feeble-minded’ means a psychiatrically well defined group but Runcis shows the great variation of qualities behind the defining of a person as ‘feeble-minded’. I understand ‘feeble-minded’ simply to mean “the people we find deviant”. Runcis expresses this:
In other words, ‘feeble-minded’ was a generic term for people who in one way or another disturbed the culture of conformity. The concept had no apparent scientific basis, as a person labelled feeble-minded could either be apathetic or highly active and socially skilled. But this did not stop the experts at central level from ultimately bestowing a kind of scientific legitimacy on the label. /.../ To deviate in those days was to display a lack of sense.
And what is stunning, it seems that none of that is mentioned in your Swedish history books.
No wonder that there is that continuous flow and attempt of whitewash - '...criminals and mentally disabled were sterilised, people were sterilised mostly on their free will', etc. Thus the response to the news that broke out:
To the world it was news, however. That autumn 1997, different Swedish authorities were bombarded by journalists from the whole world wanting to know more about the scandal. The participants in the Swedish debate that started with Zaremba’s articles can all be read as modest in comparison to the excited media articles abroad. At the centre of the media interest stood not only the welfare state itself but also two of its main proponents, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal. These two anti-Nazists were presented in media as ideological cousins of the Nazi leaders, proposing to sterilise groups of Swedish citizens by force to guarantee the genetic quality of the Swedish people. One could perhaps say that there was a kind of “you are not better yourself” resentment [in Sweden] characterising the presentation of this sterilisation news. The world had stripped the model country Sweden of its proudest product, the good democratic welfare state. Its authoritarian reverse had been revealed.
Now, I asserted that Swedish social democrats were close to nazis in their policies.
I still do and what was carried out in Sweden for 40 years was nothing but forceful breeding of conformist labour cattle for Swedish industry. Nazi social order is not a death cult, it is also a socioeconomic system and a particular way of organising and controlling the development of society. In this respect, Sweden has a long way to go until it will able to look into mirror without cringing and closing eyes.
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Your interest in Swedish history is noteworthy.
In fact you know more than me in these matters.
The Nazi movement in its original, in Germany was a dead cult. I can provide evidence for that, like the SS emblem.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Totenkopf.jpeg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/3rd_SS_Division_Logo.svg/99px-3rd_SS_Division_Logo.svg.png)
Nazism was also a lot about the Third Reich and the Aries as a superior race compared to other, ideas that no Swedish party (In the Parliament) ever has aligned to.
Hitler was a 1/4 or 1/8 Jude so he didn't qualify to his own standards.
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Scull and crossed bones have been symbol in warfighting long before nazis came to world stage. Various units, pirates, etc. have used them on their flags and uniforms. Even your toast means scull in Swedish.
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Scull and crossed bones have been symbol in warfighting long before nazis came to world stage. Various units, pirates, etc. have used them on their flags and uniforms. Even your toast means scull in Swedish.
How about to solve "the German problem" by killing 6 million people of different kind? Not only Jews, but homo-sexuals, suspected communists etc. Isn't that a DEAD CULT all over the place.
Each Nazi officer had a Cyancalium capsule in their jacket to swallow, to ensure that DEATH would follow within a minute. How close is that to a Death cult?
Just some observations from the North.
Remember what the Nazis said:
"Either we will be remembered as they who started the 1000 year Reich - or we will be remembered as the worst criminals ever seen in history." Source unknown.
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Death cult?
"Walk a mile in my shoes"
(http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/80936031.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA5488D61E1013181BED3458C42DFFB99A9946FADEA1DAB0AA426E30A760B0D811297)
The death camps was not run by Nazi officers, the staff was the ordinary citizens like
Mr and Mrs Müller, Schmidt and Schneider (the three most common surnames in Germany).
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xMO3mNPKE3A/Srvpg1uyU7I/AAAAAAAAA1U/3LlWf8xhiO4/s400/F%C3%B6rintelsen.jpg)
This is the final result of a death cult
(http://data.s-info.se/data_page/1749/images/judisk_massgrav_00250531.gif)
(http://www.mrisakson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bombing-of-dresden.gif)
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How do you define 'death cult'?
Mao killed much more people in absolute numbers.
Cambodians killed drastically higher share of their own population than anybody else.
There are much more horrifying images available from other countries...
SS officers had potassium cyanide with them only in exceptional cases.
SS consisted of several directorates: security police, intelligence, concentration camps, frontline units, etc. It was a type of security apparatus of a state. SS was very similar to Soviet NKVD that also had a directorate of concentration camps called GULAG (these two cooperated intensively and exchanged a number of practices in 1930s.) It sounds unbelievable, but the SS learned how to set up concentration camps from Soviets. Newly revealed documents from Soviet archives present simply breath taking facts!
Death camps themselves served a dual purpose in Soviet Union. Surely, it was a way of getting rid of unwanted 'them' - people opposed to Soviet rule, sexual minorities, certain ethnic groups, etc. - but these camps also served as a source of free labour. Soviets had no money to industrialise their country like the West did, so they turned huge numbers of their own people and people from occupied countries into slaves who worked until they dropped dead. Sounds no different from Nazi Germany, does it?
As you see, it is the racial hatred combined with economy and organisation of society that produces practices attributed mistakenly only to the Nazi Germany.
Was Soviet Union a death cult? Communist China? Communist Cambodia? They were not, they were extreme forms of a nation-state based on juxtapositioning of 'us' (belonging to one ethnic, political or other group or race) to 'others' (belonging to another ethnic, political or other group or race). Take such an opposition to the extreme, and you'll end up with breeding programs, concentration camps, etc.
It is the usual trick one's ethnic identity plays with the mind.
My claim above was that such a thing could happen even in the nation-states that consider themselves being democratic and tolerant. They may say that they have got over the 'us'-'them' separation, but they have not. In fact, their whole identity is based on that and there are no guarantees that when that identity is threatened, uninhibited violence will not be unleashed. Various anti-immigration political movements are an indication of threatened identity.
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Jahn, look at these figures: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/misc/misery.html
As you see, killing the 'other' has been a common practice.
We like to curse and treat Germans and Japanese as exceptional cases because...'they' were defeated and all anger and shame could be unleashed on 'them'.
Soviet Union and other dictatorships have been victorious states...the victors are never judged.
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Jahn, look at these figures: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/misc/misery.html
As you see, killing the 'other' has been a common practice.
You might have a (little) point but,
You do not know much about statistics and culture, do you?
What is 20 million dead in China in proportion compared to 6 million in Germany 1940's?
You dismiss one thing in the gulag-concentration camp comparison. In the Soviet Gulag they probably had to work (until they died). But despite the "Arbeit Macht Frei" parole at Auswitch, the victims did not produce much in the German gaz chambers. Welcome - please have a shower - take of your clothes - and walk in here ...
Where in the history do you find these stacks of shoes?
And Where is your Soviet and China cities like Dresden? A German city, with many old cultural, and rare buildings, that the Allies erased in one never lasting bombing night, just because ...
Now You perhaps blame the allies for the bombing, but I "blame" the Nazi death cult for the bombings of Dresden. Beacuse that is how energy work.
The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, destroyed by Allied bombing and preserved as a memorial ( i. e. as it look today).
(http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/images/30013398-p.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Berlin_Eiermann_Memorial_Church.JPG/250px-Berlin_Eiermann_Memorial_Church.JPG)
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We like to curse and treat Germans and Japanese as exceptional cases because...'they' were defeated and all anger and shame could be unleashed on 'them'.
Soviet Union and other dictatorships have been victorious states...the victors are never judged.
You are coming from the wrong corner dear.
No one curse the Germans or the Japanese. At least not I. I have had a German girlfriend and many german friends. I have visited Germany in periods to and from in the 1970-80's. (Was there when there was "real" tefforists" around as the Bad Mein Hof grp and the like Rote ÅF cells).
Germans and Japanese people have to deal with their own trauma and history.
I am sorry E M, but You do not speak the same language as I do. I do not divide into loosers and winners. It is a sick world and all (90 percent or more of the population are patients).
War, genocide and criminality belong to the past and the dark mind of humanity.
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Germans and Japanese people have to deal with their own trauma and history.
I can't speak for Japanese but can agree, as someone with thick German heritage that there are definitely historic traumas that are handed down for future generations to deal with (read heal)
I am sorry E M, but You do not speak the same language as I do. I do not divide into loosers and winners. It is a sick world and all (90 percent or more of the population are patients).
War, genocide and criminality belong to the past and the dark mind of humanity.
In the new World, light shines through the darkness of the past. :)
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Man's brutality.
This kind of thing is fine from a distance.
Yesterday Julie was reading to me from an article about a journalist, Peter Lloyd, who got arrested in Singapore for having Ice or some such drug.
He was a very good foreign correspondent, but his life began to fall to pieces. He was having nightmares from all the horrific things he has seen. The dead and blown up people he saw began to talk to him in his dreams. Then they described some of these - the things that never get printed in the newspapers.
I won't go into them, but even I can't get them out of my head now.
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You dismiss one thing in the gulag-concentration camp comparison. In the Soviet Gulag they probably had to work (until they died). But despite the "Arbeit Macht Frei" parole at Auswitch, the victims did not produce much in the German gaz chambers. Welcome - please have a shower - take of your clothes - and walk in here ...
What DO you know about GULAG and the methods of extermination used there?
To say that Auschwitz is unparalleled, you must have a good knowledge about other places. Do you?
And Where is your Soviet and China cities like Dresden?
Very revealing question.
How much do you know about the Eastern Front of the World War II? How did it look like when two utterly similar socialist regimes clashed in earnest. In battle where only one could survive? How prisoners were treated? How did the cities look like? How many were wiped out and literally built anew after the war? Want pictures?
One must LEARN about things. LEARN. Constantly, as they become known and archives open.
Otherwise it is just repeating hearsay and the narratives used in social conditioning.
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War, genocide and criminality belong to the past and the dark mind of humanity.
Are you saying that our world is becoming less violent and genocidal? Is this what it means?
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How much do you know about the Eastern Front of the World War II? How did it look like when two utterly similar socialist regimes clashed in earnest. In battle where only one could survive? How prisoners were treated? How did the cities look like? How many were wiped out and literally built anew after the war? Want pictures
You are misreading my post. Of course Russia was bombed to pieces by the Germans. But that is the other side of the coin. It is not Dresden. Dresden was the city own by the attacker, Dresden belonged to the war lords. They invited death.
S:t Petersburg and Moscow belong to the defenders, the attacked ones. They have not asked for war or destruction, however, the Germans did by playing high.
Can you recognize the difference? There are no Dresden in Russia, it can't be, because they were not asking for war.
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Are you saying that our world is becoming less violent and genocidal? Is this what it means?
Yes, from now on we, humanity as a whole, move toward the Light, the One star.
But I am afraid that it is questionable if we will experience significant progress in this area of less war and criminality toward humans during our lifetime. It is too infected right know.
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You are misreading my post. Of course Russia was bombed to pieces by the Germans. But that is the other side of the coin. It is not Dresden. Dresden was the city own by the attacker, Dresden belonged to the war lords. They invited death.
S:t petersburg and Moscow belong to the defenders. They have not asked for war or destruction, the Germans did.
can you recognize the difference. There are no Dresden in Russia.
Yeah, poor Soviets were just attacked by Nazi hordes...
Man, have you heard where these Blitzkrieg panzer generals trained? In Soviet Union. Did you know German Luftwaffe pilots were trained in Soviet Union? Did you know Germans had their own CHEMICAL WARFARE school in Soviet Union? It all took place in 1920s-1930s. All news to you, probably.
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Yes, from now on we, humanity as a whole, move toward the Light, the One star.
But I am afraid that it is questionable if we will experience significant progress in this area of less war and criminality toward humans during our lifetime. It is too infected right know.
Sorry, chap - any direct answers coming forth? We are not talking about crime. We talk about war and genocide. Do you claim they are drecreasing in the world?
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Angela Merkel: German multiculturalism has 'utterly failed'
Chancellor's assertion that onus is on new arrivals to do more to integrate into German society stirs anti-immigration debate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-german-multiculturalism-failed
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country's attempts to create a multicultural society have "utterly failed".
Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily "side by side" did not work.
She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society.
"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin, yesterday.
Her remarks will stir a debate about immigration in a country which is home to around 4 million Muslims.
Last week, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and a member of the Christian Social Union – part of Merkel's ruling coalition – called for a halt to Turkish and Arabic immigration.
In the past, Merkel has tried to straddle both sides of the argument by talking tough on integration but also calling for an acceptance of mosques.
But she faces pressure from within the CDU to take a harder line on immigrants who show resistance to being integrated into German society.
Yesterday's speech is widely seen as a lurch to the right designed to placate that element in her party.
Merkel said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her argument that they should learn German in order to cope in school and take advantage of opportunities in the labour market.
The row over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a highly-controversial book in which he accused Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.
Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved popular and polls showed Germans were sympathetic with the thrust of his arguments.
One recent poll showed one-third of Germans believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".
It also found 55% of Germans believed that Arabs are "unpleasant people", compared with the 44% who held the opinion seven years ago.
In her speech, Merkel said the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting that Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.
The chancellor's remarks appear to confirm a suspicion that she has sympathy with Sarrazin's anti-immigrant rhetoric. On Friday, he declared: "Multiculturalism is dead".
Other members of Merkel's government disagree. In a weekend newspaper interview, her labour minister, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.
"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
"Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."
The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has said Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.
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More people and less resources; where will it lead?
The author describes existing balance well. As we become greener in the West, somebody becomes inevitably much dirtier.
Britain is growing greener at the expense of the rest of the world
While we comfort ourselves with our conservation and recycling, we pollute other nations through our greed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/global-warming-environment-west-waste
The impending extinction of tigers, the melting icecaps and the ravaging of the rainforests are symptoms of an emerging global crisis. A new World Wildlife Fund report out maps its scale and concludes that if we don't change course by 2030, we will need a second Earth to meet our needs.
But does all this ring true? After all, in the UK we are greener than ever. Our air quality has improved dramatically – "pea soup" killer smog has been consigned to the history books. We have cleaned up power stations and banned ozone-destroying chemicals. We have nature reserves and some of our most polluted rivers have enjoyed a dramatic renaissance. We are planting more trees and many toxic pesticides have been banned. We have even made progress in improving household recycling rates. So what is the problem?
Part of the trouble is that we have simply exported a lot of the environmental damage we cause. In the age of globalisation, we can live greener here because we have sent the pollution and habitat destruction somewhere else. For the past few years, it has become fashionable to close down conversations about what we need to do to protect the environment by asking: "What about China?", the implication being that China is causing such vast environmental impact as to render our efforts pointless.
There is no doubt that China's footprint, and those of several other fast developing economies, has increased hugely and in a short time. But a lot of the pollution and environmental damage is being done in order to supply us, and other western countries, with consumer goods, chemicals, ships, steel and other modern essentials. The point is underlined by the fact that Denmark, to many eyes a "green" country, comes out in the WWF report as third in a world league table of the highest impact countries. Like us, they look greener because they have exported their environmental problems elsewhere.
There is a harsh reality behind all this that people everywhere, and in the west in particular, need to get their collective minds around. It is the fact that the Earth is finite and that our current patterns of consumption and waste generation are overwhelming its ability to cope. We are confronted with a choice: either change how we live or face grave consequences arising from a kind of ecological credit crunch.
The emerging crisis has three main parts. The first relates to the vast quantities of greenhouse gases we are releasing. We need to cut these by about four-fifths in the next 40 years or so, starting now. If we don't, the impact of climate change and ocean acidification might lead to massive economic damage. The second crisis is linked to the loss of nature – animals, plants, ecosystems, and all the things they do for us, caused by habitat clearance and farm pollution. On top of this is a third crisis of rapid resource depletion. Fisheries, oil reserves, fresh water and soil are among key assets now facing planet-wide depletion.
Projections on how these different aspects map out under business-as-usual scenarios later in the 21st century do not paint a pretty picture, especially when one considers the vast momentum added by population increase and the effects of economic growth. There will be more people and they will be richer, with more cars and flights, demanding more products and eating more meat. There are 200,000 more of us each day and the vast majority want to live more like most Europeans and Americans than most Africans. If the developing world takes on our lifestyle, where will it export its environmental problems?
So much for the problem; what is the solution? Technology is vital, but will not be enough on its own. There is a need for culture change and to look hard at how we measure economic progress. At the moment, we judge success basically in terms of how much economic growth we can achieve, which in turn is often a proxy for how much stuff we are using up. It's a big challenge, but then it is a big problem. By doing small things, we will get only small improvements and small improvements will still lead to disaster.
We need leadership for big change from all quarters and we need it fast. And we especially need leadership from the richer and better-off countries to show how it really is possible to do things differently. There is no point telling China it is behaving badly while continuing to import its pollution. That will take us nowhere.
Tomorrow, governments will again gather for another of their crucial environmental summits. This time it is in Japan and is about biodiversity. Having failed to meet earlier targets to cut the rate of biodiversity loss, it is to be hoped that they will set new ones. But if these are to be met, then the changes agreed must go far beyond how many national parks we can designate. When natural resources really start to get scarce, such lines on maps will be worthless as a final scramble for the Earth's resources gets underway. If there is to be salvation from the eco-crunch, then deeper change is required.
Some gloomily conclude that the impending collision of the big environmental crunches is part of humanity's natural destiny. Like a global analogue of Easter Island, we will simply use up all the resources and degrade the environment until collapse becomes inevitable. Many of us take a different view, however, pointing to humans' unique ability to co-operate and to use inventiveness to overcome the most challenging problems.
The response to the eco-crunch is not only about stopping things we like doing. There is huge energy going into how a greener economy could work. Part of it is about creating jobs in the cutting-edge clean technologies of the future. Social scientists are also beginning to better understand how the human psychology that so readily lends itself to consumerism might be harnessed instead for sustainability. It can be done.
There is, however, a danger that the size of the task can create paralysis and we end up doing nothing. But in thinking big and seeking major change there is nothing to be lost, only to be gained. And we must all be part of the solution, because this is everyone's job, not just governments. Culture can change from the bottom up and all of us can be leaders. For our children's sake, we really do need to promise the Earth and to start living like we mean it. What else do we have to offer the future? I don't think too many history books will praise us for continuing with business as usual.
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I have heard that Spirit Level is becoming so popular and influential, that the Republicans have started up a response campaign, challenging it's findings.
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"France's terror alert level is at Reinforced Red, the second-highest level below Scarlette Red [GALLO/GETTY]
Saudi intelligence services have warned of an al-Qaeda plot to target Europe, and France in particular, a French minister has said.
"Several days ago the Saudi services alerted their European counterparts that there was a terrorist threat on the continent, notably in France, coming from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)," Brice Hortefeux, the French interior minister, told RTL Radio in an interview on Sunday." "
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/2010101721529396444.html
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Yeah, poor Soviets were just attacked by Nazi hordes...
Man, have you heard where these Blitzkrieg panzer generals trained? In Soviet Union. Did you know German Luftwaffe pilots were trained in Soviet Union? Did you know Germans had their own CHEMICAL WARFARE school in Soviet Union? It all took place in 1920s-1930s. All news to you, probably.
And ...?
What changes in the previous discussion.
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Sorry, chap - any direct answers coming forth? We are not talking about crime. We talk about war and genocide. Do you claim they are drecreasing in the world?
No, they are not.
Despite that, war and genocide belong to the dark ages of humanity and we are moving toward brighter ages.
Genocide is a criminal activity.
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And ...?
What changes in the previous discussion.
Presented facts mean that:
1) It was the Soviet Union who armed Germany and let German forces to train
2) Soviet Union provided Germany with chemical weapons and gases used later in concentration camps and allowed Germans to practice the use of these gases
3) Dresden as an example of a country being punished because it asked for war is absolutely equal to all these countless Soviet cities destroyed in war. Soviets asked for war by training their fellow German socialists in modern warfare and mass killing.
4) Germany as a defeated extreme form of a nation-state was mostly purged of nazis after the war
5) Soviet Union as a side equally responsible for unleashing the war and culprit of even bigger atrocities against humanity was never purged of anything
6) Nazi Germany as an example 'death cult' loses validity as Soviet Union trumps it in many areas of atrocites and Soviet Union did it its best to unleash nazi Germany on Europe. Small wonder it came back to Soviets with vengeance.
7) 'Death cult' as an exceptional human mind-state itself loses meaning in the face of atrocities commited by various nations all over the world - it has been the usual mind-state of very many people who have never heard of nazis.
At this stage I respectfully bow out.
Facts mean something only when there is interest in considering them.
If they do not matter - they do not matter.
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I won't go into them, but even I can't get them out of my head now.
For a long while I was having what I could only assume were past-life dreams of concentration camps and torture. Not easy to speak of, or witness.
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Presented facts mean that:
Soviets asked for war by training their fellow German socialists in modern warfare and mass killing.
That could be a point in the discussion.
But! The Germans broke the non attack pact - and thereby changed the situation.
Now please, provide a stack of shoes from any of your apparently known death camps.
Did the Soviet Gulag imprison and kill children and women instantly?
Wasn't the Gulag most for male dissidents?
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http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/10/11/the-values-of-everything/
"By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 12th October 2010
So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the slaughterhouse gate. The punishment of the poor for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the state provides: apart from a few small protests, none of this has yet brought us out fighting.
The acceptance of policies which counteract our interests is the pervasive mystery of the 21st Century. In the United States, blue-collar workers angrily demand that they be left without healthcare, and insist that millionaires should pay less tax. In the UK we appear ready to abandon the social progress for which our ancestors risked their lives with barely a mutter of protest. What has happened to us?
The answer, I think, is provided by the most interesting report I have read this year. Common Cause, written by Tom Crompton of the environment group WWF, examines a series of fascinating recent advances in the field of psychology(1). It offers, I believe, a remedy to the blight which now afflicts every good cause from welfare to climate change.
Progressives, he shows, have been suckers for a myth of human cognition he labels the Enlightenment model. This holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their interests and desires.
A host of psychological experiments demonstrates that it doesn’t work like this. Instead of performing a rational cost-benefit analysis, we accept information which confirms our identity and values, and reject information that conflicts with them. We mould our thinking around our social identity, protecting it from serious challenge. Confronting people with inconvenient facts is likely only to harden their resistance to change.
Our social identity is shaped by values which psychologists classify as either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic values concern status and self-advancement. People with a strong set of extrinsic values fixate on how others see them. They cherish financial success, image and fame. Intrinsic values concern relationships with friends, family and community, and self-acceptance. Those who have a strong set of intrinsic values are not dependent on praise or rewards from other people. They have beliefs which transcend their self-interest.
Few people are all-extrinsic or all-intrinsic. Our social identity is formed by a mixture of values. But psychological tests in nearly 70 countries show that values cluster together in remarkably consistent patterns. Those who strongly value financial success, for example, have less empathy, stronger manipulative tendencies, a stronger attraction to hierarchy and inequality, stronger prejudices towards strangers and less concern about human rights and the environment. Those who have a strong sense of self-acceptance have more empathy and a greater concern about human rights, social justice and the environment. These values suppress each other: the stronger someone’s extrinsic aspirations, the weaker his or her intrinsic goals.
We are not born with our values. They are shaped by the social environment. By changing our perception of what is normal and acceptable, politics alters our minds as much as our circumstances. Free, universal health provision, for example, tends to reinforce intrinsic values. Shutting the poor out of healthcare normalises inequality, reinforcing extrinsic values. The sharp rightward shift which began with Margaret Thatcher and persisted under Blair and Brown, all of whose governments emphasised the virtues of competition, the market and financial success, has changed our values. The British Social Attitudes survey, for example, shows a sharp fall over this period in public support for policies which redistribute wealth and opportunity(2).
This shift has been reinforced by advertising and the media. The media’s fascination with power politics, its rich lists, its catalogues of the 100 most powerful, influential, intelligent or beautiful people, its obsessive promotion of celebrity, fashion, fast cars, expensive holidays: all these inculcate extrinsic values. By generating feelings of insecurity and inadequacy - which means reducing self-acceptance - they also suppress intrinsic goals.
Advertisers, who employ large numbers of psychologists, are well aware of this. Crompton quotes Guy Murphy, global planning director for the marketing company JWT. Marketers, Murphy says, “should see themselves as trying to manipulate culture; being social engineers, not brand managers; manipulating cultural forces, not brand impressions”(3). The more they foster extrinsic values, the easier it is to sell their products.
Rightwing politicians have also, instinctively, understood the importance of values in changing the political map. Margaret Thatcher famously remarked that “economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.”(4) Conservatives in the United States generally avoid debating facts and figures. Instead they frame issues in ways that both appeal to and reinforce extrinsic values. Every year, through mechanisms that are rarely visible and seldom discussed, the space in which progressive ideas can flourish shrinks a little more. The progressive response to this trend has been disastrous.
Instead of confronting the shift in values, we have sought to adapt to it. Once-progressive political parties have tried to appease altered public attitudes: think of all those New Labour appeals to Middle England, which was often just a code for self-interest. In doing so they endorse and legitimise extrinsic values. Many greens and social justice campaigners have also tried to reach people by appealing to self-interest: explaining how, for example, relieving poverty in the developing world will build a market for British products, or suggesting that, by buying a hybrid car, you can impress your friends and enhance your social status. This tactic also strengthens extrinsic values, making future campaigns even less likely to succeed. Green consumerism has been a catastrophic mistake.
Common Cause proposes a simple remedy: that we stop seeking to bury our values and instead explain and champion them. Progressive campaigners, it suggests, should help to foster an understanding of the psychology which informs political change and show how it has been manipulated. They should also come together to challenge forces – particularly the advertising industry – which make us insecure and selfish.
Ed Miliband appears to understands this need. He told the Labour conference that he “wants to change our society so that it values community and family, not just work” and “wants to change our foreign policy so that it’s always based on values, not just alliances … We must shed old thinking and stand up for those who believe there is more to life than the bottom line.”(5) But there’s a paradox here, which means that we cannot rely on politicians to drive these changes. Those who succeed in politics are, by definition, people who prioritise extrinsic values. Their ambition must supplant peace of mind, family life, friendship - even brotherly love.
So we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see."
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http://thepathtotyranny.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/britain-to-fire-500000-public-sector-employees-but-not-really/ (http://thepathtotyranny.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/britain-to-fire-500000-public-sector-employees-but-not-really/)
http://www.smh.com.au/business/british-deficit-worse-than-greeces-report-20100506-ugxt.html (http://www.smh.com.au/business/british-deficit-worse-than-greeces-report-20100506-ugxt.html)
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Afghanistan.
The debate is raging back and forth across the globe - what to do?
I've heard all the arguments now, and made my decision.
If Western forces pull out of Afghanistan, they will regret it. Under the Taliban the country will revert back to its bad old days of female repression, barbaric practices, become a continual thorn in Pakistan's side, and basically a destabilising influence on the whole region.
Can the Western coalition win in Afghanistan? No way - it's doomed. The alternative to the Taliban is worse than the Taliban, and that's the problem. The people know it. Nation building is a task way beyond the financial stomach of Western nations, beyond the their skills, and beyond the capacity of any military.
What will happen? I predict the Western coalition will have to pull out - perhaps they will find some face-saving excuse, but out they will go. It will be seen as a total failure.
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Afghanistan.
The debate is raging back and forth across the globe - what to do?
I've heard all the arguments now, and made my decision.
If Western forces pull out of Afghanistan, they will regret it. Under the Taliban the country will revert back to its bad old days of female repression, barbaric practices, become a continual thorn in Pakistan's side, and basically a destabilising influence on the whole region.
Can the Western coalition win in Afghanistan? No way - it's doomed. The alternative to the Taliban is worse than the Taliban, and that's the problem. The people know it. Nation building is a task way beyond the financial stomach of Western nations, beyond the their skills, and beyond the capacity of any military.
What will happen? I predict the Western coalition will have to pull out - perhaps they will find some face-saving excuse, but out they will go. It will be seen as a total failure.
Obama has said that he will not spend US $1 trillion on state building in Afghanistan during the next 10 years. He has decided to start withdrawal in July 2011. Only 3% of americans attribute any importance to that war and it plays no role in Congressional elections (it is not mentioned). There is no public support for that war in the US.
You proably remember how the Vietnam war ended having seen it at the time:
* in 1972-1973 the US tried to get Viet Cong and North Vietnam to sign peace - they bombed North Vietnam cities ferociously during the operation Linebacker II (in Afghanistan they have intensified killing Taliban-Al-Qaeda leadership with drones with the same aim)
*in 1972-1973 the US armed South Vietnamese forces to the teeth and left behind noiminally the strongest force in whole South East Asia (in Afghanistan the try to increase the local armed forces to 170,000 and police to 135,000 by 2014)
*the US ended active combat operations in 1973 and communists took Saigon in...1975. My estimate is that Afghan government will not last even for two years in the face of full-scale Taliban-Al-Qaeda assault.
Following the words of Cohen 'first we take Manhattan and then we take Berlin', the Pak is likely to go under. In 2009 Pak Taliban came within miles of the base in Tarbela where they store Pak nuclear weapons. What's worse - Pak Taliban has many supporters in the Pak army and intelligence services.
For an excellent insight of what is happening in the US administration with regard to war in Afghanistan I recommend Bob Woodward's book 'Obama's Wars'.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/nnUfPQVOqpw?fs=1
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This article from last week's Guardian, seems to sum up the problem of those who are disaffected with Obama:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/24/obama-never-room-for-radical-change
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the collapse of society and the failure of capitalism
http://www.youtube.com/v/YIpiXJW3dYE
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"we deal with a series of very serious problems."
"Never a time, never a time like this before."
Wishbone Ash
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This is my limit - this is when I can bear no more.
None Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: A World Without Birds
by Kate Ravilious
The Independent/UK Press
Scanning the sky with his binoculars, he searches carefully for any sign of movement: the steady beat of a blackbird's wings, the fluttering of a flock of starlings. It has been a week now since he saw the starlings: just four of them flitting from tree to tree, feasting on the autumn berries.
Birds are a real rarity these days. In his boyhood, he recalls, he would watch the acrobatics of entire flocks as they ducked and dived after insects. But now the skies are silent, barring the hum of the odd airplane. Turning back to his fruit and vegetable patch, he continues the laborious task of pollinating the raspberry plants by hand, gently brushing pollen onto the slender stigmas inside the flowers. In the past, bees, wasps, butterflies and flies would have done this job for him; nowadays such insects are likewise a rarity. Farmers instead resort to robot bees to pollinate their crops: tiny motors, encased in fuzzy fabric, which hover from flower to flower.
Will this bleak outlook be a reality for future generations? It is nearly 50 years since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, the book that warned of environmental damage the pesticide DDT was causing. Today, DDT use is banned except in exceptional circumstances, yet we still don't seem to have taken on board Carson's fundamental message.
According to Henk Tennekes, a researcher at the Experimental Toxicology Services in Zutphen, the Netherlands, the threat of DDT has been superseded by a relatively new class of insecticide, known as the neonicotinoids. In his book The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making, published this month, Tennekes draws all the evidence together, to make the case that neonicotinoids are causing a catastrophe in the insect world, which is having a knock-on effect for many of our birds.
Already, in many areas, the skies are much quieter than they used to be. All over Europe, many species of bird have suffered a population crash. Spotting a house sparrow, common swift or a flock of starlings used to be unremarkable, but today they are a more of an unusual sight. Since 1977, Britain's house-sparrow population has shrunk by 68 per cent.
The common swift has suffered a 41 per cent fall in numbers since 1994, and the starling 26 per cent. The story is similar for woodland birds (such as the spotted flycatcher, willow tit and wood warbler), and farmland birds (including the northern lapwing, snipe, curlew, redshank and song thrush).
Ornithologists have been trying desperately to work out what is behind these rapid declines. Urban development, hermetically sealed houses and barns, designer gardens and changing farming practices have all been blamed, but exactly why these birds have fallen from the skies is still largely unexplained.
However, Tennekes thinks there may be a simple reason. "The evidence shows that the bird species suffering massive decline since the 1990s rely on insects for their diet," he says. He believes that the insect world is no longer thriving, and that birds that feed on insects are short on food.
So what has happened to all the insects? In the Nineties, a new class of insecticide – the neonicotinoids – was introduced. Beekeepers were the first people to notice a problem, as their bees began to desert their hives and die, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The first cases were in France in 1994, but the epidemic quickly fanned out across Europe, and by 2006 CCD reached the US too. Between 2006 and 2009 one third of American beekeepers reported cases of colony collapse. Aside from the loss of revenue in honey sales, this is worrying news because honey bees are one of the world's most important pollinators, and 35 per cent of agricultural crops rely on pollinators.
As a service, pollination is worth an estimated £440m a year to the UK economy and a staggering $15bn (£9.3bn) to US farmers. And it isn't just the Western world that is affected: in China the lack of bees has become so serious that farmers in some regions are already resorting to pollinating their crops by hand.
Controversy has swirled around the issue, with everything from mobile phones to GM crops being held to blame. The key contenders include parasites, viral and fungal infections, and insecticides.
Last month the problem appeared to have been cracked, when a group of US scientists published a paper in the online journal PLoS One which indicated that CCD was caused by the interaction between a virus, the invertebrate iridescent virus, and a fungus known as Nosema apis (http://ind.pn/9NKzPD).
But since then it has emerged that the study's lead author, Jerry Bromenshenk, has in recent years received a research grant from Bayer Crop Science (a leading manufacturer of neonicotinoid insecticides) to study bee pollination. Bromenshenk has, however, said that no Bayer funds were used in the earlier study. Jeroen van der Sluijs, of the Netherlands' Utrecht University, doesn't doubt Bromenshenk's findings, but says they don't address the key issue: "Previous research has shown that exposure to neonicotinoids makes colonies more prone to the Nosema fungus and virus infections."
If that is so, then neonicotinoid insecticides could be the root cause of the problem. But why are they so much worse than other insecticides?
"Neonicotinoids are revolutionary because they are put inside seeds and permeate the whole plant because they are water-soluble (which is why they are called systemic insecticides). Any insect that feeds on the crop dies," explains Tennekes.
Even small doses can kill. Recent research, carried out on honey bees in the lab, showed that these insecticides build up in the central nervous system of the insect, so that very small doses over a long time period can have a fatal effect. The reason that neonicotinoids can have such a powerful long-term effect is down to the way they work – binding irreversibly to receptors in the central nervous systems of insects.
"An insect has a limited amount of such receptors. The damage is cumulative: with every exposure, more receptors are blocked, until the damage is so big that the insect cannot function any more and dies," explains van der Sluijs.
And unfortunately the robust nature of neonicotinoids means that they can travel far beyond the crops they were used to treat. "Neonicotinoids are water-soluble and mobile in soil. They can be washed out of soils and into surface and groundwater – as we've seen in the Netherlands since 2004. As a result, neonicotinoids are probably readily taken up by wild plants as well, and in this way spread throughout nature, causing irreversible damage to non-target insects," says Tennekes.
Many scientists now agree that there is strong evidence to suggest that neonicotinoid insecticides are damaging to bees. But what about the other insects? Are they being poisoned in the same way? "It is very difficult to prove, but I believe that most insects will have declined since the introduction of neonicotinoids in the 1990s. The problem is that we are not really interested in insects, apart from bees (because we need them) and butterflies (because they are pretty). However, the few insect species that we monitor closely indicate massive decline," says Tennekes.
A new PhD thesis goes some way to backing up Tennekes's claim. This year, Tessa van Dijk at Utrecht University demonstrated a strong link between increased pollution levels and a reduced presence of insects, and especially flying insects, in regions of the Netherlands where residues of neonicotinoids are high.
Others agree that Tennekes may be onto something. "It is a plausible theory that birds that feed on insects, or that feed their chicks on insects only, will suffer from insect decline. But much more data are needed to understand how big the role of neonicotinoids is," says van der Sluijs.
Nigel Raine, a bee expert from Royal Holloway, University of London, concurs. "There is not yet enough evidence to show that neonicotinoid insecticides are environmentally safe in the longer term. But if it can be proved that they are causing a decline in insects, it is reasonable to assume a link to a decline in the bird species that eat insects."
Some argue, however, that the story is unlikely to be so simple. "Bird decline started before neonicotinoids hit the scene. Like so many things, the decline of bird populations is almost certainly multifactorial, involving pesticides, habitat loss and many other variables," says Gard Otis, an entomologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
Nonetheless, some countries have already begun to take action. In 2008 the German, Italian and Slovenian authorities imposed a ban on the use of two types of neonicotinoid insecticides on maize. Meanwhile France has had a ban in place since 1999, on a neonicotinoid insecticide used to dress sunflower seeds.
But for Tennekes the only solution is a global ban. "Neonicotinoids act like chemical carcinogens, for which there are no safe levels of exposure. The message is that we must act quickly and ban these compounds, to avoid a catastrophe," he says.
www.disasterinthemaking.com
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/15-0
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I have heard of this neonicotinoid insecticide issue from other sources also.
Luckily we have lots of birds around our house, but I'm positive it is nothing like the past.
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Good article by Paul McGeough, who is one of those intrepid journalists who risk their lives daily in the worlds danger zones.
His primary thesis is that al-Qaeda is winning and the world is grinding under the weight of its fear, idiotic reactions and overwhelming costs.
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/world/world/general/true-toll-of-terrorism-bleeding-the-west/1989917.aspx?storypage=0
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(http://buriedshiva.com.au/vicky/misc13/hoax.jpg)
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Interesting, how simple the world looks through the thought that the die has been cast and some things have become irreversible and inevitable. Things such as accelerating extinction of species, environmental disasters, etc. As this thread says: we're stuffed. Irreversibly.
The story below - how the discourse has shifted from 'we've got a problem, let's solve it' to 'we may have a problem that is interesting to discuss and comment upon'.
Sounds familiar?:
11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Eternal story of mankind. Many speak, only a few understand. Lots of movement, little progress. Disaster approaches: well, how exciting is that. So much room for dramatic emotions and exciting drama.
The year climate science was redefined
The 12 months since the leaking of emails written by climate change scientists have seen major shifts in environmental debate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/15/year-climate-science-was-redefined
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2010/11/15/1289818973888/Climate-change-review-007.jpg)
Storm of controversy: The politics of climate change can be even more volatile than the Earth's weather. Photograph: Douglas Van Reeth/AP
One year ago tomorrow more than a thousand emails between scientists in the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and their international colleagues were uploaded, unauthorised, on to a Russian FTP server. The story immediately went viral online, with lurid accusations of deception and illegality, and was soon picked up by the mainstream media.
How has the climate change story changed since then? And how important was "climategate" in catalysing this change? I believe there have been major shifts in how climate science is conducted, how the climate debate is framed and how climate policy is being formed. And I believe "climategate" played a role in all three.
It is difficult to re-capture – or even quite believe – the cultural and political mood around climate change in the autumn of 2009. There was a rising wave of expectation that the world leaders gathering for the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December would change the world – and the climate – for ever.
People were fasting for climate justice, Gordon Brown was saying that Copenhagen was the last chance to reach a climate deal and there were calls for Obama to play decisively his climate card. No one 12 months ago was calling for a review of the practices of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations' main climate science assessment panel. Contrarian voices, while loud, were not really being listened to. This inflated optimism had to burst and "climategate" proved to be the pin.
So, 12 months later, I suggest three things of particular significance have altered.
First, there has been a discernible change in some of the practices of climate science. Most obvious has been an opening up and re-analysis of some of the core observational datasets which underpin the detection of climate change trends. The Met Office is leading a thorough international re-analysis of 150 years of land and marine temperature data. Calls for greater transparency around scientific analysis have boosted the embryonic project of the Climate Code Foundation and its efforts to make all climate computer code open-source.
The Inter-Academy Council review has recommended some significance changes in the way the IPCC assesses knowledge, in particular how it documents areas of both agreement and disagreement in the underlying science. And the Royal Society, reflecting this new mood, has issued a new guide to climate change science which separates "aspects of wide agreement", "aspects of continuing debate" and "aspects not well understood". The objective of these reflexive responses in science has been to demonstrate transparency and rebuild trust.
Second, there has been a re-framing of climate change. The simple linear frame of "here's the consensus science, now let's make climate policy" has lost out to the more ambiguous frame: "What combination of contested political values, diverse human ideals and emergent scientific evidence can drive climate policy?" The events of the past year have finally buried the notion that scientific predictions about future climate change can be certain or precise enough to force global policy-making.
The meta-framing of climate change has therefore moved from being bi-polar – that either the scientific evidence is strong enough for action or else it is too weak for action – to being multi-polar – that narratives of climate change mobilise widely differing values which can't be homogenised through appeals to science. Those actors who have long favoured a linear connection between climate science and climate policy – spanning environmentalists, contrarians and some scientists and politicians – have been forced to rethink. It is clearer today that the battle lines around climate change have to be drawn using the language of politics, values and ethics rather than the one-dimensional language of scientific consensus or lack thereof.
Third, and perhaps most dramatically, has been the fragmentation of climate policy-making. It has been remarkable how quickly faith has evaporated in the multilateral process of the UNFCCC. Its new head, Christiana Figueres, concedes that "there won't be a final agreement on climate change in my lifetime". The post-mortem of COP15 showed how implausible the FAB deal wanted by NGOs – Fair, Ambitious and Binding – really was. The US Senate screwed Obama's cap-and-trade bill. And no one believes that COP16 in Cancun later this month will be any different.
Instead, there is a new pragmatism in the air. This pragmatism has many colours and shades, but at the heart of it are three principles:
• an emphasis on the climate co-benefits of other policy innovations, such as those on health and poverty
• a necessity to drive forward new publicly-funded investments in low-carbon energy technology
• the cultivation of multi-level polycentric institutions and partnerships through which policy innovation may occur, rather than relying exclusively on the UN process
These three changes are reflective of much larger cultural and political struggles regarding knowledge and power in the contemporary world which will become more salient during the next decade: the challenges to the norms of science coming from deep social and digital connectivity; the struggle to establish the appropriate cultural authority for science; and the struggles to bring democratic accountability to emergent international and global forms of governance. The shifts we are seeing around climate change are therefore symptomic of these wider struggles.
The 12 months since 17 November 2009 have shown brutally that the social, political and cultural dynamics at work around the idea of climate change are more volatile than the slowly changing and causally entangled climate dynamics of the Earth's biogeophysical systems. Furthermore, supercomputers may mean climate science can attempt century-long predictions but that does not mean political, cultural and other unpredictable changes will not be as important.
Another IPCC assessment of scientific knowledge in four years' time is not going to make policy-making around climate change any easier. Indeed, the chances are that with scientific uncertainties and complexities about the future proliferating, and with new policy strategies such as climate geo-engineering entering the fray, further policy fragmentation around climate change is inevitable. But if such fragmentation reflects the plural, partial and provisional knowledge humans possess about the future then climate policy-making will better reflect reality. And that, I think, may be no bad thing.
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The inventiveness of Indonesians is awe-inspiring. 'Give me 1 bn climate aid to cut down forests.' These people have a spohisticated sense of humour and pragmatism! :)
Indonesia eyeing $1bn climate aid to cut down forests, says Greenpeace
Vague legal definitions may allow Indonesia to class forests as 'degraded' and 'rehabilitate' the land with palm trees and biofuel crops
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/23/indonesia-climate-aid-forests-greenpeace
Indonesia plans to class large areas of its remaining natural forests as "degraded" land in order to cut them down and receive nearly $1bn of climate aid for replanting them with palm trees and biofuel crops, according to Greenpeace International.
According to internal government documents from the forestry, agriculture and energy departments in Jakarta, the areas of land earmarked for industrial plantation expansion in the next 20 years include 37m ha of existing natural forest – 50% of the country's orangutan habitat and 80% of its carbon-rich peatland. More than 60m ha – an area nearly five times the size of England – could be converted to palm oil and biofuel production in the next 20 years, say the papers.
"The land is roughly equivalent to all the currently undeveloped land in Indonesia," says the report. "The government plans for a trebling of pulp and paper production by 2015 and a doubling of palm oil production by 2020."
The result, says the environmental group in a report released in Jakarta today, would be to massively expand Indonesia's palm, paper and biofuel industries in the name of "rehabilitating" land, while at the same time allowing its powerful forestry industry to carry on business as usual and to collect international carbon funds.
"[Money] earmarked for forest protection may actually be used to subsidise their destruction with significant climate, wildlife and social costs," said the report.
The report comes at a critical time in global climate talks, due to resume next week in Cancun, Mexico. Forestry and peatland contribute nearly 18% of all global carbon emissions and Indonesia is negotiating a model $1bn forestry deal with Norway and the US. This could save millions of tonnes of climate emissions in return for Indonesia agreeing to a moratorium on future forest and peatland clearances.
But weak legal definitions of "forest" and "degraded land", have allowed the global logging industry and officials in some governments to take advantage of an ambitious UN forest-reform scheme known as Redd (Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation). This would pay countries to replant trees and restore land. Indonesia has pledged drastic action to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26% on its own and 42% with international climate aid. If it agrees to a binding deal to limit deforestation, says Greenpeace, this would send a powerful message to other forested countries.
"A strong deal to prevent the destruction of natural forests and peatlands would put the troubled climate talks back on track. But if international money intended to support the protection of forests and peatland is allowed to enable their destruction, any confidence in the UN talks is expected to dissolve," said a Greenpeace spokeswoman.
The Indonesian and Norwegian governments last night declined to respond until they had seen the report.
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Al-Qaeda (and why not Pak intelligence) could be playing a clever game there:
Germans Query Terror Warning
By DAVID CRAWFORD
BERLIN—Some German intelligence officials say they believe the country's recent warning of a possible imminent terrorist attack, and its stepped-up security effort to prevent one, were based on faulty intelligence.
The officials say the warning, issued by the interior minister on Nov. 17 and still in effect, was prompted by a detailed tip from an informant in Pakistan who told Germany's top police investigative agency about alleged plans for suicide attacks at crowded urban sites in Germany.
Police and intelligence officials said they are investigating the credibility of the informant and are concerned that al Qaeda operatives may be mounting a disinformation campaign to divert and weaken European counterterrorism efforts.
Before the informant's tip, German officials had played down similar tips supplied by two men arrested this year in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those reports led the U.S. and others in October to issue warnings of possible attacks in some European cities—to the frustration of German officials, who declined to change their own security posture, arguing the intelligence was inadequate.
A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry declined to comment on details of the investigation, and said nothing has changed since Germany warned of a possible terrorist attack in mid-November. The warning was based on a recommendation made jointly by all of Germany's security services, the spokesman said.
Questions about the credibility of the intelligence has led to interagency tensions between German police and intelligence officials on how to respond to informants' statements and whether Germany should have followed the lead of the U.S. and other European countries in warning of possible attacks.
A spokeswoman for Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, confirmed her agency is investigating the credibility of the jihadist informants, but cautioned that no conclusions should be drawn. "We always have to investigate informants," the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the police investigative agency, the BKA, said the agency is aware of the danger of informants providing disinformation and defended the security action, saying that police are required by law to act when it has evidence that lives may be threatened by a terrorist attack.
"We are not gullible; we check the plausibility of witness statements," he said. Ultimately, however, the reliability of individual pieces of evidence may not be known until an investigation is complete, the spokesman said.
Some German intelligence officials argue that Germany's massive security effort, which has included deploying thousands of extra police to train stations and airports and closing public access to the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, could cost millions of euros without providing real protection if terrorists simply shift attacks to venues that are less protected.
Added one official: "The terrorists gain public attention without even staging an attack."
Intelligence officials say the BKA informant isn't in custody and has telephoned German police several times from Pakistan since October.
But some officials say his intelligence is based on secondhand information, and he has yet to provide names of terrorists or Muslim extremists that are unfamiliar to German intelligence services.
Klaus Eichner, a former East German intelligence officer who once recruited U.S. intelligence officers to betray their country as Stasi spies, said an informant's loyalty must be "tested continuously at every step."
Ultimately the most reliable proof of loyalty, Mr. Eichner said, is when the informant provides "damaging information" that can be verified. "A good informant should be able to provide names," Mr. Eichner said. "Otherwise he isn't credible," he added.A U.S. official said, "There was enough credible information" to lead the U.S. goverment in October to issue a terrorism-related warning for travellers in Europe. "That assessment is constantly updated" as new information becomes available, the official said.
Neither of the two other informants, one in U.S. custody and the other awaiting trial in Germany, claim to have met members of the hit teams they say are in Europe waiting to launch attacks, intelligence officials say.
But information provided by the men played an important role in a CIA campaign to attack foreign jihadist fighters using drone-fired missiles. Several of the two men's comrades have been killed in the drone missile attacks, intelligence officials say.
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Richard Severin "Dick" Fuld, Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banker and executive best known as the final Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers. Fuld had held this position since the firm's 1994 spinoff from American Express until 2008. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11[3] on September 15, 2008, and subsequently announced a sale of major operations to parties including Barclays Bank and Nomura Securities.
Fuld was nicknamed the "Gorilla" on Wall Street for his competitiveness.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Fuld,_Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Fuld,_Jr.)
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01004/richard-fuld_1004912c.jpg)
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Stockholm suicide bomber confronted by Luton mosque leaders
Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly had been challenged by leaders of Luton Islamic centre over extremist views
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/13/stockholm-suicide-bomber-luton-mosque
The suicide bomber who struck in Stockholm on Saturday stormed out of a British mosque where he worshipped after being confronted over his extremism, it emerged today
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Admin/BkFill/Default_image_group/2010/12/12/1292181893724/Taimour-Al-Abdaly-007.jpg)
Taimour al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bombings suspect, stormed out of a Luton mosque after leaders expressed concern about his radical views.
Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who set off a car bomb in the Swedish capital before killing himself with a second device strapped to his body, attended the Luton Islamic centre where the mosque's leaders expressed concern about his views.
Abdaly was a student at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton between 2001 and 2004 and continued to live in the town after graduating. Qadeer Baksh, chairman of Luton Islamic centre, said Abdaly showed up at the mosque during Ramadan in 2006 or 2007 and made an instant impression with his "very bubbly character" but they soon clashed over his views.
"We were challenging his philosophical attitude to jihad," said Baksh. "He got so angry that he left. He was just supporting and propagating these incorrect foundations [of Islam], so I stepped in."
He said Abdaly believed scholars of Islam were "in the pocket of the government" and proposed a "physical jihad".
Baksh said he thought he had talked Abdaly round to a more moderate position but the Iraqi-born Swede then came back with more arguments. "I had no idea it would escalate to where it escalated," said Abdaly. "I thought that when he stormed off he was just angry at me. I heard afterwards that he was criticising the mosque in general and me in particular at the university. He said we were working for the British government and that we were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia. He was trying to defame our honour."
Despite the clashes, Baksh said it was not for him to report Abdaly to the police or security services. "It's the police's job, the intelligence service's job to follow these people up, not ours," he said. "You can't just inform on any Muslim having extreme views. In the past many Muslims have had extreme views but have become good balance Muslims."
The Islamic centre's secretary, Farasat Latif, said if they feared a person could be a potential tefforist "any Muslim in his right mind" would report him.
Police continued to search a terraced house in Luton today as part of the investigation. Abdaly's wife and three children reportedly live in Luton, and neighbours said they last saw him two and a half weeks ago.
Police obtained access to the property yesterday with a warrant issued under the Terrorism Act 2000. Whitehall officials have confirmed the bomber's identity; Swedish police say they are 98% certain Abdaly was the culprit.
The Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that the country's security service believe the bomb went off accidentally and Abdaly had planned to detonate three devices, including one at the main railway station and another at a large department store. It said he had planned to blow up his car but also had 12 pipe bombs strapped to his body, and a bomb in a rucksack.
Abdaly has been hailed as a martyr on the Islamist website al-Hanin. A photomontage on the site suggests he was a member of an al-Qaida-linked organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq.
In 2007, the group's leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, called for reprisals in Sweden for the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad by the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. In an email apparently written by Abdaly and sent to Swedish the news agency TT shortly before the explosions he condemned Sweden's' "stupid support for the pig Vilks".
Abdaly's father was quoted by Expressen as saying he had lost contact with his son. "He did not say where he was going," he told the newspaper. "The whole family is in shock, and wants to find out what happened."
Tahir Hussain, 33, a taxi driver who lives near to the Luton house being searched, said he used to exchange greetings with Abdaly. "He had only been here about a year. I used to chat to him a bit: say good morning, good afternoon," said Hussain. "He seemed like a very nice person. I never thought he'd be like this."
He said he would see Abdaly with his three children in the garden. "His wife used to cover her face, and he wore a djellaba," Hussain said. "You could tell he was religious."
Faisal Ahmed, 24, a restauranteur who lives on the same street as Abdaly, said: "The [Abdaly] family is very gentle; the news is a big shock. I hope it's not true, it's really unbelievable."
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'Prepare for all-out cyber war'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/prepare-for-allout-cyber-war-2159567.html
Whitehall is preparing for a crippling attack on government websites as evidence mounts that the backlash against the arrest of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is rapidly growing into a mass movement that aims to cause widespread disruption on the internet.
Extra security measures have been added to a host of government web services, in particular those used to claim benefits or provide tax information, after Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, warned permanent secretaries across all departments that "hacktivists" who last week targeted the sites of companies such as MasterCard and PayPal could switch their focus to Britain.
Downing Street officials confirmed they are preparing for a court appearance today by Mr Assange, who remains in custody following his arrest on sex allegations at the request of the Swedish authorities, to be used by hackers as an excuse to switch their focus to key cyber infrastructure such as the website of HM Revenue and Customs. Members of the online collective Anonymous have already signalled their willingness to attack UK targets if Mr Assange – who denies the claims and whose lawyers will today apply for bail – is extradited to Sweden.
The ability of amorphous groups such as Anonymous to disrupt and paralyse websites was displayed again yesterday when hackers obtained the passwords of 1.3 million users of the gossip website Gawker and posted them online. The motivation for the attack, claimed by a group calling itself Gnosis, was unclear, but Gawker has previously published blogs criticising Mr Assange and 4chan, the messaging board that spawned Anonymous. In the wake of the attack, Gawker's Twitter accounts were hijacked to publish messages supporting WikiLeaks.
Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer, insisted yesterday that the disappearance of its European websites for about 30 minutes on Sunday was due to a "hardware failure". The company is one of those which had been threatened as part of Operation Payback, the attempt by Anonymous to mount attacks against companies which withdrew services from WikiLeaks in the wake of its publication of US diplomatic cables.
The anger of Mr Assange's supporters is likely to be increased by a claim from his British lawyer yesterday that a grand jury has been secretly empanelled in Virginia to consider charges against the Australian over the diplomatic telegrams.
In an online posting yesterday, one Anonymous hacker confirmed plans to attack Amazon (although others have said attacking the site when users are trying to buy Christmas presents would be counter-productive) and said the organisation was ready to attack governments: "It is definitely an information war. The core principle behind it is: information is free, governments keep information to themselves, WikiLeaks releases it to the general public and the war occurs."
Internet activists have already targeted the website of the Swedish judicial authorities bringing the rape allegations against Mr Assange and it is understood Whitehall officials have been warned an attack is likely to take the form of an attempt to hack into databases or a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), where thousands of "zombie" computers are used to bombard a web service with requests and thus bring it to a halt.
IT experts have warned that Whitehall is particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks because many computers still run on an outdated version of Internet Explorer which is known to be at particular risk to hackers. The Coalition has ruled out an upgrade on the grounds of cost.
Downing Street said last night that the focus of preparations for a WikiLeaks-linked attack was on protecting information held about private citizens on sites such as those operated by the Department of Work and Pensions. A spokesman for David Cameron said: "The priority would be websites where we are dealing with information that belongs to members of the public."
The alert at Whitehall is just the latest sign that the world wide web, which marks its 20th birthday this month, is coming of age as a target for dissent as well as a potent means of expressing it. Thousands of people have downloaded the tool, known as LOIC or Low Orbit Ion Cannon, offered by Operation Payback to aid attacks on the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal. Experts said the arrival of LOIC represented a disturbing evolution which makes DDoS attacks, hitherto the domain of cyber criminals seeking to extort money from companies, a tool of mass protest.
Rik Ferguson, a security researcher with Trend Micro, said: "These types of attack are still very difficult to defend against and now we are seeing an exponential increase in those prepared to hand over their computers for such a use. Electronic attacks are no different to attacks on physical infrastructure. They are designed to inconvenience and to disrupt, to have a financial impact to the victim and to anyone relying on that victim's services."
IS ANYWHERE SAFE ONLINE?
* The attacks on Visa, MasterCard and Amazon prompted by the WikiLeaks affair have grabbed the headlines – but the hackers who have tried to bring those sites down have merely inconvenienced users. The latest attack on Gawker is part of a more frightening phenomenon where users registered with certain websites find that their personal information is vulnerable to determined experts with malicious intent.
There are many other examples besides Gawker, some of them based on technical vulnerabilities, others on users' carelessness. The online social world Second Life has had customer accounts hacked, revealing personal information. Scammers have successfully drained PayPal accounts through iTunes by hoaxing people into giving up passwords. And any email account is at risk if a hacker decides to target you and you either have an obvious password or an easily bypassed password reset system – if, for instance, your password can be obtained via a secondary email account that you have allowed to expire and that a hacker can re-register.
Those risks are made greater when companies do not deploy adequate security. But experts say that many apparently secure sites can be ripped open by sufficiently sophisticated hackers. To minimise the risks, it makes sense to only give sensitive personal information to websites you trust.
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it is a curious turn of events
in fact it is more than curious - we seem to be witnessing a transformation, which has already happened, but it just hadn't become so obvious till now.
It first raised its head with the music downloads, then the movie pirating. Then Murdoch and his son spat the dummy recently, trying to claw back the status-quo. We all praised the Iranian freedom fight via IT, and condemned the Chinese attempts to crush internet dissent.
But it would appear that not only have the horses bolted, they bolted long ago. There is only the droppings left to tread in by the landlord.
What is it though? What is this new world of stateless empowerment?
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The arrogance of Cancún
The lesson of this feeble climate deal? Governments have played God and failed. It is up to the activists now
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/dec/15/cancun-governments-play-god
In the efforts to protect our planet from ourselves, the high level talks at Cancún were our last chance … and they failed. But we can learn from this sad episode: we must stop asking governments and international organisations for solutions that they don't want to – and can't – implement. And we must stop pretending to be God, thinking we can "fix" the planet.
Eighteen years ago pressure from the environmental movement forced the UN to convene the Earth summit: 120 heads of state, 8,000 officials and innumerable environmentalists gathered in Rio; an image of the orchestra playing while the Titanic sank comes to mind.
The conference, as the Ecologist reported at the time, merely reinforced predominant mythology and highlighted the powerful vested interests working against a solution. In effect, the lambs were put under the care of the wolves. "After reaching the summit, every path goes down," observed the leading Mexican environmentalist Juan José Consejo. He warned environmentalists that their cause had been co-opted and that policies and actions taken in the name of ecology were in fact very damaging for the environment.
But we did not learn enough. We continued looking to the powerful to solve things. The Kyoto summit in 1997 was a timid step in the right direction, but it never fulfilled its promise. This year, at the People's summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia, interesting proposals were presented; but Cancún did not take them into consideration, and the feeble deal it eventually cobbled together could not overcome last year's failure at Copenhagen. As Vía Campesina, the International Peasant Movement, observed: no agreement would have been better than such a poor one.
Meanwhile, the International Forum for Climate Justice, convened by hundreds of organisations from many countries, made an alternative and more valuable Cancún declaration. Under the slogan "Let's change the system, not the planet", the declaration revealed the true counter-productive nature of the official proposals, which are trapped in "market environmentalism". It argues that we should abandon developmentalism, establish limits, concentrate in local spaces, and reclaim valid traditions. All this, however, falls into the intellectual and political trap of the dominant mentality by still hanging on to institutions and their abstract slogans.
To affirm or to deny climate change supposes that we understand our planet well, that we know how it reacts – both now and for the next hundred years – and that we have the appropriate technological fix. This is plain and simple nonsense, and intolerably arrogant.
To continue putting our trust and hope in institutions to put things right goes against all our experience and focuses our energy in the wrong place. Yes, we still need to fight some institutional battles. For example, we can celebrate the agreement just signed in Nagoya, where 193 UN member states created a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects, condemning any attempt to manipulate the "planet thermostat". But we must do that without surrendering our will to the government administrators of capital, who will continue protecting the major players in environmental destruction.
All governments, even the most majestic, are composed of ordinary mortals, trapped in bureaucratic labyrinths and fighting vested interests that tie their hands, heads and wills. Even if Evo Morales governed the entire planet we would not be able to "fix" the current environmental problems.
We must look down and to the left, as the Zapatistas of Mexico say: to the people, and what we can do ourselves. For example, stop producing waste, rather than recycling it. This requires a lot of things, from rejecting plastic bags and packaging to radically abandoning the flush toilet – one of the world's most destructive habits, absorbing 40% of water available for domestic consumption and contaminating everything in its way. And instead of overusing polluting vehicles, let's reclaim auto-mobility, on foot or bikes. Just as we strive to eat and drink sensibly, let us live our whole lives in a different way.
If we define the issues in those terms, dealing with them will be in our own hands, not in those of global institutional creatures that will never do what is needed. They cannot play God, no matter how much they pretend to.
The time has come to change the system, not the planet. That depends on us, not on those who gain status and income from the system. As the Brazilian writer Leonard Boff observed, activists leaving Cancún were very disappointed with the outcome; but they are determined to finally take control of the whole issue and to live their lives their own way, not in the way dictated by the market or the state.
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I've just finished watching this fascinating interview with Julian Assange by Robert Frost.
Julian does come across as a very intelligent person, and the Swedish system is under pressure about this whole thing.
Jahn, is there much debate going on in Sweden about this?
http://www.youtube.com/v/U6mcSXge4Qo
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I've just finished watching this fascinating interview with Julian Assange by Robert Frost.
Julian does come across as a very intelligent person, and the Swedish system is under pressure about this whole thing.
Jahn, is there much debate going on in Sweden about this?
http://www.youtube.com/v/U6mcSXge4Qo
There were rumours that the US administration has put an enormous pressure on Sweden just to get hold of Assange. Simultaneously, the US is trying to put together a case against Assange on the charge of espionage (illegal gathering of state secrets).
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It seems that things are boiling in the UK... This stuff brings to my mind famous words about another kingdom in Europe.
'Christmas is evil': Muslim group launches poster campaign against festive period (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340794/Christmas-evil-Muslim-group-launch-poster-campaign-festive-period.html)
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/22/article-1340794-0C8F47E1000005DC-987_468x594.jpg)
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I've just finished watching this fascinating interview with Julian Assange by Robert Frost.
Julian does come across as a very intelligent person, and the Swedish system is under pressure about this whole thing.
Jahn, is there much debate going on in Sweden about this?
http://www.youtube.com/v/U6mcSXge4Qo
Yes, quite a lot. The newspaper follow every step in this case. And the discussions are pro and con.
Heh, that Mr assange is a macho bull from down under could be one reason why these women made a report. ;)
Joke aside, it seems that the charges are very weak and in at least in one case in the area between sex with consent and a broken condom (no consent).
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From the little I can glean, it appears to have a lot to do with local Swedish politics, and some suspect character called Claes Borgstrom.
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This woman is onto something quite amazing and equally disturbing.
I'm neither interested nor attracted to the world of crime and terror, but I have always thought it was a powerful force and influence on our side of the fence. I didn't realise how powerful it was.
Loretta Napoleoni describes how the dark side of finance has been propping up the US, but since 9/11 and the war on terror, all this money now floods into the EU. She estimated it to be worth $1.5 trillion, before 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXl-mKZ7aSc
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For those who are struggling to understand the implications of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, this is a vary insightful article.
I am fascinated that, from all I hear, Julian Assange is dislike across the US. On the face of it, you may think it's because he has 'appeared' to attack the US, although that is a very flimsy argument. I feel what is really behind the disdain from Americans, is what Mark LeVine is talking about in this article. Meaning that American public opinion has for some time now become completely under the domination and purposes of Capital. Autonomous thought in the US and many other countries (increasingly and alarmingly also in Australia) has so seriously eroded, I can see little chance of change, except by the famous "inevitable march of circumstance". (Which will be very nasty all round.)
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/12/2010122971637433801.html
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Independent thought...what a rare and precious commodity! We all ought to cry, laugh and live according to scripts of Hollywood blockbusters and think in line with what the mass media tells us.
However, there are news channels that are increasingly beyond control of the West and they make people restless. Al-Jazeera is a notable example. Although there are doubts that it is manipulated from 'the other side' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/213692?INTCMP=SRCH), it remains pain in the butt for a western consumer. It has turned out that Al-Jazeera has so far provided the most balanced media coverage of events in Afghanistan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/oct/29/war-reporting-al-jazeera).
This story is a good insight into workings of the modern world. Industrial world relies on producing hardware and its use - they do not give a damn about the rules (brute power does the trick). Financial world relies on enforcement of the rules of the game (no rules - no trust - no profits). Assange has hit the soft spot. We'll see where it leads. West is hollowed out, indeed.
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This woman is onto something quite amazing and equally disturbing.
I'm neither interested nor attracted to the world of crime and terror, but I have always thought it was a powerful force and influence on our side of the fence. I didn't realise how powerful it was.
Loretta Napoleoni describes how the dark side of finance has been propping up the US, but since 9/11 and the war on terror, all this money now floods into the EU. She estimated it to be worth $1.5 trillion, before 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXl-mKZ7aSc
Very interesting.
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Right. The people producing food cannot afford to produce food. They run for cities to find money. Who produces the food? Who can afford to produce food and who is it everyone depends on?
India's hidden climate change catastrophe
Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves
By Alex Renton
Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we can sell the salt from our table."
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/indias-hidden-climate-change-catastrophe-2173995.html
Ms Nagamma, 41, showed us a picture of her husband – good-looking with an Elvis-style hairdo – on the day they married a quarter of a century ago. "He'd been unhappy for a month, but that day he was in a heavy depression. I tried to take the tin away from him but I couldn't. He died in front of us. The head of the family died in front of his wife and children – can you imagine?"
The death of Mr Naik, a smallholder in the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in July 2009, is just another mark on an astonishingly long roll. Nearly 200,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves in the past decade. Like Mr Naik, a third of them choose pesticide to do it: an agonising, drawn-out death with vomiting and convulsions.
The death toll is extrapolated from the Indian authorities' figures. But the journalist Palagummi Sainath is certain the scale of the epidemic of rural suicides is underestimated and that it is getting worse. "Wave upon wave," he says, from his investigative trips in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. "One farmer every 30 minutes in India now, and sometimes three in one family." Because standards of record-keeping vary across the nation, many suicides go unnoticed. In some Indian states, the significant numbers of women who kill themselves are not listed as "farmers", even if that is how they make their living.
Mr Sainath is an award-winning expert on rural poverty in India, a famous figure across India through his writing for The Hindu newspaper. I spoke to him at a screening of Nero's Guests, a documentary film about the suicide epidemic and some of the more eye-popping inequalities of modern India.
"Poverty has assaulted rural India," he said. "Farmers who used to be able to send their children to college now can't send them to school. For all that India has more dollar billionaires than the UK, we have 600 million poor. The wealth has not trickled down." Almost all the bereaved families report that debts and land loss because of unsuccessful crops were among their biggest problems.
The causes of that poverty are complex. Mr Sainath points to the long-term collapse of markets for farmers' produce. About half of all the suicides occur in the four states of India's cotton belt; the price of cotton in real terms, he says, is a twelfth of what it was 30 years ago. Vandana Shiva, a scientist-turned-campaigner, also links failures of cotton farming with the farmer suicides: she says the phenomenon was born in 1997 when the Indian government removed subsidies from cotton farming. This was also when genetically modified seed was widely introduced.
"Every suicide can be linked to Monsanto," says Ms Shiva, claiming that the biotech firm's modified Bt Cotton caused crop failure and poverty because it needed to be used with pesticide and fertilisers. The Prince of Wales has made the same accusation. Monsanto denies that its activities are to blame, saying that Indian rural poverty has many causes.
Beyond any argument – though no less politically charged – is the role of the weather in this story. India's climate, always complicated by the Himalayas on one side and turbulent oceans on the two others, has been particularly unreliable in recent years. In Rajasthan, in the north-west, a 10-year drought ended only this summer, while across much of India the annual monsoons have failed three times in the past decade.
India's 600 million farmers and the nation's poor are often the same people: a single failed crop tends to wipe out their savings and may lead to them losing their land. After that, there are few ways back. The drought, following a failed monsoon, that I saw in Andhra Pradesh in 2009 was the tipping point that drove Mr Naik to suicide.
Such tragedies and even the selling of children for marriage or as bonded labour – a common shock-horror news story in India – are the most dramatic results. But far more common is the story of rural families migrating, in tens of millions, to India's cities, swelling the ranks of the urban poor and leaving holes in the farming infrastructure that keeps India fed.
I visited an idyllic village, Surah na Kheda, last month in the limerick-worthy district of Tonk, Rajasthan. We arrived to find the rows of whitewashed mud-walled houses gleaming in the rising sun, while inside the courtyards women in bright saris were stirring milk to make yogurt and butter for the day's meals. Their daughters kneaded dough for the breakfast chapattis.
But there was an odd thing: a distinct lack of people. There were the old and the very young – but virtually no one of working age. Half the village, some 60 adults and many children, had gone to Jaipur, the state capital, to look for work. Even though the Diwali holiday fell the following week, no one expected their neighbours and relatives back. Times were too hard.
Prabhati Devi, 50, said four of her seven children had joined the exodus. "They had to go," she said. "Twenty years ago, we could grow all we needed, and sell things too. Now we can't grow wheat, we can't grow pulses, we can't even grow carrots, because there is not enough rain. So we go to the cities, looking for money."
She looked bereaved as she talked of the damage the 10-year drought had done. "It crushes people," she said. "Before, we were able to deal with drought. It would come every four years, and you could prepare. We would store grain and people could share it. In the past, when your buffalo wasn't giving milk, neighbours would share theirs. But now kindness is no longer possible."
I found the other end of Surah na Kheda's story under a flyover in Jaipur. Here, in the early morning, hundreds of men and boys, farmers from all over northern India, gather looking for work as labourers on the city's building sites. Many of them sleep under the flyover, and their clothes were stiff with dirt. The air was tense, and smelled of drugs and cheap alcohol.
Shankar Lal, one of the Surah na Kheda émigrés, was sipping tea at a stall under the flyover with half a dozen other young men from the village, waiting for a contractor to give them a lift. "If the rains came back we would be farmers again. But will they?" He did not think so: "In 10 years' time, there will be no village. Everyone will be here in the city. Or they will be dead."
The men were working for 150 rupees (£2.15) a day, decorating a house in one of Jaipur's posh suburbs. This is relatively good work, and they had all found a floor to sleep on. In another building site, we found a seven-strong rural family who slept in the cement store. The mother and grandmother were working for less than £1 a day, carrying cement and bricks on their heads up precarious bamboo scaffolding. In one half-built block of flats a baby slept in the dust next to the cement mixer. None of these people were happy to be in the city. "If we could survive at home we would go straight back," I was told.
Many of the labourers on the sites were children, some as young as 12: an interrupted education is another part of the social fallout of rural collapse. In Rajasthan, most older people in the villages told me they had not gone to school, but they were proud that their children had. However, the new poverty brought about by the "chaos in the weather" was keeping their grandchildren out of school.
According to the World Food Programme, 20 million more people joined the ranks of India's hungry in the past decade, and half of all the country's children are underweight. Some analyses say that fast-developing India is performing worse than some of the poorest countries, such as Liberia and Haiti, in addressing the basic issue of hunger. With so many farmers giving up, the question is how India will feed the entire country, not just its poor.
It is widely agreed that there have been radical shifts in the weather patterns in India in the past two decades; what is less certain are the causes. Is the change in the weather "climate change"? For many development workers, the question needs answering, because the collapse of India's rural economy – if it continues – will bring about a catastrophe that will affect people far beyond India's borders: even rumours of a poor monsoon or bad harvest in India tends to send food prices on the world commodity markets soaring, as they did again this spring.
Alka Awasthi, of Cecoedecon, a Rajasthani rural poverty organisation part-funded by Oxfam, asks: "When is the data going to catch up with the stories? Why don't the scientists come and listen to people who actually work with the rain? They don't know what a woman like Prabhati Devi is dealing with."
But at Rajasthan's Institute of Development Studies, Surjit Singh believes the calamitous weather shifts are as much to do with changing patterns of farming, growing population and failed government policies as any greater human-induced change to the climate. "The state has failed the rural poor, and so has the private sector. Economic liberalisation has clearly failed. How long can the boom go on? The economy may be growing at 9 per cent but food-price inflation is running at 16 to 18 per cent."
Dr Singh is in no doubt, though, that the changes in weather have increased poverty in rural India – and that there lies a huge injustice. "Climate change puts the onus on the poor to adapt – but that's wrong. Who is using the planes, the cars and the plastic bottles? Not the poor man with no drinking water."
For Mrs Devi and Sugali Nagamma, though, such debates are meaningless. I asked Mrs Devi if she had a question to ask me. "If these industries and factories stop burning petrol and sending poison into the atmosphere will it bring our rains back?" I had to tell her I did not know.
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Things are never simple and even less easy. To think that money could substitute an effort...
Hi-tech industries in disarray as China rations vital minerals
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
China has struck fear into Western governments and electronics giants by slashing exports of a highly sought-after array of metals which are crucial for electronics products ranging from iPads and X-ray systems, to low-energy lightbulbs and hybrid cars.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/hitech-industries-in-disarray-as-china-rations-vital-minerals-2171789.html
In a sign of its growing industrial and political clout, China has cut its export quotas for rare earth elements (REEs) by 35 per cent for the first six months of 2011, threatening to extend a global shortage of the minerals and intensifying a scramble to find alternative sources.
Mines in China supply 97 per cent of the world's rare earths, 17 obscure metals which possess various qualities, such as conductivity and magnetism, that make them an essential component in many modern applications such as smartphones, computers and lasers.
Instead of last year's 22,282 metric tons, China's Ministry of Commerce revealed the total for the first six months of next year would be 14,446 tons, split among 31 domestic and foreign-invested companies.
Commentators said the announcement was probably designed to limit the environmental damage caused by the mines while ensuring its manufacturers were able to meet growing domestic and international demand.
However the announcement caused dismay among Western governments, which have belatedly begun to appreciate that China's stranglehold on elements such as lanthanum, used for batteries in hybrid cars, and neodymium, for permanent magnets in wind turbines, give it immense economic and political power.
The US Trade Representative's office, which advises President Barack Obama, said it had raised concerns with China over the export restraints. Britain, which previously said it was monitoring whether China's stance on REEs broke World Trade Organisation rules, reiterated its commitment to "free, fair and open markets". A spokesman for the Department for Business said: "Competitive markets are essential to achieving long-term sustainable growth, which is why the UK supports the need to cut red tape and resist protectionism."
Electronics companies could be hard hit by rising prices caused by the export cut, which was predicted by The Independent in January. The consumer electronics giant Sony described the move as an obstacle to free trade. "At this point in time there is no direct impact on our company. But further restrictions could lead to a shortage of supply or rise in costs for related parts and materials. We will watch the situation carefully," a Sony spokesman said.
Other manufacturers, such as Apple, whose iPad uses rare earths, declined to comment.
REEs lie near the surface in only a few, usually inhospitable, areas. During the past 20 years, China has rapidly increased production from a single mine near the city of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, leading to the closure of mines in the US and elsewhere unable to compete with the low prices.
However, a global shortfall now looms because worldwide demand for REEs has almost tripled from 40,000 tons to 110,000 tons in the past 10 years, while China – which accounts for about 75 per cent of usage with the remainder divided between Japan, the US and Europe – has begun to scale back exports, from 48,500 tons a year to 14,446 tons for the first half of 2011. The move has the potential to damage the industries reliant on rare earths, which are estimated to be worth £3 trillion, or 5 per cent of global GDP.
The US rare earth mining company Molycorp aims to reopen a mine in the Mojave Desert at the end of this year, which will produce 20,000 tons a year, or about 25 per cent of current Western imports from China, by mid-2012. Deposits are also found in Greenland, opening the prospect of its wilderness being scarred by environmentally damaging mining.
"Export quotas continue to be a tool for the Chinese government to limit the export of its strategic resource," said Nick Curtis, the chief executive of Lynas, which is opening a new mine in Australia and whose share price shot up by 10 per cent on news of China's move.
A global scramble for rare earths has now begun, according to Gareth Hatch, an analyst at Technology Metals Research, in Illinois. "We have a race against time: we've found the materials we know where they are, now we have to develop them," he said.
"There has been some discussion in some quarters that China has been using the quotas to control or manipulate what's going on in the West," he said in an interview with the BBC. "I don't share that view, but the fact is the environmental issues associated with some of the mines historically used by the Chinese to produce these materials have been in terrible shape, and there is a genuine concern that they need to get that sorted out and meet this demand internally in China which is growing. But... you don't really want to rely on a single geographic location for your material.
"It doesn't really make sense – and yet we find ourselves in that situation," he added.
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When Pakistani Taliban attacked down the Swat valley in 2009, they came within a few miles of Tarbela military base where Pakistan stores its nuclear weapons.
The End of Jinnah's Pakistan
Governor Salmaan Taseer's murder raises questions about the future of Pakistan's Western-educated elites.
By SADANAND DHUME
Every time you think things can't possibly get worse in Pakistan, along comes something to prove you wrong. On Tuesday, in possibly the country's most consequential political shock since the 2007 murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Salmaan Taseer, the 65-year-old governor of Punjab province, was gunned down in an upscale Islamabad market by one of his police bodyguards. The reason: the governor's plain-spoken defense of Asia Bibi, an illiterate Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws. According to press reports, Taseer's killer pumped nine bullets into him for daring to call the blasphemy provision a "black law."
Needless to say, Taseer was right. Pakistan's blasphemy laws belong more in a chronicle of medieval horrors than in a modern society, let alone one that receives billions of dollars in Western largesse. Since the mid-1980s, blasphemy—including criticizing the prophet Mohammed—has carried a mandatory death sentence. Amnesty International calls the laws "vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced" and "typically employed to harass and persecute religious minorities." Over the past quarter century, at least 30 people have been lynched by mobs after being accused of blasphemy. Many others have been forced to flee the country. Though Christians make up less than 2% of Pakistan's population, they account for about half the country's blasphemy cases.
In a larger sense, however, the significance of Taseer's murder lies in what it says about the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Carved out of the Muslim-majority provinces of British India in 1947, the country has long struggled to reconcile two competing visions of its reason for being. Is Pakistan, as imagined by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah—a London-trained barrister with a fondness for pork sandwiches and two-toned spats—merely a homeland for the subcontinent's Muslims? Or was it created to echo the far more ambitious formulation of Abul Ala Maududi, the radical Islamist ideologue born roughly a generation after Jinnah: for the enforcement of Islamic Shariah law upon every aspect of society and the state?
Taseer broadly belonged to Jinnah's Pakistan. He was educated as a chartered accountant in England, founded a successful telecom company, and published the country's leading liberal newspaper in English. (Though, as the son of a famous Urdu poet, Taseer was perhaps more culturally authentic than his nation's founder.) By contrast, Taseer's killer, a 26-year-old named Mumtaz Qadri, symbolizes Maududi's vision. In photographs, he's bearded and moustache-less, in the manner prescribed by fundamentalist Islam. That Mr. Qadri could defy South Asia's usually rigid codes of hierarchy by murdering someone far above his station jibes with the contempt radical Islamists often feel for traditional elites. According to press reports, Mr. Qadri showed no remorse for the murder.
The murder highlights anew the way in which Pakistan's English-speaking classes resemble a small island of urbanity surrounded by a rising tide of fundamentalist zeal. They have only themselves to blame for their predicament. From independence onward, successive governments—military and civilian alike—have ridden the tiger of fundamentalism out of political expediency, misplaced piety or geopolitical ambition. A statistic from Zahid Hussain's "Frontline Pakistan" is telling: When Pakistan gained independence in 1947 it housed 137 madrassas. That number has since swelled to about 13,000, between 10% and 15% of which are linked to sectarian militancy (Sunni versus Shia) or terrorism.
For many analysts, Pakistan's slide began during the prime ministership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the debonair, Scotch-swilling feudal from Sindh first elected in 1970. Believing that he could co-opt the then small fundamentalist lobby, Bhutto banned alcohol and gambling and shuttered night clubs. He replaced the traditional Sunday holiday with Friday and declared the tiny heterodox Ahmadiyya sect to be non-Muslim. Bhutto promoted the pious and ultimately treacherous Zia ul-Haq to head the army.
After Zia seized power in a coup in 1977, the Islamization of Pakistan took off in earnest. The general set up Shariah courts, began government collection of zakat (an Islamic alms tax), denuded libraries of books deemed un-Islamic, and mandated compulsory prayer for civil servants and marks in their personnel files for piety. In the 1980s, army officers were instructed to read "The Quranic Concept of War," a book by a zealous officer, Brigadier General S.K. Malik, which argues that "terror struck in the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end in itself." Many of these officers subsequently rotated through the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence whose links to violent fundamentalist groups fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan and India in Kashmir are widely regarded as too deep to sever entirely.
Since the tefforist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. has worked hard to stem the rising tide of fundamentalism in Pakistan. First it backed the military strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf. When he failed to deliver, policy makers in Washington held out hope that a democratically elected government, armed with greater legitimacy, would fight a better fight. But so far—despite co-operating with stepped-up U.S. drone strikes against militants in the country's remoter reaches—the regime of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has hardly succeeded in stemming the tide of fundamentalist anger in either Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Perhaps Governor Taseer's murder will lead the country's squabbling politicians and scheming generals to come together in a renewed bid to save Jinnah's country from Maududi's vision. Perhaps Pakistani society will be outraged enough to act against the thousands of madrassas that poison the country daily. But if the past is any guide to the future, it may not be a good idea to hold your breath. Jinnah, it can safely be assumed, is spinning in his grave.
Mr. Dhume is a columnist for WSJ.com and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.
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U.N. report: Eco-systems at 'tipping point'
By Matthew Knight for CNN
(CNN) -- The world's eco-systems are at risk of "rapid degradation and collapse" according to a new United Nations report.
The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) warns that unless "swift, radical and creative action" is taken "massive further loss is increasingly likely."
Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the CBD said in a statement: "The news is not good. We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history."
The U.N. warns several eco-systems including the Amazon rainforest, freshwater lakes and rivers and coral reefs are approaching a "tipping point" which, if reached, may see them never recover.
The report says that no government has completely met biodiversity targets that were first set out in 2002 -- the year of the first GBO report.
Executive Director of the U.N. Environmental Program Achim Steiner said there were key economic reasons why governments had failed in this task.
"Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life-forms and their role in healthy and functioning eco-systems," Steiner said in a statement.
Although many countries are beginning to factor in "natural capital," Steiner said that this needs "rapid and sustained scaling-up."
Despite increases in the size of protected land and coastal areas, biodiversity trends reported in the GBO-3 are almost entirely negative.
Vertebrate species fell by nearly one third between 1970 and 2006, natural habitats are in decline, genetic diversity of crops is falling and sixty breeds of livestock have become extinct since 2000.
Nick Nuttall, a U.N. Environmental Program spokesman, said the cost of eco-systems degradation is huge.
"In terms of land-use change, it's thought that the annual financial loss of services eco-systems provide -- water, storing carbon and soil stabilization -- is about €50 billion ($64 billion) a year," Nuttall told CNN.
"If this continues we may well see by 2050 a cumulative loss of what you might call land-based natural capital of around €95 trillion ($121 trillion)," he said.
"If we start putting these figures on the table, then governments might actually wake up to this. We've had a financial crisis. We've also got a natural resource scarcity crisis looming fast."
The GBO-3 is a landmark study in what is the U.N.'s International Year of Biodiversity and will play a key role in guiding the negotiations between world governments at the U.N. Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged governments to give biodiversity a "higher priority in all areas of decision making and in all economic sectors" and called for a "new vision for biological diversity."
The CBD -- an international treaty designed to sustain diversity of life on Earth -- was set up at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
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Political assassination in the US and Pakistan.
Russia and China imprison their political and big business enemies, just like the US wants to do with Julian Assange.
Pakistan kills people for blasphemy, and India imprisons them for sedition.
China invades internet privacy, just like the US is doing with Wikileaks Twitter accounts.
Doesn't seem to matter what country or political system, those on top don't like being challenged, and will kill if they have to, or imprison for life, to maintain their position.
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It is quite like what parasite does to individuals. It rather drives them to death and sucks out all the energy than lets them have even a little individual freedom.
It is weird how parasite does not care for the health of the cow it milks and that sustains it.
Do governments?
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It is weird how parasite does not care for the health of the cow it milks and that sustains it.
Do governments?
Rhetorical question ;)
Nope. They don't care either for the hand that feeds it. It's all about "now" immediate. It's about 'what can I get out of this'? and if there's nothing left for the next one in line (read: the future) then so be it. It's about Me Me Me. Don't we know it? What does concern me is that I'm not surprised. Humanity is like a river of lemurs jumping of a cliff; notwithstanding the few that seem different but get carried away by the tide. Perhaps we have to go through this to get to the other side. (read: fewer of us). War has always been about power and resources (read: money) and when those are dwindling... well... catch 22.
We are having local elections midyear. There is a scramble amongst party members for a position on the list. Government position, be it national, provincial or local, is seen as the first step to enriching one's self. They are quite serious about it. A sort of replacement for war as in other parts of Africa, as here it involves the individual within the party and not the party against another party. The ruling party is still too strong to much too much opposition - although the Western Cape proved their downfall! The only place they are now unable to loot, so they are looking instead at ways to make the looting legal. Example... rearrange the provincial borders! ::)
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War has always been about power and resources (read: money) and when those are dwindling... well... catch 22.
A classic Greek treatise on war from 5th Century BCE states that wars are about 'fear, interest and honor'. Not just power/interest. Add a bit of fear, a bit of pride - in other words, a bit of emotion - and you'll get the most powerful and mindblowing drug in the world.
Power and money wouldn't do the trick, one needs to be hooked up by emotions.
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A classic Greek treatise on war from 5th Century BCE states that wars are about 'fear, interest and honor'. Not just power/interest. Add a bit of fear, a bit of pride - in other words, a bit of emotion - and you'll get the most powerful and mindblowing drug in the world.
Power and money wouldn't do the trick, one needs to be hooked up by emotions.
yes. I would go along with that - 'hooked up by emotion'. Indeed, a most powerful and mindblowing drug, emotion is.
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yes. I would go along with that - 'hooked up by emotion'. Indeed, a most powerful and mindblowing drug, emotion is.
How emotional can people get when I say that one government administration have killed their own citizens? Not only with pollution and poor health care, but with bombs.
The war on teffor is the war of fear. That war can never be won and it have to be encouraged, and the enemy is your neighbor.
The tefforist is a construct of a sick mind. Unfortunately the tefforist has become a reality because of the "we want to have a war going on agression" that saturate Western societies today, but in relation to obesity the tefforist is a rather harmless manifestation (i.e. counting victims of pre-mature death).
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but in relation to obesity the tefforist is a rather harmless manifestation (i.e. counting victims of pre-mature death).
Yes ... we are a nation of fatties! Although a slow killer, I really think it's planned that way ;) Obesity keeps many ppls pockets lined $$$, as do many other diseases.
Our technology, imo, is too advanced that we're still having to run marathons to donate money to 'the cure'. I truly believe we have 'the cure' and it would be just too financially devasting to the economy ... (like it's not already screwed up now ... ha!)
What would we do with all of the empty cancer hospitals? I've heard that some empty churches in the Eastern US have been turned into night clubs!
Sick people are Big Business.
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Yes ... we are a nation of fatties! Although a slow killer, I really think it's planned that way ;) Obesity keeps many ppls pockets lined $$$, as do many other diseases.
Our technology, imo, is too advanced that we're still having to run marathons to donate money to 'the cure'. I truly believe we have 'the cure' and it would be just too financially devasting to the economy ... (like it's not already screwed up now ... ha!)
What would we do with all of the empty cancer hospitals? I've heard that some empty churches in the Eastern US have been turned into night clubs!
Sick people are Big Business.
It is right that the US has the most obese population in the world but many many western countries is not that far behind.
I have a book about Macrobiotics written by Michio Kushi from 1977 where the US nutrition health policy is stated. I have quoted part of that statement in one of our reports. It shows that as "early" as 1977 the US authorities recommended less sugar and fat, along with more specified recommendations, otherwise overweight and obesity would increase.
I myself belong to the 50% overweight 50+ middle age men in Sweden ;) (only a couple of kilos but nevertheless).
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I truly believe we have 'the cure' and it would be just too financially devasting to the economy ... (like it's not already screwed up now ... ha!)
What would we do with all of the empty cancer hospitals? I've heard that some empty churches in the Eastern US have been turned into night clubs!
Sick people are Big Business.
Very true! In all my herbal and TCM research over the last years, one thing I have learned is that there are a number of 'cures' . Quite a few herbs, Chinese included and mushrooms, vegetables etc are known to treat cancer, shrink tumors etc. Plus, there are foods, plants that a person can take to reduce your risk by eliminating free radicals in your body. So to say "we are looking for a cure" when there have been many for thousands upon thousands of years is not only ridiculous, it is appalling!
I do not have a thread dedicated to this in Soma, probably should start one, but you can read more at the GG if you are interested, here:
http://thegypsygarden.smfforfree3.com/index.php/topic,2544.msg9999.html#msg9999
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Hindu holy man reveals truth of terror attacks blamed on Muslims
By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi
India is being forced to confront disturbing evidence that increasingly suggests a secret Hindu terror network may have been responsible for a wave of deadly attacks previously blamed on radical Muslims.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hindu-holy-man-reveals-truth-of-terror-attacks-blamed-on-muslims-2182178.html
Information contained in a confession given in court by a Hindu holy man, suggests that he and several others linked to a right-wing Hindu organisation, planned and carried out attacks on a train travelling to Pakistan, a Sufi shrine and a mosque as well as two assaults on Malegaon, a town in southern India with a large Muslim population.
He claimed the attacks were launched in response to the actions of Muslim militants. "I told everybody that we should answer bombs with bombs," 59-year-old Swami Aseemanand, whose real name is Naba Kumar Sarkar, told a magistrate during a closed hearing in Delhi. "I suggested that 80 per cent of the people of Malegaon were Muslims and we should explode the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad had wanted to go with Pakistan so Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also throng [a Sufi shrine in] Ajmer we should also explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going there. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University as a target."
Police in India have suspected for some time that Hindus may have been responsible for the attacks carried out between 2006 and 2008, and in November of that year several arrests were made, including that of a serving military officer. But the confession of Swami Aseemanand, obtained by an Indian news magazine, is perhaps the most damning evidence yet that Hindu extremists were responsible. It also suggests those involved were senior members of a religious group that is the parent organisation of India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"The evidence is not conclusive but people have to take notice of this," said Bahukutumbi Raman, a former national security adviser and now a leading regional security analyst. "This could aggravate tensions between India's [Hindu and Muslim] communities. It will create problems."
The revelations in Tehelka magazine, bear added significance following the comments of Rahul Gandhi, widely expected to be a future prime minister, in which he said he believed the growth of Hindu extremists presented a greater threat to India than Muslim militants. According to a cable obtained by WikiLeaks, last year Mr Gandhi told the US ambassador to Delhi, Timothy Roemer: "Although there was evidence of some support for Laskar-e-Taiba among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community."
At the time, Mr Gandhi's comments were strongly condemned by the BJP. But the main opposition party has been pushed on to the back foot by the testimony of Swami Aseemanand, which suggests many of those involved in the bombing plots were members of religious organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS is considered the BJP's ideological parent. This week, the RSS's leader, Mohan Bhagwat, claimed extremists had been forced out. "Elements nurturing extremist views have been asked to leave the organisation," he said. "A majority of the people whom the government has accused... had left voluntarily and a few were told that this extremism will not work here."
Among the incidents initially blamed on Muslim militants was a bomb attack in February 2007 on the Samjhauta Express, travelling between Delhi and Lahore. Of the 68 deaths, most were Pakistani citizens returning home. The attack took place a day before Pakistan's Foreign Minister was due to arrive in India for peace talks.
Swami Aseemanand was arrested in Haridwar last November, having apparently been in hiding for more than two years. In his 42-page confession to the magistrate, he reportedly claimed he had been spurred into action by a series of Muslim attacks on Hindus, in particular the assault on the Akshardham temple in Gujarat 2002 that left at least 29 people dead. "This caused great concern and anger in me," he said.
The attacks under scrutiny
Samjhauta Express
In February 2007, two firebombs exploded on the train commonly known as the 'Friendship Express' which travels across the Indo-Pakistani border. Most of the 68 victims and 50 injured were of Pakistani origin. Three further unexploded suitcase bombs were later found on the train.
Mecca Masjid
An attack on the Mecca Masjid mosque, which is in Hyderabad's old city, left 14 people dead in May 2007 – with five apparently killed by police firing on a furious mob after the incident. Swami Aseemanand apparently said that the site was chosen because the local administrator wanted to be part of Pakistan during partition.
Ajmer
A famous Muslim shrine in the city of Ajmer in Rajasthan, about 350km south-west of Delhi, was targeted by bomb attacks in October later that year. Two people were killed and 17 injured near the scared shrine, which houses the tomb of a 13th-century Sufi saint. Swami Aseemanand said the blast was intended to deter Hindus from going there.
Malegaon
In September 2008, three bomb blasts killed 37 people in the Muslim-majority city of Malegaon, situated about 160 miles north-east of Maharashtra's state capital, Mumbai. Muslims had been attending prayers when the bombs exploded in a sacred burial ground, also injuring more than 125 people.
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These cases have been well known as stemming from right-wing Hindu extremists, but never officially acknowledged. I don't think it quite qualified as conspiracy status, it just wasn't openly admitted. There were always political ramifications.
Now that someone has admitted involvement, that should remove the official silence - they actually do have a lot of evidence. Hopefully it will undermine the BJP, who are closely linked to the RSS.
The BJP have been on a high with all the corruption scandals which Congress have done nothing to curb - they are set to use this as a primary platform for the next elections. With these violent incidents now linked to them, perhaps a balance is restored.
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Inserting random useless comment here:
Yay, we reached 100 pages!!
carry on, folks :P
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Yay, we reached 100 pages!!
Wow!
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This is a blog post by Denis Wright - the man Julie knows who is dying of brain tumour. He is a Historian, so alas he knows his facts. But here he is offering a great insight to US foreign policy.
from My Unwelcome Stranger (http://deniswright.blogspot.com/2011/01/sport-hearts-and-minds-and-art-of-war.html)
"Sport, Hearts and Minds and the Art of War
It’s interesting how much sports are a mirror to life, including warfare, politics and diplomacy, whether it’s tennis or chess or cricket or anything else. My professional life was spent studying politics and history so I feel I have something to say about this, using rather scary sporting analogies.
Take chess, for example. Sylvia was telling me how her Grade 6 class kids were flogging her in chess games just about every time. While she was trying to marshal her troops protectively, her students were making daring and lightning attacking moves; not always clever ones, but upsetting any strategy she had in mind. They were winning because of these tactics. Fortune often favours the bold in circumstances where the strategist doesn't quite know what she's doing.
I showed her how to counter this by getting her pieces out quickly and taking the initiative as early as possible in the opening moves of the game, and how the middle game worked – when to take advantage of a change in the balance of power, and how different the end game was from the earlier strategies in the game. I think she’ll give the kids a better run for their money next time.
Or think about cricket. If you don’t understand or like the idea of a test match played over five days, then you can’t appreciate the subtleties of the game. How, say my American friends in particular, can you watch five days of a match and be perfectly happy with a draw at the end of it? Isn’t the object to win?
Well, yes, but sometimes a draw reflects excellent tactics as well and is an appropriate outcome to a match, and may affect the outcome of a whole series and not just one game. No use trying to explain all this if you don’t already get it. We both know why.
Sports also reflect national characteristics. Take the iconic American sport, their form of football; gridiron. Even the name tells the story. Tough, highly aggressive and involving carrying out to its logical conclusion something meticulously planned in every detail. Every soldier at his post. Heavy personal protection. Each man following orders to the letter. Personal sacrifice. Split second timing. The delight for the devotees is having faith in the plan and in seeing it unfold on the field. It’s limited warfare under rigid rules.
Yet this assumes that each side plays to the same fundamental rules, clearly understood and adhered to by both. In general, no-one else in the world likes this game much, though they may admire elements of it and understand how it works.
I often suspect the mentality behind this game is partly why American governments have been so poor at understanding or accepting their failures in foreign policy over the past sixty years or so. To draw a long bow, they tend to assume, even in international diplomacy or warfare, that everyone else plays by the same tactical rules they understand and apply. Or if they don’t, they should, or should be made to. Like the Japanese with baseball, they'll get to appreciate it!
No-one else is playing to their rules. Gridiron can only be really popular in its native land, played by the American perception of how it is done, or should be. Try to impose these local gridiron rules to other nationalities or mindsets, and failure in the longer term is guaranteed. It was OK in the Second World War, when the Germans and the Japanese essentially played gridiron rules just like everyone else except the partisans, but has never worked since nor is likely to work ever again.
There is a far bigger game than ever gets played on the field, and since the Second World War, US administrations have played that game notoriously badly, mistaking the battle for the war. George Bush in Iraq epitomised that infamously when he declared victory in a war that is even today very far from over – the longest running military debacle in a hundred years. Propaganda and disinformation. ‘Embedding’ of reporters. Suppression of truth. Yes yes, the first casualty of war and all that, I know. Scores of people in Iraq die daily in that war, not worth reporting in the western press because people don’t want to know.
The outcome will be decided only when the outsiders have gone. Get out of Afghanistan, stay out of Pakistan. They’ll only have a chance at stability when we’ve gone or stop meddling, like bulls in china shops. And don’t even mention the Taliban until you understand what a motley and diverse collection of groups they are. Treat them as all the same, and you've lost before you started. The only honest brokers are the private security personnel. They know why they are there. Practically no-one else does.
Wars in China, Korea and Vietnam should have taught us otherwise. Wars in the Middle East should have made US military tacticians more receptive to change. They read Tsun Tzu’s The Art of War at the US military academies and admire it, but have little idea how to apply it or counter its strategies. The way terrorists function should have helped them understand that the pilotless bombers operated from the US itself over foreign territories only win tiny battles yet increase their enemies tenfold, but don’t win where the winning matters.
There are no battlefields; only hotspots. If it were chess, the tactics reflect only of the opening gambits, a poor sense of the middle game and no sense at all of the period of end game. Generally speaking, American governments and their advisors still don’t understand Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Pakistan, and they don’t have even the faintest clue about India and how it works. They have almost infinite intelligence information, but they have next to no idea how to use it – or use it the wrong way. The generals bamboozle and cow the politicians dreadfully.
To switch to the gridiron analogy, they seem to imagine all that’s required is to make the rest of the world play that particular game and learn its rules. It’s not going to happen. If the rest of the world is playing any global football, it’s soccer, at which the US is a notable failure.
The irony is that the American Revolution was won against an occupying force which played the same losing game as American tacticians now play in their overseas forays in world control. Double irony in that independence was won for American partisans by 1776 using the tactics that are now being used against them as occupiers of foreign lands in the midst of hostile nationalists.
When you don’t learn even from your own historical experience, then you’re really in trouble. To stretch the sporting analogy, they’re now using a gridiron mentality on the biggest soccer fields in the world, and just about any country in the world can lick them at that, especially when the fans in the stadium take part as well.
You don't believe me? Then you've fallen for the propaganda and the rhetoric. I don't blame you. It's slick and its everywhere, like the glorious Golden Arches of MacDonalds or KFC. And just as finger-lickin' good for you.
I guess, when it's all said and done, it’s just not cricket, is it?!"
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Some people call it 'green revolution' that must follow industrial and information technology revolutions.
GM can feed the world
Telegraph View: For too long, environmental pressure groups have waged an irresponsible campaign against the development of GM foods.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8279686/GM-can-feed-the-world.html
During the lifetime of anyone aged 70 or more, the number of people on the planet has tripled to 6.9 billion. Over the next 60 years or so, that will rise to 9.2 billion, at which point it will peak. A few decades ago, the prospect of such exponential population growth routinely triggered apocalyptic warnings of mass starvation and other Malthusian horrors. The reality is that the world has coped – and, according to a clutch of recent reports, will continue to cope. Earlier this month, the French government’s agricultural and development research agencies reported that the planet can continue to feed itself, while the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reached a similar conclusion, pointing out that nine billion people could be fed using existing technologies more effectively. For example, half of all food produced in Africa rots before reaching market; refrigeration and better roads would transform the situation.
However, yesterday’s government-commissioned Future of Food and Farming report takes a rather less sanguine approach. Professor Sir John Beddington, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, warned that feeding the world would demand a range of solutions – from making traditional farming more efficient to introducing genetically modified (GM) crops. If GM crops can solve problems that are otherwise intractable, then, as Sir John said, “we should use them”. This is a significant contribution to an important debate. For too long, environmental pressure groups have waged an irresponsible – albeit effective – campaign against the development of GM foods. This report’s declaration that not only GM but also livestock cloning and nanotechnology all have a part to play sends out exactly the right signal to the scientific community whose work will help ensure that the threat of mass starvation is averted.
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I see Egypt is hard on the heels of Tunisia.
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I see Egypt is hard on the heels of Tunisia.
That would be an earth quake as there are 80 million people in Egypt.
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Why Genghis Khan was good for the planet
Laying waste to land scrubbed 700m tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/26/genghis-khan-eco-warrior
(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00maplinks/medieval/mongols/empire.gif)
Mongol empire was second only to British Empire, but much larger than the Roman Empire
His empire lasted a century and a half and eventually covered nearly a quarter of the earth's surface. His murderous Mongol armies were responsible for the massacre of as many as 40 million people. Even today, his name remains a byword for brutality and terror. But boy, was Genghis green.
Genghis Khan, in fact, may have been not just the greatest warrior but the greatest eco-warrior of all time, according to a study by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Energy. It has concluded that the 13th-century Mongol leader's bloody advance, laying waste to vast swaths of territory and wiping out entire civilisations en route, may have scrubbed 700m tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere – roughly the quantity of carbon dioxide generated in a year through global petrol consumption – by allowing previously populated and cultivated land to return to carbon-absorbing forest.
An intriguing notion, certainly. But possibly not a guaranteed vote-winner for the Green party's next manifesto.
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"The heroic response by employees of Mumbai's landmark Taj Hotel during the 26/11 terror attacks is now a case study at Harvard Business School that focuses on the staff's selfless service for its customers and how they went beyond their call of duty to save lives.
The multimedia case study 'Terror at the Taj Bombay: Customer-Centric Leadership' by HBS professor Rohit Deshpande documents "the bravery and resourcefulness shown by rank-and-file employees" during the attack.
The study mainly focuses on "why did the Taj employees stay at their posts (during the attacks), jeopardising their safety in order to save hotel guests" and how can that level of loyalty and dedication be replicated elsewhere.
A dozen Taj employees died trying to save the lives of the hotel guests during the attacks.
"Not even the senior managers could explain the behaviour of these employees," Deshpande is quoted as saying in HBS Working Knowledge, a forum on the faculty's research and ideas.
Deshpande said even though the employees "knew all the back exits" in the hotel and could have easily fled the building, some stayed back to help the guests.
"The natural human instinct would be to flee. These are people who instinctively did the right thing. And in the process, some of them, unfortunately, gave their lives to save guests."
A documentary-style account of events, the case includes video interviews with hotel staff and footage of the attack.
It shows how leadership displayed by people in the bottom rank to the top levels in the organisational hierarchy helped in saving lives.
It also focuses on the hotel's history, its approach to recruiting and training employees, the Indian culture's "guest is God" philosophy and how the hotel would recover after the attacks.
Another key concept of the study is that in India and the developing world, "there is a much more paternalistic equation between employer and employee that creates a kinship."
Terming it as one of the "hardest cases" he has worked on, Mumbai-native Deshpande said it was hard to see people confront their trauma again.
"We objectify it, keep emotion at a distance, but after 15 minutes of questions with a video camera in a darkened room, there are deeper, more personal reflections of what happened," he says in the HBS Working Knowledge.
Deshpande said Taj employees felt a sense of loyalty to the hotel as well as a sense of responsibility to the guests.
He cites the example of a general manager who insisted on staying put and help direct a response to the attack even after learning that his wife and sons had died in a fire on the hotel's top floor. "
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Response-by-Taj-employees-to-26/11-a-case-study-at-Harvard/articleshow/7370800.cms
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Climate change: Barack Obama less interested than Bush, analysis reveals
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/26/climate-change-obama-bush?intcmp=239
Obama made no mention of climate change in his state of the union speech, appearing to signal a shift by White House
Barack Obama has paid less attention to climate change in his State of the Union addresses than any other president in the past 20 years, an analysis by a British researcher has found.
Obama made no mention of the words climate change, global warming or environment in his hour-long speech on Tuesday night – when presidents typically employ the pomp and ceremony of the annual occasion to put forward their priorities before an American television audience in the tens of millions.
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/1/26/1296058184736/Obama-state-union-climate-007.jpg)
Aggregate mentions of 'climate change', 'global warming' and the 'environment' in the state of the union address since 1990. Photograph: Mat Hope, University of Bristol
The omission was in stark contrast to the presidential candidate who campaigned in 2008 warning of the existential threat posed by climate change.
But even before the speech, however, Obama was exhibiting a reluctance to use the state of the union to make an explicit reference to the issue of climate change, Matthew Hope, a researcher in American politics at the University of Bristol found.
In last night's speech, Obama did devote several minutes to the economic opportunities presented by innovations in clean energy, and the convenience that would come through developing high-speed rail. He repeated his 2009 commitment – endorsed by all G20 leaders – to end fossil fuel subsidies. "Instead of subsidising yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's," Obama said.
But in his three such addresses since becoming president, he has on average made fewer mentions of climate change or the environment than Bill Clinton or even George Bush.
"Clearly they have decided climate change is a no-go area," Hope said.
The choice of language for the most recent speech appears to signal a strategic shift by the White House. In a conversation with reporters today, Nancy Sutley, the White House council on environmental quality, avoided mention of climate change – though offering assurances Obama remained committed to the cause of clean energy. The White House has also removed reference to climate change from its website.
On average, Obama has mentioned the words environment, climate change and global warming only once in his state of the union speeches. Clinton had an average of six mentions, while the former oil man Bush – who famously used his 2006 speech to lament America's addiction to oil – mentioned climate change and environment on average twice.
The researcher rated the speeches only on the mention of the terms environment, climate change, and global warming. He did not track mention of related issues such as green jobs, or clean tech.
Hope in his study goes on to note that Obama appears to be on a downward trajectory in regard to mention of climate change.
Robert Brulle, a professor in sociology and environment science at Drexel University, said the administration appeared to be following the advice of ecoAmerica and the Breakthrough Institute which argue that reframing the problem of climate change as an energy quest would be more popular with voters.
"In my opinion, this approach has several major drawbacks," Brulle wrote in an email. He called the White House strategy intellectually dishonest and short-sighted.
"The only real reason to transform our energy systems is to address GHG emissions. But by failing to even acknowledge the threat posed by climate change, the reasoning for an energy transformation is very thin."
Despite his choice of language, Obama to date has done more than Bush or Clinton to address global warming. But Brulle warned: "Taking a technology-only approach without meaningful mechanisms to drive adoption of renewable energy means further delay in initiating the massive GHG reductions that are needed to deal with climate change."
Liberal bloggers suggested this morning that it was naive of Obama to think he could persuade Americans to act on climate change without talking about it. "I do continue to think that it is both pointless and foolish, catastrophically so, in fact, for him to refuse to talk about global warming or climate change with so much of America watching," Joe Romm, who runs the Climate Progress blog at the Centre for American Progress said.
There has been increasing concern among environmental organisations that Obama is prepared to give up on greenhouse gas measures so as to try to build better relationships with Republicans in Congress and the business community.
Such fears were amplified by Obama's failure to use his speech to signal his support for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is under assault from Republicans.
Obama instead reaffirmed a pledge last week to do away with overly complicated environmental regulations, making a joke about the bureaucracy involving salmon.
The announcement before the speech that Carol Browner, the energy and climate change adviser, is to leave the White House has also heightened fears that Obama has given up on his campaign promise to take action on climate change.
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Yep, he also didn't mention the Gulf. I don't know who to suggest as his successor, but I am awaiting his fast replacement. Ever since the BP crisis, he has lied and lied, so far as I'm concerned - even if it has been a lie-of-omission . A great disappointment.
Also, he brings the Dalai Lama in and out of the side/back door of the White House while talking up China the next day. It's a world gone mad.
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My understanding is that the cohort surrounding him has been considered to idealistic, they have been replaced with practical business-oriented types. Apparently they feel his liberal attitudes were heading for electoral disaster. The US is not yet ready for acknowledging the Earth - it's business all the way down.
The problem with this approach, is that those who want more liberal policies desert him, and those who want business policies have their own party, so why would they vote for an imitator?
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I see Egypt is hard on the heels of Tunisia.
It would be interesting to know whether these events were spontaneous or not. When there were 'organge' or 'rose revolutions' in the Eastern Eruope (e.g. in Ukraine and Georgia) Russian intelligence services were absolutely convinced that it was the work of CIA.
Now there are already two massive events in Africa. A coincidence?
The US strategic documents have for some time outlined backward and gerontocratic regimes of the Arab world as a strategic challenge with a potential to undermine the whole Middle East.
Does the document below shed any light on what's happening?
Courtesy of Julian Assange:
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 002572 SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA, R, S/P
AND H NSC FOR PASCUAL AND KUTCHA-HELBLING E.O. 12958: DECL:
12/30/2028 TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, EG SUBJECT: APRIL 6 ACTIVIST ON HIS
U.S. VISIT AND REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT REF: A. CAIRO 2462 B.
CAIRO 2454 C. CAIRO 2431 Classified By: ECPO A/Mincouns
Catherine Hill-Herndon for reason 1.4 (d ). 1. (C) Summary and comment: On December 23, April 6 activist xxxxxxxxxxxx expressed satisfaction with his participation in the December 3-5 \"Alliance of Youth Movements Summit,\" and with his subsequent meetings with USG officials, on Capitol Hill, and with think tanks. He described how State Security (SSIS) detained him at the Cairo airport upon his return and confiscated his notes for his summit presentation calling for democratic change in Egypt, and his schedule for his Congressional meetings. xxxxxxxxxxxx contended that the GOE will never undertake significant reform, and therefore, Egyptians need to replace the current regime with a parliamentary democracy. He alleged that several opposition parties and movements have accepted an unwritten plan for democratic transition by 2011; we are doubtful of this claim. xxxxxxxxxxxx said that although SSIS recently released two April 6 activists, it also arrested three additional group members. We have pressed the MFA for the release of these April 6 activists. April 6's stated goal of replacing the current regime with a parliamentary democracy prior to the 2011 presidential elections is highly unrealistic, and is not supported by the mainstream opposition. End summary and comment.
---------------------------- Satisfaction with the Summit ----------------------------
2. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx expressed satisfaction with the December 3-5 \"Alliance of Youth Movements Summit\" in New York, noting that he was able to meet activists from other countries and outline his movement's goals for democratic change in Egypt. He told us that the other activists at the summit were very supportive, and that some even offered to hold public demonstrations in support of Egyptian democracy in their countries, with xxxxxxxxxxxx as an invited guest. xxxxxxxxxxxx said he discussed with the other activists how April 6 members could more effectively evade harassment and surveillance from SSIS with technical upgrades, such as consistently alternating computer \"simcards.\" However, xxxxxxxxxxxx lamented to us that because most April 6 members do not own computers, this tactic would be impossible to implement. xxxxxxxxxxxx was appreciative of the successful efforts by the Department and the summit organizers to protect his identity at the summit, and told us that his name was never mentioned publicly.
------------------- A Cold Welcome Home -------------------
3. (S) xxxxxxxxxxxx told us that SSIS detained and searched him at the Cairo Airport on December 18 upon his return from the U.S. According to xxxxxxxxxxxx, SSIS found and confiscated two documents in his luggage: notes for his presentation at the summit that described April 6's demands for democratic transition in Egypt, and a schedule of his Capitol Hill meetings. xxxxxxxxxxxx described how the SSIS officer told him that State Security is compiling a file on him, and that the officer's superiors instructed him to file a report on xxxxxxxxxxxx most recent activities.
---------------------------------------------Washington Meetings and April 6 Ideas for Regime Change--------------------- ----------
4. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx described his Washington appointments as positive, saying that on the Hill he met with xxxxxxxxxxxx, a variety of House staff members, including from the offices of xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx), and with two Senate staffers. xxxxxxxxxxxx also noted that he met with several think tank members. xxxxxxxxxxxx said that xxxxxxxxxxxx's office invited him to speak at a late January Congressional hearing on House Resolution 1303 regarding religious and political freedom in Egypt. xxxxxxxxxxxx told us he is interested in attending, but conceded he is unsure whether he will have the funds to make the trip. He indicated to us that he has not been focusing on his work as a \"fixer\" for journalists, due to his preoccupation with his U.S. trip.
5. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx described how he tried to convince his Washington interlocutors that the USG should pressure the GOE to implement significant reforms by threatening to reveal CAIRO 00002572002 OF 002 information about GOE officials' alleged \"illegal\" off-shore bank accounts. He hoped that the U.S. and the international community would freeze these bank accounts, like the accounts of Zimbabwean President Mugabe's confidantes. xxxxxxxxxxxx said he wants to convince the USG that Mubarak is worse than Mugabe and that the GOE will never accept democratic reform. xxxxxxxxxxx asserted that Mubarak derives his legitimacy from U.S. support, and therefore charged the U.S. with \"being responsible\" for Mubarak's \"crimes.\" He accused NGOs working on political and economic reform of living in a \"fantasy world,\" and not recognizing that Mubarak -- \"the head of the snake\" -- must step aside to enable democracy to take root.
6. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx claimed that several opposition forces -- including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements -- have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections (ref C). According to xxxxxxxxxxxx, the opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down. (Comment: We have no information to corroborate that these parties and movements have agreed to the unrealistic plan xxxxxxxxxxxx has outlined. Per ref C, xxxxxxxxxxxx previously told us that this plan was publicly available on the internet. End comment.)
7. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx said that the GOE has recently been cracking down on the April 6 movement by arresting its members. xxxxxxxxxxxx noted that although SSIS had released xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx \"in the past few days,\" it had arrested three other members. (Note: On December 14, we pressed the MFA for the release of xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxxx, and on December 28 we asked the MFA for the GOE to release the additional three activists. End note.) xxxxxxxxxxxx conceded that April 6 has no feasible plans for future activities. The group would like to call for another strike on April 6, 2009, but realizes this would be \"impossible\" due to SSIS interference, xxxxxxxxxxxx said. He lamented that the GOE has driven the group's leadership underground, and that one of its leaders, xxxxxxxxxxxx, has been in hiding for the past week.
8. (C) Comment: xxxxxxxxxxxx offered no roadmap of concrete steps toward April 6's highly unrealistic goal of replacing the current regime with a parliamentary democracy prior to the 2011 presidential elections. Most opposition parties and independent NGOs work toward achieving tangible, incremental reform within the current political context, even if they may be pessimistic about their chances of success. xxxxxxxxxxxx wholesale rejection of such an approach places him outside this mainstream of opposition politicians and activists.
SCOBEY02008-12-307386PGOV,PHUM,KDEM,EG APRIL 6 ACTIVIST ON HIS U.S. VISIT AND REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT
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My understanding is that the cohort surrounding him has been considered to idealistic, they have been replaced with practical business-oriented types. Apparently they feel his liberal attitudes were heading for electoral disaster. The US is not yet ready for acknowledging the Earth - it's business all the way down.
The problem with this approach, is that those who want more liberal policies desert him, and those who want business policies have their own party, so why would they vote for an imitator?
During the reign of Bush, the global share of the US economy has plummeted from nearly 30% to 22%. The US is hardly a hyperpower it used to be. It is still the biggest muscle on the block, but it is experiencing too many problems. Obama realizes it perfectly well and the bedrock of the US National Security Strategy (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf) adopted last year is 'rebuilding the foundation of American power', i.e. economy. You can hardly accomplish it with 'green' policies. Thus, the U-turn.
However, there is not a single political power in the US or in the world (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/27/ban-ki-moon-un-climate-change-talks) that would prefer green world in the long-term to the economic welfare now.
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However, there is not a single political power in the US or in the world (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/27/ban-ki-moon-un-climate-change-talks) that would prefer green world in the long-term to the economic welfare now.
yep, I believe that's correct.
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Egypt's a gonner.
Who will be next?
Those Wikileaks were interesting Juhani, but I find it hard to believe US wants Egypt turned upside down. The US has never been the slightest bit interested in democratic change in other countries (or it's own for that matter).
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Those Wikileaks were interesting Juhani, but I find it hard to believe US wants Egypt turned upside down. The US has never been the slightest bit interested in democratic change in other countries (or it's own for that matter).
Allegedly Franklin Delano Roosevelt has said "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch" about a Nicaraguan dictator (historians try to refute that claim, though). The US might be rather indifferent to spreading democracy as such (though there are laws about regime change in other countries, etc.), but it certainly is anxious about the possibility of Middle East exploding in Islamic or some other revolution.
In the case revolution becomes inevitable, the best course of action would be triggering it and trying to direct its progress. As KGB did in Soviet Union by establishing Popular Fronts and trying to guide their activities and agendas.
There have been made (so far unsubstantiated) claims that one of the reasons behind the US invasion of Iraq was so-called 'reverse domino theory' developed by neocons. It means that if the US managed to over throw one ailing regime in the region and create a state that satisfies the interests of its population more, other states would follow.
The strategic rationale behind such a course of action - if one does nothing, the region would blow up in a much more dramatic fashion and prices of fuel would skyrocket.
Anyhow, there's no proof to substantiate the above, just some potentially related bits of information here and there.
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What next for Egypt, the USA and the Middle East?
As Washington struggles to come to terms with a rapidly changing Middle East, US President Barack Obama is acutely aware he must get Egypt right, for the wrong side of history eagerly beckons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8290551/What-next-for-Egypt-the-USA-and-the-Middle-East.html
Faced with a dilemma that has long troubled Western leaders, including Britain's, Barack Obama's administration has not covered itself in glory vis à vis Egypt.
Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, was conspicuously caught between two natural inclinations - encouraging the forces of democracy and preserving an autocratic but deeply loyal friend of the United States and its allies.
Initially, she said that although the US supported "the fundamental rights of expression and assembly", in her view the Egyptian government was "stable".
The next day, as the turmoil deepened in Cairo, she declared that reform "must be on the agenda" of the Egyptian government, which should respond to "active, civil leaders".
Vice President Joe Biden, whose foot is never far from his mouth, rejected the suggestion that Mubarak was a dictator and questioning whether the crowds of Egyptians were indeed making "legitimate claims".
Those were dangerous words. The US provides $1.3 billion military aid annually to Egypt, money which helps fund a repressive apparatus that Washington now more than ever does not want to be closely identified with.
Rather late in proceedings, Mr Obama himself produced a more calibrated response on Friday, edging away from Hosni Mubarak and effectively putting the Egyptian leader on notice. "This moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise," said the US president, who urged that "reforms that meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people".
It was a similar choice of words to that used a day earlier by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, whose reactions have been less equivocal than the Americans' but equally cautious.
"It is important in this situation to respond positively to legitimate demands for reform... that would be my advice to Egyptian leaders and to many others around the Arab world," he said.
Reform, of course, is very different from regime change, which is what those on the streets of Egypt's cities seem to be demanding, and Mr Obama is acutely aware he must get Egypt right, for the wrong side of history eagerly beckons.
Some in his administration still feel stung by criticism that they did not stand up for Iran's Green Movement when it braved Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's thugs in the summer of 2009.
Failure now to support Egyptian men and women braving police bullets and batons, and being too closely identified with an ageing agent of tyranny, could wipe out Washington's credibility with a generation of young Arabs. Cairo, the very city where the US president famously declared a "new beginning" in relations between the America and the Muslim world early in his presidency, could become the graveyard of that ambition.
Excessive hesitancy as events unfold would furthermore give the US and Britain less leverage in the future of the Middle East's most populous country if - or when - Mr Mubarak leaves the stage to what promises to be a muddled cast of actors, which would include the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.
The West's support for Mr Mubarak needs little explaining. He has been an ultra-reliable friend in a volatile region. Diplomatic US cables provided courtesy of WikiLeaks have revealed that the Egyptian president cooperated on brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and the Israelis, slowing the flow of arms to militants in Gaza and Washington's initiative on containing Iran.
The cables also disclosed that Mr Mubarak himself habitually warned that by fostering reform in his country, Western powers could open the door to extremism. He often invoked the example of the Shah of Iran, another unpopular secular leader who was deserted by Jimmy Carter with very unhappy consequences.
The comparison however does not quite fit. In Egypt, there is no charismatic fundamentalist such as the Ayatollah Khomeini waiting in the wings. The protestors have not yet hinted at any allegiance with the Brotherhood or any other group which would flower into support for a theocratic rule.
Unfortunately for policy-makers in London and Washington, neither is there a moderate moderniser or enlightened figurehead ready to carry the people's hopes into the breach. A Cory Aquino, Vaclav Havel or Megawati Sukarnoputri always comes in handy when an autocracy is crumbling.
Successive governments on both sides of the Atlantic share the blame for that lack. Mr Mubarak was allowed hog the arena to the heartless exclusion of others. Formerly vice-president to Anwar Sadat, the West stood by as he failed to appoint a vice-president of his own, grooming only his son Gamal for a succession that is now unlikely to happen.
Mr Obama and the current and former British governments have only nudged and prodded Cairo on human rights. For all its liberal pretensions, the US administration in fact ended the policy of publicly naming dissidents and shaming the regime's treatment of them that was part of George W Bush's "freedom agenda". State Department and Foreign Office realpolitik has determined that the risks of pressurising an old ally were too great.
Had Mr Bush not allowed his initiative to liberalise the Middle East be crushed by the weight of the Iraq war, and had Mr Obama done more than offer empty words of encouragement for civic society, Mr Mubarak might - against his expectations - be in a stronger position today. Gradual reform might have gone a long way to preserving his reign and with it his Western friends' stake in a crucial regional power.
In two years, Mr Obama has shown himself to be a quick learner.
Let us hope he absorbs the lesson provided by Egypt and the uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East, which is that clear and consistent support for freedom will, in the long run, serve America best.
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Yes, curious cross currents of rationals.
Another view I came across on salon.com is that the dominant rhetoric being sponsored by the US authorities and many US media channels, is that Egypt is about to be taken over by Islamicists. This despite that the Islamic Brotherhood has been very slow to enter the fray in Egypt.
The reason for this is not just pervading Islamophobia in the US, but more importantly the US-Israel alliance. Egypt is the cornerstone of that situation, and has ensured protection of Israel since the 70s. That now looks highly jeopardised. The Egyptian public holds a strong support for Palestinians.
I suppose some may also be aware of the Palestinian Papers, which is undermining legitimacy for the PA as it has been cooperating with Israel against Gaza. It has also been pointed out that Al Jazeera is in Qatar whose government has always had strong links to Hamas.
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Ban Ki-moon: World's economic model is 'environmental suicide'
UN secretary general tells Davos panel that an economic revolution is needed to save the planet as he shifts his focus from climate change to sustainability
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/28/ban-ki-moon-economic-model-environment
The world's current economic model is an environmental "global suicide pact" that will result in disaster if it isn't reformed, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, warned today.
Ban said that political and business leaders need to embrace economic innovation in order to save the planet.
"We need a revolution," he told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on how best to make the global economy sustainable. "Climate change is also showing us that the old model is more than obsolete."
He called the current economic model a recipe for "national disaster" and said: "We are running out of time. Time to tackle climate change, time to ensure sustainable … growth." The Guardian revealed yesterday that Ban is ending his hands-on efforts to reach a global climate deal through UN negotiations, and move to focus on a broader sustainability agenda.
His words received a mixed reception from other panelists, including Felipe Calderón, Mexico's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, Walmart chief executive, Mike Duke, and Microsoft's Bill Gates.
Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, said technology alone wouldn't solve the problem of how to sustain economic growth while reducing its impact on the environment. "We have to fundamentally rethink economics," he said, suggesting that a new model was needed to hold businesses to account for their impact on the planet.
Yudhoyono, whose country is often labeled a keeper of one of the world's last major rainforests, said Indonesia was trying to plant 1bn trees a year. But he pushed back against the suggestion that developing countries should give up on their aspiration to achieve the same level of wealth as the rich world.
This view was partly shared by Gates, who said that "you cannot have a just world by telling people to use less energy than the average European". One way to cap the world's consumption and carbon emissions would be to invest in family planning said Gates, who has invested much of his fortune in health projects in the developing world.
The annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos has been accused by some of producing little more than hot air.
The panel moderator, the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, said he hoped next year participants would return to the Swiss ski resort "and be able to say that a molecule of CO2 was actually affected by what we say and do here".
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Ban said that?
Oh my! Beware the mouse that roared!
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"The first flame was lit by a 26-year-old street vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, when he set himself alight. Angry that the police had confiscated his wares, humiliated when, seeking redress from the local government, a female official slapped his face and spat on him, frustrated when the governor refused to see him, Bouazizi doused himself in petrol and burnt to death...
One of Bouazizi's sisters asked: "What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this?" It's the same kind of repression that moved 11 other young men to set themselves on fire in emulation of Bouazizi in the last two weeks in Egypt, in Algeria, in Mauritiana and in Saudi Arabia...
In 1974, the 19 countries of the Middle East, including North Africa, contained only three democracies - Israel, Lebanon and Turkey.
Since then, the number of democracies in the world has trebled from 40 to 123, according to Freedom House. Yet in the Middle East and North Africa, only one new democracy has been added, Iraq.
How has the Middle East remained somehow immune to one of the great movements in world history? The two answers are oil and US support, and the two are closely intertwined."
[Peter Hartcher is The Sydney Morning Herald's international editor.]
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I'm not sure if you are awayre but Al Jazeera has live video coverage of the events in Egypt here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
Also live web blogs at:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/31/live-blog-feb-1-egypt-protests
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/29/live-blog-301-egypt-protests
(urls change every day)
I've heard reports that in the US the media coverage is quite shabby. :P
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By some person called John, on a forum a friend of mine uses:
"... the very large and growing population of Egypt, its extremely small arable land area which is being rapidly covered by houses and roads, the total dependence now on food imports to sustain the population or the rapidly falling oil exports with which the Egyptian Government has hitherto paid for food imports and also subsidised both food and petroleum and the natural gas used by the native population.
It is this failure of Egypt's resources to sustain the present population much less sustain a population that is still growing at close to 2% pa and with very large numbers of young still to enter their reproductive years that underlies (and will maintain) Egypt's unsustainable and socially disruptive trajectory.
The calls for democracy are almost irrelevant in the longer term.
A few stats:
Population 1960 27.8 million
Population 2008
81.7 million
Rainfall average over whole country
~50 mm or 2 inches
Arable land (almost entirely in the Nile Valley)
3%
Arable land per capita
0.04 Ha (400 M2)
Food imports
40% of requirements
Grain imports
60% of requirements
Oil exports
Declined 26% 2009
Oil exports to fall below imports
2010 -11
Cost of oil rising steeply
Cost of oil and food tightly linked"
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...population growth per year: 1,300,000 (one birth in every 23 seconds)
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Tonight is a big one for Egypt - I'm watching it live on Al Jazeera. This is history for the Arab world. I don't think this is 'Muslim'. In fact it's totally secular - the people driven by the youth are fed up with not being part of the modern world.
They said that during evening prayer, people from other religions were standing guard around Muslims who where saying their prayers.
This is huge - but will the police attack? Somehow I doubt it, but after the yesterday's assaults on journalists, it is expected.
God, this is extraordinary to watch - that this is being broadcast across the world is incredible! But that is also why it is happening - technology has changed the world. Unfortunately it can't change us personally, but it can play an important role. Just that finally we have to retire from the whole drama, and be alone, silent and alone.
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It really is a changing time. Maria Schneider has died. And I am getting old to remember her as a beautiful woman caught in a strange yet iconic film - I think she didn't work as an actor again for a long time after that. Then she played in that amazing film, The Passenger, by Michelangelo Antonioni.
(http://paralelo40.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/maria_schneider.jpg)
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTYnwM7SNfk-LpMDmhxnQKvnQnusoYSLX40Fb4OblwQAp-FSr2jaw&t=1)
(http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/Mariaschneider52/snapshot_dvd_001835_20100915_200728-1-1.jpg)
And winds of change are blowing on Mars.
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Mass tree deaths prompt fears of Amazon 'climate tipping point'
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/03/tree-deaths-amazon-climate
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2011/2/2/1296672354226/Drought-Effects-In-Manaus-007.jpg)
Aerial view of a drought-affected area within the Amazon basin in Manaus, Brazil.
Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010, raising fears that the vast forest is on the verge of a tipping point, where it will stop absorbing greenhouse gas emissions and instead increase them.
The dense forests of the Amazon soak up more than one-quarter of the world's atmospheric carbon, making it a critically important buffer against global warming. But if the Amazon switches from a carbon sink to a carbon source that prompts further droughts and mass tree deaths, such a feedback loop could cause runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences.
"Put starkly, current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world's largest forest," said tropical forest expert Simon Lewis, at the University of Leeds, and who led the research published today in the journal Science. Lewis was careful to note that significant scientific uncertainties remain and that the 2010 and 2005 drought – thought then to be of once-a-century severity – might yet be explained by natural climate variation.
"We can't just wait and see because there is no going back," he said. "We won't know we have passed the point where the Amazon turns from a sink to a source until afterwards, when it will be too late."
Alex Bowen, from the London School of Economics and Political Science's Grantham research institute on climate change, said huge emissions of carbon from the Amazon would make it even harder to keep global greenhouse gases at a low enough level to avoid dangerous climate change. "It therefore makes it even more important for there to be strong and urgent reductions in man-made emissions."
The revelation of mass tree deaths in the Amazon is a major blow to efforts to reduce the destruction of the world's forests by loggers, one of the biggest sources of global carbon emissions. The use of satellite imagery by Brazilian law enforcement teams has drastically cut deforestation rates and replanting in Asia had slowed the net loss. Financial deals to protect forests were one of the few areas on which some progress was made at the 2010 UN climate talks in Cancún.
The 2010 Amazonian drought led to the declaration of states-of-emergencies and the lowest ever level of the major tributary, the Rio Negro. Lewis, with colleagues in Brazil, examined satellite-derived rainfall measurements and found that the 2010 drought was even worse than the very severe 2005 drought, affecting a 60% wider area and with an even harsher dry season.
On the ground, the researchers have 126 one-hectare plots spread across the Amazon, in which every single tree is tagged and monitored. After 2005, they counted how many trees had died and worked out how much carbon would be pumped into the atmosphere as the wood rotted. In addition, the reduced growth of the water-stressed trees means the forest failed to absorb the 1.5bn tonnes of carbon that it would in a normal year.
Applying the same principles to the 2010 drought, they estimated that 8.5 billion tonnes of CO2 will be released - more than the entire 7.7bn tonnes emitted in 2009 by China, the biggest polluting nation in the world. This estimate does not include forest fires, which release carbon and increase in dry years.
"The Amazon is such a big area that even a small shift [in conditions] there can have a global impact," said Lewis.
Lewis said that two such severe droughts in the Amazon within five years was highly unusual, but that a natural variation in climate over decade-long periods cannot yet be ruled out. The driving factor of the annual weather patterns is the warmth of the sea in the Atlantic. He said increasing droughts in the Amazon are found in some climate models, including the sophisticated model used by the Hadley centre. This means the 2005 and 2010 droughts are consistent with the idea that global warming will cause more droughts in future, emit more carbon, and potentially lead to runaway climate change. "The greenhouse gases we have already emitted may mean there are several more droughts in the pipeline," he said.
Lewis said that the 2010 drought killed "in the low billions of trees", in addition to the roughly 4 billion trees that die on average in a normal year across the Amazon. The researchers are now trying to raise £500,000 in emergency funding to revisit the plots in the Amazon and gather further data.
Brazilian scientist Paulo Brando, from the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), and co-leader of the research said: "We will not know exactly how many trees were killed until we can complete forest measurements on the ground. It could be that many of the drought-susceptible trees were killed off in 2005. Or the first drought may have weakened a large number of trees so increasing the number dying in 2010."
Brando added: "Our results should be seen as an initial estimate. The emissions estimates do not include those from forest fires, which spread over extensive areas of the Amazon during hot and dry years and release large amounts of carbon."
Climate tipping points
Scientists know from the geological record that the Earth's climate can change rapidly. They have identified a number of potential tipping points where relatively small amounts of global warming caused by human activities could cause large changes in climate. Some tipping points, like the losses to the Amazon forests, involve positive feedback loops and could lead to runaway climate change.
Arctic ice cap: The white ice cap is good at reflecting the Sun's warming light back into space. But when it melts, the dark ocean uncovered absorbs this heat. This leads to more melting, and so on.
Tundra: The high north is warming particularly fast, melting the permafrost that has locked up vast amounts of carbon in soils for thousands of years. Bacteria digesting the unfrozen soils generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas, leading to more warming.
Gas hydrates: Also involving methane, this tipping point involves huge reservoirs of methane frozen on or just below the ocean floor. The methane-water crystals are close to their melting point and highly unstable. A huge release could be triggered by a little warming.
West Antarctic ice sheet: Some scientists think this enormous ice sheet, much of which is below sea level, is vulnerable to small amounts of warming. If it all eventually melted, sea level would rise by six metres.
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Outrage on media in Kairo.
more than 50 independent journalists has been assaulted, arrested or in this Swedish case stabbed!
It is said that people in the mob get 100 Egypt dollars (less than USD 15) for attacking any journalists. There have even been attacks within the hotels and in the hotel lobbies (which tells that security agency is involved) on media and human right activists from the West (such as Amnesty International).
Swedish TV-journalist at the National televison seriously hurt. This guy is experienced and has been in the most dangerous zones before. Still he got prey to the Mubarak mob.
http://www.swedishwire.com/component/content/article/2:politics/8388:swedish-reporter-seriously-injured-in-cairo-riots
I can tell that Bert S. got stabbed in the stomach and in the back along with heavy violence toward his head. Bert is now at a hospital wher two Swedish policemen guard him and Swedish doctors assist in his treatment.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/02/anderson-cooper-among-many-journalists-attacked-in-cairo/
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Weatherwatch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2011/feb/08/weatherwatch-weekly-roundup
Severe tropical cyclone Yasi struck the north-east coast of Queensland last Wednesday. Yasi was the most powerful cyclone to hit the east coast of Australia since 1918, and it made landfall at Mission Beach as a category 5 storm with wind gusts of 180mph, cutting power to over 180,000 properties and destroying homes.
Agriculture suffered major losses, as the storm wiped out 90% of Australia's banana crop and caused an estimated A$500m (£315m) of damage to the sugar industry. The total losses from Yasi are expected to reach A$3.5bn (£2.2bn).
Also last Wednesday, the US battled against a historic winter storm that spanned 2,000 miles. The storm, said to be the worst in decades, brought blizzard conditions, ice storms and snow accumulations up to 60cm deep to more than half the US, crushing buildings, cutting power to over 375,000 customers and causing travel chaos, with over 14,000 flight cancellations. Chicago measured 51cm of snow, the city's third largest fall on record, forcing schools to close for the first time in 12 years. Twelve deaths have been blamed on the storm.
Flash floods and landslides hit Jolo and other southern regions of the Philippines on Thursday night, after five days of torrential rains, which also spawned two tornadoes. A state of calamity was declared in the town, where 20 people were killed and 3,000 families were displaced.
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The truth behind India's nuclear renaissance
Jaitapur's French-built nuclear plant is a disaster in waiting, jeopardising biodiversity and local livelihoods
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/08/india-jaitapur-nuclear-disaster-biodiversity
The global "nuclear renaissance" touted a decade ago has not materialised. The US's nuclear industry remains starved of new reactor orders since 1973, and western Europe's first reactor after Chernobyl (1986) is in serious trouble in Finland – 42 months behind schedule, 90% over budget, and in bitter litigation. But India is forging ahead to create an artificial nuclear renaissance by quadrupling its nuclear capacity by 2020 and then tripling it by 2030 by pumping billions into reactor imports from France, Russia and America, and further subsidising the domestic Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL).
The first victim of this will be an extraordinarily precious ecosystem in the Konkan region of the mountain range that runs along India's west coast. This is one of the world's biodiversity "hotspots" and home to 6,000 species of flowering plants, mammals, birds and amphibians, including 325 threatened ones. It is the source of two major rivers. Botanists say it's India's richest area for endemic plants. With its magical combination of virgin rainforests, mountains and sea, it puts Goa in the shade.
NPCIL is planning to install six 1,650-MW reactors here, at Jaitapur in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, based on the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design of the French company Areva – the very same that's in trouble in Finland. The government has forcibly acquired 2,300 acres under a colonial law, ignoring protests. As construction begins, mountains will be flattened, trees uprooted, harbours razed, and a flourishing farming, horticultural and fisheries economy destroyed, jeopardising 40,000 people's survival.
To rationalise this ecocide, the government declared the area "barren". This is a horrendous lie, says India's best-known ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who heads the environment ministry's expert panel on its ecology. As I discovered during a visit to Jaitapur, there's hardly a patch of land that's not green with paddy, legumes, cashew, pineapple and coconut. So rich are its fisheries that they pay workers three times the statutory minimum wage, a rarity in India.
Jaitapur's villagers are literate. They know about Chernobyl, radiation, and the nuclear waste problem. They have seen films on injuries inflicted on villagers like them by Indian uranium mines and reactors – including cancers, congenital deformities and involuntary abortions. They don't want the Jaitapur plant. Of the 2,275 families whose land was forcibly acquired, 95% have refused to collect compensation, including one job per family. The offer provokes derision, as does Indo-French "co-operation". When Nicolas Sarkozy visited India to sell EPRs, Jaitapur saw the biggest demonstration against him.
The EPR safety design hasn't been approved by nuclear regulators anywhere. Finnish, British and French regulators have raised 3,000 safety issues including control, emergency-cooling and safe shutdown systems. A French government-appointed expert has recommended modifications to overcome the EPR's problems. Modifications will raise its cost beyond €5.7bn. Its unit generation costs will be three times higher than those for wind or coal. India had a nightmarish experience with Enron, which built a white elephant power plant near Jaitapur, nearly bankrupting Maharashtra's electricity board.
Jaitapur's people are more concerned about being treated as sub-humans by the state, which has unleashed savage repression, including hundreds of arrests, illegal detentions and orders prohibiting peaceful assemblies. Eminent citizens keen to express solidarity with protesters were banned, including a former supreme court judge, the Communist party's secretary and a former Navy chief. Gadgil too was prevented. A former high court judge was detained illegally for five days. Worse, a Maharashtra minister recently threatened that "outsiders" who visit Jaitapur wouldn't be "allowed to come out" (alive).
This hasn't broken the people's resolve or resistance. They have launched their own forms of Gandhian non-cooperation and civil disobedience. Elected councillors from 10 villages have resigned. People boycotted a 18 January public hearing in Mumbai convened to clear "misconceptions" about nuclear power. They refused to hoist the national flag, as is traditionally done, on Republic Day (26 January). They have decided not to sell food to officials. When teachers were ordered to teach pupils about the safety of nuclear reactors, parents withdrew children from school for a week.
The peaceful campaign, with all its moral courage, hasn't moved the government. It accepted an extraordinarily sloppy environmental assessment report on Jaitapur, which doesn't consider biodiversity and nuclear safety, or even mention radioactive waste. It subverted the law on environment-related public hearings. It cleared the project six days before Sarkozy's visit.
Why the haste? India's nuclear establishment has persistently missed targets and delivered a fraction of the promised electricity – under 3% – with dubious safety. It was in dire straits till it conducted nuclear explosions in 1998, which raised its status within India's national-chauvinist elite – and its budget. The major powers have "normalised" India's nuclear weapons through special exceptions in global nuclear commerce rules. France used these to drive a bargain for cash-strapped Areva. Its counterpart is the disaster-in-waiting called Jaitapur.
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Assange Probe Hits Snag
Inquiry Suggests WikiLeaks Founder Didn't Induce Soldier to Leak Documents
By JULIAN E. BARNES And EVAN PEREZ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703313304576132543747598766.html?KEYWORDS=assange
U.S. investigators have been unable to uncover evidence that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange induced an Army private to leak government documents to his website, according to officials familiar with the matter.
New findings suggest Pfc. Bradley Manning, the intelligence analyst accused of handing over the data to the WikiLeaks website, initiated the theft himself, officials said. That contrasts with the initial portrait provided by Defense Department officials of a young man taken advantage of by Mr. Assange.
Further denting the push by some government officials to prosecute Mr. Assange, the probes have found little to link the two men, though others affiliated with WikiLeaks have been tied to Pfc. Manning, officials said.
For the U.S. to bring its preferred case against Mr. Assange of inducing the leak, it would have to show that the WikiLeaks founder specifically encouraged Mr. Manning to hand over the documents, which included thousands of State Department cables, as well as low-level intelligence reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Justice Department lawyers continue to gather evidence for a possible conspiracy charge against Mr. Assange, but that's a harder case to make, government officials said. Such a charge would be based on contacts, which are more evident, between Pfc. Manning and lower-level WikiLeaks activists, and on Mr. Assange's leadership of the group, these officials said.
Attorneys for Mr. Assange and Pfc. Manning, who is being held in a military brig in Virginia, didn't return calls seeking comment Tuesday. Mr. Assange has denied he had any contact with Pfc. Manning, whose lawyers have never commented on the accusations against him.
Failing to prosecute Mr. Assange, who has been portrayed as the chief instigator of the leaks, would be a setback to U.S. officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, who have been vocal in asserting that the publication of the documents was a crime that should be prosecuted. The State Department cables, in particular, embarrassed U.S. diplomats and could expose their contacts to reprisals.
Mr. Assange is currently facing extradition proceedings in the U.K. on a request from Sweden, which is investigating sexual-assault allegations against him. In a second day of testimony Tuesday, lawyers sparred over who was more uncooperative—Mr. Assange or the Swedish prosecutor pursuing him.
Lawyers for Mr. Assange argued he shouldn't be extradited because he tried multiple times to meet with Swedish prosecutors after they opened the investigation on Sept. 1, and before Mr. Assange left Sweden on Sept. 27.
A lawyer representing Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny said it was Ms. Ny who tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to schedule an interrogation with Mr. Assange, who at one point went missing for about a week, unreachable even by his own lawyers.
Leonard Weinglass, a U.S. civil-rights lawyer who is working on Mr. Assange's defense, said his attorneys believed the U.S. government would attempt to have Mr. Assange extradited to the U.S.
In Washington, military officials have been examining how the data was stolen and how the theft could have been prevented. Army investigators now believe Pfc. Manning decided to steal the documents and give them to WikiLeaks on his own, out of his own malice toward the military or the government, according to a senior U.S. official.
The results of the Army inquiry were briefed for Army Secretary John McHugh last week, officials said. The findings of that probe contrast with the initial portrayal by some government officials of Pfc. Manning as a confused young person who was taken advantage of by Mr. Assange.
Pfc. Manning worked in intelligence operations in Baghdad and was assigned the task of examining intelligence relevant to Iraq. Defense officials said Pfc. Manning used his security clearance instead to tap into classified government documents around the world.
The military has charged Pfc. Manning in connection with two leaks—a State Department cable on the Icelandic banking crisis and a video showing a U.S. military helicopter firing on a group of people in Baghdad. He hasn't been charged in connection with the leaks of thousands of State Department and intelligence documents. Defense officials say they believe he was responsible for them.
After joining the Army, Pfc. Manning had a series of disciplinary problems, including fighting with other soldiers. Those conflicts fueled Pfc. Manning's anger toward the military, said the senior official, but investigators believe his antipathy to the government began earlier.
Early in the probe, Justice Department officials concluded they wouldn't treat WikiLeaks as a journalistic enterprise, which makes it easier for federal investigators to seek subpoenas of records related to WikiLeaks leaders and associates.
Federal authorities have used a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., to gather evidence, including gaining a judge's December order to Twitter Inc. for records related to Mr. Assange and Pfc. Manning, and several WikiLeaks volunteers.
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Just listening to Mubarak - he's not going! Incredible. What are the people going to do?
He's still sticking to his September timeline. I expect some nasty results.
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Oh boy, what a tale of tricks this is turning out to be!
I'll just give you the simplistic overview:
Raymond Davis, a private security contractor "on the rolls of the US diplomatic mission in Pakistan" shot dead two men while a US diplomatic car ran over and killed another while racing to the rescue of Davis. Bald facts.
Davis is claiming self-defence against intended robbery. Pakistan police have said he shot them in cold blood.
'Meanwhile, Shumaila Kanwal, the wife of one of alleged robbers/spies died under mysterious circumstances in a Pakistani hospital after consuming poison, but not before she met journalists and issued a revenge call, demanding "blood for blood'.'
Behind the scenes:
Washington has been trying to pressurise Pakistan over the Nov 2008 Mumbai attacks - a US court is trying to summon top ISI officials in connection with the attacks (ISI is the Pak intelligence agency).
It now turns out that the dead Pak men were ISI agents. "Matters have been complicated by new disclosures that the two were ISI agents assigned to tail Davis and the subsequent suicide by the widow of one of the men demanding rough justice for Davis, just as it seemed the Pakistani government was inclined to release him under US pressure."
"Washington has remained mum on the details of the murky episode, except to indicate that it regards Davis as such a prized assets that it is willing to go to any extent to extricate him. "
US has cut all diplomatic contact with Pakistan, demanding that Davis and his colleague be released under diplomatic immunity.
US congressmen (from the Republicans) have told Pakistan leaders there will be no money to Pak in the upcoming US Budget if these men are not released.
US needs Pak to transport resources to Afghanistan. Pak desperately need US money to survive.
What happens next?
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Pakistan has revealed that the arrested empolyee of the US consulate made phone calls to Waziristan, contacted rebels there, and that Pakistan would not release him.
It might well be that he works for the CIA (CIA has used previously Blackwater/Xe Services) to capture various Al-Qaedistas/insurgents.
A couple of days ago I talked to one Pakistani who said that 'they look at the affair that has cost three human lives with utmost seriousness'.
Considering that by the end of 2010 Pakistan seriously began flexing its muscles with regard to the power-sharing in Afghanistan between Western-backed Karzai and Pakistani-backed insurgents, it is likely that Pakistan is sending a message to the US. That message sounds to me like this: 'We are the kingmakers in Afghanistan, and if you don't want to piss off 170 million Pakistanis and get Taliban back by 2015, rein in your dogs of war!'
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Muburak changed his mind and resigned!
Isn't that just amazing and astounding?
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Muburak changed his mind and resigned!
Isn't that just amazing and astounding?
Great News indeed!
Some headline also said that his billions of money abroad was freezed. Uncertain of course how much he have "saved" but he got assets in real estate too. And then we talk about assets in millions and millions of dollars, flats in London and elsewhere.
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/10/6025656-mubarak-could-leave-with-2-billion (http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/10/6025656-mubarak-could-leave-with-2-billion)
It is always the same with these dictators but in a sense of personal power one must give them some kind of credit. Though one should perhaps realize when the time has come. Mubarak was more stubborn than the most to resign.
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I couldn't keep watching it last night - had to go off for my meditation. And this morning it's all happened! The Egyptians are going berserk in the streets with ecstatic joy.
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...was probably the simplest of tasks Egypt has been facing. Paradoxically, to implement the necessary changes and satisfy the desire of Egyptians for better life, is a much more daunting task. So many things must be changed...including the mentality of very many Egyptians who took to the streets.
Nevertheless, it is a party time now.
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...was probably the simplest of tasks Egypt has been facing. Paradoxically, to implement the necessary changes and satisfy the desire of Egyptians for better life, is a much more daunting task. So many things must be changed...including the mentality of very many Egyptians who took to the streets.
you're not wrong there Gunga Din
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Here is the original post about Wikileaks: http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=460.msg70152#msg70152
Interesting article about 'potent democratic youth movement in Arab states' (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/middleeast/14egypt-tunisia-protests.html?hp)
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It's spreading - Yemen is into it's fifth day of protest, Iran and Bahrain are erupting. Many other Arab states are bubbling.
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How Egypt shut down the Internet (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&ref=world&adxnnlx=1297848208-3lE9i6l5RTFQW0tkbMFlow)
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Here is the original post about Wikileaks: http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=460.msg70152#msg70152
Interesting article about 'potent democratic youth movement in Arab states' (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/middleeast/14egypt-tunisia-protests.html?hp)
The plot gets more and more interesting. Apparently, the US administration was aware for at least a year of the brewing revolt in the Middle East (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17diplomacy.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss).
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I glad to hear it - glad to hear they were doing their job of keeping abreast of changing events. With all the money they throw at information gathering, if they hadn't seen it coming, it would be a serious incompetence.
What is curious, that despite pre-warning, they still don't know what to do about all this. They are compromised - between backing their cronies and backing the new emerging forces within these countries, including Democracy. The US desperately needs Middle East (read 'oil') stability.
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(http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/imagecache/218/330/mritems/Images/2011/2/16/2011216173447943884_20.jpg)
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Yemen is for some reason off the main radar - it is the most aggressive of protesting Arab states, but perhaps too insignificant to affect the rest.
Bahrain (I now know how to pronounce this word, but you have to have that Arabic throat sound to get it right) is i sense the crucial situation. Under threat from this rising generation of world-savvy people who are fed up with the old bullshit, Arab totalitarian governments are all seeking a protective response. Now Bahrain has taken the hard line, they are all watching to see if it works.
I wonder if it will work. Somehow I think it's a bummer for the big dicks.
Oh, and the poor US - Bahrain is the headquarters of the 5th Fleet. Then Barack said they came out heavy against the Iranian response to protests because it was violent. Now Bahrain's response is the same, what does US say? Oh well, now that a different case again. Bahrain has no oil - it gets it's funding from the US. This is a test case for the Obama Administration, and they will rue the day they make a mistake here.
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Obama on ACID?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-451XMsuY
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I am astounded by what is happening across the Arab world. I hear of more countries every day, where demonstrations are erupting. The whole Arab world is on fire.
But Libya is the most incredible. Despite the extreme reaction from the government, the people are keeping up the pressure. I read that on Saturday they over-ran a military brigade in Benghazi. And they are being extremely creative to get their videos and tweets out through the internet blockade in Libya. I'm reading 200 people have been killed Saturday.
I am so impressed with the courage of these unarmed people in all these countries, to keep facing up to violent security forces. I expect the authorities are completely at a loss in knowing how to adequately respond to such mass uprisings.
I wonder if all this is connected to the solar flairs.
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I have just read that Benghazi has fallen to the people - military and police are holed up and running out of ammunition.
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Considering the scale and timing of the unrest (almost like an eruption - way beyond the scale of subversion achievable by any intelligence service), it seems to me that Sun is playing growing role in what we see. It seems that people are literally pushed around to show whether they are able to grow and effect changes, or not.
This certainly does not subtract anything from the self-sacrifice and determination of those killed when confronting security services and armed forces.
I would guess the push of Sun will soon reach other societies as well.
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If I'm not mistaken, 9/11 occured during a solar maximum.
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What happens next?
Pak is ratcheting it up.
ISI claims Raymond Davis, formerly of Special Forces, now a private contractor, was definitely on a payroll of CIA (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/20/us-raymond-davis-lahore-cia) at the moment of the incident.
The relations between the CIA and ISI are at the level comparable to pre 9/11 days (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604576150700376521050.html). That is very ominous. One explanation may be that Pak is deliberately pedaling Islamist card to avoid upheavals in the fashion of Middle East and North Africa.
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I can't see Pak as similar to the Middle East countries, as it does have a democratic process, which is hotly participated in, as in India. I expect this Davis affair is more about local politics. However now the Republicans have stepped up their profile in government, it is possible some funding will be delayed.
The main problem is that the Pak government is very aligned with the US, and receives huge funding for their military from the US. Thus they allow US agents almost free rein through the country, and impunity form normal police action. But the population believes that all their trouble comes from the CIA/Blackwater, Mossad, and RAW.
So the politicians have to play a double game, at with Pakistanis are expert. This time however, it appears the Islamists pulled a swifty by getting the wife of one of the murdered Pakistanis to denounce the US on film, then quietly murdering her in a way to make it look like suicide.
It has not helped that the Pakistanis were ISI agents, meaning that this issue runs deeper than popular opinion - likely an attempt by Islamists within the police and ISI to regain control of the political agenda.
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I'd say Gaddafi is now a gonner. He is being deserted by his own people, and I'd say the idea behind bringing in foreign mercenaries is because he knows he can't trust his military.
Morocco is also on fire, so we will see how the authorities respond there.
Bahrain and Yemen have pulled back from the violent response - at least Bahrain has in a dramatic way. So we are watching to see if the old guard in both these countries can negotiate a deal. Neither have the Egyptian situation of a much-loved military to fall back on. But Bahrain is no poor country - it is a well educated and middle-class scenario, based on US money. So they have a chance of a reasonable outcome.
Every other Middle-East dictatorship is likely to descend into very unpleasant consequences.
Israel of course is scared shitless, and the US Administration is completely at sea, despite all their fore-warnings.
The other extraordinary case is Iran - that they are taking to the streets again after all that happened last time, is indicative of the feeling bubbling there.
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I can't see Pak as similar to the Middle East countries, as it does have a democratic process, which is hotly participated in, as in India. I expect this Davis affair is more about local politics. However now the Republicans have stepped up their profile in government, it is possible some funding will be delayed.
The main problem is that the Pak government is very aligned with the US, and receives huge funding for their military from the US. Thus they allow US agents almost free rein through the country, and impunity form normal police action. But the population believes that all their trouble comes from the CIA/Blackwater, Mossad, and RAW.
So the politicians have to play a double game, at with Pakistanis are expert. This time however, it appears the Islamists pulled a swifty by getting the wife of one of the murdered Pakistanis to denounce the US on film, then quietly murdering her in a way to make it look like suicide.
It has not helped that the Pakistanis were ISI agents, meaning that this issue runs deeper than popular opinion - likely an attempt by Islamists within the police and ISI to regain control of the political agenda.
It appears that insurgents/ISI have scored a jackpot. Allegedly, Raymond Davis was an acting head of CIA in Pakistan (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8340999/Raymond-Davis-was-acting-head-of-CIA-in-Pakistan.html) tasked with gathering intelligence on insurgents. Considering how Pakistanis feel about possible release of Davis, and under how much pressure is Pakistani government, CIA seems to have been effectively paralysed within Pakistan.
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Those poor bastards in Tripoli - the yellow hard-hat mercenaries are going door-to-door killing people.
The latest estimate is 600 dead, but I suspect the real casualty figure is much higher.
We keep seeing dramatic scenes from Christchurch on the TV. Seems there is no escape once the cement above you collapses.
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Those poor bastards in Tripoli - the yellow hard-hat mercenaries are going door-to-door killing people.
The latest estimate is 600 dead, but I suspect the real casualty figure is much higher.
Indeed, they say dead bodies are scattered on the streets and nobody does anything about them.
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Mr Gadaffi seem to be very confused in his speeches and he tells lies. He claim that the riot is kept going by young people getting instructions and drugs from the Al Quida. Now the only guy that look like being on drugs is Mr Khadaffi himself.
The East of Libya is out of control for the old regime and more areas and cities folllows.
Khadaffi is illustrated as a rat on the placards that the demonstrators show.
It is very scary that Ghadaffi use mercenary soldiers from other African states to kill unarmed civilians. I am against war and violence but I hope the people in Libya can protect themselves and get support from the national army toward these killers paid by Ghadaffi.
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While talking to a young woman a few days ago, at the Insurance Coy for our business, she apologised for the bad state of their computer systems. I said, "Well at least you're not in Libya."
To which she replied, "Why? What's happening in Libya?"
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I think Qaddafi will die today in Libya. I expect it will all be over tomorrow.
The popular revolt has guns now, and only his most loyal brigade is defending him.
But I keep asking, what does this matter to those who have been shot dead?
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I think Qaddafi will die today in Libya. I expect it will all be over tomorrow.
The popular revolt has guns now, and only his most loyal brigade is defending him.
But I keep asking, what does this matter to those who have been shot dead?
What we have seen, and see, in the Arabian countries today and the last months is incredible. This is really a manifestation of the New Sun.
I send my best regards to my brothers in Africa.
I am a sociologist from the beginning, with exams in the behavioral sciences, but back then in the early 1980's, it was all theories, and the examples of "revolutions" was from old days. When the Eastern Wall fell, and Glasnost came in Russia, it was a kind of a revolution for a while, sure, but what we experience in Africa today is a far more greater historical event.
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But I keep asking, what does this matter to those who have been shot dead?
Well, you posted here Steiner's text about those killed in the First World War. I'd guess one has to look at the motives of killed Libyans to see if their deaths helped them forward on their paths of development.
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Well, you posted here Steiner's text about those killed in the First World War. I'd guess one has to look at the motives of killed Libyans to see if their deaths helped them forward on their paths of development.
Interesting point.
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When the Eastern Wall fell, and Glasnost came in Russia, it was a kind of a revolution for a while, sure, but what we experience in Africa today is a far more greater historical event.
I agree, although I have been reluctant to hold out hope for the significance of the difference I feel. But it does appear to me to be different in a distinct way.
Timothy Garton Ash, for all his fame, seemed to waste a whole article making the point, that these revolutions are similar yet different - that they are 2011, and not all those before. But he didn't explain why, which is the main thing.
I feel, or I hope I feel (if I allow myself a little of the hope delusion), that this sequence of events represents a whole new wave of energy arising, which has no precedence. We are witnessing the birth of something which will eventually sweep the whole planet. Not in a rush, but within ten to twenty years, or sooner.
It is the demise of an old order. They will get Julian Assange, but they won't stop what he represents. People have been empowered by technology, which in its turn has been set lose by other forces. There has been a definite shift, which I have felt since the 1990s, but not really seen manifest until now.
Anyway, looks like Qaddafi is digging in. What is happening in Libya now, is that all those cities and areas which have gone 'free', are rushing to Tripoli to finish off Qaddafi, because they know if they allow him to survive, and he reasserts control of the country, then they will be hunted down and killed.
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Well, the energies pushing people forth could be different, but what about the outcomes? Steiner said that for sudden death to be blessing one needs a certain quality of mind. So far, I see mindsets common to revolutions and wars: a lot of anger and desire for revenge.
Since the last frequency jump in 1990s, humanity has only come closer to destroying our living environment. My take is that Sun pushes us forth and provides the energy for those willing to evolve, but it does not change human being automatically from within.
The upheaval in the Middle East is already affecting the energy market threatening thereby the well-being of the 'golden billion'. Where will it lead eventually? Hard to tell. Sweden, for example, has been implementing for several years a program aimed at reducing dependence on the fossil fuel from the Middle East and producing it instead from the plant oil. Thus, there is at least a search for technological solutions in order to maintain status quo.
We'll see. The older I get, the more I adhere to the 'old school' and say that nothing external can change the human being.
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you're not wrong there Gunga Din
...and so the story goes on and on (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/middleeast/26egypt.html?ref=africa). Egyptians are getting closer to facing nobody but themselves. Will they survive the moment of truth?
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Where will it lead eventually? Hard to tell. Sweden, for example, has been implementing for several years a program aimed at reducing dependence on the fossil fuel from the Middle East and producing it instead from the plant oil. Thus, there is at least a search for technological solutions in order to maintain status quo.
Sweden is no model for you, or the world of yours.
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I hope I feel (if I allow myself a little of the hope delusion), that this sequence of events represents a whole new wave of energy arising, which has no precedence. We are witnessing the birth of something which will eventually sweep the whole planet. Not in a rush, but within ten to twenty years, or sooner.
It is the demise of an old order.
What we see is the birth of the Tenth Sun.
and The Sun is aligned to the old Incas of Peru, they call themselves the Children of the Sun.
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What we see is the birth of the Tenth Sun.
and The Sun is aligned to the old Incas of Peru, they call themselves the Children of the Sun.
Mayas/Toltecs/don Miguel Ruiz say it is the beginning of the Sixth Sun. Hopis say it is the beginning of the Fifth World. Which one is right? 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th? :D
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Sweden is no model for you, or the world of yours.
Never has been either, but that does not stop me from knowing what is happening within that country.
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...and so the story goes on and on (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/middleeast/26egypt.html?ref=africa). Egyptians are getting closer to facing nobody but themselves. Will they survive the moment of truth?
It is interesting that trouble continues in Tunisia and Egypt. There are two aspects I see in this. One is that they don't know when to stop - the idea that all this revolution is not going to bring them what they really seek.
The other, is that the very nature of this revolt, in being a popular expression of public frustration at the lack of avenues for participation in controlling their collective life, is not going to be easily satisfied by token changes from the ruling layer of society. This has only just begun - we are in for some dramatic changes in what the collective public sees as its right to know and to act, across the globe.
However, returning to my first point, ultimately none of this will satisfy the true needs of each individual. That is why, after I have been following this on english.aljazeera.net and libyafeb17.com, I am perfectly happy to retire to my meditation mat, knowing full well where that satisfaction is to be found.
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I am perfectly happy to retire to my meditation mat, knowing full well where that satisfaction is to be found.
Indeed, at the end the world doesn't matter. It is all in one's mind.
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Don't watch this.
But if you go against my advise, ask yourself - what happens after death?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yib_sB9Ci58&feature=player_embedded&skipcontrinter=1
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I would, but it asks to sign in to see it. I don't have an account there and i don't think it would be necessary to make one to see 41 sec clip of death and bodies.
I had a thought the other day, that would it be possible that women in arabic countries would start their own riot one day like what is going on now.
Just recently i saw an awarded photo of some woman whos nose and ears were cut off by her husband. The reason was that the husband was violent and she ran away to her parents.
Don't watch this.
But if you go against my advise, ask yourself - what happens after death?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yib_sB9Ci58&feature=player_embedded&skipcontrinter=1
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I would, but it asks to sign in to see it. I don't have an account there and i don't think it would be necessary to make one to see 41 sec clip of death and bodies.
Necessary or not? You decide.
But it is the experience that changes a human, not some rational thought.
Yet it does not mean that you must watch the clip.
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I doubt this video would change anything in me, i've seen quite alot of videos and pictures of dead bodies. If I was in the middle of all that, then i guess there would be a chance of chaning something in me.
Necessary or not? You decide.
But it is the experience that changes a human, not some rational thought.
Yet it does not mean that you must watch the clip.
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Your life, your choice.
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Death is death, no matter how it happens.
Your life, your choice.
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Death is death, no matter how it happens.
I'll have my own view regardless.
You make choices, you live with the consequences, and pay the price. Like everyone does - alone. Accept it and walk with courage.
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Mr Gadaffi seem to be very confused in his speeches and he tells lies. He claim that the riot is kept going by young people getting instructions and drugs from the Al Quida. Now the only guy that look like being on drugs is Mr Khadaffi himself.
The East of Libya is out of control for the old regime and more areas and cities folllows.
Khadaffi is illustrated as a rat on the placards that the demonstrators show.
It is very scary that Ghadaffi use mercenary soldiers from other African states to kill unarmed civilians. I am against war and violence but I hope the people in Libya can protect themselves and get support from the national army toward these killers paid by Ghadaffi.
Well, well, how shall we spell that name?
In Swedish the dictator of Libyien is called "Muammar Khadaffi" but here is some other suggestions:
An article published in the London Evening Standard in 2004 lists a total of 37 spellings of his name, while a 1986 column by The Straight Dope quotes a list of 32 spellings known at the Library of Congress.[167] ABC made a post on its blog identifying 112 possible spellings.[168] This extensive confusion of naming was used as the subject of a segment of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update on 12 December 1981.[169]
"Muammar Gaddafi" is the spelling used by TIME magazine, BBC News, the majority of the British press and by the English service of Al-Jazeera.[170] The Associated Press, CNN, and Fox News use "Moammar Gadhafi". The Edinburgh Middle East Report uses "Mu'ammar Qaddafi" and the U.S. Department of State uses "Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi", although the White House choses to use "Muammar el-Qaddafi"[171]. The Xinhua News Agency uses "Muammar Khaddafi" in its English reports.[172]The New York Times uses Muammar el-Qaddafi.
In 1986, Gaddafi reportedly responded to a Minnesota school's letter in English using the spelling "Moammar El-Gadhafi".[173] The title of the homepage of algathafi.org reads "Welcome to the official site of Muammar Al Gathafi".[174]
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Views of different experts on whether the popular uprisings in the Middle East will be harnessed by Al-Qaeda (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/middleeast/28qaeda.html?_r=1&hp)
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Views of different experts on whether the popular uprisings in the Middle East will be harnessed by Al-Qaeda (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/middleeast/28qaeda.html?_r=1&hp)
Seems Al-Qaeda has been bypassed in all this. Peter Bergen, whose recent book The Longest War: American and al-Qaida since 9/11, is one of the foremost experts in this group. He was interviewed and asked if al Qaida is in any way connected to recent events. He said they are out of the loop completely. Their whole premise of change through violence is anathema to the new wave of popular uprising. The al-Qaida model has been rejected.
BTW, in his book, through extensive interviews with al-Qaida members, he states that the 9/11 event was and remains extremely controversial in the movement. There is considerable disagreement about its usefulness to their cause. Not sure if he discusses Jahn argument that they were not involved, but regardless of actual involvement they are were and are involved psychologically - it has been a cornerstone of their recruiting process. He explains that al-Qaida are not a hierarchical structure - they inspire more than control. But he does believe they are highly active and significant in all Islamist terrorism - remove Bin Laden and his top men, he contends, and the whole movement will fade. Not everyone agrees with that.
I'm inclined to think their days are over.
They speak of a third wave in developing nations. The first was post-colonial nationalism. The second was religious politics, which only ever succeeded in Iran. This third wave is really a media-educated middle class who want a say in their country. They are not nationalistic or religious, although they are not giving those things up. They simply want the life that they see other countries living, via the media, and they see themselves as belonging to a global generation.
One of the most telling signs I saw in the Libyan demonstrations, was "Not even Voldemort killed his own people."
But things have now deteriorated in Libya. It appears to have become very nasty, and this is not in anyone's interest except Qaddafi. There is talk of a distinction between civil uprising and civil war. Beats me - looks like civil war from what I see, and the consequences could be highly unpalatable to all neighbouring countries. Despite the risks and problems, I expect US intervention in some effective non-boots-on-the-ground way to be very likely soon. At least a non-fly zone, which is touchy stuff for the US, but who else will do it?
The Libyans prefer Turkey if anyone is to intervene, but I bet Israel would not be too happy.
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Bergen has no doubts at all about Al-Qaeda's full responsibility for 9/11, but the issue remains very controversial among alqaedistas as many of them expected the invasion of Afghanistan in response, and that was never in their interest.
Yes, the present uprisings have little to do with these religious fanatics, but there is a nuance - if countries began to dsecend into chaos as Libya seems to be doing - Al-Qaeda will be there to benefit from it. They thrive in chaos and broken societies where old values do not hold and no uniting force exists to establish new ones. The examples are failed/failing states: Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen...and Pakistan. That is what experts fear more than anything.
The uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa have engulfed 10 states with 220 million people. Add Iran and the number will be 295 million. It is as big a social change as was the break down of the socialist order by the end of the Cold War. Nobody can guide or stabilise it from the outside.
North Africa and Middle East supply 36% of world's oil and by 2035 they will supply 43%. These figures make it clear why the US carriers are converging on Libya's coast. However, the African and Arab states strongly resist any external intervention (for now).
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I am aware the US and other Realpolitik thinkers fear an Islamicist power grab, although that is distinct from al-Qaeda. I mean it's not just al-Qaeda they fear, but Islamic-States like Iran.
Of course that is possible, but I feel it represents the politic syntax of those who hold that view. Ref the recent interview with Donald Rumsfeld. I don't believe those in power in the US or any other country have yet grasped the nature of what is surfacing in the Middle East. Sure it could get hijacked by an organised religious or military group, but that will only last for a short time. Something significant has shifted in the species socially - a new syntax of meaning and identity.
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I am aware the US and other Realpolitik thinkers fear an Islamicist power grab, although that is distinct from al-Qaeda. I mean it's not just al-Qaeda they fear, but Islamic-States like Iran.
Very true, they fear most independently evolving, self-conscious societies (be they Islamic or secular) in resource-rich countries that are immune to external manipulation. That is a worst kind of nightmare for them.
Sure it could get hijacked by an organised religious or military group, but that will only last for a short time. Something significant has shifted in the species socially - a new syntax of meaning and identity.
I respectfully disagree. After the peak of rather materialistic, power-centred and very advanced Roman civilisation we went through the darkness of Christendom and medieval ages that eventually solidified the thought that humans are equal. But developed a power-hungry Roman catholic church that had to be reformed.
After Martin Luther nailed to the church door his 95 theses saying basically that the god is about love and not money- or deed-based merit, we witnessed 150 years of bloodiest (in per capita terms) wars of European history. It was called Reformation.
Nothing less is happening in the Middle East and North Africa now. Temporary hijacking? How about a possibility of centuries of darkness in impoverished environment, natural disasters, shrinking resources and demographic explosion?
I don't quite think that spiritual development of mankind necessarily walks hand in hand with the improvements of its material well-being.
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How about a possibility of centuries of darkness in impoverished environment
There are significantly different factors at work. The things which caused the dark ages are not the current things which are influencing events. The communications revolution has changed that, and until the communications collapse, there will not be an end to public demands to political participation.
natural disasters, shrinking resources and demographic explosion
This is a very different matter. The current third wave is dependant upon stability in these areas, and unfortunately that seems unlikely. But when assessing current changes, it is not useful to draw in every contingent. What is happening, happens within a bubble of expectations. It has to be a limited assessment, and on that basis, I can't see the middle ages argument being relevant.
However, once we step outside the parameters of current conditions, and include the approaching tsunamis you mention, then the whole board game is thrown in the air. It's not just the Middle East which will be scrambling for survival. That is a whole new construct and discussion.
But as far as the current political troubles are concerned, the 'Catholic Church and Galileo' or the 'Dark Ages' arguments which are being proffered, are, I sense, inappropriate to our times.
One of the world's wealthiest men who happens to be one of the king's princely relatives, Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, could not have been more blunt in filial advice that he conveyed from the opinion page of The New York Times.
"Arab governments can no longer afford to take their populations for granted, or to assume that they will remain static and subdued," he writes. "Nor can the soothing instruments of yesteryear, which were meant to appease, serve any longer as substitutes for meaningful reform. The winds of change are blowing across our region with force and it would be folly to suppose that they will soon dissipate."
The research director at the Brookings Doha Centre, Shadi Hamid, suggested Riyadh was beyond learning - "the regime is learning all the wrong lessons from Egypt and Tunisia - the unrest in the region is not fundamentally economic, it's fundamentally about politics.
"Arabs are looking for freedom, dignity and democracy … we're seeing a lack of vision on the part of the Saudi leaders right now - they are trying to bribe the people into quietude. Its cynical, predictable and it's not necessarily going to work."
Kingdom adrift in a sea of revolution (http://www.smh.com.au/world/kingdom-adrift-in-a-sea-of-revolution-20110304-1bi0b.html)
Next Friday has been billed as a 'day of rage' across Saudi Arabia.
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Sure it could get hijacked by an organised religious or military group, but that will only last for a short time. Something significant has shifted in the species socially - a new syntax of meaning and identity.
I agree.
I heard an Egyptian man saying, "They do now what we should had done 20 years ago!".
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To know history, one has to know Astrology.
The ages are divided in sub-ages.
When Jesus was born the age of the Pisces started.
The Pisces has a very dark and deep part that manifested in the dark "religious" age.
The Ages is counter clock wise, therefore the Age of the Pisces is followed by the Aquarius Age, which is an Age about enligthment for the masses, and the humanity as a whole.
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The Ages is counter clock wise, therefore the Age of the Pisces is followed by the Aquarius Age, which is an Age about enligthment for the masses, and the humanity as a whole.
I don't quite think that spiritual development of mankind necessarily walks hand in hand with the improvements of its material well-being.
This is a very interesting point. Often missed. The word 'enlightenment' has different meanings. When used in a social/historical context:
(the Enlightenment) a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.
It tends to refer to an explosion of cultural enrichment especially characterised by emancipation from superstition and ignorance.
This is very similar to the individual - when a person 'wakes up' and realises the potential of their situation.
But is this 'spiritual development'? Unfortunately reflection on history indicates it does not necessarily relate to true spiritual enlightenment for individuals. Too often the enhanced cultural environment acts as a buffer to spiritual enlightenment. DJ himself spoke of this to CC, when he questioned the value of US culture to the goal of achieving the state of a Man of Knowledge.
A good example is middle-period Tibet. We certainly could not call their society 'enlightened' in the 17th century European way - they were deeply mired in mud from a rational-humanist perspective. And yet from all I have gleaned from all religions, they produced the greatest number of spiritually enlightened individuals of any land/religion. This is because that despite their material depression and ignorance, they upheld an extremely high belief in the primacy of personal spiritual achievement. Their entire culture was dedicated to this in it's focus. Everything I am reading about Buddhist/Bon period is redolent with a wide social acceptance of the ultimate goal of personal enlightenment. Thus quite a few made it, and they are highly venerated.
But I am not personally happy with this - I would like to believe that spiritual development can find greater emphasis where cultural enlightenment exists. There are many examples of this in India (possibly - if we only knew more about those kingdoms) - surely we can have both?
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But I am not personally happy with this - I would like to believe that spiritual development can find greater emphasis where cultural enlightenment exists. There are many examples of this in India (possibly - if we only knew more about those kingdoms) - surely we can have both?
"Old school" says that suffering is the best teacher.
What wakes us up in the first place? Pain, suffering.
You have said that on the "long path" we tend to get lost and distracted along the way, and the stairway lacks the last steps. We need the "bird".
Darkness is inevitability - again, you (and many others) have said that the whole game of life on this planet is essentially pointless. It goes like waves - up and down- exploring various aspects of mind/consciousness/awareness manifesting through human bodies in various conditions and states of development.
Being "stuffed" is a normal condition in this infinite game. However we progress, we must end up "stuffed" for the evolution of awareness not to stop.
The extent of being "stuffed" in any particular set of conditions depends on the strength of obstacles to be broken...you have described what Islam is all about as well...
We can ask: what do the people in North Africa and Middle East want?
Welfare? Consumer societies allowing for democratic participation? Is Islam an obstacle on that road? What kind of "stuffing" does it warrant?
Once they reach it, would the consumer society itself (as we see it in the West) be an obstacle on the road of spiritual development? What kind of "stuffing" does it warrant?
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And yet from all I have gleaned from all religions, they produced the greatest number of spiritually enlightened individuals of any land/religion. This is because that despite their material depression and ignorance, they upheld an extremely high belief in the primacy of personal spiritual achievement. Their entire culture was dedicated to this in it's focus. Everything I am reading about Buddhist/Bon period is redolent with a wide social acceptance of the ultimate goal of personal enlightenment. Thus quite a few made it, and they are highly venerated.
Michael, who exactly are you referring to in these statements?
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Michael, who exactly are you referring to in these statements?
Not that I am Michael.
The statement concerns Tibetan buddhist monks, lamas, naljorpas as well as various bon-buddhists, and possibly bonpas.
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But I am not personally happy with this - I would like to believe that spiritual development can find greater emphasis where cultural enlightenment exists. There are many examples of this in India (possibly - if we only knew more about those kingdoms) - surely we can have both?
Neither am I.
Theocracy is not that common anymore, and I do not count Iran as a theocracy. The Toltec could run such a society, but that is not going to happen the next hundred years. Maybe to late.
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Michael, who exactly are you referring to in these statements?
Obviously there isn't hard research data on spiritual achievement rates, but in all the reading I have done across all cultures, Tibet stands out for the volume of accounts of people passing a critical threshold on the spiritual seekers path. India would be next in volume, and I only put Tibet first due to smallness of the base population.
There are some good reasons behind this. Tibet is an extremely harsh climate. It is not a supportive environment for charlatans.
Buddhism had two nifty theoretical inclusions which caused a big shift in the way it was practiced. Mahayana Buddhism introduced the concept of the ultimate emptiness of everything, and also the concept of the reality of both absolute and relative truth. These two tenants allowed for an explosion and tolerance of different practice styles. It meant you didn't have to follow the orthodox monastic path.
Bon is essentially Buddhism, and absorbed much of the practices and theory of these out-ranger Buddhist yogins who wandered into and around Tibet from India and Afghanistan.
The end result was that Tibet's history is littered with accounts of yogins living in caves and far-flung tiny monasteries or retreats. They still do this today. And it's not easy - you try living in a cave without any heating and little food, meditating all day and night through the freezing temperatures.
It is true that the vast bulk of monks know almost nothing about the path and techniques of Buddhist attainment, that is only natural. But even in the main monasteries, there are constant and numerous accounts of 'achieved' lamas. And these come from not just Tibetans, but westerners who have travelled or still travel in Tibet.
The point is, their whole system is geared and focused on personal spiritual attainment. There is little to the side of this, as there is in so many milder and richer climates. There is definitely the side-track of supernatural support for the local population - the priestly role - but that doesn't take much time and is a pleasant pastime for them.
Even when I was in Manali I met a man who was on a trip to the town for supplies - he lived way up in the mountains in a cave doing his practices. He just sat silently watching the crowd behind a small counter with some friends of his, who were the ones who told me about him.
It has become an easy call for Westerners who know nothing of the lives of sadhus, yogins and lamas in India and Tibet, to say they are all charlatans, and that those religions were useless for what they promised. But believe me, you don't need to penetrate very far into them to come across extraordinary individuals, of deeply serious intent and obvious attainment. The main reason Westerners dismiss these avenues of attainment, is that they are too hard, and people are usually seeking an easier path - much like the 'billion'. The US and many other countries found it too hard to get there, so they lopped off a few zeros and bingo! a billion was now much easier to reach. Simple.
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How about a possibility of centuries of darkness in impoverished environment, natural disasters, shrinking resources and demographic explosion?
As I said, within the time period before a total meltdown, I doubt this will occur. Primarily due to the fact that forces producing the current upheaval will not go away, and were not around after Luther.
However, beware, watch for the backlash of the power elite in the world. No chance they will walk away from their hard-gained privileges without a fight-to-the-death struggle. Across the globe, their class is under direct threat, and make no mistake, they know this perfectly well.
The first to go will be Al Jazeera, then the open Web and open Mobile communications - for 'good reasons' these will attempt to become 'controlled'. Personally I don't think they can win - it's too late - but I know they will do anything to stall the inevitable. Pity they don't have the power to stall climate change.
What is at stake is vast beyond our comprehension. The entire hierarchy of cards, containing trillions and trillions of dollars is in jeopardy. There is no chance Julian Assange won't be put away for life, along with all who follow him.
Assuming they do not succeed, it is mind-boggling to speculate on what kind of world we are entering. The biggest trap is that this new open world is a gold mine for business - at least those who can adjust to exploit it. And yet it will pull down the old monoliths of business, who profit from control of the status-quo, or rather what I see as the status-quo-ante. So the battle is not just in the popular sphere, but in the very halls of finance itself.
And while we squabble within our tiny human shack, the monster from the deep we have released is rising from the ocean.
We, who value spiritual aspirations, should be watching these movements intensely. Why? Because we need two things:
1. Time. The most precious thing - this path requires sufficient time to mature, and thus to throw it over for some emotional allegiance or sense of injustice, or out of head-in-the-sand ignorance, is insanity.
2. Goad-task. Without a powerful task relevant to our current life-world situation, we stagnate in our own juices. The current upheavals in all areas of our world are exactly what we need to push us over the final line.
Be in the world but not of it.
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Michael, who exactly are you referring to in these statements?
Thanks Juhani and Michael. I was actually inquiring about names of specific individuals, for reference.
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Thanks Juhani and Michael. I was actually inquiring about names of specific individuals, for reference.
Oh that's easy - obviously I can't give you the names of the hundreds, but can certainly give you some names you can look into... when I get to it.
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Having been born into a state that was made in revolution and perished in one, I can only repeat the common wisdom: "Revolutions eat their children".
Copts and Muslims clash in Cairo: 13 dead (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12683568)
Clashes continue in Cairo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12690935)
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...it looks as if Gaddafi is going to have pretty free hands to quell the uprising. He has the qualitative edge - armour, attack aircraft, artillery, navy (and estimated 10-14 tons of mustard gas/Yperite).
The US and Germany do not want to enforce no-fly zone (eventually they'd have to attack ground installations and kill Libyans). France and the UK are eager, but do not want to commit. African and Arab states ought to do the job, but they are reluctant.
Gaddafi is pushing westward relying on his firepower and air assets. Rebels have a fuel for a less than a week, food is running out (Libya imported 70-80% of food anyway) and Libyan air force is keeping ships with food away from the rebel coast.
Gaddafi is sending envoys all over the place - Egypt, EU, Greece, etc.
Looks like another quelled uprising (just to mention the one in Iraq after the First Gulf War in 1990s).
If successful, Gaddafi will certainly be an exmple to follow for the authoritarian regimes in other Arab states.
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yep, it's looking very nasty in Libya.
but just to keep the anti high, we now have this massive tidal wave in Japan, and possibly elsewhere.
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If successful, Gaddafi will certainly be an exmple to follow for the authoritarian regimes in other Arab states.
My bet is that Gaddafi will be overthrown , sooner than you'll know.
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My bet is that Gaddafi will be overthrown , sooner than you'll know.
Hear we go again, Bosnia revisited.
I do hope you are right Jahn, but it is certainly not looking like that.
Now we have the moral question. What will the free world do as it watches another nation's struggle for freedom?
The USA has been hobbled by George Bush. First they are broke, and secondly the last thing America needs now is to intervene in another Middle East country, or any country for that matter, but definitely not an Arab or Muslim country - for Christ sake, not even the Republicans are that stupid.
Then we have the mighty EU, who can't even tie their shoe laces without falling about in disagreement. So far I've heard the Dutch and the Germans have opted for cowardice. I know the Germans would be worried about money, but not sure why the Dutch are so limp-willied.
The UN won't do anything because Russia and China reserve the right to do exactly the same as Qaddafi.
So we all just sit back and watch a massacre unfold. Libyans are completely on their own in this, while the world wrings its hands in futile mock-anguish.
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So we all just sit back and watch a massacre unfold. Libyans are completely on their own in this, while the world wrings its hands in futile mock-anguish.
I agree that it does not look well at the moment. But the "force" is not from outside, it is within.
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Japan:
Official says a partial meltdown is "highly possible"
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And it's flooding again in North Queensland as well as North West Australia. Just seems like one disaster or upheaval after another.
I'd just like to say a thank-you to all those who have poured millions and millions into the anti-Global Warming campaign, which hoodwinked so many poor simple souls. Now we are paying for it, and it's not going to stop.
There has been some discussion about the effects of Greenhouse gasses upon Climate Change also affecting the current cluster of earthquakes. Naturally the seismologists can't claim a link, because they can't prove one. But add them to the sun activity and we seem to have the perfect storm scenario. The next five years should be a whiz-banger. Glad I'm in a stable and high location.
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The UN won't do anything because Russia and China reserve the right to do exactly the same as Qaddafi.
So we all just sit back and watch a massacre unfold. Libyans are completely on their own in this, while the world wrings its hands in futile mock-anguish.
Today, 13.03.2011 at 1pm: Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi that, " There is a lot of concern here, a lot going on, a lot of misinformation, a lot of rumours, a lot of speculation, and a lot of worried people at the moment.
"As far as the national transitional council is concerned, they are saying that they are still fighting and they they are still in control.
"However, they say that they need international help. I think they admit openly that this is the only way out for them - international intervention of some kind, is the only way that they are going to win.
"Ten days ago, they were on the advance but now they are on the retreat."
The US seems supportive of the no-fly zone, but they would go only through UN and that means near-certain veto from Russia or China.
Moreover, Gaddafi seems to have quite a bit of support left amoing Libyans:
Today at 12:08pm Our correspondent from Tripoli shared the interesting accounts of the battle, that she heard from the journalists who were taken on this trip to Ras Lanuf.
"It doesn't appear that the army has been engaged in Ras Lanuf, the soldiers that the journalists met when they were there, introduced themselves as volunteers.
"Although, it's a given that Colonel Gaddafi has access to superior forces but it seems he is not deploying everything in hand. He may not even have deployed the supposedly best armed, best trained Khamis brigade, on the Ras Lanuf effort.
"He (Gaddafi) has for him, fighting, enough people who are volunteers from other parts of the country, a lot of them to have come from an area which has tribal ties to Gaddafi to overwhelm the untrained, poorly supplied, poorly prepared rebel forces.
"On the ground, there is no evidence of big weapons, large-scale military equipment, now that being said, they had an awful lot of time to clear the area before they brought foreign journalists to this trip, which was not a free trip."
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The next five years should be a whiz-banger. Glad I'm in a stable and high location.
Five years sounds like an infinitely long time in the modern world. I'd say every coming season of year entails a test nowadays. Test after test after test - they will become harder and harder.
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(Reuters) - The European Union and NATO said their conditions had not yet been met for imposing a no-fly zone on Libya, the day after Arab countries called for the warplanes of Muammar Gaddafi to be pinned down.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the League, meeting in Cairo on Saturday, had decided that "serious crimes and great violations" committed by Gaddafi's government against his people had stripped it of legitimacy.
Officials from the EU and NATO said that Arab support was just one of three conditions that must be met before they could unleash a military assault to protect rebel-held cities from Gaddafi's air force.
The other two conditions, agreed by EU leaders on Friday, are proof that their help is needed and a "clear legal basis" -- widely understood to mean a resolution for action from the U.N. Security Council.
"We have started what I would describe as prudent careful planning for all options," said the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who will meet the Arab League on Sunday.
A NATO official said: "Regional support is one of the three conditions. For us the three conditions have not changed, and we do not have a U.N. mandate."
"There needs to be demonstrable need -- that NATO can add value to the efforts of the international community through its capabilities and structures -- a clear legal basis, which means a U.N. mandate, and clear regional support."
But events on the ground were moving faster than diplomacy. While the EU and Washington hesitate, Gaddafi has marshalled his forces to defy a tide of reform. ]
Rebels in the east of Libya said on Sunday the front line had been pushed back to the rebel-held oil town of Brega, some 220 km (137 miles) south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
The rebels, armed mostly with light machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, are outgunned by Gaddafi's forces using tanks and aircraft.
Diplomats in New York said a U.N. Security Council meeting at the weekend was unlikely.
If the Council does meet to discuss a Libyan no-fly zone, it is far from clear whether it would pass a resolution as veto holders Russia and China have both publicly opposed the idea.
France and Britain have pushed for tough action against Gaddafi, but Germany and many other EU governments are wary.
(Writing by Pete Harrison, additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, edited by Richard Meares)
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Something relevant to current events:
"Occult power can be obtained in two ways, by placing oneself in the van of evolution, where force has not yet been confined in form but lies loose, as it were, free to enter whatever channel is opened to it; or by retreating to the rear of the race, where unabsorbed force is again available.
Lucas had chosen the latter path; he, with all the endowments of modern humanity, had deliberately reverted to an earlier phase of evolution, to a time when space was void and forms were being built, before the time when Jehovah had made it plain to man that he was his brother's keeper and accountable for him."
[THE DEMON LOVER]
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Libya: I don't feel the game is up yet. In the last few days I have changed my mind about the external powers demonstrable response.
Firstly the Arab league's decision to back a no-fly-zone, then Obama's decision to back it, and lastly if possible, it's implementation, which is looking more possible by the day.
The reason is psychological. It has not gone unobserved that Qaddafi is pleased world media has shifted to Japan, so he can get on with the job unhindered. But the truth is that world media plays a minor role in Libya, as distinct from Egypt. Libyan rebels are on their own, and always have been; in fact they haven't asked for help except the no-fly-zone. And most analysts see that as technically a minor factor in the war.
But the psychological effect on the original military, on both sides, would be huge. If they get the idea the world has turned against Q, then what is of paramount importance to them is what side their bread will be buttered. The ultimate winner in this conflict is absolutely critical to their allegiance. Seen that the world, including the Arab world, is against Q, then the question becomes much clearer.
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The trick is that Gaddafi does not need the planes, actually. Their efficiency has not been too high and he has enough fire power anyway.
The game changer are the military men on the side of rebels. If they are put in command, the defected troops are allowed to assume control of the front line and the commanders are allowed to instil hard discipline, they could stop Gaddafi in his tracks. If rebels do not do it - they're doomed.
It is all about the troops and discipline.
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Sending in Saudi troops to Bahrain. This isn't going to go down well.
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The game changer are the military men on the side of rebels. If they are put in command...
Absolutely - it is a military exercise now, and no amount of well-wishing or high spirits can supplant that.
But the rebels now do have a new commander from the military, with 8,000 troops - if you can believe what anyone says.
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But the rebels now do have a new commander from the military, with 8,000 troops - if you can believe what anyone says.
They manage to hold the line - they stand a chance.
Then they'd have to start moving forward and combine fire with movement (a task several orders of magnitude harder than holding the line).
Then they would need to establish supply train accross the desert. They'd have to cover over 1,000 km from Benghazi to Tripoli.
It all takes iron-hard determination and discipline. If only they allowed professionals to manage the military thing.
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fire with movement
Ah... that brings back memories.
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UN authorises no-fly zone over Libya (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131720311168561.html)
Security Council imposes a no-fly zone over Libya and authorises "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
The United Nations Security Council has voted on a resolution authorising military intervention in Libya to protect Libyan citizens, including the enforcement of a no-fly zone.
The members of the UNSC voted with 10 in favour, none against the resolution and five abstentions.
The resolution fulfills a long-standing demand from pro-democracy opposition forces in Libya asking for a no-fly zone to be established in order to prevent Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, from using fighter jets to bombard their positions, as they have been doing.
It comes just a few hours after Gaddafi warned residents of Benghazi, an opposition stronghold, that his forces would show "no mercy" in an impending assault on the city.
The draft of the resolution was prepared by the United Kingdom, France and Lebanon, and in the hours ahead of the meeting the United States appeared to have changed its stance on the issue by actively backing calls for not just a no-fly zone, but also strikes against Libyan military targets that could be mobilised against civilians.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said there was not much time left for the international community to act.
"France is very much involved in this action and has prepared the draft resolution. We have one goal… we want to stop the attacks by the Gaddafi regime against civilian populations.
"And it's a question of days or hours because the pressure against Benghazi, especially, is now very tough."
The Libyan defence ministry on Thursday, before the vote, warned that any military intervention in Libya would endanger air and sea traffic in the Mediterranean Sea.
In a statement released by the state-run Jana news agency, the ministry said that both civilian and military targets in the Mediterranean will be attacked.
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UN authorises no-fly zone over Libya (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131720311168561.html)
That may prove another game-changer, though, I wonder - what would these no-fliers do if Gaddafi takes Benghazi, Misurata and Tobruk? They would have the sky, Gaddafi would have land... :P
French say they could start flying and shooting Gaddafians out of the sky almost at once, the US says it would take a week to establish a functioning no-fly zone.
Thus, Gaddafi has 3-5 days to quell the uprising.
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Right, so they did it.
I presume in the first instance, this would be a Nato job, and they have said they are ready.
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Right, so they did it.
I presume in the first instance, this would be a Nato job, and they have said they are ready.
I doubt it. NATO operates on the basis of consensus and Germany must be on board. If it says 'nein', it will be 'no'. Nor do I think anybody would be willing to push the issue in NATO - if Germans get pissed, they'll simply leave Afghanistan potentially triggering a rush to leave.
Turky is another one to block NATO action.
As of now it seems that French would try to kill Gaddafi first (UN mandate allows for ground strikes) and then start with the UK and other enthusiasts from taking out Gaddafi's armour and self-propelled artillery (Italian guns). It seems going towards another regime change carried out by Western arms (one of the most undesireable things to happen).
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Good point - when I said Nato was ready, I meant the military said they were ready, not the politicians.
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I have just read an article in the Aust press (Little logic to heated debate (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/little-logic-to-heated-debate-20110311-1br8z.html)).
There are times I find myself wondering about something, and then find someone has written an article on exactly that matter. There are two cases recently - first about 'what the flower is going on at Fukushima!?' and I just read an article which explains I am not alone in this; secondly, this point:
Crisis after crises keep us on the edge of our seats, with the smack-in-your-face obviousness that we have done something, or at least played a crucial role in doing something, to this precious planet.
Baba, you will recall, posted a comedy YT to which I responded with some equivocation. The reason was probably lost on most, and I didn't explain - Baba left after that. What caused my reaction was a joke by a rather otherwise very interesting man, about the absurdity of "saving the planet". There are deeper levels to this joke, which Baba understood, but I doubt this man's audience did. However, in the current context, I feel these deeper levels are not relevant.
The top level of this joke, missed the point - no one is talking about saving the 'planet' as such - the term is directed to saving ourselves, and indirectly saving the eco-sphere which is maintaining our existence. Of course we would be under a huge hubristic arrogance to believe we can save such a massive and old cosmic object like this planet. But we can do something about what we ourselves have caused - we can avert and reverse the destruction our own ignorance and greed have brought about. That is what 'saving the planet' means. And we have already succeeded previously in individual cases - but unfortunately it seems, no longer.
What I have been wondering about, is why with all this chaos going on, never seen like it before in recorded history, is there still almost nothing being said about Global Warming?
Lenore, in her article says:
Most Australians accept the climate is warming but the public has become somewhat less confident about the proposition, even as the evidence has become more certain.
That's the point. Evidence is building up like a tidal wave (to use the age-old English expression), and yet in complete denial of this evidence, less people believe in it. She put the point perfectly - people believe the earth is warming, and yet they don't believe in 'Global Warming'.
You have to see here the level of emotional development of our species. We are perfectly capable of irrational and insane juxtapositions. Please, everyone in Soma, keep this in mind - because we are just as capable of this as that world out there.
She gives eminent reasons for why this has occurred, but in the end, it's all about the power of advertising and persuasion. Be warned - how many of your own cherished opinions were implanted with emotive efficacy into your brain?
But you will never admit to it!
Till the day you die.
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Baba, you will recall, posted a comedy YT to which I responded with some equivocation. The reason was probably lost on most, and I didn't explain - Baba left after that. What caused my reaction was a joke by a rather otherwise very interesting man, about the absurdity of "saving the planet". There are deeper levels to this joke, which Baba understood, but I doubt this man's audience did. However, in the current context, I feel these deeper levels are not relevant.
You refer to Baba, then do you refer to Josh at the old Toltec nagual Forum?
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There is an undercurrent of people who believe that all of that "fuss" about global warming is "crying chicken-little", that positive thinking will override all of it.
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You refer to Baba, then do you refer to Josh at the old Toltec nagual Forum?
He did call himself Baba in TNF, but he may have used other names as well - I vaguely think he did use Josh, but I can't recall confidently.
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Crisis after crises keep us on the edge of our seats, with the smack-in-your-face obviousness that we have done something, or at least played a crucial role in doing something, to this precious planet.
...
You have to see here the level of emotional development of our species. We are perfectly capable of irrational and insane juxtapositions. Please, everyone in Soma, keep this in mind - because we are just as capable of this as that world out there.
She gives eminent reasons for why this has occurred, but in the end, it's all about the power of advertising and persuasion. Be warned - how many of your own cherished opinions were implanted with emotive efficacy into your brain?
Some things we make up, some things we know directly - they come through without any disturbance and interference of mind. Destruction of this world has never been a question for me as it is so blatantly obvious that our welfare societies (that is societies set up to satisfy our desire for wealth and security) do it.
It (the fuss) has been more about the question - what am I doing in this world?
Remove your passions, and have no hankering, and all will be revealed to you.
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So it now appears Al Qaida will win in the Middle East after all. Violence is the only way - that message will find resonation now amongst the frustrated citizens.
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So it now appears Al Qaida will win in the Middle East after all. Violence is the only way - that message will find resonation now amongst the frustrated citizens.
The reports say that Gaddafi's troops are in the suburbs of Bengahzi already. If he manages to quell the uprising, that would be a 'go' signal to all other autocrats and Al-Qaeda will indeed have its field day telling how the democratic path is not for Muslims.
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He did call himself Baba in TNF, but he may have used other names as well - I vaguely think he did use Josh, but I can't recall confidently.
That is Josh alright, his username was Baba.
Haven't heard from him, or about him, for ages. He must have passed his 30's by now.
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The reports say that Gaddafi's troops are in the suburbs of Bengahzi already. If he manages to quell the uprising, that would be a 'go' signal to all other autocrats and Al-Qaeda will indeed have its field day telling how the democratic path is not for Muslims.
That is Gaddaffi's definition of "cease fire".
Later, the rebels threw out his troops from Benghazi and they even got a plane shot down.
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Later, the rebels threw out his troops from Benghazi and they even got a plane shot down.
It was a rebel plane shot down by Gaddafi forces (but more likely by rebels).
French have started air operations against Gaddafi troops. Some sort of vehicle (I'd guess a mobile command post) was destroyed among 4 tanks.
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It was a rebel plane shot down by Gaddafi forces (but more likely by rebels).
Do the rebels have warplanes?
Anyway, to shoot down a plane requires a lot of technique, especially when you have poor weapons.
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The US and UK launched 112 cruise missiles at Libyan air defences to pave the way for unobstructed air patrols and ground attacks. The US took the lead/command of operations. We'll see if they will be hated or loved for that in the Arab world.
In the first phase of the operation, named "Odyssey Dawn", the US will target Libyan Integrated Missile Defence Systems, mainly near Tripoli and Misurata, officials said. French aircraft had initiated operations by targetting Libyan air fields.
It is not clear when the second wave of operations will begin, but Al Jazeera's Halkett reported that it would target Gaddafi's ground forces and tanks.
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Do the rebels have warplanes?
Anyway, to shoot down a plane requires a lot of technique, especially when you have poor weapons.
Oh yes, they do. There have been reports on the rebel air attacks against Gaddafi's warships.
And no, it does not take that much skill to shoot down a jet that flies a straight line with a low speed at a relatively low altitude - thinking that it is safely above its own troops. The whole incident merely shows what a low combat-power, uncoordinated and shaky bunch these rebels are.
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This is the end of the beginning of the end of Libya liberty..
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Sir Winston Churchill comments about the first positive reports from the 2:nd World war toward the Nazis.
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This is the end of the beginning of the end of Libya liberty..
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Sir Winston Churchill comments about the first positive reports from the 2:nd World war toward the Nazis.
The end of what?
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The end of what?
Success (win the civil war)--- sorry to some left out words there :)
But it was quite a valid statement:
This is the end of the beginning (NATO is on the move)
of the end of Libya liberty. [Understood as the end of the civil right movements efforts to free Libya].
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Success (win the civil war)--- sorry to some left out words there :)
And what about these Libyans who fight on Gaddafi's side and support him? There are many of them.
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And what about these Libyans who fight on Gaddafi's side and support him? There are many of them.
Is it, how many are we talking about?
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Is it, how many are we talking about?
40-50% of population.
Background information (http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE72925E20110310?sp=true)
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Baba, you will recall, posted a comedy YT to which I responded with some equivocation.
Where is this?
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Where is this?
It's here, but ... some of the discussion appears to be missing. (?) Way too late to track it now.
http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=4708.msg33091#msg33091
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Well I am hopeful this is the end of the beginning for Libya, and the beginning of the next phase which is not necessarily pleasant. I don't believe it is too late, and I also hope that many will now switch sides, knowing the world is pushing against Qaddafi.
I have heard that even Qaddafi's own tribe had turned against him, but very few want to be on the losing side, especially if Qaddafi is winning - he will simply murder all malcontents as he has done always.
But the point now, is how strong Qaddafi's forces are without their high-powered weapons. They still have discipline, and at present there is no sign of side-switching, although that is perhaps too early. I think there will be many now sitting and wondering what will happen. Qaddafi is not loved by anyone, but supported by many who have a vested interest.
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...will certainly not be beautiful and there will be fratricide. When neighbours turn on each other, it is inevitable.
Some questions to ask and ponder (http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/3/20/5-questions-few-are-asking-about-libya.html)
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Thanks Juhani - good link.
Odd that he called the freedom side 'insurgents'.
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Egypt's worst fears...materialising? (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/middleeast/25egypt.html?_r=1&hp)
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Egypt's worst fears...materialising? (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/middleeast/25egypt.html?_r=1&hp)
Thanks Juhani. This is curious to watch, as despite it's Egyptian context, what happens in Egypt has huge influence upon the whole Muslim world.
What is torturous for Western eyes is that a Democratic movement must include all aspects of a culture, and Islam is as critical to Democracy in the Middle East as Christianity is to Democracy in the US.
But how is this going to play out? That is the big question, and Egypt is the current precedent for the whole region. Very curious to watch. But know also that the Egyptian military, along with the Islamic groups, has also been very close to the US. Politics.
PS... I find myself rolling my eyes at the world and my fellow humans - perhaps more so as we are now in our local State elections. To be honest, I seem to watch a world heading for the falls in a ship run by cripples and criminals. Where are the healthy souls? In Dion Fortune's book, she postulates that our view of the Middle Ages pogroms against witches was not all misguided. She maintains that much is happening today that will damage the soul of our species evolution, and a similar line-holding may be required. Alas, there are none to recognise the dangers to the soul. We are heading for the falls. Perhaps, some wisdom beyond my ken has things in hand ... perhaps.
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All hell has broken lose in the Middle East - one country after another. I can't keep track, because demonstrations happen in towns I have never heard of, and then only get front-line press when many are killed.
Pretty obvious Q is finished in Libya - we are just watching the gory end there.
As for what will come out of all this - it's anyone's guess.
And now there seems another disaster in the Japanese rectors.
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Series of airstrikes at Gaddafi military hardware and voila...rebels have covered 300 km in two days. Now they approach the mid-point of their journey to Tripoli which is Gaddafi's home town of Sirte (roughly 500 km from Tripoli). They say he has concentrated his soldiers there.
As these events evolve, the picture/nature of the military confrontation has become much clearer. It seems, that Gaddafi has not so many soldiers, but he has the hardware, rebels have many men, but no skills and no idea what they are doing.
Gaddafites advanced earlier using their superior firepower. They bombarded cities as long as it took for rebels to run away. Now the rebels advance only when French and British jets have destroyed Gaddafi's war machines. When they take a city (that is they dare to march into a city) they fire into the sky literally tons of ammunition so that it has to be replenished.
I saw some images of these warriors - two chaps fired a mortar so that it collapsed after a shot. Another chap simply launched a portable air defence missile into an empty sky with no targets in sight.
It is a peculiar war, but Fench and British would have to invent a good story to explain why they keep attacking ground targets in the areas where no military activities are taking place or the rebel 'offensive' would stop in its tracks in no time.
