Friday, February 28, 2014
"If you want to know what is wrong with education these days, don't blame a teacher, ask a teacher."
Stone: School bells ring - anyone listening?
Roberta C. Stone
Seventeen years ago, when I returned to teaching in Weston after raising my family, I couldn't have been more excited to re-enter the classroom as a middle-school history teacher. The administrators I worked with then were open to letting me try the different and creative ideas I had for inspiring my students to love history -- and I went to town as if I had been re-born.
When I walked into work everyday, I was happy with my students, colleagues and superiors, who were there to offer advice and to support my ideas and style of teaching. I was trusted to plan my lessons and make my own decisions as to how to best execute them. I was able to express my opinion freely to all the people involved in the school and town community, including parents, without fear of retribution or unfair judgment. Furthermore, I felt autonomous and powerful in my classroom in the sense that the only limits I had were the ones I gave myself. And I was successful, judging from positive feedback from my superiors, parents, and most importantly, my students.
That is not the case now, and so reluctantly, last June, I retired from a noble calling I barely recognize anymore. There is so much wrong with the teaching profession these days that frankly, I don't know where to start.
I used to be confident in my ability to teach history, but that was before all the new rules came into play and I had to change from being creative to being compliant thanks to the "No Child Left Behind" law followed by the "Race to the Top" and the nationalization of education.
Educators today are caught in a death spiral dictated by laws, both federal and state, that now govern our public schools. Gone are the rights of individual towns to plan and implement their own curriculums, replaced instead by far away legislators in Washington and state capitals like Hartford who think they know better.
What bothers me most about losing my individuality is, due to the pressure for federal funding, my administrators became my bosses instead of my colleagues. They began to judge and scrutinize instead of collaborating, and these people, on whom I depended, became my enemies rather than my co-workers. Education changed from a community to a corporation. We all felt it -- the tension, the decline of morale, the fear of being watched and ultimately "released" if we didn't measure up to the new rules. In the last five years of my career, the tension was so palpable you could almost touch it. These new rules were driven by three things: data-driven standardized tests that had little to no relation to our curriculums, stringent and judgmental teacher evaluations and scripted learning.
First, the tests. As they stand today, they are mostly worthless indicators of student learning. How do I know? Because right before the tests are administered, teachers have to scramble to teach skills on the test because those skills are not in their curriculum. If the test were a fair reflection of what students were learning, a teacher would not have to "teach to the test." It would be a much better idea to administer tests like the New York State Regents, which were assessments of the yearly curriculum that was taught. Testing on random knowledge students are expected to know is a recipe for disaster and does not adequately reflect the skills of the teacher.
And who evaluates the meaning of the data spewed out from the several tests children take in a year? Everyone but the teachers. The only time teachers are involved is when they are given test results at a faculty meeting, where they are made to feel inadequate by negative results. This data can and will count against them when evaluation time comes around. By the way, who evaluates the evaluators?
Speaking of evaluations, the new ones required by Connecticut were created by people who have never or seldom stepped foot into today's classroom, yet they are the ones deciding what constitutes a "valuable" educator.
Connecticut's 12-page form is complicated, murky and subjective. Nowhere on the evaluation do I see teacher self reflection. Isn't that what teaching should be about -- the evaluation of the worth of a lesson or unit by the person who taught it and then the decision on how to make it better? Now the evaluation seems to be in the hands of the evaluator, test scores, students, parents and not the teacher. Does this make any sense?
Due to this trial by fire, a disturbing trend has emerged: gifted teachers are leaving the profession because it has become an albatross rather than the joy they anticipated.
The third, and probably most disturbing aspect of the "new rules" is the implementation of scripted learning. Before, teachers were masters of their own universe, planning and implementing lessons according to their expert practices; now they have lessons scripted by department heads or administrators. I know of cases where if a teacher took the initiative to change one word of a paper or to improvise, his superiors would send a letter of reprimand. Is this any way to treat a professional? We are entering dangerous territory here. Your child's teacher may have been a talented, free-thinking human being at one time, but now she is just following orders from above.
All this wrangling has nothing to do with students. They are the collateral damage in the brave new world of education, taking tests that have little to do with what they are learning, missing important skills not in their curriculum anymore, like grammar, spelling and vocabulary, reading fewer books but more social media, where they spend hours, rather than on their studies -- parents take note -- and struggling to express themselves in writing when they can barely write or read works by writers who can.
History facts? Unimportant. But be ready to analyze the facts you never learned and show some critical thinking -- a 21st-century skill, we are told. (Great thinkers of the past, how on earth did you create such important works without this skill?) Clearly, the writing is on the wall -- misspelled and poorly worded as it may be. Education, once a portal to a free-thinking, discerning mind, is dead. In its place is puppetry. Follow orders.
I think what I and my fellow teachers resent the most is the lack of trust and respect we suffer at the hands of superiors, parents and the government agencies who dictate policy. We are the ones at fault for not teaching skills on the test that are not in our curriculums. We are the ones who are blamed for poor reading and writing skills.
We are scared to color outside the lines for fear of losing our jobs. We are afraid to improvise, to specialize, to reflect, to suggest, to improve or correct, or to write a lesson plan that does not coincide with the "new standards." If you want to know what is wrong with education these days, don't blame a teacher, ask a teacher.
Roberta C. Stone is a retired history teacher.
Link:
http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Stone-School-bells-ring-anyone-listening-5267229.php#page-2
Roberta C. Stone
Seventeen years ago, when I returned to teaching in Weston after raising my family, I couldn't have been more excited to re-enter the classroom as a middle-school history teacher. The administrators I worked with then were open to letting me try the different and creative ideas I had for inspiring my students to love history -- and I went to town as if I had been re-born.
When I walked into work everyday, I was happy with my students, colleagues and superiors, who were there to offer advice and to support my ideas and style of teaching. I was trusted to plan my lessons and make my own decisions as to how to best execute them. I was able to express my opinion freely to all the people involved in the school and town community, including parents, without fear of retribution or unfair judgment. Furthermore, I felt autonomous and powerful in my classroom in the sense that the only limits I had were the ones I gave myself. And I was successful, judging from positive feedback from my superiors, parents, and most importantly, my students.
That is not the case now, and so reluctantly, last June, I retired from a noble calling I barely recognize anymore. There is so much wrong with the teaching profession these days that frankly, I don't know where to start.
I used to be confident in my ability to teach history, but that was before all the new rules came into play and I had to change from being creative to being compliant thanks to the "No Child Left Behind" law followed by the "Race to the Top" and the nationalization of education.
Educators today are caught in a death spiral dictated by laws, both federal and state, that now govern our public schools. Gone are the rights of individual towns to plan and implement their own curriculums, replaced instead by far away legislators in Washington and state capitals like Hartford who think they know better.
What bothers me most about losing my individuality is, due to the pressure for federal funding, my administrators became my bosses instead of my colleagues. They began to judge and scrutinize instead of collaborating, and these people, on whom I depended, became my enemies rather than my co-workers. Education changed from a community to a corporation. We all felt it -- the tension, the decline of morale, the fear of being watched and ultimately "released" if we didn't measure up to the new rules. In the last five years of my career, the tension was so palpable you could almost touch it. These new rules were driven by three things: data-driven standardized tests that had little to no relation to our curriculums, stringent and judgmental teacher evaluations and scripted learning.
First, the tests. As they stand today, they are mostly worthless indicators of student learning. How do I know? Because right before the tests are administered, teachers have to scramble to teach skills on the test because those skills are not in their curriculum. If the test were a fair reflection of what students were learning, a teacher would not have to "teach to the test." It would be a much better idea to administer tests like the New York State Regents, which were assessments of the yearly curriculum that was taught. Testing on random knowledge students are expected to know is a recipe for disaster and does not adequately reflect the skills of the teacher.
And who evaluates the meaning of the data spewed out from the several tests children take in a year? Everyone but the teachers. The only time teachers are involved is when they are given test results at a faculty meeting, where they are made to feel inadequate by negative results. This data can and will count against them when evaluation time comes around. By the way, who evaluates the evaluators?
Speaking of evaluations, the new ones required by Connecticut were created by people who have never or seldom stepped foot into today's classroom, yet they are the ones deciding what constitutes a "valuable" educator.
Connecticut's 12-page form is complicated, murky and subjective. Nowhere on the evaluation do I see teacher self reflection. Isn't that what teaching should be about -- the evaluation of the worth of a lesson or unit by the person who taught it and then the decision on how to make it better? Now the evaluation seems to be in the hands of the evaluator, test scores, students, parents and not the teacher. Does this make any sense?
Due to this trial by fire, a disturbing trend has emerged: gifted teachers are leaving the profession because it has become an albatross rather than the joy they anticipated.
The third, and probably most disturbing aspect of the "new rules" is the implementation of scripted learning. Before, teachers were masters of their own universe, planning and implementing lessons according to their expert practices; now they have lessons scripted by department heads or administrators. I know of cases where if a teacher took the initiative to change one word of a paper or to improvise, his superiors would send a letter of reprimand. Is this any way to treat a professional? We are entering dangerous territory here. Your child's teacher may have been a talented, free-thinking human being at one time, but now she is just following orders from above.
All this wrangling has nothing to do with students. They are the collateral damage in the brave new world of education, taking tests that have little to do with what they are learning, missing important skills not in their curriculum anymore, like grammar, spelling and vocabulary, reading fewer books but more social media, where they spend hours, rather than on their studies -- parents take note -- and struggling to express themselves in writing when they can barely write or read works by writers who can.
History facts? Unimportant. But be ready to analyze the facts you never learned and show some critical thinking -- a 21st-century skill, we are told. (Great thinkers of the past, how on earth did you create such important works without this skill?) Clearly, the writing is on the wall -- misspelled and poorly worded as it may be. Education, once a portal to a free-thinking, discerning mind, is dead. In its place is puppetry. Follow orders.
I think what I and my fellow teachers resent the most is the lack of trust and respect we suffer at the hands of superiors, parents and the government agencies who dictate policy. We are the ones at fault for not teaching skills on the test that are not in our curriculums. We are the ones who are blamed for poor reading and writing skills.
We are scared to color outside the lines for fear of losing our jobs. We are afraid to improvise, to specialize, to reflect, to suggest, to improve or correct, or to write a lesson plan that does not coincide with the "new standards." If you want to know what is wrong with education these days, don't blame a teacher, ask a teacher.
Roberta C. Stone is a retired history teacher.
Link:
http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Stone-School-bells-ring-anyone-listening-5267229.php#page-2
The state’s far-reaching penetration of society...
Nothing Outside the State
By Robert Higgs
A popular slogan of the Italian Fascists under Mussolini was, “Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato” (everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state). I recall this expression frequently as I observe the state’s far-reaching penetration of my own society.
What of any consequence remains beyond the state’s reach in the United States today? Not wages, working conditions, or labor-management relations; not health care; not money, banking, or financial services; not personal privacy; not transportation or communication; not education or scientific research; not farming or food supply; not nutrition or food quality; not marriage or divorce; not child care; not provision for retirement; not recreation; not insurance of any kind; not smoking or drinking; not gambling; not political campaign funding or publicity; not real estate development, house construction, or housing finance; not international travel, trade, or finance; not a thousand other areas and aspects of social life.
One might affirm that the state still keeps its hands off religion, but it actually does not. It certifies certain religious organizations as legitimate and condemns others, as many young men discovered to their sorrow when they attempted to claim the status of conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. It assigns members of certain religions, but not members of others, as chaplains in its armed services.
Besides, isn’t statism itself a religion for most Americans? Do they not honor the state above all else, above even the commandments of a conventional religion they may embrace? If their religion tells them “thou shalt not murder,” but the state orders them to murder, then they murder. If the state tells them to rob, to destroy property, and to imprison innocent people, then, notwithstanding any religious strictures, they rob, destroy property, and imprison innocent people, as millions of victims of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and millions of victims of the so-called Drug War in this country will attest. Moreover, in every form of adversity, Americans look to the state for their personal salvation, just as before the twentieth century their ancestors looked to Divine Providence.
When the state produces unworkable or unsatisfactory conditions in any area of life, and therefore elicits complaints and protests, as it has for example in every area related to health care, it responds to these complaints and protests by making “reforms” that heap new laws, regulations, and government bureaus atop the existing mountain of counterproductive interventions. Thus, each new “reform” makes the government more monstrous and destructive than it was before. Citizen, be careful what you wish for; the government just might give it to you good and hard.
The areas of life that remain outside the government’s participation, taxation, subsidization, regulation, surveillance, and other intrusion or control have become so few and so trivial that they scarcely merit mention. We verge ever closer upon the condition in which everything that is not prohibited is required. Yet, the average American will declare loudly that he is a free man and that his country is the freest in the world. Thus, in a country where more and more is for the state, where virtually nothing is outside the State, and where, aside from pointless complaints, nothing against the State is permitted, Americans have become ideal fascist citizens. Like the average German during the years that Hitler ruled Germany, most Americans today, inhabiting one of the most pervasively controlled countries in the history of the world, think they are free.
Link:
http://blog.independent.org/2010/03/16/nothing-outside-the-state/
By Robert Higgs
A popular slogan of the Italian Fascists under Mussolini was, “Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato” (everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state). I recall this expression frequently as I observe the state’s far-reaching penetration of my own society.
What of any consequence remains beyond the state’s reach in the United States today? Not wages, working conditions, or labor-management relations; not health care; not money, banking, or financial services; not personal privacy; not transportation or communication; not education or scientific research; not farming or food supply; not nutrition or food quality; not marriage or divorce; not child care; not provision for retirement; not recreation; not insurance of any kind; not smoking or drinking; not gambling; not political campaign funding or publicity; not real estate development, house construction, or housing finance; not international travel, trade, or finance; not a thousand other areas and aspects of social life.
One might affirm that the state still keeps its hands off religion, but it actually does not. It certifies certain religious organizations as legitimate and condemns others, as many young men discovered to their sorrow when they attempted to claim the status of conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. It assigns members of certain religions, but not members of others, as chaplains in its armed services.
Besides, isn’t statism itself a religion for most Americans? Do they not honor the state above all else, above even the commandments of a conventional religion they may embrace? If their religion tells them “thou shalt not murder,” but the state orders them to murder, then they murder. If the state tells them to rob, to destroy property, and to imprison innocent people, then, notwithstanding any religious strictures, they rob, destroy property, and imprison innocent people, as millions of victims of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and millions of victims of the so-called Drug War in this country will attest. Moreover, in every form of adversity, Americans look to the state for their personal salvation, just as before the twentieth century their ancestors looked to Divine Providence.
When the state produces unworkable or unsatisfactory conditions in any area of life, and therefore elicits complaints and protests, as it has for example in every area related to health care, it responds to these complaints and protests by making “reforms” that heap new laws, regulations, and government bureaus atop the existing mountain of counterproductive interventions. Thus, each new “reform” makes the government more monstrous and destructive than it was before. Citizen, be careful what you wish for; the government just might give it to you good and hard.
The areas of life that remain outside the government’s participation, taxation, subsidization, regulation, surveillance, and other intrusion or control have become so few and so trivial that they scarcely merit mention. We verge ever closer upon the condition in which everything that is not prohibited is required. Yet, the average American will declare loudly that he is a free man and that his country is the freest in the world. Thus, in a country where more and more is for the state, where virtually nothing is outside the State, and where, aside from pointless complaints, nothing against the State is permitted, Americans have become ideal fascist citizens. Like the average German during the years that Hitler ruled Germany, most Americans today, inhabiting one of the most pervasively controlled countries in the history of the world, think they are free.
Link:
http://blog.independent.org/2010/03/16/nothing-outside-the-state/
The militarization of our police forces continues...
Elizabeth Kreft
Bloomberg published a flashy video pitching that 13,000 Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicles will go to law enforcement agencies across the United States, but the numbers are a little off.
