Dear friends,
It is with all the pride of a proud father looking a a new baby that I am happy to officially announce the creation of the Vineyard Saker in Oceania!
The folks who launched this new franchise of our community had been working with the various Saker Language Teams for a while already and I can say with great confidence that their work is nothing short of stellar. Yet, there is something different in this Team, it is not really a Language Team as it is a Geographical Area Team. Why? Here is how they explain it in the “About” page of their blog:
The Oceania Saker idea grew out of discussions amongst the volunteer teams working with The Saker. The idea is to give the English team the same degree of editorial independence that the French,German and Russian teams enjoy. The obvious observation is that both The Saker and The Oceania Saker will publish in English but will be quite different.
Oceania sees itself as the first frontier where the global policies of neoliberalism hit home hard. Climate change,the rising sea levels and destructive uncontrolled capitalism has been the norm for a while now. While “bad” news, about what our policies as a collective human species do,might not have reached a central European town, they are quite evident in small Islands across the Pacific. The population has been dumbed down,abused,robbed and down right denied a voice in its affairs. We seem to swallow,without question or critique, the policies and “culture” of the AngloZionist Empire. As an example, the rich green fertile paradise of New Zealand has child poverty of 25%!
While children are being murdered in Ukraine and Palestine, they talk about the next Hollywood blockbuster on morning radio. While Fascism is on the rise across Europe and rabid russophobia the norm, we do not seem to question it but instead join the choir. The events in Ukraine are especially a cruel joke on the intelligence of anyone whose grandparents fought Nazis in WWII. The descendants of Nazi collaborators are now being hailed as elected democratic politicians. This is lunacy.
The Pacific nations have had a rich history of being friends of the earth, we have for thousands of years lived in harmony with our environment. It is this destruction of the harmony and beauty of our lands that has awaken many to the realities of destructive neoliberalism. We see our fate being decided on the world stage in this continuing struggle between the US and the sane world.
The Oceania Saker team will continue to publish in the same spirit and will try its best to give various perspectives which represent the diverse nature of Oceania. We plan to cover a wide range of topics from social issues, to economic issues to political issues right across the globe.
“Climate change”? Saker, I hope your good name will not be used by special pleaders to advance their parochial agendas (or in the case of man-made carbon-induced “climate change”, their outright hoaxes.)
Dear Vineyard Oceania,
Congratulations :) – all the best to you all.
I will forward to my friends in Oceania.
Rgds,
Veritas
@Old Ez: Along with universal health care, the abolition of the death penalty, the metric system, the use of 24 hour time, workers right, and many other things, climate change is only a hoax in the USA. In the rest of the world, it is an observable, established, proven and, frankly, very distressing fact. Those in the USA should really count their blessings to be immune to such un-American phenomena :-)
Cheers,
The Saker
@Vineyardsaker
Indeed.
Of course, the UK is the other place where such phenomena are un-what – un-UK-ish?
Fortunately, our aversion to any country or organisation which needs to be known by a combination of letters may yet save us from full implosion. We were into combinations of letters a long time ago: GB, UK, whatever.
Oh let’s not forget our ability to back the best horse – until another comes along.
Admittedly this has got a lot more tricky since so many shirts were put on the US after 1945. But don’t underestimate that lump of
From a New Zealander long suffering the severe social dysfunctions of Allblackastan – I understand where you are coming from in your hopeful and idealistic attitudes about my nation. But seriously Saker, you have no idea. There are few if any other nations where 1/4th of the native born have left for a better life elsewhere. This is also true of Maori New Zealanders, the best of which moved to Australia.
The population is not just dumbed down, what is left is the genetic dregs of Europe and Pasifika – actual stupid people further addled by fetal alcohol syndrome, cannabis, and the ravages of meth. The natives of whatever colour are now mainly mongrelised cultural degenerates with 3 generations on the benefit. The real child poverty rate is closer to 50%, and the dysfunctional caregivers (rarely a married couple) murder their children at a world record rate.
Auckland functions due to the hard work and relative sobriety of Chinese and Indian migrants. The natives are freaks to equal or exceed anything you would find in western Ukraine just without the ethnic pride of the Ukies. We are also perhaps the least religious nation on earth, and it shows. Anything goes and nothing matters. A stroll down K Road will quickly reveal pierced freaks as bad as anything in Liov. Prostitution is legal.