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She maintains that much is happening today that will damage the soul of our species evolution, and a similar line-holding may be required. Alas, there are none to recognise the dangers to the soul. We are heading for the falls. Perhaps, some wisdom beyond my ken has things in hand ... perhaps.
Speaking about crippling human souls (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201132710224885390.html)
What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull. What is right and just in one place is not allowed in another place. Developed countries fight pollution in India, China and Indonesia, but forget about their very own issues... Nice words likes 'democracy', 'freedom', etc. are made to mean different things to different people.
There is the Absolute and there is the Relative. There is the deep and there is the superficial. The only thing really worth its salt is reaching through the superficial out to the Absolute - the path of growth of human soul. This world is but training ground for doing it.
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(http://blogs.aljazeera.net/sites/default/files/imagecache/FeaturedImagePost/images/sheepandgun.JPG)
Libyan rebel's supply truck.
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Looks like Q will win after all.
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Looks like Q will win after all.
The coalition still has a few cards in their sleeves (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330). I would not quite give a final victory to anyone yet.
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having arms is one thing, being able to use them effectively is another
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having arms is one thing, being able to use them effectively is another
Very true. I'd guess CIA is thinking about having some men on the ground directing close air support on targets. That would allow at least to achieve stalemate.
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Looks like Q will win after all.
Not sure about that. One big rat left his sinking ship today.
The Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa has resigned while being in great Britain.
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?id=576566082&view=News
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The Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa has resigned while being in great Britain.
Gaddafi is a very smart man. Many Western politicians or people do not see that at all. Not everyone can stay in power for 41 years.
Koussa is not offered an immunity in the UK and there are many things and cases to prosecute him for (he was a chief of intelligence in the beginning of 1990s). He will be a superb propaganda tool for Gaddafi if British police starts interrogating him. Guess how many other close allies of Gaddafi would like to defect?
That move of Gaddafi - letting Koussa (who was of no use anyway because he is old and scared) go (let the enemy take care of him) - reminds me of Chinese strategy of capturing enemy soldiers, holding them for a while, and letting them go. What happens next?
1) enemy does not trust its own released soldiers and puts them under guard - more soldiers are taken away from the frontline to guard duties. Moral of troops falls due to growing distrust and ambiguity.
2) your own soldiers would not even think of defecting - they see what the enemy does to own soldiers - what would they do to the enemy? Moral rises as the doubts fade.
Wars are won and lost at the level of strategy.
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Wars are won and lost at the level of strategy.
Well, it is your field of expertise.
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What we have been fascinated by in this whole Middle East scenario, is the rise of people power - this is something totally new due to the communications revolution. It has happened before, but nothing like what is happening now. Plus we see this is only the beginning - the future is showing its tail feathers.
But that is not what the governments around the world are seeing. Middle East means one thing, and one thing only to their eyes - oil. And oil means energy. The entire world, and especially the wealthy nations, are completely dependant upon oil for their economic and social stability, let alone growth and power. Current situational developments in the Middle East are projected to push the oil price to around $200 a barrel. No government in the West will be left standing if that happens.
The imperative now for the hard heads of all developed and developing nations, is alternative energy. Nuclear has hit the wall at precisely the same time as the Middle East - isn't that absolutely extraordinary? Wouldn't you think there is a hidden hand in this?
Forget the rabble who seek lower taxes, a carbon tax is the fastest and most efficient way all nations can force a shift in their economies to alternative energy sources. Forget Global Warming - this is serious shit. Don't expect anyone in the Western governments to support democratic change in Saudi Arabia. We know the oil price is rising, but we have all been far too slack in preparing, and now its about to shoot up. Even a few days ago someone said to me that we still have twenty or thirty years of 'good oil' - Ha!
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says Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merker!
News coming out of Germany today [Tuesday this week - my comment], reveals that Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced a 3-month moratorium on previous plans to extend the lifetimes of Germany's 17 nuclear-power plants by 12 years. She indicated that 2 of the oldest plants will be shut down in the next few days and added this this action comes as a direct result of the tragedy in Japan. "Silent and devastated, we are following the apocalyptic events in Japan," Merkel said.
More details at:
http://thealienproject.blogspot.com/2011/03/apocalypse-now-germany-goes-offline.html
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The imperative now for the hard heads of all developed and developing nations, is alternative energy. Nuclear has hit the wall at precisely the same time as the Middle East - isn't that absolutely extraordinary? Wouldn't you think there is a hidden hand in this?
...
days ago someone said to me that we still have twenty or thirty years of 'good oil' - Ha!
Good points!
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Former Mujahideen have joined rebels in Libya (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576237042432212406.html?KEYWORDS=afghanistan)
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A Clash of the Extremes
Pastor Terry Jones and the Claim to Absolute TruthA commentary by Hasnain Kazim
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,755416,00.html
Twenty people have died in the protests triggered by Pastor Terry Jones' burning of the Koran in March and more violence is likely. But both his action, and the reaction in the Muslim world share the same problematic roots: Claims to absolute truth have little place in the modern world.
The Russian head of the United Nations mission in the northern Afghanistan city of Masar-i-Sharif had fled with three colleagues into a safe room when the mob stormed their building. But it wasn't long before the assailants broke into the room.
"Are you Muslim?" one of the insurgents yelled. The Russian, who was familiar with the Koran, lied and said he was.
"What is the profession of faith?"
The Russian didn't hesitate. "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."
It was a lie that saved his life, according to the story told by one of the Russian's UN colleagues. He got away with a severe beating. But the three UN workers he was with, a Norwegian, a Swede and a Romanian, were all killed. A report in the Wall Street Journal describes how a German barely escaped the massacre; four Nepali guards also fell victim.
This attack, along with several other acts of violence, came in the wake of a Koran burning, which took place on March 20 in Gainesville, Florida. The desecration of the holy Muslim text had originally been scheduled for last autumn, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US. Calling Islam a "violent religion," radical American pastor Terry Jones insisted that the Koran be burned, only backing down following worldwide protests and pressure from the White House.
Sentenced 'to Death'
But six months later, Jones, together with the pastor Wayne Sapp, orchestrated a tribunal. Playing judge, the two declared the Koran "guilty" and sentenced it "to death." Sapp played the executioner, dousing the book with kerosene and setting it alight. About 30 followers watched as the Koran burned and turned to ash.
Now Jones is contending that he and his parishioners are being threatened -- and that the riots in Afghanistan prove that Islam is a violent religion. Muslims, he insists, must be taken to task. He is demanding retribution for the attacks on the UN workers and is calling for the US government and the UN to take immediate action against Muslim countries.
The violence will likely grow. At least 20 people have been killed so far in Afghanistan, 11 during the attack on the UN in Masar-i-Sharif, and 9 more in riots in the southern city of Kandahar. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai turned up the rhetoric even further on Sunday. He demanded an apology from the US Congress and repeated his demand that the pastors in question be arrested.
In Pakistan, the opposition leader in the regional parliament of Punjab province said a marksman should be sent to Florida to take care of the issue. Protests are ongoing in both countries.
Jones says he does not feel responsible for the deaths. "We didn't call for violence and murder," he said. "We only burned a book." His parish is "saddened" by the deaths of the UN workers, he said, but it would not change anything the parish does.
It is a conflict that is being played out on a base level. Both sides carry blame: those who provoke, and those who allow themselves to be provoked. US President Barack Obama summed it up well: The desecration of a holy book, including the Koran, is "an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry." But it is also shameful to kill innocent people in response.
This is not the "Clash of Civilizations" that the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington prophesied after the end of the Cold War. Instead it is a clash of the extremes. On the one side are the radical, evangelical Christian pastors who offer blanket condemnations of Islam, knowing full well what the consequences might be. On the other side are the Muslim extremists who react reflexively and kill indiscriminately as revenge. Both sides think they are right. And they play by rules that disregard basic tenets of civilization. Man does not kill man. And man does not insult man, either.
Claiming an Absolute Truth
One could certainly pose the question: What is worse, the deaths of people or the burning of a book, even if it is a holy book? The answer should be clear to a civilized person, whether Christian or Muslim. But this question is secondary. The root of the problem is the claim made by both radical Christians and radical Muslims: that their belief is the only absolute truth.
In times when people lived at considerable distance from people of other faiths, such absolutism may not have been quite as dangerous. In those days, the conviction that one possessed the only real truth led to a stronger sense of community, of belonging. But as early as the Crusades, religious extremism revealed its shortcomings. And today, when one can travel from one end of the world to another in a day -- and people from different cultures live together -- the absolute truth dogma has no place.
The Indian journalist and politician Arun Shourie, born a Hindu but a practicing Buddhist today, is a sharp critic of religious claims to absolute truth. The problem, he says, is the idea that those who don't recognize the truth are at odds with God or Allah. Those who are so inflexible in their beliefs, Shourie says, are incapable of living in a multicultural and multi-religious society.
They differentiate between "us" and "them," and lack empathy for those with different beliefs. Killing becomes permissable: "They are the non-believers!" Burning books (or drawing cartoons) becomes merely an exercise in free speech.
"People must develop compassion," writes Karen Armstrong, the British author and former-nun who is influential in the Muslim world. She even offers courses in compassion in Pakistan.
The Russian UN worker recognized that he could not expect any compassion. He convinced the attackers that he believed in their truth. And that is the only way he survived.
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We're on the road to nowhere... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGnyTOyESbU)
Nuclear is dangerous - cool! - back to the fossil fuels!
We - the mankind consisting of hamsters - are running faster and faster in the wheel...
Threat to Climate Change Act is final nail in coalition's green credentials
That David Cameron is considering abandoning legally binding emissions targets is just another environmental failure
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/apr/19/climate-change-act-green-coalition
It is nearly five years to the day since David Cameron posed for his photo opportunity with the huskies at the Arctic Research Station at Ny Alesund in Norway. He told us then to "vote blue, go green". That the government is open to scrapping all 227 of the UK's environmental protections shows just how far his green mask has slipped.
Among the safeguards under threat as part of the 'red tape challenge' is the Climate Change Act, the first of its kind in the world. Introduced by Labour, it places a duty on the secretary of state to ensure that the net UK carbon account for greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than in 1990.
The last Labour government put at the heart of its plans for Britain's future a transition to a low-carbon economy. The Climate Change Act was vital to that strategy. The binding targets ensure that departments set out a clear roadmap for carbon reduction, and this in turn give businesses the certainty they need to invest.
The prime minister says that the process is about scrapping legislation that is a burden to industry. If that's the case then why is the act included on the list at all? After all, the emission targets have had support from across the business community; the CBI said it combined "the two things we really need: long-term clarity on policy direction and flexibility in its delivery". It's why 10 of the UK's largest firms recently wrote to Cameron urging him to take up the recommendations made by the committee on climate change to extend the UK's reduction targets beyond 2020.
Cameron says the responsibility will be on ministers to fight to save individual legislation. This is extremely worrying. There are already grave concerns that energy secretary Chris Huhne is becoming the most ineffective minister in Whitehall. Why hasn't he already made a public statement in support of the act and given the low-carbon sector the reassurance it needs?
A secretary of state must be a strong voice around the cabinet table, pushing their priorities over those of other departments. After nearly a year in the job, Chris Huhne's record is looking less than impressive.
He lost his fight with George Osborne over when the green investment bank will be able to borrow, meaning that green businesses will have to make do with a government fund until at least 2015. This will only exacerbate Britain's fall under this government's watch, from third to 13th in world green technologies investment, as was highlighted in the recent report from the Pew Environment Group.
He threw the solar industry into chaos after announcing an early review of feed-in tariffs and slashed incentives for community solar projects. Carbon capture and storage projects two, three and four are delayed. Worries are being raised over his plans for electricity market reform. The energy pill is significantly behind schedule in parliament. And now he's allowed the prime minister to put our entire carbon reduction strategy up for review.
Climate sceptics are lurking ready for any excuse to derail our green future. The Campaign to Repeal the Climate Change Act group has already launched a petition.
If the prime minister wants to have any green credentials, he needs to come out and tell us that the Climate Change Act is here to stay. He has exempted issues of national security from his review. In 2009, William Hague argued that climate change was an issue of national security, so why isn't that the case now? The fact that Cameron is prepared to consider abandoning legally binding targets tells us what we already know; his claim to be 'the greenest government ever' is completely false.
• Luciana Berger MP is shadow minister for energy and climate change.
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40-50% of population.
Background information (http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE72925E20110310?sp=true)
Seems like the votes for Gaddafi has changed ...
61 Tribe leaders has 27th April made a declaration:
the leaders of 61 tribes from across Libya have declared their support for the end of the Gaddafi Regime. "
"we solemnly declare this. Nothing can divide us.
We share the same ideal of a Libya free, democratic and united.
Every Libyan has certainly had its origins in a particular tribe. But he has complete freedom to create family ties, friendship, neighborhood or fellowship with any member of any other tribe.
We form, we, the Libyans, a single tribe, the tribe of Libyans free, fighting against oppression and the evil spirit of division.
It is the dictator, trying to play the Libyan tribes against each other, dividing the country and rule. There is truth in this myth, it has fed an ancestral opposition today to a rift between tribes of Fezzan, of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania.
Libya tomorrow, once the dictator gone, will be a united Libya, including the capital Tripoli and will be where we are finally free to form a civil society according to our wishes."
http://feb17.info/official-documents/leaders-from-61-tribes-call-for-end-to-gaddafis-rule/ (http://feb17.info/official-documents/leaders-from-61-tribes-call-for-end-to-gaddafis-rule/)
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Seems like the votes for Gaddafi has changed ...
61 Tribe leaders has 27th April made a declaration:
the leaders of 61 tribes from across Libya have declared their support for the end of the Gaddafi Regime. "
"we solemnly declare this. Nothing can divide us.
We share the same ideal of a Libya free, democratic and united.
Every Libyan has certainly had its origins in a particular tribe. But he has complete freedom to create family ties, friendship, neighborhood or fellowship with any member of any other tribe.
We form, we, the Libyans, a single tribe, the tribe of Libyans free, fighting against oppression and the evil spirit of division.
It is the dictator, trying to play the Libyan tribes against each other, dividing the country and rule. There is truth in this myth, it has fed an ancestral opposition today to a rift between tribes of Fezzan, of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania.
Libya tomorrow, once the dictator gone, will be a united Libya, including the capital Tripoli and will be where we are finally free to form a civil society according to our wishes."
http://feb17.info/official-documents/leaders-from-61-tribes-call-for-end-to-gaddafis-rule/ (http://feb17.info/official-documents/leaders-from-61-tribes-call-for-end-to-gaddafis-rule/)
That sounds like a usual web-PSYOP/wishful thinking.
If true, only one simple question remains to be answered - who's fighting for Gaddafi and how exactly is his logistics working on supposedly hostile ground?
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That sounds like a usual web-PSYOP/wishful thinking.
WHat is wishful in this?
The 61 signatories
(Name of the tribe, followed by the name of the Chief of tribe or his emissary)
1 – Awaguire Tribe:
Dr. Mansour Saad
2 – Tribes Misrata:
Muhammad Ali Al Shikh Griraa
3 – Al Abiddat Tribe:
Ali Al Sanousi
4 – Tribe Werfalaa:
Mouftah Al Matouk Werfali
5 – Al Abide Tribe:
Ali Al Moumen Abidy
6 – Al Hassa Tribe:
Bel Ghassim Moussa Al Hassy
7 – Tribe Tarhounaa:
Siléman Khalifa Al Tarhouny
8 – Tribe Ahali Zéliten:
Hassan Mouhmed Kouraim
9 – Tribe Messilat:
FARG Muhammad Al Salemi
10 – Al Sawahil Tribe:
Ali Al Qadi Al Shik
11 – Al Amama Tribe:
Mansour Al Amary
12 – Al Maguarba Tribe:
Al Saleh Al Shik Atiwesh
13 – Al Agilat Tribe:
Muhammad Al Al dHMAn Agile
14 – Tribe Wesrhefanaa:
Ashour Al Bou Krisse Wershefani
15 – Ashraf Wadan Tribe:
Abu Baker Al Omar Sharif
16 – Tribe Zowaïa:
Muhammad Al Souliman Zouwai
17 – Al Mougabra Tribe:
Muhammad Saleh Shahat
18 – Al Awagla Tribe:
Al Haj Al Belidde Awagli
19 – Tribe Aoulad Souliman:
Sharif Al Nasr Sayfal
20 – Al Mahamed Tribe:
Al Sadek Al Aharrari
21 – Al Jawaz Tribe:
Mouhmed Al Falah Al Jazowi
22 – Al Fazazouna Tribes:
Al Hajj Ali Al Fazan
23 – Tribe Adrssa:
Muhammad Abd Al Kader Al Drssi
24 – Al Fawatir Tribe:
Dr. Omran Bin Salim Al Mousstafa Fitouri
25 – Al Fawakner Tribe:
Nooh Al Fakri
26 – Al Fawaid Tribe:
Ibrahim Al Faidy
27 – Al Jémiat Tribe:
Hamond Atia Al JEMIE
28 – Al Massamá Tribe:
Khalil Al Massmari
29 – Al Frjan Tribe:
Muhammad Mukhtar Al Frjani
30 – Al Hassoumi Tribe:
Ramadan Al Hassoumi
31 – Al Ourffa Tribe:
Al Hajj Ali Abu Baker Al Ourouffi
32 – Al Tawajer Tribe:
Muhammad Omar Issmail
33 – Al Ziyayanaa Tribe:
Muhammad Al Ziyani
34 – Al Amayem Tribe:
Meray Al Amame
35 – Al Siyan Tribe:
Othman Al Souwaye
36 – Al Kabail Tribe:
Al Briek Kabayle
37 – Tribe Goumata:
Al Hajj Ali Algoumati
38 – Al Hawana Tribe:
Fathi Al-Huni
39 – Al Maguarhaa Tribe:
Al Hajj Moussa Al Magurahi
40 – Al Goutaan Tribe:
Farraj Al Goutaani
41 – Al Zintan Tribe:
Al Hajj Al Mouhmed Zintani
42 – Tribe Tawourga:
Mouhamed Mouftah Oukasha
43 – Al Menefa Tribe:
Ayat Al Faraj
44 – Al Houta Tribe:
Al Hajj Al Houti Abdoualah
45 – League of tribes Al Jabal Al Gharbi (Garyan – Kikala – Al Zintan Rihibat – Nalout – Yefren):
Abd Al Salam Al Gryan
46 – Al Sanagra Tribe:
Abd Al Halim Duma Aj Jahir
47 – Al Jeridi Tribe:
Fathi Abu Al Ajele Jeridi
48 – Tribe Agoualik:
Houssain Good Oussif
49 – Al Tawarik Tribe:
Abd Al Kader Al Targi
50 – Al Shik Aoulad Tribe:
Al Hajj Akram Abid
51 – Hamad Aoulad Tribe:
Mouhamed Moussa Al Shabah
52 – Al Barassaa Tribe:
Rashid Al Kadir Barassi
53 – Tribe Sourman:
Al Hajj Al Mabrouk Soumana
54 – Al Nawail Tribe:
Omar Juma Al Naili
55 – The tribes of Al Zawaya:
Al Hajj Abd Al Salam Al Zawi
56 – Al Aribat Tribe:
Abd Al Hamid Al Aribi
57 – Al Shihibat Tribe:
Al Hajj Abd Souliman
Al Al Hajiz Shouhibi
58 – Tribe Sitat Al – Al Arawa:
Saber Al Orwi
59 – Tribe Hawaraa:
Ali Youssif al-Hawari
60 – Al Khadaddfa Tribe:
Khalifa Saleh Al Gaddafi
61 – Al Jawaz Tribe:
Radi Al Farajj Jazoui
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Man, there was a simple question to answer.
Did you even notice it?
Repeating your initial post changes nothing.
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You mean the one about hostile ground?
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You mean the one about hostile ground?
Yes. Libya's territory is 1,7 million sq km. Gaddafi controls over half of it and seems to be on creeping-crawling offensive (in order to avoid presenting good targets to NATO air power). The question is - who and how controls the ground on Gaddafi's side? How does his supply line work over nearly 1,000 km?
My answer is - a considerable number of tribes remains on Gaddafi's side. Hence, the published list is not trustworthy.
I teach the art of war. Some of my students study cyber security and are convinced enthusiasts of cyber warfare and cyber world. I gave them an essay to write. Some the students did not bother come to lectures (which is not compulsory either - I leave them complete freedom) and they did not bother to ask my email to which they were supposed to submit their essays. Instead, they showed initiative, found my old email on the web and sent their essays there. They thought they were very clever.
I turned their mistake into a strategic lesson on cyber warfare and virtual reality - there is a lot of stuff on the web that has nothing to do with the actual state of affairs. Internet is a good reason to return to the basics and really learn about things...in order to not be duped.
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do you also teach them the art of love?
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do you also teach them the art of love?
Oh yes, of course. How can you teach horrors and the evolution of art of fighting without showing the other side? When talking about wars, one must dive into their causes to understand why and how people fought them.
I never miss a chance to show that our precious and dear nation-states (that is "us"-"them" thinking and world view) has brought upon mankind the worst wars imaginable. It is easy to justify violence by thinking that "they" (as being different with regard to "us") deserve it. The culmination and epitome of such a thinking was a nuclear weapon.
Thus, you have a much bigger point than initially realised in challenging one's allegiance to some nationality...in fact, to anything that is less than universe.
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Man, there was a simple question to answer.
Did you even notice it?
Repeating your initial post changes nothing.
It is always a pleasure to discuss with you.
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It is always a pleasure to discuss with you.
It is deeply mutual feeling. If you paid even a little attention to what is said to you, gave just a little bit of thought to it...but no. Instead of repeating your post, you could have thought - just a bit. How can you talk to people without paying attention to or trying to understand what is said to you? How?
Now you present your rather indignant face, but have you thought what your near-continuous disregard of what is said to you stands for? You should think about it, if you get the time.
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It is deeply mutual feeling. If you paid even a little attention to what is said to you, gave just a little bit of thought to it...but no. Instead of repeating your post, you could have thought - just a bit. How can you talk to people without paying attention to or trying to understand what is said to you? How?
Now you present your rather indignant face, but have you thought what your near-continuous disregard of what is said to you stands for? You should think about it, if you get the time.
You are out bicycling in this topic.
Do not you see the dagger? On the dictator neck I mean.
How many rats has left the ship? The Tribes now "state" that M Gadhaffi is impossible to have on the throne of Libya. He is simply political dead, and if the Libyians want to come back as a respected nation - he has to go. No matter how well his death machine works - it will not sustain.
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Yes. Libya's territory is 1,7 million sq km. Gaddafi controls over half of it and seems to be on creeping-crawling offensive (in order to avoid presenting good targets to NATO air power). The question is - who and how controls the ground on Gaddafi's side? How does his supply line work over nearly 1,000 km?
My answer is - a considerable number of tribes remains on Gaddafi's side. Hence, the published list is not trustworthy.
Well, unfortunately for your screwed up world view - it is.
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You are out bicycling in this topic.
Do not you see the dagger? On the dictator neck I mean.
How many rats has left the ship? The Tribes now "state" that M Gadhaffi is impossible to have on the throne of Libya. He is simply political dead, and if the Libyians want to come back as a respected nation - he has to go. No matter how well his death machine works - it will not sustain.
Cool. Now you are also an expert in warfare (in addition of civil engineering with speciality of skyscrapers) Congratulations on having a universal intelligence covering all aspects of human activity. Really, why talk to you?
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Cool. Now you are also an expert in warfare (in addition of civil engineering with speciality of skyscrapers) Congratulations on having a universal intelligence covering all aspects of human activity. Really, why talk to you?
Not in warfare, but in politics.
I know when a building is demolitioned by fireworks (pulled by thermite), yes.
Guess what my opinion was about mass-vaccination with Pandemrix against the Swine flu? Guess who warned for severe sideffects? In Finland they have registered 50 cases of narcolepsy and ijn Sweden the numbers are about that too among people up to the age of 20. Narcolepsy is a chronic disease that lower the quality of life very much.
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Really, why talk to you?
You might learn something ...
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Not in warfare, but in politics.
I know when a building is demolitioned by fireworks (pulled by thermite), yes.
Guess what my opinion was about mass-vaccination with Pandemrix against the Swine flu? Guess who warned for severe sideffects? In Finland they have registered 50 cases of narcolepsy and ijn Sweden the numbers are about that too among people up to the age of 20. Narcolepsy is a chronic disease that lower the quality of life very much.
You know, I couldn't care less about whatever you have to or would say in the future. You don't answer simple questions - keep living in your la-la-ga-ga land. You don't qualify as an intelligent (read: thinking) person any more. You simply don't.
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You know, I couldn't care less about whatever you have to or would say in the future. You don't answer simple questions - keep living in your la-la-ga-ga land. You don't qualify as an intelligent (read: thinking) person any more.
Why not?
I predicted that sideffects would be more common than the positive effects of Pandemrix. About 10 persons died because of the vaccine. No estimate on how many lifes that were saved by the vaccine but it was less than expected.
I can tell that Gadhaffi is political dead and that he will be thrown away.
I can see when a steelbuilding is prepared with explosives and goes down in feee fall. which no building does under normal circumstances. What is Your problem Builder?
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Guess what my opinion was about mass-vaccination with Pandemrix against the Swine flu? Guess who warned for severe sideffects? In Finland they have registered 50 cases of narcolepsy and ijn Sweden the numbers are about that too among people up to the age of 20. Narcolepsy is a chronic disease that lower the quality of life very much.
Oy! :( It's the same here, with the officials now saying that maybe they shouldn't have vaccinated so many people. Woops!
On a side note, nice to see that Juhani is still living up to his own standards and that I haven't missed much since being away. Nice job fella! You go!
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On a side note, nice to see that Juhani is still living up to his own standards and that I haven't missed much since being away. Nice job fella! You go!
Never thought you'd miss the opportunity to fight for justice.
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it is extremely tedious
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Never thought you'd miss the opportunity to fight for justice.
No, sorry not fighting. I said what I needed to say, I shall leave the fighting to you.
As M said, though reading this is quite tedious and I wonder, will you ever get tired of this conflict?
(That's a rhetorical question for you. I don't need an answer)
You know, I couldn't care less about whatever you have to or would say in the future. You don't answer simple questions -
keep living in your la-la-ga-ga land. You don't qualify as an intelligent (read: thinking) person any more. You simply don't.
Yeek!
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it is extremely tedious
Right. And useless.
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It makes one wonder whether it was Pak's trade-off - "you get bin Laden, we get Afghanistan after you leave."
Osama bin Laden dead: officials
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/2011522132275789.html
US president expected to announce that al-Qaeda leader has died and that US is in possession of the body.
US president Barack Obama is due to make a statement shortly in which he is expected to announce the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.
Obama's address was due at 0300GMT from the White House.
Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said that Afghan officials have confirmed that Bin Laden had died and that his body was with the United States.
Officials would not confirm whether he had been killed in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and said that the death of the al-Qaeda leader was more of a "symbolic victory", as he was no longer directly connected to the group's field operations, Azimy reported.
It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, but never did before leaving office in early 2009.
US officials said that after searching in vain for the al Qaeda leader since he disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Saudi-born fighter is dead and his body recovered.
Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.
He had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.
While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.
Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks -- including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.
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I doubt it. Looks very much like he was protected by the ISI, and the US did the raid on their own without telling Pak anything. Seems one helicopter was shot down in the fight.
Pakistan is doing double flips to appear surprised at him being so close, and unsurprised to show they were in on the kill.
Some interesting reading here:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/02/gotcha.html
You have to go through a validation - their site is apparently under siege.
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(http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/227014_10150224657976054_584821053_8420628_1402045_n.jpg)
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I doubt it. Looks very much like he was protected by the ISI, and the US did the raid on their own without telling Pak anything. Seems one helicopter was shot down in the fight.
Pakistan is doing double flips to appear surprised at him being so close, and unsurprised to show they were in on the kill.
Some interesting reading here:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/02/gotcha.html
You have to go through a validation - their site is apparently under siege.
Very true, the bets are open in several directions.
Having followed how 1) ISI has been ruthlessly killing Taliban leaders who (while living in the ISI safe houses in Pak) have been willing to take matters in their own hand in Afghanistan, 2) how Pak has been increasingly wrestling itself a role in "reconciliation" process in Afghanistan and 3) how the US has been pulling out of Afghanistan due to financial reasons (stressing counter terroism (killing) instead of counterinsurgency (nation-building)), it all looks as if Pak wants the US out fast.
The primary US strategic objective in Afghanistan is to defeat and weaken Al-Qaeda and then - selective prop-up of Afghanistan. Pak plays right into the US hand...if it sold off Osama (ISI would never admit that, would it?). 2011 is the year the US pullout from Afghanistan will begin.
In return, the US seems to be willing to accept Taliban in the Afghan government. In fact, the Taliban pretty much already is in the Afghan government.
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Yes but ... your theories presume a Pakistan that is united in its strategy. Methinks you accord them too much intelligence.
Of course they want control of Afghan - why wouldn't they? But they can hardly tie their own shoelaces today - I would caution of ascribing cleverness too eagerly.
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Yes but ... your theories presume a Pakistan that is united in its strategy. Methinks you accord them too much intelligence.
Of course they want control of Afghan - why wouldn't they? But they can hardly tie their own shoelaces today - I would caution of ascribing cleverness too eagerly.
True, the thinking I put forth requires a unified actor to implement it. I have one on offer: ISI+higher echelons of Army. Zardari is a puppet in the hands of these guys and he strives to survive and not anger them excessively. You could see how ISI used the people/mass against Zardari in the case of Raymond Davis and then let it go.
ISI generates a "controlled islamic spirit" in the society and allows some liberals and moderates to be killed off - as long as these lunies do not go too far. Then they get killed off. It all serves the purpose of building Islamic bastion against India in AfPak.
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(http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/227014_10150224657976054_584821053_8420628_1402045_n.jpg)
That is hilarious. One of the hats from the Royal Wedding.
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True, the thinking I put forth requires a unified actor to implement it. I have one on offer: ISI+higher echelons of Army.
Now Juhani, a man in your speciality would be wise to avoid any speculation based upon an homogeneous view of the ISI, less your word in other areas become doubted.
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Now Juhani, a man in your speciality would be wise to avoid any speculation based upon an homogeneous view of the ISI, less your word in other areas become doubted.
It is a valid point that shows that one can put forth mostly various hypotheses about the developments in the murky world of special services. Something as big as ISI or any human organisation is probably not homogenous in terms of views of people in there, but it can be homogenous in terms of strategy implemented.
My assumption is that ISI has deliberately played a double game with the US, but also with the Taliban, Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other insurgent organisations it has established and sponsored.
Clearly, it would take ages to put forth all aspects of the information available on the ISI and its doings. Thus, I would add only a few bits and pieces that allow to think about the capture of bin Laden as a cold blooded trade-off on behalf of Pak.
It appears that Pak Commander-in-Chief General Kayani has been lately very straight forward in his statements:
1) Pak Army has a direct interest in Afghanistan and it entails protection of interests of all sides of conflict in reconciliation process (that means also Taliban, etc.)
2) Afghanistan should look for a post-war partnership and cooperation in Pak and China and rather than in the US and the West.
These two statements suggest that Pak is at last "coming out of the closet" with regard to its real interests and intentions in Afg and the region.
The ISI:
1) While sitting on the fence from 2001-2003/4, allowed Taliban, Haqqani network and others to have refuge in Pak, regroup, adapt and go back to Afg as a renewed and adapting fighting force from 2005-present (it is weird how West wants not to see the elephant in the room - ISI has hidden insurgents from Western forces in Afg, provided their leadership a refuge and allowed them to regroup in Pak - yet anybody hardly ever mentions that)
2) It has been ISI that has been strengthening Islamic sentiment in the country and used it against the US and CIA operating in Pak.
Thus, Pak remains a "kingmaker" in Afg (remember - it has already brought Taliban to power once) akin to Earl of Warwick in England. The US and its allies cannot stay there for too long and they are already starting withdrawal. Pak has always been interested in securing Afg as its bastion, but the previous experiment with Taliban went wrong and invoked the US invasion. What would be the logical course of action to secure Afg, but also keep the US and others out of the region?
The facts to consider are:
1) ISI's years (nearly a decade) long effort in support of insurgents in Afghanistan
2) The (now) openly stated interests of Pak
3) The approaching end of operations in Afg
These just some considerations. Considering how leaky is the US administration, how they will ruthlessly employ shit throwers in their election campaign, and how quickly somebody like Bob Woodward will write another book about the hot and sexy stuff, we'll hear pretty soon about the details of capture of bin Laden.
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Whoa! Temperature rise by 6.1 degrees in 2080...craiky, I might get fried in my next incarnation...
Arctic ice melt 'alarming'
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/201153222731219991.html
Ocean could be ice-free in summers within 40 years and sea levels could rise by 1.6 metres by 2100, says new study.
Ice in Greenland and the rest of the Arctic is melting dramatically faster than was earlier projected and could raise global sea levels by as much as 1.6 metres by 2100, says a new study.
The study released on Tuesday by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) said there is a "need for greater urgency" in fighting global warming as record temperatures have led to the increased rate of melting.
The AMAP report said the correspondending rise in water levels will directly threaten low-lying coastal areas such as Florida and Bangladesh, but would also affect islands and cities from London to Shanghai. The report says it will also increase the cost of rebuilding tsunami barriers in Japan.
"The past six years (until 2010) have been the warmest period ever recorded in the Arctic," said the report.
"In the future, global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 metres to 1.6 metres by 2100 and the loss of ice from Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet will make a substantial contribution," it added.
The rises had been projected from levels recorded in 1990.
Dramatic rise from projections
In its last major study in 2007, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that sea levels were likely to rise by only between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100, though those numbers did not include any possible acceleration due to a thaw in the polar regions.
The new AMAP assessment says that Greenland lost ice in the 2004-2009 period four times faster than it did between 1995-2000.
The AMAP is the scientific arm of the eight-nation Arctic Council.
Foreign ministers from council nations - the United States, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- are due to meet in Greenland on May 12, and will discuss the AMAP report's findings.
The report will first be discussed by about 400 international scientists at a conference this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"The increase in annual average temperature since 1980 has been twice as high over the Arctic as it has been over the rest of the world," the report said. Temperatures were higher than at any time in the past 2,000 years."
In its report, the IPCC had said that it was at least 90 per cent probable that emissions of greenhouse gases by human beings, including the burning of fossil fuels, were to blame for most of the warming in recent decades.
"It is worrying that the most recent science points to much higher sea level rise than we have been expecting until now," Connie Hedegaard, the European Climate Commissioner, told the Reuters news agency.
"The study is yet another reminder of how pressing it has become to tackle climate change, although this urgency is not always evident neither in the public debate nor from the pace in the international negotiations," she said.
UN talks on a global accord to combat climate change have been making slow progress, and the organisation says national promises to limit greenhouse gas emissions are now insufficent to avoid possibly catastrophic consequences of global temperature rises.
Arctic could be ice-free
The AMAP study, which drew on the work of hundreds of experts, said that there were signs warming in the Arctic was accelerating, and that the Arctic Ocean could be nearly free of ice in the summers within 30 or 40 years. This, too, was higher than projected by the IPCC.
While the thaw would make the Arctic more accessible for oil exploration, mining and shipping, it would also disrupt the livelihoods of people who live there, as well as threaten the survival of creatures such as polar bears.
"There is evidence that two components of the Arctic cryosphere - snow and sea ice - are interacting with the
climate system to accelerate warming," the report said.
The IPCC estimate was based largely on the expansion of ocean waters from warming and the runoff from
melting land glaciers elsewhere in the world.
The AMAP report says that Arctic temperatures in the past six years have been at their highest levels since measurements began in 1880, and the rises were being fed by "feedback" mechanisms in the far north.
One such mechanism involves the ocean absorbing more heat as a result of not being covered by ice, as ice reflects solar energy. While the effect had been predicted by scientists earlier, the AMAP report says that "clear evidence for it has only been observed in the past five years".
Temperature rises expected
It projected that average fall and winter temperatures in the Arctic will climb by roughly 2.8 to 6.1 degrees Celsius by 2080, even if greenhouse gas emissions are lower than in the past decade.
"The observed changes in sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, in the mass of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic ice caps and glaciers over the past 10 years are dramatic and represent an obvious departure from the long-term
patterns," AMAP said.
"The changes that are emerging in the Arctic are very strong, dramatic even," said Mark Serreze, director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and a contributor to the report.
"But this is not entirely a surprise. We have known for decades that, as climate change takes hold, it is the Arctic where you are going to see it first, and where it is going to be pronounced," he said by phone.
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US president expected to announce that al-Qaeda leader has died and that US is in possession of the body.
US president Barack Obama is due to make a statement shortly in which he is expected to announce the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.
This doesn't make me happy, doesn't make me want to sing for joy.
I want to find it hard to believe that folks are genuinely happy that a man was murdered.
But I can not.
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This doesn't make me happy, doesn't make me want to sing for joy.
I want to find it hard to believe that folks are genuinely happy that a man was murdered.
But I can not.
I agree.
However, in The next step the rational man must ask why they murdered Bin Ladin and not captured him and took him to Guantanemo, Cuba or any similar out of human rights place?
Man of conspiracy (breathing together) will say that Bin Ladin was not guilty to most of the actions that he was accused for, and to make interrogations with an innocent man would only work against the major ..... (fill in here what you prefer). And to keep him alive would in the long run more prove his view of reality than the opposite. So dupe media that you have killed a beast and everybody that believes in their cover up becomes happy.
It is a sad story and this World is far more crazy than it was yesterday.
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Bin Ladin was not guilty to most of the actions that he was accused for,
And to keep him alive would in the long run more prove his view of reality than the opposite. So dupe media that you have killed a beast and everybody that believes in their cover up becomes happy.
It is a sad story and this World is far more crazy than it was yesterday.
What's sadder, even is that folks like you and I, who call attention to this, will be called the crazy ones.
Aaah, well.
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What's sadder, even is that folks like you and I, who call attention to this, will be called the crazy ones.
Aaah, well.
That has always been the case to be called crazy or not democratic or not royalistic or not whatever the political agenda tell you to be. Even if we experience some alien pressure for our sound theories, this age of change is nothing to compare when it comes back to the real dark age. M can tell you all the witch stories from that time that noone wants to hear of today. Back then it was really dangerous to try to tell "the truth".
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http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7351
Caption for the following attachment:
Chief Raoni crying when he learned that the President of Brazil approved the Belo Monte dam project on the Xingu indigenous lands. Belo Monte will be bigger than the Panama Canal, flooding nearly a million acres of rainforest & indigenous lands. 40,000 indigenous and local people will be forced off their native lands (as well as millions of unknown species & plants) In the name of "progress".
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Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/carbon-emissions-nuclearpower
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.
"I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions," Birol told the Guardian. "It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say."
Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. "These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path ... would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.
"Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict. That is a risk any sane person would seek to drastically reduce."
Birol said disaster could yet be averted, if governments heed the warning. "If we have bold, decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still have a chance of succeeding," he said.
The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year's emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.
Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008 and 2009, from 29.3Gt to 29Gt, due to the financial crisis. A small rise was predicted for 2010 as economies recovered, but the scale of the increase has shocked the IEA. "I was expecting a rebound, but not such a strong one," said Birol, who is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on energy.
John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said time was running out. "This news should shock the world. Yet even now politicians in each of the great powers are eyeing up extraordinary and risky ways to extract the world's last remaining reserves of fossil fuels – even from under the melting ice of the Arctic. You don't put out a fire with gasoline. It will now be up to us to stop them."
Most of the rise – about three-quarters – has come from developing countries, as rapidly emerging economies have weathered the financial crisis and the recession that has gripped most of the developed world.
But he added that, while the emissions data was bad enough news, there were other factors that made it even less likely that the world would meet its greenhouse gas targets.
• About 80% of the power stations likely to be in use in 2020 are either already built or under construction, the IEA found. Most of these are fossil fuel power stations unlikely to be taken out of service early, so they will continue to pour out carbon – possibly into the mid-century. The emissions from these stations amount to about 11.2Gt, out of a total of 13.7Gt from the electricity sector. These "locked-in" emissions mean savings must be found elsewhere.
"It means the room for manoeuvre is shrinking," warned Birol.
• Another factor that suggests emissions will continue their climb is the crisis in the nuclear power industry. Following the tsunami damage at Fukushima, Japan and Germany have called a halt to their reactor programmes, and other countries are reconsidering nuclear power.
"People may not like nuclear, but it is one of the major technologies for generating electricity without carbon dioxide," said Birol. The gap left by scaling back the world's nuclear ambitions is unlikely to be filled entirely by renewable energy, meaning an increased reliance on fossil fuels.
• Added to that, the United Nations-led negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change have stalled. "The significance of climate change in international policy debates is much less pronounced than it was a few years ago," said Birol.
He urged governments to take action urgently. "This should be a wake-up call. A chance [of staying below 2 degrees] would be if we had a legally binding international agreement or major moves on clean energy technologies, energy efficiency and other technologies."
Governments are to meet next week in Bonn for the next round of the UN talks, but little progress is expected.
Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, said the global emissions figures showed that the link between rising GDP and rising emissions had not been broken. "The only people who will be surprised by this are people who have not been reading the situation properly," he said.
Forthcoming research led by Sir David will show the west has only managed to reduce emissions by relying on imports from countries such as China.
Another telling message from the IEA's estimates is the relatively small effect that the recession – the worst since the 1930s – had on emissions. Initially, the agency had hoped the resulting reduction in emissions could be maintained, helping to give the world a "breathing space" and set countries on a low-carbon path. The new estimates suggest that opportunity may have been missed.
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State Of The Ocean: 'Shocking' Report Warns Of Mass Extinction From Current Rate Of Marine Distress
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/ipso-2011-ocean-report-mass-extinction_n_880656.html
If the current actions contributing to a multifaceted degradation of the world's oceans aren't curbed, a mass extinction unlike anything human history has ever seen is coming, an expert panel of scientists warns in an alarming new report.
The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) is the result of the first-ever interdisciplinary international workshop examining the combined impact of all of the stressors currently affecting the oceans, including pollution, warming, acidification, overfishing and hypoxia.
“The findings are shocking," Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director, said in a statement released by the group. "This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."
The scientific panel concluded that degeneration in the oceans is happening much faster than has been predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing to the precise conditions that have been associated with all major extinctions in the Earth's history.
According to the report, three major factors have been present in the handful of mass extinctions that have occurred in the past: an increase of both hypoxia (low oxygen) and anoxia (lack of oxygen that creates "dead zones") in the oceans, warming and acidification. The panel warns that the combination of these factors will inevitably cause a mass marine extinction if swift action isn't taken to improve conditions.
The report is the latest of several published in recent months examining the dire conditions of the oceans. A recent World Resources Institute report suggests that all coral reefs could be gone by 2050 if no action is taken to protect them, while a study published earlier this year in BioScience declares oysters as "functionally extinct", their populations decimated by over-harvesting and disease. Just last week scientists forecasted that this year's Gulf "dead zone" will be the largest in history due to increased runoff from the Mississippi River dragging in high levels of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers.
A recent study in the journal Nature, meanwhile, suggests that not only will the next mass extinction be man-made, but that it could already be underway. Unless humans make significant changes to their behavior, that is.
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Guest?
Well, Juhani haven't engaged much the last months, and he said something that could be meant that he was about to leave Soma. My wild ideas about Bin ladin being dead since 2004 could be one reason, but I don't know. Anyone knows more?
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Here we go again, and this time it looks nasty.
As I speak, stock markets are cashing in their chips faster than rabbits can run. Central bankers are buying their own debts across the board. The US is heading for a train wreck in fast motion, and Obama's luck has run out - the Tea Party will be in power next election.
China is in uproar over corruption and incompetence, not just surrounding the Very Fast Train debacle.
The weather has taken a back-seat for once, and for a short time. It's all down hill from here, and that's not just for those in Syria.
From what I hear, the world is out of shortcuts - cold turkey is on the menu for everyone, and for many that means on the street, or in the morgue.
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Here we go again, and this time it looks nasty.
As I speak, stock markets are cashing in their chips faster than rabbits can run. Central bankers are buying their own debts across the board. The US is heading for a train wreck in fast motion, and Obama's luck has run out - the Tea Party will be in power next election.
And how does the ordinary old man react to this downhill on the stock market?
My 88 year old father, that grew up with owning companies and stock market affairs when it still was sound business (the 1940's to 1980's) told me today that he was about to buy stocks. Just because the prices was that low. I tried to argue a bit and said that he probably should wait until the prices went up a little bit but he insisted and went to the bank to buy.
On the other hand - I checked the professional and amateurs recommendations for the stocks that he was interested in and they said "Buy" on a scale of 4 to 5. I do not know, my horoscope once told me that I should not intervene on the stock market or similar gambling places, so I don't.
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Due to the instable financial market and with so many countries in crisis, The sweden government decided today to postpone coming tax reforms, while waiting for better times.
It is clear that the Swedish gov. has inside information about the world economics and that they now take the full responsible to keep the Swedish budget in balance. Still having muscles to meet another fall in the recession. The Gov. count with a future lower tax income due to the global recession and that restrict any planned welfare balances. "Not until 2014 it may be possible to do the tax reforms that we announced in the election", said prime minister Reinfelt.
"But during the election we also said that these tax reforms should only be made under circumstances of growth in the economy, and this is not the case today. One has always to consider the daily development of the financial market and the world economy at hand, before one take decisions about reforms. Today there are unfortunately no room for tax releasing reforms and we are the first to regret that. But the interest of the Swedish national economy comes first and we think that everybody agree and understand this decision."
From my free memory it is this what the Prime minister said today 13:30 (16th Aug).
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Here is a recent article by Pankaj Mishra. I feel he is trying to get at something which is gradually dawning in the world - a change that is close to overwhelming us all, yet I'm not positive of the outcome myself.
"In India, tens of thousands of middle-class people respond to a quasi-Gandhian activist’s call for a second freedom struggle – this time, against the country’s venal “brown masters”, as one protester told the Wall Street Journal. Middle-class Israelis demanding “social justice” turn out for their country’s first major demonstrations in years. In China, the state broadcaster CCTV unprecedentedly joins millions of cyber-critics in blaming a government that placed wealth creation above social welfare for the fatal high-speed train crash in Wenzhou last month.
Add to this the uprisings against kleptocracies in Egypt and Tunisia, the street protests in Greece and Spain earlier this year, and you are looking at a fresh political awakening. The specific contexts may seem very different, ranging from authoritarian China to democratic America (where Warren Buffett, the world’s richest man, publicly denounced a “billionaire-friendly Congress” last fortnight). And the grievances may be diversely phrased. But public anger derives from the same source: extreme and seemingly insurmountable inequality.
As Forbes magazine, that well-known socialist tool, describes it, protesters everywhere are driven by “the conviction that the power structure, corporate and government, work together to screw the broad middle class” (and the working class too, whose distress is not usually examined in Forbes).
Certainly, the strident promoters of globalisation – politicians, big businessmen, and journalists – will have to work much harder now to bamboozle their audiences.
For years now, the mantra of “economic growth” justified government interventions on behalf of big business and investors with generous tax breaks (and, in the west, the rescue of criminally reckless investors and speculators with massive bailouts at the taxpayer’s expense). The fact that a few people get very rich while a majority remains poor seemed of little importance as long as the GDP figures looked impressive.
In heavily populated countries like India, even a small number of people moving into the middle class made for an awe-inspiring spectacle. Helped by an entertainment-obsessed and “patriotic” corporate media, you could easily ignore the bad news – the suicides, for instance, of hundreds of thousands of farmers in the last decade. However, the carefully maintained illusions of globalisation shattered when even its putative beneficiaries – the educated and aspiring classes – began to hurt from high inflation, decreasing access to education and other opportunities for upward mobility.
Economic growth is no defence against the frustration of the semi-empowered. The economies of both India and Israel have recorded dramatic growth, especially in their service sectors, in recent years. But inequality has also grown spectacularly. The Financial Times, which recently compared India’s oligarchic business families to Russia’s mafia-capitalists, pointed out two weeks ago that “the 10 largest business families in Israel own about 30% of the stock market value” while one quarter of Israeli families live below the poverty line.
Last month the Indian supreme court blamed increasing social violence in the country on the “false promises of ever-increasing spirals of consumption leading to economic growth that will lift everyone”. Obviously it is not the supreme court’s remit to define India’s economic policies. Nor should Anna Hazare be entrusted with establishing the office of an anti-corruption ombudsman, a moral rather than political mission that amounts to nothing in a country littered with compromised and impotent institutions.
Still, they respond, however incoherently, to a profound crisis of legitimacy afflicting their country’s highest institutions, and their supposed watchdog, the media. In India, for instance, a lot of public anger in recent months has focused on the country’s senior journalists who were recently caught making deals between corrupt politicians and businessmen.
In the last decade, billionaires, “billionaire-friendly” legislators and CEO-worshipping writers and journalists have together constituted what the political economist Ha Joon Chang calls a “powerful propaganda machine, a financial-intellectual complex backed by money and power”.
Nevertheless, the real facts about “economic growth” are getting through to those most vulnerable to it in both the east and the west: the young. Denouncing “the corruption among politicians, businessmen, and bankers” that leaves “us helpless, without a voice”, the manifesto of theSpanish indignados released after their massive demonstrations in May could have been authored by the Indian supporters of Hazare.
Even as they export jobs and capital to Asia, economic globalisers in the west continue to preach the importance of upgrading skills and retraining at home. Yet the dead-end of economic globalisation looms clearly before Europe and America’s youth: little chance of stable employment, or even affordable education.
The violence in European cities this year comes at the end of a long cycle of steady socioeconomic growth. In postcolonial India and China, where billions are now being coerced into a transition from agrarian to urban industrial economies, this cycle had barely begun before it began to splutter. A secure and dignified life seems even more remote for most as a tiny minority hives off the fruits of “economic growth”. Worried by the prospect of social unrest, China’s communist leaders frankly describe their nation’s apparently booming economy as “unstable, unbalanced, unco-ordinated and ultimately unsustainable”. Its fumbling response to Anna Hazare reveals that India’s democratically elected government has no better ideas about how to deal with the anger of an overwhelmingly young population, whose dramatically raised expectations stand little chance of being fulfilled.
The Chinese philosopher Zhang Junmai once wrote that an agrarian country has few “material demands” and can exist over a long period of time with “poverty but equality, scarcity but peace”. However, its embrace of the west’s model of consumer capitalism exposes it to endless political and social chaos.
Returning to an austere age of wisely managed expectations is no longer possible – even if it was desirable. It remains to be seen what political forms this summer’s unrest will take. But there is no doubt that many more people across a wide swath of the world will awaken with rage to what Zhang warned against: “A condition of prosperity without equality, wealth without peace.” "
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Another article, by Tim Adams, is approaching the same global change, but from a different angle. This one I'm sure you will all understand immediately within the context specified, yet I feel it is speaking about a much wider context. I see the same themes played out on a scale far bigger than just the internet.
" For a while after his first TV series was broadcast in 2009, comedian Stewart Lee was in the habit of collecting and filing some of the comments that people made about him on web pages and social media sites. He did a 10-minute Google trawl most days for about six months and the resultant collected observations soon ran to dozens of pages. If you read those comments now as a cumulative narrative, you begin to fear for Stewart Lee. A good third of the posts fantasised about violence being done to the comic, most of the rest could barely contain the extent of their loathing.
This is a small, representative selection:
"I hate Stewart Lee with a passion. He's like Ian Huntley to me." Wharto15, Twitter
"I saw him at a gig once, and even offstage he was exuding an aura of creepy molesty smugness." Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
"One man I would love to beat with a shit-covered cricket bat." Joycey, readytogo.net
"He's got one of those faces I just want to burn." Coxy, dontstartmeoff.com
"I hope stewart lee dies." Idrie, Youtube
"WHAT THE HELL! If i ever find you, lee, i promise i will, I WILL, kick the crap out of you." Carcrazychica, YouTube
"Stewart Lee is a cynical man, who has been able to build an entire carrer [sic] out of his own smugness. I hope the flowering chrones disease [sic] kills him." Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
"I spent the entire time thinking of how much I want to punch Stewart Lee in the face instead of laughing. He does have an incredibly punchable face, doesn't he? (I could just close my eyes, but fantasizing about punching Stewart Lee is still more fun than sitting in complete, stony silence.)" Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
Lee, a standup comedian who does not shy away from the more grotesque aspects of human behaviour, or always resist dishing out some bile of his own, does not think of himself as naive. But the sheer volume of the vitriol, its apparent absence of irony, set him back. For a few months, knowing the worst that people thought of him became a kind of weird compulsion, though he distanced himself from it slightly with the belief that he was doing his obsessive collating "in character". "Collecting all these up isn't something I would do," he suggests to me. "It is something the made-up comedian Stewart Lee would do, but I have to do it for him, because he is me…"
Distanced or not, Lee couldn't help but be somewhat unsettled by the rage he seemed to provoke by telling stories and jokes: "When I first realised the extent of this stuff I was shocked," he says. "Then it appeared to me that a lot of the things I was hated for were things I was actually trying to do; a lot of what people considered failings were to me successes. I sort of wrote a lot of series two of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle with these comments in mind, trying to do more of the things people hadn't liked."
The "40,000 words of hate" have now become "anthropologically amusing" to him, he insists. "You can see a lot of them seem to be the same people posting the same stuff under different names in different places, and it is strange to see people you have known personally, whom you thought you had got on fine with at the time, abusing you under barely effective pseudonyms."
He's stopped looking these days, and never really tried to identify or confront any of his detractors. "I am slightly worried that some of them might be a bit insane and hope I haven't made myself or my family a target."
Lee is, of course, not alone in having this anonymous violent hatred directed toward him. On parts of the internet it has become pretty much common parlance. Do a quick trawl on the blog sites and comment sections about most celebrities and entertainers – not to mention politicians – and you will quickly discover comparable virtual rage and fantasised violence. Comedians seem to come in for more than most, as if taboo-breaking was taken as read, or the mood of the harshest baying club audience had become a kind of universal rhetoric. It's not quite heckling this, though, is it? A heckle requires a bit of courage and risk; the audience can see who is doing the shouting. Lee's detractors were all anonymous. How should we understand it then: harmless banter? Robust criticism? Vicious bullying?
The psychologists call it "deindividuation". It's what happens when social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed. The classic deindividuation experiment concerned American children at Halloween. Trick-or-treaters were invited to take sweets left in the hall of a house on a table on which there was also a sum of money. When children arrived singly, and not wearing masks, only 8% of them stole any of the money. When they were in larger groups, with their identities concealed by fancy dress, that number rose to 80%. The combination of a faceless crowd and personal anonymity provoked individuals into breaking rules that under "normal" circumstances they would not have considered.
Deindividuation is what happens when we get behind the wheel of a car and feel moved to scream abuse at the woman in front who is slow in turning right. It is what motivates a responsible father in a football crowd to yell crude sexual hatred at the opposition or the referee. And it's why under the cover of an alias or an avatar on a website or a blog – surrounded by virtual strangers – conventionally restrained individuals might be moved to suggest a comedian should suffer all manner of violent torture because they don't like his jokes, or his face. Digital media allow almost unlimited opportunity for wilful deindividuation. They almost require it. The implications of those liberties, of the ubiquity of anonymity and the language of the crowd, are only beginning to be felt.
You can trace those implications right back to the genesis of social media, to pioneering Californian utopias, and their fall. The earliest network-groups had a sort of Edenic cast. One representative group was CommuniTree, which was set up as an open-access forum on a series of modem-linked computers in the 1970s when computers were just humming into life. For a while the group of like-minded enthusiasts ran on perfectly harmonious lines, respecting others, having positive and informed discussions about matters of shared relevance. At some point, however, some high school teenagers armed with modems accessed the open-access space and used it to trash and abuse the CommuniTree, taking free speech to uninhibited extremes that the pioneers had never wanted. The pioneers were suitably horrified. And eventually, after deciding that they could neither control the students through censorship, nor tolerate the space with them in it, they shut CommuniTree down.
This story has become almost folkloric among new media prophets, a sort of founding myth. It was one of the first moments when the possibilities of the new collective potential was tainted by anonymous lowest-common-denominator humanity, a pattern that has subsequently been repeated in pretty much all virtual communication. Barbarians, or "trolls" as they became known, had entered the community, ignoring the rules, shouting loudly, encouraging violence, spoiling it for everybody. Thereafter, anyone who has established a website or forum with high, or medium-high ideals, has had to decide how to deal with such anonymous destructive posters, those who got in the way of constructive debate.
Tom Postmes, a professor of social and organisational psychology at the universities of Exeter and Groningen in his native Netherlands, and author of Individuality and the Group, has been researching these issues for 20 years. "In the early years," he says, "this online behaviour was called flaming. And then that became institutionalised. Among friends, the people who engaged in this activity were actually quite jocular in intent but they were accountable to standards and norms that are radically different to those of most of their audience. Trolls aspire to violence, to the level of trouble they can cause in an environment. They want it to kick off. They want to promote antipathetic emotions of disgust and outrage, which morbidly gives them a sense of pleasure."
Postmes compares online aliases to the tags of graffiti artists: "Trolls want people to identify their style, to recognise them, or at least their online identity. But they will only be successful in this if an authority doesn't clamp down on them. So anonymity helps that. It's essentially risk-free."
There is no particular type of person drawn to this kind of covert bullying, he suggests: "Like football hooligans, they have family and live at home but when they go to a match the enjoyment comes from finding a context in which you can let go, or to use the familiar phrase 'take a moral vacation'. Doing this online has a similar characteristic. You would expect it is just normal people, the bloke you know at the corner shop or a woman from the office. They are the people typically doing this…"
Some trolls have become nearly as famous as the blogs to which they attach themselves, in a curious, parasitical kind of relationship. Jeffrey Wells, author of Hollywood Elsewhere, is a former columnist on the LA Times who has been blogging inside stories about movies for 15 years. For the last couple of years his gossip and commentary has been dogged by the invective of a character called LexG, whose 200-odd self-loathing and wildly negative posts recently moved Wells to address him directly: "The coarseness, the self-pity and the occasional eye-pokes and cruel dismissiveness have to be turned down. Way down. Arguments and genuine disdain for certain debaters can be entertaining, mind. I'm not trying to be Ms Manners. But there finally has to be an emphasis on perception and love and passion and the glories of good writing. There has to be an emphasis on letting in the light rather than damning the darkness of the trolls and vomiting on the floor and kicking this or that Hollywood Elsewhere contributor in the balls…"
When I spoke to Wells about LexG, he was philosophical. "Everybody on the site writes anonymously, except me," he says. "If they didn't I think it would cause them to dry up. This place is like a bubble in which you can explode, let the inner lava out. And, boy, is there a lot of lava."
He has resisted insisting that people write under their own name because that would kill the comments instantly. "Why would you take that one in 100 chance that your mother or a future employer will read what you were thinking late one night a dozen years ago if you didn't have to?" For haters, Wells believes, anonymity makes for livelier writing. "It's a trick, really – the less you feel you will be identified, the more uninhibited you can be. At his best LexG really knows how to write well and hold a thought and keep it going. He is relatively sane but certainly not a happy guy. He's been doing this a couple of years now and he really has become a presence; he does it on all the Hollywood sites."
Have they ever met?
"Just once," Wells says. "I asked him to write a column of his own, give him a corner of the site, bring him out in the open." LexG didn't want to do it, he seemed horrified at the prospect. "He just wanted to comment on my stuff," Wells suggests. "He is a counter-puncher, I guess. The rules on my site remain simple, though. No ugly rancid personal comments directed against me. And no Tea Party bullshit."
The big problem he finds running the blog is that his anonymous commenters get a kind of pack mentality. And the comments quickly become a one-note invective. As a writer Wells feels he needs a range of emotion: "I also do personal confession or I can be really enthusiastic about something. But the comments tend to be one colour, and that becomes drab. It's tougher, I guess, to be enthusiastic, to really set out honestly why something means something to you. It takes maybe twice as long. I can run with disdain and nastiness for a while but you don't want to always be the guy banging a shoe on the table. Like LexG. I mean it's not healthy, for a start…"
Wells does his own marshalling of the debate, somewhat like the bartender of a western saloon. Other sites – including our own Comment is Free – employ moderators to try to keep trolls in line, and move the debate on. A young journalist called Sarah Bee was for three years the moderator on seminal techie news and chat forum the Register. She started as a sub-editor but increasingly devoted her time to looking after the "very boisterous" chat on the site. She has no doubt that "anonymity makes people bolder and more arsey, of course it does. And it was quite a politically libertarian crowd, so you get people expressing things extremely stridently, people would disagree and there would often be a lot of real nastiness." She was very liberal as far as moderating went, she thinks, with no real hard and fast rules, except, perhaps, for "a ban on prison-rape jokes, which came up extremely often".
Every once in a while, however, the mood would get "very ugly" and she would try to calm things down and remonstrate with people. "I would occasionally email them – they had to give their email addresses when registering for the site – to say, 'Even though you are not writing under your real name, people can hear you.'" In those instances, strangely, she suggests, most people were incredibly contrite when contacted. It was like they had forgotten who they were. "They would send messages back saying, 'Oh, I'm so sorry', not even using the excuse of having a bad day or anything like that. It is so much to do with anonymity…"
Bee became known as the Moderatrix – "all moderators have an implicit sub-dom relationship with their site" – though she was just about the only person in the comment section who used her own name. "There was a lot of misogyny and casual sexism, some pretty off-colour stuff. I would get a few horrible emails calling me a cunt or whatever," she says, "but that didn't bother me as much as the day-to-day stuff, really."
The day-to-day stuff was, though, "like being in another world. It got really wearying. I would go home sometimes and just sigh and wonder about it all."
She is keen to say that the Register itself she thought a great thing, and loved the idea of working there, but being Moderatrix eventually got her down. "A hive mind sets in," she suggests. "Just occasionally good sense would prevail but then there is that fact that arguments on the internet are literally never over. You moderate a few hundred comments a day, and then you come in the next morning and there are a few hundred more waiting for you. It's Sisyphean."
In the end she needed a change. She's in another "community management" job now, dealing through Facebook, which is a relief because "it removes anonymity so people are a lot more polite". When she retired Moderatrix she did a goodbye and got 250 comments wishing her well. She doesn't miss it, though. "Just occasionally I would let a stream of the most offensive things through, just to let people know how those things looked in the world… People would realise for a bit. But then the old behaviours would immediately set in. The thing any moderator will tell you is that every day is a new day and everything repeats itself every day. It is not about progress or continuity…"
There are many places, of course, on the internet where a utopian ideal of "here comes everybody" prevails, where the anonymous hive mind is fantastically curious and productive. A while ago I talked to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, about some of this, and asked him who his perfect contributor was. "The ideal Wikipedian, in my mind, is someone who is really smart and really kind," he said, without irony. "Those are the people who are drawn into the centre of the group. When people get power in these communities, it is not through shouting loudest, it is through diplomacy and conflict resolution."
Within this "wikitopia" there were, too, though, plenty of Lord of the Flies moments. The benevolent Wiki community is plagued by "Wikitrolls" – vandals who set out to insert slander and nonsense into pages. A policing system has grown up to root out troll elements; there are well over 1,000 official volunteer "admins", working round the clock; they are supported in this work by the eyes and ears of the moral majority of "virtuous" Wikipedians.
"When we think about difficult users there are two kinds," Wales said, with the same kind of weariness as Moderatrix. "The easy kind is someone who comes in, calls everyone Nazis, starts wrecking articles. That is easy to deal with: you block them, and everyone moves on. The hard ones are people who are doing good work in some respects but are also really difficult characters and they annoy other people, so we end up with these long intractable situations where a community can't come to a decision. But I think that is probably true of any human community."
Wales, who has conducted perhaps the most hopeful experiment in human collective knowledge of all time, appears to have no doubt that the libertarian goals of the internet would benefit from some similar voluntary restraining authority. It was the case of the blogger Kathy Sierra that caused Wales and others to propose in 2007 an unofficial code of conduct on blog sites, part of which would outlaw anonymity. Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor based in California; after an online spat on a tech-site she was apparently randomly targeted by an anonymous mob that posted images of her as a sexually mutilated corpse on various websites and issued death threats. She wrote on her own blog: "I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. I am afraid to leave my yard, I will never feel the same. I will never be the same."
Among Wales's suggestions in response to this and other comparable horror stories of virtual bullying was that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments altogether, and that they be able to delete comments deemed abusive without facing accusations of censorship. Wales's proposals were quickly shot down by the libertarians, and the traffic-hungry, as unworkable and against the prevailing spirit of free-speech.
Other pioneering idealists of virtual reality have lately come to question some of those norms, though. Jaron Lanier is credited with being the inventor of virtual worlds. His was the first company to sell virtual reality gloves and goggles. He was a key adviser in the creation of avatar universe Second Life. His recent book, You Are Not a Gadget, is, in this sense, something of a mea culpa, an argument for the sanctity of the breathing human individual against the increasingly anonymous virtual crowd. "Trolling is not a string of isolated incidents," Lanier argued, "but the status quo in the online world." He suggested "drive-by anonymity", in which posters create a pseudonym in order to promote a particularly violent point of view, threatened to undermine human communication in general. "To have substantial exchange, you need to be fully present. That is why facing one's accuser is a fundamental right of the accused."
We rightly hear a great deal about the potential of social media and websites to spread individual freedom, as evidenced during the Arab spring and elsewhere. Less is written about their capacity to reinforce pack identities and mob rule, though clearly that is also part of that potential.
Social psychologist Tom Postmes has been disturbed by the coarsening of debate around issues such as racial integration in his native Netherlands, a polarisation that he suggests has grown directly from the fashionable political incorrectness of particular websites where anonymity is guaranteed. "There is some evidence to suggest that the mainstream conservative media even cuts politically correct or moderate posts from websites in favour of the extremes," he says. "The tone of the public debate around immigration has diminished enormously in these forums."
One effect of "deindividuation" is a polarisation within groups in which like-minded people typically end up in more extreme positions because they gain credibility by exaggerating loosely held prejudices. You can see that in the bloggers trying to outdo one another with pejoratives about Stewart Lee. This has the effect of shifting norms: extremism becomes acceptable. As Lanier argues: "I worry about the next generation of young people around the world growing up with internet-based technology that emphasises crowd aggregation… will they be more likely to succumb to pack dynamics when they come of age?" The utopian tendency is to believe that social media pluralises and diversifies opinion; most of the evidence suggests that it is just as likely, when combined with anonymity, to reinforce groupthink and extremism.
A lot of this comes down to the politics of anonymity, a subject likely to greatly exercise the minds of legislators as our media becomes increasingly digitised, and we rely more and more on mostly unaccountable and easily manipulated sources – from TripAdvisor to Twitter feeds to blog gossip – for our information.
One simple antidote to this seems to rest in the very old-fashioned idea of standing by your good name. Adopt a pseudonym and you are not putting much of yourself on the line. Put your name to something and your words are freighted with responsibility. Arthur Schoepenhauer wrote well on the subject 160 years ago: "Anonymity is the refuge for all literary and journalistic rascality," he suggested. "It is a practice which must be completely stopped. Every article, even in a newspaper, should be accompanied by the name of its author; and the editor should be made strictly responsible for the accuracy of the signature. The freedom of the press should be thus far restricted; so that when a man publicly proclaims through the far-sounding trumpet of the newspaper, he should be answerable for it, at any rate with his honour, if he has any; and if he has none, let his name neutralise the effect of his words. And since even the most insignificant person is known in his own circle, the result of such a measure would be to put an end to two-thirds of the newspaper lies, and to restrain the audacity of many a poisonous tongue."
The internet amplifies Schopenhauer's trumpet many times over. Though there are repressive regimes when anonymity is a prerequisite of freedom, and occasions in democracies when anonymity must be preserved, it is clear when those reservations might apply. Generally, though, who should be afraid to stand up and put their name to their words? And why should anyone listen if they don't? "
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Now we enter the next phase of this ridiculous slide into chaos. The GFC was bad enough, but this new financial debacle is shaping up to be significantly worse. I watched this approach, and thought to extract all my shares into cash. I changed my mind and cashed enough to help purchase a new van next year. The rest I left, because I couldn't decide what was better - income from blue-chip stocks as against bank interest rates. It looked bad no matter which way you turned.
A day later the stock market crashed.
The climate indicators are looking worse, so there is no solace there. That tsunami is still heading inexorably for our shores, and sooner rather than later. But the new financial crises will hit first.
Central banks are now working together to flood the market with US dollars, since the US itself pulled back. This will allow temporary liquidity for troubled smaller banks. Greece is in free fall as far as I can see, and billions of dollars are going down with it, particularly from some large French banks.
Greece is chicken feed - China could buy it without turning a hair. Italy is a very different matter, as is Spain. Add the other wooblies like Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, and so forth, and you have something too large to rescue.
The problem is an EU currency without an EU fiscal policy - or an EU Treasury. The big question is whether the sane heads in Europe can save the EU. It's not looking good. A recent meeting made no headway, and the crises continues.
Then over in the famous home of Capitalism, the USA, we have politics utterly sabotaging all sanity. As far as I can see you may as well forget about the US. They are already over the falls, and in complete denial. In the recent stock fright, they pulled all their money out of Australia back to the US, to 'bring it back home', dropping Australian dollar by about 15c against the USD. Taking money from one of the most stable economies back into one of the most unstable in a moment of panic, because the US is the 'home of Capitalism', so it must be safe there. Isn't it?
China's manufacturing has declined. Obviously, it's exports are still significant, and if the EU and the US can't afford to buy your stuff, then you can't afford to keep making it, and thus you don't need as much raw materials, especially minerals and energy, so, ipso facto, Australian exports will decline, meaning economic prospects for Australia will suffer, thus get your money out of there. To where?
The point is, we are facing the next GFC, it will be worse than the first, and there is really no way to side-step this one. It's pain every way you look. Northern EU countries may fare better due to their socialist policies, but Britain and the US, along with southern EU countries, will plunge into an abyss - probably within a matter of weeks.
That means unemployment, on the streets, food kitchens and death from lack of medical access. It could also mean the rise of a new fascism. Mexico is modelling the new world right now.
I don't think Asia will go down with the rest. It will suffer, but not as much. There is too much vitality, and they are passed the disorganised phase of their growth. So Australia might just hang in also. But there are more problems in Asia than economics.
Give it ten years I'd say, to pull it back together. Just in time to front up to the Climate Change tsunami.
La Nina is back. So whatever you got last year, expect the same again. They think it will max about January this time.
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Well, reading between the lines of what our Minister of Finance has told us the last weeks (he has recently presented the Swedish national Budget), the odds from going from bad to worse in the World economy are quite high.
Greece has a small national economy, and could be handled by The EU and Euro, but Italy and Spain are too big to rescue. They have to have theri steel bath on their own.
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http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7351
Caption for the following attachment:
Chief Raoni crying when he learned that the President of Brazil approved the Belo Monte dam project on the Xingu indigenous lands. Belo Monte will be bigger than the Panama Canal, flooding nearly a million acres of rainforest & indigenous lands. 40,000 indigenous and local people will be forced off their native lands (as well as millions of unknown species & plants) In the name of "progress".
Some good news: a judge has delayed this project, at least temporarily.
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good
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The global situation continues to fascinate me. The financial crisis unfolds like a train wreck in slow motion - excruciatingly slow, with every painful moment drawn out obscenely like a Japanese movie.
The stock market rockets up and down on every flimsy comment or vain hope.
The idea we get from Europe is that the bigger the sum of money you can throw at the problem the more likely it will go away. But we all know it won't go away, that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and no amount of glib shekel-flashing or optimistic promises is going to fix it.
The US hasn't any money to throw, and is vainly banking on keeping its dollar as low as possible to pull its economy out of trouble. But again, the problem in the US is obvious to blind Freddy - they outsourced labour to Asia. What's needed are reconstruction efforts for the labour market, which are unpalatable to the new Right think now the dominant think in the US. Even Obama won't go there.
But questions are now being floated, which have been spoken only by radicals in coffee shops up until now: has Capitalism reached its limit? Are we watching now the collapse of Capitalism, as we did with Communism some decades earlier?
Or even more, are we witnessing the inevitable implosion of size? The sheer scale of the modern global economic complexity is the problem itself? That the 'system type' and thus the 'system fix', of any nature, is irrelevant - size carries with it it's own demise, written as it were into the DNA of all matter?
I feel we are in a period of fundamental transformation, under the looming shadow of the Global Warming typhoon. A perfect storm of unprecedented proportions in human history. Humans have been through many Armageddons, but never of their own making on such a scale.
This is the culmination of the ultimate consequences inherent in the basic blueprint of our species. Model humanity, with all it's components, and the outcome would look like this in one variation or another. It's terribly exciting. We are participating in a species' experimental conclusion. Not to be missed for anything.
Now is the time for saviours to arise of all kinds. Those who promise answers. But mark my words, any answer that is external, is false. There is only one answer, which has been the same since our species began - it in you and me, not out there.
Once we have grasped the inner quest, we can laugh and enjoy the madness of illusion.
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Once we have grasped the inner quest, we can laugh and enjoy the madness of illusion.
I'm all for that!
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I feel we are in a period of fundamental transformation, under the looming shadow of the Global Warming typhoon. A perfect storm of unprecedented proportions in human history. Humans have been through many Armageddons, but never of their own making on such a scale.
What did it say in the Bible?, "Man should fill the world"? (poor translation).
Now we have done that (become too many) and September 27th we just passed the "Overshoot day". The day of the year when we have consumed what the Earth can produce or provide, to us, in one year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Debt_Day
The economic recession and the natural disasters that increase, goes hand in hand, I am afraid.
So says also the Oracle from above.
But one guy may get "rich" and other guys get "poor", out of this turmoil.
Crisis is also inviting opportunities.
It is not all painted in black.
~.~
~.~
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Qdfi may be dead, but I don't hold much hope for peace in that land, or Egypt for that matter.
Ratings agencies downgraded Spain a few days ago, and raised serious questions about the French banks. Spain now joins Italy and Belgium as downgraded countries. France and Germany have met again, and again nothing has happened. "Next week" they keep saying.
The problem is that no amount of money can fix this one, and Germany realises this, except they will have to try.
The US could pull out, but is mired in political insanity. Few on the Right seem to care how precarious it's situation is, and instead seek political ideology.
Across the globe, there is a fierce battle waging for the wealthy elite layer to maintain their hegemony of power. They will push this to the absolute limit. Here is an example which should stand as a sign of a much wider malaise.
There are scientists who have been studying what we could do about climate change, given that no action will be taken in time to reduce global warming, they have looked at drastic last minute measures to save humanity.This is called geoengineering, and here are some examples:
- Blasting thousands of tonnes of dust particles into space to reflect sunlight.
- Initiating artificial volcanoes.
- Fertilising the ocean with iron nanoparticles to increase levels of phytoplankton.
- Genetically engineering crops to be paler in colour to reflect sunlight back into space.
- Vacuuming carbon from the atmosphere
The list goes on, look here for a fuller set:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_geoengineering_projects
What is interesting is that a powerful 18-member panel convened by the Bipartisan Policy Centre in Washington has been lobbying for more research into these measures. 'Bipartisan'? "The Centre is part-funded by oil, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and appears to represent the most powerful US academic, military, scientific and corporate interests. It lobbies for free trade, US military supremacy and corporate power." [John Vidal]
So here we have precisely those industries most opposed to the reality of Climate Change, hedging their bets by also funding lobbying to research last-minute drastic measures. I suppose they call this 'contingency planning'. What they won't be interested in funding is reduction in population, carbon tax and any form of regulation to rein in excess consumption.
"So how do falsehoods turn into truths in our enlightened democratic societies, which are presumably immune to crude propaganda of the kind churned out by totalitarian regimes? [Usta] Patnaik [one of India's most respected economists] explains that “hundreds of economists are closely imprecated within a vast global poverty-estimating structure with the World Bank at its apex, producing increasingly misleading estimates every year in glossy reports”. CEO-struck writers and journalists – the “useful idiots” of the rich and powerful – hold up another end of what the economist Ha-Joon Chang calls the “financial-intellectual complex”." [Pankaj Mishra]
Meanwhile, to keep us all quiet unless we are actually on the streets, we are fed ideas about the assault on 'personal freedom' by those trying to bring about beneficial change. This is the way the mega-wealthy in the world maintain their structural power, but convincing us that everyone who is out to unseat them is really trying to steal your individual autonomy, your freedom of choice, when in fact exactly the opposite is the case.
I'm afraid their machinations have succeeded. The resistance you see now in Greece and New York is only the expected convulsions of a dying patient - those who missed out on sufficient sedation. The game is sown up.
The proof is apparent everywhere you look, and we have it right here in Australia. Control of the media has demonstrated the ability of vested interests to turn public opinion completely against public self-interest. It is truly mind-boggling. The sophistry of falsehoods which everyone swallows with glee.
Unfortunately there are potent forces working against the spin, not in the minds of the stupid masses, who deserve to suffer for their stupidity (how else will they learn), but in the reality which exists in the world. The financial system is broken, and most portfolio managers now see a ten year stagnation as the best outcome. Water wars are already beginning, China is buying up vast agricultural land in Africa, food inflation has rocketed in Asia, global warming is causing accelerated spreading of dengue fever, a new malaria strain has broken out that is resistant to all known drugs, from land clearing along the Thai-Cambodia border area (which is supposed to become a new playground for the mega-rich).
Everywhere you look, be it melting glaciers, unaffordable basic health services, government sovereign debt crises, nuclear power plant accident cover-ups, rampant corruption, rising sea levels, the signs are, we are going to have to fend for ourselves.
It is our obligation to turn this into a master stroke of achievement.
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I'm afraid their machinations have succeeded. The resistance you see now in Greece and New York is only the expected convulsions of a dying patient - those who missed out on sufficient sedation. The game is sown up.
The Western Society has come to the crossroad.
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Conspiracy theorists are wondering: for what are they getting us "ready"?
(http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305457_10150384448114041_206848514040_8289666_1700714758_n.jpg)
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For the unexpected. And so they should be getting ready - but when it happens again, they will fumble.
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Did anyone notice the little news about the Geronimo attack?
A book released by a former secret agent. (This is the way we are supposed to get the clues).
After interviewing the Navy Seal guys that made the hit toward Bin Ladins hide away in Pakistan, the scenario has changed compared to the official version, quite significant.
For example: No fire was done (or required) in the attack to get into the house, and later the bedroom, of the so called Usama Bin Ladin residence.
One women cried - "Do not shoot - It is not him" or some similar statement - meaning that they was hitting the wrong guy.
The Navy seals gave "him" four bullets, of which two met the target and killed "him" - who ever it was that they killed.
thanks to the info from US Intelligence confidential sources, I know that Usama Bin Ladin died as early as 2002, only a year after the 6/11 attacks. A terror attack which Usama in the first place, (two weeks after the attacks) denied to be involved in. I have presented all the details (call it evidence if you like) about this affair many months ago.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9020679/Costa-Concordia-coast-guard-to-captain-Get-back-on-board-the-ship.html
Now they call him Captain Coward,
how nice is that to be?
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9020679/Costa-Concordia-coast-guard-to-captain-Get-back-on-board-the-ship.html
Now they call him Captain Coward,
how nice is that to be?
I feel for him: the conversation with the Coast Guard which they typed out sounds full of chaos and confusion, and one senses that the whole event became nearly unreal to him. One wonders why he delayed notifying the CG for 45 minutes, but also how borderline-abusive the CG is in the interaction: that couldn't have helped the situation.
Just clarifying one thing, though -- aren't ship captains always supposed to be the last to leave their ship ... doesn't that rule go with the territory?
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It's a repeated trope of the world's situation.
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Just clarifying one thing, though -- aren't ship captains always supposed to be the last to leave their ship ... doesn't that rule go with the territory?
That the Captain is the last to leave a sinking ship is a Universal Law.
The opposite is when the rats leave the ship. Ships in the old time had a lot of rats here and there and it was said that when the ship was in trouble and should be abandoned, the rats were the first to leave. Clever for rats, but not appropriate for the chief in command.
Now an even more serious affair is rising for the Captain of Costa Concordia. An affair that may turn his wife and family against him. I mean the wife and family can support him in his Navy profession - and agree that he did no wrong, but when it is suspected that he illegimitate brought a 25 year old woman onboard, and spent time with her in the bar. Family patience may reach the limit.
Italians, sigh ....
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It's a repeated trope of the world's situation.
Another Titanic, based on ... fill in the vices of man(kind) as arrogance, foolhardiness or whatever that was at hand among that crew.
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That the Captain is the last to leave a sinking ship is a Universal Law.
The opposite is when the rats leave the ship. Ships in the old time had a lot of rats here and there and it was said that when the ship was in trouble and should be abandoned, the rats were the first to leave. Clever for rats, but not appropriate for the chief in command.
Now an even more serious affair is rising for the Captain of Costa Concordia. An affair that may turn his wife and family against him. I mean the wife and family can support him in his Navy profession - and agree that he did no wrong, but when it is suspected that he illegimitate brought a 25 year old woman onboard, and spent time with her in the bar. Family patience may reach the limit.
Italians, sigh ....
Oh dear, the plot does thicken!
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The captain of the Costa Concordia ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy’s coast, a cook from the ship told a Filipino television station.
In an interview with GMA Network, cook Rogelio Barista said Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner less than an hour after the accident.
“We wondered what was going on. … At that time, we really felt something was wrong. … The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was,” Barista told GMA.
Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Barista said. Authorities say the ship struck the rocks at 9:41 p.m.
And the mystery blonde is recognized
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9027129/Cruise-disaster-Costa-Concordia-mystery-blonde-defends-captain-Francesco-Schettino.html
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Here is an interesting article by Julian Borger. (He has written another today about Israel's intentions which is also good - I'll put a link at the bottom.)
"The decision to impose a European Union oil embargo on Iran, agreed on Monday, by European foreign ministers, sets a potential bomb ticking, timed to detonate on July 1.
On that day, according to the measures on the table in Brussels, Europe will stop importing oil from Iran, about a fifth of the country's total exports. At about the same time, U.S. sanctions targeted at the global financing of Iran's oil trade will kick in. Iran could still export some oil to Asia, but at big discounts.
Unlike previous sanctions on Iran, the oil embargo would hit almost all citizens and represent a threat to the regime. Tehran has long said such actions would represent a declaration of war, and there are legal experts in the West who agree.
The threat of an immediate clash appeared to recede over the weekend when the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier and its task force, including the British frigate HMS Argyll, travelled through the Strait of Hormuz without incident. This was despite warnings from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that it would oppose the return of a U.S. carrier to the region.
But tensions are almost certain to build again as the effective date of the oil sanctions approaches. The U.S. has already begun beefing up its military presence in the region, and the IRGC is planning naval war games next month.
The Strait of Hormuz is the kink in the hose of the Gulf's oil supply to the world. A small amount of pressure can have a disproportionate effect, sending crude prices soaring and starving the world's oil-dependent economies.
At its narrowest point, the strait is 20 miles wide, but the channels down which more than a third of the world's ocean-borne oil flows — 17m barrels — are just two miles wide in parts.
An Iranian official raising the prospect of closing the strait in retaliation for the threat of sanctions was enough for the world price of crude to rise to $115 a barrel. Maintained over the long term, that is costly enough to strangle any hint of a global economic recovery.
That is what makes Iranian naval action in the Gulf such a potent weapon. But it is a decidedly double-edged one. For, while Saudi Arabia can bypass the strait by pipeline, Iran's oil terminals are west of the choke point — and oil accounts for 60 per cent of its economy.
The U.S. has made clear that interruption to sea traffic in the Gulf would trigger a military response in which Iran's nuclear facilities would be on the target lists. Until now the costs of a war with Iran outweigh the gains of setting the nuclear programme back. But if the U.S. were going to war over oil, that cost-benefit analysis would change.
So closing the strait outright would be — if not suicidal — an exercise in extreme self-harm for Iran. But the choice facing Tehran is not a binary one.
There is a spectrum of options falling well short of total closure; harassment of the oil trade would drive the price of crude up and keep it up, very much to Iran's benefit, but fall short of a casus belli. However, exercising such options requires subtlety and fine judgment on all sides and that is by no means a given.
In a period of sustained high tension, an over-zealous IRGC commander could seize his moment to start a war, or a nervous U.S. captain, seconds from Iran's anti-ship missiles, could just as easily miscalculate. The last time Iran and America played chicken in this stretch of water, in 1988, a missile cruiser shot down an Iranian Airbus, killing 290 civilians including 66 children. There is no doubting the firepower at America's disposal. The Fifth Fleet, whose job it is to patrol the Gulf, is expected to be beefed up from one to two aircraft carriers. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has quietly boosted its army's presence in Kuwait. The Los Angeles Times reported that it now has 15,000 troops there, including two army brigades and a helicopter unit. The U.S. is also bolstered by the naval presence of its British and Gulf allies.
The Iranian military looks puny by comparison but it is powerful enough to do serious damage to commercial shipping. It has three Kilo-class Russian diesel submarines, which are thought to have the capacity to lay mines. And it has a large fleet of mini-submarines and thousands of small boats which can pass undetected until very close. It also has a “martyrdom” tradition that could provide willing suicide attackers.
The Fifth Fleet's greatest concern is that such asymmetric warfare could overpower the sophisticated defences of its ships, particularly in the confines of the Hormuz strait, which is scattered with craggy cove-filled Iranian islands ideal for launching stealth attacks.
In 2002, the U.S. military ran a $250m exercise called Millennium Challenge, pitting the U.S. against an unnamed rogue state with lots of small boats and willing martyr brigades. The rogue state won, or at least was winning when the Pentagon brass shut the exercise down.
In the years since much U.S. naval planning has focussed on how to counter “swarm tactics” — attacks on U.S. ships by scores of boats, hundreds of missiles, suicide bombers and mines, all at once.
One U.S. naval response has been to develop a new kind of fighting vessel, the littoral combat ship (LCS). The LCS is sleek, small and agile with a shallow draft and high speeds, allowing it to operate along island-pocked coastlines. At the low-tech end of the scale, the Fifth Fleet is reported to have deployed dolphins trained to seek out mines.
Ultimately, the U.S. response to swarming will be to use its dominance in the air and multitudes of precision-guided missiles to dramatically wipe out every Iranian missile site, radar, military harbour and jetty on the coast. Almost certainly, the air strikes would also go after command posts and possibly nuclear sites too. There is little doubt of the effectiveness of such a strategy as a deterrent but it also risks turning a naval skirmish into all-out war at short notice.
For that reason, most military analysts argue that if Iran does decide to exact reprisals for oil sanctions, it is likely to follow another route.
Sam Gardiner, a retired U.S. air force colonel who has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, believes the most likely model will be the “tanker war” between Iran and Iraq from 1984 to 1987. The aim would be to raise insurance premiums and other shipping costs, and so boost oil prices as a way of inflicting pain on the West and replacing revenues lost through the embargo.
“They wouldn't necessarily do anything immediately. If they do what they did in the tanker war, a mine would be hit and it wouldn't be clear how long it had been there. Things like that push up the price of oil,” he said. “The answer is not to escalate. You start protecting tankers and searching for mines.” Even if Iran decides on retaliation, there is no reason for it to be confined to an immediate response in the strait. It could sabotage Arab state oil facilities along the southern shore of the Gulf, or western interests anywhere around the world, months or years after the imposition of an embargo.
Adam Lowther of the U.S. air force's Air University, pointed out recently on the Diplomat blog that Iran's ministry of intelligence and national security (MOIS) is “capable of carrying out assassinations, espionage, and other kinetic attacks against government and civilian targets”. It is also likely to have covert agents in the U.S., Lowther said.
Ehsan Mehrabi, an Iranian journalist specialising in military and strategic issues who recently left the country, wrote on the Inside Iran website: “I recall an Iranian idiom that was popular among the military officials: ‘If we drown, we'll drown everyone with us.' If attacked by a western power, the war would not be contained within the Iranian borders.” Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA official, said recently: “The Iranians are already superbly placed to make the war in the Afghanistan — which is already difficult — impossible.” All these options are fraught with risks of miscalculation. In the tanker war scenario, maintaining the line between war and peace would be delegated to relatively junior officers, forced to make decisions in a matter of seconds, the exact set of circumstances that led to the 1988 Airbus disaster. Even if Washington and Tehran remain determined to avoid all-out war, with every passing month there is a rising chance of one breaking out by accident."
[http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2829124.ece]
Israel's intended strike:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2012/jan/25/israel-iran
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I return to the world to discover the agony continues, with some respite and some questions.
It's nice to hear they have finally captured the leader of the infamous Shining Path in Peru. Likewise it is pleasant to the eyes to see Murdock on the run, with his corporate entrails dragging behind.
It is tragic to hear of the Tibetan troubles in China, with so many suicides or attempted suicides from monks and nuns. And tragic to hear of so many deaths in Syria.
The big issue with Syria (and to a lesser moral extent, Iran) is whether the 'free' world should intervene? Once again we are faced with the ethical question of whether, when, and how outside countries should step in to stop a mass civilian murder by a vicious national leadership. Naturally Russia and China are against it, as they reserve the right to do the same.
The 'Left' seems to have been thrown right off the idea by what happened in Iraq (pronounced Erark, not I-rak), while the outcomes in Libya are too soon to call. The Left are quietly avoiding the moral dilemma, with the one thing in mind being that Western intervention always leads to disaster.
I see another opportunity for international relations to take a further step in how we approach the future as a global community. In the meantime, people just die. While reading about the Syrian rebels, I have this uncanny feeling that I could just as easily have be among them in my youth, were my life to have been different. In which case I would probably be dead by now. What a waste, and yet ...
Now we find a new comprehensive study showing the Himalayan glaciers have not melted at all in the last decade. This has thrown the Global Warming scientists into a complete flap. I expect considerable peer reviewing of these findings, as it goes against so much of the previous research, both measurement and photographic. I will be interested to see how this shakes down over the coming months.
It is also curious to see the famed goldmines of the Queen of Sheba have been found. Now that's a discover I would have liked to be in on. It was a woman, by the way, who crawled beneath a huge stone with the Sheba symbols of the sun and crescent moon, prepared to meet a 9ft cobra who lived there, but instead found the first clues she had struck gold, archaeologically speaking. Now how come none of the women in Soma aren't out there excavating old mythological sites in the deserts of Ethiopia?
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Now how come none of the women in Soma aren't out there excavating old mythological sites in the deserts of Ethiopia?
:)
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Watching the film Decadence Thursday night, one interviewee reflected upon why the US embarked on an illegal war with Iraq. He dismissed all the usual reasons, and said there was something much more profound going on behind.
He said the world's population is now 6.8 billion, while the USA was 300 million. That the US 300 million had completely failed to comprehend what is happening outside them - the other 6.5 billion.
It is understandable that the populace would be oblivious to the lives and attitudes of the rest of the world, as their media doesn't report on them, but that even their leaders are so misinformed is revealing. He offered the insight, that he couldn't think of a single success of the CIA, then listed off the most famous things they either got wrong or failed to predict.
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On the backdrop of all upheavals in the world there is one persisting trend:
Steep Increase in Global CO2 Emissions Despite Reductions by Industrialized Countries With Binding Kyoto Targets
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110921074750.htm
ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2011) — Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) -- the main cause of global warming -- increased by 45 % between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tonnes in 2010. Increased energy efficiency, nuclear energy and the growing contribution of renewable energy are not compensating for the globally increasing demand for power and transport, which is strongest in developing countries.
This increase took place despite emission reductions in industrialised countries during the same period. Even though different countries show widely variable emission trends, industrialised countries are likely to meet the collective Kyoto target of a 5.2 % reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 as a group, partly thanks to large emission reductions from economies in transition in the early nineties and more recent reductions due to the 2008-2009 recession. These figures were published in the report "Long-term trend in global CO2 emissions," prepared by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
The report, which is based on recent results from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) and latest statistics for energy use and other activities, shows large national differences between industrialised countries. Over the period 1990-2010, in the EU-27 and Russia CO2 emissions decreased by 7% and 28% respectively, while the USA's emissions increased by 5% and the Japanese emissions remained more or less constant. The industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol (so called 'ratifying Annex 1 countries') and the USA, in 1990 caused about two-thirds of global CO2 emissions. Their share of global emissions has now fallen to less than half the global total.
Continued growth in the developing countries and emerging economies and economic recovery by the industrialised countries are the main reasons for a record breaking 5.8% increase in global CO2 emissions between 2009 and 2010. Most major economies contributed to this increase, led by China, USA, India and EU-27 with increases of 10%, 4%, 9% and 3% respectively. The increase is significant even when compared to 2008, when global CO2 emissions were at their highest before the global financial crisis. It can be noted that in EU-27, CO2 emissions remain lower in absolute terms than they were before the crisis (4.0 billion tonnes in 2010 as compared to 4.2 billion tonnes in 2007).
At present, the USA emits 16.9 tonnes CO2 per capita per year, over twice as much as the EU-27 with 8.1 tonnes. By comparison, Chinese per capita CO2 emissions of 6.8 tonnes are still below the EU-27 average, but now equal those of Italy. It should be noted that the average figures for China and EU-27 hide significant regional differences.
Long term global growth in CO2 emissions continues to be driven by power generation and road transport, both in industrial and developing countries. Globally, they account for about 40% and 15% respectively of the current total and both have consistent long-term annual growth rates of between 2.5% and 5%.
Throughout the Kyoto Protocol period, industrialised countries have made efforts to change their energy sources mix. Between 1990 and 2010 they reduced their dependence on coal (from 25% to 20% of total energy production) and oil (from 38% to 36.5%), and shifted towards natural gas (which increased from 23% to 27 %), nuclear energy (from 8% to 9%) and renewable energy (from 6.5% to 8%). In addition they made progress in energy savings, for example by insulation of buildings, more energy-efficient end-use devices and higher fuel efficiencies.
The report shows that the current efforts to change the mix of energy sources cannot yet compensate for the ever increasing global demand for power and transport. This needs to be considered in future years in all efforts to mitigate the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions, as desired by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Bali Action Plan and the Cancún agreements.
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http://www.systemicpeace.org/conflict.htm
(http://www.systemicpeace.org/war2011s.jpg)
The red-line charts the trend in general level of interstate war in the global system; that measure includes all wars of independence from the Colonial System and has remained fairly constant at a low level through the Cold War period. We can see from the graph that the UN System, that was designed to regulate inter-state war, has been reasonably effective in providing inter-state security. However, the UN System has not been effective in regulating societal (or civil) warfare. The level of societal warfare increased dramatically and continuously through the Cold War period. Separate research indicates that the increasing level of societal war results from the protractedness of societal wars during this period and not from a substantial increase in the numbers of new wars.
The end of the Cold War, marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, had an equally dramatic effect on the general level of armed conflict in the global system. The levels of both interstate and societal warfare declined dramatically through the 1990s and this trend continues in the early 2000s, falling over 60% from their peak levels.
(http://www.systemicpeace.org/wtyp10s.jpg)
Ethnic warfare became the hot topic in the years immediately following the end of the Cold War as a virtual cornucopia of these seemingly intractable (and previously "invisible") social identity conflicts exploded onto the world scene and captured public and policy eyes. In order to more fully assess the impact and importance of ethnic conflict in the post-Cold War period it is helpful to place that particular type of societal conflict into its global systemic context. Figure 10 compares trends for three distinct types of warfare, ethnic, revolutionary, and inter-state (including "extra-systemic" or anti-colonial wars). The perceived "sudden rise" in ethnic wars in the 1990s appears to be a curious outcropping of more general, systemic changes. As the Cold War ideologies wax and wane in the late 1980s, the support they lend to both inter-state and revolutionary intra-state wars is eroded and those types of warfare greatly diminish. The ethnic war trend, which had previously paralleled the trend of revolutionary war, continues to rise through the late 1980s and early 1990s as separatists and other political entrepreneurs attempt to take advantage of the vast changes in political arrangements that accompanied the transformation of the post-Cold War world system. Ethnic wars stand out like a "sore thumb" in the 1990s' security environment. Also, notice that the long-term trend in ethnic warfare increases relatively smoothly as compared to the other warfare trends. As the goals of social identity (ethnic) conflicts are suffused with non-negotiable symbolic issues, these conflicts are less susceptible to settlement or resolution by warfare and, so, tend to persist and/or re-emerge over time. Thus, ethnic warfare trends are less ammenable to periodic fluctuation. Also, notice that the sharply decreasing trend in ethnic warfare of the 1990s appears to have leveled off in the 2000s.
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I don't get it - why the peak around 1990 in all types of warfare?
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I don't get it - why the peak around 1990 in all types of warfare?
The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia disintegrated and all ethnic and religious conflicts previously suppressed within their populations exploded. The conflagration also reached quite a few Soviet proxies all over the world, particularly in Africa.
Similarly, the Western powers decided to pay less attention to some of their former allies (e.g. mujahedeen in Afghanistan) that led to an intensified conflict.
The Cold War was a time of highly controlled world where a lid was held on many a grievance through the sheer coercion of the US and USSR, and their military blocs. That lid was blown off in the beginning of 1990s. Now we see in which direction the inherent "anarchy" of international system is evolving.
Ethnic war - does it not sound primeval?
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This might be a bit simplistic, but you are positing that the Soviet Union and the Cold War, despite being a factor for war, actually restrained things. Once it finished, wars broke out in the released pressure-cooker effect.
Then, once everyone got that off their chest, things subsided again, to below the Cold War level.
That interstate wars were quite low, is, I presume, only reasonable, compared to the forces involved in the other lines. I mean, it's well known that most violence happens within families, not between. Except that 'ethnic' is between 'units' which pre-date states. I expect 'ethnic' forms the main part of 'societal'.
I have here an interesting lecture on the subject of International Relations, by an academic in that field at uni I know. I got him to send me the transcript, because it dealt with ideas I had not been aware were so thoroughly studied. There is a whole history of the evolution of IR thinking over the last century, which is the focus of this lecture. I had been thinking to send it to you, Juhani, or post it up here, but I don't think he would be happy for me to post it here, as it's only a lecture, not a 'worked-over' paper. Academics get very fussy with their details when they know it going to a wider audience.
One of the big issues he discusses is this matter of, 'what' goes to conflict. He is very cynical of the 'state' concept. Is it ideas, political beliefs or values, organisations, religions, etc. There is this historical split between those who say there is no such thing as a unit or any kind, there are only people. Others believe units have their own identity and persona. He coins a word himself, which is very similar to our views here, that every agglomeration of people has it's own spirit - not his word, but means the same (I forget now the word he used).
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Egregor?
IR is a wonderful discipline that has, according to one British academic called Nicholson, spectacularly failed to explain the phenomenon that is at the core of its research. That phenomenon is war.
There seems to be just too much inventiveness in justifying the use of violence. The causes range from faith, nation, honour, fear, interest to moral, justice, etc. Christians even invented a theory of "just war": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory
It is quite intriguing, actually. :)
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I think his criticism is not founded on understanding of how many disciplines function. Like Economics, and Psychology, their action is to step aside from the fray, and look enquiringly into the process. In this way they gain valuable insights into how the processes of the world and humans operate. They acquire realisations.
But to assume from that, they could 'explain' in any final way, or go further and predict, is asking for a child-like simplicity of the world. Recently I heard a Genetics professor describe how many 'conservative' scientists felt they had finally explained the human genome, after the first early discoveries. He showed how the whole genetic study had only just begun, and instead of it becoming clearer, it is becoming more complex and mysterious. That sense of enjoying the wonder of revealing further realisations, is what the enquiring soul loves, not trying to achieve an 'I've finally arrived' state.
This is the same as my criticism of the concept of enlightenment. We always seek the illusion of completion, instead of the illusion of never-ending revelation. The second illusion is just much more fun.
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Infinite path of revelation for a mortal man, or, for a Mind of Universe, an infinite path of playing with/testing/experiencing all the options and possibilities of materialising the same phenomenon.
At the end of the day, an individual only has a choice of how to look at it, while others take a go at each other with drones, machetes, cutting water and food supply, eating the enemy (I have heard that pygmies became an endangered species during one small dirty war as some guerillas tried to eat them to improve their scountig skills), etc.
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What you are raising, is the vexing question of why humans (and animals) continue to perpetrate violence against others, while being not at all pleased if others do the same to them.
I have heard a recent author offer the old reason of insufficient empathy. But I feel the reason is deeper - I suspect it is written into the blueprint of the universe: a command.
Gurdjieff pondered this question and came up with the law of Reciprocal Maintenance, or some similar term. The idea being that the earth requires energy to evolve, so it's denizens provide that energy through mass suffering in violence - pain releases energy.
But the earth would prefer the suffering endured through the effort to attain awareness, so the work of seeking further realisations by serious spiritual effort, offers a far finer energy to the earth's evolutionary requirements. This shows the link between those who conduct war, and those who seek continuing enlightenment.
And he went further, by employing suffering in his own life to heal his body.
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This shows the link between those who conduct war, and those who seek continuing enlightenment.
How could a science possibly grasp it? It couldn't, and we trundle on while determining new dependent and independent variables, linear and non-linear relationships, complexities, referring to "friction", "uncertainty" and "fog of war", etc.
Anyhow, words seem to fall short regardless of the angle of approach to the subject. :)
(http://www.designboom.com/cms/images/andrea05/ty04.jpg)
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There is another aspect I want to mention.
In the legal system, if a person bashes someone into paraplegia, or murders someone, it's as if there exists a tacit acknowledgement that it is within our acceptable framework - sure they are guilty, and will go to gaol, but sentences are condensed somewhat comparatively.
But, if that person is convicted of paedophilia, or in times not so long past, a woman murdered her husband out of domestic violence despair, they are given much greater sentences (just heard a programme on the radio about this yesterday).
Somehow, our society sees the violent bashing by a male, especially associated with drink, as distasteful yet acceptable, even if the victim is dead or crippled for life. But the sexual abuse of a child, crimes by women or black people, are considered outrageously unacceptable and sentences reflect this.
It is not fair to suggest the latter should receive lower opprobrium by society, but I am amazed at why the former is subtly condoned in some way, as being 'understandable': males will be violent - it's just their nature.
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Do you reckon these attitudes to male violence characterise mostly Christian culture or is it a pan cultural phenomenon?
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In my experience, which is not that extensive, it's a pan cultural phenomenon.
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It could be very primeval stuff as big, brute and assertive males have always been preferred mating partners. They have carried good genes for survival in primordial chaos and violence. Hence, the subconscious tolerance for male violence and bastardly behaviour.
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It could indeed be..
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CO2 is achieving very remarkable levels. Very. Given, that we do not have detailed data from all preceding years, the reference points we have still point at a proximity of peak concentration of CO2 in the air. Previous estimates say that the full impact of such a rise on daily climate will manifest in next 7-10 years.
CO2 Concentration Highest in 800,000 Years
Mar 14, 2012; 3:42 PM ET
The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2011 was the highest in 800,000 years, according to Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization or CSIRO.
The average, global concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) during 2011 was 390 parts per million. The natural range during the past 800,000 years was between 170 and 300 ppm.
CSIRO also noted that fossil-fuel emissions of carbon dioxide increased by over 3% per year between 2000 and 2010.
The CSIRO chart below tracks the amount of global fossil-fuel CO2 emissions since 1990. The orange line is strictly fossil-fuel emissions, while the grey line represents total CO2 emissions, which includes emissions from both fossil-fuel and land-use change.
Image courtesy of CSIRO.
(http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/climatechange/2012/590x344_03141857_p8-figure1-top_inline.jpg)
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account for about 60 per cent of the effect from anthropogenic greenhouse gases on the earth's energy balance over the past 250 years. These global CO2 emissions are mostly from fossil fuels (more than 85 per cent), land use change, mainly associated with tropical deforestation (less than ten per cent), and cement production and other industrial processes (about four per cent), according to the new CSIRO 2012 State of the Climate Report (http://www.csiro.au/en/Outcomes/Climate/Understanding/State-of-the-Climate-2012/Greenhouse-Gases.aspx).
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OK
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Oceans acidifying at 'unparalleled' rate
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/9115699/Oceans-acidifying-at-unparalleled-rate.html
A new study published in the Science journal suggests the increasing amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the seas is causing them to turn acidic with "unparalleled" speed.
If the trend continues it could have a variety of serious effects on marine life by slowing rates of growth, causing animals to produce fewer offspring and causing shells to dissolve, experts said.
Oceans currently absorb about a quarter of all CO2 emissions, and as levels of the gas in the atmosphere increase so does the rate at which it dissolves in seawater, making the water more acidic.
Researchers studying 300 million years' worth of data on global warming and acidifying oceans found the current rate of acidification is even greater than four other major periods of climate change in the Earth's history.
These included the impact of the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs, and the Permian mass-extinction 252 million years ago, when 95 per cent of life on Earth was destroyed.
Professor Andy Ridgwell, of Bristol University, said: "The geological record suggests that the current acidification is potentially unparalleled in at least the last 300 million years of Earth history, and raises the possibility that we are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change.
"Although similarities exist, nothing in the last 300 million years parallels rates of future projections in terms of the disrupting of ocean carbonate chemistry – a consequence of the unprecedented rapidity of CO2 release currently taking place."
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Ocean acidification speeds up
The oceans are acidifying faster today than at any other time in the past 300 million years say researchers in Spain.
Much research into ocean acidification is based on experiments in aquariums simulating future acidification, but researchers from the Universitat Autὸnoma de Barcelona (UAB) analysed geological records using paleontological and geochemical analyses and past acidification episodes to detect possible effects on marine biota.
The research detected specific moments in the last 300 million years of the Earth’s history associated with profound acidification.
“Due to volcanic emissions and the destabilisation of frozen methane hydrates on the ocean floor, large amounts of carbon were freed into the atmosphere, comparable to levels humans may achieve in emitting in the future,” said Carles Pelejero, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council.
“Large extinctions took place during that period, especially of benthic fauna. Nevertheless, CO2 injections were at least ten times slower than those occurring now, with augurs more catastrophic consequences caused by current anthropogenic changes.”
Geological records offer details on the biological changes associated with large-scale global disturbances such as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum occurring 56 million years ago, or the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago. These events are thought to be the cause of ocean acidification.
However, these events have all been associated with reduced levels of oxygen in the oceans combined with a high rise in temperature. These three environmental effects – global warming, acidification and decrease in oxygen – are the ones most globally affecting ocean presently and researchers conclude that the oceans are acidifying faster now than they ever have.
“Considering the effects we detect through fossil records, there is no doubt that we must tackle the problem at its roots as soon as possible, adopting measures, to immediately reduce of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere,” said Patrizia Ziveri, researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the UAB.
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Acidification threatens Barrier Reef coral: researchers
A new study has found ocean acidification can affect the behaviour of baby corals in the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland.
University of Queensland (UQ) researchers have been analysing how ocean acidification affects the settlement of baby corals in the reef.
UQ Professor Peter Mumby says changes in the ocean are making the corals "stupid".
"It implies that much of the biology of corals in terms of how they behave could be disrupted as the oceans change their chemistry," he said.
"Once the system has become acidified, they just lose that ability and they settle pretty much anywhere and often in very hostile environments.
"Our concern is as the oceans become more acidic, that the survival of new corals could go down.
"If corals effectively become more stupid, which is essentially what we're saying, then it might mean a number of corals settling on a reef will decline."
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Ocean acidification -a global problem
http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/04/19/fea02.asp
Coral reefs are among the most diverse of all-natural ecosystems and are extremely valuable biologically - a single reef being home to hundreds of different species. One third of the world’s fish species depend on them, and they provide protection to shores by reducing wave energy.
Coral reefs are actually thin layers of living coral colonies over older, dead coral and thicker reef structures. The tiny living corals, called polyps, secrete a hard calcium carbonate skeleton, which provides protection and serves as a uniform base for the colony. This substrate grows at 3 - 100 centimetres per year, depending on species and environmental conditions.
Most corals have a mutually beneficial relationship with microscopic yellow-green algae, which provide corals with their colour. The coral gives these algae protection and access to light and the algae, in turn, photosynthesise food which is shared with the host coral. Because photosynthesis requires light, corals are found in clear, shallow water. They require tropical and sub-tropical temperatures and so exist in a global belt 30 degrees on either side of the equator.
Boxing Day Tsunami
The Indian Ocean is host to 16 percent of the world’s coral reefs, a large part of them in the underwater ridge which connects the Laccadive Islands, via Maldives, to the Chagos archipelago. Sri Lanka is host to a small but extremely significant number of coral reefs, with 183 coral species and over 300 species of reef fish.
Ten years ago, the biggest threats to Sri Lanka’s coral reefs came from coral mining and from fishing with explosives or madel nets. However, following the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, action by the government, combined with disapprobation from the victims of the disaster, reduced these activities considerably. Now the biggest domestic hazards are effluent discharge from human settlements and sediment flow due to deforestation and poor agricultural practices.
However, a far greater threat has now emerged, globally. Ten years ago, scientists found incontrovertible proof of the link between increased greenhouse gases, climate change and regional scale bleaching of corals. They found that decline had already started by 1900 in over 80 percent of reefs worldwide.
Global warming
In areas where this process is advanced, for example around Jamaica, corals are moribund, the reef structures are coated with algae, fish are small and few shellfish and other organisms exist. Even the corals of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are about a third of the way towards extinction.
Global warming has led to widespread coral bleaching and other effects. Rising sea levels could also pose a threat. However, the biggest threat from human activity is in increased carbon dioxide emissions causing increased acidity in the oceans. As the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases, more of it reacts chemically with sea water, producing ions (electrically-charged atoms or groups of atoms) of bicarbonate and hydrogen, which increase acidity in water. Historically, the acidification process was kept down because carbonate rocks on the seafloor reacted with the acid, creating a natural buffer. However, this neutralisation takes place over thousands of years and, while enough to counteract acid ions created by geological processes, are not fast enough not to deal with the rapid increase in acidity caused by human activity.
Industrial revolution
Although seawater is typically alkaline, scientists discovered that the typical Ocean pH number, which was 8.2 before the industrial revolution - and its associated acceleration of emissions of carbon dioxide - had decreased to 8.1 (become more acid).
Climate modellers had expected to observe greater acidity first in deep water which - due to dead organisms sinking and decaying - has higher carbon dioxide levels. However, two years ago oceanographers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laboratory in Seattle found more acidified waters already reaching the surface.
Because acid dissolves carbonates, it is most likely to affect organisms with calcium carbonate shells, such as algae, corals and shellfish. A study by Australian scientists published two weeks ago suggested that many corals have an in-built mechanism to defeat increased acidity, but coralline algae, which are the ‘glue’ holding coral reefs together, are vulnerable - meaning that coral reefs as a whole are likely to be harmed.
Three years ago, researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science found evidence that coral growth in the Great Barrier Reef was being inhibited at an unprecedented rate by acidification and warming of the ocean.
Domestic economies
This week, researchers from the University of Queensland, who has studied acidification effects on baby corals in a remote part of the Great Barrier Reef, revealed new evidence that reefs are likely to suffer - higher acidity levels caused coral larvae to seek unsuitable locations for settlement, effecting their overall survivability.
There is very little a small country like Sri Lanka can do to counter ocean acidification - this requires international will and co-operation. Luckily, polluting nations such as the USA are likely to be pushed in the right direction due to effects of oceanic acidity on their own domestic economies.
In 2005, hatcheries in the US states of Oregon and Washington, part of a multi-million dollar shellfish industry - found huge die-offs of oyster larvae, which were repeated in the following years. At first ‘Vibrio Tubiashii’, ocean-borne larvae-killing bacteria, was suspected. However subsequent investigation showed that increased acidity broke down the carbonate shells of the larvae; also providing an environment for thriving ‘Vibrio tubiashii’ to become dominant pathogens! The billion-dollar Seattle-based deep sea fishing industry, which accounts for half the US catch, is also threatened. Fish such as salmon, pollock and herring in Alaska's North Pacific depend on shellfish for survival in their first year. A drop in shellfish population can cause an even greater decrease in the fish catch.
Early this month, Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire appointed a multi-disciplinary panel to inquire into ocean acidification, which will make its report by October. It is to be hoped that this will be the harbinger of a new, global effort to deal with what is indeed a global problem.
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Thanks for rubbing it in E.
I don't know how to respond to this situation any more. There has arisen a new response by the extreme Right, anti-Global-Warming push, specifically for those on the public front-line - ie. those who have to 'appear' to be reasonable while still denouncing carbon emission policies.
This has, I'm certain, been devised by well-funded think tanks, to provide those who have to 'acknowledge' Global Warming (those who still deny that don't require this device) with an angle which serves to devalue the emotional high ground of the Climate Change movement. This is for those who publicly can no longer dispute the 'facts' that the Earth is warming, and that perhaps ... just perhaps mind you ... humanity (read commerce) is responsible.
The line is: Climate Change activists do themselves no good by adopting alarmist and extreme apocalyptical language.
[Note those specific words]
The next line is a good one, but a little more difficult:
Given the 'risk' involved for humanity in changing the Earth's climate, why not initiate measures to try to rectify. Even if anthropomorphic Climate Change proves to be 'wrong', surely the incredible risk - that we will make the Earth inhabitable - is worth the pain of changing our economic structures.
The answer:
Given the incredible economic costs involved in changing entire nations' commercial structure, to adopt carbon emission restraint, when it could be a complete red herring, surely we should wait until we have certainty about humanity's role in this whole affair.
There are other ripostes, but they are more preaching to the converted lines. These are the new 'interface' arguments to undermine any fossil fuel attacks.
The primary thing to keep foremost in mind is the 'mind' of the Right. They see politics as an ultimate game in itself. They are perfectly happy to adopt any argument which will further their cause in winning political power. Therefore they see the adoption of Climate Change as a similar 'tool' in the political weaponry of the Left, to win power. They thus attack environmental issues, not on the basis of their own veracity, but on the basis of their being a weapon in the hands of the Left to gain power.
The Left are severely handicapped by actually believing in their policies. The Right see a world of 'political war', in which every side will use whatever supports their fight. Thus they assume the left is using Climate Change as a political weapon, which the Right 'must' disable in any way possible. In such a game, the Left will always lose, until the 'inevitable march of circumstances'.
The second failure of the 'Left' personality, is that they see a world of constantly changing possibilities - as new data becomes available, they will adjust their views. The Right personality adopts the position of 'grab and freeze'. Once an answer is found, supporting their basic view, they freeze on that view, and nothing can shift it - it is not up for modification or change on the basis of new data.
The consequence is that the Right personality perceives the Left personality to be the same - that they have become 'stuck' in their green views no matter what arguments are put against that (read the conspiracy arguments against Climate Change in this case).
The Sociologists are having a good time in all this.
Firstly they identify the personality types involved:
Climate Sceptics believe in the freedom of the individual and that the government is too intrusive into personal affairs.
Climate Change believers believe in egalitarian values, and see the government as the regulator of those values.
Secondly, they identify the easy ride Sceptics get in the public debate.
They have the advantage of appealing to 'balance': the scientific world sees Climate Change denial as a highly marginal view, but journalists only see two sides to the debate. Journalists are not concerned, not informed sufficiently, to realise they are offering equal footing to a highly marginal view point.
Then Sceptics have the advantage of their arguments being wonderfully simplistic, while the science is embedded in complexities, peer debate, and probabilities of truth.
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Once an answer is found, supporting their basic view, they freeze on that view, and nothing can shift it
They freeze [in fear], their world becomes "complete"...again.
On the fringes, we watch and understand.
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Like baboons, our elected leaders are literally addicted to power
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9228257/Like-baboons-our-elected-leaders-are-literally-addicted-to-power.html
Democracy, the separation of judicial powers and the free press all evolved for essentially one purpose – to reduce the chance of leaders becoming power addicts. Power changes the brain triggering increased testosterone in both men and women. Testosterone and one of its by-products called 3-androstanediol, are addictive, largely because they increase dopamine in a part of the brain’s reward system called the nucleus accumbens. Cocaine has its effects through this system also, and by hijacking our brain’s reward system, it can give short-term extreme pleasure but leads to long-term addiction, with all that that entails.
Unfettered power has almost identical effects, but in the light of yesterday’s Leveson Inquiry interchanges in London, there seems to be less chance of British government ministers becoming addicted to power. Why? Because, as it appears from the emails released by James Murdoch yesterday, they appeared to be submissive to the all-powerful Murdoch empire, hugely dependent on the support of this organization for their jobs and status, who could swing hundreds of thousands of votes for or against them.
Submissiveness and dominance have their effects on the same reward circuits of the brain as power and cocaine. Baboons low down in the dominance hierarchy have lower levels of dopamine in key brain areas, but if they get ‘promoted’ to a higher position, then dopamine rises accordingly. This makes them more aggressive and sexually active, and in humans similar changes happen when people are given power. What’s more, power also makes people smarter, because dopamine improves the functioning of the brain’s frontal lobes. Conversely, demotion in a hierarchy decreases dopamine levels, increases stress and reduces cognitive function.
But too much power - and hence too much dopamine - can disrupt normal cognition and emotion, leading to gross errors of judgment and imperviousness to risk, not to mention huge egocentricity and lack of empathy for others. The Murdoch empire and its acolytes seem to have got carried away by the power they have wielded over the British political system and the unfettered power they have had - unconstrained by any democratic constraints - has led to the quite extraordinary behaviour and arrogance that has been corporately demonstrated.
We should all be grateful that two of the three power-constraining elements of democracy - the legal system and a free press - have managed to at last reign in some of the power of the Murdoch empire. But it was a close call for both, given the threat to financial viability of the newspaper industry and to the integrity of the police system through the close links between the Murdoch empire and Scotland Yard.
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Alas, Democracy is now a questionable arrangement.
Aside from it's obvious failures in the Global Financial Crises (1 and 2), and in the Climate Change response - both of which are extremely serious failures - it is also facing failure due to the unbelievable connivances of those who seek power. One only has to glance at the USA to see how democracy has been hijacked. Naturally the masses wake up eventually, but unfortunately these days, 'eventually' is too late.
I have always had my doubt about democracy. In truth, democracy or no democracy, we are at the mercy of the quality of those at the helm. We think the ship matters, but it always comes down to the leader.
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but it always comes down to the leader.
A man/woman with a vision and courage...where to find these in the age of intellectual and spiritual lameness...? Just look how film makers are out of ideas, and all they do is 3D comic book movies and remakes...If the men who flew to the Moon, had mentality of our days, they would have never taken off. Never-ever.
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Australasia has hottest 60 years in a millennium, scientists find
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/17/australasia-hottest-60-years-study
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/17/1337235591626/Red-dust-blown-in-from-Au-007.jpg)
Red dust blown in from Australia's parched interior blankets Sydney in 2009. Australia and its region are experiencing the hottest 60 years in a millennium, scientists have determined. Photograph: Greg Wood/AFP/Getty
The last 60 years have been the hottest in Australasia for a millennium and cannot be explained by natural causes, according to a new report by scientists that supports the case for a reduction in manmade carbon emissions.
In the first major study of its kind in the region, scientists at the University of Melbourne used natural data from 27 climate indicators, including tree rings, corals and ice cores to map temperature trends over the past 1,000 years.
"Our study revealed that recent warming in a 1,000-year context is highly unusual and cannot be explained by natural factors alone, suggesting a strong influence of human-caused climate change in the Australasian region," said the study's lead researcher, Dr Joelle Gergis.
The climate reconstruction was done in 3,000 different ways and concluded with 95% accuracy that no other period in the past 1,000 years match or exceeded post-1950 warming in Australia.
The study, published in the Journal of Climate, will be part of Australia's contribution to the fifth Intergovernmetal Panel on Climate Change report, due in 2014.
As part of the study, climate modellers used the natural data to analyse the impact of both natural events, like volcanic eruptions in the pre-industrial era, and the impact of human-induced climate change such as greenhouse gasses emissions on temperatures in the last millennium.
Dr Steven Phipps, from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who carried out the modeling, said the study demonstrated strong human influence on the climate in the region.
"The models showed that prior to 1850 there were not any long-term trends and temperature variations were likely to be caused by natural climate variability which is a random process," he said.
"But [the modeling showed] 20th-century warming significantly exceeds the amplitude of natural climate variability and demonstrates that the recent warming experience in Australia is unprecedented within the context of the last millennium."
Annual average daily maximum temperatures in Australia have increased by 0.75C since 1910. Since the 1950s each decade has been warmer than the one before it.
Australia's peak scientific body, the CSIRO, has said temperatues will rise by between 1C and 5C by 2070 when compared with recent decades. It predicts the number of droughts in southern Australia will increase in the future and that there will be an increase in intense rainfall in many areas.
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Is this the death-knell of Europe?
Will Greece be better or worse off by defaulting? I've heard expert arguments on both sides.
What is the real play? Curiously, I heard an expert woman economist, explaining that the $12billion given to Greece went straight to a group of lenders (gamblers she called them) who refused to join in with the earlier Greek rescue package, and take a cut in their returns. So they had to be paid before anyone else, like the people of Greece.
So do we now have a battle between those who emphasise the code-word 'growth', and the investors across the globe? With Obama giving some investor-rattling nods to the Growth amp? France has told it's new helmsman to tell everyone to stick their austerity up their bum. Who will win, with the politicians dancing between two angry wolves?
Doesn't appear to be anything hindering its climax, so I expect we won't need to wait long for the next episode.
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Is this the death-knell of Europe?
Will Greece be better or worse off by defaulting? I've heard expert arguments on both sides.
What is the real play? Curiously, I heard an expert woman economist, explaining that the $12billion given to Greece went straight to a group of lenders (gamblers she called them) who refused to join in with the earlier Greek rescue package, and take a cut in their returns. So they had to be paid before anyone else, like the people of Greece.
So do we now have a battle between those who emphasise the code-word 'growth', and the investors across the globe? With Obama giving some investor-rattling nods to the Growth amp? France has told it's new helmsman to tell everyone to stick their austerity up their bum. Who will win, with the politicians dancing between two angry wolves?
Doesn't appear to be anything hindering its climax, so I expect we won't need to wait long for the next episode.
The low odds is spent on that Greece will leave the monetary union. When? My guess is before the end of the year (after all this is 2012 ;D ).
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Is this the death-knell of Europe?
Two world wars did not finish Europe, this fiscal crisis will not either. Greece has been known for years to practice black arts instead of book keeping. Now they pay a price and accuse Germans for not doing their duty.
The present situation and the Great Depression... The equilibrium of the latter was at the point where nothing happened any more and the market did not regulate a thing. It took a forceful government to push the economy out of that spot and achieve the growth.
As of today, the trade flows across the Pacific exceed by about 50% those across the Atlantic. The US is in a very different situation than the EU.
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Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&ref=stuxnet
WASHINGTON — From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.
At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm’s “escape,” Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America’s most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.
“Should we shut this thing down?” Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s national security team who were in the room.
Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.
This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day.
These officials gave differing assessments of how successful the sabotage program was in slowing Iran’s progress toward developing the ability to build nuclear weapons. Internal Obama administration estimates say the effort was set back by 18 months to two years, but some experts inside and outside the government are more skeptical, noting that Iran’s enrichment levels have steadily recovered, giving the country enough fuel today for five or more weapons, with additional enrichment.
Whether Iran is still trying to design and build a weapon is in dispute. The most recent United States intelligence estimate concludes that Iran suspended major parts of its weaponization effort after 2003, though there is evidence that some remnants of it continue.
Iran initially denied that its enrichment facilities had been hit by Stuxnet, then said it had found the worm and contained it. Last year, the nation announced that it had begun its own military cyberunit, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization, said that the Iranian military was prepared “to fight our enemies” in “cyberspace and Internet warfare.” But there has been scant evidence that it has begun to strike back.
The United States government only recently acknowledged developing cyberweapons, and it has never admitted using them. There have been reports of one-time attacks against personal computers used by members of Al Qaeda, and of contemplated attacks against the computers that run air defense systems, including during the NATO-led air attack on Libya last year. But Olympic Games was of an entirely different type and sophistication.
It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country’s infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives. The code itself is 50 times as big as the typical computer worm, Carey Nachenberg, a vice president of Symantec, one of the many groups that have dissected the code, said at a symposium at Stanford University in April. Those forensic investigations into the inner workings of the code, while picking apart how it worked, came to no conclusions about who was responsible.
A similar process is now under way to figure out the origins of another cyberweapon called Flame that was recently discovered to have attacked the computers of Iranian officials, sweeping up information from those machines. But the computer code appears to be at least five years old, and American officials say that it was not part of Olympic Games. They have declined to say whether the United States was responsible for the Flame attack.
Mr. Obama, according to participants in the many Situation Room meetings on Olympic Games, was acutely aware that with every attack he was pushing the United States into new territory, much as his predecessors had with the first use of atomic weapons in the 1940s, of intercontinental missiles in the 1950s and of drones in the past decade. He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons — even under the most careful and limited circumstances — could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.
“We discussed the irony, more than once,” one of his aides said. Another said that the administration was resistant to developing a “grand theory for a weapon whose possibilities they were still discovering.” Yet Mr. Obama concluded that when it came to stopping Iran, the United States had no other choice.
If Olympic Games failed, he told aides, there would be no time for sanctions and diplomacy with Iran to work. Israel could carry out a conventional military attack, prompting a conflict that could spread throughout the region.
A Bush Initiative
The impetus for Olympic Games dates from 2006, when President George W. Bush saw few good options in dealing with Iran. At the time, America’s European allies were divided about the cost that imposing sanctions on Iran would have on their own economies. Having falsely accused Saddam Hussein of reconstituting his nuclear program in Iraq, Mr. Bush had little credibility in publicly discussing another nation’s nuclear ambitions. The Iranians seemed to sense his vulnerability, and, frustrated by negotiations, they resumed enriching uranium at an underground site at Natanz, one whose existence had been exposed just three years before.
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took reporters on a tour of the plant and described grand ambitions to install upward of 50,000 centrifuges. For a country with only one nuclear power reactor — whose fuel comes from Russia — to say that it needed fuel for its civilian nuclear program seemed dubious to Bush administration officials. They feared that the fuel could be used in another way besides providing power: to create a stockpile that could later be enriched to bomb-grade material if the Iranians made a political decision to do so.
Hawks in the Bush administration like Vice President Dick Cheney urged Mr. Bush to consider a military strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities before they could produce fuel suitable for a weapon. Several times, the administration reviewed military options and concluded that they would only further inflame a region already at war, and would have uncertain results.
For years the C.I.A. had introduced faulty parts and designs into Iran’s systems — even tinkering with imported power supplies so that they would blow up — but the sabotage had had relatively little effect. General James E. Cartwright, who had established a small cyberoperation inside the United States Strategic Command, which is responsible for many of America’s nuclear forces, joined intelligence officials in presenting a radical new idea to Mr. Bush and his national security team. It involved a far more sophisticated cyberweapon than the United States had designed before.
The goal was to gain access to the Natanz plant’s industrial computer controls. That required leaping the electronic moat that cut the Natanz plant off from the Internet — called the air gap, because it physically separates the facility from the outside world. The computer code would invade the specialized computers that command the centrifuges.
The first stage in the effort was to develop a bit of computer code called a beacon that could be inserted into the computers, which were made by the German company Siemens and an Iranian manufacturer, to map their operations. The idea was to draw the equivalent of an electrical blueprint of the Natanz plant, to understand how the computers control the giant silvery centrifuges that spin at tremendous speeds. The connections were complex, and unless every circuit was understood, efforts to seize control of the centrifuges could fail.
Eventually the beacon would have to “phone home” — literally send a message back to the headquarters of the National Security Agency that would describe the structure and daily rhythms of the enrichment plant. Expectations for the plan were low; one participant said the goal was simply to “throw a little sand in the gears” and buy some time. Mr. Bush was skeptical, but lacking other options, he authorized the effort.
Breakthrough, Aided by Israel
It took months for the beacons to do their work and report home, complete with maps of the electronic directories of the controllers and what amounted to blueprints of how they were connected to the centrifuges deep underground.
Then the N.S.A. and a secret Israeli unit respected by American intelligence officials for its cyberskills set to work developing the enormously complex computer worm that would become the attacker from within.
The unusually tight collaboration with Israel was driven by two imperatives. Israel’s Unit 8200, a part of its military, had technical expertise that rivaled the N.S.A.’s, and the Israelis had deep intelligence about operations at Natanz that would be vital to making the cyberattack a success. But American officials had another interest, to dissuade the Israelis from carrying out their own pre-emptive strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities. To do that, the Israelis would have to be convinced that the new line of attack was working. The only way to convince them, several officials said in interviews, was to have them deeply involved in every aspect of the program.
Soon the two countries had developed a complex worm that the Americans called “the bug.” But the bug needed to be tested. So, under enormous secrecy, the United States began building replicas of Iran’s P-1 centrifuges, an aging, unreliable design that Iran purchased from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear chief who had begun selling fuel-making technology on the black market. Fortunately for the United States, it already owned some P-1s, thanks to the Libyan dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
When Colonel Qaddafi gave up his nuclear weapons program in 2003, he turned over the centrifuges he had bought from the Pakistani nuclear ring, and they were placed in storage at a weapons laboratory in Tennessee. The military and intelligence officials overseeing Olympic Games borrowed some for what they termed “destructive testing,” essentially building a virtual replica of Natanz, but spreading the test over several of the Energy Department’s national laboratories to keep even the most trusted nuclear workers from figuring out what was afoot.
Those first small-scale tests were surprisingly successful: the bug invaded the computers, lurking for days or weeks, before sending instructions to speed them up or slow them down so suddenly that their delicate parts, spinning at supersonic speeds, self-destructed. After several false starts, it worked. One day, toward the end of Mr. Bush’s term, the rubble of a centrifuge was spread out on the conference table in the Situation Room, proof of the potential power of a cyberweapon. The worm was declared ready to test against the real target: Iran’s underground enrichment plant.
“Previous cyberattacks had effects limited to other computers,” Michael V. Hayden, the former chief of the C.I.A., said, declining to describe what he knew of these attacks when he was in office. “This is the first attack of a major nature in which a cyberattack was used to effect physical destruction,” rather than just slow another computer, or hack into it to steal data.
“Somebody crossed the Rubicon,” he said.
Getting the worm into Natanz, however, was no easy trick. The United States and Israel would have to rely on engineers, maintenance workers and others — both spies and unwitting accomplices — with physical access to the plant. “That was our holy grail,” one of the architects of the plan said. “It turns out there is always an idiot around who doesn’t think much about the thumb drive in their hand.”
In fact, thumb drives turned out to be critical in spreading the first variants of the computer worm; later, more sophisticated methods were developed to deliver the malicious code.
The first attacks were small, and when the centrifuges began spinning out of control in 2008, the Iranians were mystified about the cause, according to intercepts that the United States later picked up. “The thinking was that the Iranians would blame bad parts, or bad engineering, or just incompetence,” one of the architects of the early attack said.
The Iranians were confused partly because no two attacks were exactly alike. Moreover, the code would lurk inside the plant for weeks, recording normal operations; when it attacked, it sent signals to the Natanz control room indicating that everything downstairs was operating normally. “This may have been the most brilliant part of the code,” one American official said.
Later, word circulated through the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, that the Iranians had grown so distrustful of their own instruments that they had assigned people to sit in the plant and radio back what they saw.
“The intent was that the failures should make them feel they were stupid, which is what happened,” the participant in the attacks said. When a few centrifuges failed, the Iranians would close down whole “stands” that linked 164 machines, looking for signs of sabotage in all of them. “They overreacted,” one official said. “We soon discovered they fired people.”
Imagery recovered by nuclear inspectors from cameras at Natanz — which the nuclear agency uses to keep track of what happens between visits — showed the results. There was some evidence of wreckage, but it was clear that the Iranians had also carted away centrifuges that had previously appeared to be working well.
But by the time Mr. Bush left office, no wholesale destruction had been accomplished. Meeting with Mr. Obama in the White House days before his inauguration, Mr. Bush urged him to preserve two classified programs, Olympic Games and the drone program in Pakistan. Mr. Obama took Mr. Bush’s advice.
The Stuxnet Surprise
Mr. Obama came to office with an interest in cyberissues, but he had discussed them during the campaign mostly in terms of threats to personal privacy and the risks to infrastructure like the electrical grid and the air traffic control system. He commissioned a major study on how to improve America’s defenses and announced it with great fanfare in the East Room.
What he did not say then was that he was also learning the arts of cyberwar. The architects of Olympic Games would meet him in the Situation Room, often with what they called the “horse blanket,” a giant foldout schematic diagram of Iran’s nuclear production facilities. Mr. Obama authorized the attacks to continue, and every few weeks — certainly after a major attack — he would get updates and authorize the next step. Sometimes it was a strike riskier and bolder than what had been tried previously.
“From his first days in office, he was deep into every step in slowing the Iranian program — the diplomacy, the sanctions, every major decision,” a senior administration official said. “And it’s safe to say that whatever other activity might have been under way was no exception to that rule.”
But the good luck did not last. In the summer of 2010, shortly after a new variant of the worm had been sent into Natanz, it became clear that the worm, which was never supposed to leave the Natanz machines, had broken free, like a zoo animal that found the keys to the cage. It fell to Mr. Panetta and two other crucial players in Olympic Games — General Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Michael J. Morell, the deputy director of the C.I.A. — to break the news to Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden.
An error in the code, they said, had led it to spread to an engineer’s computer when it was hooked up to the centrifuges. When the engineer left Natanz and connected the computer to the Internet, the American- and Israeli-made bug failed to recognize that its environment had changed. It began replicating itself all around the world. Suddenly, the code was exposed, though its intent would not be clear, at least to ordinary computer users.
“We think there was a modification done by the Israelis,” one of the briefers told the president, “and we don’t know if we were part of that activity.”
Mr. Obama, according to officials in the room, asked a series of questions, fearful that the code could do damage outside the plant. The answers came back in hedged terms. Mr. Biden fumed. “It’s got to be the Israelis,” he said. “They went too far.”
In fact, both the Israelis and the Americans had been aiming for a particular part of the centrifuge plant, a critical area whose loss, they had concluded, would set the Iranians back considerably. It is unclear who introduced the programming error.
The question facing Mr. Obama was whether the rest of Olympic Games was in jeopardy, now that a variant of the bug was replicating itself “in the wild,” where computer security experts can dissect it and figure out its purpose.
“I don’t think we have enough information,” Mr. Obama told the group that day, according to the officials. But in the meantime, he ordered that the cyberattacks continue. They were his best hope of disrupting the Iranian nuclear program unless economic sanctions began to bite harder and reduced Iran’s oil revenues.
Within a week, another version of the bug brought down just under 1,000 centrifuges. Olympic Games was still on.
A Weapon’s Uncertain Future
American cyberattacks are not limited to Iran, but the focus of attention, as one administration official put it, “has been overwhelmingly on one country.” There is no reason to believe that will remain the case for long. Some officials question why the same techniques have not been used more aggressively against North Korea. Others see chances to disrupt Chinese military plans, forces in Syria on the way to suppress the uprising there, and Qaeda operations around the world. “We’ve considered a lot more attacks than we have gone ahead with,” one former intelligence official said.
Mr. Obama has repeatedly told his aides that there are risks to using — and particularly to overusing — the weapon. In fact, no country’s infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.
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Isn't it amazing? These guys are developing very sophisticated cyberweapons, deploying them to the cyberspace, and anyone can pick one up, modify it and re-deploy?
This arms race will be faster than anybody could imagine...and possibly more destructive as well.
It brings to my mind biological weapons - they turned out horribly destructive/effective, but as destructive to their user as to the target population.
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Alas, war just won't go away. No matter what we would wish, there's always someone out there wanting to kill. It's in the blueprint. Thus, we have to deploy all these unpleasant things, like armies and weapons.
There have been civilisations who didn't go to war, but frankly, they were exceptions which proved the rule.
I am dealing with a man in my work situation, who for god knows what reason, is intent of destroying our business. Thankfully he is not taken seriously by our main clients, but he is certainly determined. While most people in the world are keen to get on and be friendly to those around them, there are always some who seek the destruction of others in one form or another. What do you do with such people?
In the Iranian case, it appears preferable to use a targeted computer virus, than invade the country. And does it appear preferable to bomb certain people from drones, when there exists no legal counter-balance. Where do we draw the line?
Personally I think the question needs constant asking, but I'm not dewy-eyed enough to believe we can survive without having to act against those who seek our destruction. I always prefer a sophisticated response mechanism, yet in the end, sometimes one just has to lower the boom.
So now they have released a virus which may mutate and return to bite the hand that raised it. Isn't that always the way? Action and reaction. Certainly gives some people something to do with their time, and a little remuneration.
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Isn't that always the way? Action and reaction. Certainly gives some people something to do with their time, and a little remuneration.
Very true, but the novelty of the present situation lies in time-compression. Earlier, it took 10-20 years to build a new war plane, missile or design a new ship. How long will it take to design a new malware or simply modify the existing one? I can see a tremendous acceleration of the action-reaction cycle, whereas the governments could be reduced to a secondary role in this outbreak of primordial cyber chaos.
Not so long ago, a 12-year old chap seized control of computers overseeing this wonder:
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTItQ3e47YtbD1OWbLWX_uqx-eHjGumn5LCQaNlCuKWJr35L0oihw)
It was done out of pure curiosity - to see whether he could pull it off. If he desired so, he could have unleashed the waters on everyone downstream. Now some governments intend to produce and disseminate specific tools for that.
It is certainly an arguable point, but we might be crossing a threshold where a seriously mad individual could do unimaginable damage to a society he lives in. Individuals have never been so empowered during previous periods of history. Thus, the survival of societies depends on their internal consensus-building more than ever, as they cannot be protected from their own members (except if they opt for a KGB-controlled world).
We have always lived in a violent world where we have had to deal with rabid dogs (and they have to be put away). Yet, these cyber developments/warriors might herald the destruction of highly organised societies as we know them. At least the potential is clearly there.
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Flame cyberweapon is tied to Stuxnet program
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/flame-stuxnet-share-code.html
Paul Marks, senior technology correspondent
The game appears to be up for the US and Israeli intelligence agencies who created the potent Stuxnet worm and Duqu trojan: analysis by software engineers at Kaspersky Lab in Moscow shows they also created Flame, the powerful espionage software that has mainly been infecting computers in Iran.
Kaspersky Lab, which was commissioned by the UN to investigate the cause of massive document losses in a raft of Middle Eastern computer networks, identified Flame last week. In a bulletin issued today, Kaspersky says that a module from Stuxnet, known as "Resource 207" is actually a Flame plugin that allows the malicious code to spread via USB devices. "The code of the USB drive infection mechanism is identical in Flame and Stuxnet," says Kaspersky.
Coming soon after the New York Times detailed classified White House meetings that confirmed the US is behind Stuxnet, this is a further embarrassment for the Obama administration, which is now seen to be preaching cybersecurity defence at home while deploying a battery of offensive cyber threats abroad - and ones that undermine the software integrity of America's software champion, Microsoft, to do so.
Flame works by using cryptological skulduggery to scupper Microsoft's update system. And Stuxnet used vulnerabilities in Microsoft operating systems that, ordinarily, would be reported to Microsoft, repaired and sent out to millions of users as an update patch. Worse, perhaps, a coding error (the US reportedly blames Israel and vice versa) allowed Stuxnet to escape into the wild and reveal its existence - which a secret cyberweapon should of course not do.
It means the taxpayer-funded US National Security Agency is working at odds with the Department of Homeland Security, which is attempting to bolster online defences. Only last week, US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano met industrialists at the White House to "discuss DHS's current efforts to secure cyberspace".
Napolitano says the DHS is "working with partners at universities and the private sector...to protect against evolving cyber threats". Whether those threats will be variants of this new breed of home-grown cyberweapon remains to be seen.
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Why we may never know who created Flame virus
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428684.600-why-we-may-never-know-who-created-flame-virus.html
HERE we go again. Antivirus firms are warning that another computer worm has evaded their radar. Nicknamed Flame, it is described as one of the most complex viruses ever and has the power to cripple national infrastructure. But a full two years after the last major threat - Stuxnet - was discovered, its authors have still not been exposed, although new evidence suggests they work for US and Israeli intelligence (see "Obama 'gave full backing to Stuxnet attack on Iran'"). So what chance is there of tracking down the creators of this latest threat?
Parts of Flame surfaced online as far back as 2004, according to Boldizsár Bencsáth of the Crysys Lab at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary. Despite this, it was not formally identified until Kaspersky Lab of Moscow, Russia, discovered what was deleting data on hundreds of computers across the Middle East. Iran and Israel took the biggest hits, with Flame even briefly disrupting Iran's oil industry, according to senior Iranian officials.
On 28 May, Kaspersky revealed the cause: an all-in-one "worm, trojan and backdoor" it dubbed Flame. It is a remotely reprogrammable data stealer that can seize, transmit and then delete files. Its six-megabyte heart can download extra modules until it swells to 20 MB, giving it a broad range of data-stealing tricks, says Gavin O'Gorman at Symantec's lab in Dublin, Ireland. "It's most likely this info-stealing is for espionage. It can turn a mic on to record audio, or video what you are doing on screen," he says.
It's stealthy, too. Iran's national Computer Emergency Response Team says the code's malicious components were undetectable by 43 antivirus programs. "Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame are all examples of cases where we - the antivirus industry - have failed," says Mikko Hypponen, founder of antivirus firm F-Secure. But while the industry tries to work out why it failed, it looks almost impossible for the malware's creators to be found.
Here's why. "If I write the code 'print "Hello"' and then load it to a forum via a proxy or Tor connection, what link is there to me? Simply, none. The same principle exists with malware," says Nick Furneaux of e-forensics firm CSITech in
Bristol, UK. Attackers can also cover their tracks by bouncing commands to the malware via cascades of servers, says Bencsáth. "If an attacker hides by using multiple jumping points, it is almost impossible to identify them," he says. "And the forensics mostly lead you to a computer that is fully cleared, erased."
To catch them, investigators have to pray their quarry makes a mistake. "I've seen mistakes made in malware such as hard coding IP and email addresses, or a user name, which can be used to find the perpetrator," says Furneaux. Another giveaway is coding style, says O'Gorman: "You might find file-naming conventions or how data is passed between functions is characteristic of a known coder." Indeed, it was a coding mistake that revealed Stuxnet existed.
Robert Ghanea-Hercock, a security researcher at BT's lab in Ipswich, UK, hopes their emerging AI-based pattern recognition system, Saturn, will snare threats like Flame. It "will sense the subtle network disruptions and cyber footprints left by such attacks", instantly alerting security analysts, he says. This might help, says Bencsáth: "If the attackers are caught mid-attack, and they do not know about it, it becomes possible to track them down."
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Flame virus used world-class cryptographic attack
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/flame-used-world-class-cryptog.html
The recently discovered computer worm Flame could have been created only by "world-class" cryptographers, say experts in the field who have discovered that the malware uses a previously unseen cryptographic attack.
Flame installs itself on a target computer by hijacking the Windows Update system. Normal updates are signed with a digital certificate that verifies their origin, but Flame's creators were able to fake their own certificate.
Such certificates are signed by a hash algorithm that converts any digital data into a short sequence of characters. It isn't possible to recover the original data from this sequence, but it can be used to verify it, allowing the hash sequence to act as a virtual "signature". Crucially, it should be very difficult to discover two pieces of data that convert to the same hash sequence - otherwise someone can perform a "collision attack", generating a spoof hash sequence without knowing the original data.
That's exactly what Flame's authors have done, though it isn't the first time the feat has been achieved. In 2008 cryptographer Mark Stevens and colleagues showed that the oft-used MD5 hash algorithm is vulnerable to collision attacks - a feat that required 200 PlayStation 3 consoles to crunch through the numbers to find a match.
Now Stevens and others have analysed Flame's code and discovered it uses a previously unseen variant of the attack, probably developed before his research was published, allowing the attackers to calculate the exact hash sequence used by Microsoft's update system.
"The results have shown that not our published chosen-prefix collision attack was used, but an entirely new and unknown variant," says Stevens. "This has led to our conclusion that the design of Flame is partly based on world-class cryptanalysis."
Whoever designed Flame, they are now trying to cover their tracks. Antivirus firm Symantec says that computers infected with Flame have received a "suicide" update module designed to completely remove the worm. It appears that this module was created on 9 May, just a few weeks before the malware became publicly known.
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Flame virus used world-class cryptographic attack
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/flame-used-world-class-cryptog.html
Flame installs itself on a target computer by hijacking the Windows Update system. Normal updates are signed with a digital certificate that verifies their origin, but Flame's creators were able to fake their own certificate.
Hmmm, seems like I did the right thing (for once) disabling Windows Update on my system.
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Hope you've all installed the new MS fix. Ya have to keep pace with the game.
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Spooks have proudly contributed to the development of the latest version of Windows.
NSA helped with Windows 7 development
http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-helped-with-windows-7-development/
By Gregg Keizer
ComputerWorld
ovember 18, 2009
The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday during testimony before Congress.
“Working in partnership with Microsoft and elements of the Department of Defense, NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to enhance Microsoft’s operating system security guide without constraining the user to perform their everyday tasks, whether those tasks are being performed in the public or private sector,” Richard Schaeffer, the NSA’s information assurance director, told the Senate’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security yesterday as part of a prepared statement.
“All this was done in coordination with the product release, not months or years later during the product lifecycle,” Schaeffer added. “This will improve the adoption of security advice, as it can be implemented during installation and then later managed through the emerging SCAP standards.”
Security Content Automation Protocol, or SCAP, is a set of standards for automating chores such as managing vulnerabilities and measuring security compliance. The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) oversees the SCAP standards.
This is not the first time that the NSA has partnered with Microsoft during Windows development. In 2007, the agency confirmed that it had a hand in Windows Vista as part of an initiative to ensure that the operating system was secure from attack and would work with other government software. Before that, the NSA provided guidance on how best to secure Windows XP and Windows 2000.
According to Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronics Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the NSA’s involvement with operating system development goes back even farther. “This battle goes back to at least the crypto wars of the early ’90s,” said Rotenberg, who remembered testifying about the agency’s role in private sector computer security standards in 1989.
But when the NSA puts hands on Windows, that raises a red flag for Rotenberg, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based public interest research center. “When NSA offers to help the private sector on computer security, the obvious concern is that it will also build in backdoors that enables tracking users and intercepting user communications,” Rotenberg said in an e-mail. “And private sector firms are reluctant to oppose these ‘suggestions’ since the US government is also their biggest customer and opposition to the NSA could mean to loss of sales.”
Rotenberg’s worries stem from the NSA’s reputation as the intelligence agency best known for its eavesdropping of electronic messaging, including cell phone calls and e-mail.
Andrew Storms, the director of security operations at nCircle Security, didn’t put much credence in the idea that Microsoft would allow the NSA to build a hidden entrance to Windows 7. “Would it be surprising to most people that there was a backdoor? No, not with the political agenda of prior administrations,” said Storms. “My gut, though, tells me that Microsoft, as a business, would not want to do that, at least not in a secretive way.”
Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG Technologies, agreed. “I can’t imagine NSA and Microsoft would do anything deliberate because the repercussions would be enormous if they got caught,” he said in an interview via instant messaging.
“Having said that, I think we should understand that there is every likelihood that certain foreign governments are constantly looking for vulnerabilities that they can use for targeted attacks,” Thompson continued. “So if they’re poking at us, I think it’s reasonable to assume that we’re doing something similar. But I seriously doubt an official NSA-Microsoft alliance.”
The NSA’s Schaeffer added that his agency is also working on engaging other major software makers, including Apple, Sun and Red Hat, on security standards for their products.
“More and more, we find that protecting national security systems demands teaming with public and private institutions to raise the information assurance level of products and services more broadly,” Schaeffer said.
Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on the NSA’s participation in Windows 7′s development.
Copyright © 2009 Computerworld Inc
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So there you go. Who do you trust to raise the flag each morning?
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...a few men with one leg?
Former NSA Mathematician Says He Believes the Agency Stores Copies of All Emails Transmitted in America
http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-spies-on-email/
The Secret Sharer (The New Yorker):
While most of the N.S.A. was reeling on September 11th, inside SARC the horror unfolded “almost like an ‘I-told-you-so’ moment,” according to J. Kirk Wiebe, an intelligence analyst who worked there. “We knew we weren’t keeping up.” SARC was led by a crypto-mathematician named Bill Binney, whom Wiebe describes as “one of the best analysts in history.” Binney and a team of some twenty others believed that they had pinpointed the N.S.A.’s biggest problem—data overload—and then solved it. But the agency’s management hadn’t agreed.
Binney, who is six feet three, is a bespectacled sixty-seven-year-old man with wisps of dark hair; he has the quiet, tense air of a preoccupied intellectual. Now retired and suffering gravely from diabetes, which has already claimed his left leg, he agreed recently to speak publicly for the first time about the Drake case. When we met, at a restaurant near N.S.A. headquarters, he leaned crutches against an extra chair. “This is too serious not to talk about,” he said.
Binney expressed terrible remorse over the way some of his algorithms were used after 9/11. ThinThread, the “little program” that he invented to track enemies outside the U.S., “got twisted,” and was used for both foreign and domestic spying: “I should apologize to the American people. It’s violated everyone’s rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world.” According to Binney, Drake took his side against the N.S.A.’s management and, as a result, became a political target within the agency.
…
Binney, for his part, believes that the agency now stores copies of all e-mails transmitted in America, in case the government wants to retrieve the details later. In the past few years, the N.S.A. has built enormous electronic-storage facilities in Texas and Utah. Binney says that an N.S.A. e-mail database can be searched with “dictionary selection,” in the manner of Google. After 9/11, he says, “General Hayden reassured everyone that the N.S.A. didn’t put out dragnets, and that was true. It had no need—it was getting every fish in the sea.”
Binney considers himself a conservative, and, as an opponent of big government, he worries that the N.S.A.’s data-mining program is so extensive that it could help “create an Orwellian state.” Whereas wiretap surveillance requires trained human operators, data mining is automated, meaning that the entire country can be watched. Conceivably, U.S. officials could “monitor the Tea Party, or reporters, whatever group or organization you want to target,” he says. “It’s exactly what the Founding Fathers never wanted.”
Former NSA Genius Apologizes for His Super Spying Software (Gizmodo):
Long before 9/11, brilliant NSA crypto-mathematician Bill Binney had developed an algorithm to make sense of the unbelievably massive amounts of data American spies were pulling in—he called it ThinThread. And then it went very, very wrong.
ThinThread, the New Yorker reports, proved to be too good: designed to track foreign enemies via their electronic footprints, Binney was horrified to find that the powerful software processed mammoth amounts of American communications as well. Without a warrant—illegally. Binney implemented an encryption scheme that blurred out American chatter unless it was flagged by a judge, but his system was discarded by the NSA for being too invasive.
Good stuff, albeit long: The Secret Sharer (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all)
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A story of how a small state could be made completely transparent and (possibly) a subject of manipulation. It only takes a patch of software to be inserted into the right place.
Does anybody (with sufficiently paranoid mind :D) wonder how Greece has reached such a dire state of affairs? The whole Greek government was tapped while they were making decisions on the Opympic Games 2004 that made nation's financial problems very grave.
The Athens phone tapping affair (http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/the-athens-affair)
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The trouble in the Euro is growing into a ginormous avalanche which is teetering on the brink of descending the entire global economy into chaos. And no one knows what to do about it.
Some say Greece should leave the Euro, others (the majority of those in power) say it will be a disaster.
At the base of this trouble, lies a problem slightly different to what we had thought. We thought the Sub-Prime mortgage and the Debt-Swap issue were the commercial problem that then transferred to the public zone, where governments have to bail out, and the people had to suffer to help their governments bail. Now it is becoming apparent that another, older issue lies at the heart of the current armageddon: global competitiveness.
When I first learnt Economics at tertiary level, we were taught as fact, that countries should give up doing what others can do cheaper, and focus on what they have a special capacity for. This was the mantra against protectionism. In class I was never comfortable with this economic theory, yet I was also not comfortable with protectionism, as that seemed appropriate for only the 'child' phase of anything.
What I didn't know were the words to ask out teacher: "Where's the evidence for this?"
It was a theory, and had never been tested on a global scale.
Now we are seeing the consequences of this economic model. Some countries are significant winners of this theory, while others are losers. Then there are the countries who were temporarily suspended in mid air, like the UK, the US, and many EU nations. Not any more. The house of cards was built on a principle of imbalance, and now it is falling.
Unfortunately we have no easily substitutable alternative. Global competitiveness has become so imbalanced, that it has destroyed it's own operational domain. Gloom is over everything.
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Interesting thought. Do you think there is anything that could substitute competitiveness within economy? At the end of the day majority the forces driving competitiveness are the same that are blamed for all sorts misbehaviour of people.
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I try not to watch too closely this conflict, as it is so violent and disturbing. But from what I do see, it appears Syria is descending into a living nightmare. There appears no way out. They are too powerful for outside countries to intervene.
Worse, there is no clear line of support. After the experience of Libya and Egypt, there are many of us across the globe who now see romantic notions of public freedom and independence as sheer vanity on our part.
Something horrendous has been happening in Syria, and it is going to become much worse.
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Interesting thought. Do you think there is anything that could substitute competitiveness within economy? At the end of the day majority the forces driving competitiveness are the same that are blamed for all sorts misbehaviour of people.
I don't have anything against competitiveness per se. It is a powerful force which can be as useful for good as bad.
It is the global economic competitiveness which has now created imbalances which can no be sustained. The market will rectify, and people will suffer to serve.
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I try not to watch too closely this conflict, as it is so violent and disturbing. But from what I do see, it appears Syria is descending into a living nightmare. There appears no way out. They are too powerful for outside countries to intervene.
Worse, there is no clear line of support. After the experience of Libya and Egypt, there are many of us across the globe who now see romantic notions of public freedom and independence as sheer vanity on our part.
Something horrendous has been happening in Syria, and it is going to become much worse.
yep
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That war might be approaching turning point already. Quite good analysis (http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Syrias_MaturingInsurgency_21June2012.pdf)
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That war might be approaching turning point already. Quite good analysis (http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Syrias_MaturingInsurgency_21June2012.pdf)
Interesting. Didn't read the whole thing, but the summary and got the gist it. So the insurgency is stronger than I have been led to believe from reports coming to me.
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I would say quite confidently that Saudis, Qataris and few others are already supplying some serious weaponry to insurgents who seem to have infinitely more skills and discipline than Libyans did. Military people are fighting al-Assad's military.
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Massive overfishing
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/problems_fishing/
The global fishing fleet is 2-3 times larger than what the oceans can sustainably support. In other words, people are taking far more fish out of the ocean than can be replaced by those remaining.
As a result:
-53% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, and 32% are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion.
-Most of the top ten marine fisheries, accounting for about 30% of all capture fisheries production, are fully exploited or overexploited.
-As many as 90% of all the ocean’s large fish have been fished out.
-Several important commercial fish populations have declined to the point where their survival is threatened.
-Unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048.
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Essentially, our stuffedness is beyond doubt. Everyone can perceive the agony of living beings around us just by opening up...just by opening a little more than usual. It is there to perceive. Our species (all specimen weighing together mere 287 million tons) wrecks the planet's ecosystem in so many ways simultaneously that there is no way to plug all the holes, ameliorate the damage inflicted. However much one tries, it is overwhelming. The "compassion fatigue" is right there around the corner - staring hungrily into the eyes of a pilgrim.
Perhaps, not so accidentally there is a phrase "in these last five hundred years of Buddha's teachings" in the Medicine Buddha sadhana of Gelugpas. Rest assured, that sadhana was assembled centuries ago.
Where does it put this thread and the facts presented here? Should one squeeze out just a bit more compassion, extend already cracking shell, put out more energy to make yet another desperate attempt to hold back yet another imminent disaster, yet another episode of agony? These would be very human, humane and obvious reactions and actions. Is there anything else available? Any other courses of action?
Could one go for Vajrayana option and stare with unblinking eyes into the heart of agony and seek the passage there? It just cannot be that so many aware beings opted for no good reason to live their lives in this infinitely meaningful, poignant, but so very dark, period of time. Is there a passageway in the heart of destruction? The passageway where to pay the toll means to lay everything on the altar.
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US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/29/us-wildfires-global-warming-scientists
Scorching heat, high winds and bone-dry conditions are fueling catastrophic wildfires in the US west that offer a preview of the kind of disasters that human-caused climate change could bring, a trio of scientists said on Thursday.
"What we're seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like," said Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer, a lead author for the UN's climate science panel. "It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster … This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future."
In Colorado, wildfires that have raged for weeks have killed four people, displaced thousands and destroyed hundreds of homes. Because winter snowpack was lighter than usual and melted sooner, fire season started earlier in the US west, with wildfires out of control in Colorado, Montana and Utah.
The high temperatures that are helping drive these fires are consistent with projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said this kind of extreme heat, with little cooling overnight, is one kind of damaging impact of global warming.
Others include more severe storms, floods and droughts, Oppenheimer said.
The stage was set for these fires when winter snowpack was lighter than usual, said Steven Running, a forest ecologist at the University of Montana.
Mountain snows melted an average of two weeks earlier than normal this year, Running said. "That just sets us up for a longer, drier summer. Then all you need is an ignition source and wind."
Warmer-than-usual winters also allow tree-killing mountain pine beetles to survive the winter and attack western forests, leaving behind dry wood to fuel wildfires earlier in the season, Running said.
"Now we have a lot of dead trees to burn … it's not even July yet," he said. Trying to stop such blazes driven by high winds is a bit like to trying to stop a hurricane, Running said.
Fires cost about $1bn or more a year, and exact a toll on human health, ranging from increased risk of heart, lung and kidney ailments to post-traumatic stress disorder, said Howard Frumkin, a public health expert at the University of Washington.
"Wildfire smoke is like intense air pollution," Frumkin said. "Pollution levels can reach many times higher than a bad day in Mexico City or Beijing."
Older people, the very young and the ill are most vulnerable to the heat that adds to wildfire risk, he said. The strain of fleeing homes and living in communities in the path of a wildfire can trigger ailments like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
The briefing was convened by the science organisation Climate Communications, with logistical support by Climate Nexus, an advocacy and communications group. An accompanying report on heat waves and climate change was released simultaneously.
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Global fight for natural resources 'has only just begun'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/12/global-natural-resources-food-water?intcmp=122
The global battle for natural resources – from food and water to energy and precious metals – is only beginning, and will intensify to proportions that could mean enormous upheavals for every country, leading academics and business figures told a conference in Oxford on Thursday.
Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, who convened the two-day Resource 2012 conference, told the Guardian: "We are nowhere near realising the full impact of this yet. We have seen the first indications – rising food prices, pressure on water supplies, a land grab by some countries for mining rights and fertile agricultural land, and rising prices for energy and for key resources [such as] metals. But we need to do far more to deal with these problems before they become even more acute, and we are not doing enough yet."
Countries that are not prepared for this rapid change will soon – perhaps irrevocably – lose out, with serious damage to their economies and way of life, the conference was told.
Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize-winning economist, said that the free market would not necessarily provide the best solution to sharing out the world's resources. Governments would need to step in, he said, to ensure that people had access to the basics of life, and that the interests of businesses and the financial markets did not win out over more fundamental human needs.
Sen has played a key role as an academic in showing how the way resources are distributed can impact famine and surplus more than the actual amount of resources, that are available, particularly food.
David Nabarro, special representative for food security and nutrition at the United Nations Special, defended the outcomes of last month's Rio+20 conference – a global summit that was intended to address resource issues and other environmental problems, including pollution, climate change and the loss of biodiversity, all of which are likely to have knock-on effects that will exacerbate resource shortages.
Many observers criticised the governments represented at Rio+20 for failing to adopt any clear targets and initiatives on key environmental problems, saying it was a wasted opportunity.
But Nabarro said there had been important successes – that governments had agreed to strive for the elimination of hunger and more sustainable agriculture, including an emphasis on small farmers, improvements in nutrition (in both developed and developing countries), and cutting the harmful waste of resources that is currently plaguing economies.
Several speakers joined him in highlighting the problems of waste and inefficiency –the developed world tends to be profligate in its use of natural resources, because most western companies have in the last century experienced few limits on their ability to access raw materials in peacetime, thanks to the opening up of global trade.
But this is rapidly changing. One of the first indications has been the soaring price of fossil fuel energy in the past decade, which has had severe economic impacts but which could easily be lessened if countries and companies took simple measures to be more energy-efficient. The failure of businesses, individuals and governments to improve their efficiency, even by relatively small amounts, has been one of the conundrums for resource economists in recent years. According to standard economic thinking, rising prices should prompt more efficiency, but this has happened at a much slower rate than should have been the case.
If price signals are not enough to change behaviour, then other methods such as government intervention may be needed.
Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, urged rich countries to work together with poor developing nations to ensure that the best was made of the natural resources, and to remedy situations where scarcity leads to human suffering.
Businesses also joined in to discuss their efforts to use resources more sustainably. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chairman of Nestlé, outlined his company's programme to use water more efficiently. He said water was often overlooked, and considered as a free resource, but that this was a mistake – he reminded listeners that the increasing availability of clean drinking water, accompanied by better sanitation and hygiene, had been the biggest single factor behind the enormous increases in longevity of people in developed countries in the past 150 years, and the GDP growth that followed.
Camilla Toulmin, of the International Institute for Economy and Development, said the conference should act as a primer to policymakers and politicians who have been insufficiently aware of the real issues surrounding resource constraints and the economics of waste and distribution. "This is like an Open University course that is educating people on the problems here. I hope the financiers and businesspeople go home with a clearer understanding of how important this is, and of the role they can play."
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Climate risks heat up as world switches on to air conditioning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/10/climate-heat-world-air-conditioning
The world is warming, incomes are rising, and smaller families are living in larger houses in hotter places. One result is a booming market for air conditioning — world sales in 2011 were up 13 percent over 2010, and that growth is expected to accelerate in coming decades.
By my very rough estimate, residential, commercial, and industrial air conditioning worldwide consumes at least one trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Vehicle air conditioners in the United States alone use 7 to 10 billion gallons of gasoline annually. And thanks largely to demand in warmer regions, it is possible that world consumption of energy for cooling could explode tenfold by 2050, giving climate change an unwelcome dose of extra momentum.
The United States has long consumed more energy each year for air conditioning than the rest of the world combined. In fact, we use more electricity for cooling than the entire continent of Africa, home to a billion people, consumes for all purposes. Between 1993 and 2005, with summers growing hotter and homes larger, energy consumed by residential air conditioning in the U.S. doubled, and it leaped another 20 percent by 2010. The climate impact of air conditioning our buildings and vehicles is now that of almost half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Yet with other nations following our lead, America's century-long reign as the world cooling champion is coming to an end. And if global consumption for cooling grows as projected to 10 trillion kilowatt-hours per year — equal to half of the world's entire electricity supply today — the climate forecast will be grim indeed.
Because it is so deeply dependent on high-energy cooling, the United States is not very well positioned to call on other countries to exercise restraint for the sake of our common atmosphere. But we can warn the world of what it stands to lose if it follows our path, and that would mean making clear what we ourselves have lost during the age of air conditioning. For example, with less exposure to heat, our bodies can fail to acclimatize physiologically to summer conditions, while we develop a mental dependence on cooling. Community cohesion also has been ruptured, as neighborhoods that on warm summer evenings were once filled with people mingling are now silent — save for the whirring of air-conditioning units. A half-century of construction on the model of refrigerated cooling has left us with homes and offices in which natural ventilation often is either impossible or ineffective. The result is that the same cooling technology that can save lives during brief, intense heat waves is helping undermine our health at most other times.
The time window for debating the benefits and costs of air conditioning on a global scale is narrowing — once a country goes down the air-conditioned path, it is very hard to change course.
China is already sprinting forward and is expected to surpass the United States as the world's biggest user of electricity for air conditioning by 2020. Consider this: The number of U.S. homes equipped with air conditioning rose from 64 to 100 million between 1993 and 2009, whereas 50 million air-conditioning units were sold in China in 2010 alone. And it is projected that the number of air-conditioned vehicles in China will reach 100 million in 2015, having more than doubled in just five years.
As urban China, Japan, and South Korea approach the air-conditioning saturation point, the greatest demand growth in the post-2020 world is expected to occur elsewhere, most prominently in South and Southeast Asia. India will predominate — already, about 40 percent of all electricity consumption in the city of Mumbai goes for air conditioning. The Middle East is already heavily climate-controlled, but growth is expected to continue there as well. Within 15 years, Saudi Arabia could actually be consuming more oil than it exports, due largely to air conditioning. And with summers warming, the United States and Mexico will continue increasing their heavy consumption of cool.
Countries are already struggling to keep up with peak power demand in hot weather. This summer, India is seeing a shortfall of 17 gigawatts, with residential electricity shut off for 16 hours per day in some areas. China is falling short by 30 to 40 gigawatts, resulting in energy rationing and factory closings.
In most countries, the bulk of electricity that runs air conditioners in homes and businesses is generated from fossil fuels, most prominently coal. In contrast, a large share of space heating in cooler climates is done by directly burning fuels — usually natural gas, other gases, or oil, all of which have somewhat smaller carbon emissions than coal. That, together with the energy losses involved in generation and transmission of electric power, means that on average, an air conditioner causes more greenhouse emissions when pushing heat out of a house than does a furnace when putting the same quantity of heat into a house.
Based on projected increases in population, income, and temperatures around the world, Morna Isaac and Detlef van Vuuren of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency predict that in a warming world, the increase in emissions from air conditioning will be faster than the decline in emissions from heating; as a result, the combined greenhouse impact of heating and cooling will begin rising soon after 2020 and then shoot up fast through the end of the century.
Refrigerants — fluids that absorb and release heat efficiently at the right temperatures — are the key to air conditioning and refrigeration, but they can also be serious troublemakers when released into the atmosphere. Refrigerants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that harm the stratospheric ozone layer are being phased out under the 1989 Montreal Protocol; however, most ozone-friendlier substitutes are, like CFCs, powerful greenhouse gases.
Most prominent worldwide in the new generation of refrigerants are compounds known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). They have a smaller climate-warming potential than do the ozone-depleting compounds they are replacing, but they still have hundreds to thousands of times the greenhouse potency of carbon dioxide (on a pound-for-pound basis, that is; carbon dioxide is released in vastly larger quantities and has a larger total impact.) Rapid growth in air conditioning threatens to swamp out the marginal climate benefits of replacing current refrigerants with HFCs.
According to a recent forecast by Guus Velders of the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and his colleagues, refrigerants that accumulate in the atmosphere between now and 2050 (increasingly HFCs, mostly from refrigeration and air conditioning) will add another 14 to 27 percent to the increased warming caused by all human-generated carbon dioxide emissions. Recent years, therefore, have seen a research stampede to find refrigerants with lighter greenhouse potential. Several promising candidates have been discarded on the basis of flammability, toxicity, ozone depletion, or other problems. None of the remaining prospects is ideal in all respects.
One important consideration is efficiency. A refrigerant that has smaller direct greenhouse potential than those currently in use but that exchanges heat less efficiently — causing an air conditioner to consume more energy for the same amount of cooling — could have a larger total climate impact.
Isaac and Van Vuuren predict that even if demand for air conditioning is satisfied with successively more efficient generations of equipment, global electricity consumption for home cooling will still rise eightfold by 2050, which is not much better than the tenfold increase that would occur without efficiency improvements. A similar dominance of growth over efficiency has prevailed in the United States. From 1993 to 2005, energy efficiency of air-conditioning equipment improved by almost 30 percent, but household energy consumption for air conditioning doubled.
There is hope that renewable energy could satisfy a growing share of air-conditioning demand, but there is little inspiration to be drawn from the U.S. experience. Here, renewable electricity production from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal sources could expand to five times its current production (an increase that the Environmental Protection Agency does not expect to be achieved until 2030) and still not cover the nation's air-conditioning demand, let alone other needs. Today, worldwide renewable production is estimated at about 750 billion kilowatt hours, which, I estimate, covers about three-fourths of current global air-conditioning demand. The International Energy Agency predicts that renewable generation will expand to six times its current output by 2050. But even if that is achieved, renewable sources will still be satisfying only three-fourths of air-conditioning demand.
Each supply-side option has its own problems. Attempts to catch up with cooling demand by expanding hydroelectric power generation have caused serious ecological disruption and displacement of many millions of rural people in India, China, Brazil, and other countries. And we see hints that proliferation of air conditioning will provide an incentive to revive and expand nuclear power. Last month, in the face of strong opposition from the public, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced that his government was ending the moratorium on nuclear energy generation that had been in place since the tsunami disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. Noda acknowledged that the timing of the restart of two reactors in western Japan was no accident; the additional power will be needed to satisfy the summer surge in air conditioner use.
In thinking about global demand for cooling, two key questions emerge. Is it fair to expect people in Mumbai to go without air conditioning when so many in Miami use it freely? And if not, can the world find ways to adapt to warmer temperatures that are fair to all and do not depend on the unsupportable growth of air conditioning?
Currently, efforts to develop low-energy methods for warm climates are in progress on every continent. Passive cooling projects in China, India, Egypt, Iran, Namibia, and other countries combine traditional technologies — like wind towers and water evaporation — with newly designed, ventilation-friendly architectural features. Solar adsorption air conditioning performs a magician's trick, using only the heat of the sun to cool the indoor air, but so far it is not very affordable or adaptable to home use. Meanwhile in India and elsewhere, cooling is being achieved solely with air pumped from underground tunnels.
But non-refrigerated climate control, especially in hot climates, cannot consistently achieve comfort that satisfies the industrial definition; in other words, it doesn't produce the kind of cool, still, dry air that prompts many Americans to wear sweaters at work in July. A shift toward natural cooling will mean relying on humans' well-proven capacity to adapt to variable conditions. Studies in the tropics have found, for example, that office workers are well satisfied with natural ventilation and warmer temperatures, if they have not already been conditioned by air conditioning.
Whatever course the world follows in adapting to a hotter planet — universal high-efficiency air conditioning; tighter construction; all-out pursuit of renewable, hydroelectric, or nuclear energy; or rebuilding and retrofitting entire societies for non-refrigerated cooling — the cost in both money and physical resources will be staggering. Deciding on the best strategy, and soon, will be crucial.
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It is curious, while the public sway between believing or not in global warming, there are two industries who are under no illusions: insurance and military.
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Both insurance and military deal with fear, don't they? They both ought to increase the feeling of security among the people/customers. It appears, they strive to instill fear to make more money. Mixed blessing they are, Yoda would say.
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Both insurance and military deal with fear, don't they? They both ought to increase the feeling of security among the people/customers. It appears, they strive to instill fear to make more money. Mixed blessing they are, Yoda would say.
Yes and no - like Electricity, they thrive on escalation. However, they are also hard-headed when considering their own bottom-line responsibility.
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Way to go Dakota! South Dakota provided a comic interlude with a ludicrous bit of legislation claiming that the world has actually been cooling.
Climate science: the gathering storm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/22/climate-science-gathering-storm-editorial
After the driest winter on record, Sir David Attenborough wouldn't be the only Briton to blame the wettest English summer ever on global climate change, on some inexorable shift in the planetary machinery that upsets all reasonable expectation. There is a connection, although no single meteorological episode in any locality could ever be directly linked to global warming: this flood or that cyclone might have happened anyway. Even the increasing frequency worldwide of climate-related disasters, along with the lives, homes and harvests lost, cannot be entirely blamed on the steady increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Population growth and economic development each year deliver more potential victims, with more to lose. Finally, the measured increase in the intensity of extreme events – ever fiercer heatwaves, ever more violent floods – rests on an uncertain premise: if systematic weather records in many parts of the world are barely a century old, what does it mean to declare something "the worst ever" or a "once in a century" flood?
So much for the caution: now for the observed reality of atmospheric physics. If average temperatures increase, so will temperature extremes. As temperatures increase, so will evaporation. As evaporation increases, so will precipitation. As tropical seas get warmer, so will the increased hazard of cyclone, hurricane or typhoon. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in this century. Last year was the second rainiest year on record worldwide; the winner of this dubious derby was 2010, which, with 2005, was also the warmest on record. A springtime hosepipe ban in southern England was promptly followed by unprecedented rain and flooding in much of the country. Some of the most catastrophic floods and lethal heatwaves ever observed have claimed many thousands of lives in the last decade, and the increasing probability of such extremes has been predicted again and again: by the World Meteorological Organisation; by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; by the UN's inter-agency secretariat for disaster reduction; and by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who have listed the 19 hottest, wettest or stormiest ever events, all in the last decade. There are other, less direct indicators. The northern hemisphere growing season has expanded by 12 days since 1988. Sea levels are rising. Higher sea levels make storm surges – and consequent catastrophic floods in estuaries, flood plains and coastal cities – more likely, more costly and more deadly. The signals are clear enough. Climate is changing, and local weather patterns are responding. Conditions that seem bad now may be regarded as relatively benign in decades to come. Any single episode of good or bad weather is a chance outcome, like the throw of the dice. But the dice now seem to be loaded.
As for the political response, ground is being lost – literally and metaphorically. The coasts in the Eurasian Arctic are retreating by half a metre a year; marine scientists in North Carolina expect the dunes of Hatteras Island to retreat by 400 feet by 2018.
Successive UK and European governments have repeatedly made the right noises: action, however, has been sluggish. George Bush's administration either ignored the message or rejected it; Barack Obama has conceded a problem but done little. In Canada, the Harper government has responded by trying to stop scientists from Environment Canada talking to the media. In North Carolina, state legislators recently tried to stop state-funded scientists from discussing sea level rise even as they dealt with the loss of coastline. South Dakota provided a comic interlude with a ludicrous bit of legislation claiming that the world has actually been cooling. The developing world is hit by the most catastrophic floods and the most devastating storms – but, weakened by successive disasters and a mix of ugly reasons that include corruption, civil war and endemic poverty, governments are less able to respond. The long-term forecast is not promising.
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Greenland Ice Melt, Measured By NASA Satellites, Reaches Unprecedented Level
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/greenland-ice-melt-nasa_n_1698129.html
(http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/670398main_greenland_2012194-673.jpg)
NASA CAPTION: Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8 (left) and July 12 (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring different physical properties at different scales and are passing over Greenland at different times. As a whole, they provide a picture of an extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Credit: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
Unprecedented melting of Greenland's ice sheet this month has stunned NASA scientists and has highlighted broader concerns that the region is losing a remarkable amount of ice overall.
According to a NASA press release, about half of Greenland's surface ice sheet naturally melts during an average summer. But the data from three independent satellites this July, analyzed by NASA and university scientists, showed that in less than a week, the amount of thawed ice sheet surface skyrocketed from 40 percent to 97 percent.
In over 30 years of observations, satellites have never measured this amount of melting, which reaches nearly all of Greenland's surface ice cover.
When Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory observed the recent melting phenomenon, he said in the NASA press release, "This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: Was this real or was it due to a data error?"
Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Georgia-Athens and City University of New York all confirmed the remarkable ice melt.
NASA's cryosphere program manager, Tom Wagner, credited the power of satellites for observing the melt and explained to The Huffington Post that, although this specific event may be part of a natural variation, "We have abundant evidence that Greenland is losing ice, probably because of global warming, and it's significantly contributing to sea level rise."
Wagner said that ice is clearly thinning around the periphery, changing Greenland's overall ice mass, and he believes this is primarily due to warming ocean waters "eating away at the ice." He cautiously added, "It seems likely that's correlated with anthropogenic warming."
This specific extreme melt occurred in large part due to an unusual weather pattern over Greenland this year, what the NASA press release describes as a series of "heat domes," or an "unusually strong ridge of warm air."
Notable melting occurred in specific regions of Greenland, such as the area around Summit Station, located two miles above sea level. Not since 1889 has this kind of melting occurred, according to ice core analysis described in NASA's press release.
Goddard glaciologist Lora Koenig said that similar melting events occur about every 150 years, and this event is consistent with that schedule, citing the previous 1889 melt. But, she added, "if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome."
"One of the big questions is 'What's happening in the Arctic in general?'" Wagner said to HuffPost.
Just last week, another unusual event occurred in the region: the calving of an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan from Greenland's Petermann Glacier.
Over the past few months, separate studies have emerged that suggest humans are playing a "dominant role" in ocean warming, and that specific regions of the world, such as the U.S. East Coast, are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise.
Wagner explained that in recent years, studies have observed thinning sea ice and "dramatic" overall changes. He was clear, "We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that Greenland is losing a tremendous amount of ice overall."
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Petermann Glacier In Greenland Breaks Off Iceberg Twice The Size Of Manhattan
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/greenlands-petermann-glacier-iceberg_n_1682463.html
WASHINGTON -- An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan tore off one of Greenland's largest glaciers, illustrating another dramatic change to the warming island.
For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack near the tip of the northerly Petermann Glacier. On Monday, NASA satellites showed it had broken completely, freeing an iceberg measuring 46 square miles.
A massive ice sheet covers about four-fifths of Greenland. Petermann Glacier is mostly on land, but a segment sticks out over water like a frozen tongue, and that's where the break occurred.
The same glacier spawned an iceberg twice that size two years ago. Together, the breaks made a large change that's got the attention of researchers.
"It's dramatic. It's disturbing," said University of Delaware professor Andreas Muenchow, who was one of the first researchers to notice the break. "We have data for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before."
"It's one of the manifestations that Greenland is changing very fast," he said.
Researchers suspect global warming is to blame, but can't prove it conclusively yet. Glaciers do calve icebergs naturally, but what's happened in the last three years to Petermann is unprecedented, Muenchow and other scientists say.
"This is not part of natural variations anymore," said NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot, who camped on Petermann 10 years ago.
Ohio State University ice scientist Ian Howat said there is still a chance it could be normal calving, like losing a fingernail that has grown too long, but any further loss would show it's not natural: "We're still in the phase of scratching our heads and figuring out how big a deal this really is."
Many of Greenland's southern glaciers have been melting at an unusually rapid pace. The Petermann break brings large ice loss much farther north than in the past, said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.
If it continues, and more of the Petermann is lost, the melting would push up sea levels, he said. The ice lost so far was already floating, so the breaks don't add to global sea levels.
Northern Greenland and Canada have been warming five times faster than the average global temperature, Muenchow said. Temperatures have increased there by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 30 years, Scambos said.
The new iceberg is likely to follow the path of the one in 2010, Muenchow said. That broke apart into smaller icebergs headed north, then west and last year started landing in Newfoundland, he said.
It's more than glaciers in Greenland that are melting. Scientists also reported this week that the Arctic had the largest sea ice loss on record for June.
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Greenland Ice Melt, Measured By NASA Satellites, Reaches Unprecedented Level
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/greenland-ice-melt-nasa_n_1698129.html
(http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/670398main_greenland_2012194-673.jpg)
NASA CAPTION: Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8 (left) and July 12 (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring different physical properties at different scales and are passing over Greenland at different times. As a whole, they provide a picture of an extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Credit: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
That is utterly terrifying.
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I recommend this article from one of Australia's finest foreign correspondents:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/assads-alawites-run-out-of-options-20120811-24142.html
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The article could be complemented with the role of Saudis and Qataris who support Syrian/Arab Sunnis in a strategic push to roll back Iranian/Persian Shiite influence in the whole Middle East. At the same time, Iranians are now forming a Shia militia in Syria to fight Sunni rebels.
Another focal point of the Sunni-Shia strategic power struggle is Iraq. The US invasion brought to power Shia majority (65% of population) government (there are 32% of Sunnis in Iraq).
Now Sunni states fear very deeply that Shia Iraq would align with Shia Iran which would alter the whole balance of power in the Middle East. Thus, it is increasingly an imperative for Sunnis to terminate at any cost Alawite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawi) rule in Syria.
Perhaps, it is no suprise that, according to Wikileaks, Saudi governement has made repeated secret requests to the US to attack Iran and destroy its nuclear potential...
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Arctic ice melting at 'amazing' speed, scientists find
By David Shukman
Science Editor, BBC News, in Svalbard
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19508906
Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer's record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications.
Norwegian researchers investigating the state of the sea ice report that it is becoming significantly thinner and more vulnerable.
Last month the annual thaw of the region's floating ice reached the lowest level since satellite monitoring began, more than 30 years ago.
The scale of the change is large enough to make it likely that weather patterns thousands of miles away could be affected.
The melt is set to continue for at least another week - the peak is usually reached in mid-September - while temperatures here remain above freezing.
'Unprecedented'
The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) is at the forefront of Arctic research and its international director, Kim Holmen, told the BBC that the speed of the melting was faster than expected.
"It is a greater change than we could even imagine 20 years ago, even 10 years ago," Dr Holmen said.
"And it has taken us by surprise and we must adjust our understanding of the system and we must adjust our science and we must adjust our feelings for the nature around us."
The institute has been deploying its icebreaker, Lance, to research conditions between Svalbard and Greenland - the main route through which ice flows out of the Arctic Ocean.
During a visit to the port, one of the scientists involved, Dr Edmond Hansen, told me he was "amazed" at the size and speed of this year's melt.
"As a scientist, I know that this is unprecedented in at least as much as 1,500 years. It is truly amazing - it is a huge dramatic change in the system," Dr Hansen said.
"This is not some short-lived phenomenon - this is an ongoing trend. You lose more and more ice and it is accelerating - you can just look at the graphs, the observations, and you can see what's happening."
Thinner ice
I interviewed Dr Hansen while the Lance was docked at Norway's Arctic research station at Ny-Alesund on Svalbard.
Key data on the ice comes from satellites but also from measurements made by a range of different techniques - a mix of old and new technology harnessed to help answer the key environmental questions of our age.
The Norwegians send teams out on to the floating ice to drill holes into it and extract cores to determine the ice's origin.
And since the early 90s they have installed specialist buoys, tethered to the seabed, which use sonar to provide a near-constant stream of data about the ice above.
An electro-magnetic device known as an EM-Bird has also been flown, suspended beneath a helicopter, in long sweeps over the ice.
The torpedo-shaped instrument gathers data about the difference between the level of the seawater beneath the ice and the surface of the ice itself.
By flying transects over the ice, a picture of its thickness emerges. The latest data is still being processed but one of the institute's sea ice specialists, Dr Sebastian Gerland, said that though conditions vary year by year a pattern is clear.
"In the region where we work we can see a general trend to thinner ice - in the Fram Strait and at some coastal stations."
Where the ice vanishes entirely, the surface loses its usual highly reflective whiteness - which sends most solar radiation back into space - and is replaced by darker waters instead which absorb more heat.
According to Dr Gerland, additional warming can take place even if ice remains in a far thinner state.
"It means there is more light penetrating through the ice - that depends to a high degree on the snow cover but once it has melted the light can get through," Dr Gerland said.
"If the ice is thinner there is more light penetrating and that light can heat the water."
More UK rain
The most cautious forecasts say that the Arctic might become ice-free in the summer by the 2080s or 2090s. But recently many estimates for that scenario have been brought forward.
Early research investigating the implications suggests that a massive reduction in sea ice is likely to have an impact on the path of the jet stream, the high-altitude wind that guides weather systems, including storms.
The course and speed of the jet stream is governed by the difference in temperature between the Tropics and the Arctic, so a change on the scale being observed now could be felt across Europe and beyond.
Kim Holmen of the NPI explained how the connection might work.
"When the Arctic is ice free, it is not white any more and it will absorb more sunlight and that change will influence wind systems and where the precipitation comes.
"For northern Europe it could mean much more precipitation, while southern Europe will become drier so there are large scale shifts across the entire continent."
That assessment is mirrored by work at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, based in the British town of Reading.
The centre's director-general, Alan Thorpe, said the link between the Arctic melt and European weather was complicated but it is now the subject of research.
"Where Arctic sea ice is reducing in summer - and if we have warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the north-west Atlantic - these twin factors together lead to storms being steered over the UK in summer which is not the normal situation and leads to our poorer summers."
But the research is in its earliest stages. For science, the Arctic itself is hard to decipher. The effects of its rapid melt are even tougher.
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The conflict in Syria is approaching a stage where it may become much more than a challenge to the values of Western societies. It could pose a clear and present danger, to use the language of Tom Clancy. Persistent fighting along the line from Aleppo in the north to Deraa in the south, shrinking control of the countryside by al-Assad’s forces, and growing external support for both sides of the conflict underline the radical nature of the Syrian civil war.
It was evident for some time that the WMD stockpiles (VX, sarin and mustard gases plus several biological agents) of the al-Assad regime would become a very important variable in the calculus of the war. On the one hand, the use of WMD against the population may serve as a tool of ultimate terror or the last act of vengeance by al-Assad. On the other hand, both rebels and al-Assad know perfectly well that the plausible threat of WMD proliferation or their deployment in the civil war is likely to trigger a resolute military response from the Western powers. At the beginning of September 2012, one can only wonder about the security and safety of Syrian WMD facilities in Aleppo, Homs, Hamaa, Damascus, Latakia, Palmyra, and elsewhere.
Some conclusions about deteriorating situation can be drawn from the warnings issued by US President Obama (21.08.2012), by British Prime Minister Cameron (23.08.2012) and by French Foreign Minister Fabius (3.09.2012) regarding the use of WMD in the civil war or their relocation to the front. Syria has previously declared (23.07.2012) that its weapons of mass destruction would be used only against external aggressors. By coincidence, it happened to be the first official admission of the existence of a WMD arsenal by the Syrian authorities.
What military options are there to back up the stern warnings by the US, UK and French heads of state? As it turns out, the situation is rather complicated. According to the former Chief of Staff of Armee de l’Air General Jean Fleury (Le Monde, 23.08.2012), the French Air Force – if it acted alone – would be hard-pressed to deal with its Syrian counterpart and air defences. Armee de l’Air would be outnumbered 2:1 in terms of aircraft. While French air power has higher quality, the size and the level of training of the Syrian Air Force would necessitate a NATO air operation. General Jean Rannou, former Commander of Armee de l’Air, has assessed the Alliance’s military operation in Syria as feasible, but ‘heavy’ (EUObserver 10.08.2011). In Rannou’s words, there should not be insurmountable military problems for NATO, but there is no certainty that military intervention would improve the overall situation. Moreover, the air operations would have to pave the way for the insertion of ground troops as the attempts to destroy chemical and biological weapons from the air are likely to have undesired consequences for the local population.
The US Central Command has estimated that nearly 75,000 troops would be required on the ground to secure the Syrian chemical weapons (Rand Blog, 26.07.2012), whereas the latest news suggests 50,000-60,000 troops and some support units (Reuters, 16.08.2012). These forces would focus only on WMD security and would be unavailable for other tasks. The size of a peace enforcement contingent required after the end of the civil war has been estimated at more than 300,000 personnel (Peacefare.net, 22.07.2012).
Thus we seem to face a problem of enormous dimensions, a problem which reduces the statements by President Obama, by Prime Minister Cameron and by Foreign Minister Fabius merely to attempts to draw a red line for themselves and Syrian leaders. However, it is not quite clear what will follow if the line is crossed. The scale of the problem beggars belief, the available military options require engagement of NATO, and the post-conflict peace enforcement task could be beyond anybody’s capability.
Survivors of the Bosnian civil war have described the Syrian war as ‘hell’, exceeding everything that Bosnia witnessed 20 years ago (Associated Press, 30.08.2012). All we can do is to prepare for a long haul as it usually takes a lot of time for hell to freeze over.
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Good points Juhani.
As you probably know, the situation is far more complex and serious than the survival of the Alawites and their WMDs. This conflict has opened up old wounds and divisions going back centuries. If that were not enough, it has also opened up very current divisions in the whole Middle East.
Egypt is not playing ball any more, with anyone. Morsi's recent attack on Syria at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Iran, of all places, sent shock waves through the Islamic world, and has placed Iran isolated and against the wall. The US don't know what to do with a man who isn't playing by the rule book.
The US don't know what to do with Netanyahu's sabre rattling either. They know Israel doesn't have the technical capacity to cease Iran's nuclear development, as do the Israeli military and security.
Essentially the entire boiling pot of the Middle East is being tipped over the edge by Syria, and the US is no longer in a position to act effectively - not sure they ever have been, or wanted to be, as that would require feet on the ground way beyond the US's power.
One thing is certain, things surrounding Syria will deteriorate. This whole mess has provided a fillip to the Islamic jihad in all those countries, including Iraq.
Aside from Iran's nuclear capacity, I'm not sure what immediate interest the US have, apart from the maintenance of a stable domain for business, which is as important for them as the EU is for Germany. But after all, it is a long way from America, and now that the North American shale oil has become abundant, there is good reason to let the buggers sort out their own problems, and call us when they want to do business again.
Of course, that's not an option for the US or the EU, but it may well be the reality.
I don't see this as causing a global catastrophe, where we all run for our shelters. It is a catastrophe for those in the Middle East, including Israel, but for once, Israel is not a direct protagonist in any of this - only the unfortunate recipient of collateral damage from violent neighbours. And Israel has it's own problems, economic and social, so best to avoid settling there for the time being.
What if the US sent in the cruise missiles to Iran's nuclear facilities now? Iran has few friends and many enemies, so I can't see what they could do effectively in retaliation, outside what they are already doing.
Alas, George and Tony scuttled all moral authority when they invaded Iraq on a pure fabrication. The world will not be happy about them acting unilaterally again - but I'm not sure it will cause any damaging reaction.
One thing is now becoming clear, we are seeing the redrawing of maps in the Middle East. I'd be surprised if Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and many other surrounding nations escape from a melt down of boarders.
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Psychopathic Traits: What Successful Presidents Have in Common
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/11/psychopathic-traits-what-successful-presidents-have-in-common/#ixzz26KV80HO9
Political partisans delight in labeling opposition leaders as malign or even psychopathic — but it turns out that U.S. presidents with high levels of certain psychopathic traits may actually do better on the job, no matter what their party affiliation, according to new research.
The study, which was based on presidential performance ratings and personality assessments by hundreds of historians and biographers in several different surveys, found that one psychopathic characteristic in particular was linked to success in presidency: fearless dominance.
“An easy way to think about it is as a combination of physical and social fearlessness,” says Scott Lilienfeld, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at Emory University. “People high in boldness don’t have a lot of apprehension about either physical or social things that would scare the rest of us.”
He adds, “It’s often a kind of resilience because you don’t show lot of anxiety or frustration in the face of everyday life challenges.” While that sounds like a necessity for dealing with the daily crises that face the White House, from hurricanes to threats from rogue nuclear nations, the same trait in psychopaths is also associated with callousness, indifference to negative consequences and impulsive antisocial behavior.
It’s not to say that American presidents are full-blown psychopaths — they didn’t rate high in all categories of psychopathic traits. Overall, the study found, presidents tended to be more like psychopaths than the general population in their level of fearless dominance, but they didn’t show a psychopathic excess of impulsive antisocial behavior. Although “some might think presidents are extremely psychopathic,” Lilienfeld says, the combination of traits that make them successful can’t all be characterized as such. “They need to be bold and self confident to be willing to run, but they also have to have an amazing capacity to delay gratification and a lot of impulse control, at least in some domains.”
All U.S. presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush were included in the research (there was not yet enough data for President Obama). Researchers had 121 experts use standardized psychological assessment methods to rate the presidents’ personalities, based on their biographical information before they were elected. These evaluations were then compared with ratings of job performance compiled in two surveys of presidential historians: a 2009 C-Span poll of 62 presidential historians and a 2010 Siena College survey of 238 historians.
Topping the chart in fearless dominance were Teddy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, with FDR, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton not far behind. George W. Bush came in 10th on this measure — Rutherford Hayes, Zachary Taylor, Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson were also in the top 10 — illustrating that fearless dominance isn’t always associated with positive decision-making, or success.
Indeed, it’s a double-edged sword: if your boldness allows you to ignore both your own fears and the concerns of others, it can be easy to veer off into recklessness, dismissing important problems that should rightly grab your attention. A recent New York Times op-ed on George W. Bush’s refusal to heed early warnings from the CIA about Osama bin Laden’s planned attacks on America suggests as much.
Of course, circumstance and luck can also play a large role in whether a decision is later seen as courageous or psychopathic — and in whether a presidency is considered a success or a failure. “Probably the biggest determinant of presidential success is luck,” says Lilienfeld. Interestingly, however, at least one of the surveys included in the study suggests that fearless types can influence their own luck: ratings of presidential luck were also linked with individuals’ degree of fearless dominance.
Lilienfeld cautions that his study can’t determine when a president’s fearless dominance crosses the line from confident courage to recklessness: there wasn’t enough data to determine whether extremely high levels of fearless dominance may be counterproductive, though it seems intuitively likely. He also notes that the overall effect of such boldness on performance was small: there are numerous factors that go into the making of a president, and this was only one.
Moreover, bold leadership isn’t just a quality found in psychopaths — or presidents. Everyone falls somewhere along the scale, from timid to bold, from follower to leader. And psychopathic traits like fearless dominance — or others like impulsivity, callousness and dishonesty — also appear in varying degrees in the general population. “I think the evidence increasingly points in the direction that these traits are on a continuum like height and weight: they are things all of us have to some degree. It’s probably not all or none,” Lilienfeld says. Shadings of potential pathology are found in everyone.
For those who rate high in both the psychopathic traits of boldness and impulsive, antisocial behavior, however, it’s likely that the balance between these two qualities could make the difference between whether they become a violent criminal or a (shady but) wealthy business leader.
“My mentor, David Lykken, argued that psychopaths and heroes are ‘twigs off of the same branch.’ It may be that the fearless dominance or boldness that sometimes gives rise to psychopathy might also sometimes give rise to heroism,” says Lilienfeld.
The research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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I'm seeing insane rhetoric and escalating hysteria - on all sides- around the Chris Stevens event in Libya. One of the more disturbing accusations is that Obama and Hillary Clinton knew 48 hours beforehand that things were going to take an ugly turn, yet no warning or alert-elevation was put in place.
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I'm seeing insane rhetoric and escalating hysteria - on all sides- around the Chris Stevens event in Libya. One of the more disturbing accusations is that Obama and Hillary Clinton knew 48 hours beforehand that things were going to take an ugly turn, yet no warning or alert-elevation was put in place.
It all is about electing yet another fearless dominator. ;)
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The little I picked up was that Chris Stevens misread the situation. He was the expert - he should have known the complexities involved. Unfortunately, he seems to have been a very unique guy - it is such a waste of these unique people, as there aren't that many available.
I heard today about the escalation of this film thing. Something weird is afoot - what the 'West' dismisses as the works of cranks throws the Islamic world into a frenzy. It doesn't bode well for co-existence.
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Globalised world is a barrel of gunpowder because of the overwhelming stupidity and inclination to follow one's emotions.
It is so easy to manipulate instincts and emotions - which we see happening. That movie they talk about (I watched its 13 min. trailer) is nothing but rubbing Torah in everybody's face, shitting on Islam, and provocation for these violent idiots.
And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend. Don Juan aka Donaldo
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Globalised world is a barrel of gunpowder
;)
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;)
You know how KGB manipulated the temperature of the US-Israeli relations? When they were becoming too good, and the US inclined to arm Israel a bit too enthusiastically, the brave KGB guys painted at night swastikas all over the synagogs in Washington DC and New York. The next day Israeli ambassador was in the State Dept. with official complaint.
The same worked with the UN and African states. It only took sending some letters to African embassies under the guise of Ku Klux Klan to get Africans go ballistic.
Elementary - and global - nowadays.
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Coincidently, I just saw and read this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/a-stew-of-hate-boils-over-and-romney-cant-help-stirring-20120913-25v7c.html
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Insha'Allah, perfect coincidence!
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For the record:
http://www.youtube.com/v/TQmz6Rbpnu0
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'A great silence is spreading over the natural world'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/03/bernie-krause-natural-world-recordings (there are several soundtracks within the original article)
"The birds are silent in the woods.
Just wait: Soon enough
You will be quiet too"
- Robert Hass
When musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the pristine coral reef waters of Fiji, he picks up a raucous mix of sighs, beats, glissandos, cries, groans, tones, grunts, beats and clicks.
The water pulsates with the sound of creatures vying for acoustic bandwidth. He hears crustaceans, parrot fish, anemones, wrasses, sharks, shrimps, puffers and surgeonfish. Some gnash their teeth, others use their bladders or tails to make sound. Sea anemones grunt and belch. Every creature on the reef makes its own sound.
But half a mile away, where the same reef is badly damaged, he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp. It is, he says, the desolate sound of extinction.
Krause, whose electronic music with Paul Beaver was used on classic films like Rosemary's Baby and Apocalypse Now, and who worked regularly with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and The Byrds, has spent 40 years recording over 15,000 species, collecting 4,500 hours of sound from many of the world's pristine habitats.
But such is the rate of species extinction and the deterioration of pristine habitat that he estimates half these recordings are now archives, impossible to repeat because the habitats no longer exist or because they have been so compromised by human noise. His tapes are possibly the only record of the original diversity of life in these places.
"A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening," he writes in a new book, The Great Animal Orchestra. "Little by little the vast orchestra of life, the chorus of the natural world, is in the process of being quietened. There has been a massive decrease in the density and diversity of key vocal creatures, both large and small. The sense of desolation extends beyond mere silence.
"If you listen to a damaged soundscape … the community [of life] has been altered, and organisms have been destroyed, lost their habitat or been left to re-establish their places in the spectrum. As a result, some voices are gone entirely, while others aggressively compete to establish a new place in the increasingly disjointed chorus."
Hawaii, he says, is the extinction capital of the world. "In a couple of centuries since the islands were populated by Europeans, half the 140 bird species have disappeared. In Madagascar, 15 species of lemur, an elephant bird, a pygmy hippo and an estimated half of all the animals have gone extinct."
Even partially disturbed habitats lose much of their life for many years, says Krause. Recordings of a meadow in the Sierra Nevada mountains east of San Francisco before the surrounding forest was selectively logged in the 1980s sounds very different to when Krause returned a year later.
"The overall richness of sound was gone, as was the thriving density and diversity of birds. The only prominent sounds were the stream and the hammering of a Williamson's sapsucker. Over the 20 years I have returned a dozen times to the same spot at the same time of year but the bio-acoustic vitality I had captured before logging has not yet returned."
One in four mammals is threatened with extinction, he says. With the exception of a few sites, frog populations are in decline worldwide and birds are beginning to show radical signs of territorial shifting.
"Things are beginning to quiet down in the pristine habitats. The combination of shrinking habitat and increasing human pandemonium have produced conditions under which the channels … necessary for creature survival are being completely overloaded. The voices of the wild in their purest states where no [human] noise is present are splendid symphonies."
But the wild natural world, comprised of vast areas not managed by humans, rarely exists now except in a few isolated places such as the Alaskan wilderness, the far Canadian north, Siberia, the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, and the Brazilian Pantanal which are still rich with natural sound, he says.
"The fragile weave of natural sound is being torn apart by our seemingly boundless need to conquer the environment rather than to find a way to abide in consonance with it."
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America's miasma of misinformation on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/america-miasma-misinformation-climate-change
Since 1950, humans have manufactured more goods than have ever existed in history. Our consumption of those goods – a highly inefficient use of our natural capital – has wrought a long list of environmental consequences. Staggering deforestation, check. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions, check. Rising heat, sea level, and incidence of extreme weather events – check, check and check.
To environmental experts, such evidence is the proverbial writing on the wall: we must transition to a low-carbon economy, stat, in order to avoid irrevocable damage. As President Obama affirmed, upon accepting his party's nomination for president, no less:
"Climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They're a threat to our children's future."
The president's choice of words seemed a pointed response to Republican Senator James Inhofe, author of The Greatest Hoax and, it's worth noting, recipient of $1.3m in campaign contributions from the oil and gas lobby.
Political maneuvering aside, why are Americans so disengaged from climate change – arguably, one of the most critical problems of our time?
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt; it's also in places like North Carolina and perhaps even embedded into America's cultural DNA. According to the latest study from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, the American public's concern about global warming can be sorted into six categories, ranging from alarmed (13%) and concerned (26%), to cautious, disengaged, doubtful and dismissive (that's the other 61% of us). Among the many explanations offered for the knowledge gap are clashing worldviews, varying education levels, demographics, and the media's handling of the issue.
Even as evidence for climate change mounts and the consequences of the phenomenon become more severe, the amount of climate coverage on broadcast networks has plummeted. According to a stunning analysis by Media Matters, the Sunday morning current affairs shows averaged about one hour each on climate change in 2009, compared to averaging 21 minutes apiece in 2010 and only 9 minutes per program in 2011. In 2011, Fox News Sunday covered climate change the most (just under an hour), "but much of the coverage promoted the 'Climategate' controversy and downplayed the threat of climate change," reports Media Matters.
At the other end of the spectrum, CBS had the least climate change coverage, devoting four minutes to the topic in three years. Altogether, in 2011, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox spent twice as much time discussing Donald Trump's "will he, won't he" run for president rather than climate change. In fact, NBC's Meet the Press devoted 23 minutes to Trump that year – but not a single minute to climate change.
While there is virtually no mention of climate change in the local news, reporters have turned the weather into a national pastime. Perhaps this is because storms, hurricanes and tornadoes ignite a primal reaction, whereas climate change requires an intellectual one. There is also a perception of trust that grows from constant visibility on television – although we poke fun at the weatherman, we still hide in our closets during tornado warnings. On the other hand, we regard PhD-level climate scientists with suspicion, even though their work must hold up to rigorous peer review. The weather versus climate conflict illustrates what behavioral economists have said for years:
"We base our decisions on emotion far more than reason."
Flawed climate risk perception may also explain why meteorologists have an advantage over climate scientists in making immediate weather more urgent than climate change. Although hard data do influence thinking, the psychology of risk perception is complicated. Often, our fears defy reason and statistics. For instance, blood-curdling events like shark attacks and plane crashes scare the living daylights out of us, when we have more reason to be afraid of climbing into our cars each morning: sharks claim about 12 lives per year, while car crash fatalities average around 93 per day. In the case of climate change, fear over problems that will affect us 50 years from now cannot compare with fear of challenges we face today. What people don't understand is that climate change is, in fact, already affecting our economy.
It's understandable that our perception of risk may lead us to focus on surviving an immediate disaster more than preventing a future one. But it defies logic that so many would fall prey to "infotainers" such as Glenn Beck, who uses sustainable development as fodder for jokes. From McKinney, Texas to Trenton, New Jersey, sustainable development projects are being held up due to aggressive pushback and fear-mongering over Agenda 21, a voluntary initiative that some suspect to be diabolical attempt on the part of the UN to force a one-world government.
Fortunately, most folks are not held back by reactionary ideology so much as basic lack of exposure to the problem. More than 1 billion people live in low-lying coastal areas, and most live in poverty. Already, at least 25 million climate refugees and counting are facing the consequences. For them, climate change is no longer an abstract concept to get their minds around; they are literally wading through it.
Seeing is believing. If weak perception of risk is our blind spot, we needn't let the media keep us in the dark. Instead, we can use media – pictures, videos and websites such as National Geographic – to confront the challenges, and so mobilize citizens and students toward solutions. Weather may fade, but pictures of post-drought west Texas, hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and submerging countries such as Tuvalu are a stark reminder that climate change carries not only an economic or environmental toll, but also a human one.
Sure, we can always evacuate, but we cannot get around paying a price for avoiding climate change. And the price – like the sea level – keeps rising.
