There is a big new 92 page Minority Staff Senate report on “the Billionaires Club” that funnels money through labyrinthine mechanisms and sophisticated tax loopholes to conceal the source of the funding.
It is corruption all the way down…
…
The Chain of Environmental Command, (2014) United States Senate, Committee on Environment and Public Works, Minority Staff Report
“EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
…an elite group of left wing millionaires and billionaires, which this report refers to as the “Billionaire’s Club,” who directs and controls the far-left environmental movement, which in turn controls major policy decisions and lobbies on behalf of the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Even more unsettling, a dominant organization in this movement is Sea Change Foundation, a private California foundation, which relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors. In turn, Sea Change funnels tens of millions of dollars to other large but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to control both policy and politics”
The donations are fed to a public charity (with tax benefits), which then forwards the money to a different linked type of organization which is permitted to lobby and campaign politically.
- Nearly all of the public charities discussed in this report have an affiliated 501(c)(4) that engages in activities designed to influence elections and have no restrictions on their lobbying efforts. The funding of a 501(c)(4) by a 501(c)(3) affiliates is provocative in light of the legal restrictions on public charities from participating in political campaigning, either directly or indirectly, while permitting a 501(c)(4) to significantly engage in campaign activities. (Pg. 14)
small businesses, and families. This report proves that the Obama EPA has been deliberately staffed at the highest levels with far-left environmental activists who have worked hand-in-glove with their former colleagues. The green-revolving door at EPA has become a valuable asset for the far-left and their wealthy donors. In addition to providing insider access to important policy decisions, it appears activists now at EPA also funnel government money through grants to their former employers and colleagues. The report tracks the amount of government aid doled out to activist groups and details a troubling disregard for ethics by certain high powered officials.”
- Under President Obama, EPA has given more than $27 million in taxpayer-funded grants to major environmental groups. Notably, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund – two key activists groups with significant ties to senior EPA officials – have collected more than $1 million in funding each. (Pg. 34)
I expect we’ll be discussing the details for some time to come. I have no problem with anonymous donors to real charities, but tax dodging, fake grassroots movements, coupled with political influence, and ultimately amplification through government funds is something else.
Why are some groups allowed to get away with what appears to be a form of tax evasion? Is this selective enforcement (like the IRS Scandal), or can any side of politics get away with it?
“A loose association of millionaires and billionaires”…”These are the days of miracles and wonders, so don’t cry, baby, don’t cry.”
Paul Simon, “The Boy in the Bubble”.
(Sorry. Couldn’t help it.)
50
Yeah saw that, well done.
Except these are the days of suckers and morons.
60
As I have said numerous times – the wealthy are using the Socialists as their paid-for thugs to do their dirty work ( useful idiots ).
You cant have such a coordinated assault on property rights and private ownership unless some stands to agin from it. Communism doesnt work, we know that, but Fascism does.
As Timothy O’Leary put it “The wealthy are buying themselves a revolution”.
Rockerfellers/Soros et al direct stuff behind the scenes, for their own benefit.
101
I disagree that Fascism works. It only appears to work in the short run. As does Socialism. They work only as long as there is wealth to be stolen and people willing to be sacrificed to the cause. When these things run out, the “system” collapses.
The reason is that they both deny the fundamental requirement of the mind to be free to learn, think, to innovate, and for the person having such a mind to act according to his best interests. Both Socialism and Fascism make all these things impossible. They can exist only by consuming the shadows, ghosts, and artifacts of the past. When you deny the cause of the future and make its creation impossible, you have no future.
110
What is the exact relationship/chain of command between the BOM and the ABC?
At every opportunity we are still getting bogus ‘record warm’ temperature readings from the ABC in the middle of a ‘normal’ winter,(Westerlies included!)
322
Also the fools at the ABC and BOM fail to recognize when they say it’s been a record high temperature for the last 30 years or whatever, by definition the temperature was higher before then. This means any so called record temperature today is meaninglessness as it’s taken out of context. We do indeed have morons in control.
172
Both organizations are run by leftist communist traitors….
52
Don, there doesn’t need to be a chain of command, there is a culture of belief, and social ostracism for apostates, and ultimately both institutions benefit from the same thing — bigger governments. Both groups find life more rewarding under large spending “generous” states. Both suffer if a government gets tough and gives back the money and power to competitive individuals and businesses.
Plus all participants at both institutions went through our education and academic systems where no one was taught basic logic and reason. They are surrounded by people who socially punish skeptics and reward believers. For many of them, it would not even occur to ask if the “faith” could be wrong.
220
Yet another example of what happens when government gets too big to audit itself, so big that it swamps checks and balances already in place, so monstrous that it impossible to be policed internally or even externally by a cohesive force.
Reduce the size of the Federal Government in a dramatic way NOW.
Make illegal, any funding that returns political favors.
End NGO lobbies.
231
Ending ‘career politicians’ and the lifelong taxpayer funded oligarchy they have awarded themselves would be a good start.
“We do not accept Presidents for life – we should not accept ANY politician for life at any level.“
170
Furthermore, reduce spending and taxes immediately. That in itself will save our economy. Otherwise a collapse is inevitable, as certain as day follows night. These are the things a government should be doing, not partaking in any way with the AGW scam to tax us even more, be it an ETS or whatever. If Labor ever gets back in, as is likely the case given the large supply of moronic voters, this country is 100% doomed. I doubt the Libs have the intelligence to save us.
100
I cannot get too upset about it when the government contributions are dwarfing the paltry amount the billionaires are contributing.
50
The purpose of the biilionaires’ contribution is to gain the government contributions.
100
To Our American Friends – After the mid-term elections and if the Republicans get control of the Senate, would this be something that they would address (do something about) or is this just wishful thinking? How does the House of Representatives figure in on this issue? Would they / could they also introduce legislation? Or, are both of the Houses part of the problem?
70
Whilst America’s [snip] experiment is still in charge of the government the U.S. senate and house of reps has no power.Obama will defer all things and continue with executive orders.SNAFU.He was put in place by the worlds richest and nothing has changed in their efforts for one world government.Sorry,one small change,we don’t have a carbon tax to help them fund their project.
