Khristos voskres! Voistinu voskres!

Posted by: chet380 | Apr 28 2019 17:50 utc | 1

Interesting article on who really runs the world:

http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=33254

Posted by: evilempire | Apr 28 2019 18:04 utc | 2

kudos to you b! you run such a fantastic and informative website, it's amazing! thanks.. cool pic too..

quote from the link on the pro publica link on the saudis - “It’s not that the issue of Saudi fugitives from the U.S. wasn’t important,” said retired FBI agent Jeffrey Danik, who served as the agency’s assistant legal attache in Riyadh from 2010 to 2012. “It’s that the security relationship was so much more important. On counterterrorism, on protecting the U.S. and its partners, on opposing Iran, the Saudis were invaluable allies.”

ditto kashoggi and on and on the madness continues with usa foreign policy around the globe... they usa is unable and unwilling to address ksa's terrorism, as it serves israels purpose to continue in a relationship with ksa... thus we have a continuation of wahabbi whackjob death cult, spread around the globe to protect us from the so called terrorism of iran... it defies logic... i hope it ends sooner then later..

Posted by: james | Apr 28 2019 18:35 utc | 3

Here is a headline from a couple of days ago:

FAA could clear Boeing 737 MAX to fly again within weeks

Yes, the very last country to pull the 737-MAX out of use is going to be the first to put it back. There is some serious money being lost by Boeing and the Airlines, and they want to put a stop to it. This is all about millions and millions of Benjamins, for "they" are taking a shortct to save even more money.

A draft report by an FAA-appointed board of pilots, engineers and other experts concluded that pilots only need additional computer-based training to understand MCAS, rather than simulator time.

Simulators are EXPENSIVE, so the plan is to give the pilots a joystick and a computer, and maybe throw in some lectures and videos of other pilots using a real flight simulator. Are you ready to rush to reserve a flight?

This isn't a bad deal just for the flight crews and passengers, but the pure stench of it is contaminating other arenas. A Denier site I'm not going to link has managed to leverage the lack of regulator oversight by the FAA to lots of other places.

Planes, Automobiles, Bicycles, Homes, Hospitals, Schools, and Sidewalks Can All Be Made Unsafe by Mad Science, Rush to Market, and Corrupt Regulators

They don't include "vaccines" in that list because their readers understand perfectly well that if the FAA is a crap agency, why not the FDA as well? Much as I hate to admit it, the Deniers didn't have to break a sweat to score these perfectly valid points.

Does anyone imagine Volkswagen could have gotten away with all those years of cheating on their emissions if the regulators had been doing their jobs?

How did China get away with shipping that cancer-causing blood pressure medicine to the US for so many years? It's safe to assume some bored "regulator" was just waving the stuff on past without doing a single test.

This is going to cost us. I'm out of links, but here is a headline to consider.

Russia's Irkut aircraft manufacturer has posted the first video of a direct flight by its MS-21-300 airliner from Irkutsk to Ulyanovsk-Vostochny Airfield.

The brand-new Russian passenger craft is designed to transport up to 211 people over a distance of 6,400 kilometres.

There are competitors out there, and they can't be fended off by "sanctions" forever. Allowing unwatched & unregulated companies to run amok is going to hurt us all in the long term.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 28 2019 19:58 utc | 4

There is a brand new Boeing piece at Naked Capitalism.

Ralph Nader Calls Out Boeing for 737 MAX Lack of Airworthiness, Stock Buybacks, and Demands Muilenburg Resign

Boeing management’s behavior must be seen in the context of Boeing’s use of its earned capital. Did you use the $30 billion surplus from 2009 to 2017 to reinvest in R&D, in new narrow-body passenger aircraft? Or did you, instead, essentially burn this surplus with self-serving stock buybacks of $30 billion in that period? Boeing is one of the companies that MarketWatch labelled as “Five companies that spent lavishly on stock buybacks while pension funding lagged.”

Feathering the Corporate Nest while stiffing the workers. Just what Wall Street loves. "Ugly" at Boeing isn't a 'skin deep' issue - it's that way clear to the bone!

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 28 2019 20:28 utc | 5

Sanders takes on Fox — and emerges triumphant

The key word in that link is "Fox". Sanders wasn't at some leftie flower-sniffing place, but went right into the lion's den. And the the other thing is that Trump was watching. (Fox!) Reports are that he was just a little bit impressed. It was like somebody had thrown a small thimble full of cool water at him. The man truly does believe he is some kind of superhero and doesn't have a clue Hillary was probably the only person on the planet he could have defeated in 2016.

That Trump's only chance in 2020 is if the Democratic candidate is Hillary (again) - or possibly Biden - has made me wonder about all the bafflegab of him working to get a huge war chest for his 2020 campaign. A link I saw today gives me a clue as to what may be happening.

How California’s faltering high-speed rail project was ‘captured’ by costly consultants

The bolded part is what needs the attention. What if the upcoming campaign goes for broke by spending money as if it were Monopoly Money. What if all the important events are at Trump-owned or Trump controlled properties. What if the "costly consultants" are Jared and Ivanka and a host of other tightly controlled family members or employees. They'd charge approximately 5 times the going rate in rents, and about the same for their contracted services. Trump is about me/me/me, but he is also VERY big on the money issue.

Tinfoil hat aside: we've been speculating about Trump's motives for folding over on every single issue important to the pissant apartheid state. My own speculations have included pictures of Trump with an underaged farm animal, or him with a very young kid on that billionaire's Pervert Plane. Others have preferred the idea he is a secret zionist.

What If Trump was given something like $100,000,000 for presenting the Golan to Holy Israel? Or $5,000,000/month for as long as End-Times Rapture guy Pompeo is Secretary of State?

Given the nature of our Orange POTUS, this would explain a lot of things.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 28 2019 21:08 utc | 6

In a few days we may be witnessing a massive game of "chicken" between the world's two largest economies:

"If China does not cut Iran oil purchases to zero, the Trump administration may have to make a decision on blocking Chinese banks from the U.S. financial system. That could have unintended consequences for finance and business between the world’s two biggest economies, already in negotiations over trade disagreements.

“It could,” one official conceded about the potential for unintended consequences, “but that’s why China’s decision is easy, it’s not a difficult decision for them mathematically. They do business with the U.S. which is critical, they do business with Iran which is not critical.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-sanctions/no-wind-down-for-china-on-stopping-its-iran-oil-buys-trump-officials-idUSKCN1S2238

The unnamed "senior official" consulted for this article is remarkably confident the Chinese will blink on this matter, based on a what seems a limited understanding of what constitutes their base interest. In previous times, foreign policy initiatives always featured internal deliberation with advocates from all sides of an issue, so a complete range of option and consequence could be anticipated. Such process seems to have been abandoned.

Posted by: jayc | Apr 28 2019 21:20 utc | 7

Boeing Didn't Tell Southwest Or FAA That It Had Disabled Critical Safety Alerts On 737 MAX

The article also discusses how some frontline FAA safety inspectors wanted to ground the MAXes until the “AoA Disagree” indicators were re-enabled, but were overridden by higher-ups who insisted that it was not a primary safety feature.

Posted by: S | Apr 28 2019 21:21 utc | 8

This isnt tin foil Zach. Lol. You just now figuring out the Trumps are profiting bigly from his perch? Next you're going to realise how much Putin and Xi are knocking down too...and arent releasing their tax returns either.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 28 2019 21:23 utc | 9

"A six part investigation of Greta Thunberg and the powers behind her climate campaign"
Wathever power is behind Thunberg - the movement she (or whomeever) intitated is very necessary and has an important role in agenda setting. The refugee subject has been pushed back for now. This harms right-wing forces. And that's a good thing.

Posted by: Pnyx | Apr 28 2019 21:24 utc | 10

Thanks b and bravo for the image. It is priceless.

On Zachary Smith #5 and Russian Irkut flight test. One of the immediate consequences of sanctions being splattered about the globe by dumb USA and its minion states is that there will be replacement strategiss. Perhaps they will be permanent and more jobs go offshore and other technology developed.

