Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
July 25, 2019

Hitzefrei

Elementary schools in Germany give 'hitzefrei' (heat-free) when the school rooms become too hot. (They don't have air-conditioning.) The pupils are send home or to the public pool where available.

Today I decided to take 'hitzefrei'. Its 35° Celsius (95°F) here and quite humid. Even my typically cold apartment heated up.

Thus - no post today.

Use as open thread ...

Posted by b on July 25, 2019 at 17:13 UTC | Permalink

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Everyone wants to be a pirate:

https://www.rt.com/news/465043-ukraine-tanker-seizure-piracy/

Posted by: Victor | Jul 25 2019 17:23 utc | 1

Another white helmet ploy?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49111537

Posted by: Ninel | Jul 25 2019 17:47 utc | 2

Yes, Heat is on Europe now.
BoJo has been installed in 10 Downing St.
Britain can prepare for a BloJo.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 25 2019 18:07 utc | 3

This has been a very odd year for us weather-wise too. While the American northeast bakes, here in Texas it's only hit 100F one time so far. In the past we've had summers with 100F+ temperatures for a month straight, and it hit 112 where I live and 114 in the city of my birth. In both cases it was a pretty dry heat.

Hopefully this Saharan air over Germany and Europe will move up north....I'm not exactly sure what they are attributing the heat wave in the American northeast to, now that I think about it.

Posted by: KC | Jul 25 2019 18:19 utc | 4

38(100) here in central Italy, likewise no AC, ceiling fan's doing yeoman's service.

Posted by: john | Jul 25 2019 18:25 utc | 5

Mere mild anticipations of the great Sixth Extinction Event, where global heating (even prior to the rest of climate chaos, unless pandemics get there first) will bring down Homo necropolis as the apex victim of its own omnicidal campaign.

Posted by: Russ | Jul 25 2019 18:27 utc | 6

I think you should explain why there is no air conditioning in schools. I have an idea but I really don’t know.

Posted by: Vasco Valente | Jul 25 2019 18:32 utc | 7

Nun, dann geniessen Sie Ihre 'Hitzefrei'-Zeit. Vielleicht mit einem kühlen Weizenbier und etwas Zitrone? Wohl bekomm's. And mille grazie for your sehr lesenswerte Artikel! Thank you. Благодаря!

Posted by: Enrica Sartorius | Jul 25 2019 18:37 utc | 8

Stay cool, b.

Posted by: KP | Jul 25 2019 18:41 utc | 9

Great article from Andre Viltchek on Uyghurs:

http://www.unz.com/avltchek/march-of-the-uyghurs/


And the Epstein saga just keeps getting muddier. They found him semi conscience in his jail cell with marks around his neck. He, very conveniently, is roomed with a cop who killed 4 people in a drug bust conspiracy gone bad. I guess his “Holy Grail” black book/Orgy Island patrons and his handlers in Mossad/CIA have decided he is a liability and needs to be eliminated before he starts singing for a plea bargain.

https://www.rt.com/usa/465003-jeffrey-epstein-injured-jail/

Posted by: Uncle Jon | Jul 25 2019 18:47 utc | 10

A fine time to thank you for your analysis and perspective. Your accomplishments are uniformly first-rate and remind me that superiority still exists. Funny thing, I found my way back here looking for billmon and found just as good. Thank you.

Posted by: Lawrence Magnuson | Jul 25 2019 18:49 utc | 11

Is there a law in Germany that forbids schools from having air conditioning? If so, is that law meant to conserve energy consumption?

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 25 2019 19:04 utc | 12

Epstein's business model was not unique.

Financial Fraud, The Laundering of Drug Money and the CIA
A Full-Service, Bank: Stanford International Bank (SIB)


Once described by fawning media as a “flamboyant Texan” and “philanthropist,” Stanford was founder and sole shareholder of a global banking empire once conservatively valued at $50 billion.

According to the federal indictment, “Sir Allen,” (R. Allen Stanford) as he was dubbed by a corrupt former minister of Antigua, ran a massive Ponzi scheme camouflaged as a bank that sold some $7 billion in self-styled “certificates of deposit” and $1.2 billion in mutual funds.

Operated from behind a façade of well-appointed offices and with a jet-set lifestyle to match, the SIB grift may have been impressive but it was a scam from the get-go. Lured by “high rates that exceed those available through true certificates of deposits offered by traditional banks,” thousands lost their shirts.
...

Facing the prospect of years in prison, The Miami Herald reported that SIB’s chief financial officer James Davis, once Stanford’s college roommate and originally charged in the indictment, copped a plea to save his own neck.

Davis told the Justice Department that “his boss had been stealing from investors for decades while paying bribes to regulators and even performing blood oaths never to reveal his secrets.”
...
And with connections and generous pay-outs to U.S. politicians going back more than a decade, 65% of which went to Democrats including our “change” president, Allen Stanford was plugged-in.

Evidence also suggests he may have gotten an assist covering his tracks from regulators and U.S. secret state agencies, including the CIA.
...
In 1986 during the Iran-Contra period, Allen Stanford’s Guardian International Bank set up shop on the sleepy Caribbean isle of Montserrat (pop. 5,870).

It didn’t take long before the bank came under scrutiny. Guardian was the subject of a joint Scotland Yard-FBI investigation “into so-called ‘brass-plate’ banks,” The Independent disclosed.

According to reporters David Connett and Stephen Foley, the bank “was suspected of laundering drug money from the notorious Medellin and Cali drug cartels run by Pablo Escobar and the Orejuela brothers.”

During the Iran-Contra scandal, congressional investigators and journalists scrutinized links between Colombian drug traffickers and the CIA’s Nicaraguan Contra army.

By 1986, evidence began to emerge that top Contra officials and the Agency enjoyed cosy ties with both Escobar and the Orejuela brothers. Under pressure from the Reagan administration however, both Congress and corporate media deep-sixed the story as the affair was covered-up.

A decade later, largely as a result of outrage generated by the late Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance series, a memorandum of understanding between Reagan’s Justice Department and the Agency entered the public record. That 1982 memo legally freed the CIA from reporting drug smuggling by their assets.

Former FBI agent Ross Gaffney who led the Guardian probe, told Connett and Foley that “we suspected that Stanford’s bank was involved in money laundering.” But before that investigation could be developed, Stanford suddenly pulled up stakes and “voluntarily surrendered his Montserrat banking licence and left the island.”
...
Despite suspicions, it appears that Stanford was golden as far as the feds were concerned; just another guy with an endless supply of “get-out-of-jail-free” cards.

One reason Stanford operated with impunity, the BBC informs us, is that he “may have been a US government informer.”

DEA documents seen by BBC’s investigative unit Panorama, suggest that “drug money [was] originally paid in to Stanford International Bank by agents acting for a feared Mexican drug lord known as the ‘Lord of the Heavens’.”

Confidential DEA sources believe that Stanford turned over “details of money-laundering from Latin American clients from Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador,” thus “effectively guaranteeing himself a decade’s worth of ‘protection’ from the authorities, especially the SEC.”

“We were convinced that Stanford’s bank attracted millions of narco-dollars,” sources told Panorama, “but it was very difficult to get the evidence to nail him.”

“The word is” BBC reported, “that Stanford has been a confidential informer for the DEA since ’99.”

read it yourself.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 19:11 utc | 13

China has published a White Paper describing its new Defense Doctrine. I posted the links to it and another item related to it on the previous open thread here.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 19:19 utc | 14

It seems the 737 delay will go beyond December 2019. Boeing is already threatening to stop production of the model:

Boeing says it could halt production of 737 Max after grounding

Once production stops, layoffs will begin, putting further pressure on the United States Government. Boeing is a strong lobbyist, and will use the "save American jobs" mantra to try to bend the FAA to its will.

However, the Chinese market is very important, and only the FAA may not be enough to save the 737 profitability. Boeing is now hoping for this trade war with China to reach a truce and include a suspension to its suspension as one of the terms for Huawei's rehabilitation in the USA. That may or may not work.

Posted by: vk | Jul 25 2019 19:27 utc | 15

Had to chime in about the air conditioning. Coming from Canada it is far more prevalent than Europe!
I've been in Switzerland the last few years and you rarely find it. The lets go to the mall to cool off doesn't make sense here and seems that way wherever I've travelled.

Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Jul 25 2019 19:41 utc | 16

There is no need for A/C in Germany. At least hasn't been. You would nowhere in the streets find AC units outside the flats. This is valid also for neighbouring Poland, Scandinavia and the Baltics. Berlin is at 51° North, whilst London is at 49° N. Calgary in Canada is at 51° North. And Germany has the Alp mountains blocking heat waves from the South.

Posted by: BG | Jul 25 2019 19:49 utc | 17

Whitney Webb just was on The Last American Vagabond Podcast talking about Epstein and US and Israeli history of sexual blackmail infiltrating politics going all the way back to Meyer Lansky. She tried to connect so many dots within the elitist network that it made my head spin.

Posted by: Vato | Jul 25 2019 20:05 utc | 18

Posted by: BG | Jul 25 2019 19:49 utc | 16

Let me tell you there is a need for air conditioning in Germany now (heard of global warming, climate change?). 37 degree Celsius is body temperature and it was up to 42 degree Celsius in parts of Germany today.
People's bodies can cope if they keep drinking, sweating and refrain from moving but it is not healthy, and some older/ill people won't make it this summer.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 20:14 utc | 19

Air conditioning became ubiquitous in southern Oz from the late 1980s with the advent of cheap and reliable Japaneses reverse-cycle air-con units. It's too cold in Winter and too hot in Summer so the temptation to buy a single zero-maintenance device which can heat & cool proved irresistible.
Unless one has access to cheap heating fuel then heating with an r-s air-conditioner is much cheaper than burning fossil fuel, wood or using an electric heater to convert electricity directly into heat.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 25 2019 20:19 utc | 20

Earlier today I noted that Google had banned Sputnik. Now I read that Facebook and Twitter have conspired to ban Tony Cartalucci.

Banned From Facebook and Twitter!

July 25, 2019 (LD) - Facebook and Twitter joined forces to investigate and delete my accounts. This includes my Facebook page, as well as my Land Destroyer Twitter account, my Thai-centric AltThaiNews account, my personal Twitter account @TonyCartalucci and my LocalOrg account discussing solutions and technology.

The story was actually first reported by Reuters:

Facebook removes fake accounts from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Honduras

The accounts removed in Thailand used “fictitious personas” to promote narratives about Thai politics, U.S.-China relations, protests in Hong Kong, and criticism of democracy activists in Thailand, Gleicher said.

“We were able to determine conclusively that some of the activities of this network was linked to an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow,” Gleicher said.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 25 2019 20:29 utc | 21

As opposed to A/C, the venerable Swamp or Evaporative Cooler uses significantly less energy, although it's most efficient in drier climates as the linked item explains. For many decades in California's hot, dry central valley, swamp coolers were ubiquitous and worked very well for the smaller houses built prior to the 1960s. The advent of larger, sprawl-spawned single-level "ranch" style houses were cooled and heated better by a central HVAC system, although they used more energy.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 20:33 utc | 22

Are people in Europe aware that the climate is entering a Grand Solar Minimum, a natural cycle that occurs every 200-300 years. Think Napoleon retreating from Moscow. The Solar Minimum features very cold winters and spells of very hot temperatures in the summer. Together with this the magnetic North Pole has moved from Canada towards Russia which also affects climate conditions.

This information seems to be suppressed by governments pushing man-made Global Warming - maybe b could look into this. There are many video's on YouTube on Grand Solar Minimums if anyone wants to look further into the issue.

Posted by: Ed in Kanata | Jul 25 2019 20:42 utc | 23

Interesting paper providing evidence that privatisation of state assets increased corruption in the developing world.

Bad governance: How privatization increases corruption inthe developing world

Four scholars find that neo-liberal policies insisted on by the IMF and the World Bank like privatisation does not improve economies but instead "can create rent-extraction opportunities and stop state institutions from limiting corrupt behavior." In other words, privatisation does not breed efficiency over state enterprise, the supposed objective, but is merely a way of lining the pockets of private investors.

Indeed corruption is rife in privatisation, as the history of the dismantling of the Soviet Union had already shown.

[all of this from Michael Roberts' Facebook]

Posted by: vk | Jul 25 2019 20:44 utc | 24

South of Europe we usually have these temperatures for a few weeks each year at least , in Spain to near fifty centigrade sometimes. Humidity adds a lot to sensation, but here it is usually dry, and we have never had air-conditioning. People get used to it though, when high temperatures are normal, buildings are made for the heat not the cold, lifestyle is different...they sometimes suggest banning siesta hours for productivity etc., that is bureaucrats for you.

Countries where people aren't used to heat, or hotter countries where aircon is later widely installed and that also become very modern routine organised , it is not fun for those people without aircon.


Posted by: gzon | Jul 25 2019 20:47 utc | 25

To refute Ed @ 23. What the planet is presently experiencing can't be chalked up to periodicity. Check out this blurb from today's Significant Digits:

A new report has revealed that the temperature variations that occurred during the end of the 20th century were more widespread than any climatic variations experienced during the previous 2,000 years. The report, published in the journal Nature, found that previous weather phenomena had been confined to specific areas and were not global challenges, said Nathan Steiger, one of the report’s authors. According to Steiger, “climate variability in the contemporary period is very different than what’s happened in the past 2,000 years.” [Reuters]

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jul 25 2019 20:54 utc | 26

Stay safe, b! My Mom is in Bavaria and it has been difficult for her to cope with the heat as well.

A few thoughts about that.

German Schools - especially the 'Grundschulen/Elementary Schools' are very often of very old substance. They have thick walls that shield them from heat or cold better. However, we had hitzefrei 50 years ago. It's a courtesy of the school district in question and given on a case to case basis.

The recommendation that I give my Mom (my father is in the hospital with A/C), is to take a folding chair and go down into the cellar - of which almost all houses in Germany have one. My Grandma did that 75 years ago regularly.

When I lived in Nevada, swamp coolers were the way to go. But that's over 15 years ago and might not be as efficient now.

As far as I remember, a tub with cool water can do miracles. Done with heat - used for flushing the toilet a few times.

Why are people still caught up in the 'why?' about the weather/climate? They will never know anyways. It's like asking 'why are you here, right now?' and the answers will also be belief based. Homo Sapiens is a critter on this Planet - he only believes to run the show. He is not.

More like fleas on a dog that shakes itself. Best to accept the present as it is and yes - going to the lake were I grew up, taking it easy and keeping a cool head.

Thank you from a bitter cold part of the world in a country that does not have heating - if not in the pricey 'edificios' (apartment buildings). The poor masses heat with damp wood in open fire places. The air quality is in the shitter for that reason.

May all beings be safe - especially the wonderful ones.

Posted by: nottheonly1 | Jul 25 2019 21:16 utc | 27

Google hasn't banned Sputnik from its searches. Every time someone says that someone has been banned by FB or Google I go to check. A search for "sputnik news" turns up their page as the first result.

Posted by: KC | Jul 25 2019 21:17 utc | 28

My daughters went to an elementary school that lacked AC.
It supposedly was one of the better schools in town, but the building was very old and also was short on space for classrooms. Obviously it’s more important to spend a trillion dollars a year on the military budget than provide decent schools for our kids.

Posted by: Perimetr | Jul 25 2019 21:22 utc | 29

I used to work in a small public library 20 years and remember during the summer the ancient aircon broke down while temperatures reached 36 or 37 degrees. We had to get a load of old electric fans to cool the place after a borrower complained to the local council about the heat.

Yes as some MoA barflies have noted, it's curious that public elementary schools don't have airconditioning. That might tell us something about the German government's priorities.

Posted by: Jen | Jul 25 2019 21:29 utc | 30

vk @24--

The latest Guns & Butter profiled the IMF and World Bank and bared as the criminal organizations they are by Michael Hudson. One of many possible excerpts:

"Bonnie Faulkner: From what you’re saying, it sounds like Donald Trump’s policies are leading to doing to the United States what the IMF and World Bank have traditionally done to foreign economies.

"Michael Hudson: That’s what happens when you devalue. The financial sector will see that interest rates are going down, so the dollar’s exchange rate also will decline. Investors will move their money (or will borrow) into euros, gold or Japanese yen or Swiss francs whose exchange rate is expected to rise. So you’re offering a financial arbitrage and capital gain for investors who speculate in foreign currencies. You’re also hollowing out the economy here, and squeezing real wage levels and living standards."

And in case you missed it, Hudson's Keynote Paper delivered at the 14th Forum of the World Association for Political Economy, July 21, 2019: "U.S. Economic Warfare and Likely Foreign Defenses."

