A Duty To Warn

Liberty Bell

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ASM Defends Science-Based Health Policy in Letter to Executive Branch

"July 14, 2020

In response to a coordinated effort to discredit public health officials, ASM, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued the following letter to Vice President Pence demonstrating support for public health officials who are prioritizing science-based public health strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic​.


Dear Vice President Pence:

During a national public health emergency, it is vital that we lead with science and with the best data available. Our continued response to and successful recovery from the COVID-19 crisis depends on adherence to sound scientific and public health guidance from the experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have made the health and safety of the public the top priority.

As organizations representing thousands of researchers, public health professionals, health care providers and others serving in scientific and health care professional fields, we object to any attempt to cast doubt on science and sow mistrust for public health expertise, and to spread misinformation during this challenging time for all Americans. Such efforts not only put the health of our population in greater peril, but also undermine the work underway to move our country beyond the pandemic and return to normalcy.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus and COVID-19 is a new condition with which we have no prior experience. As is the case with any new pathogen or disease, we are learning in real time. Public health and medicine are inherently dynamic fields that adapt as the science evolves. We have embarked on an unprecedented global effort to develop medical countermeasures and refine public health guidance, and as this work uncovers new knowledge, recommendations can and will change. By heeding the recommendations of those who are on the front lines of progress to combat this virus, we have the best chance at a successful outcome.


Sincerely,

American Society for Microbiology
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Infectious Diseases Society of America
AcademyHealth
African American Health Alliance
American Academy of HIV Medicine
American Association for Anatomy
American Association for Dental Research
American Association for Respiratory Care
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
American Association of Immunologists
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Physiological Society
American Public Health Association
American Society for Cell Biology
American Society for Clinical Pathology
American Society for Investigative Pathology
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
American Society for Virology
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Pediatric Nephrology
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
American Sociological Association
American Thoracic Society
Association for Psychological Science
Association of American Cancer Institutes
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
AVAC
Baruch S. Blumberg Institute
Big Cities Health Coalition
Biophysical Society
Black AIDS Institute
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation
Coalition for the Life Sciences
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Council of Scientific Society Presidents
Cure HHT
Endocrine Society
Genetics Society of America
Hepatitis B Foundation
HIV Medicine Association
Institute for Systems Biology
Institute of Food Technologists
International Society for Stem Cell Research
Jeffrey Modell Foundation
LUNGevity Foundation
NASTAD
National Association of County and City Health Officials
Natural Science Collections Alliance
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Prevention Institute
Safe States Alliance
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
Society of General Internal Medicine
Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP)
Society of Toxicology
STChealth LLC
The Histochemical Society
Treatment Action Group
Trust for America's Health
Vaccinate Your Family
Washington State Department of Health
AIDS Foundation Chicago
American Statistical Association
North Carolina AIDS Action Network
IRMA - International Rectal Microbicide Advocates
HealthHIV
Positive Women's Network-USA
National Coalition for LGBT Health
The Well Project
Cascade AIDS Project
Latinos Salud
Entomological Society of America
AIDS Alabama
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
American Crystallographic Association
North American Vascular Biology Organization
American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM)
AIDS United
AIDS Action Baltimore
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care
WVU Health Sciences Center
American Society for Gravitational and Space Research
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
American Urological Association
The AIDS Institute
IAVI
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
American Medical Technologists
Federation of American Scientists
Pan American Society for Clinical Virology
Association of American Medical Colleges
North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
National Association of School Nurses
AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families
International Mammalian Genome Society
International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)"

Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 13

A trance auction (they're on sale)

I. Preamble

It is uncanny that billions of people can live on a planet yet not know where they are (You Are Here) and that millions of people can live in a nation and likewise not know were they are. 

The first two posts in this series (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) were received as an anomaly by those who are in the "this country is heaven" trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The third post, however, made the room a bit more quiet (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 3).

Today's post, half a decade later, reminds me of:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

(Gandhi). But there is no winning when a country is in the final throes of the things all great civilizations go through suicidally.

II. Popular Finality

 The final throes can only take place when suicidal practices become heroic by virtue of mass popularity:

And that is the final essence of the despotic minority that forms and destroys the civilization through primitive and pervasive fear:

But always TCS is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority). The essence that finally does the deed is probably "it can't happen here."

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 11). How much more prescient can Dredd Blog posts be than this?

III. "It" Is In The Papers

On TV, in the Social Media, and in your face, we just learned that the President of the nation that claims to be the least racist, least fascist, least warmongering, and the most free ... was condemned for racism:

"The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, joined by four Republicans and an independent, voted Tuesday to condemn President Trump for comments about Democratic congresswomen which the resolution described as 'racist.'

