Apocalypse On. Trump appoints climate denier in charge of EPA. “Threatens planet!” like Nazi, ISIS, arsonist.

It’s an eco-Worriers nightmare. Donald Trump appointed the man who’s been suing the EPA as its new chief. Scott Pruitt   The Oklahoma Attorney General has been a leading figure in working to stop Obama’s EPA’s Clean Power Plan, an executive order that tried to circumvent Congress.

Trump heard Al Gore’s best arguments on Monday and acted accordingly.

Pruitt obviously knows the worst flaws of the EPA and in detail. He might even be able to get the EPA to tackle real environmental problems instead of fake ones. Who could be better? (Marc Morano, Nigel Farage? Hard to say).

Donald Trump will name Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, an ardent opponent of President Barack Obama’s measures to curb climate change, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a Trump transition team official said on Wednesday, a choice that enraged green activists and cheered the oil industry.

Trump’s choice of Pruitt fits neatly with the Republican president-elect’s promise to cut back the EPA and free up drilling and coal mining, and signals the likely rollback of much of Obama’s environmental agenda.

Since becoming the top prosecutor for the major oil- and gas-producing state in 2011, Pruitt, 48, has launched multiple lawsuits against regulations put forward by the agency he is now poised to lead, suing to block federal measures to reduce smog and curb toxic emissions from power plants. — Globe and Mail

The EPA has 17,000 employees and an $8b budget that costs the US hundreds of billions more in regulatory burdens.  Pruitt has his work cut out for him to change the culture of that behemoth.

No point pandering to the namecallers

In the arsenal of insults there’s nothing more to toss. Anyone Trump appointed would be called the planet-wrecking devil incarnate, so Trump might as well install someone really worthwhile.

Predictably, on twitter at #EPA, people who want to look like they care about the environment have run out of new names. 

Chad Nielsen: Trump’s pick of #pruitt to lead the #epa is like appointing ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to lead Homeland Security
Henry Marx :  Picking @AGScottPruitt to head up the #EPA is like putting Josef Mengele in charge of a medical ethics panel.
FHS Correction: Pruitt is the Attorney General of Okla. His appt. is like “Putting an arsonist in charge of putting out fires.”
FieryAdvocateSixFour ‏: .Scott Pruitt Your big business greed & myopic reckless views R revolting. ALL living beings need this planet not just Koch.
Ryan Mitchell ‏Pruitt is dangerous for our world. The #EPA needs a scientist to lead it, not a guy who thinks climate change is fake.
Dan Abrahams: Unless he also starts World War III, appointing #Pruitt as #EPA head may be Trump ‘s most apocalyptically destructive act.

James Delingpole thinks it’s great news for the environment and does a nice summary of past EPA “stars”

Probably the worst were Obama’s appointments. First, was Lisa Jackson who had previously had a disastrous stint as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Here is what former colleagues had to say in a report on her performance:

“DEP employees describe Ms Jackson as employing a highly politicized approach to decision-making that resulted in suppression of scientific information, issuance of gag orders and threats against professional staff members who dared to voice concerns.”

An ideal choice, then, by Obama to run the most powerful environmental regulatory agency in the U.S., with 17,000 employees under her.

Jackson’s reign of terror at the EPA – in which she lived up to her early promise by helping to cripple the U.S. coal industry, delay Keystone Pipeline and have a harmless trace gas (carbon dioxide) re-branded an environmental hazard – only came to an end after it scandal in which she was found to have been using an illegal separate email account – Richard Windsor – in order to elude Freedom of Information regulations.

After Jackson, came Gina McCarthy another green zealot – chosen for her political correctness and passionate belief in climate change rather than her scientific expertise. On her watch, the water at Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead, an EPA senior official (whom McCarthy had supervised) was charged with stealing nearly $900,000 of government funds, and the disastrous, expensive, ineffective, pointless Clean Power Plan.

*Edited: The post originally named Don van der Vaart instead of Scott Pruitt, who was on the shortlist. Fixed.

9 out of 10 based on 118 ratings

287 comments to Apocalypse On. Trump appoints climate denier in charge of EPA. “Threatens planet!” like Nazi, ISIS, arsonist.

  • #
    Phillip Bratby

    This morning the BBC is openly describing Donald Trump as a “climate change d****r”. Donald must be doing the right thing then in appointing Pruitt to head the EPA.

    971

    • #
      Egor TheOne

      Who cares what the BBC leftoids say.

      Go ‘the Donald’! It’s Swamp Draining Time.

      823

      • #

        Easy to drain: Pull the funding plug.

        802

        • #
          Mike

          Sounds like an opportunity for funding into batrachomancy using what goes down the plug hole to provide a great environment for frogs, toads, and newts…

          From: http://www.occultopedia.com/b/batrachomancy.htm
          “Derived from the Greek batrakhos (‘frog’) and manteia (‘divination’), it is a form of augury or divination by frogs, newts or toads.

          Batrachomancy was chiefly used to forecast weather. “

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          • #
            Mike

            Lets not throw the frogs out with the swamp water as they might yet prove useful in climate occultism..

            111

          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            I will add that to my list of “Ten Thousand and One Things that You Don’t Need to Know Before you Die”.

            My problem is knowing what to remove in its stead.

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            • #
              jorgekafkazar

              Pi to more than five decimals?

              91

              • #
                Rereke Whakaaro

                Yes, that could be a good candidate.

                I could always throw that out, and wait for the series to come around again.

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            • #
              Phil R

              Off topic, but here’s another one to add, unless it’s already in your list.

              tasseomancy: divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

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              • #
                Rereke Whakaaro

                You forgot divination from the patterns found in frog-spawn. You can learn a great deal about the future, by looking at frog-spawn.

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              • #
                Phil R

                I didn’t forget about it, I’ve never even heard of it. But I’m sure it’s got a great root that ends in “omancy.” 🙂

                40

              • #
                bobl

                Rereke, Dunno about frog spawn but Cane Toad spawn, the spawn tells a lot about the future – IE that there is gonna be even more of the buggers next year.

                50

              • #
                Rereke Whakaaro

                Actually, you are right Phil. I meant Cane Toads … delightful critters.

                00

            • #
              sophocles

              It’s even easier to rename the category: make it the Ten Thousand and Two Things That You Don’t Need to Know Before You Die. Simple. 🙂

              30

          • #
            tom0mason

            Not occult but real…

            Many years ago, when I was staying the tropics I noticed that local frogs and toads populations were remarkably vocal prior to a downpour during the rainy season.
            Indeed I got quite a reputation for telling people when it was about to rain in a couple of bars locally.
            My key was to always sit by an open but screened window (anti-mosquito netted) that overlooked a natural pond. Some nights the noise from these amphibians was loader than the jukebox! Sometimes the din would would suddenly stop. Whenever that sudden silence happened I would to announce that there was about 10 minute before it will rain. Some people would look at me incredulous, some would bet me a drink that I was wrong. I never ever lost a bet. And I never told how I knew.

            Frogs and toads are remarkably good sensing atmospheric pressure changes and humidity variations, which make sense considering their lives and procreation success depend on it.

            374

            • #
              Mike

              Lets make climate occultism great again !!

              111

              • #
                Albert

                Climate occultism is the right name. In the past people so easily hoodwinked would have sacrificed virgins to volcanos with every change in weather

                10

              • #

                Albert December 10, 2016 at 7:16

                “Climate occultism is the right name. In the past people so easily hoodwinked would have sacrificed virgins to volcanos with every change in weather.”

                While they were still virgins? Certainly you jest!!

                10

            • #
              Liberator

              I don’t understand the red thumbed – why did your post get a red thumb? You’re just talking about using frogs to predict rain – sheese! Who ever its is do they just go through each post and thumbs down despite the content?

              60

              • #
                bobl

                It because it was redthumbed by redthumd, IE the red thumb daemon a computer program to post red thumbs.

                50

              • #
                Raven

                . . do they just go through each post and thumbs down despite the content?

                Of course.

                It’s like when you hurry into a lift because you’re running late for an appointment on the 12th floor.
                A frazzled mum enters at the first floor and while she’s manoeuvring the pram so she doesn’t run over your toes, her 6 year has pushed every button from 2 – 11.

                Say Hi to all the kiddies out there. 🙂

                40

              • #
                Mike

                It must be to add colour. That is the way i see it. And for balance so that different points of view are seen to be at work. Democracy and so on. We could ask Jo for a recount 🙂

                20

              • #
                Raven

                We could ask Jo for a recount 🙂

                Crikey, Mike, the last thing we need is a recount!

                The system probably keeps tabs of red/green thumbs via IP address or something.
                Any attempts at such blatantly outrageous transparency might show me up for red thumbing Rereke Whakaaro because he makes excellent jokes . . and of course because he’s a Kiwi. 😉

                I kid . . I kid . .

                30

            • #

              Frogs and toads are remarkably good sensing atmospheric pressure changes and humidity variations

              People could too, if they spent more time outdoors and had to live by the weather that they got.

              Although I’m less reliable than a toad, I can often tell by “feel” when outdoors, when a shower approaches, even without seeing it. There’s a “chill” on my forearms and often a simultaneous, sudden change in the direction of air movement. Sometimes the rain only passes nearby.

              30

    • #
      Scott

      What will be interesting is how many EPA employees come out about how their opinions were suppressed by the EPA Regime.

      If employees start to come out in any of the institutions and say they were muzzled then that is far more powerful than coming from a Trump appointee.

      That will really wake people up.

      561

    • #
      Phillip Bratby

      Here is what the BBC says: “Trump picks climate sceptic Pruitt for environment chief”.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38247085

      132

      • #
        tom0mason

        A few hours ago the BBC Weird Service was debating ‘False News’.
        Remarkable! A government sponsored propaganda organization actually critiquing this topic. The navel gazing at the BBC is myopic.
        Of course this was on another highly opinionated political program complaining of how since BREXIT and Trump’s victory the world is becoming more insular, xenophobic, dangerous, and nastier.
        Earth to BBC program editors, Donald is not in office yet.
        After all the years of left-wing PC, aunty-know-best broadcasting of the government message, do they really think everyone takes opinionated advocacy programs seriously?

        82

        • #
          Mari C

          A few short months – weeks, in Trump’s case – and they can see such a huge (yuge) trend already? Or have the models been tuned to predict political and sociological futures as well? If so, the results will be as off the mark as the climate predictions, the polls, and everything else the headlines have been screaming at us.

          10

    • #
      stan stendera

      I woke my beloved Libby at 2:30 AM to tell her Trump won. A few days ago I asked her what she felt at that moment. Her first word “relief” With this appointment relief has been spread to the entire climate skeptic world. AKA the sensible world.

      293

    • #
      Gary Meyers

      Pruitt’s appointment on the heels of Trump’s meeting with Al Gore! Gore must realize how irrelevant he looks after this humiliation by the master! Nice one Donald!!

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Trumptastic choice!

    443

  • #
    John Michelmore

    It looks as though Trump is going to attempt to keep his election promises, that alone is a breathe of fresh air. He did not lie, he’s not a politician either!

    671

    • #
      Raven

      I expect he’ll do his absolute darnedest to keep those promises too.
      Obviously this is with an eye to the future, as well.

      After 8 years as President of the USA he’ll be sitting pretty for nomination to Secretary General of the UN.

      I mean . . he will be nominated . . right?

      60

    • #
      Brad

      He is a very successful businessman. I can’t wait to see his ROI.

      00

  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s not fair! Why does America get TRUMP and we get Turnbull?

    1001

    • #
      Egor TheOne

      effen ehh!

      221

    • #
      GregS

      I’m not worried about Turnbull now that we have a good world leader.

      193

    • #
      Dean_from_Ohio

      David, join us ‘Mericans in daily prayer. You’ll be surprised at what can happen!

      200

    • #
      dannz

      Hillary is at a loose end and Obama soon will be so give them a call and see if the dynamic duo are interested.

