Thinking The Unthinkable

Eduardo Porter of the failing NY Times challenges his readership to imagine that global warming climate change is truly a crisis:

To Curb Global Warming, Science Fiction May Become Fact

...

News about the climate has become alarming over the last few months. In December, startled scientists revealed that temperatures in some parts of the Arctic had spiked more than 35 degrees Fahrenheit above their historical averages. In March, others reported that sea ice in the Arctic had dropped to its lowest level on record. A warming ocean has already killed large chunks of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Let’s get real. The odds that these processes could be slowed, let alone stopped, by deploying more solar panels and wind turbines seemed unrealistic even before President Trump’s election. It is even less likely now that Mr. Trump has gone to work undermining President Barack Obama’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That is where engineering the climate comes in. Last month, scholars from the physical and social sciences who are interested in climate change gathered in Washington to discuss approaches like cooling the planet by shooting aerosols into the stratosphere or whitening clouds to reflect sunlight back into space, which may prove indispensable to prevent the disastrous consequences of warming.

I can hear the private jets spinning up right now as the Hollywood Illuminati fly off to a conference to denounce this.

Mr. Porter does not use this article to over-burden his readership with yet another unthinkable notion, but he has routinely talked up nuclear power as the zero-carbon base load solution. Here he notes that some greens are on board with this:

The United States must decarbonize at an annual rate of 4.3 percent under that timetable. But over the last decade and a half, only North Dakota and the District of Columbia have achieved this pace. New York is decarbonizing at about 3 percent per year, California at barely above 2 percent.

What’s more, most of the gains in the United States have come relatively easily, not from the deployment of renewables but from the wholesale switch from coal to cheaper and cleaner natural gas. Much of that transition has played itself out, however. Further gains will be more expensive.

“What’s critical to think about is, Where are the next savings going to come from?” Mr. Muro [director of policy at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution] told me. “Divergent state dynamics on nuclear energy will become a crucial issue in the next 40 years.” Taking nuclear energy off the table has already pushed the nation too far in the wrong way.

Consider this bit of counterfactual history. Environmental Progress, an advocacy group that aggressively supports the deployment of nuclear energy to combat climate change, estimated what California’s power sector would look like had the opposition from antinuclear forces — including Governor Brown — not undone the state’s deployment of nuclear energy, starting in the 1970s.

The power from San Onofre and the Rancho Seco nuclear generation station near Sacramento, both now shuttered, added to that from the never-built Sundesert nuclear plant in the Mojave Desert and three planned-but-not-built units at Diablo Canyon on the state’s central coast, would add a total of 77,000 gigawatt-hours of zero-carbon power to California’s supply. Only 27 percent of the power produced in California would come from fossil sources, other things remaining equal, as opposed to 66 percent today. And carbon emissions from power generation would be only 40 percent of what they are today.

That is kind of a big deal. of course, since we are discussing the nuclear option we all know where the resistance lies. Last Earth Day Mr. Porter tackled that too:

Liberal Biases, Too, May Block Progress on Climate Change

Are liberals impairing our ability to combat climate change?

That may sound like a strange question, particularly to readers of The New York Times. Today conservatives are the ones decidedly blocking any effort by the United States to curb its emissions of greenhouse gases.

And yet even as progressive environmentalists wring their hands at the G.O.P.’s climate change denial, there are biases on the left that stray just as far from the scientific consensus.

...

Still, liberal biases may be most dangerous in the context of climate change, the most significant scientific and technological challenge of our time. For starters, they stand against the only technology with an established track record of generating electricity at scale while emitting virtually no greenhouse gases: nuclear power.

Only 35 percent of Democrats, compared with 60 percent of Republicans, favor building more nuclear power plants, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.

It is the G.O.P. that is closer to the scientific consensus. According to a separate Pew poll of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 65 percent of scientists want more nuclear power too.

Ted Cruz’s argument that climate change is a hoax to justify a government takeover of the world is absurd. But Bernie Sanders’s argument that “toxic waste byproducts of nuclear plants are not worth the risks of the technology’s benefit” might also be damaging.

How about that? This ground was covered a few years back when Mr. Porter wrote on a report about deep de-carbonization. Still, I would love to see Trump make a huge push for nuclear, especially with a high-energy look at thorium. Let Jared do it!

Comments

[henry]

Jared? Let young Frederick do the Thorium reactor push!