The resolution passed 240-187, with no Democrat voting “nay.” The four Republicans to vote in favor were Reps. Susan Brooks (Ind.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Will Hurd (Texas), and Fred Upton (Mich.), who were joined by Republican-turned-independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.). Six Republicans did not vote.

The resolution 'strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color ...'”

(CNS News, emphasis added). The nation that wrote Slavery into its Constitution, the Nation where an uncanny percent of presidents owned slaves (The Germ Theory - of Government - 7), now has to condemn its president for racism.

Have you "come a long way baby?"

IV. But Racism Is Illegal Isn't It?

The courts make decisions that would certainly lead us to think that racism is illegal in the United States:

"For 150 years, the Supreme Court has applied the 14th Amendment in rulings that have shaped civil rights and liberties in America. Introduced to address the racial discrimination endured by Black people who were recently emancipated from slavery, the amendment confirmed the rights and privileges of citizenship and, for the first time, guaranteed all Americans equal protection under the laws. The 14th Amendment continues to be central to the fight for racial equality and many other social justice movements. Still, much work remains to ensure that its protections are inclusive."

(The Supreme Court and the 14th Amendment). Nevertheless, there seems to be a tyrannical insurrection taking place in the USA by a despotic minority.

Which is what took down 26 civilizations in the course of human history (see Encyclopedia Britannica quote above).

History lusts to repeat itself.

V. Laugh It Off

It is disturbing that a lot of media pundits laugh as they discuss these issues and get paid the big bucks for so doing.

Not a wise thing to do.

The previous post in this series is here.

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Ode to HaHa and the gang:

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The Common Good - 12

Not Common Enough?

The fundamental struggle which "groups" (nations, civilizations) must contend with in order to perpetuate themselves is the tension between the common good and the common bad.

That dynamic is discussed in two series here on Dredd Blog (The Common Good, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; How To Identify The Despotic Minority, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

The great historians have identified the issue as an existential one:

But always TCS ["The Creep State"] is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). It seems that just about everyone in the world who is aware of current events knows that the USA is awash in that tentative situation.

Nations who are being overcome by the tyranny of a despotic minority begin to develop various outbreaks of cruelty and dishonesty within.

For example, horrific mistreatment of persecuted people seeking asylum (Asylum Officers: Trump's 'Remain In Mexico' Policy Is Against 'Moral Fabric' Of U.S.).

The majority is taken aback at first, not realizing the gravity of the situation, and therefore they focus on the illusionary, vain words "bipartisanship", "consensus", and the like.

That is, the majority does not realize that the despotic minority is only interested in capitulation from "the other" party, group, race, or religion.

The dynamic to focus on is that those "sins" ("the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority") are infectious and unlikely to be seen as a cultural disease.

They are eventually seen as virtues.

Once the majority realizes the mistake they have made, historically it is too late.

The common bad develops and the civilization commits suicide (fades away as a nation or civilization).

The previous post in this series is here.

The Authoritarianism of Climate Change - 2

Downtown Tomorrow

I. Background

To be honest, I don't know if I put today's post in the correct series.

I didn't know whether to put today's post in this series that began as The Authoritarianism of Climate Change  or instead put it in the Global Warming Induced Climate Change Is A Matter of Law series.

After viewing the videos at the bottom of today's post by Col. L. Wilkerson and R. Admiral Tilley, I chose this series.

II. The Case

Seemingly, in stark contrast to what is generally thought, some kids, some activists, and a scientist ("The American Children"), sued President Obama and Humble Oil-Qaeda ("POHO") in a federal court in Oregon:

"Plaintiffs in this civil rights action are a group of young people between the ages of eight and nineteen ("youth plaintiffs"); Earth Guardians, an association of young environmental activists; and Dr. James Hansen, acting as guardian for future generations. Plaintiffs filed this action against defendants the United States, President Barack Obama, and numerous executive agencies. Plaintiffs allege defendants have known for more than fifty years that the carbon dioxide ("CO₂") produced by burning fossil fuels was destabilizing the climate system in a way that would "significantly endanger plaintiffs, with the damage persisting for millenia." ... Despite that knowledge, plaintiffs assert defendants, "[b]y their exercise of sovereign authority over our country's atmosphere and fossil fuel resources, ... permitted, encouraged, and otherwise enabled continued exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels, ... deliberately allow[ing] atmospheric CO₂ concentrations to escalate to levels unprecedented in human history[.]" ... Although many different entities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, plaintiffs aver defendants bear "a higher degree of responsibility than any other individual, entity, or country" for exposing plaintiffs to the dangers of climate change.
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This is no ordinary lawsuit. Plaintiffs challenge the policies, acts, and omissions of the President of the United States, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation ("DOT"), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA")."