“To date, 200 requests for law enforcement support have been filled, and 800 are pending,” a Department of Defense spokesman told TheBlaze.
So only several hundred military war vehicles are actually slated for transfer to law enforcement agencies.
“We have 24,000 currently in the inventory; the services altogether took a hard look resetting the force and we want to get back to more conventional warfighting instead of counterinsurgency and (they) said ok, we need to maintain some MRAPs in the future but we’re only taking certain models that will be most useful,” the DoD said.
The Army’s Medium All-Terrain Vehicle is one of the MRAP versions the department says it want’s to maintain for potential future needs. But the other, older versions will be divested to multiple agencies, including local law enforcement.
Within the United States, any federal or state law enforcement agency whose officers have arrest and apprehension authority can request and potentially receive excess DoD personal property through the 1033 program.
To date, 200 requests for law enforcement support have been filled, and 800 are pending. Thousands of the vehicles will not go to local police units, but will be sent to allied forces who can put the huge war machines to use.
Read more:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/27/13000-military-war-vehicles-up-for-grabs-how-many-will-end-up-going-to-local-police-forces/
OOPS!!! Cold??? What cold???
By: By Chris Dolce
70 Days With Subzero Temperatures
The number of days with subzero temperatures has reached record or near-record levels for many Midwest cities this winter. We have the rankings for several of these cities, starting with two locations that logged day 70 of subzero temperatures on Friday.
Note: A subzero day is one where the temperature fell below zero at any one point during a particular calendar day.
Read more:
http://www.wunderground.com/news/subzero-temperatures-duluth-minneapolis-green-bay-chicago-20140225
Home Addresses of CT Legislators Who Voted in Favor of Gun Control...
Patriot Activist Makes His Own List: The Home Addresses of CT Legislators Who Voted in Favor of Gun Control
Kimberly Paxton
Sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire. And that is exactly what Mike Vanderboegh has chosen to do. The state of Connecticut wants to make a list – a list of gun owners. So, Vanderboegh has created his own list – a list of those state legislators who are insisting that certain firearms be banned or registered.
If you recall, most of the gun owners who own these weapons have refused to register them, with tens of thousands of residents engaging in acts of quiet civil disobedience.
The state responded by sending out letters, demanding that gun owners across the state turn in all of their newly-banned, unregistered firearms and magazines or face felony prosecution.
Vanderboegh, who is himself a member of at least one list (the SPLC has profiled him on their “Hatewatch” blog, which is really kind of a badge of honor in certain circles), has responded to this by compiling a list of his own: it is a list of all of the legislators in the state of Connecticut who voted in favor of the recently passed gun registrations laws in the state. Vanderboegh is the leader of the Sipsey Street Irregulars, a group of patriot activists who identify with the 3% of American Colonists who fought back against tyranny during the Revolutionary War.
Here is the post, A Sipsey Street Public Service Announcement: The Connecticut Tyrants List...
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/patriot-activist-makes-his-own-list-the-home-addresses-of-ct-legislators-who-just-voted-in-favor-of-gun-control_022014#sthash.OJ7i4Oc2.dpuf
Kimberly Paxton
Sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire. And that is exactly what Mike Vanderboegh has chosen to do. The state of Connecticut wants to make a list – a list of gun owners. So, Vanderboegh has created his own list – a list of those state legislators who are insisting that certain firearms be banned or registered.
If you recall, most of the gun owners who own these weapons have refused to register them, with tens of thousands of residents engaging in acts of quiet civil disobedience.
The state responded by sending out letters, demanding that gun owners across the state turn in all of their newly-banned, unregistered firearms and magazines or face felony prosecution.
Vanderboegh, who is himself a member of at least one list (the SPLC has profiled him on their “Hatewatch” blog, which is really kind of a badge of honor in certain circles), has responded to this by compiling a list of his own: it is a list of all of the legislators in the state of Connecticut who voted in favor of the recently passed gun registrations laws in the state. Vanderboegh is the leader of the Sipsey Street Irregulars, a group of patriot activists who identify with the 3% of American Colonists who fought back against tyranny during the Revolutionary War.
Here is the post, A Sipsey Street Public Service Announcement: The Connecticut Tyrants List...
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/patriot-activist-makes-his-own-list-the-home-addresses-of-ct-legislators-who-just-voted-in-favor-of-gun-control_022014#sthash.OJ7i4Oc2.dpuf
Austerity??? What austerity???
Real Austerity versus Obama Fairy Tale Austerity
By Mark Thornton
President Barack Obama has recently released his budget in which he calls for an “end of austerity.” This is an amazing statement from a president whose government has spent the highest percentage of GDP in history and added more to the national debt than all past presidents combined. What must he mean by austerity?
There are demonstrations around the world over austerity on an almost daily basis. It is condemned as an evil poison for tough economic times while others tout it as the elixir for economic depressions.
The president’s rejection of austerity represents the Keynesian view which completely rejects austerity in favor of the “borrow and spend” — increase aggregate demand — approach to recession. What he really is rejecting is the infinitesimal cutbacks in the rate of spending increases and the political roadblocks to new spending programs.
While the 2009-2012 budgets have been relatively flat, they are still more than 15 percent higher than in 2008 and 75 percent higher than in the previous decade. This four year leap in spending was financed with a $5 trillion increase in the national debt. No austerity here!
The type of austerity that gets the most worldwide press attention on a daily basis is that promoted by economists at the International Monetary Fund. This “austerian” approach involves cutbacks in government services and tax increases on the beleaguered public in order to, at all costs, repay the government’s corrupt creditors. This pro-bankster approach is what generates a massive amount of media attention and sometimes violent demonstrations.
Austrian School economists reject both the Keynesian stimulus approach and the IMF-style high-tax, pro-bankster approach as counterproductive. Although “Austrians” are often lumped in with “Austerians,” Austrian School economists support real austerity. Real austerity involves cutting government budgets by reducing salaries, employee benefits, and retirement benefits. It also involves selling government assets and even repudiating government debt. Instead of increasing taxes, the Austrian approach advocates decreasing taxes.
Despite all the hoopla in countries like Greece, there is no real austerity except in the countries of Eastern Europe. For example, Latvia is Europe’s most austere country and also one of the fastest growing economies. Estonia implemented an austerity policy that depended largely on cuts in government salaries. In contrast there simply is no significant austerity in most of Western Europe or the U.S. As Professor Philipp Bagus explains, “the problem of Europe (and the United States) is not too much but too little austerity — or its complete absence.”
Real austerity for individuals means living a highly restricted lifestyle. The best example is the monk who lives on a subsistence-level diet, wears simple clothing, possesses a few basic pieces of furniture, and uses only necessary utensils. His days consist of long hours of work and prayer with no leisure activities and he may not even enjoy indoor heating or plumbing.
Austerity applied to whole countries, is not necessarily so harsh or ascetic. It simply means that the government has to live within its means...
Read the rest here:
http://mises.org/daily/6675/An-End-to-Austerity
By Mark Thornton
President Barack Obama has recently released his budget in which he calls for an “end of austerity.” This is an amazing statement from a president whose government has spent the highest percentage of GDP in history and added more to the national debt than all past presidents combined. What must he mean by austerity?
There are demonstrations around the world over austerity on an almost daily basis. It is condemned as an evil poison for tough economic times while others tout it as the elixir for economic depressions.
The president’s rejection of austerity represents the Keynesian view which completely rejects austerity in favor of the “borrow and spend” — increase aggregate demand — approach to recession. What he really is rejecting is the infinitesimal cutbacks in the rate of spending increases and the political roadblocks to new spending programs.
While the 2009-2012 budgets have been relatively flat, they are still more than 15 percent higher than in 2008 and 75 percent higher than in the previous decade. This four year leap in spending was financed with a $5 trillion increase in the national debt. No austerity here!
The type of austerity that gets the most worldwide press attention on a daily basis is that promoted by economists at the International Monetary Fund. This “austerian” approach involves cutbacks in government services and tax increases on the beleaguered public in order to, at all costs, repay the government’s corrupt creditors. This pro-bankster approach is what generates a massive amount of media attention and sometimes violent demonstrations.
Austrian School economists reject both the Keynesian stimulus approach and the IMF-style high-tax, pro-bankster approach as counterproductive. Although “Austrians” are often lumped in with “Austerians,” Austrian School economists support real austerity. Real austerity involves cutting government budgets by reducing salaries, employee benefits, and retirement benefits. It also involves selling government assets and even repudiating government debt. Instead of increasing taxes, the Austrian approach advocates decreasing taxes.
Despite all the hoopla in countries like Greece, there is no real austerity except in the countries of Eastern Europe. For example, Latvia is Europe’s most austere country and also one of the fastest growing economies. Estonia implemented an austerity policy that depended largely on cuts in government salaries. In contrast there simply is no significant austerity in most of Western Europe or the U.S. As Professor Philipp Bagus explains, “the problem of Europe (and the United States) is not too much but too little austerity — or its complete absence.”
Real austerity for individuals means living a highly restricted lifestyle. The best example is the monk who lives on a subsistence-level diet, wears simple clothing, possesses a few basic pieces of furniture, and uses only necessary utensils. His days consist of long hours of work and prayer with no leisure activities and he may not even enjoy indoor heating or plumbing.
Austerity applied to whole countries, is not necessarily so harsh or ascetic. It simply means that the government has to live within its means...
Read the rest here:
http://mises.org/daily/6675/An-End-to-Austerity
"No matter what the "new government" in Kiev says, and no matter how hard the U.S. and the EU push, Russia will never give up Crimea..."
12 Signs That Russia Is Ready To Fight A War Over Crimea
By Michael Snyder
Russia will never, ever give up Crimea without a fight. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just being delusional. The Russian Black Sea fleet's main base at Sevastopol is far too strategically important. In addition, ethnic Russians make up approximately 60 percent of the population of Crimea, and most of the population is rabidly pro-Russian. In fact, many prominent Crimean politicians are already calling for reunification with Russia. So if you have been thinking that Russia is just going to fold up shop and go home now that pro-European protesters have violently seized power in Kiev, you can quit holding your breath. The truth is that Russia is more than willing to fight a war over Crimea. And considering the fact that vitally important pipelines that pump natural gas from Russia to the rest of Europe go right through Ukraine, it is not likely that Russia will just willingly hand the rest of Ukraine over to the U.S. and the EU either. If the U.S. and the EU push too hard in Ukraine, a major regional war may erupt which could ultimately lead to something much larger.
Russia and Ukraine have very deep historical ties. Most Americans may not think that Ukraine is very important, but the Russians consider Ukraine to be of the utmost strategic importance.
As an American, how would you feel if another nation funded and organized the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Canadian government and replaced it with a government that was virulently anti-American?
By doing this to Ukraine, the United States and the EU are essentially sticking a pin in Russia's eye. Needless to say, Russia is extremely angry at this point and they are gearing up for war.
The following are 12 signs that Russia is ready to fight a war over Crimea...
#1 More Russian military vehicles continue to pour into Crimea. Just check out this video.
#2 Russian military vehicles have been photographed in the main square of Sevastopol.
#3 Russian military jets near the border with Ukraine have been put on combat alert.
#4 Russia has ordered "surprise military exercises" along the Ukrainian border.
#5 In connection with those "exercises", it is being reported that Russia has deployed 150,000 troops along the border with Ukraine.
#6 Russia already has approximately 26,000 troops stationed at their naval base in Sevastopol.
#7 Russian ships carrying additional soldiers have been spotted off the coast of Crimea...
Russia’s large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov has arrived near the Russia Black Sea Fleet’s base at Sevastopol, which Russia has leased from Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The ship is reported to be carrying as many as 200 soldiers and has joined four additional ships carrying an unknown amount of Special Forces troops. Flot.com also reported over the weekend that personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces unit and additional divisions had been airlifted into Anapa, a city on Russia’s Black Sea coastline.
#8 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the following statement to reporters on Wednesday...
"Measures are taken to guarantee the security of our facilities."
#9 An unidentified Russian official has told the Financial Times that Russia is willing to use military force to protect Crimea...
Moscow earlier revealed that it would be ready to go for war over the Crimea region in order to protect the large population and army installations.
“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war. They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia,” an unidentified Russian official told the Financial Times.
#10 Officials in Sevastopol have "installed" a Russian citizen as mayor of the city.
#11 Approximately 120 pro-Russian gunmen have seized the Crimean parliament building and have raised the Russian flag.
#12 There are rumors that Russian authorities have offered protection to ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych...
Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, declared on Thursday that he remained the lawful president of the country and appealed to Russia to “secure my personal safety from the actions of extremists.” Russian news agencies reported that he had already arrived in Russia, but officials did not immediately confirm that.
No matter what the "new government" in Kiev says, and no matter how hard the U.S. and the EU push, Russia will never give up Crimea. The following is what a recent Debka article had to say about the matter...
There is no way that President Vladimir Putin will relinquish Russian control of the Crimean peninsula and its military bases there - or more particularly the big Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol. This military stronghold is the key to Russia’s Middle East policy. If it is imperiled, so too are Russia’s military posture in Syria and its strategic understandings with Iran.
And you know what?
The people of Crimea do not want Russia to leave either. In fact, they overwhelmingly want Russia to help defend them against the "new government" in Kiev.
As you read this, militia groups are being formed in Crimea to fight back against the "nationalist invasion" that they are anticipating. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Time Magazine article...
Many of the people at the rally in Sevastopol were not just ready to believe. They were convinced of the imminent nationalist invasion. What scared them most were the right-wing political parties and militant groups that have played a role in Ukraine’s revolution. “What do you think they’re going to do with all those weapons they seized from police in Kiev? They’re going to come here and make war,” said Sergei Bochenko, who identified himself as the commander of a local militia group in Sevastopol called the Southern Russian Cossack Battalion.
In preparation, he said, his group of several hundred men had armed themselves with assault rifles and begun to train for battle. “There’s not a chance in hell we’re going to accept the rule of that fascist scum running around in Kiev with swastikas,” he said. That may be overstating the case. Nowhere in Ukraine has the uprising involved neo-Nazi groups, and no swastikas have appeared on the revolution’s insignia. But every one of the dozen or so people TIME spoke to in Sevastopol was certain that the revolt was run by fascists, most likely on the payroll of the U.S. State Department.
And just remember what happened back in 2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians have already shown that they are not afraid to militarily intervene in order to protect Russian citizens.
So what would the U.S. and the EU do if a war erupts between Russia and Ukraine?
Would they risk a direct military confrontation with Russia in order to help Ukraine?
I am very concerned about where all of this could be heading.
What about you?
What do you think?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...
Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-signs-that-russia-is-ready-to-fight-a-war-over-crimea
By Michael Snyder
Russia will never, ever give up Crimea without a fight. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just being delusional. The Russian Black Sea fleet's main base at Sevastopol is far too strategically important. In addition, ethnic Russians make up approximately 60 percent of the population of Crimea, and most of the population is rabidly pro-Russian. In fact, many prominent Crimean politicians are already calling for reunification with Russia. So if you have been thinking that Russia is just going to fold up shop and go home now that pro-European protesters have violently seized power in Kiev, you can quit holding your breath. The truth is that Russia is more than willing to fight a war over Crimea. And considering the fact that vitally important pipelines that pump natural gas from Russia to the rest of Europe go right through Ukraine, it is not likely that Russia will just willingly hand the rest of Ukraine over to the U.S. and the EU either. If the U.S. and the EU push too hard in Ukraine, a major regional war may erupt which could ultimately lead to something much larger.
Russia and Ukraine have very deep historical ties. Most Americans may not think that Ukraine is very important, but the Russians consider Ukraine to be of the utmost strategic importance.
As an American, how would you feel if another nation funded and organized the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Canadian government and replaced it with a government that was virulently anti-American?
By doing this to Ukraine, the United States and the EU are essentially sticking a pin in Russia's eye. Needless to say, Russia is extremely angry at this point and they are gearing up for war.