[Old Lurker]

awww, just as I pushed "post" on this:

The big fish cannot really hide. Someone at the WH, probably Rice, had to have the clout to request the unmasking, but the unmasking itself and addition of the raw transcripts themselves had to be done by the gathering agency and surely that required senior level "OK give them what they want...".

In a just world, the ease with which this enormous power to see and hear everything and then be used by the likes of Valjar, Hillary, Podesta, Rhodes, Mook et al for pure political power over direct opponents and probably Members of Congress and yes even SCOTUS ought to cause the entire country to call a time out and a rethinking of whether all this power is worth the downside. I'd quadruple the human intelligence on the ground pull all the plugs and start from scratch myself.

The really really really sad thing is for the first time in forever, I would be hardpressed to name who could serve as the "universally trusted old man" to direct the clean out. Who could you trust to tell you that it has been fixed?

[Porcupine.]

Bannon was always tenuous on NSC.

No biggie.

[sbw]

"universally trusted old man"

Sexist!

[Old Lurker]

I was waiting to see who would bite, SBW...

[Account Deleted]

From the old thread. I was LAST!!!! Hurray for moi.

>>>>
All criticisms aside (from the constructive to the ridiculous) one thing I know for sure about
Donald J. Trump is that he doesn't do anything in order to lose.

Don Surber has collected a slew of journalist and pundit memes about how DJT was going to fail in his bid to become the nominee for POTUS; and, once nominated, the same yaps were convinced he would lose to Curb Dive.

Looking back it's refreshing to know that DJT outplayed and outsmarted *every [redacted] one of those [redacted]*.

He plays to win. As POTUS he has certain vulnerabilities I won't go into here. But he has something the DeepState UniParty weasels don't have---- a set of metaphorical BALLS that they have no concept of; and if they did have a set of their own, they really don't understand how a proven leader and producer *USES* them.

I'm a patient man. Even when shit's on fire I don't rush back into the burning barn until the way in and the way out is clear. Some things will be lost. Some not. The point is to not die in the fire.

An old Marine pilot taught me something important about emergencies. (And we are in emergency times right now.)

He flew fighter jets for 20 years. His trainers taught all the pilots to "push the clock" when in an emergency sitch, like when one of his engines flamed out en route to Wake Island from Hawaii.

Push the clock meant to set the analog clock on his console for the amount of time he had left before he'd have to bail. Set the clock then push it to start it tickin.

What that did for the pilot was important beside guiding the time element. It got the pilot to pause before switching off the failed engine.

Usually what happens in an emergency sitch is that the first decision, and subsequent move, is MISTAKEN. Pilots who lose and engine will typically then shut off the good engine and that is all she wrote.

Like my burning barn example. I knew many farmers in my day who lost friends and family who'd rush into barns to save their livestock and pets--- good idea, but they perished because their first decision was an error in choosing the wrong entry and exit points. Stock and the individual perished as a result.

So what will POTUS do next? His first move was to pause before making that Magic Tweet back in early March about wiretapping. His first move before that was to go through the transition team days pre-inauguration and not making a peep. Right move.

Now what will he do next?

How will he work through his allies to offset the lack of gonadal fortitude in the House and Senate?

How will he leverage the American people against the Deep State UniParty praetorians wherever they might be nested?

Questions and patience abound. The calls for all out attacks against the Praetorians are understandable. But I won't continue making them despite my obvious frustrations.

The Russian high command waited for Napoleon to retreat from Moscow despite the common fervor to attack Napoleon and liberate the city. "And why? To see the army destroyed?" was Kutuzov's retort. Over and over.

It was when Napoleon was most vulnerable in retreat--- starving and ragged--- that Kutuzov attacked and destroyed the greatest most powerful army in the world IN DETAIL.

[sbw]

OL, I’m old enough to remember when “man” meant everyone.

But I am not universally trusted. :-/

[Old Lurker]

SBW I am sure you saw that story last week about a student who was marked down for using "mankind" in a paper...

[Account Deleted]

Agree re Bannon. He was probably a sea legs choice for POTUS.

I would imagine he's up to his heinie in oppo research given the current Deep State meltdown re Rice and company.

Maybe he's been given the eagle-eye view of the natsec apparatus so he can figure out where to set the metaphorical plastique, if you catch my drift?

Nice bone to throw to the DeepUniparty media too without consequence.

MAGA

[-peter]

If chief justice Roberts was blackmailed, it's time for him to come clean

[Porchlight]

Take a deep breath on the Bannon news and read Robert Costa's Twitter:

https://twitter.com/costareports

[Porchlight]

KK, your take comports with Costa's info from the WH.