(JULIANA et al. v U.S.). Right away POHO moved the federal court in Oregon to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The case was, as is typical, referred to a Magistrate Judge who recommended that the court deny the POHO motion and allow The American Children to proceed with the case.

The court held, among other things, that:

"The public trust doctrine defines inherent aspects of sovereignty. The Social Contract theory, which heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers, provides that people possess certain inalienable rights and that governments were established by consent of the governed for the purpose of securing those rights. Accordingly, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution did not create the rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness - the documents are, instead, vehicles for protecting and promoting those already-existing rights.
...
Plaintiffs' claims rest "directly on the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment." Davis, 442 U.S. at 243 (1979); see also Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14, 18 (1980) ("[T]he victims of a constitutional violation by a federal agent have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right.") They may, therefore, be asserted in federal court.
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I ADOPT Judge Coffin's Findings & Recommendation (doc. 68), as elaborated in this opinion. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (doc. 27) and Intervenors' Motion to Dismiss (doc. 19) are DENIED.

IT IS SO ORDERED."

(ibid, JULIANA et al. v U.S.). The case will now proceed to the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit if the POHO defendants decide to take an interlocutory appeal at this time, instead of letting it go to trial.

III. The Ramifications

This case is brought at a time when the scenario described by Col. Wilkerson (even before he knew of the election results) is "extremely dangerous" (see first video below !).

Add to that the intention of the Republican Party to load the Supreme Court with climate change deniers, and it adds up to an increased likelihood of a constitutional crisis in our near future.

Unless the W Direction is changed, The American Children will eventually lose this case in the alt-right supreme court, and who knows what else.

IV. Conclusion

I am reminded of a quote in a previous Dredd Blog post:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God."

(Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids? - 2). "The King Can Do No Wrong" ideology is creeping back into our lives it would seem (Sovereign Immunity Source: Toxins of Power?).

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

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See "you in the camps", and see what this very aware Ret. Army Colonel says:

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Ret. Navy Adm. Tilley about a decade ago:

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Awe Topsy

Yes, it really happened

One of the premiere Topsy-turvey autopsy institutions ("Hindsight & Hindsight, Inc.") is busy these days daze.

Down through time, there have been many autopsies of historical events.

They are conducted because of the concept of "who knew?" or "should have known" how to stay the course.

The should-have-known is a legal term emanating from one of the legal concepts about the knowledge we are, as adults, required to have and to use.

Under our system of jurisprudence we are held to factors such as "what did we know" and "when did we know it", but, that is not the end of the matter, because we are also held to the standard of "what we should have known" and "when we should have known it" (You Should Have Known Better, PDF).

You might call it "the law of when," which can be made to seem out of the reach of comprehension where the dynamics involved in some way challenge our trance package or our world view:

"The First Law of 'When': the more critical an issue is to the future of our civilization, the difficulty of determining when that critical issue will take effect tends to increase exponentially.

The Second Law of 'When': the greater the amount of time it takes for that critical issue to play out completely tends to exponentially diminish Civilization's grasp of that critical issue.

The Third Law of 'When': the more destructive the impact which that critical issue would have on civilization tends to exponentially increase the time when that critical event will be understood to have begun to take place."

(Quotes Page). The recent election is a case in point because it does beg some of the questions about "should have known."

In terms of prescience, there are none more blind to the future than those who refuse to be prescient, and none more prescient than those who simplify it:

Professor Allan Lichtman ... has correctly predicted the winner of the popular vote in every presidential election since 1984.

When we sat down in May, he explained how he comes to a decision.

Lichtman's prediction isn't based on horse-race polls, shifting demographics or his own political opinions. Rather, he uses a system of true/false statements he calls the "Keys to the White House" to determine his predicted winner.

And this year, he says, Donald Trump is the favorite to win.
...
So very, very narrowly, the keys point to a Trump victory. But I would say, more to the point, they point to a generic Republican victory ...

(Trump is headed for a win, says professor who has predicted 30 years of presidential outcomes correctly). Others that were better equipped to discern the matter utterly failed to do it (Why HuffPost’s Presidential Forecast Didn’t See A Donald Trump Win Coming).

Similarly, but long ago, a German uh-oh (shown by the book cover at the top of this post) is a culture-wide case where many should have known, but didn't.

The book details the blindness of many in Germany and the world at that time, and is an indictment of those people who should have known it was tending to happen, but utterly failed to take note.

