Thursday, February 23, 2017
“The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.”
Donald Trump.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
This day was devoured by locusts. One letter does require an answer, and it is more part of view than mail.
0830 Friday: I wrote this last night, but my cable connection to the Internet – Time Warner , now known as Spectrum – had failed. Didn’t even have television. This morning had to reset the Internet modem, and all is well. I confess to a feeling of panic when I discovered I no longer had Internet access. I went to the front office on awakening, got the modem reset, but I had turned on the troubleshooter too early and while the Internet connection came on automatically for ,my other machines, I had to reset the one I had been fooling with in my frantic efforts; apparently it resented my efforts. These things have minds of their own, you know.
language
“Known Obama agent”? And our president speaks of “sleeper cells” and “enemies of the American people?” How did this language slither in?
I really do care about civil discourse. Language which would be appropriate if the political party in question had been outlawed is not helpful.
Allan E. Johnson
I care also, as you do; and “Obama agent” is defensible and in my judgment appropriate as a descriptor for Ms. Yates. In fact I gave a source in the original article.
Fired Acting AG Sally Yates now “a symbol of the anti-Trump resistance”
Why is Obama agent not appropriate? As a holdover from the Obama administration she was Acting Attorney General, a position she accepted; which made her chief attorney for the United States, and an acting cabinet member; and like any lawyer, she is supposed to serve the interests of her client, not of the regime that appointed her. When President Trump issued his executive order of immigration. It was her duty to advise him if she found it vague and therefore defective, and to hive her best opinion on how it ought to be modified.
That is not quite what she did.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates Tells Justice Department Not to Defend President Trump’s Immigration Ban
http://time.com/4654533/acting-attorney-general-sally-yates-immigration-ban-donald-trump/
BREAKING: Acting Attorney General refuses to defend Trump executive order on refugees
President Trump fired her, as indeed he should have done ten minutes after taking the Oath of Office; but she should have resigned anyway if she felt she could not approve the new President’s executive order. Instead she acted as if her client was Mr. Obama, not the United States. Obama agent is an entirely appropriate descriptor, and I doubt she would deny it with any vigor.
She is not merely a Deep State official; she was an actual agent of the previous administration, and now has assumed the role advertently. Of course the President must beware the Deep State, which so far he has not done; he probably believes in the myth of the non-partisan Civil Service. He does so at his peril.
Andrew Jackson, a founder of the Democratic Party (see Jefferson-Jackson celebrations) would have none of that: he fired most of the government employees and replaced them with people of his own choosing: his own agents. After all, the people who elected him held him responsible for carrying out his campaign promises.
State within a state
“Deep state” redirects here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_within_a_state
State within a state is a political situation in a country when an internal organ (“deep state”), such as the armed forces and civilian authorities (intelligence agencies, police, administrative agencies and branches of governmental bureaucracy), does not respond to the civilian political leadership. Although the state within the state can be conspiratorial in nature, the Deep State can also take the form of entrenched unelected career civil servants acting in a non-conspiratorial manner, to further their own interests (e.g., job security, enhanced power and authority, pursuit of ideological goals and objectives, and the general growth of their agency) and in opposition to the policies of elected officials, by obstructing, resisting, and subverting the policies and directives of elected officials.
Surely Ms. Yates can reasonably be described as an “Obama agent”?
Thomas Gold’s abiotic theory
Biotic vs. Abiotic Hydrocarbons
Jerry,
Your recent discussion with Stephanie about the origin of hydrocarbons on the Earth included a comment by Stephanie that hydrocarbons of biotic origin should be rich in carbon 14. That would be the wrong signature to look for. The biotic theory of the origin of hydrocarbons posits that the source organic material was laid down during and just after the Carboniferous period, about 359 to 299 million years ago. Carbon 14 has a half life of about 5700 years, so even the youngest of this material has gone through over 52,000 halvings in concentration. There just would not be any to be found today. What we should find is an abundance of nitrogen 14, the decay product of carbon 14, assuming the nitrogen stayed in proximity to the hydrocarbons and did not mineralize, becoming immobile.K
Jerry,
You comment in your 23 February post:
“I have no proof of Tommy Gold’s theory of abiotic fossil fuels, but there must have been a powerful lot of dinosaurs given the amounts of oil and gas that we are pumping. We don’t seem to have reached peak oil yet.”
My question for geologists is ‘How did dead and decomposed dinosaurs get nearly 8 miles under the earth surface?’
The current world record (circa 2013) for the longest measured depth ERD well is the Chayvo Z-42 well (Exxon Neftegas Limited, Sakhalin Island, Russia) with a measured depth of 41,667 ft. and horizontal departure [under the ocean]of 38,514 ft. http://petrowiki.org/Extended_reach_wells
Larry
A good question. I asked a similar question to Carl Sagan, but I did not understand the answer. It was in a bar, and very noisy, and of course Sagan had been Gold’s protégé, so perhaps it wasn’t fair.
