Open Thread 2016-15
News & views ...
Posted by b on April 20, 2016 at 17:46 UTC | Permalink
next page »Hillary Clinton Exposed as Dishonest, Disrespectful and Arrogant Politician:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyYQUfZauuw&list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dTjBEh2kqB0dc8JY5QJ-yPm
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 20 2016 19:17 utc | 2
The PTB tout the GDP because it does not reflect the declining living standard that accompanies it.
It's a race to the bottom with ever increasing productivity in combination with downward pressure on labor and operating expenses.
The PTB also touts increases in productivity without mentioning the squeeze on laborers. That is fewer workers doing more work in less time for reduced pay.
The result = declining living standards.
Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 20 2016 19:29 utc | 3
On the medium and long term, Turkey is winning the region
Turkey’s Strategy for Syria and Iraq
Turkey is in a strong position to achieve its geopolitical objectives in the both Syria and Iraq. In Iraq, for instance, Turkey’s objective after the U.S. invasion in 2003 was to ensure that the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG), led by Massoud Barzani, would become economically dependent on Turkey. This was a successful. Turkey today is by far the most important economic and political partner of the KRG with trade exceeding $12 billion. As of 2016 over 2,000 Turkish companies operated in the KRG, many of which have built the KRG’s infrastructure....
In the future, Turkey will be the major player in the economy of northern Syria and perhaps elsewhere in Syria. Other major players—Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S.—simply do not have the wherewithal or ability to match Turkey’s potential. Russia will retain its bases in Latakia and with the Alawites whether Bashar al-Assad remains in power of not, but it is not in a position to contribute or to benefit economically in the rehabilitation of Syria.
Posted by: virgile | Apr 20 2016 19:36 utc | 4
@4 virgile.. that turkey relies on a relationship with a kleptomaniac to raise it's position doesn't go unnoticed.. erdofanatic has learned well from his us masters and saudi friends... however, it can't bode well for the region in the long term.. and then there's been an interruption in the oil trade perhaps too thanks hoping to use syria as a passing point for any of it.. i guess the strange bedfellows turkey keeps will continue to turn a blind eye to it all so long as they get some of the pillage too..
Posted by: james | Apr 20 2016 20:33 utc | 5
Some here may be interested in this recent post by 28pages.org titled 'Declassified Doc Shows 9/11 Commission Investigators Wanted to Examine Political, Economic Influence on Saudi-9/11 Inquiries'. The Daily Mail has a story up now that provides no links to original report, let alone Document 17 that was recently declassified detailing the envelop, from the Saudi Embassy in DC, in '03 with Ghassan al Sharbi's U.S. flight license certificate - https://28pagesdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/document-17.pdf
Rup. Just realized I didn't post the link to the 28Pages article - http://tinyurl.com/gn93ylk
"The PTB tout the GDP because it does not reflect the declining living standard that accompanies it"
GDP doesn't reflect declining living standards because 40% of it is a result of financialization, which is a net-negative for the rest of us. GDP numbers would be more meaningful if we took that 40% (and growing) out of it.
Posted by: paulmeli | Apr 20 2016 20:47 utc | 8
@Tom Murphy #2
We all know about Democratic Party and Hillary. Bernie is a self-confessed Democratic and will support whoever the party nominated for the Presidency. Can you trust Bernie? NOPE
Tom, thanks a million for your advices. Two weeks ago, changed my voting preference from Green Party to No Preference, to vote in the Democratic party Super Tuesday 7 June primary, and vote for Hillary Clinton.
Come November will vote for either Jill Stein or Donald Trump.
Vote either GREEN or Republican party. Never Democratic Party, EVER!
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 20 2016 20:55 utc | 9
virgile
No room to compare the Kurdistan region with the Syrian state, in the ancient work and skill in production, Turkey is just a thief steals the factories and the contents of the granaries and oil from the Syrian territory.
The Syrians do not trust any one for reconstructionexcept for themselves. Syria not contain foreign labor for reconstruction and will not be so in the future
The Russians, as they always will appropriate support to upgrade the infrastructure by Syrian forces self
Syrian refugees, especially from the province of Aleppo are surprised host countries in their ability and outstanding a leading and creativity at work
Tom Murphy, your Bernie - GW Bush3 got slaughtered in NY and will get slaughter again in California... the Golden State.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 20 2016 21:00 utc | 11
I'm sure I'm not the only that thinks Egypt will be selling the tin can Mistrals to Russia. Here's an update to the saga: https://www.rt.com/business/340377-egypt-equipment-mistrals-russia/
Posted by: citizen | Apr 20 2016 22:18 utc | 12
h @6 & @7,
You do know, don't you, that the '28 pages' and the so called '19 hijackers' is just the rather obvious pathetic story to set up the Saudi patsies to cover for the real perps? No '19 hijackers' flew those planes into those buildings. Full Stop. The moon is closer to consisting of blue cheese than that ridiculous fantasy. If the consequences weren't so tragic for the world, we could really have a good belly laugh at that notion.
Posted by: kafkananda | Apr 20 2016 22:18 utc | 13
A request
Any chance all you pro-Bern/Greens/Trump nuts and the Kilary supporting zionist shithead, could give the Elections BS a rest for this open-thread?
You election-circus junkies already ruined several threads with all that crap that no one with more than 2 working brain cells gives a shit about, so how bout you tards keep all that idiotic crap for the previous open thread, which you already destroyed? Instead of destroying this one too with your neverending political partisan idiocy.
Thanks in advance
Posted by: A Modest Proposal | Apr 20 2016 22:26 utc | 14
@14--Since when did you control what people can post on an open thread?
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 20 2016 22:41 utc | 15
"Nonsense was at the center of philosophical debates in the first half of the twentieth century. This was the heyday of the great theorists of nonsense, Wittgenstein and Carnap in particular. They argued that large swaths of discourse (and of philosophy in particular) were nonsense. They thought that many of those we consider great thinkers were not thinking at all. According to Carnap, what some considered the highpoints of human intellectual achievement are no more than a bunch of people making noises and marks on paper. Those who read, commented on, and developed their work suffered from the same illusion. They had what appear to be discussions; they wrote books and papers apparently responding to each other. But it was all the most fundamental kind of failure: it was neither true not false, no thoughts were expressed, and there was no agreement or disagreement. It was all just a complete waste of time, energy, ink, and paper."
http://hermancappelen.net/docs/NonsenseAndIllusionsOfThought.pdf
[voting] "Glass Bead Game" "election methods circus" Electobabble
Electoplasmic residue. "Ectoplasmic Residue, is a substance that comes from a ghosts and outworldly beings. It usually appears in a form of a slimy, greenish substance, but sometimes..."
Get strategic simple score voting with NO MACHINES. NOW!!!
Stop The Madness!
The fascist Wikipedia has about 100 pages about "Voting systems". Thousands of "political science" students have destroyed the world. Stop them and their monstrous Hillary candidates. Reject their lies and their bogus "mathematics". The election system can be repaired, despite their idiotic "theories" and faux "moral" demands. Stop the absurd “political silence” college courses, and the fake Kenneth Arrow Nobel Award.
Strategic simple score ("simple score") voting can be completely described in one short simple sentence: Strategically bid no vote at all (ignore them as if the did not exist), or strategically bid from five (5) to ten (10) votes to any number of candidates you wish (up to some reasonable limit, say 20 candidates), and then simply add all the votes up.
