Remembering PRESTAGS

Israel Folau - A Christian Man Of Courage

He puts so many to shame.

He is a free man. 

He kneels to God. Not to marxist anti-family baby murdering ideology.

All lives matter. Unborn babies' lives matter. Old people's lives matter.

Orroral Valley fire

saw plume while driving. went back to take some photos.

wish that ice age would hurry up and arrive ....

Wherefore By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them

 

Today at Mass, the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, was one of my favourite Gospel readings, Matthew 7:15-21:

 

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: [15] Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

[16] By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? [17] Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. [18] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. [19] Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. [20] Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.

[21] Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

 

This reading is so very apt in today's Church, with heresy and perversion everywhere. Right up to the highest levels of the Church. 

Indeed, ever since Vatican II, has the fruits of that Council manifested.

Here is a great summary from the late Michael Davies, who I was privileged to meet many years ago and who was such a faithful son of the Church. The following is from the Appendix to his work "Liturgical Time Bombs" which can be purchased from Amazon. It is important and sobering reading.

 

The Incredible Shrinking Church In England and Wales

   The most evident characteristic of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is that it is shrinking at an incredible rate into what must be termed a state of terminal decline. The official Catholic Directory documents a steady increase in every important aspect of Catholic life until the mid-sixties: then the decline sets in. The figures for marriages and baptisms are not simply alarming, but disastrous. In 1944 there were 30,946 marriages, by 1964 the figure had risen to 45,592-----but by 1999 it had plunged to 13,814, well under half the figure for 1944. The figures for baptisms for the same years are 71,604 (1944), 137,673 (1964), and 63,158 (1999). With fewer children born to Catholic couples each year, the number of marriages must inevitably continue to decline, with even fewer children born-----and so on. Nor can it be presumed that even half the children who are baptized will be practicing their Faith by the time they reach their teens. An examination of the figures for a typical diocese indicates that less than half the children who are baptized  are confirmed, and a report in The Universe as long ago as 1990 gave an estimate of only 11% of young Catholics practicing their Faith when they leave high school.

     Apart from marriages and baptisms, Mass attendance is the most accurate guide to the vitality of the Catholic community. The figure has plunged from 2,114,219 in 1966 to 1,041,728 in 1999 and is still falling at a rate of about 32,000 a year.

      In 1944, 178 priests were ordained; in 1964, 230; and in 1999 only 43-----and in the same year 121 priests died.

      In 1985, twenty years after the Second Vatican Council, bishops from all over the world assembled in Rome to assess the impact of the Council. This gave them the opportunity to admit that their implementation of it had been disastrous, and that drastic measures must be taken to give the Faith a viable future in First World countries.

     Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster insisted, on behalf of the bishops of England and Wales, that there must be no turning back from the policies they had adopted to implement the Council. A report in The Universe of December 13, 1985 informed us that the Synod had adopted Cardinal Hume's position without a single dissenting voice. The final sentence of this report must be described as ironically prophetic: "In the meantime the people of God have a firm mandate to further Exodus along the route mapped out by the Second Vatican Council." Change the upper case "E" of Exodus to a lower case "e," exodus, and this is precisely what has happened-----and the exodus will continue until Catholicism in England and Wales vanishes into oblivion within thirty years, if not sooner. Without a Divine intervention, the "Second Spring" of the Catholic Faith in England predicted by Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) will end in the bleakest of winters.

The Incredible Shrinking Church In the United States

     In March 2003 there was published in St. Louis what is certainly the most important statistical survey of the Church in the United States since Vatican II: Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II, by Kenneth C. Jones. ₁ It provides meticulously documented statistics on every aspect of Catholic life subject to statistical verification, and it is illustrated with graphs which depict in a dramatic visual manner the catastrophic collapse of Catholic life in the United States since the Council. With the publication of this book, no rational person could disagree with Father Louis Bouyer that, "Unless we are blind, we must even state bluntly that what we see looks less like the hoped-for regeneration of Catholicism than its accelerated decomposition." ₂

   Mr. Jones has given me his permission to quote from the introduction to his book, but before doing so, I must quote: from a news story in the March 23, 2003 issue of the London Universe. Under the headline "En SuiteMonastery," it reports: "A former Irish Carmelite monastery is expected to 
be turned into a country-club style hotel after its sale to a property developer. The Carmelite order had shut their house in Castle Martyr, Cork, last year after 73 years because of the downfall in vocations." This is but one of thousands of similar examples of the actual, as opposed to the fantasy, fruits of Vatican II. On page 100 of Mr. Jones' book there is a graph revealing that the number of Carmelite seminarians in the United States has decreased from 545 in 1965 to 46 in 2000-----a decline of 92 percent. This figure seems positively healthy when compared with the graph on page 99, relating to the La Salette Fathers, which reveals a decline in the number of seminarians for the same period from 552 to just 1. Figures and graphs for every major religious order are set out in the book, and it would be hard to disagree with Mr. Jones that "The religious orders will soon be virtually non-existent in the United States." In the introduction to his book he writes:

         When Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the Catholic Church in America was in the midst of an unprecedented period of growth. Bishops were ordaining record numbers of priests and building scores of seminaries to handle the surge in vocations. Young women by the thousands gave up lives of comfort for the austerity of the convent. These nuns taught millions of students in the huge system of parochial and private schools.

The ranks of Catholics swelled as parents brought in their babies for Baptism and adult converts flocked to the Church. Lines outside the confessionals were long, and by some estimates three quarters of the faithful went to Mass every Sunday. Given this favorable state of affairs, some Catholics  wondered at the time whether an ecumenical council was opportune-----don't rock the boat, they said.

        The Holy Father chided these people in his opening speech to the Council: "We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand." Forty years later the end has not arrived. But we are now facing the disaster.

        Even some in the Vatican have recognized it. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said: "Certainly the results [of Vatican II] seem cruelly opposed to the expectations of everyone, beginning with those of Pope John XXIII and then of Pope Paul VI . . . "

        Since Cardinal Ratzinger made these remarks in 1984, the crisis in the Church has accelerated. In every area that is statistically verifiable-----for example, the number of priests, seminarians, priestless parishes, nuns, Mass attendance, converts and annulments-----the "process of decadence" is apparent.

        I have gathered these statistics in the Index of Leading Catholic Indicators because the magnitude of the emergency is unknown to many. Beyond a vague understanding of a "vocations crisis," both the faithful and the general public have no idea how bad things have been since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Here are some of the stark facts:

• Priests. After skyrocketing from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States  dropped to 45,000 in 2002. By 2020,₃ there will be about 31,000 priests-----and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70. Right now there are more priests aged 80 to 84 than there 1 are aged 30 to 34.

• Ordinations. In 1965 there were 1,575 ordinations to the priesthood, in 2002 there were 450, a decline of 350 percent. Taking into account ordinations, deaths and departures, in 1965 there was a net gain of 725 priests. In 1998, there was a net loss of 810.

• Priestless parishes. About 1 percent of parishes, 549, were without a resident priest in 1965. In 2002 there were 2,928 priestless parishes, about 15 percent of U.S. parishes. By 2020, a quarter of all parishes, 4,656, will have no priest.

• Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700-----a 90 percent decrease. Without any students, seminaries across the country have been sold or shuttered. There were 596 seminaries in 1965, and only 200 in 2002.

• Sisters. 180,000 sisters were the backbone of the Catholic education and health systems in 1965. In 2002, there were 75,000 sisters, with an average age of 68. By 2020, the number of sisters will drop to 40,000-----and of these, only 21,000 will be aged 70 or under. In 1965, 104,000 sisters were teaching, while in 2002 there were only 8,200 teachers.

• Brothers. The number of professed brothers decreased from about 12,000 in 1965 to 5,700 in 2002, with a further drop to 3,100 projected for 2020.

• Religious Orders. The religious orders will soon be virtually non-existent in the United States. For example, in 1965 there were 5,277 Jesuit priests and 3,559 seminarians; in 2000 there were 3,172 priests and 38 seminarians. There were 2,534 OFM Franciscan priests and 2,251 seminarians in 1965; in 2000 there were 1,492 priests and 60 seminarians. There were 2,434 Christian Brothers in 1965 and 912 seminarians; in 2000 there were 959 Brothers and 7 seminarians. There were 1,148 Redemptorist priests in 1965 and 1,128 seminarians; in 2000 there were 349 priests and 24 seminarians. Every major religious order in the United States mirrors these statistics.

• High Schools. Between 1965 and 2002 the number of diocesan high schools fell from 1,566 to 786. At the same time the number of students dropped from almost 700,000 to 386,000.

• Parochial Grade Schools. There were 10,503 parochial grade schools in 1965 and 6,623 in 2002. The number of students went from 4.5 million to 1.9 million.

• Sacramental Life. In 1965 there were 1.3 million infant baptisms; in 2002 there were 1 million. (In the same period the number of Catholics in the United States rose from 45 million to 65 million.) In 1965 there were 126,000 adult baptisms-----converts-----in 2002 there were 80,000. In 1965 there were 352,000 Catholic marriages, in 2002 there were 256,000. In 1965 there were 338 annulments, in 2002 there were 50,000.

• Mass attendance. A 1958 Gallup poll reported that 74 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1958. A 1994 University of Notre Dame study found that the attendance rate was 26.6 percent. A more recent study by Fordham University professor James Lothian concluded that 65 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1965, while the rate dropped to 25 percent in 2000.

The decline in Mass attendance highlights another significant fact; fewer and fewer people who call themselves Catholic actually follow Church rules or accept Church doctrine. For example, a 1999 poll by the National Catholic Reporter shows that 77 percent believe a person can be a 
good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday, 65 percent believe good Catholics can divorce and remarry, and 53 percent believe Catholics can have abortions and remain in good standing. Only 10 percent of lay religion teachers accept Church teaching on artificial birth control, according to a 2000 University of Notre Dame poll. And a New York Times/CBS poll revealed that 70 percent of Catholics age 18-44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus.

It is the same incredible shrinking Church in Australia. Declining Mass attendance, and rampant erroneous belief. Modernism triumphant.

