"I'M SURE THEY'LL THINK OF SOMETHING"!

In any conversation on Climate Change you will eventually hear the phrase "They will think of something" as some kind of answer to a particular problem.  The problem as I see it we often think of something but the thinkers don't control the money and those that control the money think only of their selves.

In the past few years fact upon fact has been presented to the people that we are screwing the planet up and apparently are willing to do nothing about solving the problem.  The problems are so immense a  starting point is hard to find.  So let's just pick one problem and concentrate on what we are within our power to fix.

The Ocean is a good choice where the problems are easiest to see (at least some of them) .  Up and down the shores of the Pacific die offs of all kinds of critters from shell fish to mammals are showing up our beaches.  Species like sardines, anchovies, shrimp, oysters, crabs, seals, sea lions, tuna,  sharks, whales are showing up dead.

In yesterdays post I showed you this graph

Now look at the surge upward since 1950, over 100ppm more today than just 65 years ago.  I think few realize just what the effects of that huge increase has on the oceans.   It raises the PH or the acidity of the ocean to levels that start to have detrimental effects particularly on hard bodied species like oysters and crabs.  These effects can be seen by the naked eye but somethings we see only the after affect and scratch our heads as to why.  Sardines for instance have all but disappeared with no absolute cause yet figured out. 

Adding to water chemistry problems the ocean levels are rising along with the temperatures. On top of that usually warm water on our pacific coast   has caused die offs along our shores.  Fresh water pouring into the ocean from ice melting at our poles and glaciers which changes water chemistry in our most fragile northern waters.  

The Pope's letter on the climate drew fiery phrases from the neocon non believers aided by the climate deniers club .  Most of what the Pope pointed out were clearly common sense , but that's what must be missing from a lot of the world, no common sense.

Another post by my favorite Archdruid  triggered this piece and he covers a  lot more than just climate change.  He touched on one of my favorite topics ,Education.  A quote from his article follows: because recent “reforms” in the American  public school system have replaced learning with rote memorization of disconnected factoids that are then regurgitated for multiple choice tests. 

Common Core education is just that memorizing a lists and then plugging the right answer to the test question that was used to give you the facts.  Many states are bailing out of this Arnie Duncan nightmare that has set education back decades.

The Druid comments on the bad decisions being made by our leaders I think points to our leaders not being able to think things thru to a logical conclusion.  Depending on propaganda to cover their tracks.  An example We attacked ISIS a  force of 5000 we said, we then killed 10000 of them and now there are 20000 left.  Math equal to their thinking ability.

Our latest Game of Thrones event , Ukraine where we led and funded a coup to cause Russia to do something stupid so we could go to war.  Once again flawed logic led the day causing all of Asia to band together economically and military which has made our Tip to Asia undo able.  

Once again our leaders were playing checker while Russia and China were playing chess.

You know we have messed up when our leading military minds to step right up and start talking a first strike nuclear event.  I would suggest they take a good long look at the military capabilities of China and Russia.  We are looking arrogant and stupid and most of the world sees it. 

THE GREAT DYING-AND IT IS OUR FAULT

Even the Pope can't tell it like it is without the right wing frothing at the mouth saying how wrong his thinking is.  But wait you have eyes, ears, and hearing and you can read can't you.  The environmental problems the Pope points out are plain to see , except for conservatives who refuse to take their blinders off.

In this post the dying off of the Pacific ocean are plainly laid out and there can be no doubt whose fault it is.   If you start off trying to talk about the destructive qualities of co2 and where most of that problem comes from , you are called lots of bad things.