      40

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Question: Why does America get TRUMP and we get Turnbull?

      Answer: Time zones! You gotta get up early, to get to the market, to get the best stuff.

      120

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        That’s on-line selling; we ordered Trump and got Turnbul. Oops! That is bull, it is always bull.

        70

      • #
        bobl

        Then how come New Zealand isn’t the leader of the free world Rereke? Huh, Huh, Huh????
        /joshin

        40

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          Who told you we weren’t?

          There is nothing in, “The Secret Manual of World Leadership and Domination” that advocates being in people’s faces over who is really in charge.

          In fact it points out that you can be much more effective when working in the shadows, and influencing others to do the dirty jobs for you.

          It is all about subtlety and finesse. For example, we control Australia by letting your Cricket Team beat us. nine times out of ten. This makes you feel slightly guilty (at a national level), and so you buy all of our surplus sheep meat, that you don’t really want or need, but it makes you feel a bit better about your yourselves.

          That is also why a battalion of my cuzzies are perminantly camped, on full readiness alert, in and around Kings Cross (in Sydney for the European readers). We also have two battalions stationed in Earls Court, London, pretending to be Australians. I mean, how subtle is that?

          Most of the world don’t know who we are, or even where we are from. That is why we pretend to be a northern extension of Antarticia. That way, we can blame the penuins, should any missions go pear shaped.

          80

          • #
            sophocles

            … and surplus milk powder. Don’t forget that.

            Obvioulsy Bobl isn’t aware of New Zealand’s true geography: there’s the North Island, the South Island, Stewart Island and West Island.

            20

          • #
            Ted O'Brien.

            We buy your sheep meat because we can sell it at a profit. Your quality control is better than ours.

            20

    • #
      sophocles

      David said:

      It’s not fair! Why does America get TRUMP and we get Turnbull?

      … because it’s not your turn … yet. Turnbull has to make a Horse’s A…Rear End of himself really well before he’s tossed. Just don’t be anywhere in the vicinity of where he lands… 🙂

      20

  • #
    john karajas

    Jo: Scott Pruitt has been appointed head of the US EPA, not Don van de Vaart, a lapse in proof reading perhaps? I appreciate the desire to get the story online, though.

    Thank you! Fixed. -Jo

    252

  • #
    Robdel

    Trump seems to be doing all the right appointments. I particularly like his selection of retired generals who have previously been shown to have backbones.

    460

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      And also have the balls!
      GeoffW

      250

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        That doesn’t matter. They are not there to play tennis, even if they are looking for various rackets.

        320

        • #
          jorgekafkazar

          Hoping they’ll ‘gut’ the agency of warmists.

          100

        • #
          Glen Michel

          ..or the Czech ladies Kanya Lobomova.

          50

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          Hardly qualifies, but should be recorded somewhere.

          Before my time in my old home town, an immigrant family owned a tennis court which they used to hire out.

          The family referred to the father as “Fader.”

          The story is that some wag inquired of Mrs P the cost of hiring the court.

          “Well”, she said, “if you use your balls it is one and six, and if you use Fader’s balls it is two and six.”

          00

      • #
        Gymmie

        you saying Hillary doesn’t have ballz?

        22

  • #
    pat

    time to return to reality:

    read all…delicious:

    7 Dec: Zerohedge: Tyler Durden: Washington Post Appends “Russian Propaganda Fake News” Story, Admits It May Be Fake
    In the latest example why the “mainstream media” is facing a historic crisis of confidence among its readership, facing unprecedented blowback following Craig Timberg November 24 Washington Post story “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say”, on Wednesday a lengthy editor’s note appeared on top of the original article in which the editor not only distances the WaPo from the “experts” quoted in the original article whose “work” served as the basis for the entire article (and which became the most read WaPo story the day it was published) but also admits the Post could not “vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s finding regarding any individual media outlet”, in effect admitting the entire story may have been, drumroll “fake news” and conceding the Bezos-owned publication may have engaged in defamation by smearing numerous websites – Zero Hedge included – with patently false and unsubstantiated allegations.
    It was the closest the Washington Post would come to formally retracting the story, which has now been thoroughly discredited not only by outside commentators, but by its own editor.
    The apended note in question:…
    Now, at least, the “national newspaper” has taken some responsibility, however the key question remains: by admitting it never vetted its primary source, whose biased and conflicted “work” smeared hundreds of websites, this one included, just how is the Washington Post any different from the “fake news” it has been deriding on a daily basis ***ever since its endorsed presidential candidate lost the elections?
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-07/washington-post-apends-russian-propaganda-story-admits-it-may-be-fake

    what’s not to like – ABC/Fairfax/Guardian etc should love him:

    7 Dec: Voice of America: Trump: US Must End ‘Cycle of Intervention and Chaos’
    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returned Tuesday to his vision of a non-interventionist foreign policy for the United States, saying, as he did during his campaign, that he does not want American forces fighting “in areas that we shouldn’t be fighting in.”
    At a “thank you” rally for his supporters in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump said his focus instead will be on defeating terrorists, including the Islamic State group.
    “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with,” Trump said, insisting the United States must end a “destructive cycle of intervention and chaos.”…
    Earlier Tuesday, Trump appeared in the lobby of his New York office building with Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank, who announced plans to invest $50 billion in the United States with a goal of creating 50,000 jobs…
    http://www.voanews.com/a/trump-us-must-end-cycle-of-intervention-and-chaos/3626252.html

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    • #
      TdeF

      Still trying to blame the Russians? Amazing. Those genius Russian hackers, when everyone in the world had a copy of the Secretary of States’ 750,000 plain English emails? Even her Arabic friends husband’s laptop?

      When will the left accept that they lost the election despite every journalist supporting Trump and of course 98.3% of Washington. A third term for the Democrats was unlikely anyway.

      If they really wanted Hilary, they should have put her forward 8 years ago! It was a hard choice, the minority (10%) vote or the female vote. For some reasons, Obama’s guaranteed 10% beat Hilary’s uncertain female support. Forget policies. Now they will need a gay or transvestite Mexican female.

      331

      • #
        Rod Stuart

        The recount in Michigan has been stopped.
        In Detroit, the District Clerk was a proponent of Stalin’s pronouncement “It is not the people who vote that count, but the people who count the votes!”
        From one polling station in Detroit fifty ballots were transformed into 306!
        Can there be any doubt whatsoever that the nonsense about HRC winning the “popular vote” is pure nonsense?

        140

        • #
          TdeF

          Incredible. Massive voter fraud massively in favor of Hilary? Whoever asked for the recount had no idea. Failed optical readers. Sealed box with only 50 votes. Swamp draining is in order.

          10

          • #
            TdeF

            Incredible. Massive voter f*aud massively in favor of Hilary? Whoever asked for the recount had no idea. Failed optical readers. Sealed box with only 50 votes. Swamp draining is in order.

            41

            • #
              Another Ian

              TdeF

              You sound almost as suprised as the Democrats public face!

              20

            • #
              Yonniestone

              Greens party candidate Jill Stein raised up to $10 million in donations for an election ‘recount’ to challenge the Trump presidency – she failed to deliver $1 million to Pennsylvania electoral staff needed to start the recount.

              Jill Stein said she will make an announcement at 10 a.m. Monday regarding the election challenge in Pennsylvania following a filing Saturday evening that she could not post the $1 million bond needed.

              Never about a recount always about the money, whoever donated I hope it hurts.

              71

              • #
                Another Ian

                IIRC there was a post earlier on another thread that reported her fine print saying that the money wasn’t guaranteed for recounts.

                Suprise!Suprise!

                41

    • #
      Sean

      Who are they kidding calling the Washington Post the “national newspaper”? The post is the DC BELTWAY newspaper. It’s targeted at those who believe in the supremacy and goodness of government to lift the unwashed “deplorables” out of their depravity. It will take some major cultural and personnel changes to fix what is wrong with the PR mouthpiece for big government and the party that advocates for it.

      190

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    Great and brave appointment by Trump!
    The American EPA squeeling like like rats on a sinking ship!
    So good to hear.
    GeoffW

    440

  • #
    Analitik

    Let’s all give a big hand to Albert Arnold Gore for giving what must have been a truly revelatory presentation to the president elect. It must have been so persuasive that it overrode any qualms his daughter, Ivanka, may have previously introduced into Donald Trump’s mind about his appointees for the EPA.

    All hail Big Al!

    332

    • #
      Analitik

      And let’s not leave Leo out from due credit. His material from meetings with Ivanka also must have helped with settling Donald’s appointees.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/leonardo-dicaprio-ivanka-trump-climate-change-documentary-before-the-flood-donald-trump-a7457476.html

      171

      • #
        Raven

        If we thought China were building a lot of coal fired power stations . .

        China To Build 66 New Airports Over The Next Five Years

        This will be welcome news for Leonardo DiCaprio.
        There’s plenty of places to land his jet and talk to the Chinese about their do-nothing contribution to the Paris deal.
        Anyone for tennis?

        60

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        I find the tag line interesting:

        Leonardo DiCaprio takes dig at Trump: ‘Vote for people who believe in the science of climate change’

        My message to Mr DiCaprio:

        If you need to to use the word “believe” or the word “belief” about something, then you are talking about religeon.

        If something depends on the number of people who have agreed, or voted, for something, then you are discussing politics.

        If you are describing repeatable, and consistant, cause and effect relationships, in the material world, then you are doing science.

        30

        • #
          Raven

          The first line is just as good, really.

          Leonardo DiCaprio takes dig at Trump:

          There seems to be no evidence of a spade, nor that any material was displaced.

          00

    • #
      Yonniestone

      The Gore effect is so powerful it transitions to the political climate, love it! 🙂

      231

      • #
        Raven

        Newsflash:
        Al Gore discovers negative feedback.

        (patiently awaiting further jokes about the ’hot spot’ et al)

        20

    • #
      Mark M

      Apparently Al’s power-point presentation involved playing U2 on his mobile phone whilst hugging and kissing an inflatable tree he personally blew up with his own carbon (sic).
      A poor effort.

      140

      • #
        Yonniestone

        I heard he dressed as ManBearPig and performed an interpretive dance while playing a drum made from the skin of the first climate refugee.

        141

        • #
          AndyG55

          “playing a drum made from the skin of the first climate refugee.”

          A skinless drum, the sound of one hand clapping…

          or …

          jazz fingers. !!

          82

    • #
      el gordo

      Ivanka has been brainwashed, there is no other explanation. This won’t effect Donald’s resolve to abolish the AGW bandwagon and its not unusual to have a global warming zealot in the family.

      111

    • #
      Dave in the States

      I saw a clip of Big Al speaking to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower afterward Monday. Just by his facial expressions and body language, as well as saying: “this will be continued.”, it did not go well for him. That means well to the rest of the real world. He seemed to be vacillating between the anger and negotiations grief stages. He was obviously angry.

      190

    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      I’m wondering if, at the conclusion of the meeting, Trump asked Ivanka whether she’d like to go home with Gore and be a Warmist, or stay and be a skeptic.

      70

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Haha…..cop that!

    Finally…an adult in charge instead of sulky and poorly behaved delinquent teenagers…..

    Bye Obama and dont let the door hit you on the way out….

    290

  • #
    Egor TheOne

    You look at ‘the Donald’ and think that Jan 20 cannot come quick enough.

    Meanwhile in Aus : Malcolm waffles while SA and VIC despots self harm those states with maniac green policy.

    Where is our Donald?

    330

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Hey they just had six years of Obama, give then a break. 🙂

      Oh an Australia is usually a year behind the US so?…….

      150

      • #
        Reed Coray

        Yonniestone, it has been eight years and it has seemed liked eighty. I had a glass of champagne the day after the election, and I’ll have a glass of champagne 20 January 2017. The former because it meant the political end of the Wicked Witch of the World. The latter because the era of the worst president in the history of the US will be over.

