Open Thread – 22 July 2016

423491-goatsstock-1345221838-889-640x480 (1)

pl

This entry was posted in Open Thread. Bookmark the permalink.

195 Responses to Open Thread – 22 July 2016

  1. Babak Makkinejad says:

    All:
    For the Edification of the Man-Made Global Warming Crowd:
    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7609/full/nature18591.html
    In a nut-shell, global warming is tied to an average of discrete numbers of precession cycles of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

  2. bth says:

    This article may explain some of the background regarding US/Russian air coordination and why DoD was so slow to go along with State proposal on info sharing. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-warplanes-targeted-us-british-outpost-in-syria-report/ar-BBuEzqw?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

  3. ex-PFC Chuck says:

    Just heard on NPR while out driving on errands that Erdogan has delcared July 15 a national holiday to honor the 200 plus coup opponents who died.

  4. Liza says:

    Col. Lang:
    The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Russia bombed a US/UK based in Syria. I’m interested in your assessment of this.
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-strikes-on-remote-syria-garrison-alarm-u-s-1469137231

  5. ambrit says:

    Is there any truth to the internet rumour of Turkeys’ Incirlik air base being locked down? Or is this standard procedure for an “internal” power struggle and the American munitions are safely in US hands?

  6. Barish says:

    Old hat – supposedly happened last month, June 16th – and then
    1) this here is mentioned about the kind of US/UK-deployment there:
    “U.S. and British special forces based in Jordan cross the border into Syria on missions, helping maintain an unofficial buffer zone on Syrian soil to protect Jordan from Islamic State, U.S. officials said. The special forces would rendezvous with their rebel allies at the garrison, initially used by the CIA. For security reasons, the forces wouldn’t spend the night.”
    So, to quote the piece itself, it’s a “rebel outpost” regularly visited by US/UK personnel rather than a permanently maintained base.
    2) I am somewhat wary of taking this here about an attack on a “families camp” on July 12th at face-value:
    “But on July 12, as Mr. Kerry was preparing to fly to Moscow to complete the agreement to increase U.S.-Russian coordination, Russian aircraft targeted another base near the Jordanian border, about 50 miles from At-Tanf, used by family members of CIA-backed fighters and other displaced Syrians, according to U.S. officials briefed on the strike and rebel commanders.
    Tllass Salameh, a commander with the Lions of the East rebel group which works out of the base, said 200 people were living at the “families’ camp.”
    In the strike, the Russians used cluster munitions, which increased the number of casualties, according to Mr. Salameh and U.S. officials. Mr. Salameh said two young children, aged two and three, were killed along with two young women and a man in his mid-50s. In addition, 48 people were injured, all civilians, he said.”
    As it’s by no means a first for insurgents in Syria to place militant personnel and arms in such camps, I wouldn’t rule that out being the case again here. Further, why aren’t the relatives of this outfit kept safe and secure within Jordan’s borders, them being beholden to Jordan anyway?

  7. ambrit says:

    Given the almost non existent reputation of western MSMs now, the sources of this “news” are germane. Is this an “exclusive” message from some shadowy front organization, or a multiply verifiable ‘event?’ Again, what would be of sufficient motivation for the Russians to do such a thing? This ‘attack’ is supposed to have occurred weeks ago. Why the delay in going public? Was some cleanup of the venue required? In short, if true, why this happened appears to have some significance. Finally, could some third party have used drones to carry this out and someone is using the ‘event’ to smear the Russians?
    Early days yet.

  8. ISL says:

    behind a pay wall, you can read the article here:
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304610925_The_Asian_monsoon_over_the_past_640000_years_and_ice_age_terminations
    This article is not relevant to modern and recent climate change which is century time scale or shorter – it is for millennial time scale changes.

  9. HankP says:

    Babak –
    The study you mentioned has no relation to the current situation, as previous episodes didn’t have artificial sources pumping gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

  10. Babak Makkinejad says:

    “pumping gig tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.”
    A canard as, like any other fluid, only so much carbon dioxide or methane can be dissolved in the atmosphere before it starts to spontaneously precipitate.

  11. Balint Somkuti says:

    Lone gunman attacks in Munich.
    This has to end somehow.

  12. Fred says:

    Liza,
    When did the Syrian government give permission to either the US or the UK to allow troops into their country? Especially to ‘advise’ those trying to overthrow the Syrian government.

  13. Barish says:

    Another thing should be kept in mind here: last Decembre an air strike by some party within the “Anti-ISIL” coalition hit a SAA post close to Deir ez-Zur:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036836/Syrian-government-says-US-led-coalition-hit-army-camp-killing-three-soldiers.html
    First reports on the case at hand, “U.S.-backed Syrian opposition forces” being hit went like this a few weeks ago:
    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/17/politics/russia-airstrike-syrian-rebels/
    In the CNN-link, there’s this quoted from the Russian MoD:
    “The object which had suffered bombardment was located more than 300 km far from borders of territories claimed by the American party as ones controlled by the opposition joined the ceasefire regime,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in the statement.
    And Russian forces “forewarned member states of the U.S.-led coalition about the ground targets to strike on,” the statement added.
    In recent months, the Russian Defense Ministry has suggested “compiling a joint map with actual information about location of forces active in Syria,” according to the statement. “However, there has been no significant progress reached.”
    In other words: the US missed stating that in this area, too, there would be participants to the Cessation of Hostilities. Why’s that?

  14. Haralambos says:

    Breaking news on BBC and Greek news of shooting at a Munich shopping center. Reports remain very sketchy, but some include the claim that there were multiple shooters (three?) and a number of injured.

  15. Jack says:

    A good overview including video of Munich shooting.
    http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/07/munich-shooting-photos-videos-live/

  16. Jack says:

    All
    Did you watch/listen to Trump’s RNC speech? What is your opinion?

  17. Haralambos says:

    Police in Munich are asking folks not to post images online of what is happening. These are in German, English and French. My source is Greek TV ΣΚΑÏ.

  18. 505thPIR says:

    Turkish version of Horst Wessel Lied soon to follow!

  19. Ghostship says:

    I think this is the group known as the New Syrian Army who a few weeks ago attempted to attack Al-Bukamal in the Euphrates valley with disastrous consequences when their American “close air support” headed off to attack a large ISIS convoy leaving Fallujah and left them at the mercy of the ISIS forces in Al-Bukamel. So, I think the unofficial buffer zone story is just BS. If they really wanted to seal the Jordanian border to ISIS, why don’t they send in some airborne battlefield radar and a few helicopter gunships.
    As for the timing of this article, more than a month after the event, it couldn’t possibly be to distract attention from the civilian casualties caused by bomb strikes around Manbij because everybody knows the Washington Borg is never so cynical.
    Talks are still under way between U.S. and Russian experts over the designated areas where the Russians would have to get Washington’s approval before conducting strikes.
    Of course, the “designated area” would never cover the whole of Syria.

  20. Origin says:

    What is the view of the Committee on Senator Tim Kaine as a Vice President?

  21. Allen Thomson says:

    Could someone knowledgeable about German law enforcement parse what we’re seeing in Munich? In particular, there seem to be a lot of Polizei wearing tan trousers, yellow short-sleeve shirts and no headgear, plus vests and carrying pistols and machine pistols. Who are they? Then there are more heavily equipped ones with helmets, more like one would see in a similar situation in the US.

  22. turcopolier says:

    Ghost Ship
    “… it couldn’t possibly be to distract attention from the civilian casualties caused by bomb strikes around Manbij because everybody knows the Washington Borg is never so cynical.” Is there any proof of that or are you just running your mouth? pl

  23. turcopolier says:

    Origin
    My impression is that Kaine has been lucky in his opponents when he ran for governor and the senate. He was also fortunate in his predecessor as a governor. Mark Warner was and is a very popular man in the commonwealth including among populations outside the Northern Virginia suburbs. Kaine was the mayor of Richmond at one point and a leader of the city council there before that. Richmond is a majority Black city, the White population having moved to its exurbs in Chesterfield County and north of the city. Kaine has a reputation as being very pro-Black. IMO Kaine’s placement on the HC ticket will not guarantee a Democratic victory in Virginia in November. pl

  24. Allen Thomson,
    They are Bavarian state police. They look the same as I remember them from the 90s, including the H&K weaponry.

  25. Jack says:

    Tim Kaine is a perfect choice. He is in the same Clinton DLC mold. But most importantly he can likely deliver the swing state of Virginia which has been trending Democrat with the growing NoVa population benefiting from increased size and spending of government.

  26. Tyler says:

    HankP,
    There has been zero links to carbon dioxide affecting climate change outside of Progressive Cargo Cultism.

  27. Tyler says:

    Balint,
    Stop importing the turd world.

  28. Tyler says:

    Jack,
    When the media dedicated to dragging HRC’s corpse across the finish line is reduced to saying “oh its a dark speech” you know he nailed it out of the park.

  29. Fred says:

    Origin,
    McAuliffe isn’t available or just not malleable?

