TIME FOR BRENNAN TO GO!
"It (policies initiated and supported by Mr. Brennan) goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country*"
*US Senator Paul Rand, on floor of Senate during filibuster against Mr. Brennan's nomination as CIA director.
In my view, Mr. Brennan, is another one of the unfortunate "hold-overs" from the Bush Administration. Like some others of his vintage, he has become more of a threat to our Democracy than the bulwark against terror he claims to be. He serves at President Obama's discretion. But his past history and recent actions should make it clear to the White House that it is time for Mr. Brennan's departure.
Mr. Brennan has an unfortunate similarity to disgraced former President Nixon. Like Tricky Dick, the only President to have had to resign from office, Mr. Brennan's long training as a CIA operative, has left him tinged with a nixonian paranoia that does not serve him or the nation he serves well, at a time when the USA is attempting to pull itself away from an errant and violent past. And like Mr. Nixon, he has an unfortunate willingness to break the law or norms of morality if these serve his ambition, or those of his superiors. These are two dangerous tendencies for a supposed servant of the PEOPLE in a Democracy. They led to Nixon's utter disgrace and downfall. Evidence now on display about Brennan seem to suggest a similar path.
Let us recall that Mr. John O. Brennan organized and publicly supported the CIA torture policies and the rendition of resistant suspects to foreign countries where they would be tortured in an even more brutal manner. Due to these and other activities in the CIA his reputation only two years ago was such that he could not be confirmed by the Senate. President Obama skirted that stumbling block by setting him up in the position of "chief counter terrorism advisor", a position which did not need confirmation. In Obama's second term he was confirmed. Mr. Brennan has been cited in the past for using terms and phrases which suggest he believes his mission is a holy war against Islam. He has been the architect and supporter of President Obama's highly criticized and questionable use of targeted assassinations by drone. He is responsible for efforts to intensify the militarization of the CIA into a "uncontrolled and secrete" organization designed to terrorize and assassinate enemies of the state. He was the architect of the expansion of the drone assassination program into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiating world condemnation of the USA and concern about our adherence to international law and standards, and of the legality, morality and effectiveness of these efforts. He helped establish and organize the "kill list" of individuals outside of the congressionally authorized war zone for assassination by drone. He is the architect of a more permanent secret system known as the "Disposition Matrix" which is a permanent secret "tool" of the executive branch designed to track, capture, render to another venue for torture, or kill enemies of the state. His efforts during his long career have been to dangerously concentrate lethal power in the executive branch and at the same time to discourage oversight of that power, giving the executive ability to incriminate, judge, target, and execute anyone it considered an "enemy"...regardless of where that person resided in the world or even if he or she was a US citizen.
There are numerous examples of Mr. Brennan's deceptions, half truths and perversions of the truth. In his profession disinformation and prevarications are the stock and trade. One example: In a June 2011 speech Brennan made the jaw-dropping assertion that "there had not been a single collateral death in more than 100 CIA covert drone strikes in Pakistan". But he made that statement only three months after the CIA had rained drone missiles down on what the CIA claimed was a militant's camp, but what turned out to be a gathering of tribal leaders--a tribal council-- conducting a hearing over a mining dispute in North Waziristan. The CIA strikes killed 45 innocent men. Brennan late claimed he did not dissimulate. He was able to claim "zero collateral kills" as a result of the way the CIA counts "kills". Since all the 45 individuals were men between the ages of 12 and 65, they were all defined as "militants" and therefore legitimate targets! This is an insight into how Mr. Brennan thinks and operates.
Senator Rand Paul in his filibuster speech in the Senate stated that in effect: the thrust of Mr. Brennan's efforts in the last decades and as Director of the CIA has resulted in a process in which the chief executive can charge an individual, judge the guilt of that person and execute him or her with no oversight by Congress. He concluded that " it goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country."
Is it now such a surprise that this same individual is accused of a "flat out treason" ( by Representative Darrel Issa, chair, House Oversight Committee) for turning his organization's spooks against the Congress itself when it spied on the Senate intelligence Committee?
Two days ago, on March 11, 2014 the Washington Post reported on an extraordinary speech from the floor of the US Senate. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee openly accused the CIA under Mr. Brennan of "secretly removing documents, searching (Senate staff) computers used by the committee, and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct." Feinstein called the conflict with Brennan a "defining moment" for Congressional ability to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies. This author believes that if there is no meaningful oversight of our executive branch, we then no longer have a democracy. What we have is some form of phony "elected oligarchy". Feinstein warned that she had grave concerns that the CIA had violated the separation of powers clause of the Constitution. Mr. Brennan quickly denied the validity of Senator Feinstein's charges. But this is a man who also stated with a straight face that there were "zero collateral kills after 100 drone strikes in Pakistan". I suspect that he was applying another one of his Jesuitical semanticisms. Or was it a simple prevarication?
The background behind this outburst of Senate ire is related to the long-running investigation conducted by the Senate intelligence Committee into the conduct of the CIA, during the Bush Administration post 9-11. The CIA and the Senate Committee are at odds about the long-awaited document that is being produced by Feinstein's committee. The committee's report will soon be delivered to the White House where it may remain...in a classified state ---unless President Obama gets up the cohones to release it to the public. Let's hope he does. We all deserve to know what Brennan and his CIA employees have been doing( besides burning tapes of torture procedures)..and not doing, in the name of the people.