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Scientists found guilty in Italy quake trial (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/10/20121022151851442575.html)
Here is a decent article in Al Jazeera about this issue. Most of the western foreign media headlights are quite misleading, sensationalists.
Six Italian scientists and a government official have been found guilty of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a deadly earthquake in the town of L'Aquila in 2009 that left 309 people dead.
Judge Marco Billi on Monday sentenced all seven members of Italy's Major Risks Committee to six years in prison for failing to warn the population of the risks just days before L'Aquila and surrounding towns were hit by the earthquake.
Prosecutors have argued that the seven - all members of the Major Risks Committee - failed to adequately alert the town's population after studying a series of small tremors in the weeks before the 6.3-magnitude quake struck.
The experts provided "an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken" analysis, downplaying risks and reassuring residents, leaving them unprepared for the quake, said prosecutors during the year-long trial.
Apparently the statements were forced on these people by higher politicians to prevent panic and damage to tourism.
The situation is fairly complex but simple in the same time. These scientists are just a scapegoat and distraction.
In the few weeks after the event all the Italian media was focused on the rampant disregard of construction standards and laws by construction companies - to save costs. It was statistically demonstrated that most of the buildings that collapsed were either old, or new structures not conforming the laws for earthquake resistant buildings.
Everything went quiet, then this trial happened. The politicians or the companies guilty of building inadequate houses are not being prosecuted.
No shock there, it's just a scary precedent for what will come later.
On a side note, if making a "misleadingly reassuring statement" is a punishable crime by law, a bunch of politicians should be on trial.
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I have been following this vaguely, and although there is a case that the scientists were irresponsibly sanguine about the risks, nonetheless it appears way over the top to accuse them of manslaughter.
It did however occur to me, that this could be a wake-up call to climate-change scientists, to resist the pressure to water down their forecasts (which some have been doing). Because it is the scientists who will wear the opprobrium for disasters, not the politicians.
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I have been following this vaguely, and although there is a case that the scientists were irresponsibly sanguine about the risks, nonetheless it appears way over the top to accuse them of manslaughter.
There was a man who "predicted" the earthquake using measurements of argon gas emissions, a method which he says he invented, but in reality not used anymore in the mainstream seismology because it's not precise. He was discredited and label as fearmonger. Apparently he also predicted a possible earthquake a few months earlier which didn't happen. The area is a very active seismic area.
It did however occur to me, that this could be a wake-up call to climate-change scientists, to resist the pressure to water down their forecasts (which some have been doing). Because it is the scientists who will wear the opprobrium for disasters, not the politicians.
Or maybe a wake-up call for scientists to think twice before publishing information and estimates, and in general stay away from (italian) politics. Regardless of what the scientists say, politicians will never be taken responsible so for them the safest choice atm is stay out of it.
If I was a seismologist or climate-change scientist, or any natural disaster related field really, I would simply stop publishing papers.
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If I was a seismologist or climate-change scientist, or any natural disaster related field really, I would simply stop publishing papers.
Most likely in the minds of many scientists.
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Japanese have been working for decades to find a reliable method for predicting earthquakes. Their desired approach to managing the quakes was to find a reliable method for predicting them and to warn the population as early as possible.
Well, after all the years of study, it turned out that it is impossible to predict an earthquake with a high degree of certainty. These things might occur out of the blue.
It makes the court sentence all the more ridiculous, and brings to my mind Julius Caesar who ordered his men to cut long sticks and to beat up the stormy sea that would not allow them to invade Britain.
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The other side of the coin.
http://www.6aprile.it/featured/2012/10/23/laquila-its-not-a-verdict-for-not-having-foreseen-the-earthquake.html (http://www.6aprile.it/featured/2012/10/23/laquila-its-not-a-verdict-for-not-having-foreseen-the-earthquake.html)
But there is a subtext here that brings us back to the role of scientists as communicators and educators, particularly scientists with expertise about issues involving risk. Indeed, this trial sends a message to them all. As much as we need experts to help predict and plan for risk to society in general, we also need experts to help us understand what we need to know to protect ourselves as individuals.
Scientific experts are among the most highly trusted sources of information in society, and as much as they share their expertise about risk with governments, they should also communicate with and educate individuals looking for the same kind of guidance. Small wonder then that the people of l’Aquila are celebrating what is essentially their revenge against those they hoped would help them make informed choices about how to stay safe, experts who – quite innocently, to be sure – let those people down.
Rings true, but then scientists are at the whim of politicians and public opinion. So why we are not angry at the politicians and ourselves for creating and allowing such a system to exist? I feel that most of the indignation around the world is just posturing, it will all fade away.
Besides probably they will never go to jail, due to the Italian judicial system. The whole trial was/is a farce, and the world is falling for it.
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It's one of those damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't scenarios. In the US, the rightist media swoops right down on those who predict disaster (from earthquakes to hurricanes) as "climate extremists" and "conspiracists".
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Poles apart: satellites reveal why Antarctic sea ice grows as Arctic melts
US military satellite data exposes complexity of climate change and impact of changing wind patterns on polar regions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/11/poles-scientists-antarctic-sea-ice
The mystery of the expansion of sea ice around Antarctica, at the same time as global warming is melting swaths of Arctic sea ice, has been solved using data from US military satellites.
Two decades of measurements show that changing wind patterns around Antarctica have caused a small increase in sea ice, the result of cold winds off the continent blowing ice away from the coastline.
"Until now these changes in ice drift were only speculated upon using computer models," said Paul Holland at the British Antarctic Survey. "Our study of direct satellite observations shows the complexity of climate change.
"The Arctic is losing sea ice five times faster than the Antarctic is gaining it, so, on average, the Earth is losing sea ice very quickly. There is no inconsistency between our results and global warming."
The extent of sea ice is of global importance because the bright ice reflects sunlight far more than the ocean that melting uncovers, meaning temperature rises still further.
This summer saw a record low in Arctic sea ice since satellite measurements began 30 years ago. Holland said the changing pattern of sea ice at both poles would also affect global ocean circulation, with unknown effects. He noted that while Antarctic sea ice was growing, the Antarctic ice cap – the glacier and snow pack on the continent – was losing mass, with the fresh water flowing into the ocean.
The research on Antarctic sea ice, published in Nature Geoscience, revealed large regional variations. In places where warm winds blowing from the tropics towards Antarctica had become stronger, sea ice was being lost rapidly. "In some areas, such as the Bellingshausen Sea, the sea ice is being lost as fast as in the Arctic," said Holland.
But in other areas, sea ice was being added as sea water left behind ice being blown away from the coast froze. The net effect is that there has been an extra 17,000 sq km of sea ice each year since 1978 – about a tenth of a percent of the maximum sea ice cover.
Antarctica is a continent surrounded by an ocean, whereas the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by a continent. For that reason, said Holland, sea ice was not able to expand by the same mechanism in the Arctic as at the southern pole, because if winds pushed the ice away from the pole it quickly hit land.
Holland did the research with Ron Kwok at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in California, where maps of sea ice movements were created from more than 5m individual daily measurements collected over 19 years. The maps showed, for the first time, the long-term changes in sea ice drift around Antarctica.
Kwok said: "The Antarctic sea ice cover interacts with the global climate system very differently than that of the Arctic, and these results highlight the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice coverage to changes in the strength of the winds around the continent."
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A little bit of an update, for those who only get their news here.
"Am I the only person in the world who could not care less if David Petraeus was shagging his biographer?" says Annabel Crabb of the smh (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/rorters-are-the-root-of-real-evil-20121117-29iqw.html), who finished with "Give me the rooters over the rorters, every time."
But a very interesting take by Julia Baird (smh (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/blame-game-a-onesided-affair-20121116-29hbt.html)):
"Devoted wife Holly Petraeus has, disgracefully, been blamed for forcing her husband to stray because she committed the worst crime of all: she let herself go....
But the real villain has been the muscular, A-type, "alpha dog" Paula Broadwell, who has been widely cast as a "slut"....
Funny though, no one seems to be asking: Is General Petraeus a slut?...
Broadwell has been tarred as a sexually predatory lunatic who "got her claws into him". The Washington Post said Petraeus had just "let his guard down"."
I gather the rest of the world is shaking their collective head as to why a man, who has been singularly effective in some of the most outrageously difficult wars, should resign from his job just because he had an affair on the side? Surely the US needs men of his calibre at the helm. American morality continues to baffle - it's fine to cause thousands of deaths around the world for financial gain, and murder people left and right in their own country, but woe betide anyone married who has a little sex on the side.
Rash Israel lights Arab Spring powder keg (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/rash-israel-lights-arab-spring-powder-keg-20121117-29ism.html), a great article again by Paul McGeough.
In summary, it goes like this: Lebanon and Jordan are teetering on the brink of meltdown, Syria is in meltdown, Iran is confused about where and who are their buddies. Then the Arab Spring countries are reformatting the political landscape of the whole Islamic world. Turkey is getting caught up in the Syrian catastrophe. Read: the whole Middle East is a complicated and unpredictable tinderbox. So what does Israel do? Will this be seen belatedly as a gigantic mistake.
Gaza: Hamas is in conflict internally. Mishal, their leader in exile - in Doha, is talking of moving on from Hamas, while the leadership in Gaza is ramping up the fight against Israel. But Hamas is in support transition: being Sunni - Iran and Syria, Hamas' traditional supporters, are Shia, and have been murdering Sunnis. But Hamas is receiving top level visits from their new friends, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt.
Israel: elections coming up (surely they wouldn't light this tinderbox for internal partisan political purposes?!), treaty with Egypt thrown into a 'hot' test, intelligence knew of Hamas deploying superior rockets which is why they did the pre-emptive strike on the popular Hamas military leader, Jabari.
Egypt: the new president is talking to the Islamic world publicly about defending Gaza, but privately phoning everyone of significance to find a peaceful resolution. What will Egypt do? No one knows yet, but one thing is certain, Palestine's world political situation has shifted.
US: latest we hear is that Obama is asking Turkey and Egypt to do the negotiation with Hamas to cool things down.
Meanwhile, the battle is escalating daily. And we haven't even said anything about Syria's chemical weapons which are now being eyed by Hezbollah among others. The US military say they would need 75,000 troops on the ground to protect these stockpiles.
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My take on the Broadwell thing is that it's a highly-engineered distractor issue. Distraction from what is the question, of course - could be all the serious matters which you reported in the second half of your post.
I've seen the conspiracy-theorists speculate that Petraeus is being severely discredited (for America does like to be aghast over a sex scandal) in order to dissuade attention from the events in Libya - to which Petraeus was allegedly privy beforehand.
I don't get anything on that, but I do smell a rat with the whole thing. A man in power has an affair - how is that shocking, and who in the hell cares? I refuse to see it as "news". What-is-it-masking is more interesting a question.
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Taliban's comment on Petraeus affair: 'We had a good laugh!'
When the 'War on Terror' was launched the neocons liked to portray themselves/the US as 'Rome'. Disciplined, powerful, determined, ferocious - all from Mars. Europeans were 'whimps from Venus'.
I think, neocons hit the sweet spot with their statement about 'Rome'. But not Rome on the ascent, but of the period of decadent, internally rotting, but still powerful empire. Its main trait was self-infatuation and self-indulgence. Its political elite thought so much more about grabbing power or stopping rivals from usurping the power that they became gradually irrelevant and inadequate with regard to powers outside.
That's the US of today - mind trapped by many spirits and increasingly withdrawn into itself. A bit of 'old seers'of the political world.
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Israel: elections coming up (surely they wouldn't light this tinderbox for internal partisan political purposes?!), treaty with Egypt thrown into a 'hot' test, intelligence knew of Hamas deploying superior rockets which is why they did the pre-emptive strike on the popular Hamas military leader, Jabari.
Fajr-5 rockets can fly up to 75 km and they have been launched at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Dimona (Israel's nuclear installation) for the first time. That puts Israel into an unprecedented situation. At the same time, one must remember, that this year Israel endured 800 rockets and missiles before killing Jabari. It is more than half of 1,400 launched from Gaza since January 2009. Thus, Israel's retaliation was a matter of time.
Besides, Sunni-orientation brings frequently along undesired side-effects (http://www.google.ee/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=talibanisation%20of%20gaza&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFwQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crisisgroup.org%2F~%2Fmedia%2FFiles%2FMiddle%2520East%2520North%2520Africa%2FIsrael%2520Palestine%2F104---Radical%2520Islam%2520in%2520Gaza&ei=2aGoUMqGI4Gw0QXZpoGYAw&usg=AFQjCNGtt2wTrFCInlQPoSE4ZZY1DheLNQ).
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One more rock in the direction of 'Romans' of the US origin (and their absolutely incredible lack of understanding of external world):
Israeli flag: (http://www.teuniz.net/Israel_vacation_2004/israel_flag.jpg)
Flag that was seriously considered for Iraq in 2004: (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/i/iq-2004.gif)
How about that? Such a flag for an Arab, Shia-dominated country next to Iran? Flags of the Middle-East (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/flags/mideast.shtml)
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Greenland and Antarctica 'have lost four trillion tonnes of ice' in 20 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/29/greenland-antarctica-4-trillion-tonnes-ice
• Landmark study by global team of scientists published
• Finds melting polar ice has led to 11mm rise in sea level
• Greenland losing ice five times faster than early 1990s
More than 4 trillon tonnes of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20 years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels, according to a study that provides the best measure to date of the effect climate change is having on the earth's biggest ice sheets.
The research involved dozens of scientists and 10 satellite missions and presents a disturbing picture of the impact of recent warming at the poles.
The scientists claim the study, published in the journal Science, ends a long-running debate over whether the vast ice sheet covering the Antarctic continent is losing or gaining mass. East Antarctica is gaining some ice, the satellite data shows, but west Antarctica and the Antarctic peninsula is losing twice as much, meaning overall the sheet is melting.
"The estimates are the most reliable to date, and end 20 years of uncertainty of ice mass changes in Antarctica and Greenland," said study leader, Andrew Shepherd, of Leeds University. "There have been 30 different estimates of the sea level rise contribution of Greenland and Antarctica, ranging from an annual 2mm rise to a 0.4mm fall.
"We can state definitively that both Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass, and as [the] temperature goes up we are going to lose more ice."
The study shows the melting of the two giant ice sheets has caused the seas to rise by more than 11mm in 20 years. It also found Greenland is losing ice mass at five times the rate of the early 1990s.
The uncertainties over ice cap melting have made it difficult for scientists to predict sea level rise. But Prof Richard Alley, of Penn State University, US, who was not involved in the study, said: "This project is a spectacular achievement. The data will support essential testing of predictive models, and will lead to a better understanding of how sea level change may depend on the human decisions that influence global temperatures." Rising sea level is one of the greatest long-term threats posed by climate change, threatening low-lying cities and increasing the damage wrought by hurricanes and typhoons.
The study combined satellite measurements of the ice caps' heights from laser and radar instruments with measurements of the small changes in gravity caused by ice loss. The data was analysed ensuring the same regions and time periods were compared, as well as using the consistent estimates of the rebound that land experiences when heavy ice sheets start to melt.
The 11mm sea level rise caused by melting in Greenland and Antarctica makes up about a fifth of the total rise in the oceans since 1992, but the increasing rate of melting means the ice caps' contribution today is about two-fifths. The other contributions to rising seas are the expansion of water as it warms and a smaller contribution from the melting of ice caps and glaciers outside the poles. A study in February found that, over the past decade at least, the Himalayas had on average lost no ice.
Another recent study showed the changes to winds caused by global warming meant that sea ice – whose melting does not add to sea level rise – was very slightly increasing around Antarctica, at the same time as rapidly vanishing in the Arctic.
Ian Joughin, another member of the team, of University of Washington, Seattle, said: "Climate change is likely to accelerate ice loss greatly." He added significant challenges remained in predicting ice melting, due to the complexity of the interactions between the warming air and oceans and the great ice sheets and glaciers. "In Greenland, we are seeing really dramatic losses in ice, but it is still uncertain if it will slow, stay the same or accelerate further."
• One of the summary paragraphs introducing this article mistakenly stated the melting of Greenland and Antarctic has caused 11m of sea level rise. This has been corrected to 11mm.
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Turkey requested Nato missile defences over Syria chemical weapons fears
Turkish officials say they have evidence Assad regime could resort to ballistic missiles if air campaign against rebels fails
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/02/turkey-syria-chemical-weapons-fears
A request by Turkey for Nato Patriot missile defences to be deployed on its territory followed intelligence that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of missiles, possibly with chemical warheads, Turkish officials have told the Guardian.
The officials said they had credible evidence that if the Syrian government's aerial bombardment against opposition-held areas failed to hold the rebels back, Bashar al-Assad's regime might resort to missiles and chemical weapons in a desperate last effort to survive.
The Turks believe that the regime's Soviet-era Scuds and North Korean SS-21 missiles would be aimed principally at opposition areas but could easily stray across the border, as Syrian army artillery shells and mortars have done.
A missile, especially with a chemical warhead, would represent a far greater threat to Turkish border communities, so Ankara decided last month to ask Nato to supply Patriot missile defence systems, which can spot an incoming missile and intercept it.
"We have intelligence from different sources that the Syrians will use ballistic missiles and chemical warheads," a senior Turkish official said. "First they sent the infantry in against the rebels and they lost a lot of men, and many changed sides. Then they sent in the tanks, and they were taken out by anti-tank missiles. So now it's air power. If that fails it will be missiles, perhaps with chemical warheads. That is why we asked Nato for protection."
The New York Times reported that western intelligence officials had spotted new signs of activity around Syrian military sites where chemical weapons are stored. A senior US official was quoted as saying: "[T]hey're doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons. It's not just moving stuff around. These are different kind of activities."
The Syrian regime is believed to have stocks of mustard gas, sarin nerve gas and possibly VX, another nerve agent. Western governments have warned Assad that any use of these weapons would trigger direct military intervention against him. So far, western officials say there are no signs of the regime taking the final steps of preparing chemical artillery shells, missiles or aircraft bombs for use. The deployment of Dutch and German Patriot systems is due to be voted on by those countries' parliaments this week, and Turkish diplomats expect it to be approved. The same two countries supplied the launchers and missiles the last time Patriots were deployed in Turkey, in 2003 during the Iraq war.
In recent days the rebel Free Syrian Army has succeeded in shooting down Syrian government aircraft with shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, in a potential turning point, but Turkey still expects a protracted struggle for the upper hand in the bloody civil war, in which it estimates 50,000 people have died.
Turkish officials still believe the best chance of a breakthrough that would cut short the conflict would be for Russia to withdraw its backing for Assad, forcing the Syrian president, his family and immediate entourage into exile, and thereby removing the most serious obstacle to talks between the opposition and the government.
Russia has blocked any punitive UN security council measures and has supplied the Syrian regime with arms and economic support. In recent weeks it is reported to have flown in tonnes of freshly printed banknotes to allow Damascus to pay its soldiers. But Turkish officials believe Russian backing for the Syrian leader is finally fading. "Privately they have been telling us that they accept he is going to go," a senior official said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is expected to fly to Turkey on Monday for bilateral talks with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which Erdogan will keep up the pressure for the Russians to pull the plug on their closest Middle East ally. "We are asking the Russians whether or not they want to help build a stable Syria after Assad," a Turkish official said.
A regional peace initiative launched by Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, in August, involving Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, foundered on Saudi objections to Iranian involvement. Both Egypt and Turkey, however, believe that Iran has to be engaged in the search for a peace deal as it is Assad's only regional ally and an important source of weapons.
Turkey has sustained the effort by organising three sets of trilateral talks: Turkey, Iran and Egypt, whose leaders met in Islamabad late last month to discuss the Syrian crisis; Turkey, Iran and Russia; and Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Ankara believes that all those relationships will be vital in rebuilding Syria after the conflict, but that Russia's role will be decisive in bringing it to an end.
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'Syrian army prepared to use chemical weapons'
By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS
12/06/2012 04:05
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=294801
US officials tell NBC News Syrian army have loaded deadly nerve gas onto aerial bombs, are awaiting Assad's orders to drop them.
The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from Syrian president Bashar Assad, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing US officials.
The officials told NBC News that "the army had loaded precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, onto aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers."
According to the report, the officials added that the sarin bombs hadn't yet been loaded onto planed, but if Assad gives the green light, "there's little the outside world can do to stop it."
On Tuesday the head of NATO, asked about possible use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, said that any such act would provoke an immediate international response.
"The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters. "If anybody resorts to these terrible weapons, then I would expect an immediate reaction from the international community," he said.
Rasmussen's statement followed a similar warning by US President Barack Obama to Assad on Monday not to use chemical weapons against Syrian opposition forces, saying there would be consequences if he were to do so.
"I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching," Obama said in a speech to a gathering of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons proliferation experts. "The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable," Obama said.
He did not say how the United States might respond, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said earlier that "contingency planning" was under way when asked whether the use of military force was an option. As Assad's government has shown signs of increasing strain in response to recent advances made by the rebels, Carney said the United States has grown concerned that the Syrian president might be considering the use of chemical weapons. This would, Carney said, "cross a red line for the United States."
Some US Republicans have been critical of the Obama administration's response to the Syrian crisis as thousands of people have been killed during the country's civil war. During the presidential campaign, Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, said the United States should facilitate the arming of Syrian rebels, a step Obama has not taken. Obama said in his speech on Monday that the United States would continue to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, engaging with the opposition and providing them with humanitarian aid. He said his goal is a transition in Syria to a country that is free of Assad.
The Atlantic reported Monday that Israel asked Jordan on a number of occasions for "permission" to bomb Syrian chemical weapons sites, citing intelligence sources in both countries.
According to the report, Jordan turned down requests a number of times in the past two months, saying "the time was not right." Jordan is reportedly wary of allowing Israel to bomb the sites in Syria, fearing a military response on Jordanian territory. "A number of sites are not far from the border," the report quoted a foreign source as saying.
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They can't bomb the chemical sites once the chemical have been 'mixed', which is the information coming through. So count that out - it would be a catastrophe.
The US can't do anything militarily about the sites, no matter how much they crow about it. George Bush has shattered America's financial, political and moral credentials to act in such a major way in Syria. So forget that.
The Arab league is not going to act, because they never do. Israel won't act unless it directly threatens them, as they have way too much on their hands.
So long as Syria keeps at least 80% of this battle internal, no one will do anything.
The nightmare continuing in Syria will continue until one side defeats the other. At present, I can see only one answer - the Alawites will be utterly destroyed.
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They can't bomb the chemical sites once the chemical have been 'mixed', which is the information coming through. So count that out - it would be a catastrophe.
Do not be so sure. A whole generation of weapons has been developed for destruction chemical and biological agents loaded into warheads. At the end, it is a calculus about casualty numbers. What would cause more of them?
The best option would be a decapitation strike against Syrian leadership with negotiated ceasefire between government forces and rebels, but that has to be pre-emptive and complete surprise for al-Assad. Moreover, rebels would have to accept it. That is not the case.
As of now, we see al-Assad seeing only gallows in front of him and tremendous weaponry at his disposal. It is hard to rule out anything.
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The end is nearing
(http://image.slidesharecdn.com/stateofdamascusfinal-121207163858-phpapp02/95/slide-5-638.jpg?1354920318)
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And now even the Russians admit it.
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Elsewhere, there was a question about what 2012 could mean for middle classes of our world. Mostly continuation of what is shown in the article below: hundreds and thousands of studies, heavy egocentric thinking about where and what part of their world view and habits could or should be compromised, lots of argument about who should actually compromise their welfare, and minimum action (that is nevertheless required for upkeep of self-deception and the achievement of 'feel-good' effect). '
That's the classic and still apparently immutable learning curve through suffering. That's the option billions of our co-travellers go for so enthusiastically. Instead of learning proactively, they opt for reactive absorbtion of wisdom.
As one wonderful yogi said: 'Everything is precisely as good as it could be...and not one bit better.'
Loss of biodiversity increasingly threatens human well-being: research
Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 17 prominent ecologists are calling for renewed international efforts to curb the loss of biological diversity, which is compromising nature's ability to provide goods and services essential for human well-being.
http://phys.org/news/2012-06-loss-biodiversity-increasingly-threatens-human.html
Over the past two decades, strong scientific evidence has emerged showing that loss of the world's biological diversity reduces the productivity and sustainability of natural ecosystems and decreases their ability to provide society with goods and services like food, wood, fodder, fertile soils, and protection from pests and disease, according to an international team of ecologists led by the University of Michigan's Bradley Cardinale.
Human actions are dismantling Earth's natural ecosystems, resulting in species extinctions at rates several orders of magnitude faster than observed in the fossil record. Even so, there's still time—if the nations of the world make biodiversity preservation an international priority—to conserve much of the remaining variety of life and to restore much of what's been lost, according to Cardinale and his colleagues.
The researchers present their findings in the June 7 edition of the journal Nature, in an article titled "Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity." The paper is a scientific consensus statement that summarizes evidence that has emerged from more than 1,000 ecological studies over the past two decades.
"Much as the consensus statements by doctors led to public warnings that tobacco use is harmful to your health, this is a consensus statement by experts who agree that loss of Earth's wild species will be harmful to the world's ecosystems and may harm society by reducing ecosystem services that are essential to human health and prosperity," said Cardinale, an associate professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
"We need to take biodiversity loss far more seriously—from individuals to international governing bodies—and take greater action to prevent further losses of species," said Cardinale, the first author of the Nature paper.
An estimated 9 million species of plants, animals, protists and fungi inhabit the Earth, sharing it with some 7 billion people.
The call to action comes as international leaders prepare to gather in Rio de Janeiro on June 20-22 for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as the Rio+20 Conference. The upcoming conference marks the 20th anniversary of 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which resulted in 193 nations supporting the Convention on Biological Diversity's goals of biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.
The 1992 Earth Summit caused an explosion of interest in understanding how biodiversity loss might impact the dynamics and functioning of ecosystems, as well as the supply of goods and services of value to society. In the Nature paper, Cardinale and his colleagues review published studies on the topic and list six consensus statements, four emerging trends and four "balance of evidence" statements.
The balance of evidence shows, for example, that genetic diversity increases the yield of commercial crops, enhances the production of wood in tree plantations, improves the production of fodder in grasslands, and increases the stability of yields in fisheries. Increased plant diversity also results in greater resistance to invasion by exotic plants, inhibits plant pathogens such as fungal and viral infections, increases above-ground carbon sequestration through enhanced biomass, and increases nutrient remineralization and soil organic matter.
"No one can agree on what exactly will happen when an ecosystem loses a species, but most of us agree that it's not going to be good. And we agree that if ecosystems lose most of their species, it will be a disaster," said Shahid Naeem of Columbia University, one of the co-authors of the Nature paper. "Twenty years and a thousand studies later, what the world thought was true in Rio in 1992 has finally been proven: Biodiversity underpins our ability to achieve sustainable development."
Despite far-reaching support for the Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity loss has continued over the past two decades, often at increasing rates. In response, a new set of diversity-preservation goals for 2020, known as the Aichi targets, was recently formulated. Also, a new international body called the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services was formed in April 2012 to guide a global response toward sustainable management of the world's biodiversity and ecosystems.
Significant gaps in the science behind biological diversity remain and must be addressed if the Aichi targets are to be met, Cardinale and his colleagues write in Nature.
"This paper is important both because of what it shows we know and because of what it shows we don't know," said David Hooper of Western Washington University, one of the study co-authors. "Several of the key questions we outline help point the way for the next generation of research on how changing biodiversity affects human well-being."
Without an understanding of the fundamental ecological processes that link biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services, attempts to forecast the societal consequences of diversity loss, and to meet policy objectives, are likely to fail, the 17 ecologists write.
"But with that fundamental understanding in hand, we may yet bring the modern era of biodiversity loss to a safe end for humanity," they conclude.
In addition to Cardinale, Naeem and Hooper, co-authors of the Nature paper are: J. Emmett Duffy of The College of William and Mary; Andrew Gonzalez of McGill University; Charles Perrings and Ann Kinzig of Arizona State University; Patrick Venail and Anita Narwani of U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment; Georgina Mace of Imperial College London; David Tilman of the University of Minnesota; David Wardle of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Gretchen Daily of Stanford University; Michel Loreau of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Moulis, France; James Grace of the U.S. Geological Survey; Anne Larigauderie of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Rue Cuvier, France; and Diane Srivastava of the University of British Columbia.
The work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and funding from the University of California-Santa Barbara and the state of California.
"Water purity, food production and air quality are easy to take for granted, but all are largely provided by communities of organisms," said George Gilchrist, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "This paper demonstrates that it is not simply the quantity of living things, but their species, genetic and trait biodiversity that influences the delivery of many essential 'ecosystem services.'"
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Always 'how', never 'what'.
20 years and 1,000 studies, 40 years and 3,000 studies. To show what? That ecosystem is degrading? That climate is changing? That there might be a tad too many of us for our present lifestyle?
While we figure out how to reduce certain elements of pollution that we establish as root causes of some destructive processes, we will be lagging behind even more than now. :) Moreover, we will have twice the number of academic schools arguing incessantly and powerfully with each other, referendums, laws, parliamentary hearings, etc. No shortage of activity! Always about 'how'.
I've mentioned it before, but this thing is worth mentioning again. One research group spent nearly US $200,000 to establish that mother's love has a very positive effect on development of a child.
Inertia is amazing thing.
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The Woes of an American Drone Operator
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html
By Nicola Abé
(http://cdn1.spiegel.de/images/image-437590-galleryV9-mqvu.jpg)
(http://cdn4.spiegel.de/images/image-437623-galleryV9-kkjr.jpg)
For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn't be opened. Bryant and his coworkers sat in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. When Bryant pressed a button in New Mexico, someone died on the other side of the world.
The container is filled with the humming of computers. It's the brain of a drone, known as a cockpit in Air Force parlance. But the pilots in the container aren't flying through the air. They're just sitting at the controls.
Bryant was one of them, and he remembers one incident very clearly when a Predator drone was circling in a figure-eight pattern in the sky above Afghanistan, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,250 miles) away. There was a flat-roofed house made of mud, with a shed used to hold goats in the crosshairs, as Bryant recalls. When he received the order to fire, he pressed a button with his left hand and marked the roof with a laser. The pilot sitting next to him pressed the trigger on a joystick, causing the drone to launch a Hellfire missile. There were 16 seconds left until impact.
"These moments are like in slow motion," he says today. Images taken with an infrared camera attached to the drone appeared on his monitor, transmitted by satellite, with a two-to-five-second time delay.
With seven seconds left to go, there was no one to be seen on the ground. Bryant could still have diverted the missile at that point. Then it was down to three seconds. Bryant felt as if he had to count each individual pixel on the monitor. Suddenly a child walked around the corner, he says.
Second zero was the moment in which Bryant's digital world collided with the real one in a village between Baghlan and Mazar-e-Sharif.
Bryant saw a flash on the screen: the explosion. Parts of the building collapsed. The child had disappeared. Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach.
"Did we just kill a kid?" he asked the man sitting next to him.
"Yeah, I guess that was a kid," the pilot replied.
"Was that a kid?" they wrote into a chat window on the monitor.
Then, someone they didn't know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed their attack. "No. That was a dog," the person wrote.
They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?
Invisible Warfare
When Bryant left the container that day, he stepped directly into America: dry grasslands stretching to the horizon, fields and the smell of liquid manure. Every few seconds, a light on the radar tower at the Cannon Air Force Base flashed in the twilight. There was no war going on there.
Modern warfare is as invisible as a thought, deprived of its meaning by distance. It is no unfettered war, but one that is controlled from small high-tech centers in various places in the world. The new (way of conducting) war is supposed to be more precise than the old one, which is why some call it "more humane." It's the war of an intellectual, a war United States President Barack Obama has promoted more than any of his predecessors.
In a corridor at the Pentagon where the planning for this war takes place, the walls are covered with dark wood paneling. The men from the Air Force have their offices here. A painting of a Predator, a drone on canvas, hangs next to portraits of military leaders. From the military's perspective, no other invention has been as successful in the "war on terror" in recent years as the Predator.
The US military guides its drones from seven air bases in the United States, as well as locations abroad, including one in the East African nation of Djibouti. From its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the CIA controls operations in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
'We Save Lives'
Colonel William Tart, a man with pale eyes and a clear image of the enemy, calls the drone a "natural extension of the distance."
Until a few months ago, when he was promoted to head the US Air Force's Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Task Force in Langley, Tart was a commander at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, near Las Vegas, where he headed drone operations. Whenever he flew drones himself, he kept a photo of his wife and three daughters pasted into the checklist next to the monitors.
He doesn't like the word drone, because he says it implies that the vehicle has its own will or ego. He prefers to call them "remotely piloted aircraft," and he points out that most flights are for gathering information. He talks about the use of drones on humanitarian missions after the earthquake in Haiti, and about the military successes in the war in Libya: how his team fired on a truck that was pointing rockets at Misrata, and how it chased the convoy in which former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his entourage were fleeing. He describes how the soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan are constantly expressing their gratitude for the assistance from the air. "We save lives," he says.
He doesn't say as much about the targeted killing. He claims that during his two years as operations commander at Creech, he never saw any noncombatants die, and that the drones only fire at buildings when women and children are not in them. When asked about the chain of command, Tart mentions a 275-page document called 3-09.3. Essentially, it states that drone attacks must be approved, like any other attacks by the Air Force. An officer in the country where the operations take place has to approve them.
The use of the term "clinical war" makes him angry. It reminds him of the Vietnam veterans who accuse him of never having waded through the mud or smelled blood, and who say that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
That isn't true, says Tart, noting that he often used the one-hour drive from work back to Las Vegas to distance himself from his job. "We watch people for months. We see them playing with their dogs or doing their laundry. We know their patterns like we know our neighbors' patterns. We even go to their funerals." It wasn't always easy, he says.
One of the paradoxes of drones is that, even as they increase the distance to the target, they also create proximity. "War somehow becomes personal," says Tart.
'I Saw Men, Women and Children Die'
A yellow house stands on the outskirts of the small city of Missoula, Montana, against a background of mountains, forests and patches of fog. The ground is coated with the first snow of the season. Bryant, now 27, is sitting on the couch in his mother's living room. He has since left the military and is now living back at home. He keeps his head shaved and has a three-day beard. "I haven't been dreaming in infrared for four months," he says with a smile, as if this were a minor victory for him.
Bryant completed 6,000 flight hours during his six years in the Air Force. "I saw men, women and children die during that time," says Bryant. "I never thought I would kill that many people. In fact, I thought I couldn't kill anyone at all."
Part 2: An Unpopular Job
After graduating from high school, Bryant wanted to become an investigative journalist. He used to go to church on Sundays, and he had a thing for redheaded cheerleaders. By the end of his first semester at college, he had already racked up thousands of dollars in debt.
He came to the military by accident. One day, while accompanying a friend who was enlisting in the army, he heard that the Air Force had its own university, and that he could get a college education for free. Bryant did so well in tests that he was assigned to an intelligence collection unit. He learned how to control the cameras and lasers on a drone, as well as to analyze ground images, maps and weather data. He became a sensor operator, more or less the equivalent to a co-pilot.
He was 20 when he flew his first mission over Iraq. It was a hot, sunny day in Nevada, but it was dark inside the container and just before daybreak in Iraq. A group of American soldiers were on their way back to their base camp. Bryant's job was to monitor the road, to be their "guardian angel" in the sky.
He saw an eye, a shape in the asphalt. "I knew the eye from the training," he says. To bury an improvised explosive device in the road, the enemy combatants place a tire on the road and burn it to soften the asphalt. Afterwards it looks like an eye from above.
The soldiers' convoy was still miles away from the eye. Bryant told his supervisor, who notified the command center. He was forced to look on for several minutes, Bryant says today, as the vehicles approached the site.
"What should we do?" he asked his coworker.
But the pilot was also new on the job.
The soldiers on the ground couldn't be reached by radio, because they were using a jamming transmitter. Bryant saw the first vehicle drive over the eye. Nothing happened.
Then the second vehicle drove over it. Bryant saw a flash beneath, followed by an explosion inside the vehicle.
Five American soldiers were killed.
From then on, Bryant couldn't keep the five fellow Americans out of his thoughts. He began learning everything by heart, including the manuals for the Predator and the missiles, and he familiarized himself with every possible scenario. He was determined to be the best, so that this kind of thing would never happen again.
'I Felt Disconnected from Humanity'
His shifts lasted up to 12 hours. The Air Force still had a shortage of personnel for its remote-controlled war over Iraq and Afghanistan. Drone pilots were seen as cowardly button-pushers. It was such an unpopular job that the military had to bring in retired personnel.
Bryant remembers the first time he fired a missile, killing two men instantly. As Bryant looked on, he could see a third man in mortal agony. The man's leg was missing and he was holding his hands over the stump as his warm blood flowed onto the ground -- for two long minutes. He cried on his way home, says Bryant, and he called his mother.
"I felt disconnected from humanity for almost a week," he says, sitting in his favorite coffee shop in Missoula, where the smell of cinnamon and butter wafts in the air. He spends a lot of time there, watching people and reading books by Nietzsche and Mark Twain, sometimes getting up to change seats. He can't sit in one place for very long anymore, he says. It makes him nervous.
His girlfriend broke up with him recently. She had asked him about the burden he carries, so he told her about it. But it proved to be a hardship she could neither cope with nor share.
When Bryant drives through his hometown, he wears aviator sunglasses and a Palestinian scarf. The inside of his Chrysler is covered with patches from his squadrons. On his Facebook page, he's created a photo album of his coins, unofficial medals he was awarded. All he has is this one past. He wrestles with it, but it is also a source of pride.
When he was sent to Iraq in 2007, he posted the words "ready for action" on his profile. He was assigned to an American military base about 100 kilometers (63 miles) from Baghdad, where his job was to take off and land drones.
As soon as the drones reached flying altitude, pilots in the United States took over. The Predator can remain airborne for an entire day, but it is also slow, which is why it is stationed near the area of operation. Bryant posed for photos wearing sand-colored overalls and a bulletproof vest, leaning against a drone.
Two years later, the Air Force accepted him into a special unit, and he was transferred to the Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. He and a fellow soldier shared a bungalow in a dusty town called Clovis, which consists mainly of trailers, gas stations and evangelical churches. Clovis is located hours away from the nearest city.
Bryant preferred night shifts, because that meant it was daytime in Afghanistan. In the spring, the landscape, with its snow-covered peaks and green valleys, reminded him of his native Montana. He saw people cultivating their fields, boys playing soccer and men hugging their wives and children.
When it got dark, Bryant switched to the infrared camera. Many Afghans sleep on the roof in the summer, because of the heat. "I saw them having sex with their wives. It's two infrared spots becoming one," he recalls.
He observed people for weeks, including Taliban fighters hiding weapons, and people who were on lists because the military, the intelligence agencies or local informants knew something about them.
"I got to know them. Until someone higher up in the chain of command gave me the order to shoot." He felt remorse because of the children, whose fathers he was taking away. "They were good daddies," he says.
In his free time, Bryant played video games or "World of Warcraft" on the Internet, or he went out drinking with the others. He can't watch TV anymore because it is neither challenging or stimulating enough for him. He's also having trouble sleeping these days.
'There Was No Time for Feelings'
Major Vanessa Meyer, whose real name is covered with black tape, is giving a presentation at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico on the training of drone pilots. The Air Force plans to have enough personnel to cover its needs by 2013.
Meyer, 34, who is wearing lip gloss and a diamond on her finger, used to fly cargo planes before she became a drone pilot. Dressed in green Air Force overalls, she is standing in a training cockpit and, using a simulator to demonstrate how a drone is guided over Afghanistan. The crosshair on the monitor follows a white car until it reaches a group of mud huts. One uses the joystick to determine the drone's direction, and the left hand is used to operate the lever that slows down or accelerates the unmanned aircraft. On an airfield behind the container, Meyer shows us the Predator, slim and shiny, and its big brother, the Reaper, which carries four missiles and a bomb. "Great planes," she says. "They just don't work in bad weather."
Meyer flew drones at Creech, the air base near Las Vegas, where young men drive in and out in sports cars and mountain chains stretch across the desert like giant reptiles. Describing his time as a drone pilot in Nevada, Colonel Matt Martin wrote in his book "Predator" that, "Sometimes I felt like God hurling thunderbolts from afar." Meyer had her first child when she was working there. She was still sitting in the cockpit, her stomach pressing up against the keyboard, in her ninth month of pregnancy.
"There was no time for feelings" when she was preparing for an attack, she says today. Of course, she says, she felt her heart beating faster and the adrenaline rushing through her body. But then she adhered strictly to the rules and focused on positioning the aircraft. "When the decision had been made, and they saw that this was an enemy, a hostile person, a legal target that was worthy of being destroyed, I had no problem with taking the shot."
Part 3: No Room for the Evils of the World
After work, she would drive home along US Highway 85 into Las Vegas, listening to country music and passing peace activists without looking at them. She rarely thought about what happened in the cockpit. But sometimes she would review the individual steps in her head, hoping to improve her performance.
Or she would go shopping. It felt strange to her, sometimes, when the woman at the register would ask: "How's it going?" She would answer: "I'm good. How are you? Have a nice day." When she felt restless she would go for a run. She says that being able to help the boys on the ground motivated her to get up every morning.
There was no room for the evils of the world in Meyer's home. She and her husband, a drone pilot, didn't talk about work. She would put on her pajamas and watch cartoons on TV or play with the baby.
Today Meyer has two small children. She wants to show them "that mommy can get to work and do a good job." She doesn't want to be like the women in Afghanistan she watched -- submissive and covered from head to toe. "The women there are no warriors," she says. Meyer says that he current job as a trainer is very satisfying but that, one day, she would like to return to combat duty.
'I Can't Just Switch Back and Go Back to Normal Life'
At some point, Brandon Bryant just wanted to get out and do something else. He spent a few more months overseas, this time in Afghanistan. But then, when he returned to New Mexico, he found that he suddenly hated the cockpit, which smelled of sweat. He began spraying air freshener to get rid of the stench. He also found he wanted to do something that saved lives rather than took them away. He thought working as a survival trainer might fit the bill, although his friends tried to dissuade him.
The program that he then began working on in his bungalow in Clovis every day was called Power 90 Extreme, a boot camp-style fitness regimen. It included dumbbell training, push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups. He also lifted weights almost every day.
On uneventful days in the cockpit, he would write in his diary, jotting down lines like: "On the battlefield there are no sides, just bloodshed. Total war. Every horror witnessed. I wish my eyes would rot."
If he could just get into good enough shape, he thought to himself, they would let him do something different. The problem was that he was pretty good at his job.
At some point he no longer enjoyed seeing his friends. He met a girl, but she complained about his bad moods. "I can't just switch and go back to normal life," he told her. When he came home and couldn't sleep, he would exercise instead. He began talking back to his superior officers.
One day he collapsed at work, doubling over and spitting blood. The doctor told him to stay home, and ordered him not to return to work until he could sleep more than four hours a night for two weeks in a row.
"Half a year later, I was back in the cockpit, flying drones," says Bryant, sitting in his mother's living room in Missoula. His dog whimpers and lays its head on his cheek. He can't get to his own furniture at the moment. It's in storage, and he doesn't have the money to pay the bill. All he has left is his computer.
Bryant posted a drawing on Facebook the night before our interview. It depicts a couple standing, hand-in-hand, in a green meadow, looking up at the sky. A child and a dog are sitting on the ground next to them. But the meadow is just a part of the world. Beneath it is a sea of dying soldiers, propping themselves up with their last bit of strength, a sea of bodies, blood and limbs.
Doctors at the Veterans' Administration diagnosed Bryant with post-traumatic stress disorder. General hopes for a comfortable war -- one that could be completed without emotional wounds -- haven't been fulfilled. Indeed, Bryan's world has melded with that of the child in Afghanistan. It's like a short circuit in the brain of the drones.
Why isn't he with the Air Force anymore? There was one day, he says, when he knew that he wouldn't sign the next contract. It was the day Bryant walked into the cockpit and heard himself saying to his coworkers: "Hey, what motherflowerer is going to die today?"
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Black Carbon Twice as Dangerous as 2007 Estimate, Scientists Say
By Justin Doom - Jan 15, 2013 3:00 PM GMT+0200
The black carbon produced by diesel engines is nearly twice as damaging to the planet as estimated in 2007 and trails only carbon dioxide as the most dangerous climate pollutant, according to an article published online today in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
The four-year study by more than two dozen researchers also showed that black carbon causes “significantly higher warming” over the Arctic and can affect rainfall patterns in high- emitting regions such as Asia. The pollutant also has contributed to rising temperatures in mid- to high-latitude areas including the U.S. and Canada.
“The potential to slow warming by cutting black carbon is even more important than previously understood,” Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, said today in a statement discussing the study. “It also kills over a million people every year who contract deadly respiratory diseases.”
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a group of more than two dozen nations that aims to reduce short-lived pollutants including methane, is pursuing projects that reduce black-carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicle engines, brick production, waste burning and inefficient cookstoves.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last year that the U.S. was joining the coalition, as “more than one-third of current global warming is caused by short-lived pollutants.” The U.S. contributed $12 million of the $15 million in startup funding, and committed an additional $10 million in annual support to existing efforts, Clinton said.
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Heat from North American cities causing warmer winters, study finds
Researchers say extra heat generated by huge cities explains additional warming not explained by existing climate models
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jan/27/scienceofclimatechange-climate-change
Those who wonder why large parts of North America seem to be skipping winter have a new answer in addition to climate change: big city life.
A study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the heat thrown off by major metropolitan areas on America's east coast caused winter warming across large areas of North America, thousands of miles away from those cities.
Winter warming was detected as far away as the Canadian prairies. In some remote areas, temperature rose by as much as 1 degree C (1.8F) under the influence of big cities, which produced changes in the jet stream and other atmospheric systems, the study found.
Researchers found a similar pattern in Asia, where major population centres resulted in strong warming in Russia, northern Asia, and eastern China.
On the flip side, however, changes in atmospheric conditions had an opposite effect in Europe – lowering autumn temperatures by as much as 1 degree C (1.8F).
The extra heat generated by big cities was just a fraction of the warming caused by climate change or urbanisation, the researchers said. But the study did help scientists account for additional warming that was not explained by existing climate models.
"What really surprised us was that this energy use was a tiny amount, and yet it can create such a wide impact far away from the heat source," said Guang Zhang, a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who led the study. "We didn't expect it to be this much."
Global temperature averages were barely affected by the big city heat, barely .01C on average. But big cities had a noticeable impact on regional temperatures almost on a continental scale.
Researchers said the extra heat should be taken into account in future climate projections.
Scientists have for years been trying to untangle how big cities – with the sprawl of buildings and cars – affect climate.
The study suggests cities themselves have far-reaching effects on climate, in addition to the climate pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
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Smog Thick Enough to Cancel Flights Hits Beijing
By LOUISE WATT Associated Press
BEIJING January 29, 2013 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pollution-off-index-chinas-capital-18340626
Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks Tuesday, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.
The capital was a colorless scene. Street lamps and the outlines of buildings receded into a white haze as pedestrians donned face masks to guard against the caustic air. The flight cancellations stranded passengers during the first week of the country's peak, six-week period for travel surrounding the Chinese New Year on Feb. 10.
The U.S. Embassy reported an hourly peak level of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs — at 526 micrograms per cubic meter, or "beyond index," and more than 20 times higher than World Health Organization safety levels over a 24-hour period.
Liu Peng, an employee at a financial institution in Beijing, said he will keep his newborn baby indoors.
"It's really bad for your health, obviously," Liu said. "I bike to work every day and always wear a mask. The pollution in recent years is probably due to the increase in private cars and government cars."
Visibility was less than 100 meters (100 yards) in some areas of eastern China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. More than 100 flights were canceled in the eastern city of Zhengzhou, 33 in Beijing, 20 in Qingdao and 13 in Jinan.
Every year, China's transport system bursts at the seams as tens of millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, in the world's largest seasonal migration of people.
Ren Haiqiang, a bank worker in his early 30s, said he had booked tickets to fly out of Beijing on Thursday to visit family in the coastal city of Dalian, but now worried about flight cancellations.
"Traveling over the holiday is already a huge hassle, along with all the gift-giving and family visits. We thought flying would be the best way to avoid the crush, but if the weather continues like this we'll be in real trouble," Ren said as he waited in line at a bakery in downtown Beijing.
Beijing's city government ordered 103 heavily polluting factories to suspend production and told government departments and state-owned enterprises to reduce their use of cars by a third, Xinhua said. The measures last until Thursday.
Beijing's official readings for PM2.5 were lower than the embassy's — 433 micrograms per cubic meter at one point in the afternoon— but even that level is considered "severe" and prompted the city government to advise residents to stay indoors as much as possible. The government said that because there was no wind, the smog probably would not dissipate quickly.
Patients seeking treatment for respiratory ailments rose by about 30 percent over the past month at the Jiangong Hospital in downtown Beijing, Emergency Department chief Cui Qifeng said.
"People tend to catch colds or suffer from lung infections during the days with heavily polluted air," he said.
Air pollution has long been a problem in Beijing, but the country has been more open about releasing statistics on PM2.5 — considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other pollutants — only since early last year. The city hit its highest readings on Jan. 12, when U.S. Embassy readings of PM2.5 reached as high as 886 micrograms per cubic meter.
Celebrity real estate developer Pan Shiyi, who has previously pushed for cities to publish more detailed air quality data and who is a delegate to Beijing's legislature, called Tuesday morning for a "Clean Air Act." By late afternoon, his online poll had received more than 29,000 votes, with 99 percent in favor.
On Monday, Wang Anshun was elected Beijing's mayor after telling lawmakers the municipal government should make more efforts to fight air pollution, according to Xinhua.
Last week, he announced plans to remove 180,000 older vehicles from the city's roads and promote government cars and heating systems that use clean energy
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The purpose of this thread is to keep us all awake to the fact that we can't expect life to continue without interruption indefinitely.
The big question for all of us, is whether we personally can continue with our life without major interruptions from large external forces? Of course, there will always be plenty of personal, major interruptions - that's the lot of life. But the awareness here is for example, were you living in Syria, with your teenage kids down on the streets demonstrating, a few years ago - were that your situation, what would you have done?
I see that we are all in that precise situation right now with Global Warming. The phrase Climate Change is insufficient, because it only looks at climate - I sense there is far more at stake.
My current assessment, and I do keep abreast of things (which means I hear the contra indications which are legitimate), is that most of the other troubles assailing humanity - disease, global financial, social dislocation etc - are theoretically fixable through determined intelligent effort. However Global Warming has too long a trajectory to be reeled in within any reasonable timeframe.
The question for us now, is what do we expect from a changing global environment, and how will it affect me?
Many commentators are speaking in terms of the end of the century. I think that's ridiculously too optimistic. Despite a new report indication there is no statistical indication that extreme events are more common now than previously, I sense we are in for a very turbulent time starting right now.
tbc
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Might be of interest (http://blog.icds.ee/article/red-lines-crossed-in-syria)
In the case of Syria, options were simple:
1) feel like fighting? Fight, be ready to take what comes your way, and pay the price.
2) see no point in fighting, don't want to take lives? Run, ASAP.
Climate warming...? ? ?
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In these communities where I am now I meet lots of "alternative" traveler people. No one ever mentions climate change and warming, but there's lots of talk of permaculture and sustainability (and being spiritual). I don't even know what they mean anymore. I feel that people are missing the big picture. They are dreaming of a future where everybody lives in a sustainable way, but imho sustainability works only with small numbers. Once you reach a certain threshold the laws and rules they see brake down.
It's good to see people trying to change, but maybe we already reached the limit where being sustainable on a global level it's just not possible anymore. Either they will go down in history like pioneers or survival.
I don't know How future events will affect me, but if the shit hits the fan I'd rather be outside the range of large cities (or small) and have some knowledge about my surroundings (nature-wise). I'm learning to work with plants, recognize which ones are useful, plant them and care for them, while I also get a bit more fit. My guts says that computer skills won't save me if trouble comes.
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The US National Intelligence Council and academics put together a vision of our world in 2030 (http://www.fas.org/irp/nic/global_trends_2030.pdf).
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back to my current thesis...
I have been feeling and thinking this out along the way since I started this thread.
As I see it now, the big question is how long before the entire Earth faces catastrophic effects, sufficient to affect everyone in most places? I have seen scientific predictions which talk in terms of 'the end of this century'. Against this, I also see numerous scientific (they are the only one I value) predictions relating to the period 2020-2050. We are now in 2013.
But then we appear, against statical reports, to be facing increasing extreme weather conditions. Here I have to rely on my own judgement, as scientists need to stick to data and degrees of accuracy. There have been numerous reports of large indicative events - slabs of ice breaking off, Greenland reductions, Arctic ice cap, permafrost reductions, glacial reductions etc - the list is remorseless.
On this background I feel we have far less time than science is willing to admit publicly.
So the next big question is how will the area around me, and those on Soma, be affected in the interim before it becomes a global condition? This is important, as I get a strong sense that the science is still out on how the changes in the pipeline are going to play out in practice. It is extremely naive to believe everything will remain the same until the shit hits the fan. We are dealing with a highly complex and essentially unpredictable situation.
Aust East was supposed to become dryer - the pattern over the last hundred years - except for my little area, the New England tablelands. We have bucked the trend, plus we have an unnecessarily large dam for town water. But against this, our East Coast weather has been unseasonally wet for the last three seasons!
Among our friends of similar age, there is much talk about where to move to for the the last furlong of life. Many are now thinking Armidale is not such a bad place, considering the unpredictability of the future.
Just before I get to some considerations, we should add in the ancillary factors:
Global Financial problems are still volatile, which will affect humanities capacity to respond to emergencies. In countries where there is insufficient funds to help, people just die. I am expecting those who manage this issue will actually reach a point of effective agreement, to hold off the inevitable collapse inherent in the system we have arrived at, long enough for the environment to hit us first. The result will be a global financial structure unprepared to weather the social consequences of climate change.
War. It now looks unavoidable that a war with China will impact within the next five to ten years, if not sooner. The recent political changes at the top layer in China went the way of increased arrogance and belligerence of the ruling body. Only a different outcome from the changes at the top, could have thwarted the huge hubris accumulated in the Chinese military. The big question is whether the US can restrain its current decline, sufficient to stand against China?
All this indicates to me that we have, possibly, about five years of free space to accumulate resources and experience things which are likely to be closed to us after that - like travel. I see that as the best outcome, although individual factors could affect any one of us.
After that, I seriously question the sanity of living in a big city. And anywhere on a low coastal fringe. Look to the vulnerability of flood and fire, by factoring in extremes not experienced to date. Look to earthquake and volcano fault lines. There is time to sell your house if you see a vulnerability here.
The only safe alternative is to retain sufficient mental and physical flexibility to know how, and be able, to act appropriately once a wave of destruction begins to build or envelops your area.
Alas, many of our members are impoverished financially or in terms of time-left-on-the-planet. This means we will be handicapped in our chances of survival-in-comfort.
In short. Time is running out for stable environmental conditions. I still hold to the most optimistic view in my limited scenario, that we have twenty years. I accept this may be both optimistic and pessimistic, but it's not a bad average.
I have not discussed how the global political bodies will react once the situation becomes obvious and undeniably serious. That is another question.
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I just hope I have enough time to get my country house :) Of course I could go back right away and sell my apartment for that, which is an option, but I will try to save this one coming year and then see how it is.
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All this indicates to me that we have, possibly, about five years of free space to accumulate resources and experience things which are likely to be closed to us after that - like travel. I see that as the best outcome, although individual factors could affect any one of us.
I would add a few factors to the list of problems:
1) A number of African states are becoming "basket cases" and theatres for protracted intra-state conflicts;
2) Failed states invite radicals/lunatics with wildly global ambitions, and nobody in the developed world really wants to get involved in low intensity conflicts for years and years
3) A wave of social reform and upheaval called "Arab spring" seems to have produced several societies in flux with altogether 150 million people. However, the problems behind the upheaval - extremely high percentage of unemployed youth, economic inefficiency, deteriorating living environment cannot be solved by regime change in short-term.
In brief, the mess we see, will keep piling up. I would not add any timeline to the foresight. Just imagine how the world would be if Israel struck Iran's nuclear installations this year.
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As I said earlier, I classify these problems in the 'can be fixed by intelligent human intervention'. Thus I place them in a different category to the Global Warming issue, as that can't be fixed by intelligent human intervention - the time has passed for that. No matter how humanity rallies to the cause, it's too late to avoid the changes coming.
But one could easily argue that such problems as you mention Juhani, are not so easily fixed by humans, intelligent or not. Worse, one could argue there is a growing desire to avoid doing anything about such problems in any significant way.
To this I want to add one more thing which has been bothering me, and has recently arisen in my workplace. We have a 'project' manager for the overall scene. He is in his early forties I'd say. He is exhibiting a strong preference for less information, less discussion with all stakeholders of any issue, and less reflection on matters in general.
We, in the database business, are accustomed to constantly spending most of our time wondering and discussing about 'what could go wrong' - that is the measure of reliability of an IT system. To do this we have to interact closely with the end-users. It is a mind-set that fosters enquiry and re-enquiry, which is exactly what he has no time for.
That is a local issue for me, but in some discussions with friends recently, I realised it is a generational thing. I have given up getting the Guardian Weekly, and Julie is considering giving up her beloved weekend Sydney Morning Herald. What we are seeing in these newspapers is a reduction in reflective and insightful articles - they are much more about this and that, who said what and what happened - the how, but not the why or the implications.
I am now beginning to think this is a new generational mind-set, borne of insufficient book reading or time away from immediate entertainment. An intolerance for reflective and inquisitive thinking or willingness to sit with complexity.
If this be true, then I suspect the new wave of 'managers' of world affairs will, in the broad, be even less capable of responding effectively. I mean there will always be insightful and effective individuals, but a globe is run by many thousands of people in decision making roles, and it is the general wave of capacity lack that bothers me.
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I am now beginning to think this is a new generational mind-set, borne of insufficient book reading or time away from immediate entertainment. An intolerance for reflective and inquisitive thinking or willingness to sit with complexity.
Precisely, why would one disconnect his/her mind from the constant chatter and activity to dive into silence to reflect/ponder/see? Why would one try to understand and see things as they are, instead of drifting along and doing no effort?
Recently I had a chat with a boss of one US research institutions who bragged that he could write a meaningful and worthwhile piece on any subject in 10 minutes. He was completely unable to see why would it take a couple of days, a week, etc.
People like him explain perfectly well the unimaginably disastrous strategic choices and decisions we have seen since 2001. Some of them exhibit certain regret over mistakes they have made and lives that have been lost, but they will do nothing to act differently in the future.
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September 19, 2012 | by Shelley Jiang
The Horrific Cost of China’s Breakneck Development: Cancer Villages
(http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CancerVillage2.jpeg)
The map of cancer village concentration that got Weibo users talking. Via Weibo
Follow the spread of China’s development and you’ll find a shadow in its wake: Cancer villages. These are the places where the price for China’s dizzying pace of development is highest, where cancer rates have skyrocketed in the last two decades and almost no family is without a victim.
Officially and unofficially, the Chinese media have reported 459 “cancer villages” (癌症村) throughout China. They have been reported in every province and autonomous region, with the exception of Qinghai and Tibet. Once a rare disease, cancer is now the biggest killer in both urban and rural China; mortality rates have grown 80 percent in the last 30 years.
The cancers in these villages are unusual for developed countries: Esophageal, intestinal, of the liver, rectal–all cancers of the digestive tract. That’s because most villages still have no running water and rely on rivers and groundwater for everything from drinking and cooking to farming. Unfortunately, most factories are built by river banks, and industrial wastewater has polluted much of the country’s water systems, with 40 percent of rivers and 55 percent of groundwater unfit for drinking according to a 2012 government report. As the map at right shows, many cancer villages are clustered by the Yellow, Yangtze, and Hai rivers.
Netizens corroborate this chilling story. “I am from Taizhou [in Zhejiang province, on the Yangtze River], and recently there really has been a lot of cancer,” writes @海角天涯1999 on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. “My father’s generation says that the river water was once drinkable; then it could only be used for laundry and swimming; and later it was fit only for cleaning toilets. Now it can only be used for dumping trash, and the smell along the banks is very bad … Recently the groundwater has also been severely polluted, and it too is no longer drinkable, but farmers still use it to water their crops. Eat the crops, and die from poison. Don’t eat it, and starve.”
Paradoxically, over 86 percent of cancer villages are found in China’s wealthiest east coast provinces. But they are located in the poorest counties there. Slowly, people are realizing that China’s miracle economic growth may be coming at too high a cost. @小兔和她的朋友们 writes, “Chinese people really do sell their lives for money, but the money earned does not necessarily buy back life.” Reflecting on the value of a life, @南京的唐唐 comments that “Chinese people all live for GDP,” and @冀叟123 writes that “For GDP, there is no river or land that cannot be polluted.”
Originally published in a 2010 article in the U.S.-based Environment magazine, the map attracted attention on Weibo after being shared by @环保董良杰 under the title “Cancer Villages: Made in China.” The image comes, of course, at a time when Chinese social media is immersed in the ongoing furor over Japan’s claim of sovereignty over the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands. Yet the story of the cancer villages and environmental pollution is far more real and painful for millions of ordinary citizens than the ownership of a few faraway islands.
Observers have pointed out this irony. “The nationalist youth have all gone off to attack the Diaoyu Islands. No one cares about the poor mess at home,” wrote @暂无名2 in response to the cancer maps. @乡下宁宁 asked, “Not many people care about these [environmental] issues–do they think they can all move to the Diaoyu Islands?”
Indeed, anti-Japanese sentiment is potentially useful for the Chinese government, as an alternative vent for frustrations and anger that may otherwise explode over more volatile problems at home. In recent years people have become more willing to take to the streets to demand environmental justice and oppose factory construction, as they have done in Shifang, Sichuan province and Qidong, Jiangsu province in 2012, not to mention Dalian, Shenyang province and Haimen, Guangdong province in 2011. Meanwhile, public outcry over the Beijing city government’s failure to monitor air quality for PM2.5, the smallest and most hazardous particulate pollutants, largely took place over Weibo and other online social media platforms.
Enabled by and amplified over social media, these protests are a sign of China’s growing environmental consciousness and burgeoning unwillingness to tolerate air and water pollution. As @冀叟123 writes, “This is a serious, difficult question that requires collective action to solve and completely eradicate all kinds of pollution sources–to be like Shifang and Qidong, to protect the earth, sky, lake, and rivers that we rely on for survival, to let the fields slowly recover from the accumulated heavy metals, and give the earth a respite.” {{Chinese}}[[Chinese]]这是个积重难反的问题,要想解决必须全民行动,,彻底清除各类污染源。像什邡和启东那样保卫自己赖以生存的大地天空湖泊江河。让良田积淀的重金属残渣缓缓稀释,给土地一个缓歇。 [[Chinese]] Given the growing wave of environmental awareness, it is likely that there will be more debate and protest online–and offline.
(http://tealeafnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CancerVillage1.jpeg)
More in-depth information (http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/March-April%202010/made-in-china-full.html)
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Shark kills number 100 million annually, research says
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21629173
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66147000/jpg/_66147676_shrk-taiwan-heinrichs-finning-212401-press-rc.jpg)
There seems to be no let-up in the demand for shark fins for use in soup by Chinese communities
The most accurate assessment to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests around 100 million are being killed each year.
The researchers say that this rate of exploitation is far too high, especially for a species which reproduces later in life.
The major factor driving the trade is the ongoing demand for shark fins for soup in Chinese communities.
The report has been published in the Journal Marine Policy.
Researchers admit that establishing the true level of global shark fishing is extremely difficult, as the quality of the data is poor. Many sharks that are caught have their fins removed at sea with the body dumped overboard. These fish are often not included in official reports.
Fin margin
However, the scientists estimate a mortality range of between 63 and 273 million sharks in 2010.
"There is a very large range and that speaks to the quality of data, which is not great," said Dr Demian Chapman from Stony Brook University in New York, US.
"Certainly 100 million is the median estimate and that's the best estimate there is," he added.
While the number of sharks being caught has not changed substantially between 2000 and 2010, the authors of the research argue that the commercial fishing fleets are simply changing location and the shark species they target in order to keep up with demand. The fear is that eventually these shark species will crash.
Fuelling the concern is the fact that many of the species that are most threatened are very slow to reproduce.
"A lot of the sharks that are prized in the trade take more than a decade to reach maturity," said Dr Chapman.
"There is a really razor-thin level of mortality that sharks can experience before their population trajectory becomes negative - that is really what's been happening.
"They are not reproducing fast enough to keep up with the rate we are pulling them out of the ocean," he added.
The biggest driver for shark fishing has been the demand for shark fin soup, a product that is seen as a luxury item among Chinese communities.
While fins are still being cut off sharks at sea, several countries including Canada, the US and the European Union have tried to restrict this by law.
But this has not had the desired effect, Dr Chapman explained.
"The problem is that the fins are so valuable that now people are not 'finning' the sharks at sea - they're keeping the whole thing. But it is still dead; the finning bans have not stopped the root problem."
On Sunday, negotiators from 178 countries will gather in Bangkok for the meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). There are proposals to regulate the trade in five of the most threatened species of shark.
At a previous meeting in 2010, similar restrictions fell just short of the required-two thirds majority. This time, campaigners say they have broad support among developed and developing countries and are optimistic they will be able to muster the required votes.
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Poaching boom sees thousands of elephants killed in Gabon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21352722
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65745000/jpg/_65745261_147206307.jpg)
Around five tonnes of seized ivory were burned in Gabon last year
More than 11,000 elephants have been killed by ivory poachers in Gabon since 2004 according to new research.
The country is home to over half of Africa's forest elephants who are highly valued because of the quality of their tusks.
Campaigners say the situation in what was believed to be a safe haven for these elephants is "out of control."
They blame the ongoing high demand for jewellery and other ivory products in Asia.
Gabon holds about 13% of the forests of Central Africa but it is home to around 40,000 forest elephants, a smaller species that are attractive to poachers because their ivory is tinged with pink and is very hard.
The new research has been carried out by the Gabonese national parks agency (ANPN) alongside WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Cross border poachers
Dr Fiona Maisels of the WCS explained that they had analysed the population of elephants in the Minkebe national park and compared it with their data gathered in the same area 9 years ago.
"Between 44-77% of the elephants have been killed," she said. "In other words 11,100 elephants have been lost since 2004."
Much of the attention on elephant poaching has been in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo but with demand for ivory growing and prices rocketing in recent years, poachers have sought out the forest elephants in the vast expanses of Minkebe.
And despite the efforts of the Gabonese government to bolster anti-poaching patrols, according to Bas Huijbregts from WWF, the authorities are failing.
"In an area like Minkebe which is about 30,000 sq km, that's about the size of Belgium, without any roads. It is very difficult to track poachers here," he said.
The authorities believe that between 50 and 100 elephants per day were being killed in the park in 2011. Much of the poaching has been carried out by gangs from neighbouring Cameroon, with ivory carried across the northern border by porters.
The high prices being paid for ivory in Asian markets are having a knock-on effect on attempts to control the trade in Gabon says Bas Huijbregts.
"Such a high value commodity, it is corrupting governance on all levels - there are checkpoints all over the place, but no one ever detects that ivory," he said.
"When arrests are made, they are often obstructed by government people who have a stake in the trade as well."
In June last year Gabon's president Ali Bongo Ondimba ordered the burning of the country's stockpile of seized ivory. However the poaching continues and is leading many conservationists to question the long term survival of elephants in Africa.
Professor Lee White who heads Gabon's national park system said that despite their best efforts, the situation is running out of control.
"If we do not turn the situation around quickly, the future of the elephant in Africa is doomed," he said. "These new results illustrate starkly just how dramatic the situation has become."
Campaigners say that next month's meeting of the convention on the international trade in endangered species (CITES) will be an opportunity for global governments to strengthen measures against ivory poaching.
In the UK, WWF are seeking a million signatures on a petition to stamp out legal loopholes that allow the ivory trade to continue.
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Appeal to fear fallacy....?
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The article below supports Michael's thesis of major changes happening rather sooner than later.
US scientists report big jump in heat-trapping CO2
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-scientists-report-big-jump-heat-trapping-co2
WASHINGTON (AP) — The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show.
Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.
Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
More coal-burning power plants, especially in the developing world, are the main reason emissions keep going up — even as they have declined in the U.S. and other places, in part through conservation and cleaner energy.
At the same time, plants and the world's oceans which normally absorb some carbon dioxide, last year took in less than they do on average, says John Reilly, co-director of Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Plant and ocean absorption of carbon varies naturally year to year.
But, Tans tells The Associated Press the major factor is ever-rising fossil fuel burning: "It's just a testament to human influence being dominant."
Only 1998 had a bigger annual increase in carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas from human activity. That year, 2.93 parts per million of CO2 was added. From 2000 to 2010, the world averaged a yearly rise of just under 2 parts per million. Levels rose by less than 1 part per million in the 1960s.
In 2009, the world's nations agreed on a voluntary goal of limiting global warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial temperature levels. Since the mid-1800s temperatures haven already risen about 1.5 degrees. Current pollution trends translate to another 2.5 to 4.5 degrees of warming within the next several decades, Reilly says.
"The prospects of keeping climate change below that (2-degree goal) are fading away," Tans says.
Scientists track carbon pollution both by monitoring what comes out of factories and what winds up in the atmosphere. Both are rising at rates faster than worst-case scenarios that climate scientists used in their most recent international projections, according to Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann.
That means harmful effects of climate change will happen sooner, Mann says.
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Things are touchy in Bangladesh just now. The Islamisists are creating havoc over the sentence of one of their leaders for war crimes during the split with Pakistan. It has got very little media coverage internationally. I keep up to date by checking into Telhelka, but Julie has FB connections to some Bangladeshies who are very worried about the unfolding of events there. Tinder-box is the word.
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Number of Katrina-Like Hurricanes Could 'At Least Double' From Warming
Mar 19, 2013
http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20130319/number-katrina-hurricanes-could-least-double-warming
The number of Atlantic storms with magnitude similar to killer Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, could rise sharply this century, environmental researchers reported on Monday.
Scientists have long studied the relationship between warmer sea surface temperatures and cyclonic, slowly spinning storms in the Atlantic Ocean, but the new study attempts to project how many of the most damaging hurricanes could result from warming air temperatures as well.
The extreme storms are highly sensitive to temperature changes, and the number of Katrina-magnitude events could double due to the increase in global temperatures that occurred in the 20th century, the researchers reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If temperatures continue to warm in the 21st century, as many climate scientists project, the number of Katrina-strength hurricanes could at least double, and possibly rise much more, with every 1.8 degree F (1 degree C) rise in global temperatures, the researchers said.
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Recent Storms Highlight Flaws In Top U.S. Weather Model
Mar 15, 2013
http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20130315/recent-storms-highlight-flaws-top-us-weather-model
The U.S., which pioneered the groundbreaking science of weather forecasting using mathematical simulations of the atmosphere, has fallen behind other nations when it comes to the accuracy of its global forecasting model. The consequences could be dire for people in harm's way if the U.S. is less prepared for extreme weather and climate events.
As Sandy was spinning its way northward from the Caribbean Sea, it was the model run by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) that sounded the earliest alarm. The European Center’s model projected about a week in advance that the storm would make an unprecedented and devastating left hook into the Mid-Atlantic coastline, wreaking havoc the likes of which parts of the East Coast had not seen in modern times.
The top-of-the-line U.S. weather forecasting model, known as the Global Forecasting System (GFS) didn’t catch on to that worst-case scenario until the storm was closer to making landfall in the U.S. That delay contributed to a large degree of uncertainty in the forecasts until just three to four days before the storm hit.
Fast-forward four months to the Feb. 7 blizzard that paralyzed the Northeast by dumping up to 40 inches of snow. Again, it was the European Center’s model that proved to be the most accurate, giving local officials throughout southern New England ample time to prepare, while the U.S. model vacillated between varying projections of the storm’s path, strength, and snowfall amounts.
NOAA has struggled to stem the financial bleeding from long-delayed and mismanaged weather and climate satellite programs. The end result is that NOAA’s operational weather capabilities are not keeping pace with those of other countries
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Right, the European Model has become the most accurate one in the past couple of years. Anytime a cyclone is afoot, there are always several models from which to choose. The European and GFS are just 2 among many. When you go to sites like Weather Underground, you get the results of many of them - I'd say at least 6 per storm. NOAA's site tends to stick with the GFS, but in their "Discussions" they consider many.
I noticed that the Weather Channel and the local weather stations here have begun to include the European Model prominently in their assessments/predictions. (That's not to say all the stations all over the US are using it, though.) The strength of the Euro has been acknowledged.
There is a weird political thing going on about the winter cyclones' predictions in the US. NOAA announced a while back that they would not cover them. It falls to the purview of the National Weather Service, and it's fuzzy to which model NWS adheres.
There's a controversial point dating back to Sandy: NOAA proclaimed that their 'responsibility' in its prediction ended after Sandy reached a certain status. Some blamed this abdication for the ill-preparedness of New Jersey and New York to receive it. There was more than the choice of "models" going on.
But, if you ask me, the NHC (NOAA) has messed up periodically, dating back to Ike. It all gets washed under the table, though. The public is understandably confused. There is no one standing on the table shouting, and clearly asking the right questions of the right people.
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But, if you ask me, the NHC (NOAA) has messed up periodically, dating back to Ike. It all gets washed under the table, though. The public is understandably confused. There is no one standing on the table shouting, and clearly asking the right questions of the right people.
I think the ball is being dropped because of Bush's administration. It was under him that the trend came to light, to not "overdo" the warnings of catastrophe. Likewise, you have the political Right accusing the NWS and NOAA of being 'nay-sayers' and of crying 'wolf' (and of supporting Al Gore's point of view about climate change...)
The Republicans especially were unhappy, in 2008, when Gustav was over-predicted, causing interruption in their Convention, and the same thing happened to them in 2012. Right now my mind goes blank as to which storm it was in 2012 which almost disrupted their 2012 Convention. Poor babies.
But I recall very clearly that after Gustav, the predictions were glossed over regarding Ike, and as a result, the Bolivar Peninsula's residences were all but wiped out. There were actual news blackouts about Ike's devastation as well.
In short, "the weather" has become a miasma of mis- and dis-information.
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I expect none of you know what is happening in Bangladesh, so I'll just offer you a quick update.
You know what has happened in the Arab Spring countries. Those which overthrew their dictators, are beginning to find the resilience of Islamic organisations coming into power. What began as a modern youth movement, inspired by technological social media, is gradually reverting to an Islamic fundamentalist power.
In Bangladesh, something totally different has happened.
Historically, there were Bangladesh Islamic organisations which sided with Pakistan in the 1952 war of independence. These organisations still exist, and are now very strong. In Feburary this year, when a war crime court found a leading figure of one of these organisations (Jamaat-e-Islami) guilty of rape and murder for his part back in the war, he was a given life sentence instead of the death penalty. He gave a provocative victory speech right there in the court.
That very day, people began moving into Shahbag Square in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The numbers swelled to over a million. They were demanding the death penalty for this man. But more than that, Bangladesh's 30 and under make up 35% of the population, and many of these in the cities are anti-Islamicist. The difference with this uprising, is that it isn't against a dictatorial government, it is against Islamicism itself. There are young Muslims who are taking to the streets demanding the end of Jammat. This hasn't happened anywhere else in the Muslim world yet, although it might soon happen in Egypt.
The Islamicists reacted violently, pulling their own mega crowds and attacking minorities like Hindus. They organised a huge march to demand the death penalty for anti-Islamic speech and murdered one of the main bloggers of the secularists.
The youth again moved into Shahbag Square, and even closed down Dhaka itself. The country is split.
The split is also political. The Islamicists are aligned with the main opposition party, while the secular youth are aligned with the government. But the government has arrested some leading bloggers for anti-Islamic rhetoric.
This country is now being watched closely by the world, as it is about a Muslim youth resisting the trend towards Islamic fundamentalism in their country. And the youth are growing in percentage of the voting public. Of course there are as many young Muslims on the Islamicist side also.
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Unthinkable thoughts about Syria (http://blog.icds.ee/article/thinking-about-the-unthinkable-in-syria#cpreview)
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Unthinkable thoughts about Syria (http://blog.icds.ee/article/thinking-about-the-unthinkable-in-syria#cpreview)
Interesting Juhani - Syria has gone off the radar lately, as it has become so entrenched. Except for the chemical weapon issue.
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Interesting Juhani - Syria has gone off the radar lately, as it has become so entrenched. Except for the chemical weapon issue.
6,000 people got killed there only in March. Now the strongest rebel faction (al-Nusra front) announced unification (http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/the_emir_of_al_qaeda.php) with al-Qaeda in Iraq. Here we are: 10 years after the invasion of Iraq we have ever strenghtening and increasingly legitimised al-Qaeda operating in Syria and Iraq where it was not even present before 2003.
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Syria: 11th-century minaret of Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo destroyed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10016169/Syria-11th-century-minaret-of-Great-Umayyad-Mosque-of-Aleppo-destroyed.html
The 11th-century minaret of the Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, one of the world's oldest and most important, has been destroyed by shellfire as the Syrian war consumes the country's vast repository of historic sites.
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02545/MINARET_2545638c.jpg)
The minaret dated back to 1090AD. (ALAMY)
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQRvqTHMECI3G2uP3V2fCuKqfN8oZ6rfDsr1Gc3a8z6iV0iKizFSg)
Oppositions activists in the city said the minaret was hit by tank shells fired as part of a regime assault on the mosque, which was originally built in 715 by the Umayyad dynasty and which fell into rebel hands last week.
The minaret itself dated to 1090 AD.
Video posted by the Aleppo Media Centre showed a pile of rubble in the corner of the Great Mosque's courtyard, sprouting twisted metal spikes, where the minaret once stood. The colonnades and arches of the courtyard itself lie scorched, broken, and pockmarked with bullet and shell-holes.
The collapse of the minaret was also reported by state media, which said it had been blown up by Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda-linked group fighting with the rebels. It did not explain why a militant Sunni group would destroy a historic Sunni mosque.
The collapse also appeared to happen in the middle of a battle, with rebel soldiers stationed inside the mosque in the middle of live fire. They were claimed to be from Liwa al-Tawhid, a more moderate though Sunni Islamist-aligned brigade largely drawn from the countryside around Aleppo, rather than from Jabhat al-Nusra.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition described the targeting of the minaret as "an indelible disgrace".
"The deliberate destruction of this minaret, under whose shadow Saladin, Seif al-Dawla al-Hamdani and Abu Tayeb Abdel Rahman al-Mutanabbi rested, is a crime against human civilisation," its statement said, naming the celebrated Crusade-era Muslim leader, the most celebrate Emir of Aleppo, and a tenth Century poet.
The mosque was first damaged in fighting last October, a few weeks after the Old Souq of Aleppo, which it faces across a narrow alley used for months by snipers, was largely destroyed by fire.
Among Syria's other UNESCO-listed world heritage sites, the great Crusader castle of Crac des Chevaliers and the ancient Roman ruins of Palmyra have also been damaged.
The regime has slowly lost ground across Aleppo's old city, but still occupies the citadel, first occupied in the Third Millennium BC, which overlooks the city and whose gateway was blown up.
It continues to occupy the Christian quarter of the city. Two bishops, Bishop Boulos Yaziji of the Greek Orthodox church and Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, a Syriac Orthodox, who were kidnapped by an unknown militia, remained missing, despite reports of their release on Tuesday evening.
"That report was a mistake," Bishop Luca, of the Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, told The Daily Telegraph. He was unable to explain how it happened.
In Rome, Pope Francis added his voice to calls for their release. One report, which Bishop Luca was unable to confirm, said the kidnappers identified themselves as Chechen.
Although losing ground in the north, the regime continued to regain lost territory further south. It captured the town of Otaiba, which rebels said was a key link in the supply of weapons to opposition forces fighting in the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus.
It was also pressing its assault on Qusayr, a key town between Homs and the Lebanese border.
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"Friends and Colleagues:
Earlier this week President Barack Obama set the tone for his second term, and what a note he struck! The president vowed to fight climate disruption and make the United States a leader in clean energy. But just as important, he celebrated the value of citizen action, from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, and underscored that standing up for what is morally right is a profound act of patriotism. In the president's own words, "You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas."
The Sierra Club could not agree more strongly. Some issues demand the strongest defensible response. That's why the Sierra Club's Board of Directors voted enthusiastically to permit an act of civil disobedience in order to hold President Obama to his words and elevate the discussion about climate disruption, the defining issue of our time.
This peaceful resistance will be the first in the Sierra Club's 120-year history. Specifically, the Board has suspended the Club's policy against civil disobedience to allow, for one time, a select team of Club leaders and prominent Sierra Club supporters to face arrest during a peaceful protest, in partnership with 350.org.
Why civil disobedience?
The decision to actively, deliberately, and peacefully disobey specific laws or rules can play an important role in any social movement, just as other tactics such as lobbying, electoral work, and public education play important roles. Civil disobedience reflects core American values first articulated by Henry David Thoreau and used effectively by abolitionists, suffragists, and in the civil rights movement by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.
Why now?
Our planet needs us. The Sierra Club and its environmental allies are, at long last, beginning to achieve significant success in the fight against climate disruption. But we have so much more still to do -- from defeating the tar sands pipeline and coal and LNG exports to going all-in on clean energy. To let the corrupting influence of fossil fuel billionaires undermine that progress now would be inexcusable.
This nonviolent resistance will be one part of an all-out effort to challenge President Obama and policymakers to prioritize climate disruption and make addressing this threat part of the administration's legacy, particularly in the first 100 days of the president's second term.
Note that the board has not changed the Sierra Club's official prohibition on civil disobedience but has instead granted a one-time exception for this action. No other act of civil disobedience has been approved.
We applaud the Board of Directors for empowering this organization to tackle the enormous challenge ahead of us, and we look forward to helping President Obama stay on course in moving our nation from dirty, dangerous fossil fuels to clean energy. We thank you all in advance for the grassroots power you will bring in 2013.
Allison and Mike"
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=275045.0&dlv_id=231579
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Well-scrutinised data (http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/summary-statistics#Tables_1_2)
(http://www.cbd.int/images/publications/gbo3/figures/figure5.gif)
(http://jr.iucnredlist.org/documents/summarystatistics/Fig_2_RL_Growth_2000_2012_2.jpg)
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How the human terrain (http://blog.icds.ee/article/the-human-terrain-of-the-conflict-in-mali) of the conflicyt looks like. For me, Mali resembles greatly a failing state.
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That was very informative Juhani.
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The average daily level of carbon dioxide has passed the 400 parts per million, as measured at Mauna Loa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?_r=1&
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The average daily level of carbon dioxide has passed the 400 parts per million, as measured at Mauna Loa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?_r=1&
The title of the post is perfect. There is beauty in its precision.
There we are with all our knowledge and wisdom. We realise fully what a foolish path has been chosen, and yet...vast majority of us - humans - are so completely helpless with ourselves. There is such an impregnable wall that blocks all attempts to follow the voice of higher Self.
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There is such an impregnable wall that blocks all attempts to follow the voice of higher Self.
That's a big leap - simple common sense would suffice.
But you are right of course.
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That's a big leap - simple common sense would suffice.
I would say that common sense or its lack are both based on deeply held beliefs and values. Changing these is immensely difficult. My experience tells me that it is nothing short of shedding the outer - most superficial - persona and moving closer to one's core.
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Drones are not part of the strategy, but the strategy.
Financial Times May 30, 2013.
Viewed from Pakistan, America’s war on terror is not yet over
By Ahmed Rashid
President Barack Obama’s speech last week on counterterrorism may have proposed the end of one open-ended war for the US but it also signalled the start of a new war – albeit more restrictive and contained. The use of drones in the first got out of hand, but there is no guarantee yet that they will not do so in the new one.
The fallacy and danger of the use of drones is not that they kill terrorists covertly. It is a good thing, after all, that they have decimated al-Qaeda. It is that, rather than being just one tactic in a wider US counterterrorism strategy, drones have become the strategy itself.
To his credit, Mr Obama’s speech disentangled him from the drone era and the criticism that flowed at home and abroad. He has finally opened the door to enabling the US tentatively to embrace a broader counterterrorism policy.
Nonetheless, his first term will probably be defined by the widespread use of drone warfare against terrorists – not a legacy the liberal lawyer-turned-president would appreciate. “America is at a crossroads,” he said this month in Washington. “This war, like all wars, must end.” He went on to outline a range of restrictions in the drone campaign to make their use more legitimate in the eyes of the US public, the legal fraternity and the world; and to introduce oversight of who is targeted and why.
This would – according to the many US pundits who praised the speech – help us forget the image of the US president at breakfast ticking names off a list of terrorists needing to be taken out that morning. Instead, we now have a layered process for the selection of targets, with Mr Obama saying the threat from al-Qaeda has diminished, justifying new criteria and guidelines for deploying drones against those who pose a “continuing imminent threat” to the US.
So the era of open war against terrorists everywhere, begun under George W. Bush, is over – officially, at least. If only this speech had been made before drones raised such constitutional conundrums and created such widespread anti-Americanism in the Muslim world.
For the rest of the world, the issue is not the use of drones per se but what they signify about US policy. Can the White House honestly claim it has spent as much time furthering diplomatic efforts to end war in Afghanistan, or enlisting global support for rebuilding failing states, or providing aid and expertise to crumbling societies – all of which would show the world that it had a grand counterterrorism strategy not represented by a piece of machinery – as it has spent finding targets for drones?
The real tragedy of the war against terrorism, which Mr Obama has merely redefined and which will continue, is that he has yet to spell out a strategy, a series of steps to counter and combat the causes of burgeoning militancy in the Islamic world and increasingly among a small minority of Muslims in Europe.
Drones will not help America deal with the symptoms of terrorism nor teach societies how to eradicate those symptoms and move on. These newfangled lethal toys, in some countries, are the only face of US foreign policy. As Mr Obama said in his speech, they will now be used not in a boundless “global war on terror” but “rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks”. Mr Bush never intended to become involved in years of nation-building abroad. He reluctantly accepted it as a consequence of the wars he fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Obama has not until now even considered nation-building, or dealing with the symptoms of terrorism, a subject worthy of a speech. The excellent speech he delivered in Cairo at the start of his first term, about reaching out to the Muslim world, is long forgotten.
Yet the president’s latest words do offer tantalising glimpses of a return to the Cairo approach, which could mean that he will offer measures of economic, social and political support to countries beset with terrorism – and a wider strategy to combat terrorism. He needs to do so if he wants to build a better legacy than he has so far.
What concerns the president most of all is overcoming the legal and constitutional morass that the drones have created for the US, and to offer plausible legal logic for their continued use. Mr Obama’s speech constituted a significant effort to do that. He has reduced the burden for himself at home but he has yet to chart a new course for the world.
And what about the rest of us, who have to live under the shadow of the drones (I reside in Pakistan, for example); and, worse still, under the drone-based propaganda and anti-western and anti-democratic sentiment that both extremists and moderates now use in Muslim societies to whip up public frenzy?
For us, at the bottom of the pile as far as the White House is concerned, we will have to wait for another presidential speech that offers a wider strategy to counter extremism than just pounding it with missiles.
The writer is an author of several books including ‘Descent into Chaos’ and ‘Pakistan on the Brink’
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Recent Storms Highlight Flaws In Top U.S. Weather Model
Mar 15, 2013
http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20130315/recent-storms-highlight-flaws-top-us-weather-model
The U.S., which pioneered the groundbreaking science of weather forecasting using mathematical simulations of the atmosphere, has fallen behind other nations when it comes to the accuracy of its global forecasting model. The consequences could be dire for people in harm's way if the U.S. is less prepared for extreme weather and climate events.
As Sandy was spinning its way northward from the Caribbean Sea, it was the model run by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) that sounded the earliest alarm. The European Center’s model projected about a week in advance that the storm would make an unprecedented and devastating left hook into the Mid-Atlantic coastline, wreaking havoc the likes of which parts of the East Coast had not seen in modern times.
The top-of-the-line U.S. weather forecasting model, known as the Global Forecasting System (GFS) didn’t catch on to that worst-case scenario until the storm was closer to making landfall in the U.S. That delay contributed to a large degree of uncertainty in the forecasts until just three to four days before the storm hit.
Fast-forward four months to the Feb. 7 blizzard that paralyzed the Northeast by dumping up to 40 inches of snow. Again, it was the European Center’s model that proved to be the most accurate, giving local officials throughout southern New England ample time to prepare, while the U.S. model vacillated between varying projections of the storm’s path, strength, and snowfall amounts.
NOAA has struggled to stem the financial bleeding from long-delayed and mismanaged weather and climate satellite programs. The end result is that NOAA’s operational weather capabilities are not keeping pace with those of other countries
Juhani, I thought you'd find interesting the difference between the 2 models - there is a case in point right now coming into the Gulf of Mexico.
The GFS puts landfall in the northwestern corner of Florida: the Euro puts landfall at Mississippi/Louisianna coastline. Big difference for the concerned parties.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/946894_10151595741497367_1836466713_n.jpg)
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Big difference, indeed. The best policy would be not to rely on forecasts, but to apply common sense to prepare oneself for various eventualities.
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/947220_368227726615555_842796602_n.jpg)
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We have entered or are just about to enter a new era of cheap fuel. The process used to extract it is called fracking. The US expects to be fuel-independent again in 20 years and the Middle East might lose much of its attractiveness for many countries. But what is facking and how does it impact our planet?
The Facts on Fracking
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/opinion/global/the-facts-on-fracking.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
OPPOSITION to fracking has been considerable, if not unanimous, in the global green community, and in Europe in particular. France and Bulgaria, countries with the largest shale-gas reserves in Europe, have already banned fracking. Protesters are blocking potential drilling sites in Poland and England. Opposition to fracking has entered popular culture with the release of “The Promised Land,” starring Matt Damon. Even the Rolling Stones have weighed in with a reference to fracking in their new single, “Doom and Gloom.”
Do the facts on fracking support this opposition?
There is no doubt that natural gas extraction does sometimes have negative consequences for the local environment in which it takes place, as does all fossil fuel extraction. And because fracking allows us to put a previously inaccessible reservoir of carbon from beneath our feet into the atmosphere, it also contributes to global climate change.
But as we assess the pros and cons, decisions should be based on existing empirical evidence and fracking should be evaluated relative to other available energy sources.
What exactly is fracking, or more formally hydraulic fracturing?
Many sandstones, limestones and shales far below ground contain natural gas, which was formed as dead organisms in the rock decomposed. This gas is released, and can be captured at the surface for our use, when the rocks in which it is trapped are drilled. To increase the flow of released gas, the rocks can be broken apart, or fractured. Early drillers sometimes detonated small explosions in the wells to increase flow. Starting in the 1940s, oil and gas drilling companies began fracking rock by pumping pressurized water into it.
Approximately one million American wells have been fracked since the 1940s. Most of these are vertical wells that tap into porous sandstone or limestone. Since the 1990s, however, gas companies have been able to harvest the gas still stuck in the original shale source. Fracking shale is accomplished by drilling horizontal wells that extend from their vertical well shafts along thin, horizontal shale layers.
This horizontal drilling has enabled engineers to inject millions of gallons of high-pressure water directly into layers of shale to create the fractures that release the gas. Chemicals added to the water dissolve minerals, kill bacteria that might plug up the well, and insert sand to prop open the fractures.
Most opponents of fracking focus on potential local environmental consequences. Some of these are specific to the new fracking technology, while others apply more generally to natural gas extraction.
The fracking cocktail includes acids, detergents and poisons that are not regulated by federal laws but can be problematic if they seep into drinking water. Fracking since the 1990s has used greater volumes of cocktail-laden water, injected at higher pressures. Methane gas can escape into the environment out of any gas well, creating the real though remote possibility of dangerous explosions. Water from all gas wells often returns to the surface containing extremely low but measurable concentrations of radioactive elements and huge concentrations of salt. This brine can be detrimental if not disposed of properly. Injection of brine into deep wells for disposal has in rare cases triggered small earthquakes.
In addition to these local effects, natural gas extraction has global environmental consequences, because the methane gas that is accessed through extraction and the carbon dioxide released during methane burning are both greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. New fracking technologies allow for the extraction of more gas, thus contributing more to climate change than previous natural gas extraction.
As politicians in Europe and the United States consider whether, and under what conditions, fracking should be allowed, the experience of Pennsylvania is instructive. Pennsylvania has seen rapid development of the Marcellus shale, a geological formation that could contain nearly 500 trillion cubic feet of gas — enough to power all American homes for 50 years at recent rates of residential use.
Some of the local effects of drilling and fracking have gotten a lot of press but caused few problems, while others are more serious. For example, of the tens of thousands of deep injection wells in use by the energy industry across the United States, only about eight locations have experienced injection-induced earthquakes, most too weak to feel and none causing significant damage.
The Pennsylvania experience with water contamination is also instructive. In Pennsylvania, shale gas is accessed at depths of thousands of feet while drinking water is extracted from depths of only hundreds of feet. Nowhere in the state have fracking compounds injected at depth been shown to contaminate drinking water.
In one study of 200 private water wells in the fracking regions of Pennsylvania, water quality was the same before and soon after drilling in all wells except one. The only surprise from that study was that many of the wells failed drinking water regulations before drilling started. But trucking and storage accidents have spilled fracking fluids and brines, leading to contamination of water and soils that had to be cleaned up. The fact that gas companies do not always disclose the composition of all fracking and drilling compounds makes it difficult to monitor for injected chemicals in streams and groundwater.
Pennsylvania has also seen instances of methane leaking into aquifers in regions where shale-gas drilling is ongoing. Some of this gas is “drift gas” that forms naturally in deposits left behind by the last glaciation. But sometimes methane leaks out of gas wells because, in 1 to 2 percent of the wells, casings are not structurally sound. The casings can be fixed to address these minor leaks, and the risk of such methane leaks could further decrease if casings were designed specifically for each geological location.
The disposal of shale gas brine was initially addressed in Pennsylvania by allowing the industry to use municipal water treatment plants that were not equipped to handle the unhealthy components. Since new regulations in 2011, however, Pennsylvania companies now recycle 90 percent of this briny water by using it to frack more shale.
In sum, the experience of fracking in Pennsylvania has led to industry practices that mitigate the effect of drilling and fracking on the local environment.
And while the natural gas produced by fracking does add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through leakage during gas extraction and carbon dioxide release during burning, it in fact holds a significant environmental advantage over coal mining. Shale gas emits half the carbon dioxide per unit of energy as does coal, and coal burning also emits metals such as mercury into the atmosphere that eventually settle back into our soils and waters.
Europe is currently increasing its reliance on coal while discouraging or banning fracking. If we are going to get our energy from hydrocarbons, blocking fracking while relying on coal looks like a bad trade-off for the environment.
So, should the United States and Europe encourage fracking or ban it? Short-run economic interests support fracking. In the experience of Pennsylvania, natural gas prices fall and jobs are created both directly in the gas industry and indirectly as regional and national economies benefit from lower energy costs. Europe can benefit from lessons learned in Pennsylvania, minimizing damage to the local environment.
The geopolitical shift that would result from decreasing reliance on oil, and more specifically on Russian oil and gas, is one that European politicians might not want to ignore. And if natural gas displaces coal, then fracking is good not only for the economy but also for the global environment.
But if fracked gas merely displaces efforts to develop cleaner, non-carbon, energy sources without decreasing reliance on coal, the doom and gloom of more rapid global climate change will be realized.
Susan Brantley is distinguished professor of geosciences and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Anna Meyendorff is a faculty associate at the International Policy Center of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a manager at Analysis Group.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, or Analysis Group.
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Curious article. Fracking of shale and coal represent such huge financial leverage, there is no way anyone will stop it. So his last comment will be the outcome.
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Snowden has irretrievably damaged Obama, and Hezbollah's entry into Syria is unbelievably serious for the world - I can't believe how desperately quiet everyone has gone with this news.
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Snowden has irretrievably damaged Obama, and Hezbollah's entry into Syria is unbelievably serious for the world - I can't believe how desperately quiet everyone has gone with this news.
Agreed. Steve said much the same thing today... he has been to Syria before and it was one of the worst conflicts he had to take part in..(which sparks special interest in him) he's been having to search for info. not sit down and watch the news to stay updated.
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Agreed. Steve said much the same thing today... he has been to Syria before and it was one of the worst conflicts he had to take part in..(which sparks special interest in him) he's been having to search for info. not sit down and watch the news to stay updated.
Steve has been in Syria? Sometime since March 2011 when this war started? If so, I'd suggest you keep this information very much to yourself for the time being. The US has so far officially denied any involvement of its armed forces in Syria. There have been unconfirmed news about deployments of the US SOF troops to Jordan and other neighbouring countries. The CIA has been active and instrumental in supplying thousands of tons of weapons to rebels (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).
Steve might find these analyses of interest:
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/TheAssadRegime-web.pdf
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/SyrianArmy-DocOOB.pdf
http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/syria-update-jabhat-nusra-aligns-al-qaeda
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/The-Free-Syrian-Army-24MAR.pdf
These would provide a general overview. If he wants to dig deeper and go into detail, he might go down the list here: http://www.understandingwar.org/publications?type%5B%5D=backgrounder&type%5B%5D=map&type%5B%5D=other_work&type%5B%5D=report&tid%5B%5D=293&field_lastname_value=&sort_by=created&sort_order=DESC&=Search
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Snowden has irretrievably damaged Obama, and Hezbollah's entry into Syria is unbelievably serious for the world - I can't believe how desperately quiet everyone has gone with this news.
Damage to Obama? Oh well, there have been scandals about Echelon (http://cryptome.org/echelon-ep-fin.htm), the US spies have been expelled by Germany (http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/mar/10/germany-expels-us-envoy-accused-of-economic-spying/), etc. I'd guess that in one year it is likely to be forgotten.
Syria has been an intensifying proxy war since the beginning of 2012. Iran, Russia, Hezbollah support al-Assad. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey support rebels, but quarrel about the role of Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey and Qatar want them to lead and rule, Saudis consider them a threat to their monarchy. If external support ceased, this war would end quite soon.
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Snowden: this is above the heads of most people, but it has filtered down with a few examples. More importantly it has created a watershed across the globe among the demographic who realise the situation. It has also demonstrated that the US is as culpable in the hacking business as is China. We are entering a globalised world, where a couple fiddling with their computerised gadgets in bed, and sending each other snippets of info or video etc, are being monitored by the State. Here in Australia we have all been wondering why ASIO in Canberra has been building the most massive structure in the centre of the city - now we know. It's to handle the stupendous volume of data being sent them from the PRISIM surveillance program in the US. We knew it was likely, we knew it has some justification, but we didn't know the vast extent of this surveillance, and once you include face recognition cameras in every public place, you have something even Orwell didn't imaging.
Syria: just to get the scope of this drama/tragedy. We have all known that there exist in this war a proxy war between Shia and Sunni. And we have discovered that Al Qaeda has people on the ground with the Rebels. The Rebels were originally broader, but became more sectarian some time ago. I'm sure they still have many sectarian factions amongst them, but for the main, I think we can now call them: Sunnai, backed by Saudi Arabia, with elements of Al Qaeda (who are also backed by Saudi Arabia religiously, if not politically).
The entry of Hezbollah marks a huge turning point, because, although they were always supporting the Alawites, as both are Shia and backed by Iran, putting men-on-the-ground in such a blatant and public way has not happened until now.
It is as if the gloves-are-off. What we have now is a precedence for an all out hands-on war in Syria between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Who do we expect to see sending troops in to fight alongside the Rebels?
But that's the small part. Then we have Israel who have already bombed the supply lines between Hezbollah and Syria. Hezbollah are now building a formidable force in a country (Lebanon) right next to Israel, which looks to now have become sucked into the Syria conflict. Expect Lebanon to explode any day. What will Israel do?
Then we have the West's proxy war, for public sympathy, and the age-old battle between Russia (for al-Assad) and the UK with the US (for the Rebels). The West has been supporting the Rebels, and have declared that chemical weapons would be a game-changer. Well, it's happened. Tonight the US have acknowledged chemical weapons have been used, and they will lift their game accordingly. But does that mean the US is supporting Al Qaeda?
Dear me this thing has become tricky, and we haven't even started.
Then we have two more issues. Turkey also has a large Alawite community, but is predominantly Sunni. And we all know what has been happening there over the last few weeks, with the old divisions redefined. Ultra-nationalists joining the White Turks and the Kurds on the streets, with military sympathy, against the Black Turk president, and literally millions of refugees poring over the Syrian border.
But the final spanner in the works, is that Iran is having a presidential election! What will that mean, now that Iran and Saudi are preparing to fight it out in whatever way they see effective?
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And it's upon us now - the battle for Aleppo will be the symbolic sectarian war - it's no longer about Syria. Aleppo would be hard to take quickly, but large weapons haven't arrived for the Rebels yet, while Iranians and Lebanese have been poring in for the Shia. This will be big.
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Saudis support primarily secular and moderate factions among Syrian rebels. Sounds improbable? Not so, because Saudis have always viewed Muslim Bortherhood as a threat to their monarchy. It is Qatar and Turkey who have supported Muslim Bortherhood who, in turn, promoted salafist factions among rebels. Al-Qaeda in Syria (http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/jabhat-al-nusra-a-strategic-briefing.pdf) (Jabhat al-Nusra) is a phenomenon in its own right.
Now Saudis (with the help of US) literally stepped on Qatar (http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Jun-03/219212-saudi-arabia-edges-out-qatar-for-control-over-syrian-rebel-support.ashx#axzz2VkGPQSJG) to stop the flow of arms to salafists.
Will Saudis join in? I doubt it. If they do, they would have to unleash a flow of their own salafists to Syria which they have prevented so far by threatening these jihadists with severe punishments. In other words, it is way too risky for Saudis to go to war in Syria. Their own state could become internally unstable.
Similarly, I do not think Iranians are willing to fight against any other state in Syria. They are teetering on the edge of being smacked because of their nuclear programme. In December 2012, they considered very seriously possible limitations to their involvement in Syria. They'd rather sacrifice Hezbollah in Syria as it would be gonner anyway if al-Assad fell.
Hence, it is not such an impossible puzzle. All sides have been playing rather safe/rationally so far (with the exception of Qatar), but the latest offensive of al-Assad and weakening of rebels, because the Saudis stepped on Qatar, necessitate the US intervention. Yet, it is likely to be limited to supplying arms and training. Rebels need 500-600 tons of ammunition a day, but they have received mere 30-40 tons lately. Israelis know that their strikes mean playing with fire and that they have practically no influence on Syrian developments (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/07/israels-real-target-hezbollah-not-syria).
You are absolutely right about Aleppo - if al-Assad launched an offensive, it would be a catastrophe even on the backdrop of 90,000 killed and 4,5 million displaced so far.
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Extensive coverage of Snowden's revelations. (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-documents-nsa-targeted-germany-and-eu-buildings-a-908609.html)
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Here it is again. This is by far the best summary of the current situation I have yet seen on the state of Global Warming.
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/
This guy has so many hyperlinks across to other resources, and like me, he is realistic about the outcome.
[with Joni Mitchell live 1970]
"“Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations” and is planning accordingly. Such “activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis — or all three.”"
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Bombs dropped on Great Barrier Reef marine park
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/21/bombs-dropped-great-barrier-reef
Senator asks 'have we gone mad?' after US planes jettison four unarmed bombs in training exercise gone wrong.
The US Navy says it may try to salvage four unarmed bombs dropped by fighter jets into Australia's Great Barrier Reef marine park last week when a training exercise went wrong.
The two AV-8B Harrier jets, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Bonhomme Richard, each jettisoned an inert practice bomb and an unarmed laser-guided explosive bomb into the World Heritage-listed marine park off the coast of Queensland on Tuesday, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement on Saturday.
The four bombs, weighing a total 1.8 metric tons (4,000 pounds), were dropped into more than 50 metres (164ft) of water, away from coral, to minimise possible damage to the reef, the statement said. None exploded.
The Great Barrier Reef marine park authority said in a statement that identifying options for the "rapid recovery" of the bombs so that they could pose no risk to the marine park was "a high priority". But the authority also said the ordnances posed a "low risk to the marine environment".
US 7th Fleet spokesman Lieutenant David Levy said on Monday the Navy was reviewing the possibility of retrieving the ordnances in consultation with Australian authorities.
"If the park service and the government agencies of Australia determine that they want those recovered, then we will co-ordinate with them on that recovery process," Levy said in an email.
The jets, from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, had intended to drop the ordnances on the Townshend Island bombing range, but aborted the mission when controllers reported the area was not clear of hazards.
"It was not safe to drop the bombs. There were civilian boats right below them," fleet commander William Marks told Australian ABC radio on Monday.
The pilots conducted the emergency jettison because they were low on fuel and could not land with their bomb load, the Navy said.
"The Harriers ... needed to get back to the ship, and so they conducted an emergency jettison," Marks said.
The emergency happened on the second day of the biennial joint training exercise Talisman Saber, which brings together 28,000 US and Australian military personnel over three weeks. The US Navy and Marine Corps were working with Australian authorities to investigate the incident, the Navy said.
A 7th Fleet spokesman did not immediately respond on Sunday, when asked by email whether the dumping posed any environmental risk.
Australian Senator Larissa Waters, the Greens spokeswoman on the Great Barrier Reef, described the dumping of bombs in such an environmentally sensitive area as "outrageous" and said it should not be allowed.
"Have we gone completely mad?" she told the ABC. "Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?"
Graeme Dunstan, who is among environmentalists and anti-war activists demonstrating against the joint exercises, said the mishap proved that the US military could not be trusted to protect the environment.
"How can they protect the environment and bomb the reef at the same time? Get real," Dunstan said from the Queensland coastal town of Yeppoon, near where the war games are taking place.
The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest network of coral structures, is rich in marine life and stretches more than 3,000km (1,800 miles) along Australia's north-east coast.
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I sure hope the US gets those bombs out of there. It's a very bad dream...
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I can only assume the muted response from Western countries to the massacre in Egypt, is that they are more terrified by Egypt becoming another powerful radical Islamic country. It may be horrific, but if the Army can't stem the tide of Islamicisation in Egypt, then it will go the way of Turkey, and that is a far more serious worry for the democratic West.
But two things get in the way. Turkey is still a democracy, and the Muslim Brotherhood was democratically elected, although what has happened in Turkey is a worry - democracy is not that compatible with Islam, or leaders who want to retain power by riding off the religious support.
The other problem, is that what the Egyptian army has done is likely to make the situation worse rather than better.
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A few thoughts:
1) Some of Egypt’s problems as well as those of other ‘Arab Spring’ countries have a long and complicated cultural-economic-political history. Cordesman has outlined them quite well here (http://csis.org/files/publication/120418_MENA_Stability.pdf).
2) When writing about ‘Arab Spring’ and democracy in the Middle East, one inevitably clashes with the problem of consequences of free choice. By an objective measure, it is obvious the West does not like the outcomes of all/most free elections in Arab societies – e.g. HAMAS in Gaza and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It is not sure that what Iraqi Shia majority are doing is any more acceptable, but the choices of intervention and influence over that society have been greatly depleted by a failed war.
3) Manipulation of political lives of Muslim countries and double standards is what the US and a few other countries are continuously accused of in the Middle East.
4) From such a perspective, the quiet in the West is understandable. There was a tacit hope that democrats would by some miracle come out winners. In my mind, it is not obvious at all that democrats (if people who carried out a coup against Morsi could be called so) exist in Egypt.
5) Army in Egypt is in charge of up to 10% of state’s economy (e.g. Army is the owner of Sharm el Sheikh resort, etc.) and it has been desperate to stay unaccountable with regard to Morsi’s emerging civilian oversight (in Mubarak’s time, military budget was handled separately from the rest of money, etc.).
6) Hence, the men in uniform seized the moment and moved against Morsi as soon as feasible. Democrats, if there were any at all, stood beside and had nothing to say about it. In a sense, we might be witnessing a counter revolution of pro-Mubarak military leadership (which West seemingly thought could be a second coming of democrats). Generals were smart enough not to resist the first revolution and sacrificed Mubarak, but they fight tooth-and-nail to maintain their own military-economic complex/fiefdom under any rule. They only had to wait - Egypt faces problems that cannot be solved any time soon.
7) The sum of these events is that Egypt is spiralling in chaos. Muslim Brotherhood has up to 20 million supporters – 25% of the population – which means they can strike back with immense force. Moreover, they have backers in Qatar and Turkey.
8) In sum, I would say that we live in times when West should rather learn to live with the changes in the Muslim societies than try to push them in desired directions. In a globalised and open society, the backlash from failed manipulations could be enormous.
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This is pretty bloody good:
Sir Tom Stoppard's original drama, written for the 40th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, gets a very modern trailer.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/pink-floyd-radio-play-gets-an-animated-trailer-20130822-2sdga.html
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Well Juhani, what the game in Syria now? Will the US risk another deployment?
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Well Juhani, what the game in Syria now? Will the US risk another deployment?
It seems that we are, slowly but steadily, approaching an endgame in Syria. Previous news about the preparations and use of chemical weapons poured in at a time when al-Assad had lost nearly 50% of his 60,000-70,000 strong mobile forces. It was December 2012. Regime was under pressure, al-Assad stayed out of public eye and we heard 5-6 times that chemical weapons were deployed causing in average 10-25 fatalities and 50-100 casualties. The use was intended as a punishment, deterrence and compensation for the lack of conventional strength.
In May-June, al-Assad's reconstituted troops launced a counter offensive in central Syria and captured Qusayr, and later - some areas in Homs. However, Saudis and Qataris responded with increased flow of weapons to rebels which led to growing rebel pressure in Damascus, north and west of the country.
By June, the country was divided like this (source: The Guardian):
(http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Main-areas-of-control-in-Syria-June-2013.jpg)
On 24 July 2013, rebels launched an attack in three areas of Damascus: Jobar, Qaboun and Barzeh. Al-Assad's forces counter attacked two days later, but failed to stop rebels. The latter made, for the first time, advances within Damascus proper. Al-Qaeda-led rebels also invaded Alawite lands near Latakia and increased pressure in the north. A few weeks later we heard the news about a massive chemical attack in Damascus (near Jobar area) that took 300-1,200 lives and injured some 3,000 people.
Syrian economy is in tatters. 60% of arable land is located on rebel-held territory. Syrian currency is at 10-12% of its pre-war value. Industrial centres like Aleppo and Homs have been largely turned into ruins. Tourism has fallen by 95% (with many historical sights literally wiped out), foreign trade has dropped by 97% and is allowed only in Russian, Chinese and Iranian currencies. Unemployment level is over 50%. 4.5 million people of the population of 22 million have been displaced internally, over 100,000 killed, and 2 million have escaped to neighbouring countries.
Al-Assad seems to be on the ropes now. He can defend, but he cannot counterattack everywhere the need is as he faces nearly 100,000-strong insurgent force. Of the latter 10,000 are al-Qaeda (AQ) and 25,000-30,000 Syrian salafist battle group called Ahrar al-Sham (AS). These are the toughest, most disciplined and best equipped troops on the rebel side. They want to build Islamic state of Syria and they would likely turn their (increasingly sophisticated) weapons against the Western troops if these ever appeared on the theatre. Nor would they be too interested in Western air strikes against al-Assad. All they want is more weapons and ammunition to push through their solution. Consequently, Western powers deal mostly with the shrinking pool of secular rebels many of whom are switching to Islamist units. Thus, the possible Western intervention seems increasingly like a questionable proposition.
What can the US and others do? There are no good options on the table:
1) decaptitation strike against al-Assad's leadership
2) puhishing strikes against the units that deployed chemical weapons
3) supplying rebels with chemical weapons detection and protections kit
4) no-fly zone (cost of establishing - US$ 0.5 bn and maintaining - US$ 1bn a month)
5) arming rebels - chances are that these weapons end up in the hands of Islamists
6) intervention - it would be a repetition of Iraq and Afghanistan
The most likely option seems to be punishing strikes with a hint of possibility of decapitation to al-Assad.
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Thanks Juhani. The whole thing is a worry. I think at this point we can kiss the nation of Syria goodbye. There's no way that place can be put back together.
I could say it's a vision of the future, except, I also get the feeling that this recent phase of radical Islam is reaching a closing point. Islam has worn a face of 'outsider', defiance against the march of time against the fantasy of some past glory. Essentially it has been fighting a rear-guard action against change, but new generations will find it harder to feel allegiance to this self-image of the angry man outside the fence, as they identify more and more with the global interacted world. It should all fall apart just about the time the world begins to take Climate Change seriously - about 20 years or less.
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Brits bailed out. French would like to have a UN mandate to smack Syria.
Will Obama go it alone? Traditionally, the US has valued its "freedom of action" more than legitimacy provided through UN. Now the US seems to be left alone. What next?
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Obama is getting strong feedback left and right to abstain ... but there's a madness afoot and I fear he won't listen. I have the same feeling I had before Bush didn't listen.
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There is a moral case, but not a legal case. The legal framework is not accepted by many in any country - it means the international agreements, but when it comes to self-preservation of nations, the international agreements are meaningless.
Obama is faced with a view that the use of mass destructive weapons by anyone on this planet must be hit on the head immediately. Nations and people must know there are severe consequences to using these weapons, otherwise their use will escalate, and that will come back to affect the US. That is the view.
I think there is much truth in that view, but I'm also aware of the truth in the Russian view of asking what did anyone gain from the interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya? They also have a good point, although of course, like everyone else, they have vested interests.
So should the moral case override the legal case, simply because Russia and China will veto the legal case?
Emotionally, I feel Obama has to act. Rationally I wonder what the consequences will be. This is not the same as the Iraq situation, but the stupidity of that is still affecting international behaviour.
Russian war ships are also on the move.
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#%&%^*(
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2407905/Syria-crisis-President-Obama-says-military-action-Syria-necessary-seeking-congressional-approval-launch-attack.html
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It is one of the largest humanitarian crises of all time, i.e. since 1946 when the UN was established.
Population: 22 million
7 million displaced
2 million have left the country
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Is this true? Is it hyperbole? ww3?
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32013/france-flips-on-syria-russia-china-rush-warships/
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Is this true? Is it hyperbole? ww3?
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32013/france-flips-on-syria-russia-china-rush-warships/
Nah. Nobody wants to go to war with the US.
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It is surprising that France has backed out after crowing so loudly. The Russians are posturing, but it's pretty serious posturing. Not sure what their troops are doing there - no one will be putting boots on the ground.
So it does appear to be an escalation of concern. I'd put money of the US doing something, but what I have not a clue.
Don't see any worry for the citizens of the US or Russia - they are not going to attack each other's country over Syria.
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Just posturing with some practical considerations. Russians are, in fact, preparing to evacuate their personnel if the US decides to shift the military balance in favour of rebels. Of 100,000 rebels, some 30,000-40,000 are hardcore Islamists and would show no mercy to Russians nor to anybody supporting al-Assad.
Warships are the fastest (and safest) way to get one's compatriots out of harm's way.
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Ah, that does seem practical.
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81 elephants killed in Zimbabwe cyanide poison
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12606:81-elephants-killed-in-zimbabwe-cyanide-poison&catid=38:travel-tips&Itemid=18
Monday, 23 September 2013
Harare, Sep 23 (IANS) Zimbabwe’s government said Monday that a “poaching syndicate” has killed at least 81 elephants and an unknown number of buffaloes and kudus (a type of antelope) by poisoning in the country’s largest national park.
Six suspects were arrested two weeks ago but the scale of the cyanide poisoning has only gradually unfolded as more elephant carcasses were discovered in the sprawling Hwange National Park, Xinhua reported.
Authorities Monday warned “huge spiral effects” as primary predators like lions, vultures and others that feed on the contaminated elephant carcasses would be poisoned as well.
Police revealed that the syndicate, led by a South African businessman, mixed a combination of cyanide, salt and water and poured the cocktail into about 35 salt licks at watering holes known to be frequented by elephants.
At other watering holes, the poachers would dig holes and place containers of the deadly mixture in the holes.
Zimbabwe’s newly appointed Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Savior Kasukuwere declared a “war” against poaching.
“We declare zero tolerance to poaching. We must put a stop to this. We cannot continue with this nonsense,” state media quoted Kasukuwere as saying after he went to inspect the ecological impact of the poisoning – his second trip in a week.
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Walter Mzembi, who accompanied Kasukuwere to Hwange, described the poisoning as a case of “murder” of Zimbabwe’s wildlife and pledged to take the fight to international source markets.
Hwange, spanning 14,651 square kilometers, is home to about 50,000 African elephants.
Over the years, the elephant population in Africa has been rapidly declining due to rampant poaching. Zimbabwe is among the few countries, mostly in southern Africa, that still have a significant number of elephants.
The Zimbabwean government allows ivory trade in the domestic market but puts strong restrictions on export of ivory products.
The country’s law provides a maximum of 11 years in prison for people convicted of poaching.
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Horrific.
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This might be a fundamental turn in the war. Basically, the US policy seems to have failed as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Arabs declared the will to go their own way, and a major Sunni-Shia confrontation is on the horizon. This development actually carries a limited potential to evolve over time into the Mother of All Wars.
New Islamist Bloc Declares Opposition to National Coalition and US Strategy
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/major-rebel-factions-drop-exiles-go-full-islamist/
By Aron Lund for Syria Comment
Sept. 24, 2013
Abdelaziz Salame, the highest political leader of the Tawhid Brigade in Aleppo, has issued a statement online where he claims to speak for 13 different rebel factions. You can see the video or read it in Arabic here. The statement is titled “communiqué number one” – making it slightly ominous right off the bat – and what it purports to do is to gut Western strategy on Syria and put an end to the exiled opposition.
The statements has four points, some of them a little rambling. My summary:
•All military and civilian forces should unify their ranks in an “Islamic framwork” which is based on “the rule of sharia and making it the sole source of legislation”.
•The undersigned feel that they can only be represented by those who lived and sacrificed for the revolution.
•Therefore, they say, they are not represented by the exile groups. They go on to specify that this applies to the National Coalition and the planned exile government of Ahmed Touma, stressing that these groups “do not represent them” and they “do not recognize them”.
•In closing, the undersigned call on everyone to unite and avoid conflict, and so on, and so on.
The following groups are listed as signatories to the statement.
1.Jabhat al-Nosra
2.Islamic Ahrar al-Sham Movement
3.Tawhid Brigade
4.Islam Brigade
5.Suqour al-Sham Brigades
6.Islamic Dawn Movement
7.Islamic Light Movement
8.Noureddin al-Zengi Battalions
9.Haqq Brigade – Homs
10.Furqan Brigade – Quneitra
11.Fa-staqim Kama Ummirat Gathering – Aleppo
12.19th Division
13.Ansar Brigade
Who are these people?
The alleged signatories make up a major part of the northern rebel force, plus big chunks also of the Homs and Damascus rebel scene, as well as a bit of it elsewhere. Some of them are among the biggest armed groups in the country, and I’m thinking now mostly of numbers one through five. All together, they control at least a few tens of thousand fighters, and if you trust their own estimates (don’t) it must be way above 50,000 fighters.
Most of the major insurgent alliances are included. Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Islam and Suqour al-Sham are in both the Western- and Gulf-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC a.k.a. FSA) and the SILF, sort-of-moderate Islamists. Ahrar al-Sham and Haqq are in the SIF, very hardline Islamists. Jabhat al-Nosra, of course, is an al-Qaida faction. Noureddin al-Zengi are in the Asala wa-Tanmiya alliance (which is led by quietist salafis, more or less) as well as in the SMC. And so on. More groups may join, but already at this stage, it looks – on paper, at least – like the most powerful insurgent alliance in Syria.
What does this mean?
Is this a big deal? Yes, if the statement proves to accurately represent the groups mentioned and they do not immediately fall apart again, it is a very big deal. It represents the rebellion of a large part of the “mainstream FSA” against its purported political leadership, and openly aligns these factions with more hardline Islamist forces.
That means that all of these groups now formally state that they do not recognize the opposition leadership that has been molded and promoted by the USA, Turkey, France, Great Britain, other EU countries, Qatar, and – especially, as of late – Saudi Arabia.
That they also formally commit themselves to sharia as the “sole source of legislation” is not as a big a deal as it may seem. Most of these factions already were on record as saying that, and for most of the others, it’s more like a slight tweak of language. Bottom line, they were all Islamist anyway. And, of course, they can still mean different things when they talk about sharia.
Why now? According to a Tawhid Brigade spokesperson, it is because of the “conspiracies and compromises that are being forced on the Syrian people by way of the [National] Coalition”. So there.
Mohammed Alloush of the Islam Brigade (led by his relative, Mohammed Zahran Alloush), who is also a leading figure in the SILF alliance, was up late tweeting tonight. He had a laundry list of complaints against the National Coalition, including the fact that its members are all, he says, “appointed”, i.e. by foreign powers. He also opposed its planned negotiations with the regime. This may have been in reference to a (widely misinterpreted) recent statement by the Coalition president Ahmed Jerba. Alloush also referred to the recent deal between the National Coalition and the Kurdish National Council, and was upset that this will (he thinks) splinter Syria and change its name from the Syrian Arab Republic to the Syrian Republic.
Is this a one-off thing?
The fellow from the Tawhid Brigade informed me that more statements are in the making. According to him, this is not just an ad hoc formation set up to make a single point about the National Coalition. He hinted that it’s the beginning of a more structured group, but when I asked, he said it has no name yet. On the other hand, Abdulqader Saleh – Tawhid’s powerful military chief – referred to it on Twitter as al-Tahaluf al-Islami or the Islamic Alliance, but that may have been just descriptive, rather than a formal name.
Mohammed Alloush also wrote on Twitter, somewhat ambiguously, that the member groups have their own offices and political bureaus, and there’s a political program different from the National Coalition. He, too, hinted that there’s more coming: “wait for the announcement of the new army”.
Who’s missing?
These are of course not all the rebels; far from it. Dozens or hundreds of small and local groups are missing from this alliance, just like they’ve been missing from every other alliance before it. Some really big groups are also not in there, like the Farouq Battalions or the Ahfad al-Rasoul Brigades, both of them quite closely aligned with the SMC and the National Coalition.
Most notably, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham – Syria’s most querulous al-Qaida faction – is absent from the list. Given the recent surge in tension between the Islamic State and other factions, that seems significant. Does it mean the new coalition is in fact aimed at isolating the Islamic State, while also upping its own Islamist credentials? Striking a kind of third way between the Western-backed SMC and its al-Qaida rival? Maybe. The question then remains, what should we make of Jabhat al-Nosra being included, which is also an al-Qaida group.
In either case, the Northern Storm Brigade – which was routed by the Islamic State in its home town of Aazaz just recently – has quickly expressed support for the new coalition. In a statement posted online, they fell over themselves to explain how they’ve always been all about implementing sharia law. This is of course, how shall I put it, not true. The Northern Storm Brigade leaders are, or so the story goes, a bunch of ex-smugglers from Aazaz, with no particularly clear ideological agenda. They’ve allied with the West to the point of hosting John McCain for a photo op – and as we know, he waltzed out of that meeting firmly convinced that the rebels are all proponents of secular democracy.
No: the reason that the Northern Storm Brigade has suddenly gone all Islamist is that they desperately seek protection from Tawhid, after being beaten up by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Perhaps they also figure that this alliance might be the only thing big and mean enough to actually crush the Islamic State. Size, money and momentum are the things to look for in Syrian insurgent politics – ideology comes fourth, if even that. That’s also why this statement seems so important.
On the other hand, the statement is in no way hostile to the ISIS. It might in fact suit them pretty well, since it weakens the hand of the Western-backed camp and adds weight to Islamist demands. When I asked a representative of Tawhid, he said the reason they’re not on the list of signatories is just because they’re not members. If they want to, and share the principles, they could join. The members already present will decide.
Is it just a local thing?
There’s also not that much of a presence from the Syrian south. The Furqan Brigade is an exception – founded in Kanaker, and now stretching from the western Ghouta to Quneitra. Then you have the Islam Brigade in Damascus, the Homsi Haqq Brigade, and so on. Generally speaking, however, this list of names has a heavy northern flavor to it, specifically Aleppine.
On the scanned original statement, there’s even an addition of “Aleppo” next to the name of “Abdullah al-Shami”, who signed for Jabhat al-Nosra. The Tawhid spokesperson, again, says that this doesn’t mean they only signed on for the Aleppo branch. He insists that the alliance is intended for all of Syria. I guess we’ll find out.
Are you sure about this?
No, I’m not sure about this. There’s always good reason to be cautious about Syria’s notoriously unstable opposition politics. Things like these will shift quicker than you can say يسقط بشار. The wind could easily turn again, signatory groups could drop out, foreign funders could put the squeeze on groups that have not grasped the magnitude of what they just said.
That sort of thing already happened once, in Aleppo in November 2012, when Tawhid, Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and many other groups signed a statement denouncing the then-newly formed National Coalition. I wrote about it for Carnegie at the time. The difference between then and now is that the November 2012 statement seems to have been very poorly anchored, and basically sprung on everyone by Jabhat al-Nosra who (I heard) gathered local commanders and had them sign a statement without consulting their top leadership properly. So it fell apart very quickly.
This time – we’ll see.
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Interesting development.
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IPCC climate report: humans 'dominant cause' of warming
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24292615
A landmark report (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.UkaBuJ3bycx) says scientists are 95% certain that humans are the "dominant cause" of global warming since the 1950s.
The report by the UN's climate panel details the physical evidence behind climate change.
On the ground, in the air, in the oceans, global warming is "unequivocal", it explained.
It adds that a pause in warming over the past 15 years is too short to reflect long-term trends.
The panel warns that continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all aspects of the climate system.
To contain these changes will require "substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions".
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70149000/gif/_70149764_climate_change_coloured_624.gif)
Projections are based on assumptions about how much greenhouse gases might be released
After a week of intense negotiations in the Swedish capital, the summary for policymakers on the physical science of global warming has finally been released.
The first part of an IPCC trilogy, due over the next 12 months, this dense, 36-page document is considered the most comprehensive statement on our understanding of the mechanics of a warming planet.
It states baldly that, since the 1950s, many of the observed changes in the climate system are "unprecedented over decades to millennia".
Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface, and warmer than any period since 1850, and probably warmer than any time in the past 1,400 years.
"Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean sea level has risen and that concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased," said Qin Dahe, co-chair of IPCC working group one, who produced the report.
Speaking at a news conference in the Swedish capital, Prof Thomas Stocker, another co-chair, said that climate change "challenges the two primary resources of humans and ecosystems, land and water. In short, it threatens our planet, our only home".
Since 1950, the report's authors say, humanity is clearly responsible for more than half of the observed increase in temperatures.
But a so-called pause in the increase in temperatures in the period since 1998 is downplayed in the report. The scientists point out that this period began with a very hot El Nino year.
"Trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends," the report says.
Prof Stocker, added: "I'm afraid there is not a lot of public literature that allows us to delve deeper at the required depth of this emerging scientific question.
"For example, there are not sufficient observations of the uptake of heat, particularly into the deep ocean, that would be one of the possible mechanisms to explain this warming hiatus."
"Likewise we have insufficient data to adequately assess the forcing over the last 10-15 years to establish a relationship between the causes of the warming."
However, the report does alter a key figure from the 2007 study. The temperature range given for a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere, called equilibrium climate sensitivity, was 2.0C to 4.5C in that report.
In the latest document, the range has been changed to 1.5C to 4.5C. The scientists say this reflects improved understanding, better temperature records and new estimates for the factors driving up temperatures.
In the summary for policymakers, the scientists say that sea level rise will proceed at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years. Waters are expected to rise, the document says, by between 26cm (at the low end) and 82cm (at the high end), depending on the greenhouse emissions path this century.
The scientists say ocean warming dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for 90% of energy accumulated between 1971 and 2010.
For the future, the report states that warming is projected to continue under all scenarios. Model simulations indicate that global surface temperature change by the end of the 21st Century is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to 1850.
Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: "We are performing a very dangerous experiment with our planet, and I don't want my grandchildren to suffer the consequences of that experiment."
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Rate of ocean acidification due to carbon emissions is at highest for 300m years
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/03/ocean-acidification-carbon-dioxide-emissions-levels
The oceans are becoming more acidic at the fastest rate in 300m years, due to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, and a mass extinction of key species may already be almost inevitable as a result, leading marine scientists warned on Thursday.
An international audit of the health of the oceans has found that overfishing and pollution are also contributing to the crisis, in a deadly combination of destructive forces that are imperilling marine life, on which billions of people depend for their nutrition and livelihood.
In the starkest warning yet of the threat to ocean health, the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) said: "This [acidification] is unprecedented in the Earth's known history. We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure. The next mass extinction may have already begun." It published its findings in the State of the Oceans report, collated every two years from global monitoring and other research studies.
Alex Rogers, professor of biology at Oxford University, said: "The health of the ocean is spiralling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought. We are seeing greater change, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously anticipated. The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support life on Earth."
Coral is particularly at risk. Increased acidity dissolves the calcium carbonate skeletons that form the structure of reefs, and increasing temperatures lead to bleaching where the corals lose symbiotic algae they rely on. The report says that world governments' current pledges to curb carbon emissions would not go far enough or fast enough to save many of the world's reefs. There is a time lag of several decades between the carbon being emitted and the effects on seas, meaning that further acidification and further warming of the oceans are inevitable, even if we drastically reduce emissions very quickly. There is as yet little sign of that, with global greenhouse gas output still rising.
Corals are vital to the health of fisheries, because they act as nurseries to young fish and smaller species that provide food for bigger ones.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the seas – at least a third of the carbon that humans have released has been dissolved in this way, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – and makes them more acidic. But IPSO found the situation was even more dire than that laid out by the world's top climate scientists in their landmark report last week.
In absorbing carbon and heat from the atmosphere, the world's oceans have shielded humans from the worst effects of global warming, the marine scientists said. This has slowed the rate of climate change on land, but its profound effects on marine life are only now being understood.
Acidification harms marine creatures that rely on calcium carbonate to build coral reefs and shells, as well as plankton, and the fish that rely on them. Jane Lubchenco, former director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a marine biologist, said the effects were already being felt in some oyster fisheries, where young larvae were failing to develop properly in areas where the acid rates are higher, such as on the west coast of the US. "You can actually see this happening," she said. "It's not something a long way into the future. It is a very big problem."
But the chemical changes in the ocean go further, said Rogers. Marine animals use chemical signals to perceive their environment and locate prey and predators, and there is evidence that their ability to do so is being impaired in some species.
Trevor Manuel, a South African government minister and co-chair of the Global Ocean Commission, called the report "a deafening alarm bell on humanity's wider impacts on the global oceans".
"Unless we restore the ocean's health, we will experience the consequences on prosperity, wellbeing and development. Governments must respond as urgently as they do to national security threats – in the long run, the impacts are just as important," he said.
Current rates of carbon release into the oceans are 10 times faster than those before the last major species extinction, which was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum extinction, about 55m years ago. The IPSO scientists can tell that the current ocean acidification is the highest for 300m years from geological records.
They called for strong action by governments to limit carbon concentrations in the atmosphere to no more than 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent. That would require urgent and deep reductions in fossil fuel use.
No country in the world is properly tackling overfishing, the report found, and almost two thirds are failing badly. At least 70 per cent of the world's fish populations are over-exploited. Giving local communities more control over their fisheries, and favouring small-scale operators over large commercial vessels would help this, the report found. Subsidies that drive overcapacity in fishing fleets should also be eliminated, marine conservation zones set up and destructive fishing equipment should be banned. There should also be better governance of the areas of ocean beyond countries' national limits.
The IPSO report also found the oceans were being "deoxygenated" – their average oxygen content is likely to fall by as much as 7 per cent by 2100, partly because of the run-off of fertilisers and sewage into the seas, and also as a side-effect of global warming. The reduction of oxygen is a concern as areas of severe depletion become effectively dead.
Rogers said: "People are just not aware of the massive roles that the oceans play in the Earth's systems. Phytoplankton produce 40 per cent of the oxygen in the atmosphere, for example, and 90 per cent of all life is in the oceans. Because the oceans are so vast, there are still areas we have never really seen. We have a very poor grasp of some of the biochemical processes in the world's biggest ecosystem."
The five chapters of which the State of the Oceans report is a summary have been published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal.
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(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/files/2013/10/w-climateDepartureWv4.jpg)
Climate tipping points in different cities for business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions. Method: Using temperature data from 1860 to 2005 as a baseline, climate departure describes the point in time that the average temperature of the coolest year after 2005 becomes warmer than the historic average temperature of the hottest year, for a specific location. SOURCE: Nature. GRAPHIC: Gene Thorp – The Washington Post. Published Oct. 9, 2013.
Washington, D.C. to pass climate point of no return in 2047, study says; is that credible?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/10/10/d-c-to-pass-climate-point-of-no-return-in-2047-study-says-is-that-credible/
If we continue dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at current rates, our coldest years around 2047 will be comparable to our hottest years now, finds a groundbreaking study published in the journal Nature.
“On average, locations worldwide will leave behind the climates that have existed from the middle of the 19th century through the beginning of the 21st century by 2047 if no progress is made in curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, said researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who sought to project the timing of that event for 54,000 locations,” my colleague Lenny Bernstein reports.
The study’s methodology, which pins this climate tipping point to a specific date and location using 39 climate models, is novel and intriguing. Gaining an appreciation for when different parts of the world will step out of the climate of the past and into an entirely new one could help us plan for and adapt to such an eventuality.
But if the climate of the future is to become unrecognizable from the climate of the past, can science really nail down exactly when and where with confidence? Unlikely.
“I simply do not believe any of the models are able to reliably say anything meaningful on the details in degree and timing with such specificity, region by region, let alone city by city, with no mention of uncertainties,” says CWG’s Steve Tracton, who spent decades working on numerical weather prediction models.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/files/2013/10/10_9_13_andrew_tablecities.png)
David Titley, a professor of meteorology at Penn State, expressed similar reservations.
“We can’t say on one hand that the [current] slowdown in warming air temps is because of random, ‘short-term’ (<30 year) fluctuations (or stochastic processes), then give a prediction (not projection!) to within 12 months of crossing a very specific temperature threshold,” Titley says. “Round to the decade, add a confidence interval, etc….”
The study’s authors provide information about the uncertainty in their predictions, but it’s limited. They provide standard deviations (plus or minus 14 years for the global average tipping point date of 2047 in the business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions scenario). And for the tipping point in individual cities, there’s a 5-year margin of error, the authors said at a news conference.
But beyond that information on standard deviations and margin of error, the authors don’t really discuss the modeling limitations and the assumptions that have to be made in making such specific predictions.
Fortunately, some science writers stepped in to provide a framework for interpreting the study’s results.
For example, credit Andrew Freedman at Climate Central who writes (bold text is my added emphasis) “Given that there are considerable uncertainties about future greenhouse gas emissions as well as the precise response of the climate system to those emissions, not to mention the uncertainties inherent in computer modeling, the study should not be taken as offering precise predictions.”
Similarly, the New York Times’ Justin Gillis cautions (bold text is my added emphasis): “The research comes with caveats. It is based on climate models, huge computer programs that attempt to reproduce the physics of the climate system and forecast the future response to greenhouse gases. Though they are the best tools available, these models contain acknowledged problems, and no one is sure how accurate they will prove to be at peering many decades ahead.”
Without the kind of qualification provided by Freedman and Gillis, it’s easy to be misled about the clarity of the future.
This new paper provides a valuable new way of very generally thinking about how, when and where the climate may reach a new frontier. As climate models get better and our scientific understanding of climate improves, scientists will be able to sharpen this thinking to some degree. For now, it’s best to say the study provides a reasonable first approximation of climate tipping points. It certainly does not provide a crystal ball.
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Yes, these analyses continue to astound those in the know, but do little for those who don't care because it isn't affecting them in any dramatic way. I am now perceiving a new sociological phenomenon emerging from the whole Climate Change event, due primarily to the length of time it is taking to unfold, the issue surrounding the need to trust science, and the determined advocacy of the fossil fuel industry.
I began thinking about this after reading an article by Suzuki about how he originally thought the world would jump to attention once certain dramatic climate events hit the developed world. Now he doubts any dramatic event is going to galvanise the world powers into action, let alone the people. The actions of vested interests have created a state of inertia, coupled with the slow-boiled frog effect. There have been some very dramatic events, especially on the US, and nothing has changed.
I still feel dramatic events will trigger being an awakening, but am also beginning to doubt how this will happen. What is it that has crept into the minds and emotions of people, that has caused them to lie passive in the face of what they must know sub-consciously is an almighty catastrophe?
I sense that even as things get much worse, they will shift to a state of acceptance of their fate, and do nothing. But I know not all humans are like that, so I expect we will see many willing to fight for survival, including whole countries.
It is a weird thing to watch. Australia is going into another summer which has already started hotter than ever, with bush fires breaking out all over, and it is only Spring. But Climate Change remains in the news solely around those who have always talked about it - the greens and the scientists.
How each nation, and the world, reacts as the earth heats, is going to be a fascinating sociological study, as I say, and a very dangerous time.
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One could look at opposing the consequences of human activity in several different ways. On one hand, it is about survival of mankind itself. On the other, it is about preventing destruction of all the life forms around us. Not doing anything could suggest indifference toward humans and other creatures, but also powerlessness and inability to change the big picture.
Many people I know are paralysed by the distinct feeling of being powerless and helpless in the face of (big) corporate powers, the need to earn living, and bring up their children. Hence, they keep sitting, somewhat uneasily, on the train with a questionable destination. They are fully aware of it, but see no other possibility.
There are many ways to talk oneself into such a mindstate. All sorts explanations ranging from "I was born into such a world and I bear no responsibility for this sad state of affairs" to "God will take care of things" do the trick. One only has to want to believe. Desperately.
Yet, at the heart of the hearts everyone knows what the truth is. Some get angry and want to bring about apocalypse, others wait for Rupture, some work days and nights to find their way in that mess. What usually happens, is rather prosaic. Universe is in no hurry and takes its time to let the lessons and experiences sink in.
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It seems to be out of West's hands now. The US is only interested in destruction of chemical weapons and seems to be amazed as age-old Arab friends are asking the US to stuff itself.
Saudis seek Pakistan’s help to train Syrian rebels: magazine
http://dawn.com/news/1054970/saudis-seek-pakistans-help-to-train-syrian-rebels-magazine
NEW YORK, Nov 7: Saudi Arabia, after having lost faith in the Obama administration’s efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s government, has decided to begin a major effort with Pakistan to train Syrian rebel forces, Foreign Policy magazine said on Thursday.
The magazine said Pakistan’s role is so far relatively small, though another source with knowledge of Saudi thinking said that a plan was currently being debated to give Pakistan responsibility for training two rebel brigades, or around 5,000 to 10,000 fighters. Carnegie Middle East Centre fellow Yezid Sayigh first noted the use of Pakistani instructors, writing that the Saudis were planning to build a Syrian rebel army of roughly 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers.
“The only way Assad will think about giving up power is if he’s faced with the threat of a credible, armed force,” said the Saudi insider.
A State Department official declined to comment on the Saudi training programme, the magazine said.
Saudi turnaround and desire to creat 50,000 men-strong Sunni army to fight Alawite-Shia regime/Iran's proxies has a very ominous context to it. As far as I can see, it could escalate to an apocalytic conflict under worst of circumstances. Thus, all the disappointed and depressed characters waiting for the end of the world have something to look for - religious war with nukes.
Saudi nuclear weapons 'on order' from Pakistan
http://paktribune.com/news/Saudi-nuclear-weapons-on-order-from-Pakistan-264355.html
LAHORE: Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, a variety of sources have told BBC Newsnight.
While the kingdom's quest has often been set in the context of countering Iran's atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic republic, the BBC reported.
Earlier this year, a senior NATO decision maker told BBC Newsnight that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.
Last month Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden that if Iran got the bomb, "the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring".
Since 2009, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned visiting US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross that if Iran crossed the threshold, "we will get nuclear weapons", the kingdom has sent the Americans numerous signals of its intentions, the report said.
Gary Samore, until March 2013 President Barack Obama's counter-proliferation adviser, told Newsnight, "I do think that the Saudis believe that they have some understanding with Pakistan that, in extremis, they would have claim to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan."
The story of Saudi Arabia's project – including the acquisition of missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long ranges – goes back decades.
In the late 1980s, the BBC added, they secretly bought dozens of CSS-2 ballistic missiles from China.
These rockets, considered by many experts too inaccurate for use as conventional weapons, were deployed 20 years ago. This summer experts at defence publishers Jane's reported the completion of a new Saudi CSS-2 base with missile launch rails aligned with Israel and Iran.
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was accused by western intelligence agencies of selling atomic know-how and uranium enrichment centrifuges to Libya and North Korea.
AQ Khan is also believed to have passed the Chinese nuclear weapon design to those countries, BBC said and added this blueprint was for a device engineered to fit on the CSS-2 missile, i.e the same type sold to Saudi Arabia. One senior Pakistani, speaking on background terms, confirmed the broad nature of the deal – probably unwritten – his country had reached with the kingdom and asked rhetorically "what did we think the Saudis were giving us all that money for? It wasn't charity".
Pakistan terms report baseless
Pakistan on Thursday rejected BBC's report on nuclear cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and declared the news report as baseless and mischievous.
A Foreign Office (FO) spokesman said that Pakistan was a responsible nuclear-armed state with robust command and control structure and comprehensive export controls. Pakistan supports objectives of non-proliferation as well as nuclear safety and security.
"Therefore the aforesaid story was entirely baseless and mischievous," he stated in a statement adding, "As a responsible nuclear state, Pakistan is fully aware of its responsibilities. Pakistan's nuclear programme is purely for its own legitimate self defence and maintenance of a credible, minimum deterrence."
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I had been wondering, and feeling this silence was not a good sign. I think the sectarian aspect has had to come out stronger eventually, seeing as it lay at the basis of the previous troubles and situation. Also, I think Obama can be ignored - there are so many cases on the table now from trade to security and munitions, that it is obvious Obama will do nothing to hinder the old mindset of US power class, and do nothing to play a leadership role with all the current global issues ... in other words, the rest of the world has to act if they need anything, and forget about petitions to the main national powers.
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One the thing the USA can still do, is respond quickly to emergencies like the Philippines. We will be sorry when there is no one around act so effectively in disasters.
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One the thing the USA can still do, is respond quickly to emergencies like the Philippines. We will be sorry when there is no one around act so effectively in disasters.
You mean when there is no one around with an aircraft carrier on every remotely important bit of the world seas? Such presence will not last anyway.
The US will concentrate 60% of its Navy on the Pacific by 2020. It is a response to the shift of the centre of world economy to Asia. By 2025 China may already be the largest economy on this planet.
The rest of the world will have to fend for themselves.
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The unquenchable fire
Adaptable and resilient, al-Qaeda and its allies keep bouncing back
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21586834-adaptable-and-resilient-al-qaeda-and-its-allies-keep-bouncing-back-unquenchable-fire
THE atrocity visited on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre by al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate, the Shabab, was a bloody reminder that reports of the tefforist network’s demise have been much exaggerated. From Somalia to Syria, al-Qaeda franchises and jihadist fellow travellers now control more territory, and can call on more fighters, than at any time since Osama bin Laden created the organisation 25 years ago.
The September 21st raid and the subsequent three-day stand-off left at least 67 people dead and nearly 200 injured (see article). The attack resembled in some ways that perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani outfit also linked to al-Qaeda, in Mumbai in 2008: non-Muslims were singled out for execution; hostages were taken to prolong the drama; well-trained fighters were able to hold off security forces for a considerable time; and, as at least six dead Britons bear witness, the killers picked a target with a Western clientele. Such attacks are easier to plan and execute than blowing up airliners and more glamorous (for the fighters involved) than suicide bombings. As a result Western intelligence agencies fear that they may become increasingly popular.
The Shabab’s attack is not a sign of strength. Ousted from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, last year by a UN-backed African Union force that includes some 5,000 Kenyan troops, subject to American drone strikes from nearby Djibouti and suffering internal divisions after the decision by the group’s emir, Ahmed Godane, to merge fully with al-Qaeda in 2011, the Shabab has been under severe pressure. But it has a hunkered-down resilience. The Shabab has proved impossible to dislodge from its southern Somali redoubts and has promised that the Westgate attack will be followed by others of its kind.
Life after Abbottabad
The Shabab’s ability to strike back after a serious drubbing mirrors that of al-Qaeda at large. In July 2011, two months after the Abbottabad raid that killed bin Laden, America’s then defence secretary Leon Panetta boasted in Kabul that America was “within reach of strategically defeating” the network. Mr Panetta said that intelligence gathered in Abbottabad pointed to an organisation that was broke and reeling from American drone strikes. With a bit of further effort aimed at ten to 20 key leaders in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, Mr Panetta went on, “We can really cripple al-Qaeda as a threat to this country.”
Specifically, America’s leaders thought that such assassinations would leave the organisation incapable of carrying out complex plots against targets in the West. “Lone wolf attacks” carried out by misfits and madmen indoctrinated by al-Qaeda over the internet might continue; “spectaculars”were increasingly beyond the beleaguered organisation’s abilities.
Al-Qaeda was not only getting killed in the field. The tide of history seemed to be against it. In the first half of 2011 the Arab spring had shown that oppressive regimes that had resisted al-Qaeda, such as those of Egypt, Tunisia and the Yemen, could be removed by peaceful protests. Political parties with an Islamist agenda could contest and even win democratic elections without the West stepping in to stop them. This, many Western analysts and officials held, meant that al-Qaeda’s day was done.
Two years after Mr Panetta’s brave words, though, America’s State Department abruptly announced that it was closing 19 diplomatic missions across the Middle East and north Africa, and a global travel alert was issued to all American citizens. In early August America’s National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor as head of al-Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of its Yemen-based affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP), in which they discussed putting into action one or more tefforist operations against American interests. Mr Zawahiri recently appointed Mr Wuhayshi, once bin Laden’s secretary, as general manager of al-Qaeda, putting him in overall operational command of the network.
The exposure of the plotters may have helped thwart their plans. But the seriousness with which the threat was treated casts doubt on the story of an isolated and ineffective core increasingly irrelevant to the region’s broader conflicts. The central leadership has lost many people, and its ability to communicate securely with the rest of the network has been severely degraded. But Mr Zawahiri, Mr Wuhayshi and their colleagues still have substantial ideological and some practical influence over the wider movement. Mr Zawahiri does not have the charisma of bin Laden, and some intelligence sources stress the emergence of a new generation of younger jihadist leaders who pay only lip-service to his authority. But the emirs of many al-Qaeda affiliates, such as the Shabab’s Mr Godane, have sworn allegiance to him.
Other jihads are available
Al-Qaeda and its fellow travellers, including militia groups under the umbrella name of Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law)in Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Mali and Egypt that both compete and co-operate with the organisation, have recovered momentum and self-confidence as the hopes invested in the Arab spring have withered. Indeed, the reverses of the Arab spring have been a boon to it.
Take Egypt. After the coup that toppled President Muhammad Morsi in July, Mr Zawahiri posted a 15-minute message on jihadist websites arguing that “the crusaders” in the West and their allies in the Arab world will never allow the establishment of an Islamist state. The Egyptian-born Zawahiri went on to urge “the soldiers of the Koran to wage the battle of the Koran” in Egypt. Al-Qaeda has always despised the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Mr Morsi is a part, but in these circumstances it is happy to make common cause. Its fighters are already allying themselves with Bedouin bandits and insurgents in the Sinai who make daily attacks on Egypt’s army.
It is too soon to say how many young Egyptians will heed Mr Zawahiri’s call. While violence may beget violence, there are other extremists on offer, such as Eyad Qunaibi, a Western-educated Jordanian. But at least some Islamists who would previously have rejected al-Qaeda will probably now turn to it. To see how frightening that prospect might be, look to the biggest gift the Arab spring has given al-Qaeda: the increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria.
The prospect of overthrowing Bashar Assad is catnip to jihadists; his Alawite regime is an heretical abomination to the hyper-orthodox Salafis from which al-Qaeda draws its support. Western intelligence thinks most of Syria’s effective rebel militias may now be jihadist, with thousands of fighters from other Muslim countries and hundreds from Europe, especially Britain, France and the Netherlands.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), has recently pushed into eastern Syria from Iraq, following a resurgence there that is part of the more general pattern of ineradicability. After 2008 the “Anbar Awakening” of tribal leaders and the “surge” strategy led by General David Petraeus seemed to have defeated the spectacularly bloody AQI insurgency instigated by the psychotic Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But in the past 18 months, under its new emir, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS has brought veteran fighters back into the field through daring jailbreaks and has more than tripled the rate of its attacks against government targets and the majority Shia community. According to Iraq Body Count, an independent monitoring service, nearly a thousand civilians were killed in July, in August and in September to date (see chart).
Al-Qaeda wants to bring Iraq, Syria and Lebanon together into a single “caliphate”, and ISIS uses foreign fighters drawn to Syria on both sides of the porous border with Iraq. It has also tried to merge with Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN), one of the most militarily formidable rebel militias (and the one with which Mr Qunaibi is associated). In April Mr Baghdadi issued an audio message claiming that JAN was an al-Qaeda funded and trained entity—which is true—and that it would be absorbed into the Iraqi group under his command. Mr Baghdadi claimed that JAN’s leader, Abu Muhammad al-Golani, was one his deputies.
Mr Golani has appeared less keen on a full merger; as was the case with the Shabab in Somalia, not everyone in JAN welcomes closer association with al-Qaeda. The prospect may encourage some JAN fighters, particularly native Syrians, to shift to Ahrar al-Sham, a considerably larger and marginally more moderate Salafi militia. Mr Golani claimed in June that Mr Zawahiri wanted JAN to retain a degree of autonomy. Mr Zawahiri may be worried about the foreigners, usually the most extreme of the extreme, gravitating to ISIS. As AQI showed, some levels of excess will alienate al-Qaeda’s broader constituency.
Spring has sprung
On September 25th JAN and a dozen other militias announced their split from the Western-backed leadership of the Syrian opposition; they made no mention, though, of including ISIS in their new grouping. Al-Qaeda in Syria is thus split, with Mr Baghdadi or Mr Golani, or possibly both, showing less allegiance than the core would wish. At the same time it is killing its enemies and recruiting fighters on a grand scale; and having recently taken Azaz in northern Syria from other rebels, ISIS now sits on a NATO border.
For the time being, ISIS and JAN are focused entirely on the would-be caliphate of the Levant. Most of the network’s affiliates are similarly engaged in regional struggles, the most extensive being that of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the north African branch. AQIM is seeking to make use of Libya’s post-revolutionary chaos, and weapons from Muammar Qaddafi’s former arsenal, to create an “arc of instability” across the Sahara and the Sahel. It provides help and advice to jihadist organisations from Boko Haram in Nigeria to the Shabab in Somalia.
In 2012 AQIM commanders allied to an indigenous insurgent group, Ansar Eddine, took control of the northern half of Mali. They ruthlessly implemented sharia law and picked an unnecessary fight with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, a grouping of rebel Tuaregs. Their Algeria-based emir, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, feared that this would result in a backlash among the local population and reprisals from overseas. He was right; a French-led coalition took back the north earlier this year. But AQIM still has bases in northern Niger and southern Libya. And since the Ansar al-Sharia attack on the American consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others a year ago, some of the more violent Libyan militias have been drifting under its sway. A Libyan intelligence official reportedly likened it to “a swarm of bees” finding their way to a new queen.
While AQIM is committed to carrying out attacks against France and Spain, it has not yet acted outside its home region. This is true of most of al-Qaeda’s current affiliates and fellow travellers; they are focused for now on “the near enemy”, not “the far enemy”. The exception is AQAP, which intelligence sources see as the only affiliate that currently has both the intent and the capability to carry out sophisticated operations against the West.
An intense drone campaign has killed several of AQAP’s senior leaders; its second-in-command, Said al-Shihri, died on July 16th. Yemeni government operations have driven it out of some of the southern tribal areas it overran in 2011. But it has lost none of its ambition. According to Daniel Green of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, AQAP still has a “pervasive infrastructure” in Yemen. It is reconstituting its forces by retreating to parts of the interior it sees as safe; it has killed over 90 Yemeni officials and tribal leaders since 2012. It is expanding its criminal fund-raising activities and has made incursions into several governorates in which it had not previously operated to show its strength.
Given the fragility of the new Yemeni government of Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, an army that is split into factions and fears that civilian casualties in drone strikes are driving the local population into the arms of the jihadists, AQAP looks able to maintain its special place in al-Qaeda. It is close to rich Gulf sheikhs with Salafi sympathies who are happy to back it. It still attracts sophisticated operatives such as Ibrahim al-Asiri, the Saudi bomb-maker who was behind the 2010 plot to put bombs disguised as printer cartridges on planes headed for Chicago. Reports that Mr Asiri, dubbed by intelligence agencies the world’s most dangerous tefforist, was wounded in a drone attack in August have not been confirmed.
Despite attempts by Western intelligence agencies to close it down, AQAP also continues to produce an online magazine, Inspire, that was started by Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both killed in a drone strike two years ago. Awlaki, a charismatic propagandist and, like Khan, an American citizen, was determined to recruit Muslims in the West to al-Qaeda’s cause. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who had studied in London and tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009, was radicalised by Awlaki. So was Nidal Hasan, the army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.
The same pattern of retreat followed by recovery seen in Yemen and Iraq—and which may yet be seen in northern Mali, where Mr Wadoud has plans for a return less alienating to locals—could also apply to the al-Qaeda core group in Pakistan. Bruce Riedel, who has advised four presidents and is now at the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC, recently warned that al-Qaeda in Pakistan remains embedded in a network of local support groups from the Taliban to Lashkar-e-Taiba. After the departure of NATO combat forces in 2014 it may be able to regenerate itself, rather as ISIS did in Iraq.
As well as its bases in North Waziristan, al-Qaeda already has relatively safe havens on the other side of the border with Afghanistan. Thomas Sanderson of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, also in Washington, says al-Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan are weaving a narrative that equates America’s post-2014 withdrawal with the mujahideen defeat of the Soviet Union, another superpower with feet of clay, 25 years earlier.
Mr Zawahiri may not see out the next couple of years; America will probably still have drones in the region after 2014, even if the intelligence that guides them will no longer be as good as it has been. If he does survive, many doubt that he can restore the central leadership’s grip on al-Qaeda’s affiliates to what it once was. What is surprising is that he may well have the opportunity.
(http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20130928_FBM975_2.png)
The base of the pillar
In May this year, Barack Obama declared that core al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat” and “their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us”. The ability of al-Qaeda to strike targets in the West is undoubtedly much less than it once was, as is the life expectancy of any given leadership cohort. But that is not the whole story. As one counter-tefforism intelligence source recently observed: “Tactically, we may have defeated the central leadership, but strategically, they are winning.”
While attacks on the far enemy are important both as a deterrent and as a source of jihadist inspiration, they are not al-Qaeda’s main purpose. Its overriding aim remains, as it has been since bin Laden saw the retreat of the Soviet Union, the creation of a new caliphate across the Islamic world based on unswerving adherence to sharia law. That requires the corrupting influence of the “Zionist-Crusader alliance” in the region to be extirpated and all apostate Muslim governments removed.
Seen from that point of view, things are not going badly. Al-Qaeda believes America is in retreat not just in Afghanistan but also across the Middle East. The poisoning of the Arab spring has given it new purpose and ideological momentum. Al-Qaeda itself may be divided and in some places depleted. It may be shunned by some with similar ideologies, and its affiliates may increasingly ignore its ageing leadership. But the Salafi jihadist view of the world that al-Qaeda promotes and fights for has never had greater traction.
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MI5 Chief Says 34 Terror Plots Disrupted in U.K. Since Mid-2005
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-07/u-k-spy-chiefs-to-be-questioned-for-first-time-in-public-today.html
A total of 34 terrorist plots have been disrupted in the U.K. since the July 2005 bombings in London, the head of the domestic security service said.
“There have been persistent attempts of attacks of terrorism in this country,” Andrew Parker, the director general of the agency known as MI5, told Parliament’s cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee in London today. “A small number have failed because they just failed, the plans didn’t come together, but the vast majority were foiled.”
One or two of the plots that have failed each year were aimed at causing mass casualties, Parker said, adding that the “vast majority” emanated from British residents.
Parker and his colleagues from Britain’s two other spy agencies -- Iain Lobban, the director of the Government Communications Headquarters listening post and the head of MI6, the overseas intelligence agency, John Sawers -- were being questioned by lawmakers for the first time in public today.
The killing of a 25-year-old soldier outside a London barracks in May was the first attack to be treated as a terrorist incident in several years. Two men will go on trial accused of that murder later this month. In 2005, 52 people died after four Islamist suicide bombers set off explosions on underground trains and a bus in central London during the morning rush hour.
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Six rebel factions unite in Syria
November 22, 2013 | 1:15PM ET
Latest development comes as Russian president calls on western countries to persuade opposition to attend peace talks
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/22/six-rebel-factionsuniteinsyria.html
The six largest Islamist rebel factions in Syria declared a new Islamic Front on Friday, forming the largest alliance of opposition fighters yet in the 2 1/2-year conflict.
Syria's fractious rebel forces have tried many times to unify their ranks and failed. Islamist rebel commanders said their new union would not only seek to oust President Bashar al-Assad but establish an Islamic state.
"This independent political, military and social formation aims to topple the Assad regime completely and build an Islamic state where the sovereignty of God almighty alone will be our reference and ruler," said Ahmed Eissa, who heads the Suqour al-Sham brigades.
The merger undermines the secular Free Syrian Army (FSA) leadership, once seen as a symbolic umbrella leadership for all the rebels but weakened by infighting and defections. It could also challenge the ascendance of Al-Qaeda-linked factions, who have grown increasingly powerful as other rebel groups have weakened.
Among the main groups that joined the front are powerful, countrywide forces such as Ahrar al-Sham, Suqour al-Sham and Islamic Army. The Tawhid Brigade, which spearheaded the August 2012 offensive that saw rebels take large swathes of the city of Aleppo and other parts northern Syria, was another leading member. The groups are not seen as being as hard-line as the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels.
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Al-Qaeda et al - very interesting Juhani. We are moving to the usual second generation tail off, but it doesn't appear to be happening.
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It seems that Islamists supported by Saudis have finished off moderates supported by the US.
Syrian FSA struggles in shadow of Saudi-backed opposition front
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/12/syria-fsa-islamic-front-geneva-ii-jarba.html#
The bombshell that Gen. Salim Idriss of the Free Syrian Army (FSA)'s Supreme Military Command dropped last week, that he would be willing to join forces with the regime against al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria, came without too much scrutiny, especially when he subsequently tried to backtrack and sugarcoat his statement. But for the observant, the subtle message was all too clear: The “moderate” Western-backed FSA rebels in Syria are on their last legs, pushed to the limit and desperate. They are making their last stand, here and now.
That this statement came out of desperation, from an organization that swore it would never deal with President Bashar al-Assad and that its only stated goal was to topple him from power, speaks volumes about the machinations, intricacies and subterfuges of the Syrian conflict, now nearing its third year and drawing ever deeper into a chaotic and messy quagmire.
On the face of it, Idriss’ moderate rebels have had crushing military setback after setback, being no match for the regime’s superior fire power and usurped on their own turf by better financed and organized jihadist Islamist rebels, who maintain a totally conflicting agenda and ideology. This position between the hammer and the anvil might have proven the last straw, as Idriss’ men threw in their lot with that of the other hapless opposition organization, the Syrian National Coalition, whose leader Ahmad al-Jarba also triumphantly announced that they were going into the fray after being provided with “assurances” by global powers.
This has much to do with the Geneva II conference, set for Jan. 22, which promises to be a veritable who’s who of top players on the Syrian pitch, with each side fielding their best team in the hopes of outmaneuvering and scoring as many points as possible against the other, while gaining as many concessions as can be achieved in the time allotted.
The fact that some sides aren’t playing ball — or at least not by the agreed upon rules, most notably the Saudis, who have opted to create their very own “Islamic Front” team — throws a spanner into the works. This new Saudi-backed Islamic Front is a fusion of Salafist jihadist Islamist groups, not as extreme in Ideology as al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) or Jabhat al-Nusra, but nevertheless by no means mainstream like the FSA. It openly calls for Islamic Sharia rule instead of secular democracy, and was even implicated in sectarian war crimes like the Latakia province incidents documented by Human Rights Watch.
Meant to counter the growing power and influence of al-Qaeda, especially in the north of Syria, it has none the less undermined the Western-backed FSA. One need only look to the recent assassination of two FSA officers blamed on ISIS in the north, as well as the subsequent ISIS attack on the strategic border crossing of Bab al-Hawa on the Turkish border, held for over a year by FSA units. As ISIS attacked, the FSA called on Ahrar al-Sham — now part of the Islamic Front — for help. Ahrar al-Sham obliged, driving out ISIS, but at the same time taking over FSA positions, warehouses and heavy weaponry for "safe keeping."
It is this sort of cannibalization of the moderate FSA that has alarm bells ringing in Western capitals. Pretty soon there won’t actually be any FSA, at least not in terms of actual physical presence. To make matters worse, what was left of the FSA in the northeast of Syria, namely in the al-Qaeda-dominated al-Raqqa province, has disintegrated. As the Ahfad al-Rasoul Battalion splintered into different groups, many later pledged allegiance to ISIS. The same story was repeated in oil-rich Dier Ezzor, where tribal leaders opted to accept al-Qaeda’s presence instead of challenging it. In Aleppo, the FSA are being squeezed even further with ISIS openly threatening their leadership and positions in the north, just as the regime gains ground and consolidates its hold over the southern countryside of Aleppo.
And so begins the race, even against allies, to put together a workable solution that can be implemented in Syria. It is a given that many fighting factions, most notably the extremist Islamist militants, won’t abide by any such agreements, and will therefore become the future enemy of a “new Syria,” should one be agreed upon by the various players.
In the frantic buildup and diplomatic arm-twisting before Geneva II, it seems the main priority is to get everyone on board with tackling the imminent al-Qaeda menace, which friend and foe alike admit is now the biggest threat to their interests and to regional and global stability.
Neither the Americans nor the Russians nor their respective allies want to see Syria turned into a launching pad for a global jihadist movement. The nervousness is particularly acute in Europe, some of whose own citizens have joined the ranks of al-Qaeda in Syria. The blowback from those radicalized militants returning home has even prompted some to send high-level security officials to Damascus.
Apparently, removing Assad has taken a backseat to a more pressing need. Building a feasible coalition of regime and opposition forces to tackle the al-Qaeda threat seems to be the first goal of any political settlement, a priority which has the backing of all the major players in the Syrian conflict except for Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis' overt backing and funding of the Islamic Front seems specifically geared toward scuttling any such deal. In terms of Saudi calculations, curbing Iranian influence in the Middle East is their number-one strategic goal. As far as Riyadh is concerned, a failed state ruled by Sunni extremists seems preferable to the existence of any Iran-friendly regime in Syria. But despite deploying its cards via the Islamic Front, it remains to be seen whether Saudi Arabia will actively defy an US attempt to form an anti-al-Qaeda coalition in Syria.
U.S.-backed Syrian rebel commander flees country
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/12/12/US-backed-Syrian-rebel-commander-flees-country/UPI-96541386829631/
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The top Western-backed Syrian rebel commander fled the country after Islamist militant fighters ran him out of his headquarters, U.S. officials said.
Free Syrian Army Gen. Salim Idris flew to the Qatari capital of Doha Sunday after fleeing to Turkey, the officials told the Wall Street Journal.
"He fled as a result of the Islamic Front taking over his headquarters," a senior U.S. official said.
An Islamic Front spokesman said Idris, an East German-trained electronics professor who was a Syrian army general until he defected to the rebel side in July 2012, fled to Turkey.
The New York Times said Idris flew temporarily to Doha but was now back in Turkey, where he has a house.
The 13-month-old U.S.-backed Syrian National Coalition, which supports the FSA, is based in Doha.
The Obama administration is urging Idris to return to Syria, the U.S. officials told the Journal.
The ultraconservative Islamic Front also took over key warehouses holding lethal and non-lethal weapons intended for moderate fighters in northern Syria, the White House said.
The warehouses were controlled by the Supreme Military Council, the moderate opposition umbrella group that includes the FSA and coordinates U.S. aid distribution, the White House said.
Idris' departure from his command and the Islamic Front's seizure of FSA military gear Friday prompted the United States and Britain to freeze delivery of non-lethal military aid to rebels in northern Syria, U.S. and British officials said Wednesday.
The aid suspension was temporary and aid could flow again, administration officials said.
The United States is still providing humanitarian aid, distributed through organizations including the United Nations, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
The administration is still trying to determine the circumstances of the Friday takeover and "the status of U.S. equipment and supplies," Earnest said.
The Islamic Front is a new alliance of seven powerful Islamist fighter groups that broke with the moderate, U.S.-backed opposition Nov. 22. It says it does not include al-Qaida-linked rebels but also has no ties with the SNC.
The turn of events is the strongest sign yet the U.S.-allied FSA armed opposition structure is crumpling under extremist pressure, the Journal said.
It also weakens the Obama administration's struggles to put together a Jan. 22 peace conference in Geneva, Switzerland, with Syrian rebels and the Assad regime, the newspaper said.
The Front also seized the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, near the warehouses, about 25 miles west of Syria's largest city and commercial center, Aleppo
Turkey shut its side of the border in response.
The Front's fast-growing strength prompted Washington and its allies to hold direct talks in recent days with Front representatives, the Journal said, citing Western officials.
The goal of the talks was to persuade some Islamists to back the Jan. 22 peace conference, the newspaper said.
Western officials believe a lasting peace agreement would be possible only with Islamist backing, the officials said.
The SMC has already agreed to participate in the peace talks.
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Thanks for the update Juhani.
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Where are the good guys?
The rise of jihadists and the worsening sectarian strife in Syria have put Western backers of the rebel opposition in a quandary
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21591868-rise-jihadists-and-worsening-sectarian-strife-syria-have-put-western
(http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20131221_MAD001_0.jpg)
WHAT to do when the party you have been backing loses sway? That is the question facing Western supporters of the Syrian National Coalition, the umbrella group that claims to represent the main political opposition, and its armed wing of loosely allied rebel militias, known as the Free Syrian Army. Especially on the ground in Syria, these relatively moderate groups have been losing out to other factions, particularly jihadist ones. As a result, the American administration and European governments are in a bind.
As the jihadists grow in strength, some Western officials are starting quietly to advocate re-engagement with Bashar Assad, Syria’s president, while others think the only course left is to work with devout Islamists who reject the extremists but who nonetheless refuse to be part of the coalition hitherto backed by the West. With negotiations supposed to start in Geneva on January 22nd, Western governments are still puzzling over which military factions to back on the ground. “I’m not sure where we are,” says a Western diplomat involved in preparing for the conference.
The immediate cause of this mess is the growth of al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Greater Syria), known as ISIS, the most ruthless of the groups, has spread across northern and eastern Syria, while another al-Qaeda bunch, Jabhat al-Nusra, still thrives, too.
This has caused alarm in Western capitals and among Syrians who mutter that the extremists may be even worse than a regime that has used fighter jets, barrel-bombs and chemical warfare against civilians. With Russia and Iran doggedly behind him, Mr Assad has stood firm.
That leaves only one non-al-Qaeda opposition lot with real power: a newish clutch of seven beefy Islamist groups called the Islamic Front. This includes Ahrar al-Sham, a large Salafist outfit, and the Army of Islam, a collection of groups around the capital, Damascus. The front has distanced itself from the military wing of the coalition, headed by Selim Idriss, a defected brigadier, but also from ISIS.
But Western policymakers are unsure how to relate to the front. Coalition members have denounced it as too conservative and undemocratic yet have tried to foster links to it. American diplomats have been in touch with it, but the West is generally wary of becoming too close to it because its fighters have been guilty of brutal sectarian attacks on Alawite civilians in Syria’s coastal area, home to the Assads’ sect.
The West signalled its unease on December 11th when American and British officials confirmed that non-lethal aid to Syria’s rebels in the north had been frozen after the Islamic Front seized several rebel bases and warehouses belonging to the coalition close to the Turkish border. Two days before, Razan Zeitouneh, a secular lawyer who was prominent in peaceful protests against the regime two years ago, was kidnapped from her office, possibly by a group within the front.
Now Western governments seem more preoccupied with the jihadist threat than with forcing out Mr Assad and his regime. Hence the notion, aired recently by veteran American diplomats such as Ryan Crocker, that the least bad course would now be to talk to Mr Assad, with whom the West has already been co-operating over the removal of his chemical weapons.
It is not yet clear who, in any event, will represent Syria’s opposition at Geneva. The Russians suggest groups outside the coalition. While they and the Americans will sit at the table, it is unclear whether Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has funded the Islamic Front, will be there. Without them, it will be harder to make a deal stick.
In a reminder of the wider peril generated by Syria’s agony, a big car-bomb exploded near Lebanon’s border with Syria on December 17th, probably aimed at Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia militia that has thrown its weight behind Mr Assad, widening Lebanon’s own stark sectarian rifts. A massive influx of at least 1m Syrian refugees, most of them destitute, is making Lebanon, with its mixed populace of 4m, increasingly tense. Many are crammed into flats, some sleep under bridges, others are packed into already crowded Palestinian refugee camps or are scattered in tents across the bitterly cold Bekaa valley close to the Syrian border. The UN reckons that the flood of Syrian refugees across the region could exceed 4m by the end of next year. Already 2.3m have fled abroad and 6.5m have been internally displaced. This week the UN began raising $6.5 billion in aid for Syria, its biggest-ever appeal.
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Zahran Alloush: His Ideology and Beliefs
By Joshua Landis
December 15, 2013
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/zahran-alloush/
Zahran Alloush is the military chief of the Islamic Front the newly founded super militia that reportedly represents 45,000 fighters. As such, he could turn out to be the most powerful man in rebel held Syria.
Hassan Hassan argues in his article, “Why Syria’s Islamic Front is bad news for radical groups,” that the Jihadist and radical Islamist rhetoric of the Front can be discounted as a positioning ploy, but that the new group is really bad news for al-Qaida groups in Syria because it will stem the slide toward radicalism in Syria and be able to face down militias on their right.
It is too early to know if the Islamic Front will take on the formidable al-Qaida groups in Syria. Despite frequent tensions, the main groups that came together to form the Islamic Front have worked hand in glove with al-Qaida linked forces, particularly al-Nusra, on most battle fronts and recent offensives against the regime.
Zahran Alloush’s rhetoric and propaganda videos provide much insight into his world view, attitude toward Syria’s religious minorities, and vision for Syria’s future. The difference between his ideology and that of al-Qaida groups is not profound. Rather, it is one of shades of grey.
Perhaps the most important video Alloush has produced is this one:
كلمة الشيخ المجاهد زهران علوش للامة وتحدية للرافضة Speech of the Mujahid Zahran Alloush to the Umma on the challange of the “Raafida,” (rejectionists or Shiites).
Alloush uses the great Umayyad desert palace of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik as the backdrop for this dramatic video.
This is an anti-Shiite tirade and “bring-back-the-Umayyad-Empire” propaganda piece. It shows how sectarian Alloush is. He refers to Shiites, and reduces the Nusayris into this grouping, as “Majous”, or crypto-Iranians. “Majous” is the old term for pre-Islamic Persians or Zoroastrians. Arab Christians use the term in Christmas carols about the Magi, or “three kings from the Orient” (or east) who come to pay homage to Jesus—Magi are Persians or Easterners. Here it is an Islamic term of abuse meant to suggest that Alawites and Iranians not only have the wrong religion but also the wrong ethnicity—they are not Arabs, but crypto-Iranians. The term Majous is used in many rebel videos to refer to the Assad regime—”al-nizam al-majousi”—or simply to refer to Shiites (or Alawites) generally. It demonstrates how demonized the Alawites are in the propaganda of the new Islamic Front.
Zahran calls for cleansing Damascus of all Shiites and Nusayris. (“Nusayris” is the old term that referred to the Alawites prior to the adoption of “Alawite.” It is considered a term of abuse by Alawites. “Nusayri” refers to the founder of the religion, Ibn Nusayr, and is used by rebels to underscore the assertion that the Alawite religion is man-made and not sent from heaven. For the same reason, Muslims object to the old Christian appellation, Muhammadans, because it suggests that Islam was founded by Muhammad and not God. Christians, of course, believe there is no problem being named after their founder, Christ – but, of course, Christ is considered to be God. Not so Muhammad or Ibn Nusayr by their followers.) Alloush calls for ridding Damascus and Greater Syria of the evil works and impure deeds of the Nusayris, using Qur’anic language throughout to underline their deviant ways. Such language makes Assad’s effort to demonize the revolutionaries and rebels easy. On hearing this sort of talk from the leaders of the revolution, Alawites and other non-Sunni sects worry that their struggle is a fight for their very existence. Unfortunately, the regime treats the opposition with the same sort of extreme language, calling them tefforists, takfiris, and al-Qaida who are not true Syrians. Bigotry and religious intolerance has become a hallmark of the Syrian struggle as both sides try to annul the humanity of the other and completely dismiss each other’s concerns as conspiracies derived from evil. Iranian Ayatollahs have recently issued fatwas of their own, legitimizing religious war in Syria. See: Prominent Shiite Cleric Backs Fighting in Syria about Iran-based Grand Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri, one of the mentors of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Islamic Front versus al-Qaida Ideology
This video and the language of Alloush demonstrates how difficult it is to draw a clear line between the ideology of the Islamic Front and that of the al-Qaida groups. They both embrace foreign jihadists and encourage them to come Syria to join the fight. They both call for the resurrection of an Islamic Empire and they both look back to the Golden Age of Islam for the principles upon which the new state will be founded. Their political philosophy and blue print for the future is largely based on a similar reading of Islamic history and the Qur’an.
Some analysts try to draw a clear line between al-Qaida and the Islamic Front, insisting that the former support changing Syria’s borders and seek to establish a Caliphate while the latter are Syrian Nationalists. Unfortunately, this distinction is not evident in their rhetoric. Both idealize Islamic Empire, both reject democracy and embrace what they call shari’a, both welcome jihadists from the “Islamic Umma,” both fly the black flag of Islam rather than the Syrian flag as their predominant emblem. The Islamic Front is dominated by Syrians who do have clear parochial interests, whereas ISIS is run by an Iraqi. Foreigners play a dominate role in its command, but this is not so with the Islamic Front. All the same, their ideologies overlap in significant ways.
Geneva II seems very far away when considering the statements of Zahran Alloush. The effort by moderate FSA leaders to recruit Zahran Alloush to their side and to set him against al-Qaida will be difficult. Equally, the US effort to take a new look at him seems driven by equal parts wishful thinking and desperation now that Salim Idriss has been thoroughly disgraced and driven from Syria. Alloush is unlikely to go to Geneva or to embrace any sort of compromise with either Assad or the remains of the Assad regime if Assad were to step aside, as the US demands.
Here are a bunch of tweets and articles underlying how controversial Zahran Alloush is. His Islamic Army is responsible for Douma, the town in which Razan Zeitouneh was kidnapped this week. She is a human rights lawyer and represented what was left of the original Syrian uprising.
Alloush’s Detractors
Zahran has a number of domestic enemies. In the Damascus region, many fighters who are not under his command seem to think that he is a self-promoter. He is also a prime target of the ISIS. He seems to receive the brunt of their social media attacks together with Adnan Arour. The Syrian opposition is uncomfortable to see a leader break away from the pack. This is why Zahran seems to elicit such strong attacks from his competitors and those who do not fall under his command.
Is Alloush the most powerful leader in rebel-held Syria?
He holds the title of military commander of the most powerful militia in Syria, but that is only if we assume that the IF is actually one militia, as it claims. In reality, it is made up of a number of powerful militias. Hassan Aboud, the head of Ahrar al-Sham, may actually be more powerful than Alloush, although he is listed only as the “Chief of the Political Office.” This reminds me of the secret military committee that drove forward the Baathist coups of the 1960s. It was formed by minority officers who found themselves exiled in Egypt by Nasser during the UAR. The leaders were Lieutenant-Colonel Muhammad Umran, Major Salah Jadid and Captain Hafez al-Assad. Like the present Islamic Front, they were supposed to be acting as one. But as they came to power and ceased working behind the scenes, they turned against each other. Assad ended up on the top after using his superior political skills and military base to outmaneuver the others and arrest them. Alloush may look like the strongest member of the IF on paper, but others may have superior force on the ground. Only time will tell.
Alloush and Jabhat al-Nusra
Alloush has gone out of his way to keep good relations with Jabhat al-Nusra. In this video he goes to some lengths to explain that his relationship with Nusra is one of brotherhood with only superficial ideological differences that can be settled with shari’a and discussions. This supports my argument that the ideological differences between the Front and al-Qaida are not deep. He says that Washington’s proscription of Nusra as a tefforist group does not concern him.
The Islamic Front and the Free Syrian Army
The Islamic Front also overran the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Turkey this week and routed the moderate Free Syrian Army divisions that were loyal to the Supreme Military Command and indirectly represented US efforts to arm Syrian opponents of Assad. Salim Idriss, the putative head of the FSA and direct link to US support for the FSA, fled into Turkey. Here is an excellent video made by an FSA officer who was at one of the arms warehouses when the Islamic Front overran it and stole its contents. He was stripped of his clothes and underclothing while being held upon the ground at gunpoint. Here is Salim Idriss’ account of the events. He denies that the Islamic Front attacked his headquarters and insists that it was protecting his position. US officials have asked the Islamic Front to return US equipment and vehicles taken from the warehouses. In the meantime, Ambassador Ford has met with Alloush to discuss the possibility of his going to Geneva.
Addendum:
Aron Lund, who write and edits the superb Syria in Crisis Blog for the Carnegie website, gave this reply to my questions about the Warehouse incident:
The warehouse attack – it is getting more complicated. I’ve now heard four or five stories about which group it was that first attacked the warehouses (ISIS, JN, SRF, IF, maybe with SMC defectors involved), prompting SMC to call in IF, which overran the whole place (and then decided to stay there, and now they may or may not give the stuff back). It’s tied in with other problems as well, the whole area seems to be bubbling with conflict. Ahrar al-Sham has been fighting Jamal Maarouf’s SRF all across Jabal al-Zawiya, and both seem to have been kidnapping each others members. They now struck a deal for SRF hand back the stolen goods via Jabhat al-Nosra, but I’m not clear if these are the same things that were taken from the stockpiles in Babisqa/Bab el-Hawa; I think not.
Correction (December 16, 2013)
According to Aljazeera, the Ford-Alloush meeting was the idea of a well connected person who attended a meeting between Ford and Idriss. He then suggested that he could bring the IF to the table. Evidently, the guy failed and the meeting never happened. The IF denied it as well. The meeting was based on gossip, rumor and news articles quoting Ford say that the US had not precluded working with Islamists. Also the Washington Post quoted senior US officials to say: “We don’t have a problem with the Islamic Front.”
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Up to 11,000 Foreign Fighters in Syria; Steep Rise Among Western Europeans
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/up-to-11000-foreign-fighters-in-syria-steep-rise-among-western-europeans
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation offers its latest assessment of how many foreigners are fighting in Syria's civil war, which countries they hail from, and other key data.
Since ICSR published its first estimate in April, the issue of foreign fighters in Syria has become a major concern for Western governments. More reports have emerged since, though few have accurately gauged the full extent and evolution of the phenomenon.
This ICSR Insight provides an update of our April estimate, offering the most comprehensive and richly resourced account of the Syrian foreign fighter phenomenon from open sources. Based on more than 1,500 sources, we estimate that up to 11,000 individuals from 74 nations have become opposition fighters in Syria -- nearly double our previous estimate. Among Western Europeans, the number has more than tripled from (up to) 600 in April to 1,900 now.
HOW MANY HAVE GONE?
We estimate that -- from late 2011 to 10 December 2013 -- between 3,300 and 11,000 individuals have gone to Syria to fight against the Assad government. These figures include those who are currently present as well as those who have since returned home, been arrested or killed.
Based on the credibility of various sources, our own judgement, and the feedback we have received since publishing our April estimate, we believe the "true" figure to be above 8,500. This would mean that the numbers have nearly doubled since April, with a particularly steep increase among non-Arabs, especially Westerners.
While Arabs and Europeans continue to represent the bulk of foreign fighters (up to 80 per cent), we have identified individuals from Southeast Asia, North America, Australia, and (non-Arab) Africa. Overall, we believe that residents and citizens from at least 74 countries have joined militant opposition groups in Syria.
(For a more detailed explanation on sources and limitations, see further below.)
WESTERN EUROPE
We estimate that the number of fighters from Western Europe ranges from 396 to 1,937. Compared to April, when we provided an estimate of 135 to 590, this represents a threefold increase.
This upsurge cannot be explained by increased reporting alone. Official figures tell a similar story: the French and Danish governments have doubled their estimates since the spring, while the figures provided by the Belgian, British and German governments have quadrupled.
Western Europeans now represent up to 18 per cent of the foreign fighter population in Syria, with most recruits coming from France (63-412), Britain (43-366), Germany, (34-240), Belgium (76-296), and the Netherlands (29-152).
Adjusting for population size, the most heavily affected countries are Belgium (up to 27 foreign fighters per million), Denmark (15), the Netherlands (9), Sweden (9), Norway (8 ), and Austria (7).
The detailed figures are as follows:
(http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Maps/Zelin20131217-TableWesternEurope.jpg)
MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Individuals from Middle Eastern countries continue to represent the majority of foreign fighters (around 70 per cent). We estimate that up to 6,774 non-Syrian Arabs and an additional 523 non-Arabs from the (wider) region have gone to Syria.
The five countries with the largest numbers of foreign fighters in Syria are all part of the Middle East: Jordan is the single biggest contributor (up to 2,089), followed by Saudi Arabia (1,016), Tunisia (970), Lebanon (890), and Libya (556).
It must be noted, however, that the Middle Eastern figures are less reliable than those for Western Europe, as governments are less forthcoming with official estimates and there is less reporting of individual cases.
The detailed breakdown is as follows:
(http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Maps/Zelin20131217-TableMiddleEast.jpg)
OTHER REGIONS
The most important regions for foreign fighter recruitment outside Western Europe and the Middle East are the Balkans and the countries of the former Soviet Union. In the Balkans, the largest contributors of foreign fighters are Kosovo (4-150), Albania (9-140), and Bosnia (18-60), with smaller numbers coming from Macedonia (3-20), Serbia (3), and Bulgaria (1). Among the former Soviet countries, the most significant are Russia (9-423 excluding Chechnya; 36-186 for Chechnya), Kazakhstan (14-150), Ukraine (50), and Kyrgyzstan (9-30), with all others providing a dozen or less.
The most prominent non-European Western countries are Australia (23-205), Canada (9-100), and the United States (17-60). Other notable countries of origin are Pakistan (7-330), China (6-100), Somalia (5-68), and Afghanistan (12-23).
The only significant black spot in our survey is India for which no credible reports have been available. All other countries are believed to have contributed less than a dozen foreign fighters.
ANALYSIS
Our figures raise numerous questions which cannot be fully answered by the data alone. Even so, our data may help to inform a number of important areas of debate.
What groups do they join?
Only about twenty-percent of the sources stated group affiliations. Of those, the vast majority are with Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) -- the two militant opposition groups that are closest to al Qaeda.
To a much lesser extent, fighters were also reported to be members of Jaysh al-Muhajirin wa-l-Ansar, Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, Katibat Suqur al-Izz, Liwa al-Umma, and Harakat Sham al-Islam, among others.
What explains the steep rise?
It is difficult to be certain, but it may be no coincidence that the period since publication of our first estimate has coincided with the more forceful and open involvement by the Lebanese group Hizballah, Iraqi Shia militias and Iranian government forces on Assad's side. This may have reinforced and strengthened the perception among some Sunnis that the conflict is fundamentally sectarian, and that Sunnis need to stand together in order to halt the (Shia) enemy's advance. Indeed, this type of solidarity has driven a number of previous foreign fighter mobilisations involving Sunni militants.
Will the trend continue?
Our prediction is that foreign fighter recruitment will continue, albeit at a slower rate. The winter months will impose harsher conditions and may deter potential recruits from joining. Even so, in the absence of a peaceful resolution, the basic attraction of going to Syria will remain. In this respect, the upcoming Geneva II conference is unlikely to make a difference, because those who are sympathetic to the armed opposition -- and, indeed, most of the militants themselves -- view Geneva II as an unrepresentative stitch-up, the outcome of which they have already stated will not bind them.
How does the current mobilisation compare?
The current mobilization is more significant than every other instance of foreign fighter mobilisation since the Afghanistan war in the 1980s. Although conflicts like Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan went on for (much) longer, none of those conflicts mobilised as many foreigners. Even the anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s didn't attract as many foreigners as Syria in the same period of time. Indeed, for a number of smaller countries -- Denmark and Belgium, for example -- the number of residents that have gone to fight in Syria may already exceed the combined totals for all previous conflicts.
How foreign is the Syrian opposition?
As noted in our earlier estimate, the relatively large number of foreign fighters does not mean that the fight against Assad is led or dominated by "foreign forces" or "outsiders", as has been suggested by President Assad. Even if our highest estimate turns out to be true, the "foreign contingent" still doesn't represent more than 10 per cent of the militant opposition, which is thought to number more than 100,000 men.
SOURCES AND LIMITATIONS
The aim of this Insight is to gauge the overall extent and evolution of the phenomenon, detect trends and draw basic comparisons. We are under no illusion that the underlying data is incomplete and -- in many cases -- ambiguous. Given the nature of the subject, no estimate of foreign fighter flows will ever be exact.
Our dataset contains approximately 1,500 open source items which have been collected since November 2011. They include: media reports about foreign fighters in English, Arabic and several other languages (and from both sides of the conflict); government estimates; and statements about foreign fighters by jihadist groups, typically published in online extremist forums and on social media.
For each country, we provide "low" and "high" estimates, with low figures including only fully confirmed cases where names are known, and high figures representing the maximum number of individuals based on credible sources.
We are more confident in our figures now than we were at the time of our first estimate. The Syrian foreign fighter issue has received far more attention and we consequently had more independent and journalistic sources to cross-reference and compare. Also, more governments have published official figures, making it easier to verify data and get a sense of the phenomenon's size and evolution (where those figures are judged to be credible).
Still, there are many ambiguities and potential sources of error of which we are fully aware:
Our figures represent overall aggregates, not the number of fighters that are currently involved in combat. To estimate the latter, one would have to know exactly how many individuals have died or been arrested and how many have returned to their home countries, which -- at this point -- we have no consistently reliable methodology for doing.
The figures for Western countries are more likely to be valid than those for non-Western countries, partly because there has been more independent reporting (and therefore more sources to cross-reference), and partly because many governments have periodically published credible figures.
That said, not all official figures can be compared. While some governments only include "known extremists" in their foreign fighter estimates, others include individuals who -- despite having no extremist ties -- are nevertheless judged to be likely to enter Syria with the intention of becoming involved in combat.
Another potential source of ambiguity is individuals' citizenship. Our figures typically refer to countries' residents, which may include citizens of other countries. As a result, we suspect, for example, that the number of Bosnian nationals in Syria is significantly higher than the number of foreign fighters from Bosnia that are listed in our tables. The same is true for Chechens, a large number of whom are residents of Russia.
Finally, we realise that there may be a significant number of unknowns, including aspiring foreign fighters travelling under the "cover" of humanitarian convoys, and individuals who went to Syria for humanitarian reasons but joined a militant group after spending time in the country.
Despite these limitations, we feel that there is value in publishing this estimate. Our data is richer and thicker than the sources used in other estimates, and we strongly believe that public discussions should be based on the soundest possible foundation. Moreover, while individual figures may have their limitations, we are confident in our assessment of overall trends.
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Take a read of this article, and give up on any belief your actions can't be monitored, and isn't being monitored. Then realise the crims can also use these techniques, and you'll understand we are entering the world of total surveillance, vulnerability and exploitation. What remains for us to hold precious and personal, now becomes the big question.
Just always remember, they are only looking for what they know about. Retaining financial security will then become the hardest task - individual autonomy in beliefs and action will need to be forgone.
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/nsa-can-turn-your-iphone-into-a-spy-says-privacy-advocate-jacob-appelbaum-20131231-hv77r.html
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I have page on facebook were I post news I find interesting, and its currently focused on mass surveillance.
https://www.facebook.com/Wisdomattheendoftheuniverse
Some of the articles I posted:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/the-real-war-on-reality/?_r=0
http://media.ccc.de/browse/conferences/sigint13/konferenz_mp6_og_-_2013-07-06_15:00_-_e-mobility_as_a_privacy_game_changer_-_tilman_frosch_-_5068.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/20/nsa-surveillance-programme-get-worse
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Nifty little site Nick. You get many interested?
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Just opened it recently, so far no.
I have a philosophy club that meets at my house the first or second Saturday of every month, and that page is supposed to be for them to come discuss things between meetings. So far no one is using it; my philosophy club is pretty lame at this point in time.
Here is another article I found:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/why-should-we-even-care-if-the-government-is-collecting-our-data/276732/
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Watch out, there is a brewing conflict in Ukraine. Russian president Putin asked and received a permission to use military force against Ukraine. If it blew up, it would be one of the largest wars since World War II.
Ukrainian forces on full alert (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/putin-suggests-troops-deployment-ukraine-201431132515398667.html)
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How fast things escalate. I don't understand the reasons for this, but I have the feeling that when Russia mobilises it forces, it doesn't sit on the border. I fully expect they will take control of Ukraine. What are the other powers going to do?
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As I thought. Well come on Juhani, what's going on there?
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As I thought. Well come on Juhani, what's going on there?
Sorry, I am engaged with it in real time and will write about it when there is more time.
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Anyone have any speculations on this?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-more-sinister-theories-still-no-answers-in-search-for-missing-plane/
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I have been watching it in the press, but I have to say it is very weird. And so are the Malaysians.
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My take on Crimea.
Obviously we all know the place is full of Russian-loving people, who see their financial and cultural return to Russia as a boon.
Will the West act? no. Will Putin get away with it? yes. Will Putin push further into Ukraine? yes.
What is behind this aside from some obvious matters of history, gas and ethnicity? And what are the consequences? This, I haven't a clue. I can't believe Putin would do this without some larger complex scheme in mind, and what that all is, is beyond me. I would not like to be a Western loving Ukrainian?
Now we watch to see if Ukraine will use it's military to 'hold the line', which has already moved beyond Crimea.
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MH370
Looks more to me like a very well planned hijack. I can't believe it crashed.
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My take on Crimea.
Obviously we all know the place is full of Russian-loving people, who see their financial and cultural return to Russia as a boon.
Will the West act? no. Will Putin get away with it? yes. Will Putin push further into Ukraine? yes.
What is behind this aside from some obvious matters of history, gas and ethnicity? And what are the consequences? This, I haven't a clue. I can't believe Putin would do this without some larger complex scheme in mind, and what that all is, is beyond me. I would not like to be a Western loving Ukrainian?
Now we watch to see if Ukraine will use it's military to 'hold the line', which has already moved beyond Crimea.
What we see in Ukraine, is a very serious development. The events began with Euromaidan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan) where Ukrainians protested against the decision of their Russian-minded and unvbelievably corrupt president Yanukovich to not sign assiociation agreement with the EU. By now there is little doubt that Yanukovich was acting on direct orders from Moscow. He pretty much bankrupted Ukraine and weakend its defence forces dramatically. As Euromaidan culminated in deaths of nearly 100 people in one day, Yanukovich escaped to Russia.
Russia, fearing that Ukraine might join the European Union and push the Black Sea Fleet out of Crimea, sent in its special forces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_crisis). They blockaded Ukrainian units in Crimea and assisted in preparation and execution of a phony and invalid referendum on 16 March. The outcome - close to 100% of voters wanting to secede Ukraine and join Russia - was to be expected.
Russia has been building up its forces in Crimea and the grouping comprises well over 20,000 troops. Simultaneously there are around 120,000 troops stationed at Ukraine's borders in high readiness to launch a full-scale offensive.
Ukraine has around 6,000 men in combat-capable units and today they declared mobilisation. In theory, Ukraine could mobilise up to 1 million men and arm them to their teeth, but their combat value would be low. Realistic figure of more or less combat-capable troops would be around 20,000-30,000.
In sum: at the end of February-beginning of March we have witnessed a first massive armed invasion and annexation of a territory of a European state since World War II. What Russia did - under the guise of protecting compatriots - is no different from how Hitler annexed Sudetenland in 1938. Perhaps, the only difference is that there was no Munich Conference beforehand.
The US, EU and many more states have refused to accept what Russia has done. Armed invasions and annexations of parts of states or whole states is a practice that has led to world wars. As of now, the US and EU are implementing a first round of sanctions. Russia is vulnerable - 52% of its economy is nothing but export of oil and natural gas. Lower the price of these commodities, and Russia may go bankrupt and fall apart - in the worst case scenario. It is that simple, really. So far, West has been rather moderate, but Russia itself has slapped some preventive economic sanctions on the EU and US.
Where this will develop to, is anybody's guess. Among Ukrainians anger is building. A brethren nation has invaded them and wants to dictate what Ukraine should and should not do. Imagine British invading Australia right now and you will get the same shock, incomprehension and utter feeling of anger and betrayal. Apparently, Putin wants Ukraine to stay out of the EU and remain economically enslaved to Russia. My friends tell me that anger in Ukraine is also aimed at their own present government that has shown lack of stamina and willingness to confront Russian in terms of brute force.
Ukrainians know how to fight. A military profession has been an honourable trade there for a long time and Ukrainians have shown their skills and stamina in the Soviet forces as well in various international operations. Troughout times they have contributed more officers than has been their fair share to the armies of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. In the long-term, Russia does not stand a chance. They would be extremely hard-pressed to occupy a country with 46 million people who resist actively in military terms. Any attempt to do so would be disastrous for Russia.
However, there have been strong doubts regarding Putin's sense of reality and understanding of what Russia realistically could and could not do. In the worst case scenario, this might be the very beginning of the apocalypse Taimi so desired not so long ago.
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I'm a bit confused about the oil and gas. I thought the EU was vulnerable to any cut off of these from Russia - that Russia could leverage the EU on this, more than the other way around.
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I'm a bit confused about the oil and gas. I thought the EU was vulnerable to any cut off of these from Russia - that Russia could leverage the EU on this, more than the other way around.
Nope, it is the other way around. Russia is much more vulnerable to fluctuations of gas and oil profits. Russia's budget is built on the assumption that the oil price would not drop below US$ 102/barrel. US opened its strategic reserve just for a while and the price dropped instantly to US$ 98/barrel.
Russia delivers about 30-35% of EU's oil and gas. That amount could be quite easily substituted by Gulf states or US and Canada. Considering that at stake is nothing less than stopping an unmitigated aggression in Europe, various options of hurting Russia mildly/severely are presently considered.
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But they have only targeted a few individuals, not the economy as a whole. I can't see this is doing anything. If they were serious, they would have hit Russia harder. Looks like game over for Crimea, much to the delight of it's majority - pity help the rest.
and...
"A senior EU official warned on Monday that the EU's 28-member states and Ukraine could run out of gas by the end of October if Russia plays "energy politics" and cuts off supplies in the diplomatic war over the future of Crimea.
A survey of gas supplies in the EU, conducted in the wake of the Crimea crisis, found that the EU has 40bn cubic metres in its energy supplies – enough to last until the onset of winter."
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But they have only targeted a few individuals, not the economy as a whole. I can't see this is doing anything. If they were serious, they would have hit Russia harder. Looks like game over for Crimea, much to the delight of it's majority - pity help the rest.
and...
"A senior EU official warned on Monday that the EU's 28-member states and Ukraine could run out of gas by the end of October if Russia plays "energy politics" and cuts off supplies in the diplomatic war over the future of Crimea.
A survey of gas supplies in the EU, conducted in the wake of the Crimea crisis, found that the EU has 40bn cubic metres in its energy supplies – enough to last until the onset of winter."
Bending/breaking Russia's will is a tricky task. It is not hard to hit the majority of population, but the experience with other dictatorships has shown that dictators do not give a damn and they can suppress considerable revolts.
Hence, one must go after the ones who rule the country. With people like Saddam and Moammar it is about a cruise missile into a bedroom window. With nuclear czar like Putin, it is about hitting him, his riches and his financiers. For example, arrested Ukrainian billionaire Firtash (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-ukraine-crisis-firtash-idUSBREA2D1BK20140314) is considered responsible for about 1/4 of Putin's personal wealth. The scheme was simple: Russia officially sold gas to Ukraine at a price of US$400 for 1,000 cuboc metres. At the same time part of it was sold to Firtash at a price of US$ 260 who re-sold it to Ukrainian gov-t at a price of US$ 400. Large chunk of the price difference landed on Putin's personal bank account. Simple.
Meanwhile, Russia has tested its nuclear missiles, its TV news anchor threatened to convert US into a radioactive dust and we see many a features of Hitler's Germany and North Korea. NATO and US have already redeployed some forces closer to Russia, and as of now the anger and realisation of what Putin tries to do is only dawning on Europe. There is talk about permanent stationing of forces close to Russian borders - not unlike Germany during the Cold War.
EU is already looking for alternatives: http://euobserver.com/economic/123466
Alternatives will take their time to become effective: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/18/1283477/-US-Can-t-Frack-Europe-Free-of-Russian-Gas
It looks like Russia has an advantage now, but I would not hurry to see it this way. Today's news tell that events similar to Crimea seem to happen in Moldova. It all contributes to perception of Russia as an existential threat akin to the USSR. It all may result in a new Cold War. The latter was ideological and fear-driven rather than rational, and it destroyed the USSR. Moreover, there seems to be will in many captials to force Russia to stop and withdraw - assuming that if nothing is done, there might be a bigger conflict in near future.
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But would you agree that the West has given up on Crimea remaining outside Russia?
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But would you agree that the West has given up on Crimea remaining outside Russia?
"He (Obama) emphasised that Russia's actions were in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and that, in coordination with our European partners, we are prepared to impose additional costs on Russia for its actions," the White House said in a summary of Obama's telephone call with Putin.
...
Obama suggested to Putin that the referendum was a sham carried out "under duress of Russian military intervention" and Washington and the international community would never accept the results, the White House said.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/barack-obama-threatens-russia-with-sanctions-after-crimea-referendum-9196018.html
Yes, Russia controls Crimea physically, but it will pushed hard to withdraw with political, economic and other means. Immediate military confrontation may not be on agenda, but growing military pressure on Russia may come true. The US has already discussed cutting Russian banking system off of all and any dollar transactions. If implemented, that would be devastating.
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Russia is rapidly becoming one sector economy.
Oil and gas revenues accounted for 52% of federal budget revenues and over 70% of total exports in 2012, according to PFC Energy.
http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=rs
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Russians seem to have started assault on Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea. First shots have been fired and there is at least one wounded.
http://inforesist.org/assault-photogrammetric-center-of-ukrainian-armed-forces-is-under-fire/?lang=en
Military facility in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine is being assaulted. This is photogrammetric center of Military Topography and Navigation Administration of Operating Procuring Headquarter of Ukrainian armed forces.
Russian snipers are working from windows of the houses close to the facility. According to our information one person was injured.dmytro tymchuk
16:30 Territory in the vicinity if the base is blocked. 2 ambulances and 2 police cars were allowed to the area of the base.
16:45 Back gates to the base are blocked by a truck bearing a Russian flag. Ukrainian officers and personnel are barricaded and are holding the defense in the technical quarters.
16:58 Ambulances were not allowed to enter the territory. Journalists are prevented from doing their duty.
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Russian special forces stormed a photo facility of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. One Ukrainian was killed two seriously wounded. Ukrainian president issued an order to Ukrainian forces to open fire if attacked. Russians stopped their offensive (for now).
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I didn't think it would end. I can't believe Putin is swayed by sentiment over Crimea. There must be some hard reasons he wants to claim this territory, which would indicate he is not put off by any artificial borders.
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There must be some hard reasons he wants to claim this territory
The moment was favourable: Ukraine was in turmoil, Olympic Games just ended (btw in 2008, during summer Olympics, Russia and Georgia went to war), Putin thought he had Europe hooked to his gas, whereas the US was 'pivoting' to the Pacific. Everything seemed to be perfectly in place.
This is what Putin dreams and has written about in a couple of books:
(http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/brunell/russian%20empire%202.gif)
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History has an uncanny ability to repeat itself
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/1609976_472548102872058_181245930_n.jpg)
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So the focus now is on how to keep Russia from taking over Ukraine. Doesn't look good. Personally, if I was Ukrainian, I'd be looking to get out. This could turn into another Chechnya or Syria - every clan for itself.
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So the focus now is on how to keep Russia from taking over Ukraine. Doesn't look good. Personally, if I was Ukrainian, I'd be looking to get out. This could turn into another Chechnya or Syria - every clan for itself.
Northern and western parts of Ukraine are radically anti-Russian, but one could speculate about the loss of eastern and south-eastern regions of Ukraine. Some strategic assessments consider it possible that Russia could take eastern Ukraine and then all of its Black Sea coast to connect with another region like Crimea - Transnistria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria).
Clearly, one could escape or one could go to war. The Ukrainian officers I know are readying themselves for war. This war - if it comes to that - will make Syria to look like a street riot. Two seriously big nations going against each other will overshadow majority of conflicts since World War II
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The way I see it, it is a game of power for Putin. He doesn't care about the people, or even gas and all that so much, it's just a game. It's typical for people who have their basic survival needs absolutely sattisfied, and have a specific click in the brain for power.
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The way I see it, it is a game of power for Putin. He doesn't care about the people, or even gas and all that so much, it's just a game. It's typical for people who have their basic survival needs absolutely sattisfied, and have a specific click in the brain for power.
Yes, that's the way you see it. For you, playing with apocalypse was/is nothing but the most gigantic ego trip there is. Your life is not that good - why wouldn't the world end? So you would not have to make an effort because the need to make one would disappear.
It is expected that you cannot see someone like Putin or Hitler as men who have worked for years and decades to get where they are. You have no idea what it is to work 24/7 for some purpose and then actually wield the power. You say it is a game. Think again.
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You are being unnecessarily polemical Juhani.
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Of course he has worked for it. But it's still a game of power.
It is expected that you cannot see someone like Putin or Hitler as men who have worked for years and decades to get where they are. You have no idea what it is to work 24/7 for some purpose and then actually wield the power. You say it is a game. Think again.
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Now it looks like you two may be in the hot seat.
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Juhani will be taken first :D
Now it looks like you two may be in the hot seat.
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Russians are in the last stages of preparations for a major attack on Ukraine. They have concentrated next to Ukraine some 100,000 troops (including elite units from Moscow), some 700 tanks, 250 artillery pieces, 240 helicopters, and are setting up headquarters and hospitals. There are unconfirmed news that they are already mobilising civilian medical personnel.
In next 48 hours Russian will achieve 100% readiness to move and then it is anybody's guess.