  30. LeaNder says:

    Not worth to pay attention to the not-much-is-known public channel information loop. Much less pay attention to Bild as mentioned in a link above. Police forces from outside pulled in, added Bavarian and federal special forces, perpetrator (could well be only one) or perpetrators on the run. 6 dead not much known about how many are injured.
    And then, there was this a couple of days ago:
    http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1992614/relatives-hong-kong-family-axe-attack-german-train-want

  31. Fred says:

    On a dinner note:
    Pretzel encrusted walleye sautéed with lemon and butter. Fresh asparagus, salad with Columbia 1905 dressing accompanied by a chilled Domaine Dominique Cornin Macon Chaintre.

  32. Valissa says:

    OK, I’ll take the plunge 🙂
    Personally I dislike political speeches and avoid them as much as possible. However I am occasionally motivated by news headlines to listen to a speech for myself.
    This morning when I saw the following headlines and the opening paragraphs in my email inbox, I decided to listen to Trump’s speech.
    The Daily 202: Why Trump sounded more like a strongman than a movement conservative https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/07/22/daily-202-why-trump-sounded-more-like-a-strongman-than-a-movement-conservative/57916dc84acce20505087cdf/
    You could be forgiven for wanting to pop a valium at the end of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech last night. The Republican nominee painted a stark picture of a Hobbesian America that is nasty, brutish and short.
    Trump essentially used the most important speech of his campaign – and perhaps political career – to yell fire in a crowded theatre. He warned that we are in “a moment of crisis” and made the case that these desperate times call for desperate measures.
    ———
    This is what passes for political analysis in America today… sad. However one point was correct… Trump in no way sounded like a “movement conservative” regarding social issues.
    I listened to Trump’s acceptance speech here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CVTuOyZDI0
    While I can’t say I enjoyed it, I did at least find it interesting and entertaining. He definitely seemed more presidential than in past speeches and he stayed on message pretty well. It was long… about 96 minutes… so I suggest doing some mindless chore while listening (I opened a large backlog of mail and sorted it). Definitely not a traditional Republican speech although there were traditional Republican elements… law & order, strong military, strong borders, support for the 2nd amendment, the importance of Supreme Court picks. He talked a lot of the importance of jobs and made promises to blue collar workers about bringing their jobs back. He promised to get rid of trade deals that were unfavorable to the American worker.
    He made some positive noises about the LBGTQ community (esp in regard to protecting them from events such as Orlando) and he made some positive noises about women and minorities. Some of his talking points were obviously geared to attempt to lure Bernie Sanders or disheartened Democrat voters his way. He did NOT make noises that would appease socially conservative activists.
    I did not get the impression of a “Hobbesian America” from Trumps speech, though it painted a harsher picture than such speeches normally do. But Trump did talk about the many problems he perceived in American today (or wanted potential voters to perceive in order to vote for him to save them from those). At the same time he pushed his standard theme that he was the one who was going to make America great again. I don;t think this makes him a “strongman”… he’s just being egocentric Trump.
    The WP columnist Chris Cillizza was more balance in his assessment and gave the speech a general thumbs up. Though he too thought the speech painted a “deeply grim picture” of the state of America https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/21/winners-and-losers-from-the-final-night-of-the-republican-national-convention/
    The Republican nominee gave the crowd what it was looking for — a command performance of the tough-talking, details-free approach that won him the nomination in the first place. He promised to wipe out crime as soon as he took office. He promised to defeat Islamic State militants “fast.” He promised a whole lot things. What he didn’t do was provide any meaningful specifics about how he might do it.
    The crowd in the room was with him for the whole address — cheering in the right moments, booing when it was required. Trump, too, seemed relatively dialed in — staying, generally, on the teleprompter and hitting his applause lines well. The speech itself was well crafted — if way too long. (It clocked in at almost 80 minutes.)
    ———————
    I’m a third party voter so this speech had no effect on anything except my opinion of the media coverage of it afterward. More and more the MSM seem like idiots and talking heads that are pushing their owns agenda rather than fact based reporters or analysts.

  33. SmoothieX12 says:

    I did and we had a massive thunderstorm during it. The first more or less major political speech in the last 20+ years which could be construed as a first approximation American nationalism. I would say that the trend is healthy and it was not too bad of a speech.

  34. Tyler says:

    The Russian looked up from where he sat on a series of covered crates at the two men as they walked past the armorer. The smell of his cigarettes had overpowered the scent of solvent and gun oil, and he grunted at them in accented English. “Hello again, comrade.”
    The two men knew there was an ironic twist to the Russian’s use of comrade, as they had discussed more than once over a bottle of whiskey that their contact had procured how fickle a thing fate was. The men had trained for a Soviet invasion of Europe, and here was a Russian helping the Americans in a civil war.
    “Ivan, hello,” said Pat. He and TTG both took a cigarette from the open box that Ivan offered and placed it behind the ear. They did not smoke, but some of the men did. It was hard to get things like cigarettes or alcohol in the Federally Administered Zones.
    “I heard you have what I requested,” said Ivan.
    Pat nodded, and considered the man. FSB or Spetznatz? Did it matter, really? He knew he could trust Ivan, to an extent, at least. “Word travels fast. Do you have what we requested?”
    Ivan stood, stretching his lanky frame, and then pulled the tarp off low squat boxes marked with Cyrillic, like runes from a spellbook. He reached over for a crowbar, and began to pry off planks, waving Pat and TTG close when a number had been removed. “You see?”
    The two men nodded at the MANPADS packed neatly in their boxes, the Verba launchers slick as if with venom under the low lighting of the cavern. “You have our faith that you can meet the federal troops in open combat and succeed,” he stated. The men were all old hands in this game, and the unsaid otherwise we would not have wasted our time did not need to be spoken. Pat wondered idly at how hard it had been to ship it through, and then shook his head. Probably not hard at all, considering the state of the border now.
    “These will help,” TTG murmured, nodding appreciatively. He reached out to stroke one of the launchers, knowing that this was a definite game changer for the rebels.
    “More than you know,” Ivan responded. “I was in Afghanistan when the CIA brought the missiles over, and survived a ride to the ground in a Krokodil after one hit us.” His hand, covered by old burn scars, clenched once, and then he shook his head. “The wheel is always turning, is it not?”
    Pat nodded, tactical and strategic opportunities racing behind a nonplussed demeanor. “Let’s go get you your information.”
    ~
    Fred was drumming his fingers as the thumb drive Tyler brought in was downloaded. He had on his “ears”, listening to the continuing radio traffic from the other side. The copper in the mountains around here made the kind of difficult, high end encryption that the federal troops favored difficult to sustain, so many simply went “in the clear”. This of course, was a field day for Fred.
    The rebels, meanwhile, had stuck to bush sign and techniques like heliographs, even telegraph. Radios were used rarely, and were encrypted heavily. Each cell learned to make due. It was not easy, and it required a great deal of initiative for the leaders of these small units, but the consequences for ignoring signals security was dire.
    As these idiots are about to find out, Fred thought, and smiled as he came across a series of movement manifests that laid out how the federals planned to smash the incursion over in the “Arizona Western Corridor”, as it was called in the documents. Out of curiosity, he had pulled up old logs of after action reports, and was not surprised to see that they deviated wildly from what the federals had reported. Seems like covering one’s ass was still a big part of the other side’s way of doing business.
    Fred felt rather than heard the presence of the three men, and pulled his headphones off his ears. “We’re almost done here. I’ve just got to pull the last of this off, and you can have the rest.”
    “Anything good?” TTG asked.
    Fred waved him forward, and showed him the manifests and movement routes that he had pulled from the thumb drive. It took a moment, but TTG smiled – a wolf’s grin, full of teeth.
    “Oh, this will be amazing,” he hissed.

  35. LeaNder says:

    thanks, rjj, fascinating.

  36. Allen Thomson says:

    Thank you. Long time since I was in Munich. (McGraw Kaserne, mid-1970s I guess.)

  37. turcopolier says:

    Fred
    McCauliffe has been a resounding flop in dealing with the General Assembly and he can’t appoint himself to the US Senate. pl

  38. Anonymous says:

    TTG said “I am glad you like my advice about bunker bagshitting. I learned that lesson firsthand during a 22 day SICTA (strategic intelligence collection/target acquisition) mission.”
    TTG, you really misunderestimate us third world evil doers. We know everything about that “SICKTA” mission of yours. We even inferred the location despite the coded words. We have intel on it, you see, snatched from Hillary Clinton’s email server (along with nude pictures of pubescent Huma Abedin taken by Woody Allen.) We call it The Hobbiton Coprological Data Gathering, and we have the secretive radio chat transcripts to prove it: “Today I go first hand into Bag End…” “Filthy data acquisition, TTG…” “Yes! Tomorrow the whole BagShat Row…” What you don’t reveal to us is that you gave the stinking intelligence product of that mission to a rookie SF team to use as parachuting jump cushion in a training mission you deviously named Parashitting Swamp Dive. We suspect foul landings.
    We also suspect, on account of your incredible argumentative slickness on all things black, that in the original TTG callsign the twisted T meant teflon instead. We evil doers will try some nanotech based memetic glue in our next ambush, though you seem a rather hopeless case. You’re in the “I never thought this could have happened!” league.
    By the way, honestly, calling nice hobbit holes bunkers is an ultrage. What about the “and that means comfort” part? Methinks you Special Forces make use of some poetic license in your tales: From inside the comfy SF tent, the boys scream in chorus along with the the ultratech spy satellite TV set “Hodor! Hodor!” but to us outsiders, on the eerie report about the mission the screams read “the horror, the horror!”
    So much for your bad advices, TTG. Your psyops will not work on this meanest of evildoers. I will now shitdown this computer… HOLY FU………

  39. Origin says:

    Is he sufficiently capable to move into the top job?