Anyway, for developing vision the basic drill is to be well read and aware:

The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen. Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response. What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’? There it was the Jews. Here it will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation. Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up. This could become an overwhelming force. And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany. The United States is the world power. Germany was powerful but had more powerful antagonists. I don’t think all this is very far away. If the polls are accurate it is not the Republicans but the right-wing Republicans, the crazed Republicans, who will sweep the next election.”

(Noam Chomsky, April 2010, emphasis added). That was spot on, some six years ago, concerning the wrong direction the people polled in the U.S.eh? say the country is going, and has been going (for decades).

So let's consider the source of the prescience, the foresight:

Noam #Chomsky isn't a figure that a lot of American voters are going to be overly familiar with. He's certainly not ignored as he is one of the most-cited people in the history of writing. In fact according to an ancient article from MIT News "his 3,874 citations in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index between 1980 and 1992 make him the most cited living person in that period and the eighth most cited source overrall--just behind famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and just ahead of philosopher Georg Hegel"

(ibid). Yep, there are two types of being "well read," one is reading and writing a lot, the other is when lots of people are reading your writings.

Nevertheless, as Professor Lichtman has shown by 30 years of exact prediction of who would win each presidential election, one does not have to be a Noam Chomsky to be prescient.

On to another case.

The two political parties competing for power in this election had different reactions to the two (in establishment eyes) radical candidates (Trump & Sanders) who were surging and giving the establishment sleepless nights (The Donald University vs. The Lord GOP University, Doomer Tuesday).

Eventually the party that won had backed off from their decision to crush their "unworthy radical candidate" (Trump), however, the other party (that lost) took the opposite approach and surreptitiously worked to thwart the will of the primary election voters.

They officially (albeit surreptitiously) resisted their "unworthy radical candidate" (Sanders).

They had no vision, thus, were doomed to experience the pain of unawareness.

The result of the autopsy, then, is demise by way of a type of ignorance, which is ignoring the plight of the people (cf. Goodbye, American neoliberalism. A new era is here).

In short, they suffered from a lack of vision.

They should have known better.

The next post in this series is here.

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"The country I come from is called 'The Midwest' " ...

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Evolution From Left To Right - 7

Click To Loom² Large

This series is about the social evolution in the U.S.eh? (cf. Evolution From Left to Right, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

There are several branches involved in today's post, two of the other branches being (A Tale of Coup Cities, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) and (Will The Military Become The Police?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Themes along these lines are simply other ways of saying "our civilization is dying":

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). As it turns out, technological "progress" has given the trump card to our civilization, in the sense or lack of sense that we can destroy all human life several times over, which no other civilization was exceptional enough to be able to do.

What drives current social evolution, the eye of the storm as it were, is rebellion from the prophecies of our forefathers and foremothers:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Those truths are well established." - James Madison

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"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

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“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

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“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

And here we are lost in space even with a host of visionaries in our social genealogy.

We have a president who helped destroy the people of a nation because his popularity was at stake (MOMCOM And The Sins of Libya, 2, 3).

He followed in the footsteps of the madman president that preceded him, which is not all that exceptional or unique.

And now we have more madmen and women than usual clamouring for their chance to proceed with the mechanisms of depraved heart murder (Oil-Qaeda & MOMCOM Conspire To Commit Depraved-Heart Murder, 2, 3).

They all want to be pilots (The Elections of Pontius Pilots, 2, 3, 4, 5) or perhaps co-pilots (Inside Job and/or Conspiracy?).

Either way, power wannabes are droning on to the sounds of a dull, primitive roar.

After all, the mass murder of the people on this planet is a big business that is not well understood (You Are Here).

The heroes warriors of this predicament have also evolved to the wrong, while calling it evolution toward the right:

In 1982, historian Joseph Ellis summed up such sentiments in a prophetic passage in an essay titled “Learning Military Lessons from Vietnam” (from the book Men at War):

“[V]irtually all studies of the all-volunteer army have indicated that it is likely to be less representative of and responsive to popular opinion, more expensive, more jealous of its own prerogatives, more xenophobic -- in other words, more likely to repeat some of the most grievous mistakes of Vietnam … Perhaps the most worrisome feature of the all-volunteer army is that it encourages soldiers to insulate themselves from civilian society and allows them to cling tenaciously to outmoded visions of the profession of arms. It certainly puts an increased burden of responsibility on civilian officials to impose restraints on military operations, restraints which the soldiers will surely perceive as unjustified.”