[Captain Hate]

It is the G.O.P. that is closer to the scientific consensus. According to a separate Pew poll of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 65 percent of scientists want more nuclear power too.

I don't think being a member of that organization means that a concensus of them is the same as for all scientists.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/229062/did-the-obama-administrations-abuse-of-foreign-intelligence-collection-start-before-trump

This has to do with monitoring of American groups opposed to the Iran deal.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

peter,

If he came clean he would have to resign. That is not a good choice, right now.

[derwill, yet another adorable, irredeemable deplorable]

It does seem obvious that high-level Dems were all absolutely convinced that Trump either would never make it to inauguration day or he was going to be immediately impeached because there would be "proof" that he had conspired with Putin to "hack the election."

But the "proof" still has never materialized and they are now at the point where they're dragging out Kevin Bacon-type six degrees of separation to further an increasingly pathetic narrative. So why were they so convinced the "proof" would be there? Only two possible answers to that question that I can see: 1) Either there was real proof, but if that was the case why has it not materialized by now? or 2) they thought they had planted the evidence to frame Trump only when it came time to expose it, the "evidence" was no longer there.

If it was #2 then that was a coup attempt, only the coup failed. So how did that happen? Were the black hats simply incompetent in planting the "evidence" or did they get outwitted? And if they got outwitted, who are the white hats that did the outwitting?

[Porcupine.]

I think it was deep throat who said it was a mistake to aim high and miss becuz then everyone felt safer.

They're gettin' ducks in a row

[narciso]

Did they not see snowpiercer, also highlander 2 the quickening.

[Porcupine.]

Yesterday's gas 'attack'..

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/chemical-realities-russias-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-warehouse-attack-claims/

Does Trump take briefings, or doesn't he NEED to?

[Truthbetold5]

You're Daffy

[Porchlight]

The Bannon removal seemed to be in the works already. From February:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/22/trump-would-be-willing-to-remove-bannon-from-national-security-council.html

My guess is that this was timed to drop right before the Gorsuch vote.

[Porcupine.]

Bannon was there to watch Flynn.

Nixon-level paranoia next.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

derwill,

Steve Pezniak (may be spelling last name incorrectly, someone please correct me) came out several months ago that there were white hats within intel and military along with retired people who were forming the counter-coup.

We may never know most of their names, but I am convinced they are there. It's either that or a whole lot of miracles.

[rich]

>>>The really really really sad thing is for the first time in forever, I would be hardpressed to name who could serve as the "universally trusted old man" to direct the clean out. Who could you trust to tell you that it has been fixed?

Posted by: Old Lurker | April 05, 2017 at 11:43 AM<<<

good comment. picked it up from the other thread. I remember reading an article when the revelations of Obama spying on Merkel came out. The central point was how skewed can the administration's judgment be to have done something so pointless and crass. The other thing-when the tinker gnomes have their servers spun up and making spread sheets of domestic political enemies they are not looking at the real domestic threats as San Bernardino and Orlando show. Especially in the case of Orlando-that guy was well known and our entire national security apparatus just seemed helpless and they even let the wife wander around for a while before they got around to picking her up in California (San Fran).

[Old Lurker]

Bannon story is a nuthinburger, seems to me.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

OL,

Agree. Twitter fodder, nothing more.

[narciso]

Pieceznik, he's blows hot and cold, but he has sources apparently.

[rich]

and for the content ...

>>>That is where engineering the climate comes in. Last month, scholars from the physical and social sciences who are interested in climate change gathered in Washington to discuss approaches like cooling the planet by shooting aerosols into the stratosphere or whitening clouds to reflect sunlight back into space, which may prove indispensable to prevent the disastrous consequences of warming.<<<

Let this roll around in your head for a while. Their delusion is so comprehensive they would be willing to a. entertain the possibility they can control the weather and b. would have no problem destroying the earth to indulge their fantasies.

These are the people that are telling us we are anti-science.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Fun break for pet lovers! Beagle socks or kitty t-shirts!

https://printyourpet.com/

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

David Martosko‏Verified account @dmartosko 18s18 seconds ago

Clarification for my colleagues: Bannon wasn't removed from the NSC, only from the NSC principals committee. He still attends NSC meetings.
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
-----------------------------

This is the Daily Mail political guy. He's an actual reporter as opposed to a snark-merchant.