I doubt we have heard the end of the Max8 fiasco as it is managed by diametrically opposed systems with the automaton having overpowering control of the hydraulics. If the MCAS is disengaged to make it 'safe' then the Max8 is excluded from many airports due to altitude factors.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 28 2019 21:47 utc | 11

Indonesia has been systematically repressing the indigenous inhabitants of West Papua since it was annexed after being handed to Indonesia by the Dutch. A UN vote for decolonisation and free association was seriously flawed. Human rights abuses are rampant. the Locals armed with bows and arrows wage a low level war against the Australian trained Indonesian military armed with US attack helicopters. Protests are brutally repressed, the press is forbidden. Deaths of locals protesting the environmental destruction at the US owned Grasberg Freeport mine were not investigated.
There is a petition in advance of the May Australian federal election

Posted by: Dadda | Apr 28 2019 22:16 utc | 12

Happy Easter once again to our Orthodox friends

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 28 2019 22:29 utc | 13

Mediastan: A Wikileaks Road Movie | Full Documentary

Mediastan: A Wikileaks Road Movie: Due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the arrests of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, Sixteen Films and Journeyman Pictures are providing a time-limited free access to the Wikileaks road movie Mediastan. Mediastan is a documentary film directed by Johannes Wahlström and co-produced by Julian Assange, detailing the publication of the very documents for which both Assange and Manning have been incarcerated.

Posted by: S | Apr 28 2019 22:30 utc | 14

Pnyx @ 11:

How does the movement begun by Greta Thunberg - essentially schoolkids going on strike if politicians are not seen to be enacting the "right" kinds of policies to stop climate change or mitigate its worst effects - harm "right-wing forces" if those forces turn out to be the forces supporting or benefiting from Thunberg's movement?

Going vegan and forgoing air travel do very little to help climate change if the world's biggest polluters and climate change actors are Deep State-controlled governments and their militaries. And those Deep State controllers could include corporations, agencies, families and individuals who see in Thunberg's activism opportunities to commodify and profit from climate change action events and activities - in much the same way that governments and corporations have commodified and profited from promoting "humanitarian aid agencies" or "human rights organisations" in countries like Syria and Venezuela.

And how do we even know if encouraging schoolchildren to go on strike if a government is doing something or not doing something might not be abused and turned into a regime-change tactic?

Thunberg may end up being exploited by her parents and the people and organisations backing them.

BTW I don't hear too much about Mallalai Yousafzai these days now that she's grown up and seems to have a mind of her own.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 28 2019 22:33 utc | 15

***Cory Morningstar***

I made a determined search to learn more about this person, and had extremely limited success. She seems to be a middle-aged woman living in Canada who has proved to her satisfaction that all the "Green" organizations are fronts for Big Everything. For all I know she may be right. But then I'd ask, "So What"?

***Similar powers are behind the New Green Deal (explained here...***

Over and over a woman in a video told me that a new congressional committee was being organized, and that I would have no input into its organization or actions. "So What?" Neither of my two Indiana Senators do more than have a young intern pretend to pay attention to me when I call. Ditto for the House guy. If anybody can explain to me what this woman was yammering about, I'd welcome an explanation.

***Jacob Levich (aka @cordeliers) - Bill Gates and the Myth of Overpopulation***

Mr. Levich seems to be an internet administration person at a New York University. He believes Bill Gates is purely evil. Again, for all I know he's right, but what has that got to do with the price of beans?

We have a problem with Climate Change. It is going to destroy civilization as we know it if it isn't halted, and soon. And that might be the optimistic way of looking at it. Effective things are going to happen, or they are not.

I cannot say I learned a thing from the Morningstar woman, the youtube lady, or Mr. Levich, and can't see how any of them are helping to halt the use of fossil fuels.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 28 2019 23:08 utc | 16

Zachary Smith @17

You can listen to Cory Morningstar explain the problem here:

Starts at 68.56

https://www.spreaker.com/user/acrnetwork/episode-277-new-green-bankster-rebellion

The short answer is that they're a corporate con job looking to make money from the issue, and their activities and those of others like them have drawn people away from local environmental activism.

Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 28 2019 23:44 utc | 17

Apologies.

Starts at 55.23

Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 28 2019 23:46 utc | 18

ZS @ 5&6: Re the slide into deregulation:

"Rules and regulations never changed a man's heart, but, they can restrain the heartless."

MLK...

Posted by: ben | Apr 29 2019 0:16 utc | 19

@ Jimmy #19

Thanks for the link and the time stamp. I was able to hang in there until the 27 minute mark when the woman got into a rant about destruction of the Military Industrial Complex as being the key to saving the world from climate change. At that point I had all I could take. There were many dreadful wars before the first piece of coal was dug out of the ground, and there is nothing I know of to prevent future ones even if the world came to be powered by 100% Green Energy.

While listening to her incoherent rambling there was plenty of time to use another open window to google the subjects which came up. Yes, the Greta Thunberg kid is a front for some slick organizations. But so what? At least a message is getting on the airwaves that there is something to worry about. Quite unlike the last 25 years of endless Exxon and Koch Brothers propaganda to the contrary.

Possibly twenty seven minutes wasn't enough, but I was becoming convinced neither "Cory" nor her interviewer knew **** from Shinola.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 0:52 utc | 20

Myth of overpopulation? Myth? Really?

In 1950, India’s population was 359 million. Today it is 1,369 million. The population of the earth was 2.5 billion in 1950 and in May of 2018 it was 7.6 billion..

My dad was born in 1950, he turned 69 this year..so within one human lifetime, India has added over 1 billion people and the earth's population has tripled..how is this suppose to work out?...Seneca cliff here we come..

Posted by: manny | Apr 29 2019 1:32 utc | 21

"I was able to hang in there until the 27 minute mark when the woman got into a rant about destruction of the Military Industrial Complex as being the key to saving the world from climate change. At that point I had all I could take."

I think she meant the NGO Industrial Complex. They undermine non-corporate environmental activism.

"Yes, the Greta Thunberg kid is a front for some slick organizations. But so what?"

The project is not to save the planet but rather to find new sources of income for corporates.

You can read her work here:

https://bit.ly/2TZyUKd

Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 29 2019 2:04 utc | 22

There is a milblog I try to check every once in a while which often has interesting stuff. Sometimes I find myself in mild disagreement with the blogger, but I've not known him to be a raving maniac. Well, a post there this week makes me wonder what the devil was going on back in 2004 off the continent's west coast. If anything, that is. If you want to kill a little time, here is the story.

What The Hell Is Going On With UFOs And The Department Of Defense?

Someone or something appears to have some extremely advanced technology and the Pentagon is actively changing the nature of the conversation about it.

I hate to run around with a fishhook through my lip, but unless a lot of people were told to lie and are sticking to their lies, they saw something. It was (reportedly) on radar and eyeballs alike, whatever it was. I can imagine some kind of hypnosis for the pilots, but radar?

Life would be simpler if the blogger did have a history of pranks!

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 2:13 utc | 23

"Myth of overpopulation? Myth? Really?"

You describe increases in population.

Not overpopulation.

We live in a world of fake scarcity. That fake scarcity is necessary to ensure elite differentials are maintained.

Radical reduction in population is simply a means of further protecting elite differentials, and very little to do with overpopulation.

Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 29 2019 2:16 utc | 24

From the 1940s on it was mostly USAF who were reporting contact with UFOs.

They called them Foo Fighters.

Then as now there was speculation about secret technology.

There was also speculation about Aliens from outer space.

My guess is that they were trying to create an Independence Day scenario.

Orson Welles', War of the Worlds was an early example of this.

Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 29 2019 2:30 utc | 25

Open Thread

Joe Biden Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Maybe someday one of these authors will find something (truthfully) nice to say about the man. I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 2:44 utc | 26

=/ I cannot say I learned a thing from the Morningstar woman, the youtube lady, or Mr. Levich, and can't see how any of them are helping to halt the use of fossil fuels. /= -- Said above

I have encountered one of the organizations she complains about "Avaaz". They are very disturbing. The whole thing is far too slick to be real, and that is a problem. It is NOT okay if young people are manipulated by rich creeps, or more likely, intel agencies. It's just wrong.

As far as the "global warming" goes, I think it is far too late to save the earth from a martian perma-desert future by just "limiting fossil fuels".

Perhaps if the Us and Russia and China could get together we could, oh maybe, put vast sheets of low-E glass on oceanic rafts. This would reflect much of the near infrared from the sun back out before it transforms into far infrared, and gets locked in.

There are a lot of "alt-right" types who will not hear of any talk about global warming. And I am not sure what is going on with these people -- they must be being programmed by some radio "talk" shows or whatever. I think every one should be able to think for themselves (like I do). And I think the whole planet will very shortly bake like a potato in an oven if some serious "terraforming" engineering is not begun STAT!

And yes, Joe Biden is a "disaster waiting to happen". Much worse than Trump, in fact (pro-every-war, anti-the-people). He has a hell of a track record, although I can't recall the details right now, there have been a ton of red flags.

Posted by: blues | Apr 29 2019 3:03 utc | 27

@b

I am continually amazed at your reading list. Thanks for the Morningstar and Gates links. I'm very glad to see this subject on the table here.