While Hudson delivered his paper, the Non Aligned Movement was having its annual Ministerial Meeting in Caracas. The Final Statement (PDF) voiced the following concerns that give context to the writings by Roberts and Hudson:

"6. The Ministers emphasized that the current global scenario presents great challenges in the areas of peace and security, economic development and social progress, human rights and the rule of law to Non-Aligned Countries. They affirmed that many new areas of concern and challenges have emerged, particularly the global financial and economic crisis, which warrant the renewal of commitment by the international community to uphold and defend the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and the principles of international law. In taking stock of developments at the international level since the XVII Summit of Ministers of the Movement, they noted with concern that the collective desire of the Movement to establish a peaceful and prosperous world as well as a just and equitable world order remains encumbered by fundamental impediments. These impediments are in the form of, inter alia, the severe adverse impact of the global financial and economic crises on the economic growth and development of developing countries which could lead to increasing poverty and deprivation in these countries, the continuing lack of resources and underdevelopment of the majority of the developing world, on the one hand; and in the form of, inter alia, the continuing unequal terms of trade and the lack of cooperation from developed countries, as well as the coercive and unilateral measures imposed by some of them and the use of force or the threats of use of force, on the other hand. The rich and powerful countries continue to exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations, including economic and trade relations, as well as the rules governing these relations, under the pretext of “Democracy”, “Human Rights” and “Anti-Terrorism”, many of which are at the expense of developing countries. The lack of fulfillment of the international obligations of States has become as well, in a grave concern and in a violation of the international law.

"7. The Ministers noted with concern that highhandedness and arbitrariness are rampant while justice and truth are ruthlessly trampled underfoot; the core principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs in international relations are overtly disregarded on the international arena; the sovereignty and rights to existence and development of the NAM Member States are severely infringed upon; and political upheavals, armed conflicts, escalation of disputes and humanitarian disasters such as refugee flow occur in an unabated manner due to aggression, intervention, sanctions and pressure by the imperialist forces."

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 21:49 utc | 31

Moscow will have anomalously cold weather early next week, just 15 ºC day / 9 ºC night.

Posted by: S | Jul 25 2019 21:58 utc | 32

I live in central London near the Oval cricket ground and on the top floor of a 4-story apt block and the temp inside today hit 34C, outside it was 37C. Unfortunately I have a lot of windows facing South, so the place heats up like an oven! And of course no AC and the building is not insulated. If this a sign of worse things to come I don't want to contemplate what my future, our future looks like.

By Sunday, it'll be 22C.

Posted by: Barovsky | Jul 25 2019 22:07 utc | 33

Gee's B
Sounds like just a normal summers day here in Australia. You Euro's are a soft lot.

Posted by: Graham | Jul 25 2019 22:07 utc | 34

Meanwhile shivering Merkel is turning up the heat in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran should send some ships to the North Sea to ensure the safe passage of vessels there.

Posted by: bjd | Jul 25 2019 22:17 utc | 35

from 2018

'According to Kleine Zeitung, Austria’s biggest regional newspaper, the British were unhappy that Austria failed to toe the line and join the expulsion of Russian diplomats, which London initiated after accusing Russia of a poison attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal. This is why they exposed the Russian agent in Austria to their Austrian counterparts, the newspaper said citing an anonymous source.'
https://www.rt.com/news/443742-austria-spy-british-tip/

Posted by: brian | Jul 25 2019 22:28 utc | 37

Good piece from ZeroHedge on MH17 case. One more evidence exposing lies and policy of disinformation of JIT/Ukraine "investigators".

Posted by: alaff | Jul 25 2019 22:36 utc | 38

Colombia Reports: I hope you will take part in Friday’s protests in support of Colombia’s social leaders, because I lost three colleagues in just three months and it hurts. These colleagues are among the hundreds of Colombians who have been assassinated over the past three years. Our colleagues, one documentary filmmaker, one radio host and one reporter, did important work, they gave a voice to the voiceless. Their murders, and those of human rights defenders and community leaders are silencing Colombian society.
(...)
People like Lezama, Montenegro and Perez were important. They played an important role in the construction of peace, and in the empowerment of their communities and victims of Colombia’s armed conflict. Their deaths hurt and — like the death of every single community leaders and human rights defender — impose terror on all Colombian society.

Posted by: Maracatu | Jul 25 2019 22:44 utc | 39

Since we're divulging local weather, I live on the Central Oregon Coast. Today's been fog-free as our marine layer/air conditioner is far out to sea. Down on the beach it's just under 58F with the wind blowing at 15-20knots for a wind chill of @54F, although the sun's very bright, and the water temp is 56F. 30 miles offshore, water and air temp are @63F, wind about the same as onshore. However, the official weather station's inland at the airport where it's currently 68F, 73%H, with winds NNW at 20 with gusts to 30mph. I live @300m from the beach, so it's @61F or so with a pleasant light breeze. But this is the Fog Zone and could easily be in the lower 50s with zero sun. Our climate is slowing changing to being more Mediterranean like California, but the Pacific Ocean's our great modifier.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 22:49 utc | 40

@Mike Maloney #27
The global average temperature is definitely increasing, but the notion that either the increase or the present temperature level is unprecedented is very suspect.
The present temperature is not exceptional for the last 2000 years - the Vikings resided in Greenland for hundreds of years with clear evidence that farming was actively more difficult due to increasing cold.
Britain used to grow wine in the Roman era to the extent that laws were passed to protect Italian vinters from French, Spanish and British competitors.
I am also constantly amused by every single unusual weather event: heat, cold, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornados etc being attributed to global warming.
The IPCC reports clearly state that unusual weather events in the short term (i.e. today) are not evidence of global warming/climate change.

Posted by: c1ue | Jul 25 2019 23:01 utc | 41

If the summers in Germany for the next 15 years get as hot at times then one can say the climate has changed. otherwise you're just talking about the weather. Even if that happened it could be fixed by installing air conditioning and living like people in more Southern climes do. To think that man made CO2 is a pollutant that will cause catastrophic climate change because CO2 is the main regulator of the climate is not even wrong. It is idiocy on the face of it when everybody should know that water vapor is the biggest contributor to keeping the Earth warm enough to be pleasant for humans. Do you know - the warming caused by CO2 is a logarithmic function - meaning you have to double the CO2 to get one degree C of warming and then you have to double it again to get another one. then there is the fact that evaporation can't be realistically modeled except on cloudless days and nights. Which is another reason clouds can't be accurately modeled either. All of the catastrophe predicted is from models which can't model clouds. So the catastopnists simply plug in values that they basically fudge like most of did in high school chemistry lab to get the values expected that say feedback is positive - and relatively high. Why would scientists be doing this? There is news coverage if you predict catastrophe. There are billions in research grants given by the governments for man made CO2 causing global warming. It is such a must say that you get we found an active volcano under the West Antarctic shelf but man made climate change is the really big cause for ice loss. Or talking about the bad effects of man through polllution affecting coral reefs = they feel obliged to say, we should also consider run off management but climate change is the biggie. It's like a religious belief.

Posted by: gepay | Jul 25 2019 23:31 utc | 42

On the subject of AC:

One of the problems with most construction built after WW2 is that the structures have little or no thermal mass, because the construction material is usually wood and because the insulation is placed on the inside of the building envelope instead of the outside. I've spent some years building a house --where the summer temps are in the 30s Celsius-- completely out of masonry with insulation on the outer surface. The result is that I keep my windows wide open (but screened for bugs) in the 30+ summer heat, and the thick walls and floor absorb all that heat while the air temp inside stays locked at 18-20, no matter how hot outside. Visitors all comment on how cool and pleasant the interior is, and each asks what my electrical bill must be, to power such an AC unit. They remain unconvinced that this expense does not exist until I point out that the windows are wide open. Then their eyes go wide open too. I hasten to add that thermal mass and clever construction is not a panacea, but certainly modern buildings have been built incorrectly and inefficiently, except to provide maximum profit, both for the builders as well as the AC manufacturers. The idea of living in the cellar during summer heat is the right one and is what inspired my idea. For an even more inspiring solution, take a look at the Forestiere Underground Gardens in, of all places, Fresno CA. It was all built before 1946, and it is truly astonishing. For that matter, the Australian mining town of Coober Pedy (which regularly has some of the hottest temp down under) is mostly undergound.