[henry]

rich-- worse than that. They would tax us to pay for their world destroying fantasies.

[rse]

Oh, rich, don't you know that science as a body of knowledge is so 20th century? And, and, it created nuclear bombs.

So much better to shift to the 21st century version of science as a 'community of practice'. Then the community can reach agreement on what it wants and needs for science to mean.

Well, at least until a meteor veers this way and bruce willis is not available.

[rse]

Rich still has one of those 20th century mechanistic worldviews.

[Frau Reistafel]

Atomkraft? JA!

Rice will never back down. From her very start in government, she has been ruthless and reckless. As a young newbie, she jerked Albright around during the Rwanda genocide ("Don't say the "g" word; the US will have to respond," she said). This woman files her teeth every night before brushing them.

[lurkersusie]

Great article

Mollie‏ @MZHemingway
The Obama Administration Allegedly Spied on Pro-Israel Activists. Did They Do the Same to Trump?
https://t.co/oJz5ADT6Q6

[lurkersusie]

I heard this on the radio this morning

Rosie Gray‏ @RosieGray
sr WH official tells me Bannon was only on NSC to keep an eye on Flynn & "de-operationalize NSC from Rice" & that he never went to a meeting

[jimmyk]

Bannon story is a nuthinburger, seems to me.

A safe bet on virtually anything reported by the MSM about the Trump administration.

If he came clean he would have to resign. That is not a good choice, right now.

More than that, it would reveal what he was blackmailed over.

Having said that, I'm skeptical of the blackmail theory. There were concerns about him being squishy from the get-go (Coulter, for example). Occam's Razor and all that.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Having a bunch of fanatics installing a planetary Frigidaire would probably have more of a negative impact than a meteor.
Come on SMOD! Save us from ourselves.

[Old Lurker]

Awww Jimmy, then Occam would tell me that McCain really is just a stupid, mean, crazy old man, right?

[lurkersusie]

From my 12:49 link

“At some point, the administration weaponized the NSA’s legitimate monitoring of communications of foreign officials to stay one step ahead of domestic political opponents,” says a pro-Israel political operative who was deeply involved in the day-to-day fight over the Iran Deal. “The NSA’scollections of foreigners became a means of gathering real-time intelligence on Americans engaged in perfectly legitimate political activism—activism, due to the nature of the issue, that naturally involved conversations with foreigners. We began to notice the White House was responding immediately, sometimes within 24 hours, to specific conversations we were having. At first, we thought it was a coincidence being amplified by our own paranoia. After a while, it simply became our working assumption that we were being spied on.”

[Jim Eagle]

MM,

My problem with Beagle socks is that I am missing 3 pair that I suspect one of the boys or girl has buried outside.

Billy Payne just got a question from a female reporter about if "he" (meaning Augusta) is comfortable with Trump and his actions as a representative of golf. Of course, it turns out to be that skank, Christine Brennan of USA Today, most likely. He called her "Christine". Again, the politicalization of golf. First it was Rory and then Billy Payne.

Pretty soon it will infiltrate those Sunday morning religious shows.

[narciso]

Re the polyphemus reverie, last night's prison break was full of odyssey references, the title ogygia, to the hellish prison in Yemen came from there as was the Greek cognate for nobody outs was referenced in two places.

[Another Bob]

OK KK. Elaborate a bit on Trump's "vulnerabilities" please.

I think we agree that Trump's experience actually, literally, building things pays off. And it's why the political/media structure in DC thinks he's from another planet when the real world easily sees his accomplishments.

But you have be wondering about those "vulnerabilities".

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

35 degrees above normal!

If a thermometer fell below normal in the arctic would the NYT make a sound?

[Porchlight]

Great link, lurkersusie at 12:49. Thanks.

Waiting to move Bannon off until after the Rice revelations highlights Trump's de-operationalization of NSC.

Then the usual suspects go ape over what they think is a victory re: Bannon, and then BOOM, Gorsuch vote.

Remember, Trump is the laser pointer, MSM/Dems are the cats.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/trump-interview-susan-rice.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0&referer=https://t.co/ecLMpio7VU">https://t.co/ecLMpio7VU">https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/trump-interview-susan-rice.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0&referer=https://t.co/ecLMpio7VU

Please note that 1/3 of this very short article (per NYT standards) covers BILL O'REILLY!!