Many thanks.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 29 2019 3:35 utc | 28

Jimmy @ 23, Blues @ 28:

I'm sure Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal have done hit pieces on Avaaz for supporting the overthrow of President Bashar al Assad in Syria while masquerading as a concerned activist NGO.

Ah, here we go, with Max Blumenthal's article:
http://www.handsoffsyriasydney.com/articles/inside-the-shadowy-pr-firm-that-is-lobbying-for-regime-change-in-syria/

I agree with you both, it is unethical that a 14-year-old girl who happens to be autistic is being used by her parents and organisations affecting concern with climate change, in ways that enable them to profit commercially. As you say, this is undermining real environmental activism by tarring it with values and an agenda that could destroy it.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 29 2019 3:41 utc | 29

@ blues #28

As far as the "global warming" goes, I think it is far too late to save the earth from a martian perma-desert future by just "limiting fossil fuels".

So do I. When I read the wiki of that Swedish kid and saw a demand for "Paris Agreement" I realized the claims about her being a puppet were true. "Limiting" won't work, for not only do we have to go cold-turkey with the fossil fuels, but in my opinion we've got to start pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and putting it away as solid carbon. Say, in the deepest ocean trenches. And I fear we'll have to do something like you speak of - what they call geo-engineering. The problem is that is we'll be like kids playing with matches. I'd suppose some big mirrors could go into space. Another possibility: build a fleet of hydrogen-fueled airplanes and make (and keep making) high-altitude contrails. Extremely expensive, but almost instantly these could be "turned off".

It's a bad situation.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 3:54 utc | 30

@28 blues

I look to China to help solve this problem. She has for millennia been accustomed to large projects aimed at helping large numbers of population. Even a brief scan of the news shows us that she is still the same, and in fact is actively working to build an ecologically harmonious society.

~~

Because it is an open thread, I'll offer that I used to have no hope, but then hope came from two sources.

I thought it was bad that we were facing climate chaos, but fiercely cruel that this would happen at the very time of Peak Oil - just when we could use some energy to help us adjust to our climatic emergencies.

Then I came to believe that the theory of the biological origin of oil was false, and indeed unproven, and that the Russians knew better - that oil was of abiotic origin and therefore not subject to the Peak Oil dead-end scenario.

During about the same time I understood that because Russia existed and had its own story being written in this world, the gray veil that I thought was descending over the whole world, in fact was not. It became clear to me that even if the west went down into oblivion, the very existence of Russia meant that some would defy, and actually ignore and simply circumvent, the hegemonic saturation of mediocrity that had seemed inevitable.

And then I learned about modern China - kind of the same as ancient China in many ways - and her scale of thinking when it came to large projects. China was always the oldest and largest civilization, and has always had to think in terms of managing, feeding, caring for and in all ways dealing with, a massive population. I think that, for experienced managers, the world itself is not much larger in magnitude than the Chinese population.

If there is any hope in my mind for the changing climate, and the reversal of the trends, then that hope lies with China. Russia will create the northern sea route for the One Road, even as the Arctic melts and the northern half of the planet's cooling system dissolves into the south. And then China will find the ways to restore this balance on the Earth, and Russia will accept it, and help, already missing the cold winters and longing to see them restored.

When Russia closes its Arctic sea channels, our descendants will know that parity has been restored. This is my dream. Or fantasy. Or ambition.

I thought I would share this hope, or fantasy, because the situation seems without any hope, and because some care, and would perhaps welcome some faint glimmer of hope.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 29 2019 4:06 utc | 31

@ Grieved and Zachary Smith

I appreciate your positive sentiments about our future and I agree with them.

China and Russia show a more positive face of our species than the bully West that can't seem to evolve beyond the Might-Makes-Right mentality along with dominant patriarchy and mythical monotheistic religions that make them believe themselves better than nonbelievers.

I write this in response to the alien airships comment of Mr. Smith with which I partly agree. I have been a sci-fi fan all my life and have read enough of these sightings to believe they are real. So assume they are real aliens for a moment and think about what they might be about.
1. There is something on/in our planet that the aliens want for whatever reason and they are here to take it but have chosen not to contact us in the process.
2. The aliens have been watching us and are attempting some social engineering by directly or indirectly getting advanced technology to China/Russia
3. The aliens are watching us and will step in with social engineering if we try to nuke the neighborhood and neuter all the weapons.
4. The West or China/Russia have developed this technology that defies current laws of physics and they are waiting for the right time to use it.
5. None of the above and we go extinct because the aliens did not find us salvageable.

I just hope one of those scenarios happens in what is left of my lifetime because I want to know how we turn out.....grin

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29 2019 4:41 utc | 32

Gallup Quietly Admits ‘Israeli vs. Palestinian’ Sympathy Polls Are Misleading

Gallup’s reevaluation may have been triggered by more than its own polling and cited polling done by CNN and Pew Research. In both 2018 and 2019 IRmep paid to field Gallup’s precisely worded polling question through the highly accurate Google Surveys representative polling service. The analysis of results, published at Antiwar.com on March 13, 2019 and April 29, 2018, found that contrary to Gallup results the majority of Americans do not sympathize more with Israelis "in the Middle East situation."

People lie in polls. How many people want to admit to a stranger they hate "ethnics" and love to pull the wings off flies? The 'guts' of the polls can be tinkered with too - there are lots of tricks with the wording available here. In a fascinating 1968 Scientific American article titled "The Relativism of Absolute Judgements" an experiment is described where different groups of people were given one of two lists of activities to judge. (higher numbers mean more disapproval)

"minor" examples
Cheating at solitaire (1.51)
Fishing without a license (2.27)
Pocketing the tip which the previous customer left for the waitress (3.32)
vs
"major" examples
Testifying falsely against someone for pay (4.07)
Teaching adolescents to become dope addicts (4.51)
Pocketing the tip which the previous customer left for the waitress (2.46)

It's all how the questions are worded - and framed. This is why I keep harping on the notion that the "polls" reported to us by the solemn news people may or may not be worth the paper they're written on.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 4:47 utc | 33

If the Putin forehead is an actual image, then it's marvelous one.

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 29 2019 5:58 utc | 34

Unheard of... the UN envoy for Libya praises Haftar's quality and explains with what seems to be regrets that the UN and him, in his position, support Sarraj but that's about it.
The UN's credibility is dead and even the people on its payroll admit it (but they keep cashing their checks).
https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/l-invite-de-7h50/l-invite-de-7h50-29-avril-2019

Posted by: Mina | Apr 29 2019 7:10 utc | 35

psychohistorian says:

I just hope one of those scenarios happens in what is left of my lifetime because I want to know how we turn out.....grin

well, psychohistorian, the physics signature left on the ground in lower Manhattan on 911 absolutely negates the possibility of any known kind of demolition.

so, your 4th scenario has been confirmed.

as to how we turn out?

the universe will provide.

Posted by: john | Apr 29 2019 10:06 utc | 36

In my sci-fi movie pitch the earth and humanity are to space aliens what that mound of ants I just destroyed in my backyard (organically, of course for this is Hollywood after all) is to me.

Using Godard-inspired hand-held camera jump cuts we go back and forth, first seeing the space aliens planning and conspiring with Vladimir Putin and then cut to me grimly mixing my organic ant mound killing liquid in the garage.

Finally, utilising computer-generated imagery to heighten the dramatic effects, we see both Planet Earth and the ant mound in my back yard utterly destroyed in slow motion, in an enigmatic flash of red light.

In the penultimate scenes the space aliens are contentedly surveying the complete destruction of Planet Earth and talking to each other....in Hebrew!!!

Yes, Circe, Yahweh is a space alien and all along Zionism was in reality Plan 9 from Outer Space.

But where is Putin? Unfortunately he also perished in the conflagration....we see the Kremlin crumbling in slow motion as Moscow smoulders in the background...the music turns mournful, we see flashes of a few pictures in memoriam of the manly, handsome Russian leader smirking directly at the camera in that beguiling way of his...then after all hope has been extinguished in the viewers by the drawn out funereal scenes accompanied by sad Russian music, the camera suddenly lurches skyward, and there is Vladimir, descending shirtless from Heaven upon a great white stallion!!!

In the epilogue the camera pans slowly across our stilled, totally devastated planet but wait...there is a hint of some movement, a shifting of earth as a small door springs open out of the rubble and out pops....Russ. He has somehow miraculously survived thanks to his intelligent foresight and decades of survivalist planning. He brushes some dirt from his hair and looks around with a glint of recognition and gritty determination.

Freeze, fade.