Posted by: Theophrastus | Jul 25 2019 23:34 utc | 43

Continuing on from a discussion in previous thread about hierarchy this article introduces and throws around some ideas of hierarchy in terms of meaning of patriarchy and matriarchy. It contradicts itself in places maybe, calling western society egalitarian but patriarchal, which seems against one of its tenets, but anyway something to consider. According to that hunter gatherers were more matriarchal, herders became patriarchal and so more hierarchical.

Posted by: gzon | Jul 25 2019 23:37 utc | 44

@ gzon 45

"It contradicts itself in places maybe, calling western society egalitarian but patriarchal.. "

To clarify, it says gender egalitarian tends to be matriarchal, but in the west we are in one of the most gender equal times (by law), yet the author calls the west patriarchal. Maybe law is a patriarchal structure because it is hierarchical, or is not applied in practice enough, or maybe there are some that are never satisfied ? Oh well.

Posted by: gzon | Jul 26 2019 0:06 utc | 45

Imagine instead of saying, "Gee, it's hot out today," we say, "Gee, that global warming is really hitting hard today!" Oh wait, we already do. And when someone starts that with me, my eyes immediately glaze over and I slowly back away from the conversation.

Now the "variability" is too extreme? Even if that was the case, as we all know correlation does not equal causation, so you have yet another theory being pressed by the media in headlines, thus changing the goal posts yet again! Meanwhile, legislation is in the pipe that will seriously affect the little guy's pocket book and place more wealth and power into the hands of governments that have historically low approval ratings. Fucking genius!

And 95° ain't anything to scoff at if the body has not adjusted to this seasonal abnormality. Stay cool and fresh, b. I remember a stint of days in the PAC NW 45.5° North here in the states of 105° farenheight+ 3 days in a row. I never tried so hard to press my body as low to the floor as possible at my place those evenings.

I was going to install a whole-house fan in our home when first purchasing it. In the evening, you open up all the windows and turn on the fan that takes the warm air and pushes it into the attic which quickly brings in the cooler nighttime air.

We were until we needed a new heating option as well, and so opted for a Mitsubishi ductless minisplit with one register in the main living area and which heats efficiently and cools as well from the same condenser outside. Really is a marvel and has already paid for itself.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 26 2019 0:43 utc | 46

What saddens me is the increase in algae blooms in lakes and oceans spurred by these high temperatures, making even a cooling swim off limits. Swimming was the best part of my childhood summers.

Posted by: Summer Diaz | Jul 26 2019 1:15 utc | 47

I find it interesting that the US is sending 5000 troops to Saudi Arabia.

I remember Trump saying we should take the oil when we take a country over.

Trump has not been able to take over Venezuela and take their oil

Trump has not been able to take over Iran and take their oil

How many troops would it take to stage a coup in Saudi Arabia and take their oil?

All the US has to do is show the complicity of SA in 9/11 and the American public would eat it up

Just thinking a bit out of the box

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 26 2019 2:21 utc | 48

@49 psychohistorian.. i have always maintained that ksa is one of the more unstable places where a dissolution of the country as we know it could happen more quickly then many might assume... i personally think the place is a powder-keg waiting for the right set up to light it up.. it could happen way faster then i think anyone suspects..

Posted by: james | Jul 26 2019 2:36 utc | 49

link to go with my comment @ 50

https://www.thoughtco.com/how-stable-is-saudi-arabia-2353539

Posted by: james | Jul 26 2019 2:40 utc | 50

psychohistorian #49, "how mwny troops would it take to stage a coup in saudi arabia"?

I would guess about one thousand plus a bucket of money to pay the mercenaries to go home. Then the USA oil pirates could install a puppet regime of all those Saudi princes that got shaken down by the bonesaw man. Peace would reign for a brief moment:)

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 26 2019 2:55 utc | 51

Inkan1969 no. 11

I taught high school in New Orleans for years in an un-airconditioned 3 story brick building. Everybody and everything was drenched in sweat. And there were no days off.

Posted by: sleepy | Jul 26 2019 3:01 utc | 52

@karl, re: swamp coolers - they are very inefficient with water, however which is a problem in desert environments with limited access to H20. Also, once the dew point reaches a certain reading, they become useless as adding humidity to the air no longer cools it.

Posted by: KC | Jul 26 2019 3:30 utc | 53

Speaking of the weather it didn't even crack 90F today in central Texas. Apparently we have a cold front; highly unusual.

Posted by: KC | Jul 26 2019 3:31 utc | 54

@2 Ninel

The BBC have long loved the Syrian conflict and the WH scenarios appeal to their liberal hand-wringing.

Posted by: Bevin Kacon | Jul 26 2019 3:46 utc | 55

@49 Pyschohistorian

'All the US has to do is show the complicity of SA in 9/11 and the American public would eat it up'

The US could also demonstrate Israel's involvement in 9/11. I wonder what the 'Murican public would say to that?

Posted by: Bevin Kacon | Jul 26 2019 3:50 utc | 56

i grew up in a 3rd world country ... romantically referred to as the "Pearl of the Orient Seas" ... no AC in schools from elementary up to university. the only room with AC were the computer rooms. i survived. a few years after i graduated from university they started putting ACs in the rooms. water has become a problem during summer months.

i'm now living in the "Land of the Rising Sun" ... it's July and it is still coldish in the morning (now it's <30C, while previous years we'd already be hitting 30C++) and this has affected crops. some news segments are reminding the people of the '90s rice shortage. 1993ねんこめそうどう "rice riots". the long cold season (than expected), which could have been caused by the Pinatubo eruption in '91, was partly blamed along with other factors. the reminder seems feeding FUD, since the current effect on crops is very limited. a typhoon is heading our way this weekend.

Posted by: r | Jul 26 2019 3:55 utc | 57

Yes, I am posting the whole Xinhua report because it is good journalism
"
RAMALLAH, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Thursday that the Palestinian leadership is intending not to abide by the peace agreements signed with Israel, in response to demolitions of dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem on Monday.

He said during a meeting for the Palestinian leadership held in Ramallah that a committee is to be formed to implement the made decision that was based on previous decisions related to defining the nature of the relationship with Israel.

Three years ago, the Palestinian leadership establishments, the National and Central Councils, had decided to suspend its recognition of the state of Israel until the latter recognizes a Palestinian state on 1967 border, and stop security coordination with Israel.

Abbas chaired earlier on Thursday a joint meeting for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee and his Fatah Party to discuss the Israeli homes demolition in Jerusalem.

The call for "the emergency meeting," according to the official news agency WAFA, was made after the Israeli authorities' demolition of 12 buildings, that comprises dozens of housing units in Sur Baher area, southeast of Jerusalem.

On Monday, the Israeli authorities demolished 12 constructions that included 72 apartments in the neighborhood of Sur Baher southeast of Jerusalem.

"The decision not to abide by the agreements signed with Israel was made in light of the state of the Israeli occupation's demolitions of dozens of homes of our people in East Jerusalem the capital of our eternal state," said Abbas.

He added that "hundreds of our people from Sur Baher became displaced, which is clear breaching to the international law and a clear breaching to the international resolutions and all the peace agreements signed between us."

"We won't accept the dictates and imposition of the status quo on the ground by brutal force, specifically in Jerusalem and other places. All are sacred to the Palestinian land," said Abbas.

He stressed that "all the actions of the occupying state in Jerusalem are illegal and false," adding "the American administration through its biased policy to Israel has encouraged the Israeli violations against our people.

The Palestinians severed their political ties with the United States following President Donald Trump's declaration in December 2017 that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye said on Thursday that the division of the Palestinian territories into areas (A), (B) and (C) that had been agreed upon with Israel "was no longer in place because Israel did not respect the signed agreements."

Also on Thursday, Islamic Hamas Movement slammed the United States for vetoing a resolution that condemned Israel in the UN Security Council for demolishing Palestinian homes southeast of Jerusalem.

Israeli public radio reported earlier on Thursday that Washington thwarted Wednesday night efforts by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to pass a resolution in the Security Council condemning Israel for the demolition of houses in Sur Baher, southeast of Jerusalem last Monday.
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 26 2019 4:34 utc | 58

It is true that when there is too much humidity evaporative coolers don't work as well. Still if you can shade your windows a lot of the heat will stay outside even with just ordinary light shielding curtains. I do not know if this would work, but family members in very high humidity island living spaces do use dehumidfiers to extract moisture from the air, and I think that fans do that also. If you can do that in a confined space, say just one room, then the cooling properties of water evaporating can have an effect.