50
The real answer is “Who knows?”. The correct answer is NO. What you or I do (as citizens of the USA) with our money is not the business of congress. If you (the generic you) want to give to a warmist cause, that is your business. If those causes want to run advertisements proclaiming the end of the world, that is their business. And Congress should not tell them anything.
But the reality is that most politicians of both parties do not believe in freedom. They think they must control everything, so the republicans may try. But they have a high hurdle to over come. Citizens United.
10
So this whole time, they accuse others of being funded by “big oil”, when in reality, it is THEY who are projecting!
Activists don’t produce anything of value in society. As such, they must find a way to secure an income stream. This explains why they are so eager for others to fund their activities. Especially the taxpayer. They LOVE to stick their snouts into that trough! No wonder they are terrified at the possibility of the public finding out! So they must construct elaborate schemes.
Lesson to learn: When it comes to modern Left-wing activities, always look for a money trail.
Second lesson to learn: The truth is the enemy of Activists.
310
Liberal Left, Reactionary Right, it doesn’t matter. When the noise level goes up and the propaganda becomes more and more fantastic (as in fantasy), always look for the money trail, and what’s in it for who.
It’s not unique to either political fringe/persuasion.
101
Yep !
Follow the money !
30
***IMF’s Lagarde, at her Orwellian best:
31 July: Reuters: IMF urges higher energy taxes to fight climate change
Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Paul Simao
Energy taxes in much of the world are far below what they should be to reflect the harmful environmental and health impact of fossil fuels use, the International Monetary Fund said in a new book on Thursday.
For the first time, the IMF laid out exactly what it views as appropriate taxes on coal, natural gas, gasoline and diesel in 156 countries to factor in the fuels’ overall costs, which include carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution, congestion and traffic accidents…
At the book’s launch in Washington, (Christine) Lagarde said countries should not have to wait for global agreement on climate policies, and instead should move ahead in adjusting energy prices on their own…
The IMF’s book argues higher energy taxes should not hurt growth if done right.
***”On this point, let me be crystal clear: we are generally talking about smarter taxes rather than higher taxes,” Lagarde said, according to prepared remarks for the launch of the book…
The IMF estimates implementing efficient energy taxes would reduce deaths from fossil fuels by 63 percent, cut carbon emissions by 23 percent, and ***raise revenues by 2.6 percent of GDP for the world as a whole…
http://news.yahoo.com/imf-urges-higher-energy-taxes-fight-climate-change-152243700–business.html;_ylt=AwrTWf1bb9pTlFkAmZjQtDMD
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I would love to see the salary of this imbecile “Lagarde”.
Obviously it would be substantial and higher costs of living incurred by her urging would not affect the likes of her !!
$%$##@!!!
60
Lagarde has declared herself to be exempt from paying income tax to any country. Even the leftist Guardian noticed.
100
The IMF estimates implementing efficient energy taxes would reduce deaths from fossil fuels by 63 percent, cut carbon emissions by 23 percent, and ***raise revenues by 2.6 percent of GDP for the world as a whole…
————-
Now the goal is a lousy 23% cut in CO2?
This shows their true intent and ignorance. They could have cut CO2 by 23% years ago but refused. Nuclear and fracting is what they want but are afraid to ask for it by name. Lowering fuel prices and increasing fuel availability worldwide will reduce poverty, simples.
This means politicians could have already been here but instead chose to lie and try to steal more money.
More evidence it’s about the money & political power and not the environment.
cn
01
Chuck, it’s always been about power and control!!! The green religion people have never cared about the world. POWER AND CONTROL FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
What do you want, Chuck, cut CO2 by 75%??? What are you crazy! Do you even know what CO2 is and does for the world? Please look it up if you don’t have an understanding of the benefits of CO2.
20
… IMF laid out exactly what it views as appropriate taxes on coal, natural gas, gasoline and diesel in 156 countries to factor in the fuels’ overall costs, which include carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution, congestion and traffic accidents… At the book’s launch in Washington, (Christine) Lagarde said countries should not have to wait …
Just want to point out Pat that Legarde pays not one cent of tax in her current position but a quick search will trawl up maybe fifty instances of her CONSTANTLY proposing new taxes on countries ever since she got into that position at the IMF. I wouldn’t mind seeing her job-description to determine if she has any place or valid role continually mouthing off about gouging out the global tax base to the nth degree. I suspect not.
She’s a pure-bred hypocrite of the worst kind, sucking up all the benefits and contributing nothing while forever espousing intensifying govt meddling and tax ruination of all societies to feed her idiotic parasitic ideas to feed the interests of like-minded preening thieves.
Not a fan.
40
The new World Fascist regime is desperately mobilising before it’s too late; the battle is joined.
In the UK today a major power station had a fire in a key process; this will reduce central power generation by 2 GW or 3.3% when the excess capacity is about 4% from this Winter.
Prediction: major power cuts to bring to heel the Fascist politicians across all parties.
120
I think if you dug into many of the Australia “think tanks” and “foundations” you would find the exact same thing happeneing.
I suggest we start a Citizens audit of them, asap.
60
And the fire in in the prototype CCS plant!
10
Wait a minute:
It takes a specially determined idiot to get CO2 to burn, doesn’t it?
🙂
20
Looks like it’s all finaly comming to a head.
50
A minority report.
But at least it is a published report.
40
Not surprising. It’s happening in Australia too, I’m told. Ian Plimer mentioned it the other night.
But we are nowhere near the stage that America is in the discovery.
90
As I am fond of saying, it always gets down to the money.
What amazes me most is that the media morons, with the exception of a few intrepid bloggers and the odd reporter or two, never searched for the truth. Any accusation of “big oil” funding was blithely reported by the press partisans as the unvarnished truth. Yet, you would think that with big oils placative funding of green boondoggles and perpetual motion machines that the suborned stalwarts of the worst estate would have had at least an inkling that there was something amiss in fantasyland?!
But why would the press report the truth if it undermined the supposedly greater good? The next time I look the word accomplice up in the dictionary I hope they have the New York Times’ logo next to the word!