What we do know now, based on revelations from Senator Feinstein's speech, and earlier revelations, is that the CIA and the committee disagree over the conclusions of the nearly completed 6000 page report which concerns what the CIA did and did not do to Al Qaida suspects, how the CIA tortured and how they transported these individuals to other countries (rendition) where even more excessive and brutal procedures were used. Brennan would obviously like to prevent this missive from seeing the light of day. He has apparently been doing his best to sabotage committee efforts and prevent it being published. What else would you expect? Mr. Brennan was himself an architect of the very procedures that are only now becoming public knowledge. We can expect that the report will make this clear. According to Feinstein, the torture and rendition policy was far worse than was originally revealed and a horrible example of procedures and policies that should never have been permitted to occur.
Finally, let me say this. This critically important story is indeed a turning point in our nation'a history. How it plays out will establish what kind of a nation we really are. It has also revealed the errors of Mr. Obama's policies. Our President won his first election handily and the electorate expected and deserved a change in the government's direction and policies. It sought and required a clean sweep of the elements of the Bush Administration, and the prosecution and punishment of those (Mr. Brennan among them) who broke the laws. But what we got was a motley crew. The new administration was a mix of progressive men and women mixed in with a cadre of hard-core holdovers from the discredited Bush and Clinton Administrations. As a consequence, Mr.Obama, morphed into a intellectual, dark skinned "Bush light" with better oratory. This new president obviously did not have the experience, political skill, or stomach for the confrontations that were required to take the reins of the nation in a new direction as was his mandate from both elections. He has as a result, weakened the people who supported him, his country, and his party. Perhaps he should have never run.....
Of course, we can always hope. He still has years left. Can he still become the transformative president he wanted to be?
He could start by sacking Brennan.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
UKRAINE CRISIS: US MEDDLING NOT PUTIN TO BLAME
The view from up here in the snow-covered Green Mountains of Vermont is much at odds with what we read and hear from the media in rest of the nation. The news outlets are all rushing to make a Hitler out of Mr.Putin. Well don't agree, but we don't go around much up here with our jeeps and SUVs draped in the Stars and Stripes either. Not that we wouldn't protect what is ours and what’s best for the nation. Maybe it's the clear cold air...and the isolation that permits a person more time to think things over.
In the "Greens" we are not so happy with Mr.Obama’s recent Ukraine foreign policy. How we see it is this. First of all we didn't like his meddling in the internal affairs of that nation. He and his out-of control-CIA and the left-over neocons in the State Department from the failed Bush Administration went a step to far in their efforts to destabilize the Yanukovych middle-of-the-road government and replace it with a hand picked, pro- US, pro-western one. That might seem like a worthy cause to some. But given the geography, history and population of that nation, it was a dumb policy and one that was bound for obvious failure. The Obamaans should have known that.
Given the population of Ukraine, much of its russophone population is in the south and east, and many natives are sympathetic to Russia and fearful of losing their jobs in the event that nation was to hitch up with the EU. In addition, the prospect of another NATO-run entity bristling with armaments right on Russia’s doorstep made Putin squirm. With these and other facts the prospects of a successful US led coup..was not very likely and would likely just stir up dissension and cause a lot of bloodshed. In fact more than 77 people died on both sides in Kiev, partly as a result of US meddling. It looks to me like the original plan--for it was a US plan--was a step too far. Clearly it was overreaching. This by the uncertain Obama administration and the unsophisticated fringe elements in the State Department who view meddling in the affairs of another nation, regardless of the damage done, as simply part of their mandate. The vulgar “F--k the EU” comment by Ms.Nuland of State revealed just how over the top, deeply committed and involved the USA was in generating this coup.
Mr. Putin's response to US meddling on his doorstep and attempts at closing off his vital access to a warm water harbor, were readily predictable. Wiser more sophisticated leadership in Washington should have foreseen the dangers of their foolhardy “shoot from the hip” policy. The result was the Crimea takeover by Mr. Putin that left Mr. Obama and his gang of neophytes flatfooted---again. It is Mr. Putin who seems to be the much better chess player. Obama has again exposed his weaknesses to the world. Mr. Putin is probably secretly blowing kisses to our man in the White House, since he would not have been able to move into the Crimea as he has without Mr.Obama’s unwitting help.
In this dangerous game between the US and Russia the EU is (wisely) a less-than-avid player who has much to loose economically. Russia supplies it with much of its oil and gas and in turn purchases much of its manufactured goods. One would think that the EU would or should have learned its lesson after being sucked in by the US into the economic and military morass of Iraq and Afghanistan. My advice to the those in Brussels is this...start thinking on your own and stop letting Washington lead you by the nose. The neophytes inside of the Beltway do not know what they are doing. There has to be wiser more sophisticated and adult leadership somewhere in Europe. Also, its time to drop the UK! Cameron and his ilk are just a stalking horse for US interests. Wise up EU. Just say “NO” to the next dumb plan the US presents to you. More leadership from Brussels might just make the world a safer better place for us all.
In the "Greens" we are not so happy with Mr.Obama’s recent Ukraine foreign policy. How we see it is this. First of all we didn't like his meddling in the internal affairs of that nation. He and his out-of control-CIA and the left-over neocons in the State Department from the failed Bush Administration went a step to far in their efforts to destabilize the Yanukovych middle-of-the-road government and replace it with a hand picked, pro- US, pro-western one. That might seem like a worthy cause to some. But given the geography, history and population of that nation, it was a dumb policy and one that was bound for obvious failure. The Obamaans should have known that.