Our air in mountain New Mexico is normally low moisture, and even a heavy rainfall will evaporate away off sidewalks almost instantly. Swamp coolers are the way to go, but I get the same effect with damp towels or a cold shower in a muu muu (no kidding). And a wonderful treat is a small portable tub full of cold water just to soak the feet and then let them dry, over and over. That will circulate, does help. Plus, don't forget something a bit salty if you are drinking a lot of cold fluids.

Excess heat is no fun. Hang in there, b.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 26 2019 4:36 utc | 59

If there are those here who feel up to talking about climate change, can someone explain to me the melting of the polar ice - those cooling centers for the planet located at the north and south?

I don't much care what causes what we're living through and bequeathing to our descendants. I don't see a lot of reason to blame anything, especially.

But I did see the vested corporate interests obscuring the notion initially, in the same way that similar interests obscured the cancer-effect of tobacco. And then they all changed, these powerful forces, after Goldman Sachs invented the derivative instrument to extract profit from the situation with a carbon tax - and the Wurlitzer switched.

~~

I've seen the ice recede. It's a message akin to a woman feeling a lump in her breast. The insouciance is over at that point, and all that remains is fierce concentration on the future, and the action required.

~~

So could somebody explain? Without blame? If the ice is going to correct some decades or centuries from now, then please simply show this clearly, when and how. If it's not, then what?

Note that simplistic falsehoods such as that the ice is actually regenerating more than melting will not suffice. The time lapse and the satellites show differently.

The ice is melting. The cool is coming south, and for this I am selfishly grateful every day but also unbearably stricken, because this passage to the south is a death march. This cool that leaves the Arctic is not coming back. We to the south have a few years of its coolness while its place of origin warms from its loss.

~~

The answer in part is to destroy greed on this planet utterly by declaring it a capital crime. A capital crime. A deep taboo.

Stealing the planet's bounty to take to oneself more than one needs, and thereby to rob others of what might have been shared, was always proscribed by sacred thought, but now the planet is joining in with its own condemnation - one rather beyond the sheer theoretical, and more to the life or death.

And I think this is the great struggle of the future that will quicken and actualize all the minor sub-plots we have discussed here, of socialist economies, and interest-bearing capital finance, and hubris and waste, and dissociation from reality on the ground.

The planet, I believe, has been joining the discussion, and will concentrate most forcefully the mind of rising generations.

~~

Personally I think the Russians should profit greatly from their northern sea route, and the rest of us should plant ten trillion trees, and after a couple of centuries, the Russian will be quite relieved to close that sea route again, and remain ice-bound.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 26 2019 5:16 utc | 60

in summer 1911 there was a 70 days heat wave in france, tens of thousands people died as a result
http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/en-1911-paris-suffoquait-deja-sous-la-canicule-29-06-2019-8106210.php

google: 1911 heat wave

there wasn't so much evil co2 in the air then, but yes it must be peoples fault, they were farting too much :-P

Posted by: karlitozulu | Jul 26 2019 5:35 utc | 61

Grieved @61--

The ice will return my friend. It will be just a few days in Geologic Time give or take a few million years. The planet's plates will break and reform together several more times before the sun's corona expands and blows away the atmosphere toasting the planet and eventually ending all life. How humans fare depends on how the species fare that humans must have to exist. But rest assured the ice will return.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 26 2019 6:12 utc | 62

Re-posting from previous open thread... I didn’t see that this is the new open thread

January 2015 affadavit of Virgina Roberts Giuffre, via TheSharpEdge:

https://twitter.com/TheSharpEdge1/

47. I also had sexual intercourse with Jean Luc Brunel many times when I was 16 through 19 years old. He was another of Epstein’s powerful friends who had many contacts with young girls throughout the world. In fact, his only similarity with Epstein and the only link to their friendship appeared to be that Brunel could get dozens of underage girls and feed Epstein’s(and Maxwell’s) strong appetite for sex with minors.

48. Brunel ran some kind of modeling agency and appeared to have an arrangement with the U.S. Government where he could get passports or other travel documents for young girls. He would then bring these young girls (girls ranging in age from 12 to 24) to the United States for sexual purposes and farm them out to his friends, including Epstein.

49. Brunel would offer the girls “modeling” jobs. A lot of the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money.

50. I had to have sex with Brunel at Little St. James (orgies), Palm Beach, New York City, New Mexico, Paris, the south of France, and California. He did not care about conversation, just sex.

51.Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls, and everything that I have seen confirms this claim.

Another of Espstein’s major backers, Brunel’s MC2 has offices in Miami and and Tel Aviv.

Posted by: Vitkova_186 | Jul 26 2019 6:35 utc | 63

Well Malmoe (Sweden)had 33 celcius yesterday and expects 32 celcius today. Så I off to get a couple of beer before its horrible hot, then and stay inside, watch the tour. And tonight before i go to sleep at 1 floor. I will start the fan, all windows are open, they real large, put the so isucks from a wind point the fad at me bed. Yesterday got jeg the tem tu 19 celcius, and slept well :)

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jul 26 2019 7:09 utc | 64

Ed @ 23:
“Are people in Europe aware that the climate is entering a Grand Solar Minimum, a natural cycle that occurs every 200-300 years. Think Napoleon retreating from Moscow. The Solar Minimum features very cold winters and spells of very hot temperatures in the summer. Together with this the magnetic North Pole has moved from Canada towards Russia which also affects climate conditions.
This information seems to be suppressed by governments pushing man-made Global Warming - maybe b could look into this. There are many video's on YouTube on Grand Solar Minimums if anyone wants to look further into the issue.”

--Unfortunately, precious few understand Milankovitch cycles and solar maxima/minima, instead relying on hearsay from hack “scientists” just trying to publish in desperation to keep their jobs/get publicity. The reason for the current strange (2019) is called El Niño, which is no mysterious effect (it’s been around for quite a while, actually). And yes, the actual information is out there readily available to look up, but people seem rather inclined to just parrot other peoples’ idiocy instead.

Mike Maloney @ 27:
“What the planet is presently experiencing can't be chalked up to periodicity.”

--We’re talking much more distant time frames (and multiple different solar cycle effects and periods) than the past 2000 years here.

Grieved @ 61:

“So could somebody explain? Without blame? If the ice is going to correct some decades or centuries from now, then please simply show this clearly, when and how. If it's not, then what?”

--I think two facts should suffice: 1) heat moves to cold; cold does not move to heat (unless pushed by heat to do so)—heat is active, cold is passive: this is called entropy; 2) in the history of earth, climate catastrophes (dark ages, civilizational collapse, crop failure) have occurred during solar minima (colder avg global temp), while during solar maxima (when the avg global temp has been hottest), we experience proliferation, since organisms across the board like to get down most profusely when it’s hottest. The thing about prediction of time frames is that it’s probabilistic—I mean, you can track Milankovitch cycles and solar maxima/minima and try to speculate when the oscillation might occur, but it’s all probability and no certainty. Thermodynamics is pretty predictable and as long as we have heat near us we will survive—when that heat moves to equilibrium and fills up all the cold spots in the cosmos is the time you’d need to worry about, but we on Earth have no control over eventual entropic decay. I acknowledge this is a very crude explanation, but accurate nonetheless.

Posted by: Anacharsis | Jul 26 2019 7:19 utc | 65

Grieved @61

SCIENCE

15 June 1956, Volume 123, Number 3207

A Theory of Ice Ages

Maurice Ewing and William L. Donn

This article is a preliminary report of new ideas related to the origin of glacial climates; it is based largely on observations made during the last 20 years. Glacial climates pose two problems: (i) the striking alternations during the Pleistocene epoch of glacial and interglacial stages and (ii) the even more striking change from the warm non- glacial climate, which prevailed generally from the Permian to the Pleistocene, to the cold and glacial conditions of the Pleistocene and Recent.

If it is difficult to answer the second question, it is even more difficult to solve both problems on the basis of a single theory. The present study (1) offers an explanation for the alternations in climate during the Pleistocene and proposes an explanation for the change from nonglacial to glacial climates.

Pleistocene Glacial and Interglacial Stages

"First we wish to develop the following principal points of the glacial-interglacial theory.

1) The melting of an Arctic ice sheet (such as exists at present) would increase the interchange of water between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, cooling the North Atlantic and warming the Arctic and making it ice-free, thus providing an increased source of moisture for the polar atmosphere.