Of course, with no machines. NOTHING ELSE EVEN BEGINS TO WORK!
No more "Republicans". No More "Democrats".
End this descent into abject poverty. End it now.
We the people must live.
Drop your write-in vote on the table. Let the fiends stick it in their infernal machine. THEN REVOLT!!!!!
Posted by: blues | Apr 20 2016 23:03 utc | 16
An exclusive thread for the American electoral circus sounds like a good idea. Up to those who post on the subject to adhere to it.
kafkananda @13 said 'You do know, don't you, that the '28 pages' and the so called '19 hijackers' is just the rather obvious pathetic story to set up the Saudi patsies to cover for the real perps? No '19 hijackers' flew those planes into those buildings....'
There is no question the 'perps' created an illusion purposefully for the entire world to believe the planes were hijacked and flew into the buildings and hole in the ground. As you well know, there is ample evidence, especially at the pentagon that there was no plane as well as in Pennsylvania, but rather a missile. Many have posted credible work demonstrating said fact. Many.
That said, the Saudi's played a role in what has turned my country into a sick twisted pretzel. What that role is/was has yet to see full sunlight. I think of this exercise Graham and others are engaged in as peeling back the multiple layers of an onion aka the illusion and I'm all for that no matter who or what organization is doing the peeling. I simply want sunlight as I'm confident you do as well.
I think blues advocacy for simple score voting is not political partisanship or election talk. It is meant to END a good part of partisan crap by ending 'lesser evil' voting.
I'm not sure there is much more to say about the ongoing elections. There is voting next week, but it looks like it will not be as dramatic as the NY vote. California on June 7th may be the next big contest because that vote may determine whether Trump wins the Republican nomination.
Absent unexpected developments, this thread should be relatively safe from election talk.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 21 2016 0:22 utc | 19
Re 9/11: My lady 2nd cousin was a middle manager at the Pentagon on 9/11. (Other side of family, upwardly mobile, never had anything to do with us.) Heard via family grapevine shortly afterward that the whole large organization she was part of was moved to the opposite side of the building shortly before, from the area that was hit, because of renovations there. Otherwise would have been in the target area. Heard the area hit was essentially empty at the time, closed for renovations. Nothing official, only family rumors, explaining how my cousin survived.
Posted by: Seward | Apr 21 2016 0:53 utc | 20
Seward @35 - Think what you might about Jesse Ventura, but he did whatever he could to bring sunlight to the Pentagon attack. The area that was hit was the team trying to figure out where $2.3T was spent or possibly stolen. Recall on Sept 10 Rumsfeld held a press conference, search it if you do not believe me, about the missing money. The next day, Sept 11, the very forensic team attempting to uncover and provide an explanation to the American people were the target of the missile, and it was a missile not a plane, into their offices - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18s3bg_conspiracy-theory-with-jesse-ventura-pentagon_shortfilms
When Jesse Ventura ran for Governor of Minnesota masses turned out to vote that had never voted before and that's why he won. Maybe if we had a presidential candidate that had that appeal the Minnesota effect could be reproduced and we could get rid of the neocons.
Posted by: citizen | Apr 21 2016 1:28 utc | 22
blues @34: 12 years
I believe it blues. I had a look at a few Wikipedia pages and quickly realized that voting systems are much more complicated issue than it seems.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 21 2016 1:46 utc | 23
I listened to a guns and butter podcast recently, 'remembering Michael Ruppert and John Judge' in that, Mike Ruppert notes that Taliban destroyed Poppies in ?Marc? 2001, and that he had predicted that there would be hell to pay for that act...he notes that Afghanistan was invaded soon after 9/11 in time to replant the poppies ...anyone here ever hear a similar of this connection , ie any other sources confirming this?
Posted by: Bluemot5 | Apr 21 2016 2:02 utc | 24
The trick is at the Pentagon there WAS a plane - it FLEW OVER in coordination with the missile that hit the part being renovated.
The event was designed full of traps for inquisitive minds to be attacked with endless "straw man" arguments...
BTW whole SEC documentation on the investigation of Enron was in the WTC7.
What about World Trade Center’s Infamous 91st-Floor Israeli ‘Art Student’ Project?
Posted by: ProPeace | Apr 21 2016 2:08 utc | 25
@40 bluemot5.. i had heard that too, but don't have anything concrete to offer in terms of links.. i guess the thinking there is the money was flowing into the right hands and when it looked threatened, afgan had to be invaded - for good reason of course - (not) - osama was somehow from afganistan? lol... just remember this is the fodder given an amerikkkan audience who remain largely ignorant of much, so much so that not an open thread goes by without more fodder on the jokers for the next election.. one wonders how low the usa can sink to... the possibilities are limitless with retards/racists/warmongers at the top...
Posted by: james | Apr 21 2016 2:12 utc | 26
It hasn't been solved. For my channel, and my second channel, he situation is worse. I am being targeted. For example this video: https://goo.gl/ylmxnq had the monetization pulled before it was even done processing. Then it was monetized about a day later. The it was demonetized again. Then eventually it was remonetized.
Apparently a scheme has been concocted to financially cripple people who report certain things that some don't want reported. If you look, that example doesn't have anything to do without eh claimed "too sensitive" stuff. What apparently has happened is my channel has been put on a list for abuse because some agenda is being served. This is a shameful way to treat journalists.
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 21 2016 2:24 utc | 27
Greece came up briefly on the earlier open thread. What's up with the prospects for "Meaningful Debt Relief (TM) -- Now with 4.5 Pct. Budget Cuts! And All of Our Regular Foreclosures and Privatizations"?
Negotiations did not complete by the spring IMF meeting, and are thought by Tsipras to be likely to conclude by -- get this -- May Day, which is also Easter on the Julian calender of the Orthodox Church. Both us atheistic reds and you pious Christians can both savor the irony of this act of betrayal.
To be fair, Tsipras was touring Lesbos with Francis and the Orthodox Patriach of Constantinople when he spoke on the topic.
In a related development, Tsipras’ office angrily dismissed press reports in Athens over the weekend claiming that the Greek prime minister threatened to resign if lenders’ – primarily the IMF – objections were not overcome and a first review achieved.
Hey, it's never too late for a noble act of sacrifice on behalf of the suffering masses ("of sinners" optional, of course). May Day would be a good day for a resignation. Best would have been last July, of course, before agreeing with the IMF. After the Greek people had agreed with you, saying, you could disagree with the IMF about the austerity you now enforce.
This means that the fiendish plot to let event unfold as they were scripted to in July 2015 now continues apace. This was outlined in a leaked transcript of a teleconference of some IMF line official, kvetching about their superiors and negotiating partners.
I suggested it at the time it was an effort by pro-Syriza elements somewhere in the IMF/EU apparat to soften up the IMF, hurry along the pre-disbursement review of the money needed in July to service the debt. It also rallies the troops.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras exploited the leak at home to demonize the IMF, rally his left-wing Syriza party ahead of more painful sacrifices to secure the next slice of European loans, and try to put his conservative opponents in a corner.But efforts to drive a wedge between the EU institutions and the IMF, and isolate IMF Europe director Paul Thomsen, a veteran of six years of acrimonious negotiations with Athens, fell flat.