Ellis wrote this more than 30 years ago -- before Desert Storm, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, or the launching of the War on Terror. These wars (and other U.S. military interventions of the last decades) have provided vivid evidence that civilian officials have felt emboldened in wielding a military freed from the constraints of the old citizen army. Indeed, it says something of our twenty-first-century moment that military officers have from time to time felt the need to restrain civilian officials rather than vice versa.

(America's Post-Democratic Military). The zombie wannabees, from the parties, take their marching orders from the marching orders handed down from on high.

But not high enough to validate the hopium of the Stockholm Syndrome culture (Epigovernment: The New Model, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Thus, the rock music, poetry, and high rates of suicide (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The previous post in this series is here.

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The Harm Oil-Qaeda Has Done

Regular readers know that for years Dredd Blog has tracked down and followed the trail of Oil-Qaeda (The Authoritarianism of Climate Change, Oil-Qaeda: The Deadliest Parasite Of Civilization, 2; Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Oil-Qaeda: The Weakening?; Terrarists; The Peak of the Oil Lies, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The purpose was to expose its conspiracy to commit depraved heart murder (DHM) against civilization (Oil-Qaeda & MOMCOM Conspire To Commit Depraved-Heart Murder, 2, 3; MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

There is no meaningful distinction between DHM and extinction, other than the fact that there is a statute of limitations on extinction (The Extinction of Charleston, ... Philadelphia, ... Washington, D.C., ... Robust Sea Ports, ... Boston, ... Miami, ... Manzanillo, ... Houston, ... Providence, ... Chesapeake Bay Islands).

Oil-Qaeda is the largest psychopathic-meme-complex in history, exhibiting all of the maladjusted behavioural characteristics of individual psychopaths, but doing so in concert as a group:

"In 1977, [Oil-Qaeda] scientists began to discuss the threat of disruptive climate change as a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels. The [private empire] launched cutting-edge research into the effects that carbon dioxide emissions would have on the climate. Based on that research, [Oil-Qaeda] scientists warned [Oil-Qaeda] leadership that carbon dioxide emissions would warm the planet, with potentially catastrophic repercussions.

Rather than accept what their own scientists were saying, top executives at [Oil-Qaeda] started a massive campaign of disinformation. By 1997, the chief executive of [Oil-Qaeda], Lee Raymond, was publicly claiming that the connection between human activities and climate change was inconclusive and uncertain. Forbes magazine wrote that Raymond “used his executive chair as a platform for espousing his disbelief in global warming.”

[Oil-Qaeda] created advertisements that contradicted its own research on global warming. The [private empire] funded the Global Climate Coalition, an organization of [criminally conspiring] companies dedicated to derailing government efforts to slash emissions from fossil fuels.

[Oil-Qaeda] also spent millions of dollars in the form of political campaign donations, lobbying fees and public relations strategies to discredit climate science and disrupt any forceful state or federal action to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The [private empire] also supported think tanks that attempted to discredit climate science and scientists.

In 2001, [Oil-Qaeda] lobbyists helped convince President George W. Bush to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol. By 2006, the [private empire] was funneling tens of millions of dollars to at least 43 organizations dedicated to discrediting climate science. [Oil-Qaeda] opposed historic climate and energy legislation such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill. The measure died in the Senate in 2009."

(The Harm Exxon Mobil Has Done, emphasis added). ExxonMobil devolved from Humble Oil-Qaeda.

It does not matter which way we look at it, the bottom line is that Oil-Qaeda, through its deception, is the force of cognition that has led civilization to the brink (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

Regular readers know that Oil-Qaeda likes to remind us that it is "not an American company" (MOMCOM: The Private Parts, 2, 3, 4, 5).

I like to remind Oil-Qaeda that where it makes its bed does not matter, what matters is the will or lack thereof of officials charged with prosecuting crimes against the United States (Follow The Immunity, 2, 3).

The corruption of officials has been the mainstay of Oil-Qaeda, and still is to this very day.

Until that changes, extinction gets closer each day.

The next post in this series is here.