I grew up in the liturgical and heretical horrors of the 1970s.  The dark side of the PRESTAGS era. There were glimmers (brief and limited) of sunshine under Pope St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. However any hope of a restoration has faded with the resignation of Benedict XVI and the installation of the St Gallen Mafia's Pope, supported by the Lavender Mafia.

The lightening strike on the day Pope Benedict announced his resignation has turned out to be symbolic. Since then, the accellerator is down and the destruction of what remains of the Church is underway.

I don't think the Church has had such perversion and moral corruption at the highest levels for 500 years. I don't think the Church has had such heresy and doctrinal corruption for 1,700 years.

And now both together.

There are two really good books that describe what has happened to the Church, with each book still managing to encourage hope.

A history of the plot, largely successful, to infiltrate the Church and the consequences is Taylor Marshall's "Infiltration, The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within". Available on Amazon. I have just finished reading this book.

Another book is Michael Voris' "Resistance, Fighting the Devil Within". Also on Amazon. I'm reading this book now.

Here are some extracts from the forward to Michael Voris' book. Spot on. 

Whatever happens, we are each called to remain faithful.

And Christ has won the victory and nothing can change that.

 

World at War - Operation Typhoon

I undertook a New Year's Resolution to write in this blog once a week. My resolution is clearly in tatters, but am I a quitter? If I fail, do I throw my hands in the air and curl into a ball? No!!! That is for the likes of Puti and The Chump. I grit my teeth so my tears do not impact my gasps and press on. Here is my February post!

World at War is a Strategy and Tactics offshoot that focuses solely on World War 2. Perhaps a bit boring at times, I took up the subscription last year after a stressful work project, it does contain a few gems.

Operation Typhoon is solitaire game of the final German advance on Moscow in 1941. As you advance towards Moscow, you roll a die to find our what is in each hex. The forest and clear hexes are easy with never more than two rifle divisions in a hex, but the cities and the fortresses are nasty.

The game requires you to form pockets and eat the Soviet army in bites. This was the dominant German doctrine at the time. You can see a pocket forming above. Stalin required all soviet units to break out of pockets. So when this pocket formed, the German 2nd Army faced a break out of 8 rifle divisions, 3 brigades and a Katusha rocket launcher. My units took some damage but held on. Closer to Moscow this is going to get nasty!

The counters are quite simple. All German units have the same movement according to their type. Soviet units just appear when the game system opts to hold a hex. Here are the best units on the map.

I am a quarter way across the map on my first turn. The Fuehrer will be pleased. What could go wrong?

Combat is simple. Each point gets a die roll, so the big Panzer division roll 7 dice each combat, and cause mayhem. I have found four die but I need to find more. While the sheer number of die rolls means you do not have Brendan Mahoney moments, it does make the game very noisy.

I'll have to finish the game quickly. Given what The Chump is up to, I might need to get the Iran solitaire game out quickly!

Democracy Pie

When the politically correct Maoist vegans take over after the election they'll probably ban meat pies because they contain meat and cows fart.

 

Weep For France

 

^{Decline and Fall:}

But There is Hope:

 

les soldats

at the Arc de Triopmhe, from the bus window on the way out of Paris. shots cropped a bit.

Happy New Year

The time is tomorrow!

The Mueller investigation gets too close. To deflect, The Chump declares that Iran has a nuclear bomb and must be stopped. Saudi Arabia will not miss an opportunity like this and calls for a coalition. NATO is called upon and under pressure from Saudi Arabia also joins the coalition. Russia claims there is no evidence of nuclear weapons in Iran, and Puti visits to declare support and to appear bare-chested on a camel! In an extraordinary coup, he offers to declare a Kurdish homeland and gets the Peshmerga on board. Then in the coup of all coups for Iran, the Shite government of Iraq declares for the Eurasian union!

The Iraqi army is not interested in this alliance and deserts en masse, leaving mostly militia in the country. Only an under-strength corps is left although volunteers are flooding in. The Syrians have no choice but to join the Eurasian union too although their army has still not recovered from the civil war.

With Syria in, and no one left neutral who might be offended, Israel declares for the coalition.

This is the latest Modern War simulation that looks at how things might go pear shaped fast in the middle east. The game postulate is that NATO and a coalition of Sunni states will take on Iran backed by an adventurist, ascendant Russia. It simulates corps sized forces with air support struggling with patchwork alliances across the middle east. You can see on the right the US Marine Corps ready to do Basrah again.

The coalition airforce is at the ready with cruise missiles to kick off with a Shock and Awe campaign to take total control of the skies. The combat tables slightly back their success, although the Russian anti-air capabilities will leave the airforce quite worn down after this. I'll left you know how it plays out shortly.

What is interesting in this game is that number of special forces (also right) both sides have, although the Russians seem to have more.

The western side of the map is most interesting. The Russians will be very tempted to take Turkey out fast. This will give them a rail corridor to Syria, that will be under pressure from Israel quickly. The Kurds at a bit of spice to this. They will never leave Kurdistan, but can attack out. Mostly they can damage Iraq and Armenia, but as they have aligned with the Russians in this scenario (a die roll before the game begins), they will mostly be a no go zone.

Spetz will be pleased to see that the game includes Russia's new fifth generation fighters, and they have the same strength as the US planes. Unfortunately, as NATO has far more planes, I suspect they will not last very long. They might do some damage first.

The wild card is the Islamist rebels, that can fight for both sides. You can see the remains of the Syrian rebels north of Dar az Zawi above. There are many such counters that can spawn in all sorts of inconvenient places.

The beauty of these classic war game board games is the level of realism built into the game systems. They let you reflect on the way the world is in a way ATG and Empire never do.

What were they thinking?

2017 was a very good year for me at the office. I had successfully brought my Manila posting to the originally requested outcome and received my best bonus ever for my development work. I had also written a product that falls into the top five best products I have ever written - largely unsung at the time, it has become a major selling feature late last year. In recognition of my hard work, I knew a deserved a lovely piece of crockery in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the kitchen is brimming with lovely pieces of crockery such that they have overflowed into the dining room cupboards, which are also now full. This left me on the horns of a dilemma, so I had to go with my third option (the second being membership to the art gallery, but when would I find the time!), a subscription to everything coming out of Strategy and Tactics press, at an eye watering US$1000 for two years.

Reviewing it now, I think it was a good decision - I had many evenings of pleasant reading and some great maps and counters to review. From top to bottom:

• the venerable Strategy and Tactics, now up to issue #314,
• Modern War, that provides interesting insights into the current tensions of the world, mostly from a military perspective, which you rarely find the in the news
• World at War, which tries to be S&T but for only World War 2, so perhaps the least interesting of the set, but perhaps the most believable of the games
• Strategy and Tactics Quarterly, the new kid on the block, with a lot of articles on just one topic, no games, but a poster.

A feast of new games, and the anticipation of finding room in the attic for 18 more in 2019. I have failed in one respect, I have not punched the counters of any of them last year. I resolve to so this year. Let the readers of this auspicious blog pausing their eating and spider hunting to hold me so accountable.

The observant would ask why there is a gap? The answer is simple: if a US Civil War game arrives in your mail box, there is a board room I know of where it can be swapped for a Scotch, for some people simply cannot have enough US Civil War games!

And the winner is

I think the best read of them was the Quarterly of Caesar, and how a Roman of modest means, but the highest ambition, can break into the Cursus Honorum. (The article on that was fascinating - young aristocrats were expected to move from government post to post building up an understanding of how the Roman state worked until they reached the role of consul. It gave the state a large pool of experienced leaders to fall back on in times of emergency, and something to consume the energies of the young. The article went to far as to suggest that Rome's resilience during the second Carthaginian War was due to this.) The poster showed Caesar's marches during the Gallic Wars and the Civil war, and is on my wall.

The magazine about Stalingrad was a close second. I do not read a lot of WW2 history, but had heard of this one (and watched the excellent "Enemy at the Gates" with Spetz). Stalingrad was never the objective of the the drive into the Caucasus. The original plan was to get close enough so Germany artillery could interdict the railway and interfere with Stalin's transfer of troops and oil. One of the reasons given for the diversion was that Hitler had become a drug addict. There was a doctor for the German elite who used to mix his own remedies for the wealthy who felt they had lost their vim. These remedies contained stimulants and narcotics. Hitler had appointed him as a personal physician at the time, and soon developed an obsession that a capture of Stalingrad would equate to a defeat of  Stalin.

It was matched with a World at War article where you can attempt to replay the the campaign. You have all that lovely oil to the south and boring Stalingrad to the north. However, the action chits you have to pull each turn keeps pulling you south. I like the action chit idea as it adds a lot of colour to otherwise boring Panzer corps and Guard armies.

An honourable mention goes the World War 3 Quarterly for all the bits that happened when I was little that nearly resulted in me not growing big. I am still reading that one.

Puti-phobia

Puti features in two of the Modern War series. There is much interest in his possible future actions, but the general consensus is that he is more interested with disrupting the US Hegemony to create a series of Russian based alliances, than territorial acquisitions. There is more fear about these alliances backfiring and drawing Russia into a war they did not intend and the US into it. This game, Puti Moves South, looks at the Stans south of Russia and north of Persia and Afghanistan. There is oil and gas there that mostly travels through Russia so disruption to that supply could draw in the Russian army. Interestingly with this game, at the start of each game you roll a die for each power to decide whether it is in the Russian Coalition or US/NATO aligned. Every game would be very different. The latest Modern War, The War on Terror, does the same in the Middle East. It means that every play of the game would be quite different. I think this is one of the games I should set up.

Rise of the Solitaire games

Six of these games are solitaire. I should set up a few this year. I have played a couple in the past, but the issue is that there is no marvellously clever play you can make to give you the game. You are grinding through taking objectives that weaken the strength of the enemy play system, while having some flexibility for random events. That said, I should try them as some game systems are brilliant. Perhaps there is a new John Michael Young other there.

The most intriguing of the game is submarine warfare in the Pacific. Unlikely the Atlantic, submarines featured in navel battles. This game lets you play as the Japanese or the US.

Perhaps this article is better named "What was I thinking?" I stand deprived of a new piece of crockery in my kitchen by pure obsession!