        100

      • #
        Egor TheOne

        8 years! (8 years too many)

        50

    • #
      Robert Rosicka

      Those states obviously don’t want manufacturing or meaningfull employment, ahh well more jobs interstate and overseas I suppose .
      But at least they will curb their emissions of the all powerful and deadly Co2 .
      Wonder if weatherdill would winge if Victoria started taxing electricity going into SA from vic .

      160

      • #
        shannon

        S.A. and the Co2 tax….

        Weatherill just “kissed” the submarine contact goodbye, with that intelligent announcement !!

        120

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Roberta Rosicka: I could claim copyright on the Dill part as I posted 2? weeks ago a comment that The Australian had censored my post – His name is Weatherill rhymes with dill – but this morning the same wording was rapidly accepted as a valid comment on his claims, so I am happy if it reaches a broad market.

        I would point out that NSW has been taking electricity from Victoria, so once Hazelwood shuts down it is unlikely that they would make up the 22% shortfall in Victoria, nor the shortfall in SA as Victoria may not have anything to put down that precious interconnector.
        Weatherill and Andrews the greatest comic duo since the 3 stooges? There’s enough stupidity there for 3.

        110

        • #
          jorgekafkazar

          I had to google “strine + dill” to translate the latter. Interestingly, according to koalanet, it has nothing to do with pickles, which I think is just wrong.

          30

        • #
          Robert Rosicka

          Graeme no 3 , yes I copied “weatherdill ” back when SA lost power because or the bird killers .

          40

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          Graeme @ #11.2.2.

          NSW already taking power from Victoria!

          That is the worst news I have heard yet. For me, that explains Daniel Andrews’ self confidence. He knows he already has us all, not just Victoria, by the short and curliest! His goal of destruction of the capitalist system is in full view.

          We should launch a campaign for one of two things.

          1. Prevent the closure of Hazelwood., or

          2. Persuade the NSW government to build a new power station to replace Hazelwood .

          Yet again we see that the Marxists have a better understanding of basic economics than the capitalists. Why, then, are they so foolish as to support Marxism, a system that just cannot work?

          00

    • #
      stan stendera

      You had him and you kicked him out. His name is Tony Abbott.

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  • #
    Peter C

    Are we seeing a TIPPING POINT in history?

    The News is coming thick and fast and Jo is all over it.

    Turnbull just got rolled on his carbon tax by Cory Bernadi and others .

    I sense an opportunity here and I don’t want to see it wasted. Can the lefties influence be rolled back here as well as overseas?

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    • #
      el gordo

      It should naturally follow that all Western nations should be greatly influenced, because the MSM will be compelled to cover every aspect of the revolution, particularly the flawed science. Trumps polite discussions with Gore and Di Caprio gives the new president a greater insight into the mind of a zealot.

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    • #
      Dean_from_Ohio

      Pray. Works wonders. It did here in the U.S.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      el gordo:
      Once the money dries up for the UN, the IPCC, various Green groups, NASA laboratories and other fabricators of “data”, once the EPA is cut down in size and their incompetely handled, scandalous, prejudiced functions are handed back to the States the new President will have hundrds of millions to spend on boosting employment in the USA. Other States, with the possible exception of the EU if it survives, will take note and dump the whole scam in the recycling bin and dispatch it (as in Germany and the UK) to be burnt.

      Believers such as Turnbull, Weatherill and Dopey Dave will be thrown onto the scrapheap of history. They will become the objects of derision to historians writing about obscure religions and delusions. I must buy a copy.

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      • #
        el gordo

        Imagine the new president looking out over the frozen Hudson River and saying ‘global warming is a hoax and we have the proof.’

        The whole world would be in a state of flux.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        That should be billions. My mistake, sorry. I was working on an old figure that the USA spent $8 billion on 14 laboratories checking for global warming etc. but I just saw that NASA GISS laboratories get $6 billion p.a. alone. A few billion here, a few billion there, pretty soon you have real money to play with on real problems.

        P.S. Are the trolls on strike or just despondent because they realise it is the beginning of the end for their ambitions?

        40

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Excuse me. We do not want to see the UN collapse. Firstly, they provide a fantastic service as peacekeepers. Secondly, we believe that Helen Clark is doing an absolutely superb job, at the UN, and we think that she should remain in New York – for as long as possible.

        10

        • #
          Mark D.

          Excuse me. I rarely see any reason to disagree with you Rereke but I’m willing to scrap the UN now.

          With all the apparent corruption I’m not sure whether it is “peace keeping” or pay to play.

          Even if you are right, the rest outside of peacekeeping, is money laundering by un-elected bureaucrat.

          I want none of it!

          00

    • #
      RobbertBobbertGDQ

      Peter,
      Can the lefties influence be rolled back here as well as overseas?
      They will go down kickin’,screamin’ and dummy spitting like never before…The EPA choice is so good as the fella has got knowledge of where all the regulatory bodies lay.
      His previous position was fighting to prevent them and now he can get rid of them. And he has the skills and the back up to do it.
      Trump declared in his campaign that for every piece of legislation he would see another one or two removed. And it will start with the punitive regulations and legislation designed to strangle and choke Coal and other Fossil Fuels and Industries that use big quantities of them. An American energy revolution is likely as Federal Lands now open up to Natural Fracturing.
      Here I apologies for veering off track but Peter asks are we to get less of the Luvvie Influence at home.
      Some teachers (with Union approval) of State Schools in Vic and NSW…maybe others…have decided to protest next week by wearing pro refugee T Shirts to work. Which happens to be our students class rooms.This blatant politicisation of Class Rooms should be met with suspension or dismissal but I will believe that when I enter another universe.
      There is so much wrong with this issue i do not know where to start so I shall just say The Left/Green Axis is The Aristocracy of Politics. They are, without doubt, of the opinion that they, and they alone, are The Born To Rule Entitled Class.
      They have the Institutions and so much access to taxpayer funds and they intend to keep it that way.They will not let go without a dummy spit of gobsmacking tantrum dimension.

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  • #
    Ozwitch

    Abengoa, the Spanish renewable biofuel and solar company which has bled the US government of over $2.2bn in subsidies, development costs and ‘startups’, and has been a dead company walking for over a year, is in its final death throes. The money thrown to it for its cellulosic (corn) ethanol fuel and solar generating plants will not be recovered by the US goverment. Another taxpayer funded green fantasy like Solyndra has bitten the dust. Now just waiting for Ivanpah solar city to go the same way in the Mojave desert. Birds everywhere will rejoice.

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    pat

    7 Dec: ClimateDepot: Marc Morano: Trump ignores Gore’s advice, instead picks skeptic to head EPA & dismantle climate agenda
    ‘Trump listened to what Gore had to say at their New York City meeting and then he exercised his good judgement and did the exact opposite.’
    Flashback: Trump’s pick for EPA chief declared EPA climate regs were like ‘gun to the head’ (LINK)
    Greens freak out over Trump’s EPA pick: Call him ‘Dangerous’ – ‘Existential threat to the planet’ (LINK)
    Climate Depot’s publisher Marc Morano statement on President Elect Donald Trump’s selection of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt pick for EPA chief:
    “President-Elect Trump’s appointment of Scott Pruitt is a breath of fresh air”…READ ON
    http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/12/07/trump-ignores-gores-advice-instead-picks-skeptic-to-head-epa-dismantle-climate-agenda/

    message to ABC/Fairfax/Guardian, etc. get rid of the fake experts, especially the fake climate experts:

    7 Dec: MRC TV: Craig Bannister: FAIL: PRWeek’s ‘Survey’ of 22 PR Pros Found ZERO Predictions for Trump
    The pre-election predictions of communications professionals surveyed by PRWeek proved to be unanimously – and embarrassingly – wrong. Could every PR executive in the U.S. have been so off, or was this a case of media bias in choosing the “experts?”
    On Nov. 8, PRWeek published “They’re with her: PR execs predict a resounding Clinton victory,” in which it reported the pre-election predictions of 22 communications professionals – not one of whom predicted Donald Trump would win the election. Not only were their predictions wrong, they were embarrassingly wrong, with some apparently more influenced by personal opinion than science…READ ALL
    http://www.mrctv.org/blog/

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    • #

      Make America great again,
      international peace, attained
      from strength not weakness
      of intent, cut taxes and
      red tape, let innovation
      flower and jobs proliferate,
      it’s not too late – time to be
      great again!

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    Yonniestone

    Its fascinating to watch people who on paper are mature aged, educated, qualified and employed becoming so emotive over politics while completely ignoring any scientific training they had once received, I’m convinced that a certain percentage of humans are predisposed to the attraction of drama surrounding cultish beliefs, the bigger the threat the more important they feel and more power is needed.

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    • #
      William

      And Yonniestone, let’s hope they all soon learn what it is like to suffer from relevance deprivation syndrome!

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        Yonniestone

        Yes where they should have been initially, the majority aren’t cut out for leadership especially this group, a small collective echo chamber where they can curse the sun and their white privileged existence is fine but giving them tangible power over productive peoples lives is reckless folly.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Curiously I have just been reading about a recent, and more or less ongoing, fight in science. Prefacing his analysis with the comment “Scientists are human” the author gives an account of the twos and fros of battle over 2 theories over the last 30 years. After pointing out the objections to both (and a third ignored theory) he suggests that it may have been more complex than one cause.
        However his final chapter spoils the effect by embracing the notion of the mass extinction due to humans.

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    • #
      John Smith

      I think evolution has made us to search for and rise to crisis.
      The urban educated affluent lack existential challenges and are compelled to invent them.

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      • #
        RAH

        And the less educated common man has far fewer daily challenges to provide for the necessities of living and thus more free time to indulge in such fantasies.

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      jorgekafkazar

      My theory is that those predisposed to such drama have an over-developed area in their brain core that makes them more likely than average to develop adrenaline addiction. Every repetition of putative climate threats causes a surge in adrenaline, making them feel elevated, important and powerful. If you threaten their beliefs, you threaten their addiction. Have you ever tried to get a drunk to give up booze? Same reaction; same area of the brain involved.

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    • #
      Glen Michel

      Susceptibility to brainwashing is common to a majority of human life forms.Unfortunately.I should add that left leaning individuals are more likely to succumb .

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  • #

    “Unless he also starts World War III, appointing #Pruitt as #EPA head may be Trump ‘s most apocalyptically destructive act.”

    Actually Dan, when Bomber Barry, Hillary of Arabia, Cyber Warrior Biden and John Kerry’s bouffant, using NATO and the demented German Empire, surround Russia with nukes and other military installations from the caves of Norway’s Arctic all the way round to Azerbaijan…that’s how you get WW3.

    Appointing some hard-head to the EPA just saves a few bob. So dry that apocalyptically humidified nappy, Dan. The punters are well and truly over it. Hence Trump 2016.

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      History implies that you rarely win a war, by starting one.

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      • #
        wert

        Well, what you mean by winning and what you mean by starting? Winners define who started the war..

        10

        • #
          Mark D.

          wert, that doesn’t make sense when looking at history. Example: Hitler started the war. Was he winner or loser? Did the winner make him a winner? No.

          Are you saying he didn’t start the war?

          Maybe there is a different example that supports your point?

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    • #
      wert

      Nuclear weapons in Norway have absolutely no connection with a world war.

      In a modern world, there is actually not much reason to keep nuclear weapons in Norway because old Soviet/Russian threat, because missiles can take them around the Earth, BUT that you mention Russia tells something about the world. Russia is the only real threat to world peace. North Korea would be, if it had more nuclear weapons.

