The Guardian invents a myth that Trump obstructs satellite research

Part #4,566 in The Demonisation of Trump — The Guardian spawns another urban myth and fake-hate-news.

Donald Trump accused of obstructing satellite research into climate change

The poor ignorant readers, fed the anti-science spin, and missing all the relevant info below (or any counter point of view) — predictably respond with the words “sociopath”, “Hitler”, “Nazi’s”, “criminals”, “crooks”, “liars” and “sychophants” — and that’s just in the first 20 comments of nearly 400.

The author Robin McKie found one scientist willing to hype this in a suitable way:

“This is like throwing away the medical records of a sick patient,” said David Gallaher of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

If McKie bothered to get calmer and more accurate views, he does not report them. Though he also says: “Many scientists say this decision was made for purely ideological reasons.” He names none of the “many”. Way to go McKie.

Enter a real expert in satellite systems:

Roy Spencer, award-winning satellite expert, explains how Trump is being wrongly blamed

In short, the story is that a series of US military satellites are monitoring sea ice. Four were launched from 2003 – 2014 (numbered 16 – 19). One, number 20, was in storage, supposedly to be used from 2020-2025. But storage costs got a bit much, the program was old, better ones are coming along, and Congress decided, last year, to dismantle it. As bad luck goes, #19 suffered a mishap and broke down a few weeks ago.  Now the Guardian and others are howling that #20 should have been kept to replace #19 but it was destroyed deliberately in some kind of Trump conspiracy to stop scientific research to hide the effects of  global warming.

Trump is so evil he must have arranged this while running the election campaign last year. Somehow he fooled Obama too. Maybe he had help from the Russians?  😉

The bottom line:

  • We can still monitor sea ice every day (which is enough — it’s not like we need hourly data)
  • the decision happened by Congress happened on Obama’s watch. Obama could have stopped it, but didn’t.
  • There are more modern satellites around. (The old sensor was a 1987 model).
  • The US decided years ago to let the Japanese be the stars of satellite microwave radiometers. Spencer says “everyone knows” the Japanese will take over with the best sea-ice monitoring satellites soon (The AMSR series, since you asked).
  • At a pinch we could still use other US satellites if we had too –specifically, the AMSU sensors flying on the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites.

Quoting Roy Spencer (read it all there):

“As the U.S. Science Team leader on that instrument, I and others helped Japan become a leader in producing and interpreting this kind of data.

“This claim that the Trump Administration is to blame, or that our capability is being blocked or crippled is, quite frankly, silly.

Trump Derangement Syndrome?

One could more justifiably ask why President Obama in his 8-year term could not have asked for a dedicated climate monitoring network of global satellites. Most people don’t realize that our long-term climate monitoring with satellites has always been piggy-backed on either NOAA weather satellites, which are not designed with the stability and lifetimes needed to monitor subtle trends in climate, or on NASA one-off science experiment satellites which provide just enough data to help address specific science questions.

Details at Roy Spencers blog. Thank goodness there are still honest experts out there.

On Gunters Space Page, it appears Congress put in a proviso to make sure the data would be obtained at lower cost

So much for the theory that Congress doesn’t like data:

The last satellite, DMSP-5D3 F20, which is in storage since the 1990ies, might eventually not launch, as the Senate drafted a bill, which prohibits the Air Force from spending any money on the DMSP-5D3 F20 launch pending certification from the secretary of defense that the military cannot obtain comparable data at a lower cost from other sources, such as civilian or international weather satellites. In the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2016, lawmakers provided no funding neither for DMSP nor for the launch of DMSP-5D3 F-20 around 2018, effectively ending the program.

Gunter also points out that the US originally planned two satellite systems to replace the aging DSMP series, but they were both cancelled on Obama’s watch:

The DMSP-5D3 series was to be succeded by the jointly with NASA and NOAA developed NPOES system, which was cancelled in 2010 due to massive cost overruns. As a replacement, they were to be replaced by the military DWSS series, which in turn also was cancelled [in 2012].

The other insidious meme in The Guardian is the fakery that skeptics don’t like data, with the added myth that the data somehow supports the climate religion. How ripped off will Guardian readers feel when they find out one day that skeptics were the data hounds who used it all the time to make their case. Don’t get me started…

9.8 out of 10 based on 97 ratings

117 comments to The Guardian invents a myth that Trump obstructs satellite research

  • #
    Yonniestone

    From the Guardian link;

    “This is like throwing away the medical records of a sick patient,”

    If anthropogenic climate change was a critical patient the plug would’ve been pulled years ago by Dr A. Hypothesis-Dolittle.

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    • #
      Peter C

      Dr A. Hypothesis-Dolittle.

      Am I missing some deeper illusion here?

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      RAH

      That was a quote from David Gallaher of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
      The Guardian, if it had a shred a decency, which we know it does not, should retract this garbage and ask David Gallaher to explain why he said such a thing since he is in a position to know the truth as Dr. Spencer explained it.

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    The Guardian could set a good example of scientific “truthing” by publishing the pre-1979 record of Arctic ice and the general sea ice level trends in the Antarctic in the last decade. Alas, when it comes to the Antarctic they can only see the melty bits…and then they are careful not to mention the British Antarctic Survey’s findings on volcanism around and below those melty bits.

    One of the West’s greatest enemies is the ever more centralised and corporatised Western media. People actually go to Sputnik and RT for a better class of fib. Now there’s a turn-up.

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    • #
      Gerry, England

      The Guardian publishing the truth? That would take them back a nearly a century to when they were not the home of fake news.

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      • #
        Manfred

        Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play. | Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred. — Joseph Goebbels

        As we all know and sadly recognise, the Leftist psychopathology that infects the MSM, no longer makes any attempt to conceal its role as the organ of globalist propaganda and spin-meister of eco-Marxist aspirations. That Dr Roy Spence writes,

        “This claim that the Trump Administration is to blame, or that our capability is being blocked or crippled is, quite frankly, silly.

        … is laudably polite. At the same time it appears both tame and unfortunately in some ways, equally silly.

        The MSM, like Herr Joseph is way way beyond ‘silly’. Make no mistake, for it is intentional, deadly serious and devious. It sets out to destroy liberty, decimate prosperity, diminish fact and denigrate reason. Simply, It is become the greatest liar of our age.

        The Grauniad, ever consistent and true to itself, betrays its relentless fakery and Leftist propaganda. Consequently, as it so often does, it becomes caught out by its own machinations.
        Ipse facto: “Fishy business: Trump and Abe dump fish food into precious koi pond”

        This article was amended on 6 November 2017 to make clear that Shinzo Abe also emptied the contents of his container into the pond.

        Exactly the same may be said for the Marxist Media Party in New Zealand
        “No diet for these carp as Trump goes all-in on fish food”

        Correction: A video previously attached to this story described Donald Trump’s fish-feeding action as “clumsy” and a “diplomatic blunder”. This conflicted with the text of the story, which describes Trump as following Shinzo Abe’s lead.

        Again, as we all know so very well, the euphemistically termed ‘corrections’ or ‘erratum’ are nothing of the sort, just trivial and meaningless virtue signalling used to provide faux ‘deniability’. As my wife from South Korea says, what’s the difference between this and the extant propaganda machinery of North Korea?

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      • #
        Annie

        That would be when it was The Manchester Guardian?

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      • #
        sophocles

        Steady on there, Gerry. What a shocking concept. The Grauniad telling the truth? The Whole Truth? Nothing But The Truth?
        It’s a tabloid! (Well, strictly speaking, it will be in 2018 when it’s printed version is published in tabloid size.)
        The Sun will rise in the West first!

        The Guardian is owned and funded by the Scott Trust Limited an umbrella company intended “to maintain the Guardian’s editorial independence.” It’s possibly the biggest money loser of the Scott Trust’s Group of companies. At least it’s consistent there. The Internet organ guardian.co.uk haven’t put up a pay wall, yet. Ostensibly it’s to maintain open access to the website, along with a membership scheme launched in 2014 aimed to reduce the financial losses. I’m starting to wonder if they have this instinctive feeling that a pay wall will hasten their end. (Please! Please! Do it! Now!)

        Instead, they put up a Plea Wall, at the bottom of every page, soliciting contributions for membership. Soliciting used to be a crime. Oops, wrong sense of the word :-).