[lurkersusie]

Great job Kerry

Department of State‏ @StateDept
.@JohnKerry: Today the last 8% of declared chemical weapons were removed from #Syria. Great work done by all involved (link: http://go.usa.gov/9N7H) go.usa.gov/9N7H

[Old Lurker]

Bumper Sticker: Trump is the laser pointer, MSM/Dems are the cats.

[Account Deleted]

"KK, your take comports with Costa's info from the WH."

porch--- good to hear that. I was wingin' it. My newsreading quotient is down due to deployments elsewhere.

Got a Costa link for me? thanks in advance.

MAGA!

[jimmyk]

If a thermometer fell below normal in the arctic would the NYT make a sound?

Journalism 101: Temperature above average = climate change

Temperature below average = weather.

Or: Temperature below average = climate change.

[derwill, yet another adorable, irredeemable deplorable]

Another thought about the Trump is a Russian Stooge coup attempt . . . I don't think they tried to plant the evidence so much as a safe-guard in case he won--they never expected him to win. The whole plan was to use it to destroy him after he lost. So that his like would never dare to rise again.

[Old Lurker]

Susie, we remarked at the time that the most important word in that Kerry tweet was "declared".

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Another Bob,

I make it a practice to keep vulnerabilities to myself. I see too much of it and it becomes weaponized against us. Besides, I don't see any right now.

Right now, I am wondering how much time the NYT got in that interview, and why it is so short.

[lurkersusie]

The failing NYT?

Glenn Thrush‏ @GlennThrush

Exclusive interview with @realDonaldTrump by @maggieNYT and me in the Oval -- news was made. More to come soon...

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

And just for the record there is no "normal". There are ever changing averages that vary simply by their start date.
To declare something as transient and variable as temperature, glaciation or sea ice extent as normal is to discredit oneself from the get-go as hopelessly fixated on the brief period for which accurate records exist, believing in the false preferable stasis of ones own existence and to presume a knowledge of climate systems that is not even close to fruition.

Typical prog conceit and arrogance already primed with the "you can't blame me, I didn't know it was loaded" excuse when their cure once again turns out far worse than the problem.

[Porchlight]

Also, keep in mind, the more we learn about Spreadsheet Susan, the more Dems will yell about Trump putting political appointees on the NSC.

Except now, there aren't.

[jimmyk]

This from a commenter at Outhouse (thanks, CH) sums it up nicely:

No, it was not the job of the "Obama national security team" to investigate. It was their job to maybe request an investigation. We have entire agencies whose jobs it is to do investigations (e.g. DoJ, FBI, CIA, NSA). The White House and the President's NSA are not on that list. And that is intentional. The heads of those departments and agencies are subject to Senate confirmation and removal by impeachment or cause. The President's NSA serves at his convenience, not subject to any oversight whatsoever, except by the President. They cannot be removed by Congress for any reason or by any method. Rice was NSA because she showed her loyalty with Benghazi, and was the highest office that Obama could appoint her to that did not require Senate confirmation, which, as I noted before, wouldn't have even been forthcoming even for dogcatcher, thanks to her blatantly lying to the American people on national TV about Benghazi. If the White House national security team was concerned about Trump's ties to Russia (and not Crooked Hillary's?), their response should have been to task the investigation agencies to respond to their concerns, like Trump has asked them to research the leaks and unmasking. The last person that the American people should want running an investigation of political enemies is a known political hack like Rice operating with no accountability or reviewability.

His shorter version: the big reason that we know that the "investigation" was political and not truly involving national security is because the person apparently running it was because it was run out of the White House by a political hack, and not out of or by our investigative agencies.

[lurkersusie]

Interesting

Chuck Ross‏ @ChuckRossDC

>@ChuckGrassley asks DHS info on ex-Russian spy Rinat Akhmetshin, who recently worked w/ Trump dossier researcher.
https://t.co/iXsenqyJvU

[Porchlight]

jimmyk,

As Andy McCarthy put it so well, the WH are consumers, not producers, of intelligence.

If unmasking needed to happen, it happened at the agency level, not the White House (political) level.

Obama muddied the waters by politicizing NSC, and then muddied them further by expanding enormously the group of people who could receive PDBs and other intelligence. All to disguise what he was doing and making it easier to leak/harder to identify leakers.

[lyle]

http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/04/ignorance-is-strength-left-to-screen-1984-in-protest-of-trump/

It's pretty clear none of these dipshits ever even read the damn book.