 

Dutters Paras At Work

The Dutters elite paratroops first wave survived the drop, and were reinforced by the second wave the following turm. The enemy gun factory is in sight:

The third wave met with disaster by jumping blind into a large nest of enemies:

However the second wave of brave Dutters was still able to capture the gun factory:

And while rations are running low, the reinforcements on the right are about to arrive. Dinner in Penghu is the next target:

 

A computer error brings the future 20 years closer

I have seen many computer errors in my life, and been responsible for most of the ones I have seen, but this one is astonishing.

0.712 x $3.50 = $29.90

Or $10 per apple; the price in Anno Domino 2038. I am off to Woolies this morning with a "please explain". I am glad I didn't buy this from Coles: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-19/coles-stores-nationwide-shutdown/10137418

Of course, there is another explanation. Prior to executing his coup d'etat, has he colluded with Russia to hack our supermarkets?

This Morning In Canberra

Even Sharper

Has The Entire World Gone Mad?

Am I the only person who thinks World War III is a really bad idea?

I wish I lived in a remote village in New Zealand.

Where have the Quelch Icy Poles gone? & observations on the 21st century.

Quelch freezable icy poles made by Berri have not been available at Woolies or Coles for a couple of weeks now. No signs on the shelves, just disappeared.

They are a 'staple' for Carl. They were the only ones made from fruit juice. The other options are about 15% sugar. Some of them are made in China (go figure!).

So I tried to find out what's going on online - nothing.

Sent emails to Coles and Woolies via there websites.

Found the website of the home company of Berri.

Guess what? Although they have a website, there is no online mechanism to contact the company - post and phone are the only options provided:

I find that hard to believe for a firm in Australia in the 21st century - surely if you have a web presence you have to be able to receive customer feedback via the web?

Lent is upon us

 The blessed palms from last year's Palm Sunday are burned on Shrove Tuesday to make the ashes.

 

 

The Putting on of Ashes From the Initial "M" in the Introit of the Mass of Ashes on Ash Wednesday From the Missal à l'usage de Saint-Didier d'Avignon  c. 1370  

 

 

           

 

For many centuries, the Roman Liturgy on Ash Wednesday took as the Gospel reading Mk 6:1-6, 16-18, which presents Jesus’ teaching on the inseparable elements of  almsgiving (mercy), prayer and fasting

 

In one of his Discourses, Saint Peter Chrysologus wrote:

""These three things, prayer, fasting and mercy, are a single thing, each drawing life from the others. Fasting is the soul of prayer and mercy the life of fasting. Let no one divide them, because alone they do not survive" (Saint Peter Chrysologus, Discourse 43: PL 52, 320).

some text and missal image borrowed from http://idlespeculations-terryprest.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/memento-homo-quia-pulvis-es-et-in.html 

Real Fake News: Climate Change

Python's post about polar bear numbers is good obfuscation but it can't hide the fact that the 'climate change' advocates (the current iteration of 'global warming' advocates) have simply failed to get their facts right, and because this is documented their failure is there for the whole world to see.

It might be difficult to determine polar bear numbers now and in the past but so what. The real issue is that the alarmists said polar bear numbers would decline to the point of extinction because the arctic ice cap would rapidly decline and may even be gone by summer 2014. So said Al Gore in his UN speech in 2009.

Gore was wrong. But the climate zealots never admit this and try and hide the error with silly articles about how difficult it is to count polar bears.

There were even more extreme statements made by the climate zealots. My favourite is that snowflakes would disappear (in 2000). A total fail and self-evident bullshit to anyone with half a brain. We have had two decades of climate nonsense now and you rarely hear about all the statements that have been proven to be false. You just get new false statements about the future.

Gore was the same charlatan who got the Nobel peace prize two years earlier (2007) and we know what a politicised joke that award is. Even Obama (another climate zealot and professional pathological liar) got a Nobel peace prize to celebrate all the wars and terrorist supporting he was about to embark upon. Gore is to science what Obama is to peace.

I am still waiting for the deluded but well intentioned climate change worriers to explain why the high tax - population control - poverty inducing - destruction of liberty policies that politicians like Obama and Gore present as solutions to the alleged climate change problem are (1) necessary and that no other more people friendly policies are available and (2) will work anyway.

Have you noticed that the solution to big alleged problems (think terrorism and think black market economics) is always the same: more government regulation, more taxes, more sacrifices by ordinary people (but not the elite like Gore), more control, more silencing of dissent etc.

If climate change was a genuine scientific problem, there would be an encouragement of dissent and debate and new ideas and testing of theories (ie did the polar ice cap disappear in 2014) and not censorship and attacks on alternative theories from other scientists. Truth defends itself in a democracy. As soon as governments attack scientific dissent one needs to be extremely sceptical of the prevailing orthodoxy and it disappoints me that well intentioned climate change advocates are not as appalled by the government censorship as the 'deniers' (a government propaganda term if there was ever one) are.

The good news is people aren't as stupid as governments would like and more and more people are waking up. President Trump might event take an axe to a lot of the phoney science.

We are entering a period in the solar cycle where solar activity is decreased. It will actually get colder, but let's hope we are not taxed and regulated into servitude by the climate fascists first.

Why am I angry? - Is Toxoplasma gondii - things to me?

So there is an article in today's Australian and on New Scientist

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2082105-explosive-road-rage-like-anger-linked-to-parasite-spread-by-cats/

I learned about this parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, at uni. It's life cycle is in the guts of cats (or other predators I guess) and the brains of prey (mice). Guess what? People get it too - in the brain.

It was well known that mice infected with it were risk takers, and the evolutionary explanation is that it makes them more likely to get predated.
So this is interesting research. I wonder if I have T. gondii sitting in my amygdala (bottom reptilian fight/flight brain)?

I have lived with cats on and off for many years, including cleaning up their messes.

Maybe I am the mouse that roars? Or am I just a viking trapped in the 21st century?

 

The sometime beserker in Eric the Viking

T. gondii life cycle

cyst full of T. gondii - who needs science fiction?

Brain scan - not mine, but is it the same?

 

Good Boss, Bad Boss

My boss brought cakes into the office yesterday afternoon.  This caused me to reflect on the different behaviours of bosses. Perhaps readers can add their own comparisons.

Good Boss

A good boss brings cakes for his staff.

Bad Boss

A bad boss brings conjunctivitis and lanyngitis for his staff

• 
• 

 Good Boss

A good boss leads his staff to verdant pastures of opportunity

Bad Boss

A bad boss ensures the verdant pastures are glowing green before his staff arrive

Good Boss

A good boss has his staff bomb Syria

Bad Boss

A bad boss has his staff bomb Syria.

Pathetic Boss

A pathetic boss has his staff bomb Syria if it would please his mates.

Is this the end of the world as we know it?

Regular readers of this blog will note that Paul predicted the end of the world as we know it for 11 November 2015. The good thing about this prediction is that we will be here to observe it and can potentially take action to ameliorate it (unlike the prediction that the sun will burn up the Earth in 5 billion years, or that the run-away expansive force in our neck of the universe will ripe atoms apart in 100 billion years).

So the question is, what exactly is predicted and how sure can we be of the end. Certainly the market volatility of this week would have had many preppers bundling the family into the armored car and heading off to their bunker in the woods.  The world stock markets lost 5 trillion USD in one day. Where did it go? Was every member of the human race suddenly is debt to the tune of 1000 USD? How much CO_² was pumped into the atmosphere by the cremation?

The fact is that while a lot seemed to happen, in fact very little did happen. The world of finance is based on valuing everything so that everything can be compared. But there is no text book that one can look up that gives you the value of anything. So markets are invented and the value of something simply becomes the cost to acquire it. If one day enough people wake up and decide that, like the plastic toy your kids desperately needed last week, they just don't want something any more, the cost to acquire it goes down. The toy itself is in no way changed, is not different, does  nothing less. It is just able to be purchased for less. Of course, every sales person in the world knows that if you want to move some stock that no one buys, offer it at 20-50% less (preferably in big red letters). That is when the bargain hunters step in, or as the finance dudes call it, the level of support. This looks like an indication that the product is now undervalued, but it is not. It simply means that the bargain hunters have seen these cycles for a while, and they are confident that the price will rise again, at which point they can cash in, and maybe go on the lecture circuit.

Are the bargain hunters right? Not always; many do go bankrupt. However, unlike a medical trial, there is no mandatory reporting, so I could not tell you how often the bargain hunters are right, but using the line of reasoning based on Darwinism, enough must for them still to exist.

So what does this have to do with the price of rice in China?

China

China stock market has been in "freefall" for some of this week. This comes after several months of decline for Shanghai Composite Index. (A stock market index is a clever calculation to assess how a stock market is going. It is usually an aggregate of the values of indicative stocks traded at that market. The Dow Jones is a more meaningless form of index where every indicative stock is presumed to have one share. The All Ords is an attempt at an improvement, by taking the volume of shares times the price. This means, though that an usual day for one high volume stock, or a "two speed economy", makes it move a bit bizarrely.)  In China there are many indices, but we westerners like the focus on the Shanghai Composite Index, perhaps because the stocks there are more related to the global economy, but probably also for a similar reason that we call the country China (probably from the Qin Dynasty); a lack of willingness to understand the whole nation. (Interestingly, the Arabs call us Ferengi because we look French, so probably are. So next time you talk about the Chinese, remember the Bastille.)

The Shanghai Composite index is down because that part of the Chinese economy is being valued less by financial traders. This will continue until bargain hunters step in and push it back up.

A quick glance at the chart on the right up to mid year would leave you the impression that something unsustainable is happening. Now we are back to the value for April of this year. It looks sharp, but consider you owned an house and it doubled in value over the last three years; you would be pretty happy. Suppose is doubled again in the last two months. You would say that was B*** S***, and you would be right. Now it as gone into free fall and is worth just double again. Most of us would say "Well, I have to live somewhere, and it is still worth twice the price three years ago, and it hasn't changed, so I'll stay". This is what the business people will be doing. The traders are the ones who are suffering - they are paying off their Rolls Royce on the idea that the growth would continue and then they could buy Bill Gates outright in 5 more years, but they have just too much cocaine in their blood stream.

