anticlimactic
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SHALE OIL – ANOTHER QUIRK
I read an article which said the shale oil was too light to be processed by US refineries unless it is blended with a very heavy oil like Canadian tar sands, so it HAS to be exported AND the US MUST import oil suitable for its’ refineries.
On paper the US may appear to be independent in terms of oil supply but in the real world it still depends on imported oil.
OIL TANKER
I am not sure if the British know how sanctions work.
The EU may have sanctions about oil to Syria, because they are evil and want to inflict as much suffering as possible [and to keep the refugees flowing!], but this simply means EU companies can not supply oil to Syria – it does NOT mean any EU country can seize ANY foreign owned tanker.
I doubt if the Spanish are happy that this piracy took place in their waters.
As I have suggested before – If the UK leaves the EU with a ‘no-deal’ then they will be at the mercy of every country in the world when it comes to trade. They will have to stop their belligerent nature or be financially annihilated!
GOLD
“There is no reason why gold wouldn’t reach that level [$18k] in the next few years, especially as the gold paper market implodes”.
I’ll believe it when I see it! All too often if you see an article claiming gold will soon be $5k or above it is just before the price gets smashed.
The ‘paper market’ is COMEX. The rules are designed so that few can make any money from gold. In the recent spike in gold prices COMEX created over 8 million ounces of non-existent gold to ensure the price did not go too far, ensuring supply outstripped demand. A few years ago I believe that on COMEX 200 ounces of paper gold was backed by one ounce of physical gold. No idea what it is today.
This suits China and Russia who are big buyers of physical gold so they want it as cheap as possible. The key player is China. Although the government claims to own 2100 tons of gold China did once import this amount in a single year, and is a massive importer and producer of gold, and may have been for decades.
The change may come when China wants to create a gold backed Yuan, when it will need to declare the gold it actually owns. Speculation is 10,000 to 30,000 tons. This should cause the price of gold to rocket and possibly destroy the COMEX.
The point of gold is not to create wealth, but to preserve wealth. The idea is that the amount of gold in a UK Sovereign would buy 200 loaves in ancient Rome, and would buy 200 loaves today. If the price of gold goes up it could be the fact that the value of the dollar has gone down. The ‘value’ in terms of goods might be the same.
Beware that there are lots of ways to think you own gold when you don’t!
US MIGRANTS
To be fair, the migrants usually settle in the area the US stole from Mexico! [California, Texas and most of the land in between]
Perhaps the EU should start sanctions against the US until they give the land back to Mexico.
Chris M
The UK paid in gold! Most of the 7,000 tons of gold the US holds was payment from the UK for WWI and WWII.
One big question is how much gold the Chinese government owns. This is a country that imports one to two thousand tons of gold every year, as well as producing hundreds of tons per year internally., yet the government only claims it owns just over 2,000 tons! Some feel sure that the figure is closer to 30,000 tons, but we will not know until they stop buying and don’t care who knows.
The IMF claims to hold 3,000 tons, but this is gold pledged by various governments, and can be redeemed at the official rate of 30 dollars an ounce.
Most gold is like money – it doesn’t physically exist!
US
– Germany is suffering from the Russian sanctions imposed by the US
– Germany is suffering from the Iran sanctions imposed by the US
– The UK seized the oil tanker by ‘request’ from the US
– The US is well known for giving unpayable loans to developing countries to keep them poor and buy resources cheaply
– The US is creating inequality among its’ own population
– The US installed Bolsonaro in Brazil so they could buy its’ resources cheaply and free up the rain forest for exploitation
– US actions in the middle east have created millions of migrantsThere is no ‘us’ in the US!
Re OIL TANKER
ZerHedge article says the ship has been identified as the Grace 1, a Panamanian-flagged tanker managed by Singapore-based IShips Management Pte Ltd
NO DEAL BREXIT
The UK has a military budget greater than Russia and is using it to be a pathetic US ‘mini-me’. It has just committed an act of war against Singapore by seizing one of its’ oil tankers which was thought to be carrying oil from Iran to Syria. Apart from this it continuously tries to threaten Russia, China and others.
With a no deal Brexit it has to establish trading relations with the world. Any aggressive act by the UK may end with a ban on any trade by various countries. Also, like the US, the military is in effect funded by debt. Who will fund UK debt?