Here is a list reposted from a piece on thedailyimpact:

• The Pacific population of the forage fish that form the base of the marine food chain — sardines, anchovies, and herring — has been decimated, with inevitable ill effects on the species that feed on them — salmon, sharks, whales and sea lions.
• Not coincidentally, this is the second year in a row that record numbers of emaciated, dying sea lions have been washed ashore in California.
• The number of bluefin tuna in the Pacific Ocean has declined by 95 per cent. Mexico has banned fishing for them, the United States is still thinking it over.,
• oysters, a staple seafood product of the Pacific Northwest, have been declining in number for ten years because of rising ocean acidification related to its absorption of carbon dioxide from the air.
• Virtually all species of marine birds are disappearing from the coast, their populations reduced by 75% and more. It, too, is now being called the largest die-off of its kind in history.
• Hundred of thousands of dead red crabs are washing ashore on California beaches from San Diego to Orange County right now. Says Reuters, in the second paragraph of its story, “Such strandings take place periodically and are not necessarily a threat to the species.” Move along, nothing to see here, just miles and miles of obscene red death.
• Even whales in larger numbers than usual are washing up dead on California’s shores. No one knows exactly why, so everyone insists it has nothing to do with anything else.
• Starfish, more properly known as sea stars, have been virtually wiped out from Mexico to Alaska, apparently by a virus that turns them to mush. It may be the largest mortality event ever witnessed by humans.

The arguments of the cause of all this rage on while the effects keep getting bigger and more deadly.  When sardines , anchovies, star fish , crabs . oysters are dying off in large numbers we keep arguing over causes.  Co2 or radiation from Fukushima are sited as reasons but they are not the only factors involved.  It is no secret that the planet is heating up some.  The evidence is everywhere and you only need eyes to see.  The glaciers are melting, the Great Conveyor is slowing (cause by too mush fresh water from ice melt) , the ocean is warming and it's co2 levels have reached saturation.

The co2 levels can be pointed to with relative ease as the cause of the shell fish die offs, The magic balance of the ocean has been disrupted by the inputs of man.  We have over fished most species almost to the point of extinction.  From sharks to tuna to most good eating fish we have destroyed them and can't bring ourselves to stop.

The die off of sardines, anchovies and other food sources for larger species could be caused by warm waters , the red tide, over fishing,  rising ocean ph, loss of coral reefs .  Yet the deniers don't want the blame but there are few other explanations for all that is happening.

Sure some of this has happened before, even before man was around but this time is different.  The other events can be explained by normal event occurrences like volcano's , temp rise , ice melt, meteors .  What is different this time is instead of temperatures and co2 rising and falling in sync this time as temperatures moderate co2 continues a meteoric rise.  As seen is this chart.

This has never happened in over 400000 years of data, something is different this time.  We are undoubtedly the cause of the rising co2 levels to levels never reached before.  

97% of US counties do not agree with the climate scientists that warming is mostly caused by man made activities.  As long as this stays a political problem it will not be resolved and if it is not resolved the planet will cease to exist in short order.  So by all means stick your head in the sand or anyplace else you want to stick it and hold tight the ride is not going to be pretty.

 

ONCE UPON A TIME or THIS IS NO SHIT

Two versions of America's plan to campaign against Russia and China are out there and you get to choose which label applies to each.  America's version is definitely a fairy tale starting with the coup in the Ukraine that they did all they could do to blame it on Russia.  With the US's dirty fingers all over the game plan there is no doubt  who did what to who.

The whole plan was deeply flawed and the truth could be seen easily if you turned off the TV and looked for yourself.  The intent was to take Russia's one warm water port away from them a port that has been Russian for a very long time.  Our planer didn't take into account that the citizens of Crimea might have something to say about that and they did by overwhelming voting to return to Russia's fold.

The concentration then turned   on making Russia peer to be the aggressor in the now civil war raging in the Ukraine.  The forces of Ukraine were getting their asses handed to them so we set out to have the blame finger point at Russia.  Problem once again was that our thinkers?  miscalculated the effect of foreign news sources to poke holes in the lame attempts of placing blame on Russia.  The shooting down of MH17 was clearly shot down by a Ukraine fighter not rebel forces.  The so called Russia invasion was another rigged story with no legs.

All this in an attempt to oust Putin who saw thru our lame game plan and lay plans of his own to counter ours.  Huge  deals with the BRICS on trade, finance, with giant public works designed to reestablish the Silk Road, a multi billion dollar plan to provide new land, sea and air routes to connect those countries and promote economic growth.  Building a huge financial arrangement to supply funds to third world countries  in stead of having to rely on the IMF or World Bank.  Deals to deliver oil and gas to those countries and to pay for them with other than dollars...

