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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Here Come De Conservative Judges - 2

In the first post of this series, over two years ago, in March of 2009 Dredd Blog commented on the state of the federal judiciary (the federal courts).

This blog was careful to point out that the federal judicial branch of government had become more right-wing than at any time since 1937.

At about that time Dredd Blog also wondered whether or not the New Judicial Code of Conduct would have little bearing, some bearing, or a significant bearing on the matter of ongoing judicial evolution from left to right.

In a post a couple of weeks later, Conservative Judiciary vs Obama, Dredd Blog broached the subject once again suspecting that the president would run up against the evolution in the federal court from left to right wing.

In that same time frame, Dredd Blog pointed out the importance of the quality of the federal branch of government, the judiciary, in the post Common Sense and Marbury v Madison.

Dredd Blog noted that the federal courts are the courts who determine what the U.S. Constitution says, and therefore the U.S. Constitution was "become" more right wing.

Then Dredd Blog discussed conservative judicial activism that would affect racial matters, as well as affect election matters in a very significant way.

About a year ago Dredd Blog focused on the agenda of the right wing portion of the GOP to stuff the federal courts with right wing judges.

When the constitutionality of the health care legislation President Obama signed into law, regarding health care reform, was called into question by lawsuits, Dredd Blog pointed out once again that there was reason to revisit the ongoing evolution from left to right in the federal courts.

In the post A Case of Big Oil v Climate Change, Dredd Blog saw this evolution from left to right at work in the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in terms of how right wing courts would handle climate change litigation.

That was soon focused on again by Dredd Blog when the Deepwater Horizon disaster lawsuit came to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Fifth Circuit ruled for the oil companies against the federal government's attempt to halt deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for awhile.

Now the conservative judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled against the health care reform legislation President Obama signed into law, and a federal judge in Wyoming has ruled against federal oil drilling regulations on land.

The health care reform legislation case is now headed to the Supreme Court of the U.S. where its fate is not certain.

These cases are indications as to how the law will change when the full impact of the evolution from left to right plays out in the federal courts.

New Conservative Judicial Garb

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Coldest July or Warmest July? - 2

Two years ago on this date Dredd Blog asked the question Coldest July or Warmest July?

Here is a repost of that post:
It depends on where you look on the map.

The blue areas were colder in July, the red areas were hotter in July, and the other colors were in-between degrees. Thus, depending on the location the answer is "both".

If you look at only the local data in some northern states you can argue that it was one of the coldest July's, but if you look else where you can find it was the hottest July.

As we have pointed out here, the big picture is the true picture and the big picture is the global picture:
NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) has determined that July of 2009 was the second warmest July globally, since records were kept going back well over a hundred years.
(Huffpo, AccuWeather, emphasis added). If you want to be intellectually honest about global climate you can't cite the weather in Paducah, Kentucky as the true picture for the entire global reality.

Proper analysis also depends on whether you are talking land mass or oceans, because there is some evidence that "July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping."
The July of this year, two years later, should have helped the deniers climb out of their rabbit hole along with Alice, and get Senator Inhofe of Kansas back to reality.

Two recent posts are offered for current Dredd Blog readers:
Connect The Dots
Tidalgate


For those interested, the world champion climate change deniers list.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 5

The Modern Oil Derrick
Many wonder: "why does MOMCOM have to wage the oil wars?"

In ultimate terms, MOMCOM does not have to wage the oil wars, rather, MOMCOM chooses to wage the oil wars.

Why?

In this post Dredd Blog will posit an answer to that question.

First, readers might want to note that the subject has been addressed on Dredd Blog before.

The background for the two aspects of the fundamental subject matter we are addressing today is contained in a series of previous posts, which contain relevant references concerning the oil wars that are chronicled on the Series Posts tab (top of page), under the heading "OIL (as a source of wars)".

References for the other aspect of this subject matter: consumption run amok (concerning the use of oil to the point of oil addiction) is chronicled on the Series Posts tab, under the heading "SANITY (of civilization)".

Today, in this post we remember that about a century ago civilization's leaders made the choice to switch to oil without prior, adequate research as to the consequences of doing so.

We also note today, the decades-later choice to become addicted to oil without sufficient will to handle that addiction.