      00

  • #
    pat

    ***here’s a climatologist who should be dropped, MSM:

    7 Dec: CBC: Sheena Goodyear: The weather outside is frightful thanks to climate change and the polar vortex
    Cold Arctic air hitches a ride on a ‘roller-coaster’ jet stream to bring us a more blustering winter than 2014
    With cold, blustering snowstorms battering the West Coast and the Prairies, you might be tempted to say “What global warming?”
    But climate change may, in fact, be to blame for this oh-so-Canadian winter.
    “Doesn’t global warming mean that we’re going to get warmer, shorter winters? Well, in some areas, yes, but it actually could mean we could see colder episodes,” Environment Canada senior ***climatologist David Phillips told CBC News.
    It’s all part of a bigger puzzle that has to do with melting Arctic ice, extreme ocean temperatures, a travelling polar vortex and a weird, roller-coaster-shaped jet stream…
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/weather-winter-holiday-outlook-1.3885241

    LOL:

    6 Dec: Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown predicts ‘negative, and very powerful’ reaction if Donald Trump halts climate change action
    By Christopher Cadelago
    In his global evangelism about the threat of climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown has dismissed skeptics as “troglodytes” and “deniers of the obvious science.”
    But Brown, who in recent years has emerged as a premier climate warrior, has refused to ascribe those characteristics to Donald Trump since his election as president, despite the Republican businessman’s support for fossil fuels and repeated dismissals of climate change as a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.
    In brief remarks about the subject, Brown said Monday that it would be difficult for the U.S. to “go rogue” on climate change. He went further Tuesday in a broadcast discussion with former Vice President Al Gore, predicting a “negative and very powerful” backlash throughout the world should Trump continue to voice his denials and impede the environmental progress of the last eight years.
    “I don’t think given the science and given the rising concern that that is a sustainable political trajectory – even for the president of the United States,” he said.
    Brown was a guest on Gore’s sixth-annual “24 Hours of Reality” broadcast, a program that at least during the final hour did not appear to offer much in the way of dissenting views. Gore, one of the world’s most prominent climate activists, met with Trump on Monday, offering hope to some environmentalists.
    On Tuesday, Gore seemed to commiserate with Brown about ways to break through the “formidable denial” demonstrated by “some smart people.” Brown, for his part, agreed they can be tough to convert.
    “But,” he said, “there are many more people, by tens of millions, that as reflected in the surveys are open to this idea. And they know the climate is changing.”
    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article119292988.html

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    Geoffrey Williams

    And while I am on the subject of ‘balls’ I am reminded of our great leader here in Aus… Most of us have heard of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the Emporer’s Magic Clothes, Well to me this fairy tale is very much like the political correctness of global warming/climate change.The crowd are all afraid to call out the truth ie that the king has no clothes, but no one has the courage say it as it is. Here in Australia it’s worse because not only can we see that the king has no clothes,but nor does he have any balls!!
    GeoffW

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    ROM

    Yoo hoo!! Barak!! Are you still around and still the POTUS or have you just doing your usual and gone off to play golf or whatever.
    We haven’t seen or heard from you for some time now!
    Indeed it is quite unusual behaviour for a reigning POTUS.

    This Trump fella seems to be running the show already and making a hell of a splash all over.

    And we all thought he wasn’t going to be the POTUS for another few weeks until January 20th when he gets sworn in.

    —————
    I wonder how many here have sat down for a few minutes to an hour or so and just watched the little critters like ants in all their multitudinous varieties and species go about their business.
    I use to do that a lot when I had a few minutes or made a few minutes to watch those ants.
    At one stage I had 5 different species outside of our house backgate, all within a metre square area of ground. And that was only a part collection of all the different species of ants I had around our farm yard.
    Each species had a different colour range of dirt particles and mound structures depending on the depths and soil types they liked to colonise underground and to make their mounds or to distribute around their entrances to their colony.
    And they all just went about their business without interfering at all with other species of ant colonies that were often only a metre or so away.

    A couple stamps of the feet and some would duck for their holes. Some sort of wandered around a bit. Some with soldier ants in their colonies shot down their holes and left the big and uglies to waving their mandibles at the entrance of the nest as the protectors of the colony.

    And then there were the meat ants, highly aggressive nasty painful nipping little buggers and very aggressive to any interlopers on their patch of ground where their often huge colony was located with its multiple entrances that often covered a few square metres.

    Stomp on one of those meat ant colonies and they came pouring out of their holes ready and looking to take anybody and anything on.

    As kids before it was politically incorrect to fire off crackers under any circumstances, we use to stuff crackers down their holes and fire them off.
    It was always worth a few minutes entertainment to watch the action which was fast and furious, all the while making sure we kept a couple of metres of distance away.

    Donald Trump reminds me so much of those days when I use to stomp on those meat ant nests and then sit back and watch the display of all out frustrated meat ant aggression as if only they could find something to get a firm clamp on with their mandibles they were going to tear it too pieces.
    Which I have seen them do to small unfortunate critters like small lizards that have strayed onto the meat ant’s patch.

    The frustrated and angry meat ants in Trumps case being all those progressives and greens and etc whose nice tidy nesting arrangements and bubble colonies and secure and exclusive access to the best sustenance and feeding sources are being badly disturbed and dislocated and perhaps in the not very distant future destroyed by the ant control and frustration techniques being exercised on the progressives carefully constructed and salubriously catered for nesting bubble arrangements with great flourish by Trump and his new team.

    And as I so often saw with those meat ants, the more you stomped on their nests, the more of them came pouring out of their holes and the angrier they got!
    And the more they were flushed out into into the open, the easier it was to hit them hard with one ant killer to slow down their spread and reduce their serious impact on the other farm yard species and animals.

    Somehow I think I might have seen all this angry “progressive” thing before in those meat ants but at a level where at least it had a purpose and perhaps unlike the act the American progressives are now displaying, those meat ants perhaps showed even a small amount of collective intelligence in their reactions.

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      In its way, that is very poetic, ROM. Thank you.

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    • #
      TdeF

      I remember being five in the country, down Buln Buln East in Gippland on a farm as a city visitor. My wiser eight year old cousin suggested we grab a shovel and head into the bush. Soon we reached a big bull ants nest. Those things are nasty, huge and red. Then he said to hit the nest with the shovel, which I did. Of course they swarmed out. I then asked what we did next and with all his eight years experience in such matters he gave me very good advice. Run.

      So you do not always believe what you are told. How many people are sucked in by the Green advisers who talk about ‘the Science’ as if they could add or multiply and when all the power goes off, it is your own fault for listening. Are you listening, South Australia?

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      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Ants? This reminds me of the things I have been gunna study but didn’t.

        Our meat ants meet ROM’s description, but have no sting. Red and black, about 12 to 15 mm long. They nest as described, and traffic between nests wears a visible road through the grass. They are prolific.

        The bulldog or bull ants are much less common, mainly found under particular species of eucalyptus trees. They also are black and red, around 2.5 cm long, have spectacular jaws, but their very painful sting is in their tail. In some nest in some areas these ants are all black. They don’t venture far from the nest by day, but climb trees at night.

        I have wondered if, given the choice and no way out, if I might prefer to be bitten by a bulldog ant than his weight in green heads. Common little blokes less than a centimetre long, with a nasty sting.

        00

        • #
          PhilJourdan

          around 2.5 cm long, have spectacular jaws

          An inch long? Those are not ants! They are miniature dinosaurs!

          00

    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Meat ants. I never heard of meat ants.
      But the metaphor is beautiful.
      In this case it is the MEATHEADS that search for a safe space at the click of a trigger, and send out the pointless, arm waving ranters.

      21

      • #
        bobl

        They are a large bodied (1cm) Australian bull ant see http://www.insectvista.com/Meat_Ants.html

        They are about the only predator effective at controlling the introduced pest Buffo marino (Cane Toad) as they patrol the waters edge waiting for the small toads to emerg then pounce. They are not very aggressive to humans, but don’t particularly like it when you run the mower over their nest. When they bite they bite hard, and can take a chunk outta you. Nasty buggers if you get bitten, so are to be treated with a little caution.

        We have a mega colony on the shores of our farm pond. It is interesting to watch them when the young cane toads are emerging, very effective.

        20

  • #
    pat

    7 Dec: UK Times: Ben Webster: Solar panels less green than you think, say experts
    More than a billion solar panels have been installed around the world but they may so far have failed to reduce overall emissions, a study has found.
    Panel production is so energy intensive that the global solar industry could still be paying off its “carbon debt”.
    Researchers looked at the full lifecycle of solar panels, including the emissions resulting from their production and the renewable electricity they produce.
    They found that the panels installed since the mid-1970s were likely to be producing a net reduction in emissions by 2011 — but that in the worst-case scenario, they might not do so until 2018.
    The solar industry has been “a temporary net emitter of greenhouse gas emissions”, the study by Utrecht University concluded…REGISTER TO READ ON

    6 Dec: Nature: Re-assessment of net energy production and greenhouse gas emissions avoidance after 40 years of photovoltaics development
    Authors: Atse Louwen, Wilfried G. J. H. M. van Sark, André P. C. Faaij & Ruud E. I. Schropp
    http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13728

    6 Dec: Nature: Take the time and effort to correct misinformation
    Scientists should challenge online falsehoods and inaccuracies — and harness the collective power of the Internet to fight back, argues Phil Williamson.
    (Phil Williamson is an associate fellow at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK)
    With the election of Donald Trump, his appointment of advisers who are on record as dismissing scientific evidence, and the emboldening of deniers on everything from climate change to vaccinations, the amount of nonsense written about science on the Internet (and elsewhere) seems set to rise. So what are we, as scientists, to do?
    Most researchers who have tried to engage online with ill-informed journalists or pseudoscientists will be familiar with Brandolini’s law (also known as the Bullsh*t Asymmetry Principle): the amount of energy needed to refute bullsh*t is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Is it really worth taking the time and effort to challenge, correct and clarify articles that claim to be about science but in most cases seem to represent a political ideology?…
    Earlier this year, I had a run-in with Breitbart News — the libertarian website made infamous by the appointment of its former senior executive Stephen Bannon as Trump’s chief strategist. It followed an article in The Spectator that criticized research on ocean acidification and contained several in­accuracies, written by James Delingpole…READ ON
    Commenting is currently unavailable.
    http://www.nature.com/news/take-the-time-and-effort-to-correct-misinformation-1.21106

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  • #

    “Pruitt disputes the mainstream scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet at an alarming rate…”

    http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-epa-20161207-story.html

    “Mainstream scientific consensus” is appeal to authority and therefore unscientific. “At an alarming rate” is not a scientific opinion.

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    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      The LA Times is a leftist rag unfit for any purpose not involving pets (puppies & parakeets, primarily) or papier mache. Their opinions are worthless drivel on their best days and achieve new depths of ignorance and stupidity on their worst.

      100

  • #
    Yonniestone

    From Obama to anti colonial behaviour, yep this covers a lot, nice one ROM. 😉

    60

  • #
    • #
      Peter C

      Delingpole puts the boot in!

      Wow! Breitbart’s climate science has come under attack from a devastating new rhetorical technique: the argumentum ad puellam pulchram. (aka the Argument from a Pretty Girl)

      My latin translation is Pretty Girl Child.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Yes, ad is towards and um is the accusative case. He needs from or by, ‘ab’ and the ablative case. Perhaps a puella pulchra .

        30

  • #
    Mike Spilligan

    I wonder if there’ll be much (illicit?) document shredding and data erasing going on at EPA? It might seem worth the risk if a 17,000 person “army” seems to be under attack.
    Jo: By the way I much appreciate your recent diversions into relevant political stories – they usually impart more real information than our (UK) MSM does.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    On another type of survival


    Larry | December 8, 2016 2:56 AM | Reply

    Israeli Army men have one of the world’s highest life expectancies

    http://nypost.com/2016/12/07/israeli-army-men-have-one-of-the-worlds-highest-life-expectancies/
    —————————————————————————–
    (I’m guessing the same cannot be said for their enemies.)”

    comment at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/12/reader-tips-3683.html#comments

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    Yonniestone

    An excellent Tucker Carlson video on Scott Pruitt’s endorsement from yesterday where he triggers a Democrat dissenter.

    Listen to the dissonance that justifies the numerous contradictions, its breathtaking.

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  • #
    FrankH

    “The post originally named Don van der Vaart instead of Scott Pruitt, who was on the shortlist. Fixed.”