I think a no-deal Brexit will end UK militarism. It won’t be able to afford it.
Hong Kong & Extradition
I read that the couple who briefly sheltered Snowden are trying to escape Hong Kong to avoid being extradited to the US to face the same kind of trial as Assange.
Hong Kong has 20 extradition treaties with various countries.
The protestors have no moral high ground!
Koyaanisqatsi
This is a Hopi Indian word used as the name of a film which is a collection of film clips in timelapse and slomo to a soundtrack by Philip Glass. I think it is a film which can change how you see the world.
According to a Hopi Dictionary koyaanisqatsi is defined as
“life of moral corruption and turmoil”
“life out of balance”The film also defines the word as
“crazy life”
“life in turmoil”
“life disintegrating”
“a state of life that calls for another way of living”To me the key word is ‘balance’ [or ‘fairness’]:
– True capitalism may be the most efficient way to manufacture goods, but socialism is needed to make sure the benefits are spread fairly.
– Defence is important to a country but not when the cost leaves the country in a ramshackle state.
– Industry does need to have some influence on governnment but not to such an extent that it controls the government
– People should be allowed to express their point of view but not to use their influence to stop other people expressing their point of view.
– Security is important for a country but not when it turns it into a surveillance state.
Wherever you look things seem out of balance and there does not seem to be any effective forces trying to get things back into balance.
SANCTIONS
Do sanctions work? My feeling would be ‘no’. It allows those in authority to maintain their grip. I can not imagine the regimes in Cuba and North Korea would have survived if they had been allowed to trade normally. The Chinese government is far more threatened by their global trading than they were as an isolated country.
Iran allowed their moderates to negotiate the JCPOA as a test to see if the West could be trusted. [Nope!] But the sanctions now give influence back to the hardliners, the exact opposite of what they want to achieve.
Or is it?
The US needs a number of imaginary enemies to bolster its’ own regime, so it is perhaps no surprise that the agreements with Cuba and Iran were ripped up, plus the absurdly escalating conflict with China.
VICTORIAN TIMES & SOCIALISM
One of the best books I have read was one on economics by J.K.Galbraith. In it he praises early trade unions who won higher wages for the workers. He argues that this additional spending meant the workers had money to spend on non-essential items, which spawned whole new industries, which brought more buying power to the economy, and so on, in effect creating the modern world.
This seems to be being reversed with wages stagnant or falling. Also, for decades various methods have been used to hide inflation, further weakening consumer power. The GDP of countries is mainly driven by these consumers.
For some years I have felt that we are returning to Victorian times, with mega-wealthy individuals and a small middle class to pander to their needs, while the general population is left to exist as best they can.
DERIVATIVES – ESCOBAR
The idea is that if the derivative market blows up then it would destroy the global banking system, but would it?
One easy solution is to globally declare all derivatives null and void. It would cause pain to a few but should leave most people unaffected. Alternatively individual countries could refuse to honour derivatives in this situation, and would most likely survive.
Derivatives are a mainly a construct of the West so if non-Western countries stopped trading with Western banks for a week or so and then dealt with the situation at that time.
Given the enormity of the situation it would call for very drastic measures.
It seems lucky for us that the US did not attack Iran.
I am sure the first consequence would be Iran closing the straits of Homuz, hopefully just by turning round empty ships arriving. Estimates suggest that the price of oil could go up to possibly 1000 dollars a barrel [Goldman Sachs].
This in turn would blow up the derivatives market, currently estimated at about 1000 trillion dollars.
In turn this would have destroyed the global banking system.
This would have shattered the global economy.
All this avoided on a whim by Trump!
If Iran can not get round sanctions then it may close the strait anyway – they have little to lose.
Although Trump talked about not killing 150 people the whole point of the sanctions is that hundreds of thousands of Iranians will die and put pressure on the regime.
It is the same with Venezuela, where people are already dying because they do not have access to the medicine they need. Perhaps their names and pictures should be posted on Trumps twitter feed so he will know who he IS killing.
IRAN
I was intrigued when Iran fired missiles into Syria to kill those that they claimed were responsible for a terrorist attack. I was interested to know how accurate they were but there were no follow up reports which suggested to me that they were very accurate. This seemed confirmed a few weeks later when Israel complained that Iran were supplying missile components to Hezbollah which ‘ensured pinpoint accuracy’.
