Open Thread - 5 January 2017

pl

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

For all the Global Warming Alarmists:

The following article from Nature:

http://www.nature.com/news/how-much-longer-can-antarctica-s-hostile-ocean-delay-global-warming-1.20978

suggest that the Southern Ocean is helping ameliorate the effects of the Global Warming.

I noticed that the same article, republished in Scientific American, carried the more alarmist title:

"Antarctica’s Southern Ocean May No Longer Help Delay Global Warming" - see https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctica-rsquo-s-southern-ocean-may-no-longer-help-delay-global-warming/

Furthermore, for those who insist on attributing all of this to the nefarious influence of man ( or the Perfidious Albion in certain parts of the Near East) - well, I have news for you:

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-ice-ages-linked-earth-orbitbut.html

[Jonathan House]

Question for the committee

What is he significance of this development which I just read on South Front?
TURKEY QUESTIONS PRESENCE OF US-LED COALITION AT INCIRLIK AIR BASE AMID ‘CONFIDENCE CRISIS’
Is it to squeeze more money etc out of us or is it a meaningful threat to US use of the base? Or something else or simply to be ignored?

Jonathan

[walrus]

Trump picks former Indiana Republcian Senator Dan Coats as his Director of National Intelligence.

Anyone know anything about this guy?

[paul]

16 days till we find out if the president is in control of foreign policy.

[Kooshy]

After partly watching Mc Caine' senate (IC)show this morning,
Colonel Lang in over 40 years I have never seen or remember, US media, IC, and members of an incoming or a seating president' own party accuse the legally elected president of US, siding with what they believe to be "the enemy" , have you? Has anybody else seen this degree of direct accusation to an incoming president. IMO this is not healthy, and is not to anyone' benefit. I can't believe that CNN, WP, and NYT are all out full force to get and delegitimize the incoming administration at all costs. IMO, At this time for majority of public PE Trump has more legitimacy then any western media, intelligent agency, think tanks, or discredited senator and political analyst.May the holly spirits of all men kinds save us all, in this coming 4 years.

[euclidcreek]

Those who defend the four black punks accused of torturing the white man in Chicago have placed themselves on the side of evil. Anyone that calls for genocide of whites deserves to pay a severe price. Arise White Demon.

[Matt]

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/5/glenn_greenwald_on_dearth_of_evidence

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Russia Insider reports on SOHR's casualty numbers for both sides in the Syrian conflict. The main take-away is that a substantial majority of the opposition fighters are/were of non-Syrian origin.
http://russia-insider.com/en/uk-based-monitor-more-half-syrian-rebels-are-foreigners/ri18390

[Matt]

Part 2

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/5/glenn_greenwald_mainstream_us_media_is

[Fred]

Kooshy,

My take is that McCain and the little old lady from SC were reelected due to Russian hacking. As DNI Clapper put it "we'll never know......" or, as I told one of my democratic friends, "so Obama failed to defend the USA" I thought the guy would have a stroke sputtering out a response. Fun times are ahead.

[gowithit]

In so many ways Trump continues to de-legitimize himself by his contradictory tweeks. He gives food for the media to salivate over. It seems Trump has the limited conscious stream that fits a tweek. The media a canyon to bounce echos of those tweets about. Damnation on both their domains!

[Ingolf]

Babak,

Thanks, interesting articles but I'm puzzled why you think they run counter to the global warming hypothesis. After all, scientists concerned with climate change try to take account of all factors, including the Milankovitch cycles.

In any case, both articles present a mixed picture of how these factors (Southern Ocean effects and the above-mentioned cycles) are likely to play out in the future. From the phys.org article:

"So how can all this help us understand future climate? One idea is that small increases in greenhouse gases due to the expansion of agriculture that started 8,000 years ago have in fact delayed the next ice age. What's more, if we continue emitting greenhouse gases at the same rate, we might have put off the next ice age for at least half a million years.

If we have merely delayed the next ice age, we will still be in the Quaternary Period – the last 2.58m years defined by the ice age cycles. But if we have stopped the ice ages, humans will have caused a much greater change and so have entered the Anthropocene period as some argue. If I had to put money on it, I'd say the Earth has experienced its last ice age for a very, very long time."