Given the population of Ukraine, much of its russophone population is in the south and east, and many natives are sympathetic to Russia and fearful of losing their jobs in the event that nation was to hitch up with the EU. In addition, the prospect of another NATO-run entity bristling with armaments right on Russia’s doorstep made Putin squirm. With these and other facts the prospects of a successful US led coup..was not very likely and would likely just stir up dissension and cause a lot of bloodshed. In fact more than 77 people died on both sides in Kiev, partly as a result of US meddling. It looks to me like the original plan--for it was a US plan--was a step too far. Clearly it was overreaching. This by the uncertain Obama administration and the unsophisticated fringe elements in the State Department who view meddling in the affairs of another nation, regardless of the damage done, as simply part of their mandate. The vulgar “F--k the EU” comment by Ms.Nuland of State revealed just how over the top, deeply committed and involved the USA was in generating this coup.
Mr. Putin's response to US meddling on his doorstep and attempts at closing off his vital access to a warm water harbor, were readily predictable. Wiser more sophisticated leadership in Washington should have foreseen the dangers of their foolhardy “shoot from the hip” policy. The result was the Crimea takeover by Mr. Putin that left Mr. Obama and his gang of neophytes flatfooted---again. It is Mr. Putin who seems to be the much better chess player. Obama has again exposed his weaknesses to the world. Mr. Putin is probably secretly blowing kisses to our man in the White House, since he would not have been able to move into the Crimea as he has without Mr.Obama’s unwitting help.
In this dangerous game between the US and Russia the EU is (wisely) a less-than-avid player who has much to loose economically. Russia supplies it with much of its oil and gas and in turn purchases much of its manufactured goods. One would think that the EU would or should have learned its lesson after being sucked in by the US into the economic and military morass of Iraq and Afghanistan. My advice to the those in Brussels is this...start thinking on your own and stop letting Washington lead you by the nose. The neophytes inside of the Beltway do not know what they are doing. There has to be wiser more sophisticated and adult leadership somewhere in Europe. Also, its time to drop the UK! Cameron and his ilk are just a stalking horse for US interests. Wise up EU. Just say “NO” to the next dumb plan the US presents to you. More leadership from Brussels might just make the world a safer better place for us all.
Friday, March 7, 2014
CALL IT: WEATHER INTENSIFICATION NOT "GLOBAL WARMING"
NOT GLOBAL WARMING BUT WEATHER INTENSIFICATION
Yesterday, while shoveling the fluffy white stuff during our tenth or twelfth major snow storm this year, I got a friendly glove-handed wave from my middle aged and politically conservative neighbor “Jimmy”. We were both struggling again to clear our side-by-side snow-covered driveways. Jimmy, a retired NY City police officer often chided me about “global warming”, aware of my many years of teaching meteorology and climatology. So on this obviously very cold and snowy day he called over the high mounds of snow piled between the driveways: "So are you pointy headed guys still claiming that we are having “global warming"?
“That’s a misnomer,” I countered. “A better term for what we are having is “GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.”
“Oh, so your changing your story huh? So what does THAT mean?
I waved him over into my opened garage, out of the wind and driving snow. He was cold and tired so he quietly acquiesced. I figured I had him at a disadvantage. Perhaps I could actually clear up his muddled thinking, and also avoid having to listen to ad nauseum repetitions of his "Fox News” talking-points at least about climate .
“The fact is the earth as a whole is actually warming a great deal. The reason is that we are constantly dumping increasing amounts of what are known as “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Our cars, trucks, buses, all spew gases that make the air warmer. Then too we also release the same gases from our heating systems, we rely greatly on trucks for transport of our goods. Almost our entire economy runs on fossil fuels.Burning those fuels generate carbon dioxide gas which builds up in the atmosphere. That gas (and others too) has the property of absorbing heat and making the atmosphere warmer. The more CO2 in the air, the warmer the air gets. But we are also intensifying the problem by eliminating forests which naturally recycle CO2 and extract it from the atmosphere. As you well know we are cutting down our forests, and pasting over natural areas with asphalt, bull dozing down down green trees to make housing developments and parking lots. You just have to take a look at the pictures of the earth on Google Maps. Roads, expanses cleared land, industrial areas, parking lots, housing developments have replaced vast areas formerly covered by greenery and much of this has occurred in only the last few decades. This is not only happening here in the USA but all over the world.
He nodded his head. That seemed OK he had heard that before and it made sense. “It’s possible he admitted.”
He pulled me over to the open garage door. “Look out there! That’s what we got today. How is this snow evidence of a warmer globe?”
My response: “The earth’s atmosphere IS warming...but as in many things, the answer is not so simple. The increased warming is not ONLY manifested as warmer temperatures. (Though that is what we see here every summer). The earth’s atmosphere is a giant machine which cycles the energy from the sun. Because the earth is a near globe the heat is mostly absorbed in a belt around the equator. The atmosphere is a fluid that moves heat around. It spreads that heat absorbed in the equatorial area through the atmosphere by winds and cyclonic storms which bring rain, snow, violent winds, increased cloud cover, and hurricanes too. So when we dump “heat-absorber gases” into the atmosphere as a result of our quest for energy we also we make the earth warmer in that equatorial zone. But the EFFECTS of increased atmospheric temperatures are felt throughout the globe...because air is a fluid and it moves around. The effects of heating are:more and bigger storms, more rain, more snow, more instability and more unpredictability in the atmosphere..that is: in three words GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.