What a scam!
241
Bingo.
This is the story of the two centuries, yet the media turns their backs.
It is going to get real interesting.
When we unload a whole bunch of parasites, I expect the media will be part of the trash being thrown out.
60
You want to punish the complicit media, abolish copyright!
20
Can we call them “Big Hemp Oil” ?
40
SG66 – leave Hemp Oil out of this. It is a fantastic product and I do not want to see it soiled by associating it with the Green Slime.
70
How about big Tofu lol
50
It’s nauseating reading, really. And what they do is even more nauseating. But as I’ve tried to get across before, they but do what we give them an incentive to do. Change the incentive and they change behavior.
Now I suppose I’ll be asked how to change the incentive so let me say I have no magic solution. There is no Lone Ranger with a silver bullet. But with that said, It will help a lot to pare the federal monstrosity down to only those things the constitution actually authorizes it to do. According to the constitution all other powers are explicitly left to the states or to the people themselves. The more local the administration of things becomes, the better our control of government will be, with the direct result that things run better. And one more real benefit accrues when things are at the state level or lower — one state getting things wrong, like California is right now, can’t screw up the entire country like the EPA is doing right now.
How do we do this? We may have to put up a fight to get there. And we may never get there if people aren’t willing to wake up, do the research it takes to be adequately informed and above all else, stop voting only their narrow personal interest all the time. In the immortal words of Pogo Possum, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Those 9 words say it all.
40
And lest someone ask how the job of the EPA can be done by the individual states without getting it all messed up with 50 different sets of regulations let me ask, how well would you say it’s working now?
I say it’s never going to be worse off if there are 50 different states doing it than it is now with just one EPA. You can extend that reasoning to almost all the other cabinet departments except Defense, State and Justice. What other cabinet level department can we not get along without?
Oh! Homeland Security you say? Well it would have been far better to realize that we needed to make the organizations we already had actually cooperate and work together the way they should have been doing all along instead of acting like they belonged to different rival nations. Had that been the case pre 9/11 the original World Trade Center would still be standing and we could devote some of the money that goes down the sinkhole called Homeland Security to beefing up whatever needed more manpower and save the rest. Now instead of a working organization we have something Obama has clearly made into his private little domestic army — without cause and without Constitutional authority I might add.
00
What an indictment on the American way of doing things and the complete corruption of their democracy.
But the real worry is what would a similar study uncover in Australia as a lot of the same or similar entities are active here.
All the bleating about sceptics being in the pay of big oil or big coal when the reality is that the green blobs are being billionaire funded all the way up.
70
Boadicea,
I don’t think it’s an indictment on the American way at all, I think it rather more an insight into the sense of entitlement and moral corruption of socialist/green ideology.
It’s what brought the Soviet Union undone in less thatn a century.
Hope it doesn’t take that long now America’s citizens are learning about the scam.
111
Don’t forget, America was never intended to be a “democracy”. Read some of the Federalist Papers – all of the founders of America recognized that democracy inevitably, in all cases, leads directly to tyranny.
America was supposed to be a Constitutional Representative Republic.
00
Scary, sick and sad.
There is no such thing as climate science, there is only the corruption of ethics and real science by the Green Blob Brigade.
I never used to believe in the conspiracy theories about ‘climate scientists, but I do now after reading this. Previously, I just thought it was career protection, fame seeking, and ‘Saving the planet’ syndrome, which drove ‘ climate scientists’ to do what they do.
So, at the top of the stinking putrid heap of global warming hypocrisy, there sits the least ethical of all individuals, the champagne socialists. By comparison, ‘Big Oil’ is a harmless pussy cat.
140
It’s no different here in Australia
Graeme Wood paid $10 million for a $16 million asset in Gunns woodchip mill, even rejecting a Ron O’Connor higher offer.
So Graeme donates $1.6 million to the GREENS, then with GREEN pressure on the timber industry, picks up a $6 million discount.
Did anyone shout, did anyone jump up and down?
These mega rich envrio radicals have had a field day in Tasmania.
Mr Wood said
It’s only about the money
120
Research the links between who’s who in American Neoconservative politics and the NWO. The billionaire funded environmental machine is one of the major cogs in the NWO gearbox. The Australian scene is the Dinky Toy version.
60
Look up “George Soros”………
A very dangerous bastard !
70
I remember being warned of Soros’ intentions years ago on CCD, his name comes up in many of these criminal green money laundering operations.
Evil bastard is more apt.
60
That would be George Soros of the Brookings Institute ( where HerRanganees just got a Gong) or Emily’s List ( with whose help HerRanganess got one of many “legs up”in her political life) or GetUp ( whose agency, copied from MoveOn, gave us Kev07 & HerRanganess herself in the big chair)
& who incidentally bought into Channel 9.
61
..p23. – “Federal agencies, which wield significant amounts of delegated power, should be staffed with neutral experts dedicated to serving the public interest. However, recent reports of alleged collusion between environmentalists and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) senior officials have made apparent the Obama Administration’s failure to abide by this most basic principle of executive branch governance.”…
Just as the Hawke government in 1986 put its own brand of “social scientists” in charge of the real scientists at the CSIRO.
60
No “Foreign Aid” for Radical Environmentalist Green Activism !!
Aussie taxpayers are forking over $5 billion – $650 a family – every single year to pay for our “foreign aid” program.
Which is why this will horrify everyone: It has just been discovered that much of this money is being used ¬to funnel taxpayer dollars to anti-development radical environmental activists and to promote the tax on carbon dioxide.
That’s right. Our hard-earned tax dollars are paying for “non-government” environmental radicals to do the government’s dirty work.
And the taxpayer-funded NGO money that actually makes it overseas? It’s going to bribe countries to support climate change activities, and to fund the very anti-development activism that will keep developing countries in poverty.
READ MORE AND SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP THIS HERE :-
https://www.taxpayers.org.au/no-tax-dollars-for-radical-environmentalist-green-activism/
GLOBAL WARMING IS THE GREATEST FRAUD IN HUMAN HISTORY !
CARBON DIOXIDE IS PLANT FOOD AND NOT POLLUTION !!