The following are 12 signs that Russia is ready to fight a war over Crimea...
#1 More Russian military vehicles continue to pour into Crimea. Just check out this video.
#2 Russian military vehicles have been photographed in the main square of Sevastopol.
#3 Russian military jets near the border with Ukraine have been put on combat alert.
#4 Russia has ordered "surprise military exercises" along the Ukrainian border.
#5 In connection with those "exercises", it is being reported that Russia has deployed 150,000 troops along the border with Ukraine.
#6 Russia already has approximately 26,000 troops stationed at their naval base in Sevastopol.
#7 Russian ships carrying additional soldiers have been spotted off the coast of Crimea...
Russia’s large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov has arrived near the Russia Black Sea Fleet’s base at Sevastopol, which Russia has leased from Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The ship is reported to be carrying as many as 200 soldiers and has joined four additional ships carrying an unknown amount of Special Forces troops. Flot.com also reported over the weekend that personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces unit and additional divisions had been airlifted into Anapa, a city on Russia’s Black Sea coastline.
#8 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the following statement to reporters on Wednesday...
"Measures are taken to guarantee the security of our facilities."
#9 An unidentified Russian official has told the Financial Times that Russia is willing to use military force to protect Crimea...
Moscow earlier revealed that it would be ready to go for war over the Crimea region in order to protect the large population and army installations.
“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war. They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia,” an unidentified Russian official told the Financial Times.
#10 Officials in Sevastopol have "installed" a Russian citizen as mayor of the city.
#11 Approximately 120 pro-Russian gunmen have seized the Crimean parliament building and have raised the Russian flag.
#12 There are rumors that Russian authorities have offered protection to ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych...
Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, declared on Thursday that he remained the lawful president of the country and appealed to Russia to “secure my personal safety from the actions of extremists.” Russian news agencies reported that he had already arrived in Russia, but officials did not immediately confirm that.
No matter what the "new government" in Kiev says, and no matter how hard the U.S. and the EU push, Russia will never give up Crimea. The following is what a recent Debka article had to say about the matter...
There is no way that President Vladimir Putin will relinquish Russian control of the Crimean peninsula and its military bases there - or more particularly the big Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol. This military stronghold is the key to Russia’s Middle East policy. If it is imperiled, so too are Russia’s military posture in Syria and its strategic understandings with Iran.
And you know what?
The people of Crimea do not want Russia to leave either. In fact, they overwhelmingly want Russia to help defend them against the "new government" in Kiev.
As you read this, militia groups are being formed in Crimea to fight back against the "nationalist invasion" that they are anticipating. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Time Magazine article...
Many of the people at the rally in Sevastopol were not just ready to believe. They were convinced of the imminent nationalist invasion. What scared them most were the right-wing political parties and militant groups that have played a role in Ukraine’s revolution. “What do you think they’re going to do with all those weapons they seized from police in Kiev? They’re going to come here and make war,” said Sergei Bochenko, who identified himself as the commander of a local militia group in Sevastopol called the Southern Russian Cossack Battalion.
In preparation, he said, his group of several hundred men had armed themselves with assault rifles and begun to train for battle. “There’s not a chance in hell we’re going to accept the rule of that fascist scum running around in Kiev with swastikas,” he said. That may be overstating the case. Nowhere in Ukraine has the uprising involved neo-Nazi groups, and no swastikas have appeared on the revolution’s insignia. But every one of the dozen or so people TIME spoke to in Sevastopol was certain that the revolt was run by fascists, most likely on the payroll of the U.S. State Department.
And just remember what happened back in 2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians have already shown that they are not afraid to militarily intervene in order to protect Russian citizens.
So what would the U.S. and the EU do if a war erupts between Russia and Ukraine?
Would they risk a direct military confrontation with Russia in order to help Ukraine?
I am very concerned about where all of this could be heading.
What about you?
What do you think?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...
Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-signs-that-russia-is-ready-to-fight-a-war-over-crimea
Pray for our troops. Not what you think...
Pray for Our Troops
By Laurence M. Vance
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (1 Timothy 2:1)
While driving recently on Maitland Boulevard in central Florida, I came upon a billboard with a simple message: “Pray for Our Troops.”
Although I am often very critical of the actions of U.S. troops, I do believe—in spite of what people may think—in prayer for our troops. This is because, as evidenced above, the Bible exhorts us to pray for all men, which includes U.S. troops.
The problem is not the idea of praying for the troops, but the usual prayers that are offered on their behalf. When the typical church-going, prayer-saying American Christian sees such a billboard or is enjoined in church to pray for our troops, he generally thinks:
•Pray that our troops be kept out of harm’s way.
•Pray that our troops defeat our enemies.
•Pray that our troops defend our freedoms.
•Pray that our troops keep us safe.
•Pray that our troops find terrorists who want to do us harm.
•Pray that our troops eliminate the threat of al Qaeda.
•Pray that our troops rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.
•Pray that our troops spread democracy and freedom.
•Pray that our troops avenge 9/11.
Some Christians, if they were honest, would pray that our troops’ bombs, bullets, grenades, missiles, and mortars hit their targets. Or they were really honest, a war prayer for the twenty-first century.
The problem with these prayers is that no thought is ever given to:
•Where our troops go.
•Why our troops go.
•Whether our troops should go.
•How long our troops should stay.
•What our troops do when they are there.
•How much it costs to keep our troops there.
•How many innocent foreigners die because our troops went.
•What physical and mental condition our troops will be in when they return.
•Whether our troops are really defending our freedom.
•Whether our troops are creating more terrorists because they went.
•Whether our troops are actually a global force for good.
•Whether whatever our troops accomplish is worth one drop of American blood.
None of these things matter. We are continually told to pray for the troops, thank the troops, and support the troops—and to do so unconditionally.
But because I have considered these questions about the activities of our troops, and pay attention to what really goes on in the military, I think we should instead:
•Pray that our troops come home from overseas.
•Pray that our troops stop fighting foreign wars.
•Pray that our troops don’t kill foreign civilians.
•Pray that our troops don’t rape foreign women.
•Pray that our troops stop invading countries.
•Pray that our troops stop occupying countries.
•Pray that our troops get out of the military as soon as they can.
•Pray that our troops don’t fire their weapons.
•Pray that our troops don’t sexually assault military personnel.
•Pray that our troops don’t frequent brothels.
•Pray that our troops don’t commit suicide.
•Pray that our troops don’t get addicted to drugs.
•Pray that our troops stop helping to carry out an evil U.S. foreign policy.
•Pray that our troops stop making drone strikes.
•Pray that our troops stop making widows and orphans.
•Pray that our troops are only used for genuinely defensive purposes.
•Pray that our troops stop intervening in other countries.
•Pray that our troops don’t die for a lie, like those who died fighting in Iraq.
•Pray that our troops don’t die in vain, like those who died fighting in Afghanistan.
•Pray that our troops think about the morality of their “service.”
•Pray that our troops refuse to obey immoral orders.
•Pray that our troops never become troops by saying no to the military recruiter.
One does not have to be religious to see that these prayers are noticeably different from the previous ones. Think about this the next time you see a billboard or church sign that says “Pray for Our Troops.”
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/laurence-m-vance/pray-for-the-troops/
By Laurence M. Vance
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (1 Timothy 2:1)
While driving recently on Maitland Boulevard in central Florida, I came upon a billboard with a simple message: “Pray for Our Troops.”
Although I am often very critical of the actions of U.S. troops, I do believe—in spite of what people may think—in prayer for our troops. This is because, as evidenced above, the Bible exhorts us to pray for all men, which includes U.S. troops.
The problem is not the idea of praying for the troops, but the usual prayers that are offered on their behalf. When the typical church-going, prayer-saying American Christian sees such a billboard or is enjoined in church to pray for our troops, he generally thinks:
•Pray that our troops be kept out of harm’s way.
•Pray that our troops defeat our enemies.
•Pray that our troops defend our freedoms.
•Pray that our troops keep us safe.
•Pray that our troops find terrorists who want to do us harm.
•Pray that our troops eliminate the threat of al Qaeda.
•Pray that our troops rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.
•Pray that our troops spread democracy and freedom.
•Pray that our troops avenge 9/11.
Some Christians, if they were honest, would pray that our troops’ bombs, bullets, grenades, missiles, and mortars hit their targets. Or they were really honest, a war prayer for the twenty-first century.
The problem with these prayers is that no thought is ever given to:
•Where our troops go.
•Why our troops go.
•Whether our troops should go.
•How long our troops should stay.
•What our troops do when they are there.
•How much it costs to keep our troops there.
•How many innocent foreigners die because our troops went.
•What physical and mental condition our troops will be in when they return.
•Whether our troops are really defending our freedom.
•Whether our troops are creating more terrorists because they went.
•Whether our troops are actually a global force for good.
•Whether whatever our troops accomplish is worth one drop of American blood.
None of these things matter. We are continually told to pray for the troops, thank the troops, and support the troops—and to do so unconditionally.
But because I have considered these questions about the activities of our troops, and pay attention to what really goes on in the military, I think we should instead:
•Pray that our troops come home from overseas.
•Pray that our troops stop fighting foreign wars.
•Pray that our troops don’t kill foreign civilians.
•Pray that our troops don’t rape foreign women.
•Pray that our troops stop invading countries.
•Pray that our troops stop occupying countries.
•Pray that our troops get out of the military as soon as they can.
•Pray that our troops don’t fire their weapons.
•Pray that our troops don’t sexually assault military personnel.
•Pray that our troops don’t frequent brothels.
•Pray that our troops don’t commit suicide.
•Pray that our troops don’t get addicted to drugs.
•Pray that our troops stop helping to carry out an evil U.S. foreign policy.
•Pray that our troops stop making drone strikes.
•Pray that our troops stop making widows and orphans.
•Pray that our troops are only used for genuinely defensive purposes.
•Pray that our troops stop intervening in other countries.
•Pray that our troops don’t die for a lie, like those who died fighting in Iraq.
•Pray that our troops don’t die in vain, like those who died fighting in Afghanistan.
•Pray that our troops think about the morality of their “service.”
•Pray that our troops refuse to obey immoral orders.
•Pray that our troops never become troops by saying no to the military recruiter.
One does not have to be religious to see that these prayers are noticeably different from the previous ones. Think about this the next time you see a billboard or church sign that says “Pray for Our Troops.”
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/laurence-m-vance/pray-for-the-troops/
Let's have a war with Russia...
The Road to War
By Eric Margolis
The surging crisis in Ukraine is a dramatic example of how wars begin. Take arrogance, toxic nationalism, tribalism, moral outrage and profound miscalculation, mix thoroughly, and, voilà !, another great leap forward in the march of human folly.
Russia just mobilized its western regions armed forces, an inevitable response to the growing turmoil in Ukraine. Most westerners are unaware that Ukraine is the cradle of Russian civilization and, when properly run, one of the world’s great producers of grains.
Now that western Ukraine has fallen to anti-Russian, nationalist groups, Russia-oriented eastern Ukraine is also threatening to explode. This nation of 44 million is already de facto split into two parts. How Ukraine’s armed forces respond remains an important question. On Thursday their command vowed to resist any incursion by Russian troops, but loyalties remain uncertain.
Unrest and some violence have now erupted in Crimea. Though 80% ethnic Russian, this highly strategic peninsula was given by the Soviet leadership to the Soviet Ukrainian Republic in 1954. The result, some say, of a grandiose, drunken gesture by Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev, a former Ukraine party boss. Back then it mattered little.
Today, Khrushchev’s gift has become a poisoned chalice. On my last assignment in Crimea, it was clear that most of its people desired reunification with Russia.
Equally important, Sevastopol is Russia’s second most important naval base, and its gateway to the Mediterranean.
Adding complexity, Crimea’s remaining Muslim Tatar population is now calling for their own state independent of Russia. Crimea was once primarily Tatar, the descendants of the 13th century Golden Horde of primarily Kipchak Turkic nomads. The Khanate of Crimea lasted five hundred years until crushed by the expanding Russian Empire.
In the 1940’s, under Stalin’s orders, southern Russia’s Muslim peoples suffered a holocaust in which 3 million were murdered by NKVD secret police firing squads or from starvation and disease in the gulag.
Tatars who survived Stalin’s murderous reign, filtered back to Crimea, only to find their homes and land had been seized by ethnic Russians. Tatars remain a partly homeless internal refugee population calling for redress from the uncaring Russian state. Many Tatars want no part of Russia – like their fellow victims of Stalin, the Chechen.
For Russians, Crimea is not only the principal base of the Black Sea Fleet, the peninsula also was the scene of the epic 250-day siege siege of Sevastopol in 1941.
In a brutal battle for the port and rest of Crimea, the Germans employed monster 800mm and 600mm guns against Sevastopol’s forts that fired 6-7 ton shells that had been built to destroy France’s Maginot Line forts. Sailors of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet played a notable role in the defense. Sevastopol was rightly proclaimed a Hero City of the Soviet Union.
Sebastopol has been Russia’s gateway to the south since the days of Catherine the Great. Crimea is renowned for its sweet wines and the historic resort of Yalta where the doddering fool Franklin Roosevelt, surrounded by Soviet spies and hidden microphones, gave half of Europe to the gleeful Stalin.
Crimea was the epicenter of the 1853-1856 Crimean War in which Britain, France and Turkey combined to block Russian expansion into the Balkans. Most famous, of course, was the disastrous charge into the face of massed Russia guns of the British Light Brigade near Balaclava. Just to the south is a remarkable former Cold War Soviet submarine base hewn into a mountain large enough to hold six-eight u-boats.
The Cold War seems to be resuming, at least in Ukraine. Unrest is also brewing in neighboring Belarus, a nasty Stalinist dictatorship closely aligned with Moscow.
The West and Moscow are trading accusation of meddling in Ukraine. In truth, both are busy stirring the pot, a dangerous game that has brought NATO and Russia to the brink of armed confrontation. The neocon Undersecretary of State for Europe, Victoria Nuland, said US has spent $5 billion promoting anti-Russian groups in Ukraine. Chances of a Ukrainian civil war are also rising.
Ukraine is flat broke. Kiev needs at least $35 billion in immediate loans. Russia has withdrawn its offer of $15 billion. Who wants to lend money to a bankrupt, chaotic Ukraine filled with restive, angry people?
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/eric-margolis/crimea-boils-over/
By Eric Margolis
The surging crisis in Ukraine is a dramatic example of how wars begin. Take arrogance, toxic nationalism, tribalism, moral outrage and profound miscalculation, mix thoroughly, and, voilà !, another great leap forward in the march of human folly.
Russia just mobilized its western regions armed forces, an inevitable response to the growing turmoil in Ukraine. Most westerners are unaware that Ukraine is the cradle of Russian civilization and, when properly run, one of the world’s great producers of grains.
Now that western Ukraine has fallen to anti-Russian, nationalist groups, Russia-oriented eastern Ukraine is also threatening to explode. This nation of 44 million is already de facto split into two parts. How Ukraine’s armed forces respond remains an important question. On Thursday their command vowed to resist any incursion by Russian troops, but loyalties remain uncertain.
Unrest and some violence have now erupted in Crimea. Though 80% ethnic Russian, this highly strategic peninsula was given by the Soviet leadership to the Soviet Ukrainian Republic in 1954. The result, some say, of a grandiose, drunken gesture by Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev, a former Ukraine party boss. Back then it mattered little.
Today, Khrushchev’s gift has become a poisoned chalice. On my last assignment in Crimea, it was clear that most of its people desired reunification with Russia.
Equally important, Sevastopol is Russia’s second most important naval base, and its gateway to the Mediterranean.
Adding complexity, Crimea’s remaining Muslim Tatar population is now calling for their own state independent of Russia. Crimea was once primarily Tatar, the descendants of the 13th century Golden Horde of primarily Kipchak Turkic nomads. The Khanate of Crimea lasted five hundred years until crushed by the expanding Russian Empire.