"Each time Tsipras is going to have to compromise, he needs to create an external enemy," said George Pagoulatos, professor of European politics and economy at Athens University. "It's part of his old populist playbook."
Tsipras is trying to run a "Hail Mary" play, like he did last year in the Big Game. Understandable, as the article points out he's running behind. Here's the state of play, from Naftemporiki website first cited:
SYRIZA preferred by 18.4 percent of respondents.
ND preferred by 21.4 percent of respondents.
PASOK-DIMAR (6 percent)
Golden Dawn (5.4 percent)
Communist Party (4.9 percent)
Union of Centrists (2.6 percent)
Like Martin Mull used to urge, don't go with the Hail Mary.
Let's give Jesus Christ the football, let him even up the score.
Let him run it through the crossbars and be on that Cross no more!
And what came to pass at the IMF spring meeting regarding Greece? Well, the WSJ reports that they and Europeans agreed to ask for another 1 pct. of public spending cuts. The Greeks are attempting to argue that improved fiscal data rates them a pass.
Mr. Tsipras’s government, led by the left-wing Syriza party, is trying to push back against an pact reached at the weekend between the IMF and Europe to press Greece for up to 4.5% of its GDP in measures to cut public spending and boost tax revenues....Further austerity is a hard sell in Greece, which since 2010 has enacted spending cuts and tax hikes totaling around 30% of its annual economic output, according to its finance ministry.
With only a three-vote majority in the parliament, you can bet Tsipras is doing some first-rate herding in imposing austerity on the Greeks.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 21 2016 4:08 utc | 28
b,
Without being offensive. Your "Strategic simple score" sounds just like "Strategic Voting" to me. It won't work as I previously stated, last Canadian's Federal Election. Justin Trudeau won and still have Harper2. Many Canadians questioning if strategic voting lived up to its expectations.
Three Gorillas: Hailey, Donald and Bernie. No matter who wins, it's still the Gorilla. Even Serger Lavrov said “If it looks like a gorilla, if it walks like a gorilla, if it acts like a gorilla, if it fights like a gorilla, it’s a gorilla.”
It’s sickening watching Hailey, Donald and Bernie supporters throwing insults or lying with MSM and our snake-old salesman in the games. Snake-oil salesman trying to con my vote for Bernie and pressure him to pick Jill Stein as his VP. Wishful ploy?
Best options vote for the worst and most evil Gorilla, since they're the same, I'll vote for Donald Trump.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 21 2016 4:49 utc | 29
Jaafari urges UN to deter Israel from violations in Golan
Good account of an actual Syrian at the Geneva talks bringing said talks back to reality. Too much to cut and paste, certainly worth the read. Nothing we don't already know, but delivered at the UN, the US'/EU's hall of mirrors, I'm sure at least some of the mirrors must be shattered.
Turkey’s Strategy of killig
Children, women killed by Turkish border guards while fleeing Syria
https://www.rt.com/news/340370-syria-turkey-border-shootings/
@48 jack smith... h is not b... slight little difference in the letters there, lol...
Posted by: james | Apr 21 2016 4:55 utc | 32
jack smith
There ARE voting methods that can prevent 'lesser evil' voting, which is a type of strategic voting because such a vote is not FOR a candidate but AGAINST a different candidate.
The Green Party wants to change voting to "ranked choice". blues has done his own investigation and believes that "simple score" is better.
It seems to me that either of these would resulting much higher votes for third-parties. That means some third-parties would be viable because they would get Federal funding and appear in national debates.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 21 2016 6:02 utc | 34
United Nations Evicts Journalist as He Live Streams UN Evicting Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc0xztiiRWY&list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dTENVRY4D8pvmAIbHhu6XBK
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 21 2016 6:57 utc | 35
Ok here we go..
Putin Is a 'Smart But Truly Evil Man,' Says Madeleine Albright
http://europe.newsweek.com/putin-smart-truly-evil-man-says-madeleine-albright-450332?rm=eu
Posted by: Sabel | Apr 21 2016 7:03 utc | 36
The US is deploying B-52 bombers to attack/carpet bomb ISIS ???
- http://www.msn.com/de-de/nachrichten/politik/erstmals-mit-grossbomber-b-52-gegen-den-is/ar-BBs34WS?li=BBqg6Q9
(In german)
- http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/780653/us-ups-pressure-on-isis-with-first-b-52-bomber-strike
Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 21 2016 8:06 utc | 37
@Jackrabbit #53
appreciate your explanations, not convince it will change and prevent 'lesser evil' voting. If it works, gorillas will move the "goal-post" so to speak in Football (Soccer) term or changing the rules prevent funding or higher votes for third-parties. It will never happen!
If you or blues unable to convince me, how can I convince the people I met daily? My community has more die-hard Democrats than Die-hard Republicans and thin slice of progressive-independent.
The socio.political changes backfired against both parties. The consensus the first Black President did nothing but endless wars resulting poverty and unemployment being felt by the community.
During 2014 midterm House elections, Republican won by 500 votes (estimate). An automatic recount put the Democrats over with less than 200 votes. It was reported the Republican candidate, a farmer funded his own just like Donald Trump. Having almost lost this "safe" seat to the unknown Republican, Democrats put their foot-soldiers to work. I fucked off (first time using the "F" word) a Black kid when he knocked at my door and told him I will vote for Trump even as I despise Trump.
Yea, the Repug is evil and will put us in concentration camps only the Democrats can save us.....? Fear-mongering and threats will not frighten me, been there... 8 months homelessness have harden my determination never to vote for the Democrats, ever.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 21 2016 9:10 utc | 38
Obama and the United States of Arabia
https://youtu.be/_2fNzHfc5RY
Posted by: ALAN | Apr 21 2016 11:58 utc | 40
Commentary on Western 'lawfare' v. Russia and Iran: https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/legal-blowback/
Posted by: KMF | Apr 21 2016 12:02 utc | 41
Obama Offers Saudi Arabia a Deal With NATO
Others say that Obama is offering Israel and Saudi Arabia a deal with NATO. Sisi's already played the sissy and betrayed the Egyptians ...
Obama to help Israel procure Tiran and Sanafir, reports
An Israel-based website revealed that Maj.Gen. Ram Rothberg, the Commander of the Israeli Navy, has allegedly asked President Obama to bring the matter of Tiran and Sanafir Islands in his talks with the Saudi king in his Wednesday’s tour to the Middle-East in order to help Israel eventually procure the two strategic islands in the Red Sea.
Wall to wall death, devastation, destruction and deceit serving the interests of the fusiliers, the financiers, and the fossil-fuelers. And the action is in the 4th quarter of Barack the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's big game. He's retiring from 'the game' in the large the 21st of next year.
You'd think the Arab's would give rulers like this a little of that head-chopping action for their colossal betrayals of late, wouldn't you? Not to mention us Americans. I guess we're so used to betrayal we'd miss it if it were gone. Ah well, Hillary won't disappoint us.
Doesn't have to be this way. Maurice Duverger describes the syndrome and offers two 'cures', I opt for poll to majority, as the least different from what we have now in the USA, as well, I'm not a fan of proportional representation. Look at Germany.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 21 2016 13:57 utc | 43
I find it amusing. Nasty comments are made routinely on this blog by some 'common taters' --- and b let's em slide. Other comments, mild by comparison, get taken out.