[lyle]

Oh, and I'll just leave this here:

http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/mcconnell-pledges-legislative-filibuster-stay

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed Tuesday that there will not be an effort to change the debate rules surrounding legislation, even as senators are hurtling towards a rule change on Supreme Court nominees.

“There’s no sentiment to change the legislative filibuster,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters at his weekly press conference. Asked if he was committing to not changing the rules to end debate on legislation while he is the GOP leader, McConnell said, “Correct.”

[lyle]

That link is from Insty who adds:

And I’m positive that our next Senate Majority Leader, Kamala Harris, won’t be so generous. We no longer have the trust, thanks to Harry Reid, to believe that Democrats won’t undo the filibuster the next time they’re in the majority. So the main question is, are the Republicans suckers?

Also, if McCain believes that eliminating the filibuster means we effectively have a unicameral legislature, well . . . he’s just as dumb as I think he is.

[The Holocene nears its death throes, perhaps soon, perhaps in a millenium, but nobody knows.]

Heh, Frau, I've written 'Atomkraft, ja bitte' at least a half a dozen times on the blogs.

Climate alarm? What can I say? Here's something new, heh. The warming we can do will be net beneficial and the greening downright miraculous. Deal with it.

For amusement see WattsUp and an article about the coral bleaching. It's not the warming ocean, it's the dropping sea level(a local El Nino effect). Yeah, really.

Satellite temp series, see UAH now dropping such that the 'Pause' in temperature rise again looms.

The bubble of fear and guilt about climate change does appear to be easing a little, but the damage from the unnecessary alarm continues, and the emotional damage to some is going to be lifelong.

Thank God for Trump, Tillerson, Pruitt, Perry et al. We are regaining our senses one at a time.

Cooling ahead is as likely as not, and will truly be damaging.

[derwill, yet another adorable, irredeemable deplorable]

This is from the failing NYT article via Althouse:

“I think it’s going to be the biggest story,” Mr. Trump said in an interview in the Oval Office, declining repeated requests for evidence for his allegations or the names of other Obama administration officials. “It’s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time.”

He declined to say if he had personally reviewed new intelligence to bolster his claim but pledged to explain himself “at the right time.”

When asked if Ms. Rice, who has denied leaking the names of Trump associates under surveillance by United States intelligence agencies, had committed a crime, the president said, “Do I think? Yes, I think.”

----

Oh, Trump has the goods on them alright.

[narciso]

True, although why feed haberman, keep the gators starving and chewing their tale.

[Porchlight]

derwill,

[jimmyk]

All to disguise what he was doing and making it easier to leak/harder to identify leakers.

It almost makes him seem smart, though not smart enough to get away with it. Since I don't think he's even that smart, I presume the brains behind all this is someone like ValJar, or maybe Rice herself? John (password='1234') Podesta doesn't seem smart enough either.

[Captain Hate]

Tammy is calling McRINO, for blaming Trump for the current situation in Syria, the nosy neighbor in Bewitched, Mrs. Kravitz. She also has a big time gurlll crush on the job Nikki Haley is doing.

[henry]

jimmyk, they all think they are smart enough. Plus they brag to each other in emails to prove it.

[Old Lurker]

Porch, you left off the list the crucial requirement that Obama stooges would run the agencies so that requests for unmasking and for raw transcripts would be honored.

If, say, the head of the CIA believed his oath that he served the Constitution and not the man in the WH, that head would never in a million years agreed to put his agency at so much risk.

[Learning curve.]

Mike Pompeo also very quiet. Mebbe just a newbie.

[Porcupine.]

Zo true, Zo true..

http://fusion.net/the-long-lucrative-right-wing-grift-is-blowing-up-in-t-1793944216

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

LOL, CH.
Agnes Kravitz and her world weary husband were hilarious.
That was one of the great casts in TV history.

[Captain Hate]

Hailey just ripped Putin a new one but HAI GUIZ THE ROOSKIS REALLY REALLY WANTED TRUMP!

[Porcupine.]

Cap'N

The gas was being manufactured for Iraq and Mebbe hit by accident, but then..Assad.

[daddy]

...That is where engineering the climate comes in. Last month, scholars from the physical and social sciences who are interested in climate change gathered in Washington to discuss approaches like cooling the planet by shooting aerosols into the stratosphere or whitening clouds to reflect sunlight back into space, which may prove indispensable to prevent the disastrous consequences of warming.

One of my semi-fav comics as a kid was Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 AD.

