Mars: Analyzing Layers of History - 4

Gale Crater on Mars formed by impact.

In the previous post in this series we discussed a rumor about a major discovery on Mars that did not pan out.

But, last Tuesday NASA informed us of the results from the first drilling exercise ever by any human-made robot exploring another planet.

The Curiosity Rover, in Gale Crater on Mars, drilled into a rock to see what history the inside of the rock could reveal.

It was one for the history books, a major scientific discovery.

One of the science team leaders said that there was drinkable water there when the rock was formed, and biological life could have existed there:

An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month.

"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."

(NASA Curiousity Rover, emphasis added, see video below). Today, let's concern ourselves with what they did not say, but what is obvious from the context.

The graphic portrayal of an asteroid crashing into Mars to form Gale Crater, depicted at the top of today's post, is the main historical consideration.

We discussed the geology and topography of Gale Crater earlier in the series (Mars: Analyzing Layers of History).

But the finding by NASA that clean, potable water was abundant after the catastrophe that created Gale Crater is what I want to talk about today.

Because it means that Mars had robust life at the time of the impact, robust biological life.

Why?

Because clean water flowing eons after a catastrophe like that would be very similar to what happened on Earth to form Chicxulub:

A panel of 41 international experts, including UK researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, University College London and the Open University, reviewed 20 years' worth of research to determine the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which happened around 65 million years ago. The extinction wiped out more than half of all species on the planet, including the dinosaurs, bird-like pterosaurs and large marine reptiles, clearing the way for mammals to become the dominant species on Earth.

The new review of the evidence shows that the extinction was caused by a massive asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub (pronounced chick-shoo-loob) in Mexico. The asteroid, which was around 15 kilometres wide, is believed to have hit Earth with a force one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It would have blasted material at high velocity into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that caused a global winter, wiping out much of life on Earth in a matter of days.

(From Deepwater I To Deepwater II). Something similar must have happened on Mars at Gale Crater, since such a large crater was formed.

Life anywhere near the impact site would have been vaporized, and a mass extinction would have begun.

But then, the abundant water of Mars came back into play over vast amounts of time, and eventually covered and filled Gale Crater.

Later, over time water and wind eroded it back to its condition and appearance today (see Cosmic Rosetta Stones?).

It would have taken a very long time, but the NASA space rover with a laboratory of tools has discovered that Mars survived the impact, and clean water flowed again, after the impact, for a long time at Gale Crater.

Some astronomers think that a water-world type planet existed between Mars and Jupiter, that it exploded for some reason (failed Dyson Grid?), and that nearby catastrophe caused damage which removed life from Mars over a long span of time (see e.g. Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 7, Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 11, and Exploded Planet Hypothesis).

Hope we find some microbes or fossils next.

The previous post in this series is here.

The Peak of The Oil Lies - 5

Spindle Top

In this series we have been discussing the issue of Peak Oil, a reality based on the additional reality that oil is a finite resource.

The post today is about a suspected cover-up of that approaching reality by government and Oil-Qaeda.

We therefore ask, "is there any way oil from the mid-east [Iraq, Libya, etc.] could reach our pipelines after being hauled here by tankers, then be purposely confused as new fracked oil under classified or top secret government information no one can discover?

It would not be the first time:

Moreover, recently declassified documents show that Saudi Arabia made secret oil shipments to the US military, to ensure that its operations in Vietnam would not be compromised.

(The Emperor Has No Clothes - Princeton University, p. 21, emphasis added). The Dredd Blog series about Iraq becoming the big oil exporter (Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer? - 8) cast new light on the reason Iraq was invaded (BP Is Too Busy In Iraq to Help Gulf).

So, when Iraq became the second largest OPEC producer after Saudi Arabia, did it raise eyebrows as to why Iraq was invaded?

Why would that not be done now just to cover up peak oil's reality and not scare the hell out of the people?

Iraq has secretly shipped oil in the past, and there have been worse events in the oil addiction history (US Invasions Due To trying to stop Oil payments in dollars).

And Oil-Qaeda uses torture tactics when it comes to oil addiction (Torture In Iraq, El Salvador by US, Same, Guardian video, Steele disappears, Petraeus Torture Afficianado).

And they will snub the Constitution in public (The Drone Czar Sworn In On Copy of Constitution without Bill of Rights).