So besides pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere to make the globe warmer, we are also simultaneously intensifying the effects of this waste dumping process by decreasing those elements on the earth which actually absorb CO2---green plants. Remember in high school you learned about “photosynthesis”? Green plants convert CO2 and H2O into carbohydrates which bind much of the CO2 in an insoluble form called cellulose. This is a way to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make a solid substance of it.
That's where our carbon based fuels came from. Our fossil fuels were all produced in ancient much warmer times by photosynthesis. But eons ago..the earth sequestered or set the CO2 as cellulose aside as fossil carbon. We know of this buried carbon as :coal beds, oil deposits and natural gas pockets underground. Today we are avidly exploiting those deposits coving in it with atmospheric oxygen and and dumping the residue of combustion..CO2 right back into the atmosphere again. But that adds this old carbon to the new carbon we already had enough of.
It's like when you have a bad cold. The Doc says: "Jimmy, listen to me--you wanna get better? You rest, drink plenty of fluids and keep yourself nice and warm, that will help you fight the virus.”
His advice is to ameliorate the effects of the infective virus by following a known protocol of hydration, rest, and keeping the body warm, all of which which will slow the rate at which the virus is replicating in your system.
But instead of that you drink no water but slake your thirst with alcohol (dehydrating yourself), go out in the icy cold with no hat or coat on to shovel snow, and stay up all night. What YOU are doing is going to make that cold worse.
That’s about where we are regarding Global WEATHER INTENSIFICATION: we are doing everything to make the situation worse. Pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the air and killing off the plants which absorb it out of the air. The net result more argon dioxide in the air and more and more atmospheric heating. That external heat intensities the storms, make them bigger and more violent and gets us to where we are today...shoveling snow in March.
What we must do is SLOW our use of fossil fuels by a concerted effort at much more efficient energy use; we must eventually end our dependence on all fossil fuels; we have to stop massive deforestation and de-greening of the earth, and turn to “green” energy sources such as wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, safe nuclear, etcetera.
Then perhaps our kids and grandkids might see some improvement. If we don't do something..soon..we are all lost.
So remember Jimmy, stop calling it “Global Warming” the guys you hang around with at the golf course don't get it. Call it GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION, and when they can't play because it too windy, or they have a “freeze delay” in June, or the fifth fairway..with that low spot, has now become a water hazard, and the greens get dry and hard as a billiard table in early summer--that’s all part of what we pointy heads now call “GWI” (Global Weather Intensification).
Yesterday, while shoveling the fluffy white stuff during our tenth or twelfth major snow storm this year, I got a friendly glove-handed wave from my middle aged and politically conservative neighbor “Jimmy”. We were both struggling again to clear our side-by-side snow-covered driveways. Jimmy, a retired NY City police officer often chided me about “global warming”, aware of my many years of teaching meteorology and climatology. So on this obviously very cold and snowy day he called over the high mounds of snow piled between the driveways: "So are you pointy headed guys still claiming that we are having “global warming"?
“That’s a misnomer,” I countered. “A better term for what we are having is “GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.”
“Oh, so your changing your story huh? So what does THAT mean?
I waved him over into my opened garage, out of the wind and driving snow. He was cold and tired so he quietly acquiesced. I figured I had him at a disadvantage. Perhaps I could actually clear up his muddled thinking, and also avoid having to listen to ad nauseum repetitions of his "Fox News” talking-points at least about climate .
“The fact is the earth as a whole is actually warming a great deal. The reason is that we are constantly dumping increasing amounts of what are known as “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Our cars, trucks, buses, all spew gases that make the air warmer. Then too we also release the same gases from our heating systems, we rely greatly on trucks for transport of our goods. Almost our entire economy runs on fossil fuels.Burning those fuels generate carbon dioxide gas which builds up in the atmosphere. That gas (and others too) has the property of absorbing heat and making the atmosphere warmer. The more CO2 in the air, the warmer the air gets. But we are also intensifying the problem by eliminating forests which naturally recycle CO2 and extract it from the atmosphere. As you well know we are cutting down our forests, and pasting over natural areas with asphalt, bull dozing down down green trees to make housing developments and parking lots. You just have to take a look at the pictures of the earth on Google Maps. Roads, expanses cleared land, industrial areas, parking lots, housing developments have replaced vast areas formerly covered by greenery and much of this has occurred in only the last few decades. This is not only happening here in the USA but all over the world.
He nodded his head. That seemed OK he had heard that before and it made sense. “It’s possible he admitted.”
He pulled me over to the open garage door. “Look out there! That’s what we got today. How is this snow evidence of a warmer globe?”
My response: “The earth’s atmosphere IS warming...but as in many things, the answer is not so simple. The increased warming is not ONLY manifested as warmer temperatures. (Though that is what we see here every summer). The earth’s atmosphere is a giant machine which cycles the energy from the sun. Because the earth is a near globe the heat is mostly absorbed in a belt around the equator. The atmosphere is a fluid that moves heat around. It spreads that heat absorbed in the equatorial area through the atmosphere by winds and cyclonic storms which bring rain, snow, violent winds, increased cloud cover, and hurricanes too. So when we dump “heat-absorber gases” into the atmosphere as a result of our quest for energy we also we make the earth warmer in that equatorial zone. But the EFFECTS of increased atmospheric temperatures are felt throughout the globe...because air is a fluid and it moves around. The effects of heating are:more and bigger storms, more rain, more snow, more instability and more unpredictability in the atmosphere..that is: in three words GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION.