  40. dws says:

    Babak,
    It’s possible to have an atmosphere with much more CO2 than we currently do, for example, as Venus does. As for the article, ISL is right. More, the global warming/cooling tied to the Earth’s orbital changes (which we’ve known about for over 30 years, right?) provides support for the man-made global warming case because: (1) The cycles predict no warming trend now and yet we clearly are warming; (2) You can extract a forcing sensitivity from the cycles that agrees with what we’re seeing now.
    Your former student,
    Douglass Schumacher.

  41. Fred says:

    Col.,
    I agree, I was just curious as to the odds of him vs. Kaine as Hilary’s VP pick.

  42. charly says:

    CO2 isn’t a fluid under atmospheric pressure and normal earth temperature.

  43. charly says:

    Tyler,
    you forget people who understand the Einstein equation. They also see a link

  44. michael brenner says:

    You remind me of our own Texas Governor Abbott who declared; “I’ll only believe in global warming when I find seaweed in my Breakfast of Champions cereal bowl”

  45. You’re a real Bon Vivant, Fred. Good on ya and enjoy.

  46. Kaine barely won his last election. I don’t think he’ll help or hurt here in Virginia or elsewhere.

  47. Valissa says:

    oops, I meant to say the speech was 76 minutes long.

  48. Valissa says:

    Agreed. It was much more about American nationalism than American exceptionalism. The speech was more targeted to the average American (without being condescending about it) than to the establishment or the political elite. Yup, the elites don’t like that their narrative of America was not expressed by Trump.

  49. Ghostship says:

    I think you’ll have to wait for someone to pass the e-mails on to Wikileak, although the timeline does look odd:
    June 16th – Russians bomb US/UK camp
    July 12th – Russians bomb rebel camp
    July 20th – Syrian government protests to UNSC about US/FR bombing
    July 21st – WSJ publishes story about events on June 16 and July 12
    The June 16th attack was first reported as being on a New Syrian Army base on June 17th without any mention of it being a US/UK-used base.
    So, yes, I am “running my mouth” as the evidence is circumstantial but I don’t see the Washington Borg ever admitting to such blatant media manipulation, and why was there no mention of it being a US/UK-used base on June 17th if the DoD, CIA, whoever felt so aggrieved?

  50. Degringolade says:

    I like the idea. But I thought that the Verba was a truck mounted MLRS system, not a MANPAD. Please correct me if I am wrong.

  51. HankP says:

    Babak –
    Not true, look up “miscible” which carbon dioxide is in air. Carbon dioxide does not precipitate out of the atmosphere at any of the temperatures or pressures that actually exist on Earth.

  52. HankP says:

    Tyler –
    It is trivially shown in simple physics experiments. Carbon dioxide is why Venus has a surface temperature of 460 degrees C.

  53. Donald says:

    Um, yeah, one can hardly step outside without being pelted by chunks of dry ice.
    Seriously, science is not your strong point.

  54. HankP says:

    Jack –
    It will be very effective for those who want an authoritarian strongman.

  55. kooshy says:

    Colonel
    IMO, the main point is, that Clintons and DNC by picking Tim Kaine, are totally ignoring sidelining, Sanders and His supporters, IMO Trump should welcome that choice, since he may pick up some, or to keep at home hardline no to Clinton protesting Sanders voters . Beside IMO I thing Trump will have more support in rustbelt than a right tilt democrat.

  56. Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg says:

    It seems like a holistic phenomenon. I’m skeptical that humans are the sole cause of whatever is happening. Anyone familiar with historical geology will be aware of countless episodes of global climate change with a myriad of cause, – many of which with no known cause.

  57. turcopolier says:

    Anonymous
    Fred is not SF. Yes. You are an outsider. I did not realize that you are a 3rd world outsider. pl

  58. Murali says:

    I totally agree with you. The elite live in a different planet or world, remember Merkel’s comment in 2014 (about Putin in being a different world)

  59. Henshaw says:

    Babak and others- read the Abstract- it refers to ‘millennial-scale’ events, ie not the decade-scale events we are experiencing today.
    In recent decades, average temperatures have been increasing at around an order of magnitude faster than previously. There’s no longer any serous debate about this increase on global temperature- the only people still disputing it are a few coal industry shills and global conspiracy enthusiasts.
    If you are going to reject the anthropogenic explanation for this rapid increase, you still need to provide some other explanation for why it’s happening.
    Babak- could you quote a reference for your claim about carbon dioxide or methane spontaneously precipitating from the atmosphere? I’m intrigued.
    Tyler- ‘zero links’? then you’ve got a better explanation for whatever is causing the measured increases in global temperature?

  60. Degringolade,
    The Verba is a man portable AA missile that replaces the Grail. It’s only 20 something lbs in weight and is supposedly not tricked by decoy flares.

  61. Freudenschade says:

    HankP,
    Tyler is a troll. Don’t waste your time.

  62. turcopolier says:

    Freudenschade
    Tyler is a troll? How droll. pl

  63. Well bless your heart Anonymous. The last time I heard an incoherent rant like that it was from a crazy, inebriated derelict being mad at the world while pissing himself. Sit down and take a breath son. You’re embarrassing yourself.

  64. Cvillereader says:

    Tyler-
    Your obvious appeciation for freedom and independence make me think you would appreciate the Irish. So where does the empathy for Cromwell come from?

  65. Tyler,
    Nice. Keep ’em coming when you can. I’d add dead drops to our commo repertoire. Heliographs is a pretty slick idea. I never able to get very good at reading Morse code through flashing lights.

  66. michael brenner,
    You might appreciate this exchange between Hank Hill and Dale Gribble from “King of the Hill.”
    DALE: I know what’s wrong with your truck. It’s your quote unquote pollution controls. I heard on talk radio you don’t even need ’em, they’re just an egghead government plot.
    HANK: How is cutting down on pollution a government plot, Dale?
    DALE: Open up your eyes, man. They’re trying to control global warming. Get it? “Global?”
    HANK: So what?
    DALE: That’s code for U.N. commissars telling Americans what the temperature’s going to be in our outdoors. I say let the world warm up, let’s see what Boutros Boutros Ghali Ghali has to say about that. We’ll grow oranges in Alaska!
    HANK: Dale, you giblet-head, we live in Texas! It’s already 110 in the summer, and if it gets one degree hotter, I’m going to kick your ass!

  67. ked says:

    when fascism comes to America it will be wearing an orange hat and shouting.

  68. kooshy says:

    Agreed he did

  69. BraveNewWorld says:

    Here is my question of the day. How long until the US is sending money and equipment to Assad as a balancing force to Erdogan?

  70. Eric Newhill says:

    global warmists – I once climbed a small mountain in Nevada; the most arid desert of Nevada and – to my surprise and enjoyment – I found, at the summit amidst the bone dry rocks, the fossils of fish and snail type creatures.
    So what are you worried about? New York and Los Angeles will be beneath the sea one of these days and no action of mankind can stop prevent that fact. All creatures great and small adapt to these changes, or not. Such is the history of life on earth.
    And why all the glass is half full thinking? There are many areas of the planet that benefit from a warmer environment? Winners and losers.
    IMO, the global warmists are like the self-depreciating white guilters. Self-flagellating puritans. Controlled by self-serving psychopaths.

  71. Tyler says:

    charly,
    Such a strong link they have to falsify documents. Indeed.

  72. Tyler says:

    Freuden,
    The progressive definition of troll is “someone who disagrees with me and makes me look like a fool”. Run back to your safe space, you worm.

  73. Tyler says:

    HankP,
    You cannot be this dense, then I remember you’re voting for the Borg Queen.
    The fact that Venus is SIGNIFICANTLY CLOSER TO THE SUN with a TOTAL LACK OF CARBON CYCLE (such as TREES) has significantly more to do with it being 460 degrees.

  74. Tyler says:

    michael brenner,
    You remind me of the people who told 8 year old me with a straight face that Miami would be 20 feet under water by the year 2000 if we didn’t stop global warming in a year.
    Your apocalypse is always delayed, it seemed. You have a lot in common with rapturists.

  75. Brunswick says:

    http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/earth/documentaries/the-rise-of-oxygen/article-earth-without-oxygen/
    Oxygen’s a late arrival to the planet’s atmosphere, and it’s dominance caused mass extinction events.
    Luckily, for the health of the planet, that trend is being reversed.