121
Sorry OT but snowing here in Ballarat as I type, going up to MT Bunninyong for photos. 🙂
40
NSW mid north coast heading for 28C today
20
Good!
I hate the Winter and the cold……
10
Lucky you! DT
10
No point in putting up pictures trying to convince us with your dodgy, right wing, patriarchal, dolphin hating observational evidence Yonnie.
Everyone knows it doesn’t snow anymore.
90
Oh yeah, have a ganders at this 🙂 http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2457772/snow-falls-in-ballarat-city-centre/?cs=62#slide=47
It dropped from 4°c to 0°c in 5 minutes and bang light rain turns to snow, it’s stopped now but still 0°c, real spanner weather.
10
Awfully lot of dandruff going around!
00
BOM predicted 28C in Brisbane today. It is midday and 24C.
Can’t get hardly anything right!
50
“I will not allow socialism masquerading as environmentalism”
Tony Abbott
2014
91
“DT”,
Why are Australians penalized with unaffordable electricity prices because of this RET (renewable energy target) then ????
Abbott must scrap this offensive RET now !!!
161
A big thumb’s up !!!!!!
ESPECIALLY, if it means no direct action waste either.
122
Carbon Tax repealed now after considerable negotiation in the Senate, the Coalition has a long hit list of to repeal items but how soon depends on more negotiations and that in a hostile Senate takes much time to achieve, or to fail to achieve.
The mining tax in the June Quarter provided $600,000 I understand, annualised $2.4 Billion but Union Labor committed generous gifts to certain citizens will cost some $17 Billion over the budget and forward estimates years, tax falling well short of the welfare bill. PUP will allow the Government Repeal Bill to pass but only if the welfare gifts are retained. Now there is an example of fiscal foolishness demanded that highlights the problems. There is no magic wand.
30
The welfare gifts have been described as the get Gillard elected again electoral bribery,
10
This Senate Report confirms what the American people have long suspected, that Obama is doing the bidding of an elite group to eliminate fossil fuel energy use in favour of implementing an economically damaging Green environmental agenda across the USA.
But I have hope for the future when I see that, on 30 July 2014, in a 225 to 201 vote, the Republicans won a vote to proceed with an unprecedented lawsuit against President Obama for exceeding his Constitutional powers and constantly bypassing the Congress when it comes to legislating (e.g. using Executive Orders in order to avoid Congressional oversight).
70
oBUMMER should be impeached !
The mongrel has a forged birth certificate and is not even eligible to be president as he was not born in the US !
31
I see the Congress voted to Obama. I’m not sure exactly what this means –perhaps one of our American friends can explain it for us.
00
Not sure what “voted to” means or is referring to. Do you have a link to an article?
00
Angry, I do not like what Obama is doing either. But drop the birth certificate issue. Really. It does not matter. As the child of an American citizen, he got his status as soon as he was born. The controlling authority is the US Code, Title 8, Section 1401.
YOu only have to have one citizen to be a “natural born” citizen.
00
Correction: ‘one parent as a citizen to be a “Natural Born” Citizen’
00
Over my 76 years! Err!, Maybe I didn’t start thinking hard about life and everything cosmos beyond mothers, girls, girls, girls wife and MIL’s in that order until my mid twenties which makes my thinking period about err! lets say, 35 or 40 years if my present dotage is included.
Sorry ! Can’t remember the details !
Anyway, a long ago I came to the belief that like physics, in politics and in life for every force there arises an equal and opposite force and response.
In politics and life this opposing force just might take a bit of time for it to be seen and to manifest itself but it always appears sooner or later.
I think we are now seeing this opposite and increasingly equal force arising in response to the excesses and increasing extremes of the now designated “environmental machine.”
Even the term “environmental machine” has implications as it subtly removes the humanity aspect from the environmental movement which is a personalized justification by the supporters of the environmental movement that has been removed by that very description.
It implies a cold, non human, unfeeling unresponsive and overwhelmingly automated and non intelligent machine like organisation that is now contemptuous and unresponsive and dismissive of the needs of the very people it professes to represent.
Probably a pretty accurate description of today’s green environmental movement / “environmental machine”.
Any way over my decades I have often said that when you see some corporation or organisation that seems untouchable, whose power is overwhelming, who apparently controls the markets or politicians or bureaucrats or what ever, who just seems to ride rough shod over any opposition, who sets out to destroy any and all who appear to oppose it or to questions it’s activities and goals, then go looking for the white ants / termites in the foundations.
They will be there often in large numbers in a powerful organisation, busily if quietly chewing away at the very foundations of that monstrous edifice.
All you have to do is find them.
Once you have found and identified those termites, the hidden corruption, the hidden power struggles , the hidden application of corrupt influences and the hidden brown paper bags changing hands in dark rooms and all those other foundation destroying termites of corporations and organisations that have grown fat, wealthy, satisfied, powerful, self indulgent and ultimately corrupt then the next problem is getting someone to listen.
And that won’t happen until there is a sufficient body of others who have also found evidence of those termites of corruption and strife and power struggles within the corporate structures of that edifice.
And then it all unravels at an often frightening pace for the committed supporters and insiders of that corporate edifice as all those who have suffered at the hands of the corporate edifice, that now equal and opposite reaction coming into play, pile in for their crack at tearing the whole structure down, ably assisted by those termites that have already destroyed the ethical and moral foundations upon which every corporate edifice has to have some sort of viable and respected base upon which to build it’s original structure.
One item always without fail, surprises me still.
The apparent belief by the executives and in this and so many other cases, the big money supporters of so many semi secret organisations who expect to carry out their quite often nefarious hidden under the table activities and often provide large sums of suspect in origin finance as lubrication for their a desires for further doubtful acquisitions and pedal influence often through the handing over of those well filled paper bags, how they seem to be totally and utterly naive in believing such activities of theirs will never ever be revealed.
Invariably such activities come to light sooner or later and the follow up is often quite devastating legally and reputationally for those involved.
But they seem as though they just can’t quite understand what they did wrong and why they should be penalized for it.