2) Two factors would then favor the growth of glaciers: (i) increased precipitation over arctic and subarctic lands and (ii) changes in atmospheric circulation, the latter also resulting from the warmer Arctic and cooler Atlantic oceans."

3) The lowering of sea level would greatly decrease the interchange of water between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, which, together with the cooling effect of surrounding glaciers, would reduce Arctic surface temperatures until abrupt freezing occurred. The fairly sudden reversal of conditions favorable to glacial development would terminate the growth of glaciers abruptly.

4) As continental glaciers waned, the sea level would rise, causing an increased transport of surface waters northward until the Arctic ice sheet melted once again, completing the cycle.

5) Temperature changes in the surface waters of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans are thus the causes of, rather than the consequences of, the waxing and waning of continental glaciers.

Article in Science 129(3347):464-5 · March 1959 with 3 Reads
DOI: 10.1126/science.129.3347.464 ·

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6056479_Theory_of_Ice_Ages

A theory of ice ages II

Article in Science 152(3730):1706-12 · July 1966 with 18 Reads
DOI: 10.1126/science.152.3730.1706


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6082123_A_theory_of_ice_ages_II


See also: Pope's Climate Theory
http://popesclimatetheory.com/index.html


Posted by: pogohere | Jul 26 2019 7:19 utc | 66

Heidegger: “As soon as what is unconcealed no longer concerns man even as object, but does so, rather, exclusively as standing-reserve, and man in the midst of objectlessness is nothing but the orderer of the standing-reserve, then he comes to the very brink of a precipitous fall;

that is, he comes to the point where he himself will have to be taken as standing-reserve. Meanwhile man, precisely as the one so threatened, exalts himself to the posture of lord of the earth. In this way the impression comes to prevail that everything man encounters exists only insofar as it is his construct. This illusion gives rise in turn to one final delusion: It seems as though man everywhere and always encounters only himself.

Heisenberg has with complete correctness pointed out that the real must present itself to contemporary man in this way. “Das Naturbild,” pp. 60 ff. In truth, however, precisely nowhere does man today any longer encounter himself, i.e., his essence. Man stands so decisively in attendance on the challenging-forth of Enframing that he does not apprehend Enframing as a claim, that he fails to see himself as the one spoken to, and hence also fails in every way to hear in what respect he ek-sists, from out of his essence, in the realm of an exhortation or address, and thus can never encounter only himself (i.e., his essence) pp. 26-7.

Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Row, 1977

The quote above was taken from a series of lectures delivered by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger in Bremen in 1949

Posted by: Vitkova_186 | Jul 26 2019 7:42 utc | 67

well, speaking of aberrational temperature extremes, i gotta say that where i've noticed them the most is inside the unconcerned American mall. inside in the summer you need a fucking sweater it's so cold, in the winter a tee-shirt is fine.

it's not nice to fool mother nature

Posted by: john | Jul 26 2019 8:47 utc | 68

as far as I can remember, there are several factors which helped the Ice ages era to occur. First of all, there's a huge landmass sitting at one pole, allowing a lot of ice to accumulate and to cool a sizable part of the surface of the globe - Antarctica allows for way more ice to gather and remain throughout the summers than the ice sheets of the North Pole. IIRC, this is the key factor with the (re) appearance of ice age as a whole.
Fluctuations between ice ages and hotter eras (interglacial), which is most prominent in Northern hemisphere, comes from the fact there's a vast reservoir of cold ice at the Northern pole, which is pretty much shut off from the rest of the world's oceans due to the current locations of the continental masses (as in, not much cold water can pour out of the Arctic ocean at a time, and limited warmer water can enter). Like Pogohere posted, there's a cycle going on, where Arctic ocean tends to go colder, then warmer, and this has various consequences for the surrounding hemisphere. That said, it's not just the temperature changes of the waters that cause this, it's actually the whole geography of our world right now, which allows for limited water exchanges between Arctic and Atlantic+Pacific; you get rid of Canada, Siberia or Europe and fill it with an ocean instead, and the whole cycle disappears because there's a massive exchange of water constantly going on between the polar sea and the rest of the oceans, stabilizing the situation. 20 mio years from now, odds are that the climate fluctuations over hundreds of thousands of years will be very different in the North.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Jul 26 2019 8:49 utc | 69

Karlofi1 @32

It looks like all Michael Hudson's sites and links are being blocked at the DNS host level. That, or his provider has cut him off.

"michael-hudson.com’s server IP address could not be found." is the error I am getting.

Posted by: OldMicrobiologist | Jul 26 2019 8:55 utc | 70

Posted by: pogohere | Jul 26 2019 7:19 utc | 67

Those publications are pretty ancient, older even than the climate stuff I worked on when I was young. I wouldn't go along with cyclical theories, as the evidence for regular "cycles" of climate change is minimal. The fact is we are in a warming phase coming out of the "Little Ice Age" of the 17th century, a cold period for which there is enormous evidence, and which was not due to anthropogenic causes. We have now gone beyond the limits of the Early Medieval warm period that preceded it (much less well evidenced than the ice age). The question is how much is natural, and how much man-created. A lot of scientists careers are riding on on the answer. Temperatures in early pre-human times could be much higher, and the relationship between CO² levels and temperature is not simply linear. To take a related example, the use of C14 for dating ancient organic samples. It used to be thought that C14 just decays and the proportion of C14 to C13, based on half-life of 5700 years will give the date the plant/animal died. Now it turns out the proportion of C14 in the air was highly variable over time, and you need a table of the variations to correct your reading. If indeed the correction is correct.

As I've always said, be more interested in the 300 micro-plastics in your tub of yoghurt. It's going to kill you off quicker.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 26 2019 8:55 utc | 71

O! Sweet C4H4O2!

Posted by: Anacharsis | Jul 26 2019 9:04 utc | 72


@ Vitkova_186 #68


The Turin Horse Monologue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_pqP7_IUE

Posted by: Vitkova_186 | Jul 26 2019 9:44 utc | 73

Interesting background piece on how Iran's loss of 59 tankers from Panama's flag fleet lead to the Grace 1's seizure

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-iran-tanker-flags-insight/flags-of-inconvenience-noose-tightens-around-iranian-shipping-idUSKCN1UL0M8

Posted by: EtTuBrute | Jul 26 2019 11:21 utc | 74

Posted by: Vitkova_186 | Jul 26 2019 7:42 utc | 68

:-))

Heidegger in English seems to be something very different from the German version.

In German he seems to say in a very complicated way that man is in danger of becoming part of technology but in this danger lies the chance that man frees himself.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 11:32 utc | 75

add to
Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 11:32 utc | 76

The death of mankind would have been something Heidegger would have considered as certain, just the where, when and how would be undecided.

An ecological destaster? Oh well.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 11:52 utc | 76

We do not have air condition, because our climate never was that way to to be in need of.
And as there is no climate change, we still live in those lucky days.

so it´s only 21° C and all the measurements war wrong.

Posted by: Mats | Jul 26 2019 11:52 utc | 77

Under the radar

How big is this?

John Brennan walks free even after the Russiagate coup is proven to have originated from him.

John Brennan walks free even after the planning for 9/11 is proven to have originated in Saudi Arabia when
he was head of the CIA station in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia.

Jeffrey Epstein walks free because he was a CIA covert source.

CIA criminals acquire get-out-of-jail cards by being reassigned to covert duty.

No Accountability in Washington. The CIA Wants to Hide All Its Employees
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/07/25/no-accountability-in-washington-the-cia-wants-to-hide-all-its-employees/

Posted by: librul | Jul 26 2019 12:02 utc | 78

Posted by: librul | Jul 26 2019 12:02 utc | 79

I find this more interesting

Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states, Senate concludes

This conclusion is bi-partisan. I am not convinced it was necessarily Russia, but someone did and it was obviously technically possible. And someone could have changed results.

But it does say that some unnamed intelligence gathered in 2018 backed up earlier assumptions by National Security Council cyber coordinator Michael Daniel, and the DHS, that every state was hacked.

And — as previously reported — the report says that Russia could have actually tampered with election systems if it wanted to. “Russian cyber actors were in a position to delete or change voter data,” the report reads.

There are recommendations now.

The Senate Intelligence Committee report, representing part of the findings of the lawmakers’ investigation into Russia’s interference, recommends that U.S. states move to voting machines that have a verified paper trail and aren’t connected to wireless networks, to protect against electronic intrusions.