Repressive governments like to cover big things up, and once in awhile they get away with it for a long time (The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking).

So, why wouldn't the government and Oil-Qaeda try to fool us by saying that oil arriving from Iraq, and being put into our pipelines, is Canadian Tar Sands Oil, or shale kerogen oil acquired by fracking?

A recent Dredd Blog post reveals that the government is already disobeying the law, if they really are using tar sands oil (Keystone XL Pipeline Litigation?), but maybe they really aren't using tar sands oil.

Historically, the big companies that form MOMCOM / Oil-Qaeda (e.g. 10 largest military arms companies) and their bosses The Epigovernment, have done far worse than lie to us.

Even if, like Saudi Arabia did during the Vietnam war, Iraq secretly furnishes oil for the military, that would be a huge amount, since they are the largest oil user in the government.

Just sayin' ...

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

---

---

Common Cause

The grapic today is because Bob Dylan was given an honor no other rock / folk music persona has ever been given before.

He was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters as an honorary member.

Today, since I am following the Common Cause inspired events being streamed online that are reflecting on the Watergate episodes of some 40 years ago, I will get into "the wayback machine."

I may have some posts on the Common Cause event later, but one blockbuster thing so far is the concerns that they all felt:

If Nixon were president today he would not have been impeached because accountability no longer exists, and we have forgotten anything we thought we learned during that episode of American History.

But to show that some things don't change and because of my watching those panels, here are three Dredd Blog posts from this date in 2009:

---

The politicians who have been banksters are treated like royalty.

The people are treated like the subclasses when it comes to taxes sometimes.

Professor Caron notes:

This provision was extraordinarily valuable to Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson, both of whom had hundreds of millions of dollars in unrealized capital gains in Goldman Sachs stock. When they were appointed secretary of the Treasury, they were able to realize all the gains on their stock shares, saving them tens of millions of dollars in taxes, and diversify their portfolios at the same time.

What I have always found interesting about this obscure provision of the tax law is that it recognizes a principle that ought to apply to all taxpayers.

(TaxProf Blog, italics added). What, the tax laws are not even handed? Banksters are special? No way, not in my country!?

---

The Obama administration's lawyers in the Department of Justice have made a silly argument and have argued that prisoners should be denied the justice of due process of law by the courts:

The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there. In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”

Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials, claiming constitutional violations by such officials. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”

The brief was another indication that, at least so far, the new Administration is not moving to make a wide-ranging break with detention policies of the former Bush Administration. While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo by next January, lawyers for the government have taken positions in a variety of detainee court cases that do not propose fundamental change.

(SCOTUS blog). So their position is "We don't torture, but if we do too bad"? Get used to it?

They are siding with those who say "I was following orders", which is the Nuremberg defence.

That is patently bogus and hypocritical. It does not meet the standards we have agreed to and stood for all these decades and centuries.

This chump change does not bode well for the future either, at a time when the reputation of the United States needs to be improved to say the least.

It is egregious when it comes soon after another flip flop on presidential signing statements which Obama raged against in the past.

It is all the more egregious when he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan where the Supreme Court there has upheld:

Afghan courts have produced yet another example of its de-evolution into a medieval Sharia system. The country’s Supreme Court has upheld the 20-year-sentence of Parwez Kambakhsh for blasphemy. He was convicted of asking questions in a university class about women’s rights under Islam and downloading an article on equal rights for woman. We are about to send thousands of more troops into the country to preserve it from . . . radical Islamic influences.

(Professor Turley). Obama what the hell has gotten into you? Is Michele with you on this one?

In another case today before Judge Bates in the DC federal court the administration departed from the Bush II regime:

The Obama Administration disclosed on Friday that it will no longer claim the power to detain terrorism suspects under the label “enemy combatant,” even while claiming broad authority to detain those who are a part of terrorist networks or who supplied “substantial support” to such forces.

(SCOTUS blog). It is difficult to tell whether these variations are positions of individual US Attorneys of the Bush II era who are refusing to leave, or whether it is muddled policies that are causing these seemingly inconsistent positions.

---

Remember when your sister or brother did something and you got blamed and punished for it?

China is out to punish you and I for what the past regime has done, unless the current administration cleans up the past regime's mess:

The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said the country was “worried” about its holdings of U.S. Treasuries and called on the United States to provide assurances that the investments were safe, and that China was watching United States economic developments very closely.