So besides pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere to make the globe warmer, we are also simultaneously intensifying the effects of this waste dumping process by decreasing those elements on the earth which actually absorb CO2---green plants. Remember in high school you learned about “photosynthesis”? Green plants convert CO2 and H2O into carbohydrates which bind much of the CO2 in an insoluble form called cellulose. This is a way to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make a solid substance of it.
That's where our carbon based fuels came from. Our fossil fuels were all produced in ancient much warmer times by photosynthesis. But eons ago..the earth sequestered or set the CO2 as cellulose aside as fossil carbon. We know of this buried carbon as :coal beds, oil deposits and natural gas pockets underground. Today we are avidly exploiting those deposits coving in it with atmospheric oxygen and and dumping the residue of combustion..CO2 right back into the atmosphere again. But that adds this old carbon to the new carbon we already had enough of.
It's like when you have a bad cold. The Doc says: "Jimmy, listen to me--you wanna get better? You rest, drink plenty of fluids and keep yourself nice and warm, that will help you fight the virus.”
His advice is to ameliorate the effects of the infective virus by following a known protocol of hydration, rest, and keeping the body warm, all of which which will slow the rate at which the virus is replicating in your system.
But instead of that you drink no water but slake your thirst with alcohol (dehydrating yourself), go out in the icy cold with no hat or coat on to shovel snow, and stay up all night. What YOU are doing is going to make that cold worse.
That’s about where we are regarding Global WEATHER INTENSIFICATION: we are doing everything to make the situation worse. Pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the air and killing off the plants which absorb it out of the air. The net result more argon dioxide in the air and more and more atmospheric heating. That external heat intensities the storms, make them bigger and more violent and gets us to where we are today...shoveling snow in March.
What we must do is SLOW our use of fossil fuels by a concerted effort at much more efficient energy use; we must eventually end our dependence on all fossil fuels; we have to stop massive deforestation and de-greening of the earth, and turn to “green” energy sources such as wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, safe nuclear, etcetera.
Then perhaps our kids and grandkids might see some improvement. If we don't do something..soon..we are all lost.
So remember Jimmy, stop calling it “Global Warming” the guys you hang around with at the golf course don't get it. Call it GLOBAL WEATHER INTENSIFICATION, and when they can't play because it too windy, or they have a “freeze delay” in June, or the fifth fairway..with that low spot, has now become a water hazard, and the greens get dry and hard as a billiard table in early summer--that’s all part of what we pointy heads now call “GWI” (Global Weather Intensification).
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
US HYPOCRISY AND FAILURE IN UKRAINE
USA HYPOCRISY IN THE UKRAINE LEADS TO DIPLOMATIC FAILURE
It’s the blatant hypocrisy of the US position on the Ukraine which bothers me. Only a week ago the CIA and the State Department were secretly plotting to incite unrest and encourage the most radical elements of the Ukrainian polity to turn away from Russia and become a vassal state of the EU and the USA. The foolhardy, poorly thought out actions of the White House, the CIA and the state department were surely in part to blame for the unnecessary loss of life in and around Independence Square.
(This was a replay of what the US and CIA did in Egypt only eight months ago, when they undermined the legally elected government of Mr. Morsi, whom they did not like for--his pro Egypt policies--concluding he was not going to be as compliant as past Egyptian dictators. So he had to go. Their actions in Egypt led to the installation of another military dictator and a much more repressive regime--more repressive, more violent and prone to more bloodshed.)
In the Ukraine, the CIA was back at it..with bundles of US taxpayer money the CIA and State Department helped stir up the hornet nest in Kiev. The US policy there on the doorstep of Mr. Putin--apparently led by neocons in the State Department --left no wiggle room or escape route for the Russians. Now after the "surprise" military action of Russia..and in the apparent failure of what should have been a diplomatic effort, the President and his advisors stand hang-jawed, nonplussed and unsure of a response.
I also wonder how President Obama who has just barely extricated us from the longest, bloody, unnecessary, most ill advised and illegal war in US history doesn't blanch and choke on his perfidious words when he reads speeches written for him in which he accuses Russia of “aggression”, “illegal occupation”, and “anti-democratic” military actions and threats. He should be the last one to point the finger of blame.n
The truth is the Ukraine situation is a direct result of a failed US foreign policy, incompetent, over zealous state department personnel and an out-of-control CIA which seems to have its own independent agenda. But Mr. Obama is paying for this failure with falling popularity polls and by looking so helpless and incompetent as Russian troops encircle military installations in the Crimea. This is another embarrassment that could have been avoided.
A wiser more savvy administration in better control,of their far-flung and gung-ho departments would have realized the limits of their ability to control events on the very doorstep of the Russians and pursued a more sensible, moderate course of action.
Perhaps even now cooler heads could prevail. Start with reining in the CIA and demoting the hot heads and vulgar personnel in the state department.
Get the picture?
It’s the blatant hypocrisy of the US position on the Ukraine which bothers me. Only a week ago the CIA and the State Department were secretly plotting to incite unrest and encourage the most radical elements of the Ukrainian polity to turn away from Russia and become a vassal state of the EU and the USA. The foolhardy, poorly thought out actions of the White House, the CIA and the state department were surely in part to blame for the unnecessary loss of life in and around Independence Square.