Of such are the rich and powerful mentalities, that they are above public critiscm and even more so, above the touch and power of the legal system
And we are seeing this fall from grace in the ethics, in the morality and reputationally with the evolving of the environmental movement into an ethics free, unemotional, unresponsive, grab everything power with both hands, a robotic machine that is against human advancement everywhere and in everything at any level and which seemingly has lost any sense of responsibility to humanity and is now driven purely by ideology, dogma and money from dubious and unaccountable sources.
Those termites of corruption and hubris and power struggles and large lumps of dubious money of doubtful origin, well hidden down in the basements and foundations of the environmental machine are well on the way to bringing down the corporate empire of the “Environmental Machine” and soon.
50
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
10
I will enjoy watching the collapse.
00
Didnt the catholic church get so big because it was largely exempt from tax?
02
thingdonta @ 24
****************
Probably the other way around.
The Roman emperor Constantine in 312 converted to Christianity
In 313 he recognized the Christian church after some 300 years since the times of Christ where during that 300 years, Christians throughout the Roman Empire had periodically suffered persecution and death.
In 360 the tribe of Vandals who invaded, sacked and conquered the then remains of the Roman Empire also converted to Christianity.
They were not the first of the northern tribes to invade the European lands of the former Roman Empire nor were they the last by a long shot.
So through it’s adoption as the official religion of the Roman empire and the european tribes, the Catholic church, the Roman Catholic Church [ catholic = all embracing ] became a very powerful entity that crossed all borders in what was becoming a highly fragmented medieval Europe with it’s numerous principalities and powers and self governing city states.
It was the church, the common religion that became the glue that bound Europe together.
The Church rightly or wrongly but also driven by changes in Europe as it started to awake from it’s long slumber during the Dark Ages, started the Crusades to regain the Christian lands of it’s birth right.
The returning Crusaders brought back a whole range of newly gained knowledge that the Arabic scribes under their then quite tolerant and even protective of other religions, their Sultans of the times [ How different to some of today’s islam ! ]
The Arab scribes had preserved and carried through for some centuries, the knowledge and writings of the old Greek, Persian and Indian philosophers which the Crusaders then brought back to an awakening Europe.
And so was born the start of the European revival and reawakening from the Dark Ages, which the church and the monasteries had an major role in, possibly quite inadvertently as the church’s aims were very different originally to that of the outcomes of that European revival. outcomes of which we are still experiencing today.
It was a revival that was to over power the Church’s former enormous power and influence across European lands in the decades and centuries ahead.
It was a revival powered by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 which along with fire, the smelting of metals, the wheel, the invention of writing to preserve knowledge that no longer had to be handed down orally and then the invention of the printing press which finally made knowledge of every type available to the humblest peasant if they literate
[ New discoveries and research support the belief that the peasantry were far more literate than we were led to believe a few years ago, ]
All this with the final invention, that of electricity are amongst mankind’s greatest and most basic inventions that have powered this civilisation.
And through all of this European history, Christianity and the Catholic church along with the Protestant churches of the Reformation where the very corrupt and very powerful and very corrupt Catholic Church of the times was thoroughly cleansed and brought back to it’s Christian roots, the Church was the binding influence that eventually led to the creation of what we today call Europe.
And it was the power and influence of the Church that led to it being excluded from being taxed which in itself, the lack of any taxing of Church lands and assets led to gross corruption of the extremely wealthy Church of the Middle Ages which lasted until very large parts of the Church’s assets were stripped from it in the numerous revolts and re- organisations of the European states, cities and principalities and the consequent wars following and during the Reformation and the rise of the Protestant churches over the last 500 years.
20
What about PEF, http://www.purvesenvirofund.org.au/ who amongst others, funds the AYCC.
The AYCC gets into schools to pitch to the students on the basis of passionate community activism, which is what my daughter’s school organiser told me when I complained it was rampant propaganda that was being spread. The AYCC person told students that Tsunami are caused by climate change, which is when her alarm bells went off and she alerted me to the event which was taking place in Assembly. The organiser said AYCC were all to happy to pay all the costs involved, including airfares of getting their person in front of students .. creepy bastards, going after the kiddies.
The scope of environmentalist activist funding is breathtaking and they have the audacity to accuse skeptics of being paid!
30
Reminds me of that bit in Donny Darko (the Citizen Kane of teen movies!) where Patrick Swayze’s deeply creepy inspirational guru takes over the school assembly, with the connivance of the teachers.
I think this sort of thing is much more likely to happen in schools than people think, and that it is necessary for parents to keep a weather eye out for it at all times. It’s worth remembering that manny teachers are quite young, and even the older ones have often spent their entire lives amongst five-to-ten year olds. Sometimes they will pick on something just to have something to teach; even more so if they can tell themselves it is non-controversial. That’s their main fear – that they will say something that will bring the parents down on them. Somehow the thought that the parents might be sceptics or rationalists doesn’t seem to trigger that fear.
00
It is money well spent:
#fastfortheclimate
On the 1st day of every month you can go without food for the environment.
Obviously more effective than any action on carbon(sic).
So effective they could fast every day!
Win-win for the environment, over-population, and everyone who is sick of whinging environmentalists telling others what to do.
10
good start, manufacturers, but u need to call out the whole scam:
31 July: Reuters: Ben Garside: EU must shield industry from future CO2 costs – manufacturers
Tying reform to protection issues risks reform delay
Governments split over whether to link reform to 2030 goals
The European Commission admits the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) is failing to drive low carbon investment and wants to reform it with a reserve to set aside surplus permits…
Analysts say the reserve could add 11 euros ($14.72) per tonne to carbon permit prices currently trading at around 6 euros, but tying it to wider 2030 discussions risks the Commission’s goal of getting it agreed by early next year.
“This should be one process in parallel, there shouldn’t be a decision on the market stability reserve in advance of the whole carbon leakage area,” IFIEC’s Lena Recknagel told Reuters.
She was referring to the risk of carbon regulations resulting in the transfer of industrial production to countries with looser environmental policies.