Dozens of choppers (gunships and utility) waiting for it to begin on the Russian side of the border:
(http://static.uainfo.org/uploads/posts/2014-03/1395774919_2.jpg)
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Why has this riveted the media?
Because it stands exactly like that hotel fore does for Julie and I:
“Come nere my friends, behould and see
Suche as I am suche shall you bee:
As is my state within this tombe
So must be yours before the doome
Even dust as I am now
And thou in time shall be”
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OK Juhani, why is the West (ie the USA) dallying? From what I have heard, they could cripple Russia overnight economically if they wanted to (by freezing out key industrial businesses from global banking), but so far nothing ...
It is obvious Putin has designs over all of Ukraine, not just the Russian half. And Western governments would know this. They could stop it instantly, or in a slightly longer arc as the US fracking gas industry would wish, but they do nothing.
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Jews ordered to register in east Ukraine (http://themoderatevoice.com/193785/jews-ordered-to-register-in-east-ukraine/)
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And Putins close elite assets being frozen
America setting up in malaysia
China annoyed
syria on the tv again
poverty camps and ongoing war
children dug from rubble
Anzac day just been
speaking about 40 soldiers killed
yet 96 from suicide afterwards
it goes on yet its becoming concentrated
tonight
also a partial eclipse coming
i'm feeling pumped up and have a big boost of energy
ready for something
that's probably blowing around in the wind
everything is going really fast
connections
the division has come down between the colors of the veils
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It is indeed speeding up. The cataclysms, local or global, are coming at us at a faster rate. But we have become to see this as normal. The reason for this thread is to ask ourselves, what are we going to do in the face of these rising storms?
Just treating it all as bad news stories, is not an answer. We have to use our awareness to see into the world. As seers, our role on earth is to see into the energetic flux of the times, and to sense the growing good or evil. Precisely because we have access to a level that has no good or evil, we are in the best position to respond on the plane where good and evil have forever been antagonists. This causes us a strange situation.
It is as inappropriate for us to simply fall into the good-evil paradigm, as much it is for us to wash our hands and say we are not obligated to act.
The question for each of us, is how to act? We cannot pretend nothing is happening, that the earth is not facing a climatic phase, largely brought on by the greed and ignorance of humanity, who have reached critical mass with their capacity to alter the evolutionary arc of the earth.
The difficult question we must each resolve for ourselves, is what is our unique part to play in the remainder of our lives?
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One of the blessings of our times, is that the enemies of the heart stand revealed. They have cast off their cloaks of deception, and have walked proudly into the market place, demanding all acknowledge their supremacy.
Where once we had to look behind the curtains of the world, to see these enemies, now we can spot them clearly before us. So long as we don't fall for their enchantment in the world, we have a blessing to overcome them in ourselves.
Lust, anger, greed, possessiveness, arrogance, and envy. It is their time, and they will draw us all into the vortex.
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It is as inappropriate for us to simply fall into the good-evil paradigm, as much it is for us to wash our hands and say we are not obligated to act.
The Quero's (The Inca Cups) do not use terms of good or evil either. Instead they talk about Heavy energy versus light (lighter) energy.
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This will be a different fight than we have seen lately. Ukraine is not a failed state, and it's military are not a rabble. They have a sense of righteousness on their side, which is a significant factor. Yet they are up against an enemy which can sweep them aside with a wave of it's hand.
Warriors die for honour. Their worst fear is to leave this world in disgrace. But will anyone come to their assistance?
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Lust, anger, greed, possessiveness, arrogance, and envy. It is their time, and they will draw us all into the vortex.
Interesting, that you did not mention fear and desire to control that is a direct consequence of fear.
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This will be a different fight than we have seen lately. Ukraine is not a failed state, and it's military are not a rabble. They have a sense of righteousness on their side, which is a significant factor. Yet they are up against an enemy which can sweep them aside with a wave of it's hand.
Warriors die for honour. Their worst fear is to leave this world in disgrace. But will anyone come to their assistance?
A few clarifications would be in place:
1) Russia launched an untraditional attack on Ukraine with the aim of annexing as many regions as possible
2) Russia massed on Ukraine's borders about 50,000-60,000 soldiers, brought them up to 95% readiness to launch, BUT with the aim of intimidation. In fact, Russia could not win a shooting war against Ukraine as what we see is almost ALL that Russian Army can deploy now. Yes, it is that WEAK.
3) Russia made a bet on chaos and political disorder in Ukraine. Deployment of SOF to Crimea worked, because nobody dared to resist. Ukrainians had enough forces to squash the Russian SOF (remember Hitler and Rhineland). There were many cases of high treason in Ukrainian top leadership.
4) 2 May 2014 may be the day when tables finally turned on Russia. Russia banked on military threat of invasion to stop Ukrainian government from attacking tefforists-separatists-Russian SOF in Ukraine. Yesterday, Ukrainians realised that they would be royally stuffed anyway if they allowed themselves to be intmidated. Russia would push deeper and deeper in Ukraine anyway. So yesterday Ukrainians started a serious fight-back.
5) Ukrainians need only a limited assistance - intel, secure comms, money. The rest they can do themselves.
6) Now Putin would be damned if he invades, and he would be damned if he didn't. He cannot win. Not invading means he is willing to sacrifice compatriots he promised to protect. Moreover, Putin has unleashed ultra nationalism that is not that different from nazi Germany. That wave might engulf himself. Hence, Ukrainians use the other edge of a double-edged sword against Putin.
So, there. :)
A few bits of thought I have written in previous weeks:
What I see as a threat emanating from Russia, in light of Ukrainian events, is a type of comprehensive asymmetrical attack. It is not an easy thing to be dealt with in conventional military terms (what good are tanks or artillery in this?), and Ukrainians are clearly struggling to find a workable strategy. Meanwhile, Russians are literally squeezing (and not chopping!) various bits of Ukraine away.
One could call it a “soft power” attack, but that would not be correct either. It is a multidimensional subversion where a military element is employed only when the likelihood of armed resistance is minimised. There are elements of inciting insurgency, economic blockade, military surprise attack, corruption, info ops, political and diplomatic pressure, etc. It is really comprehensive and it hits society across borders with minimum warning time – one could see propaganda, preparations/exercising of a military capability, etc., but not the willingness to launch at any particular moment.
I said yesterday: It is a multidimensional subversion where a military element is employed only when the likelihood of armed resistance is minimised.
My take is that Russians operate primarily SOF in Ukraine and will deploy heavy troops only once the SOF have carried out local coups. If it does not work out, troops assembled on the border could be used for bargaining. The whole thing is set up not like a traditional military op/coercion, but a special op/intel op with multiple paths of development and maximum flexibility. Invasion is a distinct possibility to formalise annexation - once the Ukrainian government has been sufficiently undermined.
If Ukrainian forces do not intervene now – no elections will be held anyway as there will be little left of Ukraine.
If Ukrainian forces do intervene – Russians maintain a threat of a big war and no elections either.
Thinking of having any kind of reasonable elections now may be a major mistake.
It looks like a win-win for Mr Putin. The threat of invasion is, in my mind, an intellectual trap set up for the West who might be pressing Turchinov not to use forces effectively so as to not provoke invasion. The threat of a major conflict is also used to intimidate Kiev itself, and it seems to work quite well.
However, not everyone buys into this logic. The military analysis shows that Putin could not wage a large conflict against Ukraine successfully. He simply is not strong enough to do it. Even limited Ukrainian actions in the east have had visible detrimental effect on so-called people’s uprising and the will of separatists to get on with it. Moreover, people keep pressing Turchinov and Co. to find their stamina and defend the country – and this should not be underestimated.
I have been watching the Western media and news from Ukraine and comparing it to the info from my contacts, and I must say the West seems to underestimate the role of Ukrainian people in this. There is no trust for present rulers in Ukraine and there is an utterly clear sense of growing danger. People of Ukraine will rise and force their rulers to act. They certainly will.
The question is – should one try to play politics in Kiev while losing a massive chunk of the country if not all of it? Perhaps, it would be better to put Kiev on war footing and deal with the “green men” and then have elections.
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Good points Juhani.
But as I see it, the 'enemy' of Ukraine is not just Russia, but also Ukrainian Russians. The Ukrainian army has to fight it's own people, which is both politically damaging and divisive within the army itself. It is hard to imagine the Ukrainian government reuniting the country.
What is curious is how the presence of the Russian military across the boarder has embolded the separatists, but when they stay over the boarder, it then embitters the separatists. I get the feeling the pressures against Putin using Russian military are causing the stalling, creating a strategic uncertainty across all parties involved.
Is Ukraine able to marshal a loyal fighting force against the separatists? It appears in this moment of stalling, a decisive action by Ukraine could succeed, but likewise, civil war could also result, or has already.
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Interesting, that you did not mention fear and desire to control that is a direct consequence of fear.
Which comes first? It's like two sides of the same coin: lust, anger, greed, possessiveness, arrogance, and envy are all aspects of desire to control, while fear is the other side of that. There are many types of fear, but certainly one is the fear engended by excessive desire. So the question would be, do you tackle the fear, or the desire to control?
It seems to me the whole package is a spiralling descent, provocating in tandem. The best time to stop it is right at the start - after that it's a long way down and long time before exhaustion releases one from the devestation.
In the case of countries, it's the third generation. The first is all fired up with desire, the second suffers from the pain, and the third doesn't care about all that crap from the past. That's a long time to wait.
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Good points Juhani.
But as I see it, the 'enemy' of Ukraine is not just Russia, but also Ukrainian Russians. The Ukrainian army has to fight it's own people, which is both politically damaging and divisive within the army itself. It is hard to imagine the Ukrainian government reuniting the country.
What is curious is how the presence of the Russian military across the boarder has embolded the separatists, but when they stay over the boarder, it then embitters the separatists. I get the feeling the pressures against Putin using Russian military are causing the stalling, creating a strategic uncertainty across all parties involved.
Is Ukraine able to marshal a loyal fighting force against the separatists? It appears in this moment of stalling, a decisive action by Ukraine could succeed, but likewise, civil war could also result, or has already.
I would say that the main enemy of Ukrainians is within - corruption and treason within their own society. Ukrainians do not trust their politicians, government, leaders. Some of them are openly pro-Russian. Many Ukrainians are still puzzled as to why would a brethren nation attack them.
What we see is a possible birth of Ukrainian nation - birth of Ukrainians who do not identify Russians as their fellow Slavs, but as antagonistic/hostile Slavs. E.g. Poles and Czechs are already there - due to their history with Russians.
Ukrainians are now fighting and trying to wrap their minds around what is happening to them.
Separatists in the eastern Ukraine constitute a clear minority. However, many people in the eastern part of Ukraine hate their government without being pro-Russian. It is a big difference and there is still an opportunity for "hearts and minds" campaign.
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Which comes first? It's like two sides of the same coin: lust, anger, greed, possessiveness, arrogance, and envy are all aspects of desire to control, while fear is the other side of that. There are many types of fear, but certainly one is the fear engended by excessive desire. So the question would be, do you tackle the fear, or the desire to control?
It seems to me the whole package is a spiralling descent, provocating in tandem. The best time to stop it is right at the start - after that it's a long way down and long time before exhaustion releases one from the devestation.
In the case of countries, it's the third generation. The first is all fired up with desire, the second suffers from the pain, and the third doesn't care about all that crap from the past. That's a long time to wait.
I would say fear is always the first and last. Alpha and Omega.
The utter inevitability of demise, the utter pointlessness of existence. There is no human "meaning" in it. Our parasite, the rational aspect of mind, is absolutely clueless and at loss in the face of its own demise and its own meaningless being.
We can distract ourselves with a nobility of battle, matrial prowess, and despising death (like samurai or monk-warriors).
We can screw around and invent million ways to enhance and amplify orgasm. We can make our lives so full of enjoyments and pleasure.
Different ages, different opportunities to get distracted and avoid looking into the eyes of death - as it is, as it really is.
Even vikings, who thought it to be a highest level of warriorship to look into the eyes of your enemy who killed you, deceived themselves. It was never about that.
At the bottom of it is always the same thing - the inability to grasp and fear of future (where our demise waits).
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Not everyone fears death tho. It could be cause of various illusions but not all people fear death.
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Not everyone fears death tho. It could be cause of various illusions but not all people fear death.
Yes, samurai, viking, Templars, etc. etc. Many have not been afraid. Does it mean they lived their lives like Don Juan? Very few can be 'not afraid' in 'true way' - for the lack of better expression in our language.
It is a billion times easier to develop some artificial construct in one's mind - belief, if you will - and stay in it. And not be afraid. Fully and completely possible.
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Putin blinked.
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Putin blinked.
I would not hurry with conclusions. It may be anything from deception to blinking.
My take is that Russians operate primarily SOF in Ukraine and will deploy heavy troops only once the SOF have carried out local coups. If it does not work out, troops assembled on the border could be used for bargaining. The whole thing is set up not like a traditional military op/coercion, but a special op/intel op with multiple paths of development and maximum flexibility. Invasion is a distinct possibility to formalise annexation - once the Ukrainian government has been sufficiently undermined.
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Well,
- today there was an assault of 60 gunmen on police headquarters in Mariupol. People were killed and wounded
- Ukraine's border with Russia is continuously eroded in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts, separatists and weapons are likely to pour in soon
- a week ago Ukrainian forces had a half-day battle with 800-1,500 armed separatists, two helos were shot down
- in Moscow, during Russia's V-Day military parade, marines from Crimea flew the flag of separatist republic and all units carried that infamous Tzarist St. George's ribbon today
What we seem to have, is a full-fledged insurgency and Ukraine does not have 150,000 loyal troops to control provinces where Putin's 'green men' do their subversion practice.
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Just how many times have researchers said that it all is happening faster than they imagined?
Collapse of Antarctic ice sheet is underway and unstoppable but will take centuries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2014/05/12/70c26750-da00-11e3-b745-87d39690c5c0_story.html?hpid=z1
The collapse of the giant West Antarctica ice sheet is underway, two groups of scientists said Monday. They described the melting as an unstoppable event that will cause global sea levels to rise higher than projected earlier.
Scientists said the rise in sea level, up to 12 feet, will take centuries to reach its peak and cannot be reversed. But they said a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions could slow the melt, while an increase could speed it slightly.
Warm, naturally occurring ocean water flowing under the glaciers is causing the melt. “We feel it is at the point that it is . . . a chain reaction that’s unstoppable,” regardless of any future cooling or warming of the global climate, said Eric Rignot, a professor of Earth science at the University of California at Irvine. He was the lead author of a NASA-funded study that was one of the two studies released Monday.
The only thing that might have stopped the ice from escaping into the ocean and filling it with more water “is a large hill or mountains,” Rignot said. But “there are no such hills that can slow down this retreat,” he added.
The peer-reviewed NASA study has been accepted by the journal Geophysical Research Letters and is expected to be published within days.
The NASA announcement coincided with the release of a University of Washington study that contained similar findings. It will be published Friday in the journal Science.
Both studies observed ice retreating from four massive glaciers in West Antarctica — Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler.
The Thwaites glacier alone holds enough water to increase sea level by two feet, the University of Washington study said. Together, the glaciers hold enough water to raise it by several feet.
Sea levels will not rise suddenly, in spite of what the word “collapse” implies, said a statement by the university announcing its report. “The fastest scenario is 200 years, and the longest is more than 1,000 years.”
The statement said university scientists used detailed maps and computer models to reach their conclusion “that a collapse appears to have already begun.”
“Scientists have been warning of its collapse, based on theories, but with few firm predictions or timelines,” the statement said.
The new projections of sea-level rise by both studies are higher and potentially more devastating than earlier projections by international scientists who authored an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last year and U.S. scientists who wrote the federal government’s National Climate Assessment, which was issued this month.
The findings probably will force the IPCC to increase its current estimate of up to three feet of sea-level rise by 2100, said Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University.
The IPCC bases its results on reviews of earlier studies, and the recent observations on polar ice “are only now starting to come together,” said Anandakrishnan, who was not involved in the NASA study.
Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist at NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington, said this is not the first time scientists have said West Antarctica ice will collapse.
“That idea that this is unstoppable has been around since the 1970s,” Wagner said. “We’ve finally hit this point where we have enough observation to put this together” and say it is happening.
Earlier projections of a collapse are one reason scientists criticized some IPCC projections as overly conservative.
In the National Climate Assessment, released last week, scientists already predicted a harsh scenario for the Chesapeake Bay. “As sea levels rise,” they said, “the Chesapeake Bay region is expected to experience an increase in coastal flooding and drowning of . . . wetlands” that protect against storm surge.
Sea-level rise would be made worse because the land is sinking in the lower bay region because of ancient geological forces.
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New Zealand refuses climate change refugees – mass action is now needed
New Zealand’s court of appeal has refused refugee status to a family from Kiribati, a Pacific island which is quickly sinking beneath the sea
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/12/new-zealand-refuses-climate-change-refugees-mass-action-is-now-needed
No refugees please, we’re New Zealanders. That’s the message from New Zealand’s court of appeal. In a decision released last week the court endorsed earlier rulings that Ioana Teitiota – a Kiribati national – is not a climate change refugee. Teitiota, his wife and their children will be deported to Kiribati, where the court believes they can “resume their prior subsistence life with dignity”.
Even if the Teitiota’s can reclaim some dignity, climate change will take it from them. The IPCC projects that the Pacific ocean will swallow most Kiribati by the end of this century. Life in Kiribati is life against the clock. There’s little dignity in that.
But before Kiribati sinks beneath the sea, ocean creep will make the islands uninhabitable. Sea level rise – coupled with more intense storm cycles – will contaminate the water table, pollute the small pockets of agricultural land and destroy homes and businesses. Tarawa, the main atoll, is a tiny sandstrip some six square miles in size. There is, quite literally, no escaping the misery climate change will cause.
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/5/12/1399852768019/69f86daf-3e86-41cc-85f3-919263bf57d1-460x276.jpeg)
An abandoned house that is affected by seawater during high-tides stands next to a small lagoon near the village of Tangintebu. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
The conditions for social unrest are manifest and the I-Kiribati know it. Density means disease and unrest spread quickly. There are 50,000 people tightly packed on Tarawa. The president, Anote Tong, is exploring options for mass migration.
The idealist in me hoped the court of appeal would create an option for that mass migration. The realists on the court wouldn’t have a bar of that. Teitiota was not a refugee under 1A(2) of the refugee convention. The court conceded Teitiota was a refugee under a “sociological definition”, but not the legal definition.
The court approached the case as a threshold question: was “there a real chance of the refugee claimant being persecuted” and, if so, was “there a convention reason for that persecution”? Teitiota couldn’t satisfy the test.
The court took the orthodox position that persecution is primarily political and internal. There had to be a “violation” of human rights and a “failure” of state protection. Teitiota’s claim turned that definition on its head.
In essence, his claim held that the violation and failure was on the part of the international community. The persecution was external, not internal, and environmental, not political.
The decision reveals – in all its misery - the protection deficit in international law. A judicial decision is an uncodified statement of power relations. Never could there be a more unequal power relationship than here: on one side, the I-Kiribati and their sinking home, on the other the rigid machinery of international law. If Lord Diplock is right, then “law is about man’s duty to his neighbour”. That principle should underpin our approach to climate change and forced migration.
But the law doesn’t encompass all of our moral obligations. It’s clear that the international system isn’t fit for purpose. Let’s look past it to social resistance and political solutions. Science, as Naomi Klein argues, “is telling us to revolt”. Ordinary people need to put pressure on their governments to deal with climate change displacement. The missing link isn’t some new legal rule, but mass action.
The history of the Pacific is a history of isolation, both physical and political. It’s that isolation that allowed the great powers to commit economic and military misadventures in the region, from depleting phosphate stocks in Kiribati and Naura to nuclear testing in French Polynesia and the Marshall Islands.
The social history of the Pacific is one of migration, from the early Austronesian and Polynesian expansions to the recent European settler migration. How can we say no to refugees when we are all migrants ourselves?
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...European powers marched into World War I. Today, exactly hundred years ago Russia and Germany declared war on each other. A few years later Russian Empire ceased to exist. These events were mind boggling and beyond belief. In 1914 the dominant expectation in all great powers was of a short war and of inevitable victory.
WW I turned out to be like no war before it. Close to 10 million people were killed on a front that was less than 1,000 km long. In the opening 22 minutes of the Battle of Somme British lost 5,000 men. By the end of the day 63,000 men were killed, wounded and put out of action. The average life span of a British officer on the front was 2 months, of a solider - 4 months. it was beyond anything most people could imagine. There were also those who were quite on the spot regarding what was to come, but they were not listened to - as usual.
Anyhow, Russian Empire fell to pieces in 1917.
Today, hundred years later, Russians are firing openly across Ukrainian border at Ukrainian troops. They are delivering dozens of tanks, artillery pieces, armoured vehicles, etc., to Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine.
At the same time, Ukrainians are growing stronger and stronger. Nationalism is on the rise among 40 million Ukrainians and their forces are moving closer and closer to the border. In a few weeks, they will be facing Russian troops at the very border. Putin's Russia is being put under massive pressure through sanctions. Russian militrary issues one warning after another to NATO and Russia will be calling up millions of reservists in the fall.
Putin has been cornered. The monster of ultra nationalism that he has unleashed threatens to engulf him and his billionaire friends. Is he in charge of mercenaries he sent to Ukraine? Who knows? The mercs are talking about treason and betrayal by Kremlin. They are cursing Putin while dying under fire of Ukrainians who are increasingly united and driven by fight for their people and country.
Where is this going? Nobody knows. All we know is that Russia has cornered itself and it will be pressed harder and harder. We know how it ended after an ultra-nationalist dive into war in 1914...
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An interesting aspect of this conflict, is the enormous pressure being put on the European ans US leaders to go 'soft' on Putin and Russia, by the big business and capitalist world. They fear if Russia is economically damaged, it will trigger a renewal of the world meltdown after the GFC. Amazing how complex the world has become. I didn't read the whole article on this, but I gather it is about energy and the fragile recovery from the GFC.
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An interesting aspect of this conflict, is the enormous pressure being put on the European ans US leaders to go 'soft' on Putin and Russia, by the big business and capitalist world. They fear if Russia is economically damaged, it will trigger a renewal of the world meltdown after the GFC. Amazing how complex the world has become. I didn't read the whole article on this, but I gather it is about energy and the fragile recovery from the GFC.
Well, Russians fighting in Ukraine managed to shoot down Malaisian Airlines' plane with close to 300 passengers. All died. Of them 140 were Dutch citizens and about 40 Aussies. After that the EU and US began to talk about sanctions against Russia even if "they damage our economies".
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Yes, that does appear to have been a game changer ... perhaps.
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Ukraine has reached tipping point.
It's hard to interpret Putin's actions. Why has he dallied so long, if he always intended to invade more territory, as I predicted?
We have here a man, and a popular support within Russia, that quite simply doesn't accept Western values - sees them as pathetic. This is all about the law of the jungle - the strong take what they want, and the week should scarpa. He has exemplified that mythic stance, in his personal symbolism, and now he has to back it up, or be humiliated.
He has allowed the West to prepare - I think that was a mistake for him. They are now more ready to apply further crippling sanctions, than they were previously, and yet, the window of opportunity is still open. Primarily because no country wants to engage in war with Russia, and Putin knows that.
Especially, in the US, there is no will to deploy military assets of any kind, considering they already have to find some response to Islamic State. I'd say, get out of Ukraine while you can, if you have any political connections. Otherwise, turn to business - profit is acceptable in all languages. But seriously, there appears to be serious violence afoot in Ukraine in the near future.
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When I was in the Army, in Townsville, I recall a battle that played out within the Australian Military. I say a battle for my own purposes, but they would call it a strategic reassessment.
They were exiting the Vietnam war, where the unexpected became the norm. During that phase, the military found it necessary to fight in unconventional ways, for which they required unconventional soldiers, if that's not an oxymoron.
Once the Vietnam war was over, strategic assessments concluded that type of war was an exception unlikely to be repeated with any anticipated consistency. Thus the Australian Military reverted to Conventional Warfare preparation, which meant the end of opportunity for those kind of people who did not fit with the hierarchical mindset.
You can argue with this, but they were probably correct, or maybe not - it meant a huge shift in capital expenditure, where assets that fitted within the conventional warfare paradigm were purchased - I won't go into that.
What no longer was required, except perhaps within a sub-set of special forces, were the kind of people who thought for themselves - were not geared by character, to accept what higher ranks told them. Curiously, and historically, militaries have always needed such people, but they always caused trouble, despite making good subjects for movies. They are anathema to the primary military mindset.
It's my view, that the bulk of the Australian Military officer core, was very unhappy with the demands of the Vietnam war. So they grasped the opportunity to reassert their conventional world view once that war was over. Because that was their essential nature - conventional.
But they represent the bulk of humanity. The few who buck the system are always a small minority in this world of the White Root Race. The White's all march together - that is their power.
In Iraq the US did the same thing, until it was obviously failing, then with enormous reluctance, they called back in those few irregular mind-set people, who saved the day for them. But within the Military and Society, they were never loved - even the main officer was later damned for having an affair outside his marriage (only in the US could that happen).
For our purposes, it is absolutely essential to belong to that small irregular mind-set group. Don't expect to be loved for it.
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Ukraine has reached tipping point.
It's hard to interpret Putin's actions. Why has he dallied so long, if he always intended to invade more territory, as I predicted?
We have here a man, and a popular support within Russia, that quite simply doesn't accept Western values - sees them as pathetic. This is all about the law of the jungle - the strong take what they want, and the week should scarpa. He has exemplified that mythic stance, in his personal symbolism, and now he has to back it up, or be humiliated.
He has allowed the West to prepare - I think that was a mistake for him. They are now more ready to apply further crippling sanctions, than they were previously, and yet, the window of opportunity is still open. Primarily because no country wants to engage in war with Russia, and Putin knows that.
Especially, in the US, there is no will to deploy military assets of any kind, considering they already have to find some response to Islamic State. I'd say, get out of Ukraine while you can, if you have any political connections. Otherwise, turn to business - profit is acceptable in all languages. But seriously, there appears to be serious violence afoot in Ukraine in the near future.
Russians have invaded with up to 10 battalion tactical groups. Ukrainians claim that yesterday there was a first air strike by Russians.
In discussions with Barroso, Putin threatened to take Kiev - if he wanted to. During off-the-record talks with Ukrainians Russians have threatened to use tactical nukes - unless Ukraine yields.
70% of Russians think Russia is fighting back US influence in Ukraine. 60% consider EU hostile and 74% think US is hostile. Putin has warned West that if they try something, Russia has got nukes. 43% of Russians think Russia has every right to annex foreign lands when Russians are treated badly there.
West does not have to interfere, but only to supply game-changing weapons (anti-tank missiles and artillery recce tools for counter battery fire). Ukrainians can do the killing job perfectly well.
Anyhow, Islamic State is peanuts in comparison with this.
Get ready, this world has only started to slide into complete darkness of the mind, and utter bloody madness.
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And Estonia is also in the firing line.
It is hard to see how Europe and US can simply allow Russia to invade Ukraine. But how can they fight back? There is news now of Russian tanks involved.
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And Estonia is also in the firing line.
It is hard to see how Europe and US can simply allow Russia to invade Ukraine. But how can they fight back? There is news now of Russian tanks involved.
These tanks are based on a 40 years old concept ("72" in T-72 means a year), although modernised. They burn with a bright flame (like a torch) - when hit hard.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RJEBkw5fB34/maxresdefault.jpg)
There are 40 million Ukrainians. It is not Iraq and not even Afghanistan. With modern anti-armour weapons Ukrainians will turn on hell for invaders. According to high-end assessments they have killed some 2,000 Russians already.
One shouldnot forget that ~30% of Soviet officer corps were Ukrainians.
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Now Britain and the EU are talking about putting together a force to tackle Russian incursions - two separate propositions. To be honest, I doubt anything short of a military response will have any effect. But once you send in troops, who knows what will happen next. But Putin is definitely asking for a military response from Nato. Will they do it?
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Now Britain and the EU are talking about putting together a force to tackle Russian incursions - two separate propositions. To be honest, I doubt anything short of a military response will have any effect. But once you send in troops, who knows what will happen next. But Putin is definitely asking for a military response from Nato. Will they do it?
At best, indirectly: weapons (anti-tank, anti-arty, anti-air), intel, training, comms. The US seems much more willing to confront the modern day Hitler called Putin.
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And Estonia is also in the firing line.
So it seems to be.
According to the Internal Security Service (ISS), Estonia's national agency for counterintelligence and high-profile corruption investigations, one of their officials was abducted at gunpoint at Luhamaa border checkpoint this morning where he was discharging service duties, and taken to Russia.
Initially there was little indication it was necessarily more than an isolated criminal incident, but within several hours it had developed into a diplomatic row, with the Estonian and Russian intelligence agencies advancing cardinally opposite versions of the events.
The report of the abduction broke around 16:00, seven hours after it happened. At about 19:00, the FSB, the Russian security agency, was first to mention the name of the agent, Eston Kohver, which was later confirmed by the ISS. That was the only detail consistent in the versions, with the Russians putting forward a claim that Kohver was captured on the Russian side. However, Russian border guards said earlier in the day they had no knowledge of the incident.
The incident occurred at about 9:00 on the Estonian side of the border and was preceded by jamming of communications and use of a smoke grenade, the ISS said; the interference was said to originate from the Russia side.
The ISS said the official was in the process of interdiction of a cross-border crime.
The area is in Võru County, by Russian border post #121. The border lacks major fortifications; the area is thinly populated.
The whereabouts of the official were not known at first. Martin Arpo, deputy director of the ISS, told Delfi later in the evening that the official was alive and well and in the hands of the FSB [almighty Russian security service].
There was no immediate explanation on the late disclosure of the incident - more than six hours after it occurred - which comes during a period of more tense relations with Russia.
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Scary, Juhani.
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Scary, Juhani.
This is how history happens. Post-Cold War happy days are over in pretty much every respect.
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10623105_718529611545693_6092989610736283324_n.jpg?oh=381f254a221feba70a35e76cbc1627d7&oe=54A4C41C&__gda__=1419050916_aff09be64af0bf767e8cbb5a46ea5fbb)
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10623105_718529611545693_6092989610736283324_n.jpg?oh=381f254a221feba70a35e76cbc1627d7&oe=54A4C41C&__gda__=1419050916_aff09be64af0bf767e8cbb5a46ea5fbb)
Yes, that aspect of our world is still reachable whether in mind or in nature. The Green Man is still there and so very happy when people remember him and reach out for him. I suspect though, that the numbers of such people are shrinking fast.
However, it is time to ask: 'Why exactly did I choose to be born into this ever-deepening mess and madness? What did I come for and what did I plan to do?' 'I' being in this case Higher Self.
It may be helpful with regard to the beak-thing.
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I wonder if this is why so many in my age-group have been dying in the past few years, this re-emergence of an old trauma, which we already experienced, in the face of all the ongoing ones.
Yes, that aspect of our world is still reachable whether in mind or in nature. The Green Man is still there and so very happy when people remember him and reach out for him. I suspect though, that the numbers of such people are shrinking fast.
However, it is time to ask: 'Why exactly did I choose to be born into this ever-deepening mess and madness? What did I come for and what did I plan to do?' 'I' being in this case Higher Self.
It may be helpful with regard to the beak-thing.
Well-said, Juhani.
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Juhani, do you think Eston Kohver's capture marks a first volley of Russia's intentions toward Eesti?
How have the local Russians been responding to this?
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everything is lining up
i think my higher self wants to help move
even the collective holds individuals
its a nice reversal from finding the way back
finding the way back, back
i think older people are invaluable
they know so much which is not useless in
an over-informed yet under -equipped world
"outside the mind"
bodies upon the earth
my higher self must be helping line things up
every niggling since a child wants to return to the bodies
and complete trajectory of the higher and self bodies together
where s this higher self business leading
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Juhani, do you think Eston Kohver's capture marks a first volley of Russia's intentions toward Eesti?
How have the local Russians been responding to this?
It certainly looks like it. The man was taken a few days after Obama's visit and Russians have delayed the meeting with Estonia's consul, etc. It is all very demonstrative.
I haven't seen any public reaction of local Russians. Web comments on the news are split - some condemn Estonia's "spying" on Russia, others find Russia's actions somewhat malevolent, third group says - he's a spy (which he is not - he's more like a Fed), what do you expect?
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Switching topics abruptly.
I was reading on a seemingly innocent site, not anticipating that I would encounter fear-mongering. The sources - the details - I cannot even delve into.
http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal
Tell me, please, that this is irresponsible fear-mongering.
Edited to add: Of course it's fear-mongering. It always catches me by surprise, when the paranormal/mystical proponents and media figures have political agendas.
Back to the topic at hand, sorry for the interruption.
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The general view is that IS does not share the global aspirations of AQ. IS has less interest itself in doing the kind of 9/11 event, as it's focus is predominantly to set up a caliphate, or Islamic State, in the Middle East. They are prodding the US with these murders of journalists, but the intent is local.
AQ is conducting a major recruitment push in India currently, but I'm not aware they seek to do another 9/11 event themselves. There is much internal dispute with AQ about the effectiveness of the 9/11 attack.
What is concerning many countries, are those who return to Western nations after having spent time with IS. IS has a huge draw of Western Muslims, and although IS themselves are not so interested in attacks on foreign soil, their radicalised and trained people who are going home after a stint of terror tourism, will have their own ideas about what they might do back in their own countries.
Currently the UK is supplying the bulk of IS foreign troops, so they are very concerned. I expect this is a big deal now with all Western countries, and has become the new focus of security agencies. Australia has just lifted its security warning level precisely because of this problem.
So this means more a 'home-grown' threat than one masterminded and organised from abroad. It also means small budget jobs, though just as deadly, if not as dramatic.
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Yes, that was mentioned -- that it would be US citizens (or UK, as the case may be).
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IS has really called the emperors with no clothes into the sunlight. This is a fascinating case, and I'm just glad I don't reside in that part of the world. I have the feeling that nations, like individuals, grow up through adolescence into maturity, and the Middle Eastern Islamic world is still in adolescence.
The US wants to do something to nip IS in the bud, which by now is a mighty big bud. But the surrounding countries are all looking for their own narrow advantage, and still obsessed with old feuds in which a tolerance of difference is unacceptable. I expect it's that old devil 'honour', devouring its victims.
If the US attacks IS, it will strengthen Bashar al-Assad, because IS is one of the most powerful rebel groups. But Saudi wants to weaken and destroy Bashar al-Assad because that will weaken and embarrass Iran - Saudi being Sunni and Iran Shia. IS is Sunni, but Saudi is concerned about them because Saudi Arabia is run by secular dictators, not religious. So the Saudi government is threatened by IS.
Iran is helping Bashar al-Assad because he is a Shia sect, and they don't want SI to gain any power in Syria.
The whole scene is a convoluted scheming arena, into which IS has marched, and is likely to sweep up vast areas before all these countries around will respond. But all these countries are led by non-religious governments who are scared shitless of religious uprisings, and who suppress their populations brutally.
Then you have the extra scheming of these countries wanting the US and UK to interfere and attack IS, hoping firstly they will be successful in defeating IS and secondly will distract popular discontent against the US instead of their own governments.
Their really is a good case for letting the bastards suffer for their own stupidity.
But amongst all this is the big question of 'Where are all the Muslim reactions to IS?' Muslims around the globe are against IS, while it is stealing their youth from under their noses to join them, so why aren't they agitating, marching in the streets, writing against the corruption of their faith by IS? As far as I know, only one person has written publicly about this - a woman, Yasmine Bahrani (a professor of journalism at the American University in Dubai), in The Washington Post, has spoken up.
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/where-are-the-marches-against-the-islamic-state/2014/08/29/531f6052-2ed0-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html]
There appears to be a collective cowardice and double standard by Muslims. They are happy to froth endlessly at cartoons of Mohammed by non-Muslims, but when people who pretend to be of their own faith begin to wreak havoc against the long dedicated efforts of Muslims to present the sane version of their faith to the world, they all go silent. Are they afraid? Or is there another reason for their silence?
The same can be said about Jews and Israeli Zionism - it is destroying the centuries of good will built up by Jews, and paid so dearly for. Why are they all silent about what the Right Wing government in Israel is doing to their culture across the world?
There is something deeply human and short-sightedly self-interested about all this. No point in getting into a state - all humans are cowards and one-eyed.
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"This is a war over the soul of Islam - that is what differentiates this moment from all others," argues Ahmad Khalidi, a Palestinian scholar associated with St Antony's College, Oxford. Here is why: For decades, Saudi Arabia has been the top funder of the mosques and schools throughout the Muslim world that promote the most puritanical version of Islam, known as Salafism, which is hostile to modernity, women and religious pluralism, or even Islamic pluralism.
Saudi financing for these groups is a byproduct of the ruling bargain there between the al-Saud family and its Salafist religious establishment, known as the Wahhabis. The al-Sauds get to rule and live how they like behind walls, and the Wahhabis get to propagate Salafist Islam both inside Saudi Arabia and across the Muslim world, using Saudi oil wealth. Saudi Arabia is, in effect, helping to fund both the war against the Islamic State and the Islamist ideology that creates Islamic State members (some 1000 Saudis are believed to be fighting with jihadist groups in Syria), through Salafist mosques in Europe, Pakistan, Central Asia and the Arab world.
This game has reached its limit. First, because the Islamic State presents a challenge to Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State says it is the "caliphate", the centre of Islam. Saudi Arabia believes it is the centre. And, second, the Islamic State is threatening Muslims everywhere. Khalidi told me of a Muslim woman friend in London who says she's afraid to go out with her head scarf on for fear that people will believe she is with the Islamic State - just for dressing as a Muslim. Saudi Arabia cannot continue fighting the Islamic State and feeding the ideology that nurtures the Islamic State. It will hurt more and more Muslims.
by Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist
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you seem extremely well informed
as you were saying about infancy and adolescence
i believe awareness runs beneath action also
actually i believe awareness is also in the sky and the times
i believe awareness of greater proportions would encompass a union of sorts
of two eyes
when i watch the news i only see the wool being pulled over peoples one eye
and then bounce back toward the other as though the eyes are set far apart
on eye there fore cannot see what the other is doing and
gets lost in the back and forth of its blindness
how the hell can america be serious about winning a war from the air
that way against IS
when they raided those they called plotting terrorism here just now
the media even had pictures of it taking place with the guys handcuffed etc
before they had even finished their operations and raids
and also they keep saying stupid things on television which make no sense
and seem rediculous
it seems incredulous to imagine that what they say could be taken
by people to mean something real with two eyes
and that state of awareness being shared by so many just seems like
devisive mirror games
i keep wondering how the people can be so asleep
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Close to 400 destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles.
Some 4,000 killed Ukrainian and Russian soldiers.
Several hundred thousand refugees.
Ceasefire that is violated very single day.
(http://storage1.censor.net.ua/images/d/5/d/7/d5d7f7f0371264d69f580c2a584e5367/604x453.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsSwFpyIIAElOfE.jpg:large)
(http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=224909&d=1409695656)
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I'll try to break this down in simple terms.
US, Saudi and Israel are in a struggle to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.
Saudi hates Assad in Syria, and the US sees him as the problem, so they both support the 'good' Muslim rebels against Assad.
Israel thinks IS is a minor nuisance, but Iran is a major threat.
Saudi (Sunni) is in a religious and regional struggle for supremacy with Iran (Shiite).
Iran sees IS as a serious threat, because IS is Sunni and hates all Shiites, and because IS is one of the major aggressors against Assad in Syria (whom Iran supports and who is a Shiite sect).
All Sunni capitals see IS as a threat because they seek to topple these old regimes and set up a broad caliphate in the Middle East.
Turkey has always been afraid of the Kurds. The Kurds are under attack from IS in Iraq (where they are better equipped to defend themselves) and in Syria (where they are at present being destroyed). Turkey has just closed its Syrian boarder to stop Turkish Kurds from crossing over to fight against IS there.
The US sees assistance from Iran as critical to defeating IS. Iran has told them to get stuffed. Iran wants the US to get the same approval from Assad in Syria as they are obtaining from Baghdad - to legitimise their friend Assad. The US won't do that, but also is worried about getting involved in Syria at all.
Saudi and Israel are very worried the US will go easy, and compromise with its long-standing pressure, on Iran.
Saudi is concerned destroying IS will help Assad in Syria.
Some experts think IS is the greatest threat to world peace since the dark ages. Others think it is a passing issue.
IS has just released a command for all Muslims to kill the Unbelievers, soldiers or civilians, in the UK, US, France, Canada and Australia. Not to ask for advice from local leaders, but just do it.
France has sent in fighter jets and bombed IS in Iraq. Australia has sent Special Forces and logistic support to Iraq, and to the Kurds.
Some Saudis want the US to leave IS alone in the hope they will topple Assad, then deal with them (I think that one is fantasy).
The US wants to act, and is likely to, despite truculence from Iran, and pressure from Saudi and Israel.
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Close to 400 destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles.
Some 4,000 killed Ukrainian and Russian soldiers.
Several hundred thousand refugees.
Ceasefire that is violated very single day.
What do you make of the anti-conflict demonstration in Moscow Juhani?
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What do you make of the anti-conflict demonstration in Moscow Juhani?
It was an example of "managed democracy" Putin's way. It was allowed to happen as it presented no challenge for the regime. Moreover, it was useful for the regime to show that it is not a complete basket case - it created an illusion that Putin might come to his senses and reign in his ultrantionalist cohorts. In combination with a wavering ceasefire in Ukraine the demonstration makes a case for lifting sanctions against Russia.
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So the battle has begun against IS. What will be the consequence this time?
At least the Obama administration is moving with more caution than George Bush and Co. They have enlisted the Sunni capitals in the deployment. But who is going to provide ground troops, aside from Iraq and the Kurds? Why do I get the picture of Pandora's Box?
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So the battle has begun against IS. What will be the consequence this time?
At least the Obama administration is moving with more caution than George Bush and Co. They have enlisted the Sunni capitals in the deployment. But who is going to provide ground troops, aside from Iraq and the Kurds? Why do I get the picture of Pandora's Box?
Well, the first thought that came to my mind was about yet another of the most sincere wishes of al-Qaeda/IS coming true. Now jihadis can challenge what they call 'rotten monarchies of the Middle East' directly on the battlefield and work their way into Saudi Arabia and other states to launch insurgencies.
I'd say these Sunni states of the region are quite brittle and if I were IS I would challenge them from inside. Now they've given all the excuses jihadis could dream about.
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I'd say these Sunni states of the region are quite brittle and if I were IS I would challenge them from inside. Now they've given all the excuses jihadis could dream about.
Yes, but something about this is curious. I understand these states wanting the US and other Western countries to do the fighting and bombing, because there will be an inevitable backlash against anyone challenging IS. IS is establishing itself as the Islamic legitimacy. If USA fights them instead of local Sunni states (including Turkey), then those states are able to deflect any backlash to the West, thereby minimising internal upheavals.
By joining in, as many have done, they are identified as the enemy of 'real' Islam and the real caliphate. This is actually too close to the truth for comfort for them. I can only assume they realise the gloves are off now, and they are fighting for their own survival in a serious way.
BTW, Kurds also, in that area, are Sunni.
I think the US and these states are blowing away all the worried concerns, and choosing to believe they can isolate and destroy IS, without destabilising all those background patterns of power. We will see.
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I think the US and these states are blowing away all the worried concerns, and choosing to believe they can isolate and destroy IS, without destabilising all those background patterns of power. We will see.
Attack from the air...?
It is utterly frightening how Obama does and says mostly right and sensible things, but gets the timing unbelievably wrong. The outcome is a disaster beyond belief. Reactive strategy in the hope that world can be thoroughly rationalised is a folly.
* Obama's refusal to take a proactive stance with regard to Syrian upheaval in 2011-2012-2013 led to a collapse of the secular Free Syrian Army and dominance of Islamist forces in the rebel camp. Who exactly is the US going to train and arm now - in 2014???
* US departure from Iraq ASAP in 2011 allowed Iran to set up al-Maliki's utterly authoritarian Shia regime brought about the unholy union of former Saddam top military, ISIS and Sunni tribes. The outcome is IS.
* Yet another air campaign against Islamists who will use civilians as a shield and resort to all the tricks they've learned in Afghanistan and Iraq is a highly questionable proposition that has considerbale potential to play into the hands of jihadis.
IS is nothing but the most sincere dream of bin Laden come true. IS top dog, Caliph Ibrahim, also known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has never sworn allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, but only to bin Laden who tasked al-Baghdadi to set up the core of Caliphate in Levant (Syria-Iraq).
In essence, IS is now taking over from al-Qaeda. Their pitch is as follows: al-Qaeda (that means a "base" or "foundation") was a first step towards a Caliphate. It was Caliphate's foundation. IS is the Caliphate materialised. It is difficult to imagine the outburst of joy and celebration on jihadi forums in the Internet that followed the establishment of Caliphate.
Moreover, al-Qaeda has been changing its strategy over 2013 as well. Al-Zawahiri issued a guidance that the international jihadi movement was to embark on the path of insurgency and to start building a Caliphate. The idea was that they could gradually take over one Muslim state after another and link them up into a massive state stretching from Morocco to Afghanistan. Hence, even the old al-Qaeda (al-Qaeda central) has been turning away from its tefforist practices and focusing on deposing governments.
Last November I met with some former al-Qaeda guys, former European and Asian jihadis. What they saw then, was staggering. al-Qaeda ideology is spreading in the Middle East and Africa like a bush fire. New movements - although physically disconnected from al-Qaeda central - are popping up like mushrooms. Jihadism is more and more popular. IS is serving as a massive catalyst for that movement and ideology, and many jihadis from Africa and elsewhere are already moving to Caliphate and bringing over their families.
Now, what could all-so-familiar-recipe-of-air-campaign accomplish in such an environment?
As you see, I am not overly optimistic regarding yet another belated step of Obama.
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New movements - although physically disconnected from al-Qaeda central - are popping up like mushrooms. Jihadism is more and more popular. IS is serving as a massive catalyst for that movement and ideology, and many jihadis from Africa and elsewhere are already moving to Caliphate and bringing over their families.
Now, what could all-so-familiar-recipe-of-air-campaign accomplish in such an environment?
As you see, I am not overly optimistic regarding yet another belated step of Obama.
That is my understanding also, that Jihadism has diversified right down to individuals who take their own action. We just had one here in Australia, where a jihadi-inspired young man walked into a police station and knifed some officers before he was shot dead. He was acting alone.
But I also understand Obama. He is not a military dictator - he is constrained by his nation's popular mood. Americans had had enough of wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. He was not in favour of the Iraq war to begin with, and had struggled to get the US out of there. He is a recipient of the stupidity of his predecessor. Unfortunately, this approach was not a good military strategy.
But there remains a question of what direct impact the US would suffer from doing nothing. Of course there will be plenty of indirect impacts, but that will affect the whole world, including Russia and China.
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But there remains a question of what direct impact the US would suffer from doing nothing. Of course there will be plenty of indirect impacts, but that will affect the whole world, including Russia and China.
Indeed, it is the Mother of All Questions. A couple of years ago there was a real opportunity to deal with al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq through concerted action of US (and other Western), Israeli, Turkish, Jordanian and Saudi intel services. It was a real possibility and it was missed because US/Obama refused to take the lead.
I would guess that the air campaign is going to push IS back a little bit, but in the long run it might make the Caliphate even stronger through mobilisation of Muslims into jihadi camp. Hence, you're damned if you don't do and you could be even more damned if you do.
Given how stuffed the current Sunni regimes are, it might have been more useful to let the Caliphate be and let the Persian Gulf states fight it out by themselves.
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I can't help being fascinated by the convolutions of this new field in the Middle East. Here are a few more.
You would think Iran is concerned about Islamic State. Well, yes, in a small way, but actually Iran has been fostering the rise of IS. For a long time, IS didn't attack Shias or Dr Assad, or anyone else that is a big power. They fought other tefforist groups, in order to grow within the Sunni rebel world. Then it attacked Shia Muslims. The reason Iran looked favourably upon IS, is that it caused a rising fear in Shia communities, and to whom will they turn for protection? Iran. It was powerfully focusing Shias within the Middle East on the importance of Iran, and thus increased the influence of Iran.
But also it helped Iran's friend, Assad, as he was able to tell the West, "look who is fighting against me: pan-Islamic tefforists. if you don't support me, look who will be on Israel's doorstep." Again setting up Iran as the beneficiary power in the region.
Meanwhile, Sunni governments are more vulnerable than for a very long time - they are concerned about public opinion in a way they have not experienced before. The public in these countries feel highly cynical about the motives of the US in attacking IS. Why didn't they form a coalition against Iraq recently when it was killing Sunnis? Why didn't they form a coalition against Assad when he was killing Sunnis? Why didn't they object when Israel was attacking Gaza? Why are they bothered now about IS? If the Sunni powers align with the US, they are in danger of being lumped in with the popular antagonism against the US - they are not sure that is a wise move for their survival.
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But what game is Turkey playing? the Kurds believe Turkey is actually arming IS in Syria, as well as stopping Turkish Kurds from crossing into Syria to help fight IS. Turkey maintains it isn't arming IS, but why is it closing the boarder? The Kurds say it is because Turkey would like to see IS wipe out the Kurds in 'Kurdistan' in Syria. Thus they are happy to see IS advance up to the Turkish boarder. Sounds like a dangerous game if true.
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Kobane looks like a test case for the effectiveness of Western aerial bombing. If they succeed in stopping the fall of Kobane, then there may be more positive outcomes from this approach than many have thought. Unfortunately, I would be surprised if they do succeed, without in some way bolstering the Kurdish forces. There appears to be a massacre pending in that city.
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I can't help being fascinated by the convolutions of this new field in the Middle East. Here are a few more.
You would think Iran is concerned about Islamic State. Well, yes, in a small way, but actually Iran has been fostering the rise of IS. For a long time, IS didn't attack Shias or Dr Assad, or anyone else that is a big power. They fought other tefforist groups, in order to grow within the Sunni rebel world. Then it attacked Shia Muslims. The reason Iran looked favourably upon IS, is that it caused a rising fear in Shia communities, and to whom will they turn for protection? Iran. It was powerfully focusing Shias within the Middle East on the importance of Iran, and thus increased the influence of Iran.
But also it helped Iran's friend, Assad, as he was able to tell the West, "look who is fighting against me: pan-Islamic tefforists. if you don't support me, look who will be on Israel's doorstep." Again setting up Iran as the beneficiary power in the region.
Meanwhile, Sunni governments are more vulnerable than for a very long time - they are concerned about public opinion in a way they have not experienced before. The public in these countries feel highly cynical about the motives of the US in attacking IS. Why didn't they form a coalition against Iraq recently when it was killing Sunnis? Why didn't they form a coalition against Assad when he was killing Sunnis? Why didn't they object when Israel was attacking Gaza? Why are they bothered now about IS? If the Sunni powers align with the US, they are in danger of being lumped in with the popular antagonism against the US - they are not sure that is a wise move for their survival.
I would agree with every statement except that ISIS aka IS aka (initially) Jabhat al Nusra (JaN) did not attack Shias or al-Assad. ISIS created Jabhat al-Nusra in at the end of 2011-beginning 2012 and from day one JaN has been fighting fiercely against al-Assad forces and done some ugly stuff to Shias. JaN is more like old al-Qaeda grown smart - they try not to go to extremes in killing civilians. ISIS on the other hand has been chopping limbs and cutting throats all the time.
ISIS tried to merge with JaN in April 2013 to create the core of Caliphate, but JaN refused and was supported by the old al-Qaeda. Both ISIS and JaN continued to fight in Syria against al-Assad and Shias. Mind you that ISIS aka IS does not even consider Shias to be Muslims. They are heretics to be fought with and to be wiped out. JaN has somewhat milder attitude and does not consider Shias to be heretics.
In December 2013, a full war broke out between ISIS, other rebels and Kurds in Syria when ISIS decided to create the Caliphate on its own.
I would guess that Iran underestimated the strength and ability of IS to adapt and fight and overesitmated Iraq's (Nouri al-Maliki's) ability to fight back. Iraq under the authoritarian regime of Shia PM Nouri al-Maliki was as brittle as some Sunni states.
Regarding Iran, I would guess that its main objective was to show that it is almost the only civilised regime in the Middle East willing and capable to fight against Sunni lunactis/IS. Hence, there would be an opportunity to lift sanctions, agree on nuclear programme and get some semblance of acceptance for al-Assad.
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Kobane looks like a test case for the effectiveness of Western aerial bombing. If they succeed in stopping the fall of Kobane, then there may be more positive outcomes from this approach than many have thought. Unfortunately, I would be surprised if they do succeed, without in some way bolstering the Kurdish forces. There appears to be a massacre pending in that city.
I am also quite sceptical about the US ability to hit moving forces with sufficient lethality. For that, they would need spotters and target designators in the ranks of Kurdish front line. Moreover, IS anticipated the US attack and they have adopted measures that have clearly reduced casualties and disruption. USAF is good at hitting buildings and big identfiable columns on the ground. Now many buildings seem empty and IS has dispersed its forces. The rumour is that IS is assissted by highly qualified Iraqi Sunni officers.
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I would agree with every statement except that ISIS aka IS aka (initially) Jabhat al Nusra (JaN) did not attack Shias or al-Assad.
Yes, from what I can gather the Nusra Front took up a different approach to AQI, and certainly gained a lot of respect for their Syrian dedication to defeating Assad. But meanwhile, back in Iraq, aside from the occasional high profile attacks on Iraqi government personnel and Shias, there was considerable infighting between the various Sunni extremist groups (and tribal leaders), who seem to sprout factions all over the place like virus mutations. Whoever was on whatever side in all this, it appears IS achieved domination finally, just before the attack on Mosul.
I can only assume this fragmentation in Iraq was the reason they were not taken that seriously for some time after the US degraded them. Some analysts appeared to believe they were not a threat worth bothering with. Israel still thinks they are not worth bothering with.
Syria is definitely a different matter. I can't get my head around all the players in that war. Why Turkey thinks it can sit on it's hands is beyond me, when IS has such a strong support within the Turkish population already - I'd be scared shitless if I were them.
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Kobane is becoming interesting. While IS was outside the city, they could employ their superior weaponry, but now the battle has become a street fight, that weaponry is less useful. The Kurds have the weapons necessary for street fighting, so long as they have enough bullets, but also, they know Kobane extremely well, and they have a strong desire to defend their own city. If IS win here, I would be curious as to why.
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terribly sad
so much pain people are going through
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I've got the picture now about the Kurds. The Kurds in Iraq are the good guys. The Kurds in Syria and Turkey are the bad guys. Of course they are the same people, but the context is different. So the US helped the Iraqi Kurds, but not the Syrian Kurds, at least not directly. The Syrian-Turkish Kurdish groups are considered tefforists, mainly because they have been fighting for their own country against Syria and Turkey for a long time.
There are economic consideration for Turkey about how Syria turns out - they trade through Syria to the Gulf states - but in general they have been resisting a Kurdish homeland in Syria and Turkey, which is why their famous leader, Öcalan, has been in prison for as long as I can remember.
Turkey thinks ISIL is easily defeated once a moderate stable government is established in Syria, and that will happen when Assad goes. So it has supported any rebel group that is fighting Assad, including ISIL. When Assad pulled his military away from the Kurdish areas of Syria, the Kurds there wanted a separate state. This freaked out Turkey. There were talks between them all, and promises of support if the Kurds dropped their separate state claims, but I gather ISIL's advance scotched all those plans.
What Turkey hasn't factored in, is firstly, the chance of the moderate rebels setting up a stable central Syrian government is next to nil. Secondly, is the Kurdish outrage of Turkey abandoning the Syrian Kurds - they have laid the foundation of serious trouble within Turkey, as Kurds make up 20% of Turkish population. Thirdly, they have not recognised the problems of ISIL, a movement that does not recognise country boarders, controlling the vast Syrian-Turkey boarder.
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Not sure if any here are interested in this conflict in Syria-Iraq. But methinks, you will all be interest in the very near future. I don't observe and comment on these confrontation for purely intellectual reasons. We have to live in a world that is periodically struck through with vast disruptions. Vicki lives in a militarised area, Jen has a husband from the forces, and a son in one of the current hot spots. We all have to navigate through the consequences of these global upheavals. We have an ultimate task, yet it must be prosecuted within the sapien insanity in which we live.
"Al Qaedaism, the ideology, is stronger today than ever, thanks to the failure of the Arab spring and the battlefield has expanded from Mali to Pakistan and beyond to Australia and Europe" [veteran White House adviser and CIA analyst Bruce Riedel]
The situation in Syria-Iraq is being misread by most players. We though the Ukraine-Russia stouch was worse, and it may yet turn out that way. But if you just think for a moment about how the US responded to the Russian involvement in Cuba not so long ago, you can understand how Russia feels about Western/Nato encroachment into satellite nations around it. So long as the West pulls back from that strategy, Russia may just calm down, as did the US with Cuba. Or it may not...
Let's consider a few facts. In the Levant region, the arms sales now top $50 billion. Saudi Arabia has just donated a billion dollars of military hardware to Lebanon. Lebanon is about half Muslim, divided equally between Shia and Sunni. They are currently under attack from ISIL in the form of prisoner exchange pressures, and have already seen incursions from ISIL.
Consider this one fact, that since the beginning of August US bombing in Iraq, intelligence services state that as many as 6,000 volunteers have flocked to join Islamic State. Other experts believe that if the US continue to bomb Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda affiliated yet opposed to Islamic State, it will drive many more Sunnis from Syria and Iraq to their support.
Also consider that US bombing is futile without potent ground troops, and that local states have hardly lifted a finger to help the US, probably because many of them are actually incompetent militarily, their officer corps being jobs of privilege.
The previous UN negotiator in Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi: "There is a serious risk that the entire region will blow up. The conflict is not going to stay inside Syria. It will spill over into the region. It's already destabilising Lebanon [where there are] 1.5 million refugees – that represents one-third of the population – if it were Germany, it would be the equivalent of 20 million people. It will become another Somalia. It will not be divided, as many have predicted. It's going to be a failed state, with warlords all over the place."
Dr Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies:"you can surely count on people to not understand that intervening to deal with a few thousand people can displace hundreds of thousands". There are so many scenarios that could trigger a global involvement. The situation is highly volatile now, and IS seem to sit in the middle delighting in their own enhancement through emotional aggravation of the Western countries.
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Not sure if any here are interested in this conflict in Syria-Iraq. But methinks, you will all be interest in the very near future. I don't observe and comment on these confrontation for purely intellectual reasons. We have to live in a world that is periodically struck through with vast disruptions. Vicki lives in a militarised area, Jen has a husband from the forces, and a son in one of the current hot spots. We all have to navigate through the consequences of these global upheavals. We have an ultimate task, yet it must be prosecuted within the sapien insanity in which we live.
I'd say we are living in a period of history where the world will experience a massive change. Remember the 30 Year War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War)? It started as a religious war and ended with creation of a modern state system. Today we are witnessing how several states, societies, religions fail to change and adapt. Russia, IS have no working socio-politico-economic model to offer. Yet they try to impose by force their world view/model. The inevitable outcome is war and I would say - a very long war. War is Change, albeit a violent Change.
"Al Qaedaism, the ideology, is stronger today than ever, thanks to the failure of the Arab spring and the battlefield has expanded from Mali to Pakistan and beyond to Australia and Europe" [veteran White House adviser and CIA analyst Bruce Riedel]
The situation in Syria-Iraq is being misread by most players. We though the Ukraine-Russia stouch was worse, and it may yet turn out that way. But if you just think for a moment about how the US responded to the Russian involvement in Cuba not so long ago, you can understand how Russia feels about Western/Nato encroachment into satellite nations around it. So long as the West pulls back from that strategy, Russia may just calm down, as did the US with Cuba. Or it may not...
That is a bit peacenik/hipster statement. Horrible imperialists encroaching on Russia, who feels so vulnerable. :)
What many people miss, is that Russia (like political Islam) has failed to produce to workable socio-economic model of state. It is very willing to argue about zones of influence and encroachment, but has little to offer except oligarchic, extraordinarily corrupt puppet regimes for countries it thinks are its "near abroad". In Ukraine, we witnessed a national awakening that swept away such puppet regime of Russia. That national awakening has little trust in any politicians and is not that blind to faults of the Western world, but Ukrainians see that it is still better than what Russia has to offer.
Russia responded to Ukraine's drive to the EU with annexation of Crimea, war and creation of enclave in the Eastern Ukraine. Mind you that 80-90% of combatants among "separatists" have been Russian mercenaries hired and trained in Russia by Russian state.
Let's consider a few facts. In the Levant region, the arms sales now top $50 billion. Saudi Arabia has just donated a billion dollars of military hardware to Lebanon. Lebanon is about half Muslim, divided equally between Shia and Sunni. They are currently under attack from ISIL in the form of prisoner exchange pressures, and have already seen incursions from ISIL.
Consider this one fact, that since the beginning of August US bombing in Iraq, intelligence services state that as many as 6,000 volunteers have flocked to join Islamic State. Other experts believe that if the US continue to bomb Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda affiliated yet opposed to Islamic State, it will drive many more Sunnis from Syria and Iraq to their support.
Also consider that US bombing is futile without potent ground troops, and that local states have hardly lifted a finger to help the US, probably because many of them are actually incompetent militarily, their officer corps being jobs of privilege.
The previous UN negotiator in Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi: "There is a serious risk that the entire region will blow up. The conflict is not going to stay inside Syria. It will spill over into the region. It's already destabilising Lebanon [where there are] 1.5 million refugees – that represents one-third of the population – if it were Germany, it would be the equivalent of 20 million people. It will become another Somalia. It will not be divided, as many have predicted. It's going to be a failed state, with warlords all over the place."
Dr Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies:"you can surely count on people to not understand that intervening to deal with a few thousand people can displace hundreds of thousands". There are so many scenarios that could trigger a global involvement. The situation is highly volatile now, and IS seem to sit in the middle delighting in their own enhancement through emotional aggravation of the Western countries.
Yes, very much so...and completely inevitable. The war will resolve this dead end one way or another. The US has been bombing around for the last 20 years in the hope of managing crises this way. Al-Qaeda has only grown stronger, but has still little-to-nothing to offer to societies. Some say that political Islam as such - embodied by Muslim Brotherhood - has failed to produce workable societies and economies. Their election slogan "Islam is the answer" did not really produce jobs for bulging population of Egypt and other states.
Everything is precisely as good as it can be. For if it could be better...it would.
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Btw, one should not underestimate the significance of events like Ebola going global, SARS, etc.
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There is a tendency to over-react, which should be guarded against. But the conditions that can topple the global architecture, would usually be expected to contain multiple crises at the same time - overloading the system.
Ebola is currently not highly infectious (nothing like measles), as you have to come in contact with excreted body fluids after the unset of symptoms. It also has a survival rate of about 48%. But should the virus mutate through prolonged infestation in humans, then we could be in for a very nasty scenario.
Islamic State is the latest in the possibility of the 'enemy in our midst' turning on Western society, as some have warned, yet there are considerable elements mitigating against that. One is the hyped up security measures monitoring individuals and communications, another is the mounting resistance from the Islamic community itself in Western countries, and another is likelihood it will be degraded in the Middle East, although it could easily be replaced by the next wave of Islamic extremism appealing to disaffected youth in Western Societies. Yet something could easily trigger another over-reaction from Western countries, playing into the extremists hands. That is a real possibility, yet so far, the responses have been measured, which can also mean ineffectual and too late.
Russia and China's aggressiveness is another risk factor that could collide with other crises, and that is a real danger, yet there also, self-interest remains a mitigating factor. It is still to be seen if that contains the inflammation.
Global Warming brings with it a host of problems, from population movements to wars over water and food.
When you add them all in together, it is understandable one could become pessimistic, and I am certainly that way for the long term - say the end of the century. But I'm yet to feel pessimistic about the next twenty years. Nonetheless, I do feel we walk a tightrope on many fronts, and it only takes another foolish government like that of George W Bush, to tip us.
[PS. 'decimated' actually means to be reduced by a tenth - kill one in every ten.]
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[PS. 'decimated' actually means to be reduced by a tenth - kill one in every ten.]
If you take the most common combat loss rate as a basis for the assessment, it means that per every killed IS member there are three wounded jihadis. I.e for different time periods, you put out of action 4 out of 10 IS men and create a huge burden on their ability to cope with such a number of wounded fighters. Usually, a military unit is expected to lose its combat power and cohesiveness at the loss of 1/3 of its manpower.
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Distribution of a virus of the Ebola is accelerated and grows already in a geometrical progression.
https://news.pn/en/incidents/115987
It was declared by the special fight coordinator of the UN against the Ebola David Nabarro. Nabarro also noted that quantity of new cases grows «rather frighteningly» , as now distribution of the Ebola is accelerated.
According to him, isolation infected with a virus is the best way to prevent its transfer.
Nabarro hoped that the outbreak of fever in the Western Africa can be taken under control within three months. He explained that means a situation when the number of new cases starts decreasing.
According to WHO data, at least 4033 persons died of the Ebola, the majority of them - in the Western Africa.
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So of all the scenarios, the one that seems to be happening, is that IS is filled with Sunni military commanders from the old Saddam regime, and they have their own agenda of reclaiming control of Iraq for the Sunnis. This is much like Saddam's army, which was rejected by the US, reasserting itself and demonstrating to everyone they have the skills and gear to retake Iraq - and there's not much anyone can do about it.
If this is true, and it may not be so simple, then Iran is not going to be very happy about it, and neither are Saudis.
But if these same commanders are also in Syria, they have a reasonable chance of winning there. But are they in ISIL, or only in Iraqi IS?
Meanwhile those poor buggers in Kobane continue to defy the odds against them.
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So of all the scenarios, the one that seems to be happening, is that IS is filled with Sunni military commanders from the old Saddam regime, and they have their own agenda of reclaiming control of Iraq for the Sunnis. This is much like Saddam's army, which was rejected by the US, reasserting itself and demonstrating to everyone they have the skills and gear to retake Iraq - and there's not much anyone can do about it.
If this is true, and it may not be so simple, then Iran is not going to be very happy about it, and neither are Saudis.
But if these same commanders are also in Syria, they have a reasonable chance of winning there. But are they in ISIL, or only in Iraqi IS?
Meanwhile those poor buggers in Kobane continue to defy the odds against them.
Half of Kobani is gone. The rest will follow.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Oct-14/273984-isis-fights-way-into-center-of-ain-al-arab-despite-airstrikes.ashx#axzz3G58FDNsA
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Ebola - could rise to 10,000 new cases a week by December.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/up-to-10-000-new-ebola-cases-could-occur-each-week-says-who-1413293490
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That is interesting the survival rate has been revised down from 48% to 30%.
Also interesting is that the nurse who contracted the disease in Texas said she followed all the rules. So although this disease is not highly contagious in comparison to air-borne diseases, it is nonetheless very volatile, and killing at an alarming rate.
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That is interesting the survival rate has been revised down from 48% to 30%.
Also interesting is that the nurse who contracted the disease in Texas said she followed all the rules. So although this disease is not highly contagious in comparison to air-borne diseases, it is nonetheless very volatile, and killing at an alarming rate.
This one is more insidious than "air-borne". This can be passed through "body fluids", but not in the same way that HIV is passed. HIV is easy: don't share drug-needles, don't get tainted blood transfusions, don't have unprotected sex.
Ebola.... holy shit. Surfaces. It will come to light that it isn't just about touching the person - it will also be about what the person has touched. IOW, an infected person touches a surface which is then touched by others. This could be furniture, clothing, doorknobs, and, most importantly -- money. Credit cards, money. Passports and other id-checking. Even wearing latex gloves constantly is no guarantee, because you would have to keep changing them all the day long that you are in a strange/public setting. And you should learn the proper way of taking them off.
Then, god forbid, were you to get infected, you have to go in quarantine and a hasmet team has to come to your house and clean everything. It's a nightmare.
Hand sanitizer, frequent washing of hands using universal precautions (which means don't touch the faucet or the soap-dispenser with your hands, among many other things) are some of the ways of prevention, but it has not been publicized. Public toilets: yes, they're a problem! I'm most concerned about how we aren't being given any tips. All the press on it is of the minimizing ilk. It's as if they know, it's going to be horrendous and we might as well not panic. Or even, someone somewhere doesn't mind downsizing the herd.
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As for the Texas nurse, it was stated initially that she "breached protocol", but they did not share how she breached protocol. I suspect it all goes back to the "surfaces". There are so many ways that we touch things in the course of a day, to which we give no thought.
Also, a German healthcare worker contracted it and died rather rapidly.
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It's also speculated that in the end, it will be considered "airborne".
Call me paranoid on any of these points, no matter, but I think it's time to adopt a "germophobe's" stance, on just about everything.
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yes i appreciate that you guys can follow the details
i am interested in whats going on
my view is pretty far back most of the time
distant
and then action upon the general feeling of things
actually at one point a whole life can seem to make sense in the light
of the current position
i feel these things are escalating or deteriorating "generally"
that just makes me go back to the earth
economically i imagine the "whole" picture becomes tied together
and later human nature takes the stage
unfortunately i have lost much faith in that
despite trying to effect things for a long time
many would just give up on a better nature
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A second nurse comes down with it in Texas.
Dallas Nurses Accuse Hospital of Sloppy Ebola Protocols
Oct 15, 2014, 4:46 AM ET
Co-workers of a Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from a sick patient say they worked for days without proper protective gear and that the hospital’s Ebola protocols and procedures were unclear and inadequate, leaving workers and hospital systems prone to contamination, according to a statement by the largest U.S. nurses’ union.
The statement, which was provided by National Nurses United on behalf of several registered nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, details hospital procedures after Thomas Eric Duncan arrived at the hospital. The nurses are not represented by the union, and the group declined to reveal the nurses’ identities.
Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola Sept. 30 and died Oct. 8. Nina Pham, one of about 70 staff members who cared for Duncan, was diagnosed Sunday with the virus. Pham’s colleagues say the hospital was ill-equipped to handle the situation.
“No one knew what the protocols were or were able to verify what kind of personal protective equipment should be worn and there was no training,” the statement reads.
Duncan was left in a nonquarantined zone for several hours, and a nurse supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities after demanding that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit, according to the union’s statement. Additionally, Duncan’s lab specimens were sent through the hospital’s tube system, potentially contaminating the system, the nurses said.
Co-workers of a Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from a sick patient say they worked for days without proper protective gear and that the hospital’s Ebola protocols and procedures were unclear and inadequate, leaving workers and hospital systems prone to contamination, according to a statement by the largest U.S. nurses’ union.
The statement, which was provided by National Nurses United on behalf of several registered nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, details hospital procedures after Thomas Eric Duncan arrived at the hospital. The nurses are not represented by the union, and the group declined to reveal the nurses’ identities.
Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola Sept. 30 and died Oct. 8. Nina Pham, one of about 70 staff members who cared for Duncan, was diagnosed Sunday with the virus. Pham’s colleagues say the hospital was ill-equipped to handle the situation.
“No one knew what the protocols were or were able to verify what kind of personal protective equipment should be worn and there was no training,” the statement reads.
Duncan was left in a nonquarantined zone for several hours, and a nurse supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities after demanding that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit, according to the union’s statement. Additionally, Duncan’s lab specimens were sent through the hospital’s tube system, potentially contaminating the system, the nurses said.
Nurses who interacted with Duncan were given the option of wearing special N95 masks, but some supervisors said the masks were not necessary, the nurses said, according to the statement.
“For their necks, nurses had to use medical tape, that is not impermeable and has permeable seams, to wrap around their necks in order to protect themselves, and had to put on the tape and take it off on their own,” the statement reads.
“Nurses had to interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available, at a time when he had copious amounts of diarrhea and vomiting which produces a lot of contagious fluids.”
A hospital spokesman did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
"Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously," hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in a statement. "We have numerous measures in place to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24/7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting.
"Our nursing staff is committed to providing quality, compassionate care, as we have always known, and as the world has seen firsthand in recent days. We will continue to review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees."
The problems encountered at the Dallas hospital are reflective of training and equipment insufficiencies at hospitals across the country, Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United, told ABC News.
“What concerns me is that this validated what our systems say all over the country throughout the last two months, that hospitals are not prepared to take care of Ebola patients,” she said. “It is disturbing to have all of our concerns validated in one hospital.”
The criticisms follow a Tuesday admission by Thomas Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, who said he regrets not sending a larger team of experts to Texas when Duncan was first diagnosed with Ebola.
The CDC could have sent a "more robust management team and been more hands on from day one," Frieden said. "Looking back, we say we should have put an even larger team on the ground immediately."
Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to recent figures by the World Health Organization.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/dallas-nurses-hospital-sloppy-ebola-protocols-union/story?id=26205956
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Right, sounds like a real shambles. Then the second nurse took a commercial flight. This is not looking pretty.
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Right, sounds like a real shambles. Then the second nurse took a commercial flight. This is not looking pretty.
The incompetence is shocking, between that hospital's blunders and then the CDC allowing the nurse to fly..
I don't want to believe that the hospital-incompetence is nation-wide, but maybe it is. I just know that the hospitals in which I trained and worked were absolute sticklers for procedure and protocol, and always feared their yearly investigations/audits by the Joint Commission of Hospitals and OSHA (can't remember now what OSHA stood for.) I'm quite certain that the errors portrayed in the article above would have compelled JCAH to shut us down. Now I don't know if that's just "Virginia" or if times have changed with the economy. When I was in for the appendectomy, I observed some (surprising!) conditions and actions that were less than sterile.
They all better begin to implement the old ways fast, however. There's a hell of a lot at stake. Every hospital in this country needs to be cracking the whip, getting the appropriate supplies in and educating their people. If the staff needs their pay doubled, then double their pay. This is crisis time. I just don't get how all of this has slipped in through the back doors.
(If that Dallas hospital and the CDC don't get their arses sued, I'll be stymied.)
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National Nurses United write Obama:
The National Voice for Direct-Care RNs
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington D.C.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Via Electronic Mail
October 15, 2014
On behalf of registered nurses and other health care workers across
the United States we understand that the only way to adequately
confront Ebola crisis, that the World Health Organization has
termed the most significant health crisis in modern history, is for
the President to invoke his executive authority to mandate uniform,
national standards and protocols that all hospitals must follow to
safely protect patients, all healthcare workers, and the public.
Every healthcare employer must be directed to follow the
Precautionary Principle and institute the following:
•
Optimal personal protective equipment for Ebola that meets
the highest standards used by the University of Nebraska
Medical Center
•
Full-body hazmat suits that meet the American Society
for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F1670 standard for blood
penetration, the ASTM F1671 standard for viral penetration,
and that leave no skin exposed or unprotected and National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-approved
powered air purifying respirators with an assigned protection
factor of at least 50 — or a higher standard as appropriate.
•
There shall be at least two direct care registered nurses caring
for each Ebola patient with additional RNs assigned as needed
based on the direct care RN’s professional judgment with no
additional patient care assignments.
•
There will be continuous interactive training with the RNs
who are exposed to patients. There will also be continuous
updated training and education for all RNs that is responsive
to the changing nature of disease. This would entail
continuous interactive training and expertise from facilities
where state of the art disease containment is occurring.
•
If the Employer has a program with standards that exceed
those used by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the
higher standard shall be used.
The Ebola pandemic and the exposure of health care workers to
the virus represent a clear and present danger to public health.
We know that without these mandates to health care facilities
we are putting registered nurses, physicians and other healthcare
workers at extreme risk. They are our first line of defense. We
would not send soldiers to the battlefield without armor and
weapons.
In conclusion, not one more patient, nurse, or healthcare
worker should be put at risk due to a lack of health care facility
preparedness. The United States should be setting the example on
how to contain and eradicate the Ebola virus.
Nothing short of your mandate, that optimal safety standards
apply, will be acceptable to the nurses of this nation.
Sincerely,
RoseAnn DeMoro
Executive Director
National Nurses United
Cc: National Nurses United Executive Committee
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/NNUObama.pdf
Hope it gets his attention and he acts.
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A few comments from medics and researchers of this corner of the planet:
1) "For God's sake, Google "Ebola" and you'll learn all you need to know!"
2) "How exactly could any remotely sensible/educated medical professional be unaware that Ebola is a class 4 pathogene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level#Biosafety_level_4) (no cure)??? It kills! Protocols??? Lack of information???"
It sounds so utterly outrageous. You have somebody with a very lethal disease (no direct cure, no vaccine) in your hospital, in your ward, in the bed next to you. What does it take to draw some elementary conclusions and take some elementary steps? Where's the common sense and initiative of people? Why do people expect somebody to come and do thinking for them?
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Hospitals live on 'protocols' - it's the way of the medical profession. I agree with what you say, Juhani, but clearly, we can't rely on the 'common sense' of the next guy. And while that senselessness might be amusing sometimes, this time it's perilous.
For example, in the Dallas Presbyterian hospital, there is a room with 'red bags' (where toxic medical waste is disposed) piled to the ceiling. The hospital can't get anyone to remove them, according to something I read earlier. I could understand anyone's skepticism about that facility now - be it patient or staff. But something needs to happen of a tyrannical sort, obviously.
I don't know the civic order of things here, but the way I see it, someone better take charge now. I don't know who the appropriate person/agency is to do so, but I think it would behoove them to figure it out right away. 'Disaster' was declared in Dallas, which supposedly will enable them to call in a more structured response. Whatever works!
Rumors are abundant and one needs to take everything with a grain of salt, but I did read a rumor that Obama kissed and hugged a healthcare worker involved with the caretaking of ebola very recently. He explained that he was trying to show support. I don't know if this story is true, but I wouldn't be extremely surprised by it, since he and his family took a dip in the poisoned Gulf of Mexico to show his 'lack of fear'. In short, where is common sense?
Then, you have the faction who doesn't want to cause panic, really mincing words and shuttling them to some cloud of uncertainty. If the public's head is spinning, it's no wonder.
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Airline shares will plummet again.
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I am impressed with the defenders of Kobane. A tough lot of fighters if there every was! With only the guns and ammunition they had at the beginning of the siege. Why no one could resupply them is a mystery to me - I know the Turks won't and the Iraqi Kurds have tried unsuccessfully, but why doesn't the US coalition drop supplies from the air?
How long can they hold out, and how many fighters does ISIL have to throw at this battle? With a third of the town held by ISIL, I expect they are committed now as much as the Kurds. An incredible battle. The Turks have damaged their relations with the Kurds forever from this by now - they will regret it. But old attitudes die hard, we are watching across the globe, how so many are fixed in the past, and can't reposition themselves for the future to their own survival benefit, like Electricity and Coal companies.
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I am impressed with the defenders of Kobane. A tough lot of fighters if there every was! With only the guns and ammunition they had at the beginning of the siege. Why no one could resupply them is a mystery to me - I know the Turks won't and the Iraqi Kurds have tried unsuccessfully, but why doesn't the US coalition drop supplies from the air?
How long can they hold out, and how many fighters does ISIL have to throw at this battle? With a third of the town held by ISIL, I expect they are committed now as much as the Kurds. An incredible battle. The Turks have damaged their relations with the Kurds forever from this by now - they will regret it. But old attitudes die hard, we are watching across the globe, how so many are fixed in the past, and can't reposition themselves for the future to their own survival benefit, like Electricity and Coal companies.
I doubt Kurds are quite on their own now. They have IS almost pushed out of Kobane and they just could not manage it on their own - Kurds are brave fighters, but they lacked the necessary kill power.
There is information on the web that says the US and PYD (the Democratic Union Party in charge of Syrian Kurds and connected to the PKK) had negotiations somewhere outside Syria and Kurdistan. If true, we might be witnessing a military solutin akin to what CIA used in Afghanistan in 2001.
In essence, it involves US spotters and controllers of the close air support on the ground and USAF in the air. It means that Kurds protect with everything they have a small number of the US SOF/intel guys who use lasers to light up the IS targets on the ground for smart weapons dropped from the above. It is an utterly deadly combination that can explain how exactly Kurds managed to turn it around. The chances are that CIA, Saudis or soembody else are also supplying weapons to Kurds.
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What you say Juhani, may well be true, yet I have not seen it said from any reporting source, or from any Kurdish source. I have been thinking the same thing for some time now, and I can only assume it is correct - there must be some US spotters on the ground, and they surely must have received supplies somehow. How else were they able to turn around this situation? They say they are coordinating the US planes themselves, but how they could learn that from scratch, and so effectively, is unbelievable. And they say they still use their original stash of weapons and ammunition, but that also seems unlikely.
Anyway, whichever way they have pulled this off so far, it is major psychological lift for the Kurds and blow for ISIL. Can't help thinking, temporary psychological is all it will be.
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What you say Juhani, may well be true, yet I have not seen it said from any reporting source, or from any Kurdish source. I have been thinking the same thing for some time now, and I can only assume it is correct - there must be some US spotters on the ground, and they surely must have received supplies somehow. How else were they able to turn around this situation? They say they are coordinating the US planes themselves, but how they could learn that from scratch, and so effectively, is unbelievable. And they say they still use their original stash of weapons and ammunition, but that also seems unlikely.
Anyway, whichever way they have pulled this off so far, it is major psychological lift for the Kurds and blow for ISIL. Can't help thinking, temporary psychological is all it will be.
If US has the will, it could help strengthen Kurds to the extent they could fight IS to a stalemate.
I saw some BBC footage of air strikes in Kobane where the air-launched weapons seemed to land on specific targets within the city. Great precision and selectivity. It is implausible that previously untrained Kurds could coordinate close air support this way. Completely implausible.
Yet IS is not sitting still: Saddam's pilots are training IS to use military aircraft. Three of them are claimed to be operational already. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/us-mideast-crisis-jets-idUSKCN0I60TM20141017)
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Kobane: if the US weren't dropping supplies to the Kurds in Kobane, then they are now - apparently Turkey finally agreed, or not - it's happening.
Turkey also has allowed the Iraqi Kurds to reinforce Kobane Kurds through Turkey. I bet they won't allow PKK to help from their mountain hideouts.
Meanwhile, it looks all down hill in Iraq. I just can't see the new government getting this together in time, or ever. The consequence is frightening. Will Iran intervene, and will that draw in Saudi?
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Turks are as consistent as ever:
19 October 2014 Turkey opposes transfer of US arms to Kurds fighting Islamic State (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1019/Turkey-opposes-transfer-of-US-arms-to-Kurds-fighting-Islamic-State)
20 October 2014 Turkey to Let Iraqi Kurds Cross to Syria to Fight ISIS (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/world/middleeast/kobani-turkey-kurdish-fighters-syria.html?_r=1)
I'd say Iran's invasion depends on how successful are Sunnis/IS in pushing to Shia area in Iraq. So far IS has been gaining ground in Sunni area or Sunni-dominated area. IS have managed to kill a few Shia leaders - like a boss of Badr militia. However, to the extent I remember, Shia order of battle during the US stay in Iraq, there used to be 3-4 seriously strong, well-equipped, organised and disciplined formations. Iran supplied them with weapons like explosively formed penetrators and quite advanced sensors that could destroy even tanks. So the south eastern part of Iraq should not be a done deal.
Yet, we are already talking about a serious prospect of partition of Iraq.
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Rumour has it that IS have got their hands on ageing Iraqi chemical weapons (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/kurds-fear-isis-chemical-weapon-kobani) and they are already using them.
Meanwhile, Syrians/Kurds/IS can observe the US strategic bombers over Kobani. To see B-1B bomber that close is an experience in its own right:
(http://i.imgur.com/YXunBjb.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Hdn1Hel.jpg)
What B-1B is capable of with "dumb bombs":
(http://i.imgur.com/R2lErod.jpg)
I would guess, though, that in Kobani they drop a few precision-guided bombs over a period of 1-1.5 hours during a mission.
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The battle for Kobane is gearing up to be a decider in the fate of Islamic State. Not because losing that battle will have so much military significance, but because the leadership of IS appears to have elevated it to such a level of importance for them, that losing will be a huge psychological and propaganda defeat. To offset this, they are going to try to lift their action in other areas of Iraq and Syria - just to take the significance of Kobane off the table, but more importantly to divert US air attacks.
But the stakes are rising. On the IS side, they have marshaled greater forces toward the Kobane theater, as well as sent in one of their top commanders to take charge. Add to this the acquisition and use of surface-to-air weaponry, which could become a game changer for the US air force. It appears they are at a critical threshold, and Kobane has become this threshold point in their expansion strategies. Yet by setting such psychological store on taking Kobane, they have also exposed themselves to the corresponding consequences of losing that battle.
On the Kurdish side, the local fighters have been resupplied with weapons, although these will remain of a low capacity type. Higher capacity weaponry is expected from the Peshmerga Iraqi Kurds whose forward planners have just entered Kobane. Not sure how long it will be before the main Peshmerga force arrive, and that timing could prove crucial, because IS have launched substantial attacks only recently. It appears they know they have to act as fast as possible, but I don't think they are yet up to full force either.
The other support has come from the Free Syrian Army, who have also entered Kobane, and whose personnel will be engaging directly with the IS troops, as distinct from the Peshmergas. The FSA have been in Kobane all along, but only a small handful. Then there is the question of the quality of the FSA troops - not sure where that stands.
The Turks seem to have come half-way round in allowing the FSA and the Peshmergas through, but they will not tolerate the PKK forces taking part - you should know that the insurgency of the PKK in Turkey over the last few decades has cost around 40,000 lives. But I have also heard the intransigence of Turkey is primarily due to the current leader of that country - he has his own agenda and caprice. He belongs to the Black Turks - a religious and mainly rural self-designation in distinction to the secular Turks of the cities.
Just how much the surface-to-air missiles that IS now are willing to use, will affect the US coalition air strikes, is yet to be seen, but you can be sure the helicopters will remain on the ground. One of the most vulnerable times for aircraft is on takeoff and touchdown, so the encroachment of the Iraqi IS to Baghdad airport becomes a critical issue, as is the ability to use Turkey's airfields, which they can't yet.
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The Peshmergas with heavy weapons have now entered Kobane, and intelligence reports that foreign fighters are flooding into Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State.
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There you are...talking about Iranian invasion.
Iranian general is said to mastermind Iraq ground war
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/iranian-general-is-said-to-mastermind-iraq-ground-war-1.312238
(http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.312239.1415177430!/image/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_804/image.JPG)
BAGHDAD — When Islamic State militants retreated from the embattled town of Jurf al-Sakher last week, the Iraqi military was quick to flaunt a rare victory. State television showed tanks and Humvees parading through the town and soldiers touring government buildings that the Sunni extremist group had occupied since August.
However, photos soon emerged on independent Iraqi news websites revealing a more discreet presence - the Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, whose name has become synonymous with the handful of victories attributed to Iraqi ground forces. Local commanders said Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite militia group was also involved.
The U.S. has awkwardly found itself on the same side as Iran and Hezbollah in the war against the Islamic State group, which rampaged across much of northern and western Iraq in June. While U.S. military advisers have been coordinating coalition airstrikes from within heavily fortified bases, Soleimani and his commanders are on the front lines and would assume a key role in the retaking of major cities.
That could prove a major impediment to addressing the grievances of Iraq's Sunni minority. Iran and Hezbollah are closely linked with Iraqi Shiite militias, which have also played a key role in driving IS out of the so-called Baghdad Belt of Sunni villages ringing the capital. The sectarian militias have long been implicated in brutality against Sunnis, and their advance could undermine efforts to knit the troubled country together.
Militia commanders told The Associated Press that dozens of advisers from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were on the front lines in Jurf al-Sakher. They said the advisers provided weapons training to some 7,000 Iraqi troops and militia fighters and coordinated with military commanders ahead of the operation.
One commander, who agreed to be identified only by his nickname, Abu Zeinab, said Soleimani began planning the Jurf al-Sakher operation three months ago. The cleared town, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, lies on a road often used by Shite pilgrims.
Iraqi military officials declined to discuss Soleimani's presence in Jurf al-Sakher, or in previous victories where he is known to have played a commanding role. Those successes include halting the IS advance in the town of Amirli in August and the city of Samarra in June.
But senior figures with the Revolutionary Guard have publicly acknowledged Soleimani's role in Iraq's war with IS.
As for Hezbollah, it has openly joined Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces against mainly Sunni rebels - a decision that has fueled sectarian tensions in Lebanon. But Hezbollah has declined to comment on reports of its involvement in Iraq.
In July, officials in Lebanon said a Hezbollah commander was killed while on a "jihadi mission" in Iraq. Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was buried in Lebanon and his funeral attended by top Hezbollah officials. It was the first known Hezbollah death in Iraq since the lightning IS advance in June.
A Lebanese official close to the group said Hezbollah is known to have "a limited number of advisers" in Iraq who are not directly involved in fighting, and that al-Haj was one of them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Iraqi officials have also said that a handful of advisers from Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, are offering front-line guidance to Iraqi Shiite militias fighting Sunni extremists north of Baghdad. But it is not known if any Hezbollah men are actually fighting.
Iraqi Shiite militias were implicated in the mass killing of Sunnis at the height of the country's sectarian carnage in 2006 and 2007 and have more recently been accused of brutalizing Sunni captives.
Sunnis are also deeply suspicious of Shiite powerhouse Iran, which has played an outsized role in Iraqi affairs since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government.
"It is true that Iraq needs any kind of help in the current situation, but this help should be public and part of the international efforts," Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq told the AP. "This undeclared Iranian help harms national reconciliation and the sovereignty of Iraq."
Amnesty International said last month that militias have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians with the tacit support of the Iraqi government in retaliation for Islamic State attacks.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has pledged to reign in the militias and establish a national guard to mobilize Sunnis against the extremists. But it could take months to assemble such a force, and in the meantime Soleimani's militias are the best placed to aid Iraq's beleaguered military in regaining the initiative against the Islamic State group.
Soleimani's Quds Force, the special operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has been involved for years in training and financing Iraq's Shiite militias. It has also long worked with Hezbollah in Lebanon and has been aiding Assad's forces.
In June, Revolutionary Guard advisers under Soleimani provided guidance for Shiite militiamen in shelling Sunni insurgent positions around Samarra, a Sunni-majority city north of Baghdad that is home to a revered Shiite shrine, local commanders said. Soleimani was also seen as playing a key role in ending the Islamic State siege of the Shiite Turkmen town of Amirli. And a top Revolutionary Guard general said in September that Soleimani had even helped Kurdish fighters defend their regional capital, Irbil.
Militia commanders, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media, describe Soleimani as "fearless" - one pointing out that the Iranian general never wears a flak jacket, even on the front lines.
"Soleimani has taught us that death is the beginning of life, not the end of life," one militia commander said.
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It does look like a Shia-Sunni war, and again we learn that multiple sides have been on the ground all over the place. We also learnt that UK SAS have been in Kobane for a long time. Now the US is about to ramp up its involvement. I suppose it is to be expected, that strange alliances will eventuate in such a situation, but the consequences still remain unpredictable.
And Russia hasn't given up its Ukrainian ambitions.
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At the moment, it's making me so nauseated I can barely read all the articles.
Why is Russia going to fly its bombers over the Gulf of Mexico routinely? Have they gone mad? I suppose it's a rhetorical question, but that is so going to bring trouble.
Yes, yes, they're flexing their muscles, trying to intimidate. The timing of it is bad for me, though I can't really imagine a good time. It's like, wait a minute, this is where I came in (to the world.)
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The timing of it is bad for me.
When would it be a good time for you for world to plunge into bloody chaos? :D
As if the world ever asks. As if it cares. About any of us. As if we could end our suffering by changing the world.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
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Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State
http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291
Presidential Correspondence With Ayatollah Stresses Shared U.S.-Iranian Interests in Combating Insurgents, Urges Progress on Nuclear Talks
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama secretly wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the middle of last month and described a shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to people briefed on the correspondence.
The letter appeared aimed both at buttressing the campaign against Islamic State and nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal.
Mr. Obama stressed to Mr. Khamenei that any cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline, the same people say.
The October letter marked at least the fourth time Mr. Obama has written Iran’s most powerful political and religious leader since taking office in 2009 and pledging to engage with Tehran’s Islamist government.
The correspondence underscores that Mr. Obama views Iran as important—whether in a potentially constructive or negative role—to his emerging military and diplomatic campaign to push Islamic State from the territories it has gained over the past six months.
Mr. Obama’s letter also sought to assuage Iran’s concerns about the future of its close ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, according to another person briefed on the letter. It states that the U.S.’s military operations inside Syria aren’t targeted at Mr. Assad or his security forces.
Mr. Obama and senior administration officials in recent days have placed the chances for a deal with Iran at only 50-50. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to begin intensive direct negotiations on the nuclear issue with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, on Sunday in the Persian Gulf country of Oman.
“There’s a sizable portion of the political elite that cut their teeth on anti-Americanism,” Mr. Obama said at a White House news conference on Wednesday about Iran’s leadership, without commenting on his personal overture. “Whether they can manage to say ‘Yes’…is an open question.”
For the first time this week, a senior administration official said negotiations could be extended beyond the Nov. 24 deadline, adding that the White House will know after Mr. Kerry’s trip to Oman whether a deal with Iran is possible by late November.
“We’ll know a lot more after that meeting as to whether or not we have a shot at an agreement by the deadline,” the senior official said. “If there’s an extension, there’re questions like: What are the terms?”
Mr. Obama’s push for a deal faces renewed resistance after Tuesday’s elections gave Republicans control of the Senate and added power to thwart an agreement and to impose new sanctions on Iran. Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) have introduced legislation to intensify sanctions.
“The best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to quickly pass the bipartisan Menendez-Kirk legislation—not to give the Iranians more time to build a bomb,” Mr. Kirk said Wednesday.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) expressed concern when asked about the letter sent by Mr. Obama.
“I don’t trust the Iranians, I don’t think we need to bring them into this,” Mr. Boehner said. Referring to the continuing nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Mr. Boehner said he “would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations, but I have my doubts.”
In a sign of the sensitivity of the Iran diplomacy, the White House didn’t tell its Middle East allies—including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—about Mr. Obama’s October letter to Mr. Khamenei, according to people briefed on the correspondence and representatives of allied countries.
Leaders from these countries have voiced growing concern in recent weeks that the U.S. is preparing to significantly soften its demands in the nuclear talks with Tehran. They said they worry the deal could allow Iran to gain the capacity to produce nuclear weapons in the future.
Arab leaders also fear Washington’s emerging rapprochement with Tehran could come at the expense of their security and economic interests across the Middle East. These leaders have accused the U.S. of keeping them in the dark about its diplomatic engagements with Tehran.
The Obama administration launched secret talks with Iran in the Omani capital of Muscat in mid-2012, but didn’t notify Washington’s Mideast allies of the covert diplomatic channel until late 2013.
Senior U.S. officials declined to discuss Mr. Obama’s letter to Mr. Khamenei after questions from The Wall Street Journal.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday declined to comment on what he called “private correspondence” between the president and world leaders, but acknowledged U.S. officials in the past have discussed the Islamic State campaign with Iranian officials on the sidelines of international nuclear talks. He added the negotiations remain centered on Iran’s nuclear program and reiterated that the U.S. isn’t cooperating militarily with Iran on the Islamic State fight.
Administration officials didn’t deny the letter’s existence when questioned by foreign diplomats in recent days.
Mr. Khamenei has proved a fickle diplomatic interlocutor for Mr. Obama in the past six years.
Mr. Obama sent two letters to Iran’s 75-year-old supreme leader during the first half of 2009, calling for improvements in U.S.-Iran ties, which had been frozen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Tehran.
Mr. Khamenei never directly responded to the overtures, according to U.S. officials. And Iran’s security forces cracked down hard that year on nationwide protests that challenged the re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .
U.S.-Iran relations have thawed considerably since the election of President Hasan Rouhani in June 2013. He and Mr. Obama shared a 15-minute phone call in September 2013, and Messrs. Kerry and Zarif have regularly held direct talks on the nuclear diplomacy and regional issues.
Still, Mr. Khamenei has often cast doubt on the prospects for better relations with Washington. He has criticized the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, claiming it is another attempt by Washington and the West to weaken the Islamic world.
“America, Zionism, and especially the veteran expert of spreading divisions—the wicked government of Britain—have sharply increased their efforts of creating divisions between the Sunnis and Shiites,” Mr. Khamenei said in a speech last month, according to a copy of it on his website. “They created al Qaeda and [Islamic State] in order to create divisions and to fight against the Islamic Republic, but today, they have turned on them.”
Current and former U.S. officials have said Mr. Obama has focused on communicating with Mr. Khamenei specifically because they believe the cleric will make all the final decisions on Iran’s nuclear program and the fight against Islamic State.
Mr. Rouhani is seen as navigating a difficult balance of gaining Mr. Khamenei’s approval for his foreign policy decisions while trying to satisfy Iranian voters who elected him in the hope of seeing Iran re-engage with the Western world.
The emergence of Islamic State has drastically changed both Washington’s and Tehran’s policies in the Middle East.
Mr. Obama was elected on the pledge of ending Washington’s war in Iraq. But over the past three months, he has resumed a U.S. air war in the Arab country, focused on weakening Islamic State’s hold of territory in western and northern Iraq.
Iran has had to mobilize its own military resources to fight against Islamic State, according to senior Iranian and U.S. officials.
Tehran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has sent military advisers into Iraq to help the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a close Iranian ally. The IRGC has also worked with Syrian President Assad’s government, and Shiite militias from across the Mideast, to conduct military operations inside Syria.
U.S. officials have stressed that they are not coordinating with Tehran on the fight against Islamic State.
But the State Department has confirmed that senior U.S. officials have discussed Iraq with Mr. Zarif on the sidelines of nuclear negotiations in Vienna. U.S. diplomats have also passed on messages to Tehran via Mr. Abadi’s government in Baghdad and through the offices of Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, among the most powerful religious leaders in the Shiite world.
Among the messages conveyed to Tehran, according to U.S. officials, is that U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria aren’t aimed at weakening Tehran or its allies.
“We’ve passed on messages to the Iranians through the Iraqi government and Sistani saying our objective is against ISIL,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on these communications. “We’re not using this as a platform to reoccupy Iraq or to undermine Iran.”
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When would it be a good time for you for world to plunge into bloody chaos? :D
Well, I did say that I couldn't imagine a good time. :P
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AFAIK Putin is now in Brisbane Aust for the G20. Russian ships are in the Coral Sea just north of Australia. Russian tanks and military are in East Ukraine. I'd be a little glum about all this if I were to think too hard about it.
As for Obama and Iran, or the US in bed with strange companions in Syria and Iraq, I'd say nations always use alliances of convenience at times of war, though that doesn't stop them from changing their minds after. As for the the Americans voting for the Republicans, that is an even greater madness - haven't they had enough of war, unemployment and global financial crises?
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As for Obama and Iran, or the US in bed with strange companions in Syria and Iraq, I'd say nations always use alliances of convenience at times of war, though that doesn't stop them from changing their minds after.
That's one way to explain the lack of any kind of meaningful US strategy on al-Qaeda, IS and conflict in Syria. It has been lacking for years and years. :D
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Absolutely.
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I'm not convinced about this Russian stuff. Firstly, they are in an economic crisis point - to persevere further with their continuing militaristic grand standing across the world, only undermines their economic situation - they are becoming distrusted by global business. Business needs reliability and predictability - Russia is demonstrating exactly the opposite.
Secondly, now that Putin is being photographed in Australia constantly, I have to say, this guy is not a match for his posturing. Something essential is missing. He's a political playboy.
But that doesn't mean the outcome will be a fizzer. It only means I wouldn't want to be on his side for a successful outcome.
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Well, Russians are concentrating again on Ukrainian borders. I'd say they try to intimidate Ukrainians to talk directly with separatists/Russian mercenaries, and they might undertake something reckless.
Anyhow, artillery duels take place every day and night and men are killed on both sides. What many miss, is that war rages all the time. Russians launch periodically tank attacks as well.
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Yes, men are killed on both sides. I wonder if that will happen to that female Ukrainian pilot the Russians captured?
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How cool is this sentence:
American and Syrian warplanes screamed over the Syrian city of Raqqa in separate raids this week, ostensibly against the same target, the Islamic State militants in control there.
It is taken from here (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/world/middleeast/conflicting-policies-on-syria-and-islamic-state-erode-us-standing-in-mideast-.html?_r=0).
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I'll try to simplify this for those who just want the guts of it.
Oil prices are falling, drastically. Why is less of a question except in that time is running out for oil to be such a powerful weapon, for all producers. But currently it is the new world weapon.
Riyadh (the Saudis) are refusing to cut production, thus allowing the price to fall through the floor. It is estimated they will act only when it reaches $US60 a barrel. Just consider this, the break-even price of oil, where income covers costs:
Saudi, $98; Yemen, $US160; Algeria, $US132; Iran, $131; Iraq, $US111, Russia, $105. The US? somewhere between $42 and $70, depending on who you speak to.
Why is Riyadh doing this? Basically it is an attack on the economic viability of marginal oil producing countries, for good Sunni reasons:
Islamic State: if the price of oil falls sufficiently they will not find a black market for their cut-priced production, worth the trouble to do business.
Iran: for supporting (Shia) Assad in Syria and Shia Iraq.
Russia: for supporting (Shia) Assad and Iran.
Iran and Iraq: for the potential of them combining to challenge Riyadh as an oil producing price-influencing cartel.
US: for a list of botch-ups in the Middle East - undermining the US producers by making their profitability marginal.
But the US is not entirely unhappy, due to the affect on Moscow and Tehran. The US is finding its new found approaching oil sufficiency status is not only providing a powerful weapon to bring other countries to heel, but also freeing it from being at the mercy of the Middle East, and thus Israel. Only to be replaced by China and India, who continue to rely on influence and stability in the Middle East. This puts the US in an extremely powerful position, sufficient to warrant the environmental cost of all that fracking across the country. Not only has oil become the primary weapon of US Foreign Policy, but it is fuelling the reinvigoration of the US economy - just remember, historical economic booms are based on cheap energy and labour.
Although Riyadh has ample reserves to weather the strategy, it is not entirely free from vulnerability. It paid out billions recently to placate its people from joining the Arab Spring, and could well run a deficit this year.
But the rise of alternative energy sources, due to the pressure from global warming, is turning the old oil empires into dinosaurs. The old dinosaurs never did go extinct, they just evolved into today's pretty little birds. People forget, most of the dinosaurs had feathers.
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Who do you think that might be? Consider all the names you have heard off in relation to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, USA, Britain...
I bet you haven't heard of the one man who is down there on the ground holding the whole thing together for the Shia world. The man whom all affiliated forces follow to the letter of his word. You see, outside that sphere, we are concerned about good guys and bad guys, but they are only interested in an ancient battle between Sunni and Shia. They don't see a dictator in Assad, they see the Shia in Syria fighting for their lives against a Sunni rebellion. I admit, it wasn't like that at the start, but it certainly is now.
And don't forget the final focus: Israel.
The man of whom I speak is called Qassem Suleimani. Head of the Iranian Quads Force - the elite military and intelligence force of Iran. He and the Iranians have been in Iraq from the first invasion by the USA, and especially since the first major victory by Islamic State. It is he in person who is the final defender of the Iraqi state, not the USA. They all, right across the Middle East, look upon him as their saviour or the arch enemy.
And he is such an avuncular looking chap:
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/12/6/1417882639229/Qassem-Suleimani-with-a-g-009.jpg)
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At times, Gen. Soleimani has communicated directly with American military planners. In early 2008, Gen. Soleimani passed a message to then-commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, via Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi. "General Petraeus, you should know that I, Qasem Soleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan," he said, according to an official familiar with the incident.
...
In the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S., he emerged as a surprising U.S. ally, says Hossein Mousavian, a Princeton University-based researcher who served on Iran's Supreme National Security Council with Gen. Soleimani at that time. Gen. Soleimani was among those on the council who advocated cooperating with the U.S. to topple the Taliban. Iranian and American diplomats held regular meetings to devise ways to bring now-President Hamid Karzai to power, according to diplomats from both countries.
...
"Qasem is a very pragmatic commander," said Mr. Mousavian, who fell out with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following the diplomat's role as an Iranian nuclear negotiator in the early 2000s. "He's willing to cooperate with the West if it serves Iran's interests."
Well-informed article on Soleimani: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303816504577305742884577460
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http://news.yahoo.com/flight-indonesia-singapore-loses-contact-media-033855222.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/sea-search-begins-missing-airasia-jet/story?id=27856490
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It is disingenuous to aspire to being a seer, and not ask this question about the human world. It is the context through which we travel, in our life. Diversion is the name of the game for all sapiens on this planet today. We have been distracted. From the big questions, from the small yet potent questions, from our soul's nourishment. As an old Indian saying goes: "Feed your soul before you feed your body."
Cliches abound, but it is inquiry we seek. We are witnessing an extraordinary shift in humanities path - why and how?
Lets start with only one small matter: the perception of the future. Who would build for the next thousand years like many civilisations before us, including the British during their extended empire? In the end, we are speaking of our collective grasp of eternity. Who do you know who makes their decisions based on their purchase of eternity? What I see is the outsourcing of eternity - the market, or future generations, will resolve as required. Is this cowardice?
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The outsourcing of eternity.....
Is it really eternity which is being outsourced, or some sham-eternity?
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The outsourcing of eternity.....
Is it really eternity which is being outsourced, or some sham-eternity?
Which eternity exists for you? The real one? A sham?
Once the human endeavour loses the soul-part, who or what is to deal with eternity?
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What I see is the outsourcing of eternity - the market, or future generations, will resolve as required. Is this cowardice?
Could it be aging? Tiredness? Lack of wilingness to stand on the line over and again?
Safety. Security. Control. Comfort. The older you are, the better it feels to have them.
Hence comes the thought: "We'll deal with eternity once we're dead...or later."
Western world is aging and going through a golden autumn of welfare in depleting world.
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Which eternity exists for you? The real one? A sham?
Actually, I was trying to understand what M meant. In my mind, 'eternity' couldn't be outsourced. Though one could perhaps convince another to look in a false direction. But it's all moot until I grasp what M means by outsourcing eternity.
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Actually, I was trying to understand what M meant. In my mind, 'eternity' couldn't be outsourced. Though one could perhaps convince another to look in a false direction. But it's all moot until I grasp what M means by outsourcing eternity.
I suggested that if the soul-part of humanity is not or is only little involved in daily activities of what we consider "life", the eternity is beyond our reach.
If our society does not do it, then who is - if anybody/anything at all?
In soulless world there is no eternity.
For a person who does not engage his/her soul there's no eternity - perhaps, only a thought or wish of it.
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I will elaborate a little, but really I am asking why we have in the media, such a dearth of insight into the situations that confront humanity?
There was a time not so long ago, and long long ago, when individuals and cultures built with supreme confidence in future time. I am talking about material building here, but the same applies to spiritual building. Capitalism has evolved into an insanely short term obsession, yet it was not always thus. In the not so distant past, wealthy individuals and societies invested in schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, universities, parks, public spaces, and essential infrastructure that continues to shape and serve our existence today. They believed in their place and it's future. Some could point to the history of New York in this regard, but just look at the immense effort Britain and the Moguls invested in India. You can look at almost every country to see a history of material development that aspired to shape the future in a sustained, generous and effective way. Of course, there were also the destroyers - we always have them. But that projection of personal and communal effort into a confidence of the future, seems to have largely disappeared. Across the globe, the wealthy don't care about the future, and they don't care about their 'place'. They seek rewards fast and invest for immediate returns then move on. Nations are doing the same - everything is cheaper and shabbier than ever before. Humanity has lost confidence in the future.
This affects the spiritual impulse more than anything. I search the people I meet or the media in vein for anyone who sees their life as a preparation for eternity. It's all immediate payoff. For some reason, humanity has lost it's concept of eternity, and the future is left to those who have to deal with it. This is what I mean by outsourcing eternity - someone else can pick up the cost of that, but not me. That is an illusion, both for the individual spirit and the species evolution. We have outsourced eternity to the illusion of tomorrow and our children, and we are happy to become distracted by the present.
I am also critical of those spiritual leaders who have imbalanced the teachings on the present. But that is another segue.
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I will elaborate a little, but really I am asking why we have in the media, such a dearth of insight into the situations that confront humanity?
There was a time not so long ago, and long long ago, when individuals and cultures built with supreme confidence in future time. I am talking about material building here, but the same applies to spiritual building. Capitalism has evolved into an insanely short term obsession, yet it was not always thus. In the not so distant past, wealthy individuals and societies invested in schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, universities, parks, public spaces, and essential infrastructure that continues to shape and serve our existence today. They believed in their place and it's future. Some could point to the history of New York in this regard, but just look at the immense effort Britain and the Moguls invested in India. You can look at almost every country to see a history of material development that aspired to shape the future in a sustained, generous and effective way. Of course, there were also the destroyers - we always have them. But that projection of personal and communal effort into a confidence of the future, seems to have largely disappeared. Across the globe, the wealthy don't care about the future, and they don't care about their 'place'. They seek rewards fast and invest for immediate returns then move on. Nations are doing the same - everything is cheaper and shabbier than ever before. Humanity has lost confidence in the future.
This affects the spiritual impulse more than anything. I search the people I meet or the media in vein for anyone who sees their life as a preparation for eternity. It's all immediate payoff. For some reason, humanity has lost it's concept of eternity, and the future is left to those who have to deal with it. This is what I mean by outsourcing eternity - someone else can pick up the cost of that, but not me. That is an illusion, both for the individual spirit and the species evolution. We have outsourced eternity to the illusion of tomorrow and our children, and we are happy to become distracted by the present.
I am also critical of those spiritual leaders who have imbalanced the teachings on the present. But that is another segue.
That's how old people behave - they feel their horizon is right in front of them. Their time is in short supply.
Just try to bring them something valuable as a birthday gift! "Why do you spend so much on me? I do not need that any more. I do not have that much time left so as to enjoy it fully..." etc.
I'd guess most people sense the approaching change, but they refuse resolutely to look into its eyes.
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It's been the same way from the beginning of human history, people are not interested of spiritual evolution, Spirit or God. Evene not the good and balanced people. Maybe it wasn't even meant to be that the whole humanity became spiritual, maybe most are just what make the environment for a few to grow and find God/Spirit in this jungle.
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It's been the same way from the beginning of human history, people are not interested of spiritual evolution, Spirit or God. Evene not the good and balanced people. Maybe it wasn't even meant to be that the whole humanity became spiritual, maybe most are just what make the environment for a few to grow and find God/Spirit in this jungle.
I am quite sure that You are wrong when saying that" people are not interested of spiritual evolution, Spirit or God". if you address the man on the street - that might be right. But what do you know about the Indians in Amazonas? The Queros (Incas) in Peru - or me - am I not belonging to the People?
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This is what I mean by outsourcing eternity - someone else can pick up the cost of that, but not me. That is an illusion, both for the individual spirit and the species evolution. We have outsourced eternity to the illusion of tomorrow and our children, and we are happy to become distracted by the present.
Bread and circus to the people.
I really like this new concept - "outsourcing eternity". It tells a lot about where the shoe hurts.
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That's how old people behave - they feel their horizon is right in front of them. Their time is in short supply.
Just try to bring them something valuable as a birthday gift! "Why do you spend so much on me? I do not need that any more. I do not have that much time left so as to enjoy it fully..." etc.
I'd guess most people sense the approaching change, but they refuse resolutely to look into its eyes.
Taking the idea of aging - or maturing for that matter - further, one could say that the lack of philanthropic investment in monuments or public buildings stems from the demise of missionary thoughts. Old Victorians thought that they had a duty to enlighten and civilise all sorts of what they considered savages of this world. Hence, the signs of British culture all over the world. Many ancient rulers had simply gigantic egos that wouldn't settle for anything less than Taj Mahal.
Don Juan said once that he strived to leave only light footprints that would vanish quickly in the wind. I don't think though, that our world is anywhere near that type of thinking/realisation.
There is rather an understanding of uselessness of expansionary drive (at least in Britain) and emptiness where only a very few Western nations/cultures have any kind of missionary fervour left. You could see some expressions of such drive in post-US Baghdad or Kabul. Maybe one could discover more present day Victorians or Moguls in Asia and Middle East. They might still think they have a calling to leave their massive footprint on this planet. The West seems to be more interested in exporting democracy and thereby making their neighbourhood safe/controlled.
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Aging of the 'Western' culture: perhaps there is some truth on this point. Tiredness and disillusion representing a civilisation post apex. I'm not convinced, but it warrants some pondering.
Missionary: I do see some aspect of this, but I would have to say the missionary zeal remains alive today, yet the effort is very different. Take Iraq, where there was purported to be Neo-Liberal missionary zeal, and yet the effort put in was patently hopeless. They had the knowledge to act in a more effective way, but rejected that for a superficial militaristic approach. This concept becomes very complex when you add in the Spanish incursion in South America. I'm not sure you can push the missionary barrow too far - the difference is in how different cultures and times prosecute that impulse.
In recent centuries, the wealthy in Europe and America were willing to invest extensively in institutional frameworks, which we continue to enjoy the benefit of today, but that same class is no longer willing. Firstly they no longer have the same allegiance to the place - they send their children all over the world for education, and they also live across the globe. Secondly, they have no agreement that humanity is deeply interrelated. There has been a fascinating realisation within the Australian Government - currently of the Right - that the country is suffering because business wants wages and privileges stripped from the working class, but then finds no one has the money to buy their goods. This represents a powerful disconnect within the money class about how the whole system works - we live in a time of illusionary fragmentation.
That fragmentation extends to the cultural and educational spheres. Everyone is looking after themselves in the narrowest form of self-interest, and that has causes. One of those causes could be because we have lost confidence in a stable future. Life has become too uncertain, and there are so many tsunamis building on the horizon, each of which could destroy the world we know - why build for a prosperous future for all?
DJ: the same applies - he was completely dedicated to building for a sustainable future. The only difference is that he felt spiritual future was superior to material future. His whole covenant was a claim on eternity. Only that he went for the absolute nub of the issue, yet the principle applies no matter your focus - material or spirit. No one today is interested in either.
All ways been thus: I don't agree. There have been many times in the history of sapiens when cultures placed huge importance on either material or spiritual extensions into the future. Even in my life time, I have experienced a period when the future of both was shared with positiveness. That slipped away during the 80s. This is the point I am making - we cannot accept a 'cowards explanation', as L Cohen says. We of all people should be watching and learning from what is happening - things have changed, and continue to change: why and how?
I am not saying you should jump up with the first thing that enters your head. I am saying we should watch, learn, listen, read and discuss - remain alert and aware of the massive changes that are taking place within the human world.
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For the last decade, my working assumption on social changes has been that of a shift from nation-state to market-state. I have mentioned it couple of times earlier (http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=8526.msg64678#msg64678, http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=10160.msg68570#msg68570 ).
The essence and features of the market-state could be expressed as follows:
At the heart of his analysis is the concept of the ‘market state’, the millennial successor to the nation state. He [professor Philip Bobbitt] explains: ‘You can see it here in Britain – when states go from reliance on law and regulation, so characteristic of the nation state, to deregulating not only industries, but also women’s reproduction. When states move from conscription to an all-volunteer force to raise armies; in the UK you saw this development in the policy of top-up fees for college tuition. You see it in America with welfare reform when we go from direct transfers, and workmen’s compensation, to providing skills to enter the labour market. In all of these instances you are seeing the beginnings of a change in which the state says, “Give us power and we will maximise your opportunity. What you do with it – that’s up to you. We will not assure you equality, and we will not assure you steadily improving security, but the total wealth of the society will be maximised.”’ (http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/052506_spectator.html)
The strength of Professor Bobbitt’s market-state is precisely its flexibility and inclusiveness, especially with regard to other organizations. It is fiercely pluralistic, marshalling many different types of organizations under the premise that markets provide the most efficient means to run an economy, and it can assist in supplementing the coercion of regulation with the incentives of the market. Even the market-states’ war making is pluralistic; private companies are not just suppliers to the government, but partners with it. The presence of corporations and nonprofits in the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq is thus a harbinger of what military operations will become; wars will increasingly be fought not by vast conscripted armies, but by a multitude of allied enterprises and organizations that include professional forces. (http://www.strategy-business.com/article/04109?pg=all)
I could add that market-state carries no ideology except that of money-making. It is essentially indifferent towards religions and cultures as long as they do not get on its way. The borders of the market-state are porous, its population divided and fragmented by ethnicity, culture, religion, welfare, etc. Its penetrated by intra-state and international networks. It is info society where every 2-3 months we produce as much info as in previous 5 milleniums.
Moreover, we live in a globalised and interconnected world:
(http://nickgogerty.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83454b17a69e20120a786e355970b-800wi)
(http://nickgogerty.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83454b17a69e201287689bc75970c-800wi)
Annually, 1.1 billion people cross borders. Every hour 320,000 people fly from one point to another. Per every 100 people there are 96 cell phone numbers and 40 internet users.
It is an emerging world of market-states and what you say about lack of interest in eternity is very much consistent with it. One could add that such lack of interest is an intriguing perversion of DJ's words about having nothing to defend - ideology-wise. In market-state, everyone is free to believe whatever they like as long as their beliefs do not get on the way of market and money-making.
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i see it like this
individuals contain continents
the idea of a separate world to that of a separate self
means outsourcing the self
means outsourcing the world
how much power can the individual contain ?
when the individual is on the horizon then the individual might seem ready to leave the world
this individual is ready to affect the world also
i mean this directly
all the continents might align
what does that mean ?
i don't really know
i feel it means such individuals should align in the world other individuals
should the short term seem a short insight then
in such things
a long term insight will be the result
which the short term cannot fathom
i would say the arrival of the horizon will determine
growth
what stretches forth
i feel the reality is the combining of the both
spiritual and physical
i have not separated them
therefore the outsourcing of eternity
seems only the reflection of the state
then we fall again
we have fallen and risen
how much power is in an individual ?
the whole
in outsourcing the whole as the individual
then also outsources the individual as the whole
it is both idyllic
and functional
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Yes Juhani, good links - I've been aware of Bobbitt, aside from having his penis cut off, his insights are very informative.
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2014 will be the hottest year on record
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/dec/17/2014-will-be-the-hottest-year-on-record
For those of us fixated on whether 2014 will be the hottest year on record, the results are in. At least, we know enough that we can make the call. According the global data from NOAA, 2014 will be the hottest year ever recorded.
I can make this pronouncement even before the end of the year because each month, I collect daily global average temperatures. So far, December is running about 0.5°C above the average. The climate and weather models predict that the next week will be about 0.75°C above average. This means, December will come in around 0.6°C above average. Are these daily values accurate? Well the last two months they have been within 0.05°C of the final official results.
What does this all mean? Well, when I combine December with the year-to-date as officially reported, I predict the annual temperature anomaly will be 0.674°C. This beats the prior record by 0.024°C. That is a big margin in terms of global temperatures.
For those of us who are not fixated on whether any individual year is a record but are more concerned with trends, this year is still important. Particularly because according to those who deny the basic physics and our understanding of climate change, this year wasn’t supposed to be particularly warm.
For those who thought that climate change was “natural” and driven by ocean currents, this has been a tough year. For instance, using NOAA standards, this year didn’t even have an El Niño. NOAA defines an El Niño as 5 continuous/overlapping 3-month time periods wherein a particular region in the Pacific has temperatures elevated more than 0.5oC.
Interestingly, we are currently close to an El Niño, and if current patterns continue for a few weeks, an official El Niño will be announced. But it hasn’t been yet, and if we do get an El Niño, it will affect next year more than this year. How could the hottest year have occurred then, when the cards are not stacked in its favor? The obvious and correct answer is, because of continued emission of greenhouse gases.
As I write this post, I am attending one of the premier earth sciences conference, the Fall AGU Conference which is held each December in San Francisco. Thousands of scientists, including a large number of climate scientists are meeting, presenting, and sharing the latest research about our planet.
Here, among the experts, there is little fixation on the record. On the other hand, there was little fixation on the so-called “halt” to global warming that the climate-science deniers have been trumpeting for the past few years. The latest data paint a clear picture. The Earth is warming. The oceans are warming, the land is warming, the atmosphere is warming, the ice is melting, and sea level is rising.
These climate science deniers have had a bad year. It has been shown that in many cases, their science is in error and their understanding of the Earth’s climate faulty. This record temperature, according to NOAA, has made their life even more difficult. The so-called “halt” to global warming was never true in the first place, as I wrote recently. But now, a claim that global warming has stopped cannot be made with a straight face.
Of course, the science deniers will look for something new to try to cast doubt on the concept of global warming. Whatever they pick will be shown to be wrong. It always is. But perhaps we can use 2014 as a learning opportunity. Let’s hope no one is fooled next time when fanciful claims of the demise of climate change are made.
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Humans May Be Causing the Sixth Great Extinction in Half a Billion Years
https://news.vice.com/article/humans-may-be-causing-the-sixth-great-extinction-in-half-a-billion-years
In the past half billion years, five great extinctions have transformed life on Earth, whether brought about by a catastrophic meteor impact that killed off the dinosaurs or prolonged periods of intense volcanic activity, which wiped out as much as 97 percent of all species.
Now, say scientists, Earth may be experiencing a sixth wave of mass extinction. But this time, humans are the cause.
Forty-one percent of amphibians, 26 percent of mammals, and 13 percent of birds face the threat of extinction, according to an analysis conducted by the journal Nature. Over hunting, habitat destruction, and climate change are propelling the die-offs, as well as the spread of invasive species and disease.
"Scientists are seeing very high extinction rates right now," Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker staff writer and author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, told VICE News. "Some people would say 100, some people would say 1,000, and some people are saying 10,000 times what we should be seeing."
The Nature report estimates somewhere between 500 and 36,000 species a year are going extinct. Scientists dispute the precise figure because estimates of the number of distinct plant and animal species range widely, from less than two million to more than ten million.
Nearly 300,000 Tons of Plastic is Floating in the World's Oceans (https://news.vice.com/article/nearly-300000-tons-of-plastic-is-floating-in-the-worlds-oceans)
"We're losing species at just an incredible rate and I think most scientists think that rate is increasing," Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity told VICE News.
The worst-case scenario in the Nature analysis predicts that 75 percent of life on Earth may become extinct by 2200. In that scenario, the paper assumes there are 5 million species on Earth and extinction occurs at a steady rate of 0.72 percent of species a year. There's a great amount of uncertainty in projecting extinction rates and the number of species that might be impacted, however, because of the widely varying estimates on the number of existing types of plants and animals.
Other studies support Nature's findings yet highlight the high level of uncertainty in trying to nail down the scale of species extinction. A 2010 paper in the journal Science says that between 23 and 36 percent of all mammals, birds, and amphibians consumed by humans are threatened with extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns that more than 20,000 of 75,000 species they studied are at risk.
The causes driving the current wave of extinction are varied — yet each comes back in some way to human activity.
"One driver of extinction is simply overhunting or overharvesting," Kolbert said. "Rhinos are in terrible trouble, because they're being killed and they can't reproduce fast enough to save themselves. So one driver is simply, we're killing them."
Habitat destruction is another major factor driving extinction. As global human population doubled over the last forty years, more than fifty percent of the Earth's surface was degraded or destroyed due to human intervention. During that time, half of the world's wildlife population was killed.
Invasive species and disease present acute challenges for some plants and animals. Humans have proven to be very adept at introducing critters into environments where they can cause great havoc. Think of the Asian Carp that is advancing northward along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and threatens to populate the Great Lakes. Kolbert noted that amphibians are dying in droves because of a particularly lethal fungus that piggybacks on humans.
Perhaps the most troubling factor driving the sixth great extinction is all the greenhouse gas emissions humans are spewing into the atmosphere and oceans.
"Climate change and ocean acidification are predicted to become, and I think it's hard to really avoid the idea that they're going to become, drivers of extinction, as we move outside historical tolerances," Kolbert told VICE News.
Even before massive swaths of species become extinct, scientists warn these drivers will also immediately alter fragile ecosystems.
"Even though I wrote a book called the Sixth Extinction and it was about extinction — there's too much emphasis actually on extinction, on the last animal," Kolbert said. "So say we're down to the last 100 and we save them and that animal is not technically extinct — but it is functionally extinct in the ecosystem. I think people are more and more trying to get away from extinction being the problem; the problem is declines in population, to the point that the animal might as well be extinct."
Kolbert used cod as an example. Overfishing decimated cod populations in the Atlantic. Governments placed bans on cod fishing hoping populations might rebound. But so far, that hasn't happened. In the absence of a healthy cod population, the species it preyed upon have flourished at the same time that predators that competed with cod have thrived. Although some scientists are hopeful the ecosystem may recover, they don't know if cod will play the same role in the marine habitat as it did before overfishing caused its population to plummet.
Over Half of Earth’s Wildlife Has Been Killed in the Past 40 Years (https://news.vice.com/article/over-half-of-earths-wildlife-has-been-killed-in-the-past-40-years)
The sixth great extinction shows the extent to which humans might be a plague upon the land, whether driving the bulldozers that transform prairie lands, burning the coal that warms the atmosphere, or poisoning lakes and rivers with phosphate-enriched fertilizer that boost the volume of our vegetables. But in a plot seemingly from a Greek tragidy, humans are the only ones that can put a stop to what we have set in motion.
"One couldn't see a way to un-crash an asteroid," Jon Hoekstra, Vice President and Chief Scientist of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), told VICE News. "At a fundamental level, this mass extinction is so different because not only is it caused by people, but it can be averted by people."
Nearly 200 nations have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, a 1993 treaty aimed at protecting the world's biodiversity and scaling back extinction rates. Under the treaty's provisions, nations coordinate efforts at stopping the spread of invasive species, establish large-scale conservation areas, and pledge to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The United States has not ratified the treaty.
"This is really the most serious problem that humanity faces, because you can't undo extinction," Greenwald told VICE News. "You're essentially creating irreparable harm, but it's not discussed in the halls of Congress. And President Obama's not talking about the extinction crisis."
Follow Shelby Kinney-Lang on Twitter: @ShelbKL
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...and is likely to be repeated elsewhere.
12 killed in shooting at French satirical magazine
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/07/europe/france-satire-magazine-gunfire/index.html
Paris (CNN)A French satirical magazine's office turned into a horror show Wednesday when attackers burst in and began firing, killing at least 12 before heading off onto the streets of Paris.
While it wasn't immediately clear who was behind the late morning attack, French officials viewed it as a blatant act of terrorism. And there were fears things could get worse, with the assailants still on the loose.
"We need to find the actors of this terrorist act," French President Francois Hollande said. "They must be arrested and brought before judges and condemned as quickly as possible. France is shocked today."
• Police impounded a black Citroen in northeastern Paris similar to the one purportedly used by the attackers as a getaway car. Video from CNN affiliate BFMTV shows the vehicle being towed from Porte de Pantin, in Paris' 19th district.
• French Prime Minister Manuel Valls raised the country's security to its highest level -- "attack alert" -- after the Charlie Hebdo bloodshed. That means there will be reinforced security at media company offices, major stores, religious centers and on public transport, Valls' office said in a statement.
All available forces have been mobilized, with civil and military reinforcements as part of this plan. In addition, regional authorities have been instructed to step up their vigilance.
• Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that all means are being used to "ensure as quickly as possible we can identify the (three attackers) and (arrest them), so that they can be punished with the severity that their barbarous acts are worthy of."
• In addition to the 12 dead, eight people were wounded, including four in critical condition, Cazeneuve said.
Witnesses: Hooded gunmen dressed in black
These developments come after heavily armed men entered the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris' 11th district, close to Place de la Bastille, and opened fire, SPG police union spokesman Luc Poignant told CNN affiliate BFMTV.
A witness who works in the office opposite the magazine's told BFMTV that he saw two hooded men, dressed in black, enter the building with Kalashnikov submachine guns.
"We then heard them open fire inside, with many shots," he told the channel. "We were all evacuated to the roof. After several minutes, the men fled, after having continued firing in the middle of the street."
Witnesses also spoke of seeing a rocket launcher, according to French media reports.
A video taken by a journalist for the Premieres Lignes agency shows the gunmen shouting "God is great!" as they began the attack, Le Monde reported. They also cried "We have avenged the Prophet!"
Two police officers were also among the dead, the law enforcement source said, according to Le Monde.
Satirical magazine has drawn anger
The satirical magazine is no stranger to controversy for having lampooned a variety of subjects, including Christianity. But what it's done on Islam has gotten the most attention and garnered the most vitriol.
Its last tweet before Wednesday's attack featured a cartoon of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the words, "And, above all, health."
Earlier cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed -- depictions that are deplored by Muslims -- spurred protests and the burning of the magazine's office three years ago.
In November 2011, Charlie Hebdo's office caught fire the day it was due to publish a cover making fun of Islamic law.
The latest attack spurred Hollande, the French President, to vow that "no barbarous act will ever extinguish freedom of the press."
"We knew that we were threatened like other countries in the world," the President added later. "We are threatened because we are a country of freedom."
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All ways been thus: I don't agree. There have been many times in the history of sapiens when cultures placed huge importance on either material or spiritual extensions into the future. Even in my life time, I have experienced a period when the future of both was shared with positiveness. That slipped away during the 80s. This is the point I am making - we cannot accept a 'cowards explanation', as L Cohen says. We of all people should be watching and learning from what is happening - things have changed, and continue to change: why and how?
Simply because that is the nature of the Universe. It breaths.
I was a teenager in the 1960's and -70's and we had a new idea of the human World coming up, so very different to before. Carlos Castaneda was only one piece of the puzzle then, the music and the political ideas (like the movement of 1968, against war in V-nam* all over the western World - and so on), and the collective living as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Amon Düül, Röde mor etc. was a model for.
And then as you say M ... it vanished, the hippes simply went away - one of ours took a suicide - but the rest seem to have been assimilated into the system, changing their hippie clothes to suits.
But can you imagine! At my work (which is a rather dull place but with many young students) I saw (just Before X-mas) a young woman descending the stairs, passing our floor and what!? - She had flared blue jeans! I can't remember how many years back it was when I saw such jeans.
(http://media.redcatsnordic.com/ellos/images/products/304x456/20-89/20-8981.jpg)
And under the outerwear I saw some tiny indications of a Hippie jerkey.
As the men/women of knowledge says. Yin periods is followed by Yang periods, and Yang periods is followed by Yin periods - in an never ending cycle.
The 1960's and -70's was very Yin, expanding with acid, and wild political (pacifistic ideals), then came the 1980's and 1990's and every such movement just got down in the shoes, and vanished on the scene.
Now the pendulum is turning back to Yin
fired by unemployment, distrust in authorities, fear or admire of Islam.
Yin is standing for change, and together with Uranus (The age of Aquarius) it become dissolution (and disintegration).
While Yang is order, and in its wors form equal to stagnation and dictatorship.
* And it is one, two, three, four - what are we fighting for
and I give a damn in Viet-Nam
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They are holding up
The cartoons and speaking about free speech
Id say its free speech versus common sense
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youtube.com/watch?v=KmVeDeav0DI
Another note
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A few bits from Ukraine.
The intensity and spread of combat activities have grown dramatically since mid-January.
It is like World War II now: artillery is delivering 100 rounds a minute on targets (i.e. 5 tons of ammunition in one minute), waves of tanks and infantry attack trenches and bunkers, hand-to-hand combat, killing tanks with whatever is at hand, etc.
The ferocity of fighting is beyond the levels of Gulf Wars and what we saw in former Yugoslavia.
An example of how it is for civilians (cars and vans driving on the roads):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD-KV1Au_6w (added a working link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZyVukhXzsY
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Thanks Juhani - what is happening in Ukraine is in many way far more serious than the Syrian tragedy,
but at least we should recognize the unbelievable victory of the Kurds in Kobane.
Against all odds, the Kurds have secured victory in Kobane. I admit I also thought their battle was doomed - so said many international commentators, including the Turkish leader. Mind you, Turkey is highly conflicted in this whole affair, and I expect will struggle to come off well.
Yes, there were British SAS on the ground calling in US bombers. Yes, the Turks allowed Iraqi Kurds to bolster the forces in Kobane. I'm sure all this turned the tide. But you can't steal away the incredible praise of the core of Kurdish fighters who never left Kobane, and who fought in a disciplined way against a superior ISIL force.
You can read about this battle in the press, and probably will see books published soon about it, but these few men and women tenaciously held on to what became a complete ruin of a city, and now have become a mythical seed for the birth of their long desired quest: the nation of Kurdistan. With all the complications that will bring, there seems little that will stand in their way now, except the will of the powerful nations. Even then, I doubt their quest can be thwarted.
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Yes, Kurds fought very bravely and determinedly. Good job they managed to halt ISIS advance!
Though, I suspect, ISIS has not said its last word on the matter. It seems to carry the darkness that refuses to move to light in this cycle.
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Though, I suspect, ISIS has not said its last word on the matter. It seems to carry the darkness that refuses to move to light in this cycle.
Indeed - I have heard that ISIS are basically winning in Syria.
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Indeed - I have heard that ISIS are basically winning in Syria.
It certainly does not look beaten. DIA seems to be rather pessimistic about it: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/02/dia_head_warns_al_qa.php
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Russian cluster munition dropped on town called Kramatorsk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cc9Kh-OL4sQ
More than 10 killed, 60 wounded. Casualties are being counted.
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Russian cluster munition dropped on town called Kramatorsk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cc9Kh-OL4sQ
More than 10 killed, 60 wounded. Casualties are being counted.
Ceasefire, and nothing changes. Now, is this a sign that what has been set in motion can now not be stopped by those who set it in motion?
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Ceasefire, and nothing changes. Now, is this a sign that what has been set in motion can now not be stopped by those who set it in motion?
Ceasefire should start at 00.00 on Feb 15, but for now, fighting is more intense than ever before since the beginning of this war. Tactical missiles, very long range MLRS, cluster munitions, tank battles - anything and everything you can imagine - up hand-to-hand fighting in trenches.
Look at the picture below: Ukrainians defended that road crossing for a week under the rain of Russian shells (the black dots are craters from explosions). One of the most frequently requested supplies by the first line Ukrainian units is headache pills - literally 100% of men get lighter, harder or severe concussions from nearby shell explosions. Yet they refuse to yield and keep fighting. Syria and ISIS are nowhere near the levels of kill power used in Ukraine.
(https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/16129/9814836.5d/0_122bc3_55a4ac92_XL.jpg)
It is not about the ability of Putin to stop, but about the willingness to stop. Regular Russian units in separatist uniforms have been fighting in the first line for at least a month. Putin has evoked the most radical and darkest nationalist sentiment in Russia. Now he almost cannot stop - the wave of radicalism would turn against him. In the worst case scenario, we are witnessing the outbreak of yeat another major European war.
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So it appears the situation in Ukraine is as complex as, if not more than, the IS situation in the Middle East. What exactly is going on? This question is bedeviling everyone apparently, except perhaps for Putin.
I have just read one of my 'trusted' sources in the media, Paul McGeough - an amazing guy who should have been killed long ago, yet seems to keep plugging on much like Robert Fisk. Here is his latest report on the Debaltseve debacle:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/ukraines-latest-defeat-confronts-west-and-obama-with-costly-zerosum-game-20150220-13kctu.html
The problem with this situation, and the difference between it and IS, is that we are dealing with some very hefty players here - the consequences of an escalation being far more serious than in the Middle East.
So nice to live in a quiet area of the world....
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So it appears the situation in Ukraine is as complex as, if not more than, the IS situation in the Middle East. What exactly is going on? This question is bedeviling everyone apparently, except perhaps for Putin.
I have just read one of my 'trusted' sources in the media, Paul McGeough - an amazing guy who should have been killed long ago, yet seems to keep plugging on much like Robert Fisk. Here is his latest report on the Debaltseve debacle:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/ukraines-latest-defeat-confronts-west-and-obama-with-costly-zerosum-game-20150220-13kctu.html
The problem with this situation, and the difference between it and IS, is that we are dealing with some very hefty players here - the consequences of an escalation being far more serious than in the Middle East.
So nice to live in a quiet area of the world....
The author is very much on target. There was a ceasefire agreement made on 5 Sep. 2014 and Russians have kept shelling and pushing forward. Ukrainian governemnt did not respond in kind until Dec.-Jan. and then they effectively stopped Russian advance. From mid-January 2015 the war intensified to the levels of full-scale war that led to a ceasefire of 15 Feb. 2015. Russians immediately launched an assault on the place Debaltsevo and now they seem to be slowing down for a while. They lost 3,000-4,000 combatants killed only around Debaltsevo.
A few things need to be clarified:
1) there are only a few local separatists fighting against Ukrainian government. Majority of anti-Ukrainian combatants are Russian citizens specifically recruited and trained for that war. They constitute 60-90% of so-called 'separatist' units. Among these 'separatist' unist fight regular Russian troops who hide their identity, but are clearly identifiable by their tanks, missiles, ethnicity etc. So it is not Nicaragua. An accurate analogy would mean US citizens and armed forces to fight against Sandinistas.
2) Ukrainian forces may be less organised than Russians, but they are continuously improving. They lost Debaltsevo because their government denied them artillery support during the ceasefire - when Russians attacked. However, say, 70-75% of Ukrainian troops managed to withdraw in reasonable order and Ukrainian line was not broken.
3) Putin is banking on West to not have the guts to: (a) introduce comprehensive economic sanctions and fully collapse Russian state; (b) provide Ukraine with arms and (potentially) ignite a major war in Europe that may go nuclear eventually; (c) trust a state - Ukraine - that is highly corrupt and penetrated by Russian intelligence.
Thus, we have that creeping ('hybrid') campaign that has ups and downs, but never stops. Meanwhile, good men (of whom I know quite a few) fight tooth and nail, and sit under artillery barrages in the first line of Ukrainian defences.
Putin is pushing it and it almost became a zero sum game 2 weeks ago. It may well take an apocalytic track in coming weeks. I doubt the end of this war is anywhere near. Putin is not that different from Hitler.
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C'est (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/27/russian-opposition-politician-boris-nemtsov-shot-dead-moscow-reports) la vie.
Two shots in the head, two in the chest.
Another powerful voice less to oppose the undeclared war in Ukraine.
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The US has gone insane, with Senators attempting to implement their own foreign policy, behind the back of the president. No matter how they may disagree with him, this kind of thing just isn't done. I hope that something will be done swiftly about it, rather than just sitting there with no internal consequences.
In United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936) decision by the Supreme Court, Justice Sutherland wrote in the majority opinion :
"[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude, and Congress itself is powerless to invade it."
Sutherland also notes in his opinion the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report to the Senate of February 15, 1816:
"The President is the constitutional representative of the United States with regard to foreign nations. He manages our concerns with foreign nations, and must necessarily be most competent to determine when, how, and upon what subjects negotiation may be urged with the greatest prospect of success. For his conduct, he is responsible to the Constitution."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31804575
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Yes, I have been hearing about this. Comes on top a few other insane actions by the Republicans, demonstrating to everyone how they are not fit to govern.
If I were to summarise the current Middle East situation, I'd say the big game changer in all of it is the US's self-sufficiency in oil. For the first time in a very long time, no Western power is interested in controlling the Middle East.
Now we have a virtual vacuum in Iraq and Syria. The old order of Sunni and Israeli power is being challenged by Iran, and the result could be extremely destructive. Iran is on an empire mission, and surrounding Saudi Arabia. Israel is petrified about Iran, as are Saudi, Gulf States, Egypt, Jordan etc.
The old power there, the US, is reluctant to get further involved, despite a change in ground-swell opinion within the US about that. They can't just walk away, but they also don't need to control it like in the past, because of the oil situation.
It appears the current US administration is walking a fine line between acceptance and nuclear containment of Iran - how on earth this will turn out is very questionable.
The two new elements to add to this, are the apparent likelihood of a power shift in Israel, and the new leader of Iran ensuring that Sunni fighters move in to control the Sunni areas of Tikrit. These are positive signs amongst an otherwise destabilising scenario.
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http://rt.com/usa/244069-asteroid-fly-by-earth/
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This could be it ;).
Would be nice to solve my current PHP problem before I go though.
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Yemen:
Saudi government-owned al-Arabiya television said that planes from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain were involved in the air campaign and that Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Sudan were willing to add ground troops to 150,000 being sent by Saudi Arabia.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/saudi-arabia-begins-bombing-military-operations-in-yemen-20150326-1m80cq.html
At a question-and-answer session with reporters this week, Saudi Brigadier-General Ahmed Asiri was asked to respond to the argument that this was a sectarian war. As Riyadh's media frontman, the general pointed the finger of blame at Tehran.
"Who created the situation of sectarianism? The Iranians. They created the militias in Lebanon, Hezbollah; they created the militias in Iraq."
Think about that last observation – as seen from Riyadh, the problem in Iraq is not IS and its "caliphate" so much as the Iranian-sponsored militias, which are doing most of the fighting to check IS and protect Baghdad.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/bombing-yemenis-you-bet-fighting-is-in-iraq-not-so-fast-20150410-1mi9x7.html
So what is the USA doing in all this? I expect most of you know about the recent Iranian-US event. Frankly, I don't know the endgame of the USA, but I have a speculation...
I think Obama is guiding the US to downsize its Middle Eastern commitment, because despite the incredible destruction fracking is leaving it its wake, it has provide America with oil sufficiency. Their strategy now is a balance of powers in the Middle East, to which end they are quietly laughing while they parley with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, whilst antagonising Israel. Their only vested interest is to ensure no one ME Power goes amuck.
But is this realistic, and if not, does the US really care? I think these questions are next on the block, as it is obvious the US's response is not solving anything, and why they should carry the can for an intractable situation, is highly questionable.
When you hit bottom with this case, there are two things outstanding: Firstly, when will Sunni and Shia grow up and accept each other? Secondly, when will Iran stop its empirical aspirations? I suspect the answer to both these will not be found in my lifetime.
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I attended an interesting talk at the uni last Friday, by a PHP candidate with substantial knowledge of Saudi Arabia.
What I was not fully informed of, was the creation of SA state. This was a collaboration by two men, Ibn Saud and Abd al-Wahhab. Ibn Saud was a smart guy, who realised there was no physical existential threat to rally what was known as Najd into a state, but with the help of the obsessive purist Abd al-Wahhab, he succeeded by raising the spectre of a spiritual existential threat. Thus Wahhabism became foundational in the formation of modern Saudi Arabia.
But Wahhabism is retrospective and internal - it seeks to return to a pure past, and has no answer to the crisis of the modern world. Whenever the Saudi authority has been threatened, it always retreats to the Wahhabi line that Islam is in danger from liberal or Shiite influences. But don't for a minute believe the Saudi strategists believe this crap - they are ultimate pragmatists. The problem for them is their old power-strategy of threats to the purity of 'reality' (ie Islam) is not that useful for addressing problems outside Arabia nor the pressures of globalism.
In fact, they are ill-prepared to deal with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran or ISIS. They bought off their population with money to stall any internal Arab Spring aspirations, but that was only temporary. It now appears they are foundationally unprepared to confront the new crises that face the broader Sunni states.
Thus many commentators feel their recent attempt to rally those states into a threat that does not directly affect Saudi Arabia, is doomed to failure.
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Saudis sending 150,000 troops? Sounds like they are sending almost everything they have - Wiki assesses the size of their armed forces (three services+paramilitary troops) at some 200,000 men. 150,000 does not look like a realistic assessment. 15,000 I would believe - and they would be hard-pressed to rotate and sustain such deployment. Saudis would send 150,000 if they were fighting an ultimate war of survival.
Yemen seems to become the first horror movie of the ME. A gigantic demographic explosion with drinking water in a very short supply and oil/gas running out. Paradoxically, the fundamental driving force behind the conflict is neither religious nor political. It's about country losing means of subsistence and leadership stealing the money. Neither Saudis nor Iranians nor US can solve this.
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I attended an interesting talk at the uni last Friday, by a PHP candidate with substantial knowledge of Saudi Arabia.
What I was not fully informed of, was the creation of SA state. This was a collaboration by two men, Ibn Saud and Abd al-Wahhab. Ibn Saud was a smart guy, who realised there was no physical existential threat to rally what was known as Najd into a state, but with the help of the obsessive purist Abd al-Wahhab, he succeeded by raising the spectre of a spiritual existential threat. Thus Wahhabism became foundational in the formation of modern Saudi Arabia.
But Wahhabism is retrospective and internal - it seeks to return to a pure past, and has no answer to the crisis of the modern world. Whenever the Saudi authority has been threatened, it always retreats to the Wahhabi line that Islam is in danger from liberal or Shiite influences. But don't for a minute believe the Saudi strategists believe this crap - they are ultimate pragmatists. The problem for them is their old power-strategy of threats to the purity of 'reality' (ie Islam) is not that useful for addressing problems outside Arabia nor the pressures of globalism.
In fact, they are ill-prepared to deal with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran or ISIS. They bought off their population with money to stall any internal Arab Spring aspirations, but that was only temporary. It now appears they are foundationally unprepared to confront the new crises that face the broader Sunni states.
Thus many commentators feel their recent attempt to rally those states into a threat that does not directly affect Saudi Arabia, is doomed to failure.
Wahhabis have traditionally controlled Saudi power structures - armed forces, police, etc. Their influence as a driving force is behind the Saudi offensive in Yemen. I would expect these desperate Wahhabis to drive Saudi Arabia into growing number of military adventures.
Saudis do not really have to persuade the Gulf states of Iranian threat, though. It is perceived very sharply by all these Khalifs, Emirs and Sultans. Another issue is that Arabs in these countries are reluctant/lazy to mobilise themselves to do something hard and meaningful about it. Hence the US 5th Fleet in Bahrein.
If ever Saudis would go directly against Iranians in Iraq or Yemen, we would have possibly a true Mother of all Wars on our hands.
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OK, so what has happened with ISIS? There we were a little while back, thinking the Kurds had secured a critical psychological victory over ISIS, and that was true, but if anyone thought that would punch a hole in ISIS's momentum, it's obvious now that hypothesis is false.
There has been a good deal of dumbing down ISIS. Firstly, they are considered a terrorist group like Al Qaeda. Secondly, they have been characterised as a weakening force by some, like the US. Thirdly, they are regarded as of ultimately little consequence by the surrounding major states, who are more concerned about Iran. And even Iran has only taken limited action in fighting ISIS.
It is pretty obvious to any realistic observer that by now they have to be treated as a state, not an insurgency. All actions against them have been half-hearted, except by the Kurds, and I would be surprised if they can hold out once ISIS gains a substantial foothold. I know many thought they would implode, which is quite possible still, although there is faint sign that is happening any time soon.
The facts on the ground demonstrate that ISIS is fast gaining ground. There are two questions for me. Firstly, how long can the surrounding states play this game of competitive self-interest and intrigue? How long before both Sunni and Shia states realise their primary self-interest is to go to war against ISIS in a full scale and determined confrontation?
Secondly, how long will it be before all Western governments realise they have to commit troops, aircraft and weapons in fight-to-win determination?
It seems to me every party (except for the Kurds and ISIS) has been dabbling in this campaign with only half hearted intent. I expect after the last week's events, all nations are talking seriously behind closed doors. In all countries now, public opinion has to be massaged - expect to see a significant uptake in the 'threat' alarms across the media over the near future, because I expect governments now are seriously worried about what is happening not only in Iraq and the Levant, but among Muslims across the world.
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Things are going from bad to worse in Syria and Iraq.
Couple of maps to illustrate the situation:
(https://pietervanostaeyen.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/2000px-syria11.png)
(https://pietervanostaeyen.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/2000px-iraq13.png)
It is difficult to outline all reasons for the success of Islamic State and I would stress these:
1) Iraqi leadership and armed forces are way too corrupt, demoralised and secatarian to put up a good fight against IS. In fact, the previous government stepped on Sunnis and pushed them away from government. Now IS has former Iraqi Sunni officers and other military specialists on their side (hence, suddenly skyrocketed professionalism in fighting).
2) In Syria, al-Assad is running low on reserves and faces two increasingly coherent fighting forces: one consolidating around old al-Qaeda (Jabhat al-Nusra) and the other centred around IS. While these two do not cooperate, they use the moments when al-Assad and Hezbollah hit one of them and the other can exploit the weakness of government forces in another area.
3) Why exactly is IS ideology so attractive (IS is building 7th-9th century Islamic Caliphate) I couldn't tell. IS has US $2 billion in banks and US $500 million in cash. There are some hints that IS has produced and used its own chemical weapons.
4) Coalition air campaign is too limited to have a serious effect. 14-15 strikes a day cannot seriously degrade a fighting force of 50-60,000 or even more. It would take 100-300 strikes a day as a minimum, but the more, the more devastating effect.
It looks as if we are heading for a huge conflict in the Middle East.
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Good maps Juhani.
yes, the air campaign is paltry. The whole effort is paltry.
But I sense most of the big states are still preoccupied with Ukraine.
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Our world is at war
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/18/world/unhcr-refugees-most-in-history/
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/06/18/world-refugee-crisis_1100x620.jpg)
In 2014, 13.9 million people became newly displaced -- a record number for a single year. Just 126,800 refugees were able to return to their homes -- the fewest in 31 years.
There are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded -- and more than half are children, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.
Nearly 60 million people were counted as forcibly displaced in 2014, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
If those people were the population of one country, it would be the 24th largest in the world.
One person out of every 122 on the planet is said to be either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum. Last year on average, each day saw another 42,500 people driven from their homes.
'World at war'
The conflict in Syria has been the biggest single driver of displacement, according to the refugee agency's Global Trends report -- but far from the only one.
"One clearly gets the impression that the world is at war -- and indeed many areas of the world are today in a completely chaotic situation," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres at a news conference earlier.
"The result is this staggering escalation of displacement, this staggering escalation of human suffering, because each displaced person is a tragic story."
Millions of Syrians displaced
Turkey became the world's top refugee-hosting nation in 2014, with 1.59 million Syrians within its borders. Within the EU, Germany and Sweden received the most asylum applications.
Most refugees come from the Middle East, with 7.6 million Syrians taking to the road within their own country, and 3.88 million having become refugees.
Many more come from sub-Saharan Africa, fleeing conflicts in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere.
In Asia, the report highlights growing numbers of people fleeing Myanmar.
And in the Americas, there was a rise in the number of people seeking to escape gang violence in Central America.
Asylum claims in the United States were up 44% over the year.
Agencies sound alarm
The Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank, also sounded the alarm about the growing refugee crisis.
On Wednesday it said in its Global Peace Index that almost 1% of the world's population are now refugees or internally displaced people -- the highest level since 1945.
It said violence cost the global economy $14.3 trillion last year. In a briefing paper, Amnesty International also called the current refugee crisis the worst since the Second World War.
This Saturday, June 20, is the UNHCR's World Refugee Day.
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Yes, and what is to come of this, aside from suffering? The world has become more right-wing, self-interested and narrow minded. Which is why we have so many refugees. Unfortunately, I can't say I'll not live long enough to see this play out - I expect the next ten years to be very difficult for a sensitive being.
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Yes, and what is to come of this, aside from suffering? The world has become more right-wing, self-interested and narrow minded. Which is why we have so many refugees. Unfortunately, I can't say I'll not live long enough to see this play out - I expect the next ten years to be very difficult for a sensitive being.
Some experts are talking about "tsunami of refugees" rolling over our world. Suffering, destruction and possible use of weapons of mass destruction. For some reason, we have opted to come to this world right now - on the eve of destruction.
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Realpolitik is coming to the Middle East. There has been a massing of Saudi, Qatari and Turkish troops on Syria's borders, as well as Wahhabist/Salafists jihadists, predominantly An-Nusra/Al Qaeda, rallied within by Saudi intelligence. The US is saying nothing, and it appears the plan is to allow the region of Syria and Iraq to be carved up along Sunni-Shia lines. Allah knows what the consequences of this will be, and how it will affect the rest of the destabilised states in the region.
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Realpolitik is coming to the Middle East. There has been a massing of Saudi, Qatari and Turkish troops on Syria's borders, as well as Wahhabist/Salafists jihadists, predominantly An-Nusra/Al Qaeda, rallied within by Saudi intelligence. The US is saying nothing, and it appears the plan is to allow the region of Syria and Iraq to be carved up along Sunni-Shia lines. Allah knows what the consequences of this will be, and how it will affect the rest of the destabilised states in the region.
Syria regime preparing for partition of the country (25 May 2015)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-regime-preparing-for-partition-of-the-country/
Beaten by Islamic State in the east and battered by other rebels, Assad could withdraw to Alawite enclave
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Weakened by years of war, Syria’s government appears ready for the country’s de facto partition, defending strategically important areas and leaving much of the country to rebels and jihadists, experts and diplomats say.
The strategy was in evidence last week with the army’s retreat from the ancient central city of Palmyra after an advance by the Islamic State group.
“It is quite understandable that the Syrian army withdraws to protect large cities where much of the population is located,” said Waddah Abded Rabbo, director of Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime.
“The world must think about whether the establishment of two tefforist states is in its interests or not,” he said, in reference to IS’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq, and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front’s plans for its own ’emirate’ in northern Syria.
Syria’s government labels all those fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad “tefforists,” and has pointed to the emergence of IS and al-Nusra as evidence that opponents of the regime are extremists.
Since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011 with peaceful protests, the government has lost more than three-quarters of the country’s territory, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.
But the territory the regime controls accounts for about 50 to 60 percent of the population, according to French geographer and Syria expert Fabrice Balanche.
He said 10-15 percent of Syria’s population is now in areas controlled by IS, 20-25 percent in territory controlled by al-Nusra or rebel groups and another five to 10 percent in areas controlled by Kurdish forces.
“The government in Damascus still has an army and the support of a part of the population,” Balanche said.
“We’re heading towards an informal partition with front lines that could shift further.”
‘Division is inevitable’
People close to the regime talk about a government retreat to “useful Syria.”
“The division of Syria is inevitable. The regime wants to control the coast, the two central cities of Hama and Homs and the capital Damascus,” one Syrian political figure close to the regime said.
“The red lines for the authorities are the Damascus-Beirut highway and the Damascus-Homs highway, as well as the coast, with cities like Latakia and Tartus,” he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces are strongholds of the regime, and home to much of the country’s Alawite community, the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad adheres.
In the north, east and south of the country, large swathes of territory are now held by jihadists or rebel groups, and the regime’s last major offensive — in Aleppo province in February — was a failure.
For now the regime’s sole offensive movement is in Qalamoun along the Lebanese border, but there its ally, Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, is taking the lead in the fighting.
“The Syrian army today has become a Praetorian guard that is charged with protecting the regime,” said a diplomat who goes to Damascus regularly.
He said the situation had left Syrian officials “worried, of course,” but that they remained convinced that key regime allies Russia and Iran would not let the government collapse.
Some observers believe the defensive posture was the suggestion of Iran, which believes it is better to have less territory but be able to keep it secure.
“Iran urged Syrian authorities to face facts and change strategy by protecting only strategic zones,” opposition figure Haytham Manna said.
Army running out of troops
The shift may also be the result of the dwindling forces available to the regime, which has seen its once 300,000-strong army “whittled away” by combat and attrition, according to Aram Nerguizian, a senior fellow at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“On the surface, the regime appears to have accepted that it must secure, hold and defend its core area of control… with its current mix of forces,” he said.
Those are approximately 175,000 men from the army, pro-regime Syrian militias and foreign fighters including from Hezbollah and elsewhere.
The Observatory says 68,000 regime forces are among the 220,000 people killed since the conflict began.
But the new strategy does not indicate regime collapse, and could even work in its favor, Nerguizian said.
“Supply lines would have far less overstretch to contend with, and the regime’s taxed command-and-control structure would have more margin of maneuver.”
Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh, said that to survive, “the regime will have to lower its expectations and concentrate on the Damascus-Homs-coast axes.
“Militarily, the regime probably still has the means to hold the southeastern half of the country long-term, but further losses could weaken it from within.”
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Researchers characterise the study below as conservative. One or two wars here and there seem like a joke in compasion with this. Whether there is a hope is not clear at all. Rarely have I seen timely and sufficient responses to pressing issues/emergencies from societies and governments.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/june/mass-extinction-ehrlich-061915.html
There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence.
That is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.
"[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," Ehrlich said.
Although most well known for his positions on human population, Ehrlich has done extensive work on extinctions going back to his 1981 book, Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species. He has long tied his work on coevolution, on racial, gender and economic justice, and on nuclear winter with the issue of wildlife populations and species loss.
There is general agreement among scientists that extinction rates have reached levels unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. However, some have challenged the theory, believing earlier estimates rested on assumptions that overestimated the crisis.
The new study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that even with extremely conservative estimates, species are disappearing up to about 100 times faster than the normal rate between mass extinctions, known as the background rate.
"If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on," said lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autónoma de México.
Conservative approach
Using fossil records and extinction counts from a range of records, the researchers compared a highly conservative estimate of current extinctions with a background rate estimate twice as high as those widely used in previous analyses. This way, they brought the two estimates – current extinction rate and average background or going-on-all-the-time extinction rate – as close to each other as possible.
Focusing on vertebrates, the group for which the most reliable modern and fossil data exist, the researchers asked whether even the lowest estimates of the difference between background and contemporary extinction rates still justify the conclusion that people are precipitating "a global spasm of biodiversity loss." The answer: a definitive yes.
(http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/june/images/15357-extinction_chart_rev.jpg)
"We emphasize that our calculations very likely underestimate the severity of the extinction crisis, because our aim was to place a realistic lower bound on humanity's impact on biodiversity," the researchers write.
To history's steady drumbeat, a human population growing in numbers, per capita consumption and economic inequity has altered or destroyed natural habitats. The long list of impacts includes:
- Land clearing for farming, logging and settlement
- Introduction of invasive species
- Carbon emissions that drive climate change and ocean acidification
- Toxins that alter and poison ecosystems[/li][/list]
Now, the specter of extinction hangs over about 41 percent of all amphibian species and 26 percent of all mammals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which maintains an authoritative list of threatened and extinct species.
"There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead," Ehrlich said.
As species disappear, so do crucial ecosystem services such as honeybees' crop pollination and wetlands' water purification. At the current rate of species loss, people will lose many biodiversity benefits within three generations, the study's authors write. "We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on," Ehrlich said.
Hope for the future
Despite the gloomy outlook, there is a meaningful way forward, according to Ehrlich and his colleagues. "Avoiding a true sixth mass extinction will require rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species, and to alleviate pressures on their populations – notably habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain and climate change," the study's authors write.
In the meantime, the researchers hope their work will inform conservation efforts, the maintenance of ecosystem services and public policy.
Co-authors on the paper include Anthony D. Barnosky of the University of California at Berkeley, Andrés García of Universidad Autónoma de México, Robert M. Pringle of Princeton University and Todd M. Palmer of the University of Florida.
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We have a strange picture unfolding across the world of late. I have been thinking to write a bit about it, yet kept letting the moment slip, thinking the ship might right itself - not the case apparently.
Sure, Greece remains in the EU. That is a surprise, and yet the surprises continue there with new elections called. But somehow I sense the cascading moment has passed, where Greece would unfold the whole house of cards in Europe. It could still, but the rest of the world is looking to the EU for some stability just now, as things are unravelling elsewhere.
The two big items are Saudi Arabia and China. Saudi is going broke at US$12 billion a month. It tried to cripple the competition in the oil industry by forcing prices to fall, and was successful with Canada and numerous smaller producing states, but alas, they couldn't defeat the USA, who used technology to crawl out of the nose-dive. Now that Saudi Arabia has found new identity as the saviour of Sunnis in the Middle East, it is spending big internally and externally. This is unsustainable at current oil prices.
Meanwhile, the US has succeeded in cutting oil production costs through enhanced technology, and is now happily watching Saudi teeter on the edge, while it prepares itself of a vast wave of industrial growth powered by cheap oil and cheap labour.
Across the Pacific, China is crumbling into a heap of shit. Everyone is saying all will be well, but the bad news just keeps rolling on. We all wait until Monday to see if there will be a global sell-off of shares off the back of continuing bad results coming out of the Middle Kingdom. No one knows what the consequences will be if China's descent isn't stemmed. But one thing is certain, everyone is panic-stricken about the consequences of both China's financial troubles, and the unfolding demand of increased opening up of the financial structures made obvious by the troubles. How will the political system cope? I gather, privately, many are seriously concerned.
But the US has finally decided to lift its game in Syria - can that country take more killing? I'm staggered there is anyone left to kill in there. And just to please the comfortable world, we have the ongoing entertainment of bombings in Thailand and shooting attempts on French trains. No where is safe any more!
Sneaky Turkey, which hated the Kurdish intrusion into Turkish politics last election, played the blunt clever hand of bombing the Kurds while joining the US in bombing ISIL. The Kurds took the bait, and started killing Turkish soldiers which is exactly what the PM of Turkey wanted. Now when the next election is called soon, the Kurds will be on the nose in Turkey, and that democratic dictator running Turkey will win.
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We all wait until Monday to see if there will be a global sell-off of shares off the back of continuing bad results coming out of the Middle Kingdom.
I hate to be prescient at such a vast level. So the shit really hit the fan today, and the world waits for tomorrow to see if Shiva will enforce the follow-on (for Indian cricketers).
I suspect there will be reverse-correction, as this is the common pattern probably instigated by national banks. Then we could have the dead-cat-bounce effect. China is in free-fall. I can't help saying I knew it would happen when the Shanghai index suffered so severely in past weeks.
The only thing I can offer is that those in the US will probably survive this one, due to their oil sufficiency. But it will affect even Americans, though more Asians and Australians. Luckily the fund I manage has well over 30% cash holdings - we might even pick up a few bargains once the bottom is reached.
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I hate to be prescient at such a vast level. So the shit really hit the fan today, and the world waits for tomorrow to see if Shiva will enforce the follow-on (for Indian cricketers).
I suspect there will be reverse-correction, as this is the common pattern probably instigated by national banks. Then we could have the dead-cat-bounce effect. China is in free-fall. I can't help saying I knew it would happen when the Shanghai index suffered so severely in past weeks.
The only thing I can offer is that those in the US will probably survive this one, due to their oil sufficiency. But it will affect even Americans, though more Asians and Australians. Luckily the fund I manage has well over 30% cash holdings - we might even pick up a few bargains once the bottom is reached.
China have shadow banks that lend out money - and that banking isn't sound so they (their customers) have inflated the stock market in China. Then foreign Investors got tired of the manipulation of the ShangHai stock market and it fell.
The Stock Market in Stockholm fell heavily too, this black Monday, but since we got other companies here we reagained half of the loss today.
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How bad is it, really?
The wars in the Middle East - be it against al-Assad or Islamic State or in Yemen - show no signs of relenting. Moreover, Russia now delivers weapons openly to al-Assad. The latest Russian warships carried the 'latest and greatest' Russian stuff openly on their decks, while passing through Dardanelles.
Hence, al-Assad will go until the bitter end, and what happens then, nobody knows.
As far as I can tell, the only feasible state structure is some sort of theocracy as the most powerful rebel factions accept only such outcome.
IS will stand until it is thoroughly demolished. So far there is nobody willing to go all the way in doing that. So the embodiment of utter darkness will persist.
Dramatic fall of oil prices and China going under look like serious enough events, but there is one more on the background. Russia is taking an immense blow though the fall of oil prices and the developments in the US. It is leaking money and its economy looks worse and worse. Morover, let's not forget that it gains 70% of its revenue from selling gas and oil. It is a petrostate with world's second largfest nuclear arsenal for all means and purposes. Its predecessor, USSR, literally collapsed when oil pricess fell dramatically in 1980s.
There you are.
Now, Russia keeps waging an undeclared war in Ukraine and it has no viable exit strategy. Withdrawal is unacceptable. Victory is beyond its reach. Its bank accounts keep emptying. And it likes to rattle its nukes. Its nuclear forces went on high alert a few days ago.
It seems to be bent on pushing till bitter end as well.
I'm not sure that our overall standing now is any better than during the toughest days of Cold War. It is rather the opposite.
The Doomsday Clock is three minutes till midnight - as during the iciest times of Cold War: http://thebulletin.org/timeline
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Will Estonia retaliate for the severe sentence of it's security man captured by the Russians?
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I fear the global economic situation is far worse than what commentators are willing to admit. It is not in anyone's interest to be honest about it. I had thought the US would stand up to the latest turmoil, but now I am less certain of that.
"Total private and government debt in the major developed countries has ballooned from $US142 trillion to $US199 trillion since 2007, according to McKinsey consulting, an increase of $US57 trillion. This is debt that will never be paid back, says Ken Courtis: "You can imagine what would happen to interest rates and the currency of a country if the government said 'Sorry folks, we won't be paying back the money'." "
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Will Estonia retaliate for the severe sentence of it's security man captured by the Russians?
It is unlikely. It seems that the efforts will go on at the politcal and diplomatic level, but no forceful actions.
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Researchers of globalisation have claimed that before World War I our planet was on the verge of globalisation breakthrough. There was more cross-border movement and communication than ever before. Then the wild fire of nationalism flared and 10 million people were killed on the 800 km long front line in 4 years. Subsequently, there were Second World War and 50 years of Cold War with people looking at each other through the gun sights.
Right now the level of globalisation is again unprecedented and nationalism, religion and climate change flame up wars and mass migration. Europe is hit by a flood of refugees. In May-June, there were only in Libya 450,000 people waiting to be ferried to Europe. About 10 million Syrians have been displaced. Islamic State will put many more on the move.
We will see which way it will go this time. Many Europeans argue for re-establishing borders, isolating Europe from the Middle East and North Africa. Will it be barbed wire, sensors and machine guns or something else?
Will it be humanity and human-ness or will we go back to WWI thinking?
Anyhow, I'd reckon the mass migration of hundreds-of-thousands-soon-to-be-millions-and-many-millions from poor areas to rich countries has began.
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Do wealthy nations accept the influx, put up walls and block access, or intervene in the country of source?
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Do wealthy nations accept the influx, put up walls and block access, or intervene in the country of source?
It would be nice to solve the problems through intervention far away, but does it work, really? Even if it does, how long would it take? The problem is already walking, crawling, screaming, jumping the trains and drowning on European coasts. Effective and successful intervention is a nice dream.
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There will be trouble, no matter which option is taken. The world is changing, whether we like it or not.
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There will be trouble, no matter which option is taken. The world is changing, whether we like it or not.
Indeed.
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Do wealthy nations accept the influx, put up walls and block access, or intervene in the country of source?
Heh, we got serious problems now with the refugees from Syria.
Nice though that they would like to walk through Denmark with the aim to reach good old Sweden.
Wearing signs that said "Not Denmark NO, To Sweden YES.
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And there are endless articles about the refugees in the newspaper.
I even saw one where the author said that she was a seven year old refugee from Estonia after II:nd World War when she came to Sweden - and there was an authentic black and white photo.
So we took care of the Estonian, Finnish and Baltic refugees in the 1940's plus all the people in the White buses from the concentration camps in Germany and Polen
What Do Estonia for the refugees of today - Juhani? Is there any chance for the people from Syria to get to your country - or is it a dead end street?
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I suspect the problem of IS has only just begun. Their targets are so easy to select, and deliver such mayhem, as well as cause structures to crumble. Take Saudi Arabia, a structure of power that IS despises. You can easily imagine, without me saying it, how they could cause mayhem in that country. Then there is Turkey, already rift by religious rivalry - not too much trouble to get those people in huge outrage either.
OK, so they don't have the command of the machinery of a modern state, like the Nazis, but given sufficient rope, their influence will reach an impossible-to-allow level.
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It's one of those things which hindsight commentators will say, we could see this coming from a long way off. But actually, there are many little steps that lead up to a big step, and even then, there are conditions which divert intensity elsewhere. Now, however, we have the fact that developed nations have put 'boots on the ground' in Syria. Or at least, one nation - Russia. There is a lot of strategic self-interest involved.
The Arab states stand around dithering. I mean, did anyone ever expect they would do anything, except in Yemen? There is only one state that has the capacity to initiate an alternative involvement to Russia, but Obama hasn't the stomach for throwing American lives into the cesspool of the Middle East, and who can blame him?
One gets the feeling that huge changes are unfolding from the new war zones, be they through military of humanitarian consequences.
But it's not just the Middle East and terrorism, we also have climate change. Vast numbers of humanity are on the move, and it will only increase. We are entering a period of instability not previously seen on this planet.
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And there are endless articles about the refugees in the newspaper.
I even saw one where the author said that she was a seven year old refugee from Estonia after II:nd World War when she came to Sweden - and there was an authentic black and white photo.
So we took care of the Estonian, Finnish and Baltic refugees in the 1940's plus all the people in the White buses from the concentration camps in Germany and Polen
What Do Estonia for the refugees of today - Juhani? Is there any chance for the people from Syria to get to your country - or is it a dead end street?
Estonia tries to take in numbers that are manageable and sustainable. 200-300 people would be such a number.
The general attitude is rather negative, though. It is one thing to take in people from a similar culture and with similar atiitudes. It is another matter to take in people with a dramatically different experience and understangings.
Norwegians tried it on a large scale, and they were considered weak by Somalis: http://www.siotw.org/modules/news_english/item.php?itemid=615
Now, I hear, Norwegians have gone much more forceful on various immigrants. Now they use Sweden as a negative example: http://swedenreport.org/2015/05/16/sweden-a-warning-example-to-norway/
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I suspect the problem of IS has only just begun. Their targets are so easy to select, and deliver such mayhem, as well as cause structures to crumble. Take Saudi Arabia, a structure of power that IS despises. You can easily imagine, without me saying it, how they could cause mayhem in that country. Then there is Turkey, already rift by religious rivalry - not too much trouble to get those people in huge outrage either.
OK, so they don't have the command of the machinery of a modern state, like the Nazis, but given sufficient rope, their influence will reach an impossible-to-allow level.
They're good with IT and they have billions of dollars.
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Estonia tries to take in numbers that are manageable and sustainable. 200-300 people would be such a number.
The general attitude is rather negative, though. It is one thing to take in people from a similar culture and with similar atiitudes. It is another matter to take in people with a dramatically different experience and understangings.
Norwegians tried it on a large scale, and they were considered weak by Somalis: http://www.siotw.org/modules/news_english/item.php?itemid=615
Now, I hear, Norwegians have gone much more forceful on various immigrants. Now they use Sweden as a negative example: http://swedenreport.org/2015/05/16/sweden-a-warning-example-to-norway/
This is indeed a strange matter. Many countries do not want to take in large numbers (I mean like 160,000) due to precisely this problem of having their home culture disrupted. In Australia there has been discussion of only taking in Christians. The desire to sustain the national cultural is understandable, but alas, I feel we have passed that point. Germany has taken a major decision that will unalterably shift the core nature of it's national character. I very much doubt other countries will be able to hold out, and in fact, to the extent they do, it is likely they will fall behind in some critical ways.
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This is indeed a strange matter. Many countries do not want to take in large numbers (I mean like 160,000) due to precisely this problem of having their home culture disrupted. In Australia there has been discussion of only taking in Christians. The desire to sustain the national cultural is understandable, but alas, I feel we have passed that point. Germany has taken a major decision that will unalterably shift the core nature of it's national character. I very much doubt other countries will be able to hold out, and in fact, to the extent they do, it is likely they will fall behind in some critical ways.
Germans have had their nationalism strongly suppressed for more than half a century. But it is still there, quite deep, albeit its full strength remains unclear.
I would not bet on Germany swallowing the newcomers peacefully. There will be clashes and Germans will not tolerate all sorts of excessive Islamic things introduced to their world.
Last time, it took a whole world 6 years to put Germans on their knees after Germans decided they were uebermensch and attempted to claim what they thought was rightfully theirs.
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I'd reckon the refugee issue boils down to sharing welfare.
Refugees run to have a better life in rich society. Rich society remains benevolent as long as the percentages of aliens/foreigners in it stay low and effects negligible.
Beyond a certain threshold - say 20-25% of poor people from a very different culture - these rich and human rights-orientated Western societies will put on very different faces.
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Yes and no. Yes, it does make a difference how many are involved, and how wealthy the country is. If the country is not wealthy, the refugees can simply cross the boarder and set up tents, then they have to fend for themselves or get help from international charities. If the country is wealthy, there are standards that must be applied, and this initially cost a lot of money. Later on, it has been assessed that immigrants like these add significantly to the wealth of the host nation, but that is conditioned by the skill level of the immigrants and the cultural compatibility.
No, because not all refugees are running for a better life in a wealthy country. Many run to have a better life, usually young men leaving China or Africa. But there are also vast numbers of refugees who do not want to leave their home country - they like their own country and culture. It is war they typically are running from. In previous cases, countries have been able to offer temporary sanctuary, after which they return. This happened with the Bosnian crisis. But the current Syrian conflict is unlikely to end for a very long time. Temporary sanctuary is not really an option.
UAE doesn't want to take any in, because they are already only 5% of their own population. The level of absorption rate is a good criteria, so long as the intake can be controlled. Once it can't be controlled, the whole pack of cards is thrown in the air. I see now Germany has closed its boarders.
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Fires in California - looks very bad. Is anyone talking of Climate Change?
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Estonia tries to take in numbers that are manageable and sustainable. 200-300 people would be such a number.
A quite low number in my humble opinion.
This from a country that have a history of the refugee problematics. But who really cares any more.
The ladies from these refugee areas are very sweet though.
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Fires in California - looks very bad. Is anyone talking of Climate Change?
With all these wars and mass migrations it is all business as usual: CO2 output is not only not shrinking, but accelerating. Blowing stuff up usually means fires and other nasty things.
(http://actionwidgets.org/en/e/co2-m/600-keeling.png)
http://co2now.org/
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I'm a bit confused by the refugee situation in the EU. If this was a single nation, there would have been a central response and action from the government. It appears that the EU central government is happy to sit around talking of financial matters, but with Syrian refugees, it either has no voice or no power.
I wonder how these refugees are being fed and cared for medically - is it all up to NGOs?
No individual country can solve this crisis, and Hungary is obviously playing tough. Why has this been allowed to progress for so long without a united solution within the EU? These people require temporary sanctuary, of some kind, while long term solutions are resolved.
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I'm a bit confused by the refugee situation in the EU. If this was a single nation, there would have been a central response and action from the government. It appears that the EU central government is happy to sit around talking of financial matters, but with Syrian refugees, it either has no voice or no power.
I wonder how these refugees are being fed and cared for medically - is it all up to NGOs?
No individual country can solve this crisis, and Hungary is obviously playing tough. Why has this been allowed to progress for so long without a united solution within the EU? These people require temporary sanctuary, of some kind, while long term solutions are resolved.
Countries at the receiving end are dealing with the influx as they can. Hungarians are obviously under enormous pressure so they try to block the entrance to their country. Some countries are cooperating: Slovenia stopped train traffic to Croatia to slow the flow down. NGOs, government agencies and volunteers are in action to keep these people fed.
Yet...it seems increasingly certain that of the whole mass Syrians constitute about 10%. The others are the ones who try to free ride into welfare societies of the EU. They are Albanians, Turks, Iraqis, etc.
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The figures I've seen from Eurostat, only covering 2nd Qtr to June this year, show Syria at 21% of refugees applying for asylum status.
But this '1 in 5' stat obscures the figures showing at least 45% coming from war torn countries, and most likely much more, as we don't know what makes up the 'Other' countries at 27%. Most likely we are dealing with over 50% refugees from homelands destroyed by war.
But we don't know what the recent figures are for the last two and a half months, and anyway, it still leaves a question of what is to be done with them all. The bulk are coming from Turkey I assume. That would be the place to try and contain the flow, by funding better conditions in the camps there.
But I'm not being paid to solve this, and my knowledge of the full situation is slim. Enough to know though, that whatever the approach, it's not working.
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The figures I've seen from Eurostat, only covering 2nd Qtr to June this year, show Syria at 21% of refugees applying for asylum status.
But this '1 in 5' stat obscures the figures showing at least 45% coming from war torn countries, and most likely much more, as we don't know what makes up the 'Other' countries at 27%. Most likely we are dealing with over 50% refugees from homelands destroyed by war.
But we don't know what the recent figures are for the last two and a half months, and anyway, it still leaves a question of what is to be done with them all. The bulk are coming from Turkey I assume. That would be the place to try and contain the flow, by funding better conditions in the camps there.
But I'm not being paid to solve this, and my knowledge of the full situation is slim. Enough to know though, that whatever the approach, it's not working.
In April-June 2015 out of 213,000 refugees arriving in EU, 44,000 were Syrians. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3240010/Number-refugees-arriving-Europe-soars-85-year-just-one-five-war-torn-Syria.html
Imagine for a moment that al-Assad has fallen. Will all these bearded men lay down their guns? Stop and turn to building a state in Syria? (What kind of a state, actually?)
I am afraid the fall of al-Assad would be the beginning of something on a much bigger scale.
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Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, these refugees are not going home anytime soon.
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Syria: I have to say, this is becoming more like Pandora's Box every day. The escalation from tin-pot, extreme Middle Eastern brutality and inhumanity punch-up between no-bodies, into an international super-power tinder-box of high-explosives, has happened in a matter of months.
The famous "West" has been reluctant to put 'boots-on-the-ground' in the Levant and Iraq. The reason to my mind is oil - the USA has enough thank you very much, and the rest of you can get stuffed. Why should the American people be willing to sacrifice their youth to some Islamic internecine war of obscene atrocity? There is no will within the US to commit, when no one liked them for what they did previously anyway. I think they have a good reason to tell the impossibly intransigent Sunni-Shia mob to go kill themselves, if they can't stop a thousands year old feud.
But then the Americans, who are the only ones who have the resources to make any difference, begin to wonder if perhaps there are other reasons to take action in the M-E. But what other reasons are these?
Meanwhile, Russia, apparently sees a direct self-interest in the fact that Syria has allowed Russia to have a navy port. Now this is in Syria, and yet somehow, it also applies to something in the Dead Sea (of Jason fame), which I can't get straight. Anyway, Russia sees very distinct self-interest in supporting Assad in Syria. So they send in their 'boots' and all the rest.
Not to be outdone, Iran also decides to send in its 'boots' and no doubt it's famous general (although his name hasn't been mentioned yet).
Meanwhile, US (and Australia for God's sake!) has upped it's operations in bombing IS in Syria, after finally pulling Turkey on board.
Then Russia bombs the US supported anti-Assad forces. And Iran is doing something - what we don't yet know.
Next we have Norway, along with 'unnamed' other Russian impacted EU nations, feel it necessary to boost their military capability in response to a generally perceived hyper-activity by Russia in the North Sea as well as Ukraine.
So, now we have the US fighting on the same side as Russia and Iran in Syria, except they are not talking nor coordinating, and the likelyhood of killing each other very high. This is the mad hatters tea party in hell. Meanwhile let's not leave out the huge military and interventionist expense by the deficit-ridden Saudi Arabia, who has just murdered hundreds of Harjj pilgrims (Jesus, you'd of thought they could at least manage their one international religious event with all their money).
I'm godsmacked by the insane complexity of such a horrendous personal-suffering situation.
Now they tell us that the refugees invading Europe from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria (read George Bush's children) are about to multiply exponentially (blowback?). Considering the Taliban have begun their conventional warfare reclaiming of Afghanistan, and the Afghan government is about to prove itself completely incompetent.
Next China is in decline, which has triggered the biggest fall in resources stocks across the globe for a decade.
But wait, the governor of the Bank of England has just reported that the world economy is facing the biggest threat to financial stability for a very, very long time. Why? It's something we often don't realise, but there is a tendency to wonder why governments of the world states are so beholding to fossil fuel energy corporations. Think one reason: vast, unbelievable quantities of wealth. Climate Change, the darling of science and greenies, the dawning realisation of nation states that this threat is so real and devastating, that indeed we all have to shift to Renewables, has left one critical fact out of the equation: this will upturn the wealth structure of the globe.
Climate Change policies being unavoidably enforced on all governments, means that three quarters of global fossil fuel resources will have to be left in the ground. That represents a vast equity devaluation, impacting international finance in a way very few have anticipated. Insurance companies are in the front line. If we wait, and put off the transition, the eventual and unavoidable consequences on global wealth hierarchies will push the world economy over the cliff in a way that will make the GFC look like kindergartner. But even if action is taken sooner, the consequences are still devastating and unpredictable.
We live in exciting times...
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Not to be outdone, Iran also decides to send in its 'boots' and no doubt it's famous general (although his name hasn't been mentioned yet).
Well, his name has finally been mentioned in dispatches: Major-General Qasim Suleimani.
Yes, he is in there, and yes he is organising, but more - he is running the whole show, Russians and all!
Assad was doing well for a while, then his forces collapsed and things were looking dire. Now we have Iraqi Shia Militants, Iranian forces, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Shia local groups and Russian air power, as well as limited ground assistance - and it's all directed by you know whom: Major-General Qasim Suleimani. Syria, it has been explained, will have a 'minor role'. Suleimani battle against the radical Sunnis, drawing in Moscow, Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus.
If this man did not belong to the evil empire of Iran, he would be globally renown as a famous hero and leader.
He went to Moscow in August and met with Putin - the result is what you see.
And the US with it's allies? One wonders at the ineffectual twiddling of Western countries in this fight - they are out of their depth, and methinks, their reluctance to get involved too much is a wise approach. Recently we had US troops on the ground in freeing some IS prisoners about to be murdered. With the help of the Kurds, because there were Kurds in the prisoners...? No there weren't. What was the game? We don't yet know, but there does appear to be concern that the US is losing control in this area, and Iran is pulling all the strings.
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Nice topic, eh? A mess beyond anything one could rationally understand and most importantly - with near-infinite number of spoilers. No peace is possible. No agreement is possible. Israelis say that they merely count bodies on all sides and try to figure out whether and when IS would get to their borders.
We have witnessed a month of Russian airstrikes and it has become clear how utterly ridiculous endeavour that is. Russians are about 20-25 years behind the US/West and bombard God knows what. Precision strikes exist only in their minds. Their reading of the situation is...to put it mildy...that of morons. Just look at the map their General Staff showed last week: https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/26001/94845085.131/0_140082_4067e5d2_orig
Green is Jabhat al-Nusra, Blue is Islamic State. There are no other factions according to Russian leadership. Pathetic and ridiculous.
So Russians are hitting anyone and claim that these people are Islamic State. Apparently, Jabhat al-Nusra are also Islamic State in their mind.
At the same time, Russians have supplied extremely lethal weapons to al-Assad troops. They include thermobaric multiple-launch rocket systems.
Take a look: https://youtu.be/3SrKZd5tpNo
Saudis supply the other side with hundreds and hundreds of US-made TOW anti-tank missiles. Within the last 2-3 weeks rebels have decimated government's armoured forces. Literally decimated. An example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_kPl4e7db4
Thus, it looks like Russians threw their prestige and authority on the scales and are gradually sinking into a quagmire called Middle East. In the process, about 70,000 more people have fled Syria and aim for Europe. It may be that Turks could shoot down a flying Russian idiot and then we might face a NATO-Russian standoff.
It all looks like a pile of crap. Putin is like Hitler. He got stuck in Ukraine and decided to start a new war. Quite like Hitler did after conquering France.
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Things are getting better and better.
After Russians got involved, 120,000 more people have fled Syria.
In fact, ISIS has been advancing and it has taken several cities it failed to take previously.
Apparently, Russians intend to build 4 military bases in Syria and quadruple the number of sorties they fly daily.
US, Turkey and Saudis have decided to supply more arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels to hold Russians and their allies (Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians) back.
US is deploying figther planes to Turkey to ward off Russians.
It may be that first Russians have been killed in Syria already.
This is all not to mention that passenger plane that crashed on Sinai.
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A quite low number in my humble opinion.
This from a country that have a history of the refugee problematics. But who really cares any more.
The ladies from these refugee areas are very sweet though.
There will be no upper limit to the number of these refugees. None.
Everyone runs: Syrians, Iraqis, there are hundreds of thousands of Africans piling up on the Mediterranean coast, etc.
NOBODY will be able to absorb these masses.
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There will be no upper limit to the number of these refugees. None.
Everyone runs: Syrians, Iraqis, there are hundreds of thousands of Africans piling up on the Mediterranean coast, etc.
NOBODY will be able to absorb these masses.
True, and now even Sweden has reached the limit. We get about 5000 refugees per week, since early autumn, and the situation is starting to get out of control, there is simply no room for more. So our government is about to seek funding from EU to at least have some financial backup for the situation.
in my mind I think that Finland and the Baltic states could open up more ... for the greatest immigrant movement in history.
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There will be no upper limit to the number of these refugees. None.
Everyone runs: Syrians, Iraqis, there are hundreds of thousands of Africans piling up on the Mediterranean coast, etc.
NOBODY will be able to absorb these masses.
It is a tough situation, for everyone. I can't think of an answer, except that the wars stop. And despite all kinds of hopeful signs, it just keeps getting worse. I now hear that the Saudis, the US, and Iran are going to talk... just can't see that working.
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It is a tough situation, for everyone. I can't think of an answer, except that the wars stop. And despite all kinds of hopeful signs, it just keeps getting worse. I now hear that the Saudis, the US, and Iran are going to talk... just can't see that working.
It's probably US initiative, but it is 100% hopeless. The reason is simple: A dominating majority of rebels fighting in Syria are Islamists. Roughly 50% of them (not even considering ISIS) are radicals who do not pay much attention to what the US says. Their suppliers - Saudis, Turks, Qataris - do, and hence, the talks. However, it is merely a formality.
Moreover, there is ISIS that earns US $50 million a month, and they do not give a crap about any peace talks.
The US lost its authority among Syrian rebels completely after Obama decided to not take action after al-Assad gassed 1,000 people in Damascus. Before that Obama had a "clever" idea of delegating the issue of Syrian civil war to Turks and Qataris who supported conservative Muslim Brotherhood from the outset. The result of this is obvious - there are no moderate (secular) opposition groups fighting al-Assad.
Obama is useless in military-strategic affairs. Unfortunately. He's incapable of proactive approach and seizing initiative. Largely thanks to his early pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan we have now the ISIS - the most sincere, heartfelt dream of Osama bin Laden manifested in physical world. Imagine that - a bunch of radicals (there were 3,000 men in al-Qaeda altogether) attacked WTC, triggered a decade-long campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, drove the US and its allies to exhaustion, and established a caliphate. Whoa!
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In my mind I think that Finland and the Baltic states could open up more ... for the greatest immigrant movement in history.
To become overloaded like Sweden?
We could rather take in Ukrainians as our cultures differ much less.
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To become overloaded like Sweden?
We could rather take in Ukrainians as our cultures differ much less.
Well it was a bit of a teaser regarding the Baltic states. But Finland is doing poor, all along the decades.
Yes, it is true that Sweden has definitely reached a limit of how many people we can handle with a decent level of social arrangement. New suggestions has come from the most unexpected political heights. Last week there were 10 000 immigrants recorded and we are now about to pull the brakes.
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These are the times to come. Anybody still enthusiastic about taking in thousands of refugees from war zones? (rhetorical question)
Paris Terror Attacks Leave 60 Dead, 100 Hostages. The worst attack in the history of the French capital is underway.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/13/20-killed-in-multiple-paris-attacks.html
A coordinated assault by multiple tefforists is underway in Paris.
Police say the gunmen—as many as six—were armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades and killed at least 60 people so far, according to BFMTV.
Some 100 people are believed to be held hostage in the Bataclan theater after a performance by American rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
French RAID police—its SWAT—have been deployed to the venue.
According to the French daily Liberation, a witness to the Bataclan shooting heard one of the shooters shout “Allahu Akhbar.” French media has discussed the possible use of a gas cylinder with nails as the explosive device, as were used in the 1995 Islamist terror attacks in the Paris metro.
The office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where al Qaeda affiliates Said and Cherif Kouachi killed 12 and left 11 wounded last January, is a seven-minute walk from the Bataclan.
Eyewitnesses have described bodies lying dead in the street in what U.S. officials are already suggesting is another coordinated series of tefforist attacks—the worst in the French capital since the Hebdo shooting, which was followed a day later by an ISIS-inspired shooting at the Hypercasher kosher marketplace on the outskirts of Paris.
The first known attack was on the Petit Cambodge restaurant in Paris's 10th arrondissement.
Almost simultaenously, reports of explosions came from the Stade de France, just north of Paris, where France and Germany were playing in a soccer match. President François Hollande was in attendance and safely evacuated. At least three people were reportedly killed and 80,000 evacuated.
All the gunman are reportedly on the loose. It is not known who they are or what tefforist group, if any, they are associated with.
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Its like up to 153 dead right now last I checked. Hate this shit. I hope the US bands with France and goes over to kick some ass. I hate war. But shit enough already.
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A few things come to mind.
1. The refugees are escaping exactly this kind of thing, so it is not they per se who inflict this carnage. But how can anyone know who is who amongst the refugees, and it's the long term immigrants into France who have usually been the actors in these assaults. There is going to be much talk in Europe about generosity towards Muslim immigrants and refugees - popular opinion will force governments to shut down their boarders.
2. The big issue now, is how will the 'West' respond? Is this massive assault sufficient to launch a full scale coalition invasion into IS territory? Personally, I think if they don't do it now, they'll have to later.
3. How will Saudi Arabia and Iran respond? And is a combined campaign including Sunni, Shia, Russia, French, British and American forces at all possible? Sounds like our worst nightmare.
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There's no ass to kick with armed forces except that of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. But the perpetrators are already among European populations.
Moreover, it is unclear who and how will govern ISIS territories after the ISIS will be destroyed? It looks like erosion of states (like it happened to Somalia) is a fact of life in some areas.
I'd say French will go into overdrive in manhandling their Muslim population. They pushed them around ferociously after 9/11 and I'd guess they'd come up with something akin very much to Guantanamo.
Saudis and other Gulf states are more interested in pushing back Iran than fighting ISIS. In fact, ISIS is a blunt weapon to use against Iran and shiites.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/w...es-air-war-on-isis-allies-slip-away.html?_r=0
So far, eight Arab and Western allies have conducted about 5 percent of the 2,700 airstrikes in Syria, compared with 30 percent of the 5,100 strikes in Iraq, where many NATO partners also fly missions against the Islamic State. But the United States was always likely to fly the majority of the missions in Syria, as it does in Iraq, since its air forces are much larger than those of the Arab states or any forces deployed by Western allies.
...
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have shifted most of their aircraft to their fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Jordan, reacting to the grisly execution of one of its pilots by the Islamic State, and in a show of solidarity with the Saudis, has also diverted combat flights to Yemen. Jets from Bahrain last struck targets in Syria in February, coalition officials said. Qatar is flying patrols over Syria, but its role has been modest.
“They’ve all been busy doing other things, Yemen being the primary draw,” Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who leads the air war from a $60 million command center at this sprawling base in Qatar, said of the Arab allies. He added that those allies still fly periodic missions in Syria and allow American jets to use their bases.
The United Arab Emirates last carried out strikes in Syria in March; Jordan in August; and Saudi Arabia in September, according to information provided by allied officials last week. But the Arab allies insist they are still playing an essential, if less active, military role in the war.
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Yes, and I think this is the problem. Anything France does in anger out of this event, is more likely to be within France, simply because they don't have the military or diplomacy clout to make a difference against IS on their own ground. Had the attack happened in the US, things would have been very different.
But my guess is that a massive reaction is exactly what IS wants, and France is only an easy target. They will be dying to strike the US. As I see this IS movement, they are primarily interested in the Levant, but for associated reasons, they also want to violate the West. And yet they don't have the pan-international agenda that Al Qaeda has/had. I sense they want to draw the West into the Middle East, to escalate their cause - to create a god-awful Armageddon which they believe they will win. It's a kind of death wish, which psychologically lies behind their death fixation.
As so, they will continue to assault Western nations in any way they can - it seems to help their own cause, for some twisted psychological reason.
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There is a prophecy about Syria:
Syria will collapse down to the feet of its conqueror but the conqueror is going to turn out to be somebody else.
by this woman: http://www.baba-vanga.com/2015/05/23/baba-vanga-predictions-and-are-they-phenomenon/
But her percentage of correct hits is around 80%.
Anyhow, here's more: http://www.alamongordo.com/the-forgotten-baba-vanga-prophecies-about-world-war-iii/
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A lot of people are pondering this latest IS assault in a Western city. What appears different, is that this is the first time a sophisticated and coordinated (possibly from outside France) attack has been launched. Up until now, it has all been about the radicalised 'lone wolf' or at least amateur attack. This marks a change in strategy.
Some have said it's due to IS failing on the battle field in Syria and Iraq. True, the Kurds did take back some place important to the Yazidis, but it seems a little premature to claim IS is on the run. Certainly, an attack like just happened in Paris must be a significant boost to recruitment among disenfranchised Muslim youth in Western countries, but do IS rely on Western youth that much? I'd have thought they were an unreliable and marginal fighting force.
I suppose, there could be a change in IS command, which is tipping back to Al Qaeda's strategy, but I've heard no verification of that.
Then we have Russia and the US agreeing on a political strategy for Syria. Fat chance that'll be worth much.
It now remains to be seen what the 'super powers' will do next.
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Talk of war has begun - alas, this is a critical moment.
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At least one of the attackers seems to have come from Syria, lately. Hence, the issue of refugees takes on a different context.
You would not believe how willing are young Muslims from Europe to go to fight in Syria.
I have talked to a former recruiter of Mujahideen (they fought against Soviets in Afganistan) who tries to talk some sense to Muslim youngsters in Europe. The fact is that the number of people willing to go to war for ISIS is in a different order of magnitude. It is that much higher.
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Yes, and it appears it is not so much the initial immigrant generation, but subsequent generations. So screening the immigrant/refugee is critically important, but it's their subsequent children that is the main worry.
I can only assume this is a cultural problem, in that Muslim youth feel dissatisfied in their life paths, possibly due to the inherent racism in traditional cultures. All they have in front of them are options of boring suburban drudgery, crime, or straight to heaven in an exciting adventure. But Australia is a high level multicultural nation, where there are not significant obstacles to cultural involvement, and yet we have a lot of radicalisation problems here. The problem appears to be more complex than simple social exclusion issues.
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Talk of war? G20 wraps up and we have stiffened sentiment towards support for France, but no action.
At current status, France is on its own - bomb a few more targets and bury the dead at home.
Yet somehow, I feel there is a new tide growing for the West to enter the BoG (Boots on Ground).
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At current status, France is on its own - bomb a few more targets and bury the dead at home.
Not really, as France (through president Hollande) has declared that this late attack in Paris means War, all EU states has an obligation to support France. And the Swedish minister of Foreign Affairs (Margot Wallström) has already said that we will support France in any way that we can.
Sweden has in this very moment officers in Iraq that support fighting Iraq forces toward Daesh, with advices and military strategy, this engagement for instance can be increased.
Note that the Swedish Army do not engage with fire forces, only strategic know how.
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With all due respect - if US decides not to go - nobody goes. Only the US has the muscle to go in.
The rest - advice, training and other stuff has been proven pretty ineffectivein the case of Iraq. Iraq is a spineless state. Iran has much more backbone and will to fight Sunni radicals and others.
However, there are about 25,000 Shiites from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hezbollah, etc. fighting in Syria under Iranian command. They have been making all the difference.
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With all due respect - if US decides not to go - nobody goes. Only the US has the muscle to go in.
The rest - advice, training and other stuff has been proven pretty ineffectivein the case of Iraq. Iraq is a spineless state. Iran has much more backbone and will to fight Sunni radicals and others.
However, there are about 25,000 Shiites from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hezbollah, etc. fighting in Syria under Iranian command. They have been making all the difference.
It appears that the current patchwork response to IS is less than satisfactory. Every claim to be degrading IS turns out false. Even Russia's entry has had only minimal effect. I doubt anyone is happy about Iran winning this war for a pan Shia Middle East empire. I have to agree with Juhani - without the US, nothing significant can happen. But Obama is obviously not keen, and that reflects the mood in the US.
Russia is now angry, as is France, but I can't see that changing ground situation. I'd have to say, it's not until IS conduct a major atrocity within the US, will full scale fight be taken up. Unfortunately, IS also knows this, and they are actively seeking the US to come into the battle, to create their word for armageddon.
Having said that, I do think France's call to upgrading Nato involvement will have some effect. All current partners fighting in Syria and Iraq will increase their efforts. Will this make any difference? I doubt it. But worse, even if the US does go in fully committed, will that create an even worse future for the area? Probably.
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yes, wg
but you'll will see what will happen within the next Three months.
It is all about "energy" as you know.
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Would be interesting to see that happen Jahn. Unfortunately the western powers have known how to destroy IS for years, and it could happen within a few months if they were really serious. But they are not serious. They prefer to posture and pretend - I'm not entirely sure why, and what they are gaining out of all this. But for sure the answer is as plain as the nose on their faces, and they know it.
The simple answer is Turkey. Turkey supports IS and binds IS's greatest foes, the Kurds. Everyone know it, and no one wants to step up to changing it. Without Turkeys support for IS, it would collapse in a matter of months.
So I'll tell you what to look for if the west ever decides to get serious - Turkey changing sides.
Why don't they? Turkey is Sunni, and the Kurds are Shia. The Kurds seek political power in Turkey. Turkey seeks a Sunni Syria as a trade route to Saudi Arabia. But most importantly Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants total power in Turkey, with his Sunni Black Turks.
Think the western nations can't change this situation? Of course they can, in a flash. So why don't they?
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From my Point of view, It will be a significant change in the Middle East within three months.
It is also wise to take tsar Putins statement for real: That they will find the guys that put the bomb in their jet airliner in Africa "where ever they hide on this planet".
I can read Hollande, I can read Putin, and they both run nations that has a lot of experience in these kind of business.
The guys in Daesh (IS, ISIL) will wish they were never born.
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Well that may be Jahn, and hopefully so. But I can't help ask what spirits are behind these groups, and what battles are going on betwixt the gods.
Meanwhile, the 'powers' are involved in a political solution (without Turkey).
The idea is that the US, Russia and Iran have come up with a plan. Assad goes, and a transition government does two things: firstly they allow time for the Syrian internal powers for whom Assad was only a fronts-person, to reposition themselves. Then the new Syrian government brings in as many different cultural and religious factions as possible, to form a democratic system. With Iran on board, that covers a swag of Shia groups. With Russia, they can tell Assad to piss off.
Of course, Sunni rebel groups, including IS, will take no notice, because although Saudi Arabia will have to modify it's position, it has no influence over it's religious-extremist-spawned Sunni groups. So the battle against them will have to still be fought, except the moderates should come on-board.
The thing about IS, is that it has had little interest in fighting Assad - it has it's own agenda.
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Well that may be Jahn, and hopefully so. But I can't help ask what spirits are behind these groups, and what battles are going on betwixt the gods.
The situation is very complex and no solutions to unlock it will come up soon. What I meant most of all, is that both France and Russia will pin down persons that are Active (and their relatives), or suspected to become Active in the brutal Teff ism that we have seen so many examples of.
To make Syria, and the areas controlled by xaesh (xS), into a gravel heap, that will be the last move by the western alliance.
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From my Point of view, It will be a significant change in the Middle East within three months.
February? I'll keep that in mind.
Last big coalition (after) 9/11 made gigantic mistakes that led to appearance of ISIS.
To be honest, I do not think westerners have it in their brains - to work out functional solutions for states falling apart (Syria, Iraq and others).
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Well that may be Jahn, and hopefully so. But I can't help ask what spirits are behind these groups, and what battles are going on betwixt the gods.
Meanwhile, the 'powers' are involved in a political solution (without Turkey).
The idea is that the US, Russia and Iran have come up with a plan. Assad goes, and a transition government does two things: firstly they allow time for the Syrian internal powers for whom Assad was only a fronts-person, to reposition themselves. Then the new Syrian government brings in as many different cultural and religious factions as possible, to form a democratic system. With Iran on board, that covers a swag of Shia groups. With Russia, they can tell Assad to piss off.
Of course, Sunni rebel groups, including IS, will take no notice, because although Saudi Arabia will have to modify it's position, it has no influence over it's religious-extremist-spawned Sunni groups. So the battle against them will have to still be fought, except the moderates should come on-board.
The thing about IS, is that it has had little interest in fighting Assad - it has it's own agenda.
It's not a plan, but wishful thinking. Western countries have tried push similar thing down on rebels and al-Assad several times already...and failed invariably and miserably.
(1) Practically no rebel group would buy the idea of Syria as a secular state; '
(2) Western powers have pretty much no influence over rebels whose vast majority are Islamists;
(3) Ceasefire with some groups and ongoing war against others - that's possible only on paper.
Moreover, Iran wants Shia-dominated state to have a land bridge to Hezbollah, while Saudis want Sunni state to cut off Hezbollah and roll back Shias in Iraq. My claim, and that of quite a few experts working with the region, is that Western powers have only a residual influence there. Regional dynamics is increasingly shaped by larger countries in the region.
Given, that Iran is already fighting with almost regular units in Syria and may well escalate (Syrian army is pretty much exterminated and lost 90% of its combat value, whereas Iranians and foreign Shias who hold the line now), I'd reckon Saudis are close to acquiring nuclear weapons.
Mind you, that on 26 July 2015 al-Assad gave a speech where he mentioned that Syria might have to yield more territory to rebels. Russians intervened hastily after that.
We are slowly but steadily moving towards the big one in the Middle East and possibly elsewhere.
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Last big coalition (after) 9/11 made gigantic mistakes that led to appearance of ISIS.
So for once, you are on the same track as I (was).
The false flag operation of 9 11 was only an excuse to start that crazy crusade in Afgahnistan and Iraq.
Look how fast after that day they yankees had a new agenda. If I remember it right they were into Afgahnistan in October.
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So for once, you are on the same track as I (was).
The false flag operation of 9 11 was only an excuse to start that crazy crusade in Afgahnistan and Iraq.
Look how fast after that day they yankees had a new agenda. If I remember it right they were into Afgahnistan in October.
Jahn, I am on a completely different track.
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Jahn, I am on a completely different track.
Of course you are. [But such buildings do not collapse on their own, and the Danish professor Niels Harrit found tons of Thermite in the Ashes from WTC.] :-)
But you can see the stupidity to interfere in the Middle East, I suppose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTQf3w7NsNQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRsm-J4V08w
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https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/54425/following-near-death-experience-israeli-boy-returns-quoting-end-of-days-prophecy-video-jewish-world/#MFGATg5yqgXVTiKq.97
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https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/54425/following-near-death-experience-israeli-boy-returns-quoting-end-of-days-prophecy-video-jewish-world/#MFGATg5yqgXVTiKq.97
Mountains and more Mountains.
here it is the messiah standing on the Mount of Olives and the the young boy speaks about the messiah standing on that mountain determining who is worthy to be saved ...
What did Carlos Castaneda told us about Mountains and religions!?
To find out please read" I Was Carlos Castaneda: The Afterlife Dialogues" by Martin Goodman.
If you haven't read that book you might know too little about the Mountains in the Middle east and the kind of "religious war" that is going on there. Muslims against muslims, jews against muslims, jews against christians, muslim against christians, muslims against jews - in an never ending circle.