Kim Jong Nam – assassinated with VX?????
An Earlier Report linking video of the assassination
Subj: Kim Jong nam
I am not 100% sure this makes sense; That does appear inconsistent with the relative vapor inhalation toxicity and percutaneous toxicity given the supposed method of administration. (See https://www.nap.edu/read/5825/chapter/8)
Of course, it appears that the two girls who made contact with Kim Jong Nam were sacrificial, but they don’t seem to have suffered from their exposure to the agent.
Or perhaps Malaysia has misidentified the agent. The article states that the report is preliminary, and there is some inconsistency with how he was dosed – spray, wetted handkerchief, needle, etc. Still, I’m sure the identification was done with GC/MS, which should have been straightforward if Malaysian sources had a good mass spectrum data base for the conventional agents.
I’ve contacted the Colonel for a sanity check; he agrees this does not seem consistent, but is keeping an eye on the situation (which he saw on a Fox news crawl…)
I am copying the WSJ article here for your reference.
Kim Jong Nam Killed With U.N.-Banned VX Nerve Agent, Malaysia Says
VX listed globally as weapon of mass destruction
By
Yantoultra Ngui
Updated Feb. 23, 2017 9:53 p.m. ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—The chemical substance used to kill Kim Jong Nam last week was a United Nations-banned nerve agent called VX, police here said, significantly raising the political stakes in a case that has already frayed diplomatic ties between Malaysia and North Korea.
Experts believe North Korea possesses several thousand pounds of chemical weapons and nerve agents—including VX—that are banned by the U.N. and considered weapons of mass destruction.
Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia’s inspector general of police, said Friday in a statement that identification of the substance came from a preliminary report. He said swabs were taken from the eye and face of the victim.
Mr. Kim, the half brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, was attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13 while waiting to board a flight to Macau; he died on his way to the hospital. Malaysian police have arrested four suspects, including the alleged attackers and a North Korean citizen who was living in Kuala Lumpur. Police are looking for at least seven more North Korean suspects in the case.
Early Wednesday morning this week, a team of about a dozen forensic specialists swept the area around an airport restaurant where several North Korean male suspects and two female suspects sat for an hour or more before the attack, an airport employee said. The employee didn’t know whether they also checked nearby check-in kiosks where the attack took place.
Diplomatic ties between Malaysia and North Korea have worsened following Mr. Kim’s death. Relations between the two countries had been relatively warm for several years due to business connections, lax travel restrictions and direct flights.
—Ben Otto contributed to this article.
J
I have worked with VX – nasty stuff – and certainly the girls would not have got to the rest room if any VX had got on bare skin. I have studied its potential use to render certain supply trails deadly: put up a sign saying in many languages, ‘cross this line and you will die’; then use VX on the area. Depending on sunlight and rain, it will dissipate, so how long it will be effective is not calculable; but long enough temporarily to deny the enemy access to the area. We never used it to the best of my knowledge, but it would have been effective.
North Korean Panic
In the latest commie madness, North Korea is not working and playing well with others. Well, since they only really have one ally — China and only because China doesn’t want a US client state on it’s border
— this must be directed at China:
<.>
North Korea appeared to lash out at Beijing in a state-media commentary published Thursday, aiming unusually pointed rhetoric at a powerful neighbor that Pyongyang has long relied on for economic and diplomatic support.
The commentary, published by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, didn’t name China but left little doubt about its target: “a neighboring country, which often claims itself to be a ‘friendly neighbor’.”
The article lambasted China for playing down North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and for curbing foreign trade—an apparent reference to China’s weekend announcement that it would suspend coal imports from North Korea for the rest of the year.
</>
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-mocks-china-for-dancing-to-u-s-tune-1487852124
North Korea has two “neighbors”: South Korea and China. Anyone who thinks the North Koreans or South Koreans — by and large — would refer to the other as “friendly” is so laughable that they’d have to be some kind of isolated community organizer or activist to be so misinformed about geopolitics, world history, and American history.
This shift in relations between the two countries is interesting.
North Korea has no choice and a naked man chills in the frost. They can thunder and blunder all they want, but China could eat their lunch in less than a week and they know it. So why bother with the idiotic posturing? I’m sure Chinese policy makers understand their decision will cause animosity and I’m certain the North Koreans protested in some way that made those Chinese policy makers aware in case it slipped their minds.
What does this mean, exactly? Well, it means North Korea could become more unstable and could make even more rash decisions than it normally makes. But, it may also present an opportunity. And it will remain to be seen if President Trump sees this and is able to command his government to do much more than leak, sow dissension, and make us look like an Italian parliament.