“The Commission has a very strong agenda to strengthen the ETS and take measures to the end of increasing the CO2 price while the agenda on giving industry more certainty over carbon leakage protection is not driven forward with the same verve,” she added…
The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), representing a mostly different group of companies regulated and participating in the ETS, also want assurances over carbon leakage but without hampering the reserve’s passage into law…
The reserve proposal has yet to be debated by the European Parliament and is at an early stage of talks between national governments. To pass, a majority of both must agree…
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/eu-carbon-reform-idUKL6N0Q66ZX20140731
pick a number, any number:
31 July: Reuters: China regulator approves fresh supply for carbon market
The Chinese carbon market regulator has approved 33 new projects that could yield up to 6 million offset credits per year, equivalent to around half the number of permits traded so far and piling pressure on already shaky carbon prices.
The roughly 2,000 companies facing caps on their greenhouse gas emissions under China’s seven pilot carbon markets can use the offset credits, known as Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions, to cover for 5-10 percent of their annual emissions.
Offset credits are attractive because they are normally cheaper than the regular permits issued by local governments, cutting costs for emitters.
“We are negotiating at prices between 6 and 7 yuan ($0.97-$1.13) per CCER. ..
In comparison, emission permits in the Tianjin market, the cheapest in China at the moment, trade at around 20 yuan per tonne of carbon dioxide. In Beijing, Guangdong and Shenzhen the cost is almost 60 yuan.
Price drops in some of the markets ahead of the annual compliance date indicate there may be a surplus of permits handed out by local governments…
http://af.reuters.com/article/idAFL4N0Q63XK20140731
00
if at first u don’t succeed…
EU sets dates for resumption of aviation carbon permit sales
LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) – European Union member states will sell a total 9.3 million aviation carbon permits across five auctions starting in September, the European Commission said on Tuesday, resuming sales following a near two-year hiatus.
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.6168011?&ref=searchlist
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how utterly ABC. they have suddenly discovered high electricity costs can damage business. they have even found Aussies living in “energy poverty” that they never noticed previously. nothing to do with the former carbon tax, or the RET, or anyting CAGW, of course:
3 Aug: ABC Background Briefing: The price of gas
Australians are about to face even bigger gas bills, as businesses are being driven offshore. So is the solution more coal seam gas fields, or should gas exporters be required to sell cheaper gas at home? Jess Hill concludes her two-part investigation into the high price consumers are paying for energy in Australia
For big industrial users, this is particularly bad news. ‘We’re seeing prices leap from historical averages of sort of $3 to $4 a gigajoule to $9 to $12 a gigajoule or more,’ says Ben Eade, executive director of Manufacturing Australia. He says the impact of rising gas prices will ‘dwarf the impact of the carbon tax’.
A new report commissioned by industry groups and prepared by Deloitte Access Economics says skyrocketing gas prices will damage the Australian economy to the tune of $118 billion over the next seven years, and lead to a loss of more than 14,000 jobs. ‘The fact is, high energy costs are killing industry in Australia,’ says Eade, ‘and high gas costs in particular.’…
‘Affordable, reliable energy fuels enterprise, and drives employment,’ Mr Abbott said. ‘It is the engine of economic development and wealth creation, and Australia should, we really should, be an affordable energy superpower, using nature’s gifts to the benefit of our own people, and the benefit of the wider world.’
But energy in Australia is anything but cheap. Households pay some of the world’s highest electricity prices – they’re double what they were a decade ago, thanks largely to the over-investment in poles and wires. Now we’re about to pay record prices for gas, thanks to the opening of the east coast export market…
Australians are already struggling to pay their energy bills. According to the social services agency ACOSS, a growing number of Australians are in what’s called ‘energy poverty’, which means they’re having to choose between using electricity and things like food and other essentials.
It’s not just affecting pensioners or people on the dole—it’s hitting families like Andrea’s. Andrea lives in the coastal Melbourne suburb of Frankston with her husband and their five children…
When Background Briefing asks Andrea what she thinks about how energy policy is being dealt with by our politicians, she struggles for words. ‘I think… We’re facts and figures on a piece of paper basically and we’re averaged out.’
‘Maybe people like our families are expendable or collateral damage, but I think if they actually came and lived like we lived, they’d have a better understanding,’ she says. ‘It’s probably been a long time since they’ve had to put their clothes in front of the heater that the children are sitting around because they can’t afford to use the dryer.’
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/coal-seam-gas-exports-drive-up-energy-bills/5638226
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anthony watts has a thread on the following, see second link. in the comments, someone has provided the link below to the full article, as anthony couldn’t access it:
1 Aug: Science Mag: CLIMATE CHANGE: Warming may not swamp islands
Studies suggest that atoll islands will rise in step with
a rising sea
By Christopher Pala, on South Tarawa
No need to redraw the map
The coral reefs underlying many Pacifc atolls can catch
sediment and grow…
If the optimists are right, no one from Kiribati will have to
leave their country anyway.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75831381/Pala%20Warming%20may%20not%20swamp%20islands.pdf
WUWT: Remember the threat of flooded atolls and climate refugees due to sea level rise? Never mind.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/31/remember-the-threat-of-flooded-atolls-and-climate-refugees-due-to-sea-level-rise-never-mind/#more-113832
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***it was clear physical energy would not face sanctions. i love the excuse given: “Traders were buying the rumor and selling the fact.”
1 Aug: Bloomberg: EU Power Set for Biggest Gain in 10 Months on Sanctions
By Marek Strzelecki, Jesper Starn and Julia Mengewein
European power prices for next year are headed for the biggest monthly gains since September amid concern sanctions against Russia will boost the cost of coal and gas, raising production costs at utilities…
Russian gas accounted for 46 percent of the fuel the EU brought to its market in 2013 and 31 percent of coal it bought externally came from Russia, data from the bloc’s statistics agency show.