Granted, it is b's blog. But exactly what is the criteria?
I don't get it, which is, in the end amusing ...
Posted by: Rg the Lg | Apr 21 2016 14:13 utc | 44
A Science Project
During the last couple of days the "End of the Worlders" have been making much of the recent seismic activity around the world. The 'Press" has quickly pointed out that one event across the planet cannot trigger another, which I do agree. However, no one, at least has I can tell, has talked about a third possible causal event, ie the shift in the planet's axis by about 8 feet, over that last 14 years.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-tipping-because-of-climate-change1/
While I'm not proclaiming the end of the world, just not yet, anyway, it would seem like a fun little science project to keep track over time of the number and distribution of seismic events to determine if there is a causal link and if we might expect more seismic activity with the poles continuing to melt.
Posted by: InNameOnly | Apr 21 2016 14:22 utc | 45
11;Yes,minorities ,feminazis,LGBT and Zionists voted for the hell bitch.But she got creamed upstate,another sign of her abject showing in the hinterlands,and the West coast that will decide the election.California has the LA minority and San Fran illiberal base(probably very pro Sanders too),but I wouldn't count Sanders out quite yet.
She is very weak nationally,from my perspective.
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 21 2016 14:30 utc | 46
36;Yeah I saw that too.B-52s.
Precision weaponry that will spare the children,wives and families of the (alleged)terrorists.
Not,of course,but someones gotta take the fall,right Donald?
The reason the 28 pages are hidden;It aint just the Saudis.
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 21 2016 14:47 utc | 47
Posted by: jfl | Apr 21, 2016 9:57:46 AM | 42
The story of Israel trying to buy two islands makes no sense. It is conceivable that some Israeli politicians may have such a wish, and nothing else is plausible in the story. The source is "an Israeli web site". Duh. AMR is a thinly staffed outfit, and they are competent on their main topics, but otherwise, not an authority.
National Review is a serious news source with a large stuff and they make some attempt of writing true story. Most recently, they unmasked the hypocrisy of a certain Bernie Sanders. As an aside, this week thousands of Sanderistas were passing by my building. Anyway, the horrors of Bernie Sanders: he shamelessly gave access to his tax return where he used, take that! deductions from income to decrease the tax amount. Using such arcane accounting tricks like "mortgage interest" and "state and local taxes" he reduced his federal tax from the average of 15.2% (average for 200-250k income bracket, and as they are on the lower end of that bracket, it is hardly surprising that they pay a bit less than the average) to niggardly 13.5%, and this person advocates higher taxes! Some commenters also chimed in that with two homes (hence large mortgage) Sanders' are a "one percent" family, so he is a "bird shitting in its own nest" but actually Sanders belongs to "top 6%" and he did not make it into "top 5%". Anyway, being delegated to dig dirt on Sanders seems a hard patch to hoe. Nothing as colorful as suspicious commodity trades, so we got "4 thousands of employee expenses including travel". (For non-Americans: Sanders' return is as plain as they come, they simply filled in information they have to report, the several lines used by the majority of folks in the country, and looked up the tax table).
Re: proportional representation and other systems. They make difference on the edges. The main issue is if the population absorbs harmful myths or not, if they do than they will elect dangerous sociopaths under any system, if they do not, they will at least find relatively harmless sociopaths.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 21 2016 15:17 utc | 48
@46: Carpet bombing is VERY "inprecise". But it's a job for the (Airforce) boys. Can they justify their budgets, right ?
But the US consumer will take revenge. Just by spending less. But already the US Budget Deficit has started to rise and the US Current Account has started to contract. The most toxic combination for the US.
(but to understand how that can be detrimental for the US, one has to have knowledge of Balance Of Payments issues)
Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 21 2016 15:24 utc | 49
The PTB tout the GDP because it does not reflect the declining living standard that accompanies it. fast freddy at 3
The GDP is a bad measure on many counts, more could be said. What is rarely emphasised, is that GDP measures a whole country’s GDP and does not take into account rising population and >> a measure of GDP per capita.
Here is a good chart of GDP *per capita* in France by O. Berruyer. (It is probably worse in several other countries. Afaik no such calc. has been made for the USA.) Others have come to very similar conclusions and published similar data, charts.
From this article (> a video conference) at his site. In French.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 21 2016 15:43 utc | 50
Some links of interest re. current news.
Slavyangrad, by Bafeuf79, on the Panama papers.
https://slavyangrad.org/2016/04/13/the-panama-papers-stand-up-routine/#more-6795
Geroid O Colmain on the “Paris Nuit Debout Movement” his blog.
http://www.gearoidocolmain.org/the-paris-nuit-debout-movement/
“A world tour of color revolutions”, from Fort Russ, by Laurent Brayard.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/the-color-revolution-world-tour.html
the vid referred to is v. good and old (it could not appear today.) Unfortunately, it is in French, no s-t. It covers many countries. 56 mins.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 21 2016 16:14 utc | 51
@33 jackrabbit.. well that is clearly confusing then! thanks..
Posted by: james | Apr 21 2016 16:33 utc | 52
A critical aspect of "elections" is money which poisons it. Public financing with zero private money would help. Each candidate to be provided with same money. Each candidate would print his message on a single sheet. Each would receive a given equal quantity of tv time. Each would answer the same questions. Questions would come from citizens and not tv people.
Each candidate would take the 4th grade comprehensive assessment test and his grade would be posted for all to see.
Many common citizens do not seem to understand public financing of elections because the PTB do not want them to understand it.
Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 21 2016 17:03 utc | 53
@ Sabel | 36
Putin Is a 'Smart But Truly Evil Man,' Says Madeleine Albright
_________________________________
I've resisted the Western infoganda onslaught intended to demonize, scapegoat, and generally bash 'n trash Vladimir Putin-- the latest, greatest Emmanuel Goldstein nemesis-figure of the Western hegemony.
But I may have to defer to Albright's considerable authority and expertise on "smart but truly evil".
If anybody knows "smart but truly evil", inside and out, it's Albright.
Posted by: Ort | Apr 21 2016 17:15 utc | 54
QUOTE -- "Without being offensive. Your "Strategic simple score" sounds just like "Strategic Voting" to me. It won't work as I previously stated, last Canadian's Federal Election. Justin Trudeau won and still have Harper2. Many Canadians questioning if strategic voting lived up to its expectations." -- UNQUOTE -- Jack Smith | Apr 21, 2016 12:49:15 AM | 29
With virtually any system other than score voting, attempting to vote strategically is very likely to be disastrous. For example: Let's say only Bush, Gore and Nader are running. Supposing you assess Gore to be not much better than Bush, but better. And you assess Nader to be much better than the others, but extremely unlikely to win. (My own assessment.)
With the current vote-for-one (so-called "plurality") system, giving your one vote to Nader is potentially disastrous. With the simple score system, you might say, give give 10 votes to Nader, and 9 to Gore. that way, you would only sacrifice 10% of your franchise with respect to Gore. Thus no disaster. Simple score is not a disastrous vote-for-one method.
It is specifically designed to make strategic voting safe.
Posted by: blues | Apr 21 2016 18:38 utc | 55
After an unbelievable run of bad luck (7 major life disasters) I became homeless for a time. Now I'm just kind of old.