        Since you’re here:
        we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. … a lot of time, money and hard work … But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

        If their reporting and writing was
        1. Wholly Factual
        2. Totally Honest
        3. Completely True
        4. Absolutely Veracious
        5. Considerably Thoughtful
        6. Entirely Credible
        7. Exhaustively Ingenuous

        and they hired staff writers (or editors) who were educated well enough to write grammatically and well, and who knew enough about real science to enable them to compose credible articles instead of perpetrating (and perpetuating) the howlers they do publish, then I might weigh my options again. Their perspective and mine just might converge instead of constantly wildly diverging. It could hasten the recovery of advertising revenue directed their way. I’m afraid I am not a believer in Santa Claus nor the Tooth Fairy and the odds of that happening are somewhere near winter Arctic Temperatures.

        Their perspective appears to be that of “Disaster and Portents of Disaster sells News.” and The Guardian is not above Faking Facts to achieve their publishing ends. According to Wikipedia’s page

        Journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept, a former contributor to The Guardian, has accused The Guardian of falsifying the words of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a report about the interview he gave to Italian newspaper La Republica. Greenwald wrote: “This article is about how those [Guardian’s] false claims — fabrications, really — were spread all over the internet by journalists, causing hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) to consume false news.”[131] The Guardian later retracted its article about Assange.

        and:

        After publishing a story on 13 January 2017 claiming that WhatsApp had a “backdoor [that] allows snooping on messages”, more than 70 professional cryptographers signed on to an open letter calling for The Guardian to retract the article. Security researchers also criticized the story, including Moxie Marlinspike who called it “false”.

        Acknowledging a reduction of advertising revenue is probably truthful, but to claim more people are reading the Guardian than ever? Really? Circulation of the printed version has from fallen from 204,222 copies in Dec. 2012 to an average daily circulation of 161,091 in December 2016, a decline of c. 20% over 4 years. (certified circulation figures). Oops. On the other hand c. 25,448,000 adult readers per month from Print, PC, and Mobile are claimed. Advertisers are not simpletons: they know how to find circulation/readership figures, the hard black and white non-facticious ones, (the net never forgets) and how to interpret them. They watch trends and decide from those. They won’t want to waste their money on failing causes and if the Guardian had managed to turn a significant proportion of that audience into subscribers or “monetize the readership” in Amercian, then they would be back in profit. Why aren’t they?

        If the cap fits, wear it” is an old saying. The Guardian has chosen it’s barrow. It’s stuck with it. The Guardian’s staff and board, may consider their perspective matters. Not to me, it doesn’t. Tartuffish maunderings, fallacious arguments and literary compost never matter. Trust has been broken in the Assange affair and again in the WhatsApp affair with what can only be described as outright Fakery.

        So what can be trusted from the Guardian?
        Anything?

        The Question to be asked is:
        Would you pay for Fakery? False Facts?
        Would you pay for trustworthiness and reliabilty?

        Pushing what is provably (if their staff could bother to do some reasonable research even if it is only on the Internet) Propaganda, Wholly Propaganda and Nothing But Propaganda, aka Climate Change, just one subject, is more likely to promote failure than success. Consider the Aesop Fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In the end, when belief was most needed, was failure.

        If the Guardian used to be profitable once upon a time, and are not now, then perhaps they have put their finger on the true reason advertising revenue continues to dwindle. Avoidance is one way the world tells an organisation that its perspective is worthless.

        As it stands, I consider the Guardian to be a maculation on the net-scape and the reason that they haven’t bankrupted/failed yet is so they can deliberately and with malice continue to annoy me with their Fake News, charlatanistic Propaganda, deceptive Facts, semi-literate writing and Cargo Cult Utterings. “Tabloid Press” is another pretty accurate label and that they will be physically confirming next year [2018]. The Guardian most likely doesn’t even know I exist. Yet they can succeed so very well at that and not at making a profit? I should rest my case … 🙂 But …

        They don’t seem to know there is no such thing as a Greenhouse Gas because everything they push is firmly attached to the Maurice Strong covin. Either way, knowing or unknowing, it’s still Fake. Nor do their scientifically disabled and ignorant writers seem to understand that 0.04 % is a concentration which renders an atmospheric trace gas an atmospheric Trace Gas and is of a sufficiency to have no effect whatsoever.

        Fortunately, I don’t have to read them. So I try not to, as much as I can. But it’s good practice to read something if only to see what one is going to comment on. For Accuracy’s sake. For Truth, Honesty, Credibility etc.

        I will say one thing in their favour: they are such a farce as to brighten the occasional day.

        The Guardian, home of Psuedo Science.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      You need longer glasses, mosomoso. The problem is the academies that trained them.

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  • #

    Hopefully they would someday come up to the best of our mother earth. Monitoring climate changes specially the “global warming” must be continued with the use of hi technology instruments.

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    • #
      Will Janischka

      Just what kind of monitoring of fake “global warming” must be continued? Dr. Roy is correct in claiming ‘s that a constellation of properly designed satellites measuring narrow band microwave ‘radiance’ of atmospheric oxygen (O2) and\or 8-14 micron surface\cloud top ‘radiance’ could help immensely with the understanding how this Earth’s atmosphere may operate. What Dr. Roy fails to mention is that such measurements are never directly related to temperature anywhere.
      All the best!-will-

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    • #
      Will Janoschka

      OOps! Just what kind of monitoring of fake “global warming” must be continued? Dr. Roy is correct in claiming ‘s that a constellation of properly designed satellites measuring narrow band microwave ‘radiance’ of atmospheric oxygen (O2) and\or 8-14 micron surface\cloud top ‘radiance’ could help immensely with the understanding how this Earth’s atmosphere may operate. What Dr. Roy fails to mention is that such measurements are never directly related to temperature anywhere.
      All the best!-will

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      • #
        KinkyKeith

        Hi Will,

        In view of what you have said, just what is it that drives or moderates the “radiances” that could be measured?

        Very broadly speaking, the internal energy of the gases emitting those radiances is the push factor and the lack of such “internal energy” in the space surrounding our planet is the pull factor.

        Could you expand a bit on the point you were making about temperature?

        🙂

        KK

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        • #
          Will Janoschka

          Keith:

          Very broadly speaking, the internal energy of the gases emitting those radiances is the push factor and the lack of such “internal energy” in the space surrounding our planet is the pull factor.

          Kinda! I observe no pull factor, except for those that ‘believe’ an incandescent lamp is physically a “dark sucker”.
          For any gas mixture the sensible heat, your internal energy, spontaneously ‘powers’, your pushes, transfer of power flux (W/m²) of both thermal conduction and EMR ‘radiance’. However both power transfers are strictly limited by the surround (environment) of that local mass sensible heat. Thermal conductance flux; is by definition limited by some (ΔT), high T minus low T. in a linear manner. EMR flux is also limited by some(ΔT) x (highly nonlinear function), of both T and frequency (F), as limited by Planck’s equation. That spontaneous flux conductive or EMR flux must always go to zero as (ΔT), goes to zero!
          For a gas at constant volume or constant pressure; most has been well measured. In opposition however Earth’s atmosphere is at nowhere and at notime Cp or Cv! Therefore meteorological simple, straightforward answer must always be the wrong answer!
          Keith:

          Could you expand a bit on the point you were making about temperature?

          Yes of course. Please ask again soon. At present, I believe I will have another beer!

          00

        • #
          Will Janoschka

          Could you expand a bit on the point you were making about temperature?

          Temperature is but a measurement of the state of mass. Temperature itself is not a potential for any ‘action’, but is the measurement of the state potential (sensible heat) for action (flux). EMR ‘radiance” is similar but is only related to measurement ‘temperature’ for spontaneous ‘action’!
          The 2.4 GHz spectral ‘radiance’ of your microwave oven magnetron is not even a function of temperature. Such can easily apply ‘action’ to a cup of coffee already at a higher ‘temperature’ because the cuppa has much lower ‘radiance’ at 2.4 Ghz.
          I believe I will have another beer! 🙂

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    • #
      manalive

      The energy reaching the surface of the Earth is nowhere near the energy required to supply the increasing needs of 7 billion+ people at a realistic cost — the energy return to energy invested ratio (ERoEI) from ‘renewable’ sources is far too low to support human needs barely beyond a subsistence level.
      The sun and stars are fusion reactors using the energy locked up in matter itself, that’s what future generations will need and where scarce research resources should be concentrated, not building ‘boutique’ equipment like solar panels let alone windmills.