In the 1940’s, under Stalin’s orders, southern Russia’s Muslim peoples suffered a holocaust in which 3 million were murdered by NKVD secret police firing squads or from starvation and disease in the gulag.
Tatars who survived Stalin’s murderous reign, filtered back to Crimea, only to find their homes and land had been seized by ethnic Russians. Tatars remain a partly homeless internal refugee population calling for redress from the uncaring Russian state. Many Tatars want no part of Russia – like their fellow victims of Stalin, the Chechen.
For Russians, Crimea is not only the principal base of the Black Sea Fleet, the peninsula also was the scene of the epic 250-day siege siege of Sevastopol in 1941.
In a brutal battle for the port and rest of Crimea, the Germans employed monster 800mm and 600mm guns against Sevastopol’s forts that fired 6-7 ton shells that had been built to destroy France’s Maginot Line forts. Sailors of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet played a notable role in the defense. Sevastopol was rightly proclaimed a Hero City of the Soviet Union.
Sebastopol has been Russia’s gateway to the south since the days of Catherine the Great. Crimea is renowned for its sweet wines and the historic resort of Yalta where the doddering fool Franklin Roosevelt, surrounded by Soviet spies and hidden microphones, gave half of Europe to the gleeful Stalin.
Crimea was the epicenter of the 1853-1856 Crimean War in which Britain, France and Turkey combined to block Russian expansion into the Balkans. Most famous, of course, was the disastrous charge into the face of massed Russia guns of the British Light Brigade near Balaclava. Just to the south is a remarkable former Cold War Soviet submarine base hewn into a mountain large enough to hold six-eight u-boats.
The Cold War seems to be resuming, at least in Ukraine. Unrest is also brewing in neighboring Belarus, a nasty Stalinist dictatorship closely aligned with Moscow.
The West and Moscow are trading accusation of meddling in Ukraine. In truth, both are busy stirring the pot, a dangerous game that has brought NATO and Russia to the brink of armed confrontation. The neocon Undersecretary of State for Europe, Victoria Nuland, said US has spent $5 billion promoting anti-Russian groups in Ukraine. Chances of a Ukrainian civil war are also rising.
Ukraine is flat broke. Kiev needs at least $35 billion in immediate loans. Russia has withdrawn its offer of $15 billion. Who wants to lend money to a bankrupt, chaotic Ukraine filled with restive, angry people?
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/eric-margolis/crimea-boils-over/
Thursday, February 27, 2014
They'll probably blame it on global warming...
California Gets Rain…and Possibly Flash Floods
Lizzie Bennett
It’s raining in California, and much more is forecast before the week is out. Although it is more than welcome it doesn’t mean the drought is over, it would take much more precipitation to fill the reservoirs. The rain that is due to fall will bring with it major problems for some residents.
The areas of Glendora and Azusa, northeast of Los Angeles it at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, an area that was hit by wildfires recently. 2,000 acres of trees were destroyed by the fires, and the loose ash and dried earth on the slopes where the trees once stood, make the area very prone to mud slides, some of which may contain debris such as semi-burnt tree stumps and rocks.
Mudslides have an enormous power, gaining speed as they move down the mountain...
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/california-gets-rain-followed-by-flash-floods_022014#sthash.0ME1KVGL.dpuf
Lizzie Bennett
It’s raining in California, and much more is forecast before the week is out. Although it is more than welcome it doesn’t mean the drought is over, it would take much more precipitation to fill the reservoirs. The rain that is due to fall will bring with it major problems for some residents.
The areas of Glendora and Azusa, northeast of Los Angeles it at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, an area that was hit by wildfires recently. 2,000 acres of trees were destroyed by the fires, and the loose ash and dried earth on the slopes where the trees once stood, make the area very prone to mud slides, some of which may contain debris such as semi-burnt tree stumps and rocks.
Mudslides have an enormous power, gaining speed as they move down the mountain...
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/california-gets-rain-followed-by-flash-floods_022014#sthash.0ME1KVGL.dpuf
Imperialism by any other name...
America vs. the World – Invasion, Occupation, Disruption: U.S. Imperialism is Alive and Well
By Margaret Kimberley
President Obama has placed whole nations on his Kill List. Syria and Venezuela are to join Libya and Iraq as states that have been made to fail, while Ukraine is snatched into the NATO-EU orbit. “The neo-conservative project for a new American century has reached full fruition under a Democratic president, who now has many notches on his gun.”
The word imperialism fell into disuse in recent decades. If it seems slightly retro, that is only because there aren’t enough Americans committed to telling the ugly truth about their government.
During the cold war era we were told that communism increased in influence via a domino effect, knocking down nations one by one and forcing them into Moscow’s or Beijing’s orbit. In the 21st century there is a new domino theory which puts every part of the world into America’s cross hairs.
Barack Obama has succeeded in expanding America’s influence in ways that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney could only dream about. The neo-conservative project for a new American century has reached full fruition under a Democratic president, who now has many notches on his gun. He and the rest of the NATO leaders began the trail of destruction with Libya, tearing that country asunder under the guise of saving it.
Using lies and their servants in the corporate media, they constructed a tale of a tyrant and a people yearning for protection. That evil success emboldened them and their gulf monarchy allies further and they decided that Syria would be the next domino.
That plan didn’t work quite as well as Obama and the rest of murder incorporated team thought it would. When the British parliament said no to new military adventures Obama was left sputtering on national television. He was forced to back down from an adamant position he had taken just days earlier.
The semi-comedic setback was only temporary because the monster must be fed at all cost. The system can no longer sustain itself and brute force is the only out. There is nothing old fashioned about imperialism. This malevolent force is still alive and well.
George W. Bush made efforts to overthrow the democratically elected Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela when he plotted with the opposition against the late Hugo Chavez. Obama is clearly more committed to violence than his predecessor and has helped to stir up right wing Venezuelans who want to rid themselves of Nicolas Maduro. Maduro has been weakened by the ginned up protests and is now forced into talks with an opposition that won’t be satisfied until he is dead and gone too.
The Venezuelan people have voted for their revolution numerous times. The U.S., a country that never ceases to call itself a democracy, has thwarted their clearly expressed will time and time again. But that is the essence of empire after all.
While armed force against Syria was temporarily blocked, the West, the Persian gulf monarchies, Israel, and jihadists have not given up their effort to topple the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. The savage war has made thousands of Syrians homeless and starving refugees, all because the empire needs its next domino.
Not only does United States meddles in its own backyard, it also relentlessly interferes on the other side of the world in far away Ukraine. Popular discontent against that country’s president became a successful effort to bring that country into the western sphere of economic influence but with the awful strings of austerity attached. Ukraine has the choice of going bankrupt or being bailed out and dying a slow death a la Greece.
While the machinations were afoot, president Obama warned Vladimir Putin away with threats of sanctions. The scenes of sometimes violent street protests in Ukraine made a fortuitous tableau for the United States which claimed the infamous “responsibility to protect” which never protects anyone who actually needs help and which has brought so much suffering to people around the world. Every invasion, occupation and disruption in recent years can be laid at the feet of the United States and its allies. Iraq has been destroyed quite literally, Iran has been destroyed economically. Libya was taken out and Syria is on the brink.
The United States quite openly makes it clear that it wants to have its way in the world. If Russia attempts to use its influence then it is vilified and caricatured as a cruel dictatorship controlled by a tyrant. No matter how many elections Chavez and now Maduro won, they are called dictators by American talking heads.
A superpower can foment conflict anywhere it wants to at anytime it chooses. Venezuelans must knuckle under or face the prospect of more turmoil and violence. Ukraine must sign onto economic policies which have already proven disastrous. The United States leaves its fingerprints in these and many other places and that is the essence of imperialism. It is all about control with the rawest brute force available.
The United States hasn’t officially made Venezuela or any other a colony but it doesn’t have to do that. It just has to show that it is boss and the dominos will fall wherever it chooses.
Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-vs-the-world-invasion-occupation-disruption-u-s-imperialism-is-alive-and-well/5370906
By Margaret Kimberley
President Obama has placed whole nations on his Kill List. Syria and Venezuela are to join Libya and Iraq as states that have been made to fail, while Ukraine is snatched into the NATO-EU orbit. “The neo-conservative project for a new American century has reached full fruition under a Democratic president, who now has many notches on his gun.”
The word imperialism fell into disuse in recent decades. If it seems slightly retro, that is only because there aren’t enough Americans committed to telling the ugly truth about their government.
During the cold war era we were told that communism increased in influence via a domino effect, knocking down nations one by one and forcing them into Moscow’s or Beijing’s orbit. In the 21st century there is a new domino theory which puts every part of the world into America’s cross hairs.
Barack Obama has succeeded in expanding America’s influence in ways that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney could only dream about. The neo-conservative project for a new American century has reached full fruition under a Democratic president, who now has many notches on his gun. He and the rest of the NATO leaders began the trail of destruction with Libya, tearing that country asunder under the guise of saving it.
Using lies and their servants in the corporate media, they constructed a tale of a tyrant and a people yearning for protection. That evil success emboldened them and their gulf monarchy allies further and they decided that Syria would be the next domino.
That plan didn’t work quite as well as Obama and the rest of murder incorporated team thought it would. When the British parliament said no to new military adventures Obama was left sputtering on national television. He was forced to back down from an adamant position he had taken just days earlier.
The semi-comedic setback was only temporary because the monster must be fed at all cost. The system can no longer sustain itself and brute force is the only out. There is nothing old fashioned about imperialism. This malevolent force is still alive and well.
George W. Bush made efforts to overthrow the democratically elected Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela when he plotted with the opposition against the late Hugo Chavez. Obama is clearly more committed to violence than his predecessor and has helped to stir up right wing Venezuelans who want to rid themselves of Nicolas Maduro. Maduro has been weakened by the ginned up protests and is now forced into talks with an opposition that won’t be satisfied until he is dead and gone too.
The Venezuelan people have voted for their revolution numerous times. The U.S., a country that never ceases to call itself a democracy, has thwarted their clearly expressed will time and time again. But that is the essence of empire after all.
While armed force against Syria was temporarily blocked, the West, the Persian gulf monarchies, Israel, and jihadists have not given up their effort to topple the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. The savage war has made thousands of Syrians homeless and starving refugees, all because the empire needs its next domino.
Not only does United States meddles in its own backyard, it also relentlessly interferes on the other side of the world in far away Ukraine. Popular discontent against that country’s president became a successful effort to bring that country into the western sphere of economic influence but with the awful strings of austerity attached. Ukraine has the choice of going bankrupt or being bailed out and dying a slow death a la Greece.
While the machinations were afoot, president Obama warned Vladimir Putin away with threats of sanctions. The scenes of sometimes violent street protests in Ukraine made a fortuitous tableau for the United States which claimed the infamous “responsibility to protect” which never protects anyone who actually needs help and which has brought so much suffering to people around the world. Every invasion, occupation and disruption in recent years can be laid at the feet of the United States and its allies. Iraq has been destroyed quite literally, Iran has been destroyed economically. Libya was taken out and Syria is on the brink.
The United States quite openly makes it clear that it wants to have its way in the world. If Russia attempts to use its influence then it is vilified and caricatured as a cruel dictatorship controlled by a tyrant. No matter how many elections Chavez and now Maduro won, they are called dictators by American talking heads.
A superpower can foment conflict anywhere it wants to at anytime it chooses. Venezuelans must knuckle under or face the prospect of more turmoil and violence. Ukraine must sign onto economic policies which have already proven disastrous. The United States leaves its fingerprints in these and many other places and that is the essence of imperialism. It is all about control with the rawest brute force available.
The United States hasn’t officially made Venezuela or any other a colony but it doesn’t have to do that. It just has to show that it is boss and the dominos will fall wherever it chooses.
Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-vs-the-world-invasion-occupation-disruption-u-s-imperialism-is-alive-and-well/5370906
Dead bankers...
Are 9 Dead Bankers A Sign Of Pending Economic Collapse?
Hello, I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. Something very big and very bad is happening. Prominent bankers are dying in droves. Have you ever heard of eight bankers committing suicide in a matter of just a few weeks?
A ninth banker was found dead only days ago. What is driving successful bankers with families to kill themselves in droves?
Here’s the tip-off that this is a very big story: The mainstream media are not covering it. There are nine dead bankers (and counting), and the story isn’t even mentioned in the national news. That itself is a major news story.
Bankers are dying so fast, you’d think they were all dentists. You get the joke, right? Dentists have the highest suicide rate of any profession. Sometimes, you need a little humor to brighten up a very dark story. But keep in mind, at no time in history have nine dentists all died under mysterious circumstances in a matter of a few weeks.
Why are so many bankers dying? Are the media asleep at the switch? Afraid to dig deeper? Ordered not to investigate? By whom? The government? Or are the media perhaps afraid for their own lives if they dig deeper? You think that sounds a bit absurd? Well not really. A Wall Street Journal reporter named David Bird, who covers the commodities market, is missing. As in gone. As in never seen again. He left his home on Jan. 11 and never returned. Was he working on this story?
Something smells rotten in Denmark, because nine dead bankers and a missing reporter should be a huge headline story.
And if anyone has been watching closely, five other major bankers died in either suicides or mysterious circumstances in 2013. That’s 14 dead bankers.
Someone is going to win a major journalist prize for investigating a high-profile story like this. But for some mysterious reason, no one in the mainstream media seems interested. Doesn’t that alone make you nervous?
This story is real. The dead are:
■William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG.
■Karl Slym, 51-year-old Tata Motors managing director.
■Gabriel Magee, 39-year-old JPMorgan banker.
■Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a U.S. investment bank.
■Richard Talley, the 57-year-old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colo.
■Tim Dickenson, U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG.
■Ryan Henry Crane, 37-year-old executive at JPMorgan.
■Li Junjie, 33-year-old Hong Kong banker.
■James Stewart Jr., former CEO of the National Bank of Commerce.
James Stewart? You know something very bad is going on when a bank CEO named Jimmy Stewart is found dead. I guess it’s not such “a wonderful life” after all.
How they died is strange and mysterious, too. Two of these successful bankers jumped off the roofs of their high-rise office buildings. Just like that, bankers decide to take a stroll off the top of their office buildings? One of the bankers was ruled a “suicide” after being shot eight times from head to toe with a nail gun.
Am I the only one who finds this creepy and worrisome? Do you know anyone brave or insane enough to commit suicide by nail gun?
So what’s going on? I’ll give you two theories.
My first educated guess is we are headed for an epic economic collapse. The mainstream media has fed the public lies about a non-existent “recovery” and dutifully reported the government’s manipulated economic reports (filled with fraud). But these bankers are smart guys who know the truth. What’s coming is very, very bad. As I argued in my national bestseller, The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide, we are entering the greatest depression of all time.
What caused this economic Armageddon? Spending, entitlements and debt. Who caused it? Government, led by corrupt, ignorant and reckless politicians. If I were the lead detective on this case, I’d be investigating who had the most to gain from a cover-up. My investigation would start and end with government collusion, corruption, bailouts and bribery.
Governments all over the world have taxed, spent and printed us into oblivion. America’s debt crisis will make Greece look like a walk in the park. This is too big to paper over. When America collapses, the entire rest of the world crumbles with us. Even creative and corrupt government bureaucrats making up fraudulent economic statistics can’t cover this one up. There is no way out from the coming crash. I’m guessing that knowledge might cause a banker who sees the writing on the wall to take a walk off the roof of his high-rise.
But that still doesn’t explain shooting yourself with a nail gun eight times from head to toe. No one wants to die that slowly and painfully. That sounds more like torture to me. And torture is what leads to murder. Perhaps some or all of these bankers were murdered. Perhaps they didn’t walk off their high-rise buildings. Perhaps they were pushed.
Perhaps the Colorado bank CEO was being “questioned” when the nail gun went off… eight times. I guess the interrogators didn’t like his answers.