Posted by: blues | Apr 21 2016 20:44 utc | 56
Your comedy interlude for today:
Moon of Alabama [et al ...] a totally slavish conveyer of Kremlin talking points
Posted by: Colin | Apr 21 2016 20:55 utc | 57
The dark Russia Insider grottoes are fearsome and filled with Vampiric monstrosities. So sayeth Louis Proyect and the Legion of Legend (aka bullshit). (Aka "Some Wanker.)
Posted by: blues | Apr 21 2016 22:13 utc | 58
@57:
Talking about Proyect is like telling a fart joke. Everyone will giggle a bit, but it's not as funny as it is disgusting.
Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Apr 21 2016 22:13 utc | 59
@51 noirette
Three good links, especially the first on Drew Sullivan, who has made a career sucking at the teat of the US government, space shuttle to gutter. At least from my point of view. The one by Gearóid Ó Colmáin is enlightening as well, the Nuit Debout remind me of the poor lambs roped in by the Bern. There is a class of people, Sullivan et al., who have found a very sweet little niche running the propaganda mills of the "Western" governments. The 10% as you call them. These governments are run, after all, by living, breathing people ... some make the drones and the bombs and some make the propaganda, but they all make 'good' government money. They are the ones resisting any change to the status quo, they are fully invested in it. People are suffering and dying all over the world in countries destroyed by their actions. 'Governments' couldn't effect their death, devastation, destruction, and deceit without them. They are the hearts and minds of evil incarnate.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 22 2016 0:18 utc | 60
The dark Russia Insider grottoes are fearsome and filled with Vampiric monstrosities. So sayeth Louis Proyect and the Legion of Legend (aka bullshit). (Aka "Some Wanker.)
---
All I did was cite Peter Lavelle, an authoritative figure on Russia Today, who denounced Russia Insider as a rip-off. If you've read Homer, I guess you know that the Greeks killed messengers bearing bad news--not that I have any worries about any potential barrel bombers from this sad website.
Posted by: Louis Proyect | Apr 22 2016 1:20 utc | 61
@42 pb, 'The story of Israel trying to buy two islands makes no sense.'
No it doesn't make sense, but I posted a former link to speculation / assertion that Israel wanted or already had some sort of spy operation on, Tiran I think it said. From one of the Russian sites, or neo, maybe. I cannot find it now myself. The guy at Al Masdar made clear that his source was Israeli. The ultimate source of the earlier link may well have been as well. The Israelis said they were consulted on the transfer, as was the US and that none had any objections. Sometimes where there's smoke there's fire. The Israelis and Saudis are increasingly becoming thicker than thieves all over Arabia. Apparently Israel has occupied the islands since the 1967 war ...
Saudi-Israeli Military Cooperation on the Island of Tiran: Revealed (likely the source of my original link)
An Israeli military source close to the leftist disclosed that the Saudi and Israeli military cooperation agreement signed with the centrality of Tiran Island, Al-Alam News Network reports.According to Al-Alam News Network, the agreement includes monitoring and control of the Strait of Bab el-Mandab, Gulf of Aden, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea littoral states.
According to documents from the military source, Tiran Island will be used as the headquarter of a joint operation between Tel Aviv and Riyadh in the Red Sea.
Last year, a number of Saudi Arabia officers attended training course at the naval base Polonium in the port of Haifa, the military source disclosed.
Saudis remain tight-lipped on Israel-occupied islands
Saudi Arabia and Western governments have for decades remained silent on the occupation of Saudi islands by Israel, Press TV reports.
Many wonder where these islands are and why Saudi Arabia never tries to regain its sovereignty over them.
They belonged to Saudi Arabia until 1967 when King Faisal gave control of the islands to Egypt to prevent Israel from sending its ships to Eilat station during the Six-Day war. The islands were then occupied by Israel.
Following the war, when Egypt’s Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, he refused to mention the status of the islands as part of the agreement, saying they belonged to Saudi Arabia. But interestingly, Riyadh has not commented on the status of the islands since.
Israel is still Occupying Saudi Arabian islands
It is a fairly well kept secret that Israel has been occupying parts of Saudi Arabia since 1967. Tiran and Sanafir are two islands with a combined area of 113 square kilometres, so they are small, and are in a very strategic location at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, through which sea traffic to Israel's southern port of Eilat must pass en route to and from the Red Sea. Israel maintains an early warning post on the islands.
Israel may be the purveyor of much of this, trying to stir up problems for the Saudis? But sometimes where there's smoke there's fire.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 22 2016 1:40 utc | 62
@48, pb 'Re: proportional representation and other systems. They make difference on the edges. The main issue is if the population absorbs harmful myths or not, if they do than they will elect dangerous sociopaths under any system, if they do not, they will at least find relatively harmless sociopaths.'
It's pretty clear that you despise the common people, 'the population'. And that you find no real problems with the status quo, as long as they are 'harmless' sociopaths. Your cynicism is unsurpassed.
But I think that if is possible for us to restructure our system of government, putting direct action by all of us common people at the bottom, at the top, rather than off the charts completely. My man Mike Gravel's idea. Worth a shot. Costs nothing. Something to DO at the very least.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 22 2016 1:50 utc | 63
in re Russia Insider
And Fort Russ also reported on the allegations of financial improprieties earlier this month. It was too complicated; Greece & the IMF was enough high finance for me.
They have a fair spectrum of opinion at RI, so I hope that it can be put back on the up-and-up if something is amiss.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 22 2016 2:03 utc | 64
jfl at 63 -- I used to live in a New England city with proportional representation, worked well at that time. Definitely the way to go for regional and national legislatures. Town meetings for the localities. FWIW, I would agree that Gravel is a decent guy, starting with the Pentagon Papers and since.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 22 2016 2:12 utc | 65
Allow me to apologize to Louis Proyect. I've read a few pieces by him and they rubbed me the wrong way. But a few bad reads should not suffice to condemn an entire person.
(Been eatin' a lot of Kentucky Fried Crow of late.)
As per jfl | Apr 21, 2016 9:50:44 PM | 63:
QUOTE -- 'Re: proportional representation and other systems. They make difference on the edges. The main issue is if the population absorbs harmful myths or not, if they do than they will elect dangerous sociopaths under any system, if they do not, they will at least find relatively harmless sociopaths.' -- UNQUOTE
I did not address proportional representation, as I regard it as a separate issue. Interesting to note is that when I was a young kid (the first hydrogen atoms were forming) I realized that no matter how much I learned, it would never do no good. Society was so corrupt that it wouldn't ever be enough. Just by being on this blog, you are a member of a hermit religious order, I think.
At least it probably kept me out of Vietnam, where half of my family lost their minds. So I guess it's worth something. I sure wish they had taught me about the sociopaths.
Posted by: blues | Apr 22 2016 3:13 utc | 66
Mr. b messed up the numbers so now I land on the evil 66!
Posted by: blues | Apr 22 2016 3:20 utc | 67
There's something special about waking up on Green Street, Manhattan, NYC, with a magnificent woman. Just one look at you, and I know.