  76. Tyler says:

    Henshaw,
    Yeah, if its man made its because man made up the records that “prove” whatever you’re claiming.
    Googling “climate change fraud” turns up a wealth of links. Start there. I’m not going to pretend I’m going to convince a global warming cultist, but anyone who’s on the fence can look up how the Green Cult has systematically lied, falsified data, and predicted doom every year for about 30 years now.
    Remember when Sagan was predicting a new Ice Age? Good times.

  77. Tyler says:

    Hank,
    Soros needs a better grade of shill.

  78. Tyler says:

    Jack,
    Nah. Disagree.

  79. Tyler says:

    Degringolade,
    What TTG said.
    This is several years in the future so its conceivable the Russians are sending the rebels their useful but not top of the line kit.

  80. Tyler says:

    I believe the Hillary campaign, in the tradition of Borgists everywhere, drank their own kool aid. They really think that they would have a double digit lead over Trump going into November, and he’s now tied or leading in all the polls, even the ones with +10 D sampling.
    Right now I’d be dollars to donuts that the mantra is “post convention bounce, post convention bounce” and furiously ignoring that Trump’s campaign is a marathon, not sprint. It’s been that way since he took the lead back in August and never let up.
    Video of Manafort and Stephen Miller rocking Tapper back on his heels.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewv3f6vpNdM

  81. Imagine says:

    Apparently white people actually get killed more often by the police per capita than black folk. Also, and this one’s good, teach the policemen Aikido well and many fewer people get hurt.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/07/18/analysis-of-washington-post-police-shootings-data-reveals-surprising-result/
    …Someone once proposed bringing in Japanese policemen to deal with Gaza. There is no excuse for killing women and children who aren’t armed with guns. If the only issue is security, and not oppression, an independent Japanese blue-helmet peacekeeping force would go far towards restoring civil order.
    So teach American police an Aikido mindset, and less violent accidents should follow.

  82. Fred says:

    Hank P,
    Being 24 million miles closer to the Sun has far more to do with it.

  83. mike says:

    Pollard is whining about his parole conditions in court. Wonder who is paying for his high priced lawyer?
    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/07/22/judge-authority-ease-pollard-parole-conditions-is-limited.html?ESRC=todayinmil.sm
    BTW, back in April Pollard’s, Eliot Lauer, hosted a fundraiser for the Canadian Cuban Ted Cruz. Probably because of Cruz’s pushing for Pollard’s release last year.
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/29/ted-cruz-s-favorite-rabbi.html

  84. Valissa says:

    Ah yes… the old authoritarian strongman bogeyman… that is the current Dem propaganda. Stoking fear can be an effective tool. I think it’s a rather pathetic ploy, but I have to admit it works on some people.
    On the other hand, some Americans might prefer a macho can-do business type leader to the mealy-mouthed metrosexuals they’ve been stuck with in the past.
    Then there are the folks that just want someone who is different from all the politicians they’ve seen before. The barbarian is at the gate!

  85. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Kooshy,
    Recent Univision interview en Espanol with Sen Tim Kaine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDRNVmKkNow

  86. jld says:

    All,
    You might be interested in what is an American scientist view on politics:
    https://sciencehouse.wordpress.com/2016/07/22/forming-a-consistent-political-view/

  87. Paul Escobar says:

    TTG,
    At a cursory glance, I thought he was some arch-rival of yours…drudging up old business in an attempt to goad you into one last duel.
    But on second reading, I realized he basically told a story about the transport & handling of your…um, “expulsions”…laced in highly unnecessary military jargon.
    I don’t believe him to be inebriated.
    I believe he yearns to take a “creative writing” course.
    But as time and/or mobility seem to be an issue, he indulges his imagination & sense of humour in Mr. Lang’s comments section.
    Best,
    Paul

  88. LondonBob says:

    Though his government did a tyrant resemble / He made England great and his enemies tremble.
    Andrew Marvell.

  89. LondonBob says:

    Congratulations to Stephen Miller. A little younger than me but he and I have clearly read the same articles and people growing up. Well on track to being the chief policy advisor for the next President. Trump just needs to find more good people like Miller to help him, a hard task in DC.
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-speechwriter-behind-donald-trumps-republican-convention-address-1469093401

  90. jonst says:

    and if it comes, it will crushed as it was crushed before. I don’t understand this sense of child like helplessness that, as a broad generalization, seems to permeate the ‘Left’, in America. Americans have a broad, and historically deep, resistance to tyranny. I am much more concerned about an ‘Administrative State’, that slowly, effectively, comes to dominate a, every nook and corner, of a citizen’s life with the oh so friendly plea to ‘let us experts make things better’. This is not to imply that I support, or don’t support, Trump.

  91. dws says:

    Fred,
    I know it seems that way but Venus is actually hotter than Mercury, even though Mercury is much closer. This has been well studied and we know it is due to Venus’s atmosphere.

  92. jonst says:

    He won’t be “perfect” to the Sanders wing of the Party. I can assure of that.

  93. xxtommix says:

    Blissfully unaware of degree of conflict (severe) reported here, in SE Turkey, PKK youth vs. Turkish army + police:
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/coup-in-turkey-leads-to-erdogan-power-grab-a-1104261-4.html
    But am unclear re. Timeframe.

  94. turcopolier says:

    fred
    He says he is going to sign 200,000 individual decrees before the election. Good! That will keep him busy and out of mischief. McAuliffe reminds me of the wisdom of not letting Virginia governors succeed themselves. pl

  95. bth says:

    My take on the entire sequence of events was that Russia might not know all the targets they are bombing as some no doubt come from Syrian army or intelligence or from the Iranians and Hezbollah. So Iran for example would be quite happy if Russia bombed US sponsored group to sow confusion and consternation between parties.

  96. Peter Reichard says:

    Actually black people are three times more likely per capita to be killed by police than whites. The linked article explains why this may not be evidence of racism as whites are more often killed per arrest. Agree that the Aikido mindset would be an improvement.

  97. Babak Makkinejad says:

    Hi Dough:
    Those were the days, weren’t day.
    I disagree, the accuracy of the predictions are never at even the millennium resolution.
    The man-made global warming guys should be able to supply a percentage for the contribution of carbon dioxide and methane c to global warming in contradistinction to that of the increased insolation due to astronomical causes.
    They cannot.
    And they constantly declaim man’s responsibility all the while ignoring data that goes back at least 2 million years which indicate the periodicity of the global warming.

  98. Babak Makkinejad says:

    There is a carbon cycle in Earth which is tied to the process of plate tectonics. Look it up.

  99. Babak Makkinejad says:

    Any collection of molecules that cannot be sheared is called a fluid; a liquid: lookup “Ideal Fluid Hydrodynamics” by Karamcheti; the book from which I learnt fluid mechanics.

  100. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I have indicated the sources of my opinions on this forum; refute them.

  101. Babak Makkinejad says:

    Thank you for your kind words; that is what I am saying too.
    Regrettably, science has become now so politicized – at least in certain branches – that you will be risking your livelihood in search of scientific Truth.
    Or may be the claim is now that Scientific Truth is also socially constructed – like the gender fluids, Congress can decide what is the Truth.

  102. Tyler says:

    Dws,
    Also because VENUS LACKS TREES TO ABSORB CO2 FFS.
    Is this the new “heat is hiding in deep oceans” argument?

  103. Tyler says:

    Cville,
    London Bob nailed it. Charles I treated England as a play thing for the foreign elites of the time as well.
    Sorry about the Irish, but picking a losing fight with a bear makes for good poetry but poor outcomes. Cromwell was a man you didn’t want to get fired up.

  104. Tyler says:

    Peter,
    Black people are more likely to commit crime as well.

  105. Tyler says:

    That Reuters poll that had Clinton at 41 and Trump 38 with an MOE of 4 over sampled Democrats by 12. Twelve! And that’s the best she could do!

  106. SAC Brat says:

    There was a joke a few months ago during the primaries, really sharp like Soviet humor.
    “Why do people have an instant dislike of Ted Cruz?”
    Answer: “It saves time.”

  107. Max says:

    Kaine and Unable

  108. SAC Brat says:

    I am suspicious of the media trying to gin up a close race to build interest or to promote a candidate. I also don’t care for the media playing gatekeeper on which of the 400 plus presidential candidates gets coverage.
    It has been fun to watch the buildings fall over in Very Important People’s Potemkin village this election season. It’s like a rugby and drinking team showed up at a cotillion or flower club meeting.

  109. Henshaw says:

    Could you supply details of Sagan’s paper predicting a new ice age- the actual paper, not a newspaper report about what someone said Sagan said?
    Rather than broad-brush allegations, some actual examples of systematic lying and data falsification would be good, too.
    Are you saying that all climate data have been tampered with, or that robust data has been manipulated to produce a misleading result?
    Most climate change denialists don’t deny that the planet is warming, they dispute the mechanism instead- the same way the tobacco lobby didn’t dispute the increased death rates from lung cancer, they disputed the linkage between smoking and lung cancer. And we all know how that one panned out.

  110. SAC Brat says:

    Shoulda been Very Serious People, our betters for those of us on the reservations outside of where they live.