(This was a replay of what the US and CIA did in Egypt only eight months ago, when they undermined the legally elected government of Mr. Morsi, whom they did not like for--his pro Egypt policies--concluding he was not going to be as compliant as past Egyptian dictators. So he had to go. Their actions in Egypt led to the installation of another military dictator and a much more repressive regime--more repressive, more violent and prone to more bloodshed.)
In the Ukraine, the CIA was back at it..with bundles of US taxpayer money the CIA and State Department helped stir up the hornet nest in Kiev. The US policy there on the doorstep of Mr. Putin--apparently led by neocons in the State Department --left no wiggle room or escape route for the Russians. Now after the "surprise" military action of Russia..and in the apparent failure of what should have been a diplomatic effort, the President and his advisors stand hang-jawed, nonplussed and unsure of a response.
I also wonder how President Obama who has just barely extricated us from the longest, bloody, unnecessary, most ill advised and illegal war in US history doesn't blanch and choke on his perfidious words when he reads speeches written for him in which he accuses Russia of “aggression”, “illegal occupation”, and “anti-democratic” military actions and threats. He should be the last one to point the finger of blame.n
The truth is the Ukraine situation is a direct result of a failed US foreign policy, incompetent, over zealous state department personnel and an out-of-control CIA which seems to have its own independent agenda. But Mr. Obama is paying for this failure with falling popularity polls and by looking so helpless and incompetent as Russian troops encircle military installations in the Crimea. This is another embarrassment that could have been avoided.
A wiser more savvy administration in better control,of their far-flung and gung-ho departments would have realized the limits of their ability to control events on the very doorstep of the Russians and pursued a more sensible, moderate course of action.
Perhaps even now cooler heads could prevail. Start with reining in the CIA and demoting the hot heads and vulgar personnel in the state department.
Get the picture?
*"F---K THE EU" OR EXAMPLE OF FAILURE OF DIPLOMACY
“Fuck the EU”* (And Its Consequences.)
*Quote by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs: Victoria Nuland.
The remark above is by Ms. Victoria Nuland, of the State Department and a member of the wide-ranging and well-connected neoconservative Kagan family (she is the spouse of Prof. Robert Kagan). The notorious Kagan family are all deeply involved in efforts to support and encourage Middle Eastern war---they were particularly engaged in the failed, brutal, economically devastating US-led war in Iraq (as well as other efforts at foreign adventurism). It’s hard for me to understand how Ms Nuland (Mrs. Kagan), with her connections to monumentally disastrous and discredited policies, is now found serving in a high office in the State Department under President Obama---a supposed intelligent, thoughtful, and progressive Democrat.
But what was the context of her vulgar remarks?
Mrs. Kagan and her ilk in the State Department were overly zealous (gung ho) in their efforts to topple the legally elected pro-Russian Yanukovytch government in the Ukraine. They financially supported violent ultranationalistS (some report to the tune of $50 million dollars) and promoted general unrest. But her neoconservative relatives and allies were all deeply frustrated with the support and enthusiasm of our allies in neighboring Europe. The EU which has suffered the ravages of war and its economic aftermath and who get most of their energy supplies from the east were less “gung-ho ” and were proceeding more cautiously. They viewed the EU as having only tepid support for instigating further violent nationalist protests in Kiev. At this juncture, the US was threatening Yanukovytch with “economic sanctions” if he were to enlist military force to suppress the violent protesters who had occupied the central square of Kiev for weeks. The US zealots in the State department thought they had Yanukovytch cornered and buffaloed. The EU saw that as a step too far. The EU was proceeding with the knowledge that it has to live with Russia as its eastern neighbor. Ms Nuland’s angry, vulgar remark was recorded (some say by the Russians) in a conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine. Its meaning was simply this: we (the US) can go it alone! ”F--- the EU”, we don't need them! We can topple this government on our own.
But the consequences of this intemperate and poorly thought out form of foreign policy was that Mr. Putin simply made another end run around the US. (The last time he did this was only a few months ago in Syria where he, and Mr Levrov his Foreign Secretary, neatly hog-tied and embarrassed Mr.Obama during the Syrian chemical weapons imbroglio and strengthened and supported his ally in Syria, Mr. Assad.) This time, Mr.Putin ran a nice quarter back steal around Obama’s bow-legged inept team, saying in effect: “If that is how you are going to play, I’ll take the parts of Ukraine I want militarily and you can go F--- Yourselves.”
So what about the consequences.
The Obama Administration has again demonstrated its ineptness and racked up another diplomatic failure..by pushing Mr. Putin to the point where he had no choice but to use his military. The Russian troops were sitting there in the Crimea. What did Nuland, Kerry and Obama expect was to happen? This was all unnecessary. It could have played out very much differently if the elements on our side had a good deal more sophistication, and a lot less hubris.
Wise up President Obama, even GWB was smart enough to finally try to take control of his government from the neocons and war mongers--yes a bit too late..but he did try.