    Not completely fixed, there’s still “Van der Vaart has his work cut out for him to change the culture of that behemoth.”

    —-
    Darn! Fixed that too now. Appreciate the proof reading. – Jo

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  • #
    PeterS

    Next year the LNP will need to rethink a lot of things, especially on climate change and the economy. I hope the party members have a good hard look at themselves after speaking to their friends and relatives during the Christmas break. I fear we are heading for a painful shock that will hopefully wake up a lot of people here and realise that the left on both sides are not just economic vandals but also nation destroyers. Anyone who is not dead in the brain now surely knows that Trump is no ordinary politician. He will move mountains if necessary to get what he wants. Anyone who stands in his way better watch out. He might even become very unpopular by many but he means business. His time has come whether one likes him or not. It’s time for socialism to be ripped out of our system like a cancer. The only possible problem is like many cancer cures, the medicine might kill the patient. Regardless it had to be done since the cancer if left unchecked definitely would have killed the patient, and in a horrible way. Let’s wish Trump all the best and God speed.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    The chickens have come home to roost,
    And for skeptics, a most welcome boost,
    Who will now have their say,
    On the Trump E.P.A.,
    To correct what the warmists have loosed.

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  • #
    Dean_from_Ohio

    There wance was a Prog named McCarthy
    Who hated rocks that were Swarthy
    She lied and she stole
    From those miners of coal
    But gone is her Pres Vader Darthy

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Hope he (Trump) can pull it off (sacking the EPA) and getting the US power industry back on track with un-closing coal fired power stations (the ones the OBunker closed down).

    170

  • #
    ianl8888

    As an example of the issue of corrupting language for propaganda (several comments discussed this in earlier threads), it is easy to observe the scientifically senseless Gillard phrase “price on carbon” suddenly sprouting everywhere – unhappily including this website.

    It’s obviously meant to avoid the ugly word TAX – such negative public connotations, best to avoid that [sardonically].

    Yet, what can a “price on carbon” possibly mean ? Does every atom of C in your body, or indeed the biosphere, now have a bounty hunter price on it ? Who owns these C atoms to put them up for sale with some pre-determined price ?

    So pathetically illiterate. But it’s all over the MSM, the blogs, and becoming general use with no accurate definition. Yet again, the leftoids win by corrupting language.

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    TdeF

    Now Trump has met with Leanardo Di Caprio to discuss creating Green jobs? Trump is a great believer in making friends in the media. Al Gore, Di Caprio. Who’s next, James Hansen? Not even President yet and he is trying to unite the country after the disastrous years of Obama conflict, from Climate Change to the Middle East to China. That’s another way to solve problems, open discussion, cards on the table, plain sense. Wow.

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    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Belief is the state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case, with or without there being empirical evidence to prove that something is the case with factual certainty. An assumption is an unfounded belief. Assumptions are unchallenged, unquestioned, unexamined, and very often untrue. Many terms describe unfounded beliefs including: rumours, myths, legends, folk-lore, blind-faith, and wives-tales.
      A recent study (it took me nearly ten seconds) reveals that 97% of climate clowns and warmists also believe in astrology, witchcraft, and many similar superstitions.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      …. another way to solve problems, open discussion, cards on the table, plain sense.

      A lot of the members of the global international diplomatic club, are going to have a hard time getting their collective heads around that.

      I mean, how can you imply what you mean, if you have to say what you mean, up front? Where is the skill in that?

      That is the sort of thing that ruins a perfectly good lunch.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Holding breath..holding breath…

      10

  • #
    PhilJourdan

    The left (at least in this country) never learns. Their stock in trade has been to issue epithets after epithets of slurs to diminish the opposition. It HAD worked in the past, but Trump was not taking it. And that is one of the reasons he won. He fought back.

    Having exhausted their litany of ad hominems, they go back to them whenever he does anything else. Trump knows it is their only response (knee jerk as it is) and now just ignores it. The way to get Trump do listen is to start negotiations. But if the last 8 years and the disasters of TPP and Iran have taught us nothing else, it has taught us the left suck at negotiation. They are so use to “my way or the highway” they have no conception of how to negotiate. I suspect that the Algore meeting was simply another threat from algore and an out of hand dismissal by Trump.

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      Richard Ilfeld

      Yup, politics is like any other sport.
      You play like you practice.
      After many years of no-contact walkthroughs, the left looks pretty soft in the face of real pushback.
      & the aging, high salaried vets can’t seem to keep up with the new play designs and young legs.

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        ROM

        Richard Infield @ # 34.1

        An interesting comparison with sport there, Richard.

        The left, greens and Ivory towered hard left academics and now their institutes plus leftist dominated and loaded bureaucracies and the media along with their inept political travellers in governments have all had it their own way in almost every aspect one can think of for close on two decades now in the ways they have been trying to forcibly change both the underlaying culture and the whole of western society.

        They have been trying to do this changing of society and societal culture, not by leading and convincing and debating but by forcibly trying to change the cultures of most western societies through all sorts of dubious legislated and even more dubious and straight out thuggish methods plus straight out lies and deliberate misinformation plus completely fictitiously based denigration and deliberate and pernicious attempts at the ruination of reputations of any doubters and questioners and open skeptics, all of which have been used indiscriminately and enmasse against questioners and dissenters and skeptics of the left for close on two decades now.

        The left and so called progressives for a minimum of at least a full political generation now, have never had any full scale, all out, right of center political attacks mounted against them and their corrupted, individuality destroying, society “correcting” demands and policies.
        The apparent public attitudes as expressed by the equally left and progressive dominated media has all been moving quite satisfactorily as far as the Progressive Left and greens are concerned and in their view, humming along in their inexorably destined political paths where mankind’s civilisation is destined to go according to the progressive hard left and greens and its running dogs in the MSM.

        And yet within a matter of less than few months, the whole of the green left progressive’s programs for changing society are just coming totally unhinged as are apparently in a mental sense, many of the green left progressive’s most powerful and influential proponents judging by their recent and published commentary.

        Looking back, the revolt by the so called “Deplorables against the overwhelming individuality destroying programs of the green hard left progressives in both the USA and in Europe has been brewing for quite some time past.

        Donald Trump, President elect of the USA in fact is being touted as the creator of this revolt by the Deplorables but in reality he is the only the manifestation of this revolt, a revolt against the green left progressives that has placed a politically maverick Trump in a position where he can exercise the real time hard politics of this brewing revolt by the middle classes across all of western society.

        Trump is the manifestation and now the focus around which this revolt of the middle class Delorables is being mounted.

        And that Revolt is an increasingly savage reaction to what has been years of a green left progressive individuality destroying, do as we say , not as we do, society reforming programs and policies which the green left progressives and their running dogs in the media and politicals have continuously and vehemently espoused for a couple of decades now and which they have tried to forcibly impose by various often pernicious and dubious means on western societies across western nations everywhere.

        The real interesting part of this is the almost complete disarray and total chaos and complete ineffectiveness of the progressive left’s reaction to Trump and his increasingly vocal supporters from the ranks of those green progressive left despised “Deplorables”.

        The green left progressives are proving to be little more that a bucket of slops and lacking totally in any coherent counter reaction to the revolt of the middle class Deplorables due no doubt to always having and always anticipating that their accession as the guiders and instructors of all of mankind was completely inevitable and unchallengeable.

        They simply do not know how to counter when an unexpected and completely unanticipated, deep seated and mass created revolt against their now seen to be rotten, decaying and putrefying set of individuality destroying political and social programs and policies for the reshaping of society and of a closely controlled and disciplined mankind made into in their own image of mankind with themselves the Overlords is challenged.
        And then is seen to be on the way to almost total destruction by a totally unexpected and unpredicted rise of a powerful and influential maverick political who represents in just about every way, the anti-“progressive green left” culture of the of the mass of those very same middle class Deplorables.

        It is called arrogance and hubris and it has brought dictators and overlords and despots down through out history.

        To the the “green progressive left”, welcome to the real world.

        You wanted, you wish for power over the people.

        So welcome to the shocking consequences of the exercising of that despotic power without the permission of the people, a lesson learn’t by despots and dictators over and over again down throughout the millenniums of human civilisation.

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          Subject of my next blog post,ROM.
          ‘Trust but Verify. ‘ A serf.

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          Dean from Ohio

          Progressivism poisons everything. God helping us, we won’t take it anymore.

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          Annie

          I get the feeling you feel a bit strongly about all that ROM! I agree with you.

          Disgraceful, Deplorable, Den!er Annie (I’m in 3D now, after reading Jaime Jessop’s post the other day and learnt about ‘disgracefuls’.

          Except that I think the warmistas are the true den!ers…

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      RAH

      PhilJourdan

      I think it will be the death of them.
      Just as the press is doubling down on their claims of racism, homophobia, and zenophobia, in their attempt to cast Trump and any who support him in the light they desire. They are going to ramp up their lies about climate and weather up to try and turn public opinion against Trump in order to save the climate change scam and “green energy”. IMO both efforts are going to fail and the left and their press are going to lose as their claims get ever more outrageous.

      The left and their press in the US is not even close to hitting the bottom of the abyss they dove head first into. They remain in the political campaign mode and it will take at least one more election with very possibly the emergence of a Republican super majority in the Senate (a more highly likely outcome to the midterms in 2018 than many realize right now) before they may realize that their 24/7/365 smear campaign is hurting them with the majority of legitimate voters in the US.
      The democrats have no bench. No emerging leaders in part because they have no depth in flyover country. Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in governorships and state and commonwealth legislative seats and that dominance continues down through county seats. There are only five states where democrats hold governorships and majorities in the state legislature. The other reason the democrats have no bench is because their hard left leaders that continue to grasp the reins of the party in an iron grip with their aged hands quash anyone that will not without question toe the party line.

      The implications for the democrats in all of this besides a weak bench at the national level is that the next US census (Required every 10 years) is coming up in 2020. The allocation of congressmen to the states is based upon census results as well as the redrawing of voting precincts. What this means that If Republicans continue to dominate at the state and local levels and they almost certainly will, it will be Republicans setting the boundaries of the voting precincts and that will set them up for domination well into the future. The democrats only recourse to oppose this will be the courts.

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        Steven Fraser

        And the representation in the House allocated for a state is based on population. Proportionally growing states get more reps, and mor electoral college votes.

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        Can anything be done about the non-auditability of the voting machines? Or wraiths returning from the afterlife, in order to vote Democrat?

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          RAH

          I don’t know. I was and remain against any form of electronic voting. I don’t care if it has a printout or not and I don’t care if they electronically scan paper ballots. I’m against all of it in any form. I believe the old fashioned ways were the best when it comes to ballots and counting.

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            copyI

            like the untraceable but valuable coin given to each voter. an opaque jar for each candidate. Walk past all and pretend to drop coin in one. If none meet your qualifications, wander to the local pub and have one for the coin! The efficacy of the candidates relates to the number of coins returned from the pub.

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      • #
        PhilJourdan

        Some pundits (so you can take this with a grain of salt) have already declared the press dead due to their overt support of hillary and the passing along of the lies told by the left. When America woke to President Elect Trump, many realized what the press had been reporting was indeed the real fake news. I only repeat this because I hope it is true.

        But my cynical side tells me the MSM is not dead yet. To their faithful (the rabid left), it never will be. But if the MSM is marginalized to just that segment of the population, that will be sufficient to kill them as the left are notorious for not putting their money where their mouth is.

        Companies are starting to realize that as well. While it is “fashionable” to be PC and let dirty old men into the ladies room, they get no additional revenue from allowing it, but they do lose some. David Appell will never shop target. So he will preach their virtues and then spend his money elsewhere.

        Kelloggs will find that out as well. It may be as soon as one more election. It may take longer. But the old adage about fooling all of the people all of the time comes into play. When every opponent is a racist, sexist, homophobe – and the policies do not reflect the the stereotype, most move on to real issues.