But why would someone murder bankers? My educated guess is these are smart guys who knew too much. Perhaps they knew about government manipulation and fraud. Perhaps they knew their banks were not in the wonderful shape their manipulated balance sheets showed. Perhaps they had information about government collusion and corruption in the banking system. Perhaps they were threatening to expose government’s lies and fraud. Perhaps they knew about the trillions of dollars in derivatives held by banks and Wall Street firms about to implode and take world economy with it.
I’m just making educated guesses. But something is very wrong. Something bad is coming. Nine dead bankers is a very messy start of a very big story the mainstream media don’t want you to know about.
I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. See you next week. Same time, same place. God bless America. And thank God I’m not a banker.
Link:
http://personalliberty.com/2014/02/27/are-9-dead-bankers-a-sign-of-pending-economic-collapse/
Hello, I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. Something very big and very bad is happening. Prominent bankers are dying in droves. Have you ever heard of eight bankers committing suicide in a matter of just a few weeks?
A ninth banker was found dead only days ago. What is driving successful bankers with families to kill themselves in droves?
Here’s the tip-off that this is a very big story: The mainstream media are not covering it. There are nine dead bankers (and counting), and the story isn’t even mentioned in the national news. That itself is a major news story.
Bankers are dying so fast, you’d think they were all dentists. You get the joke, right? Dentists have the highest suicide rate of any profession. Sometimes, you need a little humor to brighten up a very dark story. But keep in mind, at no time in history have nine dentists all died under mysterious circumstances in a matter of a few weeks.
Why are so many bankers dying? Are the media asleep at the switch? Afraid to dig deeper? Ordered not to investigate? By whom? The government? Or are the media perhaps afraid for their own lives if they dig deeper? You think that sounds a bit absurd? Well not really. A Wall Street Journal reporter named David Bird, who covers the commodities market, is missing. As in gone. As in never seen again. He left his home on Jan. 11 and never returned. Was he working on this story?
Something smells rotten in Denmark, because nine dead bankers and a missing reporter should be a huge headline story.
And if anyone has been watching closely, five other major bankers died in either suicides or mysterious circumstances in 2013. That’s 14 dead bankers.
Someone is going to win a major journalist prize for investigating a high-profile story like this. But for some mysterious reason, no one in the mainstream media seems interested. Doesn’t that alone make you nervous?
This story is real. The dead are:
■William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG.
■Karl Slym, 51-year-old Tata Motors managing director.
■Gabriel Magee, 39-year-old JPMorgan banker.
■Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a U.S. investment bank.
■Richard Talley, the 57-year-old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colo.
■Tim Dickenson, U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG.
■Ryan Henry Crane, 37-year-old executive at JPMorgan.
■Li Junjie, 33-year-old Hong Kong banker.
■James Stewart Jr., former CEO of the National Bank of Commerce.
James Stewart? You know something very bad is going on when a bank CEO named Jimmy Stewart is found dead. I guess it’s not such “a wonderful life” after all.
How they died is strange and mysterious, too. Two of these successful bankers jumped off the roofs of their high-rise office buildings. Just like that, bankers decide to take a stroll off the top of their office buildings? One of the bankers was ruled a “suicide” after being shot eight times from head to toe with a nail gun.
Am I the only one who finds this creepy and worrisome? Do you know anyone brave or insane enough to commit suicide by nail gun?
So what’s going on? I’ll give you two theories.
My first educated guess is we are headed for an epic economic collapse. The mainstream media has fed the public lies about a non-existent “recovery” and dutifully reported the government’s manipulated economic reports (filled with fraud). But these bankers are smart guys who know the truth. What’s coming is very, very bad. As I argued in my national bestseller, The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide, we are entering the greatest depression of all time.
What caused this economic Armageddon? Spending, entitlements and debt. Who caused it? Government, led by corrupt, ignorant and reckless politicians. If I were the lead detective on this case, I’d be investigating who had the most to gain from a cover-up. My investigation would start and end with government collusion, corruption, bailouts and bribery.
Governments all over the world have taxed, spent and printed us into oblivion. America’s debt crisis will make Greece look like a walk in the park. This is too big to paper over. When America collapses, the entire rest of the world crumbles with us. Even creative and corrupt government bureaucrats making up fraudulent economic statistics can’t cover this one up. There is no way out from the coming crash. I’m guessing that knowledge might cause a banker who sees the writing on the wall to take a walk off the roof of his high-rise.
But that still doesn’t explain shooting yourself with a nail gun eight times from head to toe. No one wants to die that slowly and painfully. That sounds more like torture to me. And torture is what leads to murder. Perhaps some or all of these bankers were murdered. Perhaps they didn’t walk off their high-rise buildings. Perhaps they were pushed.
Perhaps the Colorado bank CEO was being “questioned” when the nail gun went off… eight times. I guess the interrogators didn’t like his answers.
But why would someone murder bankers? My educated guess is these are smart guys who knew too much. Perhaps they knew about government manipulation and fraud. Perhaps they knew their banks were not in the wonderful shape their manipulated balance sheets showed. Perhaps they had information about government collusion and corruption in the banking system. Perhaps they were threatening to expose government’s lies and fraud. Perhaps they knew about the trillions of dollars in derivatives held by banks and Wall Street firms about to implode and take world economy with it.
I’m just making educated guesses. But something is very wrong. Something bad is coming. Nine dead bankers is a very messy start of a very big story the mainstream media don’t want you to know about.
I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. See you next week. Same time, same place. God bless America. And thank God I’m not a banker.
Link:
http://personalliberty.com/2014/02/27/are-9-dead-bankers-a-sign-of-pending-economic-collapse/
But, we knew nothing about 9/11 before it happened???
FBI HAD INFORMANT PLANTED IN OSAMA BIN LADEN'S INNER CIRCLE SINCE 1993
OOPS!!! This is what happens when man's actions cause things to warm up...
Daniel Xu
As many as 100 anglers in Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake finally left the ice on Sunday after being stranded for three days in a blizzard. According to KSTP, employees from the nearby JR’s Resort were able to finally reach the ice fishermen after a storm cut them off on Thursday. Trapped roughly eight miles from solid land in 45 fish houses, some anglers said they did not sleep. Instead, they weathered the storm by fishing.
Angler Jason Strom tells KSTP that the three days he spent on Upper Red Lake was some of the best fishing he ever had, although he is relieved to be off the ice.
“I wasn’t sure we were going to make it off the ice alive, it was that scary,” he said.
KFGO reports that snowdrifts between four and seven feet high piled up around the fish houses during the course of the storm. The combined weight of the snow was so heavy, it began to break the ice. Some children and older anglers were taken to safety by snowmobiles, but the snow eventually grew so severe that the lake became impassable. Some parts of the lake became flooded as the weight of the snow broke through the ice, endangering the fishing houses as well. According to WDAY, rescuers decided that it was too dangerous to risk plows on the ice.
“Our house was almost underneath the (snowdrift) the wind was blowing so bad,” Strom said.
Link:
http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/dozens-ice-fishermen-rescued-minnesota-storm/
Is geoengineering helping to destroy the planet???
Geoengineering could cause real global warming
by: J. D. Heyes
Climate-change researchers at the University of Washington (UW), in considering a range of mitigation scenarios, say that the injection of sulfate particles into the earth's atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet's surface to curb warming might pose a further threat if it is not maintained indefinitely and additionally supported with strict restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
The results of the study, published Feb. 18 in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, "has highlighted the risks of large and spatially expansive temperature increases if solar radiation management (SRM) is abruptly stopped once it has been implemented," said a press release from the university.
The scientists said SRM is one proposed method of geoengineering that is being floated as a potential technique to control warming. It involves injecting tiny sulfate-based aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the planet -- theoretically, anyway.
"The technique has been shown to be economically and technically feasible; however, its efficacy depends on its continued maintenance, without interruption from technical faults, global cooperation breakdown or funding running dry," said the press release.
Temps could rise if the technique is stopped?
According to the UW study, global temperature increases could eventually double if SRM is implemented for a period of decades and then stopped suddenly -- in relation to expected temperature increases if the technique is not implemented at all.
The scientists utilized a global climate model to demonstrate that if an extreme emissions pathway -- RCP8.5 -- is followed up until the year 2035, which would allow for temperatures to rise 1°C above the 1970-1999 mean, and the technique is implemented for 25 years and then ended suddenly, global temperatures could rise by 4°C in the following decades.
Such a rate of increase, which would be caused by the resultant buildup of background greenhouse gas emissions, could grow beyond boundaries experienced in the 20th century, the scientists said.
"According to our simulations, tropical regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are hit particularly hard, the very same regions that are home to many of the world's most food insecure populations," said lead author of the research, Kelly McCusker, from the University of Washington. "The potential temperature changes also pose a severe threat to biodiversity."
"The primary control over the magnitude of the large temperature increases after an SRM shutoff is the background greenhouse gas concentrations. Thus, the greater the future emissions of greenhouse gases, the larger the temperature increases would be, and, similarly, the later the termination occurs while GHG emissions continue, the larger the temperature increases," continued McCusker. "The only way to avoid creating the risk of substantial temperature increases through SRM, therefore, is concurrent strong reductions of GHG emissions."
Not everyone is convinced that geoengineering is the right approach in the first place, however.
Need for perspective
"Although not necessarily a negative impact, measuring any potential of solar radiation management (including the use of stratospheric aerosol injection) is nearly impossible - the climate is too complex an entity in order to do so effectively," David Baake, an expert with Money Crashers, told me. "There's also the possibility that the use of such aerosols may actually decrease precipitation and rainfall on a global level. And since the possibility exists that such aerosols can transform into sulphuric acid, acid rain levels may rise.
"It may further deplete the ozone as well. And finally, the use of solar radiation management has its benefits," Baake continued, "but it does nothing to solve the underlying causes of global warming - it only serves as a stopgap solution."
Indeed, longtime environmental activist Pablo Solomon argues, the entire issue of global warming and climate change needs some perspective.
"The debate over 'climate change' should not be censored and the opposition bullied into submission," Solomon said in an email to Natural News. "The Left continues to literally threaten those who oppose the global warming view. It is nearly impossible to get a grant or even a university job if you openly oppose the global warming theory. I was appalled when President Obama basically said the debate was over so shut up and get in line. In science, the debate is never over and never should be."
Solomon added that, if anything, slight warming of the planet would be advantageous.
"We are over populated and what resources we have are poorly distributed," he said. "A slight climate change over several centuries--and that is what is really possible not a sudden sea level rise of Biblical proportions--would create vast new areas of farmland in Canada, Poland, Russia," and other cold regions of the planet.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044076_geoengineering_global_warming_solar_radiation.html#ixzz2uWVpox6F
by: J. D. Heyes
Climate-change researchers at the University of Washington (UW), in considering a range of mitigation scenarios, say that the injection of sulfate particles into the earth's atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet's surface to curb warming might pose a further threat if it is not maintained indefinitely and additionally supported with strict restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
The results of the study, published Feb. 18 in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, "has highlighted the risks of large and spatially expansive temperature increases if solar radiation management (SRM) is abruptly stopped once it has been implemented," said a press release from the university.
The scientists said SRM is one proposed method of geoengineering that is being floated as a potential technique to control warming. It involves injecting tiny sulfate-based aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the planet -- theoretically, anyway.
"The technique has been shown to be economically and technically feasible; however, its efficacy depends on its continued maintenance, without interruption from technical faults, global cooperation breakdown or funding running dry," said the press release.
Temps could rise if the technique is stopped?
According to the UW study, global temperature increases could eventually double if SRM is implemented for a period of decades and then stopped suddenly -- in relation to expected temperature increases if the technique is not implemented at all.
The scientists utilized a global climate model to demonstrate that if an extreme emissions pathway -- RCP8.5 -- is followed up until the year 2035, which would allow for temperatures to rise 1°C above the 1970-1999 mean, and the technique is implemented for 25 years and then ended suddenly, global temperatures could rise by 4°C in the following decades.
Such a rate of increase, which would be caused by the resultant buildup of background greenhouse gas emissions, could grow beyond boundaries experienced in the 20th century, the scientists said.
"According to our simulations, tropical regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are hit particularly hard, the very same regions that are home to many of the world's most food insecure populations," said lead author of the research, Kelly McCusker, from the University of Washington. "The potential temperature changes also pose a severe threat to biodiversity."
"The primary control over the magnitude of the large temperature increases after an SRM shutoff is the background greenhouse gas concentrations. Thus, the greater the future emissions of greenhouse gases, the larger the temperature increases would be, and, similarly, the later the termination occurs while GHG emissions continue, the larger the temperature increases," continued McCusker. "The only way to avoid creating the risk of substantial temperature increases through SRM, therefore, is concurrent strong reductions of GHG emissions."
Not everyone is convinced that geoengineering is the right approach in the first place, however.
Need for perspective
"Although not necessarily a negative impact, measuring any potential of solar radiation management (including the use of stratospheric aerosol injection) is nearly impossible - the climate is too complex an entity in order to do so effectively," David Baake, an expert with Money Crashers, told me. "There's also the possibility that the use of such aerosols may actually decrease precipitation and rainfall on a global level. And since the possibility exists that such aerosols can transform into sulphuric acid, acid rain levels may rise.
"It may further deplete the ozone as well. And finally, the use of solar radiation management has its benefits," Baake continued, "but it does nothing to solve the underlying causes of global warming - it only serves as a stopgap solution."
Indeed, longtime environmental activist Pablo Solomon argues, the entire issue of global warming and climate change needs some perspective.
"The debate over 'climate change' should not be censored and the opposition bullied into submission," Solomon said in an email to Natural News. "The Left continues to literally threaten those who oppose the global warming view. It is nearly impossible to get a grant or even a university job if you openly oppose the global warming theory. I was appalled when President Obama basically said the debate was over so shut up and get in line. In science, the debate is never over and never should be."
Solomon added that, if anything, slight warming of the planet would be advantageous.
"We are over populated and what resources we have are poorly distributed," he said. "A slight climate change over several centuries--and that is what is really possible not a sudden sea level rise of Biblical proportions--would create vast new areas of farmland in Canada, Poland, Russia," and other cold regions of the planet.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044076_geoengineering_global_warming_solar_radiation.html#ixzz2uWVpox6F
So you think you are a vegetarian???
So you say you're a vegetarian? Have you fact-checked that?
by: Antonia
We all have certain ways of eating and the reasons that propel those choices vary. Some of us never use the microwave because of studies that show how it changes the properties of foods, making it toxic. Many of us are raw foodists, enjoying the benefits of foods in their most natural, unheated, non-processed state. A few of us like monofruiting, believing that focusing on one kind of fruit for extended periods of time does our bodies good. And then there's the whole vegetarian thing.
Many individuals refrain from eating meats and foods that don't have animal byproducts. They love their healthy choices from both a moral, animal-friendly and a healthy, body-friendly standpoint. The horrific conditions that animals live in, not to say anything of the manner in which they are slaughtered (and naturally, the fact that they are slaughtered in the first place) just for the enjoyment of a summer sizzle on the grill, is upsetting and harmful for our bodies. We get that. But, my vegetarian friends, I'm sorry to say that while you've been diligently doing your part to keep the cow bells echoing on sunny pastures throughout the world, you may have overlooked something that has rendered you, well, not so much of a vegetarian after all.
Rennet: a cheese-making enzyme and the surprising place it comes from
Here's the deal: if you've been eating cheeses labeled as having no rBST hormones and the like, don't think for one minute that this means those farm-grazing cuties have been spared. Time to become familiar with the word, "rennet." It's an enzyme that helps to separate the milk into solid curds and liquid whey during the cheese-making process and it's in lots of cheeses, even your beloved ones with labels that come with an rBST or rBGH-free promise.