I certainly felt the emphasis strayed away from direct attack on Iran and more on sanctions.
If Iran can destroy key infrastructure in nearby countries then a direct conflict could see the war being brought to those who currently feel safe from harm. The weakest point of any country is the power-grid, especially transformers, which are unique and can take a year to replace. I have seen a picture of Iranian anti-ship missiles but am not sure how effective they would be against US ships. Iran has a reputation for being strong on electronic warfare.
If oil supplies through the region are cut off then the US is in a relatively strong position. Europe is toast so it would be irrational for them to become involved. It is interesting that Israel said it would not take part in any conflict unless directly attacked. Saudi Arabia is far too close to be involved without suffering damage, even if acting just as a host for US forces. The UAV flew from the UAE so that is already a potential target for Iran. Would Turkey try and stop the use of Incirlik?
There is also the question of whether the conflict would spread. Iraq & Syria do not want US forces on their soil so could take the opportunity to correct that. If Israel became involved it could bring in Hezbollah, who I read have 160,000 missiles, and a lot of battle hardened militia.
The US could end up acting alone and only from seabourne resources, which themselves could be under threat.
MH17
The questions that come to mind are :
One expert said a BUK missile would leave a contrail which would be visible for 50 miles. If true why was there not a single photograph.
The US say they can detect any missile being fired on the face of the planet, but failed to detect a surface missile from Ukraine soil.
Why and how was MH17 redirected from its normal route over southern Ukraine to fly over a warzone. Dreamliners can be flown by the CIA [in case of a hijack] so were the pilots guided there or were they flown there. The voice recording should give the answer.
Why was the voice recording taken from Kiev ATC by security forces and why does the UK refuse to release the black box voice recording and other black box data.
Minutes before the event a Spanish air traffic controller working in Kiev started tweeting about them going to bring down a plane. He disappeared and has not been heard of since. What happened to him?
Why do so many people who see the wreckage without prejudice talk about bullet holes?
Looking at the evidence and expert opinions it seems like a classic false flag operation : MH17 was directed from its normal route to fly over a rebel area. A Ukrainian SU25 fired an air-to-air missile which failed to destroy the plane so they finished it off with cannon fire.
Kiev immediately claimed it was destroyed by rebels, Kiev knew they knew had a BUK launcher – but they did not have the radar and other essential equipment to bring down the plane. I assume this is why they had to invent a story where the Russians were involved – who would have to know in advance that the airliner would be flying over the area!?
All evidence to disprove this has been withheld.
It is unfortunate for the relatives of the deceased that Holland is a US vassal state and their government is forced to lie to them.
20/80
Decades ago I read an article in New Scientist which said 20% of the people in the UK owned 80% of the wealth. It was the same in India and numerous other countries, to such an extent that it could be considered a ‘rule’.
Although it sounds bad consider the difference between a 30 year old and a 60 year old. The 30 year old may have a mortgage while the 60 year old may own their house outright. The 30 year old may be supporting a family but the 60 year old may have savings for their retirement. And so on.
I see no issue with 20% owning 80% of the wealth, it is pretty much ‘the norm’. I would worry if it was 10/90 or 1/99.
Frankly, it is not an issue.
HUAWEI
Huawei seems like it is being forced to make a phone which will be NSA free and Google free! A phone which will not track your movements and report back. A phone which is not recording and analysing everything you do. A phone where the microphone won’t be remotely turned on to spy on you.
I don’t use a smartphone but I would be interested in a phone like that.
The ‘military-industrial complex’ is becoming an inadequate term. Perhaps ‘The Borg’ is more appropriate. It is obvious that Google, Facebook, Amazon and others have been ‘assimilated’.
I would have thought that the opportunity to escape ‘The Borg’ would be attractive. I wouldn’t care if it reported to the Chinese government – they wouldn’t be the ones knocking down my front door! Also I would would doubt that it would – I think there is only one government who would be interested in recording the World.
The US is important because it is 20% of Global GDP. It seems that the choice is to trade with them or the other 80%!
ASSANGE
When he was arrested I thought that at least he would have medical treatment but it seems he hasn’t had any until now, and I can not imagine the prison hospital is sophisticated.