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    Reed Coray

    This news is too good to be true. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Last night I thought the popping noises I was hearing came from somebody making popcorn, and instead it turns out to be the heads of a bunch of soon-to-be unemployed AGW crusaders. Reigning in the EPA was second on my list (dismantling Obama Care was first) of actions I wanted to see Trump take. Trump and Pruitt aren’t in office yet so it’s not a foregone conclusion that I’ll get my wish; but barring some catastrophe, I will.

    Breaking News: Resume services all over the US are contacting EPA personnel and AGW activists. It seems they (resume services) have identified an heretofore untapped market.

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    Dave in the States

    In politics and most things it is what people do, not what they say, that one must watch. So far Trump is doing all the right things, even if says all kinds of stuff.

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    CheshireRed

    Oh my word we’ve waited 25 years for some sense to be introduced to the ‘climate change’ debate, and now look: Trump is flattening the green blob in every direction. This is gonna be A LOT of fun. 🙂

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    • #
      CC Reader

      I do hope Bob is correct!

      “Come senators, congressmen
      Please heed the call
      Don’t stand in the doorway
      Don’t block up the hall
      For he that gets hurt
      Will be he who has stalled
      There’s a battle outside ragin’.
      It’ll soon shake your windows
      And rattle your walls

      BOB DYLAN TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING LYRICS

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    Russell Johnson

    We are very fortunate to be witnessing the dawn of a new era with regard to climate and the environment. Bureaucratic over-reach in general and specifically related to EPA is a cancer that can kill a democratic republic. However, it is well past time to overturn useless, meaningless regulations that kill the economy and jobs. I have a strong feeling that the flow of government money that feeds climate change “research” will become merely a trickle very soon. I for one say “Let’s roll”!!!!

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    Don’t forget that the EPA also trashed four rivers in SW US with the Gold King Mine spill in 2015.

    There has been a revolving door between the NRDC and EPA for a long time. NRDC writes the rules / regs and their friends and supporters in the EPA move them thru the system for approval. Getting rid of these people will be difficult. Best solution would be a line item in a funding bill allowing a reorganization, which is the real way to kill a bureaucracy from the inside.

    Mr. Pruitt can pull out of all consent agreements between the EPA and green groups. These agreements are a vehicle to implement rules and regs without going through the normal public process. One side quits playing and the deal collapses. EPA snuck a lot of really awful stuff thru the federal courts that they never could have gotten thru the public process. As a state attorney general, he knows this process intimately.

    Final thing he needs to do, early would be better than later, is rescind the EPA finding that CO2 is a pollutant. It is the centerpiece of all their climate change regulations. Pull it and the entire house of cards collapses.

    There is a lot of good news here. It will be loud and very, very nasty. But it will ultimately be successful. Cheers –

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    • #
      ianl8888

      … rescind the EPA finding that CO2 is a pollutant. It is the centerpiece of all their climate change regulations

      Is the process really that simple – straight recission by Departmental decree ?

      I hope it is so, but my (faulty) memory says something about a Supreme Court judge (singular) decision …

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      David Maddison

      https://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment-and-cause-or-contribute-findings-greenhouse-gases-under-section-202a

      QUOTE

      Background
      On April 2, 2007, in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. The Court held that the Administrator must determine whether or not emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare, or whether the science is too uncertain to make a reasoned decision. In making these decisions, the Administrator is required to follow the language of section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court decision resulted from a petition for rulemaking under section 202(a) filed by more than a dozen environmental, renewable energy, and other organizations.
      On April 17, 2009, the Administrator signed proposed endangerment and cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. EPA held a 60-day public comment period, which ended June 23, 2009, and received over 380,000 public comments. These included both written comments as well as testimony at two public hearings in Arlington, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. EPA carefully reviewed, considered, and incorporated public comments and has now issued these final Findings.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        And a more trumped up charge has never before been seen in the courts of the United States. No pun intended.

        It turned a foolish assumption into something cast in concrete and it will take the Supreme Court to undo it. And the Supreme Court is not going to be willing to even rehear the case until at least one or two more justices retire or die.

        In the meantime Trump will have to scale back EPA’s regulations or get them put off until the decision can be reheard. And by the way, it’s not at all automatic that if the decision is revisited, it will be reversed. The other alternative would be to have the EPA eliminated altogether, which I wish was practical but we need something to keep track of real pollution. But a new organization with less of a mandate to save the world from we horrible humans and our pollution might get away with rewriting existing regulations to make them a lot more tolerable.

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          Roy Hogue

          Just a tiny suggestion about regulation:

          An honest and thorough cost/benefit analysis could go a long way in showing us what is and what isn’t worth doing. Among other things, our resources are always going to be finite. And that should tell everyone that we cannot do everything we can think of. Not even in the ivory tower halls of government in Washington DC. Not even if someone is suffering if we don’t do something. Life is not guaranteed. On the other hand, discomfort, inconvenience and sometimes suffering are most certainly guaranteed.

          The question always needs to be, what is the marginal cost of getting the next increment of benefit vs. the harm done if we make or do not make the regulation? And then, is it worth it? Because sometimes it’s not worth it.

          Like anyone else, I may not always know at what point we should say no to fixing something. But I would feel immensely better if we make the effort to find out that answer before we act.

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          David Maddison

          Roy, my reading is that the SC found that CO2 was a “pollutant” but it seems to me that they still left the decision as to what, if anything, is to be done about it to the EPA “Administrator”.

          Is that a valid interpretation?

          A new Administrator might reverse the previous one’s decision.

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          • #
            Dean from Ohio

            Yes. The Supreme Court is spectacularly unqualified to label anything a pollutant (except Progressivism). If they do, we should ignore them.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            David,

            One could hope… But the left side of humanity is very creative in turning a solution into another problem.

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    David Maddison

    Do you think that the sanity that will soon come to the EPA will trickle down to Australia, and how long will this take?

    And the same question for other Western countries.

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      PeterS

      They have to otherwise we can kiss goodbye to traditional Western values such as freedom of speech and say hello to extreme socialist corrupt ones.

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  • #
    Gordon

    YEEEAAHHHH!!!

    Dear Mr. President,
    Since you have such a high regard for hard work,would it be possible for you to take on the roll of the Canadian Prime Minister at the same time?
    We have a very serious problem in Canada with the left wing.

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  • #
    DennisA

    Check out:

    “Lisa P Jackson, EPA Administrator – Fulfilling the UN Mission”
    http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/science-papers/originals/lisa-p-jackson-epa-administrator-fulfilling-the-un-mission

    and

    “The United (Nations) States Environmental Protection Agency”
    http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/science-papers/originals/the-un-states-epa

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  • #
    • #
      Raven

      Thanks Gordon,
      A sobering read indeed.

      Now the common refrain is that the projects don’t have a “social licence.”

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    Curious George

    It’s time to mention the Animas River spill in Colorado’s Rockies, caused by EPA. The river turned bright orange-yellow for days. EPA seems to have paid no compensation – they are very fast to fine any other polluter. Did any heads roll at EPA? http://ourchildrenaresacred.org/tag/epa/

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  • #
    Fuel Filter

    For all you here that have trashed Trump as a moron, Buffon, or worse of the past 1 1/2 years:

    I TOLD YOU YOU SO! Oh, and BITE ME!

    [to other mods: I thought this had enough humor value to let on through] ED

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    • #
      ROM

      #46

      Its ok Mod;

      Fuel Filter?
      Sigh!
      The number of times I had to change one of those because it was so full of total crap is uncountable.

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    CC Reader

    The Navaho Nation is suing the EPA over toxic mine spill. “I will now drink myself senseless for posting ANYthing from CNN. (Communist News Network) I feel so dirty!

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/16/politics/navajo-lawsuit-epa-animas-river/index.html

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    Robert Rosicka

    I see our chief “scientist” is claiming that taxing electricity will make it cheaper ! Just like taxing smokes ,petrol and alcohol made them cheaper , the man is a genius.

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    • #
      Egor TheOne

      the ‘Chief Scientist’ is a global warming dud!

      Another Slimey Malcolm appointee very soon after he stole the PMship from Abbott and just before he ran to the Paris CAGW True B’lvers Hajj to hand over 1,000 million AUD of our money that we have to borrow and pay interest on to appease the Marxist Conglomerate of Unelected Nutters(UN).

      This so-called ‘chief scientist’ when asked by Senator Malcolm Roberts of One Nation…Is not all science based on ’empirical evidence’?…..instead of simply answering ‘Yes’,he answered with an extended, misleading and ambiguous way…..a political way….the way of BS, that is not answering at all.

      He is no more than another CAGW propagator with his snout in the trough…little wonder he is a buddy of our BSer in chief, ‘the TurdFull’!

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        David Maddison

        Yes, it is very disappointing that the Chief Scientist has not applied the Scientific Method to the issue of AGW. Surely, given the billions being spent and the tremendous economic damage coming from unreliable and expensive electricity, the problem deserves a scientific assessment of the evidence to determine if in fact there really is a problem?

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          David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

          Sorry David,
          My 47.1.2 is misplaced. Finger trouble.
          Relevant to your 47.1: Finkel is giving a presentation to COAG today. Weatherill and he should make an interesting pair. I hope for fireworks, but expect garbage.
          Cheers,
          Dave B

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        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        Thanks Dave,
        I only saw a brief clip, and was only left wondering what had happened. My tentative decision was that he didn’t look as if he’d had a win, and I hoped that Trump had suggested Al should experience a RICO charge if kept presenting incorrect information…
        I’ll keep watching, and hoping.
        Cheers,
        Dave B

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    Reed Coray

    I must interject a sad note that is weakly related to Mr. Pruitt’s nomination to head the EPA–Barbara Boxer is leaving the US Senate. On 3 January 2017 Barbara (don’t call me ma’am, call me Senator) Boxer will join the ranks of former government employees. Her ineffective Senate leadership regarding global warming environmental issues has been a boon to AGW skeptics. Her fumbling and ineffective leadership will be missed.

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    AndyG55

    Apparently Trump had a meeting with L. de Craprio.

    I wonder how he managed to stifle his chuckling.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/08/leonardo-dicaprio-meeting-with-president-elect-donald-trump/

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      el gordo

      Donald would have been polite and not disagreeable, after all he’s about to become the most powerful individual in the whole wide world.

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        Roy Hogue

        Gordo,

        Sorry to be a contrarian but you have an overblown opinion of how powerful the U. S. president really is, although even his real power is enough to sway opinions and even actions. But unless he plans on doing as Obama did and simply write executive orders all day long, he hasn’t as much power as you might think. 🙂

        That’s why I’ve been so concerned about his bad relationship with many of those whose help he will need to accomplish his goals. I hope he’s good at mending fences.

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          Raven

          Roy,

          I expect Donald Trump is well versed in managing relationships.
          There have been nervous reactions to his entertaining both Al Gore and Mitt Romney and I’d suggest both are not so much looking to mend fences, but to build bridges.
          Remember that Trump is in the box seat and has the whip hand.

          Both of these guys could inflict future damage, so it’s smarter to meet with them up front so as to ‘manage their expectations’ . . so to speak.
          Much better to permit them direct access than to deal with their undermining of his efforts from afar further down the track. – keep your enemies closer and all that.

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          • #
            Raven

            I should add this explains the barley constrained fuming look on Al Gore’s face in that 15 second interview after his meeting with Trump.
            He’d just had his ‘expectations managed’ . . . which is much more polite than saying Trump handed his own ass to him on a platter. 🙂

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            If Gore was fuming then Trump must have done something right. Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting?

            20

      • #
        stan stendera

        Donald J. Trump is ALLREADY the most powerful man in the world.

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      Egor TheOne

      Leonado Decrappist should have been given ‘The Bums Rush Out’ from the Donald’s Penthouse window!

      This clown is no more than a ‘Professional Pretender’ and gross hypocrite.