  111. Jack says:

    Tyler, Valissa, Smoothie, Hank, LondonBob, ked
    Below some reactions from the establishment punditry:
    GOP establishment David Brooks: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/opinion/campaign-stops/the-dark-knight.html
    Neo-keynesian Krugman: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/opinion/donald-trump-the-siberian-candidate.html
    The establishment are using words like dark, authoritarian, fascist, etc to describe Trump’s speech and the USA! USA! chants. IMO, there are very few voters that remain to be persuaded. This election will turn on which side have more enthusiastic voters in the swing states. In this context Trump’s speech accomplished his goal. He came across as a can-do doer to his audience. Additionally, he reinforced his message of a rigged system that screws the working class. and that the Clintons are the corrupt system. I think he did a great job on the fence sitting traditionally Democrat union workers. His use of law & order protection as a way to reach minorities was IMO brilliant. He knows that he’s not gonna get many but if he can get a few or sow enough doubt they don’t show up he’s further ahead.
    The Trump kids were a huge asset to their Dad. They were polished and poised. They created a lot of dissonance to the media’s attacks on Trump as racist and a buffoon. I recall the 1970s movie The Candidate with Robert Redford as the young candidate. The packaging of candidates and campaigns haven’t changed since then. An important element was he’s “good looking”. The Trump family on stage were good looking, And compare to Hillary, Bill and Chelsea it will be no contest in terms of visuals. Overall I think Trump has shored up his supporters who will not be easily moved by the well financed Hillary campaign’s attacks.
    If Joe Bageant’s people show up in November then we’ll have a very interesting election night. You know that Trump did well when Nate Silver tweets his concern.
    https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/756681961809272832

  112. Henshaw says:

    Yes- some creatures can, and have adapted to climatic changes. The problem is that the climatic changes we are seeing now are happening an order of magnitude faster than before. It remains to be seen how many creatures great and small can adapt at this more rapid rate. Especially the ones we rely on for food.
    Thanks for the Nevada reminiscence. I’ve has similar experiences, in the mountains of Morocco, extracting trilobites and ammonites. But you’ve avoided the challenge in my earlier post- if it’s not ‘greenhouse warming’ that’s causing the temperature increase, what is causing it?

  113. Tyler says:

    ,
    http://thefederalist.com/2014/02/26/the-original-sin-of-global-warming/
    The actual quotes, not leftist snark and parsing.
    Furthemore “warming” at a ten thousandth of a degree is scientifically unimpressive. This is not ICE CAPS MELTING BY (twenty years in the future) that is always claimed.

  114. Jack says:

    Jonst, Tyler
    I should have used “safe”, instead of “perfect”. Kaine is the Wall St nominee and since they’re a large bankroller of Hillary’s campaign they must have had a big say. I also believe that Bill weighed in for him. You’re correct that his nomination will do nothing for Sanders supporters. But Hillary is making the assumption that the Clintons have always made that the Left have no choice and will always tuck their tail and vote Democrat as loyal puppies.
    I thought he could help in Virginia since he’s won state-wide contests before but Col. Lang and TTG who know much more about Virginia politics believe that he’s not going to very helpful there. Virginia is a critical deciding state. And Northern Virginia living off big government spending may not like the uncertainty of Trump.

  115. Fred says:

    dws,
    Yes, and what is the size of Mercury, Venus and Earth; how does that impact the gravitation force and the retention of any atmosphere and why would any of those factors impact the amount of solar radiation from the Sun, the retention or reflection there of. BTW Mercury and Venus having zero men has zero man made co2.

  116. Eric Newhill says:

    Henshaw, The meteorologists can’t even reliably tell me what is going to happen within the next week, weatherwise, in my neck of the NE. Their models can’t even do that, but people want to believe that they can model out what is happening with regards to a few decimal points of temperature when doing so involves not only earthly, but cosmic variables – and probably factors/variables we don’t even know about.
    These “models” are akin to alchemy or sorcery. I know as in my career I work with complex economic and financial models.
    Here’s what the global warming movement is; 1. scientists who jump on the funding gravy train and are incentivized to keep the train rolling down the tracks. 2. Some manipulators who seek personal enrichment and control/power through artifices such as selling carbon emission licenses. 3. People, who, having abandoned religion now seek something else to fill that void. This idea that the world has a “perfect” or “correct” temperature is the substitute for the garden of Eden. The temperature would be at that ideal level, except for human sin (polluting). This is the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The warming alarmists, carbon taxers, etc get to see themselves as prophets and saviors. It’s a big ego boost to be with the movement and be on the right side. IOW, it’s a cult.

  117. Eric Newhill says:

    Henshaw, To answer your direct question; I don’t know that the warming is accelerating. If some sample of data suggests it is, then the obvious question is, “accelerating compared to what?”. We have no good idea at what rate temperature changed in the past. The sample is only based on a very short period of time when accurate records were kept. So sampling error.
    Cigarettes and cancer – another generally accepted sciency truism that isn’t closely examined, but should be. It’s right there with 50% of automotive fatalities are alcohol related. It begins with someone capturing data in a way that supports the conclusion they want.
    If anyone involved in the accident had *anything* to drink (could be 1 glass of wine) and regardless if they were responsible for causing the accident (the guy who had the wine could have t-boned by a sober red light runner), the fatality is chalked up to being alcohol related.
    Similarly, if anyone ever smoked at any consumption level and they come down with certain cancers, the cancer is said to be tobacco caused. All other variables are ignored.
    At best, truthfully, it can be said that smoking is *associated* (not causes) with an increased risk of certain cancers. The increased risk isn’t as high as we have been led to believe. Ditto the risk of heart disease, which is really more dependent on being over-weight and sedentary. Some over-weight sedentary people smoke.

  118. cee says:

    Haralambos,
    French authorities are asking that all camera footage being destroyed. Why would they want that?
    Anyway, this dude gets around.
    Nice & Munich Attack, SAME Photographer, Richard Gutjahr
    Richard Gutjahr , a German journalist and actor who is married to former Israeli intelligence (Mossad) agent Einat Wilf, filmed the Nice truck attack from his hotel room who happenned to be at the right place with a professional camera at right moment is now in Munich reporting on the McDonald’s killer, but that’s just a coincidence!

  119. Degringolade says:

    One time pads? I hated those damn things but they worked.

  120. cee says:

    Max,
    The best so far.

  121. Degringolade says:

    And he was a damn sight better that Charles I in all things. The menfolk of the Stuart clan aren’t the shining zenith of the British Monarchy.

  122. jld says:

    Yes, the Taqqiya crackpot covers the full range of crackpottery and he keeps driving his point.
    😀

  123. cee says:

    All,
    CNN reported that this child was killed by MISTAKE! I wonder if they are on the US No Fly List!
    If Ergodan will stop supporting them and cooperate with Russia and Iran I want these bastards wiped OUT!! I’ll even vote for Trump if he is serious about crushing them.
    Killers of the Palestinian child put it clearly: “We are even worse than ISIS”
    More chilling footage has been released showing the last words uttered by the Palestinian child who was executed by US-backed Syrian rebels just two days ago in Northern Aleppo.
    In the video the terrified child is seen amongst a group of militants from ‘Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki’, in the same red pickup truck in which he was later decapitated.
    The Islamist thugs are seen giggling, making fun of the child, taking selfies, and of course shouting Allahu-akbar.
    When ironically asked about his final wish, the young victim asked to be shot, and not slaughtered.
    Their shocking answer? “We are even worse than ISIS”
    More info: https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-killers-of-the-palestinian-child-put-it-clearly-we-are-even-worse-than-isis/

  124. Valissa says:

    That is possibly the most ridiculous political essay I have ever read by a supposedly intelligent well educated person. Some years ago I made a serious effort to overhaul my political belief system when I realized it was outmoded and not based on reality. I was hoping to see one or two similar thoughts in this essay. Instead I observed a scientist who is clueless about sociology, political psychology, history, and the nature of governments and bureaucracies.
    “The typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. He becomes primitive again.” — Joseph Schumpeter

  125. Jack says:

    In the case of climate change does decade-scale matter? It’s not like we’re going to be burnt alive tomorrow. And there could be many changes in human behavior in century-scale. It seems that when dealing with something like climate there should be more weight on millenial-scale observations.
    What I see is that climate change scaremongering is being used to get government once again interfering to benefit politically well connected elites. Carbon trading and credits primarily benefit Wall St. Subsidies for ethanol and uneconomical wind and other “green” power generation, as well as feed-in tariffs, and boondoggle investments of taxpayers money in Solyndra, et al are a few examples of how this about gaming to benefit the elites. Of course, Al Gore has become wealthy but does not practice what he preaches in his own lifestyle.

  126. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I forgot to add:
    I still recall that afternoon outside of Count of Antipasto.
    Hope the years have been kind to you.

  127. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I suggest a little calculation.
    The US Energy Agency has an estimate of the global reserves of oil as well as gas.
    Let us calculate the amount of CO2 that is released if all of those reserves are burnt. This can be calculated as the chemical reaction rates are all known.
    It can be done with pencil and paper – you do not even need a calculator to this arithmetical computation.
    And let us further assume that that entire amount of CO2 is deposited in the atmosphere.
    Could the Man-made global warming crowd tell us by how many degrees centigrade the average surface temperature of Earth will increase?