[Freudenschade]

No new bombshells, but still an "exclusive." I'm sure there is more to come on the Russian hacking, but the WaPo's reporting leaves me underwhelmed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-intercepts-capture-senior-russian-officials-celebrating-trump-win/2017/01/05/d7099406-d355-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html

[Bobo]

The question that was not asked at the hearing was "what did the U.S. do to piss off the Russians to supposedly interfere with election".
The other main problem is the IC should never have let this come to light and just put it on the shelf for the next payback game.
Your also seeing the Washington Elites Ship sinking with them tossing anything they can out there to stop the Draining of the Swamp.

[Clonal Antibody]

Does anyone have any opinions on the Drone Papers?

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars.

[different clue]

Fred,

Was this democratic friend a Clinton supporter ( which would be my guess) . . ? Or was this democratic friend a Sanders supporter ( which would surprise me) . . . ?

[Cee]

All,

James Woolsey quit the Trump transition team. No loss, James blamed the 911 attacks on Iraq and Iran.

I still believe Binney who quit the NSA rather then spy on us vs Clapper who had no problem with it and lied about it

http://raymcgovern.com/2017/01/05/emails-were-leaked-not-hacked/

[ann]

Would this be a NATO base. And there would be many nations planes and troops going through. So my question, is Turkey challenging NATO which it is a member of or just the US. And what are they going to do about it?? Your suggestion that it involves money is probably relevant.
Ann

[ann]

How about the story on the Fars News 1/5/07 that the shooter in the Istanbul night club has arrived in Al Raqqa. Still a center for ISIL.

[Peter AU]

Ann
To get some understanding of Edogan, look at his support base - the people that came out in the streets to prevent the coup. Anti US, pro Syrian "rebel" (my take from looking at twitter accounts of Erdogan supporters). I believe in the past Erdogan also made some noises about AQ not being terrorists.
Erdogan believes the US was behind the coup attempt so he now has to turn to Russia. This puts his family jewels in a vice as his support base are the people Russia is fighting in Syria. The attention of his support base must be turned elsewhere. Who better than the people who he believes were behind the coup attempt.

[ked]

He appears to be a fairly typical career pol. From Wiki:
" In 2007, Coats served as co-chairman of a team of lobbyists for Cooper Industries, a Texas corporation that moved its principal place of business to Bermuda, where it would not be liable for U.S. taxes. In that role, he worked to block Senate legislation that would have closed a tax loophole, worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Cooper Industries. "

[ked]

Any Strict Constructionists have a take on this bit of news?
" More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders."
Via;
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/least-50-trump-electors-were-illegitimately-seated-electoral-college-members

[Doug Colwell]

Thank you for those links, Babak. I am not among those who believe climate modellers can work with any degree of certainty. There are too many variables which no one how to value correctly, as well as potential "black swans". Having said that I have no trouble imagining that 7 billion people using the atmosphere as an areal sewer could have consequences. After all, the dastardly algae appear to have managed it!
Wikipedia - Great Oxygenation Event

[FB Ali]

Recently, I posted a piece on China's One Belt, One Road (http://tinyurl.com/jjn4279).

There is a report out that China has commenced a freight train service from its Pacific coast, connecting 7,500 miles of rails to reach London in 16 days. The Yiwu-London train can carry only 200 containers, a small number when compared with the 20,000 a huge cargo ship can haul, but it can be cost-effective for certain goods: a rail shipment to London could take half as long as maritime routes and cost half as much as air shipments. Above all, it’s a symbolic milestone.

Details at: http://tinyurl.com/zlz9xw5

[Sam Peralta]

"Furthermore, The Washington Post's Philip Rucker reports, Woolsey resigned after being cut out of intelligence talks with Trump and his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-05/trump-transition-team-splits-senior-advisor-former-cia-chief-woolsey

Seems like Trump & Flynn decided to bench Woolsey and His Grand Highness couldn't handle that. Very cool.