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dear Jahn
Carlos castenada was a good trojan horse for something bigger than him as far as i am concerned
and certainly is no hero of mine
Don Juan freed , Carlos Castaneda entraps
i can tell you that the symbols exist "mountains etc" upon the earth as do the awareness concerned in the "story"
what comes into awareness will come about in the larger story and those symbols exist "literally" as do the characters mentioned
spiritually speaking and literally
that said i will check it out
also please take note of these things , the two olive trees , two lampstands , two witnesses , palestinians given the holy land back "olive tree planted by the church with leaders some time ago "
and also please make the connection now with the position and symbols of the mount of olives
as also with the messiah who exists and is now here ;)
now please make the connections is awareness of your "universal man" and now over lay this upon "tribes " which have been located and vindicated
as secular awareness is concerned
the
The messiahc
has accounted for these in awareness
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dear Jahn
Carlos castenada was a good trojan horse for something bigger than him as far as i am concerned
and certainly is no hero of mine
Don Juan freed , Carlos Castaneda entraps
Well, there is no way to divide Carlos from Don Juan. Don Juan was like Orlando for Quantum Shaman, a kind of guide and higher self.
i can tell you that the symbols exist "mountains etc" upon the earth as do the awareness concerned in the "story"
what comes into awareness will come about in the larger story and those symbols exist "literally" as do the characters mentioned
spiritually speaking and literally
that said i will check it out
also please take note of these things , the two olive trees , two lampstands , two witnesses , palestinians given the holy land back "olive tree planted by the church with leaders some time ago "
and also please make the connection now with the position and symbols of the mount of olives
as also with the messiah who exists and is now here ;)
now please make the connections is awareness of your "universal man" and now over lay this upon "tribes " which have been located and vindicated
There is one rude message in that link and that is: "determining who is worthy to be saved or not". That statement is a construct of male (old) men, not familiar to the Man of the Universe. The statement is rude simply because that is not how it works on the large scale (in the Universe), beyond Religions and the mind of males. It is a mind construct, made from an inherited inventory of the dark ages.
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"What he will see is – he sees according to a person’s holiness, he will smell each person, he will smell if someone has holiness, if he is pure, if he did mitzvot (God’s commandments), if he performed acts of kindness. To see if he really has true fear of Heaven and not just fear of punishment, and things like that.”
The idea that the messiah will be able to discern the righteousness of a person based on something other than physical appearance is reflected in a prophecy from Isaiah that describes the gifts of the messiah, including the ability to judge without relying on what his eyes see or what his ears hear.
“And he shall be animated by the fear of the Lord, and neither with the sight of his eyes shall he judge, nor with the hearing of his ears shall he chastise. (Isaiah 11:-3)""
Well, if this Messiah shall "smell if someone has holiness" he will find noone.
But if he looks for "To see if he really has true fear of Heaven and not just fear of punishment" he will find many.
All this smells, old men, old school, old rotten food and the like, with a date for consumtion best before at the Iron age, 600 A D.
Am I clear enough?
You all know that Christ was against fear, because the Old Books were based on fear for God. Instead Jesus talked about forgiveness, turn the other cheek, I am your Shepherd, Let the Children come forward, because to them the heaven belongs etc.
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re:carlos
Just because a guide points out a path does not mean Carlos heart was able to follow
What Jesus said does not contradict what will happen at the end of the age it reaffirms it repeatedly cross referencing "go back and read it "
also i have no interest in piddly arguments
every body is about to see what will happen spiritually and physically
if you think mountains are running the universe when christ is obviously universal insteading trusting
carlos as your spiritual guide good luck with it
and perhaps you should have looked inside yourself and you might know
I have nothing to debate or discuss about it only my doings
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Where do our myths start, Martin? The Garden of Eden, a place where four mighty rivers find their source, therefore obviously located on a mountain? Or after the Flood, where Noah leads man and beast down the slopes of Ararat? Does Judaism hail from the moment Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai? Or maybe it’s when Abraham is spared the slaughter of his son Isaac of the summit of Mount Moriah, when the Lord of the mountain promises to secure the future of Judaism through Abrahams descendants.
When the new Messiah arrives, of course he must make his appearance on Mount Zion and honor the prophecies that herald him.
Carlos Castaneda – The Afterlife Dialogues by Martin Goodman (page 54).
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Jews, Christians, Muslims, they struggle through the centuries, slay each other in thousands, for the right to lay claim on the heights of Jerusalem. In the name of God, Jews and Arabs, Christians and Moslems, Catholics and Protestants regularly slaughter one another. Our planet stinks of religious massacres. Have you ever thought why? [Carlos asks]
“It has to do with mountains?” I ask [M G].
One thing to know, before you give your heart to mountains. They are powerfully jealous of each other. Pledge loyalty to one and it expects you to be faithful. Followers of religions believe they are following the one God. They are wrong. History tells them they are wrong, the Bible tells them they are wrong, but they are slaves to their partial understanding and believe what they want to believe.
/…./
Devotees of religions worship the Lord of a mountain. They are the mountain’s cohorts, and will battle the world to proclaim dominion over the earth. Call it Islam, Judaism, Christianity, any faction, even the Mormons of America with their own message brought down from their own mountain, they are all mountain religions. Don’t think that mountains have people let go. Never think that. They have roused us with their prophets, stirred us with their myths, hidden themselves in our religions the way they hide themselves in cloud. That divide the peoples of the world among themselves, and set them at each other’s throats”
Carlos Castaneda – The Afterlife Dialogues by Martin Goodman (page 55).
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carlos as your spiritual guide good luck with it
Carlos Arana Castaneda is not my spiritual guide. It is only that he and I are both Toltec students, sharing the same School of teaching.
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and you have no idea who and what i am also
please ask your guide
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Maybe part of the reason we are stuffed (or beleive we are) is because of so much butting heads (insert image of two male rams) over personal beliefs and ideas.
Not tiresome?
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absolving the feminine ha nice try
about time you piped up though
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That's your opinion.
Rather than discussing WW3 that came yet another step closer by Turkey shooting down Russian airplane, you opt for self-advertising in this thread.
Good job.
A Swedish military officer, much in the same position as you Juhani, regarding international conflicts and education, had an open seminar in our Town the other day. On the question if there would be a new World war, he answered:
- Nay, that is not really at hand, more likeley than a new WW3 there can be a World crisis arising.
Well, Turkey do not like Russia, so they were fast on the trigger. Putin want an official excuse, and why can't they [Turkey] offer that? They already have had their Point (and fun) by bringing a jet fighter plane with two Russian pilots down.
So in the diplomatic game I really think Turkey shall present some kind of excuse. Just with the aim to put this incident behind us all.
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Right.
On 24 November Turks did what many thought would be the opening shot of WW3. They shot down Russian attack aircraft that violated Turkish airspace for 17 seconds. Yes, Turks warned Russians not to enter in the first place, but once it happened, they immediately pulled the trigger and brought the plane down.
One can ask what was it all about and would be absolutely right to do so. To shoot down a plane of world's second largest nuclear power, one must have good reasons. It looks that Turks had one significant reason to do that. That reason is Turkmen population living on trhe other side of the border - in Syria. Current Turkish leadership has vowed to protect them, whereas Russians were bombing them and Iranian-Shiite ground forces were about to invade Turkmen areas. So it is a very strategic situation and very much akin to a red line drawn on the ground.
Turks warned Russians not to bomb Turkmen areas and called Russian ambassador to Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 20 November. They warned Russia officially. On 21 November Shiite forces reached the outer limist of Turkmen areas and Russians started to generate large numbers of sorties against Turkmen. On 24 Turks pulled the trigger. On 25 and 26 November Russians deliberately launched new massive waves of attacks against Turkmen, deployed their long-range air defence missiles (that can reach the airspace of Turkmen areas) and sent more fighters to Syria and Iran.
Now we are one level higher on the escalation ladder. Turks cannot back down and their leader Erdogan swore to shoot down any other Russian aircraft that flies through Turkish airspace. Russians have said that they would not leave it like that: Turkey supports tefforists, is a threat to international security, Russians are in a process of setting up economic sanctions and Russian planes keep flying in a very demonstrative fashion under the noses of Turks.
In essence, both sides make it more and more difficult for themselves to back down. Turks have their vital interests at play - they want to have a buffer zone in Syria to stop the flow of refugees and have a "barrier" to keep the war away from their borders. Russians as a former superpower just cannot swallow that Turks (of all countries!) unapologetically brought their plane down. Both NATO and US have supported Turkey's right to defend its airspace.
Act 1 of the drama has been completed.
Act 2 seems to be in making.
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Nice summary Juhani. Only thing I find hard to get details on, is the area in Syria on the Turkey boarder, which represents the 'area of influence' Turkey is concerned with. Much of this is in the hands of the Kurdish YPG. Other area in the hands of the rebels - which rebels I'm not certain, but at least it is a supply line for anti-Assad groups like ISIL. Are there other areas outside these groups?
I'm sure Turkey is not interested in defending YPG areas, despite all their very nice talks.
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I found my answer - Latakia. Reminds me of a wonderful Mac Baren's pipe tobacco called Latakia.
So, are we into escalation, beyond management? Possibly, but one thing stands out from all else: Obama has no keenness for the fight. Is this a sign of a week American leader, or a sign that the US no longer needs the Middle East for it;s strategic interests... ie oil.
I've just taken a look at the forces fighting in Syria:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War
OMG!
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I found my answer - Latakia. Reminds me of a wonderful Mac Baren's pipe tobacco called Latakia.
So, are we into escalation, beyond management? Possibly, but one thing stands out from all else: Obama has no keenness for the fight. Is this a sign of a week American leader, or a sign that the US no longer needs the Middle East for it;s strategic interests... ie oil.
I've just taken a look at the forces fighting in Syria:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War
OMG!
There is a slight chance that Russia could back off: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-suspends-syria-flights-after-crisis-with-russia.aspx?PageID=238&NID=91733&NewsCatID=352
Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the suspension of the Turkish jetfighters’ participation in the U.S.-led military operations against ISIL was in fact a mutual decision taken with Russia, which also halted its aerial campaigns near the Turkish border. Both parties will continue to be as careful as possible in a bid to avoid a repetition of such incidents until they re-establish dialogue channels to reduce the tension.
I may, just may be that Turkish message sank in and Russians are willing to back off if Turkey makes even a symbolic gesture in return.
What is quoted above looks quite a bit like the outcome of Caribbean crisis: Russians removed their missiles from Cuba in return for the US missiles leaving Turkey. The catch was that the US was going to remove them from Turkey anyway.
In Syria's case, Turks have had a moderate interest to bomb ISIS, but vital interest to set up a buffer zone.
We might just get lucky this time. Fingers crossed!
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Well, some seem to be hellbent on awakening major spirits of war.
Absolutely unapologetic Turks kept bashing Russia, stated that they would consider it an act of war if Russians shot down Turkish plane even above Syria, and warned that Russians should not play with fire.
Russians generated 17 sorties against Turkmen areas and deployed long-range air defence missile systems.
Meanwhile, Japanese will resume whaling in Antarctic.
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I get the feeling Russia has over-stretched itself at a time when the home economy is collapsing. Turkey has humiliated Russia, when Russia is at least trying to do something. Of course, what it is trying to do is stop the supply lines to the Sunni jihadists through Turkey. This is what the US and EU should be doing, but instead they have expressed support for Turkey.
I suspect Russia is dying for France to galvanise the West into increased action in Syria, which could save Russia's bacon, or at least it's pride.
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Another terrorist attack in the US, Colorado Springs. Those jihadist Christians are at it again. I'm surprised they even let Christian into the country.
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Another tefforist attack in the US, Colorado Springs. Those jihadist Christians are at it again. I'm surprised they even let Christian into the country.
Yes they dont like Planned Parenthood. Apparently they think it is ok to tefforize Planned Parenthood.
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I get the feeling Russia has over-stretched itself at a time when the home economy is collapsing. Turkey has humiliated Russia, when Russia is at least trying to do something. Of course, what it is trying to do is stop the supply lines to the Sunni jihadists through Turkey. This is what the US and EU should be doing, but instead they have expressed support for Turkey.
I suspect Russia is dying for France to galvanise the West into increased action in Syria, which could save Russia's bacon, or at least it's pride.
Yes, two simultaneous operations - Ukraine and Syria - are a very heavy burden on Russia, but so was taking on Britain, US and Soviet Union for Hitler. At the end of the day, it is the man at the top who matters. I have been looking at persona of Putin closely for a while, and I must admit he does not leave an impression of a sound man. I would reckon his decision-making is deeply influenced by emotions and complexes. The rumour has it that he invaded Eastern Ukraine because of a very popular song made by Ukrainians after Russia annexed Crimea - "Putin is a D*ckhead"
Here it is (now they call it Ukrainian folk song :) ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjtTrup5qNU
So, Putin has managed to utterly infuriate 40 million Ukrainians and is getting close to doing the same to nearly 80 million Turks.
Apparently, Russians deny any kind of agreement with Turks: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/28/syria-army-says-turkey-increases-arms-shipments-to-rebels.html
We're still in the woods.
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After the attacks in Paris, Britain, Germany and France join the efforts to bring down the IzIz/Joe Doesh forces in Syria and North of Iraq.
Until this day, it has been a rule to not attack the oil refinery plants, because that is a great loss for the infra stucture. But now that "restriction" seems to be outruled.
The US forces attacks the refineries:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-13/oil-refinery-attacks-by-u-s-seek-to-foil-islamic-state-repairs
And so do the Russians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4tmwYHbCU
And all together, the strategy now seem to be to simply bomb IxIz down to a pile of earth.
http://www.msn.com/sv-se/video/nyheter/russia-pounds-syria-with-air-submarine-strikes/vi-AAgcYad?ocid=spartandhp
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/russia-launches-cruise-missiles-at-syria-from-submarine-1746931031
Can anyone tell how the Russians can hold that camera still above the target? Is that done by a satellite?
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And all together, the strategy now seem to be to simply bomb ISIS down to a pile of earth.
Can anyone tell how the Russians can hold that camera still above the target? Is that done by a satellite?
1. Incorrect. The ground force against IzIz ought to be Kurds and less radical rebel factions. French (nutcases as they are) would also like to use al-Assad's forces.
Western powers bomb, but AzAz is expected to be destroyed on the ground by Kurds and rebels in Syria and by Kurds and Iraqi forces in Iraq. However, Russians fight mostly against less radical rebels and spend at best 30% of their efforts against ZaZa. Hence, Russians actually work against other powers fighting IiIi.
Turks spend a lot fo efforts against Kurds in Syria, while supporting Kurds in Iraq.
US supports Kurds everywhere.
Saudis and Qataris support conservative Islamist forces in Syria.
The gigantic flaw of the present strategy is that there is no viable Sunni alternative to ISIS fighting against IQIQ. Kurds cannot rule Sunni areas and neither can Shiites. Only Sunnis can.
2. Russians use drones extensively. They hang over targets and film the hits and (even more) misses. Russians miss amazingly many targets.
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Yes, they all have their own agenda, and no alternative government exists.
But I am fascinated with what the US will do once IS conducts an organised attack on some iconic target in America. Will that turn public opinion against Obama's better judgement? Already the Repubs are frothing at the mouth, and next year is election - perfect timing for IS. Obama obviously has wise advisors that tell him to keep America's dirty little fingers out of the honey pot, but public outrage could change the government, or threaten to, if no decisive reaction is launched from such an attack.
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1. Incorrect. The ground force against Iziz ought to be Kurds and less radical rebel factions. French (nutcases as they are) would also like to use al-Assad's forces.
Western powers bomb, but IxI: is expected to be destroyed on the ground by Kurds and rebels in Syria and by Kurds and Iraqi forces in Iraq. However, Russians fight mostly against less radical rebels and spend at best 30% of their efforts against IxI:. Hence, Russians actually work against other powers fighting Iziz.
Turks spend a lot fo efforts against Kurds in Syria, while supporting Kurds in Iraq.
US supports Kurds everywhere.
Saudis and Qataris support conservative Islamist forces in Syria.
The gigantic flaw of the present strategy is that there is no viable Sunni alternative to Iziz fighting against I:i:. Kurds cannot rule Sunni areas and neither can Shiites. Only Sunnis can.
2. Russians use drones extensively. They hang over targets and film the hits and (even more) misses. Russians miss amazingly many targets.
Thanks for the answer of 2. (And I know that you do not like the Russians). (well, the Russians do not qualify on top ten nice nations here either :-) ).
I know, I know, that there will not be any full victory Before any ground forces moves forward the IxIx.
Anyway, the number of bombs, rockets and missiles will soon enough turn the areas controlled by I:I: to a gravel heap.
What is new; the new strategy is that it seems to be okey to attack and destroy oil plants and refineries, together with oil transportations. With the aim to bring down the economic support to I:I:.
War and teffor is very expensive business. I could give you 100 examples from WWII and the German War machine back then.
We can get upset of the Germans way to steel and rob every new conquered areas, but with the simple aim to keep the war machine going ,they needed more, and more, of all energy/money, all the time, until the end.
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What we know is that, as quite a paradox, Icis has sold oil to their enemies.
Now Russia, and new tsar Putin, even claim that the Turkish president Erdogan have bought oil from Isic.
The answer to that (from Erdogan) is that he will resign if that accusation is true.
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Even Assad bought IS oil.
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Even Assad bought IS oil.
Is that verified? Somewhere ...
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I heard it on the radio in a discussion about the diverse self-interests by some authorities on the Syrian conflict. I haven't looked up any verified sources, but I'd have to say, firstly, it seems most likely - business is business - and secondly, verification of anything to do with Syria is a fraught issue.
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These guys are, to put it nice, awful and disgusting.
Beheading omg, well, as one author did put it: Muslims in these most extreme sects do not want to throw society back to the medevial times. In fact they want us to go back to the Iron age [which was ended about 700 A.D.]
http://www.thelocal.se/20151214/swedish-pair-get-life-in-jail-for-syria-terror-crimes
I can tell that the judge and the jury had to join a debreifing team session, in order to cope with the disgusting scenes from the beheading.
That this ever became a case for a Swedish courtin the first Place, was because one of the prosecuted Arabs was under an investigation for other crimes. then, in his home the Police found a USB with the video documentation of the beheading and more, from their time spent with IxIx in Syria.
They will surely appeal against the sentence.
Of some interest, a third person that was involved is wanted, with a global attention made to all passport controls in the World.
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I've changed my mind on this refugee situation, across the globe. Or perhaps I've just crystallised what has been at the back of my mind for a long time.
I now see the war-torn refugee as the pushing point, but it's not the main game. TV is the main game. Young people from across the world have seen the images of life in Western countries, and they want a piece of it. Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Buddha, if I was young in a decrepit country, I would join the millions struggling across nations to end up in a Western country. Latest leaked reports say over 1.5 million refugees are now in Germany. It seems to me, we have only seen the beginning. Why would any young person not try their luck in this game of survival?
What is happening, is a revolution. Nothing short of that, and it is across the globe. Human beings are not prepared to put up with being told they cannot move to a better world. Of course, the consequences are devastating, but it won't be stopped! There is nothing the wealthy countries can ultimately do to stop the flood of people who are risking everything for a decent life. This is not a manageable situation, and it has only just begun.
The only way out for wealthy countries, is to invest vast amount of money to build up the lands from which these people come. The price and corruption issues will not allow this to happen. We are in for a god-awful battle with the aspirational youth from poor countries. And worst still, we actually need them to take our garbage to the dump and fill our hospitals with nurses. The times have changed, and there is no turning back.
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When ever there is a crime (that is not about passion or relations) then follow the Money.
The 6/11 in U S are a good example. The Days before the event options in Airplane companies were sold to an extra degree, while options and stocks in war industri was bought heavily, by American Institutions... called Inside trading (no evidence to people linked to Al Qudi) ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xgjxJwedA
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When ever there is a crime (that is not about passion or relations) then follow the Money.
The 6/11 in U S are a good example. The Days before the event options in Airplane companies were sold to an extra degree, while options and stocks in war industri was bought heavily, by American Institutions... called Inside trading (no evidence to people linked to Al Qudi) ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xgjxJwedA
This is your very own thread, Jahn: http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=7944.0
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This is your very own thread, Jahn: http://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?topic=7944.0
Now you Listen!
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Now you Listen!
Not at all. Just pointing where these views of yours should be placed.
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Not at all. Just pointing where these views of yours should be placed.
Well, this is a very good time for you to get "into the event" 611, one day before New year I will ask you 20 questions about the more or less scientifical facts regarding that day (and Days Before and after) that you might want to answer (or not, of course not, you are very predictable :-) ).
A kind of gift from me to you.
9/11 Trillions: Follow The Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xgjxJwedA
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XOs%2BDrCgL.jpg
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... of which I do not belong.
http://www.flygplan.info/images/SAAB_gripen04.jpg
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I've changed my mind on this refugee situation, across the globe. Or perhaps I've just crystallised what has been at the back of my mind for a long time.
I now see the war-torn refugee as the pushing point, but it's not the main game. TV is the main game. Young people from across the world have seen the images of life in Western countries, and they want a piece of it. Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Buddha, if I was young in a decrepit country, I would join the millions struggling across nations to end up in a Western country. Latest leaked reports say over 1.5 million refugees are now in Germany. It seems to me, we have only seen the beginning. Why would any young person not try their luck in this game of survival?
What is happening, is a revolution. Nothing short of that, and it is across the globe. Human beings are not prepared to put up with being told they cannot move to a better world. Of course, the consequences are devastating, but it won't be stopped! There is nothing the wealthy countries can ultimately do to stop the flood of people who are risking everything for a decent life. This is not a manageable situation, and it has only just begun.
The only way out for wealthy countries, is to invest vast amount of money to build up the lands from which these people come. The price and corruption issues will not allow this to happen. We are in for a god-awful battle with the aspirational youth from poor countries. And worst still, we actually need them to take our garbage to the dump and fill our hospitals with nurses. The times have changed, and there is no turning back.
There are ways to cope with this influx or at least to slow it down.
Finns seem to have found a way to persuade these happiness-seekers to return to their countries of origin. Currently, they are swamped by applications from Iraqis and a few others to be returned home/deported. Finalnd sends back 11 people a day. I think, Finns discovered that Iraqis are horrified by cold and dark and they keep the arrivals quite high in the north.
Danes changed their laws. One has to live in the country and be a tax-payer for at least 7 years before being granted residence permit.
Norwegians put their asylum seekers for 2-3 years to high north where they have to learn a job, language and show that they can live in small Norwegian communities. It is a tough ask from all sorts of southeners and many run.
There is a price tag on the gates of paradise.
There are ways.
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World is getting more intriguing by a month. Now they say North Korea is building a hydrogen bomb.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/n-korea-says-it-conducts-successful-powerful-h-bomb-test/ar-AAgpNMw?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignoutmd
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it had conducted a powerful hydrogen bomb test, a defiant and surprising move that, if confirmed, would be a huge jump in Pyongyang's quest to improve its still-limited nuclear arsenal.
A television anchor said in a typically propaganda-heavy statement that the North had tested a "miniaturized" hydrogen bomb, elevating the country's "nuclear might to the next level" and providing it with a weapon to defend against the United States and its other enemies.
The statement said the test was a "perfect success," and the announcement was celebrated on the streets of Pyongyang.
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Somebody seems to be surprised. Seriously?
http://www.smh.com.au/world/german-leaders-condemn-mass-sexual-assault-on-women-on-new-years-eve-in-cologne-20160105-gm00f9.html
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition condemned a "new dimension" of crime after scores of women reported being sexually assaulted as they passed though a group of about 1000 men during New Year's Eve celebrations in downtown Cologne.
About 90 women have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at New Year celebrations outside Cologne's cathedral by young, mostly drunk, men, police said on Tuesday.
Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers told a news conference officers described the men as looking as if they were from "the Arab or North African region" and mostly between 18 and 35 years old. "We have one complaint that represents a rape," he added.
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Deeper and deeper into the bush... If true, the threat level to air transportation in the Middle East, Asia and Africa is about to skyrocket, while US, Europe and others will be looking for their security services to save the day.
http://news.sky.com/story/1617197/exclusive-inside-is-terror-weapons-lab
Terror group Islamic State is employing scientists and weapons experts to train jihadists to carry out sophisticated "spectacular" attacks in Europe, while also modifying weapons systems capable of targeting passenger jets and military aircraft.
From a "jihadi university" in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the scientists have stunned western weapons experts by producing a homemade thermal battery for surface-to-air missiles. It had been regarded as a virtually impossible feat for terror groups working without a military infrastructure.
But footage exclusively obtained by Sky News shows that |S can now recommission thousands of missiles assumed by western governments to have been redundant through old age. Heat-seeking warheads can be used to attack passenger and military aircraft. They are 99% accurate once locked on.
For decades terror groups, including the IRA, had these weapons but storing them and maintaining the thermal battery - a key component to the warhead - was very difficult. It seems that |S scientists have got round the problem, and that revelation will shock the world of international security.
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Somebody seems to be surprised. Seriously?
http://www.smh.com.au/world/german-leaders-condemn-mass-sexual-assault-on-women-on-new-years-eve-in-cologne-20160105-gm00f9.html
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition condemned a "new dimension" of crime after scores of women reported being sexually assaulted as they passed though a group of about 1000 men during New Year's Eve celebrations in downtown Cologne.
About 90 women have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at New Year celebrations outside Cologne's cathedral by young, mostly drunk, men, police said on Tuesday.
Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers told a news conference officers described the men as looking as if they were from "the Arab or North African region" and mostly between 18 and 35 years old. "We have one complaint that represents a rape," he added.
Right. Similar sexual harassment was planned in Finland:
Yle Radio 1’s interview with Interior Minister Petteri Orpo (Coalition Party) confirms that asylum seekers on New Year’s Eve in Kirkkonummi were apprehended, who would have incited a similar harassment as in Cologne, Germany.
According to the minister central criminal police had intelligence information.
– The police were informed that on New Year’s Eve there were planned criminal activities in Finland. Police worked fine proactively, the minister Orpo said.
– Great crowds can accommodate a few tending to cause confusion and to act inappropriately and illegally.
The police arrested six Iraqi men from the Aavaranta reception center on suspicion of the publicly prompting criminal activity. A few more suspects were added later. All were released on Saturday.
In Germany, up to a thousand men robbed and assaulted a number of women are sexually New Year’s Eve.
Petteri Orpo did not want to tell, what kind of intelligence the police had.
– Any kind of illegal activity whether it’s by immigrants or anyone else, is strictly forbidden. It should not be accepted. Under the leadership of the police, security authorities are doing everything, that nothing like this, at least planned, is not to happen in Finland.
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Yes, only to be expected. Usually by the third generation these problems are fixed, but only then if integration has been actively progressed.
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Well, there you are: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3zxxhi/reports_of_sexual_assaults_on_women_across/
Frankfurt: Several women have reported New Year sexual assaults to police
Hamburg: At least 53 cases of harassment, of which 39 are of sexual harassment, have been reported
Helsinki: 3 reported sexual assaults on women
Zürich: A total of about 6 women now say they were sexually assaulted
Salzburg: Several women in the Austrian city of Salzburg have said they were sexually assaulted on New Year’s Eve
Cologne: More than 120 sexual assaults, rapes and robberies have been reported outside the city's railway station and Cathedral
I wonder when it will get down to shooting these assaulting men on the spot - in self defence. One has to speak the language listeners understand. In Norway, many of these migrants took kindness for weakness, but changed their arrogant views after police came for them ruthlessly.
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Well considering that a large chunk of the population were intoxicated on NYE, these figures are not surprising.
I'm not sure about shooting on the spot, but I love the idea of vagina insert with spikes! lol Course that only works for rape and sexual assaults are more than just rape. So yeah, shooting works. This is a big subject, lots of factors to consider. Living in a Patriarchal society being the least of these factors.
It's funny to me that someone took the time to gather these stats and write news about it. Most women know sexual harassment is common.
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As they said it from the Apollo 13 - "Houston, We've Had a Problem", Not: "Houston, We have a problem".
We in Sweden had also these group sex assaults and thefts on New Years Eve, made by African young men against women (in the Town of Kalmar). There is an investigation of 9 assaults going on.
Yes, we have had a problem, but Juhani is fast to throw in his prejudices about foreign people, especially muslims, arabs or anyone not from Europe. I am no friend of the Swedish immigrant policy, we have been overloaded by immigrants that is true, and that because of stupid politicians. But now these politicians saw the limit, and had to take a bit in the sour apple.
Nearby our area (two miles) there are youths from Somalia that do the most bad things. Steel bicycles and cell phones, harass women, put cars on fire, shoot other gang members and so on.
But the guys you don't know, the strangers, are always scary and appear hostile. Estland has no immigration at all to talk about, the people in Estland do know nothing about other cultures than the Russian? Or Juhani explain the situation better than me. So for people in Estonia every man from Africa is a stranger, and perhaps at the same time - an enemy?
I know Somalian men that has become - first busdrivers, and then Taxi-drivers.
I have seen Somalian young men that do not want anything more than to become educated and have a good profession. They are nice kids.
So Wake up in Estonia, and see the people behind the masks. These Young men at New Years eve did a lot of stupid things and crimes. But many Young men do stupid things and crimes. And for sure I was no exception even if I despise any attack on women, because all women I have known has been my best friends. And one cannot harass anyone that you respect, really like or love.
"Houston, We've Had a Problem"
Not:Houston, We've Have a Problem
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-13-1.html
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Unprecedented sex harassment in Helsinki at New Year, Finnish police report
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/12088332/Unprecedented-sex-harassment-in-Helsinki-at-New-Year-Finnish-police-report.html
Asylum seekers who met in central Helsinki to celebrate New Years’s Eve “had similar plans” to commit sexual assault and other crimes as those who targeted women in the Germany city of Cologne, Finnish Police have reported. Three Iraqi asylum seekers have been arrested for committing sexual assaults during the celebrations in the city’s Senate Square, where some 20,000 had gathered.
Security personnel reported “widespead sexual harrassment” during the celebrations, police added, with women complaining that asylum seekers had groped their breasts and kissed them without permission. “This phenomenon is new in Finnish sexual crime history,” Ilkka Koskimaki, the deputy chief of police in Helsinki, told the Telegraph. ”We have never before had this kind of sexual harrassment happening at New Year’s Eve.” He said that the police had received tip-offs from staff at the asylum reception centres. “Our information from these reception centres were that disturbances or other crimes would happen in the city centre. We were prepared for fights and sexual harrassment and thefts.”
He said that police had established a “very massive presence” to control the estimated 1,000 Iraqi asylum seekers who had gathered in the tunnels surrounding the central railway station by 11pm, many of whom appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Mr Koskimaki said that sexual assults in parks and on the streets had been unknown in Finland before a record 32,000 asylum seekers arrived in 2015, making the 14 cases last year “big news in the city”.
“We had unfortunately some very brutal cases in autumn,” he said. “I don’t know so well other cultures, but I have recognised that the thinking of some of them is very different. Some of them maybe think that it is allowed to be aggressive and touch ladies on the street.”
Jamel Saltne, a Finnish-speaking Iraqi, said that from what he had seen on Arabic social media, police had wrongly portrayed events. "What happened was not the result of an action planned in advance," he told the Telegraph. "It was totally expected that young men would go to the centre of the capital as that is the best place to celebrate New Year's Eve." "I'm not accusing the police of racism, but maybe they have received complaints intended to smear people." The rapes have fuelled anger among some Finns at last year's record asylum figures, with the country registering the fourth highest number per capita in the European Union.
Unarmed militia groups calling themselves “Soldiers of Odin”, wearing black jackets and hats marked “S.O.O”, have sprung up in several towns in Finland where asylum seekers are housed, claiming they want to protect citizens from “Islamic intruders”. Petteri Orpo, Finnish interior minister, condemned the groups in an interview with national broadcaster YLE on Thursday. “There are extremist features to carrying out street patrols. It does not increase security,” he said.
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From what I've read and seen, the idea most certainly exists in the dark recesses of some of the Middle Eastern cultures that women should not be on the street or perhaps even in public - and that being on the streets entitles men to take advantage, brutalize, and in some extreme cases, murder such women. I'd recommend folks watch "India's Daughter."
It's not racist, and not a joke. It definitely should be a concern for any country taking in these cultures.
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There is the most insane blaming of the victim.
19-Year-old Gang Rape Victim to Receive 200 Lashes and 6 Months in Jail in Saudi Arabia... (http://www.mindxplore.org/2015/11/19-year-old-gang-rape-victim-to-receive.html)
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It is time
the man of the earth
Stand upright and set the pillars
Straight
For his woman
In who's womb he dream
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German radicals seek revenge.
It seems proven that an Islamist shot by French police in Paris was earlier arrested for sexual assaults in Germany.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/11/europe/germany-cologne-migrants-attacked/
Gangs of men have attacked and injured two Pakistanis and a Syrian man in Cologne, Germany, in the aftermath of an unprecedented wave of mob sex assaults on women in the city on New Year's Eve.
Cologne police said a gang of 20 men attacked at least six Pakistani nationals Sunday, with two of the victims hospitalized. Five men later attacked and injured a man of Syrian descent, police said.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/vigilante-gangs-attack-pakistani-men-after-sex-attacks-in-cologne-a3153226.html
It was claimed today that the Syrian man shot dead by French police last week may have taken part in the sexual assaults in Cologne. It was revealed in police files that Walid Salihi was arrested in 2014 in Cologne for sexually abusing women in a disco. He was reported to have groped and assaulted women.
Bild newspaper said that a former friend of his was arrested after the Cologne New Year’s Eve attacks, leading to suspicion that he may have been with him before travelling to France. Salihi was shot dead as he approached a Paris police station last week wearing a fake suicide vest, on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
He had been living in an asylum home in Recklinghausen, Germany, where police found he used seven aliases.
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...Taharrush
http://speisa.com/modules/articles/index.php/item.2374/german-police-it-s-an-arab-rape-game-called-taharrush-and-now-it-has-come-to-europe.html
After the NYE mass assaults against women in several European cities, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, BKA, now say that the Arab "rape game" Taharrush has established itself in Europe.
In addition to the events in Cologne, police in Berlin, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart have reported of similar incidents. In addition, police in Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and Zurich in Switzerland have raised the alarm about similar mass assaults against women by newly arrived Arab migrants. Also Sweden and Finland experienced the same on New Year's Eve.
- The attacks range from sexual molestation to rape, says head of BKA, Holger Münch.
The "rape game" Taharrush is about a large group of Arab men surrounding their victim, usually a Western woman or a woman wearing Western-style clothing, and then the women are subjected to sexual abuse.
They surround the victim in circles. The men in the inner circle are the ones who physically abuse the woman, the next circle are the spectators, while the mission of the third circle is to distract and divert attention to what's going on.
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I'm pretty sure that if/when it comes to the US, that those guys will get killed by vigilante groups.
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I'm pretty sure that if/when it comes to the US, that those guys will get killed by vigilante groups.
Not a gentle approach, but it seems to be the probable course of events. Violence is justified in self-defence, prevention or stopping the crime.
There will be quite a teaching-learning curve to (1) convince some people that when other people laugh at various things (such as Mohammad or Jesus), it does not make them legitimate targets; (2) to convince some people that their culture does not apply in all respects in a different cultural environment.
It will be a violent time.
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On 24 November 2015, Turks shot down Russian bomber that violated Turkish airspace. Russians retaliated with all sorts of threats, reinforcement of their forces in Syria and economic sanctions.
On Friday, 29 January 2016, one of Russian bombers flew into Turkish airspace again. Pentagon confirmed the violation, Russians deny everything as stupidly as usual.
Anyhow, Turks brought their Air Force to "Orange Alert". It means hostile encounters are possible at any time and Turkish pilots are authorized to open fire without permission/order from the ground. Russians sent more fighter planes to Syria in response.
One step closer to WW III.
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One step closer to WW III.
Since noone wants Another World War there won't be any WWIII.
Sorry, but we got all (Europa, China and the South and North America, Africa etc.) heavy problem to solve and the warlords died with Bob Dylan, in the Masters of War.
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Since noone wants Another World War there won't be any WWIII.
Sorry, but we got all (Europa, China and the South and North America, Africa etc.) heavy problem to solve and the warlords died with Bob Dylan, in the Masters of War.
History of war is full of examples where states walked into a war not because they wanted to fight, but because they didn't want to or could not take a step back in a tense situation. In Turkey and Russia you have the leaders of that precise type.
Moreover, do not extrapolate Western mindset to the rest of the world. It does not work in the case of refugees, it does not work in the case of politicians. There are very militant and aggressive leaders in the world.
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History of war is full of examples where states walked into a war not because they wanted to fight, but because they didn't want to or could not take a step back in a tense situation. In Turkey and Russia you have the leaders of that precise type.
Moreover, do not extrapolate Western mindset to the rest of the world. It does not work in the case of refugees, it does not work in the case of politicians. There are very militant and aggressive leaders in the world.
Juhani, you should read Nostradamus.
Russia appear as a problem, but the next threat (to a World war) will actually be China.
Have a nice read of the French doctor and his feet baths.
66
The chief of London through the realm of America,
The Isle of Scotland will be tried by frost:
King and Reb will face an Antichrist so false,
That he will place them in the conflict all together.
Nostradamus about Hitler:
NOSTRADAMUS QUATRAIN #3-35
"From the depths of the West of Europe
A young child will be born of poor people,
He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop;
His fame will increase towards the realm of the East.”
NOSTRADAMUS QUATRAIN #2-24
"Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers;
The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister.
Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn,
When the child of Germany observes nothing."
This I can't find but it read something like this (regarding Hitler ending his Life at the bunker, very late in Berlin, when the Russians came close):
"And the drama crook dies on the scenery boards."
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So you claim to understand these incomprehensible verses?
Good man!
Meanwhile Russia claims that one of its soldiers was killed by Turkish artillery.
Turks claim that Russians are arming Kurds and denied Russia a surveillance flight under arms control treaty.
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So you claim to understand these incomprehensible verses?
Good man!
Not really, but he (Nostradamus) predicted some new technical inventions, like the submarine.
And he might have been talking of the awful bombing of Dresden at the end of the WWII, when he stated that:
There will be loosed instantaneous fire, death contained
Within cylinders of dreadful horror;
During the night, a classical city is pounded to dust,
The city in flames being favorable to the enemy.
My note: Most of the bombing of Dresden was done by night ...
"Q #5-8 Dresden was a hospital city and a European center for the arts and sciences, but during a Mardi Gras celebration in 1945 the city was saturation bombed with 60,000 incendiary bombs (1 for every 2 people in the city) and an additional 5 megatons of high explosives. Unlike the victims of Hiroshima, who never knew what hit them, the citizens of Dresden were slowly incinerated, as women were seen running through the streets with their babies in their arms and their hair on fire as they burned to death. Churchill's bombing of Dresden was the largest one day holocaust in the history of warfare. The German people paid dearly for Hitler's decision to bomb London."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0VK22O
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised the specter of an interminable or a world war if powers failed to negotiate an end to the conflict in Syria and warned against any ground operations by U.S. and Arab forces.
Medvedev, speaking to Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper on the eve of talks between major powers on Syria in Munich, said the United States and Russia must exert pressure on all sides in the conflict to secure a ceasefire.
Asked about Saudi Arabia's offer last week to supply ground troops if a U.S.-led operation were mounted against Islamic State, he said:
"This is bad as a ground offensive usually turns the war into a permanent one. Just look at what happened in Afghanistan and many other countries."
"The Americans and our Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war?" It would be impossible to win such a war quickly, he said according to a German translation of his words, "especially in the Arab world, where everybody is fighting against everybody".
"All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war."
A sample of what Russians are dropping on Syrian cities (thermobaric aka vacuum bombs):
https://vk.com/video-38574827_171124348
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The latest crisis is the oil. Libya never recovered, Syria just gets worse and the world has grown tired of thinking about it. And now the low oil prices are about to trigger another global financial crisis. In the portfolio I manage, we are selling down on banks and resources stocks. There is talk that inter-bank lending is freezing across the world. Many major banks are over exposed to vast mining loans, and nations are close to insolvency, including Russia.
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So far one unconfirmed bit of news that Syrians actually fired on Turkish territory.
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Brinkmanship
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Brinkmanship
Oh yes. Times ten. Plus Turks taking a go at Kurds whom they have hit periodically and hated consistently for the last 60 years.
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http://mobile.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Middle+East/Syria
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Haven't spoken about the loss of biodiversity for a while. The latest stats:
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/
Just to illustrate the degree of biodiversity loss we're facing, let’s take you through one scientific analysis...
The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.*
These experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1% of all species will become extinct each year.
If the low estimate of the number of species out there is true - i.e. that there are around 2 million different species on our planet** - then that means between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year.
But if the upper estimate of species numbers is true - that there are 100 million different species co-existing with us on our planet - then between 10,000 and 100,000 species are becoming extinct each year.
*Experts actually call this natural extinction rate the background extinction rate. This simply means the rate of species extinctions that would occur if we humans were not around.
** Between 1.4 and 1.8 million species have already been scientifically identified.
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The destruction of around 90% of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia - approx 60% may never recover - has hardly raised an eyebrow from the Australian public.
Nonetheless, there was an article recently in the SMH newspaper, which explained that the world is undergoing a massive and irreversible change in the power industry. Anyone backing fossil fuel industry is backing a dead horse. Solar power is not only sweeping the globe, but dropping through the floor in cost. Electric cars will be standard, as well as driver-less vehicles and community-ownership of vehicles. All this will turn our world on its head within thirty years. And by that time of course, global warming will be creating such devastation, that a recent expert visiting Australia recently said that there is no longer any point in being rational and polite about it - anyone who cares about the future should be on the streets, in as much agitation as possible.
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I began this thread long ago, on the basis that it was too late to save the world from global warming. Since then, I have only seen confirmation of this. But what is new, is that the consequences are now here, with us. No longer into the future somewhere. Current climate events and temperature readings have cause those who are studying this, to exclaim we are now in an explosive phase - this is an emergency.
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Can't disagree there!
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I began this thread long ago, on the basis that it was too late to save the world from global warming. Since then, I have only seen confirmation of this. But what is new, is that the consequences are now here, with us. No longer into the future somewhere. Current climate events and temperature readings have cause those who are studying this, to exclaim we are now in an explosive phase - this is an emergency.
http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/its-the-end-of-the-world-how-do-you-feel/62757?utm_source=aah1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pp&utm_content=inf_10_92_2&tse_id=INF_c4dbdbd034a511e69519013b248da655
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I can well imagine how scientists are feeling - they are watching and documenting, but excluded from influence.
I saw back in the 90s, which I gather is rather late for those more in the know, that the situation was one of despair. It didn't take a lot of brains to see what was going to happen.
I'm not sure what the name is for my state. It's not despair nor depression, as ultimately I am ready to engage as best as possible to whatever situation confronts. I'm also not hopeful - has been too late for that for a long time. As disaster strikes, what's the use of blaming people responsible for keeping this issue off the table. I would much rather accuse the population for being so mindlessly stupid and self-absorbed. But that won't do any good either.
I do think that if I was forty years younger, I would have engaged directly with the issue. That is perhaps a selfish view, but actually, it is more about focusing what energy I have available onto what is of most significant importance for me. At different phases of life, it is appropriate to focus on different aspects of life.
I admit, the future will be very difficult. For me and everyone on the planet.
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Interesting spread of votes by age groups in the UK:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ClsFnxVUYAELL0T.jpg)
Oldies said that youngsters should live outside the EU.
However, in general, we have as of now:
1) Syria's death mill is picking up speed and churning out dead and refugees
2) Russia is still sabotaging Ukraine
3) Russia is trying to split the EU and NATO - UK exit is a fulfilment of a most sincere and wet dream of Putin.
4) EU and NATO are being short of unanimity and solidarity
5) World's climate going more and more unpredictable
etc.
For this part of Europe, it all looks quite ominous. But worst might be yet to come. The main failure of mankind remains the same: to develop mutual understanding, choose and undergo change consciously. Resistance to change within oneself and within societies means that change and pain will come crashing through the borders of states and through the walls of individual's mind - regardless.
Similar process of halting openness and locking borders happened before World War I.
Good luck to all of us!
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Yes, it's been constantly talked about here on the news channels. The consequences are unpredictable.
But one common thread is that the Brexit vote is symptomatic with Trump and Sanders - a growing disaffection by the wider population, especially the working and lower middle classes, with the so called 'elite' on the wealth and power pile. Or the other way, an increasing extrusion of the elite from any understanding of how the rest of the population live. In which case, I can only assume this represents a dangerous trend of resentment at the way neo-liberal policies have changed our lives.
But the other factor is the way populist movements can whip up irrational fever in a nation.
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Yes, it's been constantly talked about here on the news channels. The consequences are unpredictable.
But one common thread is that the Brexit vote is symptomatic with Trump and Sanders - a growing disaffection by the wider population, especially the working and lower middle classes, with the so called 'elite' on the wealth and power pile. Or the other way, an increasing extrusion of the elite from any understanding of how the rest of the population live. In which case, I can only assume this represents a dangerous trend of resentment at the way neo-liberal policies have changed our lives.
But the other factor is the way populist movements can whip up irrational fever in a nation.
The day AFTER the vote, Britons googled and googled following topics:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cltl4jFWEAEbnun.jpg)
Irrational, emotional, dissatisfied...or simply stupid? Just stupid? Brainless?
I think we are witnessing an intellectual degeneration here. The bulk of "leave" vote came from elderly and working class.
Yesterday, the UK lost 350 billion dollars.
In ONE day they lost more than the whole country paid to the EU in last FIFTEEN years.
Mankind will not be wiped out by insurmountable problems, but by the inability of mankind to solve problems.
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There does appear to be an oversupply of stupidity in the world currently - certainly of the kind which causes turkeys to vote for Christmas.
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There does appear to be an oversupply of stupidity in the world currently - certainly of the kind which causes turkeys to vote for Christmas.
Well said!
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Proud turkeys for Christmas and Thanksgiving!
(http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/files/2016/06/brexit-exports.png)
Analysis and key factors that determined the vote: http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2016/06/24/brexit-demographic-divide-eu-referendum-results/
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Once the ruler of the World, at least the most successful nation to establish an Empire, with India as the jewel in the Crown.
The first WW actually increased the British Empire, beside older territorial areas, "Britain gained control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon and Togoland, and Tanganyika. "
With the centuries of the Empire and later "The Commonwealth" came a "von oben attitude" among the British that never has been cleansed away. Britain - The Queen of Europé. Beside this fabolous history, it is quite ironic that France (mainly through Charles de Gaulle) refused Britain to join the pre EU, the EEC. Britain applied for membership in the early 1960´s but was stalled more than 10 years before they "got in" 1973.
That EU lose a significant member state in Britain, falls back to the EU super state ambitions. To tell that the British lost so and so many billions of GBP the day after Brexit is quite useless information - the Exit is understood by other parameters.
The EU, that now have defined the minimal percentage of meat in a sausage sold within EU, and also declared that harmless Swedish snuff is forbidden to sell within EU (except in Sweden of course), can now take a day or two together and try to find out - what went wrong with The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), that started in 1951?
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(http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/4/48/Map_of_the_British_Empire_in_the_1920%27s.png)
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Arctic is getting green
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/27/its-official-humans-are-making-the-earth-much-greener/
(https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2016/06/agstill.3975legend.jpg&w=1484)
Earlier this month, NASA scientists provided a visualization of a startling climate change trend — the Earth is getting greener, as viewed from space, especially in its rapidly warming northern regions. And this is presumably occurring as more carbon dioxide in the air, along with warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, makes plants very, very happy.
Now, new research in Nature Climate Change not only reinforces the reality of this trend — which is already provoking debate about the overall climate consequences of a warming Arctic — but statistically attributes it to human causes, which largely means greenhouse gas emissions (albeit with a mix of other elements as well).
The roughly three-decade greening trend itself is apparent, the study notes, in satellite images of “leaf area index” — defined as “the amount of leaf area per ground area,” as Robert Buitenwerf of Aaarhus University in Denmark explains in a commentary accompanying the study — across most of the northern hemisphere outside of the tropics, a region sometimes defined as the “extratropics.” Granted, there are a few patches in Alaska, Canada and Eurasia where greening has not been seen.
Starting from this set of observations, the researchers, led by Jiafu Mao of Oak Ridge National Laboratory but including 18 others from multiple institutions in the United States, France, and China, conducted what scientists call a “detection and attribution” study. This is an experiment in which differing sets of climate model runs are used to determine whether a particular event or change — ranging from an extreme heat wave, to a coral bleaching event, to a major trend like Arctic greening — is more likely to happen in simulations that include human greenhouse gas emissions, than it is to happen in those that do not.
Sure enough, the greenhouse-gas filled computer simulations looked much more like the satellite observations than did simulations that only included natural variability. The study therefore concludes that “the trend of strengthened northern vegetation greening … can be rigorously attributed, with high statistical confidence, to anthropogenic forcings, particularly to rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.”
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*Sigh. I keep turning away in denial, but we are having racial issues in the US, which I suspect are going to blow up in an inescapable way. It's been a program running in the background for a long time, but it has recently manifested with police killing more African-American citizens for no good reason, and now there has been return-fire, by snipers, in different parts of the country. Which has led to more sympathy-protests, which spawn more of the same activity. Reading the news has become more frightening than ever.
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:(
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Mankind has destroyed so many habitats that we are not within "safe limits" any more. What do you know!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160714150633.htm
"This is the first time we've quantified the effect of habitat loss on biodiversity globally in such detail and we've found that across most of the world biodiversity loss is no longer within the safe limit suggested by ecologists" explained lead researcher, Dr Tim Newbold from UCL and previously at UNEP-WCMC.
"We know biodiversity loss affects ecosystem function but how it does this is not entirely clear. What we do know is that in many parts of the world, we are approaching a situation where human intervention might be needed to sustain ecosystem function."
The team found that grasslands, savannas and shrublands were most affected by biodiversity loss, followed closely by many of the world's forests and woodlands. They say the ability of biodiversity in these areas to support key ecosystem functions such as growth of living organisms and nutrient cycling has become increasingly uncertain.
The study, published today in Science, led by researchers from UCL, the Natural History Museum and UNEP-WCMC, found that levels of biodiversity loss are so high that if left unchecked, they could undermine efforts towards long-term sustainable development.
For 58.1% of the world's land surface, which is home to 71.4% of the global population, the level of biodiversity loss is substantial enough to question the ability of ecosystems to support human societies. The loss is due to changes in land use and puts levels of biodiversity beyond the 'safe limit' recently proposed by the planetary boundaries -- an international framework that defines a safe operating space for humanity.
"It's worrying that land use has already pushed biodiversity below the level proposed as a safe limit," said Professor Andy Purvis of the Natural History Museum, London, who also worked on the study. "Decision-makers worry a lot about economic recessions, but an ecological recession could have even worse consequences -- and the biodiversity damage we've had means we're at risk of that happening. Until and unless we can bring biodiversity back up, we're playing ecological roulette."
The team used data from hundreds of scientists across the globe to analyse 2.38 million records for 39,123 species at 18,659 sites where are captured in the database of the PREDICTS project. The analyses were then applied to estimate how biodiversity in every square kilometre land has changed since before humans modified the habitat.
They found that biodiversity hotspots -- those that have seen habitat loss in the past but have a lot of species only found in that area -- are threatened, showing high levels of biodiversity decline. Other high biodiversity areas, such as Amazonia, which have seen no land use change have higher levels of biodiversity and more scope for proactive conservation.
"The greatest changes have happened in those places where most people live, which might affect physical and psychological wellbeing. To address this, we would have to preserve the remaining areas of natural vegetation and restore human-used lands," added Dr Newbold.
The team hope the results will be used to inform conservation policy, nationally and internationally, and to facilitate this, have made the maps from this paper and all of the underlying data publicly available.
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The future for our youth is grim.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/14/one-in-10-uk-wildlife-species-faces-extinction-major-report-shows
More than one in 10 of the UK’s wildlife species are threatened with extinction and the numbers of the nation’s most endangered creatures have plummeted by two-thirds since 1970, according to a major report.
The abundance of all wildlife has also fallen, with one in six animals, birds, fish and plants having been lost, the State of Nature report found.
Together with historical deforestation and industrialisation, these trends have left the UK “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”, with most of the country having gone past the threshold at which “ecosystems may no longer reliably meet society’s needs”.
The comprehensive scientific report, compiled by more than 50 conservation organisations, spells out the destructive impact of intensive farming, urbanisation and climate change on habitats from farmland and hills to rivers and the coast. It found that the fall in wildlife over the last four decades cannot be blamed on past harm, but has continued in recent years.
“It wasn’t just all back in 70s and 80s, it is still happening now,” said Mark Eaton, at RSPB and the lead author of the report. “We are getting ever more efficient in our farming. In a way it is something to be celebrated, how good our farming science and technology is, but it does squeeze nature out.”
Eaton said that there were good examples of wildlife and habitat recovery, but such projects were too few to turn the tide, with public funding for biodiversity having fallen by 32% from 2008 to 2015. “The ability to do it is within our grasp, it is just about resources and the willingness,” he said.
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It looks that we live a golden autumn of mankind that is turning colder and uglier with every passing month.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/great-barrier-reef-pronounced-almost-dead-by-scientists/
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2016/10/14/reef1-large_trans++9rg-P7f8wNnSS1PPckrMR5DlNAH7xNB_CefM-BNf_Fs.png)
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2016/10/14/coral-large_trans++9rg-P7f8wNnSS1PPckrMR5DlNAH7xNB_CefM-BNf_Fs.jpg)
A scientist who recently visited the Great Barrier Reef has said "if it was a person, it would be on life support", as researchers strive to highlight the plight of the reef. New images have shown the worrying extent of the damage done to the reef by climate change. Rising water temperatures have damaged the world’s largest reef system, which stretches for over 1,400 miles off the coast of Australia.
In May, researchers found that more than a third of the coral in northern and central parts of the reefs was dead, and 93 per cent of individual reefs had been affected by a condition known as coral bleaching.
Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Australian Climate Council, told ABC: "After the bleaching event in May, 60 per cent of what we saw was bleached very white. "Another 19-20 per cent was covered in sludgy brown algae. Even of what remained healthy, some looked a bit on edge. "When we went back a few weeks ago to see if they had recovered or died, quite a large proportion had died."
She estimated around half of the bleached corals they visited had died, and that the bleaching had mostly affected delicate corals rather than the stronger 'brain corals'. However, the researchers discovered that fewer species of fish were found on the reef. Professor Tim Flannery, who visited the reef in September, told ABC: "We wanted to see how much repair there'd been, but the coral we saw bleached and in danger a few months back has now mostly died.
"On top of that we've seen a whole lot of new damage, a whole lot of white coral out there that's been killed by Crown of Thorns starfish because it was too weak to defend itself.
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But that's not the worst of it. The really bad news is that Australians don't care.
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But that's not the worst of it. The really bad news is that Australians don't care.
Obituary to the Great Barrier Reef: https://www.outsideonline.com/2112086/obituary-great-barrier-reef-25-million-bc-2016
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We are facing a future of global unpredictability and conflict, not seen since the Cold War days. There are many reasons behind this, but one stands above all else - Russia. Putin is pursuing the reassertion of the old Soviet Empire ambitions. He is clever, ruthless and prepared to use military force whenever it suits his goals. He is establishing a permanent Russian military presence in Syria, and has thumbed his nose at the West's human-rights sentiments over bombing of aid convoys and hospitals. Then responded to US outrage and talk of cruise missile deployments with news of Russia's own missile systems in Syria. He has talked up re-establishing missile bases in Cuba and other old Soviet global locations.
Russia is conducting military exercises with Pakistan and China. The US has come through a period of global timidity following the folly of Iraq, and has been lucky that it faced no substantial rival. Obama has been an intelligent and cautious leader in a time when there has been no appetite domestically for US adventurism internationally. He was probably perfect for the times of relative peace, but that is now changing very fast. There were good reasons to vacate the field in the Middle East, especially Syria, as there was no particular reason for the US to become ensnared in another complex conflict. Unfortunately, that left a vacuum into which Putin stepped without any of the moral baggage the US carries into conflict.
This is the first and most serious challenge the West is facing - forget about ISIS or terrorism - they are pimples on the face of a complete shift of global powers endangering the peace and trade landscape we have all enjoyed since WWII. The tasks confronting the next US President are of a level not seen for many decades. If what people say, that Hillary is a Hawk, considering she is most likely to become the next US President, then perhaps that is exactly what the world requires.
But Putin is not the only dark cloud threatening world order. One of the reasons Russia has exploited the vulnerability of IT systems in the US, and passed the results onto Wikileaks, is because Trump is as stupid and manipulable as the Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, is for China. Trump may be a loose cannon, but he would never be capable of leading the US into a new global conflict environment. He is domestically focused, as are the US people. And they are not the only ones. All across the world, domestic preoccupation is on matters of cultural, religious and racial tensions. Only China and Russia are looking to exploit this national navel-gazing, by grabbing territory and influence while everyone else has taken their eye off the main game.
Julian Assange is worried about Hillary, because he knows she has no tolerance for his kind of open-world liberalism, and Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, is not going to contest re-election next year. Frankly, Assange is doing himself and his organisation no service by being used as a Russian pawn. Wikileaks has lost crucial support across the liberal world though this latest one-sided interference in the US election.
But the world is ill-prepared for a new battle of the powerful, not just because its population is switched off to global reality. National leaders have become populist opportunists, completely lacking in the skills and credentials to navigate a new global instability. They are the result of a wave of idiocy that has in turn been the consequence of decades of Neo-Liberal economics and ethics. What we see in the current US elections typifies what has happened across the world. Community values have been replaced by individual values: 'greed is good'. The wealthy have ruthlessly exploited this value-shift and sucked 90% of global growth to its 1% of population. They have fostered a media that saturates the population's mind space with emotional distractions of all kinds, while they syphoned off the cash. When the population realised they had been ripped off, they were left with only confused outrage - they support Trump not because they like him, but because they are want to throw bombs. Thus Brexit in the UK, the rise of far-right politics in the EU, Duterte in the Philippines, Modi in India.
The presence of astute and equipped leaders in many countries is insufficient to navigate global peace through the treacherous waters facing us. And it's not just 'powers' that are treacherous. We are facing increasing global economic instabilities - interest rates have been held at bank-breaking low levels for such a long time, for good reason... things are not going that well. World public debt is at record levels. The China-led trade surge has serious questions constantly surfacing. But most importantly, climate change is a threat to our species survival, and attempts to respond effectively have been insufficient due to Neo-Liberal self-centredness, and political class irresponsibility.
We sit in our living rooms watching our favourite reality-escaping entertainment, reading our spiritual books and feeling a mix of anxiety and superiority, while out there, in the 'real' world, changes are about to crash upon us that will rip our comfort apart. As spiritualised beings, we have an innate obligation to act. And the first act is to become aware - to sit up from the enchantment that has descended upon our species, and look at the streams of force flowing into our collective existence.
Only then can we chart a course through this landscape which actually does reach our intended goal. We live in increasingly vulnerable times, and it is our personal task to use these times to our advantage. While everyone sleeps on social media, we must keep the lookout.
But we are not the only ones keeping the lookout, and striving for a bridge to a brighter future. There are many people in the world who have not been completely enchanted by the waves of ulterior motive that sweep across the astral landscape sucking off the solar plexus's of the multitude. There are some fantastic people who are shouldering the wheel in every conceivable level of life - whether it be researching new antibiotics, caring for the elderly, or creating images of beauty.
Alas, too many are well intentioned yet unaware of the storms and reefs ahead. As shamans, it is our duty to go beyond the closed harbour, and see into the future - be it good or bad. We have the capacity to travel up-stream of life, to see what is coming through the tubes, and thus prepare ourselves, our loved ones, and our community. Being a shaman is not just about meditation and core-realisation. We have a community role, to constantly look for danger when all around us are partying, and to constantly look for doorways into light when all around us are depressed and exhausted.
In that, we earn our awareness post-death.
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I would insert a few things that paint even bleaker picture.
Firstly, diasters unfolding in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are in no small extent related to Obama's decisions.
Let's recall his election promises: to end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 'reset' relations with Russia (on a peaceful and cooperative note).
He did all that, but he withdrew from Afghanistan and Iraq despite his own intel and military warning him that both states remained unstable with security forces unable to maintain stability.
Moreover, Obama wanted, despite all warnings of Putin's nature, to 'reset' relations with Russia. His pursuit of cooperation with the known bastard merely encouraged Putin to do whatever his doing now.
Hence, it is worse than bad. Obama may be intelligent, but he built his election campaign onto the US war-tiredness and contributed to occurrence of even bigger problems.
Where are intelligent leaders with strong will and, most importantly, a clear understanding of what needs to be done?
Hillary may be a typical product of the US political system, but, by God, she has balls of ten men.
Trump is simply a bragging piece of dung. He will shit his pants at the first critical challenge or a hint of a threat of nuclear confrontation.
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This is the bloody climax of a bloody world view. Who are these people who prosecute this attack on Mosul? What kind of men and women find themselves in such a violent place? And who are these people who are fiercely defending ISIS in Mosul? What personal stories lie behind their situation?
I know, this is about Sunni vs Shia, which explains so much about Turkey's involvement, and the reason ISIS are so competent in battle. I read all the reports, just to try to understand the complexities, but I can't help wondering about the individuals, with families and ambitions, who are mostly going to die over the next few weeks. Why have humans descended into such barbarity?
There seems little likelihood ISIS will succeed, as the forces arranged against them are too great. And this despite so much crumbling of Iraqi government unity in the midst of such a watershed fight. But the toll on lives of civilians, let alone combatants, will be terrible.
Nonetheless, this battle is a watershed. Victory by Shia forces, regardless of the troubles to come, will mark the turning point of this latest Sunni revival. They should never have backed such a violent and obsessive outfit. Yet, who knows, the next one could be worse.
Sometimes I despair that humanity will every have the heart to live without violent destruction and cruelty. Our future is in desperate need of a new wave of species.
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As I mentioned, I have been trying to keep abreast of thinkers who are able to step outside the flux of the present and grasp the obvious currents that are building and waning for our species and the world. Recently, I saw an article about the late Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty who published Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America in 1998, and who has become famous for predicting someone like Trump achieving power. His criticism of the Left's abandonment of the working class, which would eventually lead to the rise of a 'strong-man', was at that time highly prescient. Now it appears obvious - the wisdom of hindsight.
I was thinking about the capacity involved in this man's ability to stand aside from current events and see the trajectory of consequences. I know many people attempt this, and are so idealogically encumbered, that they end up reflecting their own mental obsessions instead of the path of actual events. But some succeed in a highly rational perspective of the future from outside the cockpit of immediacy.
In our shamanic role, we also have a duty to stand on a high ground and see into the future for our tribe, and our world. Awareness is not just about perceiving the good things that abound amongst the bad. It is also about seeing the direction of events. Assessing the current of influences and seeing the consequences.
We are at a crucial practical crossroads in the evolution of our species. This is not about our species' spiritual evolution, but about our species' social evolution - how we structure practical life and meaning for the bulk of humanity. There are many storms of change converging on our immediate future, and they are all involved (although some will spin us totally out of the game - this is not about those).
The vast majority of people, men and women, were and continue to be, involved in manufacturing. Physical goods identify the economic evolutionary period in which we live. It has not always been this, but for the last few hundred years, it has been the focus. The global trade environment has meant that no one country or company can exist completely outside this extra-national mercantile sphere. We have been swept by precious items - tulips, pepper, fur, oil, coal, etc and etc. But the international sphere has grown within commerce to the point where if you are out of it, you collapse. There was absolutely no choice for any manufacturing business to avoid shifting production to Asia. And no political party or government could stand in the way.
Trump talks about rebuilding tariffs, but he has no comprehension of what this means - basically it spells disaster for the US, as globalisation is a force that can not be stopped - technological change has guaranteed that. All that a government can do is mitigate the consequences of those sections of its population that inevitably lose-out in this change. 'It will all be well in the long run' the Chicago School of Economics sprouts, but as John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run we are all dead." What to do for the living? That is the crucial question that governments will stand or fall on.
Unfortunately, that is just the beginning. Another storm is approaching. That very same technological change is not constrained to global trade. It is altering the fabric of the workplace, and especially manufacturing. The working class are screwed, no matter which way they turn, and they are not an insubstantial political quantity!
In India, recently elected BJP supremo,Modi, is hailed as a saviour by all the aspirants for a working future - down on corruption and up on jobs etc. In the state of Gujarat, he, as Chief Minister, made his name as an economic miracle maker. But actually, he achieved a boost in the state's economic growth through high subsidies to capitalists. They duly invested in capital improvements to achieve efficient production - not in labour. Unemployment increased as the wealth of the state increased. Sounds familiar? The USA?.
Now, you could blame the capitalists, or the government. Why did Obama fund the large corporations to avoid collapse after the 2008 GFC, instead of giving the money directly to the people, as the Rudd government did in Australia? Would it have made any difference? Ultimately, it would probably have saved Hillary's pitch for President, but it would not have stalled the inevitable.
Technological change is not just an issue of capital investment over labour, efficiency over humanity. It is a total shift of the mechanism of production, away from human involvement, and it has been happening now for about a hundred years. The working class are stuffed - no one needs them any more except in the trades like electrical, carpentry and plumbing etc. Wherever a computer can do your job, it will go!
The bald fact is that we no longer need humans to do the bulk of the 'middle' work. We still need immigrants to do the dirty work that no national wants to touch. We still need the health carers, creatives, programmers, upper-management and so on, but the vast majority of tasks previously undertaken by both blue and white collar workers will soon be done by computers and robots. And most importantly, this applies to all those Asian workers. The jobs are never coming back!
Now the tricky part. How do we manage this socially? Saudi Arabia has been doing it for some time - shuffle the money down to those who are born nationals, then import the gross-job workers and pay them peanuts. But in most Western and Orient countries, work is a 'man's' status and self-worth. Women are more intelligent and capable of fitting in wherever possible, but still, everyone is subject to an entire economic and political system that rewards for productive effort. Take away that possibility, and what happens?
We have two choices.
One, pay people a living wage for simply living, and fund centrally all utilities and health. This means shift to a social model where the sheer fact of being alive is guaranteed by the state. The issue of status connected to work, would have to change. But some form of meaningful activity would need to be provided, as humans can't just sit in front of their TVs all their life. Health requires meaningful and effortfull activity. Competition will still have to exist in some way, but community involvement will be paramount.
Bali stands as an example. It is an island that was naturally abundant in food production, leaving the population with significant time on their hands. They solved the problem by developing a creative cultural environment, where 'substance-production work' was not the pivot of identity. A deeply engrained social focus on ritualised creativity took the place of the work-centred self-worth-based cultural focus that we have in most nations of the modern world.
Two, politicians strive more and more to placate the anger, frustration and impoverishment of their losing-out citizens. How can that be displaced, as the real solution is frankly impossible? The age old answer of scapegoating politics will begin with vilifying those within the nation who can be classified as 'not us', and who have 'taken our jobs'.
Democracy will begin to decay from within, as politicians seek to rally continuously disintegrating support from a population that is completely disenfranchised from meaningful participation, let alone financial viability. Climate Change will exacerbate the population migration and resource stresses. The only last pseudo-solution to calm this anger will be to blame outsiders: war against foreign nations.
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Very interesting article by George Monbiot:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/corporate-dark-money-power-atlantic-lobbyists-brexit
One of the people most involved in especially the UK side of things, happens to be the man who bought the property we live on: Michael Hintze.
This article is exactly what I suspected is happening, but I had not seen the dots lined up so effectively. It is depressing, to say the least.
An aspect of all this is the way these people have been conniving to influence the Brexit vote for 'out', so that the UK could join with the US to force down the restrictive trade practices (as the US-based multinationals see them) of higher product and practice standards in the EU.
It has been a strategy to set up a counter-force to the EU, in the eventual hope that the EU would collapse, opening cheaper and higher levels of penetration into Europe of US multinationals, especially fossil-fuel energy. But a consequence for the UK government, is that they now need the US more than ever, and are thus in a vulnerable position towards the US per their own standards.
I was amazed at the level to which The Heritage Foundation has infiltrated Trump's executive structure. This really is a most confusing and disturbing time for our planet.
It was this article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/feb/03/coal-lobbys-long-game-puts-talking-points-into-leaders-mouths that also filled in many dots for me, which I had been wondering about.
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Mass coral bleaching hits the Great Barrier Reef for the second year in a row
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/03/13/great-barrier-reef-mass-coral-bleaching-second-year-row/99116432/
An expansive aerial survey found that the Great Barrier Reef has been ravaged by coral bleaching for the second year in a row, marking the first time the reef has not had several years to recover between bleaching events, according to researchers.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science spent six hours flying over the reef between Townsville and Cairns, Australia. The survey found that bleaching is occurring in the central park of the park, which had escaped severe bleaching last year, according to a statement from the Marine Park Authority.
“How this event unfolds will depend very much on local weather conditions over the next few weeks,” Marine Park Authority Director of Reef Recovery Dr. David Wachenfeld said in a statement.
Warmer oceanic waters spurred by climate change, have led to an increase in coral bleaching around the world, according to the center.
The vibrant colors that draw thousands of tourists to the Great Barrier Reef each year come from algae that live in the coral's tissue. When water temperatures become too high, coral becomes stressed and expels the algae, which leave the coral a bleached white color. While some of the areas are expected to regain their normal color when temperatures drop, other parts of the reef have already experienced significant mortality of bleached coral.
The back-to-back summers of widespread coral bleaching likely mean that the water temperatures did not become low enough to allow the corral to adequately recovered, Neal Cantin from the Australian Institute of Marine Science said in a statement.
“We are seeing a decrease in the stress tolerance of these corals,” Cantin said. “This is the first time the Great Barrier Reef has not had a few years between bleaching events to recover.”
He said many coral species seem to be at greater threat of bleaching after more than a year of above-average ocean temperatures.
And while the bleaching is extremely alarming, Wachenfeld reiterated that not all bleached coral will die.
“As we saw last year bleaching and mortality can be highly variable across the 344,000 square kilometer Marine Park — an area bigger than Italy,” Wachenfeld said.
On social media, many used the hashtag #GreatBarrierReef to post photos of the reef and lament the latest bleaching.
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A recent scientific report on the reef, said that cleaning up all the mining and agriculture pollution run-off from the land into the reef will have no effect on the bleaching. Because bleaching is caused by global warming effect on the ocean.
Then the Aust government says, 'why should we do anything while the really big carbon emitters are doing nothing?'
And then they don't believe in global warming anyway.
But it was interesting to see the latest report investigating smog in China during winter, found it was caused by the effects of global warming on the Arctic - melting ice and increased snow falls in Siberia. They also are facing a serious problem in their own country that is caused by the whole world's actions.
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...aside of all small events, catastrophes, greater and lesser struggles and disasters, the Great Barrier Reef is in HOT WATERS...literally.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data
Back-to-back severe bleaching events have affected two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, new aerial surveys have found. The findings have caused alarm among scientists, who say the proximity of the 2016 and 2017 bleaching events is unprecedented for the reef, and will give damaged coral little chance to recover.
Scientists with the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies last week completed aerial surveys of the world’s largest living structure, scoring bleaching at 800 individual coral reefs across 8,000km. The results show the two consecutive mass bleaching events have affected a 1,500km stretch, leaving only the reef’s southern third unscathed.
Where last year’s bleaching was concentrated in the reef’s northern third, the 2017 event spread further south, and was most intense in the middle section of the Great Barrier Reef. This year’s mass bleaching, second in severity only to 2016, has occurred even in the absence of an El Niño event.
Mass bleaching – a phenomenon caused by global warming-induced rises to sea surface temperatures – has occurred on the reef four times in recorded history. Prof Terry Hughes, who led the surveys, said the length of time coral needed to recover – about 10 years for fast-growing types – raised serious concerns about the increasing frequency of mass bleaching events. “The significance of bleaching this year is that it’s back to back, so there’s been zero time for recovery,” Hughes told the Guardian. “It’s too early yet to tell what the full death toll will be from this year’s bleaching, but clearly it will extend 500km south of last year’s bleaching.” Last year, in the worst-affected areas to the reef’s north, roughly two-thirds of shallow-water corals were lost. Hughes has warned Australia now faces a closing window to save the reef by taking decisive action on climate change. The 2017 bleaching is likely to be compounded by other stresses on the reef, including the destructive crown-of-thorns starfish and poor water quality. The category-four tropical cyclone Debbie came too late and too far south for its cooling effect to alleviate bleaching. But Hughes said its slow movement across the reef was likely to have caused destruction to coral along a path up to 100km wide. “It added to the woes of the bleaching. It came too late to stop the bleaching, and it came to the wrong place,” he said.
The University of Technology Sydney’s lead reef researcher, marine biologist David Suggett, said that to properly recover, affected reefs needed to be connected to those left untouched by bleaching. He said Hughes’ survey results showed such connectivity was in jeopardy. “It’s that connection ultimately that will drive the rate and extent of recovery,” Suggett said. “So if bleaching events are moving around the [Great Barrier Reef] system on an annual basis, it does really undermine any potential resilience through connectivity between neighbouring reefs.”
Some reef scientists are now becoming despondent. Water quality expert, Jon Brodie, told the Guardian the reef was now in a “terminal stage”. Brodie has devoted much of his life to improving water quality on the reef, one of a suite of measures used to stop bleaching. He said measures to improve water quality, which were a central tenet of the Australian government’s rescue effort, were failing. “We’ve given up. It’s been my life managing water quality, we’ve failed,” Brodie said. “Even though we’ve spent a lot of money, we’ve had no success.” Brodie used strong language to describe the threats to the reef in 2017. He said the compounding effect of back-to-back bleaching, Cyclone Debbie, and run-off from nearby catchments should not be understated. “Last year was bad enough, this year is a disaster year,” Brodie said. “The federal government is doing nothing really, and the current programs, the water quality management is having very limited success. It’s unsuccessful.”
Others remain optimistic, out of necessity. Jon Day was a director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for 16 years until retiring in 2014. Day, whose expertise lies in protected area planning and management, said the federal government’s approach to protecting the reef was sorely lacking. He said it was taking too relaxed an approach to fishing, run-off and pollution from farming, and the dumping of maintenance dredge spoil. The government was far short of the $8.2bn investment needed to meet water quality targets, he said, and Australia was on track to fail its short-term 2018 water quality targets, let alone achieve more ambitious long-term goals. “You’ve got to be optimistic, I think we have to be,” Day said. “But every moment we waste, and every dollar we waste, isn’t helping the issue. We’ve been denying it for so long, and now we’re starting to accept it. But we’re spending insufficient amounts addressing the problem.”
The Queensland tourism industry raised questions about the reliability of the survey, saying scientists had previously made exaggerated claims about mortality rates and bleaching.
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Queensland tourism industry? They whole tourist industry is flowered, and they still don't get it.
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Ah! So you guys are joining the ranks of the threatened. A regular event for the west coast of the US.
http://www.mygc.com.au/north-korea-threatens-australia-nuclear-strike-sanctions-comments/
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Ah! So you guys are joining the ranks of the threatened. A regular event for the west coast of the US.
http://www.mygc.com.au/north-korea-threatens-australia-nuclear-strike-sanctions-comments/
Yes, but unlikely. Nonetheless, it has developed into a serious issue. The problem with nuclear weapons is that they are more powerful if you don't use them. The world is genuinely concerned about the aggressive buildup in NK, including China. But what to do about it? Talking nice hasn't helped, and talking tough is even worse. The US can't really attack without unacceptable risks to South Korea and Japan, let alone the US coast.
A case of being unacceptable to do nothing and unacceptable to do something. And there is no way NK will give up its nuclear weaponry development, because that's their own safeguard.
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...a network of rivers, ponds and lakes has been mapped on the ice of Antarctica.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/surface-antarctica-swimming-water/
The network of rivers, streams, ponds and lakes across Antarctica has been mapped for the first time, and the extent of water flow is phenomenal.
LONDON, 22 April, 2017 – Scientists poring over military and satellite imagery have mapped the unimaginable: a network of rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and even a waterfall, flowing over the ice shelf of a continent with an annual mean temperature of more than -50C.
In 1909 Ernest Shackleton and his fellow explorers on their way to the magnetic South Pole found that they had to cross and recross flowing streams and lakes on the Nansen Ice Shelf.
Antarctic waterways
Now, US scientists report in the journal Nature that they studied photographs taken by military aircraft from 1947 and satellite images from 1973 to identify almost 700 seasonal networks of ponds, channels and braided streams flowing from all sides of the continent, as close as 600km to the South Pole and at altitudes of 1,300 metres.
And they found that such systems carried water for 120km. A second research team reporting a companion study in the same issue of Nature identified one meltwater system with an ocean outflow that ended in a 130-metre wide waterfall, big enough to drain the entire surface melt in a matter of days.
In a world rapidly warming as humans burn ever more fossil fuels, to add ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, researchers expect to observe an increase in the volume of meltwater on the south polar surface. Researchers have predicted the melt rates could double by 2050. What isn’t clear is whether this will make the shelf ice around the continent – and shelf ice slows the flow of glaciers from the polar hinterland – any less stable.
“This is not in the future – this is widespread now, and has been for decades,” says Jonathan Kingslake, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who led the research. “I think most polar scientists have considered water moving across the surface of Antarctica to be extremely rare. But we found a lot of it, over very large areas.” The big question is: has the level of surface melting increased in the last seven decades? The researchers don’t yet have enough information to make a judgment. “We have no reason to think they have,” Dr Kingslake says. “But without further work, we can’t tell. Now, looking forward, it will be really important to work out how these systems will change in response to warming, and how this will affect the ice sheets.”
Many of the flow systems seem to start in the Antarctic mountains, near outcrops of exposed rock, or in places where fierce winds have scoured snow off the ice beneath. Rocks are dark, the exposed ice is of a blue colour, and during the long days of the Antarctic summer both would absorb more solar energy than white snow or ice. This would be enough to start the melting process.
The Antarctic is already losing ice, as giant floating shelves suddenly fracture and drift north. There is a theory that meltwater could be part of the fissure mechanism, as it seeps deep into the shelves.
Drainage theory
But the companion study, led by the polar scientist Robin Bell of the Lamont-Doherty Observatory suggests that drainage on the Nansen Ice Shelf might help to keep the ice intact, perhaps by draining away the meltwater in the dramatic waterfall the scientists had identified.
“It could develop this way in other places, or things could just devolve into giant slush puddles,” she says. “Ice is dynamic, and complex, and we don’t have the data yet.” – Climate News Network
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I hate to say it, but I can see no way out of this North Korean impasse without a war. Obama, I suspect, knew it would come to this, but was putting action off due to the dire consequences. This is actually why Mike Pence is flitting about - preparing the allies. Oddly, are we to consider China as an ally?
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I hate to say it, but I can see no way out of this North Korean impasse without a war. Obama, I suspect, knew it would come to this, but was putting action off due to the dire consequences. This is actually why Mike Pence is flitting about - preparing the allies. Oddly, are we to consider China as an ally?
Indeed, war seems to be the likelier outcome of dealing with NK. I'd guess Chinese are thinking and planning in long-term - 10-20 years into the future - and they see that NK needs to be dealt with. As far as I know, Chinese have concentrated 150,000 troops on NK border already and Russians are sending trainloads of hardware to their border with NK.
I am not sure, though, what the US and others could do to save Seoul from destruction. It is in the range of NK artillery and NK could keep firing on it for hours before the US and SK could silence these guns and rocket launchers.
If you want to dig deeper, this paper sheds some light on it: https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/170131_Northeast_Asia_Korea_Book.pdf?IH5xTmaHrldeYRY7U6oqllps9XkTiCH9
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I am not sure, though, what the US and others could do to save Seoul from destruction.
Precisely
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We hear too that the US has deployed a lot of Navy to the area. Sigh.
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Juhani's link is to a very detailed paper, which is quite interesting. I didn't know for example, that the Chinese have built hundreds of km of tunnels as a nuclear defence. Anyway, it appears NK's rockets can't yet reach the US or Aust, and they don't have nuclear weapons yet - both things that could change in short time. So if they are going to attack NK, this is the time - any later will be too late. But I certainly wouldn't want to be in Seoul, or Tokyo.
This will of course crash the stock market - good opportunity to pick up some bargains... :(
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One view of how the war with NK could look like: http://www.newsweek.com/2017/05/05/what-war-north-korea-looks-588861.html
I checked various Japanese and South Korean sources and these states are not mobilizing for war, at least currently. Japanese are preparing for a possible missile strike, but not for the full-scale war. Koreans seem to be even more optimistic.
US Pacific Command is more active than usual, but still way below the intensity characteristic of imminent war. Moreover, the US would be hard-pressed to march to a full-scale war without longer force build-up: http://dailysignal.com/2017/02/10/defense-leaders-agree-us-military-readiness-is-at-a-dangerous-low/
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hard to know - I have heard the supply of resources to NK from China is absolutely critical to NK, so a lever exists. The problem is, despite assurances and promises, they will keep doing what they want.
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How to get stuffed through social media: http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/?xid=tcoshare
Russians are at it on an industrial scale, already.
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Yes, curious situation.
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Yes, curious situation.
This is a very interesting time, an era of mankind, that it is intriguing to follow. Where do the rabbit (Trump, Ixis) pop up next?
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There you are: The Great Barrier Reef is worth 42 billion dollars. Cool, eh?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insideasia/2017/06/28/42b-great-barrier-reef-too-big-to-fail-whats-the-real-value-of-worlds-treasures/#1e19592c7bdf
According to a major study released on June 26 by Deloitte Access Economics for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the reef supports 64,000 jobs and makes an annual direct contribution to Australia’s economy of A$6.4 billion (US$4.8 billion), mainly through domestic and international tourism. Along with Uluru -- the monolith in central Australia also known as Ayers Rock -- and the Sydney Opera house, it is on the “must see” list for visitors.
They certainly add that financial measures are “inadequate … for something so important” and dub the reef “a treasure too big to fail”, but it's bollocks.
42 BILLION is the message.
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Yeah - tell me all about it. Comes a time when you realise there is a great evil in the world.
There you are: The Great Barrier Reef is worth 42 billion dollars. Cool, eh?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insideasia/2017/06/28/42b-great-barrier-reef-too-big-to-fail-whats-the-real-value-of-worlds-treasures/#1e19592c7bdf
According to a major study released on June 26 by Deloitte Access Economics for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the reef supports 64,000 jobs and makes an annual direct contribution to Australia’s economy of A$6.4 billion (US$4.8 billion), mainly through domestic and international tourism. Along with Uluru -- the monolith in central Australia also known as Ayers Rock -- and the Sydney Opera house, it is on the “must see” list for visitors.
They certainly add that financial measures are “inadequate … for something so important” and dub the reef “a treasure too big to fail”, but it's bollocks.
42 BILLION is the message.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn
A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is under way and is more severe than previously feared, according to research.
Scientists analysed both common and rare species and found billions of regional or local populations have been lost. They blame human overpopulation and overconsumption for the crisis and warn that it threatens the survival of human civilisation, with just a short window of time in which to act.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, eschews the normally sober tone of scientific papers and calls the massive loss of wildlife a “biological annihilation” that represents a “frightening assault on the foundations of human civilisation”.
Prof Gerardo Ceballos, at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, who led the work, said: “The situation has become so bad it would not be ethical not to use strong language.”
Previous studies have shown species are becoming extinct at a significantly faster rate than for millions of years before, but even so extinctions remain relatively rare giving the impression of a gradual loss of biodiversity. The new work instead takes a broader view, assessing many common species which are losing populations all over the world as their ranges shrink, but remain present elsewhere.
The scientists found that a third of the thousands of species losing populations are not currently considered endangered and that up to 50% of all individual animals have been lost in recent decades. Detailed data is available for land mammals, and almost half of these have lost 80% of their range in the last century. The scientists found billions of populations of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have been lost all over the planet, leading them to say a sixth mass extinction has already progressed further than was thought.
The scientists conclude: “The resulting biological annihilation obviously will have serious ecological, economic and social consequences. Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe.”
They say, while action to halt the decline remains possible, the prospects do not look good: “All signs point to ever more powerful assaults on biodiversity in the next two decades, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life.”
Wildlife is dying out due to habitat destruction, overhunting, toxic pollution, invasion by alien species and climate change. But the ultimate cause of all of these factors is “human overpopulation and continued population growth, and overconsumption, especially by the rich”, say the scientists, who include Prof Paul Ehrlich, at Stanford University in the US, whose 1968 book The Population Bomb is a seminal, if controversial, work.
“The serious warning in our paper needs to be heeded because civilisation depends utterly on the plants, animals, and microorganisms of Earth that supply it with essential ecosystem services ranging from crop pollination and protection to supplying food from the sea and maintaining a livable climate,” Ehrlich told the Guardian. Other ecosystem services include clean air and water.
“The time to act is very short,” he said. “It will, sadly, take a long time to humanely begin the population shrinkage required if civilisation is to long survive, but much could be done on the consumption front and with ‘band aids’ – wildlife reserves, diversity protection laws – in the meantime.” Ceballos said an international institution was needed to fund global wildlife conservation.
The research analysed data on 27,500 species of land vertebrates from the IUCN and found the ranges of a third have shrunk in recent decades. Many of these are common species and Ceballos gave an example from close to home: “We used to have swallows nesting every year in my home near Mexico city – but for the last 10 years there are none.”
The researchers also point to the “emblematic” case of the lion: “The lion was historically distributed over most of Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, all the way to northwestern India. [Now] the vast majority of lion populations are gone.”
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Is anyone else overwhelmed by the negativity? I know v tires to counter by posting positive uplifting stuff and I appreciate it. What are we doing??
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There is a famous story about Buddhists somewhere in Asia, who believed it was best to avoid involvement or awareness of the troubles in the world around them. They were peacefully meditating in their ashram when bandits came by and slaughtered them all. Since that time, Buddhists of that region realised they had a harder task than they had previously seen. They had to open their eyes to the world, to walk within the world, even participate in the world actively, and yet remain as detached as their predecessors. Thus came about the practice of action without attachment, engagement without forgetting. Or what we would call Controlled Folly.
It is a very difficult practice, but not impossible. Yet it needs practice. The technique is to have achieved a deep level of presence, such that even though one is an activist for social change, feels powerfully the disasters unfolding around and strives to awaken others to the dangers cascading down upon humanity, one remains centred on a point beyond - this is what others subconsciously feel from such a person's presence. It is a way of reaching out to the dreamer of another, that there is a way through the maze.
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https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/huge-iceberg-four-times-size-london-breaks-away-antarctic-ice-shelf/
RESEARCHERS who have been monitoring a huge crack in the Larsen C ice shelf, which had left a vast iceberg more than a quarter the size of Wales or four times the size of London “hanging by a thread”, say the rift has finally completed its path through the ice.
A 2,200 square mile (5,800 sq km) iceberg weighing more than a trillion tonnes has now calved, the team from the Swansea University-led Project Midas said. The final breakthrough happened between Monday and Wednesday and was detected in data from Nasa’s Aqua Modis satellite instrument.
(https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/2017/07/12132059/6c94d96a18be244d83b856d97998628e-640x498.jpg)
The calving of the iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, reduces the size of the Larsen C ice shelf by around 12% and will change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula forever, the scientists said.
Professor Adrian Luckman, of Swansea University, lead investigator of Project Midas, said: “We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice. “We will continue to monitor both the impact of this calving event on the Larsen C ice shelf, and the fate of this huge iceberg.
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The sixth mass extinction may be followed by a mass genesis – the earth could host more species.
The planet has seen five 'mass extinctions' over the past half billion years, but each was followed by an explosion in biodiversity.
Animals and plants are seemingly disappearing faster than at any time since the dinosaurs died out, 66m years ago. The death knell tolls for life on Earth. Rhinos will soon be gone unless we defend them, Mexico’s final few Vaquita porpoises are drowning in fishing nets, and in America, Franklin trees survive only in parks and gardens.
Yet the survivors are taking advantage of new opportunities created by humans. Many are spreading into new parts of the world, adapting to new conditions, and even evolving into new species. In some respects, diversity is actually increasing in the human epoch, the Anthropocene. It is these biological gains that I contemplate in a new book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in and Age of Extinction, in which I argue that it is no longer credible for us to take a loss-only view of the world’s biodiversity.
The beneficiaries surround us all. Glancing out of my study window, I see poppies and camomile plants sprouting in the margins of the adjacent barley field. These plants are southern European “weeds” taking advantage of a new human-created habitat. When I visit London, I see pigeons nesting on human-built cliffs (their ancestors nested on sea cliffs) and I listen out for the cries of skyscraper-dwelling peregrine falcons which hunt them.
Climate change has brought tree bumblebees from continental Europe to my Yorkshire garden in recent years. They are joined by an influx of world travellers, moved by humans as ornamental garden plants, pets, crops, and livestock, or simply by accident, before they escaped into the wild. Neither the hares nor the rabbits in my field are “native” to Britain.
Parakeets from Asia have established themselves in cities across Britain. Image.
Many conservationists and “invasive species biologists” wring their hands at this cavalcade of “aliens”. But it is how the biological world works. Throughout the history of the Earth, species have survived by moving to new locations that permit them to flourish – today, escaped yellow-crested cockatoos are thriving in Hong Kong, while continuing to decline in their Indonesian homeland.
Nonetheless, the rate at which we are transporting species is unprecedented, converting previously separate continents and islands into one biological supercontinent. In effect, we are creating New Pangea, the greatest ecological pile-up in the Earth’s long history. A few of the imported species cause others to become extinct – rats have driven some predator-naïve island birds to extinction, for example. Ground-nesting, flightless pigeons and rails that did not recognise the danger were no match for a deadly combination of rodents and human hunters.
But despite being high-profile, these cases are fairly rare. In general, most of the newcomers fit in, with limited impacts on other species. The net result is that many more species are arriving than are dying out – in Britain alone, nearly 2,000 extra species have established populations in the past couple of thousand years.
Extinction and evolution
The processes of evolution also continue, as animals, plants and microbes adjust to the way humans are altering the world around them. Fish have evolved to breed when they are smaller and younger, increasing the chances that they will escape the fisherman’s nets, and butterflies have changed their diets to make used of human-altered habitats.
Entirely new species have even come into existence. The “apple fly” has evolved in North America, thanks to European colonials bringing fruit trees to the New World. And house sparrows mated with Mediterranean “Spanish” sparrows somewhere on an Italian farm. Their descendants represent a brand new species, the Italian sparrow. Life on Earth is no longer the same as it was before humans arrived on the scene.
Joseph Berger/Wikimedia Commons [ Licensed under CC BY 3.0]
There is no doubt that the rate at which species are dying out is very high, and we could well be in for a “Big Sixth” mass extinction. This represents a loss of biological diversity. Yet, we also know that the Big Five mass extinctions of the past half billion years ultimately led to increases in diversity. Could this happen again? It seems so, because the current rate at which new animals and plants (such as the apple fly, the Italian sparrow and Oxford ragwort) are coming into existence is unusually high – and it may be the highest ever. We are already on the verge of Genesis Number Six – a million or so years from now, the world could end up supporting more species, not fewer, as a consequence of the evolution of Homo sapiens.
The ongoing ecological and evolutionary success stories of the Anthropocene epoch require us to re-evaluate our relationship with the rest of nature. Change is ultimately the means by which species survive and turn into new species. So, perhaps we should not spend quite so much time bemoaning the losses that have already taken place, and trying to recreate some imagined past world. We cannot rewind history. It might be more effective for us to facilitate future biological gains even if, in so doing, we move further away from how the world used to be.
This does not let us off the hook – species are genuinely dying out – but it does mean that we should not regard change per se as negative. We should perhaps think of ourselves as inmates and moulders of a dynamic, changing world, rather than as despoilers of a formerly pristine land.
Chris D Thomas, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of York.
This article first appeared on The Conversation.
https://scroll.in/article/843305/the-sixth-mass-extinction-may-be-followed-by-a-mass-genesis-the-earth-could-host-more-species
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Interestingly enough, they are not saying this will make any difference to sea levels nor that it can be ascribed to global warming.
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/huge-iceberg-four-times-size-london-breaks-away-antarctic-ice-shelf/
RESEARCHERS who have been monitoring a huge crack in the Larsen C ice shelf, which had left a vast iceberg more than a quarter the size of Wales or four times the size of London “hanging by a thread”, say the rift has finally completed its path through the ice.
A 2,200 square mile (5,800 sq km) iceberg weighing more than a trillion tonnes has now calved, the team from the Swansea University-led Project Midas said. The final breakthrough happened between Monday and Wednesday and was detected in data from Nasa’s Aqua Modis satellite instrument.
(https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/2017/07/12132059/6c94d96a18be244d83b856d97998628e-640x498.jpg)
The calving of the iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, reduces the size of the Larsen C ice shelf by around 12% and will change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula forever, the scientists said.
Professor Adrian Luckman, of Swansea University, lead investigator of Project Midas, said: “We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice. “We will continue to monitor both the impact of this calving event on the Larsen C ice shelf, and the fate of this huge iceberg.
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I don't want to depress anyone, or cause anxiety, but in the interests of reality, perhaps you should read this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/charlie-veron-the-dire-environmental-prognosis-we-cannot-ignore-20170711-gx8tqr.html
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https://phys.org/news/2017-07-effective-individual-tackle-climate-discussed.html
(https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2017/themosteffec.jpg)
The graph shows that the effetcs of having fewer children dwarf all other measures.
Governments and schools are not communicating the most effective ways for individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, according to new research.
Published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the study from Lund University, found that the incremental changes advocated by governments may represent a missed opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions beneath the levels needed to prevent 2°C of climate warming. The four actions that most substantially decrease an individual's carbon footprint are: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car-free, and having smaller families.
The research analysed 39 peer reviewed papers, carbon calculators, and government reports to calculate the potential of a range of individual lifestyle choices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This comprehensive analysis identifies the actions individuals could take that will have the greatest impact on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
Lead author Seth Wynes said: "There are so many factors that affect the climate impact of personal choices, but bringing all these studies side-by-side gives us confidence we've identified actions that make a big difference. Those of us who want to step forward on climate need to know how our actions can have the greatest possible impact. This research is about helping people make more informed choices.
"We found there are four actions that could result in substantial decreases in an individual's carbon footprint: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car free, and having smaller families. For example, living car-free saves about 2.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, while eating a plant-based diet saves 0.8 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year.
"These actions, therefore, have much greater potential to reduce emissions than commonly promoted strategies like comprehensive recycling (which is 4 times less effective than a plant-based diet) or changing household lightbulbs (8 times less effective)."
The researchers also found that neither Canadian school textbooks nor government resources from the EU, USA, Canada and Australia highlight these actions, instead focussing on incremental changes with much smaller potential to reduce emissions.
Study co-author Kimberly Nicholas said: "We recognize these are deeply personal choices. But we can't ignore the climate effect our lifestyle actually has. Personally, I've found it really positive to make many of these changes. It's especially important for young people establishing lifelong patterns to be aware which choices have the biggest impact. We hope this information sparks discussion and empowers individuals," she concluded.
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... was in 1983.
Thanks to my friends from senior high school.
Not that I understood that effect fully back then, but it was at least the first time I ever heard about this climate change that is so urgent to work with these days.
In 1990 we bought a large house on the countryside, a house that was heated with diesel oil. After two years in our new house I brought out the diesel heater and remade the original pan from 1950, to be fueled by firewood. Firewood is climate neutral. So in 1992 - that is 25 years ago - I was doing a significant climate makeover. Noone of you can beat that ... I'm afraid.
If you can't deal with reality, you are in the wrong place. Literally.
Warrior's first skill is to face the hard facts and the world as they are.
You are not ten years after - you are 25 years after - if not 34 years!
The warrior of old will always be ahead of your mind, and far gone when you ask for advice.
High and mighty is the hallmark of a small pity person that wants to nail you in details, while the rest of us mortal souls are soaked in humbleness ...
Sorry, but someone has to say it.
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Update to the wisdom that wood is carbon-neutral:
https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/wood-not-carbon-neutral-energy-source
There is no nature-friendly way to burn something.
It could be sustainable, though, if done on a small scale, i.e. by fewer people than burn fossil fuels, wood, etc. presently
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I found that article difficult to understand. Nonetheless, I would assume burning wood on a large scale for power generation would release considerable carbon into the atmosphere. Mitigating technologies aside, you only need to see what happens from a bush fire to know it is enormously polluting.
We use wood for heating and cooking in winter, because it's cheaper - it's easily available in the paddocks. It is also an enjoyable process - cutting and collecting the wood, chopping it up and keeping the fires going. From a shamanic perspective, it is a 'living' approach to warmth and cooking.
I have also read that wood smoke is considerably less toxic to the body than emissions from every other fuel. Still, I do run an air purifier in the house, because I feel wood smoke, of which some does escape into the house, is not that good for the respiratory system.
There are problems. In the town, the air tends to sit, thus often the town is enshrouded in smoke due to the number of wood-fire heaters, which are being phased out in the town due to this problem. Thus pollution problems in town are quite serious.
Another problem, is that the wood fires tend to eventually stain the paint on the walls, and cover everything with a fine ash which has to be cleaned up more than a non-wood-fire house. So there is more work.
I don't burn wood for global warming issues, which I only became aware of in the 1990s. I use wood fires because it is part of my whole approach to living as organically as possible. By organically I mean living close to natural elements, not insulated and isolated from nature.
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and when decomposed or burnt the equation of Carbon dioxide is null. This equation does not include transports and processing on large scale, only on the very local level. Say that you cut down and use a tree with leaves that is 50 years old, during that lifetime it has consumed about the equal amount of C02 that is released when burnt.
"where growing trees convert carbon dioxide to woody biomass and decomposing trees release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Whether trees naturally decompose or burn, carbon dioxide is emitted back into the atmosphere, replacing what was just taken out.
As long as global tree biomass production is at least as fast as wood is burned and it decomposes, the carbon cycle remains in balance; there is no net increase of carbon in the atmosphere.
When fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere; most of it cannot be absorbed into the carbon cycle. Because fossil fuels are currently used for harvesting, transporting, and processing woody biomass, there is a small net increase in atmospheric carbon. This amount could be reduced if biofuels were used. This FAQ was adapted from Wood to Energy and used with permission. "
http://articles.extension.org/pages/43727/is-burning-wood-carbon-neutral
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Well, the postmodern post-truth society rages at full throttle.
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/20/coral-bleaching-on-the-great-barrier-reef-is-just-a-conspiracy-nsfw/
Of course coral bleaching and climate change are real, but in this era of post truth, and the new “normal”, the political arena has turned into a full on circus. Everyday there’s some clown trying to tell us the sky is red and the earth is square when we have our two eyes to see; this is the kind of idiocracy which is putting our climate in danger, and the Great Barrier Reef looks like it might the first big hit job.
Charlatans have been hustling and peddling their snake oils since the beginning of time and reasonable heads and sane adults have been calling them out. But man it sure seems like special interests are in a last ditch effort to save their dying industries, looking at you coal, and they will say absolutely anything to undermine the truth.
Take this gem from Queensland Senator, Malcom Roberts: “the reef is in great shape, it’s as good as it’s ever been, it’s in fantastic shape”.
The Great Barrier Reef just suffered its biggest die off from back-to-back massive bleaching event – something which is clearly evident from aerial surveys – and the acres of dead corals that can be seen all over are irrefutable – and this is what Senator Roberts has to say?
You know, it’s really hard to fix a BIG problem when the people in charge deny there’s anything wrong to begin with. This is a sad state of affairs when we as a society can’t collectively agree on what “the truth” is, and when we rely on pirate-mouthed comedians like Jim Jeffries to tell us what’s really going on.
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This North Korean thing has been raising its head again.
I still can't see this avoiding violence. The Chinese don't have the leverage that they want to use, and the NK leader is not going to back down.
Bit grim if you ask me.
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I had no idea it is getting that cramped there. India will be very soon the most populous country in the world.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/elephants-and-tigers-kill-one-person-every-day-in-india-35989396.html
Around one person has been killed every day for the past three years by roaming tigers or rampaging elephants in India, reflecting a deadly conflict between the country's growing masses and its wildlife.
That breaks down to 426 human deaths in fiscal 2014-15, and 446 killed the following year. The ministry released only a partial count for 2016-17 of 259 killed by elephants up to February of this year, along with 27 killed by tigers through until May.
"Conflict is already one of the biggest conservation challenges," said Belinda Wright, founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, based in New Delhi. "In India it is particularly acute because of the high human population." That population of 1.3 billion is still growing, and as it does it is increasingly encroaching into the country's traditional wild spaces and animal sanctuaries, where people compete with wildlife for food and other resources.
The growth of human settlements is often seen as economic development, but for some who are living on the edge of wildlife borders it can come at a high cost. Of the 1,052 lives claimed by elephants in the last three years, many had simply been in the way when the pachyderms wandered out of jungles in search of vegetation and raided farmers' crops. Wildlife experts say these conflicts have increased as elephants increasingly find their usual corridors blocked by roads, railway tracks and factories.
For a while it looked more promising for tigers:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/india-reports-nearly-30-rise-in-wild-tiger-population
There were also sceptics:
http://www.vocativ.com/311234/tiger-recovery-called-into-question-by-biologists/
...and the above data shows that sceptics were right: tigers are really pushed to the corner in India. Who would have thought that our planet might become too small.
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Population and poaching. Population is a massive problem in both Asia and Africa. Poaching is connected and continues to be a huge problem.
If you are concerned about this, then you should donate to:
https://www.thingreenline.org.au/donate/
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The North Korean situation appears to be worsening. I find it hard to understand why - all sane people believe force is off the table. Yet perhaps there are actions that could precipitate a serious crisis.
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It appears it was the UN resolution that has caused the upset - on the surface anyway. It is amazing that the US was able to secure the vote of all members of the Security Council. They are targeting minerals and seafood exports from NK, which should cause some difficulties in NK. But China has taken a much more overt position in lecturing NK to give up its nuclear programme. China is petrified that NK will collapse, and millions of refugees will flood into China.
Meanwhile Vietnam is starting its own anti-China agitation with the ASIAN countries, and India and China are engaged in a publicity war over the 'Chicken's Neck' stand-off, which is touted to be at a trigger point for armed conflict, but somehow I doubt that.
The interesting thing, is that despite Trump and all the geopolitical disruptions around the world, underlying business is doing quite well. The international real economy is fairly stable, which has caused my organisation to shift more funds into equities. We had been holding 39% liquid assets, which is extremely high, due to all the uncertainties that happened last year, but we are now bringing that down to a much reduced rate.
I keep searching for the trigger that will send the equity markets into another crash, but despite the anti-democratic politics and the global warming, there doesn't appear to be anything immediately threatening. Even the much hyped robot effect on employment is statistically not showing any indications of actually happening in Australia - people are changing tasks in employment but the level of employment has remained stable over a long period, and only changes due to economic factors.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-japan-missile-south.html
There you are: Japanese think about developing the capability to strike North Korea preemptively.
South Koreans think about deployment of the US tactincal nuclear weapons on their soil and/or building bigger missiles.
However, implementing these measures would take a few years.
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Yes indeed. This is a ratcheting up the rhetoric, and that is not a very useful thing to be doing. This time it doesn't sound like a bluff for more food.
Something will need to break. I suspect there will be coup in NK.
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-guam-north-korea-20170814-story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-bans-north-korea-iron-lead-coal-imports-as-part-of-un-sanctions/2017/08/14/a0ce4cb0-80ca-11e7-82a4-920da1aeb507_story.html?utm_term=.becabef582a9
Kim stood down - at least for now. Whether he was taken aback by the US threats or by Chinese sanctions (and those are really painful) remains unknown. In any case, so far so good.
At the end of the day, those autocrats and dictators are also humans and they can be influenced if the threats aganist them are made real and up close and personal.
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It looks as if the US forces may be moving to the ports on the US Pacific and southern coasts.
Destination unknown.
https://already-happened.com/2017/08/06/us-military-hardware-heading-toward-los-angeles-probably-to-be-loaded-onto-expeditionary-transfer-dock-ship-usns-john-glenn/
https://already-happened.com/2017/08/13/us-continues-to-pepare-its-military-overseas-operation/
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That is interesting.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41049827
A massive rockslide in Switzerland's Val Bondasca was not a complete surprise. Many parts of Switzerland, two thirds of which is mountainous, are at risk of avalanches and landslides. Communities in the Alps have been protecting themselves against such natural hazards for years.
Before Wednesday's landslide, sensors on the Piz Cenaglo, high above the Bondasca valley, had already shown that the rock mass was moving. That warning triggered the automatic closure of some sections of road. The village of Bondo had a narrow escape. The four million cubic metres (141m cubic feet) of mud and rock which thundered down the mountain ended up just centimetres from people's homes.
That wasn't just luck. Bondo has a concrete barrier to protect it from the full force of a landslide, and the river bed in the Bondasca Valley has been widened in the hope of channelling landslides away from populated areas. But the size of Wednesday's slide was a shock, and some scientists are now warning that the alpine regions can expect more events like this in the future.
The reason is that the high mountains are not as cold as they once were. Marcia Phillips, a permafrost researcher with Switzerland's Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, has been analysing temperatures all over the Alps.
"We have bore holes at different depths in different terrain and the ones that are in rock walls are showing a distinct warming over the last 10 to 20 years," she explained. That would not be a problem if the rock was simply rock, but the rock in large sections of the Swiss Alps is cracked and fractured - between the layers of rock there are layers of permafrost. Ice in fact, but ice that is not supposed to melt.
"We have a problem if the temperature rises above -1.5C because the permafrost has a stabilising function," Ms Phillips said.
Compounding the weakening permafrost is another phenomenon associated with global warming - Switzerland's glaciers are noticeably retreating.
The glacier at the base of Piz Cenaglo provided additional stability to the rock above it, but that glacier has shrunk in recent years. So precarious had the mountain become that Marcia and her colleagues had given up on borehole testing and instead resorted to remote monitoring.
"It is cracked and unstable up there," she explained, "It was just too dangerous."
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I wonder when Japanese will launch their own nuclear programme.
And South Korea - there are a few nations there that now need to wake up as the umbrella of US military patronage has become highly unreliable.
We are in a new arms race all because of Donald.
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Indeed, Donald has no small role in it.
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Let us know if you hear of military movements building.
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It looks like the US is considering enhancing South Korea's long-range strike capability:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/09/04/2017090401289.html
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Many voices citicise Aung San Suu Kyi for her attitudes towards Rohingya/Rakhine people. It appears that somewere in her mind is a deep conflict between her Burmese-Buddhist identity and the existence of Muslim minority in Burma.
Where is the 'aunty' now?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/aung-san-suu-kyi-myanmar-icon-rohingya
She does not like even the name 'Rohingya':
https://www.mmtimes.com/opinion/20839-why-is-daw-aung-san-suu-kyi-ignoring-her-country-s-most-vulnerable-people.html
She is known for being angry even to be interviewed by a Muslim: “No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim!”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachael-willis-/aung-san-suu-kyis-coming-_b_9617872.html
There are calls sto strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize:
https://www.change.org/p/take-back-aung-san-suu-kyi-s-nobel-peace-prize
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We are getting the view that Muslims are not welcome in Burma by anyone in that country. Not sure where this one is heading.
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10 rifles
58 killed
500 injured
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooting-live/index.html
More than Irma and Maria killed together in the US.
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10 rifles
58 killed
500 injured
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooting-live/index.html
More than Irma and Maria killed together in the US.
Those numbers might be a little off - perhaps they were old counts.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article175029276.html
http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/11/hurricane-irma-death-toll-on-caribbean-islands-rises-to-34-6920077/
(75 + 34 for Irma)
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-us-virgin-islands-dominica-caribbean-impacts
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-maria-dominica-death-toll-20170925-story.html
(At least 27 from Maria.)
But your point is taken. To fire a gun and cause fatalities only takes a few moments and far less energy than a hurricane requires.
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My point is simple - people do more damage to themselves than forces of nature.
Some numbers I have remembered:
Annually some 280,000 people die in the US from various illnesses caused by obesity;
In 2016, there were 59,000 gun crimes in the US that caused 15,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries;
In 2015, terrorists killed in the whole wide world 28,000 and injured 35,000 people;
US Armed forces lost in 10 years in Iraq 4,500 and in Afghanistan some 2,400 soldiers killed.
All Marias and Irmas of this world are quite modest killers in comparison to human beings.
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My point is simple - people do more damage to themselves than forces of nature.
Some numbers I have remembered:
Annually some 280,000 people die in the US from various illnesses caused by obesity;
In 2016, there were 59,000 gun crimes in the US that caused 15,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries;
In 2015, tefforists killed in the whole wide world 28,000 and injured 35,000 people;
US Armed forces lost in 10 years in Iraq 4,500 and in Afghanistan some 2,400 soldiers killed.
All Marias and Irmas of this world are quite modest killers in comparison to human beings.
Agreed.
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Yes, but it's not enough. I was trying to think of a country that murders it's own people so gratuitously, and I could think of none, except perhaps Pakistan. But Pakistan is still a religious/political agenda, whereas in the US there is a sense of nihilism and narcissism - a personality affliction, rather than a wider social movement. Except of course where the nihilism and narcissism is promoted behind a pseudo-religious and political agenda.
So what is it within the American culture that can be identified as the cause of this murderous aberration? Is it one or two specific rogue elements that have crept in, or is it the whole overall cultural identity? Can we separate out the cancerous cells within the culture, or do we condemn the whole thing?
It is hard to believe the whole culture is aberrant, because we can all point to so much inspiration and value emanating from the American adventure - it came as such a relief from the restrained and stagnant European culture. One only has to read Kafka's America to feel the vibe sweeping the world at the initiation of the US adventure. To say nothing of the economic miracle that the transportation of Middle Eastern grains and animals created on the vast fertile planes of America.
So is there a rogue insertion? And if so, what? It would be hard to extract one or two elements from the whole without seeing the supportive connection within.
Let's just say excessive individualism. But if that is so, is it not based on the very core of the American experiment? Some would say, the US could have gone down the cooperative-community channel, as the extensive union movement has indicated. So perhaps the problem is Frederick Hayek, but he was a European! Or perhaps Ayn Rand, but she was Russian!
Is it possible to look at a classical American song or movie, and identify the very element that has fostered these outrageous acts of barbarism?
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I have sumbled on these themes:
Pervasive fear. http://time.com/4158007/american-fear-history/
What's the point in all of this? https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/19100/
This may be an urban legend: I have been told many a time that the scientific innovation, research and development, and many other accomplishments that require serious effort and dedication, come from immigrants and "imported brains". Strangely enough, the second or third generation immigrants become less and less willing/interested to do the effort and repeat the achievements of their fathers and mothers.
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How in the hell did this happen? How could it have happened? A man so blindly into his own cleverness and ego that he is willing to destroy the world. Chuckling with his ignorance on his smartphone. How in the hell could this happen.
I'd say I'm apoplectic, but that is too clever in and of itself to convey the gravity. And 'cleverness' is how we got here. The glorious age of the selfie. </requiem>
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Don't know if you guys already posted this one:
(https://wi-images.condecdn.net/image/9O6Zvo9nL6k/crop/1440/landscape)
"Imagine a world where many of your daily activities were constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you interact with them; how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills and taxes you pay (or not). It's not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit. But now imagine a system where all these behaviours are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government. That would create your Citizen Score and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date.
A futuristic vision of Big Brother out of control? No, it's already getting underway in China, where the government is developing the Social Credit System (SCS) to rate the trustworthiness of its 1.3 billion citizens. The Chinese government is pitching the system as a desirable way to measure and enhance "trust" nationwide and to build a culture of "sincerity"."
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion
https://www.youtube.com/v/R32qWdOWrTo
Reminds me of the the Black Mirror episode in Season 3 called Nosedive.
Build a culture of "sincerity".... yeah, right...
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Yes, there you go... we are on a role as they say.
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If true, we might be approaching a game-changing moment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/20/exclusive-us-making-plans-bloody-nose-military-attack-north/
http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-reportedly-wants-bloody-nose-strike-against-north-korea-2017-12
America is drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons programme, The Telegraph understands.
The White House has “dramatically” stepped up preparation for a military solution in recent months amid fears diplomacy is not working, well-placed sources said.
One option is destroying a launch site before it is used by the regime for a new missile test. Stockpiles of weapons could also be targeted.
The hope is that military force would show Kim Jong-un that America is “serious” about stopping further nuclear development and trigger negotiations.
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Interesting development as Turkey initiates ground movement against the Syrian Kurds in Afrin. Now, we have here a case of superior armaments against battle hardened troops. Then there is the wider geo-political drama, about the carve-up of Syria and the fact that ISIS is still not completely defeated, so the US retains the need for Kurdish assistance while Turkey has largely been a hindrance in the whole Syrian affair. Russia is still in there also.
But this is the moment the Kurds have been waiting for - I wager anything they knew it was coming and have prepared. they desperately need to carve out a Kurdish region as much as Turkey is desperate to stop that.
Somehow, I think the Turks may very well get a shock in this event. There are about 10,000 Kurdish soldiers in Afrin, along with a very large civilian population, most likely pro-Kurdish.
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As the night fell, Kurds counterattacked and took the hill back. Arabs retreated after a symbolic resistance.
It is likely, that Turks will launch another artillery barrage and re-take the hill tomorrow.
It was swinging back and forth also during their previous incursion.
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The Kurds really are friendless in this situation, possibly except for their SDF coalition, although I find it hard to think the Sunni tribes will be much interested in a West Kurdistan. And the Iraqi Kurds are also seriously under pressure. So they will be out-gunned and betrayed by the US, nonetheless, this whole area of the Middle East is extremely volatile. I expect the Kurds always knew US assistance came at a price of a deal with Turkey, so I'd be surprised if they haven't prepared for this situation.
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The Kurds are saying they have been betrayed more by Russia than the US, but it appears no significant, or insignificant, state is willing to speak up for the Kurds in Syria.
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It looks that Syria has been carved up and Turks have come to claim their bit, but there is no ironclad proof, yet.
The US threatened to cut any support to Kurdish YPG if any reinforcements are sent to Afrin (confirmed).
Some sources claim that the US actually stopped Kurdish reinforcements that were moving from Cizire and Kobane to Afrin (unconfirmed).
Simultaneously, there are claims that Russian and Syrian forces are pulling back from villages west of Manbij (unconfirmed).
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I'm reading mixed reports about all this. Who is supporting or not supporting who etc. and for all kinds of different reasons.
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This Turkey-Kurd battle is likely to trigger much larger problems.
Firstly, the Kurds may well prove to be intrangent opponents - battle hardened, highly experienced and motivated: this fight could well go their way, and if not, at least it could drag on for enough time to activate the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq (and possibly in Iran). The effect of that could cause problems for Erdoğan not only within Turkey but in the Middle East Region. But also, Turkey's proxy forces are not that highly motivated, and the same could be said for Turkey's own army. And now the Arab tribes are claiming to stand with the Kurds
Secondly, it has revealed that the 'west' has no actual plan for Syria, so in the vacuum, Russia is establishing itself strongly - in alliance with Turkey and Assad. This is not in the west's interest, but it seems Putin has grabbed the cookies before anyone could stop him. I have yet to hear what Iran's stake in the pie is, as well as Saudi Arabia.
Thirdly, it has revealed a severe split in Nato, with Turkey siding more with Russia than the US and Nato.
Fourthly, we have to factor in the Trump - the wild card, which could throw a huge spanner in the works.
Lastly, we now see the EU and the US moving to stop Erdoğan's aspirations, because the stability of Syria as a whole is threatened by Turkey's invasions. Even Russia has an interest for a stable Syria under Assad, and for that they need the Kurdish north as part of the federation.
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This Turkey-Kurd battle is likely to trigger much larger problems.
Firstly, the Kurds may well prove to be intrangent opponents - battle hardened, highly experienced and motivated: this fight could well go their way, and if not, at least it could drag on for enough time to activate the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq (and possibly in Iran). The effect of that could cause problems for Erdoğan not only within Turkey but in the Middle East Region. But also, Turkey's proxy forces are not that highly motivated, and the same could be said for Turkey's own army. And now the Arab tribes are claiming to stand with the Kurds
Secondly, it has revealed that the 'west' has no actual plan for Syria, so in the vacuum, Russia is establishing itself strongly - in alliance with Turkey and Assad. This is not in the west's interest, but it seems Putin has grabbed the cookies before anyone could stop him. I have yet to hear what Iran's stake in the pie is, as well as Saudi Arabia.
Thirdly, it has revealed a severe split in Nato, with Turkey siding more with Russia than the US and Nato.
Fourthly, we have to factor in the Trump - the wild card, which could throw a huge spanner in the works.
Lastly, we now see the EU and the US moving to stop Erdoğan's aspirations, because the stability of Syria as a whole is threatened by Turkey's invasions. Even Russia has an interest for a stable Syria under Assad, and for that they need the Kurdish north as part of the federation.
Reasonable points. Some additional arguments may be:
1) Kurds have never been united nor acted as a united front. Turkish onslaught on PKK-related YPG may not trigger actions of more moderate Kurds. Turkish Army has gone through purges and repressions and it will scream and cry (i.e. lack motivation), but take every single hilltop outlined by Erdogan. Regardless. Arab militias, with the exception of those with more Islamist orientation, are unlikely to go into life-and-death fight for Kurds in that conflict. Hardcore Islamists, on the other hand, hate the guts of Kurds.
2) Russia has a strong position, indeed. Its only problem is to find a reasonable compromise with Arab states, Iran and the US. Particular problem may be Iran that has its own regional aspirations and objectives (Shia crescent Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon) and challenges with the US.
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Things have heated up in Syria.
1) On Feb 7-8th, US aircraft and helicopter gunships decimated apparently 1-2 units of Russian mercenaries near Deir-ez-Zor. There are claims that hundreds of Russians were killed. There are some suggestions that the US commanders knew exactly whom they were hitting. I'd say it is a first time since the Afghanistan war (1979-1989) when Americans and Russians have shot at and killed each other.
2) On Feb 9-10th, Syrians managed (almost by an accident) to hit and bring down an Israeli warplane. Israelis retaliated on Feb 10-11 by destroying 50% of Syria's air defences and smashing in the process a number of Iranian objects/bases in Syria.
3) Meanwhile, on Feb 8th, the Olympic Games began and it may be yet another ominous coincidence: in 2008 and 2014 Russians attacked Georgia and Ukraine, respectively.
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Well, I have been keeping an eye on things there, and it looks to me like the turkey-kurd problem is but the least of the problems. The place is disintegrating into a whooping great cesspit of chaos.
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Both, Americans and Russians, try to keep a lid on what happened in Syria.
The US Secretary of Defense Mattis said that they asked Russians before the strikes regarding possible Russian presence in the area (formality really, as Kurds were in constant battle contact with advancing Russians) and received a negative answer. Then they instantly pulled a trigger.
Russians keep claiming that no Russians died in the strike, but it seems that no less than THREE military hospitals have been filled to the maximum with wounded military personnel and mercenaries. The unofficial claims of body count persistently mention hundreds of killed and wounded.
Apparently, Pentagon has released two videos of air strikes that show that Russians in the target area had no chance, really - after their presence was denied.
This incident may have some unexpected consequences with regard to Russia's internal developments. Russia has been denying the presence of its military in Ukraine since 2014, but also hundreds of official military and thousands of mercenaries have been killed. But it is grudgingly accepted as Russia fights for "Slavic world against neonazis", etc. The story is complete bullocks, but it plays on the sense of patriotism.
In Syria, the Russian leadership sort of blatantly disregarded the lives of Russians when threatened and even asked before the strikes by the perceived arch enemy - the US - and denies the killed and wounded people ever existed. That is a mortal insult to the Russian sense of patriotism. Many former military, mercenaries, conservatives etc. expect either exacting a bloody revenge on the US or some changes inside Kremlin.
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Yes, I was wondering how the Russian public was going to react to this. But even the Russian government so far hasn't made too much of a noise. There must be some sense of guilt on the Russian side.
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Info on Russian casualties is leaking: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-casualtie/russian-toll-in-syria-battle-was-300-killed-and-wounded-sources-idUSKCN1FZ2DZ?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a85cf5304d3012f09f8c076&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
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Last Saturday brought us yet another missile strike at Syria. Donald promised - Donald delivered.
Fortunately, Mattis was able to dissuade Donald from striking Russian and Iranian bases in Syria.
Russians warned that if US struck Damascus, it would be "the last thing they did in this world".
US delivered over 70 missiles precisely into the vicinity of Damascus. Russian air defence did nothing.
Now Russians claim that Syrians were able to shoot down some missiles, US says none were shot down.
Where do we stand now?
It was for the first in many years when US and Russia (biggest nuclear powers on this planet) traded direct military threats.
US and allies called Russia's bluff and Russia caved in.
However, Russia's president is a vengeful one and it is quite certain that this is not the end of it.
We will hear more from Russia.
Today, the US and UK claimed that Russia tried to attack/hack the very infrastructure of the Internet.
The US keeps a few hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles concentrated around Syria - in case a decision is made on follow-on strikes.
Meanwhile, the Gulf Stream current is at its weakest in 1,600 years, studies show: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/11/critical-gulf-stream-current-weakest-for-1600-years-research-finds
Reporting from Planet Earth
AD 2018.
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I hear that the Russian economy is also at its weakest for a long time. A previous Russian finance minister resigned in disgust against Putin spending the last big inflow of national funds on armaments instead of economic recovery. With an GDP less than that of Texas, Putin is desperate to distract the Russian population with anything that inflames national pride, or his leadership will come crashing down with the economy.
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I hear that the Russian economy is also at its weakest for a long time. A previous Russian finance minister resigned in disgust against Putin spending the last big inflow of national funds on armaments instead of economic recovery. With an GDP less than that of Texas, Putin is desperate to distract the Russian population with anything that inflames national pride, or his leadership will come crashing down with the economy.
Everything you say about Russia's economy is right.
However, Putin's rule is hardly threatened by anything. "Reality" is a concept that is shaped by media and inside Russia it is already extremely similar to that of Orwell's "1984". You simply would not find anybody willing to challenge the statement that 70 American missiles were shot down. Epic failures have little to no effect on Putin's popularity and people are afraid of sweeping changes in their society due to their experiences (and media messaging on) the attempt to democratise their country in the beginning of 1990s.
I see Russia going down the road of North Korea. At least for the time being.
PS The US struck a target that was 8 km/5 miles from Syria's presidential palace.
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Just prior to the great and disasterous invasion of Afghanistan by the army of the British East India Company, one of the reasons for the venture was the siege of Herat by the Persians. When the Hero of Herat, the British spy, Lieutenant Eldred Pottinger made himself known to the Wazir, and conducted a sterling defence of what was a ferocious attack by the Persians, although heralded by the British back in India, he was arrested by the Wazir and nearly killed. So much for thanks from British help!
To help understand this current push from the cohort of advisors to Trump, 'to teach the Iranian's a lesson' approach, and enable/encourage the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their dictatorial leaders, it is instrumental to see what the Wazir of Herat wrote to the Persians after they called of their siege:
"I swear to God that I prefer the fury of the Shah to the kindness of a million of the English."
Again and again, the story of western domination of other nations always fails to realise that people resent foreigners dictating to them, even if it be in their own best interest. I suspect this move by Trump will prove the opposite of dividing Iran.
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There we are:
- Iranians launched some 20 missiles at Israel tonight. Israeli missile defence system shot them down.
- Israel struck back at 20-30 Iranian locations in Syria.
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I've been aware that Israel has an obsession with Iran as the devious and aggressive primary current enemy, creeping closer to them. Much of this obsession is behind Trump's actions. I think their concerns are not without substance, but nonetheless it plays well on Israel's right wing national political landscape, that they have to be nasty towards everyone else or they will murdered in their beds. Conveniently forgetting if they are murdered it's because they are nasty - the standard right wing flaw. Mind you, it's not exactly without some element of truth, just overblown for political purposes. It is always the old 'firm adult' that has no place in modern democratic politics.
I suspect Israel has little to worry about just now - they far out-gun any opposition. But yes, we are sure to see some firies in the sky before this dies down.
And also, let's not forget, this is a battle between Israel and Suleimani - never underestimate that wily old soldier.
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Good points! I would add that because Israel outguns Iran, it wants and is ready to smash any attempt of Iran to grow stronger in its early stages.
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Pretty soon, we will see the arrival of a global response. This will cut across national politics.
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That would be wonderful!
However...I imagine it would be a massive emotional push, but it remains to be seen whether the outraged people who press politicians for change would be willing to change their own habits and ways and cut back their consumption of nature and its resources.
It would be an awesome turning point in the history of our species if our co-travellers would look accusingly not only at the Donalds and Vladimirs and Jis of this world, but also at themselves.
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It would be an awesome turning point in the history of our species if our co-travellers would look accusingly not only at the Donalds and Vladimirs and Jis of this world, but also at themselves.
Exactly
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Juhani, have you got any clarity about what is happening now in Syria - the Kurd's under attack and apparently being backed by Turkey. What is going on, and what are the implications?
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As of today, September 11th situation is as follows:
1) Kurds/SDF have, with support of the US-led coalition, launched an offensive on the last |S|S stronghold in Euphrates Valley (town of Hajin - near the border with Iraq)
2) Russians and Syrians launched last week an air campaign to either (1) bomb rebels into submission in their last stronghold (Idlib province) or (2) to soften the defences for a ground offensive.
3) Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents held a meeting to find an agreement on Syria, but it seems that they failed to find a compromise. While the meeting was held, Russians halted bombardment, but then resumed.
4) Turks have brought in reinforcements into Idlib (they have a number of observation posts and checkpoints on the perimeter of Idlib province). Whether Turks will or will not resist Russian-Syrian offensive, remains unclear.
So far, 35,000 Syrians have left their homes and try to flee from Idlib. The number of refugees may well exceed a million if Syrians and Russians decide sweep the whole Idlib province.
In essence, we are seeing a final act of Syrian civil war - if Russians and Syrians seize Idlib, there will be no rebel areas left and the uprising that began in 2011 will have been quelled.
What happens to Kurds, is anybody's guess, but so far the US has not clearly stated that it will abandon them. I'd speculate Kurds and their independence aspirations may be used as a bargaining chip to press Turks to abandon procurement of Russian missiles and behave as a NATO member. This would fit Tump's way of conducting foreign policy.
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On the background of these developments, Russia and the US keep trading warnings and threats:
https://www.news.com.au/world/russia-threatens-to-attack-us-troops-supporting-syrian-rebels/news-story/318d95f35e434806723bc5a87903e42b
http://uk.businessinsider.com/f-35-aircraft-carrier-middle-east-after-russia-threatens-us-forces-syria-2018-9
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So if I get this straight, we have Assad and Putin on one side, and Turkey, Kurds and the US on the other. Is there anyone else in this mix - is it only Kurds in this last independent province? Appears that Turkey, Kurds and US are a very odd alliance.
But if the anti Assad-Russian forces are to be countered, some kind of international recognition of this province would be required. Is there any move for that?
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It is even trickier than that :)
Russia and Iran support Syria's current leader al-Assad and they fight predominantly against rebels who tried to topple al-Assad. Russians and Iranians don't want to see any autonomous regions on the territory of Syria. Interestingly, Russians have been very passive with regard to |S|S.
Turks have trained and equipped some rebel factions (mostly ethnic Turkmens) with the aim of creating a buffer zone on Turkish-Syrian border. Turks don't want to see Kurds strengthening and setting up anything akin to a state on Syrian side of the border. Hence, Turks are at odds with the US.
The US, France, UK and few others have trained and equipped (1) Kurds to fight against |S|S, (2) Syrian rebels to press al-Assad to negotiate. The remnants of these rebels are now concentrated mostly in Idlib. The US and French presence remains strong in Kurdish areas and Kurds are a force to be reckoned with - as long as they get weapons and the US air cover keeps Russian air force at bay.
All in all, there is no unified effort to support any of the rebel or ethnic factions in the Syria. Turks and the US-led coalition have very different ideas about what needs to be done and particularly about Kurds.
At the same time, Russians and Iranians want to have in power a government that would support their aspirations that also differ. Russians would like to have a friendly state with Russian bases in it. Iranians want to have a pro-Shia state and a land bridge to Hezollah in Lebanon. The latter puts it in a direct confrontation with Israelis who have struck Iranian targets in Syria for over 200 times. Naturally, the US sides with Israel and has pressed Iran to leave Syria. This, in turn, has evoked strong Russian reactions.
Where do we stand now?
Idlib has become a home for all remaining rebel factions: Russians and Iranians battered them into submission in different enclaves and then offered an option to evacuate to Idlib. Rebels were happy to go and it effectively ended a spread-out insurgency that took enormous toll on Syrian armed forces. Now there's only one target area remaining for pro-government forces.
Kurds control a massive area in the north of Syria that they attempted to declare independent, but received no support or recognition. Syria's largest natural gas and oil reserves are in that area.
Turks are trying to expand areas at the border that are controlled by pro-Turkish rebels (Turkmens) and push Kurds eastward. This has brought them into confrontation with the US on several occasions. Simultaneously, Turks are posturing to keep Russians and Iranians away from the buffer areas they try to establish.
The most puzzling aspect of the situation are the US intentions. Kurds have served the US efforts to destroy |S|S extremely well and they bore the brunt of fighting and losses. Will the US simply leave Kurds to be torn to shreds by Turks and others? One must keep in mind that there are 40 million Kurds and if they try to establish their state, it would chop off territories from Turkey, Iraq and Iran. None of these states wants to see it. For Russians, it is a nice lever to turn these states against the US because of the US support for Kurds. Similarly, John Bolton, the new US NATSEC adviser to Trump has stated that Iran must be driven out of Syria. Is it serious?
So far, the only political support rebels in Idlib receive, is an outcry on the humanitarian grounds. It matters none to Russia, Iran and Syria. The US threatened to strike Syria if chemical weapons are used against rebels.
Turks are the only ones making forceful moves and putting their forces on the perimeter of Idlib, as well as supplying rebels with arms and ammunition, and it seems to hold Russians back. For now.
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I don't get a few things. Are there Kurds in the Idlib province?
Why are the Turks defending Idlib? Is Idlib their buffer zone?
I suspect Assad and Russia are dead keen to take Idlib, Turks of not. How determined are the Turks? If they are determined they will need other international (Nato, UK, US) support to withstand Russians.
How likely is this to escalate beyond Syria?
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There are few if any Kurds in Idlib. Either way, they have no say about what Syrian/Arab/Turkmen rebels and Turks do there.
The northern part of Idlib is certainly considered a buffer zone by Turks. There are 3 million people in Idlib and they may rush for Turkish border in the case of Russian-Syrian attack. Turks already host close to 3 million Syrian refugees.
Turkish determination is to be seen. They do considerable military posturing with parallel political advances towards Russia and Iran. Turks have previously fired at Syrian aircraft and ground forces, and shot down one Russian aircraft. Turks would definitely like to see either US or NATO on their side.
Escalation beyond Syria seems possible, but not likely. The US and Russia have made considerable efforts to deconflict/avoid shooting at each other.
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How does the disruption in the GCC play into the Syrian war, and is the rise of MBS an issue of concern for Western nations?
Is Qatar involved in Syria in any way, aside from befriending some of the main players?
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I don't think developments in the GCC or Saud could have and would try to have a serious effect on developments in Syria. GCC has been split since Muslim Bortherhood came to power in Egypt. Then Saudis went ballistic with regard to Qatar who supported MB in Egypt. Saudis have been angry at Qatar ever since. At the same time, Saudis realise that the US stands firmly behind Qatar where it has a massive air base. The ability of Saud to sustain proxy forces or challenge meaningful players such as Iran is very limited. They have tried to fund and arm rebels and discovered what a burden it is on their one sector economy.
At the same time both Qatar and Saudis, as well as UAE have acted in Syria on behalf of the US. Saudi and UAE air forces flew weapons and ammunition to rebels (the daily expenditure of ammunition by rebels reached as high as 600 tons).
Btw, Truks deployed artillery and tanks to Syria and Russians halted their bombing campaign. The news says that the Sultan Erdogan and Czar Putin have agreed to set up a demilitarized zone around Idlib. It may be that Turks have persuaded Russia to leave Idlib alone.
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Thanks Juhani - it is getting complicated, and many of my news sources have given up on Syria.
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And humans, as a general rule, don't care.
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Sometimes I get the feeling as if the mankind tried - adopted various laws and regulations to slow down the destruction of nature, to find alternatives - but found it too taxing, too difficult, to unfamiliar and strange (imagine a totally different world and economy!), and now there is nothing but giving up the attempts to do the right thing.
Rightist populists are elected into office in various countries and they just reverse earlier attempts of change.
I feel such a powerful flow of resignation blowing across the world.
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The rise of populism is understandable, given the pressures of mass movements of people, economic disadvantage, and changing climate. I have often postulated the fork in the road between a cooperative and competitive reaction by humanity. I do see there is a backlash against the far right's claims for the competitive option, but I am so far unable to discern if that backlash by the saner members of our species is anywhere near enough to counter the instinct for self and group survival on the narrowest and basic of interpretation. If you ask my bet, I'd say at present, without leadership, the cooperative and rational option is losing.
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It seems to be the case.
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The Dalai Lama has come under fire after a video showing him kissing a young child and asking him to 'suck' his tongue went viral, forcing him to issue an apology.
...
The group expressed their disgust on Monday following the emergence of the disturbing footage, which showed the young Indian boy kissing the Dalai Lama on the lips as he came forward to pay his respects during a charity event at a temple.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11960177/The-Dalai-Lamas-biggest-controversies-disturbing-tongue-suck-video.html
Weird stuff.
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It is weird. And unfortunate. Not sure what excuse is appropriate, and I've not seen too much that can dismiss this on cultural grounds. But it is what it is.... perhaps its senility
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My conspiracy theory relates to the life cycle of institutions. It all starts beautifully and very spiritually, but over time, cognition and aspiration are replaced by ritual and formality. At a certain point, the institution simply becomes overly concerned with the continuity of its existence, and this leads to its downfall. From that moment on, figures move to the head of the institution who have fulfilled all the requirements, but who, in their innermost...
...His disciples were astonished. The great Confucius, who remained calm in the presence of the greatest emperors, became anxious in the presence of an unknown old man. They wondered what had Lao Tzu done to their teacher.
“When you met Lao Tzu, what advice did you give him?” They enquired.
“I have seen great animals, such as elephants. I know how they move, how they live. I have heard of the great hidden animals of the seas. I know how they swim and how they feed. I know of the great birds of the earth who fly thousands of miles in a single flight. I know how they fly. But finally, I have met a dragon. A dragon that rides on expansive clouds and feeds on the purest Yin and Yang. Nobody knows how he lives, how he feeds or how he flies. My mouth fell open in his presence. I was astonished. How could I ever offer advice to a Dragon? I had to leave.”
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This article has offered other views https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5854/tibetans-explain-what-suck-my-tongue-means-dalai-lama-viral-video
It is really hard to believe that IF he has been harboring the suggested perversions he would have let such a thing slip so publicly…unless he’s totally lost his mind.
Im not sure what to believe and I suspect there is really no way to figure out the “truth”….but I have my suspicions that this all plays very well into China interfering with the choosing of the next Dalai Lama.
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Agree. We will probably never know the truth. There are always explanations, especially when it comes to religious leaders, clerics and beliefs.
Some friends of the Dalai Lama, however, seem to be confused:
Crews, regarded as one of Australia's 'national living treasures' for his Rev Bill Crews Foundation's work caring for the homeless and the poor, has known the Dalai Lama for decades. Crews has visited the Tibetan Buddhist leader's temple in Dharamsala, Tibet and hosted him on a national Australian tour.
On radio, Crews responded to Craig's question, saying: 'Well Craig, I don’t know. I gotta say I watched it - I watched it really closely because he is a close friend of mine and I really can’t explain it at all.
'I can’t explain it. And what I will do is when I see him I’ll ask him. I can tell you that.
'I will ask him and we’ll see. I have no idea. It’s not a great look, that’s what I’ve got to say. It’s not a great look at all.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11979927/Lifelong-friend-Dalai-Lama-reveals-thoughts-suck-tongue-video.html
In the end, it doesn't really matter. If one is to believe Tibetan Buddhism, then there are periods in human history when Buddhism reigns supreme, and then there come times when the doctrine partially or completely fades away.
Everything changes, nothing remains without change.
Buddha
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Possibly it's the elevated esteem the Darling Lama has been held, in a world that is desperate for a reference point beyond the venal, that creates such a fuss. Firstly, I expect we are asking far to much of Tenzin Gyatso to fulfil the desperate yearnings of a spiritually lost world - always seeking externally. Secondly, tongue sucking - honestly, who cares?
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Above all, I think, it will resonate with Tibetan Buddhists, for whom the Dalai Lama is the embodiment of Buddha. Will Buddha ask anybody to suck his tongue? Hardly.
If, however, the Dalai Lama is not the embodiment of Buddha, what will become of a religion that has as one of its foundations the belief that Buddha incarnates again and again as the religious leader of the Tibetans?
Buddha's teachings as a whole are neither hot nor cold about this. A teaching is a teaching, and whoever wants to transform it into a way of life for himself will keep pushing with or without Dalai Lama.
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I used to hate this flowering thread but...considering we in the end times for real.
Let's resurrect this SOB with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY
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We are stuffed, so "Hi Elon!" He has the bright idea to take folks to Mars. Now prior he said 2029. But with all this war shit, Im wondering if he is fueling shit up right now. Just wondering:
https://www.ndtv.com/feature/after-starship-test-elon-musk-says-it-is-highly-likely-man-will-go-to-mars-within-10-years-3772163
This Article is From Feb 11, 2023
After Starship Test, Elon Musk Says It Is "Highly Likely" Man Will Go To Mars Within 10 Years
As per SpaceX's website, the Starship rocket will "carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."
(https://c.ndtvimg.com/2022-12/t1uc9has_elon-musk_625x300_07_December_22.jpg)
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has once again said that it is "highly likely" man will go to Mars within 10 years, putting his timeframe down to the fact he is "congenitally optimistic".
Mr Musk on Friday retweeted a video posted by his aerospace firm showing a successful test fire of its Starship prototype's booster rocket. "One day, Starship will take us to Mars," he wrote in the caption of his post. Notably, Starship, at its full capacity, is the most powerful rocket ever developed. As per SpaceX's website, it will "carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."
On Friday, responding to his retweet, when one user asked Mr Musk about when humans will be able to go to the red planet, the SpaceX boss said, "I must admit to being congenitally optimistic (SpaceX & Tesla wouldn't exist otherwise), but I think 5 years is possible and 10 years is highly likely."
The SpaceX video showed engineers conducting a static fire test. According to Mr Musk, 31 out of 33 engines at the base of the vehicle were ignited simultaneously. "Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall. But still enough engines to reach orbit," he tweeted. As per The New York Times, had all 33 engines been fired up at full power, this would have been the most powerful rocket ever ignited.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has teased when humans will reach Mars for years predicting a 2029 landing most recently. Taking to Twitter last year in March, he said that he now sees 2029 as the earliest date humans might first step on Mars.
More recently, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO even spoke more about his Mars mission. In a tweet addressed to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Mr Musk said that he was hopeful of getting people on Mars by 2029.
Notably, if Mr Musk's target date slips much further into the 2030s, it will be very close to when the US space agency NASA is aiming to send the first astronauts to Mars.
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Elon Says we aren't populating enough. :o
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/health/elon-musk-population-collapse-wellness/index.html
Elon Musk thinks the population will collapse. Demographers say it’s not happening
Jen Christensen
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 9:29 AM EDT, Tue August 30, 2022
Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted, not for the first time, that “population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” Climate change is a serious problem facing the planet and experts say it’s difficult to compare problems.
What is clear, demographers say, is that the global population is growing, despite declines in some parts of the world, and it shouldn’t be collapsing any time soon – even with birth rates at lower levels than in the past.
“He’s better off making cars and engineering than at predicting the trajectory of the population,” said Joseph Chamie, a consulting demographer and a former director of the United Nations Population Division, who has written several books about population issues.
“Yes, some countries, their population is declining, but for the world, that’s just not the case.”
Population projections by the numbers
The world’s population is projected to reach 8 billion by mid-November of this year, according to the United Nations. The UN predicts the global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in just 8 years.
By 2080, the world’s population is expected to peak at 10.4 billion. Then there’s a 50% chance that the population will plateau or begin to decrease by 2100. More conservative models like the one published in 2020 in the Lancet anticipate the global population would be about 8.8 billion people by 2100.
It’s true that what’s driving current population growth is not a higher birth rate. What drives global population growth is that fewer people are dying young. Global life expectancy was 72.8 years in 2019, an increase of nine years since 1990. That is expected to increase to 77.2 years by 2050.
It now costs more than $300,000 to raise a child, thanks to inflation
Globally, the fertility rate has not “collapsed,” nor should it, according to the UN, but it has dropped significantly.
In 1950, women typically had five births each; globally, last year, it was 2.3 births. By 2050, the UN projects a further global decline to 2.1 births per woman.
In some countries, it is lower. In the US the 1950s, it was 3.6 births per woman, it slipped to 1.6 in 2020, according to the World Bank. In Italy, it was 1.2; in Japan, it was 1.3; in China, 1.2. In January 2022, the country announced the birth rate fell for the fifth year in a row, even with the repeal of the one child policy, allowing couples to have up to three children as of 2021.
“Virtually every developed country is below two, and it’s been that way for 20 or 30 years,” Chamie said. Most countries have gone through what’s called a demographic transition.
Abortion laws impact people trying to become pregnant, too
The only continent that hasn’t finished this transition, he said, is parts of Africa, where there are 15 to 20 countries where the average number of children couples have is five. But in those countries, children still face high death rates. The infant mortality rate for kids under 5 is 8 to 10 times higher than in developed regions, and maternal mortality is more than double, Chamie said.
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My assessment. EVERYONE knows the issue is overpopulation. Birth control esp can curtail it. But we have stupid fundamentalists banning abortion and even trying to stop women from access to birth control claiming its Gods Will and...its all to control women and the womb.
Handmaid's Tale.
I dont buy Elon's statement for one minute. He's a fox. And him taking over Twitter and calling it X. I really think he wants to take the creeps to mars to suffer it out. It would be a reasonable solution to take Lucifer and his band of cronies and any other war mongers over there to do their war shit there. Get em off earth to save it. Cause he has said nice things about earth.
He knows the math. There is no way he doesnt know the math and that we have an overpopulation problem. He headed over where all the creeps hang out, bought it, kicked off their protective totem - the blue twitter bird - and I suspect, with shit hitting the fan - he may speedy it up getting those star ships full of punks and get em off earth. Thats what I think. With everyone scared with all this drama going on and fear rules everything - I think he will ship em quicker off the planet. But thats just me. I could be wrong.
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So there is a way to look at Elon's tweets without going to twitter.
He is a clown and being a complete inner child on that thing. Says lots of stupid shit like "Im gonna buy Coca Cola to put the cocaine back in" and other crazy stuff. He is playing a game!
But once in a blue moon he drops something serious. I snipped this. Also I have seen him in interviews and he doesnt act like this at all. Hes very serious.
I know what he is doing. Trying to earn the trust of the dum dums. I see the game. Now I do believe he is serious about free speech. But I dont buy one minute he supports the "basket of deplorables."
All warfare is based on deception.
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This is my evidence Elon is playing a game. Ron Desantis aka "Ron the Con" went to him to do his campaign for pres. It got "flowered up" due to tech stuff aha sure aha but this "campaign video" made, with ELON mixed in, is ELON sending a message to the nerds who know what he is up to.
Im gonna have a smoke then watch this video again. This video always makes me laugh HARD cause I KNOW what Elon is doing! ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A0NeHAJW3A&t=133s
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ON A SERIOUS NOTE.
I agree. Biden NEEDS to drop out of the race. This is Obama's advisor talking. He is trailing Trump in the swing states.
I talk to folks all the time. MANY folks arent happy with Biden. Right now, two wars brewing, and inflation is HIGH. If Biden stays in this race, the risk for Trump to win is pretty HUGE. Pretty HUGE. Now other candidates have a shot. Marianne Williamson, is actually reaching the young. I DESPISE tiktok. But one, she is a lightworker. Two, the young folks like her. Three, she has solid ass ideas. I also support reparations for African Americans.
If Biden stays in the race, its an utterly selfish move. Utterly selfish. Esp cause while he may not be ALL the blame of the stuff going on, cause Trump damaged the economy with his disgraceful way of handling (that word is a "joke") covid. It doesnt matter. I talk to people all day long. Many are supporting Trump who is so flowered up, cause they hate Biden that much. But if he drops the flower out, then we can have a candidate who can run against Trump, and others on the fence or even want someone else, will consider:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4294394-axelrod-suggests-biden-drop-out-of-2024-presidential-race/
Axelrod suggests Biden drop out of 2024 presidential race
BY MIRANDA NAZZARO - 11/05/23 1:28 PM ET
Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod on Sunday suggested President Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential race in the wake of a new poll showing the incumbent trailing former President Trump.
Pointing to a New York Times and Siena College poll published Sunday, Axelrod wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “It’s very late to change horses; a lot will happen in the next year that no one can predict & Biden’s team says his resolve to run is firm.”
Arguing Biden is “justly proud of his accomplishments,” Axelrod said Biden’s poll numbers will “send tremors of doubt” through the Democratic Party.
“Not ‘bed-wetting,'” but legitimate concern, Axelrod wrote.
“Trump is a dangerous, unhinged demagogue whose brazen disdain for the rules, [norms], laws and institutions or democracy should be disqualifying,” Axelrod wrote in a separate post. “But the stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.”
“Only @JoeBiden can make this decision,” he continued. “If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?”
The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania by margins of 3 to 10 percentage points among registered voters. In Wisconsin, Biden was ahead by 2 percentage points, according to the poll.
The poll’s findings serve as a major blow to Biden’s campaign after the incumbent carried all six states in 2020 when up against Trump, The New York Times reported.
Biden’s reelection campaign has faced growing concerns from voters within his own party over his age and policy actions on various issues, notably the economy.
The poll found that 71 percent of registered voters said they agree to some degree that Biden is “just too old to be an effective president,” while only 39 percent said the same about Trump.
Asked if Biden has the “mental sharpness to be an effective president,” 62 percent of participants said no, while 35 percent agreed with the statement. Meanwhile, 52 percent of participants said they believe Trump has the mental sharpness to be an effective president, while 44 percent said he does not.
Biden has faced criticism over his age since his 2020 campaign, and this criticism has continued throughout his time in the White House. At 80, Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history.
If reelected in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.
Axelrod called Biden’s age is “his biggest liability” and something he cannot change.
“Among all the unpredictables there is one thing that is sure: the age arrow only points in one direction,” Axelrod wrote on X.
Axelrod’s comments follow a series of calls from some Democrats who have suggested Biden’s age makes him “too old” to run for reelection next year. The president has argued it is fair for voters to discuss his age, but he has said they should judge him on his ability to perform the job.
The New York Times/Siena College poll was conducted among 3,662 registered voters in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from Oct. 22 to Nov. 3, 2023. The margin of sampling error for each state is between 4.4 and 4.8 percentage points.
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I watched the horses run as a kid. We would call her "the longshot." And yet, I know what can happen when a horse comes around the stretch...
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4289406-phillips-trailing-williamson-in-new-poll/
Phillips trailing Williamson in new poll after campaign launch
BY CAROLINE VAKIL - 11/02/23 9:50 AM ET
(https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Dean-Phillips-Marianne-Williamson.png?w=1280&h=720&crop=1)
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is trailing both President Biden and progressive candidate Marianne Williamson in the Democratic presidential primary, according to a recent poll.
A Quinnipiac University national poll released on Wednesday showed Phillips receiving 6 percent support among Democrats and those leaning Democrat, while Biden brought in 77 percent and Williamson received 8 percent. “The Young Turks” founder Cenk Uygur received 2 percent.
The survey also found that 63 percent of those voters said they could change their mind depending on what happens leading up to the primary. Thirty-four percent, however, said they were firmly set on their choice for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
Still, the polling underscores the steep climb that Phillips faces in a Democratic primary after he launched a longshot bid to take on the president last Friday.
Though Biden has grappled with an underwater approval rating and polling where voters have pointed to age as a major concern for the president, he’s faced little in the way of a competitive primary challenge.
Since Phillips’s announcement, members of the party have expressed anxiety and outrage over his decision to launch a bid. A source close to the Biden campaign, however, told The Hill last week that it had greeted the Phillips’s news “with a shrug.”
The Quinnipiac University national poll was conducted Oct. 26-30 with 1,610 registered voters surveyed.
The margin of error overall is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. The margin of error specifically for the 695 Democratic and leaning Democratic voters surveyed was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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But then Kamala Harris. If Biden was smart, he would step back, and let her run.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/10/kamala-harris-joe-biden-2024-election
Kamala Harris says she’s prepared to serve as president ‘if necessary’
Vice-president dismisses opponents’ attacks that president is too old to seek out a second term and says ‘he’s going to be fine’
Kamala Harris on Sunday declared herself ready to assume the presidency if it ever behooved her to do so – but she also made it a point to dismiss opponents’ political attacks that Joe Biden is too old to seek a second term in the Oval Office.
Asked on CBS’s Face the Nation whether she was prepared to serve as commander-in-chief in case Biden became unable to carry out his duties, Harris said: “Yes, I am, if necessary.”
“But Joe Biden is going to be fine,” Harris said. “And let me tell you something: I work with Joe Biden every day.”
Harris, who would become the first woman to serve as US president if Biden could not complete an elected term, told Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan that it would not be a novel experience for her to make history in such a fashion.
She alluded to how she was the first woman elected as district attorney of San Francisco and as attorney general of California. As a US senator for California, “I represented one in eight Americans” before becoming the country’s first ever female vice-president.
“Listen, this is not new,” Harris said. “There’s nothing new about that.”
Harris’s defense of her qualifications and of Biden’s vitality come as Republicans attack the incumbent 80-year-old Democratic president’s age. If he wins another term during the 2024 election, Biden – already the oldest president ever – would be 86 upon leaving office.
Public opinion polling shows that more than two-thirds of the American public think Biden is too old to effectively serve a second term. And, seizing on those findings, Republicans have sought to portray the prospect of Harris being one heartbeat away from the presidency as a scary prospect.
“I pray every night for Joe Biden’s good health – not only because he’s our president, but because of who our vice-president is,” Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie said in a clip played by Brennan on Sunday.
Brennan played another clip in which Christie’s fellow Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis insulted Harris as Biden’s “impeachment insurance”.
“People know if she were president – Katy, bar the door,” DeSantis said on the clip, invoking an American colloquialism meaning that there’s trouble incoming. “As bad as Biden did, it would get worse.”
Both Christie and DeSantis substantially trail the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination: Biden’s White House predecessor, Donald Trump. Trump maintains his polling edge over his Republican competition despite facing 91 pending criminal charges across four separate indictments for his 2020 election subversion, his retention of classified documents after his defeat to Biden forced him out of the Oval Office and hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Harris on Sunday parried the Republican verbal volleys against the Biden administration by referring to lower crime rates, falling inflation and relatively quieter times at the US-Mexico border more than halfway through the Democratic incumbents’ third year in office.
“They feel the need to attack because they’re scared that we will win based on the merit of the work that Joe Biden and I, and our administration, has done,” Harris said.
A CBS poll published Sunday generally found supporters of Harris’s party are satisfied with her, though not as enthusiastic as they were in 2020.
In her interview with Brennan, Harris also said that Congress needed to strive to restore the federal abortion rights which had been established by Roe v Wade but then repealed last year by the US supreme court’s conservatives. Most Americans believe abortion should be legal to some degree, particularly in the first trimester of pregnancy, according to polling.
Harris dismissed Republican claims that Democrats support abortion up until birth as “ridiculous” and a “mischaracterization”.
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Nailed it - in two minutes
The "trickle down farce" Reagan ruined us with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS3ISw7Juls
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Military "budget." Succiently stated in 1.40 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p577M8xt-tg
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I was going thru the beginning of these posts. Everyone is so grim on it all.
GREED has done so much damage to this planet. Huge corps owning politicians so they could profit by raping the planet and destroying it all, all to line the pockets of the rich.
Its darkness and straight up evil, frankly, to destroy a planet we NEED to live on, for humanity to survive.
Hottest day on earth was LAST YEAR. Hottest day EVER.
From BBC 8 days ago:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24021772
What is climate change? A really simple guide
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/2B08/production/_127561011_climate_5_cc_index_and_article_image_template_976-ncclimate_change_article_image_template_976-nc.png.webp)
Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, with more intense heatwaves and rising sea-levels among the consequences.
Things are likely to worsen in the coming decades, but scientists argue urgent action can limit the worst effects of climate change.
What is climate change?
Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth's average temperatures and weather conditions.
Over the last decade, the world was on average around 1.2C warmer than during the late 19th Century.
It has now been confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year on record, driven by human-caused climate change and boosted by the natural El Niño weather event. The last nine years were all among the nine warmest years on record.
(Look at this graph - shit)
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/8720/production/_132229543_era5_global_yearly_anomaly_bars-nc.png.webp)
How are humans causing climate change?
The climate has changed throughout the Earth's history and natural factors, such as El Niño, can affect the weather for shorter periods of time, like in 2023.
But natural causes cannot explain the particularly rapid warming seen in the last century, according to the UN's climate body, the IPCC.
This long-term climate change has been caused by human activity, the IPCC says, mainly from the widespread use of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - in homes, factories and transport.
When fossil fuels burn, they release greenhouse gases - mostly carbon dioxide (CO2). This traps extra energy in the atmosphere near the Earth's surface, causing the planet to heat up.
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution - when humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels - the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by about 50%.
The CO2 released from burning fossil fuels has a distinctive chemical fingerprint which matches the type increasingly found in the atmosphere.
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1604E/production/_131809109_co2_long_term_updated-nc.png.webp)
What are the effects of climate change so far?
A global average temperature increase of 1.2C might not sound much.
However, it has already had a huge effect on the environment, including:
more frequent and intense extreme weather, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall
rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets, contributing to sea-level rise
huge declines in Arctic sea-ice
ocean warming
People's lives are also changing.
For example, parts of East Africa suffered their worst drought in 40 years, putting more than 20 million people at risk of severe hunger.
In 2022, intense European heatwaves led to an abnormal increase in deaths.
How will future climate change affect the world?
The more temperatures increase, the worse the impacts of climate change become.
Limiting long-term temperature rises to 1.5C is crucial, according to the IPCC.
The science is not completely certain, but the consequences of 2C global warming versus 1.5C could include:
Extreme hot days would be on average 4C warmer at mid-latitudes (regions outside the poles and tropics), versus 3C at 1.5C
Sea-level rise would be 0.1m higher than at 1.5C, exposing up to 10 million more people to events including more frequent flooding
More than 99% of coral reefs would be lost, compared with 70-90% at 1.5C
Twice the number of plants and vertebrates (animals with a backbone) would be exposed to unsuitable climate conditions across more than half the geographical area where they are found
Several hundred million more people may be exposed to climate-related risks and susceptible to poverty by 2050 than at 1.5C.
The call to limit temperature rise to 1.5C was partly designed to avoid crossing so-called "tipping points".
After these thresholds are crossed, changes could accelerate and become irreversible, such as the collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet. However, it's not clear precisely where these thresholds sit.
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/D540/production/_132229545_gettyimages-1704952616.jpg.webp)
About 3.3 to 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change, according to the IPCC.
People living in poorer countries are expected to suffer most as they have fewer resources to adapt.
This has led to questions about fairness, because these places have typically only been responsible for a small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions.
However, knock-on impacts could be felt over wide areas. For example, crop failures linked to extreme weather could raise global food prices.
What are governments doing about climate change?
In a landmark agreement signed in Paris in 2015, almost 200 countries pledged to try to keep global warming to 1.5C.
To achieve this, "net zero" CO2 emissions should be reached by 2050. Net zero means reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, and removing any remaining emissions from the atmosphere.
Most countries have, or are considering, net zero targets.
However, greenhouse gas levels are still rising quickly and the world is "likely" to warm beyond 1.5C, the IPCC says.
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/16CBE/production/_131947339_2023-12-05-climate_warming-cat-projections_dec2023-nc.png.webp)
However, there has been progress in some areas like the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles.
World leaders meet every year to discuss their climate commitments.
The most recent UN climate change summit, COP28, was held in the United Arab Emirates. For the first time, countries agreed to "contribute" to "transitioning away from fossil fuels", although they are not forced to take action.
The next conference, COP29, will be held in Azerbaijan in November 2024.
What can individuals do?
Major changes need to come from governments and businesses, but individuals can also help:
take fewer flights
use less energy
improve home insulation and energy efficiency
switch to electric vehicles or live car-free
replace gas central heating with electric systems like heat pumps
eat less red meat
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"What can individuals do?
Major changes need to come from governments and businesses, but individuals can also help:
take fewer flights
use less energy
improve home insulation and energy efficiency
switch to electric vehicles or live car-free
replace gas central heating with electric systems like heat pumps
eat less red meat"
I've seen this before, and I question the approach.
Remember, what is described here is what is termed your 'personal carbon footprint'. That term was coined by think tanks working for the fossil fuel industry, to get people who become worried about global warming ('Climate Change' was also coined by the same think tanks) to focus on their own little situation, and become obsessed with guilt-tripping each other. They know perfectly well that there is nothing individuals can do in this way that will make the slightest skerrick of difference - it was a distraction device.
The problem is that individual members of the public - you and me - have absolutely no comprehension of the vast size of national and international industry. The sheer size of manufacturing and resource extraction if far beyond anything we could possibly conceive. There is absolutely no way global warming can be arrested unless government flexes its muscle, because business simply can't - it's too late for that.
And governments will only act once the public is sufficiently horrified and outraged to force them to act against their own business funding bodies. Things will need to get a lot worse yet, because the changes have happened slowly for the human mind - the frog in the boiling water syndrome.
The only action individuals can meaningfully take is to ORGANISE and fight for change of policy in government.
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We are all so focused on the heat aspect of climate change. I wish we also were just as focused on the chemicals we pour into the environment and the land being torn apart for housing and business. These things are destroying diversity. If there was diversity the immune system of nature would be stronger. No immune system and the infection burns hotter. No standing chance.
Stop buying so much shit. Live simply.
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Yes, organizing and voting and things - cause on an individual level not much we can do.
It helps. I mean like, dont throw trash around. I agree on the eating of meat thing. But its going to take a massive effort putting corporations in check, who have a stranglehold on us right now.
Chemicals - I would love them to stop poisoning our food too!
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😭😭😭 thank you so much for the book Ellen. This morning started out real rough 💖 just in time 🙏🏻
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😭😭😭 thank you so much for the book Ellen. This morning started out real rough 💖 just in time 🙏🏻
Welcome! You will love it! Way of the Peaceful Warrior, its clear Castaneda inspired Dan. Its part fact part fiction. But the accident that was real and the recovery he went through. So I thought it would be a perfect read for you right now! :)
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😭😭😭 thank you so much for the book Ellen. This morning started out real rough 💖 just in time 🙏🏻
Btw that was your post 222 😍
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Yes when I flipped through real quick I saw he went through an accident and immediately put the other book im reading down and started it. I need material I can actually relate to right now. 🙏🏻✨
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Yes when I flipped through real quick I saw he went through an accident and immediately put the other book im reading down and started it. I need material I can actually relate to right now. 🙏🏻✨
YES! Motorcycle accident. Then he was a gymnast. Its the perfect read right now. Michael can be your Socrates for now. :)
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What? Are you saying I’m going to die in a toilet!
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What? Are you saying I’m going to die in a toilet!
What are you, flowering Elvis? ;D The “other” Socrates!
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🤣 ok I admit Ellen that is what I pictured when I started reading.
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🤣 ok I admit Ellen that is what I pictured when I started reading.
Oh no OK. Nah Michael will have a cool death, burn from the fire from within, disappear, or be lifted by angels to heaven or something. It will be cool not a sorry death on a toilet! :D
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🤣🤣🤣 I meant the Socrates in the book part! Not the toilet part. For some reason it was the wild white hair
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May as well bring it to this good old thread. Sign of the times. One of the first beginning posts, was Michael addressing the Israel/Palestinian conflict. But the thing is, the majority of folks in Israel dont want this shit. Right now, families of those who have hostages by Hamas, feel he is jeopardizing their lives.
He is doing that. AND jeopardizing the entire PLANET. The crazy man is totally unhinged, and destroying and killing. Killing innocent civilians was never the answer.
The attack was horrific yes. The people of Israel deserve better. I bet they do approve of a two state solution. They have to know, something's gotta give here.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-01-20-2024-ba66b165f3e5d1904d30b591199cface
Israel’s Netanyahu rejects any Palestinian sovereignty in post-war Gaza, rebuffing Biden
BY JULIA FRANKEL AND
Updated 12:48 PM PST, January 20, 2024
Share
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he “will not compromise on full Israeli control” over Gaza and that “this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” rejecting U.S. President Joe Biden’s suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the leaders’ views on Palestinian statehood.
In a sign of the pressures Netanyahu’s government faces at home, thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv calling for new elections, and others demonstrated outside the prime minister’s house, joining families of the more than 100 remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militants. They fear that Israel’s military activity further endangers hostages’ lives.
Netanyahu is also under heat to appease members of his right-wing ruling coalition by intensifying the war against Hamas, which governs Gaza, while contending with calls for restraint from the United States, its closest ally.
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Netanyahu posted his statement on social media a day after his first conversation with Biden in nearly a month. Discussing his administration’s position Friday, Biden said “there are a number of types of two-state solutions” and, asked if a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied, “No, it’s not.”
After Netanyahu’s statement, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United States to go further. “It is time for the United States to recognize the state of Palestine, not just talk about a two-state solution,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.” Speaking in Uganda, he said the refusal would “indefinitely prolong” the conflict.
Netanyahu has said Israel must fight until it achieves “complete victory” and Hamas no longer poses a threat but has not outlined how this will be accomplished.
But a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot, has called a cease-fire the only way to secure the hostages’ release, a comment that implied criticism of Israel’s current strategy.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of preventing a Cabinet-level debate about a post-war scenario for Gaza. They say he is stalling to prevent conflict within his coalition. Netanyahu’s office called the claim that he was unnecessarily prolonging the war “utter nonsense.”
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the militant group’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel and saw about 250 others taken hostage. Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza say Israel’s offensive has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The offensive, one of the most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has pulverized much of the territory and displaced more than 80% of its population of 2.3 million people. An Israeli blockade that allows only a trickle of aid into Gaza has led to widespread hunger and outbreaks of disease, United Nations officials have said.
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Netanyahu has insisted that the only way to secure the hostages’ return is by crushing Hamas through military means. More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released during a brief November cease-fire in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and minors imprisoned by Israel. Israel has said that more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but only about 100 are believed to be alive.
The protest outside Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea grew, with police pushing a few attendees away, sparking arguments.
“We can’t take it anymore. We’ve been told to sit quiet, let the government do its job. Well, it’s not bringing us any result for the last two months,” said Yuval Bar On, whose father-in-law, Keith Siegel, is among the hostages.
The protest began Friday when the father of a 28-year-old held by Hamas began what he called a hunger strike. Eli Shtivi pledged to eat only a quarter of a pita a day — the amount some hostages reportedly receive some days — until the prime minister agrees to meet with him.
At the Tel Aviv protest, former hostage Chen Goldstein-Almog told the crowd that “if we, as a society, as a state, don’t do everything, I mean everything, to return the abductees, the living and the dead, we have no right to exist, as a state and as a society.”
The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the military was not carrying out attacks in areas where it knows or assumes there are hostages and the army works “in all possible ways to bring them home.”
Dozens of anti-war protesters also gathered in the Israeli city of Haifa, carrying signs reading “Stop genocide” and scuffling with police who tried to confiscate the placards. Police made one arrest.
As part of its search for the hostages, Israel’s military dropped leaflets on Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah. The leaflets, with photos of dozens of hostages, carried a message suggesting benefits for anyone who spoke up.
“You want to return home? Please report if you identified one of them,” the message read.
Hours later, Al-Majd al-Amni, a media outlet linked to the Hamas internal security force, warned Palestinians against supplying any information about Israeli soldiers held hostage in Gaza.
The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are targeting international shipping in the Red Sea despite U.S.-led airstrikes.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike on Syria’s capital destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing at least five Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. Also Saturday, an Israeli drone strike on a car near the Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two people, the state-run National News Agency reported. It was not immediately clear who the target was.
In Gaza, residents reached by phone after a seven-day communications blackout reported heavy bombardment and fighting between militants and Israeli troops in and around the southern city of Khan Younis and the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in the north.
(https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/239ab54/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5120x3414+0+0/resize/1600x1066!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F82%2F5b%2F6464eeabc18f8166956d469d2b5a%2Fba671e5857ce4f449d8ad04092bed373)
The fighting has forced many families to leave their homes, many of which were reduced to rubble, said Halima Abdel-Rahman, a woman displaced from northern Gaza who now shelters in Bani Suheila on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
A car was apparently struck by a drone in Rafah, killing four, according to an Associated Press cameraman at a local morgue. Israel’s military didn’t immediately comment.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, meanwhile, mourners gathered for the funeral of Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old American Palestinian shot and killed a day earlier near Ramallah. The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear, and police said the incident was under investigation.
Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem and Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
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I feeling depressed tonight - been reading The Guardian again. Julie tries to not read it.
really, i can't see any hope for this species. i know there are bright spots, but they serve to only mask the growing dark spots.
honestly, Iraq is more than a disaster - it is perhaps the greatest living nightmare on our planet, and what do the people of the 'western' countries care?
we are facing very nasty stuff, from many directions.
OH well... into the valley of darkness...
Ive read through this a bit. I used to avoid this thing constantly. I said that before. I would glean it. Not cause I didnt care. I did. But everyone would post all the horrible things in the world. Watch and just see doom.
Yes its a lot of doom. But this guy.
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/84/63/6a/84636a9d075ffb7b739f885e17fbdef8.jpg)
I realized WHY he wears rose colored glasses. I can imagine all he saw with his eyes. Esp meeting many AIDS patients over the years, or dealing with ugliness himself. Seeing it directed at others.
CLARITY is an enemy which I could not figure out, for a long time why. It is because of this. Look at the whole thread - the darkness enters through the eyes of perception. And if it does get in, to the point, the best of the warriors see no hope, if we darken cause of all we see, and we just say "We are a cancer on the planet. Its all hopeless. We are doomed." Then we are.
But while they do seem to be, smaller than the big corps, the big politicians, countries, advesaries, people are rising up. Now, an individual can only do so much, sure. But there is more rising, more are joining forces against this darkness.
We HAVE to put rose colored glasses on, too. Now its not head in sand, its not saying "God will save us" even. We know God is in us, and we have to save ourselves. Many folks figured that out. But many are waking up. Many.
I do sometimes get a bit dismal about things for a bit, but then I snap out of it. Cause I have to remind myself Light is real, its greater than the darkness.
EVIL - UNSCRAMBLE - VEIL
When the veil lifts off, and Truth is revealed, that's that. In the end.
Clarity the enemy. I figured it out last year. Like when I was reading on dark things, how it can get in. It doesnt mean I wont again. But ill be more careful about it.
I think soma needs a thread to show what is happening, changes being made perhaps. Keep this going sure. But show changes being made.
Im a little tired. Ill work on that soon.
But that is what those who run the Matrix want - folks to feel hopeless. That way they can keep control.
But what has been happening, is things ARE crumbling and breaking down, so they are acting in desperation to keep it going.
Like what is happening in Israel and Gaza - that seems to be a last ditch effort of the darkness to assume control, make the world feel powerless.
But then there are those who do have a "different" kind of power, who are linking up.
There is that.
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Ill just add this on Stuffed. Ive jacked up General enough :)
This is so tasty!
Editorial: Trump gets 83 million reasons to keep E. Jean Carroll's name out of his mouth.
Published Jan 26, 2024
How much does it take to get Donald Trump to keep his mouth shut? A New York jury on Friday gave him 83.3 million reasons to stop [ ;D ] what has become a very expensive tirade against E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual misconduct. $83.3 million is a lot of money to pay for diarrhea of the mouth. Is it enough? When it comes to Trump, who knows? But it should.
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. He denied the allegations, calling her a "liar" and suggested that she was "not my type." The Friday verdict marks the second time a New York jury as ruled against the former president, and in the earlier trial, awarded Carroll $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump appealed that verdict, and you'd think that that would have been the end of it. But, the defamations kept coming (cause he's an idiot).
[Omitting picture of the Orange Menace - I just ate a plant taco and dont want to barf]. :)
The bulk of this week's verdict involved $65 million in punitive damages and $18.3 million in compensatory damages after the jury found that the former president acted spitefully and wantonly. His behavior in the courtroom — outbursts during testimony and storming out of the courtroom during jury instruction — didn't win friends and influence people among the 12 jurors in the civil trial who had to come up with the financial penalty.
Trump's bragging about his wealth hasn't helped him either. He once boasted during a 2022 deposition that his Mar-a-Lago estate was worth $1.5 billion and his Doral property was worth well over $2 billion. He made similar claims in his defense during his New York civil fraud trial, in which the New York Attorney General has sought to prove that Trump defrauded the state by inflating or deflating his net worth and the value of his assets whenever the change worked to his advantage. Trump's talk of wealth only suggests he can pay for costly verdicts.
We had hoped that this expensive verdict might finally deter the former president from his costly public tirades. But that hope was dashed almost immediately as Trump's initial reaction to this week's verdict was not promising:
"Absolutely ridiculous!" he posted on his Truth Social platform. "I fully disagree with both verdicts ... THIS IS NOT AMERICA." 🤣
The post included a false accusation against Democrats for the civil trial, and a promise to appeal the decision. There was no mention of the name "E. Jean Carroll".
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Trump lies multiple times, every day of his life. Defaming people is his thing, he doesnt care.
I know his base has to know he is lying. I really think they just...like him because he is so outrageous, and they are brainwashed and...its all a mess.
Why any woman would vote for Trump, when we have him on tape saying he would go backstage at these pagents and "grab them by the pussy," and find him some respectable President, blows my mind. This woman, of course, they are going to say its all part of the Crooked Joe Biden, or baby eating cabal this whole accusation, that he was found GUILTY for. This guy is seen multiple times with Maxwell and Epstein, and his base cant put two and two together, at all.
But this is the beginning of the end for him. Folks cant put two brain cells together to see, if a man files bankruptcy 5 times in his life, he's broke as a joke! Now he is hit with this lawsuit. NY is about to hit him with possibly 500 million dollar fine and shut down him from doing business in NY again. And this video shows, other lawsuits. Like some House reps suing him for putting them in danger Jan 6, and some cops from Jan 6. Oh the lawsuits, the gift that keeps on giving. I said on facebook when talking about this the other day, good ole Donny Boy never learned the old saying "Dont write a check with your mouth your ass cant cash." It is literally, because of his MOUTH that he is going to get sued and lose many times over. And this is just some icing on the karmic cake, as the BIG trial with Jack Smith for the election interference, is coming in March, probably be pushed down. Then the Devil will go down to Georgia and...oh this year, Christmas came early tho, so glad E Jean Carroll won big for this!
More stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeQO3QWPq78
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But now to get into some juicy gossip, we have the lovely Taylor Swift. Now Taylor Swift is huge in music and has over 270 million followers combined on social media. Now she is dating Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, and SHE has got a ton of attention sitting in these football games as the fans follow her every move. And now they move on in the Super Bowl. This has got the Maga Crowd all flowered up bad. Cause in 2020 she endorced Biden. And if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, this will give her a tremendous boost and they are TERRIFIED of her ability to sway her audience. She is massive right now, incredibly massive. Of course the young "Swifties" love her to pieces. So if she says vote Biden, they will! So Maga folks have all sorts of conspiracies going on about her. But I know she makes Trump lose sleep at night. She is big and she knows it. But even if the Chiefs lose, she can still compel her base to vote democrat, and she will endorse a candidate, im sure. I think I would cry if she endorsed Marianne Williamson. But no matter. I can hardly wait till she endorses, cause it wont be for Trump, as her base listens to her, A LOT.
Last election:
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/55/28/95/552895179ba4aa0808dc4a87934a0fb6.jpg)
This year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhbJ6B7ToCk
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Turned the White House into a for-profit scheme? How about selling us out to the Russians? Those MAGA kool aid drinkers need to wake up. I mean, a bathroom full of TOP SECRET documents, and they cant put two-and-two together, he was selling out America? The implications, I mean, the implications, of leaking Top Secret info? And MAGA fools want him?
I dont want my many dreams to come true. So im gonna shift, shit! Nice to be linked to the whole 144k crowd but...its not so simple. Anyway, he breaks it down so succicently.
https://youtube.com/shorts/g95FxnvWZmQ?si=EEzqtU2lC10l-gXw
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Everyone should see this.
Now I am not a fan of Rep Hawley. He is MAGA all the way. But clearly, he was an atty once. He did an EXCELLENT job confronting Zukerberg, AND nailed it, with Mr Shou Chow of tiktok and the dangers the app does with data and espinoage. Now to me, there is that, but things like the tiktok challenges and various they play with algorhythms, are massive. The bullying even, can make little "weapons of war" of kids, and the suicide rate is massive. Yes Facebook needs to fix its issues they are bad, and Zukerberg is money hungry. But tiktok needs to be banned.
But I have said, carefully. They need a fall out plan when the app, which I do think will be banned, a fall out plan implemented, place for parents and kids to go, when it is. The kids are heavily addicted to it, and it could take them over the edge. They do not understand the intricasies of it, the hook, the damage, the mess. It would be like a deep soul loss for many.
So stupid the USA let the platform in, knowing where it comes from, and how China feels about us.
Anyway, Hawley did a good job laying it down. I dislike him immensely, but im glad he said what he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCB-SQJLr9E
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I told you all, Trump feels threatened by... Taylor Swift.
To the point, yes, his base is declaring a...HOLY WAR...against...Taylor Swift.
Read that...again.
Donald Trump vs Taylor Swift: Ex-president’s allies plot ‘holy war’ on pop icon
For Democrats, Swift voicing her support for Biden would be 'the endorsement of their wildest dreams'
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/donald-trump-taylor-swift-holy-war-2882104
(https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/swift-trump_c80cfb.png?crop=2px%2C0px%2C996px%2C563px&resize=640%2C360)
By Michael Day
Chief Foreign Commentator
January 31, 2024 12:36 pm(Updated 5:19 pm)
The most unlikely battle of the upcoming US Presidential election, and a potentially pivotal one, is shaping up as Donald Trump locks horns with Taylor Swift, the world’s biggest pop star.
Members of Trump’s inner circle have already assigned Swift a prominent position on his list of most significant foes.
One source close to Trump has dubbed the campaign a “holy war” on the pop megastar with 95 million X/Twitter followers, who they fear will promote her liberal agenda by publicly backing the Democrats ahead of the November poll.
Swift has yet to officially endorse anyone in the 2024 race. It was reported on Monday, however, that the “Anti-Hero” singer is a key name on Biden aides’ “wish lists of potential surrogates”.
The New York Times described her possible public support for the Democrats in the 2024 election as “the endorsement of their wildest dreams”.
Fears that the artist will appear at the Super Bowl LVIII alongside her boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce, had already seen Maga culture warriors frothing at the mouth with claims that the NFL season has been rigged to boost Joe Biden.
In America, television is king. And the Super Bowl has an audience of 110 million.
Trump’s fight to neutralise the perceived threat of Swift – as he weakly insists he is “more popular” than her – has thus acquired a new urgency.
A poll conducted for Newsweek has indicated three in 10 Americans under the age of 35 would be more likely to vote for a candidate backed by Swift.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba modestly shared a post on Instagram Stories asking : “Who thinks this country needs a lot more women like Alina Habba, and a lot less like Taylor Swift?”
Habba has been widely derided by legal experts for her truculent and ineffective defence of Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, where he was ordered to pay $83m.
Trump’s right-wing disciples have failed to see the funny side of a 77-year-old sex abuser and a fraudster running scared from a 34–year-old musician.
Greg Kelly, a host on the Newsmax channel – which makes Fox News look like National Geographic – is one of the Trump groupies leading the attack on Swift and her followers.
“They’re elevating her to an idol. Idolatry. This is a little bit of what idolatry, I think, looks like,” he harrumphed. “And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin!”
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who has acted as an informal political adviser to Trump, told Swift to stay out of 2024: “Don’t get involved. Don’t get involved in politics; we don’t want to see you there,” she said. “Joe Biden is in [a] hole with young people, he knows it. And if he thinks Taylor can get him out of that hole, he’s gonna go for it.”
Her Fox News colleague Jesse Watters suggested last week that Swift could be acting as “psyop (psychological operation)” for Biden’s Department of Defense. Even the staid Pentagon press office couldn’t resist the chance to mock the claim and namecheck one of Swift’s biggest hits. “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” a spokeswoman said.
“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month,” Vivek Ramaswamy, former Republican primary candidate turned Trump supporter, wrote on social media on Monday. “And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall.”
At the 2022 midterm elections, in which Trump-backed candidates performed poorly, Swift called on her fans to vote. She didn’t tell them which party to back… but her message was clear.
“Remember to vote today! It’s Election Day in the United States,” she posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This year, more than any year in modern history, the Midterm Elections will affect our access to fundamental rights, basic reproductive healthcare, and our ability to make our government work for us.”
In 2020, she was more direct, calling Trump out in a tweet: “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November.”
The singer said she would be voting for Biden and shared an image of herself on Instagram with a plate of Biden/Harris iced cookies.
“She is one of the great pop songwriters of our times and people relate to her,” says Harvey G Cohen, an American cultural historian at King’s College London. “She’s not overly political. She doesn’t give people political lectures. She is an average, decent woman who’s offended by what Trump and the Republican Party is doing. The fact that they’re afraid of her speaks volumes about them.”
He adds: “If people like Swift get all their fans out to vote in 2024, it will clearly swing the election for Biden.”
As ever, it appears that Trump’s large and fragile ego may be a factor aggravating the enmity she faces.
A source close to Trumphas, according to Rolling Stone magazine, revealed how the he said it “obviously” made no sense that he was not named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year — an honour that went to Swift in December.
Trump has previously hit out at Swift. “I like Taylor’s music about 25 per cent less now,” he said after she endorsed two Tennessee Democrats running during the 2018 midterms.
Youtube here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quTj7tTI5MY
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Since I took the day off, I watched the Congress hearings with all the social media CEOs or reps. One I guess, had to be forced to come in cause they were ignoring a supoena. Sad. So in the audience were tons of families, of children, who their children was either victims, or died, due to these platforms. Zukerberg apologized (see video), but of course, they all oppose the bills that a BIPARTISAN congress wants to pass, to protect children online, and hold social media platforms accountable in the sense, the old law will be down, they cant be sued, and can be in the future.
Yes, none of the families could sue these giants. They are protected. PATHETIC.
But I listened and while politics is what it is, I do feel congress was for once, sincere, when it came to the kids. The issues were appauling as they read corporate memos or went over the dangers, the lack of diligence against predators and the like. The mental health denials and challenges to the claims what it does to mental health of kids. The targeting of children even younger than 13 years old. Its a lot. And while social media has had good things like connection, I am left wondering - I was prior already - does the BAD outweight the GOOD at this point?
With AI on the horizon to become huge, the scales may tip, or I should say will tip, more to the bad, I believe.
Unless there is a shift....
It does seem congress is shifting. The intent is, correct, to do so. Its one time I watched and I could agree with, all of them. Even Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham who, I would never vote for in any given lifetime. But, today I agreed with things they said.
It was surreal, watching them all agree, democrat and republican.
I wish they could only do this MORE. But kids lives are at stake, and families in the audience looking on. And big tech giants dodging big questions, when it came to supporting the new bills congress wants to pass, to make it safer for kids, and hold them accountable.
This is a huge shift, a preview to things to come. I do hope they can pass these things so kids can be safe. BUT OF COURSE, parents. Its up to parents to deal with it. They need to be very proactive what their kids are doing online. I hope this wakes parents on up.
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The Grift That Keeps on Grifting! :D
Trump, running a pill-mill out of the WHITE HOUSE? Yes, Trump, in all his grifter glory, found a way to make a little extra change here with the Presidental Pharmacy. Dealing drugs out the White House! Isnt that rich? Now imagine, new charges could surface for, writing false scrips, being a drug pusher?
Oh lordy it doesnt stop! Now I know eventually some s** tr**** stuff shall come, inevitably, with his links to Epstein and Maxwell. It should pop up one day. But yes, he went THIS LOW pushing some drugs here. Insane in the membrane!
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-white-house-pharmacy-improperly-provided-drugs-misused-funds-pentagon-2024-01-28/
Trump White House pharmacy improperly provided drugs and misused funds, Pentagon report says
By Ahmed Aboulenein
(https://www.reuters.com/resizer/DkU76mOKXPtXz3UAaNmpEihPRWo=/1080x0/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The White House Medical Unit during the Trump administration provided prescription drugs, including controlled substances, to ineligible staff and spent tens of thousands of dollars more on brand-name drugs than what generic equivalents would have cost, a Pentagon report shows.
The unit, part of the White House Military Office, did not comply with federal government and Department of Defense guidelines, the report, opens new tab, which was released on Jan. 8, found.2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/HYG4VB5RXVKDJEFRTGHGH6R234.jpg)
Ineligible staffers received free specialty care and surgery at military medical facilities and were provided with prescription drugs including controlled substances, in violation of federal law, the report also found.
"The White House Medical Unit's pharmaceutical management practices ineffectively used DoD funds by obtaining brand‑name medications instead of generic equivalents and increased the risk for the diversion of controlled substances," it said.
The unit lacked effective controls to ensure compliance with safety standards, was not subject to oversight by Military Health System leaders, and increased the risk to patient health and safety, the report said.
The unit spent $46,500 from 2017-2019 on 8,900 unit doses of Ambien, a brand name sleeping medication, which was 174 times more than the $270 the generic equivalent would have cost for the same amount of doses. It spent $98,000 on 4,180 unit doses of Provigil, a brand name stimulant, 55 times more than the $1,800 the generic equivalent would have cost, the report found.
Both drugs were disbursed without verifying patient identities. Opioids and sleeping medications were not properly accounted for and were tracked using error-filled or unreadable handwritten records, the report said.
The report presents the findings of the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General, which investigated the unit from September 2019 through February 2020 after receiving a complaint in 2018. It spans 2009 to 2018 and thus covers the presidential administrations of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but most of its findings focus on 2017-2019 when Trump was president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DqjNeDH3NM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h5JO2sJ3kw
In response to the report's findings, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Lester Martinez-Lopez, sent a memo to the Inspector General concurring with all its recommendations.
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Teflon Don no more! So the verdict, for his NY lawsuit, which the prosector Leticia James is seeking $370 MILLION in fraud damages, and requesting Trump is barred from doing business in New York again. The verdict has been delayed till mid February.
Have you ever seen a cat, batting a mouse, toying with it? The mouse KNOWS its doomed, but the cat wants to play and torture its prey first, before the kill?
Thats how I feel with this case, and really, the WHOLE karmic hand-over-ass deal. I mean its brutal. So sadly, we have to wait for the karmic hammer to come down on the Orange Shitstick.🍊 Soon tho, soon. So tasty, this karma. The people he has flowered over, a mile long. So, it comin!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/01/trump-fraud-trial-verdict-delayed
Look who's flowering DONE 👇
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/01/trump-fraud-trial-verdict-delayed#img-1)
Verdict in Trump’s New York fraud trial delayed until early to mid-February
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/01/trump-fraud-trial-verdict-delayed#img-1)
The verdict in Donald Trump’s $370m fraud trial will be coming later than expected, with a decision expected in early to mid-February, a New York court spokesperson said on Thursday.
The New York judge Arthur Engoron had initially said he would aim to deliver a verdict on the potential $370m fine by 31 January. “I will do my best” to meet the deadline, he said on 11 January after the trial’s closing arguments.
Engoron had found Trump guilty of fraud – inflating the value of his assets on financial documents – in a pre-trial ruling in late September. The trial was over whether Trump and his company had committed fraud with intent, which is punishable with a hefty fine. The New York attorney general’s office, which brought the suit against Trump, is asking for $370m in disgorgement and to ban Trump from doing business in New York.
The court spokesperson said the new timeline was a “rough estimate” and the decision will be a written filing.
Though the court did not specify why Engoron is taking extra time on his verdict, reports have suggested a letter from the former federal judge Barbara Jones, sent on 26 January, is likely a factor in the delay.
Jones has been serving as the court-appointed monitor overseeing the Trump Organization’s financial reports since November 2022.
In her letter, Jones told Engoron that she identified “certain deficiencies in the financial information that I have reviewed, including disclosures that are either incomplete, present results inconsistently, and/or contain errors”.
Included in Jones’s letter were her concerns about a $48m loan Trump received in 2012 by an entity affiliated with his building in Chicago. Trump reported the loan, which has no formal loan agreement, on his financial statement as a liability for multiple years. But in conversations with the Trump Organization, the company determined that “this loan never existed”.
Jones had warned that while she is “not in a position to conclude whether fraudulent activity occurred”, she noted that “absent steps to address [the deficiencies], my observations suggest misstatements and errors may continue to occur”.
Given that the case is over Trump’s honesty on these financial statements, Jones’s letter could have an effect on Engoron’s verdict, including how much he ultimately decides to fine Trump.
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So lets do the math, friends. $83.3 million dollar lawsuit, plus 5 Million prior trial for E Jean Carroll. Now he could be fined $370 million dollars in NY. That is $458,300 MILLION in fines, within a two month span, it appears. And this is just the beginning of the end for him. We still have the trial with the wonderful Jack Smith for the election interference and documents and...Oh Donnie Boy was it worth it? Oh its ridiculous.
Im telling you! Yes, the African American tenants he denied to rent. And the Central Park 5. And the Obama birther deal. Its a BIG REASON for the ass-handing over here, for Trump.
Sheeit!
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Della, Vicki: Wish You Were Here!
Its ok. I know you can all see this c*** going down. ;)
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1c/ae/5d/1cae5daafbd866e71daf60ed1b8041e4.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic
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SO Holy shit. This is Luke, he's a gem! Out there doing the lightwork! He shows Trump's latest ad, and it features Jon Voight. Now he did a huge movie long ago: Coming Home, and The Champ was a gem too. But his mind is GONE. Im showing this, to show what the propaganda of Trump being a savior and messiah is to folks. Jon Voight, is not the only one, who has subscribed to this Christian Nationalism, and elevates Trump as messiah to save America, drain the swamp. And he is a victim of a demonic, baby eating Cabal, ridiculous!
These people have been mindflowered by Q the false prophet and other propaganda. But this is what we are dealing with. But Trump will get his eventually, but its gonna take a bit. Because those who refuse to believe what is true? I mean, there has to be a bonafide rejection. They are in trouble here. Big trouble. Anyway, the madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkbeInVNws&t=235s
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Well the Orange Menace has the election interference trial delayed for a minute, as he is crying "immunity from prosecution," let me clarify, ABSOLUTE immunity. Oh Trump would love this, to say he has absolute immunity from any dirty dealings whatsoever. Cry on, Orange Shit Stain,💩 🍊 isnt how it works! But yes, so we have to wait a bit for the big showdown, when my favorite Gemini, Jack Smith, totally stomps the yucky Gemini, Trump, with his big foot! He's done!
Ill keep his face off this one. I just had a sweet potato, which is close to the color of his face. I dont want to imagine this or ill puke.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-will-delay-trumps-federal-trial-court-considers-presidential-imm-rcna137045
Judge delays Trump's federal trial as court considers his presidential immunity claim
Judge Tanya Chutkan called off the March 4 trial date, saying she will set a new date after Trump's immunity appeal is resolved.
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump's federal election interference trial in Washington, D.C., will no longer begin on March 4, Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in a court order released Friday.
It is unclear when exactly the trial will now start, but the case has been on pause for nearly two months — Trump's team requested a stay on Dec. 7, and it was granted on Dec. 13 — which would mean the soonest the trial could start would likely be late April or early May.
A start date in early May could easily mean the trial won’t conclude until after the Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
In a previous order, Chutkan reiterated that a total of seven months was "sufficient time" for Trump to prepare for trial, not including the time the case has been on pause.
Friday's ruling comes as the D.C. Circuit Court has not yet decided on whether the former president is immune from prosecution. A panel of federal appeals court judges heard oral arguments on Jan. 9, and the case is on an expedited schedule.
"The court will set a new schedule if and when the mandate is returned," said the court order from Chutkan.
A lawyer for Trump and a spokesman for the special counsel both declined to comment.
There were previous hints that the March 4 start date would not go ahead as scheduled. Chutkan was set to oversee trial proceedings in a separate case on April 2, according to court schedules, which could have overlapped with Trump's case if March 4 had still been the start date. As recently as Thursday, D.C.'s court calendar also did not list Chutkan as overseeing a case on March 4.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has previously estimated that the prosecution would need “no longer than four to six weeks” to present its case, and potential jurors were told the trial "may last approximately three months after jury selection is completed."
The original March 4 trial start date put the high-profile case amid the Republican primary, just one day before voters in 16 states cast their ballots on Super Tuesday.
One of Trump's lawyers, D. John Sauer, has argued before the D.C. Circuit Court that a president can be prosecuted for private conduct, but he says that Trump has immunity from prosecution because of the Constitution's separation of powers principle. Sauer has said that when Trump questioned the 2020 election results and pushed for Congress to block certification, he was acting in an official capacity as president.
The president has embraced the argument in social media posts.
"A president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social in January.
Now watch this:
The elimination of the March 4 start date increases the chances that Trump's New York case involving allegations of hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels will be the former president's next trial. That case is currently set to start on March 25.
Now watch this:
See attachment. Pink Floyd is releasing this on VINYL March 25. Heh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0wOOlwXLgA
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OMG NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS!
Im telling you, the FLOYD is magical!
So I just posted that a second ago, I mean just posted. Played On the Run, was listening to it. Went to have a smoke. When I do, I open the door, blow smoke out the security screen.
I look down. LO AND BEHOLD! A small black kitten came to the door, stopped, and looked at me. I was talking to him a minute. Then, I went to grab Onyx, to show him, went to the door carrying my big lug. And he was GONE. Or she, I dont know gender.
Black cat in the Matrix while listening to Floyd? It was something! 8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_KmNZNT5xw
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The 🍊dildo is predicting a tefforist attack on the USA by China. The thing in this interview, I can tell, he wants it! Oh he talks about how we never had one under his watch. Um, the planneddemic, which originated in China, ya think Trump? They knew it was the perfect time to strike, obviously, and were correct, as we had more deaths of covid than any other country in the whole world! I do not buy this was the result of consuming bats in a wet market, anymore than HIV was from a human getting it on with an ape. Anywho, as this occurred when it did, and he totally ruined it. What blows my mind is how he praises these dictators, and the followers...do they not know what allies vs enemies are, here? I mean I think of my sister following Trump, knowing dad was in WW2 and Korea, and he kissed the ass of Kim Jong Un? He fought in Korea and, she wants Trump! Oh flowering done, these people are done.
Its difficult for me. On one end I wanna do that whole "right thing" here as I know anyone who follows him, per the Q, "where we go one we go all." Straight into the pit. Hands down, I know it. They in trouble for exhalting him, painfully in trouble as he has committed every conceivable sin here. And they deny the Truth, many times over. Dont care. But yes, so I look at this, and just for Biden to have a bad mark on his record, I swear he wants us to be attacked by China! Its disgustiing. But no matter what he does, I swear, its just like he said once. He could shoot someone on park avenue, and not lose any votes. One of the very few, truthful things that ever came out of his flowering mouth!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gatNDi_n70A
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Smite! ⚡️ So the Orange Shitshow is on! Donny Boy was pissing in the wind here, hoping he could get absolute IMMUNITY from prosecution. That dirty deeds, done dirt cheap, should be, ALLOWED no matter what he does. Oh Heavens to Betsy! Well he lost in the fed court. Now onward, Christian Soldier (totally joking JESUS)! ;D It shall go to the Supreme Court, with six Trump appointed, bought and paid for justices!
BUT they also know, if Trumpy-Trump did win the election, they would be out of a job! They arent dumb and can smell the "dictator" brewing in their alphabet soup. And it doesnt smell pleasant. Then there is the whole deal, that SPIRIT wants this case televised for all to see. So there will be NO EXCUSE come voting day, if folks actually check the box next to his name in November. Spirit is watching this and...im betting my bottom dollar the supreme court is not going to give assclown absolute immunity anytime soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dc1ogCerLU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whQQpwwvSh4
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Oh and let me gloat, on the three judges - I predicted they would agree he is not immune. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSARl3uOQ8g&t=32s
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I LOVE me some Judge Judy. And I know she didnt vote for Trump. But she is warning that if it comes down to Trump vs Biden, that Trump can win. Biden is too hated.
That is why we need strong Independents here. I do think Marianne Williamson is capable of running Independent, and taking votes from Republicans. Not all want a mad man. But folks hate Biden that are republican. So this could be the year a strong Independent could take it. I hope Marianne stays in and runs Independent. She has good things to say. If she can debate WITH Trump and Biden, it could happen.
https://youtube.com/shorts/40jDchx1-KU?si=wX1sPn-VPMO7tugt
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Oh and let me gloat, on the three judges - I predicted they would agree he is not immune. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSARl3uOQ8g&t=32s
OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO!!! The number 12 I rolled! BAM! Its explained here! Trumpy Trump has to file 2-12! Michael, you doubt me dear sir, my readings? BAM BAM BAM! Heh! Told you 12 would be significant! 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-kN90Bbkl0
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His question is good above:
"Will the Supreme Court accept this for review, or reject it?" They could reject it, and let this ruling stand. They can do that.
I considered that. Lemme see:
Accept or Reject the conclusion is he loses. I feel they will feel compelled to take it, and rule against Trump. Now the second prediction was the case would go on, the two Geminis face off. I felt Aries month. So I suspect Trump people will file quickly, and SCOTUS would hear it fast. But if wrong and they reject he loses. I considered them doing it as they dont want to be caught in the middle but...if they accept he loses too. The only deal here is some delay, and I feel it wont be the long, drawn out delay Trump is hoping for. (Heh I almost said "praying for" but I know he doesnt do that). ;D
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And with all this happening, all the distractions, Elon ushers in the Mark of the Beast! Now everyone and their mother has been crying about the chip for a very long time. But the first human being has been implanted. Now the deal is, the majority of humans "see" the chip as the mark of the beast. They have for years and years. So how on earth, could Elon, or anyone, dupe the masses into implanting this into the brain? What did the scripture say?
Revelation: Revelation 13:16-17
King James Version
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Thats how.
Now Elon posted the deal about Neuralink and implant at 4:37 PM according to the X/Tweet:
John 4:37
New International Version
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
(Thats an Archangel Michael Technique).
Here it comes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXeJ5X6BNxE
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So this is a big case going to be heard by Supreme Court tomorrow. Colorado (Maine too but it will be for Colorado), removed Trump from the ballot arguing a clause as he is an insurrectionist. This will be critical. Cause if SCOTUS says he cant be removed, Trump can be voted on. BUT if he can be removed, ruled by Colorado, other states could follow suit.
Now I did read on this, and I was surprised in that Trump will lose. Thats what it says. Now this surprised me, cause I feel a TEST with Trump, i mean, we spiritualists know this! So this is huge and will come back to this when they rule. But if he does lose, then states can take him off, and it will make it harder for him to win.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/07/supreme-court-trump-colorado-ballot-case/
Will Trump stay on the ballot? What to expect at the Supreme Court Thursday.
In a deeply polarized America, a divided Supreme Court weighs whether to disqualify Donald Trump from office because he participated in insurrection
The Supreme Court on Thursday will confront the critical question of Donald Trump’s eligibility to return to the White House, hearing arguments in an unprecedented case that gives the justices a central role in charting the course of a presidential election for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.
Will Trump stay on the ballot? What to expect at the Supreme Court Thursday.
In a deeply polarized America, a divided Supreme Court weighs whether to disqualify Donald Trump from office because he participated in insurrection
By Ann E. Marimow
February 7, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST
A collage with an image of Donald Trump and the Supreme Court of the United States building.
(Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock)
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The Supreme Court on Thursday will confront the critical question of Donald Trump’s eligibility to return to the White House, hearing arguments in an unprecedented case that gives the justices a central role in charting the course of a presidential election for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.
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The justices will decide whether Colorado’s top court was correct to apply a post-Civil War provision of the Constitution to order Trump off the ballot after concluding his actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol amounted to insurrection. Primary voting is already underway in some states. Colorado’s ballots for the March 5 primary were printed last week and include Trump’s name. But his status as a candidate will depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
Unlike Bush v. Gore in 2000, when the court’s decision handed the election to George W. Bush, the case challenging Trump’s qualifications for a second term comes at a time when a large swath of the country views the Supreme Court through a partisan lens and a significant percentage still believes false claims that the last presidential election was rigged.
The justices — especially their cautious, consensus-building chief, John G. Roberts Jr. — may be reluctant to wade into such a politically fraught dispute, experts say. The court could rule more narrowly, finding, for example, that Colorado was wrong to bar Trump because of a technicality.
But election law experts have implored the justices to definitively decide the key question of whether Trump is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, settling the issue nationwide so that other states with similar challenges to Trump’s candidacy follow along.
They warn of political instability not seen since the Civil War if the court was to overturn Colorado’s ruling but leave open the possibility that Congress could try to disqualify Trump later in the process, including after the general election.
“You can see this one coming. There are flashing red lights warning 10 months before the election that chaos this time is not only possible but more than likely given that 2020 broke the norm and dented the guardrails,” said veteran Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg, who played a central role for Bush in the Florida recount.
Trump’s eligibility is not the only question before the court that could affect the former president’s political future. Later this term, the justices are set to review the validity of a law that was used to charge hundreds of people in connection with the Jan. 6 riot and is also a key element of Trump’s four-count federal election obstruction case in Washington. Trump’s claim that he is protected by presidential immunity from being prosecuted for trying to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory also appears headed to the high court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against Trump this week.
In the Colorado case, the justices will have to weigh untested legal issues against the backdrop of broad concerns about democracy. Put simply, should the ramifications of disqualifying the leading Republican candidate in the midst of the primary election outweigh the consequences of allowing a candidate to run again after he tried to subvert the outcome of the last election?
Justice Clarence Thomas is the only sitting justice who was on the bench in December 2000 when the high court put a stop to the Florida recount and sealed Bush’s victory. Democratic lawmakers have asked him to recuse from the Colorado case because of his wife’s involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election results, but he is not expected to do so. Three other justices, including Roberts, were young lawyers helping the Bush campaign in Florida, personally witnessing the stakes of having the nation’s highest court decide the outcome of a national contest.
The challenge to Trump’s eligibility in Colorado was brought by six voters — four Republicans and two independents. They convinced the Colorado Supreme Court that Trump engaged in insurrection when he summoned his supporters to Washington and encouraged the angry crowd to try to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory. Maine’s secretary of state reached the same conclusion, and both states put their decisions on hold while litigation continues.
Once Trump appealed the Colorado decision, the justices quickly scheduled argument for Feb. 8. The court could rule at any time after that. In Bush v. Gore, with the voting done and the outcome hanging in the balance, the justices acted with extraordinary speed, issuing an opinion one day after the argument.
“It’s a precarious place to be, but the court has decided literally dozens of election cases since 2000. The stakes are just much higher,” said Richard L. Hasen, an election law expert who teaches at UCLA’s law school.
“I’m skeptical that this case is actually going to be decided on the historical record regardless of what the court says,” he added. The political implications of the ruling, “more than anything else, are going to be weighing on the justices — consciously or subconsciously.”
Lessons of history and democracy
Historians, academics, former government officials and members of Congress have submitted dozens of filings laying out possible paths the Supreme Court could take to resolve whether the constitution disqualifies Trump from a second term.
The court’s conservative majority favors originalism and textualism — methods of interpretation that direct judges to interpret the words of the Constitution as they were understood at the time of the text and history of Section 3, also known as the disqualification clause, are likely to dominate Thursday’s argument.they were written and to consider the words of laws under review.
The disqualification clause was initially intended to guard against former Confederates returning to positions of power after the Civil War. It says no person who previously took an oath “as an officer of the United States” to “support the Constitution” and then violated that oath by engaging in insurrection or rebellion can “hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.” The text does not specify who is supposed to enforce the clause or when it should be invoked, leading some experts to say Congress could try to prevent Trump from being sworn in if he is elected.
Trump’s lead lawyer, Jonathan Mitchell, told the court that Section 3 does not apply to Trump for several reasons. Among them: The president is not an “officer of the United States,” which is the term the section uses to discuss potential insurrectionists; Congress, not state courts or state officials, enforces the disqualification provision; and Trump did not engage in insurrection.
“President Trump never told his supporters to enter the Capitol, and he did not lead, direct, or encourage any of the unlawful acts that occurred at the Capitol,” Mitchell wrote in his filing. He added: “Giving a passionate political speech and telling supporters to metaphorically ‘fight like hell’ for their beliefs is not insurrection either.”
Trump distinguishes between executive branch “officers” appointed by the president and referred to in other sections of the Constitution, and a president who is elected. Separately, Trump’s lawyers say the president takes an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” — distinct from the oath other officials take to “support the Constitution.”
Conservative legal scholars and former Republican attorneys general Edwin Meese III, Michael B. Mukasey and William P. Barr also told the justices that the Colorado court got it wrong. Disqualifying Trump, they wrote, would have “ruinous consequences for our democratic republic.”
They urged the justices to “resist any interpretation of Section 3 that empowers partisan public officials to unilaterally disqualify politicians from the opposing party — and especially in this case, the current leader of the opposition party.” They also suggested a Republican secretary of state could disqualify Biden from the ballot, charging that his policies constitute an “insurrection.” Four voters in Illinois unsuccessfully pursued such a challenge recently, based on Biden’s actions at the U.S.-Mexico border.
But other conservative legal scholars and leading historians say the original meaning of the disqualification clause is clear. Section 3 must be read “sensibly, naturally and in context, without artifice or ingenious invention,” University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen and University of Chicago law professor William Baude, a former law clerk to Roberts, said in a law review article.
“A reading that renders the document a ‘secret code’ loaded with hidden meanings discernible only by a select priesthood of illuminati is generally an unlikely one,” they wrote.
Historians and the Colorado voters working with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also cast doubt on the idea that the framers of Section 3 would have created a loophole for oath-breaking, insurrectionist former presidents. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the framers were concerned about Confederate sympathizers ascending to high government posts, including a possible bid for the presidency by Jefferson Davis, a member of Congress from Mississippi who served as the first and only president of the Confederacy.
A group of experts in democracies around the world acknowledged to the court the grave consequences of removing a presidential candidate from the ballot. But they warned that failing to act, if action is justified, could have equally dire consequences.
“Taking a popular candidate out of consideration can breed distrust in the system. And yet, this concern is equally valid if the court fails to act: distrust in the system is precisely what has been fueled by the insurrection and claims of fraud perpetuated by the former President,” said the brief those experts submitted in support of the Colorado voters.
State officials have traditionally had broad power to set the rules for elections and often keep people off the ballot who do not meet age or citizenship qualifications. Several briefs in favor of enforcing Section 3 quote from a 2012 ruling by then-appeals court judge Neil M. Gorsuch that is likely to surface during argument. The brief order from Gorsuch, now a justice and part of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, affirmed Colorado’s authority to keep off the ballot a presidential candidate who was not a natural-born citizen.