There is a good article in the economist (The Great Fall of China) that makes the following good points:

• China is still mostly a command economy, so behaves differently to market economies, and even those behave bizarrely at times
• The property market in China dwarfs the equity market, and it is doing OK
• The Chinese economy is changing towards a service based economy, much like ours did earlier. Change = pain.
• The government are making errors. Errors are not uncommon in all governments, and even in ecclesiastical bodies
• The right choice versus the wrong choice is only known in hindsight.

So what does this mean for the man on the land?

Australia

Modern China is very good and very bad for China. it is very good because it has an enormous appetite for commodities, and we have lots of those. This means that money keeps coming into Australia out of proportion to the effort put in - iron was created by a supernova that seeded our corner of the galaxy. All we need to do is get the stuff onto boats. Unfortunately, lots of other countries saw that we were making money and built their own iron ore mines. The world is awash with ore now, so our price is down. (Still the same iron, just at a lower price.) We are a bit addicted to the old price, and to the mass of investment that happened during the mining boom. (Ask the US market traders how depressing life becomes when free cash is turned off.) We are now suffering withdrawal symptoms; like a crack addict, nothing else seems to matter except getting the fix again.

China is also very bad for Australia (and the rest of the first world) because most manufacturing jobs are heading there because of worker income disparities. It is even cheaper to get your frozen berries from half way across the world than from the NSW south coast. While this does make me worry (particularly given that I play my wargames in a macro economic fashion, and avoid any foreign dependencies), it is as relevant to my life right now as the Roman occupation was to Jesus: It is a bit dangerous, but there is little point stressing over something that I have so little control over.

It means that the future for Australia is in the services industry, at least until the standard of living rises in the emerging economies to make our workforce competitive.

So after a massive waffle, a prediction:

Prediction

In my view, stock and bond markets are currently valued on the level of money that the governments are willing to pump into them. I think this pumping will mostly cease around the world early next year if not before. (The Japanese will never cease doing it!) This will lead to a dampening of values - a correction of about 10%-20% between February and Easter.) I think this will become positive for people, because the traders will stop investing in companies that collect money from government pumps and resume investing in companies that actually do something, and to do something you need workers.

For me personally, that means that I have shifted my super into cash and mean to keep it that way until such time as I see a decent market shock, or until my birthday. (If it does not happen by then, I am in error.) However, I have a stock portfolio for my son and I am leaving that in place because the pain of capital gains tax overrides my good intentions. Better to have a day in the sun and a son who is 10% poorer than to spend s week in front of the computer stressing about the errors I am making.

Cultural Censorship and Historical Revisionism

The current attacks on the Confederate Battle Flag in the United States constitute some of the greatest crap I have seen in many years of observing crap coming out of the formerly great United States.

If the Confederate flag is a racist symbol why isn't the United States flag a symbol of the genocide of the American Indians?

The nazi book burning is in full swing now, and how long before the cross is banned.

Look at some of this garbage:

As we reported yesterday, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield suggested that statues of Thomas Jefferson should also be removed because he owned slaves. Co-host Don Lemon remarked that, “There may come a day when we want to re-think Jefferson.” 

The L.A. Times also weighed in the farce, noting that statues of Jefferson join “other public statues depicting Southern or Confederate figures, including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, that some are arguing represent the country’s racist past and should be removed.”

Top retailers like Amazon, eBay, Sears and Walmart have all removed Confederate flags from sale (while continuing to sell Nazi memorabilia), while Warner Bros has announced that it will stop making the iconic Dukes of Hazzard car because it features the rebel flag on its roof.

Even the multiple Academy Award winning classic Gone With the Wind may not be safe, with film critic By Lou Lumenick calling for its censorship because the movie offers “the most iconic glimpse” of the Confederate flag. Nazi book burners would be proud.

Numerous other Army bases, parks and memorials are also under scrutiny, although at least former Georgia congressman Ben Lewis Jones, who is now chairman of Heritage Operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, declaring the move a form of “cultural cleansing.”

As someone who has actually taken the time to study American Civil War history (unlike most Americans) the ignorance displayed by the flag banners is staggering, and of course all of the old Civil War myths are being trotted out again.

It is so true that "the victors write the history", and so many facts about the American Civil War are never reported. The North is mythologized as going to war to free the slaves, however the North went to war to hold the union together.

Pres. Abraham Lincoln was personally against slavery, but in his first inaugural address, he made it clear that placating the Southern states was more important. Quoting himself in other speeches, he said, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."  You NEVER, EVER hear about this.

Even Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 left slavery intact in border states that hadn't seceded. In other words, slavery was only abolished in the Confederate States at that time. So much for the great principle or the high moral ground. You NEVER, EVER hear this either.

And as for the morons who want to destroy statues of Confederate generals, the Confederate president himself, Jefferson Davis, came to strongly support ending slavery. So did CSA Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Governor William Smith of Virginia. The CSA's two highest ranking generals, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, both disliked slavery and supported emancipation. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Johnston called it "a curse." Other Confederate generals who supported emancipation included General Daniel Govan, General John Kelly, and General Mark Lowrey. In fact, the majority of Confederate generals did not own slaves and did not come from slaveholding families. Yet again, you NEVER, EVER hear this.

The real history is even more interesting. Robert Lee was the South's greatest general, and he did not own slaves and found the institution of slavery to be vile and corrupting. Probably the most successful general of the North was Ulysses S. Grant (who actually became President of the United States after the Civil War) however - and you NEVER, NEVER, EVER hear this - was an overseer of slaves on his wealthy father-in-law’s 850 acre plantation known as White Haven in Missouri. These slaves were owned by Grant and his father-in-law until 1865. Wait – 1865? What about Lincoln’s ‘Emancipation’ Proclamation in 1863?

The victors write the history.

Are There Any Modern Day Spartans?

I have predicted a coming economic crash and harped on about this again and again. 

Nothing has happened to change my mind and I think the crash is closer than ever. All that is needed is an event to trigger an avalanche of debt defaults and derivative calls and the whole house of cards will come crashing down. Some commentators call these "black swan" events and they liken them to that last little snow flake that drops on a huge build up of snow, with the tiny extra weight causing a complete collapse.

One possible black swan event (or snowflake) is a Greek exit from the EU. I don't want an economic collapse which will mean trying to survive in Great Depression like conditions for possibly a decade, but I do despise the European Union. The whole EU monetary experiment that has made banks and not people the centre of economics, and has now created a massive debt based economic system and austerity for increasing numbers of European citizens. Somebody has to say enough is enough and perhaps it will be the Greeks.

Before I hear that the Greeks deserve everything they get because they lived beyond their means we should remember basic true capitalism.

If a bank makes bad loans it is the fault of the bank, and the borrower can be bankrupted but the bank's shareholders (who reap all the profits when the bank makes good loans) also lose out and the bank may even collapse. The losers are the two parties to the transaction. There is nothing wrong with this, and in fact it is healthy in a genuine competitive market.

Not so in the new world of the EU and bank-centric vulture capitalism. Now when a bank makes bad loans the borrower can be bankrupted but the bank is bailed out by government funds in the form of loans from central banks (either from the government of the country itself or in the EU often from other countries). This means the entire country which happened to have a bad bank operating is punished by interest on massive loans and austerity for its citizens. So the individual borrower is punished, the bank where ultimate responsibility lies is not punished, the citizens of the central bank in the lending country are punished (their taxes being socialism for banks) and the citizens of the recipient country (many of whom may be good savers and debt free) are punished. Completely unfair and in fact rewards bad lending practices.

I am constantly amazed that so many intelligent people can't see the flaws in this economic structure and that citizens of supposedly well educated and developed nations put up with it. I believe this is a sign of how all powerful banks have now become. In fact they are so powerful that they have achieved "bail-in" legislation in many nations, with the EU aiming to have this in all member countries within two months. This is no more and no less than blatant theft of depositor funds. 

Combined with the bail-ins will be greater and greater restrictions on cash, to force digital banking, which in turn will facilitate bail-ins (the first theft) plus facilitate negative interest rates (the second theft) plus facilitate whatever new and varied taxes (third theft) a bankrupt political-economic system can come up with. I suspect it will be some kind of levy based upon the climate agenda. The speed with which this is happening is frightening.

Over the last seven years since the 2008 financial crisis we have already seen big strides towards an almost exclusive digital financial system and the consolidation of nearly everybody's finances into a smaller and smaller number of mega banks. Even in Australia there are much fewer banks and credit societies. It is easier to slaughter pigs when they are in the same pen, and so it is easy to steal funds when everyone has been herded into a few institutions.

My contempt for the current economic structures is so strong that I want the Greeks (or some other nation) to do an Iceland and break away from the whole corrupt and unjust system. Iceland remember just let the banks fail in 2008 and actually jailed some of the bankers. There was a huge uproar (mostly from British banks that had invested in bad Icelandic banks) but now Iceland is thriving and is a genuine independent and happy nation. We had some modern day Vikings so how about some modern day Spartans!

The media of course never includes a proper discussion of the real economics or of the absurdity and injustice of  the Greek situation. You never hear that a "bail in" by the ECB or the IMF does not mean that money is going to the Greek people and their hospitals and schools, it just means that bad banks are being bailed out or other European banks that made bad loans to Greece are being bailed out.

There is a legal concept caused "odious debt". In international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion. Greece should declare much of its debt odious and simply refuse to pay. Also, jail some corrupt former politicians and advisers from merchant banks like Goldman Sachs for good measure.

While the media portrays Greece as a tiny little nation at the mercy of the EU, I read an interesting commentary this morning that perhaps Greece holds all the cards: 

"The underlying problem is that financial decisions at the ECB are being made for political reasons. Politicians are trying to pretend that the ECB can continue to create money out of thin air and keep giving Greece a liquidity lifeline. This misguided thinking has consequences, and reality is about to hit home, which raises an interesting question.

Which side is closer to reality? Greece or the so-called troika of the IMF, ECB and EU? I think Greece holds all the cards. 

Greece is still generating income from tax revenue, even in its weakened economic state. The problem Greece faces is that it cannot possibly meet its social spending commitments as well as carry its crippling debt burden. 