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  • #
    ROM

    .
    Just another example of “Fake News” from that bastion of Truth and Accuracy and its outspoken condemnation of other sources “Fake News”, all so reminiscent of the way in which the old communist PRAVDA [ Правда; i.e. “Truth” or “Justice” ] treated the real truth in news.

    A smear here , a smear there and another long list of the news reports omissions that don’t happen to uphold the required anti political right and the political correctness of the day as required by The Guardian editors and we have yet another undeserving victim of The Guardian’s carefully crafted “Fake News”.

    All good from The Guardian’s viewpoint so so long as its own version of “Fake News” that is accepted and can’t be linked with any of The Guardian’s numerous allies in the elites, the media and politics and science.

    ————–
    [ Maybe this is what the gutter news rats of the Guardian really believe they are. ]

    “Guardians”

    “A team of former Soviet superheroes, assembled during the Cold War to combat a dangerous scientist, is dispatched against destructive robots.”

    2017 ‧ Fantasy/Science fiction film
    —————

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Not being a Brit I don’t look much at The Guardian. But from what I see they’re the guardian of their own opinion. It’s almost incestuous or is it nepotism. I don’t know quite what to call it but they appear to be hanging out in thin air with no visible means of support. So perhaps vagrant is the right term.

      Unfortunately they have influence over some of their readers. 🙁

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  • #
    Imran Can

    Not sure its important, and it nicely make the point that the journalist isn’t … but I think that Robin McKie is a man.

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  • #
    Dennis

    The Guardian = Faux facts Group

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  • #
    Peter C

    Quoting Roy Spencer….
    . Most people don’t realize that our long-term climate monitoring with satellites has always been piggy-backed on either NOAA weather satellites, which are not designed with the stability and lifetimes needed to monitor subtle trends in climate, or on NASA one-off science experiment satellites which provide just enough data to help address specific science questions.

    That partly explains my supposition on the last Weekend Unthreaded that the UAH Global Temperature Series seems noisy.
    http://joannenova.com.au/2017/11/weekend-unthreaded-185/#comment-1958956

    The same could be said for BOM weather data. The BOM system of weather stations is designed to capture data for short term weather prediction. The BOM wants to use it for long term Climate Prediction but it seems that the data is not fit for purpose.

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    • #
      Robert Swan

      I’d be really interested to know what the deficiency is that Spencer is worried about. If climate is the average weather, don’t you just grab the weather data and average it? Is there some different instrument you need for measuring these “subtle trends”?

      In a car you might monitor average speed by continuously averaging the speedo needle, but it would be easier to just read the odometer and the clock. Is it something like that that he’s referring to?

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      • #
        Peter C

        I have not read Dr Roy Spencer’s own blogsite.

        However he mentions one problem here and that is that the satellites keep coming down, so the temperature series analysis needs to be transferred to newer satellites with different instruments. Also the orbital height decays which then needs subjective corrections.

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  • #
    Mark M

    “Trump is so evil he must have arranged this while running the election campaign last year.
    Somehow he fooled Obama too. Maybe he had help from the Russians?”

    If somehow any of that is true, how clever was Trump at this peak winning moment:

    Hillary Clinton so far ahead in polls that she ‘doesn’t even think about’ Donald Trump anymore 

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/23/hillary-clinton-so-far-ahead-in-polls-that-doesnt-even-think-abo/

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    • #
      Peter C

      Brilliant Mark.

      The picture says it all. Hilliary is shaking hands with the moderator (knowing that she has set up some of the questions) and DT is a dark brooding presence in the back ground.

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  • #
    oldbrew

    Welcome to the Guardian echo chamber of climate paranoia.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Yawn

    Typical leftist paranoia…..

    Anything thats wrong is trumps fault….clearly the antifa sympathisers have had thier favourite toys taken away, and are having a public tantrum, like 3 year old in a supermarkets whose mum has said no to the petulant childs demand fir a lolly / candy……

    Boo hoo.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    “The other insidious meme in The Guardian is the fakery that skeptics don’t like data, with the added myth that the data somehow supports the climate religion. How ripped off will Guardian readers feel when they find out one day that skeptics were the data hounds who used it all the time to make their case. Don’t get me started…”

    Well yes. Leftists clearly only believe leftist ideas, which is why they are so dangerous to democracy. In sone ways, leftism is like being a member if a deranged eco cult….oh, hang on…

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    CNN actually kicked up a stink because Trump, in the company of the Japanese PM, dumped a whole bowl of fish food into a koi pond, as if it was an act of disrespect. What they did not show is PM Abe doing the exact same thing seconds before. Seconds! Trump had just copied his host. Maybe they should have announced: No koi were harmed in the production of this clip, though with so many Russians hiding under futons one never knows.

    I know it’s mere silliness, but it shows an utter desperation and an utter inability to let a fact be a fact, however straightforward. There is a lot going on with Japan right now, but to find out anything about it I have to scour the back blocks of the net, with filters on. Why can’t our mainstream media with their massive resources and presence perform just a tiny bit of their functions? Instead we get “narrative” along the lines of what creepy agencies, factions and lobbies want us to think. It seems every word has its agenda, including “a” and “the”.

    It’s not working. It’s over.

    They all have to go, at least from me. The networks, the broadsheets, the shortsheets, Fairfax, Murdoch, ABC. They all need to be gone from my life.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      The MSM witch hunting for Trump’s apparent wrong doings has become a national pastime, just search You Tube for examples of them being called out on fabricated stories where Trump is demonised in the most blatant sloppy journalism that’s almost comical.

      Channels like Mark Dice, Alex Jones, Stefan Molyneux are some of many outing the ministry of truth.

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      • #
        James Murphy

        I’m not a fan of Alex Jones, maybe I have not seen enough material, but he does seem to lean a bit far towards sensationalism and hyperbole, though Stefan Molyneux knows how to hold an audience, and seems pretty rational (most of the time). I’d never heard of Mark Dice. On the same platform, Tim Pool, and the chaps at “WeAreChange” are a little bit bit hit-and miss, though they do at least try to aim for objectivity. There are a lot of others too, but finding them for ones self is half the fun.

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      • #
        Jim Barker

        Another source for excellent President Trump news is https://theconservativetreehouse.com/

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    • #
      MudCrab

      The Left very very rarely care about facts or actions. They care about ‘Gaffs’.

      Tony Abbott took a bite from an onion. Worse Thing Ever.

      Tony Abbott said Canadia instead of Canada. Worse Thing Ever.

      (Canadia is where Canadians come from. Duh! Stupid Lefties)

      If you hang on the fringes of Left leaning groups the moment topics turn to conservatives they will gleefully mention the latest Gaff. There is no discussion about how policies will effect that individual person. Someone recently did a study where they asked a group of students what they thought of Trump’s new tax reforms. Surprise? They all hated it.

      Then he showed the group a bunch of suggestions on tax changes put forward by Bernie and asked them if they liked those and why. None of the class had issues with them and many actively agreed they were good ideas. Hence they were all a bit put out when they were told that the researcher had lied and they were still discussing Trump proposals.

      The Love Media don’t discuss facts because their target audience doesn’t want to know. They already made their mind up that Left = Good and Right = Evil. They don’t want discussion anymore, they want reinforcement.

      And the Love Media gives it to them.

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  • #
    pat

    24 Oct: Scientific American: E&E News: Trump Administration Is Launching a Weather and Climate Satellite
    The Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS) will serve multiple functions, even as it has been described by the White House as an important tool to help prepare for future storms
    By Scott Waldman
    One of the first new satellites launched in the Trump era will provide invaluable insight into climate change, though it is being touted primarily for its ability to predict weather.

    The Joint Polar Satellite System-1 will serve multiple functions, even as it has been described by the Trump administration as an important tool to help prepare for future storms. The satellite will also provide data essential to understanding how climate change is transforming the planet. That includes its monitoring of Arctic sea ice, one of the most dramatic indicators of a warming planet, as well as the ozone hole over Antarctica. The Trump administration has been quieter about those functions.