This whole episode has degraded and defiled the reputation of every country involved. Some years ago the UK had an international reputation of being fair and honest. I think most people had respect for Sweden, and Australia was seen as amiable and friendly. Ecuador gained some admiration for the sheltering of Assange.
No more as this trail of slime has tainted every country, all of whom seem to be breaking their own rules to give the US what they want.
All the citizens of these countries should be worried as it could happen to any of them.
NATO is now just a bunch of thugs willing to murder and destroy countries on the whim of their leader, the US.
It is to be hoped that those responsible will burn in hell with a constant stream of images of all those people they destroyed.
The main aim now of NATO seems to be starting a [nuclear] war with Russia BUT be in a position to blame Russia for starting it.
I agree with [candidate] Trump that NATO is a dinosaur that should be scrapped. It is in the interest of all of us.
‘SINCE RECORDS BEGAN’
Climate ‘scientists’ insist on only using data gathered ‘since records began’, about 150 years in the UK and about 100 years for most of the world. Much less for arctic ice and CO2 levels.
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, can’t science give us more data? Yes of course, but it is the ‘wrong data’ and is ignored. For example ice and sediment cores show there have been three previous warm periods in just the last 3 thousand years, the Bronze, Roman and Mediaeval.
Each was warmer than today, in fact the Bronze was warmer than the Roman, which was warmer than the Mediaeval, which was warmer than today! These cores also show the relationship between CO2 and temperature : CO2 levels move in step with the global temperature 600 years previously! CO2 is a ‘lagging indicater’, not a cause. Science also shows CO2 levels are at historical lows – it has been as much as seven times higher in the past.
There was an interesting graph published in New Scientist showing a temperature reconstruction of the Earth for the past 4 billion years. For over 50% of the time it showed the Earth as being several degrees warmer than today! I think 2018 was declared the fourth warmest year ‘on record’, but was more like the 2.7 billionth warmest year on Earth! What was interesting was that there seemed to be an upper limit for global temperature, which suggests there is some feedback mechanism to stop temperatures going beyond a certain point.
‘Records’ began soon after the Little Ice Age, so it is not surprising that global temperatures increased. For those ‘scientists’ who ARE surprised it is the same as recording temperatures in February and panicking by June because you ‘know’ that in six months time the Earth will be too hot for life.
After global warming stopped in 1998 a new man-made disaster had to be invented : Climate Change. It is like a fortune teller saying something bad will happen, but they can’t say what or when. When something bad happens they exclaim ‘AHA, told you!…and it’s YOUR fault’.
I haven’t followed this for a few years. The last thing I read was that they were concerned people regarded ‘Climate Change’ as just being ‘bad weather’ so they needed yet another ‘man-made’ disaster – a computer model to ‘predict’ species extinction. Now they ‘predict’ one MEEELLION species are heading for extinction. Very suspicious!
Trump won the battle but we lost the war
I was glad when Trump was elected because Hillary promised to greatly expand the war in Syria, and had no concern that it may lead to war with Russia. There were a few articles at the time written by people who feared that this would lead to nuclear war.
Also, Trump said NATO was a dinosaur which should be scrapped, and said the US should not be involved in foreign wars. In addition he said he admired Putin and hoped to much improve the relationship between the US and Russia. He even expressed some admiration for what China had achieved.
The hysteria of Russiagate and Mueller changed all that.
It is not just America. I read that the European Parliament has recently passed a resolution declaring Russia ‘an enemy of humanity’, and a resolution to stop Nordstream2.
The media and the politicians seem oblivious to the fact that almost everything they do is bringing us closer to nuclear war. One false flag could start it at any time.
I do not know if the end of the Mueller enquiry will embolden Trump to pursue the policies he originally promised or whether we continue on this path of doom.
Mueller – Is the boot now on the other foot?
What mostly came to light during the investigation was collusion between members of the FBI and the Democrats. Some have wondered why no special prosecutor has been appointed to pursue this. Perhaps now is a good time for Trump as it would colour the agenda into the next election.
BREXIT – CANUTE RULES THE WAVES!
There are three current options : Teresa May’s agreement with the EU, Hard Brexit and an extension to negotiate further or prepare for hard brexit.
British MPs have just voted against all three!