Bill Withers - Lovely Day (Original Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYi7uEvEEmk
Posted by: blues | Apr 22 2016 3:53 utc | 68
some murkkan is saying china is stupid not to reign in its *pit bull* nk [sic]
*the chinese are so stupid they'r inviting jp/sk to go nukes !*, so gloats the moron.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i must admit when it comes to sheer wickedness none can beat the unitedsnake.
i've been talking about how the snake has been sabotaging china's relations with all its allies/trade partners, but this fiendish nk caper surely takes the cake !!
provoke nk,
nk bites back, [im gonna wipe out the unitedsnake, just try me]
china/russia ask nk to tone down that rheotorics.
nonetheless,
snake cry nk bogeyman !!!
the right nutjobs say china condoning its *pit bull*
the left nutjobs say china even wack its own *buddy*
fact is....
the nk bogeyman, much like aq [tm] , the gift that keeps giving
already enables snake to…
stay put at okinawa inspite of huge cry to fuck off,
automatically renew its murkka/sk defence pact,
install thaad in sk,
drive nk/china further apart,
sabotage china/sk relation
wow, one stone killing six birds,
they dont call it the empire of chaos for nuthin,’
hehehehe
Posted by: denk | Apr 22 2016 4:16 utc | 69
Here is a link to a ZH posting I want to write about
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-21/47-americans-cant-even-come-400-cover-emergency-room-visit
As you can see from the link it is about income and poverty statistics for the US, mostly published by the Fed. Who knows if the numbers are accurate but if they are then why is the reported unemployment rate so low? Could it be that the employment statistics really don't tell the story of why there are all these people living in poverty?
The fact is that government statistics have been and are being manipulated to show a "working" economy when the opposite is actually true. In a more recent posting at MoA (When Media shill for Saudi Money) b writes about how the media is being used to portray the House of Saud in a positive manner. With knowledge of brainwashing techniques and use of the tools to do so, look at how effective Trump is it rallying people to his cult. I see exposing the media as a brainwashing tool as the biggest potential wake-up call to the populace coming out of this election cycle. One can only hope.......
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 22 2016 4:33 utc | 70
What is she Hillary? The blood eating monster.
Yeah. I would vote for Satan before I would vote for that blood eating THING.
Posted by: blues | Apr 22 2016 5:11 utc | 71
blues
First off, my apologies thinking 'b' as 'blues". Second, received my voter registration card today changing Green Party to NNP (No Preference Party).
The Democrats love Hillary. Hillary (Oboma2) will turn out to be worst than Oboma (Bush2). Obama is worst than Bush. So you think Bernie the lesser evils?
Me think Bernie is worst than Hillary. If I have to choose the lesser evil, I'll vote for Hillary - only in the primary!
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 22 2016 5:33 utc | 72
Government, Assyrian forces capture more territory from Kurdish troops in Qamishli
What is going on with the 'PYD' in Qamishli?
Posted by: jfl | Apr 22 2016 6:38 utc | 73
US vows to deter any Iran aggression on Gulf states
"I reaffirmed the policy of the United States to use all elements of our power to secure our core interests in the Gulf region and to deter and confront external aggression against our allies and our partners," Obama said in Riyadh on Thursday after the summit with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)."Even with the nuclear deal we recognise collectively that we continue to have serious concerns about Iranian behaviour," he said.
First there's 'Russian aggression' to be defended against as the US/NATO encircle Russia, set up a NAZI regime in Ukraine, station missile batteries in Poland and the Baltics, and 'modernize' the nuclear weapons in Germany.
Now there is "Iranian aggression" to be defended against as the US/NATO/KSA/GCCs destroy Libya and Syria, arm and support Daesh in both, destroy Yemen and use al-CIAduh as a unit of the Saudi Army there, and the US steals Iranian property and funds in Washington and around the world.
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Bliss.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 22 2016 6:52 utc | 74
Bluemot5 @ 24, Yes, from several sources I understand that the Taliban had successfully almost eradicated the growing of Afghanistan poppies, on religious grounds. The crop has passed record levels since US invaded & I think there is even an admission that we're not trying to stop it-- altho none that US & its banks profit from it. Remember Britain's "Opium Wars" in China? It's the sort of dirt empires & other power-hungry always roll in.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-in-afghanistan-the-destruction-of-agriculture/5377558 "Development Alternatives, Inc’s efforts to use “poppy eradication” and “economic development” to invite in foreign corporate monopolies are backed substantially by a large list of “clients” including Cargill and Monsanto, two giants of big-agriculture.
"These corporations and their “NGO” fronts, along with the US government through agencies like USAID, are attempting to use “the eradication of poppies” and “malnutrition” to force upon the Afghan people an agricultural monopoly controlled by foreign corporations who will retain the “intellectual property” rights on each and every plant growing in Afghanistan, as well as the production, control, distribution, and sale of the chemicals required to sustain them".
Bluemot5, of course they are lying & won't really get rid of the poppy-- only th food crops. This was written in 2014, and I don't know the outcome. Within GlobalResearch.ca I searched 'Afghanistan poppy' & several articles came up. They have great archives.
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 22 2016 7:26 utc | 75
InNameOnly @ 45,
"if we might expect more seismic activity with the poles continuing to melt."
"the poles" are not melting. We have a single icecap in the south sitting upon the continent of Antarctica, which is twice the size of the US. In order for the Eastern part of Antarctica--90% of the whole--- to melt it would be necessary for even the summertime temperature to increase by 63 degrees F. The other 10% is partially underwater & waxes and wanes, as does the sea ice surrounding Antartica.
In the North, we have no ice cap, only sea ice, which has been about 7% below the mean value for the past 8 years or longer-- probably due to increased volcanic activity in the 1000-mile Gakkel ridge which lies between Greenland and Siberia & extends under the Arctic Ocean, altho predominant wind patterns also affect the ice.
I don't know of any connection between the shifting of the poles and climate, although there may be one. However, the shifting of the poles is a regular geological occurrence, as is the weakening of earth's magnetic field in the run-up to the shift.
Whenever you read anything regarding climate doomsdayism I would sincerely advise you to disbelieve it. Rockefeller and the other Billionaires in the anti-CO2, pro-Global- Oligarchy clique are committing vast sums of money to the PR campaign to frighten you. Their purpose is to usher in their Global Dictatorship, for which the Global Warming hoax is proving highly successful. http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/6ce8dd13-e4ab-4b31-9485-6d2b8a6f6b00/chainofenvironmentalcommand.pdf
PS Re: Keeping track of volcanic eruptions, there are several programs that do this. One is Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program database of eruptions. Here's a recent article about it. https://nextgrandminimum.wordpress.com/
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 22 2016 7:28 utc | 76
InNameOnly,
I found an informative article about pole reversal for you, which is accurate instead of throwing scare-garbage at you. Enjoy!
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/07/on-the-magnetic-polar-shifts-cause-massive-global-super-storms-story/
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 22 2016 7:44 utc | 77
@9 @11 Jack, I already told you I have said Bernie is not ideal but is better than Hillary so why are you calling him "my Bernie" when I gave you detailed criticism of him. Also, you must be a troll since voting for Hillary in the primary makes no sense, My latest video shows how Arabs understand that Bernie is better than Hillary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjLO3HM4-Y It (that video shows me voting for Bernie and gives details about the primary rules and my media criticism.