    In a release announcing the launch, scheduled for Nov. 10 in California, there was no mention of climate change. Instead, the satellite was touted for its weather monitoring in the wake of this season’s destructive hurricanes. It can also track floods, drought and other extreme events…
    The satellite is a collaborative project by NOAA and NASA…
    It will be the second satellite orbiting the polar region. The first is the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, a joint NOAA and NASA satellite…

    Earlier press releases touted the valuable climate data the satellites would collect, including ocean surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice cover…

    The satellite is an important part of creating a long-term and continuous data set that is essential to addressing climate change. That includes its role in monitoring sea ice changes, calculating changes in the top of the atmosphere and taking ozone measurements, said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies…READ ON
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-administration-is-launching-a-weather-and-climate-satellite/

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  • #
    pat

    6 Nov: Real Climate: O Say can you See Ice…
    by Gavin Schmidt
    Some concerns about continued monitoring of sea ice by remote sensing were raised this week in Nature News an article in the (UK) Observer (Guardian): Donald Trump accused of obstructing satellite research into climate change. The last headline is not really correct, but the underlying issues are real…READ ON
    http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/11/o-say-can-you-see-ice/

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    pat

    even though this begins with mentions of two Republicans, you won’t find the CAGW-infested MSM covering this failure:

    3 Nov: WashingtonExaminer: Iowa’s ‘shining star’ goes dark as ballyhooed cellulosic ethanol plant shuts down after two years
    by Timothy P. Carney
    Gov. Terry Branstad, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and other dignitaries were in smiling attendance in October 2015 for the grand opening of the ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa — the largest plant ever to turn cellulosic material, such as corn husks, into fuel…

    Grassley bragged that the “brand-new, state-of-the-art, next-generation, $225 million cellulosic ethanol production facility” was expected to “convert 370,000 dry tons of corn stover to 30 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol each year. Corn stover is what’s left over from the harvest. Think cobs, leaves, husks and stalks.”
    Grassley gushed over the DuPont-owned plant, “As Iowa’s senior U.S. senator, I welcome Iowa’s shining new star to America’s renewable energy constellation.”…

    This week, two years later, DuPont shut the Nevada plant down. Agriculture.com reports that this wasn’t totally unexpected. “There have been signs that the plant wasn’t producing up to its potential. Last year, DuPont stopped collecting corn stover from farmers because the plant had run out of storage.”…

    Reuters reports: “The EPA predicted in 2007 that U.S. cellulosic ethanol production could hit 1 billion gallons by 2020, but output this year is expected to reach only 7 million gallons, according to Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a trade group.”
    Here’s a graphic depiction of that shortfall: GRAPHIC

    DuPont built this plant in an attempt to profit off of the 2007 ethanol mandate, also known as the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS. This bet on politics hasn’t paid off.
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/iowas-shining-star-goes-dark-as-ballyhooed-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-shuts-down-after-two-years/article/2639525

    7 Nov: Australian: Andrew Clennell: Liberal MPs in meetings with GetUp! over same-sex marriage, clean energy target
    Federal Liberal MPs, including Trent Zimmerman and Tim Wilson, have met left-wing campaigners GetUp! over same-sex marriage, while several government MPs have worked with the organisation in pushing a clean energy target, GetUp! director Paul Oosting has revealed…

    “Sometimes there’s been relationships with people in the energy space,” Mr Oosting said.
    “I think there is a lot of support there (in the Coalition) for the clean energy target.”…
    Mr Oosting would not say which MPs the organisation had worked with on energy. “These are meetings … around our campaign issues, lobbying people on CET and the Finkel review,” he said…

    Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said of MPs’ involvement with GetUp!: “Members of parliament, whether they be from the Coalition, Labor Party or the crossbench are entitled to engage with all members of the community on any issue they wish. I have not discussed (the National Energy Guarantee) with GetUp!”…
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/liberal-mps-in-meetings-with-getup-over-samesex-marriage-clean-energy-target/news-story/68fa0134f2a713668761e4c98b501af2

    20

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    Gerry, England

    Still at least the Guardian is still losing money and having to resort to begging online readers to donate.

    90

  • #
    Forrest Gardener

    It is quite possible that Robin McKie and David Gallaher are suffering a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but has anybody shown them Dr Spencer’s response and asked them whether they want to change anything they said?

    40

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      I’ve just had a quick scan of the comments at the Grauniad. People have pointed out the errors. The general response is that even if it wasn’t Trump’s fault it was his fault anyway, just because.

      So scratch my overly optimistic thought above.

      70

  • #
    Richard

    In the modern world of left-leaning media, making any claim at all against non-liberal entities is proof of guilt.

    50

  • #
    James Murphy

    In 2012, the US National Reconnaissance Office gave 2 unused “spy” satellites to NASA to modify and launch as, and when they pleased (funding permitting). Using the same rules of fake-logic applied by the Guardian, that must mean that Obama deliberately sabotaged US security, right…?

    40

    • #
      Dennis

      Back in the late 1970s NSW Labor Premier Neville Wran changed the way the state government cabinet ministers dealt with the media.

      Until the change each member of cabinet had a “press secretary” and q few of today’s left leaning journalists filled those positions in Labor cabinets. When Bob Hawke became Prime Minister in 1983 he was provided with details of the NSW media department that replaced press secretaries and adopted them. ABC Insiders presenter Barry Cassidy was his press secretary. Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister expanded the media department considerably and Julia Gillard when Prime Minister added new sections to it.

      The staffers of these media departments are public servants and we pay for them, millions of dollars a year on spin doctors, specialists in marketing, psychology and other professionals who carry out voter polling, conduct small group researching to test participant’s reactions to political marketing (spin) campaign material, constantly monitoring of MSM outlets, etc. I understand that PM Gillard even had a section responsible for digging up dirt on political opponents.

      The manipulation of media or media management includes handouts to journalists prepared in a form acceptable to editors so that journalists need not bother to do anything more than hand it in. Complete with “facts and figures” created by media management personnel. The spin doctors.

      As respected journalist Paul Sheehan explained in his book that exposes the MSM of modern history (The Electronic Wh*r*house): advertising presented as news. And much more deceptive broadcasting and publishing. It is fascinating how the numbers can be manipulated (e.g. BoM) and how by simply leaving out or adding words from what was really said can make good look bad.

      POTUS Trump calls it “fake news”.

      I wonder how many media management operations are supported by George Soros and Al Gore and comrades, as is the Australian Workers Union established GetUp is here? They also receive Union Movement donations, no surprise considering the seed capital was taken from union member’s funds at the Australian Workers Union when Bill Shorten (now Labor’s Opposition Leader) was a senior executive there.

      50

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    Roy Hogue

    I’m surprised that Donald Trump isn’t being blamed for climate change in the first place. He’s accused of so many things it’s hard to see how he possibly could be responsible for all of them. There are simply not enough hours in a day.

    And in the meantime he keeps on doing what he said he would do as a candidate. Isn’t that marvellous? 🙂

    150

    • #
      PeterS

      I thought Abbott was blamed for that 🙂

      80

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        Maybe Trump and Abbott conspired to collude with the Russians? It makes as much sense as any other theory of the non crimes of Donald Trump and his campaign.

        70

    • #
      sophocles

      Hold that thought Roy. Someone somewhere is probably working on it.

      10

      • #
        Will Janoschka

        Hold that thought Roy. Someone somewhere is probably working on it.

        Actually immigrant Melania Trump with tousand pair of stiletto shoes ist ringleader. 🙂

        00

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Will,

          I have never figured out how they can wear those shoes and not end up in a podiatrist’s office in pain. But I never thought it was useful to comment about them until your comment.

          Have they nothing better to waste their time on? 🙁

          How low do they sink before they drown in their own foolishness?

          00

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            Let the woman wear what she wants to wear. She’s a cut above the last one who was ashamed of her country and went around for so long badmouthing it before she finally “got religion”.

            10

            • #
              Will Janoschka

              “Let the woman wear what she wants to wear”
              She looks good always! I’m sure the money helps. Is the goal of P45 Monarchy or a whole dynasty? Either is what the USA desperately needs.
              The founding fathers tried without Aristocracy or Monarchy. Now, sadly, we have self appointed Aristocracy (betters), banksters, educators, politicians, plus MEDIA! All\each convinced their solemn duty is to dictate what each serf must do and believe. P45 like the Queen of England has so much wealth they cannot be influenced, by the self appointed betters.
              The Queen like the Donald accepts that true power comes from loyal skilled workers (serfs), not some fiat currency. Let the serfs become more skilled in whatever they like to do. Personal integrity comes automagically from skill. No need for external belief. Needed is the self confidence to discard own effort (OOPS); if you decide not fit for purpose\government work!
              All the best!-will-

              00

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    dp

    Was it necessary to use the term “Japs”? That is not just a little bit disgusting and completely unnecessary.

    10

    • #
      Dennis

      Well, he’s a “Yank” and ancestry “Kraut” and even the “Kiwis” and “Skippys” refer to “Japs” and even to “Poms” and all kinds of other nicknames, but not to be offensive.