Not satisfied with trying to oust Putin and slow Russian economic progress some idiots advising our President start talking up a first strike nuclear attack of Russia and perhaps even China.  Worried about our economy not being number 1, soon are tearing the brains apart, we gotta be number 1 economically, military, nothing else will do.

Restarting the Cold War when we haven't finished up the last two conflicts we started has to be ranked as one of the dumbest ideas lately. Too choose to attack China and Russia at the same time with the goal of regime change bound to fail as all other coups we engineered failed.

The Fairy Tales told by the US on how all this was going to work proved to be nothing more than a failed dream.  The rest of the world soon recognized that the US was behind all this nonsense and not Russia.  While our MSM continued to spin the fairy tales as truth.  They still are telling the same tales they began with even though one by one they proved to be bullshit.

As we sit here  today the effects of our inept meddling in world affairs we have cause strong unions to develop between Russia and China throw in India and some others they have and a powerful economic and military alliance certainly capable of holding us at bay.

Now I know I and others have published the facts above before but some still choose to believe the fairy tales instead of the truth. Obviously our leaders are being led by neocons who are itching for another war.  With them throwing talk about a winnable first strike nuclear attack you have to pay attention and do what you can to knock them back on their heels.

The THIS IS NO SHIT story is Putin and the Russian people standing firm and pushing back. Hopefully we will come to our senses and soon.  This saber rattling can easily out of hand and a shooting war started which won't be good for anybody

HOW COME WE LET IDIOTS STEER THE BOAT

I sit here just about every day and wonder at the stupidity of the folks manning our ship of state.  Stupid is one of the better words I can use to describe these idiots that are advising the president on foreign affairs.  When you crack that nut open what falls out are the same neocon nuts that have been running Washington for 37 years. The James Bakers, the Wolfowitz's, Rumsfeld, to name a few are still prominent on the streets of Washington.

They gave horrible advice then and are doing it again right now.  Except this time they are crossing the line, a line drawn many years ago during the cold war.  In those days it was common knowledge that a first strike nuclear war would end up destroying the world, but now since the neocons have gotten so much smarter they think they can win a first strike war.  Common sense says it still is   not doable but the neocons think otherwise.  Given the  fact that we don't have an effective missile defense says that most of those launched would hit their targets.  For the sake of argument lets suppose just 1 out of 100 missile hits their targets.

To throw a few facts into the mix Russia has a total of 1600 missiles, China is really unknown but estimates run has high as 5000.  Given that the US has driven Russia and China into each others arms means that we now have to consider surviving 5 to 7 thousands missiles.  If 1 to 2 hundred warheads exploded how much of the US would be left?  Or how much of the world would be left as we would launch everything we have on Russia's launch.

The thinking that has me squirming in my seat are those like this.  "A nuclear strike is just another option"   is way over the stupid line.

Starting with our TIP TO ASIA we have fallen back to doing the same dumb things we have done in the past.  All over Latin American, to Iraq and Afghanistan and throughout the world we have attempted to overthrow governments who wouldn't take a knee to US domination. After destroying much of Latin America the people once again had to throw out the bums we put in control.  While we do everything in out power to throw those the people elected out.  It seems everywhere we go we end up destroying them forcing rebellions to drag their countries back being for the people.

Our overthrow of the president of Ukraine and backing Nazi types now destroying the country has thrown Russian into the arms of China.  Who together have formed new economic and military ties not only with them but with most of Asia running to their new finance system , one a lot more more nation friendly than the IMF and World Bank.  Together they are planning what they call the New Silk Road a massive project to tie much of the world to new roads, rail and maritime routes to foster new levels of growth.  The speed of this move is astounding and points out that a lot of the world was already looking for an alternate to IMF  rule.

When we started poking Ukraine Russia and China took the hint and China figured they would be next and true enough we were lining up our sites on them too.  So the end result of our poking has prodded China and Russia to band together to thwart our plans. The forming of alliances caused by our bumbling has woken the sleeping giant and now the giant has friends with money and resources that they are willing to spend to build this new alliance.