      Typical of the CAGW gang: polticians,actors,unelected bureaucrats,doomists, mad Malthusians, and green anti cheap energy ratbags.
      How about some ’empirical evidence’? instead of opinions from BSers!

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Ah!, but he is on Pointman’s Climate Prat of the Year with a chance of taking out the title.

        GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING: Do not look at accompanying pictures of L.deC. if prone to vomiting.

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        • #
          Annie

          The pics of LdC on the Pratties thread are definitely nauseating. He missed my vote but only because there is such a large field from which to choose!

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    Roy Hogue

    Apocalypse On.

    May I ask the obvious question?

    What’s new?

    It’s always been one apocalypse after another for as long as the human race has had any way to communicate rapidly. Without that rapid communication most people would never even notice the apocalypses happening all around them. It’s a fact about such things, if you can’t read or be told about it and you can’t see, hear or smell it, it ain’t there. Whaddaya know about that?

    Let us hope that our new EPA head will do some housecleaning and put the more stable minds in the organization back to the work they should be doing instead of kissing politicians all the time. 🙂

    You would think they’d get tired of all that kissing after a while. And maybe some do and we need to find them and get them out in the open so they can tell us the truth instead of the spin.

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      Roy Hogue

      Radio began it to some extent. Then TV became something people relied on for information and someone learned how powerful that medium could be to shape public opinion. Then came the Internet… All downhill from there. 🙁

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      KinkyKeith

      Good comment Roy but after all the down years with your most recent, go nowhere but down, president, it sure feels good over here that humanity is at last surfacing from beneath all of this modern day religious style drivel.

      I thought Brexit was really great, a throwback to times when politicians skimmed only 20% instead of the current 80% for them and theirs.

      Trump is another revolution, thanks to the small surviving skerrick of democratic process still there in the US.

      Democracy needs More CO2 !!!

      All is not lost and even Europe is showing signs of throwing off their EEU masters so we are looking at a

      Very Merry Christmas indeed.

      🙂

      KK

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        Roy Hogue

        Which reminds me, Merry Christmas to you, your wife and family. That book is still sitting on my coffee table. 🙂

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    John Watt

    Hopefully Pruitt’s objectives include getting mainstream media to present balanced and understandable information on climate issues. We have had way too much of the “I’m an expert , ignore me at your peril” attitude featured in the Oz media. This one-sided media approach contributes to our populist politician’s approach…none of our major party lemmings dares risk voter popularity by leading us out of the FOG.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      That, “…ignore me at your peril…,” attitude was my very first clue that global warming wasn’t the right story. So I went looking for both sides of the of that story and I’ve never looked back.

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        RAH

        It seems to be a common trait in Academia and in some school teachers. They spend their time lecturing the kids and so they talk to adults that way to. Then there are the elites like Stephan Hawking who lecture us all from on high perched in Newton’s Chair in his Ivory Tower. I admire his accomplishments and have read his books intended for public consumption. But I don’t want to here his lectures about how dangerous the times are.
        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3993632/We-dangerous-moment-development-humanity-Stephen-Hawking-warns-risk-destroying-Earth.html

        The problem with most elites that have lived their lives out in an Ivory Tower is that they don’t know history and never bothered to learn it.  Of course they know history within the limited scope of their fields.  Hawking knows the history of Astronomy and theoretic physics.  But he does not know human history.  If he did he would have never written the above because he would know we live in one of the most peaceful times in human history. He would know that compared to most of the past the social strife we see now is infinitesimal.   He would know that we are producing more food per capita than ever before and that trend looks to continue.  That we humans are far more ecologically aware and concerned than we ever have been.  That the human condition has greatly improved and continues to do so.  I could go on but the point is that Hawkings minute is a prime example of what I call arrogant ignorance.  That condition of smug know-it-all-ism that is the prevailing characteristic of so many in our Ivory Towers.  The greatest geniuses learn humility. Hawking does not belong in that category of the greatest geniuses IMO.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          RAH,

          Yes, I share your concern about Hawking. In his field we have probably never seen his equal. But out of his element he could do a lot of damage by stirring up fear that has no basis in fact. The terrible thing about being a man of his stature in physics and astronomy is that people easily impute your expertise in the field where you are an expert to what you say in a field where you aren’t an expert (not quite the right word, impute but I can’t think of a better one).

          We’re all good at something and bad at something else.

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    Robber

    In Australia we need to keep asking politicians why electricity prices continue to escalate.
    Josh Frydenberg claimed that that the cost of the 23.5% RET is only 3.7% (or is that per annum?) but then he says that a Treasury study in 2013 showed that Labor’s 45% target would increase wholesale electricity prices by 78% – and that’s only wholesale, not retail.
    Household energy prices have increased 61 per cent between 2008 and 2014 despite an overall drop in home energy use, information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown.
    I remember Ms Gillard saying it was due to poles and wires – but that is also due to the more distributed and unreliable sources of solar and wind power, as the recent SA experience has demonstrated.
    Can someone publish the ABS electricity index?

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    Trevor

    Schadenfreude

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    Another Ian

    ” John Galt | December 8, 2016 3:22 PM | Reply

    Just a small sample of how many coal fired power plants there are:

    Eu. has 468 plants building 27 more for a total of 495

    Turkey has 56 plants building 93 more total 149

    South Africa has 79 building 24 more total 103

    India has 589 building 446 more total 1036

    Philippines has 19 building 60 more total 79

    South Korea has 58 building 26 more total 84

    Japan has 90 building 45 more total 135

    CHINA has 2363 building 1171 total 3534

    But here comes the NDP to shut down our 5 plants to save the planet !!!!!!!

    A comment (on Canada) at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/12/ynokyoto-54.html#comments

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    ROM

    Courtesy of the “Bishop Hill” blog, we will now show just how immorally deceitful and ethically challenged a major news outlet, The Guardian really is.

    The Guardian article

    South Pacific island ditches fossil fuels to run entirely on solar power

    Ta’u island in American Samoa will rely on solar panels and Tesla batteries as it does away with diesel generators
    &
    A remote tropical island has catapulted itself headlong into the future by ditching diesel and powering all homes and businesses with the scorching South Pacific sun.

    Using more than 5,000 solar panels and 60 Tesla power packs the tiny island of Ta’u in American Samoa is now entirely self-sufficient for its electricity supply – though the process of converting has been tough and pitted with delays.
    &
    Solar engineers from contractors Tesla and SolarCity flew out from California to help oversee construction of the micro-grid, and 15 local men were employed in the construction process.

    Five of those fifteen locals – previously low skilled, odd-job men on the island – have now transitioned to full-time jobs as solar power technicians managing the grid.

    Associate Professor Ashton Patridge from the faculty of engineering at Auckland University said “off-the-grid, small communities” like Ta’u were “ideally suited” to harnessing solar power.

    “It is fantastic what they have done, and they should provide a working model for other Pacific island countries to study, as most get 6 to 8 sunshine hours a day, 1,000 watts per square metre – which is a resource that is otherwise wasted.

    “The cost of setup for solar is high and there has been a push-back against that,” he added. “But it is ideal if governments absorb that cost, especially for these remote communities that would otherwise be totally reliant on non-renewable energy sources.”

    From the;
    AMERICAN SAMOA GOVERNMENT NEWS;

    Manu’a now powered by Solar Energy – October 27, 2016

    In Ta’u, electricity is now 100% renewable (solar) energy resulting in a significant decrease in American Samoa’s carbon footprint at a global level. On October 27th, Governor Lolo Moliga, other government officials and guests were in Ta’u, Manu’a for the official dedication and commissioning of the ASPA Ta’u Renewable Energy PV Project.
    &​
    The project is situated in the village of Faleasao and is operated and maintained by the American Samoa Power Authority.

    The project description lists 1,410 kW of Solar panels and 6,000 kWh of battery storage.

    Also, three new 275KW Cummins Diesel Generators and a 480V switchgear.

    As Andrew Montford of the BH blog puts it; “The latter presumably for decoration

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      Peter C

      Yes. Manu’a island is entirely powered by Solar Energy, except when the deisel generators are running.

      To see how much that might be check out the King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project!
      http://www.kingislandrenewableenergy.com.au/

      King Island has Wind, Solar, Battery and diesel power sources. It also has a Flywheel and a Resistor. I think the resistor is so the the diesel generator can shed power when it is powered up so that it can be on instant standby.

      Most of the time the diesel generator is in use but right now as I write the wind turbines are supplying the necessary capacity and charging the battery. KIREIP says it saves them some diesel fuel, which is no doubt correct. However they do not give the cost of the project, either capital on ongoing. I don’t think the locals mind how the power is generated so long as some one else is paying for it. In the case of King Island that would be Tasmanian and federal taxpayers.

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        Chris in Hervey Bay

        Peter, there is no need for a resistor to shed load on any alternator / generator, just like the alternator in your car. You just have to reduce the excitation to zero and the output will fall to zero. Doesn’t matter what the driver is, diesel, petrol or steam, and it doesn’t matter what size the generator is, they all work the same.
        The excitation is the amount of DC current fed into a 2 pole rotating electromagnet. The single phase or 3 phase current comes from the stator. In your car, the alternator is 6 phase so it can still produce usable current at idle speeds.

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          Mike Flynn

          I think the resistor bank might be for ensuring diesel health –

          “Diesel engines that are regularly run on very low loads – or no load at all – become increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain.” – commercial resistor load supplier.

          Something to do with piston/cylinder wear in compression ignition engines designed for optimum loading.

          I’ve seen banks of single bar radiators used on occasion. A balancing act, of course.

          Complicated.

          Cheers.

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            Chris in Hervey Bay

            Very true Mike, running diesel engines on no load for a length of time, glazes up the cylinder bores and the engine then starts to burn more and more oil.
            I see guys doing it at my local marina, next thing they are wondering why they have a smokey boat. Put the boat in gear and pump some water.

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              Another Ian

              They make fuel additives that form mild abrasives when they burn to help with this.

              More rough and ready was to drift a handfull or two of Bonami down the intake

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                Chris in Hervey Bay

                In the Middle East, the gas turbine compressors would get clogged with dust, very fine dust that would get stuck to the blades, so rather than shut the things down, we would just throw a in hand fulls of rice until the pressures came back up.

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        Dennis

        Of course our far southern citizens have the luxury of the mainland taxpayers to milk for monies.

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    ROM

    And just when all the moderately sane skeptics around here thought they had seen the ultimate in total insanity along with the openly blatant lies about its abilities to replace all of our fossil fuelled generation that emanates ona daily basis from the Renewable energy’s whack job green cult proponents along comes this morsel of further renewable energy insanity and its associated inconceivable stupidity. particularly when it comes to wind turbines ability to provide reliable, predictable, on demand power.

    From Paul Homewood’s “Not a lot of People Know That” blog.

    Helicopter De-Icing For Wind Turbines

    Airborne de-icing solution for wind turbines!

    New research and field tests has made it possible to remove ice and snow from wind turbine blades without breaking the bank!

    With a helicopter and hot water, Alpine Helicopter AB has made it their business idea to spray the blades rather than waiting for thaw. Until now, there has been no other alternatives than to wait for the ice to melt if the wind turbine isn’t equipped with a de-icing system. Founder Mats Widgren has developed this cost effective no chemicals solution, using regular water and a helicopter to efficiently remove snow and ice from the wind turbine’s blades.

    So we don’t need fossil fuels that are used to power helicopters and everything else.

    We just have to put up enough turbines so that everything can be powered by wind turbine and solar panel generated electricity.
    Going to be bloody long extension cord to keep that chopper running to de-ice those wind turbine blades.

    Of course we will have to wait until there is plenty of sunlight to run the solar panels after the snow is cleaned off to run the electric helcopter to de-ice the blades so the wind turbine can generate some power.

    I hope I have got that right!

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    ROM

    Ah! forgot about the battery storage of electricity for that helicopter.