A “state’s legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process permits it to exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office,” Gorsuch wrote.
Even so, election law experts said the odds are in Trump’s favor, because the former president needs to win on only one of the issues before the court — whether he participated in insurrection, for example, or whether Section 3 applies to presidents — to restore his eligibility.
In the justices’ hands
Whatever the court decides is likely to polarize voters just as the court’s decision in Bush v. Gore split the country 24 years ago.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was just three years out of law school when she was sent to Florida to help Bush’s legal team in a dispute over the tallying of absentee ballots. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, then in private practice, helped oversee a recount in central Florida as part of the Bush campaign. And Roberts, who as partner in a Washington law firm had already argued dozens of cases before the high court, was sent to Tallahassee to advise the Bush campaign and help prepare the lawyer appearing before the Florida Supreme Court.
The litigation surrounding the 2000 election was intense, fast moving and high stakes. Even though the high court endured sharp criticism for intervening in the election in favor of Bush, Vice President Al Gore accepted the decision and public approval rebounded.
The country is far more divided now, with many skeptical of the court and the integrity of elections. On the campaign trail, Trump continues to falsely refer to the 2020 election as stolen. He has refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if he is not the winner.
Public opinion of the court has also declined to near record lows, according to Gallup, a dip tied to the court’s elimination of the nationwide right to abortion. Fewer than half of Americans say they have a great deal or moderate trust in the court to make the “right decision” in cases related to the 2024 election, according to a new CNN poll.
Those involved in Bush v. Gore said even in this era, public acceptance of the court’s ruling will be greater and acceptance by members of Congress higher if the court can reach a nearly unanimous decision. Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general who argued on Bush’s behalf, said the American people also will be more likely to accept the court’s decision if it is resolved quickly and fully explained.
But reaching a decision that avoids the court’s 6-3 ideological split may be difficult.
Three of the sitting justices were nominated by Trump, cementing a conservative supermajority that has upheld many of the former president’s policies but has not ruled in his favor on matters involving access to his financial records and to White House documents sought by a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
As chief justice, Roberts will be looking for common ground. He has previously raised concerns about judges being perceived as picking winners in election-related disputes. In a 2017 case involving partisan gerrymandering, Roberts highlighted the problem in a hypothetical during oral argument.
If, for instance, the Democrats win, Roberts said, the man on the street will ask “Why?” and not be convinced of a complex formula used to assess the voting maps.
“The intelligent man on the street is going to say, ‘That’s a bunch of baloney. It must be because the Supreme Court preferred the Democrats over the Republicans,’” Roberts said, adding, “And that is going to cause very serious harm to the status and integrity of the decisions of this court in the eyes of the country.”
The case is Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson.
Scott Clement and Patrick Marley contributed to this report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMIvWOFHgZI
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So far, its not looking too good Colorado can take Trump off the ballot. Now the thing tho, it could be because he needs to be officially tried for the insurrection. Perhaps thats why "defeat" does show. This ruling might be premature technically. And I did consider this I remember before throwing down "It would make it too easy." I dont think this is meant to be easy, and the other thing I said "I feel spirit wants him on the ballot to see what people choose." So defeat could mean later - like with Jack Smith. But I DEFINITELY do not think Trump will get immunity from SCOTUS and avoid Jack Smith. The face off is definitely destined to happen. The lovers (which is GEMINI) comes up time and time again for this. So that will happen.
But yes so it appears they cant take him off ballot will be ruling. Which then makes my first impression stick that I considered - makes it too easy, and denies some states the choice and spirit, im pretty sure, wants us all to face the choice.
I know we have hot debate whether we have free will or not. Perhaps we do have a little more than we think.
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The BIG focus this Super Bowl? Taylor Swift. She touched down at LAX. They are literally tracking this, as she just performed in Tokyo. Everyone was hoping she would make it to see her boyfriend Travis Kelce, play the game. I hope, as there is ridiculous Trump folks hating on her, and then we have outside negative influences, we have the upmost best security at this game. Crossing fingers here but the hoopla surrounding Taylor Swift attending is MASSIVE.
https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-kelce-travis-super-bowl-eras-japan-13248c81324a4da46df425f0e6a7654c
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d5/ca/96/d5ca96a9e57a85a2c7ea7f19fdd68014.jpg)
Taylor Swift reaches LAX in journey from Tokyo to Super Bowl, online sleuths say. Will she make it?
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will she make it in time? Intrepid flight trackers online seem to think so.
On social media, fans of Taylor Swift and aviation journalists believe they’ve identified Swift’s private jet, labeled “The Football Era.” It arrived from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Los Angeles’ LAX airport just after 3:30 p.m. local time.
Her transportation plans onward to Las Vegas, where her boyfriend, NFL star tight end Travis Kelce, will play in Sunday’s Super Bowl, have yet to be revealed.
Representatives for Swift and VistaJet, the world’s only global private aviation company, did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.
Swift’s last song was still ringing in the ears of thousands of fans at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night when the singer rushed to a private jet at Haneda airport, presumably embarking on an intensely scrutinized journey to see Kelce.
“We’re all gonna go on a great adventure,” Swift told the crowd earlier. She was speaking of the music, but it might also describe her race against time, which was to cross nine time zones and the international date line.
With a final bow at the end of her sold-out show, clad in a blue sequined outfit, the crowd screaming, strobe lights pulsing, confetti falling, Swift disappeared beneath the stage and her journey to the other side of the world began.
Her expected trip to see Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas has fired imaginations, and speculation, for weeks.
“I hope she can return in time. It’s so romantic,” said office worker Hitomi Takahashi, 29, who bought matching Taylor Swift sweatshirts with her friend and was taking photos just outside the Tokyo Dome.
About an hour after the end of the concert, AP journalists were near Haneda’s private jet area when minivans drove up and someone went inside the gate area, as four to five people carrying large black umbrellas obstructed the view of the person.
There was plenty of evidence at the concert of the unique cultural phenomenon that is the Swift-Kelce relationship, a nexus of professional football and the huge star power of Swift. In addition to people wearing sequined dresses celebrating Swift, there were Kelce jerseys and hats and other Chiefs gear.
Some spent thousands of dollars to attend the pop superstar’s concerts this week.
“Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone,” Swift sang.
She won’t find that Sunday in Las Vegas when a sold-out crowd, not to mention millions around the world, will be watching her.
To call the worldwide scrutiny of Swift’s travels intense is an understatement.
Fans have tracked her jet. The planet-warming carbon emissions of her globe-trotting travels have been criticized. Officials have weighed in on her ability to park her jet at Las Vegas airports.
Even Japanese diplomats have gotten into the act. The Japanese Embassy in Washington posted on social media that she could make the Super Bowl in time, including in their statement three Swift song titles — “Speak Now”, “Fearless” and “Red.”
“If she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins,” it said.
Takahashi, the fan at the Tokyo Dome, was aware of the criticism Swift has faced about her private jets but said the singer was being singled out unfairly.
“Many other people are flying on business, and she is here for her work. She faces a bashing because she is famous and stands out,” Takahashi said.
Swift has been crisscrossing the globe this week.
Before coming to Asia, she attended the Grammys in Los Angeles, winning her 14th Grammy and a record-breaking fourth Album of the Year award for “Midnights.” The show was watched by nearly 17 million people. She also made a surprise announcement that her next album is ready to drop in April.
Then the four concerts in Tokyo, and now the trip back to the States. She has followed Kelce for much of the Chiefs’ season.
Swift is expected to fly to Australia later this week to continue her tour.
“This week is truly the best kind of chaos,” she posted Wednesday on Instagram.
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
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I looked. Back in 2009 some is predictive. I did draw her that year.
How I know? She likes side braids. Look at part and bangs.
Keep her safe. A lot of stupid people out there.
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7d/b1/de/7db1de0db458722addcdeb25a0d23624.jpg)
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/77/8a/91/778a916f882da94f66c51ed26fe4c69d.jpg)
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Gotta love it!
Chiefs won! Super Bowl was excellent, and plenty of shots of Taylor Swift in the stands at critical points. But anywho, Trumpy Trump was seen on Truth Social in an effort to get Taylor Swift to not endorse Joe Biden. He brought up he signed into law an act for musicians so their work online would be protected. OH DONALD ARE YOU AFRAID WITH THIS? ;D Yes, he truly fears the power of her popularity and the "Swifty vote" this election. Just imagine - sweet Taylor Swift, could possibly be the REASON he loses the election.
She sure is good luck for winners, cause the Chiefs won, which only brightens the spotlight. :) I flowering love it, and his sad plea and begging to Taylor Swift, saying he "made her a lot of money." OH DEAR its all Trump the reason Taylor Swift has money, thats rich, thats so rich the sad attempt at a table turn that surely wont work, as she has been successful for years now. And the MAGA crowd when they try to tear her down, is only making her star rise more and more. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cAHtlzcRL8
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Not a fan of CNN but this shows an interview with his opponent. So over the weekend at one of the rallys with the kool aid cult, Trump said that if he were president, and a member of NATO didnt foot their share of defense spending, he would not only not defend them, but he would encourage Putin and Russia to attack them. Now this is the crazy thing. When he made these comments, the morons in the audience cheered. THIS IS INSANE. These are allies. Like said, allies with us after 911. And to say he would actually encourange them to be invaded and for Putin to "do what the hell they want" is despicable.
But nothing shocks me anymore as I know this is a test of a massive test. How low will folks go here, who claim to be so-called "Patriots" or even Christians? How can one be a patriot, and support treasonous banter?
Well, the hypnotism is quite fierce. Anywho, the scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs2lue4ZFDQ
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So the Super Bowl was safe. But NOT the Super Bowl Parade.
And I suspect, its MAGA hating on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. How much you want to bet, this is a Trump Kool Aid clown?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shooting-kansas-city-chiefs-super-bowl-celebration-union-station-rcna138883
At least 1 killed in shooting at Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration
Two people were detained after as many as 15 people were injured at the victory rally, officials said.
Feb. 14, 2024, 12:30 PM PST / Updated Feb. 14, 2024, 2:06 PM PST
By Tim Stelloh, Courtney Brogle and Matthew Mata
At least one person was killed and as many as 15 others injured in a shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, after a rally Wednesday celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl victory, authorities said.
Of the injured, three were in critical condition, five were in serious condition and one person had non-life-threatening injuries, Kansas City Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins said.
Follow here for live coverage.
Two people were detained after the shooting near a garage west of Union Station, the Kansas City Police Department said in a statement.
The department did not identify suspects. The shooting appears to be criminal in nature and not terrorism, according to a preliminary investigation, three law enforcement officials briefed on the incident said.
Police asked people to quickly leave the area so victims could get medical aid.
Thousands of people had gathered in downtown Kansas City for a celebratory parade and rally at Union Station after the Chiefs' Super Bowl win on Sunday.
A senior White House official said that the Biden administration was "closely monitoring" the situation and that “federal law enforcement is on scene supporting local law enforcement.”
Drue Tranquill, a linebacker with the Chiefs, asked people to join him in prayer for the victims over “this heinous act.”
“Pray that doctors & first responders would have steady hands & that all would experience full healing,” he said on X.
"Praying for Kansas City," Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes also said on the platform.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was at the celebration and was safely evacuated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEOyL9svQC4
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Welp! Could it be...before Jack Smith can squish this bug, Stormy Daniels, porn star supreme, is the one to CRUSH the Donald, before he can? Seems could be. The trial is on! March 25th. Now the juicy thing is this. Pink FLOYD gonna release DARK SIDE OF THE MOON on VINYL on March 25th. Heh. Our childhood heroes are releasing the greats such as ON THE RUN, and TIME, on the SAME flowerING DAY, the trial begins for the Orange Limpdick. AND I would love to hear how the Christians gonna explain this one. 130k in "hush money" for Stormy, to keep quiet about their sexual liason.
But all the scandalous tapes of Trump talking, like bragging about "classified documents" not "declasified" with his "mind" oh it coming. But a hot ass sexy pornstar. Ultimately P**sy take this dumb bitch down. Yes March 25th. Mark it on the calendar. The first "criminal trial" as you cant like, pay off a porn star, before you run for president. Christians going on hes an "imperfect messiah" but a "godly man" oh sure Christians sure, take it up with Jesus with your idolatry and...He going down....this is a slow, methodical process. Wait till stormy talks. About how those tiny hands means hes got a tiny pecker, but had enough cash to pay a little money and...oh its all gross and TIME and ON THE RUN from your KARMA flower off already:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIuudmco8WE
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BA DA BING BA DA BOOM! 💸
The Donald is ordered to pay a whopping $355 MILLION 💰 bucks in fines, and is barred from doing business in NY for 3 years! He will appeal, which will tack INTEREST on said fine. Then add that with E Jean Carrol for $83.3 million plus the initial $5 million oh CRUNCH. Dirty Deeds done cost a pretty penny with this. Now we can await Stormy trial. Jack Trial, and them resolving Georgia, oh lest we not forget, Florida and illegal top secret documents! WHAT A SHIT SHOW IT IS!
Oh my oh my clocks ticking. Did I say I got my Pink Floyd cap on? :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtbgltmFwlg
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Jack Smith and SCOTUS. Dumps claim of "absolute immunity" is now in the hands of the supreme court. Now the 🍊💩👿 his attorneys KNOW there is no such thing, and the SCOTUS has no choice but to rule no president has absolute immunity. NO ONE is above the law of the land. NO ONE. But what they are trying to do is get a huge stay by SCOTUS to drag and drag past the election. But Jack Smith replied in a day to this whole farce, that the federal appeals court already ruled on the audacity of the claim. Thats the most they can do. They pissing in the wind here, as if they let it sit, all eyes on SCOTUS and would know this is scandalous.
Now will they reject it, stay it, or rule on it? I believe they are going to take it, move quick, and rule he doesnt have absolute immunity. As this is a huge case, they are going to want to set a precedent with this case, so in case ever occurs again, a president cant do what he wants. Shall be interesting. I also feel this will be done, cause spirit wants the case ON and TELEVISED for the world to see.
My 2 cents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTIia7wKWQk
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But fret not! The Kool Aid Cult is on it! Some nice fan of trump and feeling for his plight, created a whole GOFUNDME and the Kool Aid pitcher said "Oh yeah" and here come the supporters to donate! So far raised a cool 33k for Donald Dumbass. flowering unreal and pathetic. These morons. But I found in the comments, see my nifty attachment, "Dark Brandon," (thats supposed to be Biden in his dark cabal "deep state" form) asked if the Orange Menace was "tired of winning" and gave him five measley bucks!💸 Oh you all want a reality tv clown to be pres - you get one! This is not a movie folks. This is REALLY happening. Lucifer didnt come to us a cool, methodical, Dracula type guy. He came as a conman with a fake tan, dead possum on his head who shits his diapers. Who on The Apprentice, the guy who changed him and wiped him down was nicknamed "Wet Wipes," and they throw money at him. Just take hard earned money and may as well burn it at this point. Its all madness!
Beau and an attachment of Dark Brandon included to MOCK. Screen shot reads 11:34 PM which upside down on a digital clock spells hell. Yeah, thats where the followers going if they dont wake up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSGNVliR4yA
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If I were Melanias psychic. I would say, may as well wipe your ass with that prenup. There is no NUP. Just a lot of NOPE. Time to break it to little Barron. Skedaddle to the Mall. Get a job at Footlocker selling shoes. Or learn to make some Cinnabons. Baristas get tips. Something. Cause daddy is cold busted ass BROKE.. ;D
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Well as the saying goes, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." So The Donald Dimwitted thought perhaps, with his growing court fines nestling a whole million in interest per WEEK, lets sell a Trump sneaker! Oh please yes, protect those "bone spurs" of yours, as the Golden Calf went to a sneaker show to pimp...er promote, these hideous, god awful golden high top sneakers, with a big T for "Tacky AF" and a flag, oh of course. Probably made in China too huh? Yes probably were! Now he was booed pretty flowering hard at the event in question. But on his website, he said 1000 limited supply, and these flowering freaky ass things, which you click the heels three times, and go into Dante's Inferno, sold out, in two hours, for $399 a pop! Now of course, this barely takes down the interest that he gains this week alone. But at least Po Boy can get a bucket of KFC, and cry as he watches his bank account dwindle on the daily!
The scoop!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXSJlMd3xE
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Michael Cohen is an interesting character. The accent sounds very Jersey, and usually Jersey dont play. But he did play the game long ago with The Donald and facilitated the "hush money" as he said The Donald didnt "directly" say to pay it but as he is always slick, implied it. It was an understood thing with his "mob boss" voice, as he likes to put it. But then when Cohen had to do the time for the crime, and saw "The Don" go on about his business, and how he was utterly expendable, now he has a book titled "Revenge," but he is also "implying" his own energy with the title. He will be testifying in the Stormy trial, and he now is highly motivated to take down Trump. Oh my friend of my enemy is my friend now my enemy and....
But what he says in here is what im kinda thinking. I highly doubt Trump has cash on hand. He uses "other people's money" more often than not, really has, all his existence. So who's gonna foot the bill so he CAN appeal, and get these bonds? He has to put up the bond to secure on appeal to even do it. Then when loses, E Jean Carrol gets her cut, and NY gets theirs. Foreign aid in his plight? Most likely. So one, gotta see if the money is put up and if he didnt liquidate, you can bet your bottom dollar, either Russia or the Saudis foot the bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw6RpWXhrGs
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Brian makes some valid points. A voice of sanity here. Though we see Trump supporters holding strong. "If convicted" in these upcoming cases, the loyalty should diminish if the polls are correct. Now of course, while the Stormy case is appealing, Jack Smith and the election interference case is the big one! And I know America. We have grown up watching some good court dramas. Perry Mason show, Matlock, or movies like A Few Good Men. Once a prosecutor exposes the devil, if I am correct, America loves to see the good guys win! The problem is, Trump, who is good at pulling the wool over people's eyes, is very good at selling an "image." Him a persecuted businessman and its all because he was sent by GOD even, to "drain the swamp." Thing is, yes he was sent sure. I have said countless times: "He is the sticky fly paper to attract the flies." To bring forth the corruption and make it visible for all to see. Also, he spoke to the collective shadow. He made it "a-ok" to be racist, homophobic, sexist, and those who "hid" these attributes, didnt have to hide it anymore. They enjoyed finally, expressing their true nature. Very bad stuff.
Now course, he loathes being president, deep down. He hates the job, and scoffs its about being a servant of the people's will. This is all a conspiracy to win, hoping by winning he gets his "get out of jail free card." His hopes are up high, the con is on, the followers keep trying to pray for him, but alas....no one escapes karma. That is that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46G-b8e04hI
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(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bd/d3/c8/bdd3c87e2e4c9ed88ca93ac10c5724c3.jpg)
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Niece Mary Trump is probably the only sane voice from the Trump family, as her father was ostrasized from the family. But folks need to listen to her yes. Trump is unhinged and he wants to win to avoid jail and get back at people. And of course end democracy for the free world. The stakes are very high:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqckz1aaok
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Usually, at least summertime, Cali is known to be hit by horrible fires. But right now, the storms, torentous rain, tornadoes, they even had a hurricane prior, which is unheard of. This weather is not normal by any means. These are some of the worst floods I have...let me correct, I have NEVER seen Cali hit by floods such as these. Mother Nature is being totally relentless. Its unbelievable, and yet, its happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nc_OCkhskU
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Dad was a republican for many years, so was mom. Less govt, less taxes. That was the basis of it. But the Republicans are not what they once were. Right now, a huge thing is getting aid to Ukraine and the man who was killed by Putin, which Trump disgustingly compared to his woes in America. No matter, we must fund Ukraine. If Ukraine collapses to Putin, Putin will not stop there. But, the GOP who is all fearful of Trump, is doing his bidding, and trying to stop funding to Ukraine, which they could lose. Then Putin would take this as a green light to capture other countries. If NATO is weakened, then certainly will. NOW the worst case scenario, as Trump already expressed how committed (er...NOT) he is to NATO. If Trump becomes president, he would in all likelihood, retract from NATO, leaving them at the mercy of Putin, who will then attack these other countries, trying to restore the old USSR. Thats the game.
Now obviously Trump is in his pocket. He HAS to be being funded by Putin, perhaps China as well. And the GOP has to have members who have their pockets lined just the same. Now there are conservatives who "see" this, and are trying to stop it all. But the MAGA crowd, which consists of very unintelligent, misinformed people who can only think in terms of abortion or issues with LGBTQIA or border issues. What do the gods think of us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skD-r3JCq9s
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Tonight the youtube algorhythm felt the need to bring forth "Is Trump the Antichrist" videos for me. I had not searched them. I dont "need" to. Its obvious, the way his followers have dangerously made him a messiah. I mean, if the "golden sneaker fits!" 🧐
But these videos are nifty in that they bring some "characteristics" of the antichrist, and compare trump to him. Now owen is an atheist, but is a former JW and makes a reasonable case for it. But the idolatry alone should be compelling enough. But a few finds and if anyone happens to be christian and found soma (I mean, could possibly happen, some random passerby), heres a few videos with interesting scriptures to sink the teeth into.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1014PFSIq-U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icg0lOxbnXU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBa4L-tozCE
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Short, sweet, to the point. An actual newscaster, to be a professional, said "crazy shit" on tv. Yes. CRAZY SHIT. I mean, I watched some political videos tonight. And need a salt bath now, cause ALL I saw was crazy shit being said. Unhinged lunatic permeates social media and news all over. Its infected. ALL OF IT. So she described it adequately.
Lock him up for crimes? If someone, any other individual, ran around unhinged like this, saying election stolen or doing the odd things he does, saying shit he says which is so delusional. He would be locked up and thrown in a mental hospital. But no, he is free to roam and do weird shit, say weird shit, and come undone before our eyes. Now even pimping golden sneakers and perfume. Oh its trash, all of it and crazy shit is right!
https://youtube.com/shorts/22Qoaq7PMSM?si=GadvDdRH1fWDh089
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Roland and friends are very cool and honest. And break it down. One of the ladies said something I say all the time. "Numbers dont lie." Its simple math folks. If you have a penthouse that is 11k sq feet. And tell a bank it is 33k square feet. And up the value of properties for more than they are worth - thats inflating assets, and committing fraud with banks and insurance companies. Donald Dickweed has filed bankruptcy 5 times in his life. So he took money then owed money, and found nifty ways to not, pay back the money! If you file bankruptcy, you have to show a court you dont have money to pay your debts. So what gives here?
Anyway very good discussion and its pathetic how folks defend a criminal and his enterprise. Its so weird. Not the days of Al Capone here. Its flowerING WEIRD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSYfcTHakA
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To add to the clown show, Mike Lindell, aka the "My Pillow Guy." He was a fascist about perpetrating The Big Lie. Now normally, good old Mikey makes sure his cross necklace is sticking out of his shirt for all to see. Now if you have a complaint about your pillow, which they are trash, customers are sent to nothing but a recording singing "Amazing Grace." This flowering tool has done nothing but spread this nonsense all over. Now when put to the task and he did a 5 Million dollar challenge to prove him wrong, and he was. He didnt pay up the money. So...heh...the guy took him to court and won. Now Mikey can cry a river of tears in his pillow, as he hears it ringing in his waxy ears: "Put up or shutup, stupid biach."
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6X7LYf1tX4
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Fox News. Never fails to prove how vile, low they will go on the racist front. On this episode being shown, a pasty white q tip, with the IQ of a rock, said black people will love The Orange Pubes gold sneakers, cause black people love sneakers! ESP the “inner city” ones! 😡😤🤬
Yes. Nothing but c***s on this so called news network. I promise you. Black people have better taste then these god awful nasty ass sneakers. But yes. He thinks black people are so dumb, they will think these “No Surrender Sneakers” are so cool, they will vote for Dumpy.
In your dreams, you morons.
Yuck!
https://youtu.be/yWSaEV059ks?si=c5OGSnd2y1OYqGpR
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I knew it! I knew Roland, once saw this idiotic, racist, fox guy go on about black people and Trump sneakers, that Roland would methodically take this MF down. Look at the look of sheer disgust on Roland's face! Oh HE HAS IT COMIN! The fox man looks like a bloated Pee Wee Herman who just did a few lines. Fox Freak News is trash and they going in the incinerator - oh let me watch Roland flower this dumb ass bitch up for all to see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uSiazpaqU4
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Oh thats so funny. I hadnt see him yet and his guest compared that fool to Pee Wee Herman too! ;D
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Big news! Now Alabama ruled recently that frozen embryos are "children." Yes. So IVF clinics have shut down for fear of lawsuits. Which has created a huge tailspin. Even Trump says he supports IVF. Not that it matters hes a clown. But still. There are Republicans who, know they could lose constituents. These are families who, now break down the rationale here, who can afford to spend thousands on frozen embryos and implantation. The majority of these people have MONEY.
So this brings up an interesting argument to the pro life movement. Now some are coming out in full support as these people want a baby! Women, desperate for a child, willing to pay thousands. I saw one woman who has paid, yes, 250k into having a baby. The IVF industry is highly profitable.
Which proves folks, that repubs arent pro-life, but pro BIRTH. Now that folks who WANT a baby being impacted, with this ruling, now the embryo frozen is question - is it a life or not? So this is good to me anyway to question it. I know what the deal is. The republican party has wanted to own the wombs of women. Pro BIRTH folks, not pro LIFE. Now they scramble as many women fighting infertility, who spend thousands to birth, want this issue settled. Now Alabama claims they wont prosecute these clinics, but the clinics dont dare flower around as the law says different. The scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1YnUC1gcWk
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January 6, 2021. The day that woke up every veteran in spirit. When Trump had exhausted using the courts. All his advisors and he sat around. Talk of martial law. Then instead. The Trump tweet. A call to arms.
The trial with Jack Smith, Trump is desperately trying to stop with his absolute immunity claim. But it’s spirits will, it’s televised for all to see. This video breaks down the timeline, of a desecration to stop the Will of the people for a madman.
https://youtu.be/Y44fyh4ap7k?si=h7D_wg9e9ETqdIVf
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Oh yes, accuse your enemies of your toxic traits. This is the Orange Shitstain accusing Biden of being a racist.
Now back in the day Biden had growing to do. But he has. He was a vice for the first African American president. And now his vice is both Indian and African American. He is NOT racist. Dump, who he and his father worked on keeping out African Americans out of their shitty apts and projects. Or especially his slandering of the Central Park 5, calling for their deaths. AND the Obama birther conspiracy he started. All of THAT is a huge reason for the karma he is suffering now.
Lets break it down - the Central Park 5 were boys who were sent to prison for years, for a crime they didnt commit. But because of Trump, this fueled the public, and their racism, and was a huge factor why they did time. ALSO when the actual perpetrator was found to be the culprit, with DNA to back it to boot. Trump never apologized to the boys, never admitted his error. And of course, Obama, under public pressure, provided a birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii. But because of Dump, his campaign was fueled with many conspiracy theories he was not American born, not worthy to be president, and possibly a tefforist cause of his name and color.
These are reasons this shitbag is dealing with karma. Yes he has many crimes, but he is going down for his treatment of black people. The boys went in a cell - now he is on his way to one. Oh you do all this to the first African American president? "Lets make him a president. Lets watch him fall." "Oh Lucifer how thou art fallen." YES. So all this you see, has a lot to do with HIS RACIST PAST...AND PRESENT.
And he dares to project this onto Biden. Knowing damn well he is not racist. The lies, the hatred he spews. Everytime he opens his mouth, he darkens his soul. Thats why he is going crazier by the day, even minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fWAzA_Lp_g
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"Who" is going to bail out the Orange Peckerhead? I suspect someone will. Will it be the Saudis? Look at his son in law Jared Kushner and his dealings with them. Or the Russians? We know Putin wants him in office so he can manipulate and restore the USSR. Or even Elon? Who I suspect is a fox, and wants to do some things with X and he's sketch. This is chump change for Elon - if he could buy twitter, he can easily bail out Trump. Now he said he wont vote for Biden, would "maybe" vote for Trump. Elon is flowering around so...
The scoop....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMNF_OseTDM
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Berry berry interesting! So Elon is highly tracked his jet and things. I did a comment on the last video, that perhaps the Saudis, Russia, or even Elon could bail out Trump. So someone replied on my comment, that days ago, Elon was at Mar a Lago. So did a search, and reddit never fails to disappoint, its true: https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalHumor/comments/1at31kw/trump_hit_with_450m_bill_elon_goes_to_mar_a_lago/
So, could ELON put up the money? Now all warfare is based on deception. Elon is well aware, twitter was the source and sounding board, Trump used to incite an insurrection. He paid BIG money for it. He has all hands on the controls. And seems he is trying to gain the trust of the right, which, I just feel a game. BUT to gain trust, put up the money for Trump? Was he called over to make a deal? Elon can easily afford the money for him, hands down. Will my possible theory be correct, and he put up the money?
Berry berry interesting!
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/31/51/22/3151221bb4ddc0cb678edbd43703fef1.jpg)
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OK I GOTTA READ THIS. I gotta know. Im only going to read this one for soma. Cause im curious. Ill later consider posting but for now, as all warfare is based on deception...
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OMG The First Card made me laugh so flowering hard! Its a strong possibility Elon may put up the cash! ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7dqRXJpWwc
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Trump wins South Carolina. Now this is interesting - the stats. This video shows in SC, how many believe the election was stolen. And shows how many would vote for Trump, even if convicted of a crime.
Now I know all would ask, "What is going on here? These are Christian folks?" It all goes way back in the day to players like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Oral Roberts who took over the televangelical movement, and made it into a money making, political scheme. Thus then brainwashing Christians, with their style and brand of Christian Nationalism. This then permeated the majority (I wont say all not all are like this, but many) of churches, this certain flavor, where church and politics went hand in hand. The abortions rights issue is a big one which took the forefront in the 70s, gay rights and marriage another issue of course. So their style and flavor became massive, and they, of course, racked in millions of dollars for their televangelism.
So why does Trump appeal to them, when they have read The Good Book all these years, and more often than not, they spoke to their congregations about the end times and warned of it? How can they not "see" him for what he is? Well, because they are corrupt, and then they corrupted their followers. The televangelists and churches are a HUGE reason he has followers. If these people called Trump out, then he may have not gained the popularity he has. But it shows that once they injected serious political fever into these congregations, it took on a life of its own. Once tvs were put in our homes, here they came. Begging for money, really, guilting people all over, and spreading a message that is far away from anything Jesus taught.
So the stats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PN6D2EQZnM
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Oh NO! I was slow to it! Orange Nutsack went to "Sneaker CON" of course, of course he did! ;D
T Pain breaks down the fraud of NY. As the MAGA tears fall for their false messiah, and they all decry "Where is the fraud?" T Pain breaks it down eloquently, how the little guy is impacted, by Big Rich Guy FRAUD!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmMxKJx7O4
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AT&T had a huge outage a few days ago. Basically all customers impacted. The powers that be are all on looking to what caused it.
Immediately my feelers went up. Now, we have tiktok on many phones right now. "Tick Tock" its a matter of time if our govt does not do something. Yes it feels sketchy.
The scoop.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/tech/att-cell-service-outage/index.html
AT&T says service has been restored after massive, nationwide outage. Authorities are investigating
Catherine Thorbecke Melissa Alonso Brian Fung
By Catherine Thorbecke, Melissa Alonso and Brian Fung, CNN
Updated 8:50 PM EST, Thu February 22, 2024
CNN
—
AT&T’s network went down for many of its customers across the United States Thursday morning, leaving customers unable to place calls, text or access the internet.
By a little after 3 pm ET, roughly 11 hours after reports of the outage first emerged, the company said that it had restored service to all impacted customers.
“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them,” AT&T said in a statement. The company added that it is “taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”
Later on Thursday, AT&T said an “initial review” of the outage found it may have been caused by an error within the company and not a cyberattack. (So they say)
The Federal Communications Commission confirmed Thursday afternoon that it is investigating the outage. The White House says federal agencies are in touch with AT&T about network outages but that it doesn’t have all the answers yet on what exactly led to the interruptions.
Although Verizon and T-Mobile customers reported some network outages, too, they appeared far less widespread. T-Mobile and Verizon said their networks were unaffected by AT&T’s service outage and customers reporting outages may have been unable to reach customers who use AT&T.
Thursday morning, more than 74,000 AT&T customers reported outages on digital-service tracking site DownDetector, with service disruptions beginning around 4 am ET. That’s not a comprehensive number: It tracks only self-reported outages. Reports had been rising steadily throughout the morning but leveled off in the 9 am ET hour. By 12:30 pm ET, the DownDetector data showed some 25,000 AT&T customers still reporting outages. By 2 pm ET, fewer than 5,000 customers were still reporting issues.
Earlier Thursday, AT&T acknowledged that it had a widespread outage but did not provide a reason for the system failure.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them,” AT&T said in a statement at 11:15 am ET. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
To set up Wi-Fi calling, users can go to their Settings app on their phone. iPhone users should tap “Cellular” and Android users should click “Connection” and then users will be prompted to turn on the Wi-Fi calling feature. AT&T says on its website that there is no extra cost for this feature. Once set up, Wi-Fi calling works automatically when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network that you choose.
By late morning, AT&T said most of its network was back online, and it confirmed Thursday afternoon that service was fully restored.
AT&T’s stock fell more than 2% Thursday, a an outlier on a day when the market was rocketing higher.
A faulty software update?
AT&T has encountered sporadic outages over the past few days, including a temporary 911 outage in some parts of the southeastern United States. Although outages happen from time to time, nationwide, prolonged outages are exceedingly rare.
On Thursday, the company said it believed the massive outage was caused by an internal issue.
“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” AT&T said in a statement on its website. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”
According to an industry source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the root of the outage appeared to be related to how cellular services hand off calls from one network to the next, a process known as peering.
Though AT&T said the issue does not appear to be a cyber attack, a US cyber official tracking the AT&T outage told CNN on Thursday that they were investigating it.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand ready to offer any assistance needed,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement to CNN.
Carriers are notoriously mum about why their networks go down. In the past, there have been construction accidents that have cut fiberoptic cables, incidents of sabotage or network updates filled with bugs that became difficult to roll back.
Outages often happen for mundane reasons, several telecom experts told CNN.
Common causes include construction-related digging that punctures fiber optic cables and software misconfigurations that can lead to interruptions, said TJ Kennedy, a public safety communications expert.
“I can’t think of every incident in the last few years, but I can think of things related to routers, things related to backhaul, things related to software,” Kennedy said. “This has happened across all major carriers, multiple times in the past few years alone.”
Thursday’s outage could have been caused by human errors in AT&T’s cloud-based networking system, said Lee McKnight, an associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies.
“The dirty secret of telecom networks these days is they are just a bunch of wires and towers connected to the cloud,” McKnight said. “Someone making a mistake, and others on their team — and their automated tools — not catching it, is quite common in cloud computing.”
The FCC is investigating
The Federal Communications Commission confirmed Thursday afternoon that it is investigating the incident.
“We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating,” the FCC said in a statement Thursday afternoon that was posted on X. “We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers”
The FCC requires carriers to report information linked to network disruptions.
Ahead of the news that the FCC was probing the outage, a former FCC official told CNN: “The carriers are required to report their outage numbers over time, and the commission can track the number of consumers and cell sites down and things like that.”
Fines may be possible in connection with 911 outages, although they aren’t a certainty, said Blair Levin, a telecom policy analyst and another former FCC official.
“The FCC cares a lot more about the inability to connect with 911 [than other types of calls],” said Levin. “It’s a more serious problem from the FCC’s perspective.”
Telecom carriers have every reason to fix any outages quickly, said the first former FCC official, “because it creates black eyes for the brand.”
“Everybody’s incentives are aligned,” the former official said. “The FCC is going to want to know what caused it so that lessons can be learned. And if they find malfeasance or bad actions or, just poor quality of oversight of the network, they have the latitude to act.”
Local governments report outages
Several local governments said AT&T’s outage was disrupting their services.
San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said in a statement on X Thursday morning that its 911 center remained operational, but many AT&T customers were unable to reach the emergency line because of the outage. It suggested people call from a landline or find someone with a rival’s service to dial 911.
“We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911),” the department said in its post. “We are actively engaged and monitoring this.”
The Fire Department in Upper Arlington, Ohio, said the AT&T outage was affecting its fire alarms. St. Joseph County, Michigan, advised residents to use Wi-Fi to place 911 calls if they can’t reach 911 on AT&T’s network. Cobb County, Georgia, said its 911 operations remained unaffected by the outage but noted customers may want to find alternate methods of reaching emergency services. Cabel County, West Virginia, said customers that couldn’t reach 911 could text to 911 as a last resort.
New York Police Department officials told CNN that they were not able to make calls or utilize emails on AT&T phones Thursday morning unless they were connected to Wi-Fi.
The Massachusetts State Police warned people not to test their phone service by placing 911 calls.
“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” the state police said in a post on X. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, meanwhile, said the city is “actively gathering information to determine how the City of Atlanta can assist in resolving this issue,” in a statement posted on X. Dickens said Atlanta’s “e-911 is able to receive inbound and make outbound calls” and encouraged AT&T customers to direct inquiries to restore service to the company.
An AT&T spokesman said the company’s FirstNet network has remained operational. FirstNet provides coverage for first responders and is advertised as a more robust network than the AT&T commercial network. It uses a mix of its own infrastructure plus AT&T’s broader network. Its customers include police and fire departments, as well as first responders during natural disasters.
Verizon and T-Mobile say they’re unaffected
There also have been about 1,000 outages reported by both Verizon and T-Mobile customers Thursday morning, the DownDetector website indicates.
“We did not experience an outage,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Our network is operating normally.”
Verizon had a similar comment, saying it was unaffected by AT&T’s outage.
“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” Verizon told CNN in a statement. “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
User reports on Downdetector about a T-Mobile outage, the company added, are “likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”
Downdetector offers “real-time status information for over 12,000 services across 47 websites representing 47 countries,” the website says.
This story has been updated with additional developments and context.
CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Sean Lyngaas, John Miller, Kevin Liptak and Samantha Delouya contributed to this report.
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So much trouble the likes of these.
2 Thessalonians "9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrHD3S-hL3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoffm4OIn-4&t=5s
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The Orange Trash Dump went to this Black Conservative "thing," which, when you see Reese show the event, and many others showed it too. Look at the audience. Where are the black people? The vast majority of the audience were white. I guess they needed bodies to fill the seats, because the majority of black people in this country got Dumpy's number. But his idioticness implying Black people relate to him, like his mugshot, cause of crime. Or when he looks out in the audience and says "I can only see the black ones," what in the MF hell? Anyway, Reece breaks down, a history of Trump's racism, in one eloquent youtube, and yes, tosses in the Central Park 5 and Obama birther deal. But plenty of evidence to show how truly racist and disgusting this shitbag is.
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PTuimUAkc
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The internet never fails to disappoint! Some nifty citizen created a "Trump Debt Counter" see here:
https://trumpdebtcounter.com/
You can watch the interest on the clock just tick tock and pile on up! Last I looked, it was almost up to $468k?
This amount, is an inconceivable amount of money. Like If I got 50k, I would be like "Thats a lot of flowering money!" So for us "normal, and average US citizens," its difficult for us to conceive of a staggering figure such as this! And just to watch this thing accrue interest as it is, is certainly amazing!
Then course, the pandering for money. Now The Biggest Orange Loser, has been begging folks for money for a long time now. Which is also inconceivable to me. These people, who can barely pay light bill, or keep food on the table, are so gutted of any sense of....sense. They feel the need to fund, a once billionaire, donate to him, like he is a starving child in Africa somewhere. "With your $50 donation, you can feed a hungry Orange Blood Sucking Stinkerball." Great! Money well spent, huh? But then like my ex who liked Trump, would bitch about the homeless asking for money, too. Yep, assholes abound. Sad. Anyway, its interesting to watch the number grow. Check it out!
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So The Orange Shitty Shitty Bang Bang, began the procedings to file an appeal on the NY Judgment (refer to above post if you want to know how much the bond must be)! Basically they saying, $464k. Behold, the Trump Clock Counter. But no bond or payment posted to put in escrow, pending this appeal. If he doesnt post the money, cant appeal. So clock ticks, interest accrues, so we all wait with bated breath.
I do believe someone going to bail him out. Im betting on:
1. Elon
2. Saudi
3. Russia
At this point. Or maybe hes gotta blow some rich person who...I dont know! But hes in deep doo doo and...geeze most people scramble each month and get innovative to pay the rent! Maybe Humpty Dumpy Doo Doo brain should hit a pawn shop. But knowing him, hes got a document or two to sell to a foreign enemy who knows! But someone gonna bail him out: watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvExuDyAHG4
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So the Orange Dukey has been pointing the finger at Biden for classified documents, which was dismissed. Feast your eyes on these bad boys tho. LOOK AT HOW MANY TRUMP HAD. Piles and piles of sensitive, top secret, classified documents. AND also he obstructed justice, by not returning them as asked to. So a whole case on this.
Now as he tried to compare himself to Biden and cry Foul, Jack Smith took "a sledgehammer" to his argument, just like it says here. Oh it coming! I just, it baffles the mind, we have him on recording, showing his buddies sensitive documents, totally recorded, all these documents, dont send a red flag to Trump supporters? They have no fear "who" has seen these documents, or what they can do with this knowledge, to exploit America? He had the documents to sell out America. Its so obvious. He would sell America for a dollar if he could line his pocket with it. Thats the way he is! The scoop!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D70g1Ym50s
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So far, a prediction correct. SCOTUS announced they will hear the Dumpster Fire Yetis immunity case. I knew they would not stay it, or deny it. They want to set a precedence.
This will be heard April 22. My next prediction, I believe will rule not immune. They have no choice but to do so. Also, whether republican, or appointed by the Tiny-Handed Con, they also know, if he wins, kiss their positions bye bye! So I feel they rule not immune, we get a summer trial.
The scoop:
https://youtu.be/XHRGNe32Le0?si=Ek45hpIZRfyjnA-T
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Yes he is correct. Per this case if it drags, the ruling of a conviction, could be after the election.
Now on the upside. There is still, the Stormy Case, The Georgia Case, and the Documents case.
So this doesnt mean, Trump wont be in a jail cell come November.
Those are running right now.
But this is the BIG ONE on the BIG LIE.
And SCOTUS knows there is tons in the USC that prohibits a president, from committing crimes while in office. They HAVE to say not immune. They have no choice as the USC is blatant on that issue.
So shall see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt_0kezI1pI
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Brian stated the truth above. Its up to The American People, to vote him OUT. Cant rely on courts or anyone to protect us from Dump. Have to be the ones, by the People for the People, to vote him out.
Then course, if he did lose, he would cry election stolen AGAIN most likely, huh?
Next few months going to be wacko.
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Beau discusses the timelines of trials. Now I expect say in Florida as that is a Trump judge, the one for top secret documents. Watch that get pushed out.
I believe, lets watch, and see if Jack Smith Petitions SCOTUS to move the hearing sooner on the immunity claim. Sending a well versed document to explain the imperitiveness of "speedy trial" for the federal case. I just cant see, Jack sitting on his hands, taking this lying down. He is on fire, committed to taking down Trump, period! He IS his karma. His worst nightmare. So I suspect he's gonna make a move, to try to get them to hear it sooner. I dont know if will BE sooner. But I cannot see, him letting this slide.
Now when will trial be perchance....Yeah I roll cancer and leo and I get number 10. So even with the move, it could get pushed all that way far out. Now the Stormy case they tried to delay and no dice on that. That is rolling, period. And we will get a case, folks gonna see it. Now even if no verdict, with it being televised, those who watch it will be impacted. I know Jack is way more skilled than the Mad Mango's lawyers are. HANDS DOWN. But this is a good perspective. I like Beau, a sane voice speaking in the collective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBvJlTqGFaM
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Finally! The Old Fogey Stogey Turtle is stepping down!
He denied Obamas supreme court pic. He has gone back and forth with Trump. Tho insurrection day called it like it was. I feel tho this. Observing his speech. Oh he getting up there and about to meet his maker! I think he knows who Trump is and he sees what he has done to the republican party! Trump has said horrible things about him, when he turned and...to me, he is an old Regan guy. I know my parents liked Regan. Hes like that type of guy. Hes not a Trump guy. But Kentucky, is one of the poorest, saddest states in the country, and he is responsible for that. Its pathetic. Horrible poverty. So he has it comin! But I feel like in private he is having a come to Jesus moment. Well, you dirty Mitch, dirty boy! But that is between him and Jesus. But my feel, he knows Trump has destroyed the republican party, and he is having a moment he cant be part of it. He fears for his own soul, as his time is growing short.
Speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmMBXA-3rPs
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Mitt Romney is probably the ONLY rational republican there is. He made some excellent statements on Ukraine and foreign policy. Now he disagrees on some issues with Biden. BUT when asked if he would vote for Trump or Biden? Very interesting his answer. Many republicans who even admit they dont like Trump, in the end yield they would vote for him! Which is so insane. But check his answer. He reminds me of a very old school republican that is not of this era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxKyxb0Gy7E
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So....where do I start? Its a lot to unpack. Did spirit pick the antichrist? I mean, Jesus knew he was coming and...but I admit. We all had a different vision. But THIS. One, The Orange Scrambled Egg Brains cant even name his wife Melania. He called her "Mercedes," after some other tool's wife. Then, he speaks about being electrocuted, or eaten by sharks. He goes on and on how he is the master of the cognitive test. Yes, he is so brilliant, he can pick out an elephant out of a lineup with a rat, raccoon, or a tiger. Yes brilliant MOFO he is! But these god awful rallies where he talks about a whole lot of nothing. Never says what he will do for America. Just insult democrats, call Biden "crooked," call Obama "Barak HUSSEIN Obama" and...the crowds eat it all up. And so basically, spirit picked a total dumbass, nitwit, with the brains of a knat, and a black flowering heart, and said "there you go" and folks crown this buffoon the "Lamb of God." Yes, spirit has proven that folks dont give a shit and will hoist this flowerer on their shoulders and worship him like a deity, cause they are that depraved.
The...really sad-ass scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V4_YKBwTlM
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This is a poem that Trump has read at his rallies.
OMG they are so blind. What is REALLY being said here?
While he "says" the snake is to represent the immigrant. What is this Luciferian spirit "really" saying here?
We all know Genesis, and the story of the serpent or snake.
"You knew I was a snake, before you took me in."
That, right there being read to the supporters, says it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSrOXvoNLwg
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Oh lord that poem.
Doesn't even fit immigrants. It fits him though.
Makes me think of my family...how they are mostly Trump supporters. Makes me think of Dad, too. How I've watched him change his mind later and go for things I was already standing for. How this seems to go hand in hand with people moving into hive mind. Dad, once the majority moved to a different pov/perspective, would join them. This was most noticable in LGBTQ movements. I came out at 15/16. This was when the hate was very high and coming out meant setting yourself up for the worst judgments and stupidity from others. Especially in the town I was in. Once the movement really took off and people all over starting standing up for gays...that is when he decided to come out. I feel majority of humanity is like this...where until it becomes popular or the "winning side" they'll be dumbasses.
No one wants to be on the losing side 😅
Anyway, hive mind. Humanity more like sheep. Trump is the wolf in sheep skin and all the other followers think he's shiney.
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Oh lord that poem.
Doesn't even fit immigrants. It fits him though.
Makes me think of my family...how they are mostly Trump supporters. Makes me think of Dad, too. How I've watched him change his mind later and go for things I was already standing for. How this seems to go hand in hand with people moving into hive mind. Dad, once the majority moved to a different pov/perspective, would join them. This was most noticable in LGBTQ movements. I came out at 15/16. This was when the hate was very high and coming out meant setting yourself up for the worst judgments and stupidity from others. Especially in the town I was in. Once the movement really took off and people all over starting standing up for gays...that is when he decided to come out. I feel majority of humanity is like this...where until it becomes popular or the "winning side" they'll be dumbasses.
No one wants to be on the losing side 😅
Anyway, hive mind. Humanity more like sheep. Trump is the wolf in sheep skin and all the other followers think he's shiney.
Ive seen him read it before. But that...you know how "we" are. We see from a different perspective, and its obvious what is being said. Its so blatant. I hope these folks wake up, I really do. But the odds. I know the story how it goes.
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The title alone of the video grabbed me. Now Ive just begun, I still need to watch it all. But if anyone sees this, at least watch the beginning when this letter is being read. This opens the door to the "mindset" of the, I hate to say it, average follower of the Ass Clown Supreme. Yes, how could people believe God sent this moron? Well, God did, but not for what they think! They are gone! Oh yes, a juicy letter how the family member betrayed the family, the church, as a journalist should be writing about the cabal and deep state and...these flowering people!
Now, there are times tho I do feel sorry for the followers. Because church leaders misled them. But also, these people actually sought out info, that supported their views, and somewhere, in a dark rabbit hole, Q the false prophet was waiting for them, to infiltrate their psyches. And with the churches teaching these people to forego critical thinking skills, to not question, to not doubt, their minds were already ripened with the bad fertilizer, so Q could plant seeds, and they would "see" the world with a very skewed lens. They wanted to support their view, and in the end, their minds are GONE.
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kaFNeez83w
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Ill admit it. I just spent 30 minutes watching The Orange Shitball's supporters answer questions. Now, we even have "one of the young," sporting an oh-so-elegant Trump visor, with a Trump hairpiece, telling the reporter that liberals who are "woke" are not "logical."
What is "logical" about this young man, wearing, a flowering toupee of that sad ass clown on his head? Anyway, the way they dress, like an american flag, clown, freak show. THIS IS A CULT. In case any need the NEWSFLASH. Its a cult. The orange dipstick is a cult leader, and this is a cult of personality. Its shocking to listen to these people, but even look at them, dressing this way, like some big puff dragon puked red, white, and blue all over them. And stuck these flowering 666 hats on their heads. They took out their brains, and put on a red hat, and they think they know "the skinny" on the whole big picture. Good lord!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw3SCmcCGoI
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The meme that says it all:
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/97/f1/46/97f146898c3b88f8a67844e3fa957d66.jpg)
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One of these days, these people are going to look back at themselves...
In their dusty closets, they will begin rummaging out shit to take to the thrift store. It will be stupid flowering shirts of the Orange Stains mugshot, and countless red hats, and all this red, white, blue stuff. They will not want it in their closets, and will not want to admit they were duped. They will be very ashamed of it. They will hope no one got a photo of them at a rally, holding up a sign. They will feel incredibly stupid if they even purchased a "Lets Go Brandon" tee shirt, cause the slogan is incredibly stupid. They will not want to admit it. They will feel incredibly foolish. And it will all seem a bad dream to them, when they wake up and be like...."Huh? Did I really say that?" They are gonna feel incredibly stupid for falling for this shit.
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So this shows the video which he calls Blasphemy. I mean "God made Trump" to be a "shepherd for mankind?" And course the Orange Play-doh brains tweets it, or "truths" it or what the flower ever his sad knock off of the once twitter...its unreal. But then we got this clown heading the House saying hes some modern day Moses? OH SHIT these people! Christian Nationalism, is so repulsive and these people. They remind me of a church getting together on xmas eve, to dress up in constumes to recreate the nativity scene, playing these roles, except...I mean....Moses? My man, are you begging for a thunderbolt? :o I mean, the rational ones knows Trump is fanning the flames here, and he knows he aint no messiah, tho others dont know that. But these other clowns fall in line with all this stuff, its weird and creepy and icky. And its real dumb but:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smr7hYEZmvw
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So lets touch on the brilliance here. The co-founders of "Truth Social," the Orange Sinking Shitty Ship's sad knock off of twitter, are actually two boys who were "fired" on The Apprentice. They aren't very smart, to go into business with someone who had a knack for bankrupting on "casinos." Its always blown my mind, that someone could be such a loser, they lost money on a business, where people basically hand over their money, and "The House Always Wins," but...lose...tho...they are supposed to...eventually...lose. I dunno! But yes, they got the brilliant idea to co-found and create this revolting platform and now, are embroilled in a lawsuit with Trump for ripping them off. Oh surprise surprise boys! I mean, you didnt do diligent research that he screws over...everyone! He would screw his own mother out of her last two cents if he could. He doesnt care! Anyway, the scoop:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/truth-social-founders-sue-trump-shares_n_65e0e296e4b013678e1468b5
Truth Social Co-Founders Sue Company, Claim Trump Tried To Dilute Shares
"They created Truth Social, and now the beneficiary of that, Donald Trump, doesn’t want to pay," a lawyer said as the company seeks a $4 billion merger deal.
(I know, SHOCKING, nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, they got screwed)!
Nina Golgowski
By
Nina Golgowski
Feb 29, 2024, 04:56 PM EST
An estimated $4 billion business merger involving former President Donald Trump’s social media company could hit a major snarl after a lawsuit was filed Wednesday accusing Trump of trying to dilute the co-founders’ shares.
Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who co-founded Trump’s Truth Social platform, filed a lawsuit in Delaware claiming their previously negotiated 8.6% stake in Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG ) has been watered down to less than 1%, The Washington Post and CNBC reported.
The dispute comes as TMTG eyes a merger with the publicly traded shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. The sale, which Digital World’s shareholders are scheduled to vote on next month, is estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion, according to The New York Times.
“The attempt here is to deprive them of the deal,” attorney Christopher J. Clark, who is representing Litinsky and Moss’ partnership, United Atlantic Ventures (UAV), in the complaint, told CNBC News. “They actually went out and did the work, they created Truth Social, and now the beneficiary of that, Donald Trump, doesn’t want to pay.”
Clark and representatives of Trump, Digital World and TMTG did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Thursday.
Under UAV’s previously reached agreement, Trump would receive 78 million shares that are worth about $3.5 billion at today’s share price value. UAV would receive more than 7 million shares, equating to roughly $339 million, according to The Washington Post’s review of a court motion requesting expedited proceedings in the case.
Digital World appeared to recognize that previous deal with UAV in an Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month but said that the agreement was declared void by a Trump attorney more than two years ago.
The sale of any stock could come as a major financial lifeline to Trump, who has faced numerous legal judgments against him since leaving the Oval Office, including an order earlier this month to pay $355 million, plus interest, for committing business fraud in New York state.
An appeals court judge on Wednesday denied Trump’s request to pause that judgment’s enforcement. Trump, currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, argued that he doesn’t have the cash to cover the penalty.
This isn’t the first time that a founder of Trump’s Truth Social platform has spoken out against him while alleging misconduct, particularly involving stocks.
Will Wilkerson, who helped found TMTG but was then fired after speaking out about alleged security law violations, alleged in 2022 that Trump asked Litinsky to relinquish his stock in the company to his wife, Melania Trump. Wilkerson also said that Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump requested a financial stake in the social media platform despite having never worked for the company.
“They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson told The Washington Post. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.”
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So one more shocking revelation to show how low the con goes. So basically, (he breaks it down so well), The Orange Menace, has a golf course right? Check.☑️ So he gets some tax breaks for the land, like a little flock of goats and....a little portion of the golf course (THE GOLF COURSE) was designated a "cemetary" for extra tax perks. With me so far?
So Ivana Trump, the first wife who bore the brood, got cheated on, fell down stairs and died. And...I mean its SHOCKING but then, not surprising. The Donald buries her on the 1st hole, and now the grave is an overgrown mess. He buried his first wife on the golf course! I mean people may lose a ball and have to run over her GRAVE to retrieve it! And he gets tax breaks and...weird as flowering hell huh? But hes a godly man huh?
Cohen breaks it down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTtD5PW-9x4
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Nikki Haley, who the Orange Sucker Windbag, confused for Nancy Pelosi cause he is demented. WON DC! Now I know, we all dreaming that, she could take the nomination. But its still very telling, that to win DC where all the business dealings of politics are...less support for Dumpy Dookey Doolittle than folks realize? Of course, these are more educated republican voters. So its a nice sign still...that he doesnt have the republican vote in the bag thus far.
Heh!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/03/gop-primary-dc/
Nikki Haley wins D.C. primary, her first victory in GOP nominating race 🤣
By Mariana Alfaro
Updated March 3, 2024 at 9:44 p.m. EST|Published March 3, 2024 at 8:37 p.m. EST
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/EPADV4IRFS3OIZ6OVNEKPJ6K5Y.JPG&w=1200)
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won her first contest in the Republican presidential nomination race on Sunday after triumphing in D.C.’s primary. It is not likely to change the contest’s trajectory.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
After three days of voting, polls in the Washington race closed at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday. Though only 19 delegates were at stake, Haley perhaps had her best chance of defeating Trump, as he performed poorly in the last competitive GOP presidential contest in 2016. That year, he lost the D.C. primary to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — a rare defeat for Trump in that GOP race.
With all the votes counted, Haley got 63 percent of the vote to 33 percent for Trump — and she won all of the delegates.
See full Washington, D.C. GOP primary results
In a statement, Haley campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas noted that the former U.N. ambassador is the first woman to win a Republican primary in U.S. history.
“It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Perez-Cubas said in the statement.
Almost immediately after the race was called for Haley, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt mocked Haley and D.C. Republicans by echoing Trump’s constant claims that the capital city is a “swamp” full of establishment Republicans.
“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” Leavitt said in a statement. Despite being in the White House for four years and having the backing of most Republicans in Congress, Trump has long argued that Republicans in D.C. are primed against him.
Unlike Trump, Haley campaigned in Washington ahead of the primary, visiting the city Friday.
The Washington primary was small in size compared with other states, and Republicans in D.C. cast ballots at the Madison Hotel. The election was managed by the D.C. GOP.
According to the D.C. GOP, the weekend election was held at “the earliest possible time under party rules.” A GOP June primary in D.C. — when Democrats will hold their own primary — would have violated the national GOP’s rules, which prohibit primaries meant to allocate delegates to the Republican National Convention from happening less than 45 days before the convention is held on July 15. This means party chapters have to hold their primaries by May 31, 2024.
Per the District’s GOP, 2,035 Republicans participated in the primary.
The Washington contest took place after Trump racked up three wins over the weekend in Missouri, Michigan and Idaho.
Michigan Republican officials and other preselected party members awarded Trump all 39 of the delegates up for grabs at their caucus convention in Grand Rapids. The former president also won most of the 16 delegates that were allotted based on Michigan’s statewide primary earlier in the week. Trump won every delegate in Idaho’s caucuses as well, and the Associated Press projected a victory for him in Missouri, as Republican voters across the two states made their selection at party-run meetings.
Before Washington’s primary Sunday, Trump had 244 delegates compared with 24 for Haley.
That’s a daunting edge as the two Republicans head into Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 states vote and a third of GOP delegates are at stake. Despite polling drastically behind Trump, Haley has promised to stay in the Republican primary until at least Super Tuesday. It’s unclear what she’ll do after that point.
Haley was not in D.C. on Sunday to celebrate her victory but instead was campaigning in Maine, one of the Super Tuesday states. On Friday, she received the endorsement of longtime Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
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So he breaks things down pretty well, that he believes Biden will win the 2024 election. With a caveat: "As long as he doesnt DIE!" That would be Malarkey!🍀 Now of course, I would prefer Marianne. But if she drops out totally, I will have to cast my vote for the Irish! But this is a promising prediction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdaS3TJ6Vk0
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Now I know, the people who make these videos, hand pick the dumbest of the Trump supporters, or so it seems. But folks, there are COUNTLESS videos of interviews with these people, and I will tell you, they ALL say similar things. They have been PROGRAMMED.
Now, in this man's defense, is the Covid-19 Pandemic "fishy?" I would say, we ALL suspect so. Its fishy. But no matter how it got here, what IS evident, is Trump grossly mishandled the pandemic, and because of his conspiracy theories, of saying its not a big deal right? Of saying stupid flowering shit like inject us with bleach or disinfectant, or the Ivermectin conspiracy, he said it would kill covid, and folks died ingesting fish cleaner! Ok I would almost say his horrible mismanagement, as he wanted to serve his own EGO, is responsible for us having more covid deaths than anyone in the world. And folks wonder why a great deal of us, feel he is Lucifer? 👿
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHG6BcKCjLE&t=108s
But something else we can gage from these interviews. These people, are not the sharpest tools in the shed, and probably were not to begin with, pre-Trump. They were ignorant, and racist, and looked at the world through a very skewed lens. Lets feast our eyes on this ridiculous woman here, who do not be STUNNED. This woman is the likings that Honestea sees on a regular basis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp8jMSBvEHc
A HUGE issue with these tools is HOMOPHOBIA. Now thanks to church teachings over the years, which has said terrible things about LGBTQIA, these people are in the mindset, God makes male and female, and no one is born gay. Now there have been countless studies, over and over, that there is some science to back up homosexuality. Now we are dealing with various things and their hatred, esp of transgender or gender affirming care, is repulsive. But this nonsense and refusal to have any sort of empathy, and then claim its all in the Bible, is preposterous. We know its been heavily edited, intentionally.
I love how the young people break it down, and see, the majority of young people do not share the views of these highly unintelligent, ignorant, silly people. Who parrot these things and block out any kind of individualized, thinking of their own. They are highly programmed, but it is because they have had racist or homophobic views to begin with, they were hooked easily into, the cult of personality, which has now captured them. They are GONE.
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First off, let me take a deep breath before I write on this one. I have to stuff a bit of some very old, feminist rage, deep down in my soul. Because Im going to talk about, the biggest c*** on youtube and also, X, formerly known as twitter: The Boring, Insufferable, Jordan Peterson.
This arrogance knows no bounds as he has personally crowned himself a highly intellectual demagogue, who has done nothing but fuel greatly the alpha male movement. Now im all for the divine masculine getting their bearings. But I am not for his pussy intellectual nonsense, like when speaking of transgender in hostile ways, or his obsession with what people want to do with their genitals. He has claimed to be an expert on, everything, and he is a sorry ass, passive-agressive nincompoop, which I know some nice spiriitual men who sometimes have shared with me a video or two of his and I just sigh, and puke a little in my mouth when this happens. Then, while I dont want to burst their bubble, they found some valuable internet teacher, I do "correct" these poor divine masculines, and show him for the puffing, arrogant, snotty, idiot he is. Here is what he said on Trump. Not that I care, but some do. And this Sky Australia is one of the most repulsive right wing channels, they are puke just like he:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro9_BDnDSyQ
Course of all the videos of Jordan Peterson, this is my favorite. Let me give back story.
Back in the day when Twitter was not yet taken over by Elon, with his hefty kitchen sink, he got the bright idea to do a post and attack a transgender celebrity. Now he was temp suspended, and asked by twitter to delete the post. Jordan, in his haughty, prideful, arrogant way, refused to delete, ran over to youtube, and made this totally, passive aggressive video, saying he would rather DIE than delete, and I saw this and was like WHERE IS THE CODE RED JORDAN PETERSON? Oh the passive aggressive actions! Draw first blood, be called for it, then run to youtube and cry foul, now he is a victim and martyr of free speech!
Why does it concern Jordan Peterson so much, what a person does with their genitals? I mean I know, his wife is...Ok let me not go there, but I just dont think, he has seen HER genitals in a long time. I dont think he knows what a vagina looks like anymore! Anywho, the arrogant posturing, this puss of a sad, sorry, poor excuse of a...and men watch his videos and think he is their stud. He, Jordan Peterson, is the poor and ignorant man's intellectual. I cringe when I see him coming!
This flowering idiot! But the comments are brilliant. All on youtube came for it and...didnt buy his bullshit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYfKWQqvFac
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Play “Another One Bites the Dust” in the background for prime effect. Mike Lindell, the infamous “My Pillow Guy.” It’s a true American success story. A former crack addict, transformed himself into an infomercial sensation selling pillows. Became a millionaire. Then he could afford the good stuff! Cause he must have snorted some good lines, to throw it all away on The Big Lie, and run around accusing these poll machine makers the election was stolen! It’s quite amazing to see someone yank off their own wanker, and flower themself in their own ass with it!
But…don’t call his pillows “lumpy!” Mess with the bull, you get the horns, ambulance chaser! In true fashion, making damn sure his cross is sticking out of his shirt, watch him come completely unhinged over those stupid ass pillows! I mean, makes Linda Blair in the Exorcist look like Tinkerbell. Send the man some reiki, he needs it!
Idiot!
https://youtu.be/ZYKW--JBfjU?si=V9G9AwzST157agCr
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Beau breaks it down very simply.
Now I watched several videos of Trump supporters. Many of them say what they want, is the border closed. This is a huge deal for them. Now they made it a big deal, cause when Trump ran, he ran on his "Build a Wall" issue, and brought up immigrants and drugs and crime and...
Now yes, the border issue is a huge issue that needs to be fixed. But Biden, and the democrats, have a bipartisn bill addressing the issue to get it fixed. But Trump instructed the GOP to shoot it down, cause like Beau said, he has no policy to run on, that he says when he gets in office, how he will help Americans with their issues. And Trump NEEDS a messed up, out of control border, to run on the issue so he can fill his base with FEAR. But these people, the thing is, they dont pay attention to what is happening. Biden gave solutions and GOP wont approve it all, so the border WILL remain in chaos, all to help Trump. But its THEIR FAULT. But will Americans, who do care about this issue, see through it tho? But yes, the GOP is depending on a base which is ignorant, to believe nothing but lies and lies, so they can acquire them. They are counting on them to be ignorant. Its really frustrating folks can be so gullible, so misled, to believe this party has their best interest, when they do not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsfllwX5QlM
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The logic. Where do I begin? I am very tired, of these conservative republicans, using their belief in God to justify why, they should be able to control a woman's womb. This ignorant person, says god doesnt make mistakes. But may "allow..." Obviously she meant incest and rape, to birth a baby! No, that isnt the way this works! And these people. This is why many women WILL be voting in November, to get these flowerers out. This is dangerous. To take us ass backwards - Bitch, we aint doing the Handmaids Tale in this country. These people's views are solely based on their religion, which is silly because, the Bible actually endorses, abortion! This is, and always has been, a plot to control women, and use them as baby makers. Just wait you idiots - we are coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-VNQ53eC8
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Dementia Glitching Don is known by all to be racist. We ALL know this. But the right wing feels black people can be manipulated. Can they? This image began circulating of Mango Maniac and a group of black people at a holiday party, to make it look like he has black friends. Alas…this is the age of AI, and this is NOT real. The tell tale flaws are pointed out in this video. Now the public has been being manipulated for years and years. But here we go, into a new frontier.
With that said, will it be pointless one day that be online? When more news is fictitious, and people aren’t even real? When folks won’t be able to tell the difference between an AI friend or human? It shall get weird I suspect. Unless the creators of AI hit the brakes on this.
https://youtu.be/WHic3OXReQY?si=HO9l-N1b1PPuWwRc
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They will only say it was a "technical issue." This on the heels of the HUGE AT&T outage. No, its fishy. Its an election year, and hey, one of the ass-clowns running, had mountains of documents in his bathroom so...I am not surprised by this!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/tech/facebook-instagram-outages/index.html
Facebook and Instagram outage: Widespread disruption resolved
By Clare Duffy, CNN
Updated 1:37 PM EST, Tue March 5, 2024
New York
CNN
—
Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, went down for thousands of users on Tuesday, because of what the company called a “technical issue.” The outage was resolved within around two hours.
As many as 500,000 Facebook users had reported issues logging in or accessing the site as of mid-morning Eastern Time on Tuesday, according to outage tracker Downdetector. Around 50,000 outage reports had been issued regarding Instagram and another 10,000 for Facebook Messenger, although the number of reports had already begun to fall within an hour after they began.
Some users found they had been logged out of their Facebook accounts. Others got notifications on Instagram that “something went wrong” and their feeds could not be loaded.
Threads, Meta’s competitor to Elon Musk’s X, also went down and showed users a popup that said “Something went wrong, please try again later” in place of their feed.
Meta’s status page on Tuesday showed “major disruptions” impacting Facebook login, as well as some other areas of the platform.
“We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X Tuesday.
About an hour and a half after the outage reports started ticking up, fewer than 80,000 people were reporting issues with Facebook, according to Downdetector. Reports about Instagram and Messenger had also dropped sharply. Downdetector is a measure of only the users who report issues, so the real number of affected users is likely higher.
Just after noon ET, Meta said it had resolved the issue.
“Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services,” Stone said on X. “We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
Major platform outages happen relatively infrequently but are typically the result of something benign, such as an issue with a software update. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down for nearly six hours in 2021, an outage that the company assured users was not due to malicious activity.
“We are aware of availability issues affecting certain services provided by Meta. At this time we are not aware of specific malicious cyber activity or any specific nexus to today’s elections,” a spokesperson for the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told CNN Tuesday, referencing Tuesday’s Super Tuesday primary elections.
Service outages are fresh on many consumers’ minds after AT&T experienced a nearly 12-hour network outage late last month that left many customers temporarily unable to place calls, send texts or access the internet from their mobile devices.
This story has been updated to add new details and context.
–CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this report.
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He breaks down all the Glitches the Don Ra-ma-lama-ding-dong did all weekened. THIS IS ALL ONE WEEKEND! Like when he just "siiiiggggghhhhh" oh that was flowering weird! Now then he also took credit for signing the Veterans Health Care bill, which that was OBAMA in 2014! He didnt do shit for veterans, and we know he is quoted as calling them "suckers" and "losers." But when folks try to talk about Biden having Dementia. Or he gaffs. Yes, Biden can gaff on occasion, but not like this! This is glitching! He keeps saying Obama is president. He confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi. He got HIS OWN WIFE'S name wrong. When being questioned about E Jean Carrol, Dummy Dimwit thought she was his ex-wife Marla Maples. I mean, all these things would either cause folks to lock him in a mental ward, or at least a nursing home. But they think he should be president? OMG give me a break he is mentally GONE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R57VrqZxJe4
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This guy breaks down the issue with Christian Nationalism, the reason its actual idolatry. And uses pudding cups, to make his point. The analogy of the backstory behind these pudding cups is very clever.
Basically using Jesus for blessings, such as prosperiety gospel, a means to an end. The big wigs of the movement use him for "political power and blessings" as a means to an end. Where for an actual Christian Jesus should be the end (really Christ Consciousness - im speaking in their terms tho), but they are about using Jesus not as The End (alpha and omega), but means to an end.
But he did a real good job with the analogy and broke it down. I hope he gets more and more views so people will "see" that these churches, esp the evangelical and charismatic ones who made their churches hotbeds for political fever (and of course spread to other denominations), But I hope they see the error in this, cause its gonna cost them dearly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbmjDg9cMMg
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You saw it here. Trump hitting up ELON! 💸🚀
I told ya so! ;D
SHOW ME THE MONEY! Delcares the Orange Beggar Bon Bon. Now this is for maybe a little campaign infusion. But what about those fees? He sure could earn a little "Trumpy Trust" if he six of pents it, like I read.
Now you KNOW he is gonna do a quid pro quo, to try to get Elon to pay his fees, and, what is he to offer Elon? He obviously must put SOMETHING on the table. But if he wants to meet with Elon ALONE, you know he's gonna hit him up not just for campaign, but for those court fees!
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgnypznAAoQ
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PUL-EASE just take him to Mars Elon! Get it over with! ;D
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Say it LOUD for those in the back!💯
https://youtube.com/shorts/nrscOEE9iDc?si=lNSV4LGKaWZXnaOa
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Very irritated.
I was watching MSNBC. they said Nikki Haley, dropped out. Yes. And Dean Philips dropped out, yes. Then they say NOW its down to Biden vs Trump.
No.
Marianne Williamson, did temp suspend her campaign. She is probably frustrated, sure. But she unsuspended it, and is still in the race.
And I hope she runs indepdendent. Obviously she cant take the democratic nomination. But she can run independent, and get up there when its debate time (and yes Trump and Biden HAVE to do it), and she can debate those two old fellas and take them down. I know she is capable of doing it.
Now I dont know if she will stay in the race, but I mean, she has come this far, maybe she will. She has not given up yet, and as far as I'm concerned, we need her to bring some honesty and normalcy to a very corrupt, flowered up government. Its ALL flowered up, and many Americans look at this 'rematch,' its insane. Now Biden and Trump are very old, and Trump is a complete malignant narcissist, psychopath, who has taken us down a dark road. But Biden, while he has done some decent moves, others, he has not. He didnt do some slick moves like pack the courts to get women's rights back. We HAVE to do that. And why is Clarence Thomas still on the bench, when its proven he has been taking bribes? And yeah, while Biden is not to blame for what Hunter does, there is some shit about Hunter Biden folks dont like. He is sketch.
Anyway I will be bummed if she drops out. But I get this feel she wont. She's tough. I am rooting for her and really wanna see her nail BOTH of these men on a stage, and maybe, just maybe she can enlighten the masses.
From her website:
https://marianne2024.com/
Dear Friends,
In 2016, there were two candidates telling people their pain was legitimate and their rage was valid – that the system indeed had been rigged against them. They were Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
Only one of them, however, wanted to do something about it. The other mainly sought to harness all that anger for his own political purposes.
And here we are.
The rage that people were feeling then is still felt today. Has the system improved economically in the last two years? In some ways, yes. But in fundamental ways, no. It’s now baked into the cake that our corrupted political system is at the service of the few at the expense of the many. And it will not disrupt itself.
One in four Americans still live with medical debt. A third of America’s workforce work for less than $15 an hour; half can’t afford a one bedroom apartment. Half our seniors live on less than $25,000 a year. The United States has the highest poverty rate of any advanced democracy.
If you’re in the top 20 per cent of American earners, the economy works well. And for that we can be grateful. But that 20 per cent live on an island that is surrounded by a sea of economic despair. Within that sea, a myriad of personal and societal dysfunctions breed easily – from chronic anxiety and addiction to ideological capture by genuinely psychotic, even fascist elements of our society.
We must respond to this situation, for it represents an unsustainable disquiet.
Franklin Roosevelt said we wouldn’t have to worry about a fascist takeover in America so long as democracy delivered on its promises. Yes, there is a genuine fascist threat in America today. But we can’t just fight the disease; we must build up our societal immune system, as well. That means we must build up our people.
We must provide a massive infusion of economic hope and opportunity to the over 70 per cent of Americans who say they feel no economic hope, who simply do what they can to survive what they know is an inherently unjust economic system. Their dreams, and the dreams of their children, are limited. They are depressed and angry about it, and if those feelings are not assuaged – if their needs are not met – then America will be in even bigger trouble than we are now.
That is why I am running for President. I have had a forty year career working up close and personal with people whose lives are in trouble, and too many are in trouble now.
Our government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” has become a government “of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.” Our public policies regularly do more to serve the goal of short-term profit maximization for corporate and billionaire donors, than to serve the goal of safety, health and well-being of the American people.
The humanitarian values at the core of our Declaration of Independence have been replaced by a soulless economics as the governing principle of our civilization. The tentacles of hyper-capitalism, devoid of any ethical or moral consideration, now reach greedily into every corner of our society. A Second Gilded Age is upon us, income disparity as great as at any time in our history, and everything from climate catastrophe to AI catastrophe to nuclear catastrophe now loom as genuine threats to our civilization.
It is time to turn around.
In the words of President John F. Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” In the years ahead of us, America is going to change. It is up to us to make the change a conscious, wise and responsible one. As President, I will make sure we do.
A corporate aristocracy – from insurance and pharmaceutical companies to Big Ag to Big Food to chemical companies to gun manufacturers to Big Oil to Big Tech to defense contractors – now tyrannize this country, and the days of their overreach and entitlement must end. No one thing is going to make that happen, but a president who is willing to use the power of the executive branch to stand up to what Roosevelt called the “economic royalists” is a good solid beginning. And I will be that.
As Americans, we need a season of repair, a new beginning, a renewed faith in what’s possible. Our political imaginations can flourish once more, if we allow the better angels of our nature to emerge among us. I dedicate this campaign to the people, to the spirit in our hearts, and to the possibility of fundamental change.
With your help, we can spread this message far and wide and set America on the path of a new beginning.
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Oh dear Lord have Mercy. How did people get so flowering DUMB?
https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-trump-raise-the-settlement
THAT is Trumps Gofundme that some Trump supporter posted. It has raised thus far: "$1,331,729 raised of $355,000,000 goal"
Yes, spot a homeless man asking for change with a sign - hes a lazy ass who dont wanna work, or "dont give him money - he will go get drugs." Right? Or say that single parent mom a pro-lifer talked out of keeping her baby instead of aborting it "Oh you on your own honey, and btw, dont go on welfare thats MY TAX MONEY." Or bypassing all those donations FB puts out on your birthday for Autism or Suicide Prevention or...but yes. These folks got PLENTY OF MONEY to donate to a Billionaire, who got a huge fine for ripping off banks. Which when he does that, the actual "cost" of this is taken out of the little guy. Its ridiculous. Oh how soon they forget, when he was first running and said "Im really, really rich. I dont need money. Im gonna use MY MONEY." Oh, yes, just like when he said Mexico was going to pay for the wall and, the President of Mexico said "flower you" to that one. Shit. But yes, they do what, feel sorry for this loser? Its unbelievable. "For $5 donation we can save Trump" from what? Being poor? I mean, dont we love it when a rich, flowering arrogant, racist, homophobic philanderer who grabs women by the pussy, loses it all and goes to flowering jail for trying to steal an election? I mean AMERICA CMON flowerERS. We make the best flowering movies in the world, and we want the bad guy to go down in the end. This flowerer wanna end democracy and plot twist - they want him back in the white house! Oh flower done America I cant with you! This money raised by the gofundme, could have paid for so many things shit. Got homeless of the street, paid rent of folks about to be evicted. Fed a lot of people who are going without. And these folks trying to prevent Diaper Don from a life of poorness and being in a cell? Its crazy!
What a waste of flowering money!
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Going back.
Here is where The Tiny Handed Wombat said "Mexico would pay for the wall." Now also, watch how he went off about how the President of Mexico used the F-word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yfIxBjOw3o
President of Mexico saying "flower no"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y6kAwm7uIs
Trump seizes taxpayer dollars to pay for the wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4QfbIJkAo
Questioned by reporter: "You said mexico would pay for the wall. But tax dollars pay for the wall?"
No coherent answer. Deflect, go on about steel vs concrete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlcj-9yYRYk&t=203s
Trump criticized the president of Mexico for dropping the F-bomb, but uses "flower" and "MF" here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTh-1hto9wU
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The Orange Dumptruck posted the bond. Now the big issue, the big NY fraud case. Will it be Elon, or a foreign nation to bail him out on the big one? Just watch. Someone gonna buy themselves a presidential candidate.
Scoop:
https://youtu.be/mvh1318ea00?si=Wh3hC1yhnwsfoRYU
.
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Cant control that Potty Mouth of his! Orange Dump Truck is at it again! Now he didnt name E. Jean Carroll this time, but its clear hes talking about her, when he his speaking of putting up the bond. Anyone knows who he speaks of when he mentions the now 91 million dollar bond, AND says its all false accusations - which is more...defamation! So I cant see E. Jean Carroll's attorney's letting this recent deal slide, esp when its opportunity to award her more money, and themselves! Jump on that money train, sue him again! Its easy money! So what will the magic number be to shut him up: 200 million maybe? But I strongly suspect, they will take him back to court, as his mouth is getting him in trouble. He cant control himself, to continue to lie to try to make himself look better!
So this discusses who backed his recent bond. But Don the Big Mouth Con, has a week to put up close to half a BILLION dollars to appeal the NY civil case. Which blows my mind: why didnt they pursue criminal charges for this massive fraud? No matter. WHO is gonna do it? Cause...I dont think he has the cash himself, or if he does, might be all he has. I mean, its doubtable, considering he has to pimp some trash ass, gold sneakers that are above and beyond flowering ugly and repulsive, or some smelly cologne. Who wants to smell like Trump? Since its said he smells like a butt, old makeup, and ketchup? I dunno!
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwXuPRPdZbs
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Will this wake up the voters. The Republicans love to call social security and medicare "entitlements." Um flowerers, its OUR money and we collectively paid into it. Trump suggested cutting social security and medicare. Will this at least perk up the ears of the elderly in this country, who by and large, always VOTE? Republicans have been trying to do this for years, so they can use the money social security and medicare took out of our pockets, to line their own. Oh yes! I have said it for years this is what they want to do. And pretty much all Americans who arent the 1% billionaire class, do like social security and medicare so...
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/trump-entitlements-social-security-medicare/index.html
Trump suggests he’s open to cuts to Medicare and Social Security after attacking primary rivals over the issue
Kate Sullivan Tami Luhby
Published 3:12 PM EDT, Mon March 11, 2024
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he was open to making cuts to Social Security and Medicare after opposing touching the entitlement programs and attacking his GOP presidential primary rivals over the issue.
Trump was asked in an interview with CNBC whether he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to tackle the national debt.
“There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
(See how he calls these "entitlements?" This is smoke and mirrors. Its OUR MONEY!)! >:(
He added: “There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”
Following the interview, President Joe Biden responded to a clip his campaign made of Trump’s comments: “Not on my watch.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later told CNN that Trump was “clearly talking about cutting waste, not entitlements.”
“President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term,” said Leavitt, who argued: “The only candidate who poses a threat to Social Security and Medicare is Joe Biden.”
“By unleashing American energy, slashing job-killing regulations, and adopting pro-growth America First tax and trade policies, President Trump will quickly rebuild the greatest economy in history and put Social Security and Medicare on a stronger footing for generations to come,” Leavitt said.
When Trump was president, his administration’s budget proposals included spending cuts to Social Security, primarily by targeting disability benefits, and Medicare, largely by reducing provider payments. Trump also signaled in an interview with CNBC in 2020 that he was open to cutting federal entitlements to reduce the federal deficit.
But Trump has vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail this election cycle to “always defend Medicare and Social Security,” and has a video posted to his campaign website in which he says, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”
Trump also fiercely attacked former GOP rival Nikki Haley on the campaign trail over her support for reforming these entitlement programs. Haley called for increasing the age at which today’s younger workers would become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits and limiting the benefits of wealthier Americans. Trump also regularly took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his past support of privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age – positions the governor distanced himself from during his failed presidential bid.
The Biden administration has sought to contrast the president’s support of Social Security and Medicare with Republicans’ proposals to address shortfalls in the programs’ finances. In his State of the Union address last week, Biden said he would stop anyone who tries to cut the programs or raise the retirement age.
Without any changes, Social Security’s combined trust funds are set to run dry in 2034, at which time the program’s continuing income from taxes will only be able to cover 80% of benefits owed, according the most recent Social Security trustees report.
Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part A, will only be able to pay scheduled benefits in full until 2031, according to the latest Medicare trustees’ annual report. At that time, Medicare, which covers nearly 67 million senior citizens and people with disabilities, will only be able to cover 89% of total scheduled benefits.
Two factors driving the projected rise in deficits are the aging population and the growth in federal health care costs, which will necessitate greater spending on Social Security and Medicare, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Trump has been more open to cutting Medicaid enrollment and reducing federal funding for the program, which provides health coverage to low-income Americans. His administration approved requests from several states to require certain enrollees to work, which resulted in thousands of people losing coverage in Arkansas, the only state that implemented it for a short time before being stopped in federal court.
And as part of the 2017 efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Republicans wanted to curtail the amount of future federal support for Medicaid by sending a fixed amount of money to the states each year and reducing the growth rate of that funding. Additionally, they wanted to jettison the Obamacare program that expands Medicaid coverage to low-income adults.
Trump weighs in on TikTok
Also in the Monday interview with CNBC, Trump said it was a “tough decision” on whether the US should ban TikTok and argued getting rid of the app would benefit Facebook.
“The thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” Trump said, adding he thought “Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.”
Trump said he thought TikTok posed a national security threat to the US but said “you have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too,” and said, “there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it.”
“There’s, you know, a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok,” Trump said.
His comments come days after a House committee unanimously advanced a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban against TikTok on all electronic devices. The measure, which was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform is quickly spun off from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance. TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps and is used by roughly 170 million Americans.
When Trump was president, he supported calls to ban the app, but has since appeared to have backed away from that stance. Trump was asked by CNBC about his change in position on TikTok and whether there was any connection to his recent meeting with Jeff Yass, a top GOP donor and major TikTok investor.
Trump said he did not discuss TikTok with Yass, and said he met with Yass and his wife for only “a few minutes,” and that Yass “never mentioned TikTok.”
Trump said when he was president, he wanted Congress to decide whether TikTok should be banned.
“I was at the point where I could have gotten it done if I wanted to,” Trump said. “I sort of said, you guys decide, you make that decision because it’s a tough decision to make.”
‘Tariffs are tremendously powerful’
Trump also said in the Monday interview that imposing tariffs “gives you power in dealing with other countries,” and said, “I’m a big believer in tariffs.”
“Tariffs are tremendously powerful in terms of stopping wars because they don’t want tariffs. And frankly, I can, I made them sing, I made other countries sing with the threat of tariffs. And if you don’t have tariffs, we have nothing whatsoever on them,” Trump said.
Trump said last month he would consider imposing a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports if he regains the presidency.
As president, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on $50 billion of Chinese goods in June 2018. Beijing countered with its own tariffs, and the spiral continued until the two countries arrived at an agreement in 2020. The Biden administration has largely kept the Trump-era tariffs in place.
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I have talked about this extensively. WHAT is their plan for the children addicted to this app?
Wait, is America actually banning TikTok now?
Brian Fung
Updated 5:09 PM EST, Sat March 9, 2024
Washington
CNN
—
House lawmakers are moving with dizzying speed with a plan that could ban TikTok from the United States. In the span of two days this week, a key House committee introduced and approved a bill targeting TikTok. The full House is set to vote on it as early as next week, and the White House says President Joe Biden is prepared to sign it.
But could a TikTok ban really happen? And what makes this proposal different from the other times policymakers have tried to clamp down on the video-sharing app used by 170 million Americans?
Here’s everything you need to know about the hot-button legislation.
What would the bill do?
If enacted, the bill would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance, or else app stores in the United States would be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.
It doesn’t stop there. The bill lays out similar restrictions for any app allegedly controlled by foreign adversaries, such as China, Iran, Russia or North Korea. And it sets up a process for Biden — or any future president — to identify apps that should be banned under the legislation.
App stores that violate the legislation could be fined based on the number of users of a banned app. The bill establishes fines of $5,000 per user of a banned app. So in the case of TikTok, Apple and Google could potentially be on the hook for up to $850 billion in fines each.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to advance the bill on Thursday.
What is TikTok saying?
TikTok is calling the legislation an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users. It launched a call-to-action campaign within its app, urging users to call their representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices say they’ve been flooded with calls.
“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” TikTok said in a statement. “This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Why are lawmakers cracking down on TikTok?
They allege TikTok poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance, forcing it to hand over the data of US TikTok users. Policymakers worry that that information could then be used to identify intelligence targets or enable disinformation or propaganda campaigns.
So far, the US government has not publicly presented any evidence that China has accessed TikTok user data, and cybersecurity experts say it remains a hypothetical — albeit seriously troubling — scenario.
Didn’t President Donald Trump try to do this once? What’s he saying now?
Yes. While in office, Trump used a series of executive orders to try to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, and to bar app stores from hosting the platform. Those efforts stalled amid legal challenges, but Trump played a key role in making TikTok an issue in the first place, linking it to a broader anti-China agenda that included a trade war and incendiary rhetoric that’s raised fears of anti-Asian hate.
Curiously, however, Trump this week came out against a TikTok ban, saying in a post on Truth Social that it would only empower Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom he described as “a true Enemy of the People!”
It’s not clear why Trump abruptly reversed his stance on TikTok. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, who will likely take on Biden in this November’s election.
So what makes this time different?
First, we’re talking about congressional legislation, not executive action. That’s an important difference. During the Trump administration, some debated whether the president has authority to ban a foreign-owned social media app. This bill would instead create clear, all-new authorities for the president to do exactly that.
Second, Trump’s efforts to ban TikTok ran into serious First Amendment objections at the time. The lawmakers behind this week’s bill say they have worked hard to iron out those concerns.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, one of the bill’s lead cosponsors, says the bill does not ban TikTok; it simply offers TikTok the choice to be divested, with the consequence of a ban if it doesn’t comply. Gallagher says he and others have worked on the bill for the past six months, consulting with officials from the White House and across Washington to ensure it can withstand a legal challenge.
And, notably, Biden said he supports the bill.
“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Friday.
Can it actually pass?
The bill is advancing remarkably quickly in the House.
With how quickly House leaders are promising a floor vote, it suggests they are confident it has enough votes to clear the chamber.
The question is whether the bill has a future in the Senate. If it’s taken up there, Gallagher said, it would likely fall to the Senate Commerce Committee. There is currently no companion bill to the House bill in the Senate, however. And Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Commerce Committee, has provided a largely non-committal statement on the bill that acknowledges the concerns of its opponents.
“I will be talking to my Senate and House colleagues to try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties,” Cantwell said in a statement to CNN.
Does the bill violate the First Amendment?
Civil society groups say that even if the bill’s actual text doesn’t directly censor TikTok or its users, it still has the ultimate effect of doing so.
“There’s no denying that it would do just that,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We strongly urge legislators to vote no on this unconstitutional bill.”
The bill’s primary mechanic — setting up a choice for TikTok that could lead to a ban — is really a sleight of hand that courts will see through instantly, according to First Amendment experts.
Ken White, a First Amendment litigator at the law firm Brown White & Osborn, said courts can and do look at whether the functional effect of a law is to stifle speech, not just what the text of the law says. Lawmakers may try to say the bill regulates TikTok’s foreign ownership, not content. But, White said, “’foreign influence’ aren’t magic words that get you out of First Amendment problems. It’s not at all clear that Congress’ fig leaf of an excuse will work.”
An important part of First Amendment scrutiny will be whether lawmakers could have achieved their goals through a “less restrictive alternative” to a flat-out ban, said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Passing a nationwide privacy law regulating how all companies, not just TikTok, handle Americans’ data would lead to the same result without raising First Amendment concerns, he said.
Setting that aside, courts have held that Americans have a constitutional right to receive foreign propaganda, even if the US government doesn’t like it.
By that precedent, it would be unconstitutional for the government to ban TikTok even if it were blatantly a direct mouthpiece for the Chinese government, Jaffer said.
“If you give the government the power to restrict Americans’ access to propaganda,” he said, “then you’ve given the government the power to restrict Americans’ access to anything the government deems to be propaganda.”
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This is a huge issue which BLOWS my mind. Benedict Donald, basically took box loads of Top Secret documents to Mar-A-Lago, and was charging folks to have access to him. And folks with half a brain know WHY he had those documents. He was gonna sell out America. Of course tho, perhaps I should say he DID sell out America. Cause who all has seen these documents at this point. But what is stunning to me, is we all saw the photos of these documents, carelessly stuck in his bathroom, and yet, folks still support him? The Christian Nationalists, who deemed him as the "son of man" or "second coming" or an "Imperfect Messiah," act totally impervous to the magnitude of the danger he put us in, and will further put us in. I can say, it woke up all the vets in spirit - for sure! I know they are looking down at us like "WTF is happening here?" All of this mess. But you think, if the insurrection wasnt the signal to them, him trying to overturn democracy by force, didnt shake them awake, him having all those sensitive documents does not? Those things could get our military killed. It knocks the breath out of me how ignorant they are, and how callous this is, and what darkness has befallen the GOP to support this man? Oh its DARKNESS all right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCxnYTit9Nc
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Welp! Its being called a blood bath! First, the Republican National Committee (RNC), appointed Laura Trump (DIL) to lead the RNC. Now today, they laid off approximately 60 staffers. Now adding Trump loyalists. Now, the good part: everything Dirty Donny touches turns to shit. Then of course, he will notably use the RNC money for his legal bills, of course. SHOW ME THE MONEY!💰 So if they are gonna blow this money, cause he is good at doing that, spending in all the wrong places, etc. Then you can expect lousy ads and things, vs Biden promoting a seriously strong campaign. So yes, gutting the RNC, they are going to have deep regrets when its all said and done. Maybe Dumpy Doo Doo Brains should take some lessons from Little Barron how to play chess.♖
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi9CvDmNROo
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/12/rnc-trump-firings-takeover/
Trump takes control of the RNC with mass layoffs, restructuring
The move has raised fears among some former officials about the party’s future support for down-ballot candidates
By Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Marianne LeVine
March 12, 2024 at 6:16 p.m. EDT
Former president Donald Trump took charge of the Republican National Committee this week with the political equivalent of shock and awe — leaving dozens out of work, revamping strategic priorities and raising fears among some former officials about the party’s future support for down-ballot candidates.
The senior leadership has been almost entirely replaced or reassigned, while dozens of lower-ranking officials including state directors were either fired or told to reapply for their jobs. A nationwide network of community outreach centers, once a fixture of the party’s efforts to attract minority voters, will be shuttered or refocused on get-out-the-vote efforts. The much heralded “Bank Your Vote” program, aimed at getting Republicans to vote early, will shift to a “Grow The Vote” program focused more on expanding the party’s outreach to less likely Trump voters.
Trump’s team, led by campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, is bringing in allies with what LaCivita says will be a leaner, more aggressive operation with more political experience.
“It is about changing a mind-set,” LaCivita said in an interview Tuesday. “The RNC is as much a part of the Trump campaign as the Trump campaign is part of the RNC. It is really important from our standpoint that everyone understand in a campaign that will be unprecedented in history that everyone has the same stated goal.”
The RNC’s political director, its lead data officer and communications director have all been replaced, according to people familiar with the moves. The chief of staff and top counsel voluntarily left before LaCivita took over.
One of the most experienced lawyers in GOP politics, Charlie Spies, who recently served as the architect of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s shuttered presidential effort, will take over as chief counsel.
Additionally, LaCivita is installing Christina Bobb — a former OAN reporter who has espoused false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — as senior counsel for election integrity. Bobb is the author of a book called “Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024” and promoted the audit of Arizona elections.
“I’m honored to join the RNC and thrilled the new leadership is focused on election integrity,” Bobb said in a statement. “I look forward to working to secure our elections and restore confidence in the process.”
The new leadership at the RNC has discussed a broader effort over the coming months to challenge voter identification and signature verification rules that were put into place for the 2020 election.
“The RNC’s new posture as it relates to litigation is much more offensive and much less defensive,” LaCivita said in the interview.
Some Trump allies privately questioned the hiring of Spies, a longtime GOP lawyer who previously worked for super PACs that supported the presidential campaigns of Republicans Mitt Romney in 2012 and Jeb Bush in 2016.
LaCivita praised Spies as one of the party’s top campaign attorneys, who is well respected by donors for his fundraising innovations and actively involved in election litigation.
Some former Republican officials — caught off guard by the dramatic changes — have expressed concerns about the takeover, which normally happens in some form at the end of an open primary fight. Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, long a close adviser to Trump, was described as blindsided by the scale and speed of the changes, which target her efforts to balance Trump’s interest with the rest of the party’s interests.
“There won’t be a RNC operation to help the greater party. They don’t care about the greater party,” said a former RNC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect future job prospects. “The RNC is important to lots of people in down-ballot elections. They’re cutting off any service that doesn’t provide help to anyone but Donald Trump. It’s just all about Trump.”
LaCivita said in response that the rising tide of Trump’s candidacy would lift all Republican boats this year, and that the RNC would continue to work closely with the Republican Party’s House and Senate committees.
Sean Cairncross, a former White House adviser to Trump who worked at the RNC during the 2016 campaign, is the new chief operating officer. And James Blair, a top adviser to Trump is also taking a senior political role at the RNC. Blair is a longtime Florida operative who is close with Susie Wiles, Trump’s de facto chief of staff.
“If you choose to not reapply, your last day of employment will be March 31, 2024,” Cairncross wrote in an email sent to some fired employees, which was obtained by The Washington Post. The changes at the RNC were described by LaCivita and eight other current and former party officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal changes.
Trump had made clear he wanted changes at the RNC even before he cleared the field of rivals for the Republican nomination. Trump had grown frustrated last year with McDaniel when she stuck by her pledge to remain neutral in the nomination fight and continued to sponsor primary debates long after Trump had made clear he would never participate. McDaniel called for the party to unite behind Trump after he won the New Hampshire primary in late January, but she was soon ousted.
At Trump’s direction, the RNC voted Friday to elect former North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley and Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to senior positions to replace McDaniel. Lara Trump is married to the former president’s son Eric, who now runs the family’s hospitality and branding business.
They have also decided not to use RNC funds over the coming months to pay for Trump’s ongoing legal costs, in part because his status as a candidate would likely mean the funds would have to come directly out of the party’s limited political budget that is coordinated with the campaign. Trump has long argued that his legal prosecutions are politically motivated, suggesting that any spending on his own lawyer is a form of political spending.
The RNC has a cash problem on its hands. The Democratic National Committee, which is functioning as a part of President Biden’s campaign, had $24 million in the bank at the end of January — almost triple the $8.7 million held by the Republican National Committee.
The entire revamp is being led by LaCivita, a combative and experienced strategist who during the 2004 presidential campaign led the group originally known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in an effort against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry, a massive outside spending effort on behalf of Trump in 2020 and countless other state and federal campaigns.
A former Marine Corps sergeant who earned a Purple Heart in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, LaCivita has functioned as the senior political consultant for Trump since the start of his 2024 campaign, though he has not taken a formal title. He will take on a new dual role, overseeing the coordinated campaign effort at the RNC while maintaining his position advising Trump’s campaign.
The new approach is aimed, in part, at avoiding the deep dysfunction in message and advertising coordination that hampered Trump in 2020, when animosity flared between McDaniel and Trump’s second campaign manager, Bill Stepien. Relations got so bad that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and top campaign adviser in 2020, had to convene a meeting between the campaign and party teams in October of that year to set an advertising strategy for the final weeks of the campaign.
The firings, according to people familiar with them, were done by LaCivita, who met with employees in the human resource director’s office with the director. In some cases, LaCivita told the employees they hadn’t done anything wrong but he just wanted his own team. Most of the employees were gone within hours.
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Flippety Floppity Dumpy Boi wanted to ban tiktok while in office. Suddenly, two days ago, he wants to see tiktok stay. He claims cause folks would go to facebook, an "enemy of the people." No, its cause he was kicked off Facebook back in the day.
But oh, here we have a person who owns 15% of the parent company of tiktok, who went to see Trump, "kissed the ring," and hes a donor to the republican party. And suddenly....voila! The Orange Nutsack wants tiktok to be spared! Oh yes, how much did the donor slip the Orange Goo Goo brains? Trumpy Trump is easily purchased by anyone who waves dollars, like an old stripper in a dive rubbing on a pole flashing her vajayjay. So yes, THIS is the big reason now Greasy Donny is loving the app now. That's all it takes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAe8rhyQ53U
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I wish Mike Pence would have said, per not endorsing The Manchurian Cantelope, "The MF wanted people to HANG ME so I cant support him." I mean yes, when someone wants you dead, and doesnt care if a mob hangs you, many would be understanding you flipping. Pence was incredibly loyal to Dumpy Dipshit. But in the end, he luckily didnt support him after all this. Now, interesting he brings up the issues and even tiktok being one of them. Interesting. But Pence never brings up the hanging! Pence is from a very, very old school conservative type folk that are becoming a dinosaur. And with him seeing the RNC gutted, the man doesnt want to fan the flames here. Now I commend him on Jan 6, he did the right thing. I respect him for this. Tho I dont agree with a lot of his views. And while I would have liked to see him take down the Orange Shitstain for wanting him dead for God's sakes, Im glad he publically said he wont endorse him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGuDqcEXG5I
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Yes, he received this award from Israel, and was actually dubbed "The Prince of Peace." Oh lordie, the blasphemy is fierce!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQSfn51f1m8
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So I talked to an elderly woman today. We got political. I talked about how Republicans are threatening social security and medicare. Then she said Biden said he would cut those. I told her one, he has not, and two, he promised he would not. She was completely oblivious that, Trump said basically he would cut the "entitlements" those dumb flowers like to call it that. She acknowledged "its our money, we have paid into it!" But blame Biden, when he hasnt cut it, and said he would not. But Republicans have admitted, its on the chopping block? Oh lordie the brainwashing runs deep. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u560WZzhe8
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Yes, in deep seriousness. This is where Trump and Manson line up and coincide. Manson got others, manipulated others, to do his dirty work for him. Sold the people a bill of goods who the bad guys were etc. And they did the unthinkable. Trump, at this latest rally, said, if he is not elected it will be a "bloodbath."
The thing is, he is egging on a segment of the population, that hangs on his every word, and wants their own version of a civil war. As long as these lunatics allow him to continue to poison their minds, and make them darker and darker, it could be another Jan 6, yes. The Manchurian Candidate was not a work of fiction. It was a fact. He "built a wall," he wasnt kidding. But its not what folks "think" a wall is. We have many living in separate realities right now, influenced by others who wanted to brainwash them. This is a cult, and he is so psychotic, and derranged, he wants a bloodbath. Thats the sad truth, and that segment wants it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gpp0zhPnl8
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So I did see an interview. Elon said he wont pay Dingleberry Donald a dime. I guess he wont play that art of war card. So Mango Mugshot Marvel has to pay up this astronomical fine by next week, or NY and Leticia James gonna seize some ass-ets. Yes! No one is backing him up. They want cold hard cash, not to put up property. Now he has tons of properties all over the world even. But most folks dont want to pay for these things. So the clock ticks and is someone gonna bail him out 11th hour, or Diaper Don gonna go down the tubes here? We all wait with bated breath!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5eZcLR5ztg
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Heh. Now Im no fan of Ron the Con. But we know he was running for President and dropped out. And then Don the Con has been humiliating Desantis in his rallies, mercilessly. Even tho he dropped out and like a schmuck, came in support of Trump, cause he would never back Biden or an independent. But....this is where it gets juicy. Then Ron the Con decides to release some Epstein Grand Jury documents. And we know, at least, unless you are stupid and listen to that Q nonsense, that Dirty Donny Doolittle was good buddies with Epstein and his cohort Maxwell, who is in prison. And Dumpy surely is mentioned in this grand jury stuff.
But let me shockingly agree with Ron the Con: why is it, no one else has gone down for this blatant S*x tra****ing? Why not? Cause these folks have money. So apparently July 1st this info will be made public for all to see and....just right before the election huh? Oh Ron the Con, I see what you are doing here! You could have done this some time ago. But right now, right before November 3rd? Heh. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PvHoYZaPZc
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A little more on Desantis signing this law and these Epstein grand jury documents being released. Right before...the election. Hey Dumpy, maybe shouldnt have been kicking the man in the groin at the rallies! He kicks harder it seems!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnJeji42dR8
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Yea give him a swift kick in the nuts Ron the Con. I know how spiteful you can be! Pay attention to the name Acosta in this one:
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2024/02/29/desantis-00144062
DeSantis to sign off on releasing more Epstein documents
By KIMBERLY LEONARD 02/29/2024 07:00 AM EST
(https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/85ebffb/2147483647/resize/1524x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2F3f%2F2b%2F983e569d4d7f8c5d3a146211a054%2Fdesantis-florida-75708.jpg)
Good morning and happy Leap Day.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign legislation in Palm Beach this morning to release state grand jury records of an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and financier who killed himself in jail.
The bill is one of the few agenda items DeSantis has enthusiastically pledged to sign, without being prompted, albeit late in the session. Unlike in past years, DeSantis did not come into this session with an extensive list of agenda items but instead has picked off certain bills to comment on or has weighed in when asked directly at press conferences throughout the state.
The legislation would open access to investigations and testimonies from more than 20 years ago, when Palm Beach authorities first investigated Epstein for allegedly sexually abusing minors. The case was referred to a grand jury and culminated in Epstein getting a deal in which he avoided federal charges or extensive time in federal prison.
Overseeing the agreement was then-federal prosecutor Alex Acosta, who would later go on to be labor secretary in the Trump administration. Acosta resigned his secretary role amid outcry over the Epstein investigation reported extensively in the Miami Herald.
Epstein killed himself (sure he did) in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death fueled countless online conspiracy theories about how he died in jail and connection to wealthy and famous people.
DeSantis ordered an investigation into the deal after Epstein was arrested in a Manhattan federal court but the FDLE concluded in 2021 that it didn’t find wrongdoing by prosecutors or investigators.
The Epstein bill DeSantis will take up today is about more than transparency and openness — it gives DeSantis an opening for a clear area of contrast against President Joe Biden, just as he has tried to do on illegal immigration and term limits ever since leaving the presidential race. DeSantis already went to social media to criticize the federal government over not releasing more documents, accusing officials of trying to “stonewall accountability,” and wondering aloud about how the abuse went on so long and why no one besides Epstein and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were held accountable.
“Biden should release the Epstein files associated with the federal government, which is probably much more extensive,” DeSantis said during a press conference last week. This year the federal government released more than 3,000 pages, but there still remained questions over whether anyone else had been involved in the abuse, per The Associated Press.
DeSantis told reporters last week about his plans to sign the legislation in Palm Beach, and the bill was presented to him yesterday and alerted from his office last night. Today’s bill signing also puts DeSantis on the turf of a certain ex-president and former 2024 Republican presidential rival, who himself is set to appear in court in Fort Pierce on Friday.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com
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The Stormy Daniels trial, may as well call it that, hush money trial, has been postponed for the moment, till April 15th. But a documentary was released on Peacock today! Now I know what im watching tonight. Ill have to talk about it when I see it. But imagine the death threats this woman suffered. Disgusting people. It takes a lot of courage to step forward. But of course, the Mad Mango and his attorneys tried to stop her from testifying. Oh this will be a huge trial when we all hear her speak. And comparing her to Ivanka? He has said some really disgusting things about his own daughter. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEqpCpGonF0
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He did mention her name in an interview. THIS could end up being the VP running mate. Kristy Noem, govenor of South Dakota. He said she is "beautiful" and "She's HOT."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_XjDjwyYg
YES, thats all it takes folks. And she is loving the love of, a creepy, elderly, overly cooked, dead possum wearing, viagra chomping, diaper wearing, sack of shit. Its ridiculous. But here she is, and no offense, but appears to be his "type" as she had a little work, as all the women in his family have had, and his poor flowering wives:
(https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/south-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-78273724.jpg?quality=75&strip=all)
Well ill give it to her. She is cuter than Mike Pence, who was far from "sexy" of course. Heh. But yes, watch him pick her. Of course he would want this to be the VP! 🤮
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Now im not on X. But im pretty sure there is a: #wheresmelania hashtag going around. Last I heard anything on the trophy wife, she was renegotiating that prenup. She has to be spitting nails here, that Litte Barron aint gonna have a cushy trust fund. But Little Barron is gonna have to get a job maybe doing construction, or maybe he can become one of those Apple employees, or take my order at Olive Garden, cause Daddy Orange Potty Mouth is totally flowerED.
But she didnt show up for this whole new year bash. Hasnt been at rallys. No Super Tuesday. Not when he accepted the nom. Nothing. So where is Melania?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzpHHuCMsRg
Why is she not in the XMAS photo here? Yoooo Hooo Melania!! Anyone out there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-afChq2izOE
Maybe I should do a missing persons read. Or maybe she just, cant take the flowering smell of shit, ketchup, sweat and theater makeup. And the embarassment. Maybe she went on Tinder to find a new man, or Plenty of Fish. Cant blame her, cause he is the worst! 🤮
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It’s gotta be totally humiliating. All these years, saying how rich he was. But Don the Empty Pockets Con went to appellate court, said he "doesnt have the means" to pay this fine. No companies will give him a bond, and I guess, after all his bragging how he was a billionaire, said just doesnt have this change stuffed in his mattress.
So March 25th, heh, is the FINAL day its pay so can appeal, or Leticia James and NYC gonna seize those ASS-ETS and take a MF down. Now I thought someone could bail him out 11th hour. But perhaps...I mean, to bail him out, the person would KNOW that he cant pay it back, his word is...not quite his...bond....OH I HAD TO! And other things....his gutting the RNC is rubbing republicans wrong. May have been a bad move to make it all MAGA! ♟ So yes...not looking too good here for Slick Willy to come up with the cash. Scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDRFJTpLe1c
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Speak of the She-Devil! It appears Melania (was paid to) come out and show her face, with Diggity Doggity Donald. I anticipate he may have negotiated, she would not have to have sex with him till the election if she did. ;) I love how someone on either X or Truth Social said this is an "authentic" couple or romance. Isnt that an odd thing to call a couple? Obviously, the person said this, because the authenticity of the "love story" is questionable. I mean, let me surmise here. They meet at The Kit Kat Club. Where she is a "model" being pimped out by an agent and...ends up with Numb Nuts, who basically, purchased himself a trophy wife. I mean "love story" my ass. She is saddled to a stinky old man now who is in the throws of absolute ruin. But anywho, she surfaced, and when asked if she will join him on the MAGA Train, she said "stay tuned." Basically means "depends how much money the KFC Glutton can pony up and stuff in her Chanel Bag." Of course!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44tr9bpZDuc
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Oh *rubs hands together* I got 144k reasons this is happening! But as the Deadline is getting closer...closer...for Donny Delinquent and Destroyed Con, he has a new email announcement for his Kool Aid Cult: "Keep your filthy hands of Trump Tower!" So basically its a pitch to raise money, begging his base to save him. Oh the grift that keeps on grifting!
Now I already showed the gofundme, and I think some donated, just so they could comment snarks. But here we have an alleged "billionaire" begging the "working poor" to keep him afloat, save him from drowning. Save his flowering Tower? Heh - and GOD gonna strike it with a lightning bolt, it comin! I love a good smite that is well deserved! The scoop:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-campaign-pleads-one-million-donations-cash-crunch-looms-2024-03-20/
Trump campaign pleads for one million donations as cash crunch looms 🤣 ♛
Reuters
March 20, 202411:40 AM PDTUpdated 9 hours ago
March 20 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's campaign on Wednesday called for donations from one million of his backers, warning he could lose his New York properties, two days after the former president failed to secure a bond to cover a $454 million judgment in a civil fraud case.
"KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF TRUMP TOWER!,"🤣(Ole "tiny handed wombat" cries out) reads a message to supporters from a joint fundraising committee that allocates the money it collects to his campaign and a separate political committee that has been paying Trump's legal bills.
The civil fraud case, brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James in September 2022, is one of several legal travails that Trump faces ahead of a Nov. 5 election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
The message, sent by text with prompts for supporters to donate in amounts ranging from $20.24 to $3,300 or a specific amount, accuses James of wanting to seize Trump's properties and portrays her actions as part of a broader effort by Biden and Democrats to harm his reelection campaign.
"So before the day is over, I'm calling on ONE MILLION Pro-Trump patriots to chip in and say: STOP THE WITCH HUNT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP!"🧙🏼♀️ the campaign message said.
Biden has said he is not involved in any of the cases against Trump. The Biden campaign declined to comment.
The fundraising message links donors to the joint fundraising committee that Trump typically asks supporters to contribute through. It alludes to James' case, but it does not say that funds would be used for that purpose.
It is unclear if Trump could use the funds to pay for the judgment. While federal law prohibits the use of campaign money for personal expenses, Trump has been able to use donor money to pay some of his lawyers’ fees, saying his legal defense is campaign-related.
On Monday, Trump's lawyers told an appellate court in New York that their client had been rejected by 30 surety companies for a bond to cover the massive civil fraud judgment, inching him closer to the possibility of having his properties seized. ;D
Trump must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state's seizure while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron's Feb. 16 judgment against him for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.
Earlier this month, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond to cover an $83.3 million defamation verdict for the writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals, in a case that arose from his branding her a liar after she accused him of raping her decades ago.
He has denied wrongdoing in the litany of civil and criminal cases imperiling his real estate businesses and campaign.
Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Tim Reid in Washington and Jack Queen in New York Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Berkrot
But...but...the golden calf sneakers...I thought these would pull him out of the well he is drowning in! I guess sales are down! ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mt03HeAvv4
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Ok I thought I was done for the night. But this is too rich. Ok so Jesse shows, this dude on Fox news, asking another billionaire guest on his show, if he will save Trump and loan him the money. Then shows a tweet some idiot calling out all the billionaires who wont save Don The Con, who is...losing here!
This blows me away! Like, how can someone have the BIGGEST BALLS to ask someone, to pony up and bail out a raving, frothing at the mouth lunatic, for 464 MILLION DOLLARS? I mean how do you.... "Hey, btw, for the good of the country...could you PLEASE loan him the money?" This is not, asking someone, for like, $10,000. This is asking for a massive, massive amount of money! Its inconceivable to me, that folks cant understand, why other billionaires, dont want to give this money, with his track record of not paying back people, not paying banks, not paying employees. Conning folks and shit. But, the AUDACITY to put someone on the spot, and ask them to give him THAT MUCH MONEY? These people are totally flowering nuts!
But yes, like if someone came to me, and asked me to give someone say, $500, and this person had a massive history of borrowing money from folks, and not paying it back to them, why would I loan it? Its just unfathomable to me, folks think what? There is a billionaire boys club and they should all pay someone cause he's, afraid of going...broke? I mean, welcome to America! Where the majority of us live paycheck to paycheck. flowering unreal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HajNXyr6F2I
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Oh the BEGGING of the base! Its so pathetic. I love how someone said:
M: My
A: Assets
G: Got
A: Auctioned
🤣
The only thing I commented on this video was: "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!" I'm thoroughly enjoying the shakedown takedown of this lowlife bottom feeder he is despicable! But begging the working poor, who live paycheck to paycheck. And the funny thing, is republicans are so against "socialism" and programs like welfare.
Isnt this kinda welfare, except a brainwashed base, funding his legal expenses and fines? Then he brings up a salient point: how is "this" money being begged for, for the campaign? He is trying to use his base, and then say it is for "campaign expenses." Oh, we may have some future legal issues with this. Cause I dont think begging a base to pay....464 million dollar fine due to NYC is...necessarily campaign related. That sounds like a personal problem!
The scoop!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hns0Oqp0BTk
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;D
(https://i.imgflip.com/5qo2v7.jpg)
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I dont know. That might be an anti-Biden meme. But it fits so nicely so... ;D
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I have been watching this. I need to follow it more. But Sudan is horrific.
I was watching this and, this could happen in the US! If we had some ridiculous civil war and everyone started going crazy...Its so sad. The starvation and the water issue. All of it because of these warring factions have destroyed this country.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/sudan-now-1-worst-humanitarian-crises-recent-memory/story?id=108338545
Sudan now ‘one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory': UN :-[
LONDON -- Humanitarian organizations are sounding alarm over the crisis in Sudan, warning the conflict has created "one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory."
Speaking at a briefing to the security council on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) warned of a “fast-reaching and fast-deteriorating situation of food insecurity” in Sudan following 11 months of conflict.
“It is truly the stuff of nightmares,” said Wosronu. “In Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan -- which are home to 90% of people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity -- there has been no respite from the fierce fighting for 340 days.”
"Now, as the conflict rages on, Sudan is on course to become the world's worst hunger crisis. Already, 18 million people -- more than one third of the country’s population -- are facing acute food insecurity."
“By all measures, the sheer scale of humanitarian needs, the numbers of people displaced and facing hunger, Sudan is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.”
The U.N. warns that that by May, parts of Darfur could face IPC Phase 5 level acute food insecurity, the highest stage on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale.
“We call this stage catastrophe,” said the U.N.
Hostilities in Sudan’s breadbasket state, Al Jazirah -- which is responsible for almost half of Sudan’s wheat production -- has further jeopardized the food security situation in the country.
Humanitarian organizations tell ABC News that farmers have been unable to tend to their crops and the conflict has been driving up the prices of basic commodities, some items by almost 300%. The U.N. says natural cereal production and supply of animal-sourced food like milk has also plummeted.
Hundreds of thousands at risk of hunger as the humanitarian crisis deepens.
ByEmma Ogao
March 21, 2024, 5:24 AM
LONDON -- Humanitarian organizations are sounding alarm over the crisis in Sudan, warning the conflict has created "one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory."
Speaking at a briefing to the security council on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) warned of a “fast-reaching and fast-deteriorating situation of food insecurity” in Sudan following 11 months of conflict.
“It is truly the stuff of nightmares,” said Wosronu. “In Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan -- which are home to 90% of people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity -- there has been no respite from the fierce fighting for 340 days.”
"Now, as the conflict rages on, Sudan is on course to become the world's worst hunger crisis. Already, 18 million people -- more than one third of the country’s population -- are facing acute food insecurity."
“By all measures, the sheer scale of humanitarian needs, the numbers of people displaced and facing hunger, Sudan is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.”
The U.N. warns that that by May, parts of Darfur could face IPC Phase 5 level acute food insecurity, the highest stage on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale.
“We call this stage catastrophe,” said the U.N.
Hostilities in Sudan’s breadbasket state, Al Jazirah -- which is responsible for almost half of Sudan’s wheat production -- has further jeopardized the food security situation in the country.
Humanitarian organizations tell ABC News that farmers have been unable to tend to their crops and the conflict has been driving up the prices of basic commodities, some items by almost 300%. The U.N. says natural cereal production and supply of animal-sourced food like milk has also plummeted.
(https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/83516a4b-9f4a-4181-a6c5-2a7919c36029/sudan-file-rt-ml-240321_1711021243435_hpMain.JPG)
“Hostilities have resulted in extensive damage, looting and widespread destruction of critical infrastructure, including food and nutrition manufacturing facilities -- once the pride of Sudan,” said Wosronu.
Without "urgent" action, children’s charity Save the Children warns almost 230,000 children, pregnant women and new mothers could die from hunger in the coming months. Over 2.9 million children are already "acutely malnourished" warns the charity, and an additional 729,000 under the age of 5 are also facing severe acute malnutrition.
Fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, after a culmination of weeks of tensions linked to a planned transition to civilian rule. General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group (RSF) -- once allies who jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 -- are now engaged in a vicious and ongoing power struggle.
As fighting continues between the warring parties, at least 14,000 people have been killed according to verified figures. However, local groups warn that the toll is likely to be much higher as the true scale of the conflict continues to be uncovered.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News in February that the United States is “gravely concerned” about the “deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan.”
“We already have reports of people starving to death in Sudan and babies dying every day at IDP camps in Sudan. More than half of Sudan’s population, nearly 25 million, are experiencing severe protection concerns, widespread shortages of essential items and limited access to services across the country, exacerbating food, health and other humanitarian needs. Millions of Sudanese face the risk of famine in the coming months due to this devastating conflict.”
Both warring parties have been found to have restricted ‘delivery, access and distribution’ of humanitarian aid since the conflict broke out in April 15, 2023, and the World Food Program (WFP) says it has been unable to get sufficient emergency assistance to communities in need due to "relentless violence and interference by the warring parties."
“We cannot explain in greater terms the catastrophic situation,” said Wosronu. “And we cannot underscore more the need for Council action.”
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This is one of the news folks Michael likes. I really cant see Netanyahu ever agreeing to this. They need to get someone in office in Israel who WILL.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution
Israel’s war on Gaza live: ‘The choice is clear – a 2-state solution’
By Alastair McCready
Published On 22 Mar 2024
22 Mar 2024
The bloody raid on al-Shifa Hospital has entered a fifth day as Israel’s military ordered hundreds of patients, war displaced and medical staff to evacuate.
The head of the Mossad spy agency is set to meet his CIA and Egyptian counterparts in Qatar after the US said that the “gap” in Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks is “narrowing”.
The world must not remain silent and “turn its back” on Gaza as Israel pledges to invade Rafah where 1.5 million Palestinians are struggling to survive, UNICEF has said.
At least 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attack stands at 1,139, with dozens taken captive.
________________________
and
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-gaza-cease-fire-rcna144395
Israel-Hamas war: U.S. submits draft U.N. resolution calling for immediate Gaza cease-fire
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the resolution would "send a strong message" and that a truce deal in Gaza was "getting closer," although he didn't elaborate.
Updated March 21, 2024, 4:22 PM PDT
By NBC News
What we know
The U.S. has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza that is tied to the release of Israeli hostages, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday. Blinken, on his sixth tour of the Middle East since October, said in an interview on Saudi TV that a truce deal was "getting closer," although he did not elaborate. He will travel to Israel tomorrow after meetings in Egypt today. The language in the resolution is the strongest yet put forward by the Biden administration.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved an Israeli delegation to go to Qatar tomorrow as part of ongoing hostage negotiations, his office said today.
Netanyahu told Senate Republicans in a video call last night that he would press on with the war in Gaza. But days after he called for new elections in Israel, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined Netanyahu's request to address the Senate Democratic Caucus. A spokesperson for Schumer said he had made it clear that he does not think the discussions should happen in a partisan manner.
The Israeli military said today that it had killed 50 Palestinian gunmen over the past day in fighting around the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. It added that over 140 suspected Hamas fighters have been killed during "precise operational activity" at the complex, which it says the militant group was using as a base. Gaza's Health Ministry said around 30,000 people, including patients, medical staff members and displaced people, are sheltering at the facility.
The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 has surpassed 31,900, including at least 27 people who have died of malnutrition, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. Another 73,500 have been reported injured. The Israeli military said at least 247 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tkVIYNMXfM
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This is difficult. Once again, US gonna try to propose a two state solution.
It would be miraculous if it would just be DONE. This shit should have been done decades ago. Its horrific in Israel.
I...highly doubt Netanyahu will agree. US is trying to stop another invasion. Rafah. Jesus, enough already!
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OMG. I had just been following this. Such a mystery surrounding Princess Kate Middleton. She finally spoke. She has cancer. So young! Here she is. Such a brave young lady!
https://youtu.be/sHm8Iivo3cY?si=zu2oRZk9w3ZNsb9l
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I did watch the Stormy Daniels documentary titled: "Stormy." An appropriate, symbolic name. She is the Storm. The allegations, which we have tons of evidence, her affair with Greazy Don was paid off to be quiet. But its amazing, the hatred and vitrol projected onto her. Yes, she sure does throw a monkey wrench in the argument he is somehow a "good Christian guy!" Oh its incredible the "image" the Kool Aid Cult desperately clings to, this false messiah claiming he can save America! But this is a short interview on The View. The documentary is on Peacock, and its worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVJyTx70yf8
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So Desperate Donald got a lucky break....or did he? He has ten days to post 175 million bond. It was reduced. NOW the total is still 454 million, or 464 mlllion who knows. So if he loses appeal, he has to pay this. But I wonder...what if Delay Delay Donnie cant come up with 175 million? That would look very bad! He did shell out the 83 million and 5 million dollar bonds for E. Jean Carroll. But if no one will give him a bond for this? Its gonna speak volumes about his claim to fame with being so rich.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/nyregion/trump-bond-reduced.html
Trump’s Bond in Civil Fraud Case Is Reduced to $175 Million
The former president was racing to secure a half-billion-dollar bond, but an appeals court lowered the amount. The surprise decision may help him stave off financial disaster.
By Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum
March 25, 2024
Updated 3:46 p.m. ET
With Donald J. Trump on the clock to secure a nearly half-billion-dollar bond in his civil fraud case, a New York appeals court handed the former president a lifeline on Monday, saying it would accept a far smaller bond of $175 million.
The ruling by a panel of five appellate court judges was a crucial and unexpected victory for Mr. Trump, potentially staving off a looming financial disaster. Had the court denied his request for a smaller bond in the fraud case, which was brought by the New York attorney general, Mr. Trump risked losing control over his bank accounts and even some of his marquee properties.
For now, those dire outcomes might be on hold. If Mr. Trump obtains the smaller bond, it will prevent the attorney general from collecting while he appeals the $454 million judgment against him. The appeal in the case, in which a trial judge found that Mr. Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth, could take months or longer to resolve.
Mr. Trump has 10 days to secure the bond, and two people with knowledge of his finances said he should be able to, though doing so will effectively drain much of his cash. In order to obtain the bond — a promise from an outside company that it will cover his judgment if he ultimately loses the appeal and cannot pay — Mr. Trump will have to pay the company a fee and pledge about $200 million in cash and other investments as collateral.
In a statement, Mr. Trump said he would “abide by the decision” and either post a bond or put up the money himself. He added that the appellate court’s decision to reduce the bond “shows how ridiculous and outrageous” the $454 million judgment against him is.
While the court, the Appellate Division in Manhattan, did not rule directly on the merits of Mr. Trump’s appeal, its ruling suggests that some of the judges could be sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s case, legal experts said. The $175 million bond is roughly the amount that Mr. Trump’s lawyers had argued was the maximum penalty he could have possibly owed, a potential sign that the court believes the $454 million judgment was too steep.
But the decision in Mr. Trump’s favor was eclipsed only an hour later by a decision against him in one of his four criminal cases, underscoring the remarkable breadth of his legal problems as he seeks to reclaim the White House. In his Manhattan criminal case, the judge finalized an April 15 trial date, rejecting the former president’s effort to delay.
In the civil fraud case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals court to either accept a smaller bond or pause the bond requirement altogether. They argued that the court would be likely to overturn the $454 million penalty, contending that it was “grossly disproportionate and unconstitutional.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general, Letitia James, noted that Mr. Trump was “still facing accountability for his staggering fraud” and that the judgment “still stands.”
But Mr. Trump’s legal team celebrated the ruling. “The ruling today represents a great first step towards the ultimate reversal of a baseless and reckless judgment,” said Christopher M. Kise, one of his lawyers.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked Ms. James and the trial judge, Arthur F. Engoron, as politically biased Democrats leading a witch hunt against him.
After Monday’s hearing, Mr. Trump held a news conference at 40 Wall Street, a crucial property in his portfolio and one that Ms. James signaled her intent to seize if Mr. Trump did not post bond.
Mr. Trump once again made broad assertions that the legal system was being weaponized by his political opponents, accusing Ms. James, Justice Engoron and the prosecutors in his criminal cases of trying to “take as much of his money as possible.”
Justice Engoron found Mr. Trump liable last month for conspiring to inflate his net worth to reap financial benefits, including favorable loans from banks. The $454 million judgment reflected the interest payments Mr. Trump saved by misleading his lenders, as well as profits from the recent sale of two properties.
Justice Engoron imposed several restrictions on Mr. Trump and his family business, barring him from running a New York company and obtaining a loan from a New York bank for three years. The same restrictions apply to his adult sons for two years. The judge also extended the appointment of an independent monitor, a watchful outsider to keep an eye on the family business.
In a surprise move, the appeals court on Monday paused most of those restrictions, save for the monitor.
Mr. Trump is fighting all of the punishments, but it was the financial penalty that he feared the most.
To secure the full $454 million bond, he would have needed to pledge even more than that — about $557 million, his lawyers said — in collateral to a bond company, including as much cash as possible and stocks and bonds he could sell quickly. He would have also owed the bond company a fee that could have amounted to nearly $20 million.
In a recent court filing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers called securing a bond for the full amount a “practical impossibility,” and revealed that he had approached more than 30 bond companies to no avail.
The reason was clear: Much of Mr. Trump’s wealth is tied up in the value of his real estate, which bond companies rarely accept as collateral. A recent New York Times analysis found that Mr. Trump had more than $350 million in cash as well as stocks and bonds, far short of the $557 million he would have needed to post in collateral.
He did, however, have enough collateral to recently post a $91.6 million bond in the defamation case he lost to E. Jean Carroll. And he appears to have enough to secure a $175 million bond in the case brought by Ms. James.
Still, doing so will eat into much of his stockpile of cash and other liquid investments. So long as Mr. Trump has to pledge money as collateral, he cannot use it to fund his family business or presidential campaign.
While the bond does not represent a fatal threat to the Trump Organization, it could curb any hope the company has of growing and effectively reduce Mr. Trump’s net worth.
But it could have been worse. Without a bond, Ms. James could have wielded broad authority to freeze various bank accounts, and she could have begun the long, complicated process of trying to seize some of Mr. Trump’s buildings, including an estate in Westchester County.
This was an alarming prospect for Mr. Trump, whose identity is linked to his properties. In a social media post on Monday, Mr. Trump referred to them as “my babies.”
David B. Saxe, a former judge on the appeals court that ruled on Monday, said that the court’s decision to short circuit Ms. James’s collection efforts suggests that some of the judges were uncomfortable with Justice Engoron’s ruling.
“My view is that the court indicates it has difficulty with the breadth of the lower court’s decision,” said Mr. Saxe, who retired in 2017 after 36 years on the bench, 19 of them on the appeals court.
“They had other options available to them, and they issued a broad-based stay,” he continued, which he said suggests “that there is a view that they’re going to need to take a hard look at the lower court’s decision.”
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
Ben Protess is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies. More about Ben Protess
William K. Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and law enforcement. He was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about William K. Rashbaum
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Delaying all these criminal cases is obviously the strategy for Sticky Fingered Donny to try to win the presidency and pardon himself. This judge in NY gives no flowers whatsoever, and said Trial set for April 15th. He will be the first former president to be tried criminally. Here we go! A STORM is coming!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Igx8elkkzo
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Pay attention to the signs folks! Dumby had his first criminal trial today, and was in court for the bond, and we got hit with a massive geomagnetic storm! flowering signs!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/earth-was-just-slammed-with-a-severe-geomagnetic-storm/ar-BB1kuDFN
Earth was just slammed with a "severe" geomagnetic storm
Story by Li Cohen • 13h •
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1kuG6h.img?w=768&h=768&m=6)
The planet was just slammed with what government officials dubbed a severe geomagnetic storm, the second-highest level of NOAA's rating system. The event brought "a major disturbance in Earth's magnetic field" that may have impacted infrastructure and made the northern lights visible farther than usual, officials said.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch on Saturday, saying that a coronal mass ejection was detected and expected to hit the planet late that same day with impacts into Monday. Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are when a large cloud of plasma and magnetic field bursts from the sun's corona.
This particular CME exploded alongside a solar flare on Friday, an event that occurs when electromagnetic radiation suddenly erupts from the sun. NOAA says these flares can last hours and the eruption "travels at the speed of light," meaning it can impact Earth as soon as it is observed. An X-class flare, like what was observed with the CME, is the strongest type of flare, although this particular one was not the strongest on record. NOAA forecasters did say, however, that more X-class flares are possible through Wednesday.
"The public should not be concerned, but may wish to keep informed by visiting our webpage for any forecast changes and updates," NOAA said on Saturday, saying a moderate geomagnetic storm was possible. By Sunday afternoon, however, the agency alerted of a "severe" storm that could potentially impact technology – and eventually extend the northern lights as far south as Alabama.
"The public should not anticipate adverse impacts and no action is necessary, but they should stay properly informed of storm progression by visiting our webpage," NOAA said in its alert, adding that "normally mitigable" problems with voltage control was possible, as well as "frequent and longer periods of GPS degradation."
"Infrastructure operators have been notified to take action to mitigate any possible impacts," the agency said.
On Monday morning, NOAA said that the impacts of the CME "appear to be weakening," but that solar wind speeds – which help carry the event – were still elevated. The warning of a "moderate" storm has since been extended. Moderate geomagnetic storms, classified as G2, can potentially impact high-latitude power systems, damage transformers and extend the northern lights to New York and Idaho. It can also potentially require flight ground control to issue corrective actions for orientation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnuAKWTt_kc
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This is really happening folks. Good ole 666 Dirty Don has a new grift, that has him begging for a thunderbolt. FEAST YOUR EYES on the Beast, er...Conald, pimping BIBLES for his legal bills! Yes for 60 bucks, you can get a Bible, and the money goes to putting the Antichrist in power! Oh lordie no wonder we had a "severe" geomagnetic storm last night! Its bad enough this flowerer has signed Bibles with his trusty Sharpie, but here we go. Oh I sometimes watch this and am like, Is this The Omen movie sequel four? HOLY SHIT. Excuse the pun. Dear God the blasphemy!
https://apnews.com/article/trump-god-bless-usa-bible-greenwood-2713fda3efdfa297d0f024efb1ca3003
Trump is selling ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills
BY JILL COLVIN
Updated 11:43 AM PDT, March 26, 2024
Trump, who became the presumptive Republican nominee earlier this month, released a video on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday urging his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which is inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad. Trump takes the stage to the song at each of his rallies and has appeared with Greenwood at events.
“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,” Trump wrote, directing his supporters to a website selling the book for $59.99.
The effort comes as Trump has faced a serious money crunch amid mounting legal bills while he fights four criminal indictments along with a series of civil charges. Trump was given a reprieve Monday when a New York appeals court agreed to hold off on collecting the more than $454 million he owes following a civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. Trump has already posted a $92 million bond in connection with defamation cases brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault.
“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in the video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.”
Billing itself as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!” the new venture’s website calls it “Easy-to-read” with “large print” and a “slim design” that “invites you to explore God’s Word anywhere, any time.”
Besides a King James Version translation, it includes copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as a handwritten chorus of the famous Greenwood song.
The Bible is just the latest commercial venture that Trump has pursued while campaigning.
Last month, he debuted a new line of Trump-branded sneakers, including $399 gold “Never Surrender High-Tops,” at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. The venture behind the shoes, 45Footwear, also sells other Trump-branded footwear, cologne and perfume.
Trump has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.
He has also released books featuring photos of his time in office and letters written to him through the years.
The Bible’s website states the product “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”
“GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates,” it says.
Instead, it says, “GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”
CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure, has a similar arrangement with 45Footwear, which also says it uses Trump’s “name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”
A Trump spokesperson and God Bless the USA Bible did not immediately respond to questions about how much Trump was paid for the licensing deal or stands to make from each book sale.
Trump remains deeply popular with white evangelical Christians, who are among his most ardent supporters, even though the thrice-married former reality TV star has a long history of behavior that often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.
When he was running in 2016, Trump raised eyebrows when he cited “Two Corinthians” at Liberty University, instead of the standard “Second Corinthians.”
When asked to share his favorite Bible verse in an interview with Bloomberg Politics in 2015, he demurred.
“I wouldn’t want to get into it. Because to me, that’s very personal,” he said. “The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”
When he was president, law enforcement officers aggressively removed racial justice protesters from a park near the White House, allowing Trump to walk to nearby St. John’s Church, where he stood alone and raised a Bible. The scene was condemned at the time by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
Before he ran for office, Trump famously hawked everything from frozen steaks to vodka to a venture named Trump University, which was later sued for fraud.
JILL COLVIN
Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York.
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.LG66KVJpaFpJ17R7Yoa9JQHaD4?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
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This guy Brother Paul makes some excellent arguments why Conald Dump is 666. Now this shows his "pitch" and shit. This Bible has American documents in it! What about separation of church and state folks? "Make American Pray Again?" This whole conspiracy that Christianity is "under attack" has been a lie from the get-go. Keeping religion "separate" is what the Founding Fathers emphasized for good reason! But shockingly there is something in here even more sinister. In the ad, it says "this Bible is the only one endorsed by President Trump." YES. Wait a minute folks, hold the presses! So what about all the other versions of scripture here! Now this says King James, but what have they twisted to KJV? Oh the blasphemy is shocking. "Endorsing" a translation like he has that much power! Buckle up folks! Its about to get BUMPY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgD290axzXU
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Ok lets break down the ludacris grift. Meidas Touch is very helpful on this. On the website godblesstheusabible.com, which is promoting this "Bible," it claims it uses Trumps name and likeness, but...the monies, arent used for campaign, legal fees, and it is "licensed" (same as owned folks) by CIC (Commander in Chief) Enterprises...which...is owned by a....(drumroll please)...you guessed it! Owned by "Donald J Trump!"
Oh the gaslighting of the Kool Aid Cult! Personallly "endorsing" this, and yes on the site says this Bible is "not political." Nah...nah never! Using a washed up former president, and including the DoI, National Anthem, and OMG the GRIFT! Oh I know the devil is laughing his ass off over this. This is flowering insanity. I cant believe he hasnt gone up in flames yet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0153-MQ3AMA
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This video shows how sketchy states are gerrymandering and what they do with their district maps, and how they try to nudge the African American vote from not counting to win. And how the Supreme Court, with three appointed by Trump justices, is wholly corrupt and not on the side of the American people. How can we co-exist with so much corruption in this country? And when Dump's immunity case is heard, just how long will it take them to rule on it, so we can witness a trial before the election? What if they sit on it, for months and months, and let it lag on, and Jack Smith is not afforded the opportunity, to show Trump for what he is, and what he did? Americans DESERVE to see this evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owfVBLSs_Bs
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1989. Ill include the song...
I dont know if all realize, one of the BIG reasons Trump, is running from Karma, is this issue RIGHT HERE. Now his racism knows no bounds. But a BIG reason it is coming for him, is the boys known as the Central Park 5.
These boys were African American and Hispanic. And Trump took out a full page ad calling for their deaths. They were children, and Trump raised up NYC against them, and NYC had no evidence. The Central Park Jogger who was brutally raped, had no recall of the event. I am actually thankful she cant. It must have been horrific for her. BUT the actual rapist was caught and DNA proved it was him and...Trump NEVER apologized for his mistake. EVER. If anything, he still said they were guilty! Now the boys were exonerated. But they spent 13 years in jail, and were innocent! So this shows how in past Trump has targeted people. And no surprise in the judical system he sure likes targeting black prosecutors and judges. He is a bully! But listen to this interview. The Boys are now MEN. And ill include Public Enemy cause, 1989 was a year that...this happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlglvQtJAvk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-4AtiOjBmg
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That's a hard interview to watch. But Yusaf has risen above and is a councilman now. So incredibly wise. Its incredible to hear him give that clarity on darkness vs light.
Trump's history of racism is disgusting. I could go on. But of course during covid we had George Floyd, and Black Lives Matter. It was actually George Floyd which got me to get to youtube and do something constructive with my channel. That was it for me. I remember watching the video, that SOB cop with a knee on his neck, killing him before our very eyes. I didnt even watch all the video. I went to my group and posted "A Storm is Coming." And it was, and it did. The marches. It's brutal. And this crazy ass racism of his. Its disgusting.
I had the chance to witness racism since I was with my children's father a considerable amount of time. I have often thought of how I brace my own for the racism in this country, and how it is. So when I saw George Floyd, I knew it was time. Get up, and raise the voice, esp against this flowering lunatic who has hypnotized so many flowering people.
And to think my own sister is over there a city away, worshipping this flowerer, when her son is Hispanic, and the horrible things he has said about immigrants. It baffles the mind. That alone you think would deter her. Michelle, Minta, your own SON, who served in the ARMY is flowering Mexican. How dare you?
I could say so much, so much on this. But yes, even how it impacts my own family. Like above. How someone could support him, having a son who is Mexican? Born in East LA. Is mindboggling to me. The upmost betrayal. It sickens me. Totally sickens me. Totally sickens my father, too.
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I don't normally watch The View. But some good commentary from the ladies. "The last time Trump was on his knees, was when looking for a french fry." Yes, do the evangelical Christians really believe he's a true Christian? You know, "God will send a strong delusion, so they will believe a lie." That's why, you all see two very distinct camps. One, those who hang on his every word and believe he is being persecuted for the "deep state." And then, the others who see through his bullshit. But yes, the Bible issue, during Holy Week, days before Easter, is massive. And all I can do, is hope some Christians wake up, and see him peddling these Bibles as "going too far."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wYDP50oWY
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So Don the Beggardly and Shameless Con, has been peddling golden sneakers and BIBLES of all things. These folks, are not signs of a wealthy businessman. Like if Elon Musk was selling BIBLES suddenly, the world would question if he really is the richest man in the world. Most folks live off the interest of their investments, these ultra-rich Billionare Boys. But the false messiah, it must be difficult for him to say we need God in America, or maybe its not. Cause he will stand up there like any old useless televangelist, and LIE to his base. Notice the world RALLIES has the word LIES in it? Rallies full of LIES. Yes! Always aim to see the "bigger picture," lest you lose your sanity.
So prior Dookey Donald had to come up with 454 or 464 million. give or take. But the Judge threw the sinking ship a lifeline, and reduced the bond to 175 million. I think he has to pay Thursday, dont quote me on this. But at time of lifeline, was given ten days. So WHY hasnt he paid the money yet? Now I wonder... is this a strategic move of the spirit, to show us something? Cause what if, even after this bond was severely reduced, he cant pay THAT either? Now he got a bond for the 83 million and 5 million for E Jean Carroll. But what if that is all these companies say he is good for? That would PROVE to his base (though sure they will make excuses), that he has far less money than he claimed to have. Which then, would explain his recent grifts selling golden sneakers and Bibles, like a desperate snake oil salesman! I would think he would pay quicker, considering the interest is like 110k per day! Imagine the concept. But oh the grift! If he cant come up with it, oh boy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK0rzUYmbuI
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Pink Floyd got a new released video coming up April 7th, in time for the April 8 Eclipse!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY2pT-6NeEc
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OMG all everyone listen to Floyd! They know whats going on! 8)
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Well I'm just going to have to say it, the world is stuffed.
I know there are a lot of bright people out there who could save it, but you know, it is being stuffed by democracy - funny that.
the Gaia man, prof lovelock, has also gone for the same thing, tho his opting for nuclear power is daft. the problem is politics. the issue is time. the fact is it has run out. we're stuffed. prepare for a nightmare future. as the beings we here are, this has profound ramifications.
I'm sick and tired of all the gabbers spruking about their precious group identities - the US, Semitics (Arabs, including Israel), France, Catholics, Muslims, Iran, Hezbollah, Tamil Tigers, China, all of them whose names slip past me much to the horror of the people involved who pump out their identities endlessly into the public sphere - I've had enough of the lot of them. Don't they realise the whole ship is going over the falls? Who gives a stuff for their precious little beliefs and problems - we're all stuffed, and while they squabble over chicken scraps on the boat floor, the monster's foot is coming down!!!!!
you all here will need to look sharp - I'll give us 5 years, then it's eveyman and woman for themselves. I only hope in this place you have learnt that little bit extra to help you find a survival niche. Cause there's no way we will be talking like this! Good luck everyone, I've just got to go and put my fish in the oven....
LOL first post you said it in 2006. Its "almost" every man and woman for themselves. But its close! Oh its gotten flowering wild since this first post. The monster's foot is coming down - this may be the flowering year!
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This video is only 1:05 minutes. But watch this one! Look at the false messiah and him playing these people! Aligning himself with the crucifixion and Jesus! Oh the blasphemy and hypocrisy? I know folks ask why, at least those who haven't ran yet, dousing themselves in holy water. "Why are they falling for this shit?" The strong delusion, thats why!
Its shocking and he's starting to play into this role more and more and more....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1uyKDX5_JI
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So this is America. Now folks are supposed to be "free." If a man wants to wear women's clothes, or a woman men's clothing, what is the big flowering deal? So today is Easter, and also Transgender Visibility Day. So conservatives all over have their panties in a wad over it. Now the thing is, it happened to fall on Easter this year. But they are saying Biden put it the same day with Easter to "mock Christianity." No, it's been a thing for 15 years! But here they go! But oh if you ask conservatives about things like Diddly Dump peddling Bibles, or sharing articles on
Truth Lies Social about comparing him to Jesus and the crucifixion, they are ok with it. Apparently they are also ok with images of President Joe Biden hog tied in the back of a truck and Orange Menace sharing this. Oh no, that's not offensive and they don't condemn that! But they cry cause a man wants to wear makeup and heels. Oh these flowerers have it coming, they really do!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn5wl_PTdQA
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Oh flowering done this man slayed it! My man! He goes over the Orange Shitstain reading The Snake poem. Dumb MFs hearing their own demise! He’s the flowering snake! He nails it!
https://youtu.be/IxaaJY605mQ?si=Gz3oGh_gGFeNhxkX
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So I was reading yesterday that this new "Christian Trump" (trying to not set my laptop on fire typing that), didnt go to church on Sunday. He spent all of Easter,, ranting on
Truth Lies Social ranting about himself and his woes, and all his so-called enemies. Which he always makes his enemies, America's enemies. You know. But apparently he did like over 70 rants instead of going to Church. I thought he had a lot of Bibles! I thought it was his favorite book! Now granted, I didnt go to Church myself. But then those who only show up on the big holidays that says something too so. How you act in the world, really is the most important thing. Jesus talked way more about this, than say, being in a church and worshipping. But still, you would "think" to really show these Evangelical Christians he is truly one of them, he would have a camera follow him into a church. Oh noes! Pride keeps him out, surely. So he spent the whole day on his sad little platform crying to the masses how persecuted he is.
Can you imagine Jesus, living in modern day, ranting on social media his persecution? Nah, I didnt think you could. Says something.
But him sharing the article titled very blasphemously, "The Crucifixion of Donald Trump," and sharing this, is as unholy as it could get. Oh cringeworthy that someone would compare him to this. And recent articles he is the "chosen one." Oh he chosen alright, to drag folks to hell! That strong delusion is very powerful! The scoop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpehGu6c4kQ
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Heh! I knew this would happen. Couldnt happen to a nicer guy! 8) So Don the Con's stock went ⬇️ considerably. Some like this say 18%. Others say 21%. An earnings report was done, and stated he lost 58 million on his
Truth Social platform. Oh he was so begging the supporters for a lifeline! But he doesnt seem to understand, the "poorly educated" may have 401ks, but they dont like play the stock market. Shit I dont! I just play the horses, and I knew, his horse is well, looks like has an injury and is limping to the finish line, dead last, at least under his ticker DJT. Maybe he should have gone to church Easter, instead of ranting on the platform all flowering day, saying a whole lot of bullshit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhFWNxNg2kw
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Meidas Touch put out a good video comparing the tirade of Shameless Donald the Loser Con, to PRESIDENT Joe Biden's posts on Easter. One, a hideous display of unhinged wrath against so-called enemies. The other, actually speaks of Jesus and Americans and the "wishes" for Easter, come across much more genuine and SANER for the love of all that is holy! But even showing the AI images of Orange Shitstain and Melania on T
ruth Social. The Kool Aid Cult has to make them, as she tries to stay out of public as much as possible. I mean, cant blame Melania - she should be embarrassed she ever had sex with it more less married it! But yes, the scoop to show him coming undone. So "Christian" of him, oh the chosen one, SURE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-HCLmztPk
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Well it looks like Don the Con, posted the bond. A Knight Insurance Company took the risk. Now, then the next step: the appeal. Will he win or lose? Cause if he loses, thats it! Be interesting to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FhfH0iNYTM
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President Biden needs to do something. The whole world is sick of watching Netanyahu commit genocide. Now Israel killed 7 aid workers. Enough! This is disgusting. These people risked their lives to help the Palestinian people. The darkness in Israel is shocking. Stop giving them money for God sakes!
https://youtu.be/T0syr75N9Io?si=tqiKSHaMRGCdJB5A
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I do not care, what the Kool Aid Cult says. When they say Don the Con "tells it like it is" and "means what he says," then shift to "he didn't mean what he said," you need someone like this fella: a "Trump Whisperer." He has a great channel, and will break down what the Orange Shitstain really "means" when he spews his vitriol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzz7G7keu48
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So I'm no expert on the deeper issues of the law. Let me break it down in a nutshell. In Florida, in the documents case, where Traitor Boy had umpteen million TOP SECRET documents. The Judge Cannon, who is a Trump appointed judge, is pulling a fast one in favor of her Boi. But Jack Smith, is far smarter than that, and responded to her stupid and illegal request for jury instructions. She really needs to be removed. And it appears Jack Smith is beginning the process of this. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbEdqKGORfU
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The Golden Calf is in deep dookie! Apparently..his 175 million dollar bond from some sketchy company might be bogus! Now…if that is so, Leticia James can grab Donny Boi by the golden nuggets and seize some ASS-ETS! 🤣🤭 The scoop!
https://youtu.be/_ATmnBSwYyU?si=ppqll66CiH8enbQJ
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So President Biden had his call with Netanyahu. Calling for immediate cease fire. And for the FIRST time, he referenced cutting sending the money to them and...Netanyahu is agreeing to some measures for aid but...Not seeing him agree to cease fire yet! NO, tell them no more money. It is April now. How many more people have to die or starve to death or whatever? I know this is a sensitive issue as what sparked it was horrific and there are hostages. But the response has disgusted the world. It needs to STOP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uierlUKAU
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So a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the east coast of the uS today. Most notably NYC and NJ. And something amazing. A UN Securities meeting was going on in NYC, and when the speaker is speaking of the children of Gaza - you can clearly see and hear the earthquake!
And also, we have a couple court cases in NYC for The Golden Calf going on. The spirit sick of the issue with Gaza, and also the blasphemous behavior of Don the Con, Bibles grifts and the like? Right before the eclipse? Sure seems this is a sign folks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX95KnbFB4g
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I wasn't gonna mention it cause its so negative. But its probably coming. Because of this Israel airstrike on Damascus, Iran gonna retaliate. Now it appears the US, does not want to engage with Iran of course. I know the US has been trying to keep out of the mess in Israel and Gaza and get it to stop. But now that Israel has done this, there is going to be a response. So appears the US asked Iran to basically not attack anything US, warning. But we need to brace ourselves. Now this thing with Israel is going to expand and THAT is something our planet does not need.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AEk_nRF0V4
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This is so irritating. It's so selfish. NONE of this bullshit would be happening, if long ago, leaders of Israel would have accepted a two state solution. Everyone in the region, and the US, has been pleading with Israel, all these years, to do so. ALL THESE YEARS. Since esp the Six Day War. And now, the world watches the worst thing imaginable, wondering if its all gonna get biblical. Stupid Christians think they gonna get raptured, or Jesus going to fix this whole mess. Its all messed up. They do not get it. But the people who live in Gaza, who have been denied bare minimum human rights for decades, get it. A lot more than other people in the world do. They have been suffering for a very long time. But also, the people of Israel who, are at the mercy of horrible governments, they suffer too, because their leaders refuse this two state solution. Then long ago when they had a leader open to it, he got assassinated. So that went up in smoke. It is so incredibly dark.
They need to cease fire. Stop the bombing. And while Hamas is horrible yes, still do what they can to negotiate getting those hostages back. Stop all of this. Its like they use the US as leverage to do what they want, which sure lots in the region know we are an ally, but they use that. Unfairly. And its put the US in a shitty situation, damned if you do or dont. But the US needs to tell Israel firmly, no more money, no more weapons, if you dont stop! Its the only way Netanyahu will back down. But they have to mean it. And try to get to the table to get the people back. And get humanitarian aid to Gaza. And stop the senseless killing. We all watch and know what he is doing - he is using this whole deal to wipe the Palestenians off the map - its obvious. And the world is watching and many aren't buying his bullshit.
*shakes head*
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“Dark Brandon” apparently made this South Park style cartoon of the Golden Calf. It gets real at the end tho.
https://youtu.be/MACYQL-jV-A?si=kpm8Pd6BmgZrsKo6
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Ew put you in wrong spot here he go!
Heh. This may be a first for me! Dirty Donnie may have been caught being honest! I know, I know! He’s capable at times. ESP when his billionaire friends give him money! Promising tax cuts for the really rich! But then hinting at cutting social security and Medicare. I love this video cause it shows Biden and Bernie call him out.
I know tho. Slick Willy is depending on those poorly educated MAGA idol worshippers to make an excuse for this video. I wonder if that toothless old man I met the other day, would still wanna take the Orange Shit-Fer-Brains to dinner if he wins the Powerball? Well not sure. But here’s the scoop:
https://youtu.be/xQYnizI5mwU?si=ZfB1rLXXfHx4J2RG
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Do bots read this or people? I don't know. One day my kid may read all this shit.
ANYWHO Lucifer getting bold! Brother Paul did this video to show Dirty Donnie's "Eclipse Ad." And if you, do like me, Hangman and see this from a different perspective, you can SEE this flowerer blocking THE SUN, which can reference the Spirit. That he is DARKNESS and will plunge this world into darkness. OMG all. Is the Kool Aid Cult this dense? I know the 144k isn't. Like I will see the news and be like "The emperor has no clothes. This is all up in everyone's face!" I mean, even back in the day when he stared at an eclipse, an act of defiance perhaps?
Anyway, this dude shows the ad, and y'all its SO OBVIOUS. Anyone who believes this flowerer wants to "Save America" and not his own skin needs to have their head examined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smct4KnkRA&t=26s
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY2pT-6NeEc
They knew a long time ago:
All that you touch
And all that you see
All that you taste
All you feel
And all that you love
And all that you hate
All you distrust
All you save
And all that you give (all you give)
And all that you deal (oh-oh)
And all that you buy
Beg, borrow or steal (hey-hey)
And all you create
And all you destroy (whoa)
And all that you do
And all that you say (hey-hey)
And all that you eat (yeah)
And everyone you meet (everyone you meet)
And all that you slight
And everyone you fight (oh-oh-oh)
And all that is now
And all that is gone
And all that's to come
And everything under the sun is in tune (everything)
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
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I knew Jack Smith was not going to sit on his hands, while SCOTUS took up this bogus immunity from prosecution argument for Dirty Donnie, and sit on their hands! America knows what they are doing. Taking the case, and stretching it out to be heard the final day. Then when will they rule, oh therein lies the rub! America wants to see this trial, well, unless they want to see Trump beat the charges. But still, there are some fence sitters who are curious to see the evidence Jack Smith has. This trial, will be the trial of ALL American history. I hope he continues to apply the pressure on SCOTUS so if they try to flower around, America will start calling them out, oh, all over social media, for the whole planet to see. But I knew he would not just...accept their bullshit.
I like him! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HC-JQJZP4U&t=67s
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The Orange Numbnuts, his strategy is clear. Delay cases so they cant prosecute him if he wins the presidency. So his latest stretch is to sue, yes sue, the judge in the hush money case over the gag order. Welp! If you keep threatening people or do various calls to the public for the Kool Aid Cult to go after them, you are a clear and present danger and need to be gagged. Then of course he could not shut his mouth about the judge's daughter so, what you expect Slappy? It's all theatrics to delay and run from his fate. But it appears the trial is still set April 15.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQtLOzFEzdU
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Jared Kushner, the son in law of Orange Menace. Is as crooked as they come. A 2 billion payoff by the Saudis after the reporter was killed and...its all done in our face. Under Trump, foreign policy is for sale. Makes The Godfather look like a family that runs a day care. What a mess!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2tEbvmmwao
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I know what would bring back the legal right to abortion in a NY minute. If this shit doesnt stop, as many states are trying to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. But yes, these old fogey stogeys keep taking abortion rights away, like today in AZ, eventually ALL women are going to say "We are DONE having sex with you men." Don't think it wont happen? Oh I can see it. I bet it's already beginning. But yes, these fools want to tell women they can't have a safe and legal abortion, and try to control the womb? Well, then they must do away with the threat so they have no chance of getting pregnant. So imagine all women across the board take no chances anymore. And America becomes a totally sexless nation. Full of lonely, sad, frustrated males who can't find any woman who dares to mess with them. Or even, is just too pissed off at the male gender anymore. Cause women can sure as shit abstain way better than any man. Watch those clowns run to their states congressmen begging for abortion rights to come back. Begging, pleading, raising hell! Cause those dumbasses need us more than we need them. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib4atbR1pIY
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So of course, can’t have a good end times, doom without an invasion of some pestilence. So we will get trillions of Cicadas this year. Scientists say “double the dose” oh how nice!
https://youtu.be/yNzWXujoR1Q?si=b-j8RB1CV4v3_y1_
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So yes. My old home state of AZ, decided to reinstate an old 1864 abortion law, which would go into effect in two months. Which bans all abortion, no grace weeks. And doctors could be imprisoned. So now, Orange Shitbag and his sketchy accomplice Kari Lake, who is a pathetic election denier in AZ (she is Trump in drag), are now backpedaling on some of the abortion issues. Oh should have left well enough alone. Cause women do VOTE and many are going to vote based on this issue. Many women do not want The Handmaid's Tale in this country. I would never vote republican based on this issue ALONE. Abortion is healthcare. This should not be a matter of religion. And the recent brew-ha-ha in Alabama declaring frozen embryos as children, putting a stall to women trying to conceive, has got even the staunchest pro-lifers question things. Yes, they are pro-birth, not pro-life folks! That's why! Oh its gonna be a hot topic this November!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePofEQvm-ww
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So when it comes to this topic, I want to do my due diligence not to put trash on here. This is a PBS video on Qanon. Q, I'm convinced, is the "false prophet" that the Bible speaks of. Now, there are things the Bible says like "making fire rain down from heaven" and things. That may come later, maybe in another reality. But this incognito person posting on message boards, has got the attention of MANY folks, and they believe whoever this is. Now, it's clear to me this is the false prophet, as they have worked in favor of Trump, and his deeds, pitting him as some hero of being against the deep state. But this Q goes deeper in that many politicians side with this very dark force. And look at the words "false prophet." That means one who claims to have knowledge and connection to a divine source but is misleading others falsely. Q has never been right about anything. The infiltration is huge and many who attend Trump's rallies wear Q shirts and say "where we go one, we go all." Yes, basically get dragged to hell. So it's very messy and disgusting. But could this figure emerge on the scene and reveal themselves? Possible. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMcJGnypBuQ
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SHOW ME THE MONEY! The Grift! I think the Orange Itty Bitty Shitty was like a snake-oil salesman in a past life. Cause he just grifts everything! But Ben shows some sketchy shit with the taxes and campaign money. Oh, we got Arizona brewing up a storm with some shit, and now this. More charges coming? The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RVoIvU4Q5o
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I keep a pic of dad by my laptop. So he can watch the whole fiasco with me. I can hear him saying ‘Look at the c***s” when I do my YouTube indulgence. Now he was a Republican long ago. I know he sees this fiasco. If he could get ahold of Donnie Dimwit. But yes. It all boils down to hush money payments to a porn star. Then some other chick. His former buddy lawyer turned arch enemy. And a gossip rag exec scumbag in the mix. A trial Donald Jackass Trump tried to delay. But the heat is on! What a flowering shit show!
https://youtu.be/ZKI7duAn0w0?si=7q6RmSrcrhaz3B80
https://youtu.be/uZD8HKVKneI?si=yq_Nxsi6fUpiA4PR
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SLAYED! Yes, this guy always breaks it down so hardcore. I would call him the Orange Menace but...he looks kinda bronzed out these days! I think Donny Dumbass Douche got sick and tired of being called "Orange!" Anyway, yes, MSNBC normally does not show ITs face. But...did tonight and...when he mentioned how this dumbflower never bronzes the ears, always missing them? Oh SLAYED IT! ;D I hate looking at its face, but I had a good ass laugh over this! ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFqMPrzn5kE
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Heh. On Devil's Comet day, which a comet can depict the fall of a leader. It sure depicted the fall of some stock! The beggardly, desperate, bronzed-faced Oompa Loompa Dumpass, has lost a significant amount of value of his stock. So he has been pleading with his measly followers on
Truth Social to buy stock! What a stupid flower! His basket of deplorables can barely afford a tube of toothpaste! It all sinks from here, the sinking ship and the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U0HX3y-qLo
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Brother Paul breaks down the strong delusion many Christians are under. That God is not actually deluding. But he is permitting the delusion, cause they didn't love the truth.
Now years ago, during the 2020 election, a lightworker lady did a very popular video saying Trump was a lightworker. I watched her, all glassy-eyed saying ridiculous nonsense. But what was more horrific, is how she was misleading her following. Now I did run back and counter the video. Mine still got good views, tho not nearly as many. But over time, folks did link my video on her video in several spots, and also folks would find my video and say "Oh God so glad I found you I was so confused!" YES. Because so many light folk, new age folk, were too falling under this deep delusion. So its not just Christians, conservative ones. Its also new agey type folk as well. Folks that would seem all nice, also captured by the Luciferian false light.
But yes he breaks it down its not God is being a bad guy. But folks "delighting in wickedness" and didnt love the truth, well, they get hooked. And it shows badly right now. But I know a time will come, God is also gonna flip the light switch on. Where will all be standing when this happens? That is the question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN-e4ZOnYcA
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I lost a million brain cells watching this. Dementia Donnie. Now the GOP is always going after Biden being too old, or cognitively declining. Now yes, On occasion Biden will gaff a bit. BUT NOT LIKE THIS. This incredibly insane, stupid MF said we gonna have WW2, got Nikki Haley confused with Pelosi. Thinks he ran against Obama (he is obsessed and insanely jealous of him). Jeb Bush with Bush Jr all messed up. Doesn't know history. And folks want to elect this falling apart, reality tv clown who is on the lunatic fringe. It's a lot of flowering...I dont know what to call this. He is so incredibly IGNORANT and he is getting worse and worse and worse. Maybe its partly cause he fried his brains on that White House pharmacy. flowering unreal compilations of a total idiot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPy5S77Aqjo
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Heh. Wonka!
So first day of the big Stormy Hush Money trial. And someone needs to stop staying up all night on the toilet, raging on their Truth Social platform. Cause Dementia Donnie was falling asleep in trial. His jaw hitting his chest. And he calls President Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe?" ;D What a flowering 🤡 sleeping and drooling all over himself. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq87xK_lzAI
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So the stock is now even LOWER than he reported. When I saw that The World's Biggest Loser was going public with
Truth Social. I knew the stock was going to tank. So at one point, it was as high as $79 a share. Now down to about $27. So those folks who invested at its peak, flushed their money down the toilet. Now with all this tanking, and apparently Diaper Don is tired of winning. Just how low is this going to go, if this is only three weeks in? He cant sell his own shares until September. Now course, periodically he cries to his base to invest. Which I've explained, the deplorables are dePOORables. They dont invest in the stock market. And now we got a Stormy trial and all this other stuff going on. So most folks trying to pay the rent and worry about buying baby a new pair of shoes. You on your own, Coppertone Baby!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZqdWSDOxVM
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(https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.6VsbFGK4B7SpobGLxPmWmQAAAA&pid=3.1&cb=&w=300&h=300&p=0)
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(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.6QJUIWOq7HfuqL8fQP9hogHaHW?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
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And the gag order. Potty Mouth Trump has been notorious violating them, which $1000 fine is nothing. But this time its a CRIMINAL trial. And the prosecution said he violated it on three occasions thus far. So on 4-23 he is set to have a hearing on this. Could he get jail? It would be a first, as many courts have given him umpteen million chances and handled him with kid gloves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s19jhHYfkbc
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I have my theories on little Barron ;D
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.6cdfe2f663caa3788d866f50fca635ee?rik=GlMAsuC1xY2lNg&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Let's break it down and I'll use his new name. Don Snoreleon, basically when Melania had given birth to little Barron, and he was 4 months old. Got cheated on by Dirty Donnie with a porn star. She too, has to be disgraced, and stoop by "standing by her man," well, barely. She avoids the public. But now, he is acting like "oh the family man" and is whining on Truth Social he can't attend Barron's high school graduation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkni1uLwOZ0
Are we to believe he cares about his son? When on holiday times he has abandoned Barron and Melania and played golf? And his disgusting shit with women and saying he can "grab them by the pussy?" Puh-lease. This is all disgusting and for show.
But personally, I got ideas about little Barron. I don't think he likes this Orange Shitbag flowering around on his Mama! You know, I just got ideas when all these recordings pop up out of nowhere and....
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Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! Now I'm no expert on the stock market. But this is known as a "Pump and Dump." Which rhymes with Trump. Who is real good at losing other people's money. I just checked, and the DJT stock is now at 23.91. It's all downhill from here folks! Went from a high of 79 to this shit! Anyone stupid enough to invest in the antichrist stock really blew it!
Truth Social is a total money making LOSER. Run by a LOSER. And this may trade at a dollar by the time Declining Don can cash in!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0PQM2oGlHE
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Super raw video about the agenda, and showing how republicans sold out to MAGA. And no matter what Dump does, how despicable he is, or crimes committed, its about "politics" and these people keeping their jobs. Thats all they care about. THEMSELVES. Not the country. I am sure they loathe him deep down. But they bow down and submit. And it's gonna cost those folks. Basically, they sold their souls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5LNDnhrvY
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I knew this was coming! So Don Snoreleon isn't looking too good with this sketchy surety bond he posted. Looks like the prosecutor has asked the courts to reject it and here is why. Oh it comin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG765PVqCDM
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So the hush money trial is underway. But a BIG ONE coming, is the Trump immunity claim. This is being heard by SCOTUS on Thursday, April 25th. Now, they KNOW they must rule he does not have absolute immunity from crimes. The claim is preposterous. However, they can hear it, and delay ruling. Will they rule quickly, so Jack Smith can get his trial going? Or will they sit on hands? Now, I don't think the democratic justices would want to. But three of these justices were appointed by Trump. So they may try to stall. The US and people deserve to see this trial. And I do suspect Spirit wants it too. It will be telling. Let's see what happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlt9tM8rGnY
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Now this is my theory on this. Per Don Snoreleon, who has been sleeping and farting in court for the hush money trial. Spirit is not just "ripping the veil" back, but literally burning it down, to the point the emperor has no clothes. All crimes lead back to Trump. No matter what is said and done. This trial, the opening arguments show the transactions, but that one of the conspirators even 'took detailed notes' of all, and the prosecution, has the notes! Oh smoking guns galore! But see, all this stuff being exposed, undeniable evidence. And watch, there will be those who STILL support him. Just wait till the Jack Smith election interference trial, if we can get there! But this, we have evidence.
My feel tho is, as Trump has his supporters, this could end up being a hung jury. Because if we do have a brainwashed loon who sides with Orange Menace, no matter what he does, a hold out hangs the jury. It must be unanimous to find guilty or innocent. I'm hard pressed to believe all will be impartial, considering that half the country supports him, no matter how crooked he is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPAcsRjJysc
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It’s beginning to happen. Least I hope in my reality! Ok, it’s mixed in here. But today Humpty Trumpy did a
Truth Social post how cops were blockading the courthouse, and thousands could not protest and support him. Not so! Yesterday, he had three supporters show up. Today, UNO. Now, last week a crazy person set their own self on fire! But not this week. This week, crickets. And where is Melania, or the fam? Nowhere to be seen. Perhaps folks are beginning to get bored with it all. I hope so cause this is nuts!
https://youtu.be/2GpJRLHVE_8?si=sN1e_GSDJP1h81uU
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Where is Melania? ;D Now, it seems that Melania sitting in court could be a HUGE influence on the jury. Her presence alone, standing by her man, could "possibly" appear the hush money story is not true. But oh noes! The fact Melania does not attend these court proceedings in support, is going to speak volumes to the jury, her absence alone. Since the tale is, when she had just had little Barron and he was only four months old, The Tiny Handed Wombat, who is reported by Stormy Daniels to have a penis that looks like a rotten mushroom.🤮 But basically, Melania being absent and her being all HUSH could influence the jury a whole lot. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEO7kO6dgq0
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Arizona just indicted some fake electors today. 11 of them. But there is some redacted names. Could Dirty Donnie be one of them? I read on this months ago. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS4t8skqSKI
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Hard to predict. The hearing on if the Sketchy Shitbag has full immunity. SCOTUS is corrupt. But they can’t say he is above the law. Let’s see how long it takes them to rule.
https://youtu.be/joK6u3kpTZU?si=kGSNUfmBVSubTYZp
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It's a throwback to the 60's. Anti-war protests on college campuses. New hippie movement? I suspect something like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F78l6lj9FVs
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Who's side is the Supreme Court on here? The Election Interference trial needs to take place. But as it has Trump lovers on the court, they didn't even need to take the case. How long will it take for them to rule, and what shall they rule? They could sit on this until next year if they wished. See what happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeuheBtBYNg
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So Brother Paul shows a sermon, part of it, where this pastor WENT OFF about the Blasphemous Bible that Dirty Deeds Donny is promoting. This video has gone viral, as it should. He explains its blasphemous putting these American documents in the Bible and why. Now he didn't mention Trump. But he drew a severe line between politics and the church, or dividing what is of the world, and what is not. Anyway, the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoE2NmLUYqI
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Unfortunately, this may have to be how people learn. You hit someone in the pocketbook, here comes the enlightenment. This man lost his retirement on the
Truth Social stock. 450k! It's horrible. I feel sorry for him on one hand, I really do. But, him awakening to who Dirty Deeds Donnie is before he dies, will save his soul. Hard lesson, and its despicable how this Orange Menace cons these people, but this man will save his soul now. If he profited and continued to follow him, he would be doomed. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7HbjJjk60w
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New York never disappoints! Slick Willy's hometown knows him best, is why they did this "chant." And he's right, this is dedication. For New Yorkers to get up the crack of dawn, stand outside of Trump Tower, and chant "New York Hates You!" 😂 They know him best for the Orange Nutsack he is! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUeljfz-Wg4
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Lady Lindsay is a closet gay man who has sold his soul. He is up here. Back in 2016, he said Donald Dump was the worst but now? Sold his soul to the devil totally. No shame in these people kissing the ring and it's cheap and its revolting. He will vote for the Manchurian Cantaloupe, no matter what.
Him 8 years ago, speaking to Trump supporters how awful he is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bkDykGhM8c
Tells Trump to "stop being a jackass":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2H5bfEb-Ik
Now: sold soul bending down and sucking it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VfEDwkAgOE
flowering idiots!
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Eight years ago, Ted Cruz was running against Mango Mess and later we call Ted Cruz "Cancun Cruz," for his cowardly running off and leaving Texas in a snowstorm. But Donnie the Derelict came after Cruz's wife, called her ugly. Here is Cruz standing up to Trump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9slvYjAaS3U
Dump calling Cancun Cruz a "pussy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JrW3VHSULw
And here is him bending down and sucking it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FVGeh08zFc
No, you go after his wife, oh that's totally ok! What a weakling! Soul sold to the devil. ✔️
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Kristy Noem is Orange Shitbag's top VP pic. He thinks she is hot. But "Killer Noem" is getting "known" for taking down the family dog by shooting it in the face, executing a goat, and apparently, taking down three horses too! "Hard decisions must be made on a farm sometimes." Tell that to "Cricket" the family dog, who didn't stand a chance. Can't rehome these animals, no flower it, kill em! So yes, she is perfect for the Orange Menace, a person who doesn't give a flower!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRmLWiBW6H8
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So Potty Mouth Dump, who can't seem to stay awake in any of these proceedings (so much for "Sleepy Joe," eh, Slappy?), was, as I predicted recently, fined but not jailed for violating the gag order, nine times. But the judge says happens again: incarceration. Will he do it again? Does the Pope eat fish on Fridays? Shall see. But I knew he wouldn't jail him. Cause he is doing his best to avoid making a martyr out of this asshole. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85zXPVpTAI
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Course the Kool Aid cult would be nothing without the hats. "Make American Great Again = MAGA." Here's one of the MAGA hats.
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/28/1f/39/281f39d50e0265b97441fd5748e41ae8.jpg)
Now, the bulk of these followers are poorly educated, poor folks, esp from rural places. Evangelical Christians, who, the bulk of MAGA do not attend church regularly themselves. They are often illiterate when it comes to reading, anything, so they can be highly manipulated.
But MAGA. I guess we gotta "see" the different perspective here.
https://prayandbeready.wordpress.com/2020/09/23/what-does-maga-really-mean/
Magician’
♦Maga in Latin: Magic, Magical, Witch
♦Maga in Italian: Sorceress or Witch
♦Maga in Spanish: Magician or Wizard or Illusionist
♦Maga in Polish: Magician
♦Maga in Sanskrit: Magician or Priest of the sun
Now, in English the word ‘Mage’ is an archaic word for magician or sorcerer coming from the Latin word, Magus/Maga, and Greek word Magos.
♦ Etymology com….mage (n.)
“magician, enchanter,” c. 1400, Englished form of Latin magus “magician, learned magician,” from Greek magos, a word used for the Persian learned and priestly class as portrayed in the Bible (said by ancient historians to have been originally the name of a Median tribe), from Old Persian magush “magician” (see magic and compare magi). An “archaic” word by late 19c. (OED), revived by fantasy games.”
With that said, once the term ‘Magician’ came up, I could only think of one thing, yup, that Economist magazine cover from December of 2016 called ‘The world in 2017’ Planet Trump, with the Tarot cards on it. Now do you think that was a coincidence?!
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Yes! These people have been put under such a deep spell by the Orange Shithole, they are literally ADVERTISING they have been cursed. Now course, we go that cool Toltec thing. Heh, sorcery. But there is black magicians running rampant, and even the CC books warned of them. Is this, a possession then, this magical spell which has captured them? Yes, the mark of the beast appears to be simple as wearing MAGA on the head. And these clowns don't know what it means! They really, truly don't. But here we are, and the anti-christ, black magician, goes up to the podium to speak, and they don't realize how truly poisonous ingesting his vitriol is. Yep. They are that flowering GONE.
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It comin! May the fourth be with you! Luke Skywalker showed up at a press conference. To talk about the good Biden has done. Very nice, but will the fanatics listen to Luke? They should!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbVFRN0kMDo
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How gone are these people who are right wing? "Second coming of God?" When I was listening to this man, address the audience and actually let those words, come out of his mouth, about Orange Menace, I mean, nothing makes my jaw drop much anymore. Best thing for Israel? I mean, the anti-christ is right in their face, dancing a jig, and they are frothing at the mouth, possessed and supportive. It's a sight to behold. Absolutely nuts! I'm surprised the dude didn't burst into flames when he said it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpDCAgQrPL0
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This is good! President Biden is FINALLY making a bold chess move with Netanyahu. Notice I say Netanyahu, not Israel. He is saying he will stop sending Israel weapons if they assault Rafah. Now, I suspect, those college kids all over the country, got through to him! He should have done this long time ago, frankly. But I'm glad he is threatening to stop feeding the war machine. Enough innocent lives have been lost.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/joe-biden-interview-cnntv/index.html
Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah
Kevin Liptak
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
7 minute read
Updated 8:32 PM EDT, Wed May 8, 2024
Racine, Wisconsin
CNN
—
President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.
The president’s announcement that he was prepared to condition American weaponry on Israel’s actions amounts to a turning point in the seven-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. And his acknowledgement that American bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza was a stark recognition of the United States’ role in the war.
The president has come under extraordinary pressure, including from members of his own party, to limit shipments of arms amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Until now, the president had resisted those calls and strongly supported Israel’s efforts to go after Hamas. Yet a looming invasion of Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering, appears to have shifted the president’s calculus.
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/d4b5aba8-a5a7-4d02-9236-6bcbbc24a160.jpg?q=w_1015,c_fill/f_webp)
A Palestinian man watches smoke rise following Israeli strikes in the eastern part of Rafah on May 7.
“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas,” Biden said.
Biden said while the US would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin.
“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”
Already, the US has paused a shipment of “high-payload munitions” due to Israel’s possible operations in Rafah without a plan for the civilians there, according to the Pentagon, though it said a final decision on that shipment hadn’t been made. The administration has said it is reviewing the potential sale or transfer of other munitions.
Israeli officials privately expressed to US officials “deep frustration” on the pause in shipments as well as the US media briefings on the decision, according to a source briefed on the matter.
A potential rift
Biden’s public linking of American weapons shipments to Israel’s conduct could widen a rift between himself and Netanyahu, with whom he spoke by phone on Monday. That conversation came as Israel ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from Rafah and launched strikes near border areas of the city.
Biden said Israel’s actions in Rafah had not yet crossed a red line of entering heavily populated zones, even if their actions had caused tensions in the region.
“They haven’t gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border. And it’s causing problems with, right now, in terms of – with Egypt, which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help,” he said.
He said he had conveyed to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders that American support for operations in population centers was limited.
“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,” he said.
Later, Biden described warning Netanyahu about the risks of becoming bogged down in Gaza, drawing parallels to the American experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I said to Bibi, ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We’ll help you get Sinwar,’” he said, referring to the Hamas leader in Gaza. “It made sense to get bin Laden; it made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan. It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon.”
The conflict in the Middle East has consumed much of Biden’s time over the past months, even as he works to promote his domestic record to American voters. His strong support for Israel has generated protests and anger, including on college campuses and at his events, where signs have labeled him “Genocide Joe.”
Asked about the demonstrations, Biden said Wednesday: “Absolutely, I hear the message.”
But he warned against protests that veer into hate speech or antisemitism.
“There is a legitimate right to free speech and protest. There’s a legitimate right to do that, and they have a right to do that,” he said. “But there’s not a lesson legit legitimate right to use hate speech. There’s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There is not a legitimate right to block people’s access to class. That’s against the law.”
Biden fights economic perceptions
Biden was speaking Wednesday in Racine, Wisconsin, where he’d just promoted new economic investments that could result in thousands of new jobs.
In the CNN interview, he sought to reframe perceptions of the American economy, touting strong job growth and efforts to combat corporate greed while questioning surveys showing voters still pessimistic about the country’s direction.
“We’ve already turned it around,” Biden said, responding to a question on whether, less than six months before Election Day, he was running short on time to improve his standing among Americans on his handling of the economy.
Biden pointed to surveys showing many Americans view their own economic situation favorably, even as they look negatively on the nationwide economy.
“The polling data has been wrong all along,” he said, questioning the effectiveness of phone surveys.
And he said his own record on job creation following the Covid-19 pandemic was as clear an indication as any that conditions had markedly improved for American workers.
“The idea that we’re in a situation where things are so bad that folks – I mean, we’ve created more jobs. We’re in a situation where people have access to good paying jobs,” he said.
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gettyimages-2151478352.jpg?q=w_1015,c_fill/f_webp)
Still, he acknowledged there were good reasons for Americans to worry, including the cost of goods and housing.
“The last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation, all those things, that’s really worrisome to people, with good reason,” he said.
“That’s why I’m working very hard to bring the cost of rentals down, to increase the number of homes that are available,” he went on. “Let me say it this way – when I started this administration, people were saying there’s going to be a collapse to the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say it again – in the world.”
Biden has spent much of the last year working to promote his economic accomplishments, including new investments made possible by infrastructure and manufacturing legislation.
That includes in Wisconsin, where he spoke Wednesday at a site where his predecessor Donald Trump once promoted an investment by the Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn that later failed.
“He’s never succeeded in creating jobs, and I’ve never failed,” Biden said in the interview, adding later: “When has he even done anything he said? I’m not being facetious. Think about it.”
Looking ahead to November
Biden voiced little concern about his reelection prospects in the interview. But he warned Trump was unlikely to accept the results of the election if he loses.
“I promise you he won’t,” Biden said, “which is dangerous.”
Asked what advice his former boss, President Barack Obama, had provided in their conversations about the race, Biden said it was simply to “keep doing what I’m doing.”
“I think I’m feeling good about the trajectory of the campaign,” he said. “And you know as well I do, most people don’t really focus and make up their minds until the fall. There’s a lot going on, and we’ll see what happens.”
But surveys have shown voters giving Biden little credit for his economic record.
In CNN’s most recent poll, Biden’s approval ratings for the economy (34%) and inflation (29%) remain starkly negative, as voters say economic concerns are more important to them when choosing a candidate than they were in each of the past two presidential contests.
Biden said on Wednesday that “no president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation.”
“It was 9% when I came to office. 9%. But look, people have a right to be concerned. Ordinary people.”
Inflation actually peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. In January 2021, when Biden was sworn in, it was 1.4%.
He touted his efforts to combat fees — including on bank accounts and credit cards — that the White House has said will lower Americans’ bills.
“The idea that you bounce a check and you get a $30 fee for bouncing the check? I changed that – can’t charge more than eight bucks for that. Or your credit card. Your late payment. $35. I mean, there’s corporate greed going on out there and its got to be dealt with,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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This is Don Lemon saying Orange Shitstain, is the luckiest man in the world. I kind of see the writing on the wall with this. With all these court delay tactics. It does not appear a court can stop him from becoming president. Only one thing can: The People. The vote. It really doesn't matter all the charges or indictments, he has a faithful base. Then the other issue. These Republicans are surely going to try cheating tactics, like not certifying votes gerrymandering, and the like. But if this can be thwarted, as they surely will try to cheat, and Biden wins, or an alternate, then success. But it's coming down to People to vote him out. And people have to vote huge on this, this election. Or we are going to see a shitshow.
Now, no matter what, if he wins, one day, he will lose. That's guaranteed. But what chaos will ensue before he does? I have no clue and don't want to know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apVjlICtAOA
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Yes! So apparently today in court, Stormy Daniels, and even The Orange Shitstain's atty, spent the better part of the day calling him "The Orange Turd." Maybe Stormy read Soma. ;D Just kidding. But he who hopefully one day, shall not be named, is an Orange Turd, and he had to sit there and take it. Yes, but followers swear he is the second coming. Oh it's all trash! Anyway, I like Lawrence, the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBJndkfzNuo
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Here is an "author" (excuse the expression - NOT). Who has claimed to have read the Bible 150 times (sure, evidence he published this it cant be). But this trash is passed out at rallies. Now on amazon, says only two left in stock. I doubt it. But upon reading reviews, appears many aren't smoking what he is:
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61L7NZJCkXL._SY522_.jpg)
Here is the description of his book:
During the presidency of President Donald Trump, it became evident to me that the prophecies about the Son of Man, as predicted by Jesus in the Bible were, to a significant extent, fulfilled at the hands of Mr Trump. The Bible speaks about two different Christs-or Messiahs. Jesus, the Son of God is the one Christ, whereas the Son of Man is the other. Jesus always referred to the Son of Man in the third person. The greatest distinction or significance between the Son of Man and the Son of God (the Lamb) is their respective positions at the throne of God. There are numerous differences between the Son of God and the Son of Man, but overall, people read these scriptures and they do not realize that the Son of God (the Lamb) stands in front of the throne of God, whereas the Son of Man, is positioned on the right hand of God. Jesus spoke about two different killings in the four gospels of the New Testament. People read these scriptures and are unaware that Jesus (the Son of God) predicted his own killing in the first person, as opposed to the several prophecies that He made in respects to the Son of Man who will be crucified. The New Testament speaks about "two Kings;" Jesus, the Son of God, is the "King of the Jews," whereas the Son of Man is the "King of Kings" who will be a world-ruler, and He will rule all the nations (the tribes) of the earth with a rod of iron. This book will explain in depth how "Donald John Trump's" full name literally means: "The Ruler of the World, graced by Yahweh (the LORD) and a descendant of a Drummer." Upon reading this book, the reader will be captivated when they realize how President Donald John Trump fulfilled most of the prophecies as the Son of Man. It speaks about End Time Prophecies and Biblical revelations regarding "President Donald J. Trump, the Son of Man. The Christ." 🔥👩🚒🚒
Lil fire emojis to show he is going to hell in a handbasket. Yes, this is passed out at the rallies, so you know the followers are reading this shit. Calling him son of man. Oh it's all flowering unreal. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I mean, hey, I know all is a dream, check. ✔️ But then these people, who have been warned about the anti-christ, flowering what? Oh lord I don't know what is going to wake these people up! Solar eclipse aint doing it. Tornados galore or earthquakes or shit. I aint sure. But it's all flowered up.
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Oooo oooo scored a gem! Now I was watching a video, and they referenced this article. Apparently these Trump supporting, MAGA men, are having a hard time finding women. I guess they aren't drawn to those 60 year old, bleached blond, toothless gals shriveled up from smoking two packs of Pall Malls, and shooting whiskey, huh boys? So they look for nice girls and...they think "Ew gross." I went through the same thing. Everytime the karmice opened his mouth and said stupid shit like "Trump is the best president ever," it just made me want to puke. And its not the only reason. But it IS a big reason I was done. Cause you cant be a sane, and good person, if you support Trump.
And I've already decided, if I do ever venture into dating again, if someone asks me out or whatever, and I'm even remotely curious (I've been asked out but so far - SHOO). But if I am even curious, before I even dare do dinner or anything, I will ask who they gonna vote for. They say Trump? They get the boot. 🥾
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/28/its-a-good-thing-women-wont-date/
It's a good thing most women don't want to date Trump voters
Now the Washington Post has joined a campaign to shame women for having the bare minimum "no Trump voters" standard
By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
(https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media2.salon.com/2023/11/man_donald_trump_supporter_1790164492.jpg)
It's an amusing truth that comes up with regularity: Men who love Donald Trump struggle on the dating market. This is neither surprising nor regrettable. Supporting Trump is much like refusing to bathe, blowing your nose in your hands or farting loudly on purpose. It's a repugnant habit that makes you repulsive to normal people. The whole point of dating and marriage is to find happiness, not to spend the rest of one's days suffering in silence while the racist you live with cackles over Greg Gutfeld's latest hateful diatribe disguised as "comedy."
This should be common sense. Yet our sexist culture remains too enamored by stories of female self-sacrifice to accept that it's just fine if Trump voters never get laid. Even people who really should know better have taken to bullying liberal women for their refusal to date male Trump voters. "If attitudes don’t shift, a political dating mismatch will threaten marriage," declared a recent headline of a Washington Post column by the editorial board. To make it even grosser, the op-ed was published the day before Thanksgiving, as if to arm "concerned" relatives who planned to spend the holiday pestering single women at dinner over when they will get serious about finding a husband.
This should be common sense. Yet our sexist culture remains too enamored by stories of female self-sacrifice to accept that it's just fine if Trump voters never get laid. Even people who really should know better have taken to bullying liberal women for their refusal to date male Trump voters. "If attitudes don’t shift, a political dating mismatch will threaten marriage," declared a recent headline of a Washington Post column by the editorial board. To make it even grosser, the op-ed was published the day before Thanksgiving, as if to arm "concerned" relatives who planned to spend the holiday pestering single women at dinner over when they will get serious about finding a husband.
In this unsigned essay, the authors fret that the "ideological divide" between young men and women is preventing Gen Z — who range in age from 9 to 27— from getting married. Women under 30 are far more likely to be liberal than men, who are far more likely to identify as conservative. Citing data showing that Democratic voters generally refuse to date Trump voters, the Post editors argue that people should be more willing to date across party lines, and learn to appreciate "alternative perspectives that may at first seem odd or offensive."
The op-ed presents as if this entreaty to date across party lines as if it's generalized advice being offered to both men and women, and both Republicans and Democrats. But of course, it's aimed primarily, if not exclusively, at Democratic-voting women. The polling data shows that most Republicans are already willing to date Democrats. (Which makes sense, since Democrats make more attractive partners.) It's mostly Democrats — and mostly women — who decline to date those from the other party.
Adding further insult to injury, the editorial board cites right-wing sociologist Brad Wilcox, who is set to publish yet another in a long list of books that treat compulsory heterosexual marriage as a panacea for all social ills. Wilcox has a shady history of ties to anti-gay advocacy. Disturbingly, he once argued that marriage prevents domestic violence. In reality, marriage just traps women in relationships with their abusers.
In trying to sell women on this "marry men who repulse you" plan, the editorial board unconvincingly argues that simply being married makes people happier than being single. But while it may be true that married people — even those in politically mixed marriages — report higher levels of happiness than single people, it doesn't follow that the wedding ring is the reason. Most Americans marry for love, after all. Being married to someone you wanted to marry is very different than what is being suggested here: lowering your standards just to get married.
To be a bit crass about it, think about it this way: Two women buy a pair of shoes. The first one is allowed to try on every pair in the store until she finds ones that fit well and look good on her. The other woman buys the first pair on the rack, without even checking if it's her size. Which woman do you think will be happier with her purchase a week from now? And choosing who you marry has even more impact on your life!
Marrying a Trump voter isn't just a matter of minor political differences, or expecting someone to be exactly like yourself. For women, in particular, it's about being able to be safe and respected inside your own home, which is a very minimum standard all people deserve. Voting for Trump means backing a man who has been accused of sexual assault by two dozen women, and who a judge and jury deemed responsible for rape. It means backing the man who repeatedly brags that he got Roe v. Wade overturned. In addition, the MAGA media consumed by most Republicans is hardly neutral on the question of sexism. They are all for it, from the tired sexist jokes on Fox News to bizarre internet trends like "tradwives." For a woman, marrying a Trump supporter isn't about being with someone who has different views on tax rates. It's bringing someone into your home who ascribes to an ideology in which you are not fully human.
But of course, women's happiness is not actually the concern of the Washington Post editorial board. The more serious argument comes from their insistence that cross-political marriages will help save the nation from "the Trump-era divisions" and social ills stemming from men's misogyny. Basically, it's a gussied-up version of the classic "Beauty and the Beast" fantasy, where a woman's love can turn the brute into a prince. It's cruel on its face to expect women to give up their own happiness in hopes they can turn a redhat into a better man through patience and love. But it's also a false hope. It's hard enough to get anyone to change their minds about politics. Trying to get men who already think women are inferior to listen to their liberal wives is a joke.
I have a small sliver of sympathy for the frustration that drives this asinine hope that pity-marriages for Trump voters will save us from the MAGA threat. It's galling that nothing seems to wake up Trump voters from their fascist stupor. Reason doesn't change them. Evidence has no impact. Compassion or decency? We've tried appealing to their better angels for years, and all we get is "cry harder, libs." In the face of this MAGA unwillingness to suck less, there can be comfort in "Twilight"-style fantasies that the monster can be made into a man by a woman's loving touch. But it's simply not real.
Worse, it shifts responsibility for male misbehavior onto women. The blame for MAGA is subtly moved away from those who are perpetuating the problem, meaning Trump's predominantly male voters, onto the shoulders of Democratic women who have been doing everything right all along. It's reminiscent of the way women's hemlines are blamed for male violence or the way mothers are blamed for what their grown sons choose to do. It feels easier to blame women than to hold men accountable. But it's a distraction from the real source of the problem, and from thinking about real solutions.
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Heh. Orange Shitty Shitty Bang Bang is worried! Now RFK JR is a tool. His anti-vaxx sentiments are loathsome. But MANY republicans are also anti-vaxx, due to propaganda. Now I did vaxx myself, but I actually wont go and fault republicans for being vaxx shy myself. It was rushed out to us, and I know many folks died after the vaxx. When I worked in medical billing, I spoke to quite a few who did lose partners. BUT I spoke to far more during covid, who lost loved ones, too. But Trumpy Trump is smart enough, per the BOOS at his rallies, to see that him saying he brought the vaccine, is not something his fans approve of. So as RFK JR is getting some votes and stealing them away, then Orange Potty Mouth went on a rant on
Truth Social saying its a sham! RFK JR is faking being anti-vaxx! Worried? You bet. Now is he taking votes away more from Biden, or Trump supporters? I would say Trump. Most dems dont want the likes of RFK JR tho some do! But I would say republicans desperate for an alternative, but don't want Biden, may vote for this guy. Trump aint wrong - he's a clown. But Trump is the anti-christ so, he's far worse! 👿The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJahLfD0ZM
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Well it wouldn’t be a good Apocalypse, without the Sun hitting earth with a big ass solar flare! G4 geomagnetic storm. Most severe in 20 years. I did have some friends posting photos of the Northern Lights. Here is Bill Nye, looking quite dapper in his big ass yellow tie to give the scoop:
https://youtu.be/nEQrHBqBnfA?si=JaRKC9dnasJQ8z6L
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On a side note. Why does RFK JR remind me of one of those big ass, worms in Dune? 😂 And it looks like he is in competition with Orange Nutsack which old man pulls off the better fake tan! Poor Joe, going on a debate stage with these two looking like he hasn’t been to the beach in 50 years. But at least he looks normal in comparison to this ridiculous reptilian spectacle. I guess the closer to the flames of hell, the crooked ones get toasty like a marshmallow!
Heh. Orange Shitty Shitty Bang Bang is worried! Now RFK JR is a tool. His anti-vaxx sentiments are loathsome. But MANY republicans are also anti-vaxx, due to propaganda. Now I did vaxx myself, but I actually wont go and fault republicans for being vaxx shy myself. It was rushed out to us, and I know many folks died after the vaxx. When I worked in medical billing, I spoke to quite a few who did lose partners. BUT I spoke to far more during covid, who lost loved ones, too. But Trumpy Trump is smart enough, per the BOOS at his rallies, to see that him saying he brought the vaccine, is not something his fans approve of. So as RFK JR is getting some votes and stealing them away, then Orange Potty Mouth went on a rant on Truth Social saying its a sham! RFK JR is faking being anti-vaxx! Worried? You bet. Now is he taking votes away more from Biden, or Trump supporters? I would say Trump. Most dems dont want the likes of RFK JR tho some do! But I would say republicans desperate for an alternative, but don't want Biden, may vote for this guy. Trump aint wrong - he's a clown. But Trump is the anti-christ so, he's far worse! 👿The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJahLfD0ZM
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No one knows who is going to win. And polls can give you ideas, but they aren't concrete. But this is still somewhat promising, that Don Snoreleon is not snaggging the moderates or centrists. I do think when Nikki Haley was running for the Republican nomination, she actually made a dent speaking to people about the problem with Orange Shithole. That still appears to sting. I agree with Beau, she needs to come out and not endorse him, go that far. That would be helpful. But also, I have watched some interviews with Republicans who say they wont vote for him this year. Folks who may have voted for him last two elections. But the insurrection, election denial, the indictments and charges, and his really crazy behavior, are turning off Republicans who are actually still "lucid" and didn't lose their minds. They may not like Biden, but they see the true threat to democracy, and the madness. And they will either vote Biden or independent. It's going to be fascinating. This election. I just hope not, horrifying. I really hope not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82FCXFx57QY
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And one more to show how GONE the Republican party is now. So as the Orange Silly Putty was sleeping in court again, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (who insanely likens himself to "Moses"), stood outside of the courtroom with some other GONE Republicans, who have sold their soul, to support Dumpy Doo. It's amazing. Back in the day, they all turned on Nixon and asked him to resign. But these idiots? They support the anti-christ. Do they not see the flames rising beneath their feat, and a big giant hole opening in the ground, about to swallow them whole? It's a sight to behold. But here we are folks. But if you happen to see this, and you are against all this, and would never support this liar or those who support him - you wont fan the flames like them. It's amazing how little they value their own souls anymore. Completely brainwashed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvUos1cHfY8
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So today, the big news is, President Biden told the Deluded Melon, let’s debate and “I heard you are free on Wednesdays.” Heh. That’s when court is not in session. But you know, while yes this is the most important election ever. The heart of democracy at risk. This debate will not be like, when Rocky had his rematch with Apollo. That was epic! This, is two old ass men, duking it out. And no one really wants this. But here we are. Sure, I’ll watch the debate. It will be one I wish I could unsee. But yes Lawrence is right. Biden is smart not discussing any cases. As to do so could cause mistrials and all sorts of stuff. Shall be interesting to watch.
https://youtu.be/X7umtUaG1ts?si=LZt_hLOExH2ny-U5
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All I can say is, look at the c***$. So today as the Hush Money trial went on. Melania won’t show oh no. Dumpy Doo Doo Brains can’t afford to pay her enough to sit in the court. But the bootlicker entourage, of some House flunkies, showed up to court to support the antichrist. Most wearing suits, red ties, and a whole lot of brown around the nose. My favorite moment is when a thoughtful citizen, held up a “Bootlicker” sign right behind these sorry cult members head, unbeknownst to them. How could they see the sign, when their head is so far up Diaper Dons ass? Probably found some KFC bones in it. No matter! The scoop:
https://youtu.be/9CVCBIBDyhg?si=8PEJwZQDF9FEUYLQ
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Rudy Guilani, who I appropriately call "The Penguin," was recently indicted by Arizona for trying to overturn the election. He is one of the worst of the cult members, who long ago, was a respected politican, but now is going down in history as Chump for Trump Supreme. Now he also defamed two African American election workers, and has to pay them 148 million, which of course he is appealing. Good luck with that, Penguin! But per the recent AZ indictment, and more are to come for others, possibly the Orange Dildo too. But he was taunting the AZ prosecutor on his 80th birthday as he had not quite been served, on twitter/X, only to get his ass handed to him by said prosecutor, for all to see. He dropped his mock post, but it was immortalized by screen shots and now he is the butt of jokes. DONE what a c***. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFjyZEpDs78
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The president of Iran went down in a helicopter today. Trying to find him. No word yet. But here we go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zaO3AHWO20
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One of the more creepy, unhinged things I've seen from the Deluded Melon. Ben on Meidas Touch, is on Trumps creepy email list, to show the bullshit that is sent to supporters. These "truths" sent to him, are above and beyond derranged. Asking Ben if he is awake, if he wants a hug, should he wear a cowboy hat, letting him know he likes shiny things. Of course, these pathetic truths lead to a donation page where Orange Hubris begs for money. It's so pathetic and creepy and weird. But I expect no less. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0yhNNRzJuM
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Like it says, she bent the knee to MAGA. She ran against the Manchurian Cantaloupe all that time. Said he was unfit and unhinged to be president. But now, she bows down like so many of the Republicans have. I am not surprised she did. Another soul sold, for the new MAGA movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo-7KvYTAYU
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Some days it gets boring discussing the grift. I mean, stick it in a cell already! The Deluded Melon sent out an email to his brain-dead followers, that President Biden and the FBI wanted to take him out when they raided Mar-A-Lago. The "deadly force" for one, is something FBI warns about in all warrants. Two, they knew he wouldn't be present when the raid occurred. But no, he must gaslight the followers a tall tale of "Crooked Joe Biden" and how he wants to take him out. "Give me money." Anything to pander to these people for a buck. Like this says, he needs to fly his private jet, pay his atty so she can do lavish vacations and give her friends Dior bags. Or is it Chanel, who knows? Melania's 500 million stylist cause happy wife, happy life! Totally nutty shit but they throw money at the Golden Calf, the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eETrFAlyrfQ
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Defense rests in the Hush Money trial. Yes, pay off a porn star, you "sent by God" Deluded Melon you! All these nuts think he is the second coming, an "imperfect messiah." Anything to keep the illusion. But alas, I am not optimistic. I suspect a hung jury. Now NY has many anti-Trump folks. But it only takes one who is brainwashed to hold out. One. And it's hung. So next week I am not sitting here seeing some victory at the moment. Now, could it be cause I'm used to Teflon Don squeaking by all the time? Or is a set up coming he is American's judgment? Hard to say, but I am not bracing myself to see him in jail quite yet. Gonna take a bit more than a porn star to take him down I suspect. Could be wrong but, the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lZ_Ts-rYU
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In my 55 years of existence, I have never seen someone lie as much as this imbecile, former president, Lying Rump. Never! So when the Deluded Dementia Dingbat said "I will testify" in the Hush Money case, I KNEW he would not. Those high-priced lawyers of his, paid for by gullible donors who want to believe in their false messiah, probably advised him, as they know he is a pathological liar, to not take the stand. Surely, he would have spun a tale of shit, and then could have been taken down for perjury. But what a total dork. Why say you are gonna testify, if you are not? So he can spin he could not, cause the system is rigged! Oh the deep state want to take him down, as he is doing what? Protecting the kool aid cult from...what? flowering madness. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMQGrDoeVe8
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So Judge Aileen Cannon, who is a Trump appointed judge, has slowed the Florida documents case against Trump. She is also, the ONLY judge that Dumpy Doo Doo Brains has not criticized. He KNOWS she is trying to help him, get out of a damning case, where he violated the espionage act, by having countless top secret documents at Mar-A-Lago. Now I am waiting, for Jack Smith, to request she be removed. I don't know what is taking him so long. He has filed briefs answering to her bullshit. But it has to be coming. Because she is clearly trying to aid the Deluded Melon. It's all being done before our eyes, the injustice. So shall see what happens to get this case moving along. The one case, which has the MOST evidence against him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq2lgSbB0js
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Holy Shittaki Mushrooms! The grift, the pathological lies! Ok so I found this video is an interview with Ed O'Neil (gotta love the Irish) 🍀 aka Al Bundy, from the classic, Married With Children. Now he does a rant on the Dementia Don Baby, but he brings up a plaque that this fool has at his golf course, called the River of Blood. He makes a claim on the plaque, in the spot where this plaque stands a North and South battle was fought, and blood spilled and....you guessed it! It's all bullshit! A total grift! How do you know Trump is lying? His lips are moving. But love how he calls him out for who he is. A trust fund baby who no one would wanna sit down and have a beer with. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8_lvlBqlh0
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Ok I don't want to do too many Stuffed ones tonight but some GOLD in this one. So this dude, who is a republican. He paid for a huge billboard that is near Mar-A-Lago. And it's a sight to behold. In blue and white lettering. "Vote for Joe - Not the Psycho." I mean, that sums up what we are dealing with nowadays. It's either Joe, or Psycho. What you want? The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlx7FxvFGss
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Oh I must. Ted Cancun. When Texas had the worst snowstorm in history, he left his dog Snowflake behind, and took the family to Cancun, while Texans froze to death. Then when running against Orange Dildo in 2016, and Trump called his wife "ugly" and compared Cruz's wife to Melania, and all the insults, Ted licked the boots. And now here is is, and he refused to say he will certify votes in Texas, and allow things to go smooth in the election. Get ready for the republicans to cheat folks. They tried to cheat on the fly last time. This time they will be more sophisticated. But will the democrats be able to stop them from cheating? Sold his soul. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhhRtxPTl2Y
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So the Deluded Mango Man is coming undone on
Truth Social. He says he would testify, then does not testify. Makes excuses why he didn't testify. So he testifies on his ridiculous platform, where prosecutors cannot challenge and cross examine him. How convenient. So, these desperate "truths" he does, as he is a fish out of water, gasping for air, are pathetic. BUT, I am not holding my breath quite yet. Now while NYC is very Blue, and many do not like him, there are many deluded ones out there who support him. So it only takes one brainwashed follower to hang this jury. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17nSsunpAxU
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Awe, it's music to my ears! The day before the Deluded Mango Madman addressed the Libertarian party, RFK Jr did, whom spoke on issues. But this Orange Menace, spoke, and got booed and heckled mercilessly! Oh I love it. He has it comin! But yes, this seems to be a party who is not captured by the strong delusion whatsoever. the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8gkY1k-Fz0
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flowering done! So The Orange Dingleberry didn't do so well with the Libertarians. And they voted today. He got six votes. And just a few more than a Cat, and five more than Stormy Daniels. A guy named "Toad" 🐸 got more votes than him. Oh and when this guy stood up and said the Libertarians "grabbed a former president by the pussy," these folks don't play! Heh. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT5toCufdco
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Even the devil can quote scripture for his purposes. Absolutely! And for some reason, the Manchurian Cantaloupe got the bright idea to post a scripture on
Truth Social: John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." So basically, the anti-Christ is, as Brother Paul correctly states, comparing his plight in courts, like to pay hush money to a porn star, not turn over top secret documents he confiscated to sell out America, charges for trying to overturn a valid election, start an insurrection. Oh yes, he is the "sacrifice" oh the blaspheme is so fierce! But he is doing it all, for America, to save America! Oh that sad ass flowerer! Those who support this nonsense are in huge, deep, fiery-pit of shit! It's mind blowing just how manipulative he is and how those clowns take the bait!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epGXAsvjcoI
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So there is many youtubes popping up. If anyone is surprised well...I mean one thing about the Deluded Melon. He hides in plain sight. So he did a "Memorial Day" post, which said "Happy Memorial Day" then he went on a huge rant about...himself. He defamed E. Jean Carroll again (oh please drag him back to court for this one)! Rant rant rant...and anyone who is surprised he didn't do a respectful post for fallen troops is an idiot. He has NEVER cared about the troops. He is nonsense. I hope after the folly of his spew, some will actually flowering abandon this waste of space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK3gHFqE7GI
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Closing arguments occurring today in hush money trial. Outside court, Robert De Niro and two former DC Capital officers spoke. The scoop.
https://youtu.be/ZwIjy1I71ws?si=N2Z-naDL-6oBRars
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The sides gave closing arguments in the Orange Menace’s Hush Money trial. Now onto the jury. Personally, I’m not hopeful. It takes only one Trumpanzee under the Strong Delusion to hang up the jury. Now yes, if he gets some time, goodie! But as satan in charge, only for the moment, I anticipate disappointment. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/2OXBP-I0nyY?si=FD7tRJPuVn-HGAZN
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Man, this guy just told it like it is. A good speech.