Today we will also factor in the continuing choice to allow civilization, time after time, to grow to the point where there isn't enough oil to sustain civilization, meaning that some nations are going to have to go without their fair share, one way or another.

Finally today, we can also once again acknowledge that those choices have become compelling, crippling factors in MOMCOM thinking; concluding that MOMCOM has now unnaturally engendered the choice to give birth to the oil wars, rather than abort those wars (because that is how addicts think).

For starters, consider an article that has been tidied up a bit by editors, but will nevertheless set the context for the current oil state of affairs:
Oil is the most strategic raw material. It can hardly be overstated how crucial petroleum is to our modern industrial society. Oil fuels the economy. It is the largest single traded product in the world. It provides about 95 per cent of all transportation fuels and 40 per cent of global energy. Oil is also determinant of national security. Today's modern armies are entirely dependent on oil-powered ships, planes, helicopters and armoured vehicles. Oil also supplies feedstock for thousands of manufactured products and is vital for food manufacturing. Some 17 per cent of our energy is used for producing food. Modern agriculture makes heavy use of oil in a variety of ways. We use oil for fertilisers, pesticides, and for the packaging and distribution of food.
(Public Service, "Past Peak Oil - Life After Cheap Fossil Fuels"). That is what happens when editors get hold of scary facts, they water it down for those they think "can't handle the truth".

The posts here on Dredd Blog don't do that, we just get the facts out and let the readers decide if it scares them or not, rather than let an editor decide what scares you or not.

For example, in A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 2, we show that the 1973 movie Soylent Green is a reality in the sense that we even eat oil (it's in food).

That post also shows that oil is the very foundation of civilization to the point that if you are "in civilization" some oil product is in you, on you, used by you, or somewhere within eyesight.

That includes the military, who are quite aware that military domination includes the domination of the oil supply on this planet.

So, MOMCOM has engaged in a policy of dominating the Middle East and any other area of the Earth where oil is still in "cheap" supply, having first "educated" themselves with the doctrine that "war is an art, not a disease".

Which brings us to the burgeoning subject of the ongoing, and soon to peak, oil wars:
In Dredd Blog's estimation The Peak of Sanity of our current civilization was reached when the decision was made at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to switch to oil as the source of energy.

Flowing inevitably from that decision to become oil addicts to a finite source of the oil drug would be the day of The Peak Of Oil, when the supply begins to constantly diminish in quantity and in quality.

That peak of the availability of oil would then inevitably lead to the typical addict's reaction to any removal of the addict's supply of the drug of choice.

Dredd Blog calls that final reaction The Oil Wars (something like the opium drug wars of old, or the modern Mexican drug wars) on steroids.
(A Peek At The Peak Oil Catastrophe). In the previous post in this series we pointed out clearly that the Libyan War is an oil war, and how MOMCOM covers that up, concluding that the populace "can't handle the truth".

Readers may wonder just how serious MOMCOM is about these oil wars:
Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times and you’re done ... for the day. Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world’s countries. This new Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now ... One of its key components is the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine sub-command whose primary mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. Reporting to the president and acting under his authority, JSOC maintains a global hit list that includes American citizens. It has been operating an extra-legal “kill/capture” campaign that John Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to four-star general and soon-to-be CIA Director David Petraeus, calls "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine."
(The Virgin MOMCOM - 4, see also The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil). Which means, since the populace does not know about these wars nor do they approve of these types of wars, a de facto coup has taken place.

That is as serious as a "heart attack machine" (Dylan, Desolation Row).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Accountability Is a Four Letter Word - 2

On this date two years ago, Dredd Blog did the following post.

Since accountability is still a worthy subject, it is reposted today:

As you know, if you read this blog often, accountability to this administration thus far has been a four letter word "nope", not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent.

My ballot had Obama on it because I voted to reject the Bush II ideology, and Obama seemed to do so to during the election.

Since then, he has embraced much of the things the voters rejected, and thus he is being rejected by those who voted for him in at least that degree, even as we continue to reject Bush II policies as set forth by neoCon conservatives and the Obama Administration.

A mellow and fair minded law professor who appears on the nightly news shows frequently is fed up with the fascist tendencies of this Department of Justice and the broader administration as I am, and takes off the kid gloves.

Accountability is an integral part of government ethics and without it a government is unethical.