The END

In Part II, which is yet to be story boarded, Russ will seek out and eventually find the only female survivor of the apocalypse (to be played by Tulsi Gabbard in her first starring role). Together they will bring about a glorious socialist rebirth of the Planet Vlad. The difficult trick for the sequel will be maintaining a PG-13 rating.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 29 2019 11:53 utc | 37

Saudis citizens seem to be free to commit crimes within the United States:
Pro Publica - Saudi Fugitives Accused of Serious Crimes Get Help to Flee While U.S. Officials Look the Other Way

The linked article is worth reading. I do not believe it is credible that US officials "failed to notice the pattern" of Saudi students absconding from justice, or that the "priority" of fugitives facing justice for serious crimes was too low compared to terrorism. Note that the former US Ambassador quoted as saying that he would never have hesitated to raise the matter with the Crown prince but that the matter was never "on his desk" did NOT say he had never heard of the issue - he had obviously given a specific instruction to keep the issue away from his desk.

There are two issues most probably directly involved:

1) US officials and police officers must have received substantial bribes as a matter of course to turn a blind eye and not follow up on issues.

2) The direct and active involvement of the US government in promoting and protecting terrorism and false flag events substantially changes the fundamental context with respect to absconding of Saudi fugitives. Rather than a relationship between two parties, at least one of which operates on the basis of conformity with the rule of law, we are dealing with two parties, both of whom deliberately and as a matter of course connive to subvert the rule of law in the quest for criminal interests. Thus the issue of the Saudi fugitives conflicts not with a "higher counterterrorist priority" but with the personal criminal interests of US officials and US diplomats.

Posted by: BM | Apr 29 2019 13:11 utc | 38

I also wish a Happy Easter to those of you who, like the guys below, celebrate it today under Orthodox rites.

When is the Orthadox Easter - is it at the same time as Catholic Easter or a different time?

Posted by: BM | Apr 29 2019 13:13 utc | 39

Oops! Hadn't noticed the word "today" - so evidently it is indeed later

Posted by: BM | Apr 29 2019 13:15 utc | 40

Posted by: Jen | Apr 28, 2019 6:33:01 PM | 16
Posted by: Jen | Apr 28, 2019 11:41:42 PM | 30

Seconded, on the misuse of a child for promoting vested interests, yes including climate change. What does this have in common with the use of children in PR promotions by the White Helmets? ... the very fact that they see the need to resort to such exploitation of children points to the intrinsic dishonesty of their campaign.

I am not a climate change denier - climate change is real, I see it hands-on all around me. Regardless of the scientific arguments, it is as clear as black and white that something - a lot - is not right with the climate today, and that abnormalities have been accelerating the last several years.

The politics of climate change, however, is a different matter. It is becoming clear that the issues are becoming distorted and obfuscated for corporate interests.

We need to make a crystal clear distinction between the fact of climate change and the politics and geostrategic/economic/socio-manipulative interests of those pushing for action on climate change. The whole issue of the proposed solutions for climate change need to be examined very critically. Some aspects of course are very obvious - solar/wind/wave/tidal energy should be actively promoted while fossil fuel burning must be phased out as quickly as possible, and cars converted as quickly as possible to electric (this is already happening VERY FAST in China, with immense growth in electric "petrol stations" for electic cars). But we need to be highly sceptical of talk of "carbon tax" and other issues affecting relations between different countries. This is where the main deception and ofuscation seem to be.

Posted by: BM | Apr 29 2019 13:58 utc | 41

Has Assange been visited by reporters? Is he allowed such visits? Why not? Wouldn't it be smart for him to hold a news conference?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 29 2019 15:13 utc | 42

Talking of anti-semitism and cartoons. France.

Alain Soral a well-known dissident has been condemned to a firm (=> no probation possible) one year in prison for a cartoon.

He did not create the cartoon, but published it on his site. His lawyer was also fined (that gets long and complicated.)

The cartoon is a mockery of a cartoon that was published by the ill-famed Charlie Hebdo:

The page was entitled “Chutzpah Hebdo” and featured Charlie Chaplin’s face in front of a star of David, surrounded by a shoe, a wig, a bar of soap, and a lampshade, with the question “Shoah, where are you?”

https://qz.com/1595792/holocaust-denial-in-france-alain-soral-sentenced-to-a-year-in-jail/

pic of the orig. and the spoof (safe for work)

https://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/local/cache-vignettes/L650xH425/1-95-06986.png

Soral will appeal. Meanwhile the Parquet in Paris (public prosecutor role) has intervened to decree (?) that the arrest warrant is not valid (legal tangles aplenty) so we will see.

One year in prison for posting a cartoon that has no ‘calls to violence’, porn, nudity, anything that could possibly infringe or even edge vaguely close to violating French laws. Restrained as compared to C. Hebdo cartoons about muslims which feature bare-assed sodomy. (Type Charlie Hebdo Sodomy into a thorough image search.)

France is done. You can stick a fork in it. Throw it to the dogs as it is overcooked not juicy enough for fancy guests. Actually the dogs deserve better. / end rant

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 29 2019 15:17 utc | 43

@ Zachary Smith | Apr 28, 2019 10:13:07 PM | 24

In the mid-fifties (I'm REALLY old) I was an air traffic controller at a USAF base in Japan. One day something flashed across our radar screen at what seemed to be an impossible velocity. We called the control center, where there were screens with much larger radii. They told us that they had seen it as well, and that they estimated its velocity at around 1500 mph. That is much, much too slow for a meteor, and much, much faster than any existing (that we knew of) terrestrial vehicle.

And that's all I know about that . . .

Posted by: AntiSpin | Apr 29 2019 15:39 utc | 44

wow noirette... that is unbelievable... i see why the yellow jackets are protesting.. france is really messed up..

Posted by: james | Apr 29 2019 15:39 utc | 45

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29, 2019 12:41:28 AM | 33 on belief in aliens

Well well well, Psychohistorian, I thought you were opposed to faith-based religions, but here you are promoting a faith-based religion based on faith in aliens!!!

Conscious living beings (not just humans) prefer to be able to control their environment, and especially to be able to prevent undesired and unpredictable dangers. Not having control over dangers (such as thunder and lightning, drought, floods, pestilence, wildfires, sickness, death) is intrinsically aversive. Having control over them, or appearing to have some control over them (even if that appearance is completely false) is far more preferable and induces more peace of mind. For human beings, believing that these unpredictable events are controlled by a god or gods allows us to believe we can exert some control over these events, and gives us thereby valuable peace of mind. We think by praying to a god, pleasing him, flattering him, making offerings to him and otherwise bribing him, he will protect us from these dangers. This is why all civilisations and ethnic groups have always had religious beliefs since the beginnings of human society. When despite our best efforts to please our god an adverse event takes place, we can always think of an imperfection in our performance that we can put the blame on for displeasing our god - humans are always imperfect.

Traditional religions (but NOT ad hoc and egocentric religions such as faith in aliens, that have not developed in society over hundreds of years) invariably have a side-effect of critical importance to the stability and safety of human society - the society-centric development of ethics and moral values, that help us find our way more safely through life within society, and give us a independent compass to help us decide what is right and what is wrong.

Ad hoc and egocentric religious beliefs cannot substitute for traditional religions in providing this moral compass, because human being by nature tend to pick and choose what we believe, based on our personal motivations - and those personal motivations are driven by our egocentric imperfections especially greed, envy, hatred and ignorance, not on rational understanding of what is best for society. In an egocentric religion, we pick out those facets of religious faith and action which we feel "suit us", and reject those to which we are aversive - and in doing so we nullify the critical role of religion as a moral compass (if you do a search, you might find a recent post I made on MoA discussing in more detail the critical importance of traditional religion for moral values). As a result we end up with a lot of superstitious beliefs about what causes all the things we cannot rationally understand, without the real benefits of something that can give us worthwhile help and guidance in our lives.

An aside: if a traditional religion is adapted or subverted based on personal motivations - the perfect example is the Christian Zionism of idiots like Pompeo, Pence, Bush etc - the moral compass intrinsic to that traditional religion is subverted and recentred on the ego driving those personal motivations. The same principle applies to some extent if we decide, for example, we want to follow some Eastern religion, but insist on picking and choosing what aspects we follow and what aspects we reject, based on a subjective notion that it has to be "adapted to be more suitable and relevant to modern Western lifestyles".

Going back to Psychohistorian's beliefs in aliens, why should we believe in aliens? Firstly, it is a natural tendency human beings have to fixate on some self-sustaining superstitious belief to explain any phenomena we cannot understand. Secondly, there is good reason to believe that the US military and CIA (and British) have for decades had a covert policy of promoting superstitious beliefs in aliens and UFO's. This serves a multitude of purposes: as a cover for certain top secret military projects; as a cover for illegal activities; as a means of undermining rational abilities of analysis and discrimination in society (to protect the military and CIA when they are misusing their power and funding for personal advantage); as a means of sowing disinformation and confusion with respect to false flags and criminal activities; as a means of discrediting rational critics (for example, rational 9/11 sceptics by lumping them with irrational conspiracy theories); as a means of diverting attention; and so on.