If this island had been closed like Cuba, and the good people imprisoned here, perhaps there would be a possibility of rebuilding. But Faith, Hope, and Charity flew over to Australia long ago along with Know How and Can Do. Due to my circumstances, I have stayed far too long. But now we are ready to retire and looking for a new home for our old age, hopefully warmer, safer, and less crime ridden. Frack rugby!
@Joy: What a sad comment, especially coming form somebody with such a beautiful nick. What can I say? I cannot argue with you about a country (and a region) I have never visited (the closest I have been is Indonesia, Bali). I always had this idea of NZ as being stunningly beautiful, with a vibrant culture, and very nice people. Maybe this is all PR, but if it is PR, then it is very well made PR, because it really made me want to visit. Whatever may be the case, what I *do* know is that there are *enough* good people in your part of the world. I get a disproportionate number of emails from NZ and AUS and they are invariably written by very kind, educated, sober and good people. My spiritual father (now reposed) always taught me that “one soul is more precious than the universe” and I think that this is true. I know that there are MANY good souls in NZ and AUS and I am sure that the Oceania Blog will feel good to them. I agree that I should not be naive about the beauty of a place I have never seen, but it will be hard for me to not dream about the landscapes I have seen so many times in videos and picture. And does beautiful nature not always also make at least some receptive people beautiful too?
As for ruby, it is also the official sport of the Russian paratroopers :-)
So we are in good company!
Kind regards and don’t give up!
The Saker
Glad for you, Saker, your vineyard richly deserves the interest that it is generating worldwide.
With all my best wishes to NZ
I would greatly suspect Joy is not who he/she appears to be. Anyone who would say of New Zealand “This island” doesn’t know the country. New Zealand is, for any native, “these islands.”
Just saying.
Congratulations, Saker!
Your blog is truly one of a kind! Thank you very much for all your efforts in keeping us informed about the world!
I wish you and your family all the best in the world. And may you be blessed with “infinite strength” to keep working!
Congratulations from Transylvania!
I too was disappointed at Joy’s comment. We certainly live in a different world. NZ is a great country – beauty, resources and a intergrated population.
One major problem is that the New Zealand govt is USA’s bitch. We don’t support their mass murder of women and children and a very high percentage of the population don’t support Five Eyes spying.
Certainly no nation is free of poverty but having spent some considerable time in New Zealand I’d have to question that 1 in 4 children living in poverty statistic.
New Zealand has a minimum wage of $14.25, higher taxes for medium and higher earners. a medical system open to all citizens -welfare and an extensive social safety net. One of the best civil contingecy plans (one proven to work e.g floods, earthquakes) I have seen anywhere in the world.
Some nuanced definitions rather than sensationalism is required.
I found this attempt at a definition:
http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/EAG/Final-report/Final-report-Solutions-to-child-poverty-evidence-for-action.pdf
Defining child poverty
New Zealand has no agreed definition of poverty or official poverty measures. Without an
authoritative definition and widely accepted measures we will lack a common purpose or agreed goals. Likewise, we will be less able to develop focused solutions to child poverty or evaluate their success in achieving specified poverty-reduction targets. Accordingly, we need a clear definition and agreed measures. The issue of poverty measurement is addressed later in this Chapter.
Child poverty should be defined in a manner that is consistent with recognised international
approaches. Amongst other benefits, this will allow us to compare how New Zealand is faring
relative to other countries. In our view, child poverty should be defined as follows:
Children living in poverty are those who experience deprivation of the material resources
and income that is required for them to develop and thrive, leaving such children unable
to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential and participate as equal members of New Zealand society.
Albertde said,
I know the metric system includes temperature, but I would add Fahrenheit to the list. It represents the anti-scientific, irrational POV of the brain-washed “patriotic” Americans. I hate that country because I was born there and am ashamed to admit how for so many years I believed the crap that was taught in Fahrenheit-Land public schools in what passes for education in that country. The gap between the expensive world-class universities and the so-called “creative”public high schools there is a chasm, not found anywhere else in the developed world.
Looks good to me and has people I already read:)
Congratulations, Saker! Truth goes worldwide!
The glaciers came. The glaciers left. The glaciers came. The glaciers left. Repeat…
No humans involved. Big climate changes with no humans involved.
Perhaps it has not occurred to some, that what is being observed (or pretended to be observed), is small relative to natural variability.
This means you might be reading noise.
You could be curve over-fitting.