Where does that enzyme come from? The lining of calves' (and sometimes lambs') stomachs. So if the little darling doesn't become a breaded dinnertime cutlet or something to be enjoyed with mint jelly, chances are, it ends up as the ideal source for some nasty stomach-scraping all in the name of speeding up the way cheeses are made. Yikes.
As the saying goes, "but wait, there's more." There's even genetically modified (GM) rennet but it's not like you think, from calves. It's Franken-made in labs, so you get the pleasure of spreading the goodness of a bacterial and fungal process all over that sesame-seed cracker.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044085_rennet_vegetarianism_GMO_foods.html#ixzz2uWVQhJEv
by: Antonia
We all have certain ways of eating and the reasons that propel those choices vary. Some of us never use the microwave because of studies that show how it changes the properties of foods, making it toxic. Many of us are raw foodists, enjoying the benefits of foods in their most natural, unheated, non-processed state. A few of us like monofruiting, believing that focusing on one kind of fruit for extended periods of time does our bodies good. And then there's the whole vegetarian thing.
Many individuals refrain from eating meats and foods that don't have animal byproducts. They love their healthy choices from both a moral, animal-friendly and a healthy, body-friendly standpoint. The horrific conditions that animals live in, not to say anything of the manner in which they are slaughtered (and naturally, the fact that they are slaughtered in the first place) just for the enjoyment of a summer sizzle on the grill, is upsetting and harmful for our bodies. We get that. But, my vegetarian friends, I'm sorry to say that while you've been diligently doing your part to keep the cow bells echoing on sunny pastures throughout the world, you may have overlooked something that has rendered you, well, not so much of a vegetarian after all.
Rennet: a cheese-making enzyme and the surprising place it comes from
Here's the deal: if you've been eating cheeses labeled as having no rBST hormones and the like, don't think for one minute that this means those farm-grazing cuties have been spared. Time to become familiar with the word, "rennet." It's an enzyme that helps to separate the milk into solid curds and liquid whey during the cheese-making process and it's in lots of cheeses, even your beloved ones with labels that come with an rBST or rBGH-free promise.
Where does that enzyme come from? The lining of calves' (and sometimes lambs') stomachs. So if the little darling doesn't become a breaded dinnertime cutlet or something to be enjoyed with mint jelly, chances are, it ends up as the ideal source for some nasty stomach-scraping all in the name of speeding up the way cheeses are made. Yikes.
As the saying goes, "but wait, there's more." There's even genetically modified (GM) rennet but it's not like you think, from calves. It's Franken-made in labs, so you get the pleasure of spreading the goodness of a bacterial and fungal process all over that sesame-seed cracker.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044085_rennet_vegetarianism_GMO_foods.html#ixzz2uWVQhJEv
Kill your TV...
Personocratia
Media Control
Schooling plays a big role in programming the population, but the most potent and prevalent educational tools are the mass media. These are devised to reach a large audience via the broadcasting of information through natural means (spoken or written language, posters) or technological ones (radio, television, cinema, the Internet). With time, the elite has come to control all the important mass media outlets and are now able to dictate their contents.
The trick is easy. All the elite need to do is repeat the same simplistic lies in all the media and the population will believe them without a doubt. This is how lies acquire an irresistible aura of credibility. A specialist of mass brainwashing, L. Wolfe, explains it further:
“As Tavistock’s researchers showed, it was important that the victims of mass brainwashing not be aware that their environment was being controlled; there should thus be a vast number of sources for information, whose messages could be varied slightly, so as to mask the sense of external control.”
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Wolfe specified that the contents had to be entertaining and leave the impression that the person always had the choice between various messages and sources. Therefore, the same repetitive information remains hidden behind different and appealing guises.
Tavistock
Around 1920, theTavistock Institute became the center for the study of human behavior, mind control, propaganda, and social manipulation. Created in London, it spread overseas with the financial help of the Rockefeller Foundation. Its influence increased when it combined the study of anthropology, economy, organizations, politics, psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and sociology. For example, Tavistock organized social phenomena such as the hippie counterculture and the use of mind-altering drugs. Its primary objectives were and still remain the organization of cultural changes through the imposition of chaos and the occult manipulation of special groups. With a 2012 budget of around 6 billion USD, it is now made up of 10 institutions, 400 subsidiary companies, and 3,000 study groups. In secret, Tavistock guides powerful multinationals such as the Rand Corp. (media, politics, commerce, health, education, defense), the Mitre Corp. (defense, revenue, national security), the Stanford and Hudson Institutes,
After 90 years of research, Tavistock’s main discovery concerns child sexuality. This has a great influence on the development of personality. Early sex stimulation produces adults whose emotional development is similar to that of a neurotic child. Their second discovery is related to stress. Tavistock researchers found out that people under controlled stress became more infantile and gave up strongly held beliefs under group pressure to conform to popular opinion. That explains why the mass media insist so much on sex, violence, and fear-inducing messages. We are being turned into scared, submissive children who try to evade the stress of daily life through emotional masturbation – television, radio, CDs, DVDs, movies, and video games.
Television
Westerners spend four plus hours a day, the equivalent of two months a year, or nine years in a lifetime, being hypnotized by a television screen without being conscious of the effects this activity has on them. They have nearly stopped interacting with friends, neighbors, community, and even family. Their free time is spent in imaginary relationships with fictitious characters on the screen.
A few US statistics will show us the extent of the phenomenon: 99 % of households own at least one TV; there are 2.24 TVs per family; the television remains open 7 hours a day; 66 % eat in front of their television sets. The addiction starts right after birth, since 30% of kids who are 0 to 1 year old and 47 % of the 5 to 8 year-olds have televisions in their rooms. A typical US child spends 3.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with a parent, but 1680 minutes per week in front of TV. Is this why television is called the “one-eyed babysitter”? By the time they are 65, most people have seen 2,000,000 TV ads. This phenomenon is becoming global.
The entire population of earth has become addicted to television. If one decides to quit the TV habit, they experience psychological withdrawal symptoms that can be as severe as those related to drug or alcohol abuse. There is a direct relationship between child obesity – which is severe for 11% of 6 to 17 year olds in US – and advertisements, since the most popular types of commercials are related to junk food. A study counted more than 200 junk food ads during four hours of cartoons on Saturday morning television in the US. When compared with radio listening, television is more impactful because there are pictures. The more there are to accompany a special news report, the more tangible it will seem and the lesser the chance of people questioning its accuracy. Media expert Hal Becker once said:
“I know the secret of making the average American believe anything I want him to. Just let me control television… You put something on the television and it becomes reality. If the world outside the TV set contradicts the images, people start trying to change the world to make it like the TV set images.”
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How is it that the elite have been so successful in achieving full control of television programming? Through the assistance of government. Politicians vote and impose laws that favor large TV stations over smaller ones and make it difficult for independent ideas to reach the airwaves. Better yet, most countries have their own sanitized State television stations.
Mass Hypnosis and Mass Violence
Tavistock hastened to study the effects of television on human behavior as early as the 1940′s. Its researchers discovered that 30 seconds after one starts watching TV, the brain automatically begins to produce alpha waves, a modified state of consciousness. The viewer goes into a trance-like mode, a type of light hypnosis. All their attention becomes concentrated on the screen, while the rest of their environment is ignored. In this semi-conscious state, they become highly susceptible to the messages contained in the programs, especially the commercials, which are created especially for that purpose.
Television started becoming popular in the fifties, and the elite have now accumulated more than 60 years of experience spread over three generations of viewers. The results are staggering. People are no longer logical, as their opinions and ideas come directly from television. The images validate what they hear. This filter of tele-opinions gets automatically superimposed over their daily reality, and have become passive members of a plugged-in society, and can no longer think, talk, or write logically. For them, images and knowledge are synonymous.
In Europe, violence on television is as critical as in America. Specialized stations such as Baby TV and Baby First broadcast programs for babies 24/7. When toddlers are one year old, they are already watching at least one hour of television a day. Statistics from 1988 showed that during one week of TV watching, viewers witness 670 murders, 15 rapes, 848 fights, 419 shootings or explosions, 11 armed robberies, 8 suicides, 32 hostage takings, 27 torture scenes, 9 defenestrations, 13 strangulations, and 11 war scenes. Nowadays, these types of events are not reserved to late hours. For example, Quebec’s popular TQS station presented the movie Terminator at 6:30 pm – just in time for kids.
And it’s Getting Worse!
Ever heard of Silent Sound Spread Spectrum or SSSS? It is a secret Pentagon psychotronic technology that has been operational since 1990. In 1991, it was used during the first Gulf War to manipulate Iraqi troops into surrendering en masse. Like compliant children, 200,000 men came out of their desert bunkers and fell to their knees before approaching US troops.
The SSSS is now available in your neighborhood – free of charge. It is carried to your brain with the use of several technologies, including chemtrails, cell towers and high definition digital television (HD-TV). In this way, the elite is aiming for total mind control to insure the compliance of its sheeple. Now you know why the government was so enthusiastic about letting us get digital converter boxes for a cheap price, becaue they want us to have access to high-quality television images.
Big Brother goes even further with digital streaming video that allows any person with a personal computer linked to the Internet to access and watch popular television programs. This is available for free through companies such as Hulu. In this way, computer monitors and HD-TV screens broadcast SSSS and combine it with subliminally-pulsed images to bring about specific emotions and physical responses to all listeners or a selected type of DNA (Blacks, Orientals, women, etc.). If the elite has a sample of a person’s DNA, it can even target selected individuals. Experimentation has shown that it is effective – with varying levels of efficiency – with about 85% of the population, while the remaining 15% seem to be immune to such mind control attempts.
What Should We Do?
What should we do now that we know? Well, truth is useless if we do not change our actions.
Number one: throw out the television. Even without this new mind-control technology, the television has always been a “box of lies.” Watching TV lowers one’s intelligence, and many statistics are there to prove it. Forget the “good educational shows” that are simply there to misinform you.
Number two: limit the time you spend in front of the computer and on the internet, and never watch TV shows from the Internet.
Number three: avoid other sources of do not use cell phones (whether ‘smart’ or not). Basically, it is like putting your head in the microwave oven and pushing the ‘ON’ button. It is difficult to avoid chemtrails, but living a TV-free and cellphone-free life is possible – you get so much more time to read, think (for yourself), meditate, exercise, cook, and keep good company.
The elite have hijacked our brains with their technology, but we still have our free will. We can choose to use it or not to use it. Which one will you choose?
Link:
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/02/26/brain-washing-social-control-programming-kill-your-television/
"...what NSA was doing was exactly what the Soviet’s tried to do (as well as the Stasi and the Gestapo/SS)."
White House Panelist On NSA – and Former Counterterror Czar – Says NSA May Enable a “Police State”
Washington’s Blog
Richard Clarke is one of the four White House panelists on NSA spying, and the former top counter-terror czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Clarke has previously said that mass surveillance isn’t needed to keep us safe. And see this.
As Tech Target reports:
Revelations about NSA monitoring activities over the last year show the potential for a police state mechanism, according to the former U.S. cybersecurity czar, but there is still time to avoid the dire consequences.
***
“[T]hey have created, with the growth of technologies, the potential for a police state.”
***
“Once you give up your rights, you can never get them back. Once you turn on that police state, you can never turn it off.”
Indeed, top American officials have warned for decades of a police state enabled by the NSA.
And a former top NSA official said that we’ve already got a police state. He told Washington’s Blog:
I am glad he [Clarke] also understands the threat to democracy.
The only reason I recognized that in 2001 is because I worked the Soviet problem for close to 30 years … and what NSA was doing was exactly what the Soviet’s tried to do (as well as the Stasi and the Gestapo/SS).
Read more:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/white-house-panelist-nsa-former-counterterror-czar-says-nsa-potential-police-state.html
Washington’s Blog
Richard Clarke is one of the four White House panelists on NSA spying, and the former top counter-terror czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Clarke has previously said that mass surveillance isn’t needed to keep us safe. And see this.
As Tech Target reports:
Revelations about NSA monitoring activities over the last year show the potential for a police state mechanism, according to the former U.S. cybersecurity czar, but there is still time to avoid the dire consequences.
***
“[T]hey have created, with the growth of technologies, the potential for a police state.”
***
“Once you give up your rights, you can never get them back. Once you turn on that police state, you can never turn it off.”
Indeed, top American officials have warned for decades of a police state enabled by the NSA.
And a former top NSA official said that we’ve already got a police state. He told Washington’s Blog:
I am glad he [Clarke] also understands the threat to democracy.
The only reason I recognized that in 2001 is because I worked the Soviet problem for close to 30 years … and what NSA was doing was exactly what the Soviet’s tried to do (as well as the Stasi and the Gestapo/SS).
Read more:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/white-house-panelist-nsa-former-counterterror-czar-says-nsa-potential-police-state.html
"If a democratically elected president and ruling party are so easily driven from power by armed neo-nazis, what chance do Washington’s paid stooges among the so-called “moderates” have of forming a government? These are the corrupt people who wanted President Yanukovich out of office so that they could take the money instead. The corruption charge against Yanukovich was cover for the disloyal, undemocratic “moderate” schemers to seize power and be paid millions of dollars by Washington for taking Ukraine into the EU and NATO."
Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Declare that Power Comes Out of the Barrels of their Guns
Paul Craig Roberts
Reality on the ground in Ukraine contradicts the incompetent and immoral Obama regime’s portrait of Ukrainian democracy on the march.
To the extent that government exists in post-coup Ukraine, it is laws dictated by gun and threat wielding thugs of the neo-Nazi, Russophobic, ultra-nationalist, right-wing parties. Watch the video of the armed thug, Aleksandr Muzychko, who boosts of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya, dictating to the Rovno regional parliament a grant of apartments to families of protesters. http://rt.com/news/radical-opposition-intimidating-techniques-882/
Read about the neo-nazis intimidating the Central Election Commission in order to secure rule and personnel changes in order to favor the ultra-right in the forthcoming elections. Thug Aleksandr Shevchenko informed the CEC that armed activists will remain in CEC offices in order to make certain that the election is not rigged against the neo-nazis. What he means, of course, is the armed thugs will make sure the neo-nazis win. If the neo-nazis don’t win, the chances are high that they will take power regardless.
Members of President Yanukovich’s ruling party, the Party of Regions, have been shot, had arrest warrants issued for them, have experienced home invasions and physical threats, and are resigning in droves in hopes of saving the lives of themselves and their families. The prosecutor’s office in the Volyn region (western Ukraine) has been ordered by ultra-nationalists to resign en masse .
Jewish synagogs and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches are being attacked.
To toot my own horn, I might have been the first and only to predict that Washington’s organization of pro-EU Ukrainian politicians into a coup against the elected government of Ukraine would destroy democracy and establish the precedent that force prevails over elections, thereby empowering the organized and armed extreme right-wing.
This is precisely what has happened. Note that there was no one in the Obama regime who had enough sense to see the obvious result of their smug, self-satisfied interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.
If a democratically elected president and ruling party are so easily driven from power by armed neo-nazis, what chance do Washington’s paid stooges among the so-called “moderates” have of forming a government? These are the corrupt people who wanted President Yanukovich out of office so that they could take the money instead. The corruption charge against Yanukovich was cover for the disloyal, undemocratic “moderate” schemers to seize power and be paid millions of dollars by Washington for taking Ukraine into the EU and NATO.
The Washington-paid schemers are now reaping their just reward as they sit in craven silence while neo-nazi Muzychko wielding an Ak-47 challenges government officials to their face: “I dare you take my gun!”
Only Obama, Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, Washington’s European puppets, and the Western prostitute media can describe the brutal reality of post-coup Ukraine as “the forward march of democracy.”
The West now faces a real mess, and so does Russia. The presstitutes will keep the American public from ever knowing what has happened, and the Obama regime will never admit it. It is not always clear that even the Russians want to admit it. The intelligent, reasonable, and humane Russian Foreign Minister, a person 100 cuts above the despicable John Kerry, keeps speaking as if this is all a mistake and appealing to the Western governments to stand behind the agreement that they pressured President Yanukovich to sign.