“President Obama and his new government have adopted a series of measures to deal with the financial crisis. We have expectations as to the effects of these measures,” Mr. Wen said at a news conference in Beijing after the final session of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese legislature.

“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.”

(NY Times, italics added). The past robber baron regime implemented policies, backed by their supporting banksters, which took value from you.

The value of your house and the value of your stock and perhaps even your job has been diminished by the policies of the past regime.

You got slapped. But you did vote them out of office.

Let's hope we don't get slapped by China too ... for what they did.

---

---

---

Keystone XL Pipeline Litigation?

Can Keystone XL Pipeline contents from the Canadian Tar Sands be purchased or used by agencies of the U.S. Federal Government?

Or can "shale kerogen/oil" be purchased or used by agencies of the U.S. Federal Government?

In yesterday's post we linked to an article which indicated that, during the development of anti-tar sands legislation discussions, the issue was brought up.

House Committee Chairman Henry Waxman indicated in a letter to his Senate counterpart that the answer is no.

Waxman was very clear that the law the House passed, that the Senate passed, and that President Bush then signed into law, does forbid federal agencies from entering into contracts to procure tar sands oil.

A bill introduced by Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) supports that notion in a round about way:

A BILL

To amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to promote energy security through the production of petroleum from oil sands, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Oil Sands Energy Security Act of
2011''.

SEC. 2. PROCUREMENT AND ACQUISITION OF ALTERNATIVE FUELS.

Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42
U.S.C. 17142) is repealed.

(S. 1043). Since one cannot repeal a law that does not exist, the law is active still, so let's take a look at what the statute says:

No Federal agency shall enter into a contract for procurement of an alternative or synthetic fuel, including a fuel produced from nonconventional petroleum sources, for any mobility-related use, other than for research or testing, unless the contract specifies that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and combustion of the fuel supplied under the contract must, on an ongoing basis, be less than or equal to such emissions from the equivalent conventional fuel produced from conventional petroleum sources.

(42 USC §17142). The controversy, therefore, now concerns whether any fuel condensed from Canadian Tar Sands and/or condensed from U.S. shale kerogen would be against federal law.

The first question is "what is a federal agency?"

There is little doubt that it applies to all federal agencies, and that the term agency can apply to military:

Barcelo v. Brown, 478 F. Supp. 646 (D.P.R. 1979), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 643 F.2d 835 (1st Cir. 1981), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Weinberger v. Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305 (1982) (Navy bombing); Aluli v. Brown, 437 F. Supp. 602 (D. Haw. 1977), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 602 F.2d 876 (9th Cir. 1979) (Navy bombing). See also Catholic Action of Hawaii/Peace Educ. Proj. v. Brown, 468 F. Supp. 190 (D. Hawaii 1979), rev'd on other grounds, 643 F.2d 569 (9th Cir. 1980), rev'd sub nom. Weinberger v. Catholic Action of Hawaii/Peace Educ. Proj., 454 U.S. 139 (1981) (Navy munitions facility).

The statute does not exempt the military, which is the largest single federal agency within the government, the largest single user of fossil fuels (see here also).

The act that is forbidden is to "enter into a contract for procurement", which means that any company doing so would risk potentially grave economic detriment because, among other things, their contract could be unenforceable.

The specific substance prohibited is "an alternative or synthetic fuel, including a fuel produced from nonconventional petroleum sources", which is probably ambiguous enough to cause federal courts to go into interpretation mode, since the statute does not define it and it is not a term of art in the language of Oil-Qaeda.

There is very little to no doubt that, all things considered, "Canadian Tar Sands oil and/or shale kerogen" would exceed "the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and combustion of the fuel supplied" from "conventional petroleum sources."

Thus, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in federal court in California, which was transferred to the federal court in Virginia (Sierra Club v DoD).

The case was dismissed in the Virgina federal by Claude M. Hilton, the federal judge concluding that Sierra Club did not have standing because pollution would continue anyway whether or not the military used tar sands oil in violation of the law (Case 1:11-cv-00041-CMH-TRJ, Document 121, Filed 07/29/11). That federal judge was appointed by Reagan and served on the FISA secret court for several years.

So, it may be that violating the laws made to protect the environment will be ignored by the military, and who knows, maybe the other federal agencies as well (When Government Doesn't Get It).