Congratulation to you Saker. I have sent your blog too some countries in Oceania and it looks like people starting to realize that the truth is coming out. Your flower is spreading around the world and it is so beautiful to hear, this is very encouraging news
Very proud of you Mr. Saker
A gentle wind and good sails
From sunrise to sunset, Shine a light far and wide.
More from …”The glaciers came etc…”
However, deforestation, desertification, habitat destruction, species extinction, cumulative poisoning by persistent pollution of manifold types, ecosystem impoverishment, and more… are real.
And so yes, I agree things need to be done. But we need to be very careful to no misdirect efforts.
No person pushes the HOAX of man-made global warming more than Tony Blair. Anyone on this bandwagon is either an idiot, or part of the same team.
Here’s a clue for the clueless. It is a SCIENTIFIC FACT that the Earth, in recent times (geologically speaking) has experienced multiple ICE-AGES, and it is a FACT that no living scientist has any viable scientific model explaining these massive and ultra-significant periodic changes to Earth’s climate. This is the absolutely pitiful state of so-called ‘climate science’.
It is a FACT that we are living in the tail end of the last Ice Age. It is a FACT that only a few thousand years ago (as recently as this) Britain, Ireland and West Europe were part of the same land mass and major Human settlements existed where now there is only ocean.
Man’s major cities exist because of the favourable local conditions that have frequently existed for far less than ten thousands years. And many of our biggest ancient settlements ended up lost in desert or jungle because, like the creatures upon it, the Earth is a living changing entity.
Tony Blair’s goons use the PSYCHOLOGICAL weapon of ‘self-guilt’, and ‘ego inflation’ and ‘parental generation bashing’. The same zionist forces exterminating Gaza and Novorussia were given control of the mega-scam, carbon trading, and the tribe of Israel grew its wealth by an unthinkable amount as a result.
If the Earth didn’t experience ‘climate change’ millions of times greater than amount suggested in the scare stories, we wouldn’t be here today. And we certainly wouldn’t have had access to the embedded resource of deposited organic carbon that has made every aspect of modern Human civilisation (post Industrial Revolution) possible.
When I was a kid, propagandists pushed ‘global cooling’ scenarios in every possible mainstream media outlet. Then it was the lie of oil and coal running out within a few decades. Now it is global warming. Simple folk with morbid inclinations get excited by such ‘disaster porn’, making them easy recruits for the propaganda masters.
One might suspect that Old EZ and Joy are both disciples of the patron saint of illegal use of legal drugs. Is Rush being broadcast in NZ?
Excellent stuff and great to see the Saker growing in the neighbourhood :)
BTW – I went to NZ (Christchurch) for a few days and drove around. Absolutely beautiful, picturesque and tranquil place to visit.
I agree that climate change is a UN sponsored fraud, but please let’s argue it somewhere else. This blog is too useful to ruin it over climate debates.
Saker, please, let’s keep your blog on topic. Slava Boga, slava rossiya.
I have visited over 90 countries, and for physical beauty, NZ is in the top 10.
Welcome Kiwi’s
@Anonymous:This blog is too useful to ruin it over climate debates.
Agreed! Thanks and cheers,
The Saker
I think it’s a great step forward. But I also agree with the first poster about the climate change thing. And no, it’s not just Americans who disbelieve in the climate religion.
Anyway, congratulations.
Google: Headhunters, Tokaroa, Kaikohe, Mongrel Mob, P Lab, Moerewa, Ngawha, “Blessie Gotingco killer”, “13 year old murderer New Zealand” for some perspective. I have been involved in two child murder investigations as a GP and recently had to call police to my surgery 3 times in one week. My rent is $650 a week. I don’t enjoy the scenery as I have always been working to pay the high cost of living and high taxes. You can’t eat scenery.
Congrats Saker. You have blazed a trail for what ‘journalism’ ought to be. I sincerely hope that anyone thinking of getting into the business of sharing information pays very close attention to what you’ve done and how you’ve done it.
If you can imagine the leading edge of human consciousness as a glass of water, this blog is the drip drip drip that will cause it to overflow.
Climate change is not a belief for people with two eyes in their forehead and the ability for abstract thought.
It is a very important topic and you will witness much trolling in this area and most of them will be anonymous.
https://dublinsmickdotcom.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/thawing-permafrost-the-speed-of-coastal-erosion-in-eastern-siberia-has-nearly-doubled-arctic-methane-released-at-blinding-speed-climate-change-core-of-earth-heats-up/
Dublinmick
Stuff the Climate “Science”.