Negotiating a new agreement in two weeks seems to be a non-starter, especially as the EU has made it plain that the current agreement is non-negotiable.
Asking for an extension is problematic. If it extends into late May then the UK needs to elect MEPs. Also the EU has said there needs to be a reason for the extension, not just more of the same. An extension needs the acceptance of ALL EU states.
If nothing happens in the next two weeks the default is hard BREXIT.
There is a fourth option, which those few who are experts on the subject agree is the best [least worst] option, and that is the EEA/EFTA option, also known as the ‘Norway solution’.
This would be a compromise but would give something to all sides. For the remainers it would still give ties to the EU, and for the leavers it would give some independence to allow the UK to develop trade with the rest of the world. For business it would mean a minimal disturbance to EU trade. It is the only realistic option. It could be regarded as ‘stage1’ with steps in the future to even more independence from the EU. [If the EU still exists!]
It would still take some time to negotiate so it seems the way forward would be a two year extension while it is negotiated.
Unfortunately it is more likely that UK politicians will thrash around for two weeks and we will have a hard BREXIT on the 29th, possibly the worst of all worlds.
The problem with ‘green initiatives’ is that they are usually thought up by activists who have no clue as to the implications. For example AOC calls for the removal of greenhouse gases, and I am sure CO2 is top of the list. If CO2 levels were halved no plants could grow and most life on Earth would die. Is this what AOC wants?!
This is just one example, but being ‘green’ is a case of ‘the king who wore no clothes’! If you are ‘green’ then you MUST believe all green initiatives without question, which unfortunately includes many politicians. If you DO question then you are an ‘enemy of the planet’ and must be ostracised.
Any green initiative must be looked at by intelligent people such as engineers and accountants with the basic questions such as ‘is it viable’ and ‘what would be the actual effects if implemented’.
For example, here in the UK the governmnet spent 30 billion pounds to provide as much electricity as a 2 billion pound gas fired power station. This is achieved by converting fossil fuels into wind turbines. To save the same amount of energy the money should have been used to better insulate homes, actually reducing the amount of fossil fuel used in the first place.
Civilisation is totally dependent on the use of energy and I would like it to last as long as possible which means conserving energy. I read that oil may only last 50 years yet the emphasis seems to be getting it out of the ground as quickly as possible, making it as cheap as possible, and using as much as possible! [Sod the kids!]
Conserving energy [or saving CO2 if that matters to you] is a combination of technology and personal choices. I am impressed that cars can have twice the miles per gallon than older ones, that my 46 inch TV only uses 100 watts, and LED spotlights are now extremely energy efficient.
I do not use central heating but for those who do are you heating parts of the house you rarely use, like bedrooms, utility rooms, etc. Fan heaters can be used to provide temporary heat as required. Also turning the temperature down and wearing more clothes. I tend to think of wasted heat as ‘heating the universe’!
It would be useful to have a website which suggests ways that energy can be conserved, but they need to be rational. For example in recent years there has been a trend to massively insulate walls, yet the thermal effect of walls can add heat to a home.
Greens also need to live in the real world more. Nuclear energy is opposed but the only reason uranium is used in reactors is to create plutonium for weapons. Thorium can be used in reactors and eliminates most of the issues, not least the fact that the waste only needs to be stored for 100 years. I think green organisations should look to backing the development of thorium reactors as way of saving CO2.
There is much that can be done but it needs a sensible approach.
HUAWEI
Huawei committed two major crimes.
Firstly they became global leaders in 5G, making equipment far superior to their competitors.
Secondly they refused to install an NSA backdoor in to their equipment.
The idea of it being ‘illegal’ for a Chinese company to trade with another country is absurd. Also it is normal in these situations to blackmail a company with a fine in order to continue trading with the US, eg. BNP Paribas. The threat to imprison a member of the company takes it to a whole new level.
It is always interesting to reverse a situation and see if it is still valid.
So what if the Chinese government started making it illegal for some US companies to trade with a specific country [eg. Taiwan], and promising to jail their executives if they did not comply.?!
HYDROELECTRIC IN GUINEA
I do not see any problem with this scheme. Having set up a reserve for a large population of chimps they should not be penalised for this. The loss of less than 10% of the chimp population is acceptable.