      Wink!

      70

      • #
        Dennis

        I am of course “from the colonies” we are all “convicts”.

        50

        • #
          el gordo

          And if the frogs had got here first we would be a French speaking nation.

          Initially the Brits sent their convicts to America and when that came to a close they came up with Botany Bay, outpost of Empire.

          40

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            el gordo:

            You forget that there were strategic reasons for the First Fleet, apart from emptying the prisons. They had fought through the American War of Independence and barely won through. Apart from the French and Spanish declaring war they faced a blockade in the Baltic making it hard to get suitable timber and flax (for sails) for the Fleet. Someone must have recalled Cook’s description of tall pines on Norfolk Island and flax growing on the north island of New Zealand, and planned a settlement at ‘fertile’ Botany Bay (as per Banks) where there was no strong organised native resistance anticipated. Also Sydney was suited for trade with China. Even early in the settlement of Australia expeditions went to Norfolk Is. and NZ.
            In gratitude the early settlers didn’t revolt and merely beat the to English at cricket (some of the time) and rugby (most of the time) .

            40

            • #
              el gordo

              A decade after the American war of independence the prison hulks on the Thames were full to overflowing, something had to be done and Banks was brought in.

              Commercial and strategic considerations were less important in the beginning.

              30

              • #
                ROM

                We get a bit excited when few thousand so called refugees some of which are quite genuineand have been deeply persecuted for their race or religious beliefs.
                But most go right through region and a couple of nations that have exactly the same religious affiliations as the so called “refugees” do who try to get into Australia by fair means or foul quoting religious persecution reasons to try and get here as so called “refugees”..

                When you read about the immense influx of those 370,000 expectant gold diggers here into Australia in Victoria mostly in 1852, they didn’t try to get here expecting to be given a mobile phone to contact the relatives back home and arrange for them to get into Australia as well.
                They didn’t expect somebody to meet them and hand them a very considerable amount of money every couple of weeks as a dole type grant.

                They came with the expectation they would have to work and work damn hard and possibly suffer as nobody was going to give them any real help at all.
                They were on their own but had the great hope that with a little luck, a lot of very hard work, living in extreme conditions and perhaps deep poverty, they had a chance of striking gold and becoming very wealthy men and women.

                They didn’t expect at all to get special consideration because they couldn’t speak the local language.
                They didn’t expect at all to get free and specialised medical treatment .
                They didn’t expect at all to get special consideration from the local bureaucracy as foreigners, just the opposite in fact as the Eureka Stockade event transpired.
                They didn’t expect at all to get compensation from the governing authorities when they didn’t get what they expected to get when they got off those old sailing vessels.

                And when they didn’t find gold they went back to the skills they had in their past lives and worked and worked damn hard as most of them decided they liked Australia and settled here permanently as Australians .
                The alternative was to starve.

                Some even entered the local nascent politically scene and nobody bothered much in asking if they were Irish or Germans or Brits and etc, just so long as they had Australia’s interests, their own new land, in their hearts and their politics.

                ————–

                Quoted from ; GoldOz

                The gold rushes in the second half of the 19th century would completely change the face of Australia. Before 1851, Australia’s combined white population was approximately 77,000. Most of those had been convicts sent by ship over the previous seventy years.

                The gold rush completely changed that however. In the two years that followed Edward Hargraves’s discovery at Bathurst, Australia’s population increased to over 540,000. 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia’s ports during the year 1852 alone.

                The flow of convicts to Australia’s shores stopped. It suddenly seemed like a foolish idea (and indeed no longer a punishment) to give a free boat ride to Australia’s rich gold fields to anyone who had committed a crime.

                &
                “When the first reports of gold in the colonies were published in English newspapers late in 1851, few took much notice.
                Many dismissed them as either false or greatly exaggerated.
                But as the reports persisted, and especially those of fabulous finds at Mount Alexander, interest increased.
                It reached fever pitch when, in the middle of 1852, six ships from Victoria arrived, bringing eight tonnes of gold.
                The Australian colonies were the talk of London and of many other towns, as thousands hurried to get passages on southward-bound ships.”

                60

              • #
                el gordo

                You have mixed in a couple of memes which don’t work well together.

                Importantly there were no passports or refugees in the 19th century and everyone had to survive under their own steam.

                20

      • #
        Will Janoschka

        Well, he’s a “Yank” and ancestry “Kraut” and even the “Kiwis” and “Skippys” refer to “Japs” and even to “Poms” and all kinds of other nicknames, but not to be offensive.

        In da new world order best to appear as “equal opportunity bigot”! 🙂

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    KinkyKeith

    Over last weekend I attended an event involving over 80, mostly middle aged, people.

    During breaks in the program we talked, and even got around to discussing the most important topic of modern life; Climate Change.

    In two rather heated conversations the involvement of universities in spreading the propaganda became obvious.

    It is frightening to talk to someone heavily involved in university life and to be talking about carbon sequestration and to find that those people have no idea that the whole concept is scientifically ridiculous.

    Basic comprehension of the “science” was either hidden or not up for discussion.

    The concept of the damaging effect of CO2 is firmly embedded in all levels of our society and we have to face this fact and ask what should be done.

    KK

    110

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘….what should be done.’

      Humour is the fastest way, pure satire to shock their brains into seeing ‘carbon pollution’ as an urban myth, created by the caffe latte set.

      110

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      KK:
      within a few years the effect of the quieter sun will be evident, and Climate Change will take on an entirely different meaning. Apart from that, the cost will cause contractions in government spending and guess where the first cuts will be.

      40

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        The university’s?

        10

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        within a few years the effect of the quieter sun will be evident, and Climate Change will take on an entirely different meaning.

        As I remember it was once global warming and then when it didn’t warm it became climate change so they could blame both warming and cooling on CO2. I’m surprised they haven’t invented a ruse to call staying the same a change in climate. 😉

        Well that’s a bit humorous but still, I think they won’t accept a quieter sun as anything other than climate change… …unless of course, they find a way to blame it on Trump.

        It must be nice to have so many easy scapegoats around all the time. 🙁

        20

        • #
          Will Janoschka

          It must be nice to have so many easy scapegoats around all the time. 🙁

          I hab many goats with fine gotee, suitable for your SCAPE project! For you, my special friend, an excellent price on large lots.

          10

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            I would order a thousand COD. But I don’t know Obama’s present address.

            I’m sure he wold know exactly what to do with them. I hope your price is all the traffic will bear and then some as befits any good businessman.

            10

            • #
              Will Janoschka

              Da best price is for da very leetil goat dat fit ‘whole’ into Amelican ‘lectric oven. Da Mexcan mercenary invaders yust love dem! Not much market for large old, wid fine gotee. Few folk need disposal of old rotting tyres! 🙂

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      Dennis

      I point out that pollution was confronted in developed countries from the 1970s, Germany was first to demand attention as “acid rain” was killing the Black Forest and doing other environmental damage. Over time anti-pollution laws with penalties for polluting were passed and Environmental Protection Agencies were established.

      If “carbon pollution” exists, why have the EPA allowed this to continue?

      20

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      …and ask what should be done.

      KK,

      Exposing them is the only thing we can do. We can’t use force to persuade anyone so talking is it.

      Ridicule sometimes works to suppress the alarmists but it doesn’t persuade anyone as far as I can tell.

      10

      • #
        Will Janoschka

        Roy Hogue November 9, 2017 at 11:59 am

        Exposing them is the only thing we can do. We can’t use force to persuade anyone so talking is it.
        Ridicule sometimes works to suppress the alarmists but it doesn’t persuade anyone as far as I can tell.

        Part of that ridicule may be in exposing the actual difference between physical science and political science. Only one requires belief by the consensus at election time
        All the best!-will-

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    • #
      Will Janoschka

      Basic comprehension of the “science” was either hidden or not up for discussion.
      The concept of the damaging effect of CO2 is firmly embedded in all levels of our society and we have to face this fact and ask what should be done. KK

      GOTCHA by the short and curlys don’t they? The ‘they’ currently are one\more of the self appointed elite banksters, capitalists, academics, Marxists, SJW, ANTIF, BLM, etc who insist that being elite they get to ‘tell’ all lower class\serfs what to do and how to think. If your group even try to correct that by your ‘educating’ serfs you merely become another ‘they’!
      Perhaps ‘what should be done first’ is to ‘accept’ that they GOTCHA by the short and curlys. It seems the refusal to accept being scammed again, and again, by the self appointed elite; prevents appropriate\necessary action! The CO2 nonsense is but the current throwaway ploy by the latest self appointed elite.
      ACCEPT, TRUST, but carefully verify all being promoted, or die.
      All the best!-will-

      10

  • #
    PeterS

    The longer and harder the MSM peddle their myths and falsehoods the worse it will get for them. Imagine if they blamed Trump (and Abbott) for all the wars over the past 10 centuries, climate change, asteroid near misses, etc. They might as well as their current stories, such as the one about Trump in Japan are no better or worse. Let the MSM make a complete fool of themselves. The people might be stupid but they are not that stupid. The MSM will have to endure massive losses and then disappear.

