Monday, February 22, 2010

No peak oil and no global warming.

First, I feel compelled to mention that at the time of this writing, President Obama still has most of President Bush's financial team operating.  Why he thinks that the people who caused the problem can solve it is beyond me, but certain facts are not arguable.  President Obama inherited the Titanic and took office as it was sinking.  Now the vultures are out and accuse him of causing it to sink.  He didn't; but he has no viable plan to salvage it, either.  I think about this a lot and I make every attempt to see the big picture.  I cannot imagine that Obama is going to get a second term but I dread even more that the person who does, if we have not completely self-destructed by then, will be a far-right or far-left radical. The pendulum can only swing so far.

So let us place the blame where it is due.  It was the Bush policy that everyone should be able to own a home and that government should not regulate Wall  Street or the Mortgage industry. That was the start of toxic mortages.  It was the Bush policy that no child should be left behind and so all children automatically pass in school whether or not they learn the material or even whether or not they attend their classes.  It was the Bush Administration that allowed New Orleans to sink under Katrina and it was the Bush Administration who started two wars against countries which were not instrumental in producing 9/11 and dreamed up Godawful abortions like the TSA which trains it's employees to assume that every citizen is a potential terrorist and to treat them thus.

It was President George 'Dubya' Bush who stated that "There is such a thing as too much freedom" and "The Constitution is just a piece of paper".  It was the Conservative Republican White House and Congress who passed the Patriot act and determined that it was a Presidential privilege to simply draft a 'signing order' to approve warrantless spying on American citizens without probable cause or a court order.  As a matter of fact, I can tell you exactly what happened and I attach it as Appendix 1.

Now that I have indicted every person from both parties, conservative and liberal, who either failed to notice that our essential liberties were being rolled up or noticed but didn't care because it didn't affect them. It doesn't affect the rich until the very end, before which they are oblivious to the current washing the fabric of sociey.

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We now return to our regular broadcast.

I have heard this several times in the past few days:

(1) there is no such thing as 'peak oil'.  Oil reserves (and, I assume this includes coal and the various methane gas mixtures from thermogenic, biogenic and abiogenic sources) are effectively unlimited.

(2) Global warming is a myth. No matter now much fossil fuel we burn, we, as a species, cannot possibly impact the natural heating and cooling cycles of the atmosphere. (I assume that a man-made nuclear winter is therefore impossible as well.)

(3) Both of these ideas are part of a vast conspiracy by liberals in general and Barack Obama in particular to enslave our minds and make us socialists, although the plan has been in effect for between ten and thirty years or more, depending upon who tells the story.   This is occurring because Barack Obama spent a couple of years of grade school in Indonesia being programmed to be a Marxist.

(4) Life is sacred or at least valuable and the earth can sustain any possible population.

I do not know where to begin to dismantle this so I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning. Stop me when you can demonstrate a factual course correction.  First, let us agree to the scientific data we can agree upon and from there we shall move on to discuss what we do not agree upon.  Public records and the signing of them into law speak for themselves.

The Sun.  I concur, as a basis to begin the discussion, that the following is a reasonably accurate assessment of what we know about the sun and it's relationship, including the general timeline, to earth and biogenesis.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

The Earth.  Since this article makes the point of the first one, I feel comfortable in agreeing with it generally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth

Our tertiary article regards Venus, our sister planet.   We can probably still all agree at this point that what happened to Venus (The Venus Syndrome) is going to happen to Earth eventually.

So the questions are merely these:

Are the earth's non-renewable resources infinite for our purposes?

Is it possible for the human race to have any effect at all upon the Earth?  I will split this question into parts involving fresh water, food, disease, he oceans and life in them, atmospheric temperature, atmospheric composition and the life it supports, global population, desertification, rate and number of species extinction.  I shall assume that the numbers at http://www.worldometers.info/ are sufficient for our needs and I will postulate as an initial debating point that life as we know it exists at the air-sea boundary regardless of the CO2 uptake of 

 

Appendix 1:  President Bush signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon another $500-plus-billion, is entitled, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."

For President Bush, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" meant to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

An article on "recent contract awards" in a recent issue of the slick, insider "Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International" reported that "global engineering and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellog, Brown & Root] announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term," the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) - in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." The report points out that "KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton." (3) So, in addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing military maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the president in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism."

Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.' As such, it has been the best protection we've had against the power-hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on using force to enforce its will.

Unfortunately, the President dealt posse comitatus, along with American democracy, a near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused citizenry to undo the damage wrought by this horrendous act, part andarcel, as we have seen, of a long train of abuses and outrages perpetrated by this authoritarian administration.

Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no outcry in the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in Congress. On September 19th, a lone Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted that 2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to allow the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's governors."

Senator Leahy went on to stress that, "we certainly do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and using the military for law enforcement activities goes against some of the central tenets of our democracy. One can easily envision governors and mayors in charge of an emergency having to constantly look over their shoulders while someone who has never visited their communities gives the orders."

A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language of which, he said, "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law." This had been "slipped in," Leahy said, "as a rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals."

In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that "the implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous". "There is good reason," he said, "for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."

Senator Leahy's final ruminations: "Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago that this outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to this point. It seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the Conference because the Pentagon and the White House want it."

The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the dead of night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is now an accomplished fact.

The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law operations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, "Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Legislative Provisions," authorizes "the Secretary of Defense to create a Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness of the Department of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying relevant DOD technology to federal, State, and local first responders."

In other words, the law facilitates the "transfer" of the newest in so-called "crowd control" technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from the Pentagon to local militarized police units. The new law builds on and further codifies earlier "technology transfer" agreements, specifically the 1995 DOD-Justice Department memorandum of agreement achieved back during the Clinton-Reno regime.(4)

It has become clear in recent months that President Obama has not only failed to rescind the intent of these signing statements, but has embraced them.  A critical mass of the American people saw through the lies of the Bush administration and elected a Democratic President and Congress but that was self-defeating. It is now President Obama who may at any time declare himself dictator.

Source:
(1) http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/091906a.html and http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092906b.html See also, Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster Assistance:  Legal Issues," by Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney, August 14, 2006

(2) http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill+h109-5122

(3) Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, "Recent Contract Awards", Summer 2006, Vol.12, No.2, pg.8; See also, Peter Dale Scott, "Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps," New American Media, January 31, 2006.

(4) "Technology Transfer from defense: Concealed Weapons Detection", National Institute of Justice Journal, No 229, August, 1995, pp.42-43.

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts... the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -~Edmund Burke

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