The lenders have refused to grant Greece any debt relief, which was the basic plank of Greece’s negotiating stance with the troika. The troika opposed debt relief because if they grant it to Greece, for the sake of European unity it will need to be granted to every other overleveraged welfare state, which is more than half of the countries in Europe.

Greece can go it alone. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. And it will be much easier to accomplish without the €320 billion debt burden hanging over its head. Greece can just walk away, like Greece and many other countries have repeatedly done throughout history. 

Greece wouldn’t be able to borrow again for a long while, but it probably shouldn’t anyway because it has learned its lesson – debt can be unmanageable.

There is one last point about Greece worth mentioning:  Greece is clearly preparing for a default. 

The Athens government has asked all cities and other governmental bodies to move their available cash into accounts at the central bank. This is being reported in the mainstream media as a way for the central government to get its hands on more cash, but that is not correct. 

It is to prevent the ECB from taking this cash of governmental bodies when the ECB finally bails-in the private Greek banks. In other words, in a bail-in the ECB takes the euros deposited in private banks, but not the euros deposited in the central bank. So by putting their euro deposits into the central bank, Greece’s governmental bodies can keep their money out of the hands of the ECB. It’s just more evidence that Greece – not the troika – holds all the cards." 

The EU has grown into more than a corrupt economic system. It is also an ever growing inefficient bureaucracy, a meddling nannie state, a gigantic social engineer, a vehicle for United States foreign policy against the genuine interests of Europe, and above all a vehicle for a perpetual war against Christianity in Europe. The collapse of the EU can't come quick enough for me.

Bankrupt Bankers Trying to Start a War

The following article has just appeared in the Washington Post:

"U.S. military combat vehicles paraded Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War. The armored personnel carriers and other U.S. Army vehicles that rolled through the streets of Narva, a border city separated by a narrow frontier from Russia, were a dramatic reminder of the new military confrontation in Eastern Europe.

The soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry Regiment were taking part in a military parade to mark Estonia’s Independence Day. Narva is a vulnerable border city separated by a river from Russia. It has often been cited as a potential target for the Kremlin if it wanted to escalate its conflict with the West onto NATO territory".

To my mind this is blatant military aggression by the United States. Just imagine the uproar if Russian troops were exercising on the American border in Canada or Mexico. Note also the deliberate false assumptions in the propaganda article which I have highlighted. There is no evidence whatsoever that Russia has any plans to attack Estonia or that it wants to escalate any conflict with the West. It is in fact NATO that has been building more and more bases closer and closer to Russia, and the US that staged the coup in Ukraine, not to mention the infamous missiles in Poland that America said are a 'defence against Iran' (you can't make this stuff up).

Estonia needs to be very careful playing these games with the US. It has a Russian speaking population of 24%. If Russia agitates them, or even arms them as insurgents, the tiny country of Estonia will become engulfed in civil war and become a disaster and hell hole just like the Ukraine - and it will be America that started it.

The recent assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov also has the smell of American corruption and interference about it. Putin is more popular than ever in Russia and there would be no advantage to him in being involved in something like this. Nemtsov, although a loud mouth, had no impact on Putin’s 85% approval rating. Nemtsov’s support resided in the Washington-funded NGOs in Russia. But America, desperate to stir up trouble in Russia, may have decided they can get more mileage out of this opposition leader dead than alive.

What is really happening? The psychopaths on Wall Street that control the US know that an economic crash is coming. They will do anything, even start a world war, to hide their culpability. Washington’s reckless and irresponsible destruction of the trust achieved by Reagan and Gorbachev has resurrected the possibility of nuclear war from the grave in which Reagan and Gorbachev buried it. Again, as during the Cold War the specter of nuclear Armageddon stalks the earth. It is unbelievable how far the United States has fallen. 

A Grilled Cheese Sandwich and the Coming Economic Collapse

I have previously posted about the coming economic collapse.

This grilled cheese sandwich may not be a chart, but it is another sign of what is wrong with our current economic situation.

Let me explain.

The trillions and trillions of money printing have not created a recovery or improved economic circumstances for the vast majority of people. All that has been created is easy money for Wall Street, and a massively over-inflated stock market that only benefits the 1% who trade in shares. This over-inflation is now a bubble that is going to do what bubbles always do: burst.

Traditionally, a company's stock price is a reflection of the combined value of the company's underlying assets, plus perhaps a realistic margin for future growth potential and return on investment (cash flow through dividends). In the current bubble, many companies have a share price that vastly exceeds - and I mean VASTLY exceeds - the combined value of their assets and any objectively reasonable allowance for future growth or dividend cash flow.

A good example is The Grilled Cheese Truck Inc. which trades on the OTCQX marketplace under the ticker GRLD. This publicly listed company has 18 million shares and a recent stock price of $6 giving the company a market value of about $108 million.

But what are the underlying assets? According to the company’s financial statements, it has about $1 million of assets which include four (yes, only four!) grilled cheese trucks and almost $3 million in liabilities. In the third quarter of 2014, the company had sales of almost $1 million, on which it had a net loss of more than  $900,000. In short, and notwithstanding that the grilled cheese sandwiches may be excellent, the company is trading at in excess of $100 million over valuation. For those who bought shares low and sold high, great money. For those who bought more recently, disaster when the crash comes.

[This paragraph will make Python happy] The economic recession of 1973-1975, which John Michael Young lived through, was nothing compared to what we will have to endure when the crash comes.

When people tell you that the high stock market equals a recovery, just think of the grilled cheese sandwich.

Left Man, Right Man

Lies and Bombings

The man on the left tried to start military intervention and aerial bombing in Syria by lying about the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons. The man on the right exposed the lie, revealed evidence that Syrian rebels had used chemical weapons, and prevented military intervention based on a lie.

Lies and Invasions

The man on the left succeeded in invading and decimating a country, Iraq, based on the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is far removed from the United States. The man on the left has an IQ of 59 and struggles to play 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'. The man on the right has only ever invaded northern Georgia in defence of the Abkhazia Republic which was attacked by Georgian forces. Abkhazia is directly within Russia's sphere of influence. The man on the right has an IQ of 132 and plays chess.

Democracy and Constitutionalism

The man on the left overthrew the democratically elected government of Egypt, crushed the Arab spring, and restored the nation to harsh and corrupt rule by a military oligarchy. The man on the right has undergone three successions of power to positions as President or Prime Minister in accordance with the nation's democratic constitution.

Democracy and Self Determination

The man on the left used a CIA colour revolution, and snipers murdering policemen, to overthrow the democratically elected government in the Ukraine before the next election was due, and replaced the government with a far right coalition of billionaires. The man on the left achieved self determination for Crimea by holding a referendum in which there was 83.1 percent voter turnout and 96.77 percent voted in favour of integration of the autonomous republic of Crimea into the Russian Federation (exactly as had happened with Kosovo with the full support of the West).

Freedom of Religion

The man on the left is afraid of religion and leads a regime that openly persecutes religious groups, especially Christians and Buddhists. The man on the right supports religious tolerance and has overseen the rebuilding of Cathedrals destroyed by communists and a revival of Orthodox Christianity.

Lobby Groups

The man on the left has shown weakness in the face of the world's strongest lobby group, the homosexual lobby, and is seeking changes to practices that will expose people including children to erroneous and dangerous ideas about sexuality and family. The man on the right has enacted an anti-propaganda law that forbids the dissemination of deviant information to minors.

Terrorism

The man on the left supplies arms and training to Syrian terrorists, which terrorists have formed ISIS, and which terrorists continue to defect to ISIS on a regular basis. The man on the right supports the Syrian regime, which is the only nation state undertaking direct military action on the ground against ISIS.

Religious Values

The (wo)man on the left gives support and publicity to feminist rock groups like Pussy Riot and Femen that openly commit blasphemy (including desecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior which was rebuilt after destruction by the communists, and the chain sawing of a crucifix) and which use openly satanic imagery in performances. The man on the right enforces laws against hooliganism and achieved a conviction against Pussy Riot for hooliganism promoted by religious hatred.

Federation and Liberty

The man on the left oversees the EU which has become an uncontrollable apparatus which suffocates the liberties of its member nations, and drowns its citizens in red tape and political correctness. The man on the right supports a genuine federation which respects the liberties and rights of its members, and has acted to deconstruct unnecessary bureaucracy and inefficiencies.

Popularity

The man on the left has a personal approval rating of only 29%, and among his own parliamentary colleagues recently survived a spill motion (in which there was no declared alternative leadership contender) by 61 to 39. The man on the right has a personal approval rating of 87%.

Oil and Oligarchy

The man on the left has used the oil wealth of his nation to sustain a corrupt and medieval oligarchy, and to funnel wealth into the hands of a small group of (mostly related) families. The man on the right has broken the post-communism oil oligarchs, even jailing some of them,  and has directed the wealth from oil and natural gas towards the country as a whole.

Economic Development

The man on the left has used unsustainable loans from the World Bank to impoverished nations to create a cycle of debt, and has then imposed austerity and so called 'conditionalities' that require these nations to repay interest before health and education expenditure. Nations in West Africa in particular, now subject to an Ebola outbreak, saw their health infrastructure degraded before the outbreak. The man on the right has been instrumental in creating the BRICS nations' development bank to make sustainable loans to third world nations to build infrastructure.

European Independence

The (wo)man on the left has acted as a puppet of United States interests and has failed to develop a genuine European foreign policy with the capacity to withstand the unfair and dangerous demands of the United States, a dictator supporting nation which is grasping to maintain a position as the world's last superpower. The man on the right has acted with national independence and desires a European solidarity that is independent from the United States and Wall Street bankers.

Health

The man on the left is an elitist prat who maintains health and longevity by transfusions of children's blood and by special treatment in a health system which leaves other people his age to die in hospital with 'no extraordinary measures'. The man on the right maintains health by exercise and eating vegetables.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of Russia, a political giant in a world of cheats and knaves.

This Will Be The Year

That it all collapses.

Little printed pieces of paper with dead people on them are not wealth.

The derivatives market the world over is larger than the world’s economy many times over.