------

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 29, 2019 12:06:30 AM | 32

What reason is there to doubt the theory that hydrocarbons are derived from biological material? Are you not just indulging in wishful thinking, and making excuses for your desired dependence on fossil fuels? Even if your unusual assertions were true, it could not in any way reduce the impact on climate change of burning "fossil" fuels - whether such energy sources are limited or porportedly limitless is entirely irrelevant to the impact on climate change (nevertheless being limitless would be a serious contradiction of physical laws). What evidence is there for your assertion that the Russians believe in an inert genesis of oil and natural gas?

I almost always value your contributions, Grieved, but you need to be taken to task on this post!

Posted by: BM | Apr 29 2019 15:58 utc | 46

Noirette @44:

It's not just France.

This comment by Scott at Craig Murray's blog explains SOP for discrediting opponents.

Isn't this why the Gillets Jeunes are protesting?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 29 2019 15:58 utc | 47

Yeah, abiotic oil is a crock, unfortunately (geopolitics would be a lot simpler if it wasn't, although other problems perhaps even more intractable).

Posted by: Ash | Apr 29 2019 16:19 utc | 48

JR---

"
WikiLeaks
‏Verified account @wikileaks
Apr 24

We confirm Julian Assange has access to his lawyers, is now speaking with them regularly and will have an in person visit in the coming days.
303 replies 4,176 retweets 12,394 likes"

And your commenter answers your question

"This option has been blocked to Assange, who is not permitted to publicly challenge the campaign levelled against him."

Posted by: arby | Apr 29 2019 16:36 utc | 49

@ BM who accuses me of having faith in aliens....LOL

I can only smile with the knowledge that I am really challenging the monotheistic faith breathers who visit MoA.

Let me leave you with this. I bet all the money I don't have that there will be proof of "alien" lifeforms long before the proof of a monotheistic deity.

Do you not understand how puerile it is for our species, who know a tiny bit about what we think is 4% of the Cosmos we live in, to come up with and push monotheistic religions with a God who is man like? How self-centered can one get?

As I have written before here, religions have played an important role in the evolution of humanity. That said, they are myth, and as myth only provide suggestions of time bound moral values. We should extract the morals from religions that have stood the test of time, discard the delusional parts and hopefully proceed with merging those morals with proper awe of our tiny place in the universe

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29 2019 16:40 utc | 50

arby

I was aware of the tweet about access to lawyers. We generally expect that prisoners will have access to lawyers but I wasn't sure about access to reporters.

I understand that Assange may not be able to publicly address UK charges against him, but I don't know why he couldn't hold a press conference to address other matters (and while doing so, humanize himself so as to derail the smears against him).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 29 2019 16:54 utc | 51

"hold a press conference in prison"

I'm not sure what makes me think that holding press conferences is off limits to somebody like Assange in prison for talking, but I get it.

Posted by: arby | Apr 29 2019 17:08 utc | 52

Jack R @ 48.

Sure, it is not just France.

Soral is a great ex., - popular, used to be an accepted figure who appeared on TV, has written many acclaimed and best-selling books (not just rants, but solid intellectual, say…), and has, of course, a huge following.

Comprendre L’Empire was (afaik?) the most pop.

Amazon (eng)

https://www.amazon.com/Alain-Soral/e/B001K71LIM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

The Gilets Jaunes are not protesting re. any ‘ethnic’ ‘tribal’ issue (jewish, other religion, arab, nationals / foreignors, catholics, etc.) but come from a clear class perspective. Which is why they are vilified as anti-semites, mysognists, homophobics, rabid ultra right-wingers, etc. etc.

They denounce: Austerity, abandonment of ‘regions’ (services, roads, energy, internet connections / other, schools, health care, agri in some measure, shops, more…) in favor of the ‘Metropoles’ -> rich ppl living in Paris, Lyon, etc.

Taxing the poor / middles (e.g. diesel for cars, while zero tax on kerosene for planes), rather than the rich 10 - 20 %. Plus, the minimum wage (very imp. in F, regulates many salaries..) left in limbo..

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 29 2019 17:18 utc | 53

Life has been discovered on Mars. Surely you've seen the rodent (Fauna) and the planks of wood (flora) photographed by the Mars Rover.

I'm kidding. It is apparent that those photos were taken on a remote arctic island. But they have been presented to us as official NASA Mars photos taken by the rover (which has a camera lens which never gets damaged or dirty in the horrific Mars dust storms.)

On another NASA topic, isn't it interesting that a rocket with no fins can fall gracefully without tumbling, right itself and land by limiting it's thrust and make a pinpoint accurate landing? Does that not defy natural laws of physics and aerodynamics?

Note that the waffle iron grids are described by NASA as being useful only at the highest altitudes. These are not for steering during landings.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 29 2019 17:25 utc | 54

Waivers Over – Bolton Gets His Way

I'm going to quote a long section of this particularly interesting article.

But this waiver declaration is more about attending to Trump’s Evangelical base. It is a particularly loyal base which wholly concurs with the Israeli Right that Revolutionary Iran stands as an impediment to the coming into being of the prophesied ‘Greater Israel’ – and concomitantly, with the return of the Messiah. This ‘base’ (25% of Americans profess Evangelism), has turned a collective blind eye to all Trump’s moral failings, and totally disdained the Russiagate allegations. Unmoved by either, they just have come to believe that Trump is the amoral, secular, flawed – yet somehow ‘chosen’ – instrument who can lead Christians in the Cosmic war of good versus evil – with Iran cast as the cosmic evil. And, behind in the shadows, lies ring-master, Sheldon Adelson and his billions, fusing together the (non-Evangelical) Bolton to Netanyahu’s Greater Israel project with the whole sitting atop Trump’s extraordinary loyal Evangelical base on which his continuance in office beyond 2020 may one day hang. The point here, is that this base is pressing for progress towards Rapture; the Bolton neoconservative base is pressing to settle old scores with Revolutionary Iran; the Israeli Right is pressing to take advantage of the ‘serendipidity’ of the Trump Presidency – and Trump wants to project his political muscularity as a campaign platform.

The "base" is loyal, but it is also small. So "other" measures may be necessary to force the Return of Jesus. Trump is said to distrust his Secret Service protection, and to have supplemented it with his own security. I hope Sanders is willing to spend part of his new "wealth" to buy a top-of-the-line flak jacket and hire a few extra guards himself.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 29 2019 17:28 utc | 55

Posted by: BM | Apr 29, 2019 11:58:30 AM | 47
(Abiotic oil = wishful thinking)

I'm quite fond of the abiotic theory too, especially if one considers hydrocarbons as fuel. According to Google the chemical formula for Methane is the same as for Natural Gas = CH4. And we know that Methane is ubiquitous in the outer solar system.

Also according to Google there's no prescribed formula for Crude Oil but...

"Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, carbon and hydrogen chains, either alkanes or alkenes which have the chemical formulae of CnH2n+2 and CnH2n respectively.
Alkanes are saturated, meaning that they don't contain a double bond, unlike alkenes which do." (whatever that means in relation to pressure-cooking oil from simpler ingredients)

I must have read the same Russia-related source as Grieved because what made Russia's abiotic theory embraceable to me was that the Ruskies theory enabled them to predict the (deep) geo structures most likely to contain oil, and they reinvented drilling to enable them to drill VERY DEEP wells. Imo, the jury is still out on abiotic oil and I'm unaware of the specific biological traces found in crude oil. I am however aware of and have seen fern-tree remnants in black and brown coal.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 29 2019 17:35 utc | 56

Noirette 54

They say "all politics is local." Which seems strange because Western elites are international and all countries face the same elite interests. But the moment you try to make such a connection, you are likely to get smeared as a conspiracy theorist.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 29 2019 17:41 utc | 57

> Imo, the jury is still out on abiotic oil and I'm unaware of the specific biological traces found in crude oil.

The traces are the resistant skeletons of steroids, hopanes, porphyrins etc. Large molecules, e.g.
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/250pm-chem-materials-vladislav-lobodin-150630082810-lva1-app6892/95/apci-and-appi-gcmsms-for-characterization-of-the-macondo-wellhead-crude-oil-and-the-oil-spill-21-638.jpg

The problem with the deep abiotic theory is that if you go too deep, it's simply too hot for oil to exist. Ask any hand that has worked in the field -- at a certain depth all you find is gas, and deeper than that, nothing but dry holes.