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 22 2016 9:13 utc | 78
Oh stfu "Tom" - no one with any sense gives a flyin Fuck about you or Bernie
Posted by: yawn | Apr 22 2016 12:13 utc | 79
Chancellor Merkel seems to be catching all manner of flack, of late a position allowing German courts to address a complaint raised by Turkey concerning a German humorist based upon an archaic law relating to lèse-majesté towards a foreign dignitary (as if treason could thereby be generated; a stretch beyond comprehension altogether). How Turkish lawyers were able to discover the law begs answering. Frau Merkel's position is likely the most astute as it is neither an act accomplishable by the German administration nor some parliamentarian legislation to annul that law without resorting to ex post facto actions; instead the Chancellor opened the courts for adjudication of the matter, in particular to adjudicate the very validity of the law used to bring these otherwise spurious charges and if so found wanting to strike the antique law down as contrary to current standards of jurisprudence. It seems, if this appraisal is valid, Merkel made a very astute move to thwart the bizarre conduct of the Turkish president.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Apr 22 2016 12:27 utc | 80
Todays lying times;China building floating nuclear plants to power islands.Yeah,they are called ships.Like ours?
Divide and conquer;Our American heroes are now zeroes.Andy Jackson,the peoples choice(1830's)is now a dead racist injun hater.Never mind that he was just following the wishes of his electorate,and the whites mans natural aggressiveness in conquering new lands in a long ago time.
Jack Lew,Zionist,does the switch.Goddamn Zionist traitors,dividing US once again,while they murder steal and conquer in the 21st century.
As to 9-11,the Zionists were the impetus for the Arab anger(alleged),and all can be laid at their corrupt feet.If Arabs or Muslims did do it,who the f*ck can blame them,but of course the only nation to profit(other than MIC)has been Israel,where ironclad media protect their depredations daily.
A world of ziosh*t.Revolting.
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 22 2016 13:59 utc | 81
Garth Porter on how the NYTimes, WaPo, and WSJ write their reports to obscure that the US is arming Al Qaeda in Syria.
Posted by: jawbone | Apr 22 2016 16:39 utc | 82
@79 A LARGE number of Americans support Bernie so your comment "Oh stfu "Tom" - no one with any sense gives a flyin Fuck about you or Bernie" was dumb. And you want to risk a Hillary presidency? Listen, I go into detail explaining the logic of primary voting (not general election): https://youtu.be/FqjLO3HM4-Y There's a reason the powers that be ply the games they do.
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 22 2016 17:24 utc | 83
US/NATO want to give Ukraine more weapons
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/land/weapons/2016/04/21/eucom-nominee-scaparrotti-javelin-ukraine-russia-weapons/83336854/
Posted by: Zomnder | Apr 22 2016 18:06 utc | 84
March Global Temperature Smashes 100-Year Record (G.)
The global temperature in March has shattered a century-long record and by the greatest margin yet seen for any month. February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter. Compared with the 20th-century average, March was 1.07C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04C higher. The JMA measurements go back to 1891 and show that every one of the past 11 months has been the hottest ever recorded for that month.
Data released released later on Friday by Nasa confirmed last month was the hottest March on record, but the US agency’s data indicated February had seen the biggest margin. The Nasa data recorded March as 1.65C above the average from 1951-1980, while February was 1.71C higher. The World Meteorological Organisation, the UN body for climate and weather, said the March data had “smashed” previous records.
Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 22 2016 18:43 utc | 85
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 22, 2016 5:13:14 AM | 78
Jack, I already told you I have said Bernie is not ideal but is better than Hillary so why are you calling him "my Bernie"?
You kept on repeating the lesser of two evils? It's still evil. It’s like telling me. The man beating his wife every night better than the bad cops killing the Black?
STFU whether Hillary, Bernie and I'm ain't trolling. I have been respectful, even if we disagree.
Can't you get it into your thick skull the two-party system must end. Bernie will continue to pour trillions into the military-industrial complex for endless wars and billions to Israel, Egypt and PLO in the West Bank and more regimes change.
Frankly, I would rather to have Hillary or Trump. Does it matter if they are worst than Bernie? Voting for Hillary, teach the die-hard Democrats lesson they'll never forget and voting Trump may destroy the Republican party and I'm for it, ether Hillary or Trump. As for Bennie, I don't trust him and will end like Obama, which I didn't votes for him in the last two presidential erections.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 23 2016 1:40 utc | 86
Okie Farmer @ 85,
The Guardian is directly paid by Rockefeller fund and other billionaire's to keep inventing CO2 scare stories. http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/6ce8dd13-e4ab-4b31-9485-6d2b8a6f6b00/chainofenvironmentalcommand.pdf
Here's what the Japanese Meteorological Agency really said, "The monthly anomaly of the global average surface temperature in March 2016 (i.e. the average of the near-surface air temperature over land and the SST) was +0.62°C above the 1981-2010 average (+1.07°C above the 20th century average), and was the warmest since 1891. On a longer time scale, global average surface temperatures have risen at a rate of about 0.85°C per century."
Yes, and we get an average by having some numbers above & some below. It's not an emergency to have a number above the average. In fact it happens whenever we have an El Nino. The weather of a single El Nino year is weather, not climate.
Our most recent major climate event was the Little Ice Age (1350-1850). When the LIA ended we resumed warming (.75-.85 degrees per century)-- a rate that JMA has just confirmed above.
Here's a link from NOAA: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/global/global-land-ocean-mntp-anom/201401-201412.png
Notice that the slope of the line from 1960 to 2000 is roughly comparable to the one from 1905-1940. Although there was less use of fossil fuels from 1905-1940 the rate of warming is about the same.
Getting your science from the Guardian will make you as ill-informed as getting your international politics there.
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 23 2016 3:32 utc | 87
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZjKKUEHTKk Aaron Russo, an American whistleblower
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 23 2016 3:54 utc | 88
Why not end the two-party vote-for-one?
Get strategic simple score voting.
Posted by: blues | Apr 23 2016 4:18 utc | 89
blues,
Why not end the two-party vote-for-one?
Yea, sound good. My one-vote plus give or take another few millions voters ain't gonna make any different. Probably another few decades, blues, Murphy and myself won't be around? By than duopoly will moves the goalpost again!
Posted by: Jack Smith | Apr 23 2016 4:38 utc | 90
Russian UAV Sets World Record for Duration of Flight
High duration of the octocopter flight has been achieved through special design of membrane-electrode assemblies, which generate electricity through electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen and operate at extreme temperatures from -60 to +40 °C. The Hydrogen-air fuel cells are formed on the basis of these assemblies. The bulk of the work to create them was done in the laboratory of solid object Ionics of IPCP RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences). The project also participated LLC "Hey T. energy", LLC "AFM-servers" and CJSC "Aerocon".
Ladies and Gentlemen. The issues that affect the futures of all people include the challenge of global climate change. It is in our interest to make the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in December in Paris a success. As part of our national contribution, we plan to reduce by 2030 the greenhouse emmissions to 70-75% of the 1990 level. I suggest, however, we should take a wider view on this issue.Yes, we might defuse the problem for awhile by setting quotas on harmful emissons or by taking other measures, which are nothing but tactical, but we will not solve it that way. We need a completely new approach.