Plunge protection teams = rigged markets with a thumb constantly on the scale, able to go up endlessly, but never allowed to go back down, ever.

The markets all consist of computers trading amongst one another, high frequency trading is all that makes up the market, and if they slow down it collapses.

The Federal Reserve is buying the vast majority of all treasuries. Somewhere north of 70% of all treasuries are being purchased by the Fed.

The Federal reserve is a group of privately owned banks, with no reserves, and is not federal.

There isn’t a company on the stock exchange that has a share price reflective of its assets.

Governments around the world have only kept the illusion going though endless money printing, endless quantitative easing, endless operation twist, endless buying of mortgage backed securities. Printing money. Every single time in history that this has been tried has ended in grief.

The flow of billions and billions of money printing props up the banks and US stocks, it does not build infrastructure or stimulate small businesses or assist the needy. It does not even assist anyone other than the top 1%. That is the 1% that owns 50% of the entire wealth of the planet.

Theft and corruption are now legal. There is no legal system left when it comes to HSBC laundering their money through the drug cartels, or MF global and the evaporation of 1.5 billion dollars in segregated client funds, and the list of illegalities by JP Morgan and others reads like a rap sheet. Not a single person from Wall Street as gone to jail since the 2008 financial crisis. Steal $100 and you go to jail for 10 years. Steal $1 billion and you get a bonus and you are "too important to fail".

Theft of assets and gold of foreign nations is now the order of the day, from Libya to Cyprus, to the Ukranian gold, to financial warfare and killing anyone who threatens to leave the system or opt out.

Libor rigging, was just one more example of rigged interest rates world wide in order to keep the financial system propped up a little longer and the illusion going. There is no law in this financial system.

Finally the transfer of all banker debt, all corporate debts world wide onto the backs of nation states. This has turned our once elected governments into nothing more than an extension of corporations, and has made private debt, all of it, public debt, and national debt. This is theft and corruption at it’s highest.

Theft has many new words. "Bail in" means your bank deposits will be stolen. "Necessary inflation" means your cash will be stolen, bit by bit. "Climate levy" means your assets will be taxed in new ways. "Too big to fail" means your taxes will pay for large corporation mistakes, but not for small businesses. "International treaty obligations" means the top 1% use tax havens and trusts and pay no tax. "Austerity" means you and your children pay for government and large corporation debts.

Now once the entire system collapses, it won’t just be banks going under, it won’t just be companies failing, it will be nation states collapsing.

That is why they need hollow point bullets, NSA spying, drones, coffins, guard towers, continuity of government plans, militarized police, and terrorists to give the excuses needed to create it all, catalog it all, and spy on everyone. The state does not fear terrorists. The state fears its own citizens when the house of cards comes down.

The end is near. It has reached a climax. We are now in global financial warfare, which may very well go hot, and has done so in many places and regions. The brick wall so to speak has been reached in Russia which hasn’t allowed a color revolution, and refuses to play if you believe it.

The EU is now printing money. The Swiss just made the decision to exit the game early, and now you will see the rush for the exits as to not be the last one standing at a dead man’s party.

Question is, will people beg for an Icelandic solution, the arrest of those financially responsible, a refusal to pay the debt of failed corporations.

Or will they beg for a Greek solution, the candy and handouts to continue, some government jobs and pensions to be protected, and the auctioning of all monuments, national treasures and assets to be handed over to the banks, and those responsible for the destruction of free people to be rewarded with more wealth.

Every nation is in debt, every state is in debt, every city is in debt, and every person is in debt. It has become a planet of world wide debt.

Those who are going to come in and pretend to save you, do not have the money to do it with, and if you are foolish enough to pretend that they do, then you deserve the slavery you will get.

As I write the 1% fly into Davos in their lear jets to pontificate to the rest of the world. Just watch, everything will be about the average person making sacrifices or changing their expectations or being taxed in new ways. All for the good of the planet 1% of course. No matter what they say the tax havens will stay. The mega corporations will still be above international law.

But even the super rich cannot hold the house of cards together for much longer. Unrestrained greed is about to have global consequences.

Find a cave and lock the door.

Pathological Liars and Zombie Banks

It is some time now since I formed the view that President Obama is a pathological liar.

Yesterday Obama gave the "State of the Union" address to Congress, and I saw some of it on television. As I expected, it was an absolute pack of lies, and it perhaps says something of the arrogance of the governing class that they believe they can tell blatant lies and get away with it.

Remember, Obama was supposed to be the champion of the middle class and the underprivileged.

The biggest lie was that the United States has undergone an economic recovery, and that the economy is strong and to the benefit of all Americans. All lies. There has been no recovery, only bloated stock market prices caused by the Federal Reserve printing money for Wall Street (not for infrastructure or for ordinary Americans). The economy is not strong, it is on the brink of a collapse that will rival the Great Depression. All Americans have not benefited from Obama's economic policies, only the top 1%.

Here are some very sobering facts that were not mentioned in the State of the Union address:

#1 American families in the middle 20 percent of the income scale now earn less money than they did on the day when Barack Obama first entered the White House.

#2 American families in the middle 20 percent of the income scale have a lower net worth than they did on the day when Barack Obama first entered the White House.

#3 According to a Washington Post article published just a few days ago, more than 50 percent of the children in U.S. public schools now come from low income homes.  This is the first time that this has happened in at least 50 years.

#4 According to a Census Bureau report that was recently released, 65 percent of all children in the United States are living in a home that receives some form of aid from the federal government.

#5 In 2008, the total number of business closures exceeded the total number of businesses being created for the first time ever, and that has continued to happen every single year since then.

#6 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be “middle class”.  But by 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans still considered themselves to be “middle class”.

#7 In 2008, 25 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket considered themselves to be “lower class”.  But in 2014, an astounding 49 percent of all Americans in that age range considered themselves to be “lower class”.

#8 Traditionally, owning a home has been one of the key indicators that you belong to the middle class.  So what does the fact that the rate of homeownership in America has been falling for seven years in a row say about the Obama years?

#9 According to a survey that was conducted last year, 52 percent of all Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now.

#10 After accounting for inflation, median household income in the United States is 8 percent lower than it was when the last recession started in 2007.

#11 According to one recent survey, 62 percent of all Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

#12 At this point, one out of every three adults in the United States has an unpaid debt that is “in collections“.

#13 When Barack Obama first set foot in the Oval Office, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  Today, that number is sitting at only 59.2 percent.

#14 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen from 19.8 weeks to 32.8 weeks.

#15 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.

#16 At the end of Barack Obama’s first year in office, the yearly trade deficit with China was 226 billion dollars.  Last year, it was more than 314 billion dollars.

#17 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent.  Today, it is over 101 percent.

#18 The U.S. national debt is on pace to approximately double during the eight years of the Obama administration.  In other words, under Barack Obama the U.S. government will accumulate about as much debt as it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.

#19 According to the New York Times, the “typical American household” is now worth 36 percent less than it was worth a decade ago.

#20 The poverty rate in the United States has been at 15 percent or above for 3 consecutive years.  This is the first time that has happened since 1965.

#21 From 2009 through 2013, the U.S. government spent a whopping 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs.

#22 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has gone from 32 million to 46 million.

#23 Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had full-time jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin.  But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have full-time jobs.

#24 One recent survey discovered that about 22 percent of all Americans have had to turn to a church food panty for assistance.

#25 An astounding 45 percent of all African-American children in the United States live in areas of “concentrated poverty”.

#26 40.9 percent of all children in the United States that are living with only one parent are living in poverty.

#27 According to a report that was released late last year by the National Center on Family Homelessness, the number of homeless children in the United States has reached a new all-time record high of 2.5 million.

The policies of Obama and the Wall Street / Federal Reserve cronies that control him are leading to disaster. And this disaster will make all of the above statistics pale into insignificance.

There is a great quote from Mike Whitney that summarises the madness of the current American financial system:

"But can you believe it? These are the same worthless, zombie banks we bailed out just four years ago to the tune of many trillions of dollars and they’re back on the ropes again? How does that happen? And all the while the Fed has been lending them gobs of money at zero percent, loading them with trillions in reserves, pumping up their stock prices with a small ocean of free liquidity, and they still can’t hack it. They must have the shittyest business model in history. Either that, or crime doesn’t pay after all.

The fact is, the banks are dragging down the entire economy and everyone with it. You simply can’t restructure the whole system to accommodate bumbling imbeciles whose only strategy for survival is mooching off the government. Four years into the so-called recovery and bank lending is still contracting. This is ridiculous. These chiselers make their dough trading derivatives and moving loan loss provisions into the profit column to buffalo shareholders. It’s a big freaking game. We should have shut down these zombies when we had the chance. Now they’ve BECOME the government. And that’s why the economy is headed for another slump".

Unfortunately Australia is not immune. When the house of cards comes down, we will go down with it.

What is Extremism?

The following was in the news on Sunday:

"(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will invite allies to a Feb. 18 security summit in Washington to try and prevent violent extremism, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Sunday after meeting his European counterparts in Paris.

The gathering of justice and interior chiefs came as France mourned 17 victims of Islamist gunmen this week in the worst assault on its homeland security in decades.

"We will bring together all of our allies to discuss ways in which we can counteract this violent extremism that exists around the world," Holder told reporters."

When President Obama says that there will be a world forum on combating "extremism" I worry. The reason is that Obama's definition of an extremist is very different to that of most fair minded people. And this is coming from the President of a nation that has supported more brutal dictatorships and bombed more civilians than any extremist group has. Not to mention America's own track record of murdering unborn children, and the export of a vulture corporatism that pillages the third world.

Over the last several years various US government agencies and documents have described groups or viewpoints that the US Government regards as "extremist" or "potential terrorist". There are now at least 72 categories and this says a great deal about the "big brother' mentality in the US and the terrible decline in genuine American values of liberty and freedom. Below is the list and all of the categories are links to US source documents.

This list should terrify all rational and fair people because it covers a very large percentage of the population and includes just about everyone that I know and respect. The common theme is 'independent thought' and 'scepticism of government'. If this makes people an extremist or potential terrorist then our society is in real trouble. If this is what our society has become, we have more to fear from our own governments than from extremists.