Posted by: Ash | Apr 29 2019 18:01 utc | 58

59.

There is gas on top also. 15 years ago they typically let the gas escape and go to waste. I assume this is still standard procedure.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 29 2019 18:29 utc | 59

Posted by: Ash | Apr 29, 2019 2:01:42 PM | 59
(Abiotic oil - Hw unaware of biological traces)

Thanks for the quick response. I realised as I was typing that confession that a bit of homework might be worthwhile...

Wiki has an entry on the subject and I've skimmed a few of the pro and con arguments and evidence for each and, as you assert, there are 'typical' bio traces in crude oil - but SOME evidence, here and there for abiotic origins. It's a big article and I'll read some more to find out what else I'm unaware of...

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 29 2019 18:32 utc | 60

Ash @59--

You provide some extremely important basic info about oil and NatGas "basins" and "reservoirs" in that they must be capped lest the hydrocarbons escape into the atmosphere. The "cooking" is also important. These basic points were discussed/answered/explained almost constantly during The Oil Drum blog's life as was the reason why abiotic oil is a chimera. Also explained was the fact that on the geologic time scale, all hydrocarbons are renewable energy sources as they all emanate from organic matter that's laid down, covered and cooked. Peat is an excellent example of young coal that's yet to be buried and cooked. Coal is classified as an organic rock and is laid down in seams like all other rock strata but its nature can change when metamorphosed.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2019 18:40 utc | 61

You found me out, I used to post regularly on The Oil Drum :) Seems like another life ago though.

Posted by: Ash | Apr 29 2019 18:44 utc | 62

@35 fsd

Careful, Putin has an army for self-promotion and photo ops. I am thinking of his shirtless, bare-backing on the horse through the stream.

Putin is like the Amazon of self promotion in Russia. He has the market cornered. And this is coming from a Putin fan boy.

Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Apr 29 2019 18:52 utc | 63

@ Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 29, 2019 2:29:55 PM | 60

That pretty much depends whether there is existing pipeline infrastructure at the site of 'production'. KSA for instance wastes an incredible amount of gas because they never much bothered with it, whereas other places are pretty good about using what's there, making routine use of gas/oil separation plants that allow them to take both resources together. And of course plenty of companies only drill for gas, or gas and its condensates.

Posted by: Ash | Apr 29 2019 18:52 utc | 64

The World Economic Forum at Davos has played a major role in the rise of the movement around Greta Thurnberg. The Winter Oak Website detailed their diabolical plot to privatise all nature and subject it to the neoliberal monetary value system https://winteroak.org.uk/2019/04/25/so-who-exactly-is-christiana-figueres/.

I'm sure 99% of the activists with ER, including Greta, are honest pro-liberation partisans of the "Global intifada" needed to defend life and humanism - too bad that they appear to have entered into a malignant and sinister orbit.

Posted by: No WEF 2019 | Apr 29 2019 19:41 utc | 65

Second Part of Sharmine Narwani Salon Interview is now available. She points-out the Color Revolution Mantra we've seen employed globally:

"The four narratives that were utilized in undermining the Syrian state’s legitimacy and setting the stage for regime-change were: 1) The dictator is killing his own people, 2) the protesters are peaceful, 3) the opposition is unarmed, and 4) this is a popular revolution."

And that's just the beginning. Too much to cite!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2019 20:52 utc | 66

karlof1 @67

Thanks.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 29 2019 21:08 utc | 67

BM @ 40 - 42:

Orthodox Christian churches including the Russian Orthodox Church still use the old Julian calendar which was given up in most of Europe by the late 1500s but lasted much later in Orthodox Christian Europe, Russia most famously giving it up on 14 February 1918. The Julian calendar is usually a couple weeks behind the Gregorian calendar.

This explains why the Bolshevik takeover of the Russian government in early November 1917 is known as the October Revolution - because the country was still using the Julian calendar at the time and according to the calendar the month was still October.

----------------------

I should say the exploitation of a 14-year-old girl with autism by supposed climate change activists to capture and herd people into following an agenda - an agenda that is less about preventing, combating or mitigating the effects of climate change and more about capitalising and profiting from supposed commercial "opportunities" arising from climate change (such as the carbon credits market) prevention - has much in common with the White Helmets' exploitation of small children like Omar Daqneesh to help corral people into supporting regime change efforts.

Not surprisingly, just as those of us who call out the White Helmets for the propaganda front that they are get called sympathisers with repression and dictatorship, so those of us who question Thunberg's links to Avaaz and Purpose (who have advocated for a no-fly zone over Syria in the past) end up being labelled climate change denialists. Not only that but real climate change denialists latch onto the sceptics and claim them for their own. So Thunberg ends up being a tool of divide-and-rule strategy to deliberately confuse people.

And if young teenagers and their teachers can be seduced so quickly and easily by Thunberg's message, what else can get them out into the streets? Any time The Powers That (Should Not) Be want support for a no-fly-zone-over-Iran or Venezuela effort, they now know who to target. Their PR people are probably already working on campaigns promoting the Iranian or Venezuelan Banana al Abed mascot.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 29 2019 22:24 utc | 68

"As far as the "global warming" goes, I think it is far too late to save the earth from a martian perma-desert future by just "limiting fossil fuels"."
...
"There are a lot of "alt-right" types who will not hear of any talk about global warming. And I am not sure what is going on with these people -- they must be being programmed by some radio "talk" shows or whatever. I think every one should be able to think for themselves (like I do). "

Posted by: blues | Apr 28, 2019 11:03:38 PM | 28

Halleluya brother!
I continue to be amazed by the different conclusions that people can draw from the same data.
Do you really believe what you say? Did you ever studied the problem in detail to understand what you mean?
Alt-right? I doubt you really think for yourself blue. Sorry but I really doubt.

The CO2 is supposed to cause a warming of 0.7 to 1°C at the doubling of CO2. That would mean starting from the current 400 ppm (parts per million) to reach 800 ppm.
This value will probably be never achieved.
With 500 or 600 ppm we would have 0.2 or 0.3 warming. Can we really measure that?

C3 plants do have an enhanced photosynthesis with more CO2. These are 93% of all plants, therefore plants will take up more CO2 from the atmosphere the richer the atmosphere is in CO2.
In addition plants do better survive droughts with more CO2.

I have lived long enough to see with my own eyes how forests grow stronger and faster now in comparison with mid previous century.
But don't need to trust my lying eyes, NASA satellites do show a greening of the Earth for the last 3 decades.(Unfortunatelly the data does not go further back)

I have put an argumentation on why there is no need to panic, no catastrophe is coming from the extra CO2, in some posts on this blog. I will not repeat those. Who wants to learn and understand the issue can go look at the links and study the matter seriously.

Who wants to panic and write "the sky is falling" posts will do it anyhow, does not matter how often one tries to ration with these kind of people.

To my posts I received no real answers, no scientifically argumentation from any warmists, only drivel and name calling, as 99% of the warmists usually do. There are very few warmists who really look to understand the science. Most warmists go by the 'appeal to authority' version.

During the ice age the oceans absorbed large quantities of CO2, therefore the atmosphere was down to ca 180 ppm CO2. 180 ppm is a threshold where some C3 plants start to show signs of CO2 starvation. This has greatly limited the biosphere.

With the Holocene came warmer time and the CO2 rose to ca 280 ppm. This warming and the extra CO2 resulted in the doubling of the biosphere.
Increasing CO2 from 280 ppm to 400 ppm resulted in an additional 10-30% more photosynthesis. More plants= more animals, more food for all.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3004

Without these 400 ppm CO2 we would be starving. If we humans did one thing good on this planet it was freeing all that carbon and bringing it back to the circle of life.
As the sun goes now in a quiet period we might get in the next decade the answer we look for: who is driving the climate, the mighty CO2 or the sun?

Posted by: LP | Apr 29 2019 22:30 utc | 69

Australia has its own 60 Minutes news program and it ran its interview with John Shipton, Julian Assange's father, and had a poll asking:

"Julian Assange’s father is urging Australian authorities to step in and stop Assange’s extradition to the US, and ultimately, finally bring him home. But does he deserve our support?"

85% Yes
15% No

11,539 votes

One tweet on the thread cited 91% Yes, so don't know which is the more accurate.

Related is Tulsi Gabbard's 2020 run. In this long 6 1/2 min vid, an emotional Afghan/American asks Tulsi:

"How are you going to fight your own party--our own Democrats--to bring forth Change?"