We have big problems and critical issues to deal with. The global economy, insane militarism, the new march of fascism, war crimes and torture.
More than three-fourths of the human race needs education, food and clean water. Let’s focus our educated brains and use our life’s experience to sort through the issues and communicate broadly to tens of thousands more people that there is hope, morality, beauty and courage in the human race.
We are lucky to have the time to gather details from sources all over the world, and now, project these truths to many others.
The Vineyard, in my view, is a showcase of values. Some are Saker’s personal values. Others are quite different , but converge harmoniously.
The Vineyard seems to nurture philosophical views and barely suffers ideologues. The best pieces, the deepest articles and videos, espouse deep beliefs grounded in salient philosophical principles. Comments are often quite cogent.
The Vineyard has grown and inspired teams of people from many nations and cultures to share translations, sub-title work, SITREPS and links to many other sources of the daily Truths of events we cannot get from the MSM.
All this from a man’s blog, a profound moral vision, and an intellectual quest.
Thanks, Saker.
Congratulations on another extension of your work and the heartbeat of a good man doing the right thing for the rest of those lucky enough to discover your Vineyard.
Sorry to go off topic there, some things just push a button with me.
Vanga was well known in her time and it is said even the nazi dictator Hitler paid her a visit and was said to leave her home looking very shaken as she apparently did not give him good news!
This is what the Bulgarian prophet Vanga had to say.
(“Everything will melt away like ice yet the glory of Vladimir , the glory of Russia are the only things that will remain. Russia will not only survive, it will dominate the world. (1979)”)
Her most shocking prediction was made in 1980. The blind old woman said: “At the turn of the century, in August of 1999 or 2000, Kursk will be covered with water, and the whole world will be weeping over it.”
The prediction did not make any sense back then. Twenty years on, it made a horrifying sense. A Russian nuclear submarine perished in an accident in August of 2000. The sub was named after the city of Kursk , which by no means could have been covered with water.
By the way, during the Yeltsin presidency, Vanga already hinted at the next Russian president though she never called him by the name. “It will be a totally new figure. Zyuganov and Lebed are ruled out.” The Eighth One has already arrived: Russia joined the Group of Seven. Now it is the G-8. Making peace all over the word should be the next step.
http://dublinsmickdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/vanga-predicted-crimea-will-detach-from-one-shore-to-be-attached-to-another-543-3/
https://dublinsmick.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/bulgarian-psychic-vanga-predicts-nothing-will-be-left-but-the-glory-of-vladimir-no-word-if-this-was-lenin-or-putin-russia-to-be-the-worlds-only-superpower/
“Crimea will detach from one shore to be attached to another” (543.3).
Saker, get your people onto THIS video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ARZNx1epU&list=UUSkQiBZNvbWDHu22Y2SUXCQ
I just read the gossip that due to the “aazav” (or sth similar?) petition Russia Today will be available in German soon. Any confirmation?
PS “Man-made global climate change” is a complete hoax aimed at depopulation and keeping the humanity down, more taxes to enrich the ruling class. Just look at the most prominent advocates like AL Gore who made dozens of millions $ pushing this globalist satanic agenda. Please, stop with the nonsense.
Stuff the Climate “Science”.
Larchmonter, I find many of your views very pertinent and timely and enjoy them.
That having been said at 69 years old I am not in habit of “stuffing” my views on anything and don’t take too well to those who insist on topic domination. I wasn’t the one who brought of the subject to begin with. I just mentioned it is a very tiresome topic for internet controllers and trolls who desperately want to avoid the topic.
I don’t suggest tunnel vision in any area. If you think climate change will not effect as you say “education, food clean water, and the human race. you may need focus harder. (You have a lot to learn and demonstrate my point, fierce reactions will occur when one questions the fairy tale of status quo)
Climate change will well effect this ongoing war Ukraine as well as many other areas. In fact the vast oil fields now opening in the arctic are a focal point. Western companies have ignored sanctions on Russia and are talking business as usual because they are so lucrative.
I am not intimidated by child like digs such as “stuff the climate science”.
Re: Global Warming (if Saker will let this one through):
The only hoax being pushed is that of the climate-change deniers. And it is an outright lie you’ve apparently bought into that no living scientist has any viable scientifc model explaining these massive and ultra-significant periodic changes to Earth’s climate. In fact, they do. It helps to know how science and scientists really work, and for the most part the scientific community has been their own worst enemy there bc, like Russia, they’re too focused on doing the work to spend any time marketing it — thus leaving a vacuum the flacks have rushed in to fill.