    40

  • #
    el gordo

    Its the big lie.

    ‘Earth’s sea ice has shrunk dramatically – particularly in the Arctic – in recent years as rising emissions of greenhouse gases have warmed the planet.’

    The planet hasn’t warmed in two decades, water vapour is a more dangerous greenhouse gas and Greenland is dramatically adding mass balance. Arctic ice is firming up and I have it on good authority that Antarctica is not melting.

    100

  • #
    cedarhill

    Here in Mid-America, “inventing a myth” is called lying.

    80

  • #
    Earl

    Ahhh, the Guardian.
    The periodic Bible of the perpetually offended and the humourless.

    80

    • #

      Ah the Dunciad ‘reporting.’

      He had brought a large map representing the sea
      Without the least vestige of land;
      And the cru were much pleased when they found it to be
      A map they could all understand.

      ‘What’s the good of Mercators, North Poles and Equators,
      Tropics, Zones and Meridian Lines?’
      So the Bell Manne would cry and the cru would reply,
      ‘They are merely conventional signs.’

      With apologies to Lewis Carroll.

      40

  • #
    tom0mason

    In The Guardian’s world virtuality all problems originate from Trump.

    Thankfully the readership of this comic is shrinking rapidly, even as the owners try to garner readers and web clicks through it’s alternative to news reporting, and support it’s income by dubious off-shore banking deals.

    20

  • #
    pat

    calling out the Premier:

    8 Nov: Herald Sun: Andrew Bolt: PALASZCZUK’S JOBS-KILLING VETO CAME AFTER SECRET POLL
    She said the veto was to remove a conflict of interest with her partner…
    Bull (LINK):
    (excerpt) Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she was unaware of internal Labor polling gauging public reaction to a Commonwealth loan to Adani until after her controversial decision to veto it…

    Also bull (LINK): her claim that Queensland’s Integrity Commissioner urged a veto:
    (excerpt)
    The Integrity Commissioner examined this conflict of interest and none of the three options he gave Palaszczuk involve cancelling support for the loan or endangering the Adani project in any way.

    This stinks to high heaven. Is this how Labor decides to risk the jobs of thousands of Queenslanders?…
    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/palaszczuks-jobskilling-veto-came-after-secret-poll/news-story/6c39e91335577b02b049bf1840b6bf61

    8 Nov: Courier Mail: Queensland election 2017: Labor may form coalition with Greens
    by Matthew Killoran
    ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk could form minority government with the Greens, who want to take tasers off police, ban coal exports and decriminalise drugs.
    The Premier yesterday refused to rule out a coalition with the Queensland Greens who have already announced a policy to introduce four extra public holidays a year.
    It comes as the Greens today plan to announce a Robin Hood-style policy to penalise investors who leave their properties vacant. They would be taxed 5 per cent a year to raise money to build affordable housing for low income earners…
    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-labor-may-form-coalition-with-greens/news-story/73b4253096f1cb935828cd68b11cee66

    Queensland election 2017: LNP preferences Jackie Trad (Labor) over Greens
    Courier Mail-10 hours ago

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    pat

    lengthy:

    7 Nov: BBC Panorama: Paradise Papers: Prince Charles lobbied on climate policy after shares purchase
    By Paradise Papers reporting team
    Prince Charles campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting, BBC Panorama has found.
    The Paradise Papers show the Duchy of Cornwall in 2007 secretly bought shares worth $113,500 in a Bermuda company that would benefit from a rule change.
    The prince was a friend of a director of Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd…

    A Clarence House spokesman said the Prince of Wales had “certainly never chosen to speak out on a topic simply because of a company that it may have invested in…
    “Carbon markets are just one example that the prince has championed since the 1990s and which he continues to promote today.”…

    Kept confidential
    The prince began campaigning for changes to two important environmental agreements weeks after Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) sent his office lobbying documents.
    Prince Charles’s estate almost tripled its money in just over a year although it is not clear what caused the rise in the share value. Despite his high profile campaign, the environmental agreements were not changed…

    One of SFM’s directors was the late Hugh van Cutsem, a millionaire banker and conservationist who has been described as the one of the Prince’s closest friends…
    SFM traded in carbon credits, a market created by international treaties to tackle global warming.
    It wanted to trade in credits from “tropical and subtropical forests” but was hampered by two important climate change agreements, the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the Kyoto Protocol, which largely excluded carbon credits from rainforests…

    Four weeks later, on 2 July, Prince Charles, made a speech that criticised the EU ETS and Kyoto Protocol for excluding carbon credits from rainforests, and called for change…ETC ETC
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41901175

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    pat

    reality bites:

    7 Nov: France24: AP: France backpedals on pledge to cut relians on nuclear power
    AP:
    France’s environment minister is backing down on promises to sharply reduce nuclear power production so that the government can concentrate on reducing fossil fuels instead.
    Nicolas Hulot told reporters Tuesday that it’s too “brutal and unrealistic” to meet earlier pledges to cap the amount of France’s electricity produced by nuclear plants at 50 percent by 2025…

    France depends more on nuclear energy than any other country, getting about three-quarters of its electricity from its 58 nuclear plants.
    http://www.france24.com/en/20171107-france-hulot-cut-reliance-nuclear-power-environment

    7 Nov: Reuters: UPDATE 2-France postpones target to drop share of nuclear energy in power mix
    By Geert De Clercq and Michel Rose
    Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said it was not realistic to cut nuclear energy’s share in the power mix to 50 percent by 2025 from 75 percent now and said doing so in a hurry would increase France’s CO2 emissions, endanger the security of power supply and put jobs at risk…

    Widely seen as the guardian of the Macron government’s green credentials, the popular Hulot – a former television documentary maker turned environmentalist – had in recent months repeatedly said France needed to close several nuclear plants.
    But he received little public support from Macron, a strong supporter of nuclear, or Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, a former employee of state-owned reactor builder Areva.

    Two weeks before the government was formed in mid-May, a source close to Macron ***told Reuters he was considering delaying the target for reducing France’s reliance on nuclear.
    State-owned utility EDF, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear plants, has long said it made no sense to shut down functioning reactors and instead wanted to extend the lifespan of its nuclear fleet from 40 to at least 50 years…

    EDF shares were up 1.2 percent after Hulot’s announcement, outperforming a flat French bourse.
    EDF stock had plunged as much as 7 percent on the day Hulot was appointed environment minister on the expectation that he would push for less nuclear and more renewables…

    Hulot, who had made a failed bid to become the green candidate in the 2012 presidential election, had been courted by both Hollande and his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy to become environment minister…

    Greenpeace said Hulot had already shown weakness in fighting fossil fuel and was now jeopardising France’s energy transition.
    “He should be a bulwark against the oil and nuclear lobbies,” the NGO said in a statement.
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/france-nuclearpower/update-1-france-postpones-target-to-drop-share-of-nuclear-energy-in-power-mix-idUKL5N1ND5N2

    ***can’t recall Reuters reporting this from a “source” in May, and can’t be bothered checking if they did.

    00

  • #
    pat

    7 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Syria to join Paris Agreement, isolating US
    By Arthur Neslen in Bonn
    Syria has announced that it will sign up to the Paris agreement at the COP23 climate summit in Bonn, meaning the US would be alone if it left the global pact to prevent climate catastrophe.
    The declaration was made by a Syrian delegate at a plenary session of the conference this morning…
    The US will plough a lonely furrow at the Bonn summit, as it prepares to leave the Paris agreement within three years…