Whether staged or not, the moment's very powerful and reminds me of Code Pink's early days. Tulsi readily admits that we need to fight against those within the Democrat Party having a vested interest in No Change, amongst others. Take the 6+ minutes to watch; it's even subtitled so you don't need to listen, just read. I'm proud we have a Tulsi Gabbard who knows who and where her enemies are located and who knows what the stakes are.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2019 22:56 utc | 70

Go Fund Me:

"Australians Bring Assange Home—1000 giant posters" only seeks $5K and is half way there!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 29 2019 23:15 utc | 71

Putin held a press conference after the BRI Forum where he addressed numerous issues beyond BRI. But it is the first question and its answer I found illuminating:

"The Belt and Road is a very ambitious project – to the extent that it raises concerns in some. China is not a country that makes plans only for years ahead – it makes plans for decades proceeding not from billions but from trillions of dollars. This leads to the question, is this China's project or is it beneficial for other participants? Is it beneficial for Russia?"

Putin's answer is long and reveals a few points usually omitted from reports on BRI and the EAEU Project. One of these is within this paragraph:

"China implements this in a civilised and delicate way, making sure proposals for common development meet the interests of the vast majority of international participants, if not all. Generally speaking, China has offered nothing new; what it is doing is actually making attempts to reaffirm the principles set out by the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, and many of our colleagues are mentioning this backstage like they did at the last meeting. What is China’s goal? Stability." [My Emphasis]

The Outlaw US Empire promotes chaos while Russia, China, and "the vast majority of international participants" seek "Stability"! Now wouldn't that make quite The Headline!? No wonder Pompeo continues his attempt to keep the Russiagate narrative alive--In doing so, he allies himself with the D Party!

And of course, Pepe Escobar reports on the BRI Forum, where as usual it's easier for people to read his report than for me to try and decide what I should excerpt.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30 2019 0:29 utc | 72

Kit Klarenberg on Neocon Wikipedia editing points out a new ally in the unmasking process:

"Thanks, but can't take the credit - @leftworks1 got in touch about it. He's doing some fantastic digging on Cross' activities at the moment, anyone wanting to understand how this bizarre individual is corrupting Wikipedia in service of neocons must follow him!"

There's more as Kit asks:

"Wikipedia founder doesn't understand how his own site works? Or something more sinister, given Jimmy's previous repeated whitewashing of Cross' activities? You decide."

Ouch!! Kit's excellent work helps dispel the smears he's a Russian Propagandist.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30 2019 0:56 utc | 73

And if you haven't you must read this thread where Aaron Mate destroys Rachael Maddow's ongoing Russiagate contentions. She gets paid $7Million/yr to spread her bullshit!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30 2019 1:07 utc | 74

Had a conversation with a North Georgia family member earlier today and learned that person has been confined to the house during this pollen season. He has lived there for about 25 years, and only recently have things gotten bad. Another family lives in North Carolina, and I was recently surprised to hear that three of them are taking some kind of injected allergy medications. Not being a total dolt (these are relatives!) I added in myself. Very few years ago I had some new aches and pains so I trekked to the doctor. He told me I was all clogged up and since then have had to use a seasonal medication. Widespread coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

The past winter I was ok, but with the onset of spring and all the stuff around here flowering, suddenly it has been "game on" again with those symptoms. A quick search turned up an interesting article.

Extreme Allergies and Global Warming

The Deniers don't lie when they say plants love carbon dioxide. The part they skip over is that this is a love like in the old country/western song - "love for all the wrong reasons". Conditions are created where the plants can create pollen much more easily, so they do that. As the link says, some of the worst offenders (from the human standpoint) like their new fertilizer most of all. Ongoing scientific work has been the testing assorted plants to see how they do with their new CO2 diet increase, and poison ivy is one that just goes nuts. Not so much so for the crop plants - the stuff we eat. These have been bred to a finer point than the most expensive pedigreed dogs, and are just as fickle. Worse than that, the rampant growth of some crops comes at the expense of the protein content.

So it looks as if we humans are going to spend our time waiting for civilization to collapse with ever-increasing misery from chaotic weather and irritants like poison ivy and pollens of all kinds.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 30 2019 1:46 utc | 75

Thanks, b, for extending the Easter greetings, and to Jen @ 69 for her explanation of calendar issues. I will simply add that many Orthodox churches today did switch in the main to the Gregorian calendar for feasts that are fixed on the calendar, such as Christmas. Only a few have stayed on the Old Calendar. Easter is different as it is determined by the lunar months from Hebraic reckoning, both in the East and in the West. So, all Orthodox celebrate Easter at the same time, whether observing Old or New calendar. And the Western and Eastern observances of Easter usually diverge, but occasionally do not.

But that is probably more than most here need to know - sorry!

Indeed He is Risen!

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2019 2:26 utc | 76

@47 BM and @57 Hoarsewhisperer

I got the idea that the abiotic theory of oil is correct from this 2007 article by William Engdahl:
Confessions of an “ex” Peak Oil Believer

I don't think I studied much else other than that, and I will say that since then (I read it 4-5 years ago), I've disagreed with some of Engdahl's geopolitical analysis, and agreed with some other, so I treat him as a more mixed bag than I did at the time. But I think his article is pretty soundly presented, for one to judge for oneself.

The key point for me was his illustration that the biotic origin of oil was never actually proved. It was assumed, because of the organic constituents - the glaring presence of fossiliferous porosity where the oil flowed - and there was never any disagreement or pressure on anyone to prove the theory with rigor. Engdahl points out that just because this is where the oil flows easily into our waiting tanks, this doesn't mean we tapped into the actual source, merely the principal conduit.

I read this thread carefully, looking for an actual proof of the biological origin of oil being cited and didn't see one yet. It may exist - I haven't looked.

However, I don't want to advocate for or against this point - especially as I have no time right now. I mentioned it as a change in my worldview, in my simple little offering last night. I agree the jury can easily still be out on this one, and I'll open my thinking back up to both possibilities. It's useful if true, but if not, to me the problem still pales in comparison with the larger issues.

These larger issues to me are that the gray veil of the west will never now saturate and pervade the whole world, because of Russia at the very least. And the issue of climate change is the killer of all hope, but now I see that there is China, which shows me a government driven by humane principles, with an economy based on the strength of sustainability, and accustomed to very large projects to deal with a very large population. It's going to take something like that to perform the rebalancing required to sort this issue out. My hope has come alive because I see that these things are possible, and that the people of the future may actually be able to have a future.

Speaking of rigor, I didn't apply much to what I wrote up-thread, and not much here either, I'm afraid (tired and no time, regrettably). I was just offering a worldview, for any who might like it. I didn't expect to have to back it up, I thought it would be ignored - oops, probably a short-sighted thought on my part ;)

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 30 2019 3:04 utc | 77

@47 & 57 - BM & Hoarsewhisperer

As soon as I hit "Post" I knew the system wouldn't take the Engdahl link. So my long response regarding the oil thing is trapped in moderation. If it appears, it will appear at about this point in the thread, so one would have to scroll back to here, after b is awake and may have had a chance to clear moderated comments - but even then it may be gone forever.

William Engdahl has a piece called "Confessions of an “ex” Peak Oil Believer" and I'm sure you can search for it - yes, Yandex has a page full of links.

I have to go, sorry. Everything I'd like to say, may yet appear.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 30 2019 3:12 utc | 78

Since Dumbster put his veto on the Resolution to end U.S. involvement in Yemen, Bernie, bless him, is pressing for override and tweeting veto should be overturned and slamming Pompeo.

Sanders Yemen

Sanders Pompeo

Fox is painting Sanders as a scary Sandanista revolutionary. Wellll, what's wrong with being a revolutionary leader at heart? Isn't he therefore precisely the right man for precisely the right time when the U.S could benefit greatly from revolutionary ideas and maybe a Revolution and regime change?

Sanders praises revolutionaries

Posted by: Circe | Apr 30 2019 5:49 utc | 79

Unfortunately, third link doesn't open directly on the page but give you option to choose the article.

Posted by: Circe | Apr 30 2019 5:53 utc | 80

Gosh, those supervillains from russia, now they're weaponizing whales. This military-grade moby had no whaletag on but a belt that says "from St. Petersburg" (no joke). Man it would be seriously hilarious in an austin powers way if it weren't that some people pick up the headline along the way and consider it serious news because it's "in the guardian".

Posted by: radiator | Apr 30 2019 10:27 utc | 81

Newsflash! Keep up that Trump support. Your upper-middle class bias is showing.

And no, this anti-worker bill did not result from the duopoly. Using "reconciliation", the bill passed with a bare majourity in the GOP Senate, the GOP House and was signed into law by a GOP President.

The bulk of the $150bn the tax cut put into the hands of corporations in 2018 went into shareholder dividends and stock buy-backs, both of which line the pockets of the 10% of Americans who own 84% of the stocks.