Friday, February 7, 2014
PARADOX : GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES COLD WINTERS
The Arctic Climate Paradox: recent snowy, cold winters are a result of a warming Arctic
USA Today, ran a story (USA Today Feb 6, 2014) indicating that the snowy, frigid weather of January and the tens of thousands of delayed or cancelled flights cost US airline companies some $150 million dollars. Economists estimate that that was chicken feed to the 30 million-strong flying business public who lost an estimated $2.5 billion dollars in decreased productivity, missed meals, foregone opportunities, lost contracts and lapsed hotel bookings, etc. A similar piece appeared in Bloomberg News, where the author focused on the economic impact of the unusually cold and snowy weather as a factor of these cancelled flights. Neither story mentioned anything about the probable underlying cause---global warming. In fact, the media generally present our recent spate of cold and snowy winters as a mild refutation of the “pointy headed” scientists and their unfounded” support for anthrogenic global warming. (Only a few days earlier, the NYT ran a piece on the State department Environmental Review of the Keystone XL Pipeline project which will carry environmentally disastrous tar sand product (liquified bitumen) south to Texas and other ports for processing in Texas and transport elsewhere. This will be burned as cheap dirty oil somewhere and the users will dump the considerable carbon wastes into the atmosphere and only dramatically increase global warming. Thus here we see how one group of businessmen are hit with the costly effects of global warming while another group like the Koch brothers and others exacerbate the problem and pocket the profits.)
It is a paradox difficult to accept that cold winters may be the result of arctic warming. It’s colder not warmer this year...does that not refute the concept of global warming in progress? But the difficult to understand inconvruity of this cooler-than-average winter season (for the USA) is as strong an argument--nay better-- than our recent waves of summer heat data in support of global warming.
First let us review some uncontested facts. The earth, as a whole, is warming---there is no question. According to our own government’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, during the 130 year period from 1880 to 2010 the average earth temperature has RISEN just short of 1 degree Celsius (or more precisely about 0.85 degrees C which is just about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
One of the most dramatic effects of global warming has been the easily seen and documented loss of ice cover in the Arctic where the extent and thickness of the Arctic ice sheet has dramatically decreased. The North Pole is covered by an ocean, the Arctic Ocean, which in area is only slightly larger than the continental USA. That ocean has been in the past almost completely covered by thick, reflective sea ice. But in recent decades sea ice has been slowly thinning and melting away as the effects of global warming take effect.
USA Today, ran a story (USA Today Feb 6, 2014) indicating that the snowy, frigid weather of January and the tens of thousands of delayed or cancelled flights cost US airline companies some $150 million dollars. Economists estimate that that was chicken feed to the 30 million-strong flying business public who lost an estimated $2.5 billion dollars in decreased productivity, missed meals, foregone opportunities, lost contracts and lapsed hotel bookings, etc. A similar piece appeared in Bloomberg News, where the author focused on the economic impact of the unusually cold and snowy weather as a factor of these cancelled flights. Neither story mentioned anything about the probable underlying cause---global warming. In fact, the media generally present our recent spate of cold and snowy winters as a mild refutation of the “pointy headed” scientists and their unfounded” support for anthrogenic global warming. (Only a few days earlier, the NYT ran a piece on the State department Environmental Review of the Keystone XL Pipeline project which will carry environmentally disastrous tar sand product (liquified bitumen) south to Texas and other ports for processing in Texas and transport elsewhere. This will be burned as cheap dirty oil somewhere and the users will dump the considerable carbon wastes into the atmosphere and only dramatically increase global warming. Thus here we see how one group of businessmen are hit with the costly effects of global warming while another group like the Koch brothers and others exacerbate the problem and pocket the profits.)
It is a paradox difficult to accept that cold winters may be the result of arctic warming. It’s colder not warmer this year...does that not refute the concept of global warming in progress? But the difficult to understand inconvruity of this cooler-than-average winter season (for the USA) is as strong an argument--nay better-- than our recent waves of summer heat data in support of global warming.
First let us review some uncontested facts. The earth, as a whole, is warming---there is no question. According to our own government’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, during the 130 year period from 1880 to 2010 the average earth temperature has RISEN just short of 1 degree Celsius (or more precisely about 0.85 degrees C which is just about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (See nsidc.org, downloaded 2/6/14) both the area of ice cover of the Arctic Sea, as well as the actual volume of Arctic Sea ice are less than their long-term averages calculated during the period from 1981 to 2010. Sea ice is without doubt melting away. So it is clear that it is warmer up there! (Warmth is relative of course. Arctic January temperatures average around -29 deg Fahrenheit, while summer temperatures hover around the freezing point of ice at 32 deg F.)
Both the area of cover of arctic sea ice and the actual volume of Arctic sea ice are considerably less than their long-term averages calculated from 1981 to 2010
In January of 2013 ice cover in the Arctic dropped to well below long term average (though it was not the lowest level reached). These January 2013 readings fall to a level just within two standard deviations (σ) from the long term mean. That means that the present low levels of ice cover are far away from the normal fluctuation around the average. The recent data ARE “abnormal”. On average, the “normal” area covered by ice is about 5.6 million square miles. In January of 2013 ice covered only 5.3 million square miles or about 300,000 square miles LESS than the the long-term average. The lost ice-cover in the Arctic Ocean is approximately equal to the combined areas of Texas (our largest State with 261,000 square miles) and Louisiana. Where has that ice equal to the area of Texas and Louisiana gone? Melted away as a result of warmer global temperatures to evaporate and enter the global ocean. That image is difficult to pass off as a fluke of nature and is difficult to deny. Just look at the aerial photographs.l
Not only has the area covered by ice decreased by the an area similar to that of Texas and Louisiana together, but new technology has permitted satellites to probe the THICKNESS of the ice as well. These data have clearly indicated that ice thickness is also decreasing.