    7 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: African campaigners call for US to be kicked out of climate talks
    The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance will petition negotiators to eject Donald Trump’s delegation, in light of the president’s hostility to the Paris agreement
    By Mantoe Phakathi in Bonn
    African campaigners called for US negotiators to be barred from climate talks under way in Bonn, Germany, at a press conference on Tuesday.
    Members of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) said they were planning to circulate a petition to show support for kicking the US delegation out…
    “Trump’s agenda is to dismantle the Paris Agreement,” Mithika Mwenda, secretary general of PACJA, told reporters. He wanted to send the message: “You’re either with the people or with Trump.”…

    Tolbert Hallah from the Faith Justice Alliance said it was “outrageous” that the Trump’s administration wants to be part of the negotiations despite quitting the Paris deal. “Trump is going to create a lot of climate change deniers,” said Hallah.
    The activists said it was unacceptable that poor people are made to pay for the consequences of the rich, adding that African countries are greatly impacted by climate change through droughts, floods and storms that have claimed a lot of lives…

    7 Nov: Deutsche Welle: Ineke Mules: COP23: Africa makes itself heard
    As COP23 kicks off in Bonn this week, African participants are working hard to ensure their voices are being heard, amid fears that the so-called “Trump effect” could make matters worse for developing states.
    Yunis Arikan, the Head of Advocacy and Development from ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (formerly known as the International Council for Local Environmental Issues), believes that African states have become increasingly vocal and proactive at COP conferences since the very first meeting in Berlin in 1995…
    “Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in terms of drought, but it also represents many opportunities when it comes to things like solar power generation.”…

    US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement earlier this year has unsurprisingly dominated much of the discourse at COP23 – especially after Syria announced its plans to join the agreement, effectively isolating the US as the only country opposed to the pact…

    “Our frustration, as a coalition of African countries, is that there is no strong signal of something being done,” said (Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of PACJA): “It’s like a jamboree where people come, make proclamations, and after two weeks they go back to their normal lives. We are insisting that it is no longer business as usual. We need to acknowledge the expectations of poorer states and ensure that we are taking action.”

    Fighting back against the “Trump effect”
    Mwenda also openly questions the presence of an official US delegation, out of fear it may prove to be a bad influence on other states that are already reluctant to take serious action on climate change – something he terms as the “Trump effect.”

    “[The US] withdraws from the Paris Agreement, yet they still want to show that they can negotiate the implementation framework,” said Mwenda, “That’s why we are calling in delegates here to sign our petition to kick Trump and his government out of these negotiations. We have to make it very clear that we are not kicking [out] the people of America. We are in solidarity with [those who oppose Trump’s actions]. Our target is the Trump government.”

    Holding high-polluters to account – including the possibility of financial reparations for small-polluters, including African countries – is likely to be another flashpoint issue at this year’s COP, especially with island nation Fiji at the helm…
    http://www.dw.com/en/cop23-africa-makes-itself-heard/a-41277366

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    pat

    7 Nov: National Geographic: Stephen Leahy: Fight Climate Change by Suing Polluters, Says Scientist
    Prominent climate scientist James Hansen has a message for world leaders gathering in Germany for the United Nations conference on global warming.
    Countries should sue the world’s biggest oil, coal and gas, and cement companies for damages resulting from climate change—says well-known climate scientist James Hansen.
    Hansen, a former NASA scientist who warned Congress about the dangers of climate change in 1988, says global warming of 2°C, or even 1.5°C, is dangerous, risking sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. That would put major parts of coastal cities like New York underwater. He believes major impacts of climate change are happening faster than what is reported in even the latest science reports, including the U.S. government’s Climate Science Special Report released last Friday.

    An enormous amount of money is urgently needed to dramatically slash emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), take existing CO2 out of the atmosphere, and for countries to cope with the impacts of climate change, Hansen argues. And that money should come from the companies that profited most from burning fossil fuels, Hansen will tell world leaders Tuesday in Bonn, Germany, at the annual United Nations climate negotiations…

    ***“I tried to get an opportunity to address the negotiators but did not succeed. I will give my talk at a press conference,” Hansen told National Geographic in advance of the meeting…

    A group of citizens could also try to sue carbon majors using transnational tort litigation.
    ***However, this approach may have been made more difficult by the fact that the U.S. climate delegation made sure the Paris Agreement included a paragraph that reduces the risk of litigation…
    In 2009, the U.S. and other developed nations agreed to step up financial support for developing nations to $100 billion a year by 2020. In 2016 this support amounted to just $2.78 billion…ETC
    https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/james-hansen-fight-climate-change-sue-pollutors-cop23/

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      Just imagine for one tiny minute what would happen if the oil producers, under threat of legal action, stopped processing oil into its components for use in the World’s cars and wherever else oil products are used.

      Then imagine what would happen if coal fired power plants, under threat of legal action, just shut down.

      The same for Gas products as those power plants, and all consumption of gas dried up.

      These primary producers have the answer at the tips of their fingers, just to shut up shop, and it would not take too long before they are back up and running, let me tell you.

      No need to even do it without warning, just say that they will be doing it on a day which is a week or two away, when they will all just shut down, so give them plenty of warning. It would only take a day or two, sorry, a few hours, sorry, a couple of minutes, sorry, a few seconds, sorry, a microsecond.

      Then, all you would hear is the plaintive bleat from that famed James Hansen, as he bleats, “WTF just happened then?” as he became the biggest pariah on Planet Earth.

      Tony.

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        Bushkid

        Oh, if only we could make that happen Tony, to give these uneducated fools the shock of their lives and a harsh dose of reality. Then we might just see a flicker of common sense prevailing. I’d still not hold my breath though, they’d probably just blame Trump and Abbott.

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        RAH

        Often said the same thing about trucking here in the US. States in the NE US make it far tougher than it needs to be in many ways and with many laws. Shut down all truck shipments to the greater NYC metropolitan area for just three days and see what happens.

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    clipe

    Just finished watching Battlefield S1/E3 – The Battle of Midway

    Somewhere in there is a mention of Australian (heavy?) cruisers.

    Check

    On 1 May, the two American carrier groups rendezvoused and began to refuel from their attendant oilers. The Yorktown group completed fuelling first and, when Rear Admiral Fitch advised Rear Admiral Fletcher that he did not expect to complete fuelling till noon on 4 May, Fletcher decided to move the Yorktown group further to the north-west. He advised Rear Admiral Fitch of his intention and of a new rendezvous. The second rendezvous, set for the morning of 4 May would see the Australian cruisers Australia and Hobart join the force for the first time.

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    Bulldust

    O/topic – Mawson Base (Antarctic) lost its windmill generator last night:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-08/mawson-antarctic-wind-turbine-failure-investigated/9130554

    The good news: They have a diesel generator as back up. Good ole fossil fuels to the rescue.

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      Peter C

      Lovely video of the Mawson ex wind turbine going round and round.
      Thanks

      Installed in 2003 so life span of 14 years. Did it pay back its construction cost?

      Many years ago I considered signing up for a year at an Australian Antarctic base. I am glad that I didn’t now. It looks a miserable place to spend a year, a precious year, of ones life.

      A few years ago I had the chance to visit the Antarctic Peninsula on an a cruise ship with Peregrine travel. It was quite an adventure but we did it is style aboard the akademic sergey vavilov, a Russian ex research vessel hired to Peregrine. I think it was sister ship to the one used by the “ship of fools” expedition lead by Australian climate scientist, Professor Chris Turney of the University of NSW

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    William

    O/T – but Fairfax has reported that some group called the Great Barrier Reef Legacy is funding research where experts “from Australia and abroad will set sail later this month in a bid to locate and then propagate “super corals” that appear best able to survive bleaching caused by climate change.”

    Scientists thought importing cane toads was a good idea as well.