Just 6% of the tax savings was spent on workers, according to Just Capital, a not-for-profit that tracks the Russell 1000 index.

In the first three months after the bill passed, the average weekly paycheck rose by $6.21. That would be $233 a year.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 30 2019 12:30 utc | 82

I heard this on CBC radio yesterday. I was hoping some one who knows more about China might be able to clarify the allegations put forward by the man interviewed.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/canadians-held-in-china-will-feel-forgotten-says-artist-and-dissident-ai-weiwei-1.5112821

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 30 2019 13:36 utc | 83

I had been going to comment on your earlier post, Grieved, to the effect that I too take hope from both Russia and China in the grey landscape of current affairs, and I didn't feel the origin of oil was a huge matter for discussion - it might or it might not be organic, time and science can settle that. I have wrestled with the conflict between our wish for a healthy planet and the ongoing oil operations that have been the focus for so long both in those regions and further south - it must be said that oil was organic during the whaling years, so your point isn't wholly to be pooh-pooed, but I won't pursue that. Sometimes folk use argument as a distraction.

Thanks for the posts - I see your earlier one has surfaced.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2019 15:20 utc | 84

Jack 48. Definetly. The Gilets Jaunes have totally refused to enter the ‘standard’ fray - neither Mélenchon nor Le Pen have managed to ‘recuperate’ them or make any inroads whatsoever. They see through these empty pols.

They also won’t discuss the EU, pro or anti - they are nationally focussed in first place. Nor will they ‘choose’ leaders who can then be co-opted. (The French experience with Unions is *abysmal* ..) We see the basics of a ‘genuine’ (whatever.. !) revol. movement are present but I fear that in the present landscape success may be far off, to put it mildly.

One main complaint is that they are not represented in politics, which is true. Out of the 570+ deputés afaik only 1 - 7 (?) is from the working class.

Macron is in deep trouble - from below, GJ, but from above or sideways as well. He was supposed to be the subservient lackey, great for the part - good looking and all - but his backers did not understand the grandiose and almost crazed inflated self-image he (and his wife w. him) hold, though that is what seduced some of them in the first place!

Jen, 69 I have heard from a well connected Swede that Greta will get the Nobel Peace Prize. Not a suprise.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 30 2019 15:23 utc | 85

Thanks, Grieved, for your link @ 78. Whatever the origins of oil, that article is extremely interesting and worth reading as an explanation of the different aspects of the pursuit of oil that have given Russia the ability to become again a world power. If it were not for our dread of the consequences of polluting the atmosphere and the oceans, the deep drilling the article describes would seem to be ( I was going to say 'on the surface' but I won't) less biologically offensive than other methods if they can be pursued sustainably.

I do believe we don't really know what climate change will bring. There are knowns that can be fed into computers, assuredly; there are also unknowns, and we do get adjustments to what is predicted on a constant basis. I am hoping we don't know as much as we think we know, since that is usually the case. Climate change is upon us, assuredly; and it is affected by the consumption of the 'fossil fuels'. That is assured also. What, eventually, is going to happen? All I know is that I don't know.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2019 15:42 utc | 86

In my post above, it should be "...if that can be pursued sustainably."

Posted by: juliania | Apr 30 2019 15:45 utc | 87

@ Posted by: Grieved | Apr 29, 2019 11:04:06 PM | 78

I liked the position that the field geologists on the The Oil Drum took on abiotic oil: it exists? Great! Where is it? If the theory can produce viable predictions of new places to drill that are not sensible places to look for 'classical' fields but that can nevertheless yield oil, has this ever been successfully demonstrated? (It's not like nobody's ever looked--by now there's a pretty significant pile of negative data points.) If not, the question of origin is academic, and sedimentary anticlines of a certain age will remain the best targets regardless of where the oil ultimately came from.

Posted by: Ash | Apr 30 2019 20:07 utc | 88

No matter if oil is abiotic or biotic or both (there is no contradiction in being both) it is created by a geological process or in a geological context which in turn can be easily assumed to be a constant one (as long as the Earth remains geologically active) and thus while it is possible to deplete reservoirs in the short term they won't disappear but continue to appear and rejuvenate themselves given whatever is enough time (could be a lot of time, could be less). This possibility seems to have at least some partial support from practical experience although other explanations are possible.

It's a boring topic in my opinion, sorry :D The same can be said of climate change.

For a simple example of how little we know about the place we live I recommend people read about one excellent achievement of the Soviet Union through their project known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole and how surprising the results were. An excellent example of something the Soviet Union did right, very very right.

Unfortunately I've packed it up and moved it to a new flat (and I haven't yet so I couldn't spend hours going through boxes even if I wanted to) but I have the "Rome something report" (whatever it was called) in book format from... a 1980ies or 90ies print. In 2019 it is abundantly clear that it and its predictions are 100% pure bullshit yet the various powers that be are still selling essentially the same nonsense every day to everybody including indoctrinating (or brainwashing) children and teenagers, and still people buy into it and proselytize it.

These days they even think the world will end in twelve years. One has to feel sorry for them but it's going to be interesting to see what they'll learn from it when twenty or thirty years have passed... :D (like I did).

Humans... genetically both 50% banana and 100% simian and this explains everything about us lol :P

Kindness is probably the highest achievement we can reach, I wish I was better at it :)

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 1 2019 2:45 utc | 89

The Saudis offered Abbas 10 billion dollars to accept the deal that Trump/Kushner will propose and so betray Palestinians.

Saudis offered Abbas 10 billion

Maybe someone should offer them same to give up throne.

Trump is thinking of designating Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Trump to designate Muslim Brotherhood terrorists

Meanwhile Sissi locks up political rivals for life and Saudis just beheaded 37 of them.

Posted by: Circe | May 1 2019 12:30 utc | 90

To add to my 91. The New World Order justice c/o Donald Trump, the Zionist Neocon bastard some of you continue to support!

Posted by: Circe | May 1 2019 12:33 utc | 91

- Erdogan seems to be getting deper and deeper introuble.

"“Revenge of the Kurds”: Erdogan’s Missteps Are Piling Up

After 18 years of unchallenged power, the Turkish president finds himself in the middle of several domestic and foreign crises of his own making."

https://fpif.org/revenge-of-the-kurds-erdogans-missteps-are-piling-up/

Posted by: Willy2 | May 2 2019 6:00 utc | 92

- A video on why the Boeing 737 MAX is very "vulnerable". Boeing put on a new engine on the 737. But the engine was too large to fit under the wing. So, the engine was placed on a higher spot on the wing, attached higher onto the wing. And that had a major impact on the flying characteristics of the plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2tuKiiznsY

Posted by: Willy2 | May 2 2019 6:45 utc | 93

The farce is complete (see below).

The Russians forced us to investigate ourselves.

Diabolical!!! LMFAO.

Barr says DOJ investigating whether Steele dossier was part of Russian disinformation campaign:

Cornyn asked Barr point blank: “How do we know that the Steele dossier is not itself evidence of Russian disinformation campaign knowing what we know now that basically the allegations made were second hand, hearsay, or unverified? Can we state with confidence the Steele dossier was not part of the Russian disinformation campaign?”

Barr said he couldn’t rule out the possibility. “I can't state that with confidence and it's one of the areas that I'm reviewing. I'm concerned about it and I don't think it's entirely speculative," he said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report already confirmed that the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, carried out disinformation activities on social media meant to interfere with the 2016 election. Mueller further stated that GRU, Russia’s military intelligence, carried out cyberattacks against the Clinton campaign and the DNC and provided the hacked emails to WikiLeaks for distribution.

“I called what bullshit the dossier was a year and a half ago … It’s likely FSB [the successor agency to the KGB] disinformation," former CIA Moscow station chief Daniel Hoffman recently told the Washington Examiner.

By January 2017, some FBI agents trying to verify the dossier’s allegations had reportedly concluded that some of the dossier’s contents may have been based upon “rumors and hearsay” which were “passed from source to source,” perhaps even originating as “Russian disinformation.”

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward has been calling Steele’s dossier “garbage” for more than two years. And Michael Isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News whose September 2016 news article based on the dossier was used in FISA applications, recently said the media should have shown "more skepticism" over Steele's dossier, which he described as "thirdhand stuff."

Russiagate is all about the new McCarthyism. And the 2016 Presidential election was the means to initiate the plan, elect a nationalist President (to best counter the challenge from Russia and China), and discredit Wikileaks (by linking them to Russian meddling).

Did Brennan give the order (aka "Red Scare"/"Code Red")? Maybe at some point in the future we will learn the truth. Can we handle it?

Welcome to the rabbithole.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 2 2019 13:27 utc | 94