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

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

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

Stay cool, b.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@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

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

@ 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

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

@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

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

@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

@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

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

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

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 😛

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 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

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

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

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

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

@ 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

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: 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

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

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

@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

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

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

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