Large animals usually reproduce every year or two, but the population does not double because most of them die. Death is normal in nature – nature is not Disneyland.
I favour true renewable energy, which means it has to produce so much energy it does not need a subsidy. Hydroelectric may be the only one to qualify.
There does seem to be a general campaign against hydroelectric schemes, which I assume is because they can make money from heavily subsidised not-so-renewable energy like wind turbines. While hydroelectric schemes have a one-off effect on the environment wind turbines kill birds and bats forever.
POACHERS
Not sure I agree with the death penalty for poachers. They are usually poor people trying to earn a living.
I do agree with the death penalty for those who create the market – those who buy and ship the ivory, etc. This would have a far greater effect on poaching by making it unprofitable. By removing the middle men it would destroy the chain.
I also favour legal trade in, say, elephant ivory. I think it is South Africa which has a surfeit of elephants. While we like elephants they can be very destructive on the habitat. I think South Africa should be allowed to cull elephants and export the ivory legally, again reducing the profitability of poaching elsewhere. By creating a legal market it makes it far easier to stamp out illegal markets.
‘ANTI-SEMITISM ‘in the UK LABOUR PARTY
Recently some Jews have redefined anti-semitism to mean ”critical of Israel’. It is also applied to those who are sympathetic to the Palestinians. This has lead to the UK Labour party expelling several Jews for being ‘anti-semitic’, when in fact they were just critical of Israel.
Most or all of the breakaway group were ‘Friends of Israel’. The question is whether they are being controlled by Israel in an attempt to bring down Jeremy Corbyn. If so then this is serious and needs investigation of whether elements of the UK parliament are under the control of an outside government.
There is a ridiculous witch-hunt for the tiniest possibility of Russian influence, but which ignores the far more blatant influence o the US and seemingly Israel. It is thought that Corbyn could disrupt this influence and so every effort will be made to ensure he never comes to power.
The German Economy
What have the Germans done for their economy in recent years?
They backed US sanctions against Russia – harming their economy. They were forced to stop trade with Iran – harming their economy.
US sanctions did not really affect the US, it was really Europe. Trump did explain that Europe were competitors and so were fair game. The Nordstream sanctions are more expicitly anti-European. Also now a trade war. I am sure the US will soon tell Germany what it can sell to China. They are just about to impose more sanctions on Russia – they do not know what they are until the US tells them!
Germany was said to benefit from the Eurozone, so they imposed austerity!
They followed the orders of Soros to allow migrants to flood in and are spending tens of billions of Euros every year to support them.
After Fukushima they decided to abandon nuclear power and depend in part on energy imports from France and Norway. Now they want to get rid of coal power. Modern industry depends on a stable power supply. A few years ago Germany had a major power outage. It was only for a fraction of a second but was enough to cause huge damage to German manufacturing.
They also give large subsidies to the middle classes for solar panels. If solar panels in Greece need a subsidy those in northern Europe are going to be much, much less productive.
Generally by being an American puppet and imposing trendy ‘Green’ initiatives it is no wonder that the German economy is failing.
TRADE AFTER BREXIT
With the UK having to renegotiate trade with the rest of the world it did not help that on Monday the defence secretary said how he would love to go to war with Russia and China. He is also planning to send the UK’s aircraft carrier across the South China Sea. This has lead to the cancellation of trade talks with China this weekend, and won’t help with post-Brexit negotiations!
It is perhaps more surprising that the UK’s ‘allies’ do not seem to want to be cooperative.
Interesting times!
the US & Socialism
It can be sometimes quite amusing reading articles written by Americans on ‘socialism’. You can almost feel their blood vessels bursting as they write! They seem to ignore one important fact :
ALL GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS SOCIALISM
The DoD, CIA, NSA, FBI, etc are products of Socialism. A non-Socialist military would be volunteers and private militias sponsored by public subscription and wealthy individuals.
A bit of cognitive dissonance allows them to ignore this, so what do they mean by ‘Socialism’. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the banking crisis. There was no issue with the banks being bailed out with 700 billion from the government, but a 13 billion dollar loan to GM was written about as being akin to the apocalypse! It was ‘SOCIALISM’!
So what Americans seem to mean when they talk of Socialism is anything which helps ordinary people.