The president could issue an executive order directing them to comply with the law, but that seems unlikely (False Climate Change Meme Infects The President).

Even though global warming induced climate change is the greatest threat to military security, kills millions annually, and endangers hundreds of millions, nobody can sue Oil-Qaeda  -- "go get US Oil-Qaeda" seems to be the position of those who say they want to protect us and make us secure (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment - 2).

---

The lyrics to the following song (Ballad of Oil-Qaeda) are here.

---

---

Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment - 2

In this series we analyze and identify Oil-Qaeda.

The graph to the left, from NOAA, shows the increase within the atmosphere of the quantity of the green house gas we call carbon dioxide.

In the Dredd Blog posts Terrorism We Can Believe In? and Homeland Terrorism & Instability We Can Believe In? regular readers know that we noted the amazing fact that those who are some of the hands-on greatest killers of Americans are amongst those professionals who are said to affectionately adhere to the Hippocratic Oath.

The increase of poisons Oil-Qaeda consistently places into the portion of the Earth we are most intimate with on a second by second basis, the air we must breath every few seconds to stay alive, is also well-depicted by the graph above.

That upward march of the numbers of ourselves that our most trusted professionals kill year to year is both incessant and incompetent.

Is it rocket science to realize that the more poisons we breathe, eat, and drink equates to the more deaths that will result?

Is it rocket science to realize, then, that the Department of Energy is wrong when it says "Oil is the lifeblood of America’s economy", or is it common sense?

Economies suffer when the people report in sick, when weather catastrophes destroy property, and when valuable workers die.

So, as it is turning out year after year the actual truth of the matter on the ground is that Oil is the deathblood of America, of all other nations, of civilization, and of the Earth's living systems.

We have also pointed out that the sickness is evolving from acute to chronic, because a mentally ill desperation is setting in.

A sick desperation which is engendering the latest oil mythology that "getting off foreign oil" and using more "domestic oil" is in our best interests.

Thus, The State Department says, the Keystone Pipeline is the best thing that could happen to us, no matter what scientists or the laws say:

The Keystone XL pipeline, recently approved by the US State Department and awaiting President Obama’s declaration that it is in the “national interest,” will carry oil that is too dirty for the US government to buy — under legislation signed by George W. Bush!

In 2007, President Bush signed into law Section 526 of the Energy Independence and National Security Act of 2007. It prohibits the US government, which is the largest single fuel purchaser in the U.S., from using taxpayer dollars to purchase fuels that have a higher carbon footprint than conventional oil.

(Too Dirty Even for Bush II, cf. 42 USC § 17142). The fact that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was real cozy with lobbyists for the pipeline came up when she publicly said the pipeline to carry illegal oil should be approved (A Giant Cozy Pipeline).

There really is no such thing as "domestic oil" on the planet, because burning it and increasing the deadly green house effect is foreign to the Earth.

Switching to a different domestic drug dealer who has a more deadly foreign drug is not enlightened foreign or domestic policy.

Nor is it any way to kick a deadly habit (New Drug Dealer - Same Addiction).

It is becoming increasingly clear that the graph at the top of this post also tracks a steep increase of assholes who worm their way into Oil-Qaeda (On The Origin of Assholes).

Those are the real terrorists (We Killed More Of US Than They Did - 2) who are bringing mass death and destruction to this civilization:

More than 100 million people will die ... by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday.

As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation DARA.

It calculated that five million deaths occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.

More than 90 percent of those deaths will occur in developing countries, said the report that calculated the human and economic impact of climate change on 184 countries in 2010 and 2030. It was commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change.

"A combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade," the report said.

(New Climate Catastrophe Criminality Policy, quoting a report commissioned by 20 governments). Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has also argued that the increase of mental illness is also attributed to professionals.

Especially the propagandists who we call McTell News, who like to detach us from reality (see Etiology of Social Dementia through Etiology of Social Dementia - 8).

These propagandists are constantly talking about al-Qaeda, but never talking about the real enemy, Oil-Qaeda:

America’s top military officer in charge of monitoring hostile actions by North Korea, escalating tensions between China and Japan, and a spike in computer attacks traced to China provides an unexpected answer when asked what is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region: climate change.

Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen ... that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’

“People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.”

(The Boston Globe, emphasis added). You might also want to read the Dredd Blog post: Has The Navy Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?

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

---

---