Global Warming Blaze

Blaze
(by Zack Strait)

we were riding out to an abandoned farmhouse
on his pearl black Triumph

deaf to the sound of bleating sheep

that was when he told me it was the same model
James Dean had swapped for
three days after

they’d finished filming East of Eden

I tried to tell him that was cool but he didn’t act
like he’d heard me
so I hugged him tight

and set my head on his shoulder

and watched how the yellow moon was shifting
behind the pines
like the face of a jailbird

he’d told me before that his wife knew he didn’t
swing her way
but she was keeping quiet about it

for their kid’s sake

we rumbled into the dry grass and started cutting
through the cornstalks

into a big clearing where he kicked
the bike stand
and told me to get off

he tossed his chrome aviators and then we started
our hike to the farmhouse
which was sagging in the field

opposite of us

we were quiet on the way like a couple of thieves
about to rob someone blind

I stood back as he tore a warped door
off the barn
and flung it into the gravel

inside the air was dusty and thick and the moon
was still with us
cocked behind a streaked window

like we’d traded places

and now we were the jailbirds serving a lifetime
sentence without parole

John pulled off his steel-toe boots
and told me to wait for him
up in the hayloft

I left my loafers there and climbed a wood ladder
until I was looking into the eyes
of a great horned owl

he kept shaking his head
like he couldn’t believe what was about to happen

I was going to be John’s first

but while I was gathering the wet straw
I smelled smoke
and slid back down the ladder

that was when I saw the fire licking the crossbeams
and ran outside

John was passing through the wheat
like a final judgment

his figure was muscled with flame and I kept silent
as he reached for a head of grain

and burned it to the ground

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"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"
(by Arcade Fire)

I woke up with the power out
Not really something to shout about
Ice has covered up my parents hands
Don't have any dreams, don't have any plans

I went out into the night
I went out to find some light
Kids are swingin' from the power lines
Nobody's home, so nobody minds

I woke up on the darkest night
Neighbors all were shoutin' that they found the light
"We found the light!"
Shadows jumpin' all over my walls
Some of them big, some of them small

I went out into the night
I went out to pick a fight with anyone
Light a candle for the kids
Jesus Christ don't keep it hid!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Ice has covered up my parents hands
Don't have any dreams, don't have any plans
Growin' up in some strange storm
Nobody's cold, nobody's warm

I went out into the night
I went out to find some light
Kids are dyin' out in the snow,
Look at them go, look at them go!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

And the power's out
In the heart of man
Take it from your heart
Put it in your hand

What's the plan? What's the plan?

Is it a dream? Is it a lie?
I think I'll let you decide
Just light a candle for the kids
Jesus Christ don't keep it hid!

'Cause nothin's hid
From us kids
You ain't foolin' nobody
With the lights out!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

And the power's out
In the heart of man
Take it from your heart
Put it in your hand

And there's something wrong
In the heart of man
Take it from your heart
Put it in your hand

Where'd you go?!

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A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion - 3

Dr. James Hansen: Arrested for Protesting Ecocide

I. Introduction

This series is about a scientific paper published by Hansen, et alia, which among other things, hypothesized that stronger storms were in our future (A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion).

From the time their paper was published, it was in the neighborhood of only 90 days until hurricane Patricia (with highest wind speed and lowest millibars ever recorded) and tropical cyclone Chapala ("the strongest tropical cyclone on record so far south in the Arabian Sea") appeared on radar screens.

Hansen, et alia, also hypothesized an accelerating sea level rise (SLR).

Within that same 90 day time frame, NOAA warned about increasing sea level rise in the near future:

Nuisance on the Ritz

"NOAA water level gauges document an increasing frequency of tidal flooding around much of the U.S., which is driven primarily by local relative sea level rise." - PDF

(NOAA). The other issues in the paper, such as acceleration of the intensity of these phenomena at exponential rates, rather than linear rates, are presently on the way (The Extinction of Charleston, The Extinction of Philadelphia, The Extinction of Washington, D.C., The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports, The Extinction of Boston, The Extinction of Miami, The Extinction of Manzanillo, The Extinction of Houston, The Extinction of Providence).

II. Nuisance?

Evidently, to some folks at NOAA it is macho to call these events a 'nuisance'  as a way of poo pooing the constant impact of flooding (ibid).

But, those who are paying $27,000 a year for flood insurance (more than their mortgage) do not consider that to be a 'nuisance' ... it is more like a financial catastrophe (You Are Here - 5).

NOAA people must be paid a very high salary if a $27,000 insurance premium (if you can even get flood insurance any more in those areas) is merely a 'nuisance' in the U.S.eh?

Or, if the land under your home is sinking into the depths, for the second time on the second island, both the first and the second 'nuisance' in your lifetime is more like a catastrophe than a mere 'nuisance' (The Extinction of Chesapeake Bay Islands).

III. Nuisance!! (Eating Jellyfish to Remember Cod Almighty)

The waters of Maine have been warming for decades, warming out a warning, that no-one in fishy officialdom heeded, except to acknowledge that losing the once-vast cod fishery was a 'nuisance':

"The Atlantic cod, a fish that came to symbolize bounty to America’s colonial settlers, is on the brink of disappearing, despite years of fishing limits aimed at rebuilding stocks. A new study reveals why: Cod spawning and survival has been hampered by rapid, extraordinary ocean warming in the Gulf of Maine, where sea surface temperatures rose faster than anywhere else on the planet between 2003 and 2014.