I remember this issue in particular. The initial caption on the cover, before reprint, read:

In The Grand Canyon Magnus Defies an Ancient Battle Rob that causes HAVOC AT WEATHER CONTROL.

Robot's decided to abuse the marvelous weather engineering system humans had devised, turning delightful "tickle Rain" into killer tornados.

I simply point this out as a cautionary tale for our prospective Weather Manipulators.

[Porcupine.]

The narrative never dies, it just changes Administrations...

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/bashar-assad-should-be-removed-tom-cotton-236905

[Porcupine.]

I love it when engineers ply their myopia.

[daddy]

Karl Rove is on Trish Regan's Show. I only mention it because I can't recall having seen Rove on TV for the last month or so. His appearance reminds me that I have not had to watch him for at least a month. Whatever. Nothing out of his mouth so far worth transcribing but Trish looks great today in peach.

[daddy]

I'd like to inpeach her!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Made the mistake of actually reading one of Ben's links. It did provide some laughs but in the same guilty way watching some unfortunate mother trying to handle a petulant, not too bright brat in public does.
In a world choking on public debt and trillions of free fiat money pouring into the connecteds' pockets while public pensions and entitlements surge into implacable insolvency junior snot nose has figured out the real unsustainable problem is old white guys driven insane by Breitbart when they could have been reading "more grounded and reality based" media like the polite losers at the WSJ and the Weekly Standard.

Just another infant squealing that the right has gone insane and is failing, to mask the real fear the right has finally shed its childish obsequiousness and seems like it might even at some point start smashing some prog skulls enroute to rolling back Leviathan.
Read it to learn the self deluding fantasy world these sorry little brats have constructed.

[Barbara]

I'm behind on the comments so forgive me if this has been mentioned, but with all the revelations and comments about deactivating the NSC,it's occurred to me that this scandal is deeper the anyone has thought. The surveillance of private citizens, political opponents and foreign leaders must be horrendous. This a just the tip of the iceberg and it's been going on for much longer than just the past election cycle. That's what they're afraid will come out.

[henry]

Yes Barbara. It is unthinkable that someone not of Landrue is in charge of their machine. Daylight style disinfectant is very bad for the global prog crime syndicate.

[Porchlight]

Right, OL @1:43.

[joan]

Have to laugh at myself. I am so not "with it." Following that great tablet article lurkersusie posted (think at 12:49) I posted it on twitter and saw Dan Riehl was talking about Pepsi pulling an ad after a backlash. Ad had K Jenner handing a Pepsi to a riot policeman. I thought he meant Bruce Jenner, was curious, found the ad, discovered the K Jenner is his daughter, Kendall. Watched the stupid ad, came to the conclusion that our once-great corporations are (and have been) betraying us for decades. Back when I was a bit more innocent and naive, I sort of liked the 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing' music and ad. That was before I realized so many corporations want no borders and cheap labor and don't care if we become the dumping grounds for illegals.

[Porchlight]

I think it will eventually be revealed that Obama was doing this for his entire presidency, Barbara. Or at least as soon as he could get cooperation from the agency heads.

[Momto2]

HAVOC AT WEATHER CONTROL....turning delightful "tickle Rain" into killer tornados.

daddy, I think the robot has re-emerged in Georgia today! There have been some serious weather conditions but our local weather guy has had me laughing at his commentary.

He spent several minutes discussing the damage "tennis ball sized hail" could cause. He said, "such tornadoes could touch down and go on for miles and miles....and EVEN FURTHER!" He kept lecturing the viewers to,"quit fooling around and take shelter!"

I don't know how he could tell I was fooling around. Presumably, anyone still watching him was fooling around instead of being huddled in the bathtub wearing a football helmet.

(This is Jim Kosek for you in Atl.)

[Account Deleted]

MM---> To clarify, my reference to "vulnerabilities" are more about strategic ones that are anchored in the presidency itself.

My previous session timed out while I was in a meeting, and I was about to post a detailed clarifier to anotherBob.

Here it is. MAGA!
>>>>

"But you have be wondering about those "vulnerabilities".

anotherBob----

I've read enough about what people who *know* DJT have to say about his mettle and his accomplishments to be firm that he is a quality individual.

And like any two-legged he puts his pants on like everybody else does.

He's human. But I haven't the foggiest what his flaws truly are. Of course, the DeepState media believes that they know.

The "vulnerabilities" that matter right now most in my opinion are the vulnerabilities that come part and parcel with the Office of the President of the United States.