The report also urges states to resist calls for online voting—which have been put forward as a way to make it easier for U.S. military personnel overseas—because there is no way to ensure it is secure.

Results in the 2020 US election will be very close in the decisive states. Can you imagine what wide-spread doubts about the legitimate outcome would do to the US system.

Do you think states will fix their voting machines?

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 12:20 utc | 79

On Earth's climate: Many factors involved, among which are

Our current location in our journey around the Galaxy. Conditions are variable.

The cyclical changing angle of the Earth re Sun.

The current confluence of Sun cycles and activity. Think around 15 or so sun cycles have been identified.

Anomalous catastrophic or influential events like asteroid and comet intersections with Earth.

Volcanic activity.

The sun's and Earth's magnetic fields are very influential, and variable. Cosmic rays are an important factor of variable effect.

Human stupid activity eg deforestation, CFCs, geoengineering, military experimentation.

Others.

There are many many things to be concerned about that can and should be corrected: emissions of carbon dioxide by us critters - a carbon-based life-form - that share the planet with plants needing CO2 to live and thrive, is not the problem; hysteria about CO2 is a problem.


Posted by: Robert Snefjella | Jul 26 2019 12:32 utc | 80

Greetings from Tehran, the “Capital of the free world” (E. Michael Jones).

Here is an appeal to our fearless blog leader:

Dear Bernhard,

Would you kindly consider posting a thread for gaming the Iran-US conflict in the Persian Gulf? You can use the following as the lead post:

A few days ago, Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst, had a brief post on that Old Fart’s weblog, Sic Semper Tyrannis. Here’s the link:

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2019/07/will-donald-trump-kill-his-presidency-over-iran-by-larry-c-johnson.html#comments

He gave four possible options, and invited the commenters to add others of their own. The whole post and the comments which followed were absolutely pathetic in terms of the depth of analysis, including this mind-blowing comment by the Turcopolier himself: “The strait would not stay closed long, but there would be considerable economic damage while it is.”

I mean, are these people nuts??

Let me put it this way:

The [sand] niggers have burned down the plantation, OK?

The plantation is no more. It is an ex-Plantation (rather like John Cleese’s ex-parrot).

And the niggers have built their own supersonic Noor ground to sea and ground to ground missiles; we have built ballistic missiles with ranges of up to 2000 km and winged cruise missiles with a range of 2500, all with high precision (low CEP) impacts. Our latest generation of drones are on the leading edge of the technology. Trust me. (We are always in the 90+ percentile if not actually winning the medals in the Olympics for mathematics, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, information technology, etc.) If the first ballistic missile or Noor cruise missile fails to take out the control tower of the Baberaham Lincoln (and fail they won’t), we will use the multiple warhead option on the ballistic missiles, and “carpet bomb” the runway so that it will be useless. Just a rubber duck sitting in our pond, with its 5,000+ constantly under fire until they raise the white flag of surrender and wait to be taken hostage.

The niggers have exercised strategic patience for a very long time (four decades). It would be nice to have a few more years just to be sure, but we are ready. We are *thirsting* for relief from the false new *worldly* (sic) order (novus ordo seclorum falsus) as declared in the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican in 1965 and in the Centesimus Annus encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II in 1991, which emphasized the surrender to usury (“capitalism, properly understood”).

Let us game this. Trumpf is talking about the use of nuclear weapons. He is itching for it. But only after he gets re-elected. What are Iran’s options? The “Samson Option” is simple: Fire a few Noor missiles at the deep-water supertanker docking ports of Ra’s Tanura (Saudi Arabia), Fujairah, and Dubai's Jebel Ali port, “the largest man-made deep-water harbor in the world that is also the U.S. Navy's busiest port of call outside of America.” It would take at least six months to rebuild the ruins, IF the sand-niggers allow the reconstruction to take place. What that would do to the world economy, you would have to ask my friend, Pepe Escobar, who knows a thing or two about derivatives and over-extension more generally. What is Trumpf going to do now that he has crashed Wall Street worse than 1929? I.e. the final crash which Pax Americana (as wagged by the Pax Judaica tail, of course) will not recover from. I.e. finally putting the Crash of September 2008 precipitated by the Lehman Brothers out of its misery.

The pathetic talk on that Old Fart’s site is that we would be able to hit some of the Saudi oil and tank infrastructure. Why would we want to destroy what is [ultimately] ours?? Why not provide machine guns to the 2 million oppressed Shi’a in Qatif; you know, the niggers who run the Ra’s Tanura refinery and port… Roll in a couple of armored Divisions, given them the Uzis and Kalachnikov high copies, and leave the tanks there for them to defend Qatīf with. (We would have their backs on the Persian Gulf side). Why not take as many of the 10,000 soldiers at the un-defendable Bagram base in Afghanistan hostage, as well as the 5,000 or so sailors of the Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain? Why not bomb the control centers and runways of all the airfields the US wants to use to take out our radar installations in the first few weeks (so that they can then send in their Depends™ -wearing pilots to take out our nuclear sites). And for what? Like that is going to achieve anything other than bring about further national unity and cohesion.

Why not take out Dimona and the Haifa Port Chemical Terminal and the Ben-Gurion Airport control tower? Why not make Israel a no-fly zone, so that the dual passport holders can make their way back to Europe and New York, which is where they came from in the first place? Not for the military aircraft, but for commercial aircraft: Anything taking off or landing in Ben-Gurion will be shot down by our S-300’s and their domestic analogues. (Help me out here… we’re just gaming this, ok?). And as for the Persian Gulf (not “the Gulf”, stupid); someone rightly characterized it as the Hotel California for whatever martial vessel which dares enter it. And for those who are not old enough to know: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!"

So these are the options as we see them. First the Emirates (half of whose “sheiks” are Iranian and Persian speaking) anyway, and Qatīf (and of course Asīr back to the Yemenese, where it has always belonged historically). And then on to the Hejaz and the haramayn: Mecca and Medina, driving the Wahhabeast heretics back under the rocks of Najran, where they crawled out of with British arms and financing. Yes, Russia isn’t too happy about the possibility of control over such a large jugular vein, but hey, it’s geographical determinism. They will be getting Germany and France and the European sub-continent integration into Eurasia. And better the oil in the hands of the rational Shi’a than the crazy as a loon Americans. And the ‘Sea Power’ pirates, Perfidious Albion (the Marquis de Ximenès) and Uncle $cam will have to scamper back home with their rat-tails between their legs, followed by all their takfiri scum, who will be deported to London and New York, God grant!

The phase of strategic patience is over. We are now in the phase of Eye for an Eye Escalation. But do not think that this phase will have the longevity of the last one. It is on a spring trigger, after which all bets are off. This is the way we see it. How do you see it, Pray tell? Like the Old Fart Colonel? Or somewhere in between?

Nuff Sed.

Posted by: Nuff Sed | Jul 26 2019 12:37 utc | 81

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 26 2019 8:55 utc | 72

Well, trees are dying over here and this used to be a cold place with lots of water.
Theoretically you can reverse CO2 emissions by planting lots of trees. But it is the young trees that are dying whose roots aren't deep enough for ground water. There is no easy fix for this.
Once a system has lost its balance completely there is no way back.
You might not die of climate change but because of the ensuing water wars.The cause is the same. People are already dying on the mediterranean fleeing their countries and part of the reason is drought.

No, the speed of global warming it is not "natural". We are way over the Middle Ages

As the Earth moved out of ice ages over the past million years, the global temperature rose a total of 4 to 7 degrees Celsius over about 5,000 years. In the past century alone, the temperature has climbed 0.7 degrees Celsius, roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 12:40 utc | 82

@ 21

Speaking of banning,
What do bar flies think of this?
Is this "watchdog" credible?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rt-british-media-watchdog-fines-kremlin-backed-channel-for-misleading-coverage-of-novichok-attack?via=newsletter&source=CSAMedition

"Britain’s broadcasting watchdog has fined the Kremlin-backed RT news channel for its misleading coverage of the 2018 Novichok nerve-agent attack in Salisbury, England. Ofcom fined the news channel £200,000 (around $250,000) for what it called “serious failures to comply with our broadcasting rules” in relation to its coverage of the Salisbury attack and the conflict in Syria. “Our investigation found that RT failed to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programmes between 17 March and 26 April 2018,” said the watchdog in a statement Friday. “We were particularly concerned by the frequency of RT’s rule-breaking over a relatively short period of time.” In March 2018, Russia former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury with the lethal nerve agent."