The end result could be world war, or perhaps it will just shove us back into our holes while they flourish and we decline further into the deep dark recession/depression.   Hopefully when we get backed into a corner we don't play the nuclear card.

So my closing piece of advice , when choosing a presidential candidate , anyone that has war of any kind in their plans scratch from your list.  Now is not the time for war, it is time to withdraw from our stomping over much of the rest of the world, bring most of out troops home from around the world , cut the defense budget by at least half, and concentrate on protecting our shores from those who we have pissed off getting to where we are currently positioned.  The money saved applied to infrastructure , assuming student loans, medicare for all would once again fuel strong economic conditions as once enjoyed by many.  We can do better than we are and all it takes is for us to choose wisely.

THE BURNING BUSH

Jeb announced he's in and laid our some of his thoughts on his actions when president.  As promised I will look at each and every candidate in 2016 and point out why I feel about each.

It pretty easy to throw old Jeb into the fire.  He is for his brother's war, doesn't like the fourth amendment  , believes the government should be able to spy on anybody it wants any way it wants, doesn't want to negotiate a deal with Iran, backs the Ukraine regime, backs Israel, likes tax cuts,wants more boots on the ground in Iraq, climate change denier .  There's more but why beat a broken drum.

Check out his list of advisers some of which should be very familiar, James Baker, Paul Wolfowitz and Glen Hubbard (economics adviser)

BERNIE TOOK A ROLL IN THE HAY

Bernie Sanders in a Wisconsin straw poll scored a very strong performance pulling 41% of the delegates vote.  Hillary was first with 49% of the votes.  In my book a very poor performance for the touted front runner.  So even though coming in second isn't a win it certainly shows Bernie is gaining the hearts and minds of the population .

With Elizabeth Warren out of the race ,  Bernie (at least for now) is garnering votes that would have been for Warren. 

The poll mentioned taken in Wisconsin  at a state democrat event shows a weakening in Hillary's front runner status , a weakening I  believe will continue to plague her chance of gaining the nomination.

Bernie has been drawing huge crowds at his campaign stops and is polling well in Iowa.  Apparently the press just can't tell the truth that Bernie has a better chance then the press is giving him credit for. It's embarrassing to watch the press shamelessly blessing candidate early and mostly ignoring the other democratic candidates.

To those who have already written Bernie off , keep your erasers handy , you might just need them in awhile.
 

OUT OF THEIR F 'N MINDS

Having been outsmarted in their first attempt to put the hurt on Russia and perhaps goad them into  a war they are going to try and increase the sanctions and up NATO presence around Russia.  

All this action is taking place because the US is scared they are loosing their dominance over the world.  They should be worried , our actions over the past few decades has shown we aren't as bad as we think we are.  Iraq and Afghanistan have been pure defeats leaving the whole ME in turmoil.

With not much left to destroy in the ME why not start on Europe and Asia.   Our Tip to Asia a poorly hidden plan to control the Pacific which is showing signs of waking up that part of the world and they have started building their forces to offset our build up.

In a meeting of the G7 this week they will talk up more sanctions on Russia.  THE SCARY PART OF THESE TALKS ARE THE TALKING ABOUT THE USE OF BATTLEFIELD NUKES.  You would think we are messing around with a country that unlike our latest adversaries have an abundant supply of nukes of their own.  I want you to have no doubt in your mind that if we used nukes against Russia the end game would be on.

This should convince you that the Ukraine game is not the real game, it is merely an attempt to goad Russia into a bigger war.  With China and Russia joining forces in so many ways I believe if you fight one you are going to be fighting both.  We will not win that one,

In other talks China becomes the focal point of our aggression especially if Russia is out of the picture.  Our leaders dreams of being the hegemony of the whole wide world is out  of date and  not possible for us to obtain.  Why would we want to be.  If we could entertain cooperating with the rest of the world the money we could re direct away from military spending to infrastructure repair we could regain some of what has been lost.