I am so glad that I left the GOP — I only joined cause of Reagan but they haven’t produced a viable candidate since Reagan and Trump is not GOP and never was. Their party has been hijacked; at least they had the decency and integrity not to screw Trump like a Stanford University professor — in collusion with another professor form another university — proved in a paper they wrote that analyzed the data of various precincts. So, we have emails declaring DNC intent and data to back it up, but at least the GOP isn’t that petty. No matter, they’re both garbage and must be tossed. Time to replenish the ranks…. This time, no factions, if you please.
I’d offer my candidacy, but I’m too candid and insensitive for politics. Still, if the people demanded my service, I would humbly
and respectfully give deep consideration to their request. But, I
don’t know how to raise those kinds of money and my spinal column doesn’t allow me to bend over and kiss butts very well either; so I don’t think I’m suited for politics anyway.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
Your observation about Korea are interesting. I believe your view of party politics is incorrect. I suspect there will be a massive realignment of parties over the next four years that will surprise us all, yet will seem inevitable after it has happened. But that’s another matter entirely.
Most scientists ‘can’t replicate studies by their peers’ – BBC News
What does this mean for most of what the MSM calls ‘settled science’?
Science is facing a “reproducibility crisis” where more than two-thirds of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments, research suggests.
…
“It’s worrying because replication is supposed to be a hallmark of scientific integrity,” says Dr Errington.
Concern over the reliability of the results published in scientific literature has been growing for some time.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39054778
John Harlow
Is comment needed?
fAAGEV AND STEYN ON MIGRANTS TO EUROPE
To be honest Jerry my mind is a little foggy. This debate is a very interesting item. It shows how the left can be changed by reasoned proof.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?407440-1/munk-debate-global-refugee-crisis
M
An unusual event, to say the least.
a balanced media article
Considering how much bias there is on articles about Trump and his affects on the political landscape, it’s nice to see what appears to be a balanced piece.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0222/In-age-of-Trump-apocalyptic-rhetoric-becomes-mainstreamM
J got ‘server not found’ when I went looking. That may or may not be interesting. (Probably not. Time Warner antics,)
ISIS
This article showed up on my Der Speigel flash briefing on my Alexa. I guess if you’re going to act like a country, with land, etc., then you’ve also got to pay the bills, etc. And that requires revenues. Their revenues were created through growth, and now that they’re not growing, they’re having money problems.
(Perhaps they should talk to the United States about deficit financing?)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-finances-are-bad-and-getting-worse-a-1135453.htmlF
‘The British system that arguably impelled our secession in 1776 is now here on steroids.’
<http://www.unz.com/anapolitano/the-chickens-have-come-home-to-roost/>
—————————————
Roland Dobbins
Surprised? We hoped for change…
3 Habitable Planets in Aquarius!
I suppose you’ll get a flurry of email, and most likely from folks better suited to comment on this than I, but in case they missed it:
<.>
For the first time, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size planets orbiting a single nearby star – and these new worlds could hold life.
This cluster of planets is less than 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, according to NASA and the Belgian-led research team who announced the discovery Wednesday.
The planets circle tightly around a dim dwarf star called Trappist-1, barely the size of Jupiter. Three are in the so-called habitable zone, the area around a star where water and, possibly life, might exist.
The others are right on the doorstep.
Scientists said they need to study the atmospheres before determining whether these rocky, terrestrial planets could support some sort of life. But it already shows just how many Earth-size planets could be out there – especially in a star’s sweet spot, ripe for extraterrestrial life. The more planets like this, the greater the potential of finding one that’s truly habitable. Until now, only two or three Earth-size planets had been spotted around a star.
</>
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/02/22/7-earth-size-worlds-found-orbiting-star-could-hold-life/
I always love this kind of news. I’ve not necessarily believed that we’ve been visited (I’m not sure either way), but I’ve always believed that life exists out there, among the stars, and perhaps even in other dimensions right here where we are right now. I may or may not see it proven in my lifetime, but it is a belief I have. Findings like this really make me hopeful that, maybe, we can meet others and maybe some of us can get out of here and go do something more worthwhile than living here.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
This of course all over the science news sites, and I have my own sources as well as much mail. I’ll have an essay when there’s something I can add to the discussion. I’m glad we didn’t know about these when Larry, Steve, and I began our interstellar colony series; the astronomy is so fascinating that we’d probably have neglected the biology. But perhaps later. Imagine the tides. And we thought Mercury was tidally locked; now they say these are all locked. I wonder.
Climate
Every 200 years California suffers storms of biblical proportions. Get ready.
I’m ready.
]
Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.