Yanukovich is history, as are Washington’s “moderates.” The moderates are not only corrupt; they are stupid. The fools even disbanded the Riot Police, leaving themselves at the mercy of the armed right-wing nazi thugs.
Ukraine is out of control. This is what happens when an arrogant, but stupid, Assistant Secretary of State (Victoria Nuland) plots with an equally arrogant and stupid US ambassador (Pyatt) to put their candidates in power once their coup against the elected president succeeds. The ignorant and deluded who deny any such plotting occurred can listen to the conversation between Nuland and Pyatt here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM&feature=player_embedded
The situation will almost certainly lead to war. Only Putin’s diplomatic skills could prevent it. However, Putin has been demonized by Washington and the whores who comprise the US print and TV media. European and British politicians would have their Washington paychecks cut off if they aligned with Putin.
War is unavoidable, because the Western public is out to lunch. The more facts and information I provide, the more emails I receive defending the “sincere [and well paid] protesters’ honest protests against corruption,” as if corruption were the issue. I hear from Ukrainians and from those of Ukrainian ethnicity in Canada and the US that it is natural for Ukrainians to hate Russians because Ukrainians suffered under communism, as if suffering under communism, which disappeared in 1991, is unique to Ukrainians and has anything to do with the US coup that has fallen into neo-nazi hands,
No doubt. Many suffered under communism, including Russians. But was the suffering greater than the suffering of Japanese civilians twice nuked by the “Indispensable people,” or the suffering by German civilians whose cities were firebombed, like Tokyo, by the “exceptional people”?
Today Japan and Germany are Washington’s puppet states. In contrast, Ukraine was an independent country with a working relationship with Russia. It was this relationship that Washington wished to destroy.
Now that a reckless and incompetent Washington has opened Pandora’s Box, more evil has been released upon the world. The suffering will not be confined to Ukraine.
There are a number of reasons why the situation is likely to develop in a very bad way. One is that most people are unable to deal with reality even when reality directly confronts them. When I provide the facts as they are known, here are some of the responses I receive: “You are a Putin agent;” “you hate Ukrainians;” “you are defending corruption;” “you must not know how Ukrainians suffered at the hands of Stalin.”
Of course, having done Russian studies in graduate school, having been a member of the US-USSR student exchange program in 1961, having traveled in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, having published in scholarly journals of Slavic and Russian studies, having twice addressed the Soviet Academy of Sciences, having been invited to explain to the CIA why the Soviet economic collapse occurred despite the CIA’s predictions to the contrary, I wouldn’t know anything about how people suffered under communism. The willingness of readers to display to me their utter ignorance and stupidity is astonishing. There is a large number of people who think reality consists of their delusions.
Reality is simply too much for mentally and emotionally weak people who are capable of holding on to their delusions in the face of all evidence to the contrary. The masses of deluded people and the total inability of Washington, wallowing it its hubris, to admit a mistake, mean that Washington’s destabilization of Ukraine is a problem for us all.
RT reports that “Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent military drill to test combat readiness of the armed forces across western and central Russia.” According to Russia’s Defense Minister, the surprise drill tested ground troops, Air Force, airborne troops and aerospace defense. http://rt.com/news/putin-drill-combat-army-864/
The Defense Minister said: “The drills are not connected with events in Ukraine at all.”
Yes, of course. The Defense Minister says this, because Putin still hopes that the EU will come to its senses. In my opinion, and I hope I am wrong, the European “leaders” are too corrupted by Washington’s money to have any sense. They are bought-and-paid-for. Nothing is important to them but money.
Ask yourself, why does Russia need at this time an urgent readiness test unrelated to Ukraine? Anyone familiar with geography knows that western and central Russia sit atop Ukraine.
Let us all cross our fingers that another war is not the consequence of the insouciant American public, the craven cowardice of the presstitute media, Washington’s corrupt European puppets, and the utter mendacity of the criminals who rule in Washington.
Link:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
Paul Craig Roberts
Reality on the ground in Ukraine contradicts the incompetent and immoral Obama regime’s portrait of Ukrainian democracy on the march.
To the extent that government exists in post-coup Ukraine, it is laws dictated by gun and threat wielding thugs of the neo-Nazi, Russophobic, ultra-nationalist, right-wing parties. Watch the video of the armed thug, Aleksandr Muzychko, who boosts of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya, dictating to the Rovno regional parliament a grant of apartments to families of protesters. http://rt.com/news/radical-opposition-intimidating-techniques-882/
Read about the neo-nazis intimidating the Central Election Commission in order to secure rule and personnel changes in order to favor the ultra-right in the forthcoming elections. Thug Aleksandr Shevchenko informed the CEC that armed activists will remain in CEC offices in order to make certain that the election is not rigged against the neo-nazis. What he means, of course, is the armed thugs will make sure the neo-nazis win. If the neo-nazis don’t win, the chances are high that they will take power regardless.
Members of President Yanukovich’s ruling party, the Party of Regions, have been shot, had arrest warrants issued for them, have experienced home invasions and physical threats, and are resigning in droves in hopes of saving the lives of themselves and their families. The prosecutor’s office in the Volyn region (western Ukraine) has been ordered by ultra-nationalists to resign en masse .
Jewish synagogs and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches are being attacked.
To toot my own horn, I might have been the first and only to predict that Washington’s organization of pro-EU Ukrainian politicians into a coup against the elected government of Ukraine would destroy democracy and establish the precedent that force prevails over elections, thereby empowering the organized and armed extreme right-wing.
This is precisely what has happened. Note that there was no one in the Obama regime who had enough sense to see the obvious result of their smug, self-satisfied interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.
If a democratically elected president and ruling party are so easily driven from power by armed neo-nazis, what chance do Washington’s paid stooges among the so-called “moderates” have of forming a government? These are the corrupt people who wanted President Yanukovich out of office so that they could take the money instead. The corruption charge against Yanukovich was cover for the disloyal, undemocratic “moderate” schemers to seize power and be paid millions of dollars by Washington for taking Ukraine into the EU and NATO.
The Washington-paid schemers are now reaping their just reward as they sit in craven silence while neo-nazi Muzychko wielding an Ak-47 challenges government officials to their face: “I dare you take my gun!”
Only Obama, Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, Washington’s European puppets, and the Western prostitute media can describe the brutal reality of post-coup Ukraine as “the forward march of democracy.”
The West now faces a real mess, and so does Russia. The presstitutes will keep the American public from ever knowing what has happened, and the Obama regime will never admit it. It is not always clear that even the Russians want to admit it. The intelligent, reasonable, and humane Russian Foreign Minister, a person 100 cuts above the despicable John Kerry, keeps speaking as if this is all a mistake and appealing to the Western governments to stand behind the agreement that they pressured President Yanukovich to sign.
Yanukovich is history, as are Washington’s “moderates.” The moderates are not only corrupt; they are stupid. The fools even disbanded the Riot Police, leaving themselves at the mercy of the armed right-wing nazi thugs.
Ukraine is out of control. This is what happens when an arrogant, but stupid, Assistant Secretary of State (Victoria Nuland) plots with an equally arrogant and stupid US ambassador (Pyatt) to put their candidates in power once their coup against the elected president succeeds. The ignorant and deluded who deny any such plotting occurred can listen to the conversation between Nuland and Pyatt here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM&feature=player_embedded
The situation will almost certainly lead to war. Only Putin’s diplomatic skills could prevent it. However, Putin has been demonized by Washington and the whores who comprise the US print and TV media. European and British politicians would have their Washington paychecks cut off if they aligned with Putin.
War is unavoidable, because the Western public is out to lunch. The more facts and information I provide, the more emails I receive defending the “sincere [and well paid] protesters’ honest protests against corruption,” as if corruption were the issue. I hear from Ukrainians and from those of Ukrainian ethnicity in Canada and the US that it is natural for Ukrainians to hate Russians because Ukrainians suffered under communism, as if suffering under communism, which disappeared in 1991, is unique to Ukrainians and has anything to do with the US coup that has fallen into neo-nazi hands,
No doubt. Many suffered under communism, including Russians. But was the suffering greater than the suffering of Japanese civilians twice nuked by the “Indispensable people,” or the suffering by German civilians whose cities were firebombed, like Tokyo, by the “exceptional people”?
Today Japan and Germany are Washington’s puppet states. In contrast, Ukraine was an independent country with a working relationship with Russia. It was this relationship that Washington wished to destroy.
Now that a reckless and incompetent Washington has opened Pandora’s Box, more evil has been released upon the world. The suffering will not be confined to Ukraine.
There are a number of reasons why the situation is likely to develop in a very bad way. One is that most people are unable to deal with reality even when reality directly confronts them. When I provide the facts as they are known, here are some of the responses I receive: “You are a Putin agent;” “you hate Ukrainians;” “you are defending corruption;” “you must not know how Ukrainians suffered at the hands of Stalin.”
Of course, having done Russian studies in graduate school, having been a member of the US-USSR student exchange program in 1961, having traveled in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, having published in scholarly journals of Slavic and Russian studies, having twice addressed the Soviet Academy of Sciences, having been invited to explain to the CIA why the Soviet economic collapse occurred despite the CIA’s predictions to the contrary, I wouldn’t know anything about how people suffered under communism. The willingness of readers to display to me their utter ignorance and stupidity is astonishing. There is a large number of people who think reality consists of their delusions.
Reality is simply too much for mentally and emotionally weak people who are capable of holding on to their delusions in the face of all evidence to the contrary. The masses of deluded people and the total inability of Washington, wallowing it its hubris, to admit a mistake, mean that Washington’s destabilization of Ukraine is a problem for us all.
RT reports that “Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent military drill to test combat readiness of the armed forces across western and central Russia.” According to Russia’s Defense Minister, the surprise drill tested ground troops, Air Force, airborne troops and aerospace defense. http://rt.com/news/putin-drill-combat-army-864/
The Defense Minister said: “The drills are not connected with events in Ukraine at all.”
Yes, of course. The Defense Minister says this, because Putin still hopes that the EU will come to its senses. In my opinion, and I hope I am wrong, the European “leaders” are too corrupted by Washington’s money to have any sense. They are bought-and-paid-for. Nothing is important to them but money.
Ask yourself, why does Russia need at this time an urgent readiness test unrelated to Ukraine? Anyone familiar with geography knows that western and central Russia sit atop Ukraine.
Let us all cross our fingers that another war is not the consequence of the insouciant American public, the craven cowardice of the presstitute media, Washington’s corrupt European puppets, and the utter mendacity of the criminals who rule in Washington.
Link:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
The courts are kidnapping our kids...
Child-Stealers and Prison Profiteers: A Case Study
By William Norman Grigg
“The Court, in its infinite wisdom, has committed your child, based on risk and needs.”
From the introductory video “Your Child Has Been Committed to The Juvenile Corrections System”
For reasons beyond his control, it had taken Donny* three attempts to complete his senior year in high school. On his twentieth birthday, Donny was three days from finishing the classwork necessary to graduate from the Rebound School of Opportunity in Meridian, Idaho. All he had left was to make an oral presentation of his senior report. He had already been offered a post-graduation job at Valley Truss, a local construction service and supply store.
At home, Donny’s father and mother, David and Norma, had prepared a party in honor of their oldest son’s birthday and his anticipated graduation. When they got home from school, Donny’s siblings, Larry and Sally*, were eager to celebrate with their older brother. But Donny didn’t come home from school that day. Just before classes ended, he was dragged away in handcuffs by his probation officer, Robert Youngkin and taken to the Ada County Jail, where he will remain until April 28.
Over the past six years, Donny has been incarcerated in a variety of institutions, from “treatment centers” in both Idaho and Utah to the Idaho Department Juvenile Corrections Center in Nampa. The juvenile facility in Nampa has become notorious for corruption and sexual exploitation of inmates by guards and other staff members.
In 2008, Donny pleaded guilty to charges of indecent exposure and battery as a result of an incident with his younger brother and sister that did not involve physical contact.
“Norma and I went to Papa Murphy’s to pick up some pizzas for dinner,” David recounted to Pro Libertate. “We were gone just a few minutes – not even a half hour – and we left Donny here in charge of the younger kids. He was 14 at the time, and he seemed able to handle things. Besides, it was just down the block.”
At the time, Sally was six years of age, and Larry was ten. When Dave and Norma returned, Sarah told them that Donny had “asked us to take our clothes off.”
“We were upset and worried, of course, and we tried to find out immediately what had happened,” Dave related. “As far as we could tell, it wasn’t as if he had abused the kids, or even touched them. It was a `You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine’ kind of thing, which is bad, and wrong, but it was not anywhere near as bad as we were afraid it might be.”
Still, out of an abundance of caution, and acting as conscientious parents, Dave and Norma decided to have their daughter examined.
“We took Sarah to the hospital right away, and she was fine,” Dave reports. However, the hospital visit resulted in a mandatory report to social workers and police, and Donny was in custody before his parents returned...
Read more here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/william-norman-grigg/a-fascist-gulag/
By William Norman Grigg
“The Court, in its infinite wisdom, has committed your child, based on risk and needs.”
From the introductory video “Your Child Has Been Committed to The Juvenile Corrections System”
For reasons beyond his control, it had taken Donny* three attempts to complete his senior year in high school. On his twentieth birthday, Donny was three days from finishing the classwork necessary to graduate from the Rebound School of Opportunity in Meridian, Idaho. All he had left was to make an oral presentation of his senior report. He had already been offered a post-graduation job at Valley Truss, a local construction service and supply store.
At home, Donny’s father and mother, David and Norma, had prepared a party in honor of their oldest son’s birthday and his anticipated graduation. When they got home from school, Donny’s siblings, Larry and Sally*, were eager to celebrate with their older brother. But Donny didn’t come home from school that day. Just before classes ended, he was dragged away in handcuffs by his probation officer, Robert Youngkin and taken to the Ada County Jail, where he will remain until April 28.
Over the past six years, Donny has been incarcerated in a variety of institutions, from “treatment centers” in both Idaho and Utah to the Idaho Department Juvenile Corrections Center in Nampa. The juvenile facility in Nampa has become notorious for corruption and sexual exploitation of inmates by guards and other staff members.
In 2008, Donny pleaded guilty to charges of indecent exposure and battery as a result of an incident with his younger brother and sister that did not involve physical contact.
“Norma and I went to Papa Murphy’s to pick up some pizzas for dinner,” David recounted to Pro Libertate. “We were gone just a few minutes – not even a half hour – and we left Donny here in charge of the younger kids. He was 14 at the time, and he seemed able to handle things. Besides, it was just down the block.”
At the time, Sally was six years of age, and Larry was ten. When Dave and Norma returned, Sarah told them that Donny had “asked us to take our clothes off.”
“We were upset and worried, of course, and we tried to find out immediately what had happened,” Dave related. “As far as we could tell, it wasn’t as if he had abused the kids, or even touched them. It was a `You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine’ kind of thing, which is bad, and wrong, but it was not anywhere near as bad as we were afraid it might be.”
Still, out of an abundance of caution, and acting as conscientious parents, Dave and Norma decided to have their daughter examined.
“We took Sarah to the hospital right away, and she was fine,” Dave reports. However, the hospital visit resulted in a mandatory report to social workers and police, and Donny was in custody before his parents returned...
Read more here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/william-norman-grigg/a-fascist-gulag/
"Liberty is rarely lost overnight. It is lost slowly and in the name of safety. In the name of keeping us safe, the feds have spied on the lawyers who negotiate with them, lied to the lawyers whose clients they are prosecuting and misrepresented their behavior to the Supreme Court."