“Traders bought in expectation of drastic sanctions against Russia and the potential impact on supply of gas and coal to Europe,” Nicolai Wuesten, a power market analyst at Energieunion GmbH, said yesterday by phone from Schwerin, Germany. “The market is nervous, because we are depending on Russian commodities.” …
German power for 2015 reached 36.15 euros ($48.82) a megawatt-hour, the highest level in more than four months, on July 29 and traded at 35.40 euros at 5:02 p.m. Berlin time today, according to broker data…
“When sanctions were decided, the contract started falling again,” Wuesten said. “Traders were buying the rumor and selling the fact.”…
German average temperatures next week are forecast at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), 1.4 degrees above the seasonal norm, according to WSI data using the GFS model. The average for northwest Europe and the U.K. will exceed the seasonal norm of 18.5 degrees by 1.2 degrees, it showed. Temperatures in the Nordic region will average 21.8 degrees Celsius, 5.3 degrees above the seasonal norm, according to the model…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-31/eu-power-set-for-biggest-gain-in-10-months-amid-russia-sanctions.html
00
LOL.
31 July: Bloomberg: Ehren Goossens: Corporate America Clean-Energy Lead Urged by NRG CEO
The private sector can and should lead on answering the public’s desire for cleaner energy, NRG Energy Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer David Crane said.
A private sector movement may speed the adoption of renewable power sources, Crane said at a round-table dinner at the Washington offices of the Atlantic magazine yesterday…
Political gridlock in Washington means the private sector, with billions to spend, may play a rose in transforming the U.S. energy infrastructure, said attendees including former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and Eric Spiegel, chief executive officer of Siemens AG’s U.S. unit…
??? “The resources that corporate America has at its disposal are amazing,” Crane said. “We need a bottom-up revolution.” …
(Christine Todd Whitman): The public “gets” climate change, she said, recalling the two weeks that her farm was without power in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “The modern environment movement did not come down from the top, it came from the bottom up.” …
Crane is concerned electricity may get “so distributed and so simplified that our biggest competitor becomes Home Depot,” where people could buy panels and put them on their rooftops themselves, he said.
“You just can’t believe if you’ve been in the power industry your whole life as I’ve been how simple solar photo-voltaic is,” he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-30/corporate-america-clean-energy-lead-urged-by-nrg-ceo.html
00
At the risk of asking the obvious, how does a billionaire fund leftist causes unless there was a buck in it?. How does a leftist accept that buck unless they knew there was a buck in it?. Is there a leftist left anywhere with a modicum of credibility?. I guess when you’re a billionaire you can invent your own universe based on your teenage fantasies. Perhaps thats why so many male billionaires marry Barby.
10
Here’s the thing.
They are funding these organisations, they are funding them hugely, beyond all reason, but they’re not using them for the sort of thing you’d expect of a giant Dr. No type conspiracy. They are not using them to suppress free speech, or to subvert the justice system, or to assassinate their enemies, or to raise an army to take over the government. They are using them to try and influence public opinion, but really, really ineffectively. And they don’t seem to care!
I don’t think they intend to destroy our freedoms and turn us all into robots at all. I think the motive is religious. I think they’re doing it for the good of their souls.
00
don’t be surprised, consult http://cleanenergypundit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/tyger-lair-from-edenhofer-interview-1.html
And here’s why: “But what has this to do with ENERGY, or with being a CLEANENERGYPUNDIT, of all things?”, I am asked.
Well, more than two years ago I listened to a talk by Dr Tim Evans (http://www.cobdencentre.org/) about the banking system – never forgotten – because I soon realised that to read up on clean energy issues, further considerations concerning clean money, and therefore clean politics, soon became ‘sine qua non’ considerations as well. Now read T&H until you see Energy appear as one of the Helotization-Tripod legs on page 161.
00
Bidders in EU carbon auctions fall to fewest since 2012
LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – European Union carbon allowance auctions held last month attracted on average the fewest bidders since 2012 as utility buying remained below last year’s levels and returns from investing in Europe’s emission market fell.
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.6225549
NZ carbon drops fifth straight week as new supply offered
Aug 1 (Reuters) – New Zealand carbon permits recorded a fifth consecutive week of losses with prices shedding another 1.3 percent to close on Friday at NZ$3.90 ($3.31), after a new supply of NZUs were offered for sale in the previous day’s session.
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.6214533?&ref=searchlist
00
1 Aug: ABC: Jessica Strutt: WA won’t rule out keeping carbon tax charge on public transport fares
The WA Government has refused to commit to removing an extra charge added to public transport fares when the carbon tax was introduced.
In 2012, the Government said public transport fares would jump 1.5 per cent to recover the estimated cost of the carbon tax.
Opposition transport spokesman Ken Travers said it was outrageous that the Senate had voted to repeal the carbon tax in mid-July but the State Government was yet to pass the saving on to WA commuters…
He estimated the additional carbon tax charge was raising $300,000 a month in revenue.
“As every day goes by, the Barnett Government is unfairly raking in over $10,000 a day,” Mr Travers said…
“Mr Abbott needs to get on the phone and tell Mr Barnett that he’s got to pass the savings on.”…
Transport Minister Dean Nalder has refused to commit to removing the charge, citing challenges to the state’s finances…
“We are facing a number of challenges in this state and some of those challenges are as a result of our declining share of the GST,” he said.
“But we also know that the price of iron ore is dropping and that it does affect the royalties the Government receives, so we have some significant challenges that we are facing as far as revenue in the Government.
“We need to take all of these aspects into consideration prior to looking at any specific reduction in fares or anything else for that matter.”…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-01/carbon-costs-for-public-transport-to-stay/5641960
1 Aug: Northern Rivers Echo: Study warns councils not to spend cash held for Carbon Tax
The study, by Norton Rose Fulbright, was completed for the Australian Local Government Association in light of the carbon tax repeal last month…
http://www.echonews.com.au/news/Study-warns-councils-not-to-spend-cash-held-for-Ca/2337769/
my council is not reducing rates by a lump sum, as Brisbane City Council is, but is instead slightly reducing the cost of visits to the tip. what about all the people who don’t even use the tip, i wonder?
00
again, the kind of public interest story that the MSM should be reporting, but this is the one and only report:
1 Aug: Citywire UK: Michelle Abrego: Two carbon credit firms temporarily shut down
The High Court has granted the Insolvency Service permission to temporarily shut down two carbon credit companies.
Carbon Green Capital and Agora Capital have been ordered into provisional liquidation following petitions by the government to wind up the companies in the public interest…
A court hearing to put the companies into liquidation will begin in October.