So who cares about the loss of arctic sea ice? What effects could it have on us? The direct cause of rising sea level, altered climes, altered rain patterns,AND cancelled air flights and the indirect costs to businesses are probable effects. WARMER arctic can cause severe COLD weather in the contiguous USA and have a global impact on business too.
There is a POSITIVE FEED BACK mechanism in the Arctic ocean-atmosphere-lithosphere system or a vicious cycle at work there. The more Arctic ocean water that is exposed during the summer season to the sun’s rays as a result of retreating ice--the warmer the Arctic Ocean water gets. (Since solar radiation is absorbed better by sea water than by reflective ice and snow.) When ice-free sea water absorbs more heat in summer, it forms less ice cover in winter--the more sea water exposed--the more solar radiation penetrates its depths, the warner the Arctic sea water gets, the less ice it generates. etcetera, etcetera. (This can not happen in the Antarctic where a solid rocky continent underlies the ice sheet. There small changes in ice sheet thicknesses due to global warming may go undetected and do not have such dramatic effects.)
Now how might this warmer arctic lead to colder temperatures in Washington, DC or Peoria, Ohio ? If the air over the Arctic is even slightly warmer it can have an effect on the boundary zone known as the Polar Front. (Remember even at these recent elevated temperatures the Arctic is still on on average perhaps 40 F degrees colder in winter than the air masses over the mid-latitudes, such as New York or Washington, so even warmer polar air would feel very much colder than normal to us. In the past that cold polar air was generally confined to the high latitudes by the large differences in density between the very cold polar air and the much warmer mid latitude air.
There are physical and aerodynamic factors which control the shape of the boundary zone (the Polar Front) between the very cold polar air and warmer mid latitude air masses. These confining forces are weakened when the two air masses are closer in temperature, i.e. when the polar air mass is warmer. The boundary zone (Polar Front) between cold polar air and warmer mid-latitude air becomes more fluid under these circumstances. That fluidity generates more and deeper surges of outbreaks of cold polar air southward into the lower forty-eight. These cold air surges into warmer air initiate sever winter storms along the boundary zone. Thus warmer polar temperatures, lead to less sea ice, expanded areas of sea water exposed to sunlight, and result in higher summer Arctic sea water temperatures, causing decreased winter sea ice cover, and in the arctic summer further sea water exposed to warming sunlight, so the next summer is warmer, and so on in a vicious cycle that warms up the polar region and its air. The warmer (though still relatively cold to us) polar air is less confined by physical forces and then is more likely to “break out” forming large “tongues” of cold air which uncharacteristically penetrate far south into areas they usually do not go.
It is in this way that the unusually cold and snowy weather of our recent winter results from a WARMER Arctic Ocean.
We can only hope that humankind will come to a realization of the danger of global warming and begin to make changes which can help stabilize or reverse its effects. We hope our business leaders realize that global warming will affect profits. Let's goad government leaders, often too much in the grip of financial and business forces with short term bottom line agendas, to begin to realize and help publicize the negative effects our unthinking, irrational behaviors are having on the earth’s atmosphere and initiate corrective changes.
Get the picture?
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
THANK YOU MR KARZAI!
I read yesterday (NYT Feb 4, 2014) that Mr. Karzai of Afghanistan has been having long term and secret peace talks with the Taliban. The Obama Administration is miffed. They were not included in Mr. Karzai's secret talks. As I recall this has been a long term goal of the Afghanistan president.--peace with the Taliban. He has begged Mr. Obama to join in to no avail. That apparently is not on Mr. Obama's agenda. He would rather keep a residue of troops in that mountainous and difficult nation until hell freezes over.
Mr. Obama is stuck with the outdated dangerous idea foisted upon him by his military advisers and business associates ---the dangerous concept of US world hegemony...i.e. control of land and resources by military means so as to exploit these resources or to prevent our competitors to exploit them. Afghanistan is valuable territory based on its central location, corridor for oil and gas, and its own valuable mineral wealth. Imperialism and its modern equivalent may have been valid during the Cold War, but for a nation like the US struggling with unemployment, a fragile economy, crumbling roads and infrastructure, inadequate educational system and massive debts...it's out of reach for us now and not in OUR best interest. Time to put those old ideas to bed and focus on what we can do to improve our situation here at home.
Thank you Mr. Karzai...don't sign that status of forces agreement . You are doing yourself, the Afghanis and the citizens of the USA a great favor. Perhaps we can finally close the bloody books on this unnecessary war, bring our boys home and cut down on our wasteful military adventures abroad and the vast expenses which provide no benefit for the vast majority.
And why not?
Mr. Obama is stuck with the outdated dangerous idea foisted upon him by his military advisers and business associates ---the dangerous concept of US world hegemony...i.e. control of land and resources by military means so as to exploit these resources or to prevent our competitors to exploit them. Afghanistan is valuable territory based on its central location, corridor for oil and gas, and its own valuable mineral wealth. Imperialism and its modern equivalent may have been valid during the Cold War, but for a nation like the US struggling with unemployment, a fragile economy, crumbling roads and infrastructure, inadequate educational system and massive debts...it's out of reach for us now and not in OUR best interest. Time to put those old ideas to bed and focus on what we can do to improve our situation here at home.
Thank you Mr. Karzai...don't sign that status of forces agreement . You are doing yourself, the Afghanis and the citizens of the USA a great favor. Perhaps we can finally close the bloody books on this unnecessary war, bring our boys home and cut down on our wasteful military adventures abroad and the vast expenses which provide no benefit for the vast majority.
And why not?
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