1. Those that talk about “individual liberties”

2. Those that advocate for states’ rights

3. Those that want “to make the world a better place”

4. “The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule”

5. Those that are interested in “defeating the Communists”

6. Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations”

7. Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable”

8. Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions”

9. Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”

10. “Anti-Gay”

11. “Anti-Immigrant”

12. “Anti-Muslim”

13. “The Patriot Movement”

14. “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”

15. Members of the Family Research Council

16. Members of the American Family Association

17. Those that believe that Mexico, Canada and the United States “are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity that will be known as the ‘North American Union’”

18. Members of the American Border Patrol/American Patrol

19. Members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform

20. Members of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition

21. Members of the Christian Action Network

22. Anyone that is “opposed to the New World Order”

23. Anyone that is engaged in “conspiracy theorizing”

24. Anyone that is opposed to Agenda 21

25. Anyone that is concerned about FEMA camps

26. Anyone that “fears impending gun control or weapons confiscations”

27. The militia movement

28. The sovereign citizen movement

29. Those that “don’t think they should have to pay taxes”

30. Anyone that “complains about bias”

31. Anyone that “believes in government conspiracies to the point of paranoia”

32. Anyone that “is frustrated with mainstream ideologies”

33. Anyone that “visits extremist websites/blogs”

34. Anyone that “establishes website/blog to display extremist views”

35. Anyone that “attends rallies for extremist causes”

36. Anyone that “exhibits extreme religious intolerance”

37. Anyone that “is personally connected with a grievance”

38. Anyone that “suddenly acquires weapons”

39. Anyone that “organizes protests inspired by extremist ideology”

40. “Militia or unorganized militia”

41. “General right-wing extremist”

42. Citizens that have “bumper stickers” that are patriotic or anti-U.N.

43. Those that refer to an “Army of God”

44. Those that are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

45. Those that are “anti-global”

46. Those that are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”

47. Those that are “reverent of individual liberty”

48. Those that “believe in conspiracy theories”

49. Those that have “a belief that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack”

50. Those that possess “a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism”

51. Those that would “impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

52. Those that would “insert religion into the political sphere”

53. Anyone that would “seek to politicize religion”

54. Those that have “supported political movements for autonomy”

55. Anyone that is “anti-abortion”

56. Anyone that is “anti-Catholic”

57. Anyone that is “anti-nuclear”

58. “Rightwing extremists”

59. “Returning veterans”

60. Those concerned about “illegal immigration”

61. Those that “believe in the right to bear arms”

62. Anyone that is engaged in “ammunition stockpiling”

63. Anyone that exhibits “fear of Communist regimes”

64. “Anti-abortion activists”

65. Those that are against illegal immigration

66. Those that talk about “the New World Order” in a “derogatory” manner

67. Those that have a negative view of the United Nations

68. Those that are opposed “to the collection of federal income taxes”

69. Those that supported former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr

70. Those that display the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”)

71. Those that believe in “end times” prophecies

72. Evangelical Christians

I regard myself as a moderate and compassionate person, and someone who reads widely and takes an interest in world affairs. I like to think I am an objective thinker, and I certainly don't derive all of my information from the mainstream media. I have highlighted above all of the categories which apply to me and apparently I am an extremist x 20! There are other categories that do not apply to me but are groups I do not have issues with, eg.  returning veterans and evangelical Christians. This is absurd. All of my friends are also extremists by these definitions, as are all of my work colleagues notwithstanding a very diverse range of opinions and belief systems in my workplace.

Ever since 911 the response of our governments has been to attack civil liberties and to turn the apparatus of the state against its own citizens. Not to mention several wars, including the invasion of a country based upon lies. We are now spied upon in multiple ways by our own government and any form of independent behaviour or thinking is suspect. The tragedy of events like the Paris murders is that governments will use the event to devise yet further ways to turn the state on its own citizens without actually doing anything significant to combat terrorism.

I find it particularly ironic that the Gadsden Flag is regarded as a sign of extremism or potential terrorism. This flag derives from 1775 and was an American Independence flag in the War of Independence against the British. The flag is bright yellow, emblazoned with a fierce rattlesnake, coiled and ready to strike, with thirteen rattles which symbolise the 13 colonies, and sporting the motto "Don't Tread on Me." The flag also evokes a statement made by Benjamin Franklin in 1751, when he made a reference to the rattlesnake in a satirical commentary published in his Pennsylvanis Gazette. It had been the policy of Britain to send convicted criminals to America, so Franklin suggested that they thank the British by sending rattlesnakes to England.

The flag is and has been for over 200 years a symbol of liberty and resistence to tyranny. It says everything about America today if it is now regarded as a symbol of extremism.

I - proudly - display a Gadsden Flag in my office, which has additional meaning for a lawyer who fights for client rights.

Should a criminal be allowed to enter Australia to attend the G20?

This is not my question, mind you. Paul and I watched a movie last week. We shared a taxi home. After I dropped Paul off, the taxi driver asked me this question. (Paul and I must have been discussing international affairs on the trip home.)

I started with my standard, infuriating platitude "Better to talk with your enemy than enjoy some sense of moral  superiority but have no idea about their motivations or intentions". I think he found my views unpalatable and was silent, so I asked who he thought was the criminal, expecting it to be an ex-KGB officer. I was astonished when he mentioned the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. (How can anyone who loves cricket be evil?) l leaned forward to get a better look at the speaker and spotted a Sikh's turban. Fortunately I had read about the assault on the Golden temple only a few months ago in an S&T magazine.

I managed to politely enquire if he was referring to the Indian overreaction to the occupation of the temple. Instead his issue was with the persecution of the Sikhs after the murder of Indira Ghandi by her Sikh bodyguards. The driver was of the view that the current Prime minister was involved directly. His friends and neighbours were assaulted and killed, so he fled and Australia took him as a refugee. These events happened in the early 1990s, but he still wants justice.

He then wandered into what must be a conspiracy theory about the accused assassins being blackmailed into confessing and Sanja Ghandi wearing a bullet proof rest on the day of the assassination (showing foreknowledge suggesting conspiracy). He pointed out that the Indian government had been uninterested in the prosecution of the Hindus who assaulted the Sikhs and that no prosecutions had succeeded.

I hear enough conspiracy theories to have lost interest in checking them (but if you are interested), but I do not deny that there is a long list of crimes performed by the living that have not been prosecuted and will never be prosecuted. It does make it hard to have faith in international relations when actual perpetrators are feted as dignitaries. But I do believe the point is not to have faith in international relations, but to still perform them with compuction. I am reminded of this parable:

 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

But what does it mean?

In answering my dear friends queries on the implication of basing climate scepticism on falsehoods, I quoted a fictional guru. When I first heard him say these lines, I remember at the time (and I was sitting next to my dear friend in Manuka cinema in 1976) "but what does that mean"? I have a habit of over analysing fictions which purport to wisdom, Dr Who being a case in point, and so why not do it on this blog, so my dear friend will have no trouble getting me certified when my time comes.

Who is the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?

When making sure I had the text right (which is wrong in most places; I had to go the Youttube ultimately to confirm), I found that this quote is discussed at length in many blogs. The common thought is that the answer was meant to be "The fool who follows", but on second consideration the answer is far more  complex.

I think the meaning in the movie was that the first fool was an unconcious fool; he was on some damn fool quest and there was on very long odds daring to take on the Empire. The second fool, by implication, should know better, and perhaps is consciously making a foolish choice, so is more foolish. If the ends justify the means, Obi Wan was no fool. He became more powerful than Darth Vader could possibly imagine, and was able to guide and inspire the rebellion in ways the old man would not, even, in the end, to rescue the soul of his dear friend, Anikin. The fools who followed (discounting droids) also greatly benefitted with ascent to knighthood (Luke) and royalty (Han). Both struggled with the "follow the fool" and resisted it briefly, before returned to the quest, even at a time when success seemed unlikely.

Did Benjamin Franklin qualify as a fool thinking that 13 disunited, vascillating colonies could take on the might of the British empire? What about the fools who followed him? Many paid the ultimate price, most were probably no better off under the new administration. Undoubtedly their descendants (and the political world as a whole) were the true beneficiaries. Is that foolish, to overthrow an order so as to chase a dream? What would a wise man have done in the situation? Honestly I can't say - maybe have a bet both ways.

Let's head to the current era, where we have a fool for a Prime Minister. Ignoring the best advice of leading economists around the world, he unwound a cap and trade system that was reducing carbon emisions. His argument: it was a tax that clobbered the economy. He firmly believes that not responding to long term threat is wise, and that facts and science are mere politics that he can defeat. A true fool, and like Obi Wan, one who cannot be dissuaded from his damded fool quest.

What of those who follow him. I argue that as the borders of Australia are open (to departures in any event), we are all "the fools who follow him". Is there any wisdom in overthrowing an order to chase a dream? In this case, certainly not. Science is free and globalised so Tony can't stop the growth of knowledge. His foolish will be his downfall as he finds he is increasingly isolated in a world that takes science seriously. In a sense, we fools can wait. Wisdom will return at the next election, or perhaps the one after. (Does anyone else think that his interest in Australia returning to military involvement in the middle east might e a ploy to maintain a sense of fear and uncertainty that workds in the favour of governments in elections?)

Let me dare to be hugely controversial now and look at the Catholic Church's review of the family. Certainly, the current view of a "regular family", even though the terms are modern, are very ancient. However, they would only have ever applied to the wealthy. The poor made do with the little they had, and I imagine were very pragmatic in acknowledging where the next meal came from. The wealth of the industrial revolution changed this and the "regular family" became the norm for a century or so. The challenges and opportuities of the modern times has seen it decline again, the here Pope Francis jumps in an calls a Synod for later this year to see what can be done to better include irregular families in the life of the Church.

Only a fool would take on this traditional a teaching, even as pope. And yet, the Chruch does not brook dissent, so we are the fools who follow him. Is it wise to be a fool (and follow meekly) in this case, or should we change the order to chase a dream? He looks young enough to be with us for a while yet, so waiting for a change will see us wait for a long time. Certainly I expect him to be Pope long after the scrapping of Tony Abbott, and the reintroduction of science to Australian government.