Case in point, generally speaking, the presidency is enormously isolating and it can bury the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief.

Jimmy Carter buried himself in the "minoosha" of mastering every detail on every issue. Impressed the staff but it cut down on his time being the face of the country and he was very isolated.

Not sure if DJT has that problem. But his approach to executing his duties and framing his responsibilities is spot on so far...go for 80% and delegate.

There is an opportunity cost to everything a president does.... he seems to be able to swat those things off and counterpunch.

He might be vulnerable to having a tomato plant problem as they used to say about managers who have "too many things to take care of over time" and they end up culling the ones that have died from well-intentioned neglect.

Might be vulnerable. Time will tell. So far he seems to have a laser focus.

Everything happens on *HIS* watch. That is a huge vulnerability. Especially a "the buck stops here" kind of leader like DJT. Add a hostile and treasonous media--- big time vulnerability.

Another, generally speaking, is the slow rate of cleaning out the departments of lifetime Clinton bureaucrats. DJT can't ramrod that process. He has to rely on lieutenants to steer those moves.

He's vulnerable to the appointments already made. Who's not measuring up or underperforming? Each of them is tied to, for the time being, people who may be allies--- but if the marriage goes south, they can turn. DC is fickle.

He has enough sworn enemies. So he's vulnerable to not having a conversion rate that is positive for him. How many hearts and minds is he able to win during this term among the competent Washingtonian pros who are not in the Deep State UniParty tank? (Tom McClintock comes to mind.)

So, that's the general take on vulnerabilities for now.

[daddy]

Positive and negative developments on the local front.

Positive---Glenn Beck has been booted off our local Talk Station. Great! His 3 hours have been replaced by an Hour of local CBS News, then 2 hours of Buck Sexton, whoever he is. Excellent.

Negative---In our City Election last night only 1 Conservative won and the other seats on the Anchorage Assembly all went Left. Our Property Taxes will undoubtedly go up. Bummer. A p*** poor job by the local Repub Party to do even a smidgen of education to the voters about the issues and any preferred candidates, especially when compared to the excellent ground game in advertising and name promoting by the Dems. Nobody to blame but ourselves. My excuse, BTW, is that I am gone so much I can't do more really than call in to the Talk Shows on a semi-regular basis to give may opinions.

[derwill, yet another adorable, irredeemable deplorable]

--jimmyk, they all think they are smart enough. Plus they brag to each other in emails to prove it.--

Wouldn't anyone who was communicating with Hillary, Podesta, and the DNC through their unsecured servers been open to having had all their other communications comprised as well?

What happens when you weaponize the intelligence community and that weapon falls into the hand of the guy you tried to destroy? The Left has always had a blind spot when it comes to anticipating the law of unintended consequences.

[Porchlight]

The Left has always had a blind spot when it comes to anticipating the law of unintended consequences.

I don't think it is a blind spot so much as that they believe the short (or medium or long) yardage is worth the risk.

To them it is never about the health of the country, only about achieving their ideological goals.

[jimmyk]

Finally some evidence on the Russians influencing the election.

CNN will be on this like white on rice potatoes. ("Rice" is not allowed on CNN.)

http://observer.com/2017/03/princess-of-ukok-siberian-mummy-curse-hillary-clinton/

(h/t Outhouse comments)

[Bubarooni]

Remember back when Pepsi didn't suck?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B02DGmkqDDU

[daddy on iPhone]

I am driving can someone do the end of thread trick

[joan]

Bubarooni, Cindy Crawford's Pepsi ad made me smile.

I keep trying to remember the name of the Pepsi CEO, was some woman, think Indian, for sure globalist. Will have to go look her up. Anyway, the people who created the Pepsi/KJenner ad laid a creative egg.

[Porchlight]

Here you go, daddy:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2017/04/thinking-the-unthinkable/comments/page/99/#comments

[Porchlight]

Trying again with end of thread link:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2017/04/thinking-the-unthinkable/comments/page/99/#comments

[Porchlight]

duh

[Old Lurker]

All they needed, and the power would be theirs forever and it would stay a secret...was for Hillary to beat Trump.

They were that close.

[joan]

"Just a day after the election of Republican Donald Trump, Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi took a hard line in response to a question regarding some of the comments the next president made about women while on the campaign trail. Nooyi said the disparagement of women is a negative strain in the world that has to be ended."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2016/11/10/pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi-after-trump-election-disparagement-of-women-has-to-end/#33ed7ee3eff8