“Over this same 10-year period, fishery managers set quotas that they felt were informed by high-quality science, and the stock just kept going down, down, down,” says study leader Andrew Pershing, the chief scientist for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine. When his team looked closely at factors behind the trends, he says, “We found the fingerprints of temperature throughout the data.”

The scientists used satellite data to track the daily sea surface temperature trend in the Gulf of Maine. From 1982 until 2004, they found, temperatures rose by 0.03°C per year, or three times the global mean rate. That warming accelerated sevenfold beginning in 2004, peaking in 2012 with a large “ocean heat wave” that persisted for 18 months, according to the study."

(Science, emphasis added). "Gosh, you expect us managers to know that heated water causes species migration or extinction?"

IV. Prevagen – The Jellyfish-Brain Supplement

Scientists are not sure if the cod management folk have brains or not, but they are "sure" that jellyfish do not have brains.

I think the cod management folk are composed of brainlessness on steroids, and that synthetic jellyfish stuff will not cure them of it:

Through more than 18 years of research, Quincy Bioscience developed Prevagen, a brain health supplement made from the same protein found in the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. The protein from the jellyfish is able to be produced in a scientifically controlled way through the process of fermentation. Jellyfish are not actually used in the manufacturing process of this unique [jellyfish] brain health supplement.

Prevagen has been tested and proven safe. It has also been voted as the #1 memory supplement in the United States.

(Prevagen, "The Jellyfish Supplement not made from Jellyfish"). The problem of remembering the fabled cod will be solved, but where the cod went will not.

V. Sophomoronic Dangers

Those sophomoronic fishery officials who did not know how to keep themselves from causing their cod to become commercially extinct ("cod is dead") off the coast of New England, will now be taking over the Prevagen fishery.

So, they need to beware of the main danger now: siphonophores.

These are communities of small creatures that work together as a unit, who work for the common good, who look like, and maybe are, jellyfish:

"The fascinating jellyfish is a marine animal that is found all over in the oceans of the world. The 200 varieties of jellyfish, come in a stunning array of colors, sizes and shapes. In the northeastern region of the United States is the region of New England. Its coastline is bounded by the Atlantic ocean and is home to a diverse marine life. There a lot of jellyfish in these waters and main ones are the Lion's Mane and Portuguese man-of-war.

Technically the Portuguese man-of-war cannot be called a jellyfish as it is a siphonophore, which is an animal made up of colony of organisms working together. But it does look like a jellyfish and people also generally refer to it as a jellyfish." - (New England Jellyfish)

---

"Siphonophores are of special scientific interest because they are composed of medusoid and polypoid zooids that are morphologically and functionally specialized. Each zooid is an individual module, but their integration with each other is so strong that the colony attains the function of a large organism. Indeed, most of the zooids are so specialized, they lack the ability to survive on their own. This is somewhat analogous to the construction and function of multicellular organisms; because multicellular organisms have organs which, like zooids, are specialized and interdependent, siphonophores may provide clues regarding the evolution of more complex bodies." -(Wikipedia)

---

"Siphonophores differ from most other colonial animals in two fundamental respects. First, there is a high degree of specialization between the zooids. Zooids specialized for one function usually have well developed features to serve that function but lack the structures associated with other functions. For instance, the nectophores that propel the colony through the water (which are a type of medusa) can’t eat, and the feeding polyps can’t swim. Each is dependant on the other to do what it can’t do. Second, the specialized zooids of a siphonophore are arranged in an extremely precise pattern. This pattern is the same from colony to colony of the same species, but different between species. Siphonophores, then, have become extremely complicated organisms, just as we have, but in an entirely different way. Whereas we are made up of specialized cells that are arranged into tissues and organs, siphonophores are made up of specialized zooids precisely organized at the level of the colony. Understanding how evolution has shaped siphonophores into such complex colonial organisms may tell us quite a bit about how evolution was able to generate complex multicellular organisms, including ourselves." -(Siphonophores).

(emphasis added). If the New England Fishery managers (who oversaw the destruction of a successful, centuries-old cod fishery that was older than the U.S.eh?) mistake the siphonophores for jellyfish, or vice versa, and allow them to be made into Prevagen, or food products, then people who use or eat them could begin to cooperate, to care for one another, to work as a collective, and to even develop universal health care.

VI. Conclusion

Hell, the Patriots may even begin to play fair football if they are infected with the cooperation genetics within siphonophores.