Posted by: Really? | Jul 26 2019 12:41 utc | 83

People who doubt climate change have never lived in a big city. Anyone can see that the number of cars is parallel to the pollution and change in how the trees have the capacity to absorb emissions. France has even a record in this (thanks to its will to help Renault and Peugeot), having managed to pollute not only its major city but also the Aix-Marseille area (which still has lots of trees luckily) and even its colonies (Martinique and Guadeloupe!). Building too many roads also help the desertification, in making rain less probable because of the dryness of soils.

Posted by: Mina | Jul 26 2019 12:59 utc | 84

US GDP increase falls to 2.1% (expected was 1.8%) stock market rallies, dollar strengthens.

Underlying cause of better than expected growth (but still a drop from 3.1% in 1st qtr): consumer spending (personal debt) and government spending (taxpayer debt). Also, corporate business investment falls.

Recession in the donkeytale forecast within 12-18 months.

Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 26 2019 13:18 utc | 85

Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 26 2019 13:18 utc | 85

Yep. Let's hope it will be the end of Trump. And let's hope he will take everybody else down with him.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 13:22 utc | 86

Posted by: OldMicrobiologist | Jul 26 2019 8:55 utc | 71

re Hudson: It seems he has been disconnected but before we cry foul, it could be for a number of reasons. I've just pinged, tracerouted and looked up https://michael-hudson.com/ and it's not listed which means either it's down or no longer exists.

Posted by: Barovsky | Jul 26 2019 13:37 utc | 87

For allyou idiots denying human (capitalist)-induced climate change:

An unprecedented number of wildfires have been ravaging the Arctic for weeks following the hottest June ever recorded on Earth. Now, the fires are so huge and intense, the smoke can literally be seen from space.

Satellite images show more than 100 long-lived wildfires with huge plumes of swirling black smoke covering most of the Arctic Circle including parts of Russia, Siberia, Greenland and Alaska.

The evidence is overwhelming!

https://on.rt.com/9ywi

Posted by: Barovsky | Jul 26 2019 13:46 utc | 88

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 12:40 utc | 82

No, the speed of global warming it is not "natural".
Not that I mind, as I am not denying climate change. Even there certainly is some anthropogenic element. But you really have to ask the value of that statement. They simply do not have the evidence. Such rapid temperature rises could have happened in the past. They can't measure anything to disprove it, even from ice cores (which don't go back far enough). And the so-called rapid temperature rise is only a few years, maximum a century, which is nothing in terms of world history.

A lot of what people talk about when they speak of climate change is actually pollution, as indeed Mina @84 demonstrates very well, and you have no idea whether it's having an effect on climate or not.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 26 2019 13:48 utc | 89

@Mina 84

That's very good evidence of anthropogenic environmental pollution, but not of climate change. Desertification is a big problem in Provence and the Mediterranean in general, but the rain-bearing winds there come from the Atlantic, and that isn't going to stop because of excessive vegetation-cutting for road-building. What is a big problem in Provence is soil erosion, from the rain falling on bare earth, and washing it away, leaving runnels and the land useless.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 26 2019 13:58 utc | 90

Posted by: Barovsky | Jul 26 2019 13:46 utc | 88
Were you pissed when you posted that?

Posted by: aspnaz | Jul 26 2019 14:08 utc | 91

@71

Yes, I just got the "hmm having trouble finding that site" message.

I wonder whether Hudson's paper at the WAPE conference in Manitoba this year could have triggered the shutdown.

http://thesaker.is/u-s-economic-warfare-and-likely-foreign-defenses/

IMO Hudson is the most valuable analyst on the planet!

Posted by: Really? | Jul 26 2019 14:11 utc | 92

@somebody

People are already dying on the mediterranean fleeing their countries and part of the reason is drought.
No, it isn't that. It's over-population. And you mean the problem is in Sub-Saharan Africa, I think, though also the Middle East. I should say not just over-population, but also over-consumption of water. There are not just only a lot more people, but also individually they expect to use more water. Expectations of life quality are higher. As a result, people are over-drawing on water resources in dry areas. Villages where you used to get water in wells at 10m, now only at 25m or even lower. Israel over-uses water massively. All while stealing their neighbours water, the level of Lake Tiberias has gone down to minimum, and they're thinking about feeding sea-water into it.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 26 2019 14:13 utc | 93

according to the royal society and every national academy of science, there is copious evidence that the climate is changing, due to fossil fuel emissions. that fossil fuel company propaganda has sadly been fairly effective, coupled with buying legislators. just a couple of notes--1.greenland was an early real estate scam, it wasn't green 2.to say the world is warming is not the same as saying that will be uniformly the case in all areas.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Jul 26 2019 14:23 utc | 94

Re. censorship of news and opinion

It seems to me that it has long been accepted that it falls on the intelligentsia* to control what the average people know (learn, become aware of) and believe.

* I call them intelligentsia, at least they believe themselves to be more intelligent than average, but it is more than that - they are people of wealth and influence. They are the Victoria Nuland, Chrystia Freeland, Henry Kissinger, Bilderberg Club, ... I don't pretend to know that extent of it.

That is the true nature of our "democracy". It is top-down leadership. The "democracy" part of it is just an exercise to keep the people occupied. They people are controlled and they don't seem to mind, in fact they seem to want it. Most people don't want the bother of making choices. They don't have time to worry about how their children are being indoctrinated.

I don't mention it so much to be negative, what would be the use in that?
But at least we should make a realistic assessment of where we are and where we are going.

Look at Russia-gate: Somebody (maybe Putin took time from his busy schedule, I don't care) released factual, private information which seemed the reveal the U.S. political parties and election process to be something different than what we learned in grade school. So now the focus of some years by all the forth estate has been on who released the information and why. Clearly this is the process reacting to protect itself. There is no longer any pretense of propriety. The public is taken very lightly and increasingly so - "rights" to free speech and privacy are being strip-mined.

Well again it is not to be negative, but to say we should drop the breathless outrage and hysteria (Caitlin) and actually accept reality and deal with it accordingly.

Posted by: jared | Jul 26 2019 14:29 utc | 95

to Laguerre # 72. Thank you! I am SO tired of hearing the babble and shouting re is there or isn't there climate change while the world is increasingly strangling on pollution. Species die=offs. Ocean acidification. The Texas sized island of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean. The on going disaster of toxins such as Round-up. The list is long and sad.... but the greed monsters keep on clear cutting the Amazon (the earth's lungs) and Coca--- keepings on churning out zillions more plastic bottles. Wouldn't want Uncle Warren to loose a single shekel paying the cost of cleaning up after his profits. That would be socialism right?

The ultimate insulting tragedy is that there ARE alternatives to petroleum based plastics. My little community banned plastic bags recently. surprise surprise. After a very small amount of grumbling, people adjusted. We have cloth bags for shopping and garbage bags made of sugar cane. A tiny step forward. Change is possible although clearly we won't get far until the mega corporations pay the true cost of doing business by cleaning up their trash.

Posted by: Miss Lacy | Jul 26 2019 14:52 utc | 96

Man-made climate change means pollution for a couple of years now; check Greta. Pollution has an effect on trees. And this has an effect on allergies, respiratory problems etc, i.e. human life.
How do you explain that against desertification, planting trees has been used with success?? Because dried up underwater means no more possibility for clouds to assemble and pour rain.

Are you going to say that the temperatures on the top of Mont Blanc and Everest are normal and have been witnessed before?

It has been going on for years now that in northern Europe we do feel the consequence of the ice melting up north: chilly wind all throughout April first, and now well into May.

Must read on another issue
https://www.mintpressnews.com/blackmail-jeffrey-epstein-trump-mentor-reagan-era/260760/

Posted by: Mina | Jul 26 2019 14:55 utc | 97

#85

Watch that 2.1% to get stealthily revised downward later in true MSM fake news fashion.

Besides, I'm not sure how is GDP growth even relevant anymore to a country where 60% of the populace has less than a $1000 in available cash or when 50% of the whole population simply have zero or negative net worth.

Posted by: Jonathan | Jul 26 2019 15:00 utc | 98

Posted by: Miss Lacy | Jul 26 2019 14:52 utc | 96

Guess what - it is connected.

The Link Between Plastic Use and Climate Change

Posted by: somebody | Jul 26 2019 15:23 utc | 99

Arbeit Hitzfrei.

Posted by: Shyaku | Jul 26 2019 15:24 utc | 100

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