Anthropormorphic Global Warming is substantiated by over 97% of the scientists trained in the appropriate fields to investigate and substantiate it; the other 3% are in the pay of rightwing think tanks, assorted know-nothing cranks and fossil fuel corporations, and they all just LUV dupes like you bc you spout the company line so well. I won’t say anything good about Tony Bliar, but I was no kid during the time global cooling was supposedly pushed — only it wasn’t: that’s just another line you swallowed. Now try to tell me that scientists push Global Warming so they can get rich — and you’ll truly demonstrate your ignorance! I’m a scientist’s wife and I can tell you that’s utter nonsense: there’s a whole lot more money in think tankery spokesperson-dom than any scientist will ever make. Trust me, they’re not in it for the money! ;~)
Global Warming is ugly, but it’s real, and there is more than enough data from a variety of sources to substantiate the risk to you, your children, your grandchildren and all life on earth. Don’t believe me? Google methane in the Arctic and sink-holes in Siberia, and take a look at the numbers: this is in no way whatsoever simply the end of an Ice Age. I sincerely wish we could be that lucky. We’re not.
Dublinmick
Which humans changed the climate the first 6 billion years on Earth? Because it changed a hell of a lot for every year of the Earth’s existence.
Which creatures switch the climate on Mars? That climate has changed, we know.
Your narrow view of everything through Climate is yours.
And you might not want to take on rational people who know science well. This isn’t the forum for that stuff. Go sell it where people buy bogus science. And all you Climate huggers love to bait everyone into an argument. Why is that? All over this joyous new of another replication of the Vineyard and we have to deal with this nonsense topic.
For 15 years now it’s been going in reverse for you Climate huggers.
You want something to chew on? Fukishima. Go bother the Japanese loons who are hiding their nuclear weapons program all the while destroying their own people, the land, the food, the fish, the ocean and shipping it around the globe.
Saker asked nicely to drop Climate as a topic.
I’ve dropped it hereafter. Goodnight.
In a multinational race to seize the potential riches of the formerly icebound Arctic, being laid bare by global warming, Russia is the early favorite.
Within the next year, the Kremlin is expected to make its claim to the United Nations in a bold move to annex about 380,000 square miles of the internationally owned Arctic to Russian control. At stake is an estimated one-quarter of all the world’s untapped hydrocarbon reserves, abundant fisheries, and a freshly opened route that will cut nearly a third off the shipping time from Asia to Europe.
The global Arctic scramble kicked off in 2007 when Russian explorer Artur Chilingarov planted his country’s flag beneath the North Pole. “The Arctic is Russian,” he said. “Now we must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian landmass.”
In July, the Russian ship Akademik Fyodorov set off, accompanied by the giant nuclear-powered icebreaker, to complete undersea mapping to show that the Siberian continental shelf connects to underwater Arctic ridges, making Russia eligible to stake a claim. Around the same time, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the creation of an Arctic military force tasked with backing up Moscow’s bid.
“We are open for a dialogue with our foreign partners and with all our neighbors in the Arctic region, but of course we will defend our own geopolitical interests firmly and consistently,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in July. Among other things, Moscow plans to build at least six more icebreakers and spend $33 billion to construct a year-round port on the Arctic shores.
Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, and Norway own Arctic coasts that could, theoretically, be extended as far as the North Pole. But in the absence of a regional deal, tensions are mounting.
http://www.adn.com/article/russia-seeks-draw-lines-melting-arctic-ice
The climate is being impacted by deforestation as much as it is by the distribution of gas waste from energy production/combustion. The way water interacts with its environment, the role of forests and jungles in that interaction and the destruction of these circulatory systems is leading to a drier and more arid environment. If one cannot see that, than they have not been looking closely enough.
Man is changing the climate, and doing so by altering the water balance of the planet. Now we are injecting fracking chemicals into the aquifers! I dare say that’s not too bright, the dimwitted seem to have the reigns, and we who know better are going to need to wrest them back.
As regards the debate about man-made vs natural cycle, both appear equally valid, however mini cycles of man made insanity can easily fit into the longer term cosmic cycle. We are currently in the midst of a bout of insanity I’m afraid.
Cheers
Sad.
I had looked to your blog for what seemed reasonably factual information, not carried elsewhere, about conflicts in various parts of the world.