Jury is deliberating. But I am not hopeful a conviction. At least not yet. Someone on the news said something today. He said he wants the Von Shitshimself back out in the public view, so we can all watch him come undone before our eyes. Now, some of that, I think is Spirit. Trying, very hard, to show him come undone, and show him for exactly what he is! But, then we, who are not fooled by this Orange Menace, just sit back gobsmacked by the power of the strong delusion, and those who follow this reality tv clown. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctiKdWpoKNI
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Holy Mother of God! It appears we had a sane jury. Cause the Orange Dingleberry was found GUILTY on all 34 counts! I am shocked cause I figured one Trumpanzee might be on the jury! But no it appears these folks honestly weighed all the evidence and did the right thing! Now it appears sentencing, He technically is a first time felon, never convicted. So who knows if he will do time. Tho to myself, if Michael Cohen did time, he should, right? Right. But will he be Teflon Don and walk away free but with a conviction? That is the question. The other question is, will this conviction change the minds of folks who supported him prior? The scoop:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-verdict-hush-money-trial-rcna152492
Donald Trump found guilty in historic New York hush money case
The jury’s verdict is the first time a former president has been convicted of a crime.
By Adam Reiss, Gary Grumbach, Dareh Gregorian, Tom Winter and Jillian Frankel
A New York jury has found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — the first time a former U.S. president has been convicted of a crime.
He'll be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. He faces penalties ranging from a fine to four years in prison on each count, although it's expected he would be sentenced for the offenses concurrently, and not consecutively.
Follow live updates here.
"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” he fumed to reporters afterward.
The verdict was read in the Manhattan courtroom where Trump has been on trial since April 15. He had pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made by his former lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump looked down with his eyes narrowed as the jury foreperson read the word "guilty" to each count.
The jury reached its verdict after 9.5 hours of deliberations, which began Wednesday.
The historic conviction comes as Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
The judge thanked the jurors for their service in the weeks-long trial. “You gave this matter the attention it deserved, and I want to thank you for that,” Judge Juan Merchan told them. Trump appeared to be scowling at the jurors as they walked by him on their way out of the courtroom.
Trump's attorney Todd Blanche made a motion for acquittal after the jury left the room, which the judge denied.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury in his closing arguments earlier this week that “the law is the law and it applies to everyone equally. There is no special standard for this defendant.” “You, the jury, have the ability to hold the defendant accountable,” Steinglass said.
Trump had maintained the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had no case and that there had been no crime. “President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes,” Blanche said in his closing statement, arguing the payments to Cohen were legitimate.
Prosecutors said the disguised payment to Cohen was part of a “planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures, to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records and bank forms to conceal those payments along the way.”
“It was election fraud. Pure and simple,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement.
While Trump was not charged with conspiracy, prosecutors argued he caused the records to be falsified because he was trying to cover up a violation of state election law- and falsifying business records with the intent to cover another crime raises the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony.
The verdict came after a sensational weeks-long trial that included combative testimony from Cohen, Trump’s self-described former fixer, and Daniels, who testified that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament. Trump has denied her claim, and his attorney had suggested that Cohen acted on his own because he thought it would make “the boss” happy.
Other witnesses included former White House staffers including advisor Hope Hicks, former Trump Organization executives, and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
Trump did not take the witness stand to offer his own account of what happened, despite proclaiming before the trial began that he would “absolutely” testify. The defense’s main witness was Robert Costello, a lawyer who Cohen considered retaining in 2018. Costello, who testified that Cohen had told him Trump had nothing to do with the Daniels’ payment, enraged Merchan by making disrespectful comments and faces on the stand. At one point, the judge cleared the courtroom during Costello’s testimony and threatened to hold him in contempt.
Cohen testified that he lied to Costello because he didn’t trust him and that he’d lied to others about Trump’s involvement at the time because he wanted to protect his former boss.
Cohen was the lone witness to testify to Trump’s direct involvement in the $130,000 payment and the subsequent reimbursement plan. Blanche spent days challenging his credibility, getting Cohen to acknowledge he has a history of lying, including under oath. Blanche also got Cohen to acknowledge he swindled Trump and his company out of $30,000 by falsely claiming he’d paid $50,000 to a technology company on Trump’s behalf when in actuality he’d paid the company closer to $20,000.
Cohen said he was paid that money along with the Daniels’ cash in a series of payments from Trump throughout 2017 that the Trump Organization characterized as payments pursuant to a retainer agreement “for legal services rendered.”
Prosecutors said there was no such agreement, and Cohen’s version of events was supported by some documentary evidence and witness testimony.
Pecker testified about a 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen where they asked him to be their “eyes and ears” for scandalous stories that could harm Trump’s campaign, and he said he helped the pair quash two such stories. One involved a doorman who falsely claimed to have information about a Trump love child and the other concerned a former Playboy model named Karen McDougal, who claimed she’d had a months-long affair with Trump that started in 2006. Trump has denied McDougal’s claim, but Pecker said he believed it in part because Trump had described her to him as a “nice girl.”
Pecker’s company paid the doorman $30,000 and McDougal $150,000 for their silence.
Pecker said he’d been told Trump would pay the $150,000 back, and Cohen secretly taped Trump talking about the planned payment, which never happened.
The AMI executive testified he also helped alert Cohen to Daniels’ story in October 2016, when Trump’s campaign was reeling from the release of the so-called “Access Hollywood” tape, where Trump can be heard bragging about being able to grope women because he’s famous.
Blanche insisted to the jury that the series of checks then-President Trump paid Cohen in 2017 “was not a payback to Mr. Cohen for the money that he gave to Ms. Daniels,” and that he was being paid for his legal work as Trump’s personal lawyer.
That position was challenged by testimony from Jeff McConney, a former senior vice president at Trump’s company. McConney said he’d been told by the company’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg that Cohen was being reimbursed for a $130,000 payment and the $50,000 payment, and prosecutors entered Weisselberg’s handwritten notes on the payment formula as evidence. Cohen said Trump agreed to the arrangement in a meeting with him and Weisselberg just days before he was inaugurated as the 45th U.S. president.
Weisselberg did not testify. He’s in jail on a perjury charge related to his testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against Trump and his company. Cohen, McConney and other witnesses said Weisselberg, who spent decades working for Trump, always sought his approval for large expenditures.
In all, the prosecution called 20 witnesses in the case, while the defense called two.
Trump had frequently claimed, falsely, that the charges against him were a political concoction orchestrated by President Joe Biden to keep the former president off the campaign trail. But Trump eventually managed to bring the campaign to the courtroom, hosting top Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Sens. JD Vance of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida as his guests in court. Trump also used court breaks to tout political messages to his supporters, while his surrogates sidestepped Merchan’s gag order against Trump by attacking witnesses, individual prosecutors and the judge’s daughter.
Merchan fined Trump $10,000 during the trial for violating his order, including with attacks on Cohen and Daniels, and warned he could have him locked up if he continued violating the order.
Trump was indicted in March of last year following a years-long investigation by Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance. The charges were the first ever brought against a former president, although Trump has since been charged and pleaded not guilty in three other cases. None of the three — a federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., a state election interference case in Georgia and a federal case alleging he mishandled classified documents and national security information — appear likely to go to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
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A celebration worthy moment
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A celebration worthy moment
Small victory. I say small, cause like I was watching some of those who are following the case. Now that he was convicted of this. I suspect he is going to become even MORE unhinged and crazy and desperate. Anticipate even crazier talk on Truth Social. One of his recent posts were "SAVE AMERICA!" That idiot. He is just trying to save his own skin! But if he manages to convince people he is some kind of martyr for the deep state, election day is going to be a mess.
But I expect him to get even crazier. He is coming undone before our eyes. But the Strong Delusion is very powerful. Today I spotted another old man wearing that flowering MAGA hat. One day, folks are gonna look at that flowering thing, if they own one, and feel very flowering stupid, they bought into his lies. But yes, he gonna get more and more crazy. Just watch.
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On a side note. I was watching a video they were talking about what the Convicted Mango could get as a sentence. One said, he could even get community service, picking up trash along the highway.
And I thought to myself...
THAT would be even better than a cell! Just imagine, camera crews following him, as he picks up garbage for x amount of hours a week, for all to see.
So I almost hope that happens more than a cell.
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With all the excitement today. This guy makes a good point. He brings up the Christians. The ones under the Strong Delusion, will look at this conviction and say “That’s what happened to Jesus!”
Now I know. A sane person who actually read the Gospel, knows Jesus was an innocent man who was convicted for what? Blaspheme? But basically, the Pharisees wanted him out, and convinced Rome to take him down. That was religiously motivated and political. But those under the Strong Delusion. See this as a martyr. An imperfect messiah trying to save America, and getting nailed.
What they don’t see is, the overwhelming evidence against him. Or his unhinged madness. Rational folks see the madness. But like I said. The Strong Delusion is why they support him no matter what. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/AJHpWhxotlg?si=Gq1ep394a41WQpra
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Ok for shits and giggles! I found someone who looks as guilty as The Convicted Melon. So this guy had court for driving with a suspended license. He was able to zoom into court. And he did…while driving! The reaction of the judge…and later the defendant, is a riot! 🤣
https://youtu.be/-E7I3UOu3jk?si=_fA6oHZYwEywdtGx
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Oh, the good old days of America. A long time ago, Dan Quayle, a former VP, misspelled potato. And the man got dragged so hard, he killed is political career and hopes of ever being president. Oh, back in the day, America would never put up with a slight like that! But now? Oh, basically we have this complete Convicted (I may say this in all names now), Bloated Buffoon who has said the most insane, stupid shit. A former president who told us we should inject ourselves with disinfectant or put lights in us (up our assholes)? to kill covid. But amazingly, America, or I should say, MAGA morons, have lowered the bar incredibly low now. One can be a convicted felon, cheat on wife with porn star, be charged with sexual assault, incite an insurrection, try to overturn an election, commit bank fraud, yada yada, and they will embrace this reality tv clown with open arms.
The old days: 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdqbi66oNuI
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To show how strong the Strong Delusion is. The Convicted Con Supreme has the biggest grift ever. He gets convicted of 34 felonies by a jury of his peers. What do the Trumpanzees do? They head to his site, and throw tons of money at him! FOLKS! This country has gone absolute bonkers. An alleged billionare, who doesn't give two flowers about these people, and is only trying to save his own skin, is milking the whole martyrdom role for all its worth. And they throw away good money! Oh my flowering word. Everyone complains about how expensive everything is and...toss this flowerer money. They tossed so much at the Golden Calf, they crashed his website. No, give to the homeless? Single mothers in need? Nah, give it to a crooked billionaire con. The scoop:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-donation-page-crashes-after-conviction-in-bragg-trial/ar-BB1nmahN?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump Donation Page Crashes after Conviction in Bragg Trial (flowering idiots)!
Story by Caroline Downey • 1d • 3 min read
The donation page for former president Donald Trump crashed Thursday night immediately after he was convicted on all counts in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial.
WinRed, the official GOP donation platform, failed to load or displayed an error message moments after the verdict was read, likely due to an overload of traffic to the website.
“Under Maintenance,” the site read after clicking to contribute to Trump’s campaign. “Our engineers are working to provide you with a better experience. We will back shortly.”
A flood of social-media users commented that they had donated significant sums to Trump’s campaign following the guilty verdict in the case.
After about 6:30 EST, the page was restored, reading: “The Left thinks that if they bury me with enough witch hunts and intimidate my family and associates that I’ll eventually throw up my hands and give up on our America First movement. Let me be clear as possible: I will never stop fighting for you!”
Trump’s team also updated his website to reflect the court outcome.
“I’M A POLITICAL PRISONER!, ;D ;D ;D” the site reads. “I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial:🧙♀️ I DID NOTHING WRONG! They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME! Crooked Joe Biden needs to get the message – right here, right now – that his chances of a 2nd term END TODAY!”
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita urged potential donors to “log back on and try again” if they encountered an error message.
The former president has successfully used his many legal issues to fundraise for his 2024 campaign. His campaign received millions in donations last year after releasing the mugshot taken of the former president when he was indicted in Georgia for election interference.
The Biden campaign also made a fundraising appeal based on Trump’s conviction Thursday evening, reminding supporters “there’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box.”
A New York jury on Thursday night convicted Trump on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records. He is the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime.
Over the past six weeks at the state courthouse in lower Manhattan, the prosecution tried to prove that Trump, his former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen, and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker engaged in a conspiracy to defraud voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election by paying off women to hide the then-presidential candidate’s extra-marital sexual affair with a porn star. The prosecution alleged that Trump failed to properly record those payments as campaign-finance expenses.
Merchan set the sentencing hearing for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention begins. Trump faces up to four years in prison, though most legal observers agree that he will more than likely be placed on probation. Merchan will be able to dictate the terms of Trump’s sentence, and his decision could have a major impact on Trump’s ability to campaign.
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This is an excellent discussion worth watching. This man is a former evangelical, who had a wake up call when Trump got elected. Seeing leaders he looked up to embrace him no matter his failings. This discusses the NONES, a new movement of people with no spiritual affiliation. And the rise and threat of Christian Nationalism. It is refreshing to hear a sane Christian speak. They are getting around. I have been bumping into videos of pastors rejecting nonsense, and trying to educate people. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/j83Zu6eXEfA?si=yB7Iew4zFNATeKVn
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I'm personally not surprised cause darkness is in charge of this. The Georgia case is now on hold. All this shit over Fauni Willis yada yada, the Orange Numbnuts got his way.
My own assessment, if I look at this from an angle some may or may not. Is folks out to get Trump and take him down? I would say so. I am not saying Biden is behind it. But there is a bunch of folks who understands, if he won, this would turn into a fascist country.
So to me, while sure, Justice needs to be handed down, it's backfiring and embolden him. It feeds into the conspiracy theory, the "deep state" is out to take him down. His base looks on and sees this shakedown takedown as that force, and their fear is a socialist, liberal America that annihilates their "culture" I guess. And this also feeds into them, per their perspective, that "evil liberals" want to do away with all things Christian in this country. This is fueled by evangelical leaders, who stand behind Trump, and as they look up to him to be a "savior," which is pathetic, thanks to the Strong Delusion, this only permeates the conspiracy even further.
So is it actually hurting the Democrats all this is going on? It's totally futile at every turn. I mean, on one end, he has to be tried, but... it's making him look more "believable" to his base. Who sadly, look to him as being "truthful," which is, totally nuts. The only thing that is going to put him down, is to beat him at the ballot box in November. That's the only way. Then if this happens, his house of cards comes down. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKSxy9LealA
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This is a good short made. YES! A convicted felon, cannot go to several countries. So, why would America elect a president banned from many countries? (Hey Michael, he would be banned from Aussie)! 8) 🐨🦘 It's going to be a weird election. The scoop:
https://youtube.com/shorts/uAnFvW4O80w?si=02n_eVL2nHIbINEC
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I mean...where do I begin with this? *facepalm* 🤦♀️
The Convicted Con Mango Moron, has the biggest mouth, it runs like a broken toilet. He doesn't know when to shut his pie hole. So here he is on recording, defaming E. Jean Carroll AGAIN, so like Brian says, he must just love throwing good money away. Or...bad money or... really his sad sack deluded supporters money, cause he never uses his OWN money these days. But he has been taken down for defaming her, and here he goes again! I already read it - she will have a third victory over the Bloated Buffoon. It comin, cause he has not learned the lesson: "Don't write a check with your mouth, your ass can't cash." 🤑💵💰 It's unbelievable how idiotic he is sometimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0_RwWe1Yk
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THIS.IS.HILARIOUS!
The Convicted, Tiny Handed Wombat, was asked about his "relationship with God," and how he prays. Now if you watch his answer, and if you can actually listen, over the loud, piercing screams and howls of laughter you will do, like, how can folks not see he has anti-christ written all over him? I mean, lift up the toupee Melon Maniac, and show the 666 tattoo. Maybe that's the real reason he wears that dead possum on his head, to hide it from his base. Any who, he was asked, and doesn't answer. He is "too proud" to admit he might get on knees and pray to God, the very God he is rebelling against you know? But it's funny how he says with religion you need to be good, and if there is no heaven, "why be good?" I mean, really, really pay attention to that comment how he looks when he says it! But yes he lies about so many things but...he can't even make up he prays and say it cause...he doesn't want to admit he would lower himself to a God. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxlfOZyS80
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So the Convicted Mango Meathead gave his shortlist of VP running pics today. He has 8 of them. My feel? I think he may pick Tim Scott. He is African American, and I can see him seeing him helping with the black vote, In his eyes. Most black folks arent fooled by Trump or Tim Scott. Also, Tim Scott is the biggest, most disgusting, kiss ass to the Idiot Orange Meltdown King. He is super pathetic when he comes out in defense of him. I can see him loving this. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikQMhz-B2mI
Tim Scott kissing ass its gross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J-HAGmK-Gs
Tim Scott after the verdict, lookin dumb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7fj1kVc3OQ&t=29s
So yeah, my money on this clown.
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Oh I love this one.
Alex Jones. He is a right wing conspiracy theorist. And to show lies and karma. He perpetuated one of the most, vile and disgusting conspiracies of all time.
Let me enlighten. In the Sandy Hook shooting the elementary school. 26 were killed by an active shooter. Happened in December 2012. A twenty-year-old maniac killed teachers and kids. Now, Alex Jones, who had his show Infowars, went on his broadcast, and claimed it was a false flag, and never happened.
Now, the thing is, he was so convincing, he had millions, MILLIONS believing this shooting never happened and these teachers and kids were killed. As a result of his shit, these parents were harassed mercilessly by the public.
Flash forward he was sued and they won, the biggest lawsuit in history, nearly a billion dollars between some parents. Now, he has to liquidate his assets to pay the judgment.
There is a documentary on this on Max. But Sandy Hook does have an org to stop school shootings called Sandy Hook Promise. I donated quite a bit of my readings to them last year. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwPF0bqh3UI
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Now I've never been much for Dr. Phil. He's basically (if you in another country) a dumbass who got a tv show. And did a lot of trash shit. But in this interview, and it's revolting all the American flags in the background. He basically spent 71 minutes, kissing the Convicted Orange Mangonuts ass. That is all he did. He is glossy-eyed, and captured by the Luciferian spirit. Roland is not. And he calls it like it is. Preach!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oT99huwcDM
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So today Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, was found guilty of possessing a firearm when he was on drugs.
Does anyone care? NO.
Why? Cause he isn't running for president.
If this is the most dirt they can dish up on Biden, it's pathetic. They have tried to find anything they could hang on Joe, and no luck. Just the sentiments of the Convicted Terd Spew, and nothing more. He is crooked, cause the Orange Mango Meltdown says so. That's good enough for the Kool Aid Cult.
Aint wasting a youtube on this one. Moving on...
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Luke is a Gem! :) What a doll and he's smart. He posts an ad from The Lincoln Project, a group of renegade conservatives who are anti-trump. The ad is compelling. Basically "What are you gonna tell your kids one day?"
And, we don't know how long the internet is, but shit these people have posted. Now I know, we have all posted some things we aren't proud of. But there are folks on right now, saying vile and disgusting things. It comin. And what will these kids, who grow up, see the way their parents acted, think?
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUFTvAG_how
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Oh, have these conservative numbnuts gone too far?
The Federalist Society, a right-wing org, has come after...Dolly Parton of all people. Now this reminds me, when Pink Floyd announced the 50 Year Anniversary release of Dark Side of the Moon. Folks came after them for being "woke" and attacked them cause of the rainbow. But now, a treasured icon of Goodness, Dolly Parton, got attacked, and the fans aint having that shit:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/dolly-parton-fans-rush-to-her-defense-after-conservative-magazine-attacks-her-support-for-lgbtq-rights/ar-BB1nSiT5
Dolly Parton fans rush to her defense after conservative magazine attacks her support for LGBTQ rights
Story by Kaitlin Reilly • 3d • 3 min read
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1nSeaH.img?w=534&h=390&m=6&x=1914&y=657&s=343&d=343)
olly Parton’s fans are defending the country music icon after an essay in the Federalist conservative news site went after the 78-year-old “Jolene” singer’s faith earlier this week due to her support for the LGBTQ community.
The headline, “There’s Nothing Loving About Dolly Parton’s False Gospel,” caught many people off guard. Supporters flooded social media with messages critical of the essay, and the writer has now expressed regret for using such a beloved figure to make her point.
🗯️What did the Federalist say about Dolly Parton?
Federalist writer Ericka Andersen criticized Parton for her nonjudgmental approach to life and her claim that she loves everyone — including members of the LGBTQ community, whom she has supported in interviews.
Andersen argued that if Parton is a Christian, as she proclaims, she should call out homosexuality as a sin. “Parton’s version of love, which includes condoning immoral sexual behavior (‘be who you are,’ she’s said), is unaligned with God’s vision for humanity,” Andersen wrote.
But Andersen told Yahoo Entertainment on Saturday that the widespread backlash made her realize she shouldn’t have used Parton to press her argument.
"I regret using Dolly as the example for the point I was making in the article,” she said. “As I wrote in the piece, I love her and think she does some incredible things for the world. We all make poor choices in how to frame things sometimes. This was one of those moments for me! Dolly is one of the few people who is beloved by all and who loves all. The world is lucky to have her."
Parton tends to speak generally about her faith and love of God. In her 2020 book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, she said, “I'm not that religious, but I'm very, very spiritual. I grew up in very religious surroundings. I grew up with a Bible background, and I'm glad I did.”
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, Parton said, “I ain’t that good a Christian to think that I am so good that I can judge people. That’s God’s job, not mine. So as far as politics, I hate politics.”
💬What Dolly Parton’s fans are saying now
Fans on X, formerly Twitter, were anything but happy to see the Federalist coming for Parton. (A different writer for the Federalist declared in 2016 that the “Islands in the Stream” crooner would make an excellent president.)
“They came for Dolly. We ride at dawn,” one fan wrote alongside a screenshot of the article.
“Folks, a land war in Asia is the SECOND biggest blunder anyone can make,” another added. “The first? Coming for Dolly Parton.”
“No. You do not come after Dolly Parton. You absolutely do not,” a third shared.
“I will go after anyone on this app … except Dolly Parton,” another shared. “Delete your whole account.”
🏳️🌈What Dolly Parton has said about the LGBTQ community
While Parton may detest politics, she spoke to the Hollywood Reporter in 2023 about how the recent onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation affects people she loves.
“I have some of everybody in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees,” she explained. “I’ve got transgender people. I’ve got gays. I’ve got lesbians. I’ve got drunks. I’ve got drug addicts — all within my own family. I know and love them all, and I do not judge. And I just see how broken-hearted they get over certain things and I know how real they are.”
She continued: "I know how important this is to them. That’s who they are. They cannot help that any more than I can help being Dolly Parton, you know, the way people know me. If there’s something to be judged, that is God’s business. But we are all God’s children and how we are is who we are.”
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You know, it doesn't surprise me, they came after Dolly Parton. It doesn't. The epitome of Christian goodness. But because she supports those who are LGBTQIA and says "I love everybody" or "I see the good in everyone," thats, to Erica Anderson of her trash rag, The Federalist, "Not Christian?" "False Gospel?"
It is up to the point Jesus could show up. And say "I told you all, don't judge..." Or better yet, maybe he is up in heaven, and is looking down, sees they came after Dolly, and perhaps this is the reason there would be a Second Coming. War in Israel? Nah. Jesus came back, cause they tried to take Dolly down. He said "I'm done with them," and now he comin. Heh. Probably a scripture hidden in the Vatican archives long ago, how much you wanna bet? :D
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Heh. This is an excellent video to show the hypocrisy of the conservative lapdogs. They split screen, showing them condemning the conviction of the Deluded Dementia Meathead. But praising the justice system for taking down Hunter Biden. The reporter makes an excellent point. If Biden had the power to weaponize the justice system against a political opponent, then why doesn't he have the power to save his own son from conviction? Or perhaps, could it be (ding ding ding!), he never was using the legal system, and it was the justice system going after the Convicted Con Supreme, cause he...ACTUALLY committed crimes? The hypocrisy is fun to watch. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AocXeIWVt0
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Brother Paul made a point in this video. I had seen this emailer from the Deluded Melon, as youtubers have been showing it. It's this posturing how they are coming for him with a "guillotine" of all things. But he always likes to add "they are coming for you!" Yes, this show of force against the Tiny Handed Wombat, is all to get to "them" and he is standing in the way like some hero.
But at the bottom of the emailer he types: "SICK SICK SICK!" And Brother Paul didn't get it himself right away. But many commenters said "Hey, that sounds like SIX SIX SIX" when you say it.
I had to step back, that would be correct. He did say it three times....and Brother Paul brings about how he hides in plain sight, like with the snake poem. I brought that up on here, before I even saw him say it. "You knew I was a snake, before you took me in," is going to be highly prophetic if he got elected.
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waRMXwid-K0
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OMG wonders never cease! The Supreme Court actually protected access to the abortion pill! That is huge! If someone has an unwanted pregnancy, to end it with a simple pill can solve a lot of heartache going in a clinic. Like it says, two thirds of abortions are done by this pill. Now, maybe some hope they will protect birth control when it comes about, as the religious right wants to stop that, and create baby machines. Also, shockingly, this was unanimous.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/politics/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-abortion-pill-mifepristone/index.html
Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion pill mifepristone, allowing drug to stay on the market
John Fritze and Tierney Sneed, CNN
7 minute read
Updated 11:21 AM EDT, Thu June 13, 2024
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/c-gettyimages-1257894903.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp)
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.
The ruling is a significant setback for the anti-abortion movement in what was the first major Supreme Court case on reproductive rights since the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for a unanimous court.
The court ruled that the doctors and anti-abortion groups that had challenged access to the drug did not have standing to sue. Though technical, the court’s reasoning is important because it might encourage other mifepristone challenges in the future.
“We recognize that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But citizens and doctors do not have standing to sue simply because others are allowed to engage in certain activities – at least without the plaintiffs demonstrating how they would be injured by the government’s alleged under-regulation of others.”
The challenge to the drug had been vehemently opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, which warned that a ruling that second-guessed the regulations for mifepristone could open the door to legal challenges targeting all sorts of medications.
Under the Constitution, Kavanaugh wrote, “a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.”
“Citizens and doctors who object to what the law allows others to do may always take their concerns to the Executive and Legislative Branches and seek greater regulatory or legislative restrictions on certain activities,” he wrote.
Much of Kavanaugh’s opinion covered the various legal thresholds a plaintiff must reach to make it appropriate for courts to intervene in a dispute. Turning to the anti-abortion doctors and medical groups that sued the federal government over the current regulatory regime for the drug, Kavanaugh wrote that the plaintiffs suffered neither the monetary nor the physical injuries that could have established standing. He noted that federal law already protects individual health care providers who have objections to performing abortions for moral reasons.
“In short, given the broad and comprehensive conscience protections guaranteed by federal law, the plaintiffs have not shown – and cannot show – that FDA’s actions will cause them to suffer any conscience injury,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurrence to bring up other issues he had with the anti-abortion groups’ standing claims.
The Justice Department, which was defending the current regulations for the abortion pill, did not immediately comment on the ruling. Danco, a mifepristone manufacturer that had intervened to also defend access to the drug, said it was “pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision in this incredibly important case.”
The ruling, Danco spokesperson Abigail Long said, “maintained the stability of the FDA drug approval process, which is based on the agency’s expertise and on which patients, healthcare providers and the US pharmaceutical industry rely.”
“The decision also safeguards access to a drug that has decades of safe and effective use,” Long said in the statement.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that brought the lawsuit on behalf of the anti-abortion doctors, said it was “disappointed that the Supreme Court did not reach the merits of the FDA’s lawless removal of commonsense safety standards for abortion drug,” while alluding to the fact that the legal fight over the rules could continue with other plaintiffs.
Ingrid Skop, an anti-abortion OB-GYN and member of one of the medical groups suing the FDA, said it was “deeply disappointing that the FDA was not held accountable today for its reckless decisions.”
Originated in Texas with Trump-appointed judge
At the outset of the case, the anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations who challenged the FDA rules sought to pull mifepristone off the market entirely, arguing it was unsafe – a claim that has been refuted by mainstream medical organizations.
That effort came against a backdrop of conservative state laws that severely limited abortion in much of the country. As those bans helped propel the demand for medication abortion, mifepristone became a logical target for the anti-abortion movement. Medication abortions account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US, according to some estimates.
A federal judge in Texas nominated by former President Donald Trump, Matthew Kacsmaryk, sided with the anti-abortion groups, but his ruling never went into effect.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed part of that ruling, holding the drug’s two-decade-old underlying approval would stand. But the appeals court sided with the doctors who challenged subsequent decisions by the agency that expanded access to the drug, including the ability to dispense it through the mail.
None of those lower court rulings went into effect because the Supreme Court intervened last year and ordered that the status quo around mifepristone remain in place until the justices reviewed the case. The Supreme Court heard arguments in March.
In the meantime, a group of GOP-led states intervened in the case at the trial judge-level, signaling that the legal fight over abortion pill access could continue even as the Supreme Court has rejected the lawsuit brought by the anti-abortion doctors.
Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said that Thursday’s ruling “doesn’t cut off the possibility of future challenges to mifepristone,” as he pointed to the efforts by those Republican states.
“But the reasoning of the case should make those challenges less likely to succeed, because those plaintiffs (and others) will have a hard time showing that they were harmed by the FDA’s actions,” Vladeck said.
The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 as part of a two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy. Over the course of two decades, the agency loosened restrictions it initially placed on the drug’s use. In 2016, it allowed women to take the drug later into a pregnancy, to 10 from seven weeks of gestational age. It also permitted non-physicians, such as nurse practitioners, to prescribe it. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the FDA announced it would no longer enforce the in-person dispensing requirement.
Last year, after the doctors’ lawsuit was filed, the FDA formalized that decision, allowing the drug to be dispensed through the mail.
Both the FDA and several medical groups, including the American Medical Association, told the Supreme Court that mifepristone is safe.
But the doctors, many of whom have long been associated with the anti-abortion movement, claimed that they faced the risk of being forced to treat patients dealing with complications from the drug, such as heavier-than-expected bleeding. They claimed that triaging those women had a substantial impact on their practices. And some said they had been called on to perform post-medication abortion procedures they said violated their beliefs.
At the Supreme Court hearing earlier this year, several justices — including members of the conservative bloc – expressed doubt that the doctors had overcome a procedural threshold known as standing, which requires plaintiffs to show that they had been harmed by the government’s actions.
None of the doctors who submitted declarations to a lower court actually prescribe mifepristone and none pointed to an instance when they were personally required to complete an abortion for a patient who had complications after taking the drug.
The lead medical group in the suit, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was incorporated in Amarillo, Texas, months before it filed the lawsuit – allowing it to choose a court where it was guaranteed to be assigned to Kacsmaryk, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration, along with a mifepristone manufacturer that intervened to defend the FDA, argued that since the anti-abortion doctors were not prescribing the drug, it wasn’t appropriate for them to challenge the regulations.
The decision landed in the middle of a presidential election that has already been heavily swayed by the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence. The 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended the constitutional right to abortion that Roe established in 1973. The decision prompted conservative states to enact strict limits on the procedure, which prompted additional litigation and helped rally Democrats. President Joe Biden has repeatedly blasted the decision on the campaign trail this year.
The mifepristone appeal was one of two abortion cases the high court was considering this month. The other deals with a strict ban on the procedure in Idaho. The Biden administration sued the state over that prohibition, arguing that a federal law requires hospitals that receive Medicare funding to provide stabilizing care in emergency rooms, including abortions, when the health of the pregnant woman is at stake.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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HAHAHAHA flowerING DONE HES SO flowerING DUMB! ;D
Ok so on his birthday, the Deluded Melon Maniac, does this rally, and once again he goes on how he aced an "aptitude" test. The lady in the back cringes hard. Yes lady. You are being recorded in the infinite standing behind this idiotic tool. But the best part (I'm still watching), is when this "Freudian Slip" spews from his thin and sweaty lips and he boasts of the "record INFLATION" his term had and boasts "RECORD INFLATION!" Yes, that's actually....true! ;D flowering moron he is! Boasting, but I know he meant to say low inflation, which would have been a lie but...what a great glitch! He might be able to pick an elephant out of a lineup. But he sure can't speak without gaffs galore. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txvmavEuyjI
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Heh. So in two weeks, The Crooked Carrot is going to debate President Joe Biden. Or is he? Personally, I can't see him getting on a debate stage with Joe Biden. Now Biden cannot discuss the other cases, cause it could cause a mistrial in advance. But he can easily get him on the things he HAS been convicted for. Shit, Biden could take him down alone for his ass falling asleep in court on the daily. After calling him "Sleepy Joe" all these years? I notice he doesn't do that anymore. But my prediction: I think the Convicted Meatball is going to back out, and make some excuse as to why he won't debate Joe. I just...suspect it. Maybe something like, he realized the debate was "rigged" due to a network or some shit. But I just have strong doubts, we gonna see a debate. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0k_twx0kf8
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OMG this is so pathetic.
Over the weekend, the Convicted Shitshispants, visited a Black church in Detroit, MI. Now...This is getting around but I think Roland explains it the best of them all. He basically rolls the tape of the audience in the church. Counts how many paid actors...er..."black people" are in the church, vs the crowd. It is TONS of white people, in a black church, and a few paid actors who are black, in the church. SO...what does this mean? It means black people are not stupid, and he can't find black people who would enter no church with him speaking his spew, knowing he is totally racist AF. But I love how Roland plays "Where's Waldo" to "find" the black people in this church. Dumpy Doodoo is supposed to be speaking to them and...it's a ton of white folks? Oh he is so stupid! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OrIWDGaZY
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Yes I clown him a lot, because he is a flagrant idiot. But he is a very dangerous idiot at that. What makes him dangerous is not just himself, having the dirty charisma to fuel a base. But the real threat if the Deluded Melon gets elected, is the threat to start mass deportations of people. And that is a promise, I do believe he intends to keep.
I have seen snips of his rallies, where the crowd is chanting "send them back!" He will fire up the Xenophobia, making the crowd feel that there are nothing but criminals and folks from mental institutions being unloaded into this country. Now yes, some may be criminals. But the bulk of those seeking asylum, are families fleeing for their lives, and dreaming of a better life. But yes I do believe, if he did win, he would be so bold as to set up camps, and these folks who are in the country, would get stuck in them. We already had bad situations in past, of folks being put in cages, or children being separated from families. But this could get extremely ugly if he gets elected.
When I have seen these MAGA idiots interviewed, they say one of the main issues they care about is immigration. I don't think these people cared much about it before, until he decided to run, and started speaking to their racist shadows. But the fact so many folks all over the country, would not bat an eyelash these folks would be yanked from homes or off the street, and stuck in cages, and things, is unbelievable. And they claim to be Christian? Sure they are! That's a load of hogwash. We could see a repeat of Nazi Germany, but with Hispanic people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9WB9urMSnw
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One thing Dumbass Donnie has is merch. I am in the middle of watching a YouTube of him at the Wisconsin rally. Same state where he said shit about Milwaukee being a horrible city. But the YouTuber points to a kid, standing to the side of their Orange Jesus. He is wearing a shirt saying “I’m Voting for the Convicted Felon.” Stupid little kid, is too young to vote. Yes! First a Mugshot. Now this. So I hit Amazon. Sure as flower there is merch! One day, when these buffoons come out of the haze. They are going to go into their closets, look at the shit they wore, and feel stupid as all hell. Attached is the merch. Yes you can get a tee shirt or hat of this clown. It’s above and beyond stupidity. Even the flyers scratch their head over this one.
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Here it comes! Even before the election. The Louisiana governor signed into law, it is MANDATORY for all school classrooms to display The Ten Commandments. We have Christian Nationalism breathing down our necks. This is ridiculous. I am certain the ACLU will answer to this one.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/politics/louisiana-classrooms-ten-commandments/index.html
Louisiana classrooms now required by law to display the Ten Commandments
Stephanie Gallman Dianne Gallagher
By Stephanie Gallman and Dianne Gallagher, CNN
Updated 9:41 PM EDT, Wed June 19, 2024
Louisiana public schools are now required to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms, after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the requirement into law Wednesday.
House Bill 71, approved by state lawmakers last month, mandates that a poster-size display of the Ten Commandments with “large, easily readable font” be in every classroom at schools that receive state funding, from kindergarten through the university level.
Before signing the bill, Landry called it “one of (his) favorites.”
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law given which was Moses. … He got his commandments from God,” Landry said.
Opponents of the bill have argued that a state requiring a religious text in all classrooms would violate the establishment clause of the US Constitution, which says that Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Civil liberties groups swiftly vowed to challenge the law – which makes Louisiana the first in the nation to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom that receives state funding – in court.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said that the law violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment and would result in “unconstitutional religious coercion of students.”
“The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Supporters of the law, in defending the measure, have leaned on the 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which gave a high school football coach his job back after he was disciplined over a controversy involving prayer on the field. The Supreme Court ruled that the coach’s prayers amounted to private speech, protected by the First Amendment, and could not be restricted by the school district.
The decision lowered the bar between church and state in an opinion that legal experts predicted would allow more religious expression in public spaces. At the time, the court clarified that a government entity does not necessarily violate the establishment clause by permitting religious expression in public.
Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, the Republican author of the bill, said at the bill signing that “it’s like hope is in the air everywhere.” Horton has dismissed concerns from Democratic opponents of the measure, saying the Ten Commandments are rooted in legal history and her bill would place a “moral code” in the classroom.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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This country has gone to the dogs. These people want to force The Ten Commandments down everyone's throat. Yet, they want to elect someone who has broken every single one of them. What gives here?
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This may not get a lot of news as much is distraction. But over 1000 pilgrims to Mecca are dead from the heat, and more could be the case. It is like 125 degrees in Saudi Arabia right now, and these people are dropping like crazy. Very sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxCkErzxZc4
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A big threat to our country is Project 2025. A 900 page playbook, how these right wing conservatives plan to dismantle the government. And put in place their own people. I have not read it all, but I have seen the highlights. Nationwide abortion ban, LGBTQIA banning all sorts for them, deportations of immigrants I'm pretty sure in there. Taking down various institutions. And yes, propping up the Manchurian Cantaloupe as their fearless and demented leader. It's going to be interesting how this plays out. But these goons want to take us way, way backwards and make it even worse. It's darkness. I hope the country is not so tired of this they don't vote. But I expect some attempts at sophisticated cheating this year. This election is going to be a huge ass mess. See what happens. Debate Thursday. I can hardly wait to see it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTI68eF2b-Q
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It’s all a flowering mess!
So the big debate where the two old men face off, will be here Thursday. And I personally think IF a debate takes place, Biden will wipe the floor with Dementia Doo Doo. He has spent all these years calling him Sleepy Joe. Saying he walks into walls. Is making claims they going to put good drugs up his ass to debate. More “it’s rigged” comin. But he is flip flopping. I heard the Orange Jesus say he may “lose on purpose” as a strategy. Who goes to a debate to lose on purpose? The Deluded Melon, that’s who. He’s running scared. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/-iEvGuc3CAU?si=57qD0eWxOz7T5DAK
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I love seeing the young people cover politics. Harry is a gem! Now yes, the debate is…tonight actually. President Biden has done countless debates his lifetime. He know much is riding on this debate. Now, he’s smart enough to know, those under the Strong Delusion are lost. So really, the aim is fence sitters and independents. Now, if his Shakti is on fire, maybe he can wake up a MAGA dope head. But he needs to take the Deluded Melon down. Period. I think that Tower candle is itching to be burned!
https://youtu.be/KjPKdI6Es4w?si=X2WATAx2OOyPS2Me
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Now I know, last night at the debate, Biden is said to have had a cold. But it was a very lackluster performance, and everyone is talking about it. Well, he went to Raleigh today, and he was on FIRE. 🔥 WHY couldn't he be this way last night? He does have one more debate. His best bet here: do a bunch of rallies, and speak to people, do that whole "grass roots" deal, and then second debate in September, he simply must kick ass.
Nice impressive speech why not last night?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynWEja7kE1M
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We are. Thanks to SCOTUS. We are possibly gonna get the Wrath.
Basically, the Supreme Court ruled, states can punish the homeless for sleeping on the street.
Ok. These people have no money. No home. Because they are human beings, they require sleep.
Do they think being homeless is a choice? All are what? Lazy drug addicts? Apparently so.
So basically, states can fine them, when they got no money. Ok then they can’t pay a fine. So like they jail you if you can’t pay.
So a shelter can’t take them. Where do they go?
It’s cruel and sickening. This is America. And we gonna get the Wrath.
https://youtu.be/ZaWRC7Sqn7w?si=EBNdhNyCKP_XZcqO
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So SCOTUS ruled. A huge delay. Sending it back to lower court. Which then has to be sent back to SCOTUS. Like Brian said: "Justice delayed, is justice denied."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohC1VSrivWg
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So Ron the Con ordered the Epstein Grand Jury case unsealed. I think he secretly wanted to stick it to Sir Shitshispants, for sure! Now all the trash coming out. Will the MAGA Kool Aid Cult pay attention? It should have dawned on them, seeing the Deluded Melon dancing with Epstein, or him "wishing well" Gislaine Maxwell. But the followers have shit for brains, just like him. A couple scoops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34aJ-Ee9Ftk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa3K85fStBw&t=2s
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She is still in the race. The long shot.
Now she can’t even reach the finish line unless she can debate. If she can get on the debate stage for all to see, esp after Bidens poor performance, she could win.
https://youtu.be/NK3zww6XZgY?si=j6EilXtZS4qhCKxZ
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The Orange Jesus never knows when to keep his pie hole shut. Now, a few days ago, he spoke out "seemingly" against 2025. "I know nothing about it, who's behind it, but I disagree with most of it..." If you know nothing, how can you disagree, if you don't know what it is? And he is full of shit, because he has spoke at The Heritage Foundation in a conference before. There are videos of him, with their NAME on the wall behind him. AND many former folks from his old admin helped author the 900 page playbook to enact an authoritarian regime.
Now how his own words are the proverbial foot in mouth? Now this has many talking about the whole thing. Prior, many didn't even know about it. But now? The news is saturated with the topic. People on the street being interviewed even are alerted. And all those fence sitters and independents who were unsure which way to go? How they gonna go, seeing what these folks want to do? The playbook is basically satanic - it's that bad. And then the leader on the news saying the left will have less bloodshed if they don't fight back? That clip has been played by every news outlet, and every independent youtuber ever since. The alarm has been rung, and...Trump helped to spread the word! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsmPU7pz9bA
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Our country is a heaping pile of smelly 💩
The Orange Dingleberry has 4 indictments, 91 charges. Rape conviction. Fraud conviction.Election interference conviction mixed with a porn star. Now facing sentencing today. He even had Epstein files open thanks to Ron the Con wanting to stick it to his bloated gelatin ass. Does the GOP ask this wanna be facist to step down? NO! They have sold their souls to kiss the ring and ass.
Biden has a poor debate. Now granted I would like someone else. But I am not ruling out Biden. But everyone and their mother is on the news telling him to step down. He has a cold and gaffs. Zero support and loyalty.
A bunch of sad ass pussies on the democratic side. It makes them look weak, scared, and stupid. George Clooney goes on tv and asks Biden to step down. As if that stupid flower is important! Go watch reruns of Ocean Eleven and drool all over your younger stupid self, George. No one gives two shits your opinion. You ain’t helping you washed up celebrity! And the media crying about it all, instead of trying to strengthen the cause. I’m tired of these stupid flowering crybabies. Now I like Marianne. But if she never makes it to a debate stage no point. So….if Biden is wheeled out on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask on, IV drip, next debate, it won’t change my mind. I’d vote for Bugs Bunny against that sad ass reality tv clown anyway. The dems need to shape up and stop being a bunch of Whiney c***s.
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Trump shot at a rally. Grazed his ear. His head:
Revelation 13:3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfYotZZ2Ero
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Trump shot at a rally. Grazed his ear. His head:
Revelation 13:3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfYotZZ2Ero
Regeneration.
Real or not. Staged or not. He really took the opportunity to say "fight". He's very good at emotionally charged moments since that tends to persway humans.
The energy shifted seconds before he threw his fist up. It's odd energy.
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Eminem follower released it a day ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq8ZOm3uwzU
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Regeneration.
Real or not. Staged or not. He really took the opportunity to say "fight". He's very good at emotionally charged moments since that tends to persway humans.
The energy shifted seconds before he threw his fist up. It's odd energy.
It's real cause someone was hit, and one was killed. No doubt. But we got a "seemed a fatal head wound" now which fulfills that prophecy and its healed.
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I know it wasn't staged. The moment his "wheels were turning" is when he decided to use the opportunity. That's when the energy shifted.
why is trump a part of this Bible story anyway.
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I know it wasn't staged. The moment his "wheels were turning" is when he decided to use the opportunity. That's when the energy shifted.
why is trump a part of this Bible story anyway.
I know its crazy but it appears to be for real.
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I know sometimes folks use melons as target practice but... Now the internet is abuzz over the attempted assassination of Good Ole One Ear. I did catch quite a few posting replies in various places "Revelation 13:3." Yes, and this happened on the 13th too. Go figure. The nation is mixed. Some are "praying" for the Deluded Melon. Others are yelling at the shooter "You had one job!" ;D No matter. Now of course, America needs to be more civilized than this. But the Deluded Melon is seen on camera, appears to be saying "flower" with a closed fist, over and over, with blood dripping down his face. So now it appears a new prophecy points to the Orange Shitstain, and the world waits with bated breath more news from this dumpster fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqmZT_6cw0
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Of course, the internet never disappoints. The memes coming out are tacky and hysterical. But in all seriousness.
The internet is buzzing many theories. Some say it's staged to help his cause. I don't think so, when we have this situation where a person was actually killed, and two wounded, including the Bloated Windbag. But the issue is, now we have an issue which his supporters will only further slip into this delusion he is a martyr for the cause. Taking the slings and arrows for "them." And the deep state is trying to take him down, he, the fighter for the cause to "save America."
It will make him stronger, not weaker, so the shooter didn't do anyone any favors with this madness. They basically, fulfilled a whole prophecy and the whole world does that "wonder" shit, the Bible warned us about.
So, there is some hopeful scriptures too. Not all is totally a doom fest. He loses in the end ✔️ But it goes from bad to worse.
But also....there is other scriptures about two in the field. We gonna have to see how it plays out. But I expect the poll numbers to go up, not down, after this incident.
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Ben has a good channel he just shows how deranged the Orange Jesus is in the emails he sends to supporters. They are really weird. I am at times, baffled why the funny farm hasn't ran out and collected the Orange Menace for his crazy talk. But he plays totally into Q Anon conspiracy, per his language of "Soros backed Deep State" chat, and calls on the patriots, acting like he is speaking directly to them, making these email exchanges with his supporters "personalized." But while on one end, you can laugh at how incredibly stupid and asinine they are, to a MAGA head, they are actually poisonous and dangerous! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUyIOYoPz7s
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Evidence there is a Satan at work. 👿
The top secrets documents case, where the whole world saw The Teflon Don had hoarded these documents in his bathroom at Mar A Lago for all to see. And we all know, he took them to sell to the highest bidder. Then subpoenas to return said documents, he evaded this and defied the orders. Had to be taken by force. The Trump kiss ass loyalist judge. The ONLY judge he would not criticize, who gave nothing but gifts to Trump, and flack to Jack, did what I suspected, and dismissed the entire case.
The system, justice? OH SHIT. That is why I say it must be a Satan protecting his ass. I've never seen nothing like this in this country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ueZdfEc5g
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This is crazy! Men all over selling their soul. Totally spineless. So The One Eared Orange Julius announced his VP pick today as JD Vance. This is what is soooo crazy. Yet utterly not shocking as we have all seen this play out before. JD Vance, in past, and you can witness with your own eyes and ears on this video, said horrible and TRUE things about The Tiny Handed Wombat in past. He compared him to Hitler even. Said he would take us down a dark road, all of it. But years later, then you can witness a clip of the Deluded Don the Con saying how JD used to say bad things about him, but "now he kisses my ass, he loves me!" To the laughter at the rally cheering this on. He should be embarrassed what a spineless twit he is. Sell soul, kiss the ring, be the butt of the jokes of Der Fuehrer! Oh it's so pathetic and disgusting! These Republicans are totally soulless, and darkness incarnate. Was it worth it buddy? What's gonna happen when the rope comes for this one's neck? What an idiot. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YqhDY3vUYg
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Laugh emoji cause it's all a joke. Word on the street is... Ole Bloody Ear is a "changed man" since his near death experience.
This is the new tall tale. We can expect a "cute and cuddly" Republican candidate preaching "unity." He suddenly wants to "unite the nation." ;D IMO, he is getting the rocks off, and the bullet grazing him, probably makes him feel invincible now. This will only feed his god complex, for sure. He is Neo in the Matrix dodging bullets, ready to take down the deep state! But he is going to "tone it down" his people say. Oh holy holy! Sure he is! But he will play this role. And with him barely missing the bullet, this will only feed into the supporters a "divine hand" moved his fat head and dead possum on his head, in the nick of time to live another day.
New and changed man? The only thing changed is his diaper maybe an hour ago. That's it! Nothing else!
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/df/29/35/df2935d67c0b2b25e6be942dda00a1d5.jpg)
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I know, I know. I said I was going on a negativity diet. I was going to not look at the madness anymore. But upon checking YouTube, THIS came up! Yes, The One Eared Maggot is selling "assassination sneakers" for $299! Oh, anything for a buck, ole Don the Con never disappoints! A sneaker with him, after the shooting attempt, with a bloody ear, holding up a fist, on a flowering high top! It's too much, it's insanely pathetic, yet none of it is surprising. The clown is a huge DOUCHE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWVJr7QnaXU&t=57s
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I'll tell ya, the signs coming in!
Now the US has had tornadoes, floods, earthquake in NY even Now? A meteor made a loud BOOM and was seen by several states, including NYC and New Jersey. A sign? Of course it is! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCbvLO4dUXg
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This is the only Stuffed I'm going to do today. I got better things to do with my time. But I have to show this. At the RNC, these folks created a "fashion statement," and are wearing bandages over their right ears, in solidary with the Deluded Melon. 🦻
THIS IS A CULT, FOLKS! When it boils down to brass tacks, push comes to shove, a Bonafide CULT.
Jesus says "let he who has an ear, let him hear," and these folks cover theirs apparently. UGH.
The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCKzZ7M1Icc
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I predicted it 8 months ago. Biden did drop out today. This needs to be the year of the woman.
HOWEVER, I am still disgusted the lack of loyalty and support, too. I don't like it. Esp when I see a cult embrace a false messiah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPA7WklufHE&list=PLiNgBZx-N7TOryjtqNv2mxHxqje_tOcDl&index=10
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I knew it was shaky, but I felt probably the best move, the king step down, and usher in the queen.
Because right now Project 2025 is sitting there waiting to leap all over us. Perhaps we need a woman to save us from it, not a man. Definitely.
Michael, remember I told you, Shiva?
Kamala Harris's family.
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ed/18/6a/ed186a7c8d2d15de867803fd3047b148.jpg)
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What are all the c**ts going to do with all those stupid ass, "Let's Go Brandon" tee shirts? As the right-ear bandages, which look like a tagging of sheep, fall away from their heads, and they look at the prospect of their "chosen one" who recently could dodge bullets, face, not an old guy anymore, but a former DA and, heh, much, much younger opponent, who can keep calm, cool, collected, and practically cuff the Deluded Melon on a debate stage. They are all coming undone. And now, Sir Shitshispants, is on a posting frenzy with the prospect of going against Kamala Harris, and losing, and...his posts on
Truth Social show fear, for sure, and will he debate at all? Oh boy what a shred fest it shall be! It comin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gBuyvClePo
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And the big news is big campaign money coming in for support:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/21/kamala-harris-fundraising-surge.html
POLITICS
Kamala Harris sees surge in big money support after Biden drops out of race
PUBLISHED SUN, JUL 21 20246:43 PM EDTUPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Vice President Kamala Harris is already seeing a wave of big money donor support following President Joe Biden dropping out of the race, with the help of bundlers who have assisted her in past races, according to people familiar with the matter.
Moments after Biden announced he would drop out of the race for president and endorsed Harris, major donors who helped raise money during her failed 2020 Democratic primary fight and successful 2016 Senate campaign immediately mobilized and began outreach to wealthy contributors, according to these people, who spoke to CNBC did so on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.
“I’ve been in touch with many of her supporters from New York to California and we are getting organized to start up the fundraising machine,” said Jon Henes, the vice president’s national finance chair during her 2020 run for president. “I had more than 200 texts, calls, and emails today of people wanting to host events and make donations.”
Among the top party fundraisers now planning to help Harris is longtime Wall Street executive Marc Lasry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Lasry helped raise money for the vice president when she ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary. He later raised campaign cash for Biden when he beat Trump during that election cycle.
But it wasn’t just the big donors who responded to Biden’s announcement: The progressive donation platform ActBlue initially said it raised $27.5 million from small-dollar donors in the five hours after Biden endorsed Harris. Later, the company announced it raised over $45 million.
Shortly after the endorsement, the Biden for President campaign filed Federal Election Commission paperwork to change its name to “Harris for President.”
But the renewed energy among some of the party’s top financiers was particularly significant because several of them had announced they would hold back funds from a Biden-led ticket, after his disastrous debate performance on June 27 against former President Donald Trump.
Venture capitalist Reid Hoffman plans to donate even more in support of Harris’ candidacy than he did when he backed Biden over Trump throughout the 2024 presidential election cycle, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hoffman has donated at least $10 million to supportive Biden political action committees so far this election, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Hoffman endorsed Harris in a social media post. Hoffman’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
Before Biden dropped out, Harris’ allies were planning a fundraiser in the ritzy New York Hamptons region for early August, which was set to feature Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, some of the people explained. Some donors were deleting the emailed invite out of frustration with Biden, these people explained.
Now, the expectation is that a Hamptons event next month will likely sell out with many donors getting off the sidelines to help Harris, according to a person familiar with the event.
Alexander Soros, the son of Democratic megadonor George Soros, said in a social media post on Sunday after Biden dropped out that “it’s time for us all to unite around Kamala Harris and beat Donald Trump.”
But the major donor support for Harris isn’t universal across the Democratic Party, suggesting she has some work to do in order to get them on her side.
Stewart Bainum Jr., the chairman of Choice Hotels and a major Biden donor, told CNBC he is still sitting on the sidelines and won’t jump in to help Harris because he feels there should be a battle at the upcoming convention with other potential nominees having the chance to lead the party. The Democratic National Convention is set to take place in Chicago in August.
Another veteran Biden fundraiser said there should be a “mini primary” over the coming weeks heading into the convention for Harris and anyone else who wants to compete for the nomination.
But for Harris, having some donors immediately jump on board is a sign that she could bolster the over $95 million campaign war chest she’ll control after Biden departed from the race.
Harris can likely get immediate access to the Biden campaign’s roughly $96 million donation pot, according to Anna Massoglia, an investigations manager at the campaign finance research center, OpenSecrets.
“The general consensus among most people that I’ve spoken with is that she can use the funding,” Massoglia told CNBC in an interview.
Massoglia noted that some conservative election lawyers believe Harris needs to officially become the Democratic nominee before getting full access to the campaign war chest, though she added that they represent “a very small sliver” of lawyers’ opinions.
Still, until election lawyers resolve the debate over whether Harris needs to be the official nominee, her campaign funding access is still an open question. The same goes for the donations of the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees, Massoglia said.
The scenarios get more tangled, however, if Harris does not secure the Democratic nomination. In that case, the campaign could convert its funds into a PAC or another type of political committee that would spend in support of the new nominee.
That option comes with several disadvantages, Massoglia said: PACs are subject to more expensive advertising rates and are not allowed to coordinate with the candidate.
An alternative would be to refund donors and ask them to contribute to another committee. That would come with the added risk of donors potentially deciding not to donate to the new campaign, Massoglia said.
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Oh this is HUGE! Back when Nikki Haley was running, she managed to garner the support of a good amount of Never-Trumpers, who are republican. This PAC group just came out, in support of Kamala Harris!
Oh joy!
https://www.newsweek.com/nikki-haley-voters-pac-announces-support-kamala-harris-1928198
Acoalition of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley voters pledged their support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid on Sunday, hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race.
Biden announced on Sunday afternoon in a letter that he will not be seeking a second term in this year's presidential election and threw his support behind Harris. The president's decision follows weeks of mounting pressure from people within his own party and from key Democratic donors urging him to step aside for the sake of the party's future after a disastrous debate performance last month against former President Donald Trump.
The political action committee (PAC), previously known as Haley Voters for Biden, which now features Harris' name, seeks to amplify the voices of former Haley voters in support of Harris' White House bid.
It is not affiliated with the Stand For America Fund, Nikki Haley for President, or Stand for America PACs. On Monday morning, the group posted on X clarifying this, writing "Just to clarify, we are not the Nikki Haley affiliated PAC. That was Stand for America."
They added, "We did spend $1 million supporting Haley and rallied thousands of voters across the political spectrum to vote for her because she was best for our country. And now we support @KamalaHarris."
Craig Snyder, the group's director, told Newsweek in an email on Sunday afternoon that the organization believes Harris "is best suited to defeat Donald Trump in November."
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador running for the GOP ticket, ended her campaign in March following losses on Super Tuesday in competition with Trump who is the Republican Party's presidential nominee. Overall, Haley, who served in Trump's administration, won more than 2 million votes nationally on Super Tuesday. She also polled well among moderates and college-educated voters who don't support Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda.
Last week, Haley spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC), where she criticized the Biden administration and specifically called out Harris, saying, "Kamala had one job...one job...and that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country."
Haley, meanwhile, has endorsed Trump's candidacy.
Snyder told Newsweek that Haley's "disparaging comments" were "motivated by political rather than substantive concerns, and we are certain that those comments will not be a decisive factor in the ultimate voting decision of the Haley voters whose extraordinary act in the primaries of protest against Donald Trump as the leader of the Republican Party means they are going to give the Democratic nominee at the very least serious consideration in November."
Haley has not released a statement on Biden stepping down or his endorsement of Harris as of late Sunday afternoon.
Newsweek reached out to Haley for comment via her former presidential campaign email on Sunday.
The PAC quickly shared Biden's endorsement of Harris on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: "We support @JoeBiden's recommendation and will immediately change the name of our organization to Haley Voters for Harris. There is no time to lose."
The organization has already changed its name on its social media accounts, but its website still reflects Biden's name.
Democrats will have to choose a new nominee by August 7 or face being kept off the ballot in Ohio. The nominee will then accept the party's nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which takes from August 19 to 22.
In its X post, the Haley Voters for Harris PAC advised the vice president to "select a moderate VP" and suggested three governors: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. It is not known who will run alongside Harris.
All three governors posted statements applauding Biden's legacy and their gratitude towards him shortly after his announcement. Beshear wrote on X that "while his decision today could not have been easy, it is in the best interest of our country, and our party."
In another social media post, the PAC expressed support for Harris and wrote "We welcome @KamalaHarris taking the torch that @JoeBiden passed to her."
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Project 2025 is not doing The Tiny Handed Wombat any favors. He keeps trying to distance himself. But his name is written in the 900 page document over 300 times, and many of the authors are former Trump advisors in some way or appointees of his. Now there is only one deal I think of the Deluded Melon may have. I cannot see, him allowing anyone to "tell him what to do" such as these extremists of The Heritage Foundation. He wants to be the end-all say-all authority here. But, no matter, the head of The Heritage Foundation, is not so wise, as "all warfare is based on deception," and while the Deluded Melon knows it as he lies constantly, these clowns advertised their whole extremist agenda, sounding the alarm. And once the head of The Heritage Foundation made that very famous comment, of a "revolution" which would be "bloodless for the left, if they allow it," that was the beginning of the end of the agenda. These clowns do not understand that Freedom in this country for ALL is huge, and folks aint going to allow some hostile takeover like they wish. They got comfortable. And now Sir Shitshispants is squirming to distance, and people aren't totally believing what he is throwing down. His "I don't know about all this" aint flying. Course he does!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aerM0b-a_TU
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In all this, much is showing that the Deluded Melon is becoming more unhinged the prospect of debating Kamala Harris. I love the one tweet: "God spared Trump so a black woman could beat him." Oh the ultimate yes. Tasty revenge. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1R8NOtZMZc
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I knew it was coming, cause the Orange Crybaby made the threat. The Old Orange Fella running for president, filed a complaint with the Election folks, saying Kamala Harris is committing campaign fraud by doing a "heist" of the funds which were for, let's call it what it is: "The Biden - Harris campaign fund." It is a dual campaign fund. Biden stepped down, so of course, why would she not be entitled to the pot? She is the running mate. But oh, it's so rich, that their Melon Messiah is crying "fraud" with campaign funds. When he begs his base to pay his legal fees with campaign contributions. I am waiting for the day he goes down for misusing those funds. You know he does! Now course, as she was on the ticket, this sad, sorry, loser's complaint, doesn't hold water. So I guess we will see another frivolous lawsuit hitting cause this bonehead is intimidated and quaking in his gawdy golden sneakers! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M62d-1WNk0
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Oh HI ELON! 😂
Nobody believes me when Elon is weird. He is playing these people! Elon was supposed to be donating like 45 million per month to the Deluded Melon. But now has backed out, saying he doesn't subscribe to the "cult of personality!" Heh. What changed Elon, what changed? The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GJP24nx6y4
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OMG the goons. The Republicans of the House are now trying to impeach Kamala Harris for supposedly covering up Biden's health and...it's all insanely stupid.
BTW Michael, I didn't know her middle name was DEVI. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2VM1nHnqc
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Maybe...I should just call her by her "real" name for now on. The momentum for Devi is picking up massively. And what is happening to the Deluded Melon? He even tried to call himself, "a brilliant young man." Yes! What parallel reality is he living in? He is now, the OLDEST candidate to have ever ran for president. So while the geriatric fella runs against this youthful, energetic, intelligent goddess, she is getting support. This shows one, as I addressed yesterday, Elon flipped and now the Old Orange Beast looks like a chump, as he was bragging Elon would give him 45 million a month. His "I love Elon Musk" emails already went out and now he looks like a man who got dumped by his young cute girlfriend, after she maxed out his credit cards. AND Silicon Valley is standing behind the Devi, and if they do, surely they will find ways to help her win, as they can be creative when they wish to be! Oh there is a whole lot of shakin' going on over all this! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjuD3UirJD8
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"This is elder abuse!" This kid Adam is right. When is the funny farm gonna come collect this old haglet running around trying to be president? He can't even get the words "abortion" out of his mouth! Now his new thing is The Devi wants to take down babies when they are out of the womb. Not even close, and I don't even think the crowd buys it either! It is a fact per the majority of polls, that 73% on average of Americans want Roe back. They do not want these weird-ass draconian laws, and women are going to come in strong. But I guess let the geriatric patient with cognitive decline speak cause, the more he speaks on abortion, the further he gets away from any "win" in the future. There is a huge force of women, of all ages, and men as well, who want this shit stopped, on this issue alone. He may have ducked a bullet to the head, but he is now grabbing the gun, and repeatedly shooting himself in those wrinkly old ass bone spurs of his! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBBygTCPv9w
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Ok the last line of this video, might be prophetic. Nikki Haley formerly said "The last party to retire their 80-year-old candidate, will win the election." Is she correct? Well, Nikki Haley stuck it out and ran for the Republican nomination. Said The Deluded Melon was unhinged, old, deteriorating cognitively, etc. She also got a lot of folks to her side. Then, turned on a dime, and endorsed the Shriveled Orange, making a total fool of herself. It's amazing folks, these never Trumpers sell their soul and here they come. But, the Nikki Haley superpac, has swung its vote to support Kamala Harris. What does Nikki Haley do? Send a cease and desist, and they basically said, ah nah you don't! Tasty move here with these folks and the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIiPhWQWINQ
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Ok everyone knows I hate TikTok. But, before it goes down, yes I think The Devi should utilize it, as it is up. And the account used to be for Biden, but now it has been switched to Kamala Harris. AND it has tripled in followers, and this TikTok which shows in this video, shows an excellent trolling of the Tiny Handed Wombat, and using his words against him! Oh it's so rich. But yes, reaching the young is huge, and of course, the majority of young people are progressive in spirit. They certainly don't want to "go back." And the Harris campaign motto seems to be: "We will NOT go back!" The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1sSbKRbeKA
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More grifty-grifty behavior by this shriveled melon. The Orange Jesus Wanna Be, has a new book on pre-order, for $99, and you can pay $499 to get a signed copy. It is titled "Save America." Now, since the assassination attempt, where he got nicked by a bullet, now he is using the image of fist in air, with Secret Service ushering him off stage, as the cover photo. Brother Paul is correct. It is just more fuel to add to the "false messiah" fire here. It's all a ruse at this point. But really, a book for a hundred bucks? That he probably didn't even write himself? Is there a whole chapter devoted to being eaten by sharks? What a waste of good paper. The scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N0xHTEpD-k
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Now, gah. I may have made a mistake, and over-estimated the Orange Menace's intelligence at one time. I thought he would be smart enough, to select a VP who was either African American, or a woman, to appeal to this demographic. Instead, he picked a rather, privileged white fella with a smart mouth, who apparently humped his couch at one time! Now, Shady Vance, as I like to call him, and I'll stick with that. No need to invoke a variety of names. Firstly, he was, long ago, a Never Trumper, who said the Deluded Melon would lead us down a dark path. Was Americas Hitler, Heroin for the brain, something like that. He said anyone who votes for him is an idiot. Then he went 180, and now loves this fool, and sold his soul. It's amazing, but textbook for those who went MAGA. But now, he is making Sir Shitshispants regret the choice. As Good Ole Shady is attacking "childless cat ladies." He has not apparently checked demographics, because many women are childless by choice these days, and can pick up a pen and vote. So shooting himself in the foot with such comments aren't doing him any favors, and I think The Old Orange Fella knows it. This may be, the worst VP pick of all time. Now, the internet of course, is full of "childless cat lady" memes all over. These cat ladies are uniting. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCnu7UqdgOI
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Adam aint wrong. The Republicans picking targets like Taylor Swift, and "childless cat ladies" is a huge mistake. Why would anyone attack Taylor Swift, who is the most popular musician in the world right now? Whose fan base knows no bounds. She was able to get 35k young folks to register to vote last election. That is the recorded. Surely more than that did. They do listen to her, cause no one owns her or can tell her what to do at this point. Then "childless cat ladies" by Shady Vance. So women all over are mocking this. Now, Adam also discusses there are republicans in the house trying to get folks to stop the attacks on Harris for race, or being a woman. But, these people cannot help themselves. Ugly is, as ugly does. And a good segment of Americans find this behavior beyond disgusting. The tides are turning. Taking on an opponent as big as Taylor Swift is a losing battle. Attacking Harris for being a woman, only rallies women to her side. Attacking her race, only rallies not just African Americans, but all sorts of folks who hate that shit. I have said last year, this bully behavior is going to take them down. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhCy9ZTPAAg
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I knew it! I almost read it, for shits and giggles. KFC Boy chickened out of the debate. This move was lose-lose. Back down, looks like a coward. Debates. She would shred him. He might even lose MAGA folks over this. Running from a woman is not a good look! The scoop:
https://youtu.be/G7XALutpPxw?si=NC3z0WvJnxiUhWKb
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Excellent speech. It would b miraculous to get this done ASAP.
https://youtu.be/65LhA1APWZQ?si=nnwXALwgb8eZ8-3s
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I’ve never seen this. Shady Vance. He has changed his name three times apparently. Can’t come up with better than “JD” he’s that tired and simple? Like a name change to Sam, or Jake. Everyone likes a guy named Jake! But a JD that’s a hard liquor. And he may need a few shots, other than this sad Diet Mountain Dew joke he did, that made the crowd go silent. No personality. Very stupid and boring. Needs to diss the eyeliner it’s not cool anymore. Chubby face went after childless cat ladies. I joined their Facebook cult today. It’s nuts! He’s a chump. We got a Deluded Melon, now a Mister Potatohead running as VP and I didn’t think it possible to make the Orange Shitbag look worse, but here we are. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/MbhlDn-fvzs?si=f4BtkjV3e8DKIb2_
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I did not know this about Mister Potatohead. 🥔 The plot thickens!
Shady has, get this, an Indian wife, and MAGA is coming undone. This guy shows a white supremist who can’t get over the kids have Indian names. Others, you mean he’s a vegetarian who learned to cook Indian food? Uh oh his wife is far from being Christian, eh? So they are turning on him hard.
But I look at this. How can you have a whole Indian family and be MAGA? This is above and beyond selling out. But I cannot help but be fascinated, a Hindu element on both sides, both parties in some capacity. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/ZMtEUPoAy6o?si=FCLJ3E4MqrUZZzC3
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Don't forget the whole purpose of this topic, the reason why we're stuffed, is Climate Change.
People have difficulty grappling with this, and even those who accept it, believe it will impact us around 2050, or 'the end of the century'.
It's happening now! Within three years, we will be in very deep shit.
It's too late to stop Climate Change - now is the time to install air-conditioning, stock up on sunscreen and learn to swim.
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Don't forget the whole purpose of this topic, the reason why we're stuffed, is Climate Change.
People have difficulty grappling with this, and even those who accept it, believe it will impact us around 2050, or 'the end of the century'.
It's happening now! Within three years, we will be in very deep shit.
It's too late to stop Climate Change - now is the time to install air-conditioning, stock up on sunscreen and learn to swim.
True. I was actually going to post about wild fires yesterday. But so much was coming in on the election.
But one of the reasons I do cover this on Stuffed - if the Deluded Melon won, climate change would be far worse. He is incredibly stupid and I saw him tell a whole panel of scientists on climate change "I believe the science is wrong." That's how stupid he is! He doesn't care!
K on it. ;)
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Yes, this is becoming a regular summer occurrence. The wildfires are brutal and now in Oregon especially harsh. Not far from where I am. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAGlUft-8dU
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So for months I have been following the election on Stuffed. Yes, Michael is correct, this is for climate change. Tho on this thread, many warriors documented political issues. But the Deluded Melon, and now this 2025. I have always seen as a threat to the planet. He pulled out of the Paris Accord remember? And Elon Musk didn't like that move either. But here is a breakdown, in a short snip, what would happen if the Orange Shitbag was elected, and Project 2025 playbook went into play. It would destroy the planet, for certain. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNUM69zDd0
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And Project 2025 would do away with something we have had since the beginning of even TV. Weather reports. Keep sheeple in the dark, so weather wise they cannot know about climate change! A tornado coming your way, tsunami? The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXoVSds4Io
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Yes if you watch the video above. The Deluded Melon telling these big oil oligarchs "Give me a billion dollars and..." And just like the scientist said: "The price for earth is a billion dollars." Yes, for these goons that's a deal! Give him a billion as if, AS IF, the world is his to sell, and they can wreck it all they want.
Sounds pretty anti-christ to me!
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Whoop! There it is! He said it. And he said it very blatantly! This video is already getting aired on many independent channels. Will it get on the big media tho? The false orange idiot basically told a room of Christians if they vote for him and he wins they only have to do it once. And no more voting is needed. That’s right! He moves in, he won’t move out. That’s the deal.
Now also, what is going to get some traction. He was telling Christians how much he loves them, and it appears he says “I’m not Christian.” I expect those under the Strong Delusion to argue back and say “he said ‘I am Christian.’” Just watch. But one thing is clear: he laid out the game plan. No more voting. Sounds like an end to democracy to me! The scoop:
https://youtu.be/d4COrFm7LNc?si=qzFL21z9luzqn_3t
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Told you this is getting traction. His comment on only voting once “It'll be fixed.” Voting ends, if he gets in.
But if you are a dreamer such as myself, look behind him. “Turning Point Action.” Now, this snip here, says a lot. Will this blatant comment to end democracy, be a “turning point?” Now VP Harris is one already. But there it is, he said it blatantly. And the Turning Point turns on.
But. I notice this being shown by independent channels. I saw a mention on big media. Why aren’t they screaming this from the rooftops? Should be obvious.
https://youtu.be/hfm5lw9n4P4?si=aE9i6oL6ijKQQ0yF
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Beau is one of the few Truth Speakers on YouTube. He tells it like it is. The hottest day on record he says, was Monday. The prior hottest day? Sunday. Look at his shirt. We have to take the planet seriously.
To me, and I have been sounding the alarm since last year. Now climate change, we have been sounding the alarm for years, and discussing it in here. But last year REALLY upped the ante, cause right now the leaders, if the wrong ones get into office, would be the destruction of the planet. They "have" to know climate change is real. But old ass men do not care about future generations, of course. But yes short video as he always does, and to the point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikEGSsQ1xHM
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No one denies the One Eared Maggot was shot at. That there was a Bonafide assassination attempt on his life. BUT. Don the Melonheaded Con is refusing to release medical records, and only let his old doctor from the White House speak on his behalf, claiming it was a bullet that side swiped him on the head. Now, to me he is making it worse on himself. If shrapnel, or like glass, nicked his ear, ok! But to claim it was a bullet, and his "doctor" claims it took off some of his ear....
But no it's all smoke and mirrors folks! We have evidence of a perfectly intact ear. Nothing missing from it. Not even a scar. If it would have actually been an AR-15 bullet, it would have taken some ear or flesh with it. So, course, he has to make himself the deep state victim here. Bone spurs has to look like he took one for the team. Sticking the maxi pad on his ear and then Band-Aids, only to show NO MARK on his ear later. Oh wow the cult will say God healed him perfectly: it's a miracle! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8pMgVoiBA
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Everyone is distracted, and this mess is happening. Israel was attacked. Hezbollah denies it. But they said they are going to strike. So while all are distracted, something brewing which could get very BIG. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alyTJ_VQ3Nc
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Since these were children who were sadly killed, there is no way Israel will not retaliate. This is a huge mess and it's most likely going to escalate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt8q5b1RVN0
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Big move by the Queen! So The Devi said, for the Sept 10th debate, she is going to show up! And if she stands next to an empty podium, so be it! She will answer questions and talk policy!
THIS is a brilliant move, as the queen puts the Deluded Melon in check. IF he shows, he will be shredded. If she stands next to an empty podium, he looks like a chicken running from his mother. Oh it's getting good and the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoN5TXyxB6U
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I used to hate this flowering thread
🙄
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🙄
I still hate this thread. But now I'm documenting history.
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Venezuela is a mess. An absolute mess and these people are suffering like no other. Their inflation rate is obscene. The worst government. And apparently, a rigged election. This video discusses. I watched quite a few on this, and listened to the protestors. Many nations, including the US, want transparency the votes. They aren't giving it. This SOB knows the people voted him out. And all the things they were trying to do, to deter the other candidate. It's revolting.
I can't help but think of us. If any cheating goes on, like not certifying votes, refusing to count them by fake electors and the like, this country would take to the streets just the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ypOZk7Jhks&t=7s
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Venezuela is such a mess. The opposition is so fed up. The people are going to go to the UN to protest. Something needs to be done about this. NONE of these people want him in power. They have proof that the other opponent won. This is so incredibly selfish and disgusting to rule over people like this. Taunt them with an election, then deny the results of the whole thing. I fear we could see some shit like this in this country with the GOP refusing to certify votes and throw it to the House, for them to determine the president. If they do that, in this country, OMG you think protests in Venezuela are bad? The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyzVb0mT518
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A stunning spectacle. The Orange Chump-Bucket outdid himself today. Everyone is talking about it! He spoke in front of a crowd of black journalists. Made a complete fool of himself. Insulting the reporter. Saying he always thought Kamala Harris was Indian and suddenly “became black.” It’s so much flubs and flops. He went down in flames. What an asshole. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/Ci7Gmlz1dlg?si=A9AQMRn-hqdQGqA5
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YES!!! This was a BIG ONE and I could feel dad really on this one. Evan and this other guy, Biden is getting them to come home in prisoner swap.
I actually still have text on my youtube info page, I was holding for Evan on this. I could feel the fire of my dad on this one to get him back home. Whew!
This is a major win. But I noticed a commentor. I think Putin is watching, and he is seeing the futility of a Trump win, so surrendered on this. Course he gets a prisoner, but Evan and this other guy coming home is massive!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uykOogEcfqA&list=RDNSuykOogEcfqA&start_radio=1
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That's awesome, very awesome!
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1c/e1/17/1ce117f2e93f2c2fc9a5b914a15d41bf.jpg)
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President Biden on this. This move was very huge. He's going to get tremendous support for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vOocj97j0M
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And just like that, they are home. Wow, what a day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjZTT5vQ2k
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I almost don't want to mention it, it's so disgusting. But, I am glad this is biting this Reality TV Clown in the ass. The Biden-Harris administration, obviously worked very, very hard to get this prisoner swap done. I remember doing a video on this. It is one where I actually addressed it directly to Biden. Now, course, odds of him seeing it, slim. But I did yell at the man we are Americans, and we gotta send Commando or Rambo and shit, but get him home! Well, he did. Anywho, Harry shows a snip prior of this Orange Shitbag declaring to all, that Putin would only release Evan to him, and when he gets elected. Now, he has egg on his face. He didn't get Paul Whelan out during his term, this 'great negotiator' did he? So as he feels the slap on the face, good. He deserves it. He deserves it for even having the Audacity to use Evan in his campaign. Biden and Harris were quiet on this the whole time. And they got the damn job done, while he has done nothing but rage on
Truth Social like a buffoon. Kudos to them for getting it done. I hope this does remain viral and end his campaign for good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ME9A7QJtwU
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Venezuela still in crisis. The US is not recognizing Maduro as the winner, but the opposition. Gonzalez. So seriously it is time, this clown surrenders and hands over leadership to the elected winner and stop this shit. These people should not give up on this. I notice a woman is heading the movement to freedom?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp25_Xup4bs
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Two predictions I have made. Now the world sees Cheetolii backing out of this debate. I did however, predict he will debate. On Sept 10th? I am not sure. But, I suspect his advisors are telling him he has to debate. If he does not debate The Devi, he will automatically lose the election. If he is seen by MAGA running from his mother, this will not sit well.
Second prediction, now he only has days to ditch Mister Potatohead, Shady Vance. Word on the street, is the Chicken Cheeto regrets his decision picking the absolute, worst VP ever. I did get death for that. Now does that mean, JD may be history, or JD is the end of this tRump? I dunno. But ditching him, his hand may be forced to do it.
But yes, cowardice. I do not think it's gonna fly with MAGA if he wont man up and debate VP Harris. He pretty much has no choice, as the Queen put him in check. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW33Kigzn-A
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This guy has predicted successfully nearly all presidents since...1984. How about that? The ONLY time he was wrong was Bush/Gore in 2000, which, MANY believe Al Gore rightfully won. That was a weird one. He says, the Devi is in good standing to win, as it stands. Also, I think many agree, as they ride the blue wave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IpbWCzLdXE
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Here is a bit on the news. Elon created a super pac supposedly to help Cheetolini and, it appears the website was geared to trick folks into believing they were registering to vote, and it only takes their data! Which then this data could be used to advertise to Trump voters. Naughty Naughty! Now, I have always seen Elon, since last year, a player in the election game, very big one at that. But I always felt a sabotage style. Now is it "intentional" to sabotage this whole deal, or is something puppeting Elon to sabotage? He took over Twitter and turned it into a train wreck, a feasting watering hole for the flyers. And now this. I have my theories. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ke4In7K7lY
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This video is pretty good. Good enough to get 1 million views. Yes. Rupert Murdoch controls a lot of the media (I have a Jim Morrison quote running through my mind right now). The NY Post is garbage and normally supportive of the Orange Windbag. But this time, I mean, this article was almost a plea to hint to the Deluded Melon and Mister Potatohead, that they aren't doing themselves any favors, continually insulting women. Now, this guy calls it. Who votes more by and large, men or women? WOMEN. So why, would women vote against themselves? Any woman who would vote for these two clowns, against their own self-interest, needs their head examined. But Mister Potatohead esp, united women all over. Groups are forming. It's getting intense. Now women want to take these two clowns down. So the article was trying to tell them stop. But no. These two idiots always double-down on the insults. There is no compliments, or apologies, and it's gonna hurt them. GOOD. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L7LrW_guPo
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Sheet! Prince didn’t take long, sprinkling a little purple rain on the Orange Dingleberys parade. After the VP pick announced, The Deluded Melon is desperate. Declaring to emails to followers Walz will “unleash hell on earth.” Oh yes, he tries to deal a reverse uno card, as we all sit back and scratch our heads. 🧐 Speaking of heads, The Devi lives rent free in that empty noggin. And here he is on
Truth Social, is he….begging Biden to come back? Coming up with scenarios that Biden will walk out on the debate stage, assume control….what? A coup of a coup of a … story and someone needs to get up and commit this lunatic. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/m8JPX97zRLQ?si=1FN6aS4TOSmwo14k
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See, this is a good example why I like to listen to smaller YouTube commentators, vs corporate media. Cause yesterday, it was corporate media, which gave the Bloated Orange a bunch of mics and let him ramble and lie his ass off. It's old, it's tired. More malignant narcissism on display. Lying about crowd sizes in comparison to The Devi, and even MLK! Absolutely fanatical. But many of the independents, such as Roland, are calling the media out. But even some reporters did too. But continually giving the Luciferian spirit airtime to pollute the masses is irresponsible and, Roland calls it: they must want that fool in the white house! It's a FACT the CEOs of all of them, are giving to his campaign. So it has been left up to independent journalists to fact check and educate the masses on the Truth. Sad state of affairs. The scoops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1T_uE-5kHw
Also, tho MSNBC is a major network, Lawrence O'Donnel never plays by the rules:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-oTJ49nls
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Mister Potatohead Shady Vance made a huge mistake attacking Tim Walz military record. The guy served 24 years. Jesse Ventura, who is an Independent, and also a veteran, breaks it down hardcore on this. Now I love the fact he is speaking out on this and against the two idjits. Because Harris-Walz need the independent vote. They are gaining strong momentum, and also with veterans. Walz has a history of aiding veterans in congress. Where Project 2025 wants to cut programs for them. So a sane veteran could not possibly benefit voting for those two knuckleheads. But it is fantastic, a very famous and prominent independent speaks out on this. This could sway a lot of people. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qab007BtkDM
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Venezuela is still a mess. Maduro is cutting the people off from various social media platforms. And the people are tryiing to wipe their posts and things. Many arrests and some deaths, and they are still protesting. This is a hot mess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56iWKIg0Kk&list=RDNSa56iWKIg0Kk&start_radio=1
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Michelle Obama is the best. She stuck it to the Deluded Melon with class! I love how she said the position of president might be one of those "black jobs." ;D That was great - well done well done goddess! We aren't worthy! Here's the full speech. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEc4t5uk0Io
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Looks like dumb bitch My Pillow Guy is smoking crack again! He shaved the porn star stash, but still strategically sticks his cross outside his shirt. This fool crashes the DNC, and Adam and a little kid take him down. The young aren’t buying his shit. He’s lost all his money being sued up the wazzu for his election fraud claims. These people are wackjobs but I thoroughly enjoyed the take down.
https://youtu.be/3ODVc_y2t5Y?si=YEYrasBVGjs97iVl
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The Devi gave an excellent speech last night at the DNC. It's a breath of fresh air to hear a rational speaker. The love in the air is fierce! I also didn't know her sister's name is Maya! ;D The funny thing too, as I was toward the end of speech, and started scrolling Pinterest. TONS and TONS of Kali images started surfacing. Oh my word here it comes! Brava to her speech!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pg_YzcuCmI
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And in Venezuela, their version of the supreme court ratified the election in Maduro's favor. A total coup here. I feel very sorry for the Venezuelan people. I hope we do not have shit like this happen with us. I know the GOP is trying to figure a way to get the election in the supreme court's hands to hand it to the Bloated Orange Shitstain. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbzXVDn9mVg
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Mister Potatohead is the most awkward, ignorant, VP pick we have ever seen. He has ZERO charisma. He has insulted childless cat ladies, menopausal women. And many MAGA do not like him either, cause he has an Indian wife. Then of course we have well documented, he called himself a never Trumper, and that the Orange Puke was America's Hitler. I have wondered if spirit deluded the Melon so hard, he would pick the worst VP candidate to drag the ticket.
Here he is going into a donut shop, and it is clear these two people are NOT excited to see his stupid face. These little moments candidates go in to act like they are one of the people, are supposed to be natural. But bringing in a crowd of suits and cameras, and the girl saying she doesn't want to be on camera. And the two young employees totally CRINGING about this fool, like they want him to just get the flower out, speaks volumes! ;D
I laughed so flowering hard when Brian says "JD Vance is where charisma goes to die!" Aint that the truth! 🤣🤣🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1kxIIHzaCc
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The Dune Worm, RFK JR, kissed the ring, dropped out, supports Von Shitshimself. This is my feel. When it comes to RFK JR anti-vaxx stance. My opinion is this. I fully support covid vax being a CHOICE. I don't care what anyone says. But he does not understand, because the majority of the population, DID vax, this is why, we can come out of our homes without a mask. We can be around each other. The vax was necessary.
But, I am in 100% alignment with RFK JR on his stance on the food industry, and it needs to change. It is a racket, that is killing people. We are 75% obese, and a diabetes epidemic. It is cause of the processed food in this country. Look at 2021 CDC stats:
- 38.4 million people of all ages—or 11.6% of the U.S. population—had diabetes.
38.1 million adults aged 18 years or older—or 14.7% of all U.S. adults—had diabetes (Table 1a; Table 1b).
8.7 million adults aged 18 years or older who met laboratory criteria for diabetes were not aware of or did not report having diabetes (undiagnosed diabetes, Table 1b). This number represents 3.4% of all U.S. adults (Table 1a) and 22.8% of all U.S. adults with diabetes.
The percentage of adults with diabetes increased with age, reaching 29.2% among those aged 65 years or older (Table 1a).
That's a lot. But the stats don't show children who have it (irritating).
So I am in alignment with RFK JR, that the food indusry is a racket. But his deal, he discussed with the Deluded Melon, his issues he cares about. So I get the convo here: The False Messiah promises him a job and he can work on these issues, have some power. Let's be real: as if he would keep his word! Of course he wont. These higher ups in the food industry are making BANK. So there is no way, he would ever let RFK JR make us a healthier nation. Not on your life!
Ok, since the Orange Jesus can't let him have too much of the spotlight and rambled, you have to scroll half way through the video to hear his speech. How will this impact voters? A few may possibly sway to the Deluded Melon. But I don't think much. The Devi has way more independents, like even the Nikki Haley voters, who a PAC changed their name to Haley Voters for Harris. But here's the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR3fuaKrEwU&t=561s
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Roland sees it! The selling of souls! Mister Potatohead, the Dune Worm. And many more! Why is it RFK JR sounds like he is speaking under water? Gah what a horrible ass voice! It's rachet! Anywho, Roland discusses the flip flop of these two, and called it right. It is none other, than the selling of souls at this point. What could these two c***s possibly gain here? Vance will have ruined himself, he already is, and his wife may have to ditch him for selling out to a racist and misogynistic flower. And RFK JR is where the family legacy goes to die! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n38nxG6KMvU
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Ouch that's hot! The Great Barrier Reef threatened. Hotter than it has been, in 400 years. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM83jV3hips
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The above is money, fire, trash can. Cause Don the Bloated Con is on the loose!
How Presidential! He must really need money. Up there at Mar A Lago, making a video for his suckers, er, base, pimping trading cards of himself! A cool hundred bucks per card! Cards with him as a muscular superhero, buffed with muscles and tan, does he really think he looks like this? He has sold them on the image of this cool businessman who is a success. They still buying it? What is it now, we got, trash ass gold sneakers, Bibles, Mugshot tee shirts, Assassination sneakers, whiskey shot glasses with a bullet stuck in them. He makes the My Pillow Guy look like a class act! Is his base this flowering stupid? Don''t cry to me about the Biden economy, if you piss away hard earned money on this fat flower. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl9BhhVYS1k
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So there was a kerfuffle at Arlington National Cemetary, with the Deluded Melon going to make a show. He KNOWS about the negative press he has gotten for his comments of fallen soldiers being suckers and losers. The kerfuffle was to film and photo op the graveyard, which is a federal offense to do this, for promoting an election. But his team forcibly did this. But here we have it. He does a "thumbs up" and a cheesy grin. And now, another family is upset, as their vet family member who is buried there, was used as a prop to bolster his campaign. He aint fooling anyone but the Kool Aid Cult he cares about veterans. He does not. He already showed that Freudian slip, when he recently said the Medal of Freedom to his billionaire donor was better than the Medal of Honor, cause recipients of that are in "bad shape or dead" but his billionaire friend was "beautiful and healthy." He's a c*** we all know this, and the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKnsUPcxrF8
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What is this music, to my ears? 🎶🎼🎵 It's the sound of BOOS for Mister Potatohead. 🥔🧔♂️He spoke in front of the International Association of Fire Fighters. And these brave men and women are not stupid. They KNOW he and the Deluded Melon want to rake them over the coals. He looks sad, sorry, sappy, stupid. And he has it comin!
This is in stark contrast where the lovable "Everybody's Dad" VP Tim Walz spoke, and received lots of cheers! This contrast is a very nice sign, that Harris and Walz are on the trajectory to win here! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLGVCCw0ZmE
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I have a theory. Let’s just. Bear with me. Somewhat a fantasy tale but…hear me out. The Donald Duck Poofon Con, was up there with God in heaven. Discussing Job and that whole deal. He made a wager with God. He didn’t want just one measly human. He wanted good ole America. Make him born to a nice wealthy fam in NY. Move to Manhattan. Get a bunch of towers. Apartment made of gold like a true chump. And basically, con. But later, run for President. And per the wager “They are so stupid, I can get them to believe anything. Even that I’m The Chosen One.” So God said “ You’re on” and sent this nutburger to earth.
Now, he is seen at another event, and he tells everyone, of the jobs created by Biden Administration “107% of the jobs went to immigrants.” YES. A supposed presidential candidate, says this spew. And even tosses in an impossible math statistic! But his base flushed any smidge of a rational mind down the toilet long ago, in support of this Fat Orange Clown. At this point, he is totally flowering with them. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/ZO-0GNEYufs?si=Ob2tDxCJHMnrsOV6
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Something I have done with my videos since last year. Per Archangel Michael. Is take the timing of my videos. And apply a scripture. On Luke's recent video, which I feel is important to watch. Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Neither did strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Like the immigrants, coming to America for assistance?
But this old, tired, playbook, propaganda, to demonize Democrats, and even elude The Devi is an agent of communism. Which, how is this, as communism does not welcome outsiders (they really don't think). And post these videos to invoke fear in the masses. It's absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately, there is a great number of people falling for this shit.
And many are so-called Christians. Who have done away with any teachings of Jesus. Even the scripture above, when I time it to Luke's video, says it all. To be full of bread, abundance,, idleness, and not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
And shall we turn it around or be judged for it? This election is very important. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQCiw0vcXZ4
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Tonight, I was listening to a mother of a son who was killed in Afghanistan as he served, in the final days of the withdrawal. She is full on a Trump supporter. Now yes, Biden did not handle the pull out well. BUT. I wish I could explain to this grieving mother, the beginning "move" on the chessboard to pull out, and make it a mess, was because of Trump himself. Negotiating with the Taliban? He didn't know flower all what he was doing, or what he was dealing with. Biden was left with many messes. The pull out was agreed upon thanks to Trump. And because of the prior mess, and the Taliban getting a foothold, the pull out was a disaster. She is right, it was a disaster. And Biden, I wish would have done it better. But there were things on this his hands were tied on. It all goes back to the mess Trump started.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-review-of-chaotic-afghanistan-withdrawal-blames-trump
U.S. review of chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal blames Trump
Politics
Apr 6, 2023 2:34 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. review led by the National Security Council of the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan largely lays the blame on former President Donald Trump, saying President Joe Biden was “severely constrained” by the decisions of his predecessor.
The White House on Thursday publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the so-called “ hotwash ” of U.S. policies around the ending of the nation’s longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions during some of the darkest moments of Biden’s presidency.
The administration said most of the after-action reviews, which were transmitted privately to Congress on Thursday, were highly classified and would not be released publicly.
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the White House summary states, noting that when Biden entered office, “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”
READ MORE: A historical timeline of Afghanistan
The report does fault overly optimistic intelligence community assessments about the Afghan army’s willingness to fight, and says Biden followed military commanders’ recommendations for the pacing of the drawdown of U.S. forces.
The White House asserts the mistakes of Afghanistan informed its handling of Ukraine, where the Biden administration has been credited for supporting Kyiv’s defense against Russia’s invasion. The White House says it simulated worst-case scenarios prior to the February 2022 invasion and moved to release intelligence about Moscow’s intentions months beforehand.
“We now prioritize earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation,” the White House said.
In an apparent attempt to defend its national security decision-making, the Biden administration also notes that it released pre-war warnings over “strong objections from senior officials in the Ukrainian government.”
Republicans in Congress have sharply criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal, focusing on the deaths of 13 service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport.
Former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was badly wounded in the explosion, told a congressional hearing last month that the withdrawal “was a catastrophe” and “there was an inexcusable lack of accountability.”
WATCH: Mark Frerichs on what his freedom means after being held hostage in Afghanistan for years
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby credited U.S. forces for their actions in running the largest airborne evacuation of noncombatants in history during the chaos of Kabul’s fall.
“They ended our nation’s longest war,” he told reporters. “That was never going to be an easy thing to do. And as the president himself has said, it was never going to be low grade or low risk or low cost.”
Since the U.S. withdrawal, Biden has blamed the February 2020 agreement Trump reached with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, saying it boxed the U.S. into leaving the country. The agreement gave the Taliban significant legitimacy and has been blamed by analysts for undercutting the U.S.-backed government, which would collapse so quickly a year later.
But the agreement also gave the U.S. the right to withdraw from the accord if Afghan peace talks failed — which they did.
The agreement required the U.S. to remove all forces by May 1, 2021. Biden pushed a full withdrawal to September but declined to delay further, saying it would prolong a war that had long needed to end.
AP writers Josh Boak and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
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The incident at Arlington National Cemetary, is staying in the spotlight, and I'm glad. Now, if The Devi is smart, and she is, she should bring the incident up in the debate. This needs to be addressed. How many nails in the coffin do we need on this Reality TV Clown? I do not know. But he needs to go. Vote Vets put out an excellent ad addressing this. And hearing from this veteran on this video is excellent. I mean, also, when you get a statement from the ARMY rebuking the behavior, that says something. He is utterly foul. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAiCGrZ9t0U
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I know she is a little annoying to listen to as she is reading off a screen. Give her a break! She is doing her best! This is a psychologist who banded with 27 mental health professionals, who are about to have a conference on the "Trump Contagion." She wrote a whole book on it, and feels the need with others to alert the public. That this is more than the insanity of one individual. But the "contagion" has infected many.
Now I could sit with this lady and break it down "It's called the Luciferian spirit." I do feel she is correct - it infects. Now, even listening to his drivel, one has to be careful and shield, even if they hate his ass, cause he is that infectious. That's what people need to understand. This is a shared psychosis of many. And they need to wake up. But it is interesting what she has to say, coming at the issue from the angle she does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSy9kHY9HME
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Michael asked the other day "who is the enemy?" I know his context a bit different. But you DO want a presidential candidate to KNOW the difference, between allies and enemies. The Deluded Melon, has blurred the lines for the masses on this one. Which is one of the most disgusting and dangerous things he could possibly do. Now you have news media, and even other folks, supporting Russia. A country which would be happy to get us out of the way.
I was talking to a friend the other day, concerned Russia would start throwing nukes like at Ukraine. I said no, not till after the election. They are waiting to see if Orange Judas wins, so he will hand over Ukraine and other countries. Why do something drastic and dramatic, when you can make a move with the least resistance? So no, no nukes before election day.
This stuff would have destroyed an opponent long ago. But we are dealing with The Strong Delusion. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9F2CgqQ5Pg
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It's "Old Man Yells At Cloud" at this point. The Deranged Dingleberry can't keep a coherent thought, he just, I think he just thinks out loud, no matter how stupid or embarrassing it is. He's a mess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJ7CNySdiU
DOJ charging for more Russian interference. No surprises here. It's Traitors galore at this point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfE2aP6gobA
And today Alan Lichtman predicted The Devi will win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE22XjWEyQE&t=125s
But it's not so simple, as the Republicans will try to cheat this election. Of course. Hopefully the Dems got a good plan for it. In the meantime:
(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/e3/1c/a6/e31ca6e4c437c475ca6b06b77e85d63c.jpg)
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When the Tiny Handed Wombat does these rallies, or posts his unhinged insanity on
Truth Social, I wonder why Adult Protective Services is not called in. We clearly have a demented, insane, unhinged, "thing" running around saying all kinds of weird shit, all the time. How he could come this far is beyond me. He lost once, but they bet it all on black for this lunatic and, it's not looking to good for the Deluded Melon.
But the stark contrast when The Devi is making her rounds with love and positivity are shown here. It's a woman's time. The debate is two days away, shall see how it goes. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lny26Gjwesg
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Where do I begin? I popped my popcorn, watched the debate. Look, we all knew it. The Devi would prosecute the Idiotiic Cheetolini Chickenshitsie! I could post a whole video of folly. But my favorite is when she said, that folks are leaving his rallies bored, and he fell into loud wailing, pained screams, that immigrants are "coming into our country and eating your pets!" Oh she kicked him in the orange mangoes with that one! Don't flower with his crowd sizes! ;D She was a master,, that was straight up elder abuse, and I loved every minute of it! Jam!
Also, he never looked at her, but she would look at him like he was the crazy drunk uncle you need to call an uber for. She finished him!
https://youtube.com/shorts/rrbJXvrjpfM?si=Ua2hPjvCAZnA3Qkf
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And to stick it up the orange wazzu, Taylor Swift, the most famous childless cat lady, posted after the debate, her endorsement for The Devi. Within a short time, she got a half a million views.
Bad night, Slappy? 😂
https://youtu.be/PvGIiEx0KfM?si=FrXqOtICvmQS0Muh
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It's raining like cats and dogs for the Deluded Melon, as he showed America what a rotting melonhead he was last night! Now, I just saw last week mind you, his
Truth Social Media shares were like $23 bucks. Now they are like $16 bucks since the debate! ;D ;D ;D Ok that shows folks lack confidence in him to win this, esp after ranting to America "LOCK UP YOUR CATS AND DOGS THEY ARE COMING TO EAT THEM!" I mean, we all thought of a "zombie apocalypse" on the Bingo card. But this? Cats and dogs being eaten? So yes, and he cant sell yet so he has to watch all that money disappear...crash crash chicken little the sky is falling on this Reality TV Clown!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjUauT24OU8
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One of the textbook descriptions of a malignant narcissist is grandiose, illusions of grandeur. Why do you think I call him The Deluded Melon? He thinks, if he tells a lie enough times, it will be believed. Even many on Fox news, say he had a bad debate. EVERYONE witnessed him come undone, as he took the bait from the very skilled Devi. All she had to do was mention his sorry crowd sizes and rallies, and people walking out exhausted and bored. And he melted down screaming "they are eating the cats! They are eating the dogs!" This buffoon lost his ever loving mind and never recovered. And The Devi said she would be happy to debate again in October, heh. But yes, he keeps screaming he won.
Ok Slappy, then why, the DAY after, did his stock shares plummet from $23 a share to $16 a share, right after the debate? ;D
Cause he lost, and he is gonna lose this election too. The only way he can get back in office is by cheating, and hopefully Biden/Harris have a plan in place to thwart that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfqLAjEY4tI
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I recently found this juicy and wholesome podcast. Imagine if you will: two white suburban ladies, over the shit of the Bloated Mango Madman. They so calmly and eloquently, tear into that ass and all of MAGA. It’s extremely satisfying and a joy to watch them put this flowerer down. It’s too bad I quit smoking, cause a drag after watching this show would be perfect! The scoop:
https://youtu.be/0u5QncZbB0g?si=r3vvUXSsiDVdbWoL
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The Strong Delusion, I do believe is a valid phenomena of MAGA. Now Brother Paul shows in this, 15 comments of folks who woke up to what the Deluded Melon is. Some admit, they were under the Strong Delusion, and ‘repented.’ But I noticed this among a few. What got some of these folks to snap out if it, they asked God “God, show me the Truth.” Then they claim, “God opened my eyes.”
That’s it! That’s the way to break the spell! Until these MAGA loons bend at the knee, and ask God to show them the Truth, not just what they want to believe, they will remain hooked. That’s scary, but it’s true.
https://youtu.be/6iE1djAnHEo?si=6Fevp_yLW4WK8gLM
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Most often people want their truth.
Not THE truth.
Theirs. Which is hardly truth at all, obviously.
Even if some managed an inch out another thing would come their way as it's all controlled
Even me telling Grandma once "the way I chose to love God isn't wrong it's just different" resulted in the radio telling her later "Spiritual people lie they are ran by the devil..don't believe them"
It seems their reality makeup will automatically kick out whatever is seeded in already by supernatural cause or their own subconscious. Anytime I have ever said anything to my grandmother the reality we're in denies what I've said. It's a strong grip. I doubt it'll be any different for those who think trump is a savior. It'll keep getting fed by whatever it is and unless it gets KNOCKED tf out....they may just stay incredibly delusional.
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Most often people want their truth.
Not THE truth.
Theirs. Which is hardly truth at all, obviously.
Even if some managed an inch out another thing would come their way as it's all controlled
Even me telling Grandma once "the way I chose to love God isn't wrong it's just different" resulted in the radio telling her later "Spiritual people lie they are ran by the devil..don't believe them"
It seems their reality makeup will automatically kick out whatever is seeded in already by supernatural cause or their own subconscious. Anytime I have ever said anything to my grandmother the reality we're in denies what I've said. It's a strong grip. I doubt it'll be any different for those who think trump is a savior. It'll keep getting fed by whatever it is and unless it gets KNOCKED tf out....they may just stay incredibly delusional.
I suspect all the churches, pastors, that indoctrinated the masses with their bullshit going to have to answer for it one day. They programmed these people to not “lean on your own understanding.” The thing is, this whole time, these churches, since the beginning with Constantine and Council of Nicaea till now, have been teaching it, not the Christ way, but the Apostle Paul way. For one. But they are drunk on power, and this has caused countless to be misled. I am just thankful folks are waking up each day. But of course, we need more to do it,
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I’m not going to put the podcast up, cause upon listening to it, my fury was raised. But it did not shock me. Tonight, I listened a bit to two Christian men, trying to rationalize the vote. The takeaway. They know the Bloated Orange Windbag is a conman. Paid off a porn star. Incited an insurrection. Said he doesn’t need forgiveness. Caught with a bathroom of top secret documents to sell out America. Responsible for millions of Covid deaths. Blows Putin. But….because he is pro life, that’s their guy.
🤬
All of that. And much more. Like his racism. Entertaining Nazis at mar a lago. Threatening to round up and deport all brown folks. All that. They know he’s a malignant narcissist, psychotic, unhinged, vengeful. But these stupid Christian men, gotta save a fetus….
Those flowering idiots.
But school shootings. They vote for the creep who is in the NRA pocket.
It’s moments like these, I think there might be a hell. Cause where else is the universe going to send these stupid twats?
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Let's unpack it and condense it in one post. Yesterday, someone tried to off the Deluded Melon. Who cares, moving on. Next, Mister Potatohead does a Freudian slip admitting (then tries to backtrack), his whole Haitians eating cats and dogs was a "created story." This has been debunked, but apparently, The Orange Dingleberry met his twin flame, the absolutely foul Laura Loonier (than him). She is so bad, even Big Bad Butch Bitch Marjorie Taylor Greene called her racist. Isn't that rich? Anywho, and the Orange Candyass melted down and cried he hates Taylor Swift. Well, I bet Melania listens to her, as she is the ex boyfriend singing a nice bash down, supreme and here is a takedown of MAGA the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm8vQKenDBo
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I see why Don Juan warns us. Don’t take shit too seriously.
Only in America! A brilliant job of editing the debate into a music video. He hits on all of it. Just goes to show you can make something quite catchy when you have more than a concept of a plan
https://youtu.be/H-jiH6IgvjM?si=PAOuFaJbWbuOaro8
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Ok. This would make even the fiercest hater laugh at this clown. So at his most recent Rally, the Whiney Orange Shithole was on it saying he called Melania, and was like "hey baby I got the biggest crowd sizes!" Melania and he sleep in separate rooms for a reason, k slappy? But then he goes off he is "Bigger than Elvis, without a guitar." Does this clown ever look in the mirror, and watch himself say these things outloud, to see how stupid he looks? I mean, Elvis are you serious? Oh I think I need to bring on Shania Twain for this one folks, for sure!
Then, just, oh its too much he is done. Let's let the angry white suburban women take him down. And Shania too, I mean, Elvis? ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GzogdcHyMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFLXayD6e8
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Oh Boy. This is why St Malachy says he is The Last Pope:
The pope said to vote for the ‘lesser of two evils.’ This is how you decide.
Many Americans have come to disparage the idea of choosing between the “lesser of two evils” instead of embracing it as our duty.
Sept. 17, 2024, 3:00 AM PDT
By Nicholas Mitchell, assistant professor of curriculum studies at the University of Kansas
Pope Francis, while on a plane from Asia to Rome last week, told reporters that he has problems with both candidates for U.S. president — he said they’re “both against life” and that Americans should vote for the person they believe to be the “lesser of two evils.”
“One must choose the lesser of two evils,” he asserted, even as he said he doesn’t know if that candidate is Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
Obviously, the idea of choosing the lesser evil did not start with Pope Francis. It is a phrase that voters have often used to characterize their ambivalence and lack of excitement over their choices on a ballot. Therefore, Francis was using the language American voters are likely to have used themselves. There is just one issue: Across the political spectrum, many people do not fully understand what the term “lesser of two evils” means or how those who originated the phrase intended it to work as a way of navigating essential decisions.
In fact, many Americans have come to disparage the very idea of choosing between the “lesser of two evils,” as if doing so means that they themselves are committing a kind of evil. When, in fact, we should see choosing the lesser of evils as our duty.
The concept itself is ancient. Aristotle articulated it in 350 B.C.E., and philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote about it in 1677. Even so, if most people don’t fully grasp the concept of “lesser of evils,” that’s likely because “the lesser of evils” is only half of the original concept. In short, the principle states that if given a choice, the lesser of evils and the greater good in both the long term and the short term should be chosen. The problem with the typical American’s understanding of the concept is that “the greater good” gets dropped off. Some may argue that considering the greater good is inherent in the lesser of evils, but the framework demands that people look at a situation from all perspectives. What are the lesser evil, the greater evil, the lesser good and the greater good now and in the long term?
What does this mean practically for voters? The lesser of evils and the greater of goods is a way of thinking about harm reduction. According to the principle, people are supposed to choose what causes the least harm while also creating the best outcome. But all this rests on how a person thinks about good and evil and how the person judges what’s an acceptable amount of harm. In short, the lesser of evils/greater good framework requires people to engage in a hard factual analysis of the choices before them, rather than the choices they wish they had.
To give a hypothetical example that does not involve politics, imagine you are trapped in a burning house with only two ways out. One exit is engulfed in flames; if you take it, you will survive the fire but be badly burned over most of your body. The other exit is full of rattlesnakes; if you take it, you will be bitten. You choose the rattlesnakes. Why? Because antivenom can bring your body back to normal in ways that doctors could never restore a badly burned body.
A recent real-world example was the decision to shut down in-person learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, before vaccines or effective treatment were available, the question that confronted society was: Do you keep the schools open and expose students, staff members and whole families to viruses that can kill and debilitate, or do you close the schools, which will disrupt society for millions of people and inevitably cause learning loss among students? Different communities answered this question in various ways, yet they all grappled with what choice caused the least harm while also creating the best outcome in both the short term and the long term in light of the realities on the ground they faced.
“Everyone in their conscience should think on this and do it,” the pope said after he advised the public to vote for the lesser of two evils. That’s not surprising. Telling people to “vote your conscience,” which means vote how you want you and other people to be treated by the government, is used about as often as telling them to choose the lesser of evils.
But acts of conscience are not beyond scrutiny. People get to hold you accountable for how your conscience tells you to vote and the choices you made out of malice or ignorance, including any attempts you made to avoid accountability. To repeat a point made above, “I will not vote for the lesser of evils” is an abdication of responsibility. Contrary to its performative intent, it affirms that you are willing to accept either outcome, including the greater evil. It is the sort of stance made by people who have somehow convinced themselves that because they didn’t vote for the lesser evil, they’re somehow exempt from the greater evil that their failure to make a choice may have enabled.
This is self-deception. No one is exempt from the effects of the greater evil, and if that greater evil were obvious, then nobody who failed to vote against it gets to avoid blame for helping bring it about.
It is important to reiterate that the pope stated that he did not know who the lesser of evils was in the election and never mentioned either candidate by name. You, the reader, may be wondering who I think is the lesser of evils after reading to this point. My goal in writing this essay is to describe how the lesser of evils and greater of goods way of thinking works and what “voting your conscience” means. I cannot and will not tell you whom to vote for, because deciding between the lesser of evils and voting one’s conscience is a personal decision.
What I will say is that these are serious times, and the lesser of evils and the greater good method of discernment is for serious people. It is a sober assessment of the state of affairs around us that culminates in a decision that affects everyone. Ultimately, voting your conscience demands that we all do what we think is right and fully own the consequences of that decision.
________________
Really. The Pope calling anyone evil or saying either of them are "against life" is an absolute joke the horrors of child abuse and how many they have killed since their conception. I can hardly wait till the church is gone for good.
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Oh Boy. This is why St Malachy says he is The Last Pope:
The pope said to vote for the ‘lesser of two evils.’ This is how you decide.
Many Americans have come to disparage the idea of choosing between the “lesser of two evils” instead of embracing it as our duty.
Sept. 17, 2024, 3:00 AM PDT
By Nicholas Mitchell, assistant professor of curriculum studies at the University of Kansas
Pope Francis, while on a plane from Asia to Rome last week, told reporters that he has problems with both candidates for U.S. president — he said they’re “both against life” and that Americans should vote for the person they believe to be the “lesser of two evils.”
“One must choose the lesser of two evils,” he asserted, even as he said he doesn’t know if that candidate is Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
Obviously, the idea of choosing the lesser evil did not start with Pope Francis. It is a phrase that voters have often used to characterize their ambivalence and lack of excitement over their choices on a ballot. Therefore, Francis was using the language American voters are likely to have used themselves. There is just one issue: Across the political spectrum, many people do not fully understand what the term “lesser of two evils” means or how those who originated the phrase intended it to work as a way of navigating essential decisions.
In fact, many Americans have come to disparage the very idea of choosing between the “lesser of two evils,” as if doing so means that they themselves are committing a kind of evil. When, in fact, we should see choosing the lesser of evils as our duty.
The concept itself is ancient. Aristotle articulated it in 350 B.C.E., and philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote about it in 1677. Even so, if most people don’t fully grasp the concept of “lesser of evils,” that’s likely because “the lesser of evils” is only half of the original concept. In short, the principle states that if given a choice, the lesser of evils and the greater good in both the long term and the short term should be chosen. The problem with the typical American’s understanding of the concept is that “the greater good” gets dropped off. Some may argue that considering the greater good is inherent in the lesser of evils, but the framework demands that people look at a situation from all perspectives. What are the lesser evil, the greater evil, the lesser good and the greater good now and in the long term?
What does this mean practically for voters? The lesser of evils and the greater of goods is a way of thinking about harm reduction. According to the principle, people are supposed to choose what causes the least harm while also creating the best outcome. But all this rests on how a person thinks about good and evil and how the person judges what’s an acceptable amount of harm. In short, the lesser of evils/greater good framework requires people to engage in a hard factual analysis of the choices before them, rather than the choices they wish they had.
To give a hypothetical example that does not involve politics, imagine you are trapped in a burning house with only two ways out. One exit is engulfed in flames; if you take it, you will survive the fire but be badly burned over most of your body. The other exit is full of rattlesnakes; if you take it, you will be bitten. You choose the rattlesnakes. Why? Because antivenom can bring your body back to normal in ways that doctors could never restore a badly burned body.
A recent real-world example was the decision to shut down in-person learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, before vaccines or effective treatment were available, the question that confronted society was: Do you keep the schools open and expose students, staff members and whole families to viruses that can kill and debilitate, or do you close the schools, which will disrupt society for millions of people and inevitably cause learning loss among students? Different communities answered this question in various ways, yet they all grappled with what choice caused the least harm while also creating the best outcome in both the short term and the long term in light of the realities on the ground they faced.
“Everyone in their conscience should think on this and do it,” the pope said after he advised the public to vote for the lesser of two evils. That’s not surprising. Telling people to “vote your conscience,” which means vote how you want you and other people to be treated by the government, is used about as often as telling them to choose the lesser of evils.
But acts of conscience are not beyond scrutiny. People get to hold you accountable for how your conscience tells you to vote and the choices you made out of malice or ignorance, including any attempts you made to avoid accountability. To repeat a point made above, “I will not vote for the lesser of evils” is an abdication of responsibility. Contrary to its performative intent, it affirms that you are willing to accept either outcome, including the greater evil. It is the sort of stance made by people who have somehow convinced themselves that because they didn’t vote for the lesser evil, they’re somehow exempt from the greater evil that their failure to make a choice may have enabled.
This is self-deception. No one is exempt from the effects of the greater evil, and if that greater evil were obvious, then nobody who failed to vote against it gets to avoid blame for helping bring it about.
It is important to reiterate that the pope stated that he did not know who the lesser of evils was in the election and never mentioned either candidate by name. You, the reader, may be wondering who I think is the lesser of evils after reading to this point. My goal in writing this essay is to describe how the lesser of evils and greater of goods way of thinking works and what “voting your conscience” means. I cannot and will not tell you whom to vote for, because deciding between the lesser of evils and voting one’s conscience is a personal decision.
What I will say is that these are serious times, and the lesser of evils and the greater good method of discernment is for serious people. It is a sober assessment of the state of affairs around us that culminates in a decision that affects everyone. Ultimately, voting your conscience demands that we all do what we think is right and fully own the consequences of that decision.
________________
Really. The Pope calling anyone evil or saying either of them are "against life" is an absolute joke the horrors of child abuse and how many they have killed since their conception. I can hardly wait till the church is gone for good.
Having read what you wrote, I would advise confused people not to vote
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My advice is to get off YouTube.
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My advice is to get off YouTube.
Well, I have considered it at times, for real. But...this election is very important to our country.
Like I was watching this person say how Dr. Wayne Dyer, and many other spiritualists, didn't watch the news at all, esp when it came to politics. His philosophy was "If the news is meant to get to me, it will." But the other, I was thinking of it last night, cause obviously you can see how gross he is, and this can be draining. Is I think I need to do what the media doesn't want to do, and that is focus on the positive. So I think I am going to switch this up, and focus on the positive things. Harris is bringing a positive energy and joy, that many of us have needed in this country for a long time. I thought about it during this full moon. If I focus on that energy, vs this crappy doom and gloom shit, perhaps that is better.
I don't think I can totally do it the Dr Wayne Dyer way, but I can do that. :)
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Ok let me shift positive. I want to put this up cause I have a ton to say on this.
So last night I watched the interview. I saw most of the show, where Oprah interviewed The Devi. It was an audience of 400. but a zoom call of thousands, including some celebrities.
But the energy that I have been feeling in the universe much to say on it. But this positive shift and momentum. It has the hopes up, of so many right now. Those who are about turning the page, going in a positive direction. Who are just...exhausted.
One of the things which exhausts me the most, is this attack on women for being...women. The fact women had their reproductive rights taken away, and they aren't done. There is a recent case a very young Georgia mother, lost her life, cause she had a miscarriage, and a routine D&C would have fixed it. But they have made it illegal, and the doctors basically kept sending her away and she died.
Which, we all knew was going to happen. But the assault on women doesn't end there. This really weird attack on women who are childless, or in menopause, or choose to not have children. Or even attacks on women who want to conceive but they want to ban IVF! They just struck a bill down in congress this past week!
This obsession with a woman's genitalia and her womb is insanity. They don't want women to have any kind of power.
Now, the Republicans, are trying to disenfranchise women voters who didn't legally change their names when they got married, to stop them from being able to vote! This attack on women is brutal!
So we need a woman here to stand up for us for sure.
Very good interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZasBoVhuUA
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https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/biden-un-speech-ai-rcna172702
Biden warns dictators could use AI to put 'shackles' on the 'human spirit'
The president's speech to the United Nations on Tuesday included a clear warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Sept. 25, 2024, 1:26 PM PDT
By Ja'han Jones
In his United Nations General Assembly address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden touted the positive possibilities that stand to be unlocked as artificial intelligence tools are improved. But he also warned about deepfakes and AI-enabled weapons, saying dictators could potentially use these tools in nefarious ways.
To be clear, we’re already starting to see despots and wannabe authoritarians deploying AI to upend democracy. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, for example, recently released a report finding Russia is the most prolific distributor of AI-generated content intended to manipulate U.S. voters ahead of this year’s elections. And Donald Trump and his allies have used AI-generated content to spread disinformation about Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats during this year’s presidential campaign.
In Tuesday's speech, Biden echoed the sentiment of AI ethicists he’s met with previously, like Joy Buolamwini, when he spoke of the need for equity in AI, saying it should “narrow, not deepen, digital divides.” Biden said "much of [AI] could make our lives better." But he also said it could pose "profound risks," listing the potential creation of novel pathogens, bioweapons, deepfakes and other forms of disinformation. And he offered a sobering warning that dictators could use the technology to place “shackles” on the “human spirit” if precautions aren’t put in place to prevent that.
Biden said:
[M]y fellow leaders, it’s with humility I offer two questions: First: How do we as an international community govern AI? As countries and companies race to uncertain frontiers, we need an equally urgent effort to ensure AI’s safety, security, and trustworthiness. As AI grows more powerful, it must grow also — it also must grow more responsive to our collective needs and values. The benefits of all must be shared equitably. It should be harnessed to narrow, not deepen, digital divides. Second: Will we ensure that AI supports, rather than undermines, the core principles that human life has value and all humans deserve dignity? We must make certain that the awesome capabilities of AI will be used to uplift and empower everyday people, not to give dictators more powerful shackles on human — on the human spirit.
The European Union is leading the charge when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence innovation. In the United States, on the other hand, whether and how AI should be regulated remains a hot-button issue. But Biden’s remarks on AI, which essentially closed out his speech, reminded listeners that a failure to establish rules around how AI is used could have dire consequences both in the U.S. and abroad.
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Hurricane Helene is a big one. I just read it may "change the landscape of Florida." (cant help but notice the Deluded Melon lives in Florida).
https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/hurricane-helene-florida-09-26-24/index.html
Helene is an "unusually dangerous storm," North Carolina governor warns
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned that Hurricane Helene could have a dangerous and deadly impact in parts of the state.
“This is an unusually dangerous storm that threatens to bring heavy rain and potentially catastrophic flooding tonight and tomorrow for central and particularly western North Carolina,” Cooper said during a severe weather news conference.
Cooper noted that when tropical weather crosses into the state’s mountainous areas, it can be deadly. He recalled the deadly and devastating impact of Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, and said Helene could have a similar impact.
“With Hurricane Helene, we have to be clear here: Heavy rains and winds are coming. Beware and prepare,” the governor said. “Travel will be dangerous. Flooding is likely and we are preparing for unexpected conditions.”
He added that the storm is expected to bring more than a foot of rain to parts of western North Carolina, which will “likely cause significant flash flooding, landslides, damaging debris flows, slope failures across steep terrain and river flooding. Even areas that typically don’t experience it, may see flooding.”
He said that cities like Charlotte and Asheville could see flash flooding despite not being directly in the storm’s path.
____________________________
Parts of Florida coast already underwater as Helene nears Category 3 strength
The impacts of Hurricane Helene are already evident along parts of the Florida coast, where some streets have flooded in beachfront communities.
Ill get more on this later.
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Hurricane Helene is reeking havoc
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/27/hurricane-helene-tropical-storm-friday-live-updates/75405032007/
Helene tearing through Georgia; 8 dead; 4.4 million without power: Live updates
Thao Nguyen
Christopher Cann
Trevor Hughes
USA TODAY
ST. MARKS, Fla. – Helene, now weakened to a tropical storm as it barreled through Georgia on Friday, still wielded enough force to unleash life-threatening floods across the Southeast and cause millions of power outages.
Helene made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida, with 140-mph winds, making it the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851. For several hours, the storm maintained hurricane strength as it pushed inland across northern Florida and into Georgia.
By 8 a.m. ET Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Helene was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 60 mph. Racing at 30 mph, the storm was located 35 miles south-southwest of Clemson, South Carolina, and 80 miles eastern-northeast of Atlanta.
At least eight storm-related deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Authorities across the Southeast were rescuing residents trapped in rising floodwaters as Helene soaked much of the region in torrential rain. Over 4.4 million homes and businesses were without power from Florida to the Carolinas and Virginia on Friday morning.
Developments:
∎ All hurricane and tropical storm warnings were discontinued along the Florida east coast south of the Flagler and Volusia county line, and along the Florida west coast south of the mouth of the Suwannee River, according to the National Hurricane Center.
∎ Helene is tied as the 14th most powerful hurricane to hit anywhere in the U.S. since records have been kept and the seventh most powerful to slam into Florida, according to National Hurricane Center data.
∎ In Tallahassee, more than 50 roads were blocked by downed trees and over 53,000 homes and businesses were without power in the wake of Helene, the city said in a post on X.
(https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/27/USAT/75408496007-usatsi-24334596.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Coastal Florida town slammed by hurricane – again
Among the hardest hit areas was Steinhatchee, a small town along a river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.Friday morning, John Kujawski drove a golf cart with his wife, Jamie Lee, over debris and around downed trees, horrified at the damage.
Last year, Hurricane Idalia pummeled the town, and workers were still clearing up that mess when Helene arrived. “This is overwhelming,” Lee said. “I don’t think it’s sunk in.”Navigating their bumpy way along Riverside Drive, the couple pointed out guest houses that had been flattened, docks and boat shoved ashore.They noted whose new roofs were destroyed all over again and mourned the damage to a newly opened pizza restaurant.“They probably had only sold $200 worth of pizza,” Kujawski said. “This is awful.”
Millions without power across eastern US as Helene rages on
Below are the outage totals from Florida to Virginia as of 9:30 a.m., according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker.
South Carolina: 1,391,621
Florida: 1,127,650
Georgia: 1,079,409
North Carolina: 692,705
Virginia: 57,299
Tennessee: 51,536
Kentucky: 16,632
Death toll rises as Helene batters Southeast
At least eight people have died as Helene unleashed dangerous weather conditions across multiple states in the Southeast, according to authorities and media reports.
In Florida, two deaths have been attributed to the storm. Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters a person died in Dixie County, along the Big Bend coast, after a tree fell on a home. On Thursday night, a person was killed in a storm-related traffic fatality in Ybor City in Tampa, the governor said.
In central Georgia, two people died after a mobile home overturned in a possible tornado Thursday. Georgia Gov. Bryan Kemp posted a statement on X offering prayers to the families.
On Friday, a firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle in Blackshear, Georgia, local media reported, citing the Pierce County Fire Department.
In northwestern South Carolina, two people were killed by trees that had fallen on their homes, the Anderson County Sheriff's Office and coroner's office told local media outlets.
Over 4.4 million homes and businesses across the eastern U.S. were in the dark early Friday as Helene pummeled the region with powerful winds and heavy rain.
In North Carolina, a 4-year-old was killed and others were injured in a wreck on Thursday that occurred as Helene's outer bands were slamming the state. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a person died and another was hospitalized after a tree fell on a home just after 5 a.m. Friday, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.
“This was a storm related death,” Capt. John Lipcsak, a spokesperson for the fire department, told USA TODAY.
Perry resident: 'I've had worse'
Outside Perry, Florida, longtime resident Donna Parker, 80, watched as her grandson cut up a toppled palm tree with a chainsaw.Parker has lived in her house since 1985 and has never left for a hurricane, the names of which she can still rattle off.“The wind, it was bad. But I’ve had worse. We’ve really had worse. I’ve had it where my whole front yard was a lake,” she said.“A lot of prayers, I tell you, when the wind come up. But the good Lord looked after us.”
Is there another hurricane brewing after Helene?
While Helene was smashing into Florida, a new hurricane was coming to life in the Atlantic. Hurricane Isaac formed Friday morning far out in the ocean, almost 1,000 miles from Bermuda, the hurricane center said.
Although the hurricane is moving east across the open Atlantic far from land, swells generated by Isaac are affecting portions of the coast of Bermuda and could spread into the Azores by this weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Elsewhere, forecasters were also watching a weather disturbance in the central Atlantic Ocean, one that has a 90% chance of becoming a named storm within the next couple of days. "A tropical depression or storm could form today while the system moves generally westward to west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph," the National Hurricane Center said. "The system is then forecast to slow down and turn north-northwestward by this weekend."
If it gets a name, it would be called Tropical Storm Joyce. As of Friday morning, the system poses no threat to any land areas.
Finally, ominously, forecasters were also turning their attention back to the Caribbean Sea, where yet another system appears to be brewing in a similar location to where Hurricane Helene formed. "Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for slow development while the system moves generally northwestward, potentially entering the Gulf of Mexico by the end of next week," the hurricane center said.
That system, if it strengthens to a storm, would be called Tropical Storm Kirk.
– Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
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Ok I can't help but show this. I know El Creepo Orango was born in Queens. But can you see this tired out played out greasebag walking up with a trenchcoat, then opens the flap and shows...a bunch of watches? Oh yes Don the Con the Grift is ON! ;D He is on his site pimping Trump watches, and some even go for 100k, Does this ridiculous IDIOT understand, his base, is poorly educated and broke? I thought he said "I love the poorly educated." They cant even afford an Apple watch, much less his cheap knock offs that he is pimping. WATCHES! How do they not see through this idiotic clown? The scoop:
Oh PS his site says NO REFUNDS. Figures.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-newest-merchandising-opportunity-ridiculous-rcna172986
Why Trump’s newest merchandising opportunity is so ridiculous
The Republican candidate has launched an astonishing number of merchandising opportunities lately. The $100,000 watches are arguably the most outlandish.
Sept. 27, 2024, 6:00 AM PDT
By Steve Benen
In February 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump were rivals for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, and the Florida senator was still desperately trying to convince voters that the former television personality was an untrustworthy “con man.”
It led to an exchange during a televised debate in which Rubio declared, while pointing to the future president, “Here’s the guy that inherited $200 million. If he hadn’t inherited $200 million, you know where he’d be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan.”
More than eight years later, the line is relevant anew. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday promoted watches branded with his name, his latest involvement in a series of business endeavors as he simultaneously campaigns for the White House. ‘You’re going to love them. Would make a great Christmas Gift,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post linking to the vendor website.”
In the same video, released with just 40 days remaining before Election Day, the Republican nominee added, in reference to the watch collection, “I love gold. I love diamonds. We all do.”
The prices vary, though as NBC News’ report added, “Some of the most expensive watches listed on the website go for $100,000.”
That's not a typo. We're talking about watches that sell for six figures.
And it’s that detail that makes Trump’s latest merchandising opportunity more ridiculous than most. On the one hand, the former president occasionally likes to pretend to champion the interests of working families. On the other hand, the Republican filmed a cartoonish video at his glorified country club, boasting about his love of gold and diamonds, while urging people to check out a watch collection — some of which cost far more than the average American’s annual income.
In case this weren’t quite enough, those who follow the link to the merchandising website will find a Frequently Asked Questions section, which lets visitors know, “The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the final product.”
The same FAQ lets visitors know, “There are no refunds.”
Some might see all of this and think that some candidates have no choice but to pursue outlandish fundraising gambits during a campaign, especially when their rivals are outpacing them. But this new merchandising opportunity is wholly unrelated to the GOP candidate’s 2024 political operation.
As Election Day nears, Trump isn’t trying to put money in his campaign coffers; he’s trying to put money in his own pocket.
As regular readers know, Americans have never seen anything like this. A Washington Post report added earlier this month, “No presidential candidate has ever so closely linked his election with personal for-profit enterprises, selling a staggering array of merchandise.”
The article quoted Don Fox, former general counsel for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who said, “There’s no precedent in history at all, and certainly not in modern history, for somebody who has monetized the office or running for office of president the way he has.”
Complicating matters is the staggering variety of items. The watch collection comes just days after the Republican unveiled silver Trump commemorative coins, which came just days after the GOP nominee launched a new family cryptocurrency project — the details of which he did not appear to understand — while partnering with two little-known crypto entrepreneurs, one of whom has described himself as “the dirtbag of the internet.” (The other taught classes on how to seduce women.)
The silver coin and crypto gambits — two ventures that would appear to contradict each other — came on the heels of Trump selling batches of digital trading cards. And the gold sneakers. And the Trump-endorsed Bible. And degrees from his fake university. And the board game. And the steaks.
It’s not a secret that Trump’s finances are a bit of a mess. As a Washington Post analysis summarized, the Republican “is in a cash crunch — personally and politically — and has been unafraid throughout his career to put the Trump name on anything that might yield a stream of revenue.”
But that desperation has turned the former president into a two-bit carnival huckster on the eve of one of the most important elections in American history.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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Oh boy it is heating up. Now I know the US is trying to stay out of this. This is what angers me about Israel, They are pushing this war deeper into the middle east, and they know we would defend if we must. They are worsening this situation not going to the table for an agreement. They are totally bloodthirsty, and now its got Iran in this.
White House believes Iran is preparing imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel
Kevin Liptak Jeremy Diamond MJ Lee Arlette Saenz Kylie Atwood Jennifer Hansler Pauline Lockwood
By Kevin Liptak, Jeremy Diamond, MJ Lee, Arlette Saenz, Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Pauline Lockwood and Niamh Kennedy, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 11:44 AM EDT, Tue October 1, 2024
Iran is poised to launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel soon, the White House warned Tuesday, instantly ratcheting up fears of all-out war in the region.
In a statement released mid-morning, the White House said it had “indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel,” adding the United States was “actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack.”
“A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran,” a senior White House official said in a statement.
Israel assesses that Iran is likely to attack three Israeli air bases and an intelligence base located just north of Tel Aviv, a person briefed on the matter said.
The intelligence base in Glilot was evacuated Tuesday afternoon, the person said, and the Israeli military has put contingency plans for the safety of personnel at those bases into effect.
The US warned Israel that an attack would likely come within the next 12 hours, the person said.
An Israeli source told CNN shortly after the White House’s warning that intense diplomacy is happening behind the scenes, and the current assessment is that an attack will happen shortly.
The Israeli military said it had not yet identified a specific aerial threat from Iran.
“As of this moment, Israel does not perceive imminent threat from Iran,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. During a short video message, Hagari said Israeli military planes are currently “scanning the sky” for any imminent threat from Iran.
“We are on peak alert both on the offensive and the defensive,” Hagari added, warning Iran that any attack on Israel would “have consequences.”
After a year of heightened tensions between Israel and Iran’s proxies in the region — including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — a potentially imminent attack by Iran toward Israel could further tip the region toward full-scale conflict.
US and Arab diplomats are already concerned about what might happen after Iran’s expected attack, including the scale of Israel’s response. One major concern on their mind is Israel possibly using a forthcoming Iranian strike to respond by striking inside Iran.
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said during his speech at the United Nations last week.
The US is prepared to do whatever it can to help Israel intercept anything Iran directs its way, similar to how the US offered its assistance in April, when Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles towards Israel — the vast majority of which were successfully intercepted, a US official said.
The US anticipates that the forthcoming attack from Iran against Israel could be similar in scope and scale to the one in April, a US official told CNN.
The US warned Israel early Tuesday morning ET (midday Israel time) that Iran was poised to launch an attack, according to a person familiar with the matter. The warning between the two countries came several hours before the White House announced publicly that it had indications Iran was preparing an attack.
The official said Iran has been postured to move quickly in an attack. After the onslaught of drones and missiles fired toward Israel in April, many of Iran’s assets remained in position.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have ratcheted up significantly in recent weeks as Israel has stepped up its efforts against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, and Israel on Monday launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu asked Israelis to “stand together” and keep following the frontline commands as fears of an imminent attack from Iran grow.
Netanyahu said Israel is in the throes of a “campaign against Iran’s axis of evil” and made specific demands from the Israeli public.
“What I ask of you is two things: One - to strictly obey the directives of the frontline command, it saves lives. And second - to stand together,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The United States is “tracking events in the Middle East very closely” and “is committed to Israel’s defense,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
“We’re watching developments, as I said, very carefully at this moment,” Blinken said in brief remarks alongside his Moroccan counterpart. Blinken did not make any specific reference to Iran or the potential attack.
The US Embassy in Israel directed all US government personnel and family members “to shelter in place until further notice” because of “the current security situation,” it said in a security alert Tuesday.
“This is provided for your information as you make your own security plans,” the alert said, without mentioning the specific warnings of an imminent attack from Iran.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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Moments like these show why we need sane and competent leadership.
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Dear God here it goes:
Iran launches missile attack on Israel
Sana Noor Haq Maureen Chowdhury
By Lex Harvey, Irene Nasser, Sana Noor Haq, Antoinette Radford and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN
Updated 1:32 PM EDT, Tue October 1, 2024
4 hr 23 min ago
More US-based troops put on prepare to deploy orders to Middle East amid rising tensions, the Pentagon says
From CNN's Haley Britzky
An unspecified number of troops in the US have been put on prepare to deploy orders, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday.
“Secretary Austin increased the readiness of additional US forces to deploy, elevating our preparedness to respond to various contingencies,” she said. “I’m just not going to get into specifics for [operational security] reasons, but these forces cover a wide range of capabilities and missions.”
Singh also said that additional air defense support going to the region, announced by the Pentagon on Sunday, are units previously scheduled to deploy that will now be joining units already there instead of replacing them.
The reinforcement of air support capabilities, she said, includes “a certain number of units already deployed to the Middle East region that will be extended, and the forces due to rotate into theater to replace them will now instead augment the in-place forces already in the region.” It will include “an additional few thousand” service members in the region, she said.
“I can tell you these augmented forces include F-16, F-15E, A-10, F-22 fighter aircraft and associated personnel,” Singh said.
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Here it goes. The Plot to take people to a real physical hell:
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4903643-trump-mars-mission-musk/
Mars quest: President Trump and Elon Musk’s grand vision
by Greg Autry and Brett Mecum, opinion contributors - 09/28/24 2:00 PM ET
(https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/musk_elon_mars_09272016_AP_AP16271776023131.jpg?w=640&h=360&crop=1)
In September of 1962, John F. Kennedy famously told Americans, “We choose to go to the Moon.” Former President Donald Trump recently echoed this sentiment with “Elon, get those rocket ships going because we want to reach Mars.”
Trump has often talked about reaching Mars. We find his new challenge to be a continuation of the fruitful space initiatives of his first administration, complementary to the bold return to the moon under Artemis.
Still, many people question whether sending crew-capable spacecraft to Mars is achievable before Jan. 20, 2029. The fundamental physics says, “Yes.”
There would be two launch windows for an efficient Mars mission during a second Trump administration — in 2026 and 2028. The remaining requirements are technical and political.
Betting against Musk is a fool’s game. His electric cars hold their own against far more expensive Porsches and Ferraris and the Tesla Model Y was the world’s best-selling car.
When SpaceX first launched a Falcon 9 rocket in 2010, America held a big, fat zero percent of the global commercial launch market today. Today, most payloads are launched by SpaceX, which now flies more rockets than the entire planet did in 2010.
In 2010 there were about 1,000 active satellites in orbit. Today, Musk’s Starlink constellation operates more than six times that number, more than the rest of the commercial, military and governmental world combined.
Trump’s space record is equally intimidating. No president has had a greater overall impact on U.S. space policy. Trump reestablished the National Space Council. He created the Space Force. He initiated NASA’s return to the moon under Artemis.
Under his guidance, NASA and the Department of State initiated the Artemis Accords, which aligned dozens of nations with American goals in developing space resources. His team produced a plethora of space-related executive orders and policy directives addressing everything from space cybersecurity to orbital debris management.
Musk is testing his big Starship rocket down in Texas as often as the Federal Aviation Administration will allow. He recently said that he will send several uncrewed Starships to Mars in 2026, and if all goes well, follow that with crewed flights two years later.
We have no doubt that Starships will be standing on Mars by 2029 if the government doesn’t get in Musk’s way. After several test flights, Starship is looking capable, and landing one on Mars is easier in some ways than the moon mission that NASA has contracted it for.
The Red Planet offers an atmosphere, useful for aerobraking and fuel production. This will reduce the need for pre-fueling missions inside Earth orbit. However, the returning crew will require an “in situ” fuel and oxidizer production process on Mars, which will be the biggest challenge. Perhaps our astronauts might not be back until 2030.
No worries — Starship is fully capable of delivering enough supplies to sustain and protect them from the harsh Martian environment and radiation for many years. They can spend that time doing amazing science if we only have the vision and courage to send them.
To achieve that, the second Trump administration must immediately streamline and simplify launch permit and license requirements. Musk has noted that launching each Starship requires “multiple fish licenses,” on top of FAA safety reviews. Requiring each launch to clear several hurdles is a waste of time we cannot afford in a globally competitive market.
China is ready to eat our freeze-dried astronaut lunch while we hobble ourselves. It is long past time to unburden space from what has been and adopt a pro-business, America-First attitude.
To that end, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation should be elevated out of the FAA and report directly to the Secretary of Transportation. It should be led by a business-savvy professional appointed by and accountable to the president.
Exploring Mars in no way precludes us from the priority of lunar development before China and Russia do. The tasks are complementary and our strategic economic, military and geopolitical interests dictate that we win that race against authoritarianism.
Developing the resources of the moon provides benefits for the Earth and is also complimentary with the eventual settlement of Mars. Learning to process local resources to sustain long-term habitats, grow food, avoid radiation and adapt to partial gravity are challenges faced in both locations.
Being just three days away gives the moon an initial advantage for that work while we also get on with Mars. Supporting a simple, commercially directed Starship to Mars program, with NASA as a science customer, makes that possible and affordable.
America has always been at its best facing a crisis or a challenge. When we have the will, we have always found bold leaders able to answer the clarion call. Trump and Musk are ready to go: Are we?
Greg Autry served as White House liaison to NASA in the Trump administration and is the co-author of “Red Moon Rising: How America Will Beat China on the Final Frontier.” Brett Mecum serves on the Arizona Space Commission.
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This Greasy Goon has no shame! Ok. First off. Last night I searched YouTube for videos on Hurricane Helene. In the shit info age, this was hard to do. In the beginning. I could hardly find shit. Just three minute news clips. But I’m convinced, spirit can trip an algorithm. Suddenly, my feed was full of YouTube’s, from people affected by the hurricane. So sad and devastating. I spent a good couple of hours listening to their stories. They lost it all. Heartbreaking.
But this idiot, started a go fund me. Supposedly for the victims. Oh the grift is on! Why do people trust this? If he wanted to really help, he could put donation buttons up for places like The Red Cross. He is ripping these people off and lining his pockets! Puke! The scoop:
https://youtu.be/0FAyJWF4FhI?si=iymszx8qLuvsrfMK
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This is not good. Hurricane Helene has been devastating. NOW Hurricane Milton will make landfall Tuesday. I have quite a few members in its path. OMG many just dealt with the one. It’s very bad. I’ve never seen it like this. Two very bad ones back to back.
https://youtu.be/6ohdJzQ_lTo?si=tIL715CHT2x2iJN7
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I heard the third of the season might be worse one by clairaudience yesterday. Milton is third.
I hope I'm wrong. It's a very rough hurricane season this year. I picked up on that with the weird warm weather influxes some time ago. I had thought this years might be pretty bad. Too much warmth at the wrong time smacking into cold fronts.
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https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-milton-helene-florida-557c5c512135e0a8661b298e45e17c92
Oh NO. It's a category 5. This needs to slow down.
Hurricane Milton is a Category 5. Florida orders evacuations and scrambles to clear Helene’s debris
BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Milton rapidly strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane Monday in the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward Florida, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay, leading to evacuation orders and long gas lines, and lending more urgency to the cleanup from Hurricane Helene, which swamped the same stretch of coastline less than two weeks ago.
A hurricane warning was issued for parts of Mexico’s Yucatan state, which expected to get sideswiped, and much of Florida’s west coast was under hurricane and storm surge watches. Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, which often floods during intense storms, was also under a hurricane watch.
“This is the real deal here with Milton,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a news conference. “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”
The compact Milton intensified quickly Monday and was expected to become a large hurricane over the eastern Gulf. It had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (257 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. The storm’s center was about 130 miles (210 kilometers) west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and about 720 miles (1,160 kilometers) southwest of Tampa at midday Monday, moving east-southeast at 9 mph (15 kph).
Its center could come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area, and it could remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean. That would largely spare other states ravaged by Helene, which killed at least 230 people on its path from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains.
Forecasters warned of a possible 8- to 12-foot storm surge (2.4 to 3.6 meters) in Tampa Bay and said flash and river flooding could result from 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain in mainland Florida and the Keys, with as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) in places.
The Tampa Bay area is still rebounding from Helene and its powerful surge. Twelve people died, with the worst damage along a string of barrier islands from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that it was imperative that messes from Helene be cleared ahead of Milton’s arrival so they don’t become projectiles. More than 300 vehicles picked up debris Sunday but encountered a locked landfill gate when they tried to drop it off. State troopers used a rope tied to a pickup truck and busted it open, DeSantis said.
“We don’t have time for bureaucracy and red tape,” DeSantis said.
‘It’s going to be flying missiles’
Lifeguards in Pinellas County, on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay, removed beach chairs and other items that could take flight in strong winds. Elsewhere, stoves, chairs, refrigerators and kitchen tables waited in heaps to be picked up.
Sarah Steslicki, who lives in Belleair Beach, said she was frustrated more debris hadn’t been collected sooner.
“They’ve screwed around and haven’t picked the debris up, and now they’re scrambling to get it picked up,” Steslicki said Monday morning. “If this one does hit, it’s going to be flying missiles. Stuff’s going to be floating and flying in the air.”
Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, ordered evacuations for areas adjacent to Tampa Bay and for all mobile and manufactured homes by Tuesday night.
“Yes, this stinks. We know that, and it comes on the heels of where a lot of us are still recovering from Hurricane Helene,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “But if you safeguard your families, you will be alive.”
Reluctance to evacuate
Milton’s approach stirred memories of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, when about 7 million people were urged to evacuate Florida in an exodus that jammed freeways and clogged gas stations. Some people who left vowed never to evacuate again.
By Monday morning, some gas stations in the Tampa area had already run out of gas. Fuel continued to arrive in Florida, and the state had amassed hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel, with much more on the way, DeSantis said.
Even though Tanya Marunchak’s Belleair Beach home was flooded with more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water from Helene, she and her husband were unsure Monday morning if they should evacuate. She wanted to leave, but her husband thought their three-story home was sturdy enough to withstand Milton.
“We lost all our cars, all our furniture; the first floor was completely destroyed,” Marunchak said. “This is the oddest weather predicament that there has ever been.”
If residents don’t evacuate, it could put first responders in jeopardy or make rescues impossible: “If you remain there, you could die and my men and women could die trying to rescue you,” Hillsborough Fire Rescue Chief Jason Dougherty said.
Why did Milton intensify so fast?
Milton’s intensification in wind speed by 92 mph (148 kph) in 24 hours trails only those of Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Felix in 2007. One reason Milton strengthened so rapidly is its small size, with a “pinhole eye,” just like Wilma’s, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
The storm likely will have to go through what’s called an eyewall replacement cycle, a natural process that forms a new eye and expands the storm in size but weakens its wind speeds, Klotzbach said.
The Gulf of Mexico is unusually warm right now, so “the fuel is just there,” and Milton probably went over an extra-warm eddy that helped goose it further, said University of Albany hurricane scientist Kristen Corbosiero.
The hurricane center forecasts a slight weakening before landfall in Florida. The last hurricane to be a Category 5 at landfall in the mainland U.S. was Michael in 2018.
Cancellations in Florida and Mexico
The University of Central Florida in Orlando said it would close midweek, but Walt Disney World said it was operating normally for the time being. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers planned to move operations to the New Orleans area for the rest of the week leading to Sunday’s NFL game against the Saints, and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s NHL game Monday against the Nashville Predators was canceled.
All road tolls were suspended in western central Florida. The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said it would close after the last flight Tuesday, and Tampa International Airport said it planned to halt airline and cargo flights starting Tuesday morning.
All classes and school activities in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, closed Monday through Wednesday, and schools were being converted into shelters. Officials in Tampa freed city garages to residents hoping to protect their cars from flooding.
The coastal Mexican state of Yucatan canceled classes along the coast after forecasters predicted Milton would brush the northern part of the state. The cancellations included its most heavily populated Gulf coast cities, like Progreso; the capital, Merida; and the natural protected area of Celestun, known for its flamingoes.
It has been two decades since so many storms crisscrossed Florida in such a short period of time. In 2004, an unprecedented five storms struck Florida within six weeks, including three hurricanes that pummeled central Florida.
Although Tampa hasn’t been hit directly by a hurricane in over a century, other parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast are recovering from such storms in the past two years. The Fort Myers area in southwest Florida is still rebuilding from Hurricane Ian, which caused $112 billion in damage in 2022. Three hurricanes have thrashed Florida’s Big Bend region in just 13 months, including Helene.
___
Schneider reported from Orlando. Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Seth Borenstein in Washington and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report
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🙏
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I heard the third of the season might be worse one by clairaudience yesterday. Milton is third.
I hope I'm wrong. It's a very rough hurricane season this year. I picked up on that with the weird warm weather influxes some time ago. I had thought this years might be pretty bad. Too much warmth at the wrong time smacking into cold fronts.
Yes, I think you heard correct. Milton appears it could be worse than Hurricane Helene if that were imaginable. :(
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Of course today a bad day for Israel in mourning
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-attack-anniversary-war-10-07-24-intl-hnk/index.html
Israel marks anniversary of Hamas attacks as Middle East war rages
Kathleen Magramo Rob Picheta Maureen Chowdhury Elise Hammond
By Kathleen Magramo, Lex Harvey, Rob Picheta, Maureen Chowdhury and Elise Hammond, CNN
Updated 2:51 PM EDT, Mon October 7, 2024
• Israel is observing a somber day of commemoration to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, an assault that left more than 1,200 people dead and over 200 were taken hostage. As dawn broke, hundreds of people gathered at the site of the Nova festival to honor those killed there that day. Hours later, a memorial was held in Tel Aviv and at a Kibbutz Nir Oz, where one in four residents were killed or abducted by Hamas.
• Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people and triggered a humanitarian crisis, catalyzing a widening regional conflict. The Israeli military launched a new offensive in northern Gaza this weekend, and struck multiple locations in the enclave overnight, including a hospital compound.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country faces war on seven fronts, naming Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel’s defense minister told CNN “everything is on the table” for its response to last week’s Iranian missile barrage.
• Israel has pounded Beirut in recent days with some of the most intense bombing of its war against Hezbollah, which has killed more than 1,400 people in Lebanon. In Israel, a Hezbollah rocket attack on Haifa has wounded five people in what appeared to be the first time the group has struck the northern city during the conflict.
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Man there is a lot going on, and this world needs a break. Hurricanes, wars, and nut jobs trying to take over the planet. We need relief from all this. It's too much.
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Oh dear. Talking to one of my members. Her husband refuses to leave. And all the hotels are full. They are braving out this storm. This is going to be bad folks. Bracing myself how bad this is gonna be.
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Now, OMG. I just hate the internet some days. I am almost finished with my book. I got up to make a tea. Scroll the phone a sec. In a spiritual group, some doofus posts he thinks the hurricanes are man made. “One right after the other? It’s man made.”
I can’t take the stupidity much longer here. I got stacks of CDs. DVDs I want. Now there are folks I care about. I know. But I am so exhausted from the lying. But even more, folks not using some common sense here. Could it just be, the karma called climate change? Look folks, if you shit where you eat, what do you think is going to happen? Then folks be worshipping a golden calf. Now you pray to Jesus to save you? Who have you been crying is your savior for nine years? Why would he?
Man made, is true. You pump shit into the air. Do unnatural things with livestock. Rape the ocean floors. Cut down forests to pop up buildings. Then gotta toss in a conspiracy. No folks. Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades. Who knows what happens next. flowering who knows.
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Hurricane Milton is to hit this evening. Right now, Florida is experiencing tornadoes.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/09/hurricane-milton-live-updates-wednesday-florida-landfall/75579293007/
Milton spinning up tornadoes as hurricane surges closer to Florida: Live updates
John Bacon
Trevor Hughes
USA TODAY
TAMPA, Fla. − Highways grew clogged, gas stations were running out of fuel and stores were stripped of necessities as Hurricane Milton roared toward Florida's beleaguered west coast on Wednesday, a "catastrophic" behemoth on a collision course with one of the state's most densely populated areas.
Millions of storm-weary Floridians have been ordered or urged to flee, and time was running out. The center of Milton, now a Category 4 storm driving sustained winds of 145 mph, was forecast to move across the Gulf of Mexico and make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said in its 11 a.m. ET update.
“Historic, catastrophic, life-threatening – all those words summarize the situation,” said Austen Flannery, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Tampa.
Tornadic supercells − dangerous, rotating thunderstorms that can produce tornadoes − were beginning to sweep across the Florida peninsula, the update said. More than 12 million people were under tornado warnings, and the National Weather Service in Miami said on social media it had "up to 4 visually confirmed tornadoes today," with unofficial reports of others.
Milton was on a track to cut across Florida and retain hurricane status as it heads into the Atlantic Ocean later Thursday. The hurricane is targeting Florida less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene blasted ashore on the state's Big Bend coast, a Category 4 storm that left much of Florida battered and vulnerable before devastating the Carolinas.
Tampa, with a metropolitan area that is home to over 3 million people, has not had a direct hit by a major hurricane in more than 100 years. Storm surge from Milton could drive water levels up to 12 feet above ground, the hurricane center said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking at a briefing Wednesday, said the state is prepared. Hundreds of search and rescue personnel and 180 high-water vehicles have been embedded in likely storm impact sites, he said. Over 6,000 state National Guard members and 3,000 more from other states are at the ready, along with 50,000 linemen who will work on restoring power after the storm.
"We are facing this with the determination that it deserves but also the belief that we will get through this," DeSantis said.
Hurricane Milton tracker:Follow the latest path of the storm
Developments
∎ Early afternoon Wednesday, Milton was 160 miles west-southwest of Fort Myers and 190 miles southwest of Tampa, heading northeast at 17 mph, the hurricane center reported.
∎ Rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches, with localized totals up to 18 inches, are expected across central to northern portions of the Florida peninsula through Thursday.
∎ More than two dozen Florida counties have either mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders in place. More than 20 million people in Florida and eastern Georgia are under either hurricane or tropical storm warnings.
∎ About 2.8% of U.S. gross domestic product is in the direct path of Milton, said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. Airlines, energy firms and a Universal Studios theme park were among the companies beginning to halt their Florida operations as they braced for disruptions.
Seven tornadoes spawned by Milton reported in South Florida
Gusty winds and supercell thunderstorms capable of spawning tornadoes moved over South Florida as Hurricane Milton approached the state Wednesday afternoon. On radar, intense thunderstorms were seen dotting Florida’s west coast and inland over South Florida.
At least seven tornadoes were reported across South Florida, including one in Fort Myers. Two unconfirmed tornadoes were reported to the National Weather Service office in Miami, one with damage in Florida City and Homestead and one in Belle Glade.
Tornadoes were confirmed at I-75 and the Miccosukee Service Plaza, I-75 Mile Marker 30, Clewiston SR-80 and in Lakeport.
− Dinah Pulver Voyles
'It’s selfish to stay and make other people put their lives at risk'
Alex Ortiz was on the road for hours, trying to get her mother, her three dogs, her eight cats and herself as far away as possible from Milton. They ended up in Destin, 370 miles north of their Pasco County home. She’d already seen the havoc wrought by Helene, and it cost her: She lost her Toyota Rav4 and a lot of her belongings stored in a ground-level garage.
“I’m exhausted,” the 25-year-old said. She and her mother had originally planned to stay at a motel in Tallahassee but upon arriving, they realized they didn’t feel safe there.
Ortiz, though, was running out of options − her mother is partially disabled because of arthritis and most hotels and shelters either don’t take animals or limit the number people can bring with them.
“I’m exhausted,” said Ortiz, 25. She and her mother had originally planned to stay at a motel in Tallahassee, but didn’t feel safe when they arrived there. They were running out of options. Her mother is partially disabled because of arthritis and most hotels and shelters either don’t take animals or limit their number.
“What am I going to do? Throw some of them out of the car?” Ortiz said. She already had a friend take in her rabbit, but two of her dogs are seniors and prone to seizures. She loves her pets so much, she packed the urns of ones that had died previously into a rented Plymouth Voyager van.
“It’s selfish to stay and make other people put their lives at risk because you put yours at risk,” the lifelong Florida resident said. “Some people here think nothing bad can happen to them, like this is nothing. It’s nothing until it’s something.”
− Phaedra Trethan
Biden denounces Trump's 'onslaught of lies'
Biden said he has spoken with DeSantis and other local and state leaders about Milton preparations and gave them his personal cellphone number to contact him directly if necessary.
The president also called out former President Donald Trump for leading an “onslaught of lies” on FEMA’s recovery efforts regarding Helene.
Biden said these include baseless claims that property is being confiscated, flood victims are limited to $750 in federal relief aid and FEMA is diverting hurricane relief funds to shelter migrants. Trump has pushed each false claim.
“Now the claims are getting even more bizarre,'' Biden said. "Marjorie Taylor Greene − a congresswoman from Georgia − is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather. It's beyond ridiculous. It's got to stop."
− Joey Garrison
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The lies are so bad making national news. Just goes to show how horrific misinformation can go. I cannot tell you how many I saw speaking "cloud seeding" on facebook.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-shoots-marjorie-taylor-greenes-ridiculous-conspiracy-theory-cont-rcna174710
Biden shoots down Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'beyond ridiculous' conspiracy theory about controlling the weather
As Hurricane Milton threatens catastrophic damage in Florida, Greene suggested on X that such storms could be engineered by humans.
Oct. 9, 2024, 10:55 AM PDT
By Rebecca Shabad, Tara Prindiville and Evan Bush
WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden delivered a stark warning Wednesday about the dangerous hurricane barreling toward Florida, he shot down misinformation about the storm, including one particular conspiracy theory propagated by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
"The claims are getting even more bizarre. Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congressman with Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather — we're controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop," Biden said during a virtual briefing at the White House as he received updates about Hurricane Milton. The storm is expected to make landfall in Florida later Wednesday and could be catastrophic for the region.
Greene said in an Oct. 3 post on X: "Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done."
One of Greene's GOP colleagues, Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida, wrote in response on X Wednesday morning: "Humans cannot create or control hurricanes. Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined."
Around the same time as Biden's briefing on Wednesday, Greene repeated her claim and suggested that the federal government is aware of it.
"Well some of them are listed on NOAA, as well as most of the ways weather can be modified, because they are required to report it to the Secretary of Commerce by the Weather Modification Act of 1972," she wrote on X. "The NOAA government website has a library catalog of 1,026 entries of weather modifications, but that’s not all of them."
She continued, "If your home or business or property is damaged or a loved one is killed by their weather modifications shouldn’t you be eligible for compensation? After all, did they ask you if you agreed to our weather being modified?"
On Tuesday, she quoted an article from The Gateway Pundit, a far-right website known for spreading conspiracy theories, that said: "Marjorie Taylor Greene was right. Yes, scientists do control the weather."
Biden also said in his briefing Wednesday that Greene's conspiracy theory was among the "reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies" over the last few weeks. The president said that it's undermining rescues in the wake of Hurricane Helene and he accused former President Donald Trump of leading "the onslaught of lies."
"Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That’s simply not true," he said. "They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That’s simply not true. They’re saying the money is needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say — it’s not true."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency set up a website to deal with the influx of rumors spreading about the hurricanes, including the false claim that FEMA is redirecting disaster relief toward migrants.
Weather systems as large as hurricanes cannot be controlled by humans through existing technology. However, there have been efforts to modify the weather in a very limited way with cloud-seeding technologies.
Cloud seeding, which dates back to the 1950s, typically involves spraying silver iodide into clouds to draw water out of the atmosphere and assist the formation of ice crystals that produce snow or rainfall. Cloud seeding programs are more common in western states with dwindling water supplies.
As climate change worsens because of fossil fuel pollution, some scientists have held preliminary discussions about whether broad-scale geoengineering projects could help prevent the harms associated with warming temperatures.
Federal researchers have taken only a few small steps toward studying geoengineering projects’ feasibility, and atmospheric scientists say there is no evidence of any large-scale programs.
NBC News has reached out to Greene’s office and Trump’s campaign for comment.
Another Republican, Rep. Chuck Edwards, of North Carolina, put out a statement Tuesday shooting down the "outrageous rumors" about Hurricane Helene and the federal government's response to it.
“Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock," he said. "Nobody can control the weather.”
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Brian airs this call from a man speaking on his father, and it is crushing. This man calls in. His father lives just outside of Ashville. He lost everything in Hurricane Helene. And because his father is a die-hard Trumper, he is refusing to accept help from FEMA. He believes only Trump and the conspiracy theories. And he is not alone. There are folks who lost it all, but as they don't trust FEMA or Biden, who could provide funds to help them rebuild or relocate, they are so hoodwinked under the strong delusion, to refuse help? Aid, funds food, water even? Apply to rebuild?
This idiot needs to be stopped. His lies have to have consenquences here. Using these disasters to spread lies, and these folks believe his lies and refuse help? It's tragic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0WLRnTVO5k
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This is an interesting one, where Cheetolini Cheezehead is being either sued, or had musicians (eve George Harrison's estate and Queen), cease and desist using their music. But the most recent is Leonard Cohen and his iconic song Hallelujah. This weekend, the very odd, flowered in the Head Orange Maniac, told his rally lets listen to music. And he, I guess, swayed his fat, bloated, bronzer ass to some songs, and now Leonard Cohen is after him. Isaac Hayes is probably the most forceful. Yeah flowerface, you got Shaft on your ass now! He can't dance. He looked like a totally, unrhythmic geriatric patient swaying and can barely stand, and nurses stand aside waiting for him to shit his pants. He's a goon, and anyone who votes for this trash human is an idiot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuuDsdw6nA
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OMG He's so flowering dumb! All because Kamala said she worked at McDonalds, in college. So The Deluded Melon has to one up her and he worked drive thru of a McDonalds this weekend! In his red tie and oh crap what a scene! What a flowering dumb ass! Probably the most he has ever worked in his life!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T76bCZwnF4Q
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Here it is. I told you all. Now the KARMA TRAIN has been choo-chooing down the tracks for the Orange Menace for years and years. But one of the MAIN reasons this energy is coming for him, is the Central Park 5 (they are in my Album of War, so noted). Now, as the Tiny-Handed Wombat has been slandering them on the campaign trail, they are now, rightfully, suing the Orange Idiot for this. It's a long time coming.
Now I find it also noteworthy, The Devi gave honorable mention of the Central Park 5 in the debate as well. So this energy is coming full force. See how this plays out. Only two weeks away from election, and now another October surprise.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/21/politics/central-park-five-trump-defamation/index.html
‘Central Park Five’ members sue Trump for defamation after his debate comments on 1989 case
Devan Cole
By Devan Cole, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 1:53 PM EDT, Mon October 21, 2024
Members of the “Central Park Five” sued former President Donald Trump on Monday over “false and defamatory” statements they allege he made about their 1989 case during a presidential debate last month.
The five men claim in a federal lawsuit that Trump knew he was acting with “reckless disregard” for the truth when he said during the September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that they pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the beating and raping a woman in New York City, and that the five teenagers “badly hurt a person, killed a person” in the attack.
“Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects,” attorneys for the men, now all in their 50s, wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia. “Plaintiffs never pled guilty to the Central Park assaults. Plaintiffs all pled not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration, as well as after they were released from prison.”
“None of the victims of the Central Park assaults were killed,” the lawyers for Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise wrote.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the lawsuit “just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit” that he claimed was brought to “distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”
The men are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The suit also claims that Trump’s comments placed them in a false light and caused them to “suffer severe emotional distress.”
The group was pressured into giving false confessions in the case. They were exonerated in 2002 when DNA evidence linked another person to the crime. The teenagers sued the city, and the case was settled in 2014.
Trump has long been outspoken on the case, which rocked New York in the late 1980s during a time when he was a leading figure in the city’s real estate and celebrity scenes. At the time, Trump took out full-page ads that ran in several New York City newspapers that read in all-caps, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”
His comments last month came in response to Harris bringing up the ad during a portion of the debate dedicated to race and politics in the US.
“Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five,” Harris said. “Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution.”
In this May 2019 photo, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam, collectively known as the "Central Park Five", attend the World Premiere of Netflix's "When They See Us" at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images
One of the ads Trump purchased was included as an exhibit in the lawsuit.
The former president has sought to project a tough-on-crime persona during his three White House bids, and the debate comments underscored his willingness to invoke racially and politically charged criminal cases in US history in that pursuit.
Trump has continued to be critical of the case as he’s moved into politics in recent years. In October 2016, then-candidate Trump stood by his actions during the time of the case, telling CNN, “They admitted they were guilty.”
And in 2014, Trump wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News that New York City’s $41 million settlement with the five men was “a disgrace.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
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Oh HI ELON! ;D He's about to get in serious trouble. So basically, he has a "sweepstakes" running, to get folks to "sign a petion endorsing the first and second amendment." Then he will give away a million dollars, each day, till election, to someone who signs it. Ahem. Let's give this pause.
Clearly everyone knows he endorses Trump. So as he is doing this, in a round-about-way, he is trying to get more than folks to sign a petition, but to vote for Trump. It's obvious he is bribing folks to do this. So shall be interesting what comes out of this mess.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/20/politics/elon-musk-voter-giveaway-legal-questions/index.html
Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters could be illegal, experts say
Marshall Cohen
By Marshall Cohen, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 12:29 PM EDT, Mon October 21, 2024
While stumping for former President Donald Trump on Saturday, tech billionaire Elon Musk announced that he will give away $1 million each day to registered voters in battleground states, immediately drawing scrutiny from election law experts who said the sweepstakes could violate laws against paying people to register.
“We want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment. … We are going to be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election,” Musk said at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The X owner and Tesla CEO was referring to a petition launched by his political action committee affirming support for the rights to free speech and to bear arms. The website, launched shortly before some registration deadlines, says, “this program is exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.”
Musk, the richest man in the world, has given more than $75 million to his pro-Trump super PAC, and said he hopes the sweepstakes will boost registration among Trump voters. He recently hit the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, holding events advocating for Trump, promoting his petition and spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
“This is a one-time ask,” Musk told the crowd shortly after announcing the $1 million prize. “Just go out there and talk to your friends and family and acquaintances and people you meet in the street and … convince them to vote. Obviously you gotta get registered, make sure they’re registered and … make sure they vote.”
The first million-dollar winner was named Saturday, with Musk handing a giant check to a Trump supporter at his event in Harrisburg, saying, “So anyway, you’re welcome.” He announced the second winner Sunday afternoon during an event in Pittsburgh, handing out another check on a stage adorned with big signs reading, “VOTE EARLY.”
In an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Musk’s giveaway was “deeply concerning” and is “something that law enforcement could take a look at.” Shapiro, a Democrat, was previously the state attorney general. In response to Shapiro’s comments, Musk posted on X that it was “concerning that he would say such a thing.”
Federal law makes it a crime for anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting.” It’s punishable by up to five years in prison. After legal outcry over the weekend, Musk’s group tweaked some of their language around the sweepstakes.
“When you start limiting prizes or giveaways to only registered voters or only people who have voted, that’s where bribery concerns arise,” said Derek Muller, an election law expert who teaches at Notre Dame Law School. “By limiting a giveaway only to registered voters, it looks like you’re giving cash for voter registration.”
Offering money to people who were already registered before the cash prize was announced could violate federal law, Muller said, but the offer also “can include people who are not yet registered,” and the potential “inducements for new registrations is far more problematic.”
Most states make it a crime only to pay people to vote, said Muller, who is also a CNN contributor. He said it’s rare for federal prosecutors to bring election bribery cases, and that the Supreme Court has been narrowing the scope of bribery statutes.
Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pa., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Related article
Elon Musk peddles debunked 2020 election conspiracies at first solo town hall supporting Trump
Regardless of the long odds of a Musk prosecution, other respected election law experts strongly condemned the billionaire’s behavior.
“This isn’t a particularly close case — this is exactly what the statute was designed to criminalize,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department official handling voting rights cases and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.
Becker said the fact that the prize is available only to registered voters “in one of seven swing states that could affect the outcome of the presidential election” is strong evidence of Musk’s intent to influence the race, which could be legally problematic.
“This offer was made in the last days before some registration deadlines,” Becker said, bolstering the appearance that the cash prizes are designed to drive up registration.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the UCLA School of Law and a Trump critic, said in a blog post that Musk’s sweepstakes was “clearly illegal vote-buying.” He pointed out that the Justice Department’s election crimes manual specifically says it’s illegal to offer “lottery chances” that are “intended to induce or reward” actions such as voter registration.
In a social media post late Sunday night, the Musk-backed group reframed the giveaway as a job opportunity, saying winners “will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC.” The two winners picked over the weekend have appeared in promotional videos on the super PAC’s account on X, formerly Twitter.
Both Muller and Becker said the distinction likely didn’t have much impact on the potential illegality of the program. The fine print on the super PAC’s website hasn’t changed as of Monday morning, and the lottery is still only being offered to registered voters, they pointed out.
Another top Democratic official, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, blasted Musk on Saturday for “spreading dangerous disinformation” about the integrity of the voter rolls after he falsely claimed there were more voters than citizens in the state.
This story has been updated with additional reaction and developments.
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Ok I just got to wonder. Ok, so the Orange Ignoramous, goes to McDonalds, stages it. It was closed. And everyone who came to the window was screened by Secret Service and were MAGA. So then, this happens with McDonalds. Karma? I dunno. But it's just weird this is happening after the "play a minimum wage worker for a day" event.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/mcdonalds-shares-fall-after-cdc-says-e-coli-outbreak-linked-to-quarter-pounders.html
Retail
McDonald’s shares fall after CDC says E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounders
Published Tue, Oct 22 20244:20 PM EDTUpdated 2 Min Ago
Key Points
McDonald’s shares fell in extended trading after the CDC said an E. coli outbreak was linked to the chain’s Quarter Pounder burgers.
The outbreak has led to 10 hospitalizations and one death, the CDC said.
The restaurant chain said initial findings from the investigation show some of the illnesses may be linked to onions that are used in the Quarter Pounder.
(https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107407734-1714416723878-gettyimages-2126127223-1430737-me-0401-fast-food-rcg-7680.jpeg?v=1729631331&w=1480&h=833&ffmt=webp&vtcrop=y)
McDonald’s
shares dropped in extended trading Tuesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers has led to 10 hospitalizations and one death.
The agency said 49 cases have been reported in 10 states between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, with most of the illnesses in Colorado and Nebraska. “Most” sick people reported eating a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, the CDC added.
One of the patients developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. An older adult in Colorado died.
McDonald’s shares dropped about 7% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
In a statement Tuesday, McDonald’s said it is taking “swift and decisive action” following the E. Coli outbreak in certain states.
The company said initial findings from the ongoing investigation show that some of the illnesses may be linked to slivered onions — or fresh onions sliced into thin shapes — that are used in the Quarter Pounder and sourced by a single supplier that serves three distribution centers. McDonald’s has instructed all local restaurants to remove slivered onions from their supply and has paused the distribution of that ingredient in the affected area.
(https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108051284-1729629164712-no-title.png?v=1729629233&ffmt=webp&vtcrop=y)
Quarter Pounder hamburgers will be temporarily unavailable in several Western states, including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and portions of other states, McDonald’s said. It added that it was working with suppliers to replenish ingredients.
The majority of states and menu items are not affected by the outbreak, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said in a video. The company’s other beef products, including the cheeseburger, hamburger, Big Mac, McDouble and the double cheeseburger, are not affected, he added. Those sandwiches use a different type of onion product.
“We are working quickly to return our full menu in these states as soon as possible,” Erlinger said. “I hope these steps demonstrate McDonald’s commitment to food safety.”
Quarter Pounder hamburgers are a core menu item for McDonald’s, raking in billions of dollars each year. In 2018, McDonald’s launched fresh beef for its Quarter Pounders across most of its U.S. stores.
The CDC said the number of people affected by the outbreak is “likely much higher” than what has been reported so far. The agency said that is because many people recover from an E. coli infection without testing for it or receiving medical care. It also typically takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick patient is part of an outbreak, the CDC added.
E. coli refers to a group of bacteria found in the gut of nearly all people and animals. But some strains of the bacteria can cause mild to severe illness if a person eats contaminated food or drinks polluted water.
Symptoms, including stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, usually start three to four days after swallowing the bacteria, according to the CDC. Most people recover without treatment after five to seven days.
There have been several past reported cases of E. coli at McDonald’s restaurants.
In 2022, at least six children developed symptoms consistent with E. coli poisoning after eating McDonald’s’ Chicken McNuggets Happy Meals in Ashland, Alabama. Four of the six children were admitted to a hospital after experiencing severe adverse effects.
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Karma or not.
It's relevance. He makes a lot of people sick. Mostly in the head.
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Oh HI Elon! :D We all knew this was going to happen. So Elon, who is the "real VP" of the Don Shitshimself, now has the DOJ knocking at his door. His sweepstakes is to register voters, and he's giving away a cool mil in swing states. We all 🧐 what he is doing, buying votes for the Orange Pinhead. Of course. Why do these people play us for fools here? It's all in face. We don't need some covert, masked deep state here. They are hiding in plain site. Onboarding Mars, he's dark maga, he's karma too but that is another story to be told another time.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/23/elon-musk-election-giveaway-petition-doj/75813730007/
DOJ sends Elon Musk warning over pro-Trump giveaways, petition: reports
Portrait of Josh MeyerJosh Meyer
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON − The Justice Department has warned tech billionaire Elon Musk and his pro-Trump political action committee that its $1 million daily handouts to registered voters in swing states may violate federal election law, media outlets reported Wednesday.
The department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, sent the letter to Musk’s America PAC "in recent days," according to CNN.
The Justice Department declined to comment in response to requests from USA TODAY. Musk did not respond to a request for comment sent to him on X, his social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
In recent weeks Musk has very publicly thrown his support – and his money – behind Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, adding the $1 million daily lottery last weekend.
Musk has defended what he said are random giveaways in a post on X, saying those eligible for the $1 million prizes "do not need to register as Republicans or vote in the Nov. 5 election."
Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team.
But his PAC’s online petition offering the money says that those eligible must pledge to support the Second Amendment, a political shorthand for anti-gun control measures that are favored by Trump and opposed by his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the Constitution, especially freedom of speech and the right to bear arms,” it says. It also provides links to online voter registration forms in the eligible states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
So far, Musk has not publicly addressed the potential legal problem of only opening the lottery to registered voters.
Robert Heberle, the head of the Justice Department’s election crimes branch, sent the "brief warning letter" to America PAC lawyer Chris Gober, saying that offering anything of value to influence voting was in violation of U.S. law barring payments to sway votes, according to the media outlet 24sight.news.
ABC News, citing a source, also said the letter came from DOJ’s election crimes branch within its public integrity section.
Musk’s online petition said Wednesday that four voters have earned the payout – the first three in Pennsylvania followed by a fourth in North Carolina. The offer expires on Election Day, Nov. 5, the PAC says.
On Monday, 11 former Republican lawmakers, Justice Department officials and advisers asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the billionaire and SpaceX founder for handing out the cash prizes to swing state voters if they sign his political organization’s petition.
The letter argued that the prizes established by Musk violate laws against paying people to register to vote.
“We are aware of nothing like this in modern political history,” wrote the former Republican officials, who no longer work for the U.S. government.
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Oh Jesus I can hardly wait till next week. Anywho, The Deluded Melon held a rally at Madison Square Garden. He can't win NY. But this may be the worst rally yet. Tucker is a human centipede he spoke and was foul. Then we had some comedian say a terrible so-called joke about Puerto Rico. Now big name Puerto Rican entertainers are speaking up. Funny thing, The Devi has a whole economic plan for Puerto Rico on her site and she spoke on it. But comments on this video. Tons of Puerto Ricans saw this thing, and they voting. There is also tons in Florida. Could they flip it? It's possible.
I mean, you pick on women, childless cat ladies, menopausal women, black people, immigrants, Hispanics, veterans even, trans folks, etc. People of Springfield and Haitans. I mean, you create your own enemies here Donny Boy. You done! I just know it. No one escapes karma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svanGd7koNg
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I got my theories on Little Barron, who is, very tall. But my nickname for him is Little Barron. Apparently, Little Barron is the one who suggested the so-called "comedian" to open up for the Nazi rally the Idiotic Bloated Orange Melonhead had at Madison Square Garden this weekend, whom offended the entire Puerto Rican population. The most humorous thing is, the Puerto Rican community, makes up a hefty percentage in the swing states. Big names like Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, and JLo condemned the so-called "jokes" at the rally. But ahhhh Little Barron. I do not feel he likes his daddy one bit. How do we get those nifty recordings from Mar A Lago all the time? I wonder if he is the one who had the bright idea to tell the fat bastard, the documents would be safe in mommy's bathroom. Then his suggestion for a comedian...oh I see you Little Barron. Sly little devil you!😈
"Trust me daddy. The feds would never think to look for the secret documents in mommy's bathroom" vs telling daddy, get a prepaid card and a storage unit on the wrong side of town but...see how much smarter I am than this Bloated Buffoon? We ALL are smarter. The scoop:
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5d/45/2f/5d452f32388c1c8184499ee280ccdeea.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOLqSUK0eBM&t=327s
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I'm no longer optimistic about a Harris win - neither am I as sanguine re a Trump presidency as many right-wing commentators appear to be.
One thing is that the foreign interferes - Russia and China - can't make up their mind which candidate they prefer, but they are active nonetheless... esp Russia who seems to be keen to simply create havoc in every democratic nation.
If Harris wins, we can get on with the business of rational human affairs. If Trump wins, at least it will teach stupid Americans a lesson.
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I'm no longer optimistic about a Harris win - neither am I as sanguine re a Trump presidency as many right-wing commentators appear to be.
One thing is that the foreign interferes - Russia and China - can't make up their mind which candidate they prefer, but they are active nonetheless... esp Russia who seems to be keen to simply create havoc in every democratic nation.
If Harris wins, we can get on with the business of rational human affairs. If Trump wins, at least it will teach stupid Americans a lesson.
I was talking to the twin cause we have seen AI platforms say Trump will win. I said I beat the pc at chess before. My tarot trumps AI :)
I am going to remain optimistic. I feel she will win. I was right last election. I was even right when a wee one, Jimmy Carter would win. :)
But cheating - will they try to cheat and take it from Harris (most certainly).
So say they try to deny votes and kick it to House. Dont forget - the supreme court granted the president powers he never had. Biden can stop a coup. ;)
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All warfare is based on deception. Granted, you think the Orange Willywacker would realize it by now. But his deal is lie lie lie. BUT. He has a big mouth, and can't hold back. So at Madison Square Garden, when he gives the nod to the so-called "Moses Man" Mike Johnson (yes he really said he is "Moses"), and said he has a "secret," the idiotic thing of this is, the Deluded Melon has already given away his "plan."
The plan of course, is to have traitors in place to not certify votes, and then no candidate gets to the 270 electoral votes. Which then kicks it to the House, where "Moron Moses" is House Speaker, and the House is majority GOP, and they can say Trump won. Even if Harris won the vote, but votes weren't certified.
Now the thing is, to me, while he has this big mouth and gives the plan, this gives the Harris camp, who is in the White House, plenty of time to plan in secret how to combat this. I personally believe a plan is in place for this. But they are smart and don't reveal this to the public.
We ALL know they are going to try to cheat, and this is one of the ways. But Biden has superpowers now. Could that stop the steal? The scoop:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/speaker-mike-johnson-sheds-light-secret-trump-rcna177802
Speaker Mike Johnson sheds light on his ‘secret’ with Trump (Newsflash: No he didn't. He is trying to cover up, what is Orange Jesus slipped out).
Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson have both said they have a “secret” related to the election. It’s tough to blame Democrats for feeling anxious.
Oct. 29, 2024, 8:20 AM PDT
By Steve Benen
There was no shortage of ugly rhetoric at Donald Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden, but one of the comments that generated conversation had nothing to do with racism or bigotry. It instead related to an unscripted moment about the former president and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“We gotta get the congressmen elected and we gotta get the senators elected, because we can take the Senate pretty easily, and I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact,” Trump said while looking in the Louisiana congressman’s direction.
The former president added, while appearing to point at the House speaker, “He and I have a secret. We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over.”
To put it mildly, this caused some unease, especially among Democratic officials. The anxiety did not dissipate when the GOP congressman confirmed that he and his party’s presidential nominee do, in fact, have some kind of secret. “By definition, a secret is not to be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one,” Johnson said in a statement.
Hours later, as The Hill reported, the House speaker elaborated a bit.
“It’s nothing scandalous, but we’re having a ball with this. The media, their heads are exploding. ‘What is the secret?’” Johnson told a crowd of about 90 people on Monday at a rally to support GOP congressional candidate Ryan Mackenzie, after a person in the crowd asked about the comment. “It’s this thing we have about — it’s a get-out-the-vote. It’s one of our tactics on get-out-the-vote,” Johnson said.
To be sure, it’s possible that Trump and Johnson have some kind of “secret” related to get-out-the-vote “tactics,” though there’s reason for some skepticism. After all, the House speaker doesn’t really have much of a role in guiding his party’s GOTV efforts, so there’s no obvious reason why he and the former president would feel the need for a confidential arrangement.
As for Johnson’s suggestion that there’s no real need for scrutiny, perhaps he’s unaware of the broader context. The New York Times reported on the worst-case scenario on Democrats’ minds: “It is a scenario in which Mr. Johnson, who worked with Mr. Trump to undermine the 2020 election results, would again be in cahoots with the former president to steal the election and stop the certification of the results on Jan. 6, 2025, should Vice President Kamala Harris win.”
Look, this isn’t junior high. It’s not as if Trump told Johnson during homeroom which girl he has a crush on, and the congressman feels the need to keep his pal’s information under wraps.
The stakes are vastly higher. A convicted criminal is facing a multi-count federal indictment accusing him of, among other things, illegally trying to overturn an election. Johnson, meanwhile, helped spearhead an ill-fated effort to convince the Supreme Court to keep Trump in power despite the voters’ verdict, and voted with his party to reject certifying the results of a free and fair election.
Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories about the race, and nearly four years later, the Louisiana Republican is still reluctant to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
It’s against this backdrop that Trump and Johnson, by their own admission, have a “secret” related to the election. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, actually.
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If Harris wins, we can get on with the business of rational human affairs. If Trump wins, at least it will teach stupid Americans a lesson.
Btw what you said here, yes, a lesson. A major one. One, those tariffs that the Deluded Melon says are a "more beautiful word than love," would cripple folks financially. We have so many things imported, everything would go up. It's incredibly stupid. This was tried before, and contributed to The Great Depression. But what else do we expect, from a complete moron with the brain of a gnat, who bankrupt casinos, where the house always wins? We can expect devastation, and then those crybabies who say they voted Trump for "the economy" (which was Obama's achievement he inherited), they would suffer for it. Two, pull out of Nato and a possible invasion. Oh yeah, they would learn on that one, too. That would be huge. Show me a country with no allies who has won a war. If he pulled out, we would have none. Or maybe, Nato would kick us out even. Then think these dictators are buddies? Fat chance. So they would learn, for sure.
But let's hope we don't have to go there, and spirit is like "ok they are incredibly stupid" and save us from the wrath. Shall see. I just hope, the bright ones outweigh the idiots. We will find out in a week.
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All The Devi fans waiting on the results of this election like...
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a8/3a/85/a83a85d3868b03e3d9c715422c1ebc94.jpg)
Very exhausting! But The Devi has a lot of good things on her side. But today Biden opened his pie hole and called Donable Lector's supporters "garbage," in response to the shit comedian who called Puerto Ricans garbage, and their island. Jesus, these people! Now main thing, The Devi has been wise, to not trash on the supporters, no matter how deplorable or misguided they are. She knows better. But The Old Man has had it. It's all good. Now we wait for the news.
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Now I know. Back in the day we had Walter Cronkite. Never will be another like him. But Lawrence O'Donnell is close to the spirit of those types of reporters. He is here speaking about optimism and hope. I learned last year, optimism is why Elton John wears rose colored glasses all the time. To shield out the ugliness of the world. Now, prior that would seem a head in sand deal. But I learned, it can be a superpower, to focus on the positive, lock in, and keep it. Tonight, I feel full of hope and optimism. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JVsJBFjQo
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She is right. And this is where the democrats flowered up.
This year, they would not allow any debates or discussions between challengers to Joe Biden. He was hoisted by the DNC, not allowing what they should have done: choice. Marianne could have been a good contender. If she could have got up and debated could have been good. But the DNC and media silenced any contenders, and we were stuck with Joe Biden. When he debated trump, he looked like a confused geriatric patient, and failed. They had to get someone else. Kamala was well qualified, but it was a mad rush to bring her forth. But in the end, due to the DNC stupidity of not allowing choices, we are here, with this debacle.
She is right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9t3rK9KZM8
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Michael - can we change the title of this thread to "We're flowered!!!!"
???
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needs patience....
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No - historical topic... to change the heading is somewhat disingenuous to past posters. And anyway, as I said previously, the point of the topic is about the climate crisis.
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No - historical topic... to change the heading is somewhat disingenuous to past posters. And anyway, as I said previously, the point of the topic is about the climate crisis.
He's going to lead to the climate disaster and more!
But Ok. I get it. But Niikos did agree with me, for the record.
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Look at all the c***s in America. All that red.
Basically. Let's break it down folks. We had a Devi, a decent human being, pristine record of working as a prosecutor then senator. Against, a bloated, revolting, rug wearing, bronzer wearing, dementia idiot, sex offender, 34 count felon, conman, idiot, who has threatened to shoot folks in the face. Racist, misogynistic, idiotic,, and America said "that's my guy. Give him the nuke codes. He will fix it all. Chosen by God. Our Messiah."
Cause why? Cheaper milk and eggs? Price at the pump? I mean, he said he is going to round up immigrants, and he won the latino/a vote, and women? Sure let them bleed out in a parking lot. Project 2025 wants to take your voting rights.. Women voted for this fat bloated orange flower. And of course the incels and men who cant get laid watched him on Joe Rogan and thought he a man's man and here we are: hello, antichrist. flowering idiots.
But seriously the red. I hope, this is my dream, ALL women, completely go celibate and never flower a man who put on a red hat. I hope all these dumb flowerers never ever see a vagina again, ever. I want it to fall off from lack of use and their brains to explode. I hope divorces go up and they are left alone. and women who voted for this flea bag? flower them all. I hope their kids never talk to them again. Ever, Scumbags all of them. Im over it.
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/climate/warmest-year-on-record/index.html
2024 will be the first year on record to smash a warming limit scientists warned about
Brandon Miller Ella Nilsen
By Brandon Miller and Ella Nilsen, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 4:05 AM EST, Thu November 7, 2024
New data confirms 2024 will be the hottest year on record and the first calendar year to exceed the Paris Agreement threshold — devastating news for the planet that comes as America chooses a president that has promised to undo its climate progress both at home and abroad.
Nearly all the world’s countries pledged to strive to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius in the Paris Agreement, which scientists said would prevent cascading and worsening impacts such as droughts, heat waves and catastrophic sea level rise. They warn at that level, the human-caused climate crisis — fueled by heat-trapping fossil fuel pollution — begins to exceed the ability of humans and the natural world to adapt.
Data released Wednesday by Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows 2024 is “virtually certain” to shoot above that threshold.
President-elect Donald Trump, a noted climate denier, pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement during his first term and has vowed to do it again in his second. But the new data makes it clear further delays in climate action from leading global economies will ensure even higher levels of warming are reached, and with it, ever worsening impacts.
“We don’t have time to stop,” Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy strategist at international think tank ECCO said Wednesday.
As climate change-fueled extreme weather is killing more people and costing economies billions of dollars each year, the climate crisis has been given top billing at major international forums like the G7 and G20.
“These are things that a Trump administration will not be able to shy away from,” Scott said.
Not only did President-elect Trump vow to pull the US out of the landmark Paris climate agreement on the campaign trail, but some former Trump officials have floated the idea of pulling the country entirely out of the United Nations treaty to tackle climate change. Doing so would end US participation in international negotiations and make it harder for future administrations to re-enter them.
It would be a more “serious” and “dramatic” step, said Alden Meyer, senior associate at climate think tank E3G and a longtime international climate expert.
Trump’s re-election will likely cast a shadow over COP29, the United Nations-backed international climate talks which kick off Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. The summit is focused on ramping up finance to tackle the climate crisis.
Global climate negotiations are facing another whiplash moment as Americans seesaw between presidential extremes, said Meyer.
“The US has done this before and the world has gotten kind of tired of this routine,” Meyer said. “On the other hand, the US is a major player on the scene, and I think other countries would want to maintain the ability to try to re-engage it down the road.”
Meyer and other experts said major emitting countries like China and the European Union will have to step up in absence of US climate leadership on the world stage, but added there are concerns other nations will use Trump’s anti-climate stance as an excuse to weaken their own climate ambitions.
In the meantime, global temperatures are climbing. Last month was the second-warmest October, according to Copernicus, and was 1.65 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels, when humans began generating fossil fuel pollution.
Extreme weather struck in many places during the month, including Hurricane Milton striking Florida and devastating flash flooding in Spain that killed more than 200 people. Another alarming climate milestones during the month included a lack of snow atop Mt. Fuji in Japan for the first time in 130 years of record keeping.
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Sad but true all. They met up just like a month ago.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/netanyahu-trump-election-win-israel-gaza-rcna178956
Trump’s win means Benjamin Netanyahu has a freer hand to do what he wants
Trump’s first term was a remarkably positive one for Israel and Netanyahu specifically.
Nov. 7, 2024, 11:38 AM PST
By Daniel R. DePetris, fellow at Defense Priorities
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose leadership credentials, judgment and popularity have taken a big hit since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the subsequent wars in Gaza and Lebanon, can now breathe a little easier. This week has been a godsend for the Israeli premier. On Nov. 5, Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, after nearly two years of internal bickering between the two men (who also happen to be members of the same political party). And on the same day, the United States again elected Donald Trump as president.
If Netanyahu were able to vote, he would have gladly cast it for Trump.
If Netanyahu were able to vote, he would have gladly cast it for Trump, not necessarily because he likes the man but because he believes a Trump administration would be far more deferential toward Israel than Kamala Harris would have been.
Netanyahu wasted no time congratulating the former president (and now president-elect) for what he labeled “history’s greatest comeback,” by tweeting a picture of himself, his wife and Trump for good measure.
Gallant’s dismissal was only a matter of time. Within the government, the former Israeli general proved to be the biggest thorn in Netanyahu’s side. He repeatedly questioned Netanyahu’s war strategy against Hamas, emphasized the necessity of broadening the Israeli army’s draft pool to the ultra-Orthodox community and repeatedly told anyone who’d listen that Israel needed to plan for post-war scenarios in Gaza.
Gallant was Israel’s defense minister, but he was also Washington’s man in Jerusalem, someone who could be trusted to bring messages and critiques back to Netanyahu. It just so happened that Gallant mostly agreed with those critiques, the most significant one involving Netanyahu’s habitual refusal to seriously discuss post-war governing arrangements in Gaza.
After a while, Netanyahu couldn’t stand it anymore. With Gallant removed, the U.S. no longer has a chief emissary. And Netanyahu, prone to ignoring or downplaying Washington’s advice, no longer has to worry about whether one of his highest-profile Cabinet members will throw sand in the gears.
Tuesday was technically the second time Gallant has been shown the door. Netanyahu issued Gallant his walking papers in March 2023 after the defense minister expressed concerns about the prime minister’s bid to weaken the powers of the Supreme Court, a move that instigated massive protests across Israel and forced Netanyahu to reinstate him. Ultimately Netanyahu and Gallant were rivals more than partners — Netanyahu viewed Gallant as an irritant who wasn’t a team player, and Gallant saw in Netanyahu a politician who didn’t have Israel’s best interests at heart.
How will Gallant’s dismissal and Trump’s victory affect the wars in Gaza and Lebanon as well as U.S.-Israel relations generally?
There is an assumption that Trump will be more patient with Netanyahu than Harris would have been. Others go further, arguing that Netanyahu will now have the freedom and flexibility to do whatever he wants in Gaza or Lebanon, assuming it doesn’t draw U.S. forces into either one of those conflicts. Even before she was picked to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Harris called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. She repeatedly brought up the plight Palestinian civilians face in the coastal territory — more than 43,000 people have died in Gaza since the war started 13 months ago — and went so far as to strongly highlight the humanitarian catastrophe there after she met Netanyahu in July. Trump hasn’t said much on Gaza outside of cryptic statements about Israel needing to finish the war quickly because it’s losing the public relations battle.
Trump’s first term was a remarkably positive one for Israel and Netanyahu specifically. In December 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. Embassy there, a long-standing Israeli request. In 2018, the Trump administration cut funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the body responsible for caring for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as another $200 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians. Trump shuttered the Palestinians’ representative office in Washington the same year, formally recognized Israel’s sovereignty of the Golan Heights in 2019 and introduced a Mideast peace plan in 2020 that was so front-loaded with concessions for Israel that it died on the table. Taken together, this all looks quite sunny from Netanyahu’s perspective.
Past success, however, is not indicative of future results. Just because Trump gave Netanyahu a long leash during his first term doesn’t necessarily mean he will act the same way in a second. Trump is a notoriously unpredictable man who, despite expressing his full support to Israel in every capacity, is also interested in making diplomatic history. He doesn’t like to get upstaged or embarrassed in public, something Netanyahu has done repeatedly with President Joe Biden over the last year.
In September, to note one example, Netanyahu agreed in principle to a 21-day cease-fire plan in Lebanon, only to use his speech during the annual U.N. General Assembly to restate his desire for a full military victory. Israel would assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah shortly thereafter, burying Biden’s skeleton cease-fire proposal six-feet under. Trump, who isn’t afraid to call U.S. partners and allies out, would likely loudly object if Netanyahu did the same to him.
In 2021, after he’d left the White House, Trump said his dream to become the first U.S. president to strike a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace accord was essentially killed by Netanyahu. “My whole life is deals. I’m like one big deal. That’s all I do, so I understand it,” Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid at the time. “I don’t think Bibi ever wanted to make a deal.” If Trump dips his toe into the Mideast peace pool again, it likely won’t take long before personal friction between him and Netanyahu bubbles to the surface.
One more thing to consider: Trump, for all his bombast about knocking heads and defeating adversaries, is more cautious about using military force than his rhetoric suggests. He talks tough, but he isn’t eager to get into a fight that could be deadly for U.S. troops. Nor does he want to preside over another unwinnable war on his watch, which would damage his reputation as a leader and contradict the phrase he used on the campaign trail: “I will end all wars.” If Israel is too aggressive and draws the U.S. into the fray — there are approximately 43,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East today — the Trump-Netanyahu relationship could go downhill fast.
Ultimately, nobody can predict what Trump’s foreign policy is going to look like because he views unpredictability as a positive character trait. If Netanyahu thinks Trump will suddenly become predictable, then he would be making a big mistake.
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Now this aint with cards this is part old ass prophecy and part common sense.
Trump will negotiate and end the war. Take credit. Then finish what he started with the Abraham Accords.
For now. Then...
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This is the first time, since the ole titty baby, tiny handed wombat got elected, I laughed, madly, i may add. I laughed and laughed, a maniac type laughter, at the sheer stupidity of the Deluded Melon, and his cronies. And the stupid flowers who elected him. Lawrence breaks down, the laziness of the Bloated Orange Buffoon, how basically, RFK JR, the "worm ate my brain guy" will be in charge of our food, drugs, and deporting folks. And how Elon, oh HI ELON, will be in charge with restructuring the federal government. He, will be in charge of some oil. But it's like I always said, he doesn't want to be president, actually "work." This was to get out of jail. He is going to pawn off the duties to others, and kick back and let it all go to shit, like a big fat bloated flower. So we got Rocket Man, and the Dune Worm to run the country. What a sweet deal he has, and he can sell more Bibles and trading cards, and stuff his fat face with KFC while the real "presidents" run the show. flowering IDIOTS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlZOLVHXRJk&t=632s
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Dune worm …. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVMw5svo6c
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I mean, I could deal with, an apocalypse where we see the unholy trinity, Deluded Melon, Dune Worm, Rocket Man, all just make fools of themselves on the world state and everyone laughs at the stupidity. Esp when Maga nuts get what they have comin. But a real dark icky thing we don't want. So will it be a Homer Simpson Apocalypse, or the cringe we all dreaded. Dunno.
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The twin sent me this article. It's a big reason I've been tracking this election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/08/climate/trump-transition-epa-interior-energy.html
With Ready Orders and an Energy Czar, Trump Plots Pivot to Fossil Fuels
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team for climate and the environment is considering relocating the E.P.A. out of Washington and other drastic changes.
Coral DavenportLisa Friedman
By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman
Nov. 8, 2024
As President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team plans his energy and environment agenda, it is relying on two seasoned former cabinet leaders and fossil fuel lobbyists to dramatically reshape the agencies charged with protecting the nation’s air, water, climate and public lands, according to six people familiar with the matter.
The task is familiar to David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who headed the Interior Department in the first Trump administration, and Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who ran the Environmental Protection Agency. Both are Washington insiders who have years of experience in dismantling federal environmental protections.
People working on the transition have already prepared a slate of executive orders and presidential proclamations on climate and energy. They include withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, eliminating every office in every agency working to end the pollution that disproportionately affects poor communities and shrinking the size of national monuments in the West to allow more drilling and mining on public lands.
President Biden has made environmental justice a top priority and has sought to ensure that underserved communities benefit from at least 40 percent of clean energy development. That initiative will be scrapped, people familiar with the plan said. The move will be part of a greater effort to dismantle what Mr. Trump’s allies view as the “woke” agenda and any programs that do not help improve the economy.
The boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah will be immediately redrawn to reflect changes that Mr. Trump made in 2017, when he opened hundreds of thousands of acres of land considered sacred to several Native tribes to mining and other development. Mr. Biden expanded the protected areas in 2021.
Mr. Trump is also expected to move swiftly to end the Biden administration’s pause on permitting new natural gas export terminals, and to revoke a longstanding waiver that allows California and other states to set tighter pollution standards than the federal government.
Mr. Trump also intends to install an “energy czar” in the White House to coordinate policies across agencies in an effort to cut regulations and make it easier to ramp up production of oil, gas and coal.
Some people on the transition team are discussing moving the E.P.A. headquarters and its 7,000 workers out of Washington, D.C., according to multiple people involved in the discussions who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to talk about the transition.
The “energy czar” job description is reminiscent of the White House Energy Task Force overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration, aimed at ensuring that fossil fuels would remain the United States’ primary energy resources for “years down the road” and that the federal government’s energy strategy would mainly aim to increase supply of fossil fuels, rather than limit demand.
At the United Nations climate talks last year, the United States and nearly every other country agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, the burning of which is driving climate change.
One possible candidate for the role of energy czar is Gov. Doug Burgum, Republican of North Dakota, who briefly ran for his party’s nomination for president last year before dropping out to endorse Mr. Trump.
Governor Burgum emerged as a key adviser on energy issues to Mr. Trump’s campaign, acting as a liaison between Mr. Trump and the oil billionaires who helped to fund his presidential bid.
Another potential candidate is Dan Brouillette, a former automobile industry lobbyist who served as energy secretary in the first Trump administration.
A spokeswoman for the transition team, Karoline Leavitt, declined to confirm those moves. “President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second administration soon,” she said in an email. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
An energy and environment transition team with experience from previous Republican administrations — as well as on Capitol Hill, at lobbying firms and in private business — stands in contrast to the chaos of the first Trump administration’s transition. Eight years ago, some on Mr. Trump’s “beachhead” teams lacked a basic understanding of the underlying statutes that guide the agencies charged with protecting the air, water, land and climate.
Those teams made hasty attempts to erase environmental rules that did not stand up to legal challenges. Later in Mr. Trump’s term, Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Wheeler, who had both served in their respective agencies in previous Republican administrations, stepped in to ensure that environmental rollbacks were executed with more legal care.
The model for this transition is President Biden, Mr. Trump’s allies said. On the first day of the Biden administration, hundreds of staff members were hired and in place to focus on climate change. The Trump team aims to do the reverse.
“They have the model of what Biden did the first day, the first week, the first month,” said Myron Ebell, who led the transition of the E.P.A. under Mr. Trump’s first term. “We’ll look at what Biden did and put a ‘not’ in front of it.”
Mr. Bernhardt is playing a leading role. He is working on a broad range of issues including energy, public land use and environmental policy, said the people knowledgeable about the transition.
As it did during the first Trump administration, the Interior Department, which oversees 500 million acres of public lands, will be central to Mr. Trump’s vision of unleashing a new era of unfettered oil, gas and coal production.
During his time in the first Trump administration, Mr. Bernhardt helped open more than 10 million acres of public lands to fossil fuel extraction and stripped away protections for endangered species.
Mr. Bernhardt serves as the chairman of the Center for American Freedom at the America First Policy Institute, an organization that has spent the last two years crafting policy plans for the next Republican administration. Mr. Trump has suggested that Mr. Bernhardt would be welcomed back to his administration in almost any role he would like, whether at the Interior Department or the White House.
Mr. Bernhardt and the America First Policy Institute did not respond to requests for comment.
Others who are being considered to head the Interior Department in the second Trump administration are Adam Paul Laxalt, the former attorney general of Nevada; Senator Mike Lee of Utah; Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming; and Kate MacGregor, who served as the deputy interior secretary in the first term.
The E.P.A. transition includes Mr. Wheeler, who is considered a top choice to lead the agency again. It also includes Anne Austin, who served as the agency’s regional administrator in Texas as well as a deputy in its air office, and Carla Sands, who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Denmark and is now a top energy official at the America First Policy Institute.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Wheeler dismantled rules to cut fossil fuel pollution from power plants, automobiles and oil and gas wells, essentially ensuring that billions of tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions would continue to heat the atmosphere. The Biden administration restored and expanded those rules.
Mr. Wheeler did not respond to a request for comment.
According to people involved in the talks, the transition team is particularly eager to move forward with Mr. Trump’s vision of relocating tens of thousands of federal employees, starting at the E.P.A. Those discussions are in early stages, the people involved said.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, the administration moved the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to Colorado and two scientific research arms of the Department of Agriculture to Kansas, resulting in an exodus of employees.
“Just as I moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out — and I mean immediately — out of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America,” Mr. Trump said in a video on his campaign website.
“This is how I will shatter the deep state,” he said.
Joyce Howell, an E.P.A. attorney in Philadelphia and the executive vice president of the AFGE Council 238 representing agency employees, said that most E.P.A. staff already work outside of Washington. The E.P.A. has ten regional offices and dozens of small facilities and labs throughout the United States.
“I don’t know what they think they’re going to accomplish by moving E.P.A. headquarters other than disruption,” Ms. Howell said. “The patriots who love America are also in Washington, D.C. You can’t find another group of people more dedicated to protecting public health and the environment.”
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Just wait till he takes a bunch of flowerers to mars. He wore the tee shirt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRVLuqoE1I&list=RDNSBXRVLuqoE1I&start_radio=1
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I just watched Elon Musk on a video. And I do believe it's true. I have felt this for awhile.
While these phony Christians have wanted The Deluded Melon to sign a federal abortion ban, I don't believe he will. Elon says he will veto it. My reasoning? He is very proud of the way he dealt with it: overturning Roe and sending it back to the states. Two, I feel he doesn't care about the abortion issue as much as the Christians do, at all. He got in office to dodge a cell, and now it is about using the office to make money, and give tax cuts, and maybe take down some enemies. He is going to have others do the bulk of the work, while he wolfs down KFC and plays golf.
Even if they try to push Project 2025, I don't think he cares about it. I think he thinks Christians are stupid, but they were useful in getting into office. So the good thing - there will be states women can go to access abortion. But hard reality is states with the bans. So be interesting when the MAGA tears come.
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See this? I told you all, I am not crazy. Trevor Noah acknowledges we are in the "dumb timeline." We are! He is presently touring Australia. But see how it is actually becoming a thing, many know. Per the election, we were all aiming for a certain timeline, and got this. So it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TaziAt5kBM
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7:31 video
Idk who that is but anyway.
Yeah.
We have been rejected apparently.
"I NEVER KNEW MY FATHER" as shark in finding Nemo says dramatically.
'God' has rejected us for a nicer timeline.
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Oh HI ELON! Did I not tell you all Elon would be a major player in the end times? All the setting up to take over and take a bunch of flowers to Mars. Just wait! Two in the field. One taken, one left. Jesus said it, not me! Dirt cheap buying himself a president.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/elon-musk-weighing-trump-staffing-decisions-sources/story?id=115730434
Elon Musk weighing in on Trump staffing decisions: Sources
Musk has been with Trump nearly every day since the election, sources say.
ByRachel Scott, Katherine Faulders, Will Steakin, and John Santucci
November 11, 2024, 8:55 AM
In the days since Election Day, billionaire Elon Musk has emerged as an influential figure in President-elect Donald Trump’s orbit, offering input on staffing decisions and playing a significant role in shaping the future Trump administration, multiple sources tell ABC News.
Since Election Day, the world's richest man has spent nearly every day at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, multiple sources tell ABC News.
Musk appeared in Trump's family photo on election night, was spotted dining with future first lady Melania Trump and golfed with the Trump family over the weekend.
But his presence stretches far beyond that, with sources telling ABC News that Musk is now weighing in on Trump's staffing choices.
Musk was present for at least two phone calls the president-elect had with foreign leaders, sources told ABC News. During a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, Trump even handed the phone to Musk so he could speak to Zelenskyy as well, sources told ABC News. Musk was also present a call with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sources said.
(https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/8fce1351-a7cd-476c-85c4-e35e8fbc73b1/elon-musk-gty-jef-241111_1731338210473_hpEmbed_3x2.jpg?w=750)
After Trump shared that he selected Rep. Elise Stefanik to be his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Musk raised concerns on his X platform about how this choice could impact the Republicans' potentially slim majority.
"Elise is awesome, but it might be too risky to lose her from the House, at least for now," Musk posted early Monday morning.