  128. bth says:

    My guess is that the seizure of Manbij which will follow an intense and bloody aerial bombardment and PR outcry (running man with dead baby pics) from the standard Sunni Arab news PR project will be the last major push in the northwest of Syria by the SDF. This has to be stepped up, given political uncertainties in Turkey, to cut off the supply lines between Turkey and IS. This may be one of the only sure ways of preventing Erdogan from dealing directly with IS.
    Then I would speculate that all US efforts will be focused on Mosul, as Russian air attacks on US surrogates make clear there is little cooperation to be had in Syria; perhaps Russians feel one way but Hezbollah and Iran would have different ideas. US military will want to deal with Mosul before end of Obama term. Little US military enthusiasm for helping Assad at this point. Likely attitude is that if Assad claims he can retake Raqqa then have at it; Kurds and US can watch with interest. US, French and Iraqi forces will continue to surround Mosul moving slowly west-north-west along a band of Kurdish villages within range of friendly artillery support, so about 5-10 mile increments.
    Ten year deal negotiated this week for 5 base access in Iraq will do the trick. Curious to note that Turkish military pulled out of Iraq this week. Not quite sure what to make of that.
    Perhaps one more US air field in Syria southeast along Iraq-Syrian border to put veto on Iran-friendly land route to Damascus. Russians might bomb an isolated US/UK sponsored camp and claim it was a miscommunication but less likely to accidentally bomb a camp adjacent to an airfield with American aircraft.
    One might guess a year from now that IS will be pushed out of urban Iraq and have largely squirted to western Syria maintaining possession of as much oil and agricultural land as possible. IA is trading oil for cash with Syrian government militias on behalf of Syrian government that has no where else to purchase oil with devalued currency. I speculate this explains the lack of reporting on IS oil trucking and trading that was all the Russian media rage 3 or 4 months ago. Without hard currency one might expect more exchanges of commodities for fuel and more emphasis on grain silos. In Iraq Berzani-Erdogan oil deals will proceed uninterrupted in relative calm. Sunnis will lobby to have Beiji rebuilt but Iraq government will divert construction dollars to more stable areas perhaps around Basra or in Sadr country for political reasons. Sunni Iraq world will be economically grim post conflict and for foreseeable future.

  129. BraveNewWorld says:

    “According to some media analyses, the Kurds prepared and approved the draft constitution too soon. Article 5 specifies that the federation shall have an independent flag, and Article 66 paved the way for the establishment of diplomatic relations with foreign countries, despite the Syrians having yet to agree on the form of the future Syrian state. The majority of them fear that the declaration of the federation would be the beginning of a project to divide Syria, since it would be made by the Kurds and the Kurdish self-administration, which the Syrians view as enemies.”
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/07/north-syria-rojava-kurdish-federation-constitution.html
    There has always been a question mark around the Kurds. Russia has been firmly in the Syria should remain intact camp. The US is talking out of both sides of it’s mouth but it smells like they want to do what they did in Iraq. Give the oil to the Kurds and let the rest of the country wither and die. Assad is firmly in the keep Syria whole camp. Erdoğan would stick them all in a gas chamber if he could get his hands on them, international community be damned.
    What does this do for co-operation between the Kurds and every one else?

  130. Jack says:

    Tyler, LondonBob
    Stephen Miller is impressive. Very articulate in front of a camera. I just hope Trump gets someone like Stockman on his economic team instead of the usual Goldman Sachs Wall St guys. Another Rubin, Paulson, Summers, Geithner and we’ll keep going deeper in the mire.

  131. HankP says:

    Tyler –
    You obviously are that dense. Carbon dioxide absorbs and re-emits IR radiation, that’s why it’s a greenhouse gas. Carbon cycle has nothing to do with it, neither does closeness to the sun as Venus is much further out than Mercury but is also much warmer.
    Temperatures are rising, deniers not only can’t explain it but also rush from one hypothesis to the next desperately trying to find something that will change the actual measurements. There does not appear to be a magic bullet argument.

  132. HankP says:

    Babak –
    That has nothing to do with carbon dioxide trapping heat. Deniers seem to keep making these ridiculous, half-understood claims but the measurements show that all the obfuscations don’t explain anything.

  133. HankP says:

    Tyler –
    Insults, the last resort of the ignorant.

  134. Fred and pl,
    I’m glad our Supreme Court slapped down this executive order, not because I disagree with the effort to restore felon’s rights, but because it was an executive overreach not consistent with our normally prudent state government. Beyond all the platitudes, it was an attempt to quickly add to the Democratic voter rolls just as the Legislature’s push to prevent it was an attempt to limit any increase in Democratic voter rolls. New voter ID laws attempt to serve the same purpose. Attitudes haven’t changed much from 100 years ago according to this passage from a Virginia paper:
    “Virginia is one of just a handful of states that ban all felons from voting and require individual exemptions for ex-offenders to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The ban is tinged with racial overtones; when it was adopted in 1902, a delegate testified to the need to “eliminate the darkey as a political factor,” according to Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.”
    Still, the Virginia Supreme Court made the right decision.

  135. Tyler says:

    Hank,
    Greenhouse gas is a nothing term, like “assault weapon” in that it is only marketing. Like climate change, or that golden oldie, global warming. And since this is news to you, TREES ABSORB CO2. So it has a bit to do with it. “Heat trapping” good grief.
    You can post the measurements because theyre, at best, 10000ths of a degree when you people have been predicting that Miami would be underwater by 2000 when I was 8!
    Let me put it into perspective for you, Hank. The Vikings were growing grapes on Newfoundland. So no, it has not gotten “significantly warmer”, you wackjob.

  136. Tyler says:

    Hank,
    The guy crying about fascists under the bed shedding crocodile tears about insults.
    Oh my lawd.

  137. Tyler says:

    SAC Brat,
    I think that is why you see these huge over samplings in the polls. D+12? The fact that it’s still so close even with that thumb on the scale is amazing.

  138. Tyler says:

    Jack,
    Miller is a protege of Sen. Sessions, and was one of the first calling shenanigans on the Duke Lacross Fake Rape.
    I don’t think the globalists are going to have a job in a Trump campaign.

  139. Babak Makkinejad says:

    As well as the boondoggle of Ethanol and Electric Vehicles.
    Yup, the issue is who gets the Benjis…

  140. Valissa says:

    OMG Jack… David Brooks is such a cry baby. After so much whining, wailing and moaning from the elite L & R what is there to do but sigh, chuckle and wish Trump well? In contrast the undynamic establishment duo of Clinton-Kaine inspires yawns at best. My liberal friends are so caught up in their anti-Trump hysteria (and their sad excuses for Hillary) that I’ve had to tell most of them I don’t want to talk about politics.
    I will not be voting for Trump, but if he wins I will drink a toast or two to his health while enjoying the elite’s collective meltdown 😉

  141. Babak Makkinejad says:

    “explanation for this rapid increase..”
    Firstly, compared to what period of history?
    Secondly, surface temperatures, seem to fluctuate even over the recent decades.
    Thirdly, the data in the Nature magazine article clearly indicates a period of rapid de-glaciation – but the scale is hundreds of years.
    Fourthly, the anthropogenic global warming crowd are not addressing the complexities of the clouds – as Earth warms, more water gets airborne, which increases the cloud coverage, which in turn – due to high albedo – will reflect more sunlight into space and thus cool the earth; i.e. maintain homeostasis.
    Fifthly, the anthropogenic global warming crowd’s scientific evidence is the conformance or consistency among a few (4 I believe) global climate models – am I supposed now to put my scientific trust in man-made software models – which by the admission of its own creators – are defective in the details of the atmospheric chemistry and simulation of the clouds.
    [I will not trust any such software unless I myself have led its creation.]
    Sixthly, the search for scientific truth means that one does not have to accept proffered hypothesis that are unsubstantiated to one’s satisfaction.
    In regards to the carbon cycle, I am afraid that I am not deeply familiar with literature and cannot suggest a review article. What I have learnt has been from a variety of topics – the processes of plate tectonics, the air/ocean interface for exchange of heat and chemicals, etc.
    Lastly, I would like to suggest that what I am saying is not profound; that there have been numerous cycles of heating and cooling of the Earth; going back millions of years and this recent one is not an exception.
    It could be that the current surface temperatures are rising also because of the anthropogenic causes.
    But the global warming crowd, in my opinion, should have the decency to put an estimate on how much is due to Man and how much due to God (precession of Earth orbit etc.)
    So far they have not done so.
    They ought to be able to publish a paper – or review article – in which anyone with HVAC experience can sit down and calculate for himself and verify their assertions.
    All they are saying, in my view, is “Trust Me, I know more than you.”

  142. Babak Makkinejad says:

    It is not just trees. You need a process of plate tectonics to take carbonic compounds such as CaCO3 and trap them deep inside the Earth.