If you strike me down,
I shall become more powerful
that you can possibly imagine

The Bedwetters are Wrong and the Hockey Stick is Broken

It seems that every few days there is news of another scandal involving the fabrication of "evidence" in support of alleged man made global warming. Today I read about the Data Rigging Scandal in the US Temperature Records but this is only the latest in a long line of political interference with science.

I don't understand why people are shocked about this, especially with something that is patently dodgy like alleged man made global warming. Science, like any profession, is just as likely to be prone to human failings leading to corruption, misconduct and criminality as any other profession. And this is more so when there is an obvious global agenda propagated by a small number of wealthy interests that want to socially engineer (and tax the crap out of) the unfortunate majority of the world's population.  It is the same wealthy special interest groups and corrupt governments that are bankrolling most of science, and guess what: they only fund research that fits in with their own agenda. Try applying for a grant to study the effects of solar cycles on planetary temperature (as distinct from an anthropocentric research project) and see how far you get.

I am sick and tired of the bedwetters (to copy the phrase used by a well known politically incorrect climate change sceptic) carrying on about alleged man made global warming while more and more data comes in showing there is no global warming. And, because the bedwetters love computer models (as distinct from actual measuresements) enough time has now passed to test the stupid and ill-informed models propagated by elitists like Al Gore (I bet he and his 5 mansions and lear jet has a small carbon foot print).

 
All of Gore's fear mongering predictions have failed. The best was the 2007 prediction that the arctic summer would be ice free by 2013. Wrong. the latest satellite data show that Arctic ice cover has actually expanded 50 percent over 2012 levels. In fact, during October 2013, sea-ice levels grew at the fastest pace since records began in 1979. And what about all the polar bears would die. No, the bears live and maybe they can move to Egypt where Cairo just had its first snowfall in 100 years.

The worst predictions have come from the United Nations, that organization that has never seen a third world family it did not want to sterilise. The UN claimed in its latest global-warming report to be 95 percent sure that human emissions of carbon dioxide were to blame for rising temperatures. Those claims, now deservedly widely laughed at around the world, were made despite the fact that every single one of its computer models has been entirely discredited by the lack of warming for the last 17 years. Many experts are now even predicting global cooling.

Yes, you heard correctly. Monthly global mean surface temperature anomalies (average global temperature) as measured by Satellite (a measurement, not a model) show that there has been no global warming for the last 17 years.

There is no hockey stick. And what are the bedwetters doing now? They have stopped saying "global warming" and have started saying "climate change".

Hang on, is this science? When the evidence doesn’t support your conclusion you change the name of the phenomenon. Recently President Obama (I guess he needs a 'carbon' tax because he has bankrupted America) said the record cold in the United States was evidence of global warming. HANG ON, so if temperatures go up it is evidence of global warming and if temperatures go down it is evidence of global warming. Bullshit: they are making it up as they go along.

My favourite news item of January 2014 has been about the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskly stranded in ice in the Antarctica sea. What has not been so widely reported (typical of a media largely owned by the same elitists that promote the global warming myth) is that the ship was full of global warming sycophants led by Chris Turney, a professor of climate change (there really is such a thing: amazing what money can buy) at UNSW.

The  purpose of the expedition was to retrace the Mawson expedition of 1912 and take duplicate "readings" of that expedition in order to show how much global warming has effected Antarctica in the last century. However, they are comparing data from 100 years ago when there was no sea ice in the same location and they proved the opposite of what they wanted. Absolutely brilliant, you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!

The next time people feel warm or  hot I suggest they walk outside and take a look at the sky. Yes, there is a bloody great bright hot thing up there. It is a star which we call the sun. It generates heat. Now compare atmospheric CO2 levels and global temperature (no correlation) with  solar irradiance  and global temperature (a correlation). Not that hard: I suggest UNSW appoint a professor of solar irradiance.

It is high time we move on from the global warming fraud and focus on real problems. The nuclear tragedy at Fukushima, for example, is a genuine global problem that deserves attention and massive resources. The dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean at horrendous levels every single day now constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination. This is the sort of thing that bedwetters need to worry about.

 

Another anniversary - 50 years since Sacrosanctum concilium

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 2nd Vatican Council document Sacrosanctum concilium.

Here are three different takes on what has happened since that day. This will not be a universally held view but I believe we, the whole western church, was completely dudded by what we were given.

New Liturgical Movement: Is Your Liturgy Like What Vatican II Intended?

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2013/12/is-your-liturgy-like-what-vatican-ii.html#.Up7TxOJCrK0

Fr Z: 50 years today: Bugninicare

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/12/50-years-ago-today-bugninicare/  (Fr Z must be having a really bad day)

Rorate Caeli:

50 years of Sacrosanctum Concilium and what the Council has wrought "The Destruction of the Roman Rite"

 http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/12/50-years-of-sacrosanctum-concilium-and.html

 This:

 

playing pseudo-novel self-centred (immanentist?) games in a building purposely built to lead us to a transcendent worship of the eternal God

or this:

 

Despite the less than transcendent architecture the form and disposition is focussed on the transcendent and the true relation of creature to Creator. The old, tried ways, made new in each generation.

The Abuse crisis, and the Ostrich land of the Australian episcopate and its lay apparatchiks

Was this read out to you last Sunday? :

http://cathnews.com/images/documents/media/131112%20TJH%20Council%20Statement%20of%20Commitment.pdf

better than this arrogant statement of a year ago: http://www.sydneycatholic.org/justice/royalcommission/Royal%20Commission%20Bishops%27%20Response%20November%202012.pdf

The priest who read it where I went to Mass, who I consider to be a very saintly man, was obviously very pained by it and his distress at the monstrosity of the crimes and the poor response, and the damage to the mission of the Church were palpable. More so than for any bishop I have heard speak of it in this country I have to say.

And still what seems lacking is an owning of this by those who are actually in ‘leadership’ – quickly the statement slips to ‘the Church’ as if we were all party to these decisions and actions.

And still no material sign of repentance – bishops and priests should do public penance, and if the laity choose to follow their ‘leading from the front’ well and good but enough of this Black Adderish – “behind the front, 40 miles behind the front”

And then this from Francis Sullivan:

http://www.tjhcouncil.org.au/media/42843/131120-Media-Release-TJHC-calls-on-all-Catholics-to-take-responsibility-for-Church-response-to-sex-abuse.pdf

as Australia Incognita has said many times “they just don’t get it”

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/breaking-up-club-can-we-really-do.html

 

 

Summer Has Arrived in Sydney

Today there have been bushfires burning around Sydney. This afternoon a smoky haze descended over the whole city. Daughter #3 took these photos on her phone from her school and from our back yard.

Closer to the fires the sky was blood red, as shown in this photograph from the news. It was taken from a bridge in South Sydney:

It is times like this that the 'weekend cottage in the Blue Mountains' does not seem so romantic. I also add this photograph that daughter #2 took from the local library looking west:

Lying for War

Lying for war, is there anything worse?

Michaelmas

Today is Michaelmas, the Feast Day of the Dedication of St Michael the Archangel.

Today our world needs the intercession of St. Michael more than ever. Evil is marching forward on so many fronts, and Christian civilisation is fading. The morality of our society has degraded so much in my own lifetime, and at an accelerated rate over the last 20 years.

This website has covered a number of earthly battles but we must not forget the victory of St Michael in the heavenly battle.

  And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels:

  And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.

  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

  And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night.

  (The Apocalypse, 12.7-10)

 

One of my favourite prayers:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

(The Raccolta, 447)

St Michael, pray for us.

Who Would Have Ever Thought

When we were at university in the 1980s the Cold War was in full swing.

How times have changed. Who would have ever thought the President of Russia would make more sense than the President of the United States. While I disagree with the praise for the United Nations, the following letter from Vladimir Putin is far more honest and shows more humanity than the rubbish that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have been spouting over the last couple of weeks.

I am incensed that Australia's ally, the United States, is by itself and by its proxies (feudal Arabian nations) supporting terrorists in Syria who are Butchering Christians and Destroying Churches. The Syrian regime is terrible, but so are their opponents in the civil war. It it is just plain evil of the United States to support terrorism in one country and then complain about it in another country. Obama and his cronies have no morality. They deserve no allegience and make me ashamed of our nation's close and unquestioning ties with America. Our country should be speaking out, in truth, like real friends do.

Vladamir Putin:

"MOSCOW — RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.

The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.

Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world.

Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.

From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.

No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack — this time against Israel — cannot be ignored.

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”

But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.

No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.

The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security. Thus a growing number of countries seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you. We are left with talk of the need to strengthen nonproliferation, when in reality this is being eroded.

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.

A new opportunity to avoid military action has emerged in the past few days. The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian government’s willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction. Judging by the statements of President Obama, the United States sees this as an alternative to military action.

I welcome the president’s interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.

If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal".

If America is the world's policeman, it has become a bent copper.

Sleepwalking into Tyranny

Apple has just announced the new iPhone 5C and 5S, which will be released in Australia before any other country.

Australians are regarded as the world's best "early adopters" when it comes to technology. Aren't we lucky? Not in this case.

The new iPhone 5C and 5S is described as "the most advanced iPhone ever with our most forward thinking technologies" and "The rumours of a fingerprint scanner built into the home button of the iPhone 5S  have proved correct. The Touch ID technology can be used to unlock your phone or to confirm your  identity when making purchases at iTunes and the app store. Apple said each person's identification details would be stored on the phone  and not on an Apple server".

I reckon all of the 'forward thinking' has been done by the NSA and other alphabet agencies. Now millions of sheeple will willingly hand over their fingerprints to Big Brother without needing to be arrested and detained first. Just like most social media is 'write your own NSA file and don't forget the photographs', here is another step in the sleepwalk into tyranny.

No doubt brainless mobile phone addicts will shout "but its so green and pretty and it can't be bad" and Apple will declare "your fingerprints are safe with us". Yeah Right. Now your pretty little iPhone can record and transmit conversations (even when its turned off), track your movements with GPS in real time, AND fingerprint you!

I hate mobile phones and I don't have an iPhone. I certainly would never get the 5C or the 5S.