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

When The Government Was Young

Some form of agnosticism is usually the philosophy prevalent at the time of the beginning of a government.

This often is because such "enterprises" are engendered within some type of a conundrum, some type of a problem.

Take the USA for example, who were originally a group wanting to escape the absolutism of a gnostic King.

Well before they ever fully escaped "that" to become "themselves", they were forced to sail upon unknown waters on what was then a flat Earth.

Yes indeed, they sailed into the great realm of "mystery" because the oceans were full of mystery, which means, that since mystery is by definition the complete antithesis of "knowing" (mystery knowing), their actions were a form of agnosticism vs gnosticism, yes, it was insurrection.

Nevertheless, upon attaining the most neophyte, the most preliminary of ultimate indications (they did reach land prior to falling off the edge of the flat Earth) they began to become gnostic.

After a time, and upon further consideration while on dry land, they wrote their Declaration of Independence from agnosticism, as if their DNA was gnostic, absolute, and without doubt now.

They did not waiver in their demands for absolute independence, because they were upon gnostic (solid) ground now.

They were estranged from their original English roots because "people are strange when you are a stranger".

Sometimes rock bands get around to encapsulating this essence of history in a pristine manner.

Take for example the lyrics below, which would fully and completely encapsulate the feelings of the oppressed people of the British Empire ("original Americans") who became the Pilgrims (the strangers).

But more than that, these lyrics encapsulate the evolution of those freedom riders who in reality became THE REBELLION, and who fully encapsulated these lyrics:

I Don't Know

Never have I heard
A more disturbing word
Holdin' out for long
I never felt so quite disturbed.

I get up in the morning now, I don't know
Waiting for the evening now, I don't know
Been lookin' for whats comin' now, I don't know
Would somebody please, help me.

Lookin' back at me
There's more than mystery
Letters and pages of
Ancient history, yeah.

I get up in the morning now, I don't know
I've been waiting for the evening now, I don't know
I've been lookin' for whats comin' now, I don't know
Would somebody please, help me.

I don't know, help me.
I don't know, I don't know, help me.

I don't know, help me.
I don't know, I don't know, help me.

I don't know, help me.
I don't know, I don't know, help me.

(Sheepdogs, I Don't Know). Yes, agnosticism is the essence of young governments, who often humbly exclaim "we don't know".

Likewise, war is entirely anathema to young governments, as we in the Dredd Blog System have intimated ad nauseum according to The Sum, the Test.

But old miserly bastard governments develop The War Religion, seeing as how they finally know everything, then become sovereign gnostics.

Yes, gnosticism in the extreme form eventually replaces agnosticism when the toxins of power fully have their way.

As the Doobie Brothers once said, listen to the music:

It sure makes the mystery more palatable, and perhaps more scientific, when we consider the effect that "aging" has upon government. No?

Monday, August 8, 2011

Connect The Dots

The graphic to the left is a composite of a NOAA "dot based" depiction of record breaking nighttime and daytime record highs set in July around the nation.

In that July report time frame, which ended about a week ago, each dot is a location in the continental USA that experienced record high temperatures in July.

Deniers of the global warming induced climate change will not be able to connect the dots that will eventually float their boats.

It is quite easy to detect the outline of the United States when the dots are connected, which indicates that the warming this summer was wide spread across the nation, rather than only being local to a few spots:
How hot was the month of July in 2011? So hot that just by plotting the location of each daily heat record that was broken, a nearly complete image of the contiguous United States is visible [dot graphic above]. Almost 9,000 daily records were broken or tied last month, including 2,755 highest maximum temperatures and 6,171 highest minimum temperatures (i.e., nighttime records). It should be noted that the tally of records collected so far is not complete – more are expected to come in as station data from across the U.S. is mailed to the National Climatic Data Center. The statistics reported here only include weather stations with real-time electronic reporting, which accounts for about two-thirds of the locations. Final numbers should be available later in August.
(NOAA). The MOMCOM science police will never be able to contain the reality as they have tried to do with the Polar Bears, by falsely accusing scientists.

Why not face up to reality and deal with the problem so that the future of civilization is not covered by a huge cloud of uncertainty as to its continued existence?

Risking billions of lives in the worship of hydrocarbon based energy sources is the most unwise misadventure any supposed civilized people could do, except perhaps drifting into the nether world of denial because of the fear of death.