  143. BraveNewWorld says:

    Watch in amazement as the Israelis rewrite history and blame the victims in the King David Hotel bombing while completely absolving themselves of their terrorist acts.
    http://www.jpost.com/Metro/Letting-the-people-judge-the-truth-460924

  144. Babak Makkinejad says:

    The Kurds, I suppose, in Turkey, Iran, Syria and elsewhere expect to be greeted by open arm by their oil-rich brothers in Iraq.
    None of that is going to happen, the Iraqi Kurds would be loath to share their oil wealth with anyone else.
    But NATO states, might try to reprise what they did in Sudan, create a new country like South Sudan, and watch it destroy herself over control of the oil.

  145. Fred says:

    Cee,
    Where is Omar Mateen’s wife? Why would the head of the FBI and the Attorney General not ensure the US government knew the whereabouts of a material wittiness if not an outright accomplice to a terror attack that killed 49 Americans?

  146. Fred says:

    TTG, Col,
    If McAuliffe actually cared about this issue he could have spoken with the legislature at any time and made his case. When is the last time a Democratic legislator proposed such a change, they’ve had a century to do something?

  147. Fred says:

    cee,
    A child was shot here in Detroit “by accident” while at home. None of the dozen people in the home at the time knows anything, did anything or witnessed anything. That is of far more concern to me than Israeli police misconduct.

  148. bth says:

    I said nothing of the sort. You are bickering with your own construct, not mine.

  149. bth says:

    Negative perceptions on both candidates are so intense, I don’t think there is an equivalent in living memory. Normally the outsider candidate would need a wider lead at this point which would erode toward the election, but in this case he doesn’t have a wide lead but both candidates are so despised that it isn’t clear they will be able to steal votes from one another as in a traditional election. People may simply choose not to vote.

  150. Fred,
    The current Virginia government is almost as dysfunctional and partisan as in DC. This idea, which is inherently partisan had no chance in either the Senate or House of Delegates. I don’t know if there was a time when a civil rights friendly state legislature and governor existed at the same time. Remember Loving vs. Virginia was in 1967. It was an almost pure Democratic legislature that passed the 1902 law barring felons from voting. I’m going to do a little research to see if there was a time when this could have been done in the last few decades.

  151. Amir says:

    FYI 1/3 (one third) of the victims in Nice were of Muslim descent. Driving a truck through a busy street, in a city where a high percentage of the population is of North-African heritage, leads to this logical conclusion. It is rather disappointing if not outright disgusting when the MSM is not describing this.
    https://www.mintpressnews.com/one-third-nice-attack-victims-muslim/218654/
    The only article in MSM that mentioned this, hidden somewhere in the middle of “Europe section”, was NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/world/europe/nice-truck-attack-victims-muslims.html?_r=0
    The Munich Shooter, had no DAESH connection. I think he was a “regular” mass shooter. He committed suicide after his killing spree. This would be the FIRST time ISIS affiliates have done this. Committing a suicide “without a vest” (without immediate return on their “investment”). If he would have had Al-Qeda connection, he would have fought it out till the end or committed a suicide attack at the end.

  152. Amir says:

    The masterful Iranian Manipulating Easterners are at fault, not the fog of war.

  153. Amir says:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/23/munich-shooting-german-iranian-gunman-targeted-children-outside/
    Munich Shooter mirroring Andreas Brevik: shouted “Ich bin Deutsch” prior shooting Turks and Albanians. He used a fake FB account, as pretty girl, to lure people to McDonalds with promise of free food.

  154. different clue says:

    Babak Makkinejad,
    Carbon dioxide is not a fluid at earth atmospheric temperatures. It is a gas. It does not have to “dissove” into the rest of the atmosphere. It MIXES into the atmosphere. The atmosphere is a MIXture of gases. All the gases in the atmosphere mix with eachother without dissoving at all. How is it that the atmosphere can accomodate 21% or whatever of itself being Oxygen without any Oxygen “precipitating out”? Because the Oxygen is not a solute being dissolved into the 75% Nitrogen. And the 75% Nitrogen is not a solvent dissolving the Oxygen. They are both gases mixing with eachother and not dissolving eachother at all. Same for carbon dioxide. Which, by the way, is not a fluid. It is a gas.

  155. different clue says:

    HankP,
    (It also has nothing to do with carbon dioxide being a gas, not a fluid.
    About a year ago, when Babak Makkinejad couldn’t dispute oft-repeated and restated fact that carbon dioxide is a gas and not a fluid, he told me I was “quibbling” about the difference. I wish I had thought at the time to reply that it is not “quibbling” to note that a gas and a liquid are two different things. They told me in high school chemistry that the difference between a gas and a liquid was very important and not “quibbling” at all. They told me it would be on the test, and it was.)

  156. dws says:

    They can and do with varying accuracy depending on the era. For these times the sun is, if anything, cooling right now. Orbital changes (Milankovitch Cycles) predict no warming now and for thousands of years to come. I don’t understand the last line. I’ve heard many talks from climate scientists and met with them – they actively study the effect of orbital changes and have for decades.

  157. dws says:

    Thanks and I wish you the same. I very much enjoy your commentary here.

  158. Ghostship says:

    There are reports coming out that the Nusra Front or at least part of it is about to break with Al-Qaeda because “they’re Syrian revolutionaries” rather than jihadists.
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/al-qaedas-syrian-affiliate-nusra-said-preparing-cut-ties-424290467
    Whether this means they will drop their terrorist activities is debatable:
    Influential Jordanian-based Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi supported cutting ties with al-Qaeda, according to The Times. “If the name of Nusra is a justification to target its affiliates, then changing or abdicating it is not abdicating the Koran,” he wrote in a statement. “And disengaging [from al-Qaeda] is not apostasy when there’s a need.”
    That reads to me like “we’ll change our name but not our behaviour”.
    To continue my theme of gross cynicism, just as members of the Washington Borg were “persuaded” to have the MeK dropped from the State Dept. list of terrorist organisations, so the Washington Borg will be “persuaded” to try to have the Nusrah Front dropped from the UNSC list of terrorist organisation. I just hope Russia uses is veto.

  159. dws says:

    If CO2 goes up, you’ll have increased warming from the greenhouse effect – the cause of the increase doesn’t change that. For Venus and in earth’s past, increases were not man made, sure. C02 is increasing now due to man, as we know by direct measurement including isotopic analysis.
    Talk of trees and plate tectonics and the like (volcanoes, ocean take up, etc) doesn’t change this.

  160. Ulenspiegel says:

    The men/women in the yellow uniform are normal policeofficers from Bavaria.
    They are only armed with pistols/sub machine guns, they have vests in their cars.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_Germany
    The “heavily equipped ones with helmets” are members of Spezialeinsatzkommando of the Bavarian state police.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Deployment_Commando
    In addition, each federal state has readyness police units.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bereitschaftspolizei
    The former Federal Boarder Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz)is now called Bundespolizei and consist of normal police units which guard airports, railway mainstations etc., federal readyness police units and the GSG9.
    The Bundespolizei should provide command structure which is augmented/filled with state police units in case of larger events.

  161. Tyler says:

    Babak,
    I know. I’m just pointing out how farcical the argument is.

  162. Barish says:

    “I just hope Russia uses is veto.”
    It likely will. If such BS agitprop is being sown by advocates of this bunch, e.g. Charles Lister:
    https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/757160984289042432
    then they appear to be in deep waters indeed, especially when one takes into account their being shattered time and again on the Mallah fields at Halab…although, maybe it’s only such far-sighted* individuals as Lister perceiving such and hence spreading this on Nusra’s behalf.
    *More meant in the sarcastic sense here.

  163. Cee says:

    Tyler,
    Someone in this country may have felt the same way about your ancestors when they arrived here. You’re not Native American are you?
    Respectfully, just stop it.

  164. Cee says:

    Fred,
    I agree on ONE POINT. Many of the people in these these neighborhoods live in fear and too many others are criminal. I’m not going to address the reasons for all of this because I doubt we’ll agree.
    I’ve said to some people that the police should stop responding if people don’t want to cooperate. I’m all for people being armed to defend themselves so they can take care of it themselves if they don’t trust the police.
    Btw, the monsters who beheaded that child have been located and killed. Good.

  165. Cee says:

    BraveNewWorld,
    What else is new? Did you know that the first air hijacking and act of biological warfare in the ME was done by the Israelis?
    Most don’t. They rewrite and censor history.