I think this is based on a perversion of Christianity called the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’. The idea is that if you are doing well it is because you are favoured by God. Conversely if you are not doing well then you are not favoured by God and deserve your fate, and do not deserve any help.
‘ALL GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS SOCIALISM’
For some years now I have felt that the US is moving closer to emulating Russia under Communism. For example the Deep State equates to the Politburo, the NSA is the STASI, the media is now PRAVDA, and it is [excluding Trump] a one party state.
It may fail for the same reason – excessive military spending which the country can not afford.
Death Of 95% Of Indigenous People In Colonization Of America Cooled Earth
I echo previous comments that this is utter garbage. At the moment Mankind is responsible for about 3.5% of global CO2. I doubt the global population at this time was one billion, so 0.5%, but it was all renewable energy so carbon neutral, or 0.0%!
All too often I find those who believe in man-made [insert name of disaster here] will suspend any intelligent thought or critical thinking and believe ANYTHING.
For example renewable energy should never need a subsidy because the energy produced will pay for it. I am sickened by the waste of fossil fuel used to create these ‘perpetual motion’ machines, and the harm it does to people who face large increases in electricity prices.
Similarly, the idea that plugging millions of electric cars into the grid has no consequences, Ignore the fact that they actually need electricity so new power stations will be required, also the whole grid will need to be replaced to cope with the amounts of current. In any country it will cost hundreds of billions, and of course use huge amounts of fossil fuel.
There are other areas where people will uncritically believe anything, no matter how absurd. The main areas at the moment are Trump, Putin and Russia where there is vast amounts of propaganda.
All this seems to coming together in to one solution : Nuclear war with Russia
This is not as bad as it seems for anyone worried about man-made climate change :
The massive reduction in population, say 4 to 6 billion, will almost eliminate the use of fossil fuels and the CO2 they produce. Civilisation is unlikely to recover so it will be a long term solution!.
Wildlife should recover relatively quickly as they breed rapidly, and evolution will fill in any gaps. I can’t think of many targets in the southern hemisphere so it may have the best survival rates.
The US would like Russia to start the war, which is unlikely, so a false flag could be organised. Possibly an EMP weapon over America. The public has been primed so it is all ready to go!
It may seem drastic but to stop man-made climate change sacrifices will be needed.
VENEZUELA
Juan Guaido never stood in any election but is being promoted as the ‘democratic’ choice!
Anyone can do that.
What if a Yellow-Vest declared themselves President of France, or Bernie Sanders declared himself President of the US. Just to add to the fun what if Russia, China, Iran and others acknowledged them.
I think they would find a lot of support from their own countrymen, so could not easily be laughed off.
It won’t happen but it’s a fun thought in a depressing week.
BREXIT & YVETTE COOPER
Even after more than two years the ignorance on BREXIT is immense.
On BREXIT Theresa May is beyond the control of Parliament, including last week’s vote, so Yvette Cooper can not force an extension.
If Theresa May wanted to ask for an extension it would require the agreement of all other EU members. Failing that, at the end of March the UK leaves the EU.
Huawei
Huawei has created two issues for the US. Firstly it produces excellent 5G hardware which has made it a world leader. Secondly it uses encryption which the NSA find difficult to break.
By saying that Huawei equipment is bugged, without a shred of proof, we now have all the US minions scrambling to replace Huawei equipment with ‘NSA friendly’ equipment.
A bill has just been introduced which would ban selling any US components to Huawei. Just another example of the US saying ‘Never let your business depend on anything made in America’.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Apart from stimulating plant growth CO2 is unlikely to have anything but a miniscule influence on global temperature.
There is a relationship between the solar sunspot cycle and ‘oscillations’ in the ocean. An oscillation is where the warm surface water sinks beneath the surface, in the case of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation for 10 years at a time. Other oscillations which come to mind are the Atlantic Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation.
The combination of these two factors mean that there is general warming for 30 years followed by general cooling for 30 years. So there was warming from 1910 to 1940, cooling from 1940 to 1970, then warming up to 1998. This is superimposed on the general warming from the Little Ice Age.
When global warming stopped in 1998 the climate activists panicked and promoted the idea of ‘man made climate change’. As the climate has been changing for over 4 billion years it was a safe bet. Take any incidence of bad weather and say it was ‘man-made’! In the dark ages such weather was blamed on God, but now it is blamed on Man. It is why some think of today as being the ‘New Dark ages’.