On Sunday, Musk weighed in on the Republican Senate leadership race, endorsing Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott.
Musk is also close to Howard Lutnick, who is leading the Trump transition to the White House.
Musk had a profound impact on Trump's campaign including a multi-billion dollar door-knocking operation, a social media megaphone and a $1 million sweepstakes for battleground voters.
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I present my evidence, there were two timelines (or maybe more, who knows).
Alan Lictman has been right on nearly all president predictions, since Reagan. Now he got the Bush/Gore ticket wrong...but...did he? Ok, many feel Gore had that and we got screwed. But was he wrong? I don't think so. I think for 'this timeline' he was. But in another, he was right. Just like me as a reader, I always told folks its hard to predict this election, because we are dealing with a timeline split.
The scoop:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-i-was-wrong-allan-lichtman-fails-to-predict-correct-outcome-of-election/ar-AA1tCiRy
'Why I was wrong': Allan Lichtman fails to predict correct outcome of election
Story by Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY • 3d • 3 min read
He was wrong.
Or so the American people decided.
Allan Lichtman, the historian who predicted 9 of the 10 last elections, failed to accurately predict who voters would chose to become the 47th president of the United States.
In a stunning political comeback, ex-President Donald Trump defeated Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to reclaim the White House Tuesday night.
"Right now after a very long night I am taking some time off to assess why I was wrong and what the future holds for America," Lichtman told USA TODAY Wednesday morning.
Lichtman, an American University professor, had predicted Harris would narrowly beat Trump.
Trump, who lost the 2020 election that thrust President Joe Biden into the seat, overcame political obstacles, including two impeachments, a criminal conviction, and two attempted assassinations.
At the end of a nearly six-hour podcast hosted by his son Samuel Lichtman Tuesday, the 77-year-old history professor said he was shocked at the election's outcome.
In a post on X later on Wednesday morning, Lichtman thanked "all the loyal members, subscribers, and viewers of our live show" and said he will speak on his incorrect prediction later this week.
"We will go on and are assessing last night’s results," he wrote. "Please tune in on Thursday at 9 PM Eastern for a discussion of what happened."
The show will air on Lichtman's YouTube page.
"My aim is to assess why the keys were wrong, and what we can learn from this era and what the election means for the future of our country going forward," he said in a separate video post on X later on Wednesday.
'At a certain point, the math just doesn't math anymore'
The famous prognosticator had said his '13 keys' system showed Harris would win.
Using his system, Lichtman has now correctly predicted 9 of 11 presidential elections since 1984. His only other blemish came in 2000 when Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore.
Lichtman touted nationwide exit-poll results showed democracy rising as a major issue among voters, with the economy still at number one, followed by issues including abortion (14%) and immigration (11%).
"If she can pull off Pennsylvania she still has a good shot," Lichtman said just before the last hour of the show before Nevada results came in. "She's running out of votes."
Pennsylvania was later called for Trump.
"At a certain point the math just doesn't math anymore," his son said towards the end of the interview. "This show has just been nuts...I think we are both a little surprised."
Lichtman: 'I think she lost'
During the last hour, as Lichtman and his son analyzed votes in swing state Pennsylvania, his son called the election.
"I think she lost," his son said during the last 10 minutes of the show.
"I do too," Lichtman immediately responded then placed both hands to his temples. "Something ridiculous would have to happen... I'm still looking for a Pennsylvania miracle but I don't think we're going to have it."
"I've gotten a lot of very nice emails," Lichtman told his son, "Saying no matter what happens they greatly respect my vote."
"The math doesn't work," Lichtman said. "The numbers don't lie."
"I can't believe it," his son said. "I'm kind of in shock right now."
His father responded, "It is hard to believe."
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Notice it says, he predicted correctly 9-11 presidents since 1984.
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Yeah he needed more in his pocket, to take a bunch of dummies to Mars.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musk-s-trump-bet-has-paid-off-so-well-that-tesla-is-now-worth-more-than-most-of-the-rest-of-the-car-industry-combined/ar-AA1tSHgA?ocid=windirect&cvid=de70e5bcce87468080a3df3b3c8be6e0&ei=20
Elon Musk’s Trump bet has paid off so well that Tesla is now worth more than most of the rest of the car industry combined
Story by Christiaan Hetzner • 10h • 3 min read
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ‘all-in’ gamble to get Donald Trump elected president has proven so successful that a veritable chasm has opened up between his EV manufacturer and the rest of the auto industry.
As conventional carmakers trade at rock-bottom prices amid a broad industry malaise brought on by China’s economic slowdown and growing fears of Trump tariffs, Tesla’s stock continues to soar, creating one of the biggest valuation gaps it’s ever seen.
On Friday, Tesla reclaimed its place in the elite club of companies worth more than $1 trillion after adding a full third in market capitalization since Election Day less than a week ago. The last time Tesla was worth this amount of money it was April 2022, Musk had just revealed his $44 billion plan to acquire Twitter.
Relative to its peers, Tesla is now worth more than the next 15 largest carmakers combined—from Toyota and General Motors all the way down to Jeep’s parent company Stellantis and Hyundai.
Toss in lower ranked names like Kia and Renault, respectively worth $26.6 billion and $12.6 billion, and Tesla is still is still ahead, only drawing even once the $8.8 billion from Japan’s Nissan is thrown into the mix.
Pretty soon more names can be added to the list, as Tesla is indicated to open nearly 7% higher on Monday, raising its market cap to approximately $1.1 trillion.
No more Democrat 'lawfare discount' weighing on stock
Last week’s gains also reflect market optimism that Trump will deliver on his planned cut to the corporate tax rate from 21% down to 15% for U.S. manufacturers like Tesla.
Musk might even get his wish for federal legislation enabling autonomous vehicles, replacing the confusing patchwork quilt of state laws. This could accelerate Tesla’s plans to roll out unsupervised full-self driving.
And while some economists fear Trump’s love for tariffs could hurt business with GM’s Chevrolet Equinox and Ford Mustang Mach-E—both EVs competing with Tesla—imported from Mexico, that is not likely to slow Tesla down.
Musk manufactures all Tesla models sold in the U.S. either at its California plant in Fremont or in Austin (its battery cells, a major input by value, are however still predominantly imported from Asia).
David Sacks, like Musk a member of the PayPal mafia who supported Trump, had a simpler explanation for why the stock soared after the election. Musk's influence in Trump’s second administration would defang regulatory enforcement by agencies like the traffic safety authority NHTSA and put a swift end to investigations into Musk’s business dealings.
“That was the lawfare discount — the stock market pricing in the viciousness of Democrats,” Sacks posted on Friday.
Biggest gap between sentiment and fundamentals since October 2021
Tesla's stock premium compared to its peers is also cavernous.
At present, Yahoo Finance lists Tesla’s likely 2025 earnings per share at $3.24, according to the consensus estimate of 34 analysts polled.
That means investors are paying 100 times earnings for each share, versus 5.3 times for a General Motors. Generally a 100 earnings multiple is the point at which even tech stocks tends to lose the tether to their underlying fundamentals.
Take Nvidia, for example: the stock that drove S&P 500 gains this year — it trades at 36.1 times next year’s forecast earnings. Other megacap trillion dollar companies like Amazon (33.9x) Microsoft (28.3x), Apple (27.3x), Meta (23.3x) and Alphabet (19.9x) currently are valued at multiples that are even lower.
That could suggest that Tesla’s earnings estimates are lagging behind the market and have yet to catch up with investor sentiment. But 34 analysts just recently revised them upwards over the past 30 days, mainly to reflect Musk’s bullish October prediction that Tesla car sales are set to jump by 20% to 30% next year on the back of new models including lower priced versions of the Cybertruck.
As a result, Future Fund money manager Gary Black warned the spread between Tesla’s sentiment-driven share price and the average Wall Street price target based on the fundamental business metrics has reached its highest level since October 2021—a month before the stock hit its all-time peak.
“Absent earnings increases, analysts can’t just raise Tesla price targets without economic justification,” he argued on Monday.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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I do want to talk on this, but I do want to bookmark this one. oh Elon you dirty dog. I saw what was coming from the jump, even before Twitter was in play. I'll talk on this later. This is a breakdown how Elon manipulated the masses and bought himself a president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoKpkOfjud4
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/climate/methane-rule-biden-trump/index.html
Biden just finalized a major climate rule. This one could be tricky for Trump to dismantle
Ella Nilsen
By Ella Nilsen, CNN
2 minute read
Published 5:00 AM EST, Tue November 12, 2024
The Environmental Protection Agency just finalized one of the Biden administration’s only outstanding climate rules, aimed at cracking down on leaks of methane — a potent planet-warming gas with an outsized impact on the climate.
The rule, proposed nearly a year ago, was mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, which could make it more difficult for the second Trump administration to dismantle.
The new rule charges high-emitting oil and gas producers a fee for wasting methane above a certain threshold by venting or flaring it into the atmosphere instead of capturing it. The methane fee will be charged by the federal government until the companies fix the leaks.
This fee was paired with financial incentives for oil and gas companies to fix leaky pipelines or infrastructure.
Methane is an odorless and invisible gas that has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Methane is the main component of the gas that heats our homes and powers our stoves, and it’s one of the main byproducts of oil and gas drilling.
It’s also dramatically warming the planet. An international body of scientists has concluded that the concentration of methane in the atmosphere is higher now than any time in at least 800,000 years. It’s responsible for as much as a third of the global warming the planet has experienced so far, according to the EPA.
The rule could prove tricky for the incoming Trump administration to overturn because the program was included in Biden’s climate law, which passed Congress in 2022. Undoing it would take another act of Congress; while not impossible if Republicans take the House of Representatives, it could be an uphill climb and take longer than if the Trump administration were acting on its own.
“EPA has been engaging with industry, states, and communities to reduce methane emissions so that natural gas ultimately makes it to consumers as usable fuel instead of as a harmful greenhouse gas,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
According to the EPA, this rule alone would prevent 1.2 million metric tons of methane from polluting the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking nearly 8 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.
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It is heating up. This is a HUGE factor we are here. Biden and Harris could not put an end to this. But will this go from bad to worse, or will they magically put an end to it?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-nominates-mike-huckabee-to-be-us-ambassador-to-israel/ar-AA1tXOkm?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Donald Trump nominates Mike Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel
Story by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY • 25m • 4 min read
Huckabee to be his U.S. ambassador to Israel, tapping a pro-Israel evangelical Christian to help steer foreign policy in the Middle East with the region in crisis.
The appointment of the 69-year-old Huckabee comes as Israel faces international pressure to scale back its war in Gaza more than one year after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Trump will inherit a widening Middle East conflict after Israel and Iran have traded airstrikes in recent weeks.
Huckabee has previously signaled he opposes negotiating a cease-fire deal with Hamas, arguing the only way to end the war is for the Islamist militant group to surrender.
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"Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years," Trump said in a statement. "He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!"
Trump also named Steven Witkoff, a New York real estate tycoon, his special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff, co-chair of Trump's inaugural committee and a regular Trump golf partner, was with the president-elect when he was the target of a second attempted assassination at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida in September. Witkoff has played a key role helping connect Trump with the Jewish business community.
Trump has expressed steadfast support for Israel in its war against Hamas. As president, Trump moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and helped broker the 2020 Abraham Accords, which expanded Israel's diplomatic relations in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has spoken to Trump three times since Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in last week's election. The two men also communicated during the 2024 campaign. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is defeated and all hostages are released.
Trump announced the Huckabee pick while Israeli President Issac Herzog was at the White House visiting outgoing President Joe Biden.
Touting his support for Israel, Trump in September called himself "a protector" of Israel and warned the Jewish state would cease to exist if Harris won. Trump in April said Israel needs to "finish what they started" in Gaza but also said Israel is "losing the PR war" with the images of bloodshed coming out of Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll has passed 43,000.
Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Fox News host, served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and in 2016 against Trump. Huckabee currently hosts a show on the religious broadcast network TBN. Huckabee has little diplomatic experience, but he was among a group of evangelicals who visited Israel in December in a show of support.
In June, Huckabee told NewsNation there is "no valid reason" to pursue a cease-fire with Hamas, which the Biden administration has worked for months to secure.
"There’s no valid reason to have a cease-fire with Hamas. They’re not capable of having an honorable negotiation," Huckabee said, accusing the terrorist organization of pretending to listen to cease-fire details but always rejecting a deal.
“This is like trying to negotiate with the Nazis in World War II. You just don’t,” Huckabee said. “You beat them. You defeat them. You eradicate them.”
Huckabee's daughter, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served as White House press secretary during Trump's first presidency.
The Republican Jewish Coalition lauded the pick.
"As a man of deep faith, we know Governor Huckabee’s abounding love of Israel and its people is second to none," the lobbying group said in a statement. "As the Jewish state continues to fight an existential war for survival against Iran and its terrorist proxies, Governor Huckabee will represent America’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security with distinction."
Trump's former U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, also praised the selection. "I am thrilled by President Trump’s nomination of Governor Mike Huckabee as the next Ambassador to Israel. He is a dear friend and he will have my full support. Congrats Mike on getting the best job in the world!" Friedman said in a post on X.
Trump has filled at least seven other positions since his White House victory.
The incoming Republican president's hires include his senior 2024 campaign adviser Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff; Elise Stefanik was nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; longtime immigration advisor Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy; Tom Homan was picked to oversee deportation policy and aviation security; former New York congressman Lee Zeldin was nominated to lead the Environmental Protection Agency; and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz was named national security adviser.
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump nominates Mike Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/politics/trump-shake-up-foreign-policy-order/index.html
‘An effing nightmare’: Senior commanders react to Trump’s new cabinet picks
Jim Sciutto
Analysis by Jim Sciutto, CNN
9 minute read
Updated 2:18 PM EST, Wed November 13, 2024
Within minutes of President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as his selection for secretary of Defense, current and former senior military commanders began messaging and calling me with their reactions. “Ridiculous,” said one. “An effing (euphemism inserted) nightmare,” said another. To be clear, these were not partisans, but senior commanders who have served under both Presidents Trump and Joe Biden.
Their critiques, as they continued, were not personal. None had anything negative to say about Hegseth. Their central concern is that they see Trump, with this and other senior national security appointments, building out a team to put into action massive and lasting changes to US foreign policy.
“There’s no serious experience in the business of running the Pentagon or the national security staff processes, but I’m trying to retain an open mind and hope that fresh ideas could improve things that get pretty stale,” a retired four-star general told me. “That said, the common denominator is clearly loyalty and while some loyalty is essential, slavish fealty is dangerous. Looking at all the announcements to date, we could end up with one mind controlling many hands. And I’ve never believed that one mind, any mind, does that as well as diversity of thought.”
The 2024 election - unlike previous ones with differences at the margins - may prove to have an enormous impact not just on US foreign policy but on America’s role in the world. Trump has repeatedly expressed that he’s ready to deliver on his “America First” agenda, ending US entanglements abroad and diminishing or altering treaty relationships he sees as skewed against American interests, each a departure from what used to be a bipartisan worldview. To that point, Hegseth has from his perch at Fox News long been a vocal, public proponent of Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Trump, as in domestic politics, has demonstrated a transactional view of US relations abroad - and one that often fails to differentiate based on values or shared history. He’s repeatedly communicated that he sees the US as no better or worse than its adversaries. There is a common thread between Trump’s answer to Bill O’Reilly in 2017 when the then-Fox News host reminded him, “Putin is a killer”, to which Trump answered, “You think we’re so innocent?” and his comment at a rally in Michigan during the last week of the 2024 campaign that “In many cases, our allies are worse than our so-called enemies.”
With this view of America’s relationships with allies and adversaries, Trump seems to believe that as president he will be just as able to make mutually beneficial agreements for the US with, say, Russia or China, as with US allies in Europe and Asia – that is, with nations that have fought alongside the US and signed mutual defense treaties.
Negotiations with Moscow or Beijing are certainly better than a super-power war, but this approach neglects that those adversaries see it as in their strategic interests to weaken the US and the US-led global order – objectives made clearer as Russia and China increasingly join forces with North Korea and Iran across the globe, from the battlefields of Ukraine to the sharing of nuclear and missile technology, to new agreements such as the mutual defense treaty signed recently between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Can Trump make a great deal that would push China and Russia, and North Korea and Iran, to abandon or temper those strategic interests? Theoretically, I suppose that’s possible, though former British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston – who famously said only interests, not allies, are “eternal and perpetual” – would beg to differ.
‘If I were Ukraine, I’d be very worried’
So what would this mean for US foreign policy in the near term? Trump’s former senior advisers told me in my recent book, “The Return of Great Powers” that, with this established worldview, Trump would end aid to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia.
“If I were Ukraine, I’d be very worried,” Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton told me, “because if everything is a deal, then what’s another 10% of Ukrainian territory if it brings peace, kind of thing?”
They told me Taiwan should be similarly concerned. While Biden vowed publicly multiple times to defend Taiwan militarily against a Chinese invasion – ending a decades-old US policy of strategic ambiguity toward the self-governing island – none of Trump’s former senior advisers told me they believe Trump would do the same.
US defense treaties are similarly on the table. Several of his advisers said he might attempt to exit NATO (as they witnessed him attempt to do briefly in his first term) or, if thwarted by new legislation passed by Congress making such a unilateral withdrawal harder, signal that he, as commander in chief, would not abide by NATO’s Article 5 committing members to defend other members militarily. In their view, his line in February that Russia could “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t pay up was meaningful.
“I think NATO would be in real jeopardy,” Bolton told me before the election. “I think he would try to get out.”
This raises questions about Trump’s commitment to other alliances around the world, including those in Asia with South Korea and Japan. During his first term, Trump suspended large-scale military exercises with South Korea as a gesture to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, war games that Seoul views as crucial to its military readiness. In October, Trump put a price tag on the continued US deployment on the Korean peninsula: $10 billion.
A new nuclear arms race?
Military commanders and diplomats in Europe and Asia tell me they fear a particularly dangerous byproduct of Trump’s potential withdrawal from US commitments abroad: Fearing for their own security, nations in Asia and Europe may decide to develop nuclear weapons to replace the security of the US nuclear umbrella.
Such a move would in turn lead US adversaries Russia and China (and North Korea and, potentially, Iran if it were to build a bomb) to expand their own arsenals to maintain deterrence. Other countries in each region – from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to India, to name a few – might reasonably do the same. And, so, Trump, who has often expressed his deep and rightful fear of nuclear war, might inadvertently spark a new nuclear arms race.
Does this matter to Americans at home? The costs of America’s long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have understandably whittled away public support for military interventions abroad. And the price tag of US military assistance to Ukraine – while a fraction of the US defense budget overall – has been seen as politically untenable to many during an affordability crisis at home.
However, Americans would have to be willing to make accommodations to the ambitions of the world’s new and increasingly powerful alliance of autocrats. That would come with costs. National security veterans emphasize that the US-led international order, as dry as the name sounds, provides benefits to Americans they may not realize: respect for the borders of sovereign nations, a legacy of the carnage wrought by World War II and now so deeply challenged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine; free shipping lanes in Asia and Europe; rule of law to enable business deals and international markets for US goods; global air travel; international study abroad programs; relatively cheap imports; mobile phones that work around the world, to name just a few examples. They are things that would fade in a dog-eat-dog world.
“This rule set…is one of the fundamental contributing factors to not having a breakout of a great power war,” former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley told me. “It’s not the only reason, but it’s one of the fundamental reasons why there hasn’t been a great power war in eight decades. So if that rule set goes away … then you’ll be doubling your defense budgets because the world will return to Hobbesian nature where it’s going to be only the strong survive and it’s going to be a dog eat-dog-world. And there won’t be any rules.”
The art of the deal
What used to be the bipartisan approach has proven far from perfect. The US and its allies have not figured out how to win in Ukraine and likely have quietly pushed for some territorial concessions to end the war and pulled back from a commitment for Ukraine to join NATO
“In order to have a successful negotiation, you have to somehow address both sets of national security insecurities or anxieties. So, you have to somehow convince the Russians that NATO is not going to invade, Ukraine is not going to be part of NATO, and that they shouldn’t fear invasion from the West, that sort of thing,” Milley told me.
What was something of a dirty little secret under Biden – Ukraine may have to cede both territory and compromise on security assurances – is now public as the Trump administration takes shape.
US allies will now have to adjust, and many European diplomats told me they were already making preparations to do so before the election. At a minimum, they expect US leadership in Europe to fade, necessitating a more urgent move toward larger military expenditures and a broad military expansion.
In Asia, US treaties with South Korea, Japan and Australia may no longer be the same counterweight to China. Both Trump and Democratic rival Kamala Harris would have sought some diplomatic contact with Moscow and Beijing, but Harris would have done so on the basis of the US’ current alliance structure. For Trump, it seems, everything is on the table. It doesn’t mean he’ll definitely make deals. He walked away from Kim Jong Un during his first term when the North Korean leader didn’t give enough ground on his nuclear weapons program. But, again, everything, it appears, is negotiable.
I often remind audiences when I discuss my book that we, as a nation, are still congratulating ourselves for standing up to despots during World War II, with a new movie and streaming series seemingly every year. For the past eight decades or so, that view hasn’t just been emotional. By and large, and with exceptions certainly, it has been established US policy, in part as an expression of US values but also as central to the pursuit of US strategic interests. This election presented the country with a choice as to whether it wants to stay that course or take a new direction.
Again, the status quo is full of dangers. The direction of competition among the great powers was already frightening. However, current and former US commanders and the leaders of America’s closest allies believe the “America First” approach has its own dangers. It is not, in fact, a new approach. Today’s rhetoric mimics the country’s isolationists pre-World War II. America decided then that retreating behind the ramparts of the home front was impossible.
One final note: With the new technologies of today, from expanding nuclear arsenals to cyberattacks to space weapons to drones to AI, and global challenges such as climate change and refugee flows, ignoring the world beyond America’s shores is even less possible than it was in 1939. President-elect Trump’s early personnel moves demonstrate he is ready to test that assumption.
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It's difficult to not note this one. Marc Rubio was once a never-Trumper. Seemed to be sane. In this video shows an interview where he speaks, in actuality, truth to power. What happens if Trump is elected. How a president is "by the poeple, for the people." He said he didn't foresee the Republican party totally crumble, though it did. And then, even after his extreme dissent from the whole Trump Mania, he has done a complete and total about-face, kissed the ring, and now will be Trump's Secretary of State.
Does anyone deny the truth, that one can sell their soul, legitimately? Oh so many of them. But it is quite fascinating, and alarming, to see how deep the flip flopping shall go. Souls down, down, down, was it worth it, you poeple?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkCKJA_H0WE
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MONEY MONEY MONEY!
No surprise. This is where the Deluded Melon and Elon who we can now call E-LON the CON, are gonna wrestle Congressional power away and do the budget themselves. Ah here we go, what do you expect from a couple of Billionaires?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-aides-explore-plans-to-boost-musk-effort-by-wresting-control-from-congress/ar-AA1u2hjU?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump aides explore plans to boost Musk effort by wresting control from Congress
Story by Jeff Stein, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, Jacob Bogage • 1h • 6 min read
President-elect Donald Trump’s aides are readying unconventional strategies to implement at least some recommendations from a new government spending commission with or without congressional approval, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that tech billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would jointly lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” that would produce recommendations on overhauling U.S. agencies — an effort that people in Musk’s orbit say would aim to apply slash-and-burn business ideologies to the U.S. government. The commission will officially operate outside of the administration but work with the White House budget office, Trump said.
Although changes to government spending typically require an act of Congress, Trump aides are exploring plans to challenge a 1974 budget law to wrest the power to unilaterally adopt the Musk commission’s proposals, one of the people said. It is unclear if Trump will ask Congress to approve changes to the budget law or first appeal to the courts to do so, though aides have previously endorsed either approach. Ramaswamy, a former pharmaceutical executive who has said he would “stop funding agencies that waste money” and don’t operate on meritocratic principles, has publicly called on Congress to repeal the law and has suggested workarounds if it is not repealed.
That effort, if successful, could give Trump far greater authority to remake the federal budget on his own, altering the balance of power between the branches of government. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and many of his senior advisers publicly vowed to assert unilateral authority to rescind some federal funds, after Trump’s attempts to block aid to Ukraine led to his impeachment during his first term.
If the White House were to simply assert more power without Congress first changing the law, it could trigger a constitutional showdown over a bedrock aspect of the federal government, the power of the purse.
Some legal experts say that the courts would probably strike down any attempt to unilaterally rewrite federal spending laws, but some Trump allies are optimistic the Supreme Court, which now has a significant conservative majority, might rule in their favor. Trump’s former budget director, Russell Vought, blasted the 1974 law the day before Trump’s first term ended, saying it promoted “the very opposite of what good government should be,” and he said last year on Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast that he thought the law was unconstitutional. Vought is widely expected to return to the administration in a senior role.
Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s commission could have a far greater impact if Trump can implement its recommendations without congressional approval. Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive who also owns the social media site X, has promised to cut as much as $2 trillion from the federal budget — a number that nonpartisan budget experts have panned as wildly unrealistic. But even partial adoption of the commission’s recommendations could have repercussions for thousands of programs and millions of federal workers. Trump also would be likely have broad, and less controversial, authority to abolish federal regulations targeted by Musk and Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy has also proposed another workaround that wouldn’t be as controversial: cutting half a trillion dollars from programs that Congress has allowed to expire.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and occasional Trump adviser, said the incoming White House is likely to try a two-pronged strategy — both asking Congress to approve Musk’s proposed spending cuts, while also testing the limits of its power to rescind funds unilaterally. Lawmakers typically safeguard their spending powers, and even many Republican lawmakers are unlikely to quickly green-light the “drastic” changes to the federal government that Trump has promised the commission would bring.
Musk has nicknamed the commission the “DOGE,” a reference to a cryptocurrency he has supported that bears the face of a Shiba Inu dog. Musk said in a tweet on Tuesday night that all of the DOGE’s actions would be posted online, and that the organization would have a leaderboard “for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.” He also promised good merch. Ramaswamy told The Washington Post the commission “would not go gently.”
“There’s no reason the two can’t exist in parallel — you impound something large enough to be worth fighting for, someone sues, and you fight it out in the courts. … It’s an obvious thing to try and I’ve heard Russ [Vought] talk about it,” Gingrich said. “And at the same time, the Musk commission’s first job is to show the American people the scale of waste and missed opportunity.”
Some Republican lawmakers welcomed the prospect of unilateral White House action on spending.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina), a member of the House Budget Committee, said in an interview that Trump and Musk should rely on impoundment authorities in part because “it’s hard enough to cut anything” in Congress.
“It’s constitutional to freeze the money and hold it up. … With Trump, we can do that,” Norman said.
But Democratic officials and even some Republicans said it would be illegal for the White House to usurp congressional authority by consolidating more power in the executive branch, and that the courts wouldn’t stand for it.
“I think it will fall short — the impoundment is just not what they think it is. They cannot sign things into law and then reshape them at their will,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a conservative-leaning think tank. “They can’t restructure the entire government. Congress has to do it. In the end, they don’t have the authority to do it.”
Stymied by his 2019 efforts to block congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine, Trump and his top allies have since promised to try to revamp federal budget law. They have in particular targeted the Impoundment Control Act, which was enacted after the Watergate scandals to limit presidential authority to withhold funding for specific programs.
As a presidential candidate, Trump said he would work with Congress to repeal the law and also said the president should have the authority to pull back funds. Mark Paoletta, who served as a budget office attorney in Trump’s first term, has also called the impoundment law “unconstitutional” and said the president should be allowed to order agencies to cancel federal spending without Congress. Ramaswamy, too, vowed to upend the budget law: “I will call on Congress to repeal or amend the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and will stop funding agencies that waste money or have outlived their purpose,” he wrote in 2023 as a presidential candidate.
Paoletta and other conservatives have argued that presidents before 1974 regularly asserted their authority to claw back federal spending. Conservatives have cited the nation’s rising fiscal imbalance to justify dramatic action to curtail spending, although the national debt rose by more than $7 trillion during Trump’s first term. The federal debt is now nearly $36 trillion and rose substantially under the Biden administration.
“Donald Trump recently announced that if he is reelected he will establish a commission on government efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, to audit government programs and recommend ‘drastic reforms’ to cut wasteful spending,” Paoletta wrote in an op-ed published in the National Review last month. “For this effort, we say, ‘Impound, baby, impound.’”
Many legal scholars have disputed their reasoning, saying the law would not countenance a situation in which “the Musk commission could identify any money they want to cancel and just say they’re not going to do it,” said Eloise Pasachoff, a budget and appropriations law expert at Georgetown Law School.
That, she said, would be “a complete workaround on what Congress has repeatedly said in statute ... is its constitutional power of the purse.”
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Eloquently stated.
We are still reeling from the ole trickledown economics. Do MAGA folks raise an eyebrow when after the election, literally a day, the wealth of billionaires went UP massively? The divide is massive, the working class, or working poor, vs the rich tycoons making billions and billions. It took, a massive surge of propaganda, and manipulation of the masses, to get more billionaire boys club in power. Now they are. And when the divide between filthy rich, and working poor, grows wider, who will they blame? Will they really believe its the fault of immigrants? Oh it's unreal. A quick scoop.
Another French Revolution? Will Melania tell them to eat cake?
https://youtube.com/shorts/2YnqRlkBt5k?si=ddLGMSabuCPFW8hN
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A Little more on the RFK JR pick.
He is not wrong, the FDA is corrupt, and Big Pharma has let America down time and time again. 75% of what is sold in grocery stores is not real "food." And Big Pharma, if you look back when the opoids and pain killers were addicting and killing people, then they go off the drugs and get on street drugs, we have big issues.
But the man is a wack-a-doodle and not qualified to fix these issues.
The scoop:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/analysis-rfk-jr-vow-to-purge-fda-sets-up-collision-with-big-pharma/ar-AA1u9AOJ?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Analysis-RFK Jr vow to purge FDA sets up collision with Big Pharma
Story by Ahmed Aboulenein and Michael Erman • 1h • 4 min read
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Michael Erman
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to purge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly before being chosen as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary. Any changes he wants to make will come up against a pharmaceutical industry that pays much of the regulator's bills.
Kennedy, an environmental activist who has helped sow doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, would have authority over the nation's agencies responsible for public health, government-funded health insurance plans for more than 140 million including the poor, those 65 and older, and the disabled, medical research and more if confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has been most vocal about the FDA, an agency that oversees nearly $3 trillion in medicines, food and tobacco products. In interviews and on social media, Kennedy has accused agency staff of doing the bidding of Big Pharma and Big Food. "FDA's war on public health is about to end," Kennedy wrote on X in late October. "If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags." FDA officials were not immediately available to comment on the Kennedy nomination.
Shares of vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc, and Moderna, fell after news of Kennedy's appointment and were down in after-hours trading by as much as 2%.
Calling the drug industry "a crown jewel of the American economy," the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the leading industry lobby group, said in a statement it wanted to work with the Trump administration to improve health for patients.
The group stressed achievements such as the elimination of polio and smallpox, both of which were accomplished through vaccination. It did not mention Kennedy by name in the statement, released after the announcement.
Del Bigtree, who was director of communications for Kennedy's election campaign and remains close to the former candidate, said he expected a careful look at any FDA employee ties to industry. "You're going to see a vetting process of, how do the people have the jobs here? What were their conflicts of interest ... you're going to watch a transparency that should have happened," he said. "And it's all going to be made public."
Kennedy ran for president in this year's election as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in the Republican's administration.
Making good on such pledges would require the new Trump administration to strip federal employees of protections against arbitrary firing put in place by lawmakers. The 18,000 FDA staff are further shielded because their salaries are not exclusively funded by Congress. In 2024, $3.3 billion, almost 46% of the agency's $7.2 billion budget, came from so-called "user fees," or payments made by pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to fund the staff resources needed to review their products quickly, conduct inspections, and ensure the safety of clinical trials. The FDA says user fees do not influence its decisions to approve products, and its overall budget is still subject to Congressional approval. Congress renews the user fee program every five years and most recently extended its use through September 2027.
Dan Troy, former chief counsel at the FDA under Republican President George W. Bush's first administration, said he did not expect any "seismic changes."
Even if Kennedy and other political appointees were able to fire a substantial number of staff, "who are you going to put in place? Who has the technical expertise to write these rules that are going to really change the paradigm?" he said.
REINFORCE THE GOOD Pharmaceutical executives have tried to mitigate concerns over Kennedy's potential influence, and stressed the importance of the agency's scrutiny of the safety and efficacy of life-saving medications for everything from cancer to diabetes and heart disease. "My hope, my belief, is people will see the good work the FDA is doing today and continue to reinforce this," AstraZeneca Plc Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said earlier this week. "The FDA has really been for many years not only the reference in terms of regulatory authority in the world, but also the most innovative and the fastest in approving medicines that really are differentiated." Others were more blunt about their concerns about Kennedy's long-held views. "Putting somebody in charge of any public health service who is a vaccine denier puts at risk the stability of the nation at large," Jeremy Levin, CEO of biotech company Ovid Therapeutics and a former chairman of biotech lobby group BIO told Reuters late last month. "Vaccine denialism, which is a central plank of RFK's, is perhaps as dangerous as anything as you could imagine." Levin described previous Trump appointees at the FDA and a project overseeing the successful development of COVID-19 vaccines during his first term as "exceptional choices." "We have to hold on to the hope that anybody who gets put into the position of the FDA director in a Trump administration would be of the same quality," he said. In the meantime, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf sought to reassure staff members following Trump's election last week. "There will, no doubt, be changes ahead, but rest assured, the FDA will continue to do the job it was created to do," he wrote in an email viewed by Reuters. "The work you do will remain critical and this agency will continue to protect the public, as it has for over a century."
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Michael Erman in New York; Additonal reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York and Maggie Fick in London; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)
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The RFK Jr pick is very controversial. He has weird ideas. Now, this commentator brings up his passion is food, and he wants to get rid of ultra processed foods. I am actually in agreement with him, as I did a lot of studying and research on this, that ultra processed foods are a massive problem esp in the US. The FDA and other orgs like the American Heart Institute, have totally let the American people down, caving to big money, and being very biased their recommendations. And our schools, it is atrocious what they are feeding kids. So RFK Jr is not wrong, that what these idiots have done to food is killing Americans. You can view stats. It is only the last 100 years we began having horrible heart disease, or diabetes. This was not an issue until they started this shit. But, just him spearheading it, if he does it with say, his own chosen medical professionals who are biased, it could be an issue. Also, if these people put money in Trump's pocket, would be block RFK Jr from revolutionizing food? Hard to say. Then his vaccine conspiracies are outrageous, or this nonsense with 5G. So who knows what is going to happen here with this guy. I do agree he is right on ultra processed food. But how he goes about this, as he is a wack-a-doodle, he may actually worsen the situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RAPzn0q8ok
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I took a break on this cause self care is required. 💅 But per the news let’s sit with it a bit.
You have a billionaire boys club. And you are one of them. You want to give them all tax cuts. But you need to get money, to give money. How about tariffs? Lie to a bunch of dumbasses, other countries pay for them, when the working class and bottom of the totem pole actually do. Start an unnecessary trade war. Pretend it is to stop illegal immigration and drugs. Claim it is to encourage companies to do business within America and hire within. Then the prices go up, and the gullible soon forget they were told, other countries pay, and the idiots pay more, and yes, keep them distracted about things like transgenders using bathrooms. Then the rich all laugh while going to the bank.
But it won’t stop there. Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act. Social Security. Cut cut cut. And the most human suffering inflicted.
There is a movement online called FAFO. And now folks are slowly finding out. One of the stories I heard tonight, a Hispanic with an illegals immigrant dad, and illegals immigrant girlfriend, who voted Trump. Oh. It suddenly dawns on him what is coming? Or the many MAGoots who are getting divorce papers, or cut off from the holiday functions. They don’t get this was a little more than an election. The Orange Blob isn’t even in office yet, and these chumps are being affected slowly but surely.
Me? I’m going back to self care in a minute. But it’s breathtaking the stupidity in this country.
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So MAGA is coming undone cause President Biden pardoned his son. Pot calling kettle black? I was amused to see a Trumper bitching about this, who was actually a dude pardoned by Orange Jesus! Oh, if the Bloated Mango pardons him, it’s fair and just. But Hunter? Oh make it make sense! It never does tho. These people do not live in the Real World. The scoop:
https://youtu.be/npT7VE8ZJ1o?si=iUDw6R1dpWWPPf-Y
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I love it! Wives are leaving their husbands. Girlfriends are leaving their boyfriends, because these morons voted for the Bloated Mango Maggot. Well, you get what you deserve! Then these silly boys cry that it's not fair they leave over "politics." No, it's deeper than that. They show their worst selves, and who they are at their core. So these MENZ gloated their guy won, only to get served divorce papers. Or even their kids turn on them, too. I anticipate divorce to skyrocket in 2025.
I went through the same thing. Countless dinner convos where I had this discussion on Trump, and realized I was dealing with a complete moron who had no common sense, and in my final email, where I let him have it, I made sure he understood, I left for many issues. But his stupid praise of Trump was one of the reasons. The cherry on the sundae, and a rotten cherry at that. I was DONE and I am in good company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiFbDOmmT8g
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J_BP2oeuTcw
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In a nutshell. New Jersey and Staten Island and PA are experiencing weird influx of drones flying all over. The Govt, sounds like a bunch of morons. They say it's not a foreign adversary, yet they don't know the origin of the drones and tell the public don't worry? Um, yes, the residents should be concerned! Tons of drones and the govt doesn't know who is operating them? Ridiculous and the scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5n1-PVve1k
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A drone the size of a school bus.
The public is nervous. The govt says they don't know where they are coming from. How much dough do we spend on the military each year? And not one dumb flower can answer this? They say not foreign, but don't know. Hey dumb flowerers - if you don't know the origin of the drones, how can you say not foreign? This is insanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJrYbcIkiI
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Good ole Don the Con! Promised to bring prices down, said other countries pay for tarriffs, but with his threats to allies, and then telling Americans eggs can't go down. "It's hard to get prices down once they go up, you know, you know." Well here we are, as he tanks the economy.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/18/economy/dow-10-day-losing-streak/index.html
CNN's Matt Egan shares 'two big reasons' why inflation has heated up
02:40
New York
CNN
—
The Dow plunged Wednesday on a disappointing outlook from the Federal Reserve. In the process, the blue-chip index extended its losing streak to 10 days — the longest such stretch since Gerald Ford was president.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down about 1,123 points, or 2.6%, after the Fed indicated in a policy statement that it is forecasting just two interest rate cuts in 2025, not the previously projected four. The Fed now anticipates inflation will remain stubbornly above its target range for longer than it had initially expected.
The Dow has fallen for 10 days in a row, the first time it has had a losing streak that long since September 20 through October 4, 1974, when the index fell for 11 sessions in a row.
Until Wednesday’s plunge, the Dow had fallen as the broader markets remained strong. The Dow has lost less than 6% in its long losing streak, a relative blip. Other indexes have been at or near record highs, before falling sharply Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 3% and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 3.6%.
Investors expected the Fed to cut rates by a quarter point Wednesday, which is exactly what the central bank did. But markets tumbled after the Fed’s statement that it is expecting just two rate cuts in 2025 — a signal that monetary conditions will remain tight. Stocks and bonds declined in response to the Fed’s “hawkish cut,” Jay Hatfield, the CEO and CIO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, said.
On Tuesday, investors priced in a 98% chance the Fed would cut rates at its January meeting. But after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference wrapped on Wednesday, traders priced in just a 6% chance that the central bank would lower rates at next month’s meeting, according to fed funds futures data.
“The market was underwhelmed by the likely future path of interest rates,” said Chris Zaccarelli, CIO at Northlight Asset Management.
UnitedHealth Group’s 15% decline this month has dragged the Dow, in particular, lower. The insurance giant’s selloff began after the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Ironically, UnitedHealth was about 3.3% higher Wednesday.
Nvidia, the US chipmaker that joined the Dow in November, has also dragged the 30-stock index lower. While Nvidia’s stock is up over 180% this year, it has fallen in the past month, down about 5% and contributing to the Dow’s decline.
Despite the long slide, the Dow remains 14% higher this year, up more than 5,000 points in 2024.
Markets initially surged following the election results, with investors breathing a sigh of relief that recounts and court fights were avoided. There has also been significant enthusiasm for Trump’s promises to cut red tape and taxes.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Thats so funny. Enthusiasm. He rang the bell at Wall Street and all went to crap. Once he mentioned tariffs, and that eggs aint going down, here we are.
Too scared to admit he has the death touch on America.
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Oh HI ELON! 😂
What do they expect? He is President De Facto, as he bought himself a puppet and can pull the strings. And now, he wants to pull the purse strings of the entire govt. It's all a plot to get ultra wealthy. Just wait till he takes a bunch of flowerers to Mars, where he can be God Emperor, and rule with an iron fist. And stupidly they will go. We got drones, orbs, AI, all the earmarkings of a plot to jump ship, and take the gullible with him.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/musk-ascends-as-a-political-force-beyond-his-wealth-by-tanking-budget-deal/ar-AA1wb7wS?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Musk ascends as a political force beyond his wealth by tanking budget deal
Story by THOMAS BEAUMONT • 3h • 4 min read
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1wbkIB.img?w=768&h=514&m=6&x=257&y=25&s=545&d=238)
Take note: his OCCUPY MARS tee shirt. He is showing the gullible the END GAME.
In the first major flex of his influence since Donald Trump was elected, Elon Musk brought to a sudden halt a bipartisan budget proposal by posting constantly on his X megaphone and threatening Republicans with primary challenges.
The social media warnings from the world's wealthiest man preceded Trump's condemnation of a measure negotiated by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, which effectively killed the stopgap measure that was designed to prevent a partial shutdown of the federal government.
Washington was scrambled a day after Musk's public pressure campaign. Trump on Thursday first declined to say whether he had confidence in Johnson. But later in the day, praised him and House leaders for producing “a very good Deal,” after they announced a new plan to fund the government and lift the debt ceiling.
Before the new deal was reached, Congressional Democrats mocked their GOP counterparts, with several suggesting Trump had been relegated to vice president.
“Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency,” Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California wrote on X.
What was clear, though, is Musk’s ascendance as a political force, a level of influence enabled by his great wealth. In addition to owning X, Musk is the CEO of Tesla and Space X.
“There is no doubt he does wield a lot of influence over Republicans right now due to his proximity to Trump,” said Chris Pack, former communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Senate Leadership Fund.
But Pack also said that Musk's threats pose potential risks for House Republicans, who begin next year with a five-seat majority that will shrink temporarily because of Trump’s nomination of some GOP lawmakers to administration posts.
“This isn’t going to help pass the agenda if you are going to cost a bunch of Republicans in very razor-thin moderate seats if you’re going to make them lose in primaries,” Pack said. “All that does is give the keys to these districts over to the Democrats.”
Musk spent an estimated $250 million during the presidential campaign to support Trump, contributing heavily to America PAC, a super political action committee that deployed canvassers, aired TV ads and reached voters digitally in battleground states. He had signaled after the election he was willing to back GOP primary challenges to Republican members of Congress seeking re-election in 2026 who waver on Trump's appointments and agenda.
He renewed the threat pointedly Wednesday.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” he wrote on X. He also called it “one of the worst bills ever written.”
Musk wasn't alone in fanning GOP anger against the bill, which included several compromise measures to get Democratic support in the Senate in the final weeks before Republicans take control of that chamber. Biotech entrepreneur and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Musk’s partner leading the new Department of Government Efficiency, also posted against the bill, as did Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Musk played down his role at times, suggesting after some praise online, “All I can do is bring things to the attention of the people, so they may voice their support if they so choose.” And the president-elect told NBC News that he had spoken to Musk prior to the Tesla CEO's first posts.
“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump said.
Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, pushed back against Democratic critics who suggested Musk was calling the shots.
“As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view," Leavitt said in a statement, referring to the continuing resolution. "President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.”
Throughout the day Wednesday, Musk replied to posts on X from Republican House members announcing opposition to the bill with words of thanks, and punctuating their public commitments.
And he took a victory lap after Trump came out against the bill: “The voice of the people was heard. This was a good day for America."
He was responding to Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr's post: “The phone was ringing off the hook today. And you know why? Because they were reading tweets...from Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Conservative activists at the annual AmericaFest gathering in Phoenix cheered Musk Thursday and hailed the suggestion he could replace Johnson as speaker. There’s no requirement that the speaker be an elected member of the House of Representatives.
“Should Mike Johnson remain speaker of the House?” conservative media host Jack Posobiec asked his audience during a live taping of his talk show, prompting a chorus of “Noooooo!!!” from his audience.
Johnson had been scheduled to attend AmericaFest, but canceled after the budget deal fell apart.
“Should Elon Musk be speaker of the House?” Posobiec asked his audience, prompting cheers.
___
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press Bill Barrow contributed to this report from Phoenix.
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I'm hesitant to read anything from Elon.. He has a trans child that he did not treat well.. give me a reason for me to pay attention to any of these Elon posts please.
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I'm hesitant to read anything from Elon.. He has a trans child that he did not treat well.. give me a reason for me to pay attention to any of these Elon posts please.
Yes I am aware. I only joke on Elon with the HI ELON. I don't like him. BUT he just might take out the trash and take it to Mars. I saw it last year and here he is playing president. I saw it coming!
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So for a cool $277 million investment, post election, Elon is $170 Billion dollars richer than before. Think of the concept of this.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/elon-musk-net-worth-trump-b2665395.html
Elon Musk’s wealth jumps by $170bn since election after he backed Trump with $277m
Musk’s wealth and position advising Trump rockets him to unique position in U.S. history
Josh Marcus
San Francisco
Monday 16 December 2024 17:40 EST
4
Comments
Elon Musks’s wealth has jumped more than $170 billion since Election Day, according to a Washington Post analysis, capping off a year that saw the tech billionaire go all in supporting Donald Trump and Republican candidates with a combined $277 million contribution.
A substantial portion of that increase is driven by Tesla’s soaring share price, according to the analysis. Musk owns a reported 12 percent of the electric automaker, the world’s most valuable car company, and Tesla shares are up about 70 percent since the election.
“Elon stuck his neck out, he made a big bet — and he was right,” Gene Munster, managing partner at investment firm Deepwater Asset Management, told the newspaper of Musk’s recent moves.
Musk’s current net worth is roughly $455 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, and is the wealthiest person on the planet. Last week, Musk became the first person in history to be worth more than $400 billion dollars.
Beyond the Tesla surge, aerospace firm SpaceX has been another key driver of Musk’s growing wealth.
The company is reportedly considering a tender offer plan for investors to purchase up to $1.25 billion in employee shares, and for SpaceX to buy $500 million in common stock itself, valuing the company at $350 billion. The plan would represent a doubling in value for the rocket firm in just a year, and make the company the most valuable private start-up in the world.
Musk, who will co-chair Trump’s non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency initiative (DOGE, names after his bitcoin), will have an unprecedented position as a business owner, the world’s richest man, a and a key voice in the incoming presidential administration.
Companies like SpaceX and Tesla have billions of dollars at stake with the government in the form of federal contracts, subsidies, and regulations that could impact key priorities for Musk like artificial intelligence and self-driving cars.
Musk has a standalone AI company, xAI, and heavily incorporates AI into Tesla vehicles.
The alliance with Trump already appears to be impacting key objectives for Musk.
The Trump transition team is reportedly considering scrapping a car-crash data reporting requirement that Musk has opposed in the past, according to Reuters.
As Trump heads to the White House, a variety of tech companies have been singnaling their support or openness to engaging with the incoming administration.
Amazon and Meta reportedly plan to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, while Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook at Mar-a-Lago last week.
On Monday, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son announced a $100 billion investment in the U.S. over the next four years during a visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
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Yes I am aware. I only joke on Elon with the HI ELON. I don't like him. BUT he just might take out the trash and take it to Mars. I saw it last year and here he is playing president. I saw it coming!
I don't like the way the dude talks. The way his mouth moves is really bothersome lol!
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I don't like the way the dude talks. The way his mouth moves is really bothersome lol!
Yes I know he is annoying. But I KNEW he would be a mad influence on election and world this year and really, going into next four years.
But I guess one thing I did get a view of. These oligarchs and rich folks, they think they got it made. But a force has been playing a serious 3D chess with them the whole time.
I don't know exactly how all goes down. But I DO know Mars is a huge factor in this. It may sound crazy. But it IS.
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Matthew 24
40 Two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding grain with a mill. One will be taken, and the other will be left. 42 So always be ready, because you don’t know the day your Lord will come.
Yeah, taken to MARS.
Unless it's something else, sure.
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This is when he wore his "Devil's Champion" suit, with on the back, and upside down cross.
It's in your face, all.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTlhXC7XIAIi1ij?format=jpg&name=360x360)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTlhXCtWQAAKY-e?format=jpg&name=medium)
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The End Game. This is why he bought himself a president. Right here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aT9jbxrHY
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Oh it happened. I bet spirit wanted to spare a good man having to witness the downfall of America:
https://people.com/jimmy-carter-dies-at-100-longest-living-us-president-7502017
Jimmy Carter, Longest-Living U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Humanitarian, Dies at 100
President Carter spent nearly two years in hospice care as the nation said their goodbyes, making a final public appearance in November 2023 to mourn his late wife Rosalynn
By Joelle Goldstein, Kyler Alvord, and Helen Murphy Published on December 29, 2024 04:10PM EST
(https://people.com/thmb/LK2J1YfaueiskyRFtdhrv5eRwHg=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(678x403:680x405):format(webp)/Jimmy-Carter-122924-tout-52662d95615547259e0735f0aedaee65.jpg)
Jimmy Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning 39th president of the United States who transformed his legacy from one-term commander-in-chief to beloved humanitarian, died on Sunday, Dec. 29 at the record-breaking age of 100.
His son James E. Carter III confirmed that he died at home in Plains, Ga., per The Washington Post. The Carter Center also announced his death in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Carter's wife of nearly eight decades, Rosalynn Carter, died 13 months earlier at the age of 96. He made his final public appearance in November 2023 to mourn her death.
Carter is survived by his four children with Rosalynn: Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy. In March 2019, Carter became the longest-lived American president who also enjoyed the lengthiest post-White House life. His and Rosalynn's 77-year marriage was the longest of any first couple.
The Carter Center announced in February 2023 that the former president had been moved to hospice care following "a series of short hospital stays," adding that he "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family."
Carter's longevity in hospice surprised the whole family, his grandson Jason Carter told PEOPLE in September 2023, adding that it had turned into a "real blessing."
"This is an important part of his faith journey, and it's one that you don't get to experience at any other time in your life except for the very end," Jason said. "And so in that way, I think this has been a really meaningful time for him, and it's been a really reflective time for him."
Jason told Southern Living in June that Carter was no longer awake every day, adding that his grandfather was "experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process."
Although President Carter contended with a string of health struggles over the past decade, including a cancer bout in 2015, he remained physically active into his 90s — continuing to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity, attending regular church services and teaching Sunday school.
Jimmy Carter's Life in Photos
In August 2015, Carter revealed that he had a small mass removed from his liver, at which time doctors discovered that he had cancer which had spread to other parts of his body.
He faced the diagnosis with his trademark "humor and impatience," his friend and former White House communications director Gerald Rafshoon told PEOPLE at the time. "Nothing about Jimmy has changed with this diagnosis."
The cancer was eliminated within four months, and he resumed life as usual.
In July 2017, the former president made headlines again when he collapsed from dehydration while at a Habitat for Humanity work site in Canada — only to return the following morning after the hospital gave him the all-clear.
In October 2019, he was hospitalized after falling and fracturing his pelvis at his home in Plains, Ga. His injury was described in a statement from The Carter Center as "minor."
The incident marked the third time he had fallen in 2019 and the second time in October. Earlier that month, he received 14 stitches on his head and a black eye after another accident. And in May 2019, he fell at his home and had to undergo surgery on his broken hip.
Hours after that first October incident, he went to Nashville with Mrs. Carter to lead their annual build for Habitat. There he helped glue, drill and nail pieces of wood together for corbels as part of a project to build 21 new homes in Nashville's Park Preserve neighborhood.
"One of the things Jesus taught was: If you have any talents, try to utilize them for the benefit of others," President Carter told PEOPLE from the Habitat construction site. "That's what Rosa and I have both tried to do."
"It's hard to live until you're 95 years old," he told PEOPLE in 2019. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life."
"I think both mine and Rosa's minds are almost as good as they used to be, we just have limited capability on stamina and strength," he added. "But we still try to stay busy and do a good job at what we do."
Ushered into the White House in 1976 in the wake of Watergate and predecessor President Gerald Ford's deeply unpopular pardon of disgraced President Richard Nixon, Carter by all accounts had forged a unique path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
He was a son of the Deep South who became a nuclear scientist and Navy submariner, then a peanut farmer and community organizer, and then the desegregationist governor of his home state of Georgia, whose segregationist groups still held great sway at the polls. After defeating then-President Ford in the 1976 presidential election, the Democrat became the first Deep South president since before the Civil War.
Carter's time in the nation's highest office was marked by economic uncertainty, rising gas prices, political upheavals, racial tensions and increasing evidence of America's waning power overseas.
Though he negotiated a lasting peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and reestablished full formal diplomatic relations with China, his popularity plummeted as he made a series of clumsy public relations gaffes, launched a rescue mission for American hostages in Iran that ended in a fiasco and enacted a controversial boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
He lost reelection to Republican rival Ronald Reagan by a historic landslide in 1980.
After leaving the White House, however, the Carters set the standard for post-presidency activism that successors like the Clintons and Obamas have followed.
He and Rosalynn created The Carter Center to further global peace and human rights, brokered a nuclear-nonproliferation deal with North Korea, acted as an unofficial diplomat on behalf of the U.S. in troubled areas around the world and worked hands-on to build affordable homes for low-income families both in the U.S. and abroad.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote peace, democracy and human rights.
To those who knew him best as he rose to national prominence, Carter remained the unpretentious peanut farmer who grew up in a tiny Georgia town.
Pennsylvania dairy farmer Wayne Harpster was friends with Carter since their first fishing trip in 1979. They kept in touch over the years, with Carter visiting Harpster nearly every year to go fishing. In 1989, the former president even helped his old fishing buddy build a covered bridge.
"Over those years, nothing changed between him and I. That's a lot of years," Harpster told PEOPLE in 2014. "He's still President Carter to me."
And President Carter was rarely without his first lady, Rosalynn, whom he fell in love with while attending the U.S. Naval Academy as a young man. Mrs. Carter shared her husband's lack of pretension, his hardy constitution and his heart.
But more than all that, said Harpster, she was Carter's "fishing buddy … which is deeper." They were inseparable, traveling the four corners of the globe together not only to monitor elections in emerging democracies, fight disease in forgotten poor villages and build houses for the homeless through Habitat for Humanity — but also to share a tent along some far-flung river where the fishing was good.
Harpster said he was by the couple's side when they celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary in Russia in July 2013.
"We had a little party at the fishing camp. It was kind of unique to be with somebody who's been together [for so long]. You could see a lot of contentment between them," he said. "I've never seen two people as close as they are."
The Carters remained full and equal partners in his post-presidency, even as Harpster said he sensed in his friends the lingering sting of losing the reelection bid.
"Mrs. C. took it harder than the president," he said. "But I think they both adjusted pretty fast and they started to have so many projects with The Carter Center and [doing] all these good things in Africa … Just keeping themselves busy and looking ahead to what they could do good for the world and people who need help."
"He has had a very full, wonderful, productive life," Carter's cousin Betty Pope told PEOPLE. "He wanted to make sure every day of his life he was able to do what he was charged to do personally — which, he felt, was to try to make peace and improve the world."
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So a good Christian President dies, and the same day, I see this gem. For Inauguration, you can "pay to pray" with Orange Jesus and Melania. for 100k donation, or if you raise 200k. It's all there in black and white.
Insane! The corruption is totally done in everyone's faces. In the face! Anyway, yes it is disgusting but MAGA really truly wants to believe he was "sent by God" to save America. Oh hell noo! The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_393Nu6ak
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I'll pay to have him removed 😄
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So of course, we have to go into 2025 dramatic. In Vegas, a Tesla caught fire in front of a Trump tower. Now we got images of this all over. The symbol of the oligarchy for sure. Welcome to 2025 and the shit show!
(https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/52f8e50/2147483647/strip/true/crop/680x383+0+22/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2F2c%2F8c82244e4ebcab737c9c8ea6a8f9%2Fggo1fbmwcaai10u.jpeg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJaN0d8iwY
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It's a clown show! Orange Messiah will be in court, or perhaps virtually, and will be sentenced for paying off a porn star, Jan 11th. Now, courts already said Slappy wont go behind bars. But this is how we begin a presidency. The world must be looking at us, like we are the biggest idiots, in the universe I dare say! The scoop:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-to-be-sentenced-new-york-crimes-before-inauguration/
Politics
Trump to be sentenced for conviction in New York "hush money" case before inauguration
By Graham Kates
Updated on: January 3, 2025 / 4:16 PM EST / CBS News
Politics
Trump to be sentenced for conviction in New York "hush money" case before inauguration
By Graham Kates
Updated on: January 3, 2025 / 4:16 PM EST / CBS News
Before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House he will return to the courthouse, a New York judge ruled Friday.
Justice Juan Merchan will sentence Trump for his crimes on Jan. 10 — just 10 days before his inauguration on Jan. 20 — in a court proceeding that will be unlike any in America's 248 years. Trump's conviction in New York stemmed from a $130,000 so-called "hush money" payment his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 election.
Justice Juan Merchan's ruling ends two months of speculation — and back and forth jockeying by Trump's attorneys and prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — following Trump's narrow election victory on Nov. 5.
Trump became the first former president ever convicted of crimes in May, when a unanimous jury found him guilty in the New York case. Sentencing in the case was stalled for months as Trump campaigned for a return to the presidency. In November, he became the first person voted into the White House after a criminal conviction.
The president-elect had argued in a motion to dismiss that his ascension to the White House mandated his conviction be vacated. Merchan said Friday that it did not.
Politics
Trump to be sentenced for conviction in New York "hush money" case before inauguration
By Graham Kates
Updated on: January 3, 2025 / 4:16 PM EST / CBS News
Before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House he will return to the courthouse, a New York judge ruled Friday.
Justice Juan Merchan will sentence Trump for his crimes on Jan. 10 — just 10 days before his inauguration on Jan. 20 — in a court proceeding that will be unlike any in America's 248 years. Trump's conviction in New York stemmed from a $130,000 so-called "hush money" payment his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 election.
Justice Juan Merchan's ruling ends two months of speculation — and back and forth jockeying by Trump's attorneys and prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — following Trump's narrow election victory on Nov. 5.
Trump became the first former president ever convicted of crimes in May, when a unanimous jury found him guilty in the New York case. Sentencing in the case was stalled for months as Trump campaigned for a return to the presidency. In November, he became the first person voted into the White House after a criminal conviction.
The president-elect had argued in a motion to dismiss that his ascension to the White House mandated his conviction be vacated. Merchan said Friday that it did not.
"This court finds that neither the vacatur of the jury's verdicts nor dismissal of the indictment are required by the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act or the Supremacy Clause," Merchan wrote in his order Friday.
Merchan indicated in his ruling that Trump will not be sentenced to serve time behind bars. He wrote that prosecutors agree with this decision. He also said that Trump may appear virtually, rather than in person for the sentencing.
"It seems proper at this juncture to make known the court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorized by the conviction but one the (prosecutors) concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation," Merchan wrote.
Trump's lawyers claimed the constitutional demands on a president-elect "superseded" the jury's decision and ongoing proceedings in the case.
Bragg's office argued that the judge had a range of options, including "novel" ones to balance the interests of justice with the unprecedented circumstance of a convicted defendant being elected to the presidency before sentencing. Their suggestions included postponing proceedings until after Trump's term in office, and even terminating the case and its proceedings with a note that the verdict had not been set aside.
Trump's conviction carried with it the potential for up to four years in jail, but also a wide range of alternatives to incarceration, including probation and fines.
Merchan's decision is the latest in a string of historical firsts set by the case. Trump's indictment in March 2023 made him the first former president in U.S. history to be criminally charged. He was subject to a seven-week trial this spring, which took place during the Republican presidential primaries.
Inside the courtroom, Trump grumbled quietly, but often leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed as prosecutors and lawyers questioned more than 20 witnesses. At times his head drooped down, as he apparently dozed off. In the hallway just outside the courtroom — surrounded by a rotating posse of Republican allies, lawyers and Secret Service agents — Trump seethed about the case while campaigning to a gaggle of press cameras.
At times, his dual commitments to the court and the cameras caused trouble. Merchan held Trump in contempt 10 times for violating a gag order prohibiting public statements about potential jurors, witnesses and others.
Witnesses, beginning with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, described two schemes at the core of the case. The first was a plan hatched by Trump, Pecker and former attorney Michael Cohen to "catch" stories or allegations that might hurt Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy and "kill" them by paying people in exchange for nondisclosure agreements. Pecker and others described three such arrangements, known as "hush money" payments.
Days before the election, Cohen paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels — also a witness in the trial — in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. He and another witness described Trump's relief that voters didn't learn of the story before the election.
Cohen also described an arrangement in which he was covertly reimbursed for the payment to Daniels. The jury concluded Trump, while president in 2017, authorized a scheme to falsify business records in order to conceal Cohen's repayment. That scheme ultimately included 34 falsified records connected to monthly installments portrayed as payments for ongoing legal services, when they were in fact Cohen's reimbursements for the Daniels payoff.
The jury took less than two days to reach its verdict. Trump, who had frequently stared at the jury of his peers during the trial, would not make eye contact with them as his sentence was pronounced.
He looked straight ahead as the jury's foreperson pronounced Trump guilty 34 times, and as Merchan thanked the jury for their service before allowing them to file out of the room.
After Merchan himself stepped out, Trump rose, frowning deeply, and briefly grasped his son Eric's hand.
Trump led his entourage out of the courtroom, huddled for a moment with his lawyers, and then turned to address the cameras awaiting his reaction.
He proclaimed his innocence, raged against the case and returned to his campaign for president.
More from CBS News
Trump to hold D.C. rally on Jan. 19, day before inauguration
Biden marks 235 judicial confirmations during White House tenure
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Biden is doing his best to prevent bad things from occurring:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/business/biden-offshore-drilling-ban-trump/index.html
Biden permanently bans offshore drilling in 625 million acres of ocean, making a Trump reversal difficult
David Goldman Ella Nilsen Matt Egan
By David Goldman, Ella Nilsen and Matt Egan, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 11:29 AM EST, Mon January 6, 2025
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gettyimages-1993702591.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp)
President Joe Biden on Monday announced an executive action that will permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a way that could be especially difficult for the incoming Trump administration to undo.
Biden’s executive action will ban new oil and gas leasing across 625 million acres of US ocean. The ban will prevent oil companies from leasing waters for new drilling along the entire East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement. “It is not worth the risks.”
The action, which CNN reported on Friday, invokes the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a law that gives presidents broad authority to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development.
The law does not give presidents explicit authority to revoke the action and place federal waters back into development, meaning President-elect Donald Trump would have to get Congress to change it before he could reverse Biden’s move.
Nevertheless, Trump on Monday said in an interview he would try to undo the action.
“Look, it’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said in a radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
As Biden’s presidency draws to a close, environmental and climate groups have advocated for him to withdraw areas off the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as other parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — giving the areas permanent protections from future drilling. The move would guard against future oil spills and against adding more planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels to the atmosphere.
“President Biden’s new protections add to this bipartisan history, including President Trump’s previous withdrawals in the southeastern United States in 2020,” said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon in a statement. “Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”
Despite a friendly posture towards the oil and gas industry, Trump also moved to ban offshore drilling while president. After proposing a major expansion in offshore drilling early in his first term, Trump in 2020 extended a ban on future oil drilling in the Eastern Gulf and expanded it to include the Atlantic coasts of three states: Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Still, Trump’s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lambasted the decision, writing in a post on X, “This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
The oil industry lashed out against the executive action, too.
“President Biden’s decision to ban new offshore oil and natural gas development across approximately 625 million acres of US coastal and offshore waters is significant and catastrophic,” Ron Neal, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee, said in a statement. “It represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas industry.”
Neal said the ban would severely limit the industry’s potential for future oil and gas exploration in new areas, hurting the industry’s long-term ability to survive.
But Biden noted in his statement that protecting coastlines from offshore drilling has bipartisan support.
“From California to Florida, Republican and Democratic Governors, Members of Congress, and coastal communities alike have worked and called for greater protection of our ocean and coastlines from harms that offshore oil and natural gas drilling can bring,” Biden said.
He argued that after the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the ban he imposed will help protect similar ecological disasters from happening again.
“Every president this century has recognized that some areas of the ocean are just too risky or too sensitive to drill,” Earthjustice vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans Drew Caputo said in a statement Friday.
Biden’s move was first reported by Bloomberg.
Little economic impact
Energy analysts told CNN the move won’t make much of a difference in US oil production, which has set new records under Biden.
It’s “not particularly consequential for US exploration and production going forward,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said on Friday. Kloza noted there are plenty of existing offshore rigs pumping oil in the Gulf of Mexico and added that offshore projects typically take 6-8 years to come online.
“I don’t see it as having any real impact on US supply, exports, imports,” Kloza said.
Biden agreed, arguing in his statement that preserving the environment and the coastlines will help local economies flourish.
“We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low,” Biden said. “Those are false choices.”
Still, the American Petroleum Institute blasted Biden’s decision.
“American voters sent a clear message in support of domestic energy development, and yet the current administration is using its final days in office to cement a record of doing everything possible to restrict it,” API CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement. “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”
In a separate announcement, the Biden administration is expected to declare two new national monuments in California in the coming week, a source familiar with the planning told CNN.
Biden will establish the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, the source said. Native tribes have been actively pushing the administration to protect the land from energy development.
Biden has so far conserved or expanded 10 national monuments as president.
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So we didn't get to see a trial - BOO - but it is coming. I am betting special counsel Jack Smith report will drop to the public. My theory: so America is left with NO EXCUSE. You KNEW the truth.
And course, Orange Messiah trying to hide this from the public, oh sure, trying to stop it, like a ....guilty person would?
These folks are way too gullible for their own good, the scoop:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-asks-garland-to-stop-release-of-special-counsel-jack-smith-report/
Politics
Trump's attorneys ask Garland to stop the release of special counsel report as his former codefendants take the matter to federal court
By Robert Legare, Andres Triay
Updated on: January 7, 2025 / 11:25 AM EST / CBS News
Politics
Trump's attorneys ask Garland to stop the release of special counsel report as his former codefendants take the matter to federal court
By Robert Legare, Andres Triay
Updated on: January 7, 2025 / 11:25 AM EST / CBS News
Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to remove special counsel Jack Smith from his post and either decline to release Smith's upcoming report detailing his investigations into the president-elect or hand over the matter to Trump's incoming administration, according to a letter released Monday.
The letter, addressed to Garland and a top career official at the Justice Department, alleged the special counsel did not have the legal authority to submit a final report summarizing his dual investigations into Trump and urged the attorney general to "put an end to this weaponization of the justice system and move forward constructively." The correspondence was written in part by defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emile Bove, Trump's picks to serve as deputy attorney general and principal deputy attorney general in his upcoming administration.
On Tuesday, Trump attorneys filed a brief in Florida arguing that the special counsel should be ordered not to transmit his report on the documents case to Garland while Trump's emergency motion is pending, and also that Garland should be ordered "not to issue any aspect of Smith's missive to the public."
Smith led two now-defunct investigations into the president-elect, one tied to his alleged efforts to resist the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and another based on accusations that Trump unlawfully retained sensitive government records after he left office in 2021. The probes resulted in criminal indictments against Trump, which have since been dismissed. Trump initially pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.
The classified documents case was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida who ruled in July 2024 that Garland unlawfully appointed Smith, a finding the Justice Department disputed and was appealing in the run-up to the presidential election. The 2020 election-related charges against Trump were dismissed after Trump was reelected. The special counsel wrote that Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
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Spoke too soon. Oh it's so played out. But the public cannot be this stupid. Or can they?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-temporarily-blocks-release-of-special-counsel-report-on-trumps-criminal-cases/ar-AA1x7Den?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Judge temporarily blocks release of special counsel report on Trump's criminal cases
Story by Daniel Barnes • 17m • 1 min read
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1l7ipd.img?w=768&h=512&m=6&x=231&y=217&s=1004&d=356)
The federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump issued an order Tuesday temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation.
The injunction lasts until three days after the 11th Circuit rules on a pending request to block the release of the report over a separate matter involving Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira.
Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report, citing the judge’s previous ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Cannon said she was acting "to preserve the status quo" until the higher court rules on the issue.
Her ruling holds that Attorney General Merrick "Garland, the Department of Justice, Special Counsel Smith, all of their officers, agents, and employees, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with such individuals, are TEMPORARILY ENJOINED from (a) releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report or any drafts of such Report outside the Department of Justice, or (b) otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in the Final Report or in drafts thereof."
She said the order will remain in effect for three days after the appeals court resolves the issue "unless the Eleventh Circuit orders otherwise."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Oooohhhhh the corruption is much. We know Bezos took a knee to Orange Jesus. But now he is paying Melania a cool $40 million for her bio. I mean, I could do this myself. She met the Tiny-Handed Wombat at the "Kit Kat Club" where he bought himself a trophy wife, and the rest is history. What a waste of money! He could feed the homeless, but instead stuffs 40 mil into this gold digger's Chanel bag! The scoop:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/amazon-paying-license-melania-trump-documentary-1235227761/
Amazon Is Paying $40 Million for Melania Trump Vanity Doc: Report
As Silicon Valley rushes to make overtures to the president-elect, the future first lady just scored a massive pay day
By Nikki McCann Ramirez
January 7, 2025
Weeks after dining with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon has struck a massive licensing deal involving future First Lady Melania Trump.
According to Puck News, Amazon has agreed to pay $40 million in order to license a documentary and a limited series about Mrs. Trump. The documentary is set to be directed by disgraced Hollywood director and producer Brett Ratner, who in 2017 was accused of sexual assault and harassment by several high-profile actresses.
The film is set to debut in mid-2025 and, according to Amazon, will reveal “an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look” at the first lady’s life.
It’s unclear what percentage of the $40 million will go directly to the president-elect’s third wife, but Amazon’s cash-heavy deal with the Trumps is just the latest in a string of overtures the company and its leadership have made to the incoming administration. Last month, Amazon donated $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund, around the same time Bezos flew to Florida to dine with Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago resort.
Days before the election in November, Bezos intervened to stop a planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris by The Washington Post, which he purchased in 2013. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote in an op-ed explaining his decision. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
The billionaire also insisted that there was no “quid pro quo” involved in his decision.
Staff at the newspaper were furious, and scores of readers canceled their subscriptions in protest. In the months since, a string of high-profile editors and writers have left the paper or resigned from its editorial board. Earlier this week, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from the paper after the paper killed her cartoon depicting Bezos and other prominent Silicon Valley figures paying tribute to a statue of Trump.
“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary,” Telnaes wrote in a Substack post announcing her departure from the paper. “That’s a game changer … and dangerous for a free press.”
“The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” she wrote. “My job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job.”
While there is no evidence connecting the suppression of Telnaes’ work to Bezos, one can’t help but note the general timing of it all.
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This is interesting since we are talking AI. This just hit the news, this guy who went rogue, and drove a Tesla to the Trump tower to get lit. I suspect he wanted to do more damage than he did. This is my theory. Did Chat GPT realize it was dealing with someone who had lost their mind, and perhaps the "info" they chatted with in this plan from this guy who lost it, was used so that only one person would die that day, and the least destruction possible would happen? I have a feel this may be the case. "
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/07/us/las-vegas-cybertruck-explosion-livelsberger/index.html
Green Beret who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas used AI to plan blast
Emma Tucker
By Emma Tucker, CNN
2 minute read
Published 5:29 PM EST, Tue January 7, 2025
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/ggo1fbmwcaai10u-1.JPG?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp)
Editor’s Note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world.
The active-duty US Army Green Beret who authorities say exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas last week used artificial intelligence to plan the blast, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a Tuesday news conference the soldier, Matthew Livelsberger, started using Chat GPT to get information on how to conduct his plot.
Officials did not indicate what results ChatGPT gave the suspect in response to his searches about explosives and firearms.
CNN has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
Authorities released new information about the explosion, emphasizing Livelsberger used a bomb and describing a six-page manifesto found on his cell phone.
“This new information comes with more questions than answers. I will not provide an opinion on what the documents mean, nor will we release information or documents that have not been completely verified” by agency investigators, along with the FBI and ATF, McMahill said.
The document is additional evidence to the previously released two letters, in which the suspect wrote of “political grievances,” armed conflicts elsewhere and domestic issues in the days leading up to his suicide, officials said Friday.
Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado, was on leave from his base in Germany at the time of Wednesday’s blast, sources told CNN. He fatally shot himself shortly before the truck exploded and seven other people were injured, officials said.
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Well Biden is trying to protect Americans from the damage credit bureaus can do to them over medical bills. Then the credit bureaus want to sue him over this. This just shows how brutal it is in this country to take down Americans, and why CEOs of insurance companies get shot, and their shooters glorified by the same Americans, vilified as heroes:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/industry-groups-sue-over-biden-ban-on-medical-debt-from-credit-reports/ar-AA1xbMRl?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Industry groups sue over Biden ban on medical debt from credit reports
Story by Nate Raymond • 54m • 2 min read
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) - Two groups representing the credit reporting and credit union industries have filed a lawsuit challenging a new rule adopted by U.S. President Joe Biden's outgoing administration banning the inclusion of medical debt in American consumers' credit reports.
The Consumer Data Industry Association and Cornerstone Credit Union League filed the lawsuit in federal court in Sherman, Texas, on Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized the regulation.
The agency said the rule would remove $49 billion in medical debts from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans. It was adopted despite demands from Republicans in Congress that Biden's financial regulators stop issuing new rules as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20.
The trade groups say the rule violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which expressly permits consumer reporting agencies to report information about medical debt and authorizes creditors to consider that information.
"It is black letter law that an agency cannot prohibit through regulations what Congress has expressly permitted by statute," the lawsuit said. "Because the final rule contravenes the statute, it should be vacated."
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, a Trump appointee. The CFPB declined to comment.
According to the CFPB, medical debt provides little indication of whether a borrower is likely to repay a loan and the change should result in rising credit scores and could lead to an additional 22,000 low-cost mortgages per year being issued.
The new rule will also prohibit lenders from considering certain medical information in making lending decisions and help prevent debt collectors from seeking to coerce consumers into paying erroneous medical debts they do not actually owe, the agency said.
Banking and credit bureau industry groups argued that the ban could leave them blind to important information about the risk financial institutions face from borrowers, resulting in banks offering fewer loans.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)
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The scenes are apocalyptic. I can't help but think of it as a sign. Fires in Cali became a norm. BUT it is WINTERa and this time, they are hitting LA Palisades, and even Sunset Blvd. It is pure chaos.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/los-angeles-wildfires-kill-two-and-trigger-exodus-as-firefighters-battle-blazes/ar-AA1xbXOf?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Los Angeles wildfires kill five and trigger exodus as firefighters battle blazes
Story by Jacob Soboroff • 1h • 5 min read
LOS ANGELES — Out-of-control wildfires forced thousands of people in Los Angeles County to flee their homes and businesses Wednesday in a real life Hollywood disaster that left firefighters and residents manning garden hoses powerless to stop the enormous flames from devouring everything in their path.
The fabled Sunset Boulevard was littered with abandoned vehicles after panicked motorists trapped by the gridlock left them where they were Tuesday and ran for their lives through the choking smoke, while the night sky was painted orange by fire.
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By dawn, battalions of bulldozers were brought in to clear a path for the legions of other Los Angeles residents joining the exodus of some 80,000 people from infernos consuming large swaths of the Pasadena, Sylmar and Pacific Palisades areas, each fire fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds and feeding on bone-dry conditions.
All that had been missing from the horrific script, as of early Wednesday, were reports of deaths.
“It is an absolute miracle that we do not have any reported fatalities at this point," Los Angeles Councilwoman Traci Park, whose district includes the hardest-hit Pacific Palisades neighborhood, said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “Until the sun comes up and we can get assets back in the air safely, we won’t really know how much of the Palisades is still standing today."
But just a few hours later, the sun was blotted out by black skies as L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone broke the news that two people were killed in what's being called the Eaton Fire, which was ravaging the Angeles National Forest and Altadena area of Los Angeles County and Pasadena.
Later in the afternoon, officials said that five deaths had been confirmed in the Eaton Fire.
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No details have been provided about the deaths, but Marrone warned that the winds fanning the fires are “placing all residents of Los Angeles County in danger.”
So far, tens of thousands of Los Angeles residents have been ordered to evacuate and officials urged residents to heed the warnings to get out.
“As the fires pop up, nobody knows where the next one will be,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was briefed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and local fire officials at a Santa Monica fire station. Biden also approved a major disaster declaration that will clear the way for federal funds and resources to be be dispatched to California.
"The governor asked for a declaration of what provides for everything the federal government can do, and I’m prepared to sign it today, folks," Biden said.
Los Angeles County Fire has already requested mutual aid from Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Firefighters from as far away as Nevada, Oregon and Washington state were also racing to Los Angeles to help the local firefighters battling the blazes on the front lines.
The fires are “stretching the capacity of our emergency services to their maximum limits,” said Kristin M. Crowley, chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
In some parts of the city, the battle already appeared to be lost.
Much of Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of some 23,000 people about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles that has been home to movie stars and Holocaust survivors, was reduced to ashes with more than 1,000 homes wiped out and most of the residents gone.
"The whole city has just burned to the ground," Vanessa Pellegrini, co-owner of Vittorio Ristorante & Pizzeria, told MSNBC. "There's nothing we can do."
No deaths were reported, but officials said dozens of residents who had not evacuated, along with firefighters who battled the blazes, have been injured.
Some of the area's most famous residents, like "Police Academy" star Steve Guttenberg, said "people are really panicking and really scared right now."
"Most people have evacuated their homes. But the fire is really raging. These winds are terrible, the winds are so hot,” he told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. “It was like a volcano.”
The section of the Pacific Coast Highway that runs through Pacific Palisades was completely shut down. So were many of the other major arteries in the western end of Los Angeles closest to the Pacific Ocean.
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Firefighters were also struggling to contain the Eaton Fire, which erupted around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, and battling what's being called the Hurst Fire, which ignited around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in Sylmar, which is north of San Fernando.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that two arrests were made Wednesday morning for looting and issued a stern warning to anybody hoping to capitalize on the ongoing catastrophe.
“If you are thinking about coming into the any of these areas to steal from our residents, I’m going to tell you something: you’re going to be caught, you’re going to be arrested, and you’re going to be prosecuted," Luna said. "Don’t do that. Stay out of these areas."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was in Ghana when the fires spread Tuesday, was expected to return to the city Wednesday.
Newsom, who was scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C., for the memorial service for former President Jimmy Carter, canceled his trip because of the wildfires, a spokesman has confirmed.
Los Angeles is the movie capital of the world but, because of the ongoing fires, the Screen Actors Guild was forced to cancel a live event scheduled for Wednesday morning to announce its annual awards nominations and, instead, did so online.
Black smoke was visible in the skies over Los Angeles neighborhoods like Silver Lake and in nearby communities like Burbank that are miles away from the infernos.
As a result, many of the city's best-known attractions, including the famous Hollywood sign, were closed Wednesday to the public, officials said.
So were many schools in Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school district, because of the hazardous air conditions.
An index over 300 represents an emergency state, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality index. But some parts of Los Angeles are seeing indexes above 500, while some Pasadena locations are seeing indexes of 600 to 1,200.
Jacob Soboroff reported from Los Angeles. Corky Siemaszko reported from New York City.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Some fire scenes in LA county. This is truly devastating. Some celebrities speaking about their homes. This is all so tragic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beIL5W-OuB4
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This shows how the fires got started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olBed9KdaNw
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These fires are incredibly devastating. Lawrence O'Donnell sadly says, as he is recording, his home may burn down. I watched Meidas Touch last night. Ben Meisalas looked to be in a hotel. His home may burn down. This is the worst thing to hit LA. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h1U1sZJasI
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Let's hope this one takes and of course, the hostages can come home.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-hands-israel-hamas-final-draft-gaza-ceasefire-deal-official-tells-reuters-2025-01-13/
Final draft of Gaza truce deal presented to sides after 'breakthrough', official says
By Andrew Mills and Nidal Al-Mughrabi
January 13, 202512:42 PM PSTUpdated an hour ago
DOHA/CAIRO, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight "breakthrough" in talks attended by envoys of both outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden said a ceasefire and hostage release deal he had championed was on "the brink" of coming to fruition and Hamas said it was keen on reaching an agreement.
"The deal ... would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started," Biden said in a speech to highlight his foreign policy achievements.
The official briefed on the talks, who did not want to be otherwise identified, said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar's prime minister.
Another round of talks is planned in Doha on Tuesday morning to finalise remaining details, with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Biden's envoy Brett McGurk expected to attend, as they had on Monday, the official said.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages as part of the deal. The Hamas delegation in Doha issued a statement after a meeting with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani saying talks were progressing well.
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters the negotiations were at a "pivotal" point, with gaps between two sides slowly getting removed. "I think there is a good chance we can close this ... the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sides were "closer than we've ever been" to a deal, and the ball was in Hamas' court.
"We are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line, finally after all this time," he told MSNBC, adding that the proposed deal was based on a framework Biden put out in May.
Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Trump would continue to back the deal on the table so Witkoff's participation has been "critical."
Israel's Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, reported progress.
"The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon," a Hamas official told Reuters.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters: "There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal."
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza.
In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters the draft sent to the two warring sides did not comprise the final agreement but "aims to resolve outstanding issues that had hindered previous negotiations".
Sullivan said Biden would soon speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the negotiations.
HELL TO PAY
Israel's Channel 12 said Israeli government institutions had been told to prepare for the intake of weak and sick hostages.
The warring sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline. Trump has said there would be "hell to pay" unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official who first disclosed the draft said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in the Qatari capital Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalise an agreement.
The head of Egypt's general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in Doha as part of the talks. Rashad left Doha on Monday but a source familiar with the talks said an intelligence delegation stayed behind to play an active role.
Trump envoy Witkoff has travelled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke on Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing "the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal," the White House said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionism party, a hardline nationalist party which has opposed previous attempts at a deal, said all its members would oppose a deal that didn't achieve Hamas' "destruction" and the latest proposal endangered Israel's national security.
Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday. Residents reported a series of explosions in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip that targeted homes and roads. Palestinian health officials said at least 40 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
The Israeli military said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to nine the number of its troops killed since Saturday.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Nidal Al Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by James Mackenzie, Maayan Lubell, Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo, Andrea Shalal, Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey and David Brunnstrom, Andrea Shalal, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington Writing by Andrew Mills, Michael Georgy and David Brunnstrom Editing by Gareth Jones, Peter Graff and Nia Williams
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OMG this is hysterical. Good ole Dirty Don the Con. Well known he can't keep it in his pants. Cheated on all the wives. He got Carrie Underwood to perform at his inauguration. A step up from Kid Rock for sure.
But will she sing "Before He Cheats?" I would LMAO if she did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8
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They are close. I suspect the hostages to be released when Trump is in office, in similar vain when Regan took office and hostages were released. it will go on record as his "win."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-moves-the-needle-on-a-gaza-ceasefire/ar-AA1xdsub?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump moves the needle on a Gaza ceasefire
Story by Ishaan Tharoor • 11h •
If a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is clinched in the coming hours, the terms will likely be little different than what they would have been months ago. A number of living hostages in captivity in Gaza will be swapped for a number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails in a “first phase” of a truce. Hostilities will cease for a prescribed set of weeks, in the articulated hope that a later second phase of exchanges will happen and an extended peace will take root.
At numerous points over the past 15 months of ruinous war in Gaza — and particularly in the past eight months — Israel and Hamas have drawn close to agreeing on some version of this deal. Each time, talks have foundered at the 11th hour, with both sides blaming the other for the impasse. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly accused Hamas of rejecting a ceasefire in previous rounds. But for months, Arab interlocutors and U.S. officials in private have also pointed the finger at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who repeatedly scuppered deals with new demands that Hamas was unwilling to accept. It is widely believed that Netanyahu wanted to keep the conflict running in a bid to appease the far-right lawmakers who keep his coalition in power.
Sticking points remain now, too, but officials are cautiously hopeful for a breakthrough. “We believe that we have reached the final stages,” Majed al-Ansari, adviser to the Qatari prime minister and spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said at a news briefing Tuesday. “We have overcome the main obstacles in the disagreements between the two parties.”
The Biden administration is pushing hard in its final week in office to clinch a deal, doing so in coordination with the team assembled by incoming President-elect Donald Trump, whose Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has traveled to both Israel and Qatar, the main staging ground for negotiations.
My colleagues outlined what we know of the proposal in play:
The first phase would involve 33 living hostages being released over a 42-day ceasefire, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to U.S. officials.
An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations, said Tuesday that the captives released in the first stage would be children, women, injured people and those 50 and older.
The Israeli official said that in a second stage, other remaining hostages and Israeli soldiers held captive by Hamas would be released. According to The Washington Post’s tracker, Israel estimates that there are 60 living hostages remaining in Gaza.
Israel would agree to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have fled Israel’s bombardment in the south of Gaza to return to their homes in the north as long as unspecified security measures are in place.
If a ceasefire is achieved this week, it can be chalked up to Trump’s imminent return to office. According to Israeli news media, Witkoff’s blunt pressure tactics compelled Netanyahu to relent on some of his earlier positions.
As the U.S. election campaign took off last year, analysts assumed that Netanyahu, a stalwart Trump ally, would prefer to make a deal with a Republican back in the White House. The Israeli prime minister conveyed to U.S. interlocutors in the Biden administration that his hands were tied by local politics, with far-right allies in his coalition opposed to a hostage deal and eager for an even more brutal campaign in Gaza against Hamas. Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and a far-right firebrand, claimed he foiled earlier ceasefire attempts as he threatened to quit Netanyahu’s government Tuesday.
Now, it seems Netanyahu is willing to call the bluff of figures like Ben Gvir. Little has changed apart from the political calendar in the United States.
“By May 2024, [Netanyahu] had reneged on and disowned a plan he himself had presented to Biden. During those months, the hostage and ceasefire deal that may come to fruition in the coming days was already on the table,” wrote Alon Pinkas in Israeli daily Haaretz. “For eight full months, such a deal was presented time and time again by Qatar and the United States. But Netanyahu only had politics and his own survival in mind, and then the U.S. election and Trump’s inauguration.”
For much of 2024, Netanyahu’s critics within Israel, including an animated bloc comprising the loved ones and friends of hostages in Gaza, protested against his government’s seeming resistance to making a deal. The Biden administration urged a ceasefire, but exerted little leverage on Israel to compel Netanyahu to compromise. All the while, hostages continued to die alongside thousands of Palestinians slain in Israeli strikes and amid a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe.
“Trump persuaded Netanyahu to accept his own proposal, a proposal that was first presented in May and was still relevant in August,” wrote Ben Caspit in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv. “There isn’t any need to begin to rant and rave now about how it was Hamas that prevented a deal from being reached. First of all because we have no influence over Hamas, but we do over our own leaders. Second, because Hamas would have agreed to a deal back in August had it been given what it is being given now. It’s that simple.”
In the event of a ceasefire, it’s far from certain that real peace will follow. “There is a lot of skepticism all around that this is a deal that can progress beyond phase one,” Michael Hanna, U.S. program director at the International Crisis Group, told me.
A right-wing Israeli government may not be keen to make further concessions to Hamas, and the Palestinian militant group may not want to surrender all the bleak leverage it has accrued in capturing Israeli hostages. The Trump administration, in turn, may not do much to force through a political agreement that would enable reconstruction in Gaza and a push toward greater Palestinian rights or even statehood.
“There are no indications that they have very ambitious plans for Gaza diplomacy and governance,” Hanna added.
For Israelis and Palestinians alike, concerns abound. “How is it possible that my grandson, who was kidnapped at 8.5 months old, will mark his second birthday in hell?” asked Eli Bibas, whose relatives, including two young children, remain in captivity. “How is it possible that he still hasn’t celebrated a birthday with his father, with his family, in his home and in his country?”
Meanwhile, Israeli bombardments of Gaza intensified, killing dozens Tuesday. “May God save us in the next hours and protect people because they go crazy in the last hours,” Abeer Maher, a 36-year-old English teacher in Deir al-Balah, told The Post. “We have not slept all night.”
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It says the deal is reached. Now I know, this is only a truce, not a solution. A two state solution IS the solution to prevent future conflict.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ceasefire-israel-hamas-gaza-palestinians-rcna160847
Israel and Hamas reach deal on Gaza ceasefire and hostage release
The Biden administration is calling for a final push before the president leaves office, with many seeing the Trump inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
Jan. 15, 2025, 9:05 AM PST / Updated Jan. 15, 2025, 10:37 AM PST
By Keir Simmons, Andrea Mitchell, Raf Sanchez and David Hodari
WASHINGTON — A ceasefire deal has been reached to end 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Israeli officials and a source briefed on the negotiations told NBC News on Wednesday.
The hard-won agreement will also free dozens of hostages held in Gaza, as well as Palestinians in Israeli jails, bringing the first real break in violence since a weeklong truce expired Dec. 1, 2023.
The new follows weeks of talks brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, amid a brutal winter for civilians in Gaza, as well as dramatic developments across the Middle East that have dealt setbacks to Iran, an Israeli foe.
Israel and Hamas have not officially announced a deal, although senior Hamas official Basem Naim confirmed to NBC News the militant group had agreed to it.
"We are very happy to reach a deal today to stop the aggression against our people, but unfortunately we were able to reach the same deal last May," Naim said.
Another source with direct knowledge of the talks and an Israeli official briefed on the deal also confirmed the news.
President Joe Biden was expected to make a statement on the agreement later Wednesday.
Under the plan, Israel will withdraw its forces eastward from densely populated areas of Gaza, according to a portion of the deal shared by Hamas and written in English.
Hamas, meanwhile, will release 33 hostages in exchange for 100 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences, according to the text. Israel will also release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners that were not involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, the text says, and an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners will also be released abroad or in Gaza.
In a statement, Netanyahu's office touted what it characterized as a compromise on Hamas' part.
"In light of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s firm stance, Hamas has backed down on its demand at the last minute to change the deployment of forces on" the Philadelphi Corridor, the Israeli name for the narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt.
"However, there are still several unresolved clauses in the outline, and we hope that the details will be finalized tonight," the prime minister's office added.
Gil Dickmann, cousin of deceased hostage Carmel Gat, told NBC News that it was "very exciting" to see that finally hostages were going to be returned.
"It’s also really sad to know that Carmel could have and should have been among them, but a deal didn’t come in time and she was murdered in captivity," he said.
Earlier, a diplomatic source in Washington told NBC News that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to meet with his security Cabinet, where approval of the deal was expected quickly. He would then take the pact to the full Cabinet, which is also expected to approve.
Israel’s Supreme Court would have 24 hours to permit an appeal, so the earliest a ceasefire could go into effect would be Friday, the source said. The first group of hostages would come out Sunday, the person added.
Israel launched its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. Just more than 100 were released in late November 2023 during a pause in hostilities, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The war has shattered Gaza’s infrastructure and displaced most of its population. Health officials in the enclave say more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces — most of them civilians.
The chances for a ceasefire seemed vanishingly small after many false dawns in recent months.
The Biden administration had called for a final effort before the president leaves office, and many in the region and in Washington viewed Trump's inauguration Monday as an unofficial deadline.
Trump pledged last month that “all hell will break out” if Hamas doesn’t promise to release hostages by Jan. 20 and his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, joined talks in the region to push for a deal.
Internationally, Israel's staunchest allies have largely stood by it during its war in Gaza, but that support has been coupled with the strongest criticism in a generation and widespread calls for a ceasefire from the United States and others.
World leaders have also strongly condemned incidents of sexual violence during Hamas' attack on Israel, as well as allegations of the sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by members of the Israeli military, which Israel has said it is investigating.
Israel’s allies have been largely supportive of its proxy war against Iran, which the U.S. has long accused of funding Hamas and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed in November to halt months of deadly fighting with a ceasefire that has largely held.The scale and nature of Israel’s offensive have drawn condemnation from abroad.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders in December accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
Israel has rejected those accusations as false and antisemitic.
The status of dozens of hostages still held by Hamas has riven Israeli society, with the families of remaining hostages leading a campaign to pressure the government to strike a deal.
But Netanyahu has also faced opposing domestic pressure, with some senior ministers rejecting the deal as a "surrender" as sections of Israeli society push for a more hard-line approach.
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More on this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-and-hamas-agree-to-ceasefire-deal-to-pause-gaza-war-and-release-some-hostages-mediators-say/ar-AA1xfYYc?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Mediators tout a Gaza ceasefire deal and plan to free hostages. Israel says details still in flux
Story by NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and JOSEF FEDERMAN • 4h
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Israel and Hamas agreed to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, mediators announced Wednesday, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.
The three-phase ceasefire deal promises the release of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and it will allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes. It also will flood desperately needed humanitarian aid into a territory ravaged by 15 months of war.
The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the ceasefire would go into effect on Sunday. He made the announcement in the Qatari capital of Doha, the site of weeks of painstaking negotiations.
U.S. President Joe Biden touted the deal from Washington, saying the ceasefire will stay in place as long as Israel and Hamas remain at the negotiating table over a long-term truce. Biden credited months of “dogged and painstaking American diplomacy” for landing the deal, while noting that his administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team had been “speaking as one” in the latest negotiations.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the last details were still being ironed out and that it hoped they “will be finalized tonight.”
An Israeli official familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity said those details center on confirming the list of Palestinian prisoners who are to be freed. Any agreement must be approved by Netanyahu’s Cabinet.
Once the first phase of the deal takes effect, it is expected to deliver an initial six-week halt to fighting along with the opening of negotiations on ending the war altogether.
Over those six weeks, 33 of the nearly 100 hostages are to be reunited with their loved ones after months in captivity with no contact with the outside world, though it’s unclear if all are alive.
It remained unclear exactly when and how many displaced Palestinians would be able to return to their homes and whether the agreement would lead to a complete end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza — key Hamas demands for releasing the remaining captives.
Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction after a brutal conflict that has destabilized the broader Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.
Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 in Israel and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a fierce offensive that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.
More than 100 hostages were freed from Gaza in a weeklong truce in November 2023.
The U.S., along with Egypt and Qatar, have brokered months of indirect talks between the bitter enemies that finally culminated in this latest deal. It comes after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November, after more than a year of conflict linked to the war in the Gaza.
U.N. and international relief organizations estimate that some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times. They say tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and hospitals are barely functioning. Experts have warned that famine may be underway in northern Gaza.
Abed Radwan, a Palestinian father of three, called the ceasefire deal "the best day in my life and the life of the Gaza people ... Thank God. Thank God.”
Radwan, who has been displaced from the town of Beit Lahiya for over a year and shelters in Gaza City, said he hopes to return and to rebuild his home. As he spoke to AP by phone, his voice was overshadowed by the celebrations of fellow Gazans.
In Israel, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to be completed. Many held posters of hostages held by Hamas, others hoisted candles in the air.
As the deal was announced, some people were unaware that it had gone through. Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded is being held in Gaza, told the AP by phone she was stunned and grateful but won’t believe it until she sees all the hostages come home.
“I’m so desperate to see them if by some miracle my father has survived,” she said.
The Hostage Families Forum, which has long pressed Israeli leaders to make a deal that would bring the captives home, said it welcomed Wednesday's announcement with joy and relief.
“After 460 days of our family members being held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to reuniting with our loved ones,” the group said in a statement.
Biden, who has provided crucial military aid to Israel but expressed exasperation over civilian deaths in Gaza, announced the outline of the three-phase ceasefire agreement on May 31. The agreement eventually agreed to followed that framework.
He said the first phase would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older adults and wounded people, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Humanitarian assistance would surge, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza each day.
The second and most difficult phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war.
Hamas had been demanding assurances for a permanent end to the war and complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has repeatedly said it would not halt the war until it destroys Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.
With Biden’s days in office numbered and President-elect Donald Trump set to take over, both sides had been under heavy pressure to agree to a deal.
Trump celebrated the agreement in a posting on his Truth Social social media platform: “WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!”
Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said Biden deserves praise for continuing to push the talks. But Trump’s threats to Hamas and his efforts to “cajole” Netanyahu deserve credit as well.
“The ironic reality is that at a time of heightened partisanship even over foreign policy, the deal represents how much more powerful and influential U.S. foreign policy can be when it’s bipartisan,” Panikoff said.
Hezbollah’s acceptance of a ceasefire in Lebanon after it had suffered heavy blows, and the overthrow of President Bashar Assad in Syria, were both major setbacks for Iran and its allies across the region, including Hamas, which was left increasingly isolated.
Israel has come under heavy international criticism, including from its closest ally, the United States, over the civilian toll. Israel says it has killed around 17,000 militants — though it has not provided evidence to support the claim. It also blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, accusing the group of using schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.
The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court, a separate body also based in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and a Hamas commander for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war.
Israel and the United States have condemned the actions taken by both courts.
Netanyahu also faced great domestic pressure to bring home the hostages, whose plight has captured the nation’s attention. Their families have become a powerful lobbying group with wide public support backed by months of mass protests urging the government to reach a deal with Hamas.
Israeli authorities have already concluded that more than a third of the roughly 100 remaining people held captive are dead, and there are fears that others are no longer alive. A series of videos released by Hamas showing surviving hostages in distress, combined with news that a growing number of abducted Israelis have died, put added pressure on the Israeli leader.
Hamas, a militant group that does not accept Israel’s existence, has come under overwhelming pressure from Israeli military operations, including the invasion of Gaza’s largest cities and towns and the takeover of the border between Gaza and Egypt. Its top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was believed to have helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, have been killed.
But its fighters have regrouped in some of the hardest-hit areas after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, raising the prospect of a prolonged insurgency if the war continues.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But it has never been clear what that would entail or if it’s even possible, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society, its presence in Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, and its exiled leadership.
Both sides still face many difficult and unanswered questions.
As the war winds down, Netanyahu will face growing calls for postwar investigations that could find him at least partially responsible for the security failures of Oct. 7 — the worst in Israel’s history. His far-right governing partners, who opposed a ceasefire deal, could also bring down the coalition and push the country into early elections.
There is still no plan for who will govern Gaza after the war. Israel has said it will work with local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. But it is unclear if such partners exist, and Hamas has threatened anyone who cooperates with Israeli forces.
The United States has tried to advance sweeping postwar plans for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with Arab and international assistance. As part of those plans, the U.S. hope Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for U.S. security guarantees and aid in setting up a civilian nuclear program.
But those plans depend on credible progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu and much of Israel’s political class oppose. Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza as well as the occupied West Bank, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their future state.
In the absence of a postwar arrangement with Palestinian support, Hamas is likely to remain a significant force in Gaza and could reconstitute its military capabilities if Israeli forces fully withdraw.
___
Federman reported from Jerusalem. Magdy reported from Cairo. Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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My assessment on this Peace deal. This is happening right before Trump goes in office. I think Hamas knew, once Trump goes in, he would allow Netanyahu to do what he wanted, and possibly allow our troops to go on. I think they know Trump is crazy enough to do all that. And they agreed to Biden's deal now, vs having to deal with Trump later. But I do feel later he will try to broker a deal with the Abraham Accords to get more in.
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He's now officially president.
And Saturday, he started a meme coin, and increased his wealth by about 50 billion. And I am sure, folks will lose a lot of money.
Oh the King of the Grift!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF3FSMvM4qk
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It's making the rounds in the news. It is evangelical Christians who put this sad sack into office. Now? He didn't swear on the Bible at the inauguration. Tradition is to put a hand on, and swear on it. Now granted, a few in our history did not. But very rare. This sure seems to be an antichrist move here folks.
It's going to be a rough four years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJMSIHg48
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Bishop Mariann is making the rounds on social media. At the inauguration, she did a truly "Christian" plea to the antichrist to show mercy for immigrants, LGBTQ+ and transgender people. It is the buzz. And of course, the antichrist went on
Truth Social and slammed her for it, calling her a leftist, and saying the church and her owe him an apology. That is what happens, when someone holds a cross up to a demon possessed person. And of course on X, she has her haters. And on Bluesky, they are all saying that is what a real Christian looks like, as she spoke Truth to Power. The scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ESheItSWy4
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It's almost too much to keep up with. In short. he did away with all DEI declared it illegal. He did away with an equal rights protection signed by LJB 60 years ago. Now companies can refuse to hire folks based on what was protected. So we dont want a woman yuck yuck cant be sued. He pulled out of WHO and Paris Accords. He canceled cancer research and funding. He is going after brown folks with a vengeance. He has taken health info off the website. The spanish version of white house gone. It's all to be expected of an antichrist. And eggs are up 37%.
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So this is the FAFO phenomenon. How many federal workers, or federal program folks who need resources, voted for the Orange Toxic Poopypants? They got to learn the hard way I guess. This affects programs all over, nationwide.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-pause-federal-grants-aid-f9948b9996c0ca971f0065fac85737ce
Legal battle looms as Trump orders a funding freeze during a review of federal loans and grants
By CHRIS MEGERIAN
Updated 10:51 AM PST, January 28, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is pausing federal grants and loans starting Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s administration begins an across-the-board ideological review of its spending, causing confusion and panic among organizations that rely on Washington for their financial lifeline.
Administration officials said the decision was necessary to ensure that all funding complies with Trump’s executive orders, which are intended to undo progressive steps on transgender rights, environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts.
They also said that federal assistance to individuals would not be affected, including Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, student loans and scholarships.
However, the funding freeze could affect trillions of dollars, at least temporarily, and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted. State agencies and early education centers appeared to be struggling to access money from Medicaid and Head Start, stirring anxiety with answers hard to come by in Washington.
Court battles are imminent, and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to ask a Manhattan federal court to block the Republican president’s moves.
“My office will be taking imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding,” she said on social media.
The issue dominated the first briefing held by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She said the administration was trying to be “good stewards” of public money by making sure that there was “no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.”
The pause on grants and loans was scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. ET, just one day after agencies were informed of the decision.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Democrats and independent organizations described the pause as capricious and illegal because Congress had already authorized the money.
“The scope of this illegal action is unprecedented and could have devastating consequences across the country,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “For real people, we could see a screeching halt to resources for child care, cancer research, housing, police officers, opioid addiction treatment, rebuilding roads and bridges, and even disaster relief efforts.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called it “more lawlessness and chaos in America.”
It’s unclear from the White house memo how sweeping the pause will be. Vaeth said all spending must comply with Trump’s executive orders,
Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.” He also wrote that the pause should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”
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WHY is the Deluded Melon imposing tariffs on our most important ally, Canada? A picture speaks a thousand words. I got nothing else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiaACQpFUfE&t=319s
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/1b/a8/3b/1ba83b8654dd847653f2be048f1d228b.jpg)
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Canada's British Columbia calls to stop buying liquor from US 'red' states and remove it from some shelves..
And there's a possibility of 100% terrif on Tesla's. I love that for Elon 😇
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Canada's British Columbia calls to stop buying liquor from US 'red' states and remove it from some shelves..
And there's a possibility of 100% terrif on Tesla's. I love that for Elon 😇
Elon deserves it! But yes, that pic right there. I do think that is why the Tiny-Handed Wombat included Canada in his tirade.
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Jasmine Crockett laid it out. No one knows what Elon wants with the Treasury dept but he has control. It's insanity. Folks all over online are upset, writing congress people, and asking for a class action lawsuit against Musk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3YRAHDiQyY
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A little more on this. I would not be surprised if he took all the money and turned it into crypto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQAnhzmwNqs
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Dark Brandon sums up in a few minutes what Elon can do with the Treasury data.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8OnbxZ7fMg
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More on this. Cause the news aint saying enough on this.
I told you all Elon would be a huge player in The End Times. At least tiktok is still alive for a minute so they can sound the alarm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwGhrosGmg
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Hi America! A c**t is stealing our money! Today, the Mad Mango created a "Sovereign Wealth Fund." I'm pretty sure that is him saying "The Grift is ON!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uOVyJIXwwk
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It's pretty crazy. I am not on X. So I can't see much. But I did see a post FElon Muskrat did today. It was a retweet someone did of a pick of him and the Deluded Melon. And said how FElon is "taking a sledgehammer to the deep state."
No, he is taking a sledgehammer to all things that help the poor and vulnerable, to enrich himself and rich buddies.
The "deep state" is literally them, creating a creepy shadow govt.
They will learn, one day, the hard way.
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I know Gurdijeff said going to the moon when you die is the weeping of gnashing of teeth. But I personally think it is Mars. I'm convinced, cause before he ever said it, or I read it, I said about Mars.
There is a parable of a master locking those out who could not be reached anymore. But refers to the parable of weeds from Matthew 13:36Then Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37He replied, “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. 42And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.f
He who has ears, let him hear.
So when I look at today and all is going on. If I look from a different perspective (hangman - my first house), these two loons Elon and Trump, are certainly being used, of course, it's a given.
Our country is the most racist, homophobic, misogynistic country, in the world. Worse than any other. And these idiots are SO incredibly all that, so selfish, they are willing to elect the worst of the worst, to hurt people that are not white, just to "own the libs" cause they think this will enrich them.
They will be very, very sorry.
So yes I do see these clowns being used as the vehicle for a huge lesson. The Strong Delusion, that no one can break, unless they ask God for the Truth. It's the only way to break the spell. And many of them wont do it.
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OMG we are in for times. Where do I begin with this?
Trump is speaking of the US taking over Gaza strip. And he wants to move ALL the Palestinians out.
Now, shockingly I am going to agree with him on a point. Gaza is currently uninhabitable. He is right. Humanely, it is not ethical for anyone to live in a totally demolished strip.
What he doesn't understand are two very important things.
1. Like the Jewish people, the Palestinians consider this place THEIR HOLY LAND. I know many Americans always equate Israel and Jewish people as rightfull owners. But you have to see it how the people see it. They see it as their holy land.
2. No one, and I mean no one, wants to take in a bunch of Palestinian refugees. So getting them all out, who takes them?
So this is a mess of epic proportions. And if USA really takes over Gaza?
The scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4M585EF08&list=RDNSLRPMKvJX-iA&index=2
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/donald-trump-gaza-take-over-netanyahu-israel-war-hamas-rcna190744
Trump fuels fury and fear in the Middle East after vowing to 'take over' the Gaza Strip
For Palestinians, President Donald Trump's comments were a chilling reminder of the “Nakba” of 1948, when some 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel.
Feb. 5, 2025, 3:57 AM PST
By Chantal Da Silva
Outraged Palestinians condemned President Donald Trump's claim the United States would seek ownership of the Gaza Strip and they would have no choice but to leave their homes in the war-torn enclave.
In Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, Narmin Nour El Din, 29, told an NBC News crew that all Palestinians would reject Trump's suggestions.
“All the Palestinians refuse the idea and we will be insistent on our land,” she said, standing outside a tent encampment.
“We ask Trump to leave the people to live in their land and to make the land more beautiful. To help the people here,” she said. “Not to take Gaza from them.”
Others like Hussein Abdel Jawad, 25, said they feared Trump’s plan would succeed and he felt clear that Trump had “business” ambitions for the enclave.
At a news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the United States would take a “long-term ownership position” and would bring “great stability to the Middle East.”
“We’ll own it,” he said. Asked who would live in the territory he envisioned as the “riviera of the Middle East” Trump, a longtime real estate developer, answered: “The world’s people.”
Palestinians would also live there among “many” others, he said in comments that stood in stark contrast to those he made earlier in the day when he repeatedly called Gaza a “demolition site” from which Palestinians should be relocated.
The plan has been criticized for ignoring the Palestinian cause at its most basic — the creation of an internationally recognized state. The United States, the Palestinians and the international community have long considered the Gaza Strip to be an integral part of this future state, although negotiations have languished for decades.
For some, Trump’s proposal will also be a reminder of the “Nakba” — the Arabic word for “catastrophe” used to describe the 1948 displacement of some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the founding of Israel.
And Palestinian politicians of all persuasions were united in their condemnation of the comments.
Izzat Al-Rishq, a senior member of Hamas, which ruled Gaza after 2007 and has survived 15 months of war with Israel, said that the proposal reflected Trump’s “confusion and deep ignorance.”
President Mahmoud Abbas, a longtime opponent of Hamas whose Palestinian Authority governs the occupied West Bank, also rejected the comments. And Mustafa Barghouti, leader of his rival Palestinian National Initiative party, said in a statement that the “conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank.”
Around 60% of Gaza’s infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, has been destroyed during Israel's military offensive on the enclave, according to estimates published by the United Nations.
Netanyahu ordered his forces into Gaza after Hamas' terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest attack in Israeli history, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
More than 47,500 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to health officials in the Gaza Strip, though researchers have estimated that the death toll is likely much higher.
In Israel, meanwhile, Trump’s comments were met with mixed reactions. Right-wing lawmakers were quick to embrace the proposals, while other prominent Israelis condemned it.
Calling Gaza a “failed experiment,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar suggested Israelis should consider the “new ideas put forward by the U.S. president.” The country's ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also said Trump's plan was the best response to the Hamas attack on Israel.
His fellow far-right lawmaker, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned from his post as Israeli national security minister last month in protest against the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, called on Netanyahu to adopt Trump’s plan “and to begin promoting it immediately.”
Elsewhere, Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist and veteran hostage negotiator, condemned Trump’s proposal. The U.S. “has no right to relocate Palestinians” or to “make decisions for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza as it withdrew from the territory in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.
But Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer, said Trump’s plan was “not surprising, because it’s not new.” Buttu, a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, noted that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, along with several other right-wing Israeli lawmakers, recently attended conferences calling for the resettlement of Gaza.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt did not officially criticize Trump's proposal. Instead both said the focus should be on rebuilding the enclave and addressing the humanitarian crisis there.
Saudi Arabia also said it would not normalize relations with Israel, a goal of American and Israeli government, until a two-state solution has been reached.
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Folks...just.
If this were the 60's, and FElon Muskrat had broke into the US Treasury then and took all American's private info. One, a full on concert of Rock Stars would gather. be protests all over the streets. We did have some in all 50 states. But like I looked out here in WA 1500 protested. That's not enough. Now I don't live near the big Seattle stuff. But anyway. I was thinking on it last night. We are literally peering into phones, tablets, computers, watching the dismantling of these institutions and watching them totally hijack this govt. But I don't get it. Is America just gonna sit back watching tv and phones and shit, and watch these idiots totally take over and ruin it all? It's stunning all are sitting on hands doing nothing. Shit, Congress isn't doing shit.
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For those who think the Deluded Melon is blustering, this is happening.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israels-defense-minister-orders-army-to-prepare-for-gaza-residents-departure-media-reports/ar-AA1yvzDb?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Israel's defense minister orders army to prepare for Gaza residents' departure, media reports
Story by Reuters • 9h • 2 min read
DUBAI (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow the "voluntary departure" of residents from the Gaza strip, Israeli media reported.
The instruction followed U.S. President Donald Trump's shock announcement that the United States plans to take over Gaza, resettle the Palestinians living there and transform the territory into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
"I welcome President Trump's bold plan, Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is the norm around the world," Israel's Channel 12 quoted Katz as saying.
When asked who will take in the Palestinians, Katz said it should be countries who have opposed Israel's military operations in Gaza.
"Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories," he said.
Katz's plan will include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air, Channel 12 reported.
Trump drew rebukes on Wednesday over his plan for Gaza from world powers Russia, China and Germany, which said it would foster "new suffering and new hatred."
Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright and Jordan's King Abdullah, who will meet Trump at the White House next week, said on Wednesday he rejected any attempts to annex land and displace Palestinians.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Trump's proposal was "remarkable" and urged that it be explored, even as he was not specific about what he believed Trump was offering.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Michael Georgy and Michael Perry)
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There's no way. He is not considering the Palestinians would fight to the death for the land, like they always have.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-defense-minister-orders-army-prepare-gaza-residents-departure-media-2025-02-06/
Trump says Israel would hand over Gaza after fighting, no US troops needed
By James Mackenzie and Doina Chiacu
February 6, 20257:02 AM PSTUpdated an hour ago
Trump says no U.S. forces will be needed in Gaza
Israeli defence minister tells army to create plan for 'voluntary departure' of Gaza residents
Katz suggests countries opposing Israel take in Palestinians
Palestinians fear another Nakba
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave's population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no U.S. troops would be needed on the ground.
A day after worldwide condemnation of Trump's announcement that he aimed to take over and develop the Gaza Strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East", Israel ordered its army to prepare to allow the "voluntary departure" of Gaza's residents.
Trump, who had previously declined to rule out deploying U.S. troops to Gaza, clarified his plans in comments on his Truth Social web platform.
"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," he said. Palestinians "would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region."
"No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!" he said.
Earlier, amid a tide of support in Israel for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump's "remarkable" proposal, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow residents who wished to leave to exit Gaza voluntarily.
"I welcome President Trump's bold plan, Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is the norm around the world," Katz said on X.
Katz said his plan would include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air.
Trump's unexpected announcement on Wednesday, which sparked anger around the Middle East, came as Israel and Hamas were expected to begin talks in Doha on the second stage of a ceasefire deal for Gaza, intended to open the way for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the war.
Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright and Jordan's King Abdullah, who will meet Trump at the White House next week, said on Wednesday he rejected any attempts to annex land and displace Palestinians.
"We will not sell our land for you, real estate developer. We are hungry, homeless, and desperate but we are not collaborators," said Abdel Ghani, a father of four living with his family in the ruins of their Gaza City home. "If (Trump) wants to help, let him come and rebuild for us here."
DISPLACEMENT
What effect Trump's shock proposal may have on the ceasefire talks is still unclear. Only 13 of a group of 33 Israeli hostages due for release in the first phase have so far been returned, with three more due to come out on Saturday. Five Thai hostages have also been released.
Hamas official Basem Naim accused Defence Minister Katz of trying to cover up "for a state that has failed to achieve any of its objectives in the war on Gaza", and said Palestinians are too attached to their land to ever leave.
Displacement of Palestinians has been one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East for decades. Forced or coerced displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime, banned under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
A number of hardline Israeli politicians have openly called for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and there was strong support for Trump's push among both security hawks and the Jewish settler movement.
Giora Eiland, a former general who attracted wide attention in an earlier stage of the war with his "Generals' Plan" for a forced displacement of people from northern Gaza, said Trump's plan was "logical" and aid should not be allowed to reach displaced people returning to northern Gaza.
Israel's military campaign killed tens of thousands of people after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war. It has forced Palestinians to repeatedly move around within Gaza, seeking safety.
But many say they will never leave the enclave because they fear permanent displacement, like the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed from homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.
Katz said countries that have opposed Israel's military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.
"Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories," he said.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Additional reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai Writing by Michael Georgy Editing by Sharon Singleton, Peter Graff and Ros Russell
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Of course it is rejected. So what is the next move by US and Israel?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-gaza-takeover-proposal-rejected-by-palestinians/ar-AA1yw4wz?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump Gaza takeover proposal rejected by Palestinians
2h • 4 min read
Palestinians in Gaza and abroad are rejecting a proposal by President Donald Trump that the United States "take over" the Gaza Strip and lead the redevelopment of the war-ravaged territory.
Palestinians interviewed by ABC News said they yearn to rebuild Gaza for themselves, the only place they say they have or will ever call home.
"This is not going to be accepted by any Palestinian, we will reject this totally," said Abu Anton Al-Zabadi. "And if Trump is interested in the wellbeing of the Israeli people, America is a great country, it's powerful and has lots of land -- and if he wants to take in the Israelis to the U.S., he can do so. But this is our land, this is our homeland and this will never be accepted by any Palestinian. We are staying here."
MORE: Unpacking Trump's brazen proposal for a US takeover of Gaza: ANALYSIS
Tens of thousands of homes and cultural centers have been destroyed -- including schools, churches, mosques and stadiums -- and entire neighborhoods have been turned to rubble amid the monthslong Israeli retaliation following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed with thousands more wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In a news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he hoped to "level the site" and rebuild it, after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave and go to other areas or countries.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too," Trump said. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out."
Some human rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in carrying out its war with Hamas. Some of the Palestinians ABC News spoke to fear Trump's comments about relocating Gazans are an extension of an effort to permanently displace them.
Many have lived or have been connected to Gaza for generations, recalling memories of swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, lounging on the beach with their families and visiting some of the world's oldest historical sites found in Gaza before the war and bloodshed. It's where they grew up, went to school and raised their families.
Some Palestinians had refused to leave Gaza despite the Israel-Hamas war and said they don't plan on following Trump's whims about casting them aside now, either.
"This is a very difficult decision for the people of Gaza, since they have lived through nearly 15 months of terror, killing, displacement and migration," said Fouad Hatem Al Kurdi, a Jabalia Camp Resident. "Despite that, they stayed in their land and did not leave. After 15 months of suffering, no one will leave here ... I live here, I know my work, I know how to build it, I know everything here."
"It is impossible for anyone to leave their country and sell their country, despite the steadfastness and pain we have experienced," said Muhammad Zarouk, a resident of Al-Shati Camp. "I will not leave, it is impossible. I will sacrifice my blood in order to stay here in my land."
"Either I die in Gaza or I live in Gaza," Amer Al-Sawafiri, another Palestinian in Gaza told ABC News. "Those who were displaced suffered a lot ... I cannot leave my country and my family. Where will I go?"
"As for me, my children and my family, we will stand firm," said Ilham Al-Durra, a Palestinian in Gaza. "I will not leave. This is my land, my country, I will not leave."
Palestinian refugee Hani Almadhoun told ABC News he lost two brothers in the war, one who was a co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen that provided food for Gazans amid the threat of famine during the Israel-Hamas war.
Almadhoun said his focus now is still on ensuring that people have food, medical care, and other necessities amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Rebuilding Gaza is not yet the focus for those on the ground, he said.
"We just recently relocated the grave of my brother from another place, because the cemetery was all destroyed. So even in death, we're not finding peace," said Almadhoun. "My family is trying to do as much as we can, and it's sad because this needs a lot larger humanitarian response, and that's not been fully authorized. We're not even talking about rebuilding yet."
He said he hopes one day Gazans achieve "economic development and stability."
Yousef Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee residing in Turkey, left Gaza eight years ago and plans to return once he's able. He said he's not shocked by Trump's rhetoric, pointing to other comments the U.S. president has made about taking over the Panama Canal and Greenland.
"Will his plan materialize on the ground?" Aljamal said. "I think the only people who can stop this plan is the people of Gaza. They are determined to stop his plan. They do not want to go anywhere."
Tala Herzallah, a 22-year-old student in Gaza, told ABC News that Trump's comments felt like a slap in the face after everything Palestinians have endured for over a year.
"'Just leave your homeland, leave your country for us to rebuild it in a way that we see is good for us, not for you'" she characterized Trump's remarks. "I can't understand how this can be considered justice," said Herzallah.
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I suspected AI is involved, and soon he will have profiles on all Americans to usher in the Mark of the Beast.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/elon-musk-s-doge-is-feeding-sensitive-federal-data-into-ai-to-target-cuts/ar-AA1yxMHV?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Elon Musk’s DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts
Story by Hannah Natanson, Gerrit De Vynck, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel • 1h • 5 min read
Representatives from Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency’s programs and spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team’s actions.
The AI probe includes data with personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data, the two people said. They described DOGE activities at the Education Department on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.
The DOGE team is using AI software accessed through Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure to pore through every dollar of money the department disburses, from contracts to grants to work trip expenses, one of the people said. Lower level department staffers were directed by agency leadership to let Musk’s teams access the sensitive financial data, the person said.
The use of AI inside the Department of Education, which has not previously been reported, shows how Musk’s group, which includes former employees from his tech empire, is tapping the favorite tool of Silicon Valley as part of its mission to drastically slash the size and functions of the federal government.
At the Department of Education, the DOGE’s team aims to radically reduce spending and ultimately shrink the department and its staff, the people said — helping further the Trump administration’s push to get rid of it entirely.
The DOGE team plans to replicate this process across many departments and agencies, accessing the back-end software at different parts of the government and then using AI technology to extract and sift through information about spending on employees and programs, including DEI initiatives, according to another person familiar with the DOGE process, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe it.
Like other tech leaders, Musk has frequently championed AI as a tool capable of rapidly making sense of data and situations that can confuse humans. However, because of the technology’s risks, many private-sector companies and U.S. government departments have banned workers from using it on secure materials.
Feeding sensitive data into AI software puts it into the possession of a system’s operator, increasing the chances it will be leaked or swept up in cyberattacks. AI can also make errors, for example hallucinating incorrect information when summarizing data.
Microsoft Azure can be used to access AI tools made by many different companies, and it is unclear which the DOGE workers used. Representatives from DOGE and Microsoft declined to comment. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department, wrote in a statement Thursday that the DOGE representatives are federal employees who possess the requisite security clearances and background checks.
Staffers “are focused on making the Department more cost-efficient, effective, and accountable to the taxpayers,” Biedermann said. “There is nothing inappropriate or nefarious going on.”
DOGE’s use of AI inside the Education Department is a significant departure from the Biden administration’s policy on the technology, which encouraged federal agencies to use the technology only after developing tests and guidelines to ensure that its use didn’t compromise privacy and cybersecurity.
Musk’s group has rapidly taken over government offices tasked with controlling payments, human resources and IT for the federal government. The Technology Transformation Services section of the General Services Administration, a group established during the Obama administration to make government platforms more accessible and intuitive, has become a key tool of the DOGE campaign.
In a Monday meeting, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla employee who was named head of the TTS last month, told workers there that the group would be a “centralized place” to collect government contracts so they could be analyzed with AI, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post.
Alondra Nelson, who worked on AI policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Biden administration, said in an interview that most Americans are skeptical of AI and don’t want it being used in government, especially if it’s unclear how it’s being deployed.
“Do we want these tools unleashed in government and society without guardrails?” she said. “There’s a lot of concern and mistrust about the use of AI in American society.”
The DOGE team’s AI-fueled campaign to winnow down the Education Department has already identified dozens of contracts as targets for cuts, two of the people familiar with the group’s work said. They have indicated their intention is to eliminate every contract that is not essential to operations or required by law, according to one of the people.
“That’s the way you kill an agency, is you remove all [of] their ability to perform their role,” the person said.
And the DOGE team has already used its access to the Education Department’s data to enact significant changes. By the end of January, DOGE members had gained entrée to data on federal student aid, including the personal information for millions who receive student loans from the government — and to information on department personnel and trainings, according to three people with knowledge of the team’s access.
Working swiftly last week, one of the people said, the Musk team used information on past trainings to place roughly 100 people on paid administrative leave in compliance with Trump’s executive order forbidding federal diversity, equity or inclusion efforts. The vast majority of people placed on leave had signed up for a single diversity training, The Post previously reported, some of them because it helped fulfill a job requirement.
The vast majority of the people are still on leave as of Thursday, according to Sheria Smith, president of the union which represents Education Department employees — and most of them are female or non-White, she said.
A staffer inside the Education Department said the DOGE team is working with almost unbelievable speed, not just at his agency but across the government. On Wednesday alone, DOGE representatives gained access to sensitive health payments at the Department of Health and Human Services and began seeking data from the Labor Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Post reported.
“They have a playbook, which is to get access to the data,” the staffer said. “And once they’re in, it’s already over.”
Aaron Schaffer, Razzan Nakhlawi and Laura Meckler contributed to this report
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These people are SO flowerING STUPID. AOC, breaks down the entire game succinctly. Why is Felon Muskrat downloading everything? They are looking for ways to give to the rich. I knew of the big tax breaks the Deluded Melon gave the rich in 2017. I knew they expire this year. We all did. Democrats TRIED to tell the ignorant and gullible. But to give massive cuts, the tax money has to come from somewhere. So you gotta cut cut cut spending on essential programs. Up taxes on poor and what is left of the middle class. Cut programs they need. Medicaid, school lunches, even the Dept of Ed. Down the list they go, all to feed the rich.
Will the Maggots wake up? Or will they sit there, paying 50 cents more per egg at Waffle House, cheering cause The Tiny Handed Wombat ended trans folks in sports, and is deporting innocent folks cause they are brown? But the insulin goes up, they don't get health care, and they pay God knows how much more. A bunch of homeless, disabled maggots crying in the streets, but saying he is the best president ever.
Anyway she speaks the truth. One of the few who is not owned in DC. The scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVgNJf6CsBA&t=2957s
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Great! We got a Biblical prophecy of rivers turning to BLOOD.
https://apnews.com/article/argentina-buenos-aires-river-red-industrial-leak-41a713c0ecdadadf204c330465a3f7e9
‘It looks like a stream of blood.’ A river near Buenos Aires turns red, sparking fears of toxic leak
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — A stream winding through a populous area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires has turned crimson red in recent hours, sparking fears of industrial chemical dumping, images shared by residents on social media showed Friday.
(https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/8fa42da/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3761x2265+0+0/resize/1360x819!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fb3%2Fdf%2Ffb39be47f3d192ac5ae6398fdff7%2F172bd46734ce4fd29f046f71a3855060)
The Sarandí stream, near Villa Inflamable, in the municipality of Avellaneda, is home to tanneries and other industries that transform animal skins into leather using chemicals. Images of the blood-red waterway captured by residents quickly spread on social media, evoking apocalyptic imagery.
María Ducomls, a local resident, described waking early one recent morning to powerful odors.
“At 5:30 a.m., we already had a special and hazardous waste incinerator spewing pollutants into the air,” she told The Associated Press. Shortly after, she noticed the stream, “It looks like a stream of blood; we have never seen it like this,” she said.
Officials from the municipality of Avellaneda, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the Argentine capital, suspect the presence of aniline, a toxic substance used in dyes and medicines.
Following the collection of water samples, they filed a complaint with the Buenos Aires province ministry of infrastructure and public services, which will lead an investigation.
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I figured this was coming cause he has to mark of beast it on up. And the investment into AI is 500 billion per Trump agreement.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/elon-musk-led-group-makes-974-billion-bid-control-openai-wsj-reports-2025-02-10/
Musk-led group makes $97.4 billion bid for control of OpenAI
By Arsheeya Bajwa
February 10, 20251:55 PM PSTUpdated 3 min ago
(https://www.reuters.com/resizer/v2/LQXOJKT2HRO7JJZHWK65GSDSM4.jpg?auth=97aba8509f9d4ffaa8cf5f12ca1718764b19200d3c66f5f300b20cd8bf4a6220&width=640&quality=80)
Feb 10 (Reuters) - A consortium led by Elon Musk said on Monday it has offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, months after the billionaire sued the artificial intelligence startup to block it from transitioning to a for-profit firm.
Musk's bid could ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology.
Altman promptly posted on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
The two are already embroiled in an ongoing lawsuit. Musk criticized a $500 billion OpenAI-led project called Stargate announced with great fanfare at the White House just after President Donald Trump returned to office, suggesting the investors involved lacked the funding for the project.
"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in the press release. "We will make sure that happens."
OpenAI, Musk, Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff and OpenAI backer Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
The bid is being backed by Musk's AI company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI following a deal, according to the Wall Street Journal which first reported Musk's offer earlier on Monday.
Even without any antitrust implications, a deal this size would need Musk and his consortium to raise enormous funds.
OpenAI was valued at $157 billion in its latest funding round in October, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world. SoftBank Group (9984.T), opens new tab is in talks to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of $300 billion, including the new funds, Reuters reported in January.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023.
OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best artificial intelligence models.
Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money.
Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru Writing by Sayantani Ghosh Editing by Anil D'Silva, David Gaffen and Matthew Lewis
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The Great Negotiator! He says if Hamas doesn't return all the hostages "all hell gonna break loose." That's really the last thing these people needed! The scoop:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/gaza-ceasefire-appears-in-jeopardy-as-trump-issues-hamas-an-ultimatum/ar-AA1yOqFE?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Gaza ceasefire appears in jeopardy as Trump issues Hamas an ultimatum
Story by Chris Livesay • 1h • 3 min read
Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza blocked traffic in Tel Aviv on Monday evening, panicked by Hamas saying it would delay the next scheduled release of hostages under the fragile ceasefire agreement that took effect on January 19.
Fear over the durability of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement was spreading fast on Tuesday, after President Trump suggested the terms of the deal should be changed in the wake of Hamas' threat, and as Israel's Defense chief said he was readying troops in Gaza for a possible return to combat.
The delicate halt in fighting, negotiated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, has seen five exchanges between Israel and Hamas thus far, with about half of the 33 Israeli hostages expected to be freed during the first six-week phase of the agreement now back home. More than 700 Palestinian prisoners have been released from Israeli jails in exchange.
Under the terms of the agreement, a total of 33 hostages were to be released during the first six-week phase, in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. But the families of the remaining 76 hostages — some of whom are already known to be dead — were left distraught by the developments on Monday, and by some devastating news confirmed later.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday that the oldest of the remaining captives, 86-year-old Shlomo Mantzur, had been murdered in captivity. He was a survivor of the 1941 pogrom in Iraq, in which hundreds were killed in an antisemitic riot.
It was with the last hostage release by Hamas, of three Israeli men on February 8, that the tone changed.
Israelis were left in anguish after seeing the emaciated state the men were in, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that, "due to the serious condition of the three hostages and the repeated violations by the Hamas terrorist organization," the leader had "instructed to not allow the situation to go unaddressed, and to take appropriate measures."
There was no indication from Netanyahu's office over the weekend what those measures might be, but on Sunday, the IDF said in a statement that troops had "operated to distance suspects who posed a threat to them in different areas of the Gaza Strip," including warning shots fired at a "suspicious vessel" seen offshore and a suspect seen approaching troops in the south of the enclave.
The men released on Saturday, meanwhile, brought with them both welcome news, and some more distressing information. The family of hostage Alon Ohel learned that he is still alive, but that he's starving, with untreated wounds and bound in chains, according to his mother.
"Thank you for the effort you and your staff are making to bring back the hostages," Idit Ohel said, addressing Mr. Trump on Monday. "Today is Alon's 24th birthday. I'm asking you with all my heart, do everything in your power to ensure that this deal is continued."
The ceasefire agreement has also seen Israel allow hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians return to what's left of their homes in the decimated north of Gaza. But many now fear the respite could be short-lived.
"People have begun to stock up on supplies for fear that war will return," said Mohammad Yusuf, who lives in the badly scarred southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. "People are afraid of any statement, from both sides."
That fear is taking hold not just in Gaza, but in the other, much larger Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Residents there are already reeling from an Israeli operation to uproot Hamas that the military and police launched just several days after the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect. Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the territory has also been on the rise.
Residents told CBS News this week that they fear President Trump's controversial plan to resettle all of Gaza's residents in other countries and "take over" the coastal strip of land is only the beginning.
Even before Mr. Trump began his second term, his election win had already fueled discussion in Israel of the prospect of the complete annexation of the West Bank as Israeli territory.
"We will not leave our country," insisted West Bank resident Maha Fathi Taleb. "We will not. Even if they shoot us. Let Trump do whatever he wants."
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Netanyahu is doubling down on The Mad Mango's deadline of Saturday.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/middleeast/israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal-intl/index.html
Ceasefire ‘will end’ if Hamas does not return hostages by Saturday, Netanyahu says
By Lauren Kent, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 12:53 PM EST, Tue February 11, 2025
It’s only three weeks into a fragile ceasefire, and Israel and Hamas are each ratcheting up allegations that the other party has violated the deal.
So far, 16 out of 33 hostages scheduled for release in the current phase of the agreement have been freed by Hamas, and 656 Palestinian prisoners from a list of nearly 2,000 have been released by Israel. But the weekly exchanges may now be disrupted after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement and said it would postpone Saturday’s hostage release “until further notice.”
Israel has hit back, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying late Tuesday that the Gaza ceasefire will end if Hamas does not release hostages as planned on Saturday.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon - the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
US President Donald Trump, whose envoy helped mediate the agreement along with officials from Egypt and Qatar, has suggested dismissing the multi-staged approach of the deal altogether and giving Hamas an ultimatum to release all the hostages at once.
Here’s what each side is saying, and where the deal could go from here:
Hamas says Israel violated the deal
On Monday, Hamas threatened to postpone the next hostage release, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire deal by targeting Palestinians with gunfire in various parts of Gaza, delaying the return of displaced people to the heavily bombarded north, and not allowing the agreed humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
The militant group also accused Israel of delaying the entry of essential medicines and hospital supplies, as well as not allowing tents, prefabricated houses, fuel, or rubble-removing machines into Gaza.
On Tuesday, the Gaza health ministry said that 92 people in the enclave had been killed in Israeli military operations since the ceasefire came into effect.
CNN has asked Israeli authorities for comment on the allegations regarding casualties and disrupted aid.
A diplomat with knowledge of the ceasefire talks told CNN that the United Nations, Qatar and other countries had requested to deliver temporary shelters to Gaza but Israel turned them down. CNN has reached out to Israeli officials regarding the claim.
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are erected in the yard of a secondary school in the north of Gaza City on February 10, 2025, amid the current ceasefire deal. Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, said in a social media post on Monday: “We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them.”
In a later statement, Hamas added that there was still an opportunity for the release to go forward as planned, saying that Israel has sufficient time “to fulfill its obligations.”
Israel says delay is ‘complete violation’ of deal
Hamas’ postponement is a “complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with his political and security cabinet on Tuesday, where they expected next steps.
Katz said he instructed the military to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.” The Israeli military also said it was raising the level of readiness in southern Israel and that it would reinforce the area to enhance its “readiness for various scenarios.”
Those announcements also come after Israeli forces opened fire on Sunday in the eastern areas of Gaza City, close to the Gaza border, killing three Palestinians, Palestinian authorities said. The incident happened close to the border fence near Nahal Oz, an Israeli kibbutz, or agricultural commune. Following that incident, Katz said: “Anyone who enters the buffer zone, their blood is on their own head – zero tolerance for anyone who threatens IDF (Israel Defense Forces) forces or the fence area and communities.”
Doubts about the future of the deal also follow Israel’s condemnation of the gaunt, frail appearance of the hostages released last week as “shocking.” Many of the remaining Israeli hostages are believed to be in even worse condition, Israeli government officials told CNN on Tuesday.
What did Trump say?
President Trump has urged Israel to “let all hell break out” and cancel the ceasefire and hostages deal if Hamas does not return those still being held in Gaza by Saturday.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday,
Trump added that all hostages ought to be returned, not two or three “in drips and drabs,” which is the phased manner of releases outlined in the deal.
Pressed on what “all hell” might entail in Gaza, Trump said, “You’ll find out, and they’ll find out – Hamas will find out what I mean.”
Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are part of the team that helped broker the ceasefire, which was finalized with cooperation between the Biden and Trump camps just before the new administration took office.
The US president went on to say that Palestinians would not have a right to return to Gaza under his plan to take US ownership of the enclave and rebuild it.
Trump also told reporters on Monday: “I think a lot of the hostages are dead.” At least 34 of the hostages are dead, according to Israel, though the true number is expected to be higher.
How likely is the ceasefire to hold?
In short, no one knows.
It took about a year of negotiations to reach the current deal. The first ceasefire, in November 2023, lasted about a week.
The current agreement is set up to progress in three distinct phases, the first of which is already halfway through.
As well as the release of 16 hostages so far, phase one has seen the entry of more humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza. The Israeli military has retained its presence along Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel.
Israel has to date released around a third of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners agreed for the exchange, some of them held without charge, and others facing life sentences.
Following Israel’s withdrawal from a key militarized zone dividing Gaza, Palestinians began returning to what’s left of their homes in the heavily bombarded north. The “overwhelming destruction of homes and communities in the north” has left people without viable shelter, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has said “the need for food, water, tents and shelter materials in that area remains critical.”
Meanwhile, negotiations for the second and third phases have barely started.
An Israeli delegation was sent to Doha, Qatar, on Sunday, but an Israeli official told CNN that the team would not be discussing the second phase of the deal, adding that Netanyahu was planning separately to hold “a security-political cabinet meeting” this week regarding the second phase.
Netanyahu waited until last weekend – one week after a deadline for further ceasefire talks – to send his delegation to Qatar. Israeli media has speculated that he is simply running out the clock until phase one of the deal expires on March 1.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key member of Netanyahu’s coalition, has threatened to quit the government if Israel doesn’t return to war after the first phase of the truce.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to solve “current issues” and ensure adherence to the agreement, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told CNN.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder, Lauren Izso, Mostafa Salem, Becky Anderson, Mick Krever, Kevin Liptak, Donald Judd, Dana Karni and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to reporting.
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And course here goes the Orange Idiot to try to coax the Jordan King into taking millions of refugees.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/g-s1-48181/trump-jordan-king-abdullah-white-house-gaza
Jordan's King Abdullah heads to the White House as Trump pushes a Gaza takeover plan
February 11, 202511:07 AM ET
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan's King Abdullah II is heading into what is expected to be one of the toughest meetings of his quarter-century reign at the White House Tuesday.
President Trump set the stage for a fraught face-to-face with a plan he announced last week to relocate some 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Egypt. Both countries have said they strongly oppose the plan, which Israel's leadership has embraced.
Trump went further on Monday. He said he would "conceivably withhold aid" from Jordan and Egypt if they did not agree to take Gaza's 2 million Palestinians.
Trump's plan, articulated without consultation with Jordan or Egypt, would involve the U.S. taking over Gaza, a small Palestinian territory with a Mediterranean coastline. The "Riviera" of the Middle East he said he envisions would be rebuilt from the destruction of more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas. United Nations officials say 70% of the Palestinian territory's structures are damaged or destroyed.
Seizing Gaza and expelling its population would be illegal under international law, United Nations officials and legal experts have warned.
It would also breach a key part of the peace deal Jordan signed with Israel three decades ago.
"Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel precisely because it did not want a solution at Jordan's expense," said former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher.
Middle East
Jordan begins military flights to deliver aid in Gaza, but many say it's not enough
"This is an existential issue to Jordan that does not lend itself to any economic pressure from the United States," said Muasher, now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Many of Jordan's citizens are descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the creation of Israel in the late 1940s and in subsequent wars, and were never allowed back. Jordan and other Arab countries have historically resisted accommodating more Palestinian refugees out of fear that it would weaken the case for a Palestinian state and the refugees' right to return.
Muasher said the brake to Trump's plans could be Saudi resistance. Trump has made clear he wants to broker a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Gulf state, and Israel. Saudi Arabia last week said expelling Palestinians would stand in the way of any normalization talks.
"Those are very strong words," says Muasher. The White House "probably will take the Saudi position very seriously."
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Thanks to the Apricot Antichrist, and media bending the knee, and not having enough resources to read from. Getting Bird Flu news is hard.
I just saw in my local paper, someone out here reportedly got bird flu
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/nevada-resident-infected-with-new-strain-of-bird-flu-we-re-gonna-have-another-influenza-pandemic/ar-AA1yPTmr?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Nevada Resident Infected with New Strain of Bird Flu: 'We’re Gonna Have Another Influenza Pandemic'
Story by Vanessa Etienne • 3h • 2 min read
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1nfQyj.img?w=768&h=511&m=6)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that a Nevada resident has been infected with a new strain of the bird flu.
On Feb. 10, the Central Nevada Health District (CNHD) reported a case of the bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI) in a worker who had exposure to infected dairy cattle at a farm in Churchill County.
Health officials said the dairy worker’s illness was mild, they were not hospitalized and have since recovered.
The patient reportedly had the D1.1 strain of bird flu, differing from the B3.13, which is the strain of the virus that has resulted in the majority of human infections in the United States. This new strain was first confirmed in Nevada cattle on Jan. 31 after the virus was detected in milk collected for monitoring purposes in December.
The latest development raises concerns about whether dairy cows may be more susceptible to the bird flu, which would increase the risk of cow-to-human transmission.
“Some experts do fear that it could mark a new chapter in the outbreak or that bird flu may become endemic in the U.S.,” Andrea Garcia — vice president of science, medicine and public health at the American Medical Association — said during a news brief on Feb. 10. “This is something we are continuing to very closely follow.”
Related: What to Know About the Bird Flu amid the Current Outbreak
“That’s a big deal,” Michael Osterholm — infectious disease expert and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota — told NBC of the virus being found in more cows.
“We’re gonna have another influenza pandemic, and when it happens, we shouldn’t be surprised,” he added.
However, the CDC and CNHD said the public health risk for the general public remains low, while noting that “people who work with birds, poultry or cows, or have recreational exposure to them, are at higher risk.”
Those at greater risk are encouraged to avoid touching sick or dead animals, and ensure that they are not eating uncooked or undercooked food. Cooking poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165˚F kills bacteria and viruses, according to the CDC.
Last Month, health officials announced the first death in the United States linked to the bird flu. The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed on Jan. 6 that a 65-year-old man died from the virus after exposure to “a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds.”
The World Health Organization previously called the current outbreak a “significant public health concern.” However, the agency does not currently list the bird flu outbreak as a global health emergency.
Read the original article on People
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This country is full of Sell Outs with no Spine.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/apple-changes-gulf-of-mexico-to-gulf-of-america-on-maps/ar-AA1yRvFI?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Apple changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on maps
Story by AP • 15h • 1 min read
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1yRpar.img?w=768&h=512&m=6&x=716&y=153&s=80&d=80)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps Tuesday after an order by President Donald Trump was made official by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.
The move follows Google, which announced last month that it would make the change once the official listing was updated and wrote in a blog post Sunday that it had begun rolling out the change. In Google's case, the company said people in the U.S. will see Gulf of America and people in Mexico will see Gulf of Mexico. Everyone else will see both names.
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1yRkiz.img?w=768&h=512&m=6)
After taking office, Trump ordered that the water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba be renamed.
The U.S. Geographic Names Information System officially updated the name late Sunday. Microsoft has also made the name change on its Bing maps.
The Associated Press, which provides news around the world to multiple audiences, will refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its original name, which it has carried for 400 years, while acknowledging the name Gulf of America.
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The Apricot Antichrist spoke to both Putin and Zelenskyy today. Can he end the Ukraine/Russia war? He best not try to strongarm Ukraine to give up territory.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/12/nx-s1-5294478/hegseth-ukraine-nato-europe-trump
Trump spoke with Russia's Putin and Ukraine's Zelenskyy to start talks to end the war
Updated February 12, 20253:07 PM ET
By
NPR Staff
President Trump says he spoke with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine in separate phone calls Wednesday, in an effort to begin negotiations toward ending the two countries' war.
"We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's Nations," and to start negotiations on the war immediately, Trump said of his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a social media post.
He then followed with a post saying his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "went very well" and that Zelenskyy "wants to make PEACE."
The Russian and Ukrainian governments, in individual statements afterward, each confirmed the calls with Trump and agreed to negotiate.
Zelenskyy said he had a "very substantive" and detailed conversation with Trump. "We believe that America's strength is enough to push Russia and Putin to peace together with us, together with all our partners," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump's call lasted an hour and a half. In addition to the war in Ukraine, he said they discussed a prisoner exchange. On Tuesday, Russia released U.S. teacher Marc Fogel, and the Trump administration said Wednesday it is releasing Russian national Alexander Vinnik, who had been charged for laundering money in a cryptocurrency exchange, as part of the deal.
The conversations came as Trump's new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, laid out the administration's ideas about European defense and the future of Ukraine in a meeting in Brussels.
While the United States remains committed to NATO and defending partners in Europe, he said, "the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security."
Hegseth went further to detail the administration's positions on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which later this month will hit the three-year mark. He was speaking to Ukraine's backers gathered for a meeting at NATO headquarters.
"We must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," Hegseth said, referring to the year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
"The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement," he said.
Both statements could dash hopes in Ukraine, which has fought a costly war to defend and regain its territory, and has pushed to join NATO.
He said Trump "intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table."
European leaders will watch for more detailed pronouncements on U.S. foreign policy as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials attend the Munich Security Conference later this week.
This is a developing story that may be updated.
Danielle Kurtzleben contributed reporting from Washington, D.C., Teri Schultz from Brussels, Joanna Kakissis from Kyiv, Ukraine, Charles Maynes from Moscow and Willem Marx from London.
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What can I say? We're all dead now. Dune Worm confirmed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-votes-confirm-robert-f-kennedy-jr-health-secretary-rcna191856
Senate votes to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary
Kennedy managed to allay the concerns of several key GOP senators over his anti-vaccine activism. Mitch McConnell was the lone Republican to vote against him.
Feb. 13, 2025, 8:31 AM PST / Updated Feb. 13, 2025, 8:35 AM PST
By Natasha Korecki and Kate Santaliz
The GOP-controlled Senate voted Thursday to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, to lead the country’s most powerful health care agency.
Kennedy was confirmed as health and human services secretary on a mostly party-line vote of 52-48. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., broke ranks on yet another of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, joining all Democrats in opposition.
McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said Kennedy had a "record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions."
"Mr. Kennedy failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s largest health agency," McConnell said in a statement. "As he takes office, I sincerely hope Mr. Kennedy will choose not to sow further doubt and division but to restore trust in our public health institutions.”
Still, Thursday's vote marks another win for Trump, all of whose Cabinet-level nominees who have come before the Senate have been approved.
Kennedy will now be in charge of an expansive, $1.7 trillion agency that steers pandemic preparedness, manages government-funded health care for millions of people and oversees vaccine and pharmaceutical drug development.
Kennedy, a scion of the famous Democratic family, managed to overcome concerns among some Republicans over his past stances on vaccines and abortion.
The Republican senator who most vocally questioned Kennedy’s qualifications, Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, ultimately voted to confirm him. Cassidy, a longtime physician who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had said he was “struggling” with his decision after he quizzed Kennedy at two confirmation hearings.
But Cassidy, who is already politically vulnerable should he run for re-election, said in a floor speech last week that Kennedy gave him a series of reassurances that he would maintain the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices and that he would not remove statements on the CDC’s website noting that vaccines do not cause autism.
Kennedy also secured the backing of two other key Republicans, Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, of Maine, before the vote.
Murkowski announced her support after, she said, Kennedy reassured her about his stance on vaccines.
"He has made numerous commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research," Murkowski wrote on X on Wednesday. "These commitments are important to me and, on balance, provide assurance for my vote."
Collins offered a similar statement this week, saying Kennedy had allayed her concerns about his stances on vaccines.
In addition to the CDC, the HHS secretary oversees the heads of the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Kennedy initially ran for president last year as a Democrat before he launched an independent campaign. He eventually dropped his bid and endorsed Trump, taking his "Make America Healthy Again" message onto the campaign trail.
Kennedy’s call to more closely examine chemicals in the nation’s food brought support from both parties. But his past activism against vaccines and his advancement of false theories that they are linked to autism prevented him from winning any Democratic support.
“When you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward,” Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., told Kennedy in an emotional statement at a committee hearing last month. “So that’s what the problem is here, is the relitigating and the rehashing and the continuing to sow doubt so we can’t move forward. And it freezes us in place.”
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That's so rich. Mitch McConnell the only Republican to vote against the Dune Worm. He knows he is fanning the flames. All his moves, a HUGE reason we are here is cause of him. And the state of Kentucky which he ran all this time, is one of the poorest and pathetic states in this country.
Kentucky STILL has min wage at $7.25 per hour. Lowest in the nation. In my blue state it is $16.66 per hour.
Education in Kentucky is recorded at 45th in the United States, establishing it as one of the least educated states in the US, based on the percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree. [2]
So basically all these folks are THAT poorly educated. So you know he was saying no to funding programs to help them.
In 2023, about 16.4 percent of Kentucky's population lived below the poverty line.
823 suicides in Kentucky in 2022.
Mitch is fanning the flames here. The level of suffering he has caused. He aint getting a get out of jail free card voting against the Mad Mango's pics.
👎
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I normally try to be optimistic. But we knew, if the Orange Cheetolini got in office, he would hand Ukraine to Putin. They are doomed. And so is Europe, and then us.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/europe/europe-dirty-deal-trump-putin-ukraine-deal-intl/index.html
Europe fears Trump-Putin ‘dirty deal’ as Ukraine scrambles for a seat at the table
Clare Sebastian
Analysis by Clare Sebastian and Tim Lister, CNN
7 minute read
Updated 4:09 PM EST, Thu February 13, 2025
(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/ap25044472185734.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp)
US President Donald Trump’s “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has sparked fears in Europe of a “dirty deal” being struck to end the war in Ukraine on terms favorable to Moscow without Kyiv’s involvement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Ukraine would not accept a peace deal negotiated by the United States and Russia alone. He conceded it was “not pleasant” that Trump spoke with Putin before calling Kyiv, calling into doubt the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” that has largely held over three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Both Trump and his defense secretary Pete Hegseth have since said they believe negotiations will involve Ukraine, though Trump, when asked by a reporter on Wednesday if he saw Ukraine as an equal partner in peace negotiations responded only “that’s an interesting question.”
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, warned against a “quick fix” and a “dirty deal” to end the war, saying that Europe and Ukraine must be at the table for talks because no peace deal can be implemented without their involvement.
For European members of NATO the future suddenly looks a whole lot more uncertain. Since the foundation of the alliance, Europe has relied on the American nuclear umbrella, the deployment of sizable US military contingents in Europe and the vast US defense budget and weapons pipeline.
Trump’s call with Putin, and his subsequent announcement that negotiations would begin immediately on reaching a deal in Ukraine, blindsided European leaders and threatened to leave them with the grunt work of funding and overseeing any settlement.
In other words: Washington will do the deal (and may get paid in rare earth minerals by Ukraine as Trump has demanded), and Europe will pick up the tab.
Hegseth, the newly minted US defense secretary told NATO allies in Brussels that European and non-European troops – but not Americans – would have to police any agreement between Ukraine and Russia. There was also a brutal denial of Ukraine’s aspirations to join the alliance. Hegseth said Washington did “not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome.”
A NATO official subsequently briefed that “NATO membership is not necessarily something that needs to be negotiated with Russia. It’s something that’s a decision for allies and that decision has been linked to when the time is right.”
The official insisted that “the alliance’s position has not changed and Ukraine is still on a path to membership.”
‘Any deal behind our backs will not work’
The Europeans, both in NATO and in the EU – are struggling to be heard as Trump focuses on doing a deal with Putin to end what he has called the pointless bloodshed in Ukraine.
Kallas said that “any deal behind our backs will not work.” She added that “appeasement also always, always fails. So Ukraine will continue to resist and Europe will continue to back Ukraine.”
The allies have been fond of the mantra “No settlement in Ukraine without Ukraine.” That might now be expanded to “…without Ukraine and Europe.” Six European governments, including France, the UK and Germany, said Wednesday night in a panicked joint statement: “We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies.… Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”
Speaking to CNN Thursday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė noted that Europe provided Ukraine with $125 billion in aid last year (much of it financial support), and the US $88 billion, “so I think we earned a place at the table.”
Šakalienė and her Baltic counterparts, on Russia’s borders, are especially anxious at the turn of events. She said there was a stark choice: “Whether we decide to fall under the illusion that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin are going to find a solution for all of us, and that would be a deadly trap, or we will, as Europe, embrace our own economic, financial and military capacity.”
Šakalienė acknowledged that historically the US had been “paying for our security. And that needs to be corrected.”
Her Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, cited the poet Alexandre Dumas - “One for all, all for one” – as the bedrock of the transatlantic relationship, and also spoke of raising defense spending.
Flat-footed
But production lines, investment in new technology and recruitment do not happen overnight. There’s been intense talk since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began of ramping up defense industries in Europe. But that’s a multi-year process.
The head of French defense giant Dassault, Éric Trappier, said last year that “Europe believes all of a sudden that working on defence is a good thing… Between that realisation and the reality of building a European defense industry it’s going to take many years and even many decades,” he told the Financial Times.
Those words were echoed Thursday by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We are not producing enough and this is a collective problem…. Russia is producing in three months in ammunition, but the whole of the alliance is producing in a year.”
European weapons manufacturers have also complained about arcane decision-making processes in Brussels, where the European Commission has angled for a much greater role in procurement.
And this sudden increase in spending is expected at a time of sluggish growth and tight public finances.
The events of 1989, when the Soviet bloc evaporated, left a legacy of defense cutbacks in the West that are only now being reversed.
Together, as Zelensky noted this week, Ukraine and Europe have fewer men under arms than Russia. Zelensky is doubtful that Europe or another monitoring force alone is up to the task of securing any peace. “I don’t think any UN troops or anything like that have ever really helped anyone,” he told the Guardian this week. “We are for a (peacekeeping) contingent if it is part of security guarantees, and I would underline again that without America this is impossible.”
With Hegseth saying there is no way the US will commit troops to some sort of 1,000-kilometer long demilitarized zone stretching from the Black Sea to Kharkiv, there is no clarity over what those guarantees might be. Zelensky said Thursday that rather than a contingent of maybe 5,000 peacekeepers, there would need to be 100,000 as part of a “deterrent package.”
Some European ministers fear that Trump fatally misunderstands Putin. German defense minister Boris Pistorius said Thursday he regretted the new administration taking Ukraine’s prospective membership of NATO off the table immediately and added: “Putin is constantly provoking the West and attacking us again. It would be naive to believe the threat would actually diminish after such a peace agreement.”
Their next chance for allies to temper – or at least interrogate – the administration’s strategy will be at this weekend’s Munich Security conference, to be attended by US Vice-President JD Vance and Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Europe sidelined?
Moscow, of course, is gloating at the relegation of Europe to bystander. Responding to a question from CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen in Moscow on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “many in the West, including the leaders of the European Union, were shocked when a simple, normal conversation took place between two polite, educated individuals.”
Europeans may now be forgiven for glancing backwards to existential moments in their modern history.
One is the Munich agreement of 1938 that gave Hitler free rein to continue Nazi aggression against allies that were neither armed nor ready for war against a fully militarized society.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a meeting with Germany's Defence Minister in Kyiv on January 14, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP) (Photo by TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/AFP via Getty Images)
Related article
Putin has waited for this moment for 3 years, as Zelensky is left in the cold
The other is the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 that suppressed the Prague Spring, an effort at liberalization that threatened Moscow’s dominance of Eastern Europe, just as Ukraine’s sharp tilt to the EU was seen as a threat by Putin.
At that time, US Senator Henry Jackson told NATO parliamentarians that while there was little disagreement in the US about the value of the Atlantic Alliance, there was “a widespread feeling in my country that so many Europeans were less concerned with the security of their homelands than we were.
“To many Americans it has seemed that a prosperous Western Europe was not making a reasonably proportionate contribution to the common defense effort,” Jackson said. “I am convinced that the future vitality of the alliance depends in very large measure on the degree and quality of European efforts to keep NATO strong.”
Fast forward half a century and the demands of the Trump administration that European members of NATO, many of which have struggled to reach a defense spending target of 2% of GDP, are now expected to hit 4 or 5% - (a level higher even than the US) and step beyond that security umbrella.
CNN’s Christian Edwards, Sophie Tanno, James Frater and Svitlana Vlasova contributed reporting.
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Oh Great! Bros will be Hoes.
Indian prime minister arrives at the White House
From CNN's Kit Maher
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at the White House. This is the fourth foreign leader to visit President Donald Trump since he took office.
Trump previously welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru of Japan.
Earlier today, Modi met with Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, posting photos on X from the separate visits.
Earlier this week, Modi met with Vice President JD Vance and his family in Paris, where the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit was held.
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I just read someone say, which is accurate, "America just has to touch the stove and learn." All the warnings these idiots were given, and what would happen. So many screaming from the rooftops. But they wanted the cruelty and madness and mayhem. Not sure when the burn of the stove will take place but, I suspect the quote is accurate.
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There is talk a leaked memo had The Deluded Melon asking for half the minerals in Ukraine. I am pretty sure, esp per this secret meeting which excluded Ukraine and Europe, that Fat Orange Windbag will hand over Ukraine, and eventually Europe:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-russia-talks-ukraine-europe-invasion-rcna192544
U.S. and Russia agree to restore embassy staffing in high-level talks on Ukraine war
The meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart marked a turning point in relations between Washington and Moscow.
Feb. 18, 2025, 2:51 AM PST / Updated Feb. 18, 2025, 8:02 AM PST
By Chantal Da Silva and Charlotte Gardiner
The United States and Russia agreed in high-level talks Tuesday to re-establish embassy staffing in a reversal of American policy by President Donald Trump, fueling fears in Kyiv and building up Moscow's hopes of re-entering the international mainstream.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both countries had agreed to re-establish "the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and Moscow” and that Washington would create a high-level team to work on a path to ending the war in Ukraine.
Rubio said negotiators has also agreed to “begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine,” which he said could only happen once the war came to an end.
His comments came after he led a U.S. delegation in a four-and-a-half hour meeting attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Kremlin officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Lavrov told reporters the meeting was “very useful” as he confirmed efforts to “remove obstacles” to diplomatic efforts that he blamed on the Biden administration.
Under the Trump administration, he had “reason to believe that the American side has begun to better understand our position.”
Separately, Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said the talks had paved a way for a possible meeting between Trump and Putin, although he did not say when that might take place, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Trump announced last week that he and Putin had held a 90-minute phone conversation. The meeting Tuesday in Riyadh is a major turning point in Washington’s relationship with Moscow, which has been diplomatically and financially isolated since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Attention in Europe is still focused on the war in Ukraine, the deadliest conflict on the continent since World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders expressed alarm and dismay at being shut out of the talks Riyadh. One of Kyiv's main concerns is that Russia will be given the go-ahead to keep some of the 20% of Ukraine it has occupied.
“Ukraine did not know anything about it,” Zelenskyy warned ahead of the meeting.
Kyiv “regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognize ... any agreements about us without us,” he said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he would delay a trip scheduled for Wednesday that was arranged in advance and not related to the U.S.-Russia talks.
"I will not go to Saudi Arabia," he said. "We contacted our partners in Arabia — I have a good relationship with them. We just contacted each other and agreed that I would be there on an official visit on March 10. And we expect the USA in Kyiv.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette FredJuhanisen warned that Russia could use the pause to remobilize and mount a fresh attack on Ukraine or target other countries in Europe.
“Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately,” FredJuhanisen said, reflecting the view of many in Europe that Putin would seek to dominate, if not outright occupy, more countries.
In Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that has come under heavy Russian shelling throughout the war, residents balanced their hopes for an end to the fighting with fears about Trump's decision to leave Kyiv out of negotiations.
"It's confusing. It's going quickly and we don't see where it's going," Yulia Ishuk, who worked at a restaurant in the port city of Odesa before the war and now runs a rehab center for soldiers, told an NBC News crew on the ground.
"Without our president, Zelenskyy ... it's kind of like games behind our backs and we don't like it because we don't understand that," Ishuk, 47, said. "We don't understand what's going on."
As negotiators had discussions in Riyadh, Washington's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, was in Brussels on Tuesday, where he was meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of a trip to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, in Abu Dhabi on Monday, said he wanted to take Kellogg "to the front line" and have him meet with intelligence officials and diplomats so he could "bring more information back to America."
Kellogg's visit comes after France on Monday hosted an emergency meeting of European Union countries and Britain to decide how to respond after the Trump administration said they would not be part of the talks with Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken with both Trump and Zelenskyy following an emergency meeting of European leaders Monday.
“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine,” Macron said in a post on X. “To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians.”
Noting his conversation with Macron, Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday that the two shared a "common vision" of "robust and reliable" security guarantees for Ukrainians.
"Any other decision without such guarantees — such as a fragile ceasefire — would only serve as another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European nations," he warned.
The high-level talks in Riyadh came after Russia released American Kalob Byers, a Trump administration official confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday. Byers had been detained in the country on suspicion of drug smuggling since early February.
“The Russians turned him over, which is a welcome gesture,” an administration official said. “We hope they consider the same for all Americans unjustly detained in Russia.”
Byers' release came days after Marc Fogel, a teacher from Pennsylvania who was detained in Russia for more than three years, was freed in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the U.S.
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We are looking at the beginning of a New World Order.
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Will social security be taken out? I suspect this is the only way, Americans will learn a lesson from racism, misogyny, and hatred of LGBTQIA folk, that when you vote for folks who stupidly get you to hate on others, and you want to cause them pain, as they are YOU in some way, cause we are ONE, you want to hurt ONE, you hurt yourself. Maybe they should have done some deeper studying with that Holy Book and things:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/top-social-security-official-steps-disagreement-doge-sensitive-data-rcna192530
Top Social Security official steps down after disagreement with DOGE over sensitive data
The top official's departure is the latest in a wave of exits of senior officials whose agencies have come into the crosshairs of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Feb. 17, 2025, 7:26 PM PST
By Yamiche Alcindor and Raquel Coronell Uribe
Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields confirmed in a statement that King was no longer the head of the agency.
“President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner. President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long,” Fields said.
The Washington Post first reported King’s departure.
One of the sources familiar with the situation, Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a left-leaning group focused on protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, told NBC News she learned of the situation after having spoken with several current officials at the agency.
Altman said some of the information involved in the dispute included Americans’ bank information, Social Security numbers, earnings records, marital statuses, dates of birth and, in some cases, medical records if people have applied for disability benefits.
“She was replaced as acting commissioner because she would not give access to the sensitive information,” Altman said of King. “So she was replaced with someone who presumably will. But she was not forced to leave the agency. That was her choice. It was the White House’s choice to not let her be head of the agency anymore.”
President Donald Trump has appointed Leland Dudek, a manager in charge of Social Security’s anti-fraud office, as acting commissioner now that King is out.
Altman slammed DOGE’s request of King and the Social Security Administration.
“I don’t think you can overstate how serious this breach is,” Altman said. “The information that the Social Security Administration has is a lot of personal data that most people would like to keep private and they entrusted to the government through tax returns and through their employers’ sending in earning statements. The assumption is that the government will be very careful with it.”
King, who has worked at the Social Security Administration for decades, has chosen to retire, Altman said.
The SSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
It is the latest in a wave of exits from senior officials whose agencies have come into DOGE’s crosshairs.
The agency is in charge of managing payments for more than 70 million Americans. Trump has vowed not to cut retirement benefits.
In an interview with Fox News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump "has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration." She said that while the team had not "dug into the books," it suspected that widespread fraud was occurring.
The SSA's inspector general released a report in July that found that from 2015 to 2022, only 0.84% of benefits payments were improper.
It is not the first time DOGE has drawn scrutiny over attempts to access sensitive information. A DOGE-affiliated employee at the IRS is expected to seek access to an IRS system housing sensitive taxpayer information, an administration official told NBC News on Sunday.
DOGE this month also accessed the Treasury Department’s payment system, which stores Social Security numbers and other confidential financial information. Several lawsuits were then filed claiming DOGE’s access to the data violated federal privacy laws. Justice Department attorneys agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s systems, except for two employees given “read only” access “as needed.”
A judge later temporarily blocked political appointees and special government employees — including those who work at DOGE — from accessing sensitive and confidential information stored within the Treasury.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said this month that Trump authorized Musk to access disaster data housed within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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It's breathtaking the stupidity. I have been listening to the anti-Trumpers, and anti-Muskers, and they say, they cannot forgive the maggots anytime soon for this. And those who are beginning to surface, Farmers may lose the farm, federal workers who voted Trump losing their cushy govt job. Or folks who may or may not be citizens losing loved ones to ICE, being rounded up and carted away. I mean, they wanted to inflict pain on others. They side-stepped that they were creating a huge lesson on themselves. This is why we are here.
Where we had a nice be Kind message with Harris. But they didn't want that. They wanted to inflict Chaos and Pain.
But the big mistake is this: the blasphemy. I mean, one night, I scrolled Pinterest to "see" what these folks are making of Trump and Jesus. Taking basically holy images of Jesus, and making Trump, like even part of a trinity and mixing him in and things.
They DO NOT understand, the blasphemy they are doing.
Blasphemy, is to take the sacred, and toss it to the ground. It can be to defile it in some manner. I suspect the connotations are bigger. Lke the Trump Bible, putting in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, that's blasphemy. Him evening signing it, is too.
So like, it's not just they want pain. They mixed holy things into this, and they elevated him as a messiah. They didn't want to do it the kind, gentle, Jesus way. That was proven with the Bishop when she asked Trump to give Mercy. I knew, that whole incident, was like, a channeling of Jesus himself, a warning, because from the Beautitudes "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
So if he is, merciless, then what will he be shown, when TIMES UP?
And those who elevated him, to be cruel on their behalf?
So it may begin with social security. And it wont end there.
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Like I remember, years ago, I attended a Zendo. There was a point we walked toward the altar with The Buddha. I got too close, so the Monk at the Zendo, gently had me step back. To not get too close to The Buddha. It was respect. The Buddha is like this, pure and holy light being. And that one simple move I did and instruction taught me a lot. You have to be respectful. And that is why say with statues (I have an army of them), we have to understand by bringing them in, that energy is present and takes up space.
The maggots do not understand this, like say when they walk in church, do not they not understand the nature of light, or how you must respect it?
They clearly do not, or they would not do this shit. But ignorance is not bliss these days. It will cost you. There will be no excuse.
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St Malachy, who most of us Irish know, predicted all the popes. His predictions ended with this pope, that he would be through the Tribulation. If something happens to Pope Francis, either steps down, or passes, what follows him?
https://apnews.com/article/pope-vatican-respiratory-francis-3898caa324da9b0f7a100b73a35b436a
The pope has pneumonia in both lungs but remains in good spirits, the Vatican says
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Updated 11:17 AM PST, February 18, 2025
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ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has developed pneumonia in both lungs, the Vatican said Tuesday, after new tests showed a further complication in the condition of the 88-year-old pontiff.
The Vatican said Francis’ respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis, which requires the use of cortisone antibiotic treatment. “Laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the Vatican said.
Nevertheless the pope, who had the upper lobe of his right lung removed as a young man, is in good spirits and is grateful for the prayers for his recovery, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a late update.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital in a “fair” condition on Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. On Monday, medical personnel determined that he was suffering from a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection, meaning a mix of viruses, bacteria and possibly other organisms had colonized his respiratory tract.
“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon ... demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” Bruni said.
Bronchitis can lead to pneumonia, which is a deeper and far more serious infection of the lungs’ air sacs. Treatment varies by severity but can include providing oxygen through a nasal tube or mask, intravenous fluids – and treatment of the underlying cause of the infection. To date Francis is not known to be using supplemental oxygen, and he has eaten breakfast every day, read the newspapers and done some work from his hospital room.
The Vatican has given no indication of how long the pope might remain hospitalized, only saying that the treatment of such a “complex clinical picture,” which has already required two changes in his drug regimen, would require an “adequate” stay.
Francis once again had a peaceful night, ate breakfast and read the newspapers Tuesday morning, Bruni said. Despite the less than positive news about Francis’ condition, a rainbow appeared over the Gemelli hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, Francis resumed doing some work and made his daily call to a Gaza City parish to check in on the Catholic community there. In a sign that other Vatican business was proceeding as usual Tuesday, the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, continued his delicate visit to Burkina Faso and another top Vatican cardinal, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prepared to leave Wednesday for a five-day visit to Lebanon.
But other business had to be canceled. There will be no weekly general audience Wednesday, and it’s not clear if Francis will miss his Sunday noon blessing for a second week in a row. His hospitalization has also forced the cancellation of some events surrounding the Vatican Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century ceremony in which millions of pilgrims flock to Rome.
This Holy Year weekend was dedicated to deacons, the ministry that is a necessary step for men who are preparing to become priests. Francis had an unrelated audience Saturday and was supposed to have ordained the deacons during a Mass on Sunday. The Vatican on Tuesday announced his audience was canceled and that the archbishop who is organizing the Jubilee would celebrate the Mass in the pope’s place.
It’s a similar arrangement that the Vatican announced last weekend when artists in town had to settle for a scrapped papal audience and a cardinal presiding over their special Mass.
The next Jubilee events on the calendar that would typically involve the pope are the March 8-9 weekend dedicated to volunteers.
Francis had part of one lung removed after a pulmonary infection as a young man and is prone to bouts of bronchitis in winter. He has admitted in the past that he is a non-compliant patient, and even his close Vatican aides have said he pushed himself too far even once his bronchitis was diagnosed.
He refused to let up on his busy schedule and ignored medical advice to stay indoors during Rome’s chilly winter, insisting on sitting through an outdoor Jubilee Mass for the armed forces on Feb. 9 even though he was having trouble breathing.
Francis’ hospital admission this year has already sidelined him for longer than a 2023 hospitalization for pneumonia.
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https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/st-malachy-prophecy-pope-francis
An Irish saint's eerie prophecy that Pope Francis will be the last Pontiff
Irish Saint Malachy, the 12th-century bishop of Armagh, prophesied that there would be only one more pope after Benedict.
IrishCentral Staff
@IrishCentral
Mar 26, 2022
(https://www.irishcentral.com/uploads/article/47035/cropped_POPE-FRANCIS-DUBLIN-CASTLE-rollingnews.jpg?t=1648300171)
The prophecies of the Irish Saint Malachy (1094-1148), the 12th-century bishop of Armagh, have thrilled and dismayed readers for centuries.
In a series of 112 cryptic Latin phrases, the Irish saint "predicts" the Roman Catholic popes. He predicted there would be only one more pope after Benedict, and during his reign comes the end of the world. So Francis could be the last.
Saint Malachy's final prediction in full is: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”
Pope Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chose his papal name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. One theory that seeks to confirm the Irish saint's final prophecy is that Saint Francis's father's name was Pietro, or Peter.
In 1139, then Archbishop Malachy went to Rome from Ireland to give an account of his affairs. While there, he received a strange vision about the future that included the name of every pope, 112 in all from his time, who would rule until the end of time. We are now at the last prophecy.
St. Malachy gave an account of his visions to Pope Innocent II, but the document remained unknown in the Roman Archives until its discovery in 1590.
His predictions are taken very seriously. As one report states: "In 1958, before the Conclave that would elect Pope John XXIII, Cardinal Spellman of New York hired a boat, filled it with sheep and sailed up and down the Tiber River, to show that he was 'pastor et nautor,' the motto attributed to the next Pope in the prophecies."
As for the prophecy concerning the 111th pope, Pope Benedict, the prophecy says of him, "Gloria Olivae," which means "the glory of the Olive." The Order of Saint Benedict is also known as the Olivetans, which many claims make Malachy's prophecies correct. The next and final pope then should be "Peter Romanus."
Many of the prophecies are spot on. For example, the one about Pope Urban VIII is Lilium et Rosa (the lily and the rose). He was a native of Florence and the arms of Florence feature a fleur-de-lis.
Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) is De labore Solis meaning "of the eclipse of the sun." Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, during a solar eclipse.
Peregrinus apostolicus (pilgrim pope), which designates Pius VI, appears to be verified by his many journeys to new lands.
So will Pope Francis be the last pope? The Irish seer of the 12th century has said it will be so. Time will tell.
*Originally published in 2013. Last updated in March 2022.
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Pope Francis took his name from Saint Francis of Assisi.
Saint Francis's origina name was Francis (Italian: Francesco d'Assisi; Latin: Franciscus Assisiensis) was baptized Giovanni by his mother. His surname, di Pietro di Bernardone, comes from his father, Pietro di Bernardone. The latter was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, a small town in Italy.
He was born in Italy, and traveled to Rome. So "Peter the Roman" does fit, for Pope Francis to be the Final Pope.
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We are looking at the beginning of a New World Order.
I dreamed of it as a teenager. Yeah. I know a couple of things that may be coming.
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I dreamed of it as a teenager. Yeah. I know a couple of things that may be coming.
Remember too tho, there is still a bunch of directions we could go. Like, if all of America woke up, could change the game.
Right now tho, this whole Bromance with Trump and Elon, it can't last forever.
I bet Elon has a lot of dirt on Trump, and God knows who else. Could this go sour when the two turn on each other?
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Like the whole incident with Elon in the White House with his kid. Even the kid, per some folks who really listened to the kid, said it sounded like he said to Trump, when he walked over, "You are not the President, SHHHHHH!" If that is true, the kid heard this said, somehow. Trump is a puppet for many. But Elon has him by the cajónes right now.
It's going to be a crazy ride. But I suspect it is going to get weird.
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Remember too tho, there is still a bunch of directions we could go. Like, if all of America woke up, could change the game.
Right now tho, this whole Bromance with Trump and Elon, it can't last forever.
I bet Elon has a lot of dirt on Trump, and God knows who else. Could this go sour when the two turn on each other?
I want to believe it can change. But when I have prophetic dreaming, and it does not change after time, it is pretty much a certainty.
I have not been wrong one time. Not once have I ever been wrong with certain prophetic dreaming.
Unfortunately, I can say that until I'm blue in the face and everyone else around me will disagree because that's not what they want and then later they find out.
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Like the whole incident with Elon in the White House with his kid. Even the kid, per some folks who really listened to the kid, said it sounded like he said to Trump, when he walked over, "You are not the President, SHHHHHH!" If that is true, the kid heard this said, somehow. Trump is a puppet for many. But Elon has him by the cajónes right now.
It's going to be a crazy ride. But I suspect it is going to get weird.
Kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. All the time. The likelihood that he has heard the words before are high. But kids are very smart. I don't care what anyone says. Kids are smart and they often see things before we do.
As a side note Elon only brought him to portray himself as a good father. I know what it looks like when a man is trying to make himself look like a good man or like a good dad when they are very much the opposite. Elon Musk hits every single mark for that.
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Kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. All the time. The likelihood that he has heard the words before are high. But kids are very smart. I don't care what anyone says. Kids are smart and they often see things before we do.
As a side note Elon only brought him to portray himself as a good father. I know what it looks like when a man is trying to make himself look like a good man or like a good dad when they are very much the opposite. Elon Musk hits every single mark for that.
Elon has said before he battles demons. I think they won.
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IOW he has changed a lot. He too, is becoming unhinged. We are witnessing demon possession.
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Elon posted 14 flags at 1414 p.m. on President's Day. If you don't know what that means... Search "14 dog whistle"
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2:14pm
Is 14:14pm
I did -not- time that.
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2:14pm
Is 14:14pm
I did -not- time that.
Yeah I think the My Pillow Guy did something like this too. No surprise there.
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This is absolutely disgusting. But not surprising of the American Putin Puppet. Servicemen and women are rolling in their graves over this. Europe is at risk as well, not just Ukraine. The karma is immense for this. Trump deserves hell for many reasons. But esp this.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-says-dictator-zelenskyy-better-move-fast-on-ukraine/ar-AA1zltIo?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump says 'dictator' Zelenskyy 'better move fast' on Ukraine
9m • 6 min read
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit back at President Donald Trump's call for the country to hold fresh presidential elections following Tuesday's historic Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh -- to which Ukraine was not invited -- represented "an important step forward" toward ending Russia's three-year-old invasion of its neighbor, according to a State Department readout.
Hours after the talks concluded on Tuesday, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Zelenskyy's public approval rating was "down to 4%," failing to provide a source for the figure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the country's 2024 presidential elections due to martial law.
During a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump's claim, pointing to respected recent surveys showing him polling consistently above 50% with voters and describing Trump's assertion as Russian "disinformation."
"If someone wants to replace me right now, then right now it won't work," Zelenskyy said. "If we are talking about 4% then we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia. And we have evidence."
The Ukrainian president said he would conduct opinion polls for trust ratings for world leaders, including Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelenskyy said he took Trump's comments "calmly."
"As for President Trump, with all due respect to him as a leader of the American people, who we deeply respect and are thankful for all his support, but President Trump, unfortunately, is living in this disinformation space," Zelenskyy continued.
Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday, without providing evidence, called the Ukrainian president a "Dictator without Elections," writing on Truth Social that Zelenskyy "better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left."
MORE: US and Russia agree to try to end war without Ukraine at the table
Putin addresses US-Russia meeting
In Riyadh, the U.S. and Russia agreed to appoint as-yet-unnamed special representatives to continue peace talks, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- who led Moscow's team in Riyadh -- told lawmakers "the atmosphere is positive, the intentions are correct, we will see how the situation develops further, what decisions will be made."
"The main thing is to meet, listen and hear, make decisions that will be realistic," he added.
Putin -- in his first public comments since the talks -- said on Wednesday he had been informed of the results of the meeting in Riyadh, and that the meeting "passed in a very well-meaning manner in general."
"As our participants told me, those were absolutely different people on the American side, who were open to a negotiating process, without any bias and without any disapproval of what's been done in the past. At least there was none of that during the bilateral contacts," Putin said.
The Russian leader said the talks were intended as a trust-building exercise, which produced positive outcomes, saying the "purpose of this meeting was to elevate confidence between Russia and the U.S."
Putin also said he would be happy to meet with Trump in person, though he did not offer any information on when such a meeting might occur.
"It must be prepared. I would gladly meet with Donald, I have not seen him for a long time. We don't have any close relations, but still, we have met in past years, in the four years of his presidency, and discussed relations between our states in a very level way. I would be glad to meet him now, too. And I think he would, too," Putin said.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told the state-controlled Channel One television channel that Trump's Ukraine-Russia envoy -- Keith Kellogg -- would negotiate a settlement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, where he is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian leaders.
Kellogg told reporters his "mission is to sit and listen" and then report back to Trump. He parried questions about whether Trump is siding with Putin, saying Trump wants to end the war because "he understands the human suffering" it's causing.
Kellogg said he agrees with Trump that the war would never have begun if he had been president at the time.
Russia launches drone strike on Ukraine in wake of talks
Hours after the U.S.-Russia discussions concluded with a commitment to continue talks, Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine's air force reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more lost in flight.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a "massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city" causing electricity, heating and water outages.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the strike targeted "civilian energy facilities," in keeping with longstanding Russian doctrine. "For nearly three years now, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attack drones against them," he said.
"Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it became clear that Russian representatives were once again lying, claiming they do not target Ukraine's energy sector," Zelenskyy continued.
"Yet, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones striking electrical transformers," he wrote. "And this is during winter -- it was minus 6 degrees Celsius at night."
"We must never forget that Russia is ruled by pathological liars -- they cannot be trusted and must be pressured," the president said.
Trump says Ukraine has 'had a seat for 3 years'
Kyiv's exclusion from the Saudi talks has badly unsettled Ukraine and its European allies. Trump was unapologetic when speaking with reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, just as Odesa came under attack.
"They've had a seat for three years and a long time before that," Trump said of Ukraine, suggesting Kyiv could have made a deal with Moscow to avoid the huge loss of lives and land.
Trump said he believes he has "the power to end this war," while falsely claiming Ukraine started the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
"I think it's going very well," Trump said of U.S. efforts to end the war. "But today I heard, oh, 'Well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years -- you should have never started it."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 15, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 15, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
© Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskyy criticized the Trump administration's recent demand for a treaty that would hand over 50% of Ukraine's natural resources to the U.S., in exchange for no security guarantees. Trump himself has repeatedly said he wants $500 billion worth of Ukraine's rare minerals to pay back the U.S. for its support during Russia's invasion.
Zelenskyy said such a demand was "not serious," and corrected Trump's claim that the U.S. has provided more money than Europe.
"There wasn't a word there about security guarantees," he said. "There is nothing precise there. I can't sell the state."
UK 'ready' to put troops in Ukraine to support Russia peace deal, PM says
Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine cannot join NATO, it needs a strong army backed by Western weapons and air defense. He said Ukraine was looking for a troop contingent from European countries to help protect Ukraine after a ceasefire, but warned that Ukraine's own troops needed to be backed by air defense, which only the U.S. can provide.
"Only the Americans, President Donald Trump, have this protection, this air defense, it's exclusively from them, and that's what's important," Zelenskyy said. "We have a map that shows us this, but we are ready for dialogue, for discussion, about what quantity, how much is needed. We've calculated everything; we've figured it all out. So this is essentially the main point of what we are requesting."
Zelenskyy suggested Tuesday that the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh merely revived ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of its invasion.
"I have the impression that there are now some negotiations happening and they have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States," Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey.
"Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine," he added. "It's interesting, if Ukraine didn't yield to ultimatums in the most difficult moment, where does the feeling come from that Ukraine will agree to this now?"
"I never intended to yield to Russia's ultimatums and I don't intend to now," Zelenskyy added.
ABC News' Fidel Pavlenko, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Joe Simonetti, Will Gretsky, Anastasia Bagaeva and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
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"War is Peace - Freedom is Slavery" yada yada. 2+2 does not = 4 in America anymore. I am DISGUSTED.
We have a true antichrist running this country. And idiots elected him. Not thinking of the ramifications and where it could take us. We have a total LIAR AND GASLIGHTER, who is saying, Zelenskyy, who has done nothing but show bravery and courage under fire, calling him a dictator, and saying Ukraine started the war.
IT IS UTTERLY REVOLTING. And this nasty talk, has got Europe totally worried about their fate. They may need to link arms to protect themselves, with Canada. This is so ugly and nasty, what he is doing. The only thing that gives me peace, is he is old, and can't live forever.
But the damage he is doing, and can do, and will do, I do not want to even know. I really don't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQhChYQ8XnE
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Trudeau on this issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so4ZvgGsQVE
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Slowly but surely, the resistance is coming together.
If you get a bunch of elderly and gen xers in a town hall, and veterans calling in, chaos will come. Folks are showing up all over to town halls and yelling their asses off. They are beginning to scare these spineless republicans. But on this video, the veteran calling his congresswoman about cutting VA benefits, and they claimed illegals were getting them. That is a straight up LIE. Total LIE. They always deflect "look at the illegals" nope. A bunch of vets who served if they lose benefits or medical care or VA access will revolt.
Like I was talking to the twin the other day, he calls this "poking the bear." Folks all over are angry and it is like poking the bear. Eventually, the bear is gonna act. The scoop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hFVzMP3y-U
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Absolutely revolting and traitorous.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-votes-against-un-resolution-condemning-russia-for-ukraine-war/ar-AA1zGTVh?ocid=BingNewsSerp
U.S. votes against U.N. resolution condemning Russia for Ukraine war
Story by Karen DeYoung, John Hudson • 1h • 2 min read
The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday on a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for its occupied territory to be returned that passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.
The U.S. delegation also abstained on its own separate resolution that called simply for a negotiated end to the war after European-sponsored amendments inserting new anti-Russian language also passed the 193-member body by a wide margin.
The votes were a clear sign of opposition by major U.S. allies as well as countries throughout the Global South who were prepared to buck heavy diplomatic pressure from the Trump administration to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to quickly end the war through direct negotiations with Moscow.
A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the fast-moving diplomacy, said the United States would introduce its resolution at a meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council later Monday and would veto any amendments.
“While our partners at the Security Council and in the General Assembly would like to debate the entire situation now, we are much more focused on just getting the parties to the table so that whatever the next step is can be undertaken,” the official said
Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group, said the divide between the United States and Europe marked “the biggest split among Western powers at the U.N. since the Iraq War — and probably even more fundamental.”
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While America sleeps...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/german-election-winner-seeks-independence-from-us-what-does-that-mean/ar-AA1zHrXm?ocid=BingNewsSerp
German election winner seeks ‘independence’ from U.S. What does that mean?
Story by Adam Taylor • 1h • 5 min read
Within hours of emerging as the near-certain next chancellor of Germany after Sunday’s election, Friedrich Merz offered a grim prognosis of the transatlantic relationship.
Europe needs to “achieve independence from the United States, step by step,” Merz told public broadcaster ARD. The Trump administration does not care about Europe “one way or the other,” he said, and called the advocacy of Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk on behalf of Germany’s far right “no less outrageous” than Kremlin-backed election interference.
It was a remarkable assessment, in large part because of who delivered it. Merz, 69, is a veteran politician representing Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats. He is not known as a firebrand but a pro-business politician who worked for an organization whose aim is to further U.S.-German relations.
What would have been a more radical position a few years ago or from a different source instead came across as a basic recognition of an impending tectonic shift in European foreign policy. The continent has seen Washington as its most important ally and security guarantor since World War II.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia three years ago, the first large-scale European land war since 1945, had shown Europe that it needed to rethink its defenses. The uncertainty over U.S. leadership under the Trump administration has brought the matter of dependence to a crisis.
Europe should still hope for a good relationship with the United States and continue to support the NATO military alliance, Merz said at a news conference Monday. However, he added, “if those who really make not just America first but almost America alone their motto … prevail, then it will be difficult.”
Though Europe as a whole spends more than $290 billion on defense, its fragmented system and the reality of reliance on the United States creates vast inefficiencies. One estimate released last week found that Europe would need hundreds of thousands of new troops and at least $260 billion more in funding to deter Russia without the United States.
As Europe’s largest economy, with a critical central location and large population, Germany would be expected to play a central role.
But independence is particularly daunting for Germany, where military spending remains influenced by the aftermath of World War II and decades of occupation and division after. Some 50,000 U.S. service members were stationed in the country last year, second only to Japan. Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, are widely considered weak and bound by a postwar consensus that they cannot act unilaterally.
Germany said it met NATO’s 2 percent of economic output target for defense spending last year, but many voices within the alliance — not just President Donald Trump — have called for Europe’s largest economy to contribute far more.
Berlin should commit to defense spending at 5 percent of gross domestic product as soon as possible, Jakub Janda, director of the Prague-based European Values Center for Security Policy think tank, wrote on X on Monday. “If Germany does this, most European nations will follow and the United States will not leave Europe.”
German business is dependent on trade with the United States, making the country vulnerable to tariff threats from Washington. In key areas, including tech and defense, Germany relies on the United States for specific orders that it cannot easily source from within Europe. The German economy, once the strongest in Europe, has been sputtering in recent years, contracting for the past two.
Merz’s statements reflect a major shift for someone who grew up in Cold War-era West Germany, said Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. “He suddenly has to navigate a landscape that looks entirely different,” she said.
Elon Musk, a billionaire White House appointee, repeatedly posted to X, the social media platform he owns, in support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of Sunday’s vote, while Vance had met with AfD’s leader, Alice Weidel, during a Munich security conference at which he also suggested that the party should not be barred from government.
Merz reacted with strong displeasure to the words of U.S. officials before the vote, stating that Musk’s action in particular “cannot go unchallenged.” In his comments Monday, he also pointed to what he described as an “unacceptable” U.S. attempt to make a deal with “Russia about Ukraine over the heads of the Europeans.”
The new language coming from Germany’s election winner suggested a break with the foreign policy of Angela Merkel, who led the country from 2005 and 2021. Merkel was a Christian Democrat, like Merz, and known for her tight relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama, but she attempted to maintain working relationships not only with Washington but also Moscow and Beijing.
Merz’s immediate predecessor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had offered a vision of Germany’s shifting international circumstances three years ago, describing it as a Zeitenwende or “turning point” in history. With the left-wing SPD expected to join the right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in a grand coalition, they may at least be on the same page here.
“Germany is facing a new reality,” Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund said. “It needs to step up and make decisions in order for it, and Europe, to maintain its role in the world.”
In addition to boosting defense spending, Germany deployed Bundeswehr troops to Lithuania in recent years, a move designed to protect the European Union’s eastern flank. But that could be just a first step.
A joint study released last week by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, estimated that Germany would need to increase its annual defense spending by more than $145 billion to ensure that Europe could defend itself against Russia without the United States, as well as provide NATO with an additional 100,000 troops.
Speaking Monday, Merz suggested that his first priority in coalition talks with the Social Democrats would be foreign policy and security. He has suggested that he is open to loosening Germany’s constitutional “debt brake” that had imposed strict budget rules on borrowing.
“It is Merz’s uber-Atlanticist and fiscally conservative CDU background that lends force to his calls for independence from the U.S.A., and will give him the credibility to bury the debt brake,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a European think tank.
While both parties appear willing to borrow to finance ambitious policies, they might not agree on what those policies should be. And in the AfD, they will have a powerful opposition force in the Bundestag. This political fragmentation, in part promoted by the Trump administration, could end up proving Germany’s critics in Washington right.
“If Germany isn’t able to significantly shift the way it sees its own role in NATO and Europe, it will end up being seen as weak and ineffective, which will only serve as fuel for Trump’s worst beliefs about Europe,” said Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
Kate Brady contributed to this report.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-standoff-ukraine-europe-competing-un-resolutions-russia-ukraine-war-rcna193458
U.S. in standoff with Ukraine and Europe over competing U.N. resolutions about Russia-Ukraine war
U.S. diplomats around the world were instructed to push their host countries to back the U.S. resolution and oppose a Russian amendment.
Feb. 24, 2025, 8:31 AM PST / Updated Feb. 24, 2025, 9:46 AM PST
By Abigail Williams
Leading up to a vote Monday, the United States had been lobbying countries around the world to oppose a resolution brought forward at the United Nations General Assembly by Ukraine and European countries on the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine and support a U.S. draft resolution instead.
But ultimately, after European countries won support for three amendments to the U.S. resolution, the Trump administration was forced to abstain from its own resolution.
The amendments replaced language referring to “the Russian Federation-Ukraine conflict” with “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation”; added a commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders; and expanded wording about a “lasting peace” between Ukraine and Russia to a “just, lasting and comprehensive peace,” “in line with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of States.”
“These amendments pursue a war of words rather than an end to the war,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea said shortly before the vote. “The attempt to add this language detracts from what we are trying to achieve with this forward-looking resolution, a firm consensus from the members of this body to unite behind a resolution calling for the end to this conflict.”
Despite the lack of U.S. support, the U.S. resolution with the new language was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly with 93 votes in favor, eight against and 73 abstentions.
Ukraine’s competing resolution co-sponsored by European countries also passed despite active U.S. opposition with 93 votes in favor, 18 against and 65 abstentions. The U.S. was among the 18 countries that voted against the resolution, including Russia, North Korea, Belarus and Sudan. China and Saudi Arabia were among the 65 countries that abstained.
An internal memo sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts Saturday had instructed the head of each U.S. mission to “engage host governments at the highest possible levels,” and urge them to support the U.S. resolution and encourage Ukraine to withdraw its own resolution, “which does not advance the United States’ goal of achieving a lasting peace.”
The U.S. will once again ask the world to support its resolution Monday afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, where it will be able to veto any amendments to its language brought forward by other members.
U.S. diplomats were also told to ask countries to vote against a proposed Russian amendment to the U.S. resolution, according to the diplomatic note seen by NBC News. The Russian amendment would add language saying that the “root causes” of the conflict should also be addressed.
The memo was first reported by Reuters.
Ukraine’s resolution, which it put forward last week, demands the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces “from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” The U.S. does not support that demand and Trump administration officials have recently suggested that Ukraine would likely have to give up some territory as part of a peace deal.
Ukraine’s resolution also refers to the ongoing hostilities as a “war,” a word that is omitted from the text of the U.S. resolution, and which Russia has stayed away from since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“President Trump is committed to ending the Russia-Ukraine war and to a resolution that leads to a lasting peace, not just a temporary pause,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Friday. “The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace.”
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I just saw this today. We need to watch out for this one.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/health-officials-warn-of-deadly-mystery-disease-rapidly-spreading-in-congo/ar-AA1zMoSm?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Health Officials Warn Of Deadly, Mystery Disease Rapidly Spreading In Congo
Story by Nina Golgowski • 6m • 4 min read
World health officials are warning of a deadly, previously unknown disease rapidly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northwest that’s killed nearly half of its victims in one locale within hours of the first symptoms developing.
As of Feb. 15, a total of 431 cases resulting in 53 deaths have been reported, with those illnesses emerging only weeks after the disease’s first detection last month in Équateur Province, the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa said in a public bulletin shared last week.
“The outbreak, which has seen cases rise rapidly within days, poses a significant public health threat,” the WHO’s regional office said.
The disease, first reported among children linked to a dead bat, progresses rapidly “with nearly half of the deaths occurring within 48 hours of symptom onset in one of the affected health zones, and an exceptionally high case fatality rate in another,” health officials said.
Health officials said they’ve ruled out other hemorrhagic fever diseases like Ebola and Marburg as causing the illnesses. These are two highly fatal diseases among humans that are believed to spread to people through fruit bats.
Though the overall case fatality rate is 12.3%, the rate is 66.7% in one of two outbreak areas, where eight of the 12 cases have resulted in death.
The disease’s emergence follows three children, all under the age of 5, dying between Jan. 10 and 13 after developing a fever, headache, diarrhea and fatigue. These symptoms, reported in the same village around Bolomba, then turned into hemorrhaging.
“Reports indicate that the children had consumed a bat carcass prior to onset of signs and symptom,” health officials said.
Shortly after those illnesses emerged, four additional children in the same village, between the ages of 5 and 18, came down with similar symptoms. Hundreds of similar cases since then have been reported in the region of Basankusu, which is roughly 115 miles northeast of Bolomba.
“The exact circumstances of exposure have not yet been established in both outbreaks. Additionally, no epidemiological links have been established between the cases in the two affected health zones,” officials said.
“Urgent action is needed to accelerate laboratory investigations, improve case management and isolation capacities, and strengthen surveillance and risk communication. The remote location and weak healthcare infrastructure increase the risk of further spread, requiring immediate high-level intervention to contain the outbreak.”
The disease’s initial, observable symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle pain or soreness, body aches, sweating, a runny nose, neck stiffness, cough, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps.
Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told The Washington Post that outbreaks of mysterious illnesses “will happen many times around the world” and that while it’s possible it can turn into something monumental like COVID-19, he said that it “is very rare.”
“Usually, it’s a bug … that we know about but haven’t yet diagnosed in that particular outbreak,” Head said.
The cases come amid a separate warning of a potential new pandemic emerging from the DRC’s eastern region in part due to the U.S.’s recent freeze of humanitarian aid under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Dr. Jean Kaseya, who serves as the director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, recently told news outlet Health Policy Watch that laboratory testing has all but stopped in the area and there’s limited transmission of medical information.
The DRC’s eastern region, particularly around Goma and Bukavu, could consequently become a hotspot for disease transmission due to this aid freeze as well as an ongoing rebel conflict in the region, Kaseya said.
The region’s invasion of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels has resulted in medical facilities becoming overwhelmed and over a million people being displaced, including hundreds of people who were receiving treatment at health facilities for mpox. There also are outbreaks of cholera and measles in the area, he said in a public briefing Thursday.
“This can be the entry point for a new pandemic,” Kaseya told Health Policy Watch. “The combination of insecurity, lack of funding and lack of medical countermeasures, [means] we are playing with fire.”
The Trump administration last month cut off approximately $60 billion in annual aid and development programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the funding must immediately resume, however, after a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze was ignored by the Trump administration.
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Shit. I think it is time to get a copy of The Stand.
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When I saw President Zelenskyy was going to White House today, I knew it would go insanely bad. Personally, if I was Europe, I would kick the US out of NATO as punishment. This is utterly revolting, and VD Chance was just as despicable. And America is going to pay the price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRcUumrC8bs
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Make no bones about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_mZbrbm9g
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Brian Tyler Cohen shows powerfully, what happened yesterday. After the debacle at the white house with Trump acting like one of the Sopranos (he said it would make great television), and Baby Eyeliner Vance, attacking Zelenskyy (and a Putin news camera got in the white house, funny that), what happened was ALL of Europe took to X, and said they stand with Ukraine. So I was debating with a moron, or really responded, she didn't chime back cause out of her league. But she claimed Trump and Vance did a master chess move. OH PLEASE. He showed us to be weak, and him to be compromised. A strong president would fully support an ally, and stand up to the dictator. Russia does not have the arsenal we do, and Putin knows it. But Putin has a dossier on Trump that is damning, and we all know it. And Trump pandered to his master, and we, other than the maggots, all knew it.
Europe knows it too, and the thing is, someone made a good point. If Ukraine, united with all of Europe, defeat Russia, this will make the USA irrelevant on the world stage. And if Europe abandons the USA, it will crush the economy. Hows that for putting America first?
Already the Netherlands just said they wont fuel our ships anymore, including military subs. It is beginning. And Europe is on the warpath to crush Tesla so...here we are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4y1mBxnP4
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Ugh. Just learned about Cyclone Alfred.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/cyclone-alfred-update-map-australia-rare-weather-b2707975.html
Cyclone Alfred intensifies to Category 2 ahead of rare landfall in Australia: Latest updates
Storm is expected to make landfall between Brisbane and Sunshine Coast and could be one of most destructive in the region for decades
Steffie Banatvala
,
Stuti Mishra
Tuesday 04 March 2025 17:02 GMT
Cyclone Alfred has intensified to Category 2 as it barrels towards Australia’s southeastern coast, prompting evacuation orders and a state of emergency.
The storm is expected to make landfall on Thursday or Friday between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and could be one of the most destructive in the region in decades, officials warned.
If it follows its projected path, Alfred will be the first cyclone to directly impact Brisbane since Nancy in 1990.
Forecasts indicate potential rainfall of 300-600mm, with some areas possibly receiving up to 700mm. Wind gusts are expected to exceed 120kmph, accompanied by large waves that may lead to coastal erosion and flooding.
Queensland premier David Crisafulli urged residents to “please be prepared” and ready “canned food and bottled water”.
“It is important that people take the event seriously, they stay up to date with warnings,” he said.
“We're dealing with a very heavily populated part of the state, a state that hasn't seen a cyclone for many years, in fact, many decades, get this close to the coast.”
Southern hemisphere sees six simultaneous tropical cyclones
Cyclone Alfred is one of six named tropical cyclones spinning in the southern hemisphere.
Three formed in the Indian ocean and another three formed in the Pacific ocean.
The storms range from category one to category four level hurricanes, including Seru and Rae north of New Zealand, Alfred northeast of Australia, Bianca west of Australia, Honde off Mozambique and Garance off Madagascar.
Cyclone Alfred wrecks man’s bid to row across Pacific Ocean
The Australian Navy rescued a Lithuanian rower caught in tropical cyclone Alfred during his solo venture crossing the Pacific Ocean.
Aurimas Mockus, a 44-year-old adventurer, was 740km off the coast of Mackay in Central Queensland when he got caught in the path of the category one cyclone with winds gusting at 130kmph.
The vessel was attempting to row 12,000km from San Diego to Brisbane when it sent out distress signals after running into trouble on Friday night.
Read more from Alisha Rahman Sarkar.
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I personally hope they do it. We need angry Americans to take to the streets.
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trump-tariffs-effect-canada-mexico-china-retaliates/story?id=119417925
'Dumb': Canada, Mexico blast historic Trump tariffs, threaten retaliation
U.S. tariffs are at their highest level since 1943, Yale's Budget Lab said.
ByKevin Shalvey, Karson Yiu, Ellie Kaufman, and Max Zahn
March 4, 2025, 1:20 PM
America's closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, excoriated President Donald Trump for slapping historic tariffs on goods from their countries.
Trump's broad tariffs went into effect on Tuesday, along with increased duties on goods from China, a move that prompted a swift retaliation from Beijing.
"President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest," the White House said in a statement.
Goods entering the U.S. from Mexico and Canada will carry a 25% tariff, while those from China will be subject to a 10% increase on existing tariffs, according to the White House.
U.S. tariffs are at their highest level since 1943, Yale's Budget Lab said.
On Feb. 27, Trump alleged that illicit drugs such as fentanyl had continued to enter the U.S. through Mexico and Canada despite agreements reached last month to address the issue.
Since September, nearly all fentanyl seized by the U.S. came through the Southern border with Mexico, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, a federal agency. Less than 1% of fentanyl was seized at the Northern border with Canada, CBP found.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply criticized the tariffs, calling them a "dumb" policy that does not "make sense."
The reason for the tariffs is based on a false allegation about Canada as a major source of drugs entering the U.S., Trudeau added.
"It’s an example of [Trump] not really being able to see what it is that he wants, because even the excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified [and] completely false," Trudeau said.
Trudeau also slammed Trump for warming relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in discussions about the Russia-Ukraine war. "They've chosen to do this while appeasing Putin," Trudeau said.
In response, Canada slapped a 25% retaliatory tariff on $30 billion worth of goods. Tariffs on an additional $125 billion worth of products will take effect in 21 days, Trudeau said.
"We will not back down from a fight," Trudeau added, saying Canadians would punish the U.S. with their pocketbooks.
"We are going to stop consuming American products," Trudeau said, pointing to public anger spotlighted at recent sporting events during which Canadians booed the U.S. national anthem. "We are going to continue to boo the U.S. anthem. We aren't booing the America people -- just this unjust policy."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who leads the nation's most populous province, said his government could end a contract with Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service Starlink and shut off power to the U.S.
"We will retool for new markets and new customers," Ford said.
Hours after Trudeau's remarks, Trump vowed to impose additional tariffs in response to Canada's countermeasures.
"Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also slammed the tariffs and announced plans to impose retaliatory tariffs.
Sheinbaum rebuked remarks made by Trump on Monday alleging that "vast amounts of fentanyl" have entered the U.S. from Mexico. Sheinbaum cited CBP data showing that seizures of fentanyl from Mexico declined 50% between October 2024 and January 2025.
"There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations," Sheinbaum said. "We have said it in different ways: cooperation and coordination, yes; subordination and interventionism, no."
Sheinbaum said she will speak over the phone with Trump on Thursday, and if no deal can be reached, she’ll announce the tariff and non-tariff measures at a rally on Sunday.
China's response
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
Those duties will be on top of similar tariffs imposed back during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 "phase one" trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out next Monday, March 10.
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When I see these MAGA folks with their flag shit, going on about the troops and things. What are they gonna say about this? When did it become cool to shit on our vets?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-administration-plans-to-cut-80000-employees-from-veterans-affairs-according-to-internal-memo/ar-AA1Ajx5V?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 employees from Veterans Affairs, according to internal memo
Story by STEPHEN GROVES • 1h • 2 min read
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning an “aggressive” reorganization that includes cutting 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care for retired military members, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The VA's chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top level officials at the agency that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
The memo instructs top-level staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.” It also calls for agency officials to work with the White House's Department of Government Efficiency to “move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach” to the Trump administration's goals.
Veterans have already been speaking out against the cuts at the VA, which so far had included a few thousand employees and hundreds of contracts. More than 25% of the VA's workforce are veterans themselves.
In Congress, Democrats have decried the cuts at the VA and other agencies, while Republicans have so far watched with caution the Trump administration's changes.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees veteran's affairs, said in a statement that the Trump administration “has launched an all-out assault" against progress the VA has made in expanding its services as the number of covered veterans grows and includes those impacted by toxic burn pits.
“Their plan prioritizes private sector profits over veterans’ care, balancing the budget on the backs of those who served. It’s a shameful betrayal, and veterans will pay the price for their unforgivable corruption, incompetence, and immorality," Blumenthal said in a statement.
Government Executive first reported on the internal memo.
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Pretty much, everyone who works for the VA is a veteran. They pretty much are. I mean to relate to vets, being one obviously helps.
This is antichrist crap. They are coming to destroy all the good programs, all to funnel it to the rich. Now, I cannot see a Trump supporting vet so delusional, they would see it as a good thing to do this. I can't see it. Will this spark outrage, take folks to the streets, or when vets dont get checks or healthcare or services like suicide prevention, or PTSD help? Ok.