We have to focus on introducing fundamental and new technologies inspired by nature which will not damage the environment but will be in harmony with it. Also they will allow us to restore the balance between the biosphere and technosphere upset by human activities. It is indeed a challenge of planetary scope, but I am confident that humankind has [the] intellectual potential to address it. We need to join our efforts.
I refer first of all to the states that have a solid research basis, and that have made significant advances in fundamental science. We propose convening a special forum under the UN auspices for a comprehensive consideration of the issues related to the depletion of natural resources, the destruction of habitat, and climate change. Russia would be ready to co-sponsor such a forum.
Russian science leads the way, seemingly in issue #3 hydrogen-electric conversion at any rate ...
1. photosynthetic hydrogen production
2. hydrogen storage and delivery
3. hydrogen-electric conversion
Russia ought to join with Libya and the Egyptians, run the neo-colonial Europeans out to their countries along with the Wahabi head choppers and develop photosynthetic hydrogen production in the south of their countries for their own use and for export to Europe.
Here are two more links I found should be interesting to MoA folks
The first is the latest demand from the IMF for Greece to have a contingency plan for more austerity
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-04/23/c_135304671.htm
The second is about Russia becoming more involved in the Israel/Palestine issue
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-04/22/c_135304617.htm
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 23 2016 5:09 utc | 92
@92 psycho
The Russians and the Chinese need to team up, recognize Palestine, break the blockade of Gaza, and dig - if they must - a connection between Gaza and the West Bank. Then have elections. Get rid of the traitor Abbas - no one elected him - the USraelis put him in charge. He's their employee. Left to the "west" the Palestinians may all be dead or will certainly all be dispossessed in another year or eighteen months. The time for action is NOW.
And that would go about one million miles toward solving both of their 'Muslim' problems in Central Asia, as well as putting the lie to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the GCCs as defenders of Muslims back at Wahabi central. Dry up the lake in which the head choppers swim.
The beginning of a new era. Give peace a chance. Just brush the degenerate and corrupt USSA right off the gameboard. Let 'em fold up, just as the USSR did twenty-five years ago.
Turkish writer, who caught Erdogan lying, found dead
Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz, who had earlier said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has no actual higher education and as president he recived this education illegally, is found dead.Poyraz organized an investigation that proved that Erdogan's diploma is a fake and he did not study at the university. Poyraz published the original version of Erdogan's diploma, which he allegedly wrote while studying at Marmara University. It turned out that the diploma is dated when the University of Marmara was not existent.
It should be noted that the 4-year college education is mandatory for the election of the President of Turkey.
Turkish party “Salvation of the people” on the basis of the investigation lead by Poyraz appealed to the court, stating that Erdogan presented a fake diploma to participate in the elections.
Poyraz soon began to face various difficulties in Turkey. Now, he was found dead.
I'm very impressed by the seeming unending-stream of Turks who are standing up to the dictator, in the face of his brutal, murderous retaliation.
Wish more of us Americans were like that. Of course many of us are killed, but those are anonymous, unreported. The kind of heroes termed 'nobodies' by the 'elite' scum. In Turkey even the reporters court death by speaking truth. Never happen in the New American Century. The corporate media fired the few truth tellers in their ranks long ago. They're all hustling a living as street preachers now. Not worth killin' from the machine's point of view. That's the difference between a mere dictatorship and totalitarian state, I guess. In a totalitarian state we're no longer human, we've been robbed of our humanity.
Here's to Ergun Poyraz. May he be remembered always as the brave man he was - remains - helping to topple the dictator.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 23 2016 8:06 utc | 94
|@ okie farmer | Apr 22, 2016 2:43:01 PM | 85
A link to your information was made in the prior open thread (14), to which either ad hominem or gibberish was the response. There is little outside certain political boundaries imposed upon The Guardian because of the Snowden revelations that falls into propaganda disinformation; The Guardian still has a stable of world class reportage although that is diminishing through attrition and will eventually resemble BBC, NYT or the Washington.compost.
My introduction to reading newspapers began in the late forties and has been a lifelong habit that circumstance has effected a slow divorce from actual newsprint to other media providing equivalent services. What you quoted is likely an indication that a significant tipping point has occurred, one that there will be no recovery from until an equilibrium is again established to the input factors driving global warming. Penelope will claim political correctness problems with that term but that is only a method to curtail communications about the problem and considerations to resolve a solution as that would require regulation, by government, of private wealth production - certainly the wet-dream goal of libertarians everywhere to eliminate government regulation for social benefit. Listen to Penelope's polar vortex of words with great caution - they are all deceptive and agenda driven (not to mention obsessive compulsively organised).
As far as news media, the change in their product occurred with the advent of "The Great Communicator" and exemplified with the publication of "USA Today"; those should signal the current news regime's emergence (when "TV Guide" was sold to Rupert Murdock also significant). A handful of magic beans was sold for the public cow providing the milk of pure public agenda free information. The public have sown the wind and are to inherit the whirlwinds of accepting glorious belief for unappealing fact. That is what Penelope is all about - pandering to belief.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Apr 23 2016 9:58 utc | 95
"Listen to Penelope's polar vortex of words with great caution - they are all deceptive and agenda driven (not to mention obsessive compulsively organised)."
Don't worry T-Bear, I pay no attention to Penelope.
Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 23 2016 11:52 utc | 96
Weather Channel Founder Slams Global Warming: "The Theory Has Failed"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-22/weather-channel-founder-slams-global-warming-theory-has-failed
Posted by: blues | Apr 23 2016 12:27 utc | 97
@86 No Jack, you have not been respectful. You wrote this smart ass comment: "Tom, thanks a million for your advices. Two weeks ago, changed my voting preference from Green Party to No Preference, to vote in the Democratic party Super Tuesday 7 June primary, and vote for Hillary Clinton."
It is obnoxious to vote for the more aggressive candidate over Sanders. The dishonest and sick-mined candidate who will most certainly start another war. You have no shame. And you irrationally complain that Sanders will support Hillary while at the same time saying you are going to vote for Hillary!
FOr all your talk, have you ever even voted for Jill Stein? Because I have! https://youtu.be/SlbfIyskOqA?list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dRBmiK_GxubFB3xWSzqFwrz
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Apr 23 2016 13:02 utc | 98
Terry McCauliffe,gov of Virginia,just handed the state to the hell bitch.He's allowing 200,000 felons struck from the voter rolls to vote in Nov.As most are black,I guess he thinks they'll go HRC as all the other black knuckleheads have.
Bathroom idiocy;Tempest in a teapot;Males as women will use stalls,as there are no urinals in WR,while women as men can't use urinals in MR and will use stalls.No one will be exposed,and no need for new expensive infrastructure.
They'll release 23? of the 28 pages,watch.
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 23 2016 15:55 utc | 99
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/kremlin-denies-reports-russian-forces-fire-israeli-planes-102524841.html
Israeli papers have reported that Russia attacked, two times, Israeli planes flying into Syria.
Netanyahu is asking for closer cooperation between Russia and Israel for Israeli flights to prevent weapons coming into Lebanon for Hesbollah.
They couldn't do their intercepting over Lebanon? Hhhmmm...
Posted by: jawbone | Apr 23 2016 16:23 utc | 100
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GDP as a trick for masking neo-colonialism
Posted by: nmb | Apr 20 2016 18:24 utc | 1