    I reckon about a couple of tonnes of batteries should give enough juice to get that chopper out there for a few minutes before it runs out of battery power so as to spray those blades so as to be able to re-charge those helicopter batteries from the turbine in time to spray those blades tomorrow morning to spray those blades so as to be able to re-charge those helicopter batteries————————————

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    pat

    more Fairfax Fake News:

    8 Dec: Bolt Blog: Don’t fall for this mad green scheme
    Fairfax newspapers claim the magic pudding has been invented – a scheme to force us to use more expensive and unreliable electricity and STILL PAY LESS MONEY…
    Read a bit further and you see the catch:…

    – Proponents say it means coal would effectively subsidise cleaner power, and that it would encourage a greater range of types of cleaner power, increasing competition, further reducing costs. –

    Really?
    Isn’t the truth that they would decide what the operators of the giant Hazelwood coal-fired generator have just done: that there’s no way they can make a buck, and so should close?…
    The only answer is to stop this whole madness now.
    COMMENT: john: Read closely and you’ll find it’s based on …. yet another model. This one from Frontier Economics.Does it know anything at all about manmade warming or is it just a stooge for policies just like the Climate Institute?
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/dont-fall-for-this-mad-green-scheme/news-story/89a90cdf1193693484e4e125ac291f56

    ***ABC’s Kim Landers/AM went “headline-hunting”, not Frydenberg.

    9 Dec: Bolt Blog: Turnbull camp make Frydenberg scapegoat
    Dennis Shanahan: The Australian: Some are demanding “action” be taken against Mr Frydenberg … for ***“headline-hunting” after Mr Turnbull declined to say on radio yesterday that the minister had been “carpeted” for the political shemozzle…
    Previously, cabinet ministers had agreed that the announcement of the climate change review should be “low ball” or “low key” and there would be ***no consideration of an emissions trading scheme or emissions intensity charge — a carbon tax — on electricity generators.
    Last weekend, the Environment and Energy Minister promoted the announcement in the media and left open the option of some form of carbon tax on power generators in interviews on Monday morning…
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/turnbull-camp-make-frydenberg-scapegoat/news-story/3fa647c6547e22d8dd0868e58cb897a6

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    pat

    poorly written editorial from FakeNewsNYT:

    7 Dec: NYT Editorial: An Enemy of the E.P.A. to Head It
    Had Donald Trump spent an entire year scouring the country for someone to weaken clean air and clean water laws and repudiate America’s leadership role in the global battle against climate change, he could not have found a more suitable candidate than Scott Pruitt…
    A meeting Monday between Mr. Trump and Al Gore had raised hope among some (SOME WHAT?)…
    Mr. Pruitt has repeatedly suggested that the science of climate change is far from settled, when in fact it is (IT IS WHAT? FAR FROM SETTLED?)…
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/opinion/an-enemy-of-the-epa-to-head-it.html?_r=0

    more info on Scott Pruitt:

    8 Dec: TheNewAmerican: Steve Byas: Trump Picks Okla. Attorney General to Lead EPA: Big Win for Climate Realists, Constitutionalists
    http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/24804-trump-picks-okla-attorney-general-to-lead-epa-big-win-for-climate-realists-constitutionalists

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    pat

    7 Dec: Daily Caller: Michael Bastasch: UK Fires Dozens Of Diplomatic Staff Working On ‘Climate Change’
    The UK government has fired dozens of foreign ministry staffers working on global warming issues just months after Prime Minister Theresa May promised to ratify the Paris climate accord by the end of the year.
    May’s government slashed two-thirds of the staff dedicated to global warming issues at the Foreign Office’s headquarters, from 26 in July 2013 to just eight today. Overseas climate staff were reduced from 177 to 149, according to the Guardian…
    Earlier this year, May’s government eliminated the country’s global warming bureaucracy, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Some of DECC’s functions were transferred to the newly-created Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy…
    http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/07/uk-fires-dozens-of-diplomatic-staff-working-on-climate-change/

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    Angry

    YOU BEAUTY !!!!!

    GO TRUMP !!!

    RIP GLOBAL WARMING SCAM !

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    David Maddison

    TRUMP needs to also get NASA back on track.

    The amount of Obama’s damage he has to undo is incredible, and a lot of it is not easily undoable either.

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    Laura

    Hi Jo,
    This so interesting. Lord Christopher Monckton in an EXPLOSIVE interview. Must watch. Global warming alarmists calling for death threats against “Climate Skeptics”, email Lord Monckton on [email protected]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbjItdIUDMo

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    pat

    how many thousands are at this one, taking place from 4 – 17 November, 2016? only headline MSM has jumped on so far is “Giraffes ‘threatened with extinction'”:

    7 Dec: ClimateChangeNews: Ed King: There’s a secret UN climate summit taking place in Mexico
    There’s a UN climate change meeting involving nearly 200 governments taking place right now in the Mexican holiday resort of Cancun.
    It’s not making many headlines, but then the biannual UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference rarely does. Especially not in a year like 2016…
    The CBD is financed through from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international body that itself ***gets the bulk of its cash from the US***, with negotiations on the replenishment of its trust fund to start in 2017.
    The UN hopes the GEF will deliver $2.739 billion and leverage a further $5.938bn from 2019-2023. “Certainly the new president can influence decisions that the US makes regarding funding… but it’s too early to assess that,” says the CBD chief (Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, a former Brazilian government official who has been executive secretary of the CBD since 2012)…
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/12/07/theres-a-secret-un-climate-summit-taking-place-in-mexico/

    ***good luck with the negotiations with Trump!

    8 Dec: The Hill: Devin Henry: Conservative group pushes GOP to roll back Obama climate work
    The Competitive Enterprise Institute — from which President-elect Donald Trump tapped his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition chief (Myron Ebell) — on Thursday said the GOP-controlled government taking power next year should pursue an aggressive deregulation agenda domestically and pull the United States out of international climate change work.
    In a memo outlining the group’s 2017 agenda, CEI’s energy team said lawmakers should repeal EPA rules and regulatory power, end the use of the “social cost of carbon,” a metric federal departments use to assess impacts on the climate, halt the federal renewable fuels mandate and oppose any proposal to tax carbon emissions.
    The U.S., the group said, should pull out of the Paris climate agreement reached last year and stop federal funding for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the underlying global climate treaty.
    “Increasing the affordability of both U.S. and global energy is an important economic and humanitarian objective,” CEI officials wrote in their report. “Policymakers heeding the time-honored healer’s maxim, ‘First, do no harm,’ should reject policies to tax and regulate away mankind’s access to affordable energy.”…
    The chances of getting some of their ideas through, however, is greatly increased by the GOP’s control of the House, Senate and White House next year…
    http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/309527-conservative-group-pushes-gop-to-roll-back-obama-climate-work

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    Another Ian

    Somewhat O/T but check the nice description of reality

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/12/say-it-isnt-so-19.html#comments

    And don’t miss the comments there

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    Check out this frightbat that quipped ‘Kill yourself immediately’: Biologist takes aim at climate change denier Donald Trump.

    Professor John Wiens Arizona University scientist, yes john Weins on and on and on and on and on and on and on………

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    Yonniestone

    I sit just me or is everyone getting bolder, text wise………Trump effect?

    —[? Call the X-files. I have no idea why we are “bold” now… — Jo]

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    Bruce

    aka Sunray
    As usual, the totalitarian warmists expose their violent intolerant mind set.

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  • #

    Oops. The Gremlins put up the new post over the top of yesterdays post for a half hour. I’ve fixed that, but for a bit things were scrambled. Sorry.

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  • #

    Just to be a stick in the mud, it was Goldman Sachs who took up where ENRON left off on Carbon Credits and Derivatives markets mandated using national/global mandates.

    Trump may have appointed a ‘denier’ for the EPA position, but he has nominated a second generation Goldman Sachs **PARTNER** (not a mere associate) Steven Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary, who also worked for Soros’ hedge funds (barf!). He has also nominated the head (‘Grand Swipe’) of the Wall Street bankers fraternity Wilbur Ross to head Commerce … and now there is convincing rumors that he is considering Goldman COO Gary Kohn (a life long Democrat) to become head of the Department of Energy !!!

    Treasury-Commerce-Energy is the trifecta that bothers me much more than who leads the EPA. These three positions will produce the direction on whether the Paris Agreement will start to go the way of the Kyoto Protocol, or whether we all just got punk’d BIG LEAGUE!

    This is not looking good at all. Trump has to reverse Obama’s fit-gap solution using Executive fictions within the EPA regardless of whether he will mandate carbon trading in some kind of move to backstab his ‘denier’ voters using a macro-economic epiphany turning on a Goldman Sachs pinhead.

    I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, because maybe this is just a case of hiring ‘cheats to catch the cheats’, like any respectable Atlantic City casino would do, but if he starts maneuvering Goldman Sachs alumni to setup a national Carbon Credits and Derivatives trading platform/s, then we will known that ENRON has just been resurrected from the dead with a Goldman skin, and that this election has just been another case of a two horse race where both horses were actually owned by the same interests.

    I will reserve judgement until I hear these Goldman snakes start talking about how they’ve managed to change Trump’s mind on CAGW, and then I will proceed to vomit for a few days straight in disgust. Tic, toc, tick, toc, tick, toc …

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    In addition to what I wrote above, the only good indicator about Wilbur Ross is that he is heavily positioned into Coal mining and energy supplies, so I hope this happens to mean that Mnuchin and Ross are independent players that are more loyal to American protectionism than Goldman offshore globalism.

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    Oliver K. Manuel

    If President-elect Trump, his science advisors, and heads of his federal research agencies base future government policies on scientific reality – a pulsar-centered Sun that control’s Earth’s climate and human destiny – it will be because Paul Kazuo Kuroda, the first nuclear scientist to visit the ruins of Hiroshima in August 1945, later immigrated to the United States and became a patriarch of humanity’s post-war struggles to free Einstein’s 1905 discovery that mass (m) is energy (E) [E = mc^2] from false classification as a “nuclear secret” hidden from the public with Weizsacker’s false definition of nuclear binding energy.

    Kuroda risked his life by secretly retaining a copy of Japan’s successful design of the atomic bomb in his personal possession and publishing ~400 scientific papers, an autobiography on his work at the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1936-1948, and a book on the similarity of the natural nuclear reactors at Oklo Uranium Mines and Synthesis of the Chemical Elements before death in 2001.

    In 2002, BBC News reported that Kuroda’s widow returned Japan’s design for atomic bombs to Japan’s government.

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  • #
    Mari C

    Ms McCarthy was also EPA director during several EPA caused disasters

    http://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9126853/epa-mine-spill-animas (and a 2nd spill, same area – http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/epa-spills-again-in-colorado/article/2600276 )

    A less reported but possibly worse mistake – http://watchdog.org/234655/ga-epa-spill/
    “In Greensboro, EPA-funded contractors grading a toxic 19th-century cotton mill site struck a water main, sending the deadly sediment into a nearby creek. Though that accident took place five months ago, the hazard continues as heavy storms — one hit the area Tuesday — wash more soil into the creek.

    The sediment flows carry dangerous mercury, lead, arsenic and chromium downstream to Lake Oconee and then to the Oconee River — home to many federally and state protected species.”

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    Trump will do America a service if he cuts the EPA off from delusions about CO2 and ‘Global Warming’ and gets it back onto tackling real pollution and the big polluters.

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    I like the untraceable but valuable coin given to each voter. an opaque jar for each candidate. Walk past all and pretend to drop coin in one. If none meet your qualifications, wander to the local pub and have one for the coin! The efficacy of the candidates relates to the number of coins returned from the pub.

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    Gamecock

    ‘The #EPA needs a scientist to lead it’

    Though the incumbent isn’t.

    Across the board, the anti-Trumpers are demanding Trump do what OBAMA DIDN’T. The Left demands the right adhere to standards the Left doesn’t.

    Look at complaint that Dr. Carson doesn’t know anything about housing. Obama replaced Shaun Donovan, who knew something about housing, with Julian Castro, who didn’t.

    10