  166. Babak Makkinejad says:

    My contention is that global warming is a periodic phenomenon caused by astronomical causes. The core samples from various parts of the world indicate the changes in climate – glaciation and de-glaciation alternating at regular intervals – I have seen data going back to more than 2 million years ago.
    Furthermore, during some of those intervals, Earth was warmer that is today – but those estimates are model-dependent.
    The advise, in late 1980s, to some graduate students was to hitch their wagons to the “Global Change”, lest they be unemployed.
    I do not have any problems with the anthropogenic Global Warming crowd beyond that in which they deny – or seem to deny – the astronomical causes of the warming.
    I have not looked at Milankovitch Cycles since early 1980s, I am not familiar any longer with the recent developments. I saw this article in Nature and I thought sharing it.
    There were 3 reasons for my decision:
    1- Many read SST and I thought the Nature article deserved a wider audience.
    2- The article supplied evidence of periodic global warming through the surrogate of Weak Monsoons.
    3- It untangled the contributions of orbital parameters; eccentricity, obliquity, and precession to the process of glaciation/de-glaciation on Earth. If I recall correctly, in the book by Professor Mueller on this subject – “Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes” – which greatly influenced my own thinking on this subject – this untangling of orbital parameters was not mentioned (I do not own a copy of that book, I am relying on memory).
    I am interested in Scientific Truth and would like to know the cause and effect of phenomena; in the case of global warming I would like to know the contributions of various factors – be they man-made or not.
    Professor Mueller had posted his data and his MathLab code that he had used to analyze the data for his book and anyone could go and download the data and the programs and run them and explore them.
    The Anthropogenic Global Warming crowd ought to be able to do something similar.

  167. Thomas says:

    Oh no, the Perfidious Persians strike again!

  168. Tidewater says:

    Tidewater to All,
    In an interview with Zack Beauchamp on Vox which could be many months old, but which was upgraded on July 22, 2016 (“Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s VP pick, told us why he wants the US doing more in Syria”), Kaine discusses the creation of a no-fly zone, and also a “safe zone” in Syria. He says he wants American intervention, at least, in part, for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Some time back–was it two years ago?–he joined with Senators McCain, Graham, and Durbin in a letter to the White House calling for intervention. Kaine goes on:”The opposition to it comes from [a concern that] we’d need US military assets to protect the no-fly zone if Assad wanted to barrel bomb people or if ISIS wanted to attack. That is true: We would need US military assets to protect it.”
    Further along in the interview, Zack Beauchamp asks, “Would you support the use of US ground troops in significent numbers to defend a safe zone?”
    Tim Kaine: “There would need to be ground troops, but in my conversations with regional nations, they have made claims to me that they are williing to put ground troops into a situation like that if the US continues its strong provision of air support. They really have wanted the US to be more forward-leading in terms of activity in Syria to provide humanitarian aid.
    If we’re all-in providing humanitarian aid and air cover, I think other nations will provide the ground troops. Especially nations such as Turkey, which are getting most affected by the now two million refugees that live there: They actually prefer that refugees continue to live in Syria…”
    Tim Kaine seems to think that Americans on the ground supporting and running an active air base would be protected, then, by foreign troops, and not by Americans? Who is he kidding? Shades of Tora Bora. Trust Turkish troops? Even if they were available. What a dumb remark. Does he really think he could get them now? Worse, Turkish troops could be infiltrated with Islamists, or by ISIS. Set up the overunning of an air base, the capture of several hundred American servicemen, their trial, torture, and deaths lovingly recorded on video… And a trillion clicks later, America snaps. Lets it come down.
    No wonder Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton get along together so well. Kaine seems to be neocon and RTP all rolled up in one, with a chocolate sugar-coating of religion and civil rights to disguise the hallucinatory nature of the imperialist drug mix. And he is a charming guy. Reminds me of a real churchman. Who is he? Scary as hell.

  169. Cee says:

    All
    Clinton Cash
    Free viewing all day today
    http://www.breitbart.com/clinton-cash-movie/

  170. Cee says:

    Fred,
    For the same reason they let some the Saudi funders of the 9-11 hijackers fly away? Terrorism is profitable in many ways.

  171. Cee says:

    Amir,
    Amazing that most of the dead and economic victims of the terror ON THIS PLANET are Muslim. Shia in Afghanistan the other day!
    I want to know who the Munich shooter was radicalized by and communicated with.

  172. Cee says:

    Amir,
    He used a fake FB account, as pretty girl, to lure people to McDonalds with promise of free food.
    I don’t buy this. He had help.

  173. Cee says:

    Jack,
    Yeah, to the 1%. Kaine UNABLE (stole that) supports TPP, Fracking, and more bank deregulation. Um, no vote for that ticket.
    Now, the HRC campaign is trying to scare the publc with the threat of communism in this election because the DNC has been busted for being partisan and employing DESPICABLE tactics to take down Sanders and control the media to do it.

  174. Cee says:

    Fred,
    Waa? No invitation?

  175. Cee says:

    Tyler,
    This is good. I can’t wait to find out who the targets are. I think I already know.

  176. charly says:

    Sorry my English isn’t my first language so i use read fluid as a synonym for liquid.
    ps. Why didn’t you call it a gas

  177. Tidewater says:

    Tidewater to Tidewater,
    In fairness to Tim Kaine, he announced his support of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)–the Iranian deal– on the floor of the Senate on August 4, 2015. He stated at that time: “I conclude that the JCOA is a dramatic improvement over the status quo in improving global security. The agreement takes a nuclear weapons program that was on the verge of success [!!!?] and disables it for many years through peaceful diplomatic means with sufficient tools for the international community to verify whether Iran is meeting its commitments. In the negotiation, America has honored its best traditions and shown that patient diplomacy can achieve what isolation and hostility cannot. For this reason, I will support it.”
    Kaine also joined purported “anti-Israel radicals” in Congress in boycotting Netanyahu’s speech in March of 2015. He is, however, regarded as being a hardcore Zionist.
    I don’t believe he has changed his position on Syria. Surely he must be asked to clarify that. If Syrian intervention continues to be at the core of his foreign policy plans, assuming he could sell them, I think the public had better know. It could be the first of a number of steps towards conscription.
    It seems to me that for Kaine to say that the Iranian nuclear program was on the “verge of success” is also bizarre; intelligence reports and evaluations concluded quite the opposite. Kaine seems to be using Israeli arguments that the Iranian nuclear program was much further along than, in fact, it was.
    Kaine keeps trying to sell himself as a “pragmatist.” If he is a ‘boots on the ground’ (as it has to be) interventionist, wouldn’t that make him simply a Bush-style anachronism?

  178. different clue says:

    bth,
    It seems to me that there are two power-groups in this country who may have the power to wire up certain clusters of voting machines and/ or certain episodes of vote-tabulating and vote-counting to try and bend an election their way. That would be that part of the Republican Party apparatus which considers a Republican victory wo important that they will even try and win one for the Trumper . . . against the Economic OverClass and its fixers who fraudulated certain aspects of voting and vote-counting in the recent Democratic Primaries to favor Clinton. They will try fraudulating the election for Clinton again because she is their Trillion Dollar Obama 2.0 President-of-choice.
    So perhaps we the people will get to grind our teeth as we watch the two Power Groups armwrestle over which one is strong enough to fraudulate the election which way.
    Or one candidate could get such a Big! YOOGE!! majority of the votes against the other one that the election can not be fraudulated the other way.

  179. Amir says:

    It is not about buying, selling nor believing or doubting. It is about EVIDENCE. Just check out the links that I added to the post.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/world/europe/nice-truck-attack-victims-muslims.html?_r=0
    On the other hand, you might have thought that this is a right-wing conspiracy. I personally think that this is too farfetched.

  180. Amir says:

    Perfidious = deceitful and untrustworthy, associated with Albion. I wonder which heritage it refers to…

  181. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I know you did not.
    I wanted to state my opinion regarding the feasibility of creating a new country – Kurdistan; which is a fantasy wrapped in a mystery clothed in an enigma.

  182. Tyler says:

    Cee,
    Plz stop with the nanny shaming language and go. Plz go.

  183. Thomas says:

    “Perfidious = deceitful and untrustworthy, associated with Albion. I wonder which heritage it refers to…”
    Westside Diocletians?

  184. Thomas says:

    “It could be the first of a number of steps towards conscription.”
    That would be an interesting sight, Clinton facing draft protests on the topic of not serving for her campaign contributors.

  185. elkern says:

    Back to Global Warming/Climate Change.
    Babak – with respect, I’ll read your link (Asian Monsoon) with sincere curiosity. Please look through the answers that CLIMATE SCIENTISTS (not soft-head greens) have worked out to some of your questions at…
    http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
    Note that Astronomical cycles (Milankovich, etc) are indeed considered and accounted for. These guys really are scientists.

  186. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I am aware of the site that presumably debunks the debunkers of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
    I remain un-persuaded.

  187. Tyler says:

    Babak,
    I still want an answer about little ice age, growing grapes in Canada, and other events that prove moreso that climate is a natural cyclical thing than something man affects.

  188. different clue says:

    Amir,
    I don’t know this for a fact, but I am guessing it might go back to the British Foreign Policy imperative of the last few centuries until maybe a hundred years ago(?) of always trying to hold “the balance of power” between rival power blocs on the Continent. And always lending its “balance of power” to the slightly weaker bloc to make it slightly stronger than the slightly stronger one . . . till the weaker became stronger enough and the stronger became weaker enough that Britain transferred its “balance of power” to supporting the new slightly weaker bloc. And back and forth and back again to prevent any one country or bloc from becoming the overwhelming dominator of Europe.
    Perhaps it was those various wannabe-blocmasters who felt they were being “perfidized” by the British back-and-forth lending of support.

Comments are closed.