New Assaults on American Law
By Andrew P. Napolitano
In the months since Edward Snowden revealed the nature and extent of the spying that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been perpetrating upon Americans and foreigners, some of the NSA’s most troublesome behavior has not been a part of the public debate. This behavior constitutes the government’s assaults on the American legal system. Those assaults have been conducted thus far on two fronts, one of which is aimed at lawyers who represent foreign entities here in America, and the other is aimed at lawyers who represent criminal defendants against whom evidence has been obtained unlawfully and presented in court untruthfully.
Investigative reporters at The New York Times recently discovered that the NSA has been listening to the telephone conversations between lawyers at a highly regarded Chicago law firm and their clients in Indonesia. The firm, Mayer Brown, has remained publicly silent about the revelations, as has its client, the government of Indonesia. But it is well known that Mayer Brown represents the government of Indonesia concerning trade regulations that govern exports of cigarettes and shrimp to the U.S. The lawyers on the other side of the bargaining table from Mayer Brown work for the federal government, which also employs, of course, the NSA.
Can the NSA lawfully tell lawyers for the government who are negotiating with Mayer Brown lawyers what it overheard between the Mayer Brown lawyers and their client? The answer, incredibly, is: Yes. Federal rules prohibit the NSA from sharing knowledge with lawyers for the federal government only about persons who have been indicted. In this case, Mayer Brown is attempting to negotiate favorable trade relations between Indonesia and the U.S., and the lawyers for the U.S. have the unfair advantage of knowing in advance the needs, negotiating positions and strategy of their adversaries. In the Obama years, this is how the feds work: secretly, unfairly and in utter derogation of the attorney-client privilege.
For 100 years, that privilege — the right of lawyers and their clients to speak freely and without the knowledge of the government or their adversaries — has been respected in the U.S., until now. Now, we have a lawyer who, as president, uses the NSA to give him advance warning of what his office visitors are about to ask him. And now we have lawyers for the federal government who work for the president and can know of their adversaries’ most intimate client communications.
This is profoundly unfair, as it gives one side a microscope on the plans of the other. It is unwise, too, as clients will be reluctant to open up to counsel when they know that the NSA could spill the beans to the other side. In the adversarial context, for the system to work fairly and effectively, it is vital that clients be free to speak with their lawyers without the slightest fear of government intrusion, particularly when the government is on the other side of the deal or the case.
If you have spoken to a lawyer recently and if that lawyer is dealing with the federal government on your behalf, you can thank the constitutional scholar in the Oval Office for destroying the formerly privileged nature of your conversations.
But that is not the only legal protection that President Obama has destroyed. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case in which journalists in the pre-Snowden era challenged the government’s spying on them. The government won the case largely because it persuaded the court that the journalists did not have standing to bring the lawsuit because, the court ruled, their fears of being spied upon were only hypothetical: They suspected that their communications with their sources were being monitored, but they couldn’t prove it. In this post-Snowden era, we now know that the journalists in that case were being spied upon.
Nevertheless, during the oral argument in that case, government lawyers told the high court that should government prosecutors acquire from the NSA evidence of criminal behavior against anyone whom they eventually would prosecute and should they wish to use that evidence in the prosecution, the Justice Department would inform defense counsel of the true source of the evidence so that the defendant would have the ability to challenge the evidence.
Yet, last week, in a case in federal court in Oregon, the same Justice Department that told the highest court in the land last year that it would dutifully and truthfully reveal its sources of evidence — as case law requires and even when the source is an NSA wiretap — told a federal district court judge that it had no need or intention of doing so. If this practice of using NSA wiretaps as the original source of evidence in criminal cases and keeping that information from the defendants against whom it is used is permitted, we will have yet another loss of liberty.
Federal law requires that criminal prosecutions be commenced after articulable suspicion about the crime and the defendant. Prosecutions cannot be commenced by roving through intelligence data obtained through extra-constitutional means. That is the moral equivalent of throwing a dart at a dart board that contains the names of potential defendants and prosecuting the person whose name the dart hits.
For the past 75 years, federal prosecutors have not been permitted to use unlawfully obtained evidence in criminal cases, and they have been required to state truthfully the sources of their evidence so that its lawfulness can be tested. This rule generally has served to keep law enforcement from breaking the laws it has sworn to uphold by denying to its agents the fruits of their own unlawful activity.
Liberty is rarely lost overnight. It is lost slowly and in the name of safety. In the name of keeping us safe, the feds have spied on the lawyers who negotiate with them, lied to the lawyers whose clients they are prosecuting and misrepresented their behavior to the Supreme Court. As far as the public record reveals, they have not corrected that misrepresentation. They have done all of this in utter defiance of well-settled law and procedures and constitutional safeguards.
What will they do next?
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/andrew-p-napolitano/in-the-old-america/
By Andrew P. Napolitano
In the months since Edward Snowden revealed the nature and extent of the spying that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been perpetrating upon Americans and foreigners, some of the NSA’s most troublesome behavior has not been a part of the public debate. This behavior constitutes the government’s assaults on the American legal system. Those assaults have been conducted thus far on two fronts, one of which is aimed at lawyers who represent foreign entities here in America, and the other is aimed at lawyers who represent criminal defendants against whom evidence has been obtained unlawfully and presented in court untruthfully.
Investigative reporters at The New York Times recently discovered that the NSA has been listening to the telephone conversations between lawyers at a highly regarded Chicago law firm and their clients in Indonesia. The firm, Mayer Brown, has remained publicly silent about the revelations, as has its client, the government of Indonesia. But it is well known that Mayer Brown represents the government of Indonesia concerning trade regulations that govern exports of cigarettes and shrimp to the U.S. The lawyers on the other side of the bargaining table from Mayer Brown work for the federal government, which also employs, of course, the NSA.
Can the NSA lawfully tell lawyers for the government who are negotiating with Mayer Brown lawyers what it overheard between the Mayer Brown lawyers and their client? The answer, incredibly, is: Yes. Federal rules prohibit the NSA from sharing knowledge with lawyers for the federal government only about persons who have been indicted. In this case, Mayer Brown is attempting to negotiate favorable trade relations between Indonesia and the U.S., and the lawyers for the U.S. have the unfair advantage of knowing in advance the needs, negotiating positions and strategy of their adversaries. In the Obama years, this is how the feds work: secretly, unfairly and in utter derogation of the attorney-client privilege.
For 100 years, that privilege — the right of lawyers and their clients to speak freely and without the knowledge of the government or their adversaries — has been respected in the U.S., until now. Now, we have a lawyer who, as president, uses the NSA to give him advance warning of what his office visitors are about to ask him. And now we have lawyers for the federal government who work for the president and can know of their adversaries’ most intimate client communications.
This is profoundly unfair, as it gives one side a microscope on the plans of the other. It is unwise, too, as clients will be reluctant to open up to counsel when they know that the NSA could spill the beans to the other side. In the adversarial context, for the system to work fairly and effectively, it is vital that clients be free to speak with their lawyers without the slightest fear of government intrusion, particularly when the government is on the other side of the deal or the case.
If you have spoken to a lawyer recently and if that lawyer is dealing with the federal government on your behalf, you can thank the constitutional scholar in the Oval Office for destroying the formerly privileged nature of your conversations.
But that is not the only legal protection that President Obama has destroyed. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case in which journalists in the pre-Snowden era challenged the government’s spying on them. The government won the case largely because it persuaded the court that the journalists did not have standing to bring the lawsuit because, the court ruled, their fears of being spied upon were only hypothetical: They suspected that their communications with their sources were being monitored, but they couldn’t prove it. In this post-Snowden era, we now know that the journalists in that case were being spied upon.
Nevertheless, during the oral argument in that case, government lawyers told the high court that should government prosecutors acquire from the NSA evidence of criminal behavior against anyone whom they eventually would prosecute and should they wish to use that evidence in the prosecution, the Justice Department would inform defense counsel of the true source of the evidence so that the defendant would have the ability to challenge the evidence.
Yet, last week, in a case in federal court in Oregon, the same Justice Department that told the highest court in the land last year that it would dutifully and truthfully reveal its sources of evidence — as case law requires and even when the source is an NSA wiretap — told a federal district court judge that it had no need or intention of doing so. If this practice of using NSA wiretaps as the original source of evidence in criminal cases and keeping that information from the defendants against whom it is used is permitted, we will have yet another loss of liberty.
Federal law requires that criminal prosecutions be commenced after articulable suspicion about the crime and the defendant. Prosecutions cannot be commenced by roving through intelligence data obtained through extra-constitutional means. That is the moral equivalent of throwing a dart at a dart board that contains the names of potential defendants and prosecuting the person whose name the dart hits.
For the past 75 years, federal prosecutors have not been permitted to use unlawfully obtained evidence in criminal cases, and they have been required to state truthfully the sources of their evidence so that its lawfulness can be tested. This rule generally has served to keep law enforcement from breaking the laws it has sworn to uphold by denying to its agents the fruits of their own unlawful activity.
Liberty is rarely lost overnight. It is lost slowly and in the name of safety. In the name of keeping us safe, the feds have spied on the lawyers who negotiate with them, lied to the lawyers whose clients they are prosecuting and misrepresented their behavior to the Supreme Court. As far as the public record reveals, they have not corrected that misrepresentation. They have done all of this in utter defiance of well-settled law and procedures and constitutional safeguards.
What will they do next?
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/andrew-p-napolitano/in-the-old-america/
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
OOPS!!!
The Mainstream Finally Admits the Planet is Cooling
Chris Carrington
A study by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has concluded that the solar cycle and volcanic activity both have a cooling effect on the planet. The report appears in the Journal: Nature Geoscience.
This admission from mainstream scientists that even though greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising, the temperatures at the surface are not, is a major blow to the theory of global warming. It may not seem like much, but it’s a big deal. This study proves that the heat that would be generated by the rise in greenhouse gases is nullified by natural processes that are beyond the control of man.
“In the last decade, the amount of volcanic aerosol in the stratosphere has increased, so more sunlight is being reflected back into space,” said Lawrence Livermore climate scientist Benjamin Santer, who serves as lead author of the study. “This has created a natural cooling of the planet and has partly offset the increase in surface and atmospheric temperatures due to human influence.”
From 2000-2012, emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have increased — as they have done since the Industrial Revolution. This human-induced change typically causes the troposphere to warm and the stratosphere to cool. In contrast, large volcanic eruptions cool the troposphere and warm the stratosphere. The researchers report that early 21st century volcanic eruptions have contributed to this recent “warming hiatus,” and that most climate models have not accurately accounted for this effect.
“The recent slow-down in observed surface and tropospheric warming is a fascinating detective story,” Santer said. “There is not a single culprit, as some scientists have claimed. Multiple factors are implicated. One is the temporary cooling effect of internal climate noise. Other factors are the external cooling influences of 21st century volcanic activity, an unusually low and long minimum in the last solar cycle, and an uptick in Chinese emissions of sulfur dioxide.
“The real scientific challenge is to obtain hard quantitative estimates of the contributions of each of these factors to the slow-down.” (source)
The effect of volcanism on global temperatures is well known and has been proven numerous times. What’s interesting though is that the study refers to volcanic eruptions in the early years of the 21st century. In comparison to other decades there has not been an excessive amount of large volcanic eruptions. There has been nothing on the scale of Mount St Helens, or Pinatubo, and nothing even approaching the size of Tambora or Krackatoa.
The volcanic activity we have seen has been at very moderate levels, and it’s interesting to note that even these moderate levels have managed to wipe out the effects of rising green house gases. It’s the amount of volcanoes that have been erupting rather than the size of specific eruptions:
So many volcanoes throwing so much gas, ash and particulates into the air can have an effect on climate, this is a scientific fact. I’m not saying that these volcanoes herald the start of a new ice age but the planet certainly seems to be getting a bit more active of late.
Continued large eruptions put a huge amount of particulate matter into the atmosphere, and these particles reflect sunlight away from earth and when there is enough of them the temperatures can drop. (source)
Changes caused by the solar cycle happen quite slowly, and any cooling effect from low solar activity is most likely from cycle 23, which was quite long but with relatively low activity. This has affected cycle 24, which is also turning out to be longer than average, but with even lower activity levels that cycle 23. The cooling effects of cycle 24 will be felt during the coming decade or two.
Solar cycle 25 is the one that is really scaring the scientists. In a couple of years the polar fields will start to appear, they will gradually mature, and solar cycle 25 will begin around 2020. It is predicted to be the smallest cycle in centuries causing even more cooling as time goes on.
The fact that a mainstream scientific publication is acknowledging these changes is a major step forward in ending the global warming hype that is costing us so much, both financially and in a lack of preparation for the decades of cold weather that will soon be upon us.
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-mainstream-finally-admits-the-planet-is-cooling_022014#sthash.20Rk38bv.dpuf
Chris Carrington
A study by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has concluded that the solar cycle and volcanic activity both have a cooling effect on the planet. The report appears in the Journal: Nature Geoscience.
This admission from mainstream scientists that even though greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising, the temperatures at the surface are not, is a major blow to the theory of global warming. It may not seem like much, but it’s a big deal. This study proves that the heat that would be generated by the rise in greenhouse gases is nullified by natural processes that are beyond the control of man.
“In the last decade, the amount of volcanic aerosol in the stratosphere has increased, so more sunlight is being reflected back into space,” said Lawrence Livermore climate scientist Benjamin Santer, who serves as lead author of the study. “This has created a natural cooling of the planet and has partly offset the increase in surface and atmospheric temperatures due to human influence.”
From 2000-2012, emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have increased — as they have done since the Industrial Revolution. This human-induced change typically causes the troposphere to warm and the stratosphere to cool. In contrast, large volcanic eruptions cool the troposphere and warm the stratosphere. The researchers report that early 21st century volcanic eruptions have contributed to this recent “warming hiatus,” and that most climate models have not accurately accounted for this effect.
“The recent slow-down in observed surface and tropospheric warming is a fascinating detective story,” Santer said. “There is not a single culprit, as some scientists have claimed. Multiple factors are implicated. One is the temporary cooling effect of internal climate noise. Other factors are the external cooling influences of 21st century volcanic activity, an unusually low and long minimum in the last solar cycle, and an uptick in Chinese emissions of sulfur dioxide.
“The real scientific challenge is to obtain hard quantitative estimates of the contributions of each of these factors to the slow-down.” (source)
The effect of volcanism on global temperatures is well known and has been proven numerous times. What’s interesting though is that the study refers to volcanic eruptions in the early years of the 21st century. In comparison to other decades there has not been an excessive amount of large volcanic eruptions. There has been nothing on the scale of Mount St Helens, or Pinatubo, and nothing even approaching the size of Tambora or Krackatoa.
The volcanic activity we have seen has been at very moderate levels, and it’s interesting to note that even these moderate levels have managed to wipe out the effects of rising green house gases. It’s the amount of volcanoes that have been erupting rather than the size of specific eruptions:
So many volcanoes throwing so much gas, ash and particulates into the air can have an effect on climate, this is a scientific fact. I’m not saying that these volcanoes herald the start of a new ice age but the planet certainly seems to be getting a bit more active of late.
Continued large eruptions put a huge amount of particulate matter into the atmosphere, and these particles reflect sunlight away from earth and when there is enough of them the temperatures can drop. (source)
Changes caused by the solar cycle happen quite slowly, and any cooling effect from low solar activity is most likely from cycle 23, which was quite long but with relatively low activity. This has affected cycle 24, which is also turning out to be longer than average, but with even lower activity levels that cycle 23. The cooling effects of cycle 24 will be felt during the coming decade or two.
Solar cycle 25 is the one that is really scaring the scientists. In a couple of years the polar fields will start to appear, they will gradually mature, and solar cycle 25 will begin around 2020. It is predicted to be the smallest cycle in centuries causing even more cooling as time goes on.
The fact that a mainstream scientific publication is acknowledging these changes is a major step forward in ending the global warming hype that is costing us so much, both financially and in a lack of preparation for the decades of cold weather that will soon be upon us.
See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-mainstream-finally-admits-the-planet-is-cooling_022014#sthash.20Rk38bv.dpuf
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