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    pat

    8 Nov: ABC Rural: Queensland Industry Energy Alliance launches with agricultural allies joining forces to tackle power prices
    QLD Country Hour By Kallee Buchanan
    Canegrowers, Queensland Farmers Federation, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland have launched the Queensland Industry Energy Alliance with an aim to put downward pressure on prices…
    Members of Australia’s peak sugarcane growing body face large power bills spurred by the use of irrigation which often requires around-the-clock power.
    Chief executive Dan Galligan said farmers are desperate to find a solution to the rising costs and “unsustainable electricity prices”.
    “This is becoming a real crisis moment for people in business in Queensland, not just irrigators, but anyone who relies on electricity which is almost every business,” he said…

    Forging an alliance to tackle the issue, the newly formed Queensland Industry Energy Alliance has developed five key actions it says will reduce the cost of power immediately.
    One is to write down the regulated asset base by 50 per cent, thus reducing the so-called ‘gold plating’ of the poles and wires and delivering what they estimate to be a 30 per cent cut in prices.
    It is also calling for the removal of hidden taxes, efficient tariffs, funding the solar bonus scheme through Government revenue, and disciplining the generators bidding practices.
    Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland policy advisor Joseph Kelly said recent polling shows the cost of power is strangling the economy.
    “Over 57 per cent say it is (having) a critical to major impact. We have 14 per cent saying they’ll reduce their hours and we’ve got 5 per cent of business telling us that they will just close their doors,” Mr Kelly said.
    “Prices have reached an unsustainable level.
    “If it’s not fixed there will greater consequences to the economy moving forward.”…
    QFF chief executive Travis Tobin said forming an alliance is unprecedented in his time with the organisation, but the escalating frustration about the growing cost of energy has left the three industry groups little choice.
    He said the issue is bigger than just agriculture.
    “It’s all small businesses and particularly in regional and rural Queensland,” Me Tobin said.
    “You can’t keep going on like this.
    “It’s far better to price electricity efficiently and have that money flowing through to businesses that can stimulate economies and regional communities rather than having it in Treasury coffers.”

    “Agriculture is a $20 billion sector. It’s a major employer, particularly in regional Queensland with over 60,000 employed directly and 315,000 indirectly across the whole supply chain,” he said.
    “The inaction on electricity is all coming at the expense of profitability and even the viability of many businesses in our sector.
    “Inaction is no longer an option.”
    The Alliance is currently developing plans for a series of events across the state.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-11-08/qff-canegrowers-cciq-form-industry-energy-alliance/9130658

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    pat

    followup to comment #30 –

    none of the juicy BBC Panorama details included here:

    8 Nov: ABC: Paradise Papers: Prince Charles’s estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, invested through Caribbean tax havens
    By Stuart Washington (Fairfax) and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
    In the latest revelation, leaked documents show Prince Charles’s personal estate invested in a company in Bermuda called Sustainable Forestry Management that is associated with one of his oldest friends, Hugh van Cutsem…
    The company also agreed to keep the Prince’s investment of about $130,000 secret…

    By 2008, the Prince’s estate had sold the shares for about $425,000.
    Mr van Cutsem was an officer and shareholder in the company, which appears to have been set up to profit from increased trade in emission offsets by buying forests and other land across the globe, attracting high-profile investors.
    But its plans came to grief in the global financial crisis, and it was eventually liquidated in 2011…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-08/paradise-papers-prince-charles-invested-through-tax-havens/9129830

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  • #
    Amber

    The Guardian is in desperation mode and will be long gone
    before AL Gore’s prophesy of an ice free Arctic ever occurs .
    As Jo Nova has pointed out the funding imbalance that essentially mandates
    a one sided view of the science is staggering yet through her efforts and many others
    public sentiment continues to erode from the science is settled bullies who ran out of ammo along time ago .
    Thank God Al Gore created the internet .Who knew it was going to take down the scary global warming con-game.

    Much of the focus has rightfully been on the $ billions wasted on outcome bought science but another picture is starting
    to immerge. Thanks to the hate and polarization caused by President Trump he made the Democrats go so crazy they spent millions creating fake stories and
    buying ” journalists” all to no avail. How much money has been paid to “journalists and papers like the Guardian and LA Times to push
    scary global warming propaganda ? The little clique of USA State AG lobbyist’s had no problem getting a compliant media to cover their failed
    Exxon ambush with Al Gore .

    Follow the money is easier said than done however my bet is we are going to start seeing the media in the know and who care about
    their reputations doing something to reveal the same corruption of the media which scientists are exposing .

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    As my website (Gunter’s Space Page) is cited here, i feel the need to clarify it a little bit:

    * the DMSP satellites were military weather satellites – their use on climate research is rather limited. The DMSP stroy is rather out of context concerning the cancellation of climate research mission.

    * Trump’s FY18 budget proposal indeed cut funding for four climate research missions under development or in operation (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf):

    ** the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite to monitor Earth’s ocean health and atmosphere in 2022;
    ** the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 experiment that would track carbon-dioxide levels from the International Space Station;
    ** the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) pathfinder Earth climate instrument for the ISS in 2020 time frame;
    ** The earth observing instruments of the operational Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)

    The Senate provided funding for specifically these four missions in an appropriations bill approved by a Senate committee July 27.

    So it is clearly NOT fake news, that the Trump administration tried to terminate four climate research missions.

    best regards,
    Gunter Krebs
    Editor of Gunter’s Space Page
    http://space.skyrocket.de

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    To make it clear: It is IMHO rather hypocritical, to claim “The Guardian invents a myth that Trump obstructs satellite research”, when exactly the fact, that the termination of these climate research satellites is explicitly written in the Budget proposal:

    Excerpt from Major Savings and Reforms – BUDGET OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT – Fiscal Year 2018; Page 90

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf

    ELIMINATION: FIVE EARTH SCIENCE MISSIONS
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    Due to competing priorities within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science
    program, the Budget proposes to terminate five Earth Science Missions: Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI),
    PACE, OCO-3, DSCOVR Earth-viewing instruments, CLARREO Pathfinder.

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    Amber

    The next house cleaning issue will be the exit of NASA from the climate fabrication business .
    NOAA already does such a fab job of that .
    The problem with unlimited debt is corruption is allowed to flourish unchecked and decisions about scarce resources are never made .
    Obama’s administration stole half a billion dollars in it’s dying days that was not approved by Congress and what is the
    USA consumed with ? Chasing a Democrat paid for fake Russia dossier on the Trump .
    The corrupt Democrat party was owned by the Clintons and neither the voters or other candidates had a clue apparently ?
    Wire tapped their political opponents and using forged unmasking requests does not bode well for the credibility of the backers of the
    ” science is settled ” con artists .
    For Sessions to show he is not just a weak mouse why not actually go after the biggest fraud in history ?
    $Billions have been added to tax payer debt (stolen ) to support the climate fraud and the USA
    intelligence community is consumed by cover up .
    Love Trump or hate him one thing is guaranteed none of the Democrat illegal activity would have to light if the Clinton’s
    sleazed their way back into the White House .

    corruption would be

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      Will Janoschka

      Amber November 9, 2017 at 7:11 am

      he next house cleaning issue will be the exit of NASA from the climate fabrication business…..For Sessions to show he is not just a weak mouse why not actually go after the biggest fraud in history?

      For Sessions to do that The DOJ need attack this popular Highly Religious Belief of CAGW\climate change!
      Best let DOJ R. Muller go after the moneyed foreign promoters of such Religious\nonsense\ belief\opposition to US values.

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    Betapug

    The more interesting “cancelled satellite” would be NASA’s OCO2, successfully launched in 2014 in order to globally map and “pinpoint carbon sources and sinks”. The data returned seems not to have fingered the wealthy, extravagant West as the dominant controller of CO2, but rather huge seasonal “natural” processes, and media interest in the result vapourized.

    This dog never barked. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/oco2.pdf

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    Duster

    If you are not from the US, and possibly even more so if your are, one of the peculiarities of US politics is the weird level of conviction people have that “if we can get our guy, into the White House, things will change.” Even a lot of congress and senate critters think this way. The president is largely just a “buck stopper.” If things are good he gets the credit. If things go pear shaped, he gets the blame. If he has enough creds, he might be able to persuade some senator or congress person to sponsor a bill implementing some policy he might advocate, if not, too bad, go shuffle some aircraft carriers around.

    As far as Russia goes, looking at the actual information on ads paid for by Russian sources, either the Russkis were divided on who they were supporting, or they weren’t “supporting” anyone. Instead, based on the list and content of the list of ads released earlier, Russian whatever targeted the most obvious divides in US society with a goal of exacerbating them. That Trump won was merely a bonus point, since it is doubtful that they had any idea how “individual” he would really be. He has cheerfully antagonized long-time allies and baited enemies, in a pattern of “statesmanship” unparalleled since perhaps the days of Attila.

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    Will Janoschka

    Duster November 11, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    That Trump won was merely a bonus point, since it is doubtful that they had any idea how “individual” he would really be. He has cheerfully antagonized long-time allies and baited enemies, in a pattern of “statesmanship” unparalleled since perhaps the days of Attila.

    I am not that ‘up’ on politics as such is quite disgusting to me! OTOH your writing and attitude somehow ‘resonate’! IMO: P45 seems to actively represent the wishes of US folk with skill, rather than those with only money and mouth!
    All the best!-will-

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