The service is also calling for evidence from consumers who were approached by unauthorised investment firm Fredric & Formby, which the Financial Conduct Authority warned investors against in June…
http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/two-carbon-credit-firms-temporarily-shut-down/a765390?ref=new-model-adviser-todays-news-list
the scam!
6 June: google Groups forum: I received a call from a company called Fredric & Formby offering to sell my carbon portfolio…
I provided the details of my credits via e mail to her.Following two days of submission of these details she called me again with an exit strategy.This looks a marvelous offer but too good to be true.They offered me £14 per credit and said a prospective buyer is available for my credits and also claimed that they are helping numerous clients like myself unable to sell the carbon credits.They also said that all transactions will be done by FCA regulated escrow agents.
The funniest part was exposed when she told me that they need an upfront fees for processing my investment.I then asked what was meant by the word processing.Then she said that my VCS credits are from the projects outside the EU and they are not tradeable in the EU and therefore they need to be converted to tradable credits within the EU.This process involves a lot of paper work and manpower which needs to be paid…etc
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sellingccs/890zfsAOGEY
00
***the Guardian connection is interesting:
24 Oct 2013: Redd-Monitor: Industry RE: Another carbon credit company goes into liquidation
In June 2011, Industry RE forward purchased one million REDD carbon credits from an Irish company called Celestial Green Ventures. On 11 September 2013, the High Court in London appointed Julie Palmer and Jason Greenhalgh of Begbies Traynor as joint liquidators of Industry RE, “on the application of the Secretary of State and following intervention from the Public Interest Unit”.
In March 2012, Ian Hamilton, Industry RE’s director, told Point Carbon that Industry RE had sold credits from Celestial Green Ventures’ project in Brazil to Middle East subsidiaries of Coca-Cola and Canon, something both companies deny. But Industry RE did sell carbon credits to the public from Brazil and from the April Salumei REDD project in Papua New Guinea…
Industry RE and Ian Hamilton are involved in various other companies and websites:
Industry RE Sustainable is 50% owned by Industry RE. On 9 September 2013, the company requested voluntary dissolution.
***The company’s director is David Beer, a Sustainable Business Professional at The Guardian newspaper…
http://www.redd-monitor.org/2013/10/24/industry-re-another-carbon-credit-company-goes-into-liquidation/
this week:
30 July: Redd-Monitor: If the World Bank dismantles its safeguards, what would that mean for REDD?
Four years ago, Simon Counsell, the director of the Rainforest Foundation UK, was quoted in the Observer as saying that “REDD needs to be taken out of the hands of the World Bank”.
A week later, the newspaper ran the following correction…
Now, a draft of the Environmental and Social Framework dated 10 July 2014 has been leaked from the Bank. (You can read it and download it here.) …
UPDATE – 31 July 2014: The draft document has been removed from Scribd: “This content was removed at the request of World Bank Group.” (Thanks to James W. Kisekka for pointing this out in a comment.)…
COMMENT by Kirk Roberts: It is very difficult for Indigenous Peoples Governments to oppose World Bank proposed directions while their REDD+ – Climate Change offices continue to receive funding to keep their doors open.
http://www.redd-monitor.org/2014/07/30/if-the-world-bank-dismantles-its-safeguards-what-would-that-mean-for-redd/
00
Bonus link purely for topical humour value: A list of 6 non-profit groups that conceal uncharitable agendas.
00
In a giant discussion of billionaires secretly funding the environmental movement, this comment you are reading now will contain the first mention of the word “Heartland”. Why did nobody mention this before? At least out of concern for moral parsimony we should check that whatever rule applies to Sea Change applies to Heartland.
Until Heartland stopped publishing the list of its donors in 2005, it had been funded for the previous 18 years principally by the billionaires of Wal-Mart, the John Birch Society, Exxon, and Chicago industry tycoon Barre Seid.
Billionaires have the cash and the drive to get stuff done. The fact that billionaires donate (or invest) in causes, even using methods which disguise their involvement, is neither bad nor good. The activities of each ostensibly charitable foundation must be justified on their own merits, not on where they get their money.
Although Heartland is a front for billionaires to fund the anti “environmental regulation” lobbyists (note careful positioning of quote marks) as well as a wide variety of other free-market favoured reforms, the difference between Heartland and the Sea Change Billionaire’s Club seems to be what Jo says in her penultimate paragraph: “tax dodging, fake grassroots movements, coupled with political influence, and ultimately amplification through government funds is something else.”
As a 501(c)(3) Heartland is also not supposed to be lobbying politically. This doesn’t seem to stop them lobbying politically, for example by writing a policy brief telling people and lawmakers in other USA States to adopt a law passed by California on school reform. A minor transgression perhaps. In all other respects Heartland does not seem to be tax-dodging, nor claiming to be grassroots, and certainly not amplified by the government.
So (unsurprisingly??) I agree with Jo that with all this talk of billionaires covertly funding self-serving ventures that we should be careful not to throw the capital out with the corruption.
00
Heartland is a think tank. The “Billionaires Club” is a completely different form of beast with a completely different agenda to a relatively small think-tank.
Read the Senate report and it leaves the reader in no doubt as to how Obama’s EPA has been corrupted and how the network of left leaning organisations are determined to control the political and green environmental agenda in the USA.
00
Oh, my goodness you mean the EPA is trying to change the way we get our energy so that it protects the environment for future generations? This is horrible. PLUS people are making money from investing in GREEN projects ? Also horrible. Plus companies are trying to influence government policies to favor their industry! Horrible . Come on people, this kind of stuff has been going on in government for 100 years since OIl was first discovered, only it was the oil companies doing all the dirty work, now there is competition to. oil. These green companies aren’t doing anything that Oil companies haven’t been doing for the last 100 years.
00
Exactly what “environmental damage” Gino?
Give a few examples of where “OIL COMPANIES” lobbied government to raise our taxes and cost of living?
GINO! Where is the replacement for the carbon fuel we NEED to generate base load power?
Wake up Gino, I want you to answer these questions.
00