In short ... danger, danger Will Smith.

Thus, special care must be taken to insure that such unAmerican siphonophoric development does not take place in the U.S.eh? ... because we only do sophomoronic here.

We urge those sophomoronic officials (who normalized big cod into no cod), to continue their 'nuisance' work, and to make sure that congress does not learn about Prevagen.

It could become a nuisance.

The previous post in this series is here.

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The final, peer-reviewed version of the paper is here.

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A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion - 2

Fig. 1

In the first post of this series, that Dredd Blog post linked to the Hansen et al. paper (A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion).

The Hansen team's choice of venue in which to air the paper is turning out to be a useful choice, in the sense that the comments and responses are not only helpful and instructive, but they also seem to take place in less time than some peer review processes do.

Today, I want to consider one comment made concerning the paper, as well as the

Fig. 2 Changes only

comprehensive response which the team provided about that comment.

One reason is that it gives us a good framework and opportunity to discuss the hypothesis about why the  jagged edge tide gauge graphs depict considerable fluctuations in sea level (fluctuations which take place as a matter of course in relatively very short time scales).

Fig. 3 Hansen 2015 paper @Fig. 29

Take a look at Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, which are graphs of PSMSL historical records only.

That is, there are no future projections included in those two graphs made from actual official records at the New York tide gauge station #12 ("The Battery").

The Fig. 1 graph has two boxes showing the year and the sea level at that year so as to emphasize the degree of fluctuation.

The first box shows one fluctuation that took place 1870-1878 which created a "W" shape.

The 1870 value is 6.769 RLR meters (6769 millimeters), which drops to 6.674m (6674mm) by 1874 (95mm decrease)  only 4 years later, then it jumps back up to 6.792m, 6792mm (118mm increase), 4 years later in 1878.

This is remarkable in the sense that Fig. 3 shows the mean at 3.3 mm yr (4 x 3.3mm = 13.2mm), so a 95mm and 118mm fluctuation are clearly inordinate.

This phenomenon is not something that only happens in the long-ago past, as the second box on Fig. 1 shows (1989 - 1997 jump of 132mm; 1997 @ 7133mm − 1989 @ 7001mm = 132mm).

Recall that NOAA folks were a bit astounded when a similar fluctuation took place north of the Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 location, which is PSMSL Station #12:

Coastal sea levels along continental margins often show significant year-to-year upward and downward fluctuations. These fluctuations are superimposed on a longer term upward trend associated with the rise in global mean sea level, with global mean sea level rising at roughly 3 mm per year during the recent 20 years of accurate satellite measures. For society, it is the regional changes along any particular coastal zone that are most important. Our analysis of multi-decadal tide gauge records along the North American east coast identified an extreme sea-level rise event during 2009–2010. Within this relatively brief two-year period, coastal sea level north of New York City jumped by up to 128 mm. This magnitude of inter-annual sea level rise is unprecedented in the tide gauge records, with statistical methods suggesting that it was a 1-in-850 year event.

(Agnotology: The Surge - 16, quoting NOAA). Their exclamation "1-in-850 year event" indicates that they are evidently not watching closely enough, because fluctuations are to be expected as ice sheet disintegration accelerates.

My hypothesis is that both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet influence is primarily at play in these fluctuations, but there are some other factors too.

One example:

There are a number of implicit predictions, but most revealing, via contrast with IPCC models, is strong cooling of the Southern Ocean surface and in the North Atlantic (Fig. 1, from our paper). These coolings result mainly from the stratification effect induced by injection of meltwater into upper layers of the ocean. Lesser density of fresh meltwater, compared to salty ocean water, reduces sinking of surface water to the deep ocean. Reduced Antarctic Bottom Water formation reduces the amount of relatively warm deep water rising to the surface, where it increases heat flux to the atmosphere and space. Instead heat is kept at depth, raising deep water temperature and melting ice shelves (see diagram in Fig. 22 of our ACPD paper).

(Hansen Team Response). The Hansen team sees ocean surface cooling north of the PSMSL Station #12, which is closer to Greenland than NYC is.

That will cause some thermal sea level fall (SLF), as will Greenland ice sheet mass loss (The Gravity of Sea Level Change).

Then, the counter influence of Antarctica ice sheet mass loss will cause sea level rise (SLR) on the east coast (thus, both rise and fall of varying amounts at varying times), as fully explained in the video at the bottom of today's post.

There will be more on the saw-tooth fingerprints at PSMSL tide gauge stations in future posts of this series.

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

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Professor Jerry Mitrovica, Harvard University, comes to D.C. to 'splain:

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