From the snippet posted about “Vineyard Oceania”, it appears you have leased your reputation to people pushing an anti-scientific religious wheelbarrow for the purpose of extracting money from those foolish enough to fall for the scam.
The scam, incidentally, also supported by the same governments pushing the anti-Russian lies and policies.
If you want to open your blog to scientific debate about “global warming” (which incidentally has been hiding for almost 18 years), great. That would be consistent with what you have previously offered.
But if you are just subletting it to people mouthing religious slogans without substantiation (the behaviour you have decried when used against Russia and the people of Eastern Ukraine) then your whole blog will suffer.
@ Joy: Old Ez and Anons: Ice ages and warm periods can be correlated with relatively small anomalies in the position of the earths track around the sun and wobbling in the earths axis (Milankovich cyles). This is amplified by the ice, which reflects more sunlight. Not this time however.
Russia has a crucial role to play in preventing runaway heating: the immense amounts of trapped and frozen methane ice in the permafrost, tundra and shallow seas. Almost all of it in and north of Siberia. It is called ´the methane bomb´.
Even 10 % release can rise the world temperature 20 C: end of human civilization.
Russia will have to come up with technology to mine and syphon off the thawing gas, use and sell it. Burnt, the warming potential is reduced by a factor 100. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century; it would also mean enery independence of Eurasia from the middle east and the us.
@ Joy: Many supporters of the Saker are not religious at all. One can be a good person if one strives for truth.
About repression of prostitution and drugs: It has been shown that has has zero or even a slightly negative effect on the frequency and amount of visits and consumption.
What it does do is play into the hands of organized crime, increases infection rates, trafficking, makes the position of sex workers very subservient, paranoid and stigmatized, increases rapes and makes neighbourhoods very dangerous with crowds of junkies robbing and stealing to get their fix. Typical America.
If junkies get their daily dose of free methadone they become completely harmless, and stay off the streets, or even can do some simple jobs.
A useful analogy are the tusks of elephants: since illegal the price of ivory has skyrocketed, and now poaching is done by Chinese cartels, with unlimited means, and has skyrocketed as well. A better way is to tranquillize the elephants, saw off the tusks and flood the market with ivory.
Off Topic
…in the wake of last month’s lethal attack on a passenger jet flying over Ukraine. While the missile used to attack the Malaysia Airlines jet was a long-range surface-to-air missile,… Link to Yahoo
Notice the total lack of even one shred of evidence.
‘It’s so, coz we say so…’
Are TPTB really so convinced of ‘the populace’s’ gullibility that they believe there’s not a single individual out there that cares about the truth [let alone the large number of people that visit this site]?
Stuff the Climate “Science”.
– agreed
Congratulations on another extension of your work and the heartbeat of a good man doing the right thing for the rest of those lucky enough to discover your Vineyard.
– agreed
Also, just a little miffed when the pro Christian / pro Muslim / ensuing debate sometimes interestingly arise and are not sanctioned while my related “opium of the masses” comments never reach the light of day. In doing this i’m both providing and seeking opinion. I’m not seeking censorship :(
Doesn’t stop me coming back, every day – multiple times, though.
Many thanks.
@ Rootman,
Q: A better way is to tranquillize the elephants, saw off the tusks and flood the market with ivory.
R: A novel idea, but elephants need their tusks to strip bark off of trees [for example], so I’d opt for us humans making something artificial that looks exactly like the real deal and then flood the market.
I agree with your argumentation wrt the drugs, prostitution, etc.
Unfortunately most crime syndicates have ‘inroads’ into various precincts and are thus able to create a ‘We protract and Swerve’ gimmick.
I can’t work out how a (Welcome Oceania) post turned into Climate Change or for the other Global Warming. Yesterday was fine, today it rained. It’s weather, it changes.
Anyway Joy. My neighbours are associated with BP, in a State House, but I still don’t see why you are downgrading yours I my country. If you don’t like it . . . . .
1947
Global warming has stopped in the last 16 years?
Not.
http://www.skepticalscience.com/graphics.php?g=47
http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-stopped-in-1998-intermediate.htm
Several other myths of the climate science deniers are being employed on this thread.
skepticslscience.com is a good tool, in simple language, for debunking the dozens of myths of the climate science deniers.
Based on the language being used, I suspect that nearly all on this list claiming that anthropogenic global warming is a hoax are not well trained In scientific method and/or in the relevant scientific disciplines.
The destruction of the biosphere is proceeding apace and near-term human extinction is a very real threat.