Climate activists also want charts limited to ‘when records began’, 150 years at most. Temperature reconstruction has shown that the Bronze Age Warm period was warmer than the Roman Warm Period which was warmer than the Mediaevel Warm Period which was warmer than today. An obvious heresy which has to be suppressed!
The Climate is extremely complicated. For example there has been some concern this year that the Sun has been very quiet – no sunspots for many days. This can lead to global cooling in due course. The Sun heats the Earth by about 300C and lack of sunspots means less heat reaching Earth. It also means a weaker solar wind which in turn means more cosmic rays can reach Earth. It has been shown that cosmic rays at sea-level can act as condensing nucleii and aid the formation of water droplets. This leads to increasing cloud cover which also produces a cooling effect.
The main support for climate activists is ignorance. It is why climate skeptics tend to have a scientific background. It can be difficult to take claims by climate activists and separate the truth from the propaganda.
SYRIA
– The US. France and the UK [and possibly Germany] threaten reprisals if Assad uses chemical weapons
– Anonymous US sources say Assad has signed off on the use of gas.
– US sources suggest that Russian and Iranian positions may also be attacked.
– There is a large collection of Russian warships in the area.
– The Russians have supplied a large amount of detail about a potantial false flag operation in the area.The US seems determined to carry on with this farce. In the past Russian forces have been restrained and have not responded. It may be that this time they feel they have to. If so, where will it end?
I can not see that the US will gain anything by this provocation, unless thay mean to escalate it in to a major offensive. Why risk WWIII for a bunch of terrorists?
I am concerned about an article I read a few years ago about an American ‘Christian’ cult. The article claimed the cult to be a million strong and to include senior military and politicians. The quirk here is the belief that a global nuclear war would count as being THE biblical Armageddon, and call forth the ‘Rapture’.
The Rapture is where the ‘good’ are physically swept up in to Heaven just before the elimination of all other human life on Earth. I have not seen any other articles about this cult so I do not know how accurate it is, but the idea of such a pseudo-Christian death cult existing in the States is believable! Certainly in the current climate they could easily succeed.
I am seriously worried about what might happen in the next week.
ARCTIC ICE
The killer phrase is ‘since records began’. For most of the world this is around 100 years, but far less for the Arctic. For example there is a snippet from a 1926 newspaper when an Italian airship journeyed to the North Pole. The article said they did not see a speck of ice on the whole journey to the pole.
A few years earlier a Norwegian travelled to the Arctic and saw that the ice had gone. He went back to raise interest in exploiting the resources uncovered. No-one was quite sure why the ice had disappeared but speculated it was due to German secret weapons used during the First World War! [The ice came back!]
Of course records can be altered. In true science raw data is sacrosanct, but in the pseudo-science of climate it can be altered, principally to make the past seem colder so that global warming appears more dramatic. One article I read some years ago had a graph of global temperatures from an old copy of National Geographic from about 40 years ago. It was dramatically different from what you would see today!
Obviously climate ‘science’ wouldn’t be so heavily funded if there was no ultimate reason. The only suggestion I have seen is that it was to create a global threat of such magnitude that forming a World Government would be a major part of the solution. Certainly one of George Soros’s aims.
Of course this became a blueprint.
For Trump, Russia, Iran, etc. it is determined what the perceived truth should be and the media religiously follow the guidelines. Skeptics are left to try and find alternative sources to find information which might actually be true.
TURKEY
Scenario 1 : A very short time after Erdogan suggested joining the BRICS their currency is in freefall and they are facing hyperinflation. They will need to take a loan from the IMF and become another Greece. No doubt a regime change will be needed.
Scenario 2 : Erdogan burns all the bridges to the West. He baits the US to take this action and is prepared for it. Turkish businesses are forced to default on over 500 billion dollars of loans. He leaves NATO, de-dollarises, throws Turkey’s future in with China, Russia and Iran. He uses the chaos to further his control of the country and de-Americanises it. He might also chuck a couple of million Syrian refugees over the border!
The US expect Scenario 1 – they’ve done it before, but Scenario 2 might be the only viable future for Turkey [eventually!]. US actions mean he can say he has been forced in to this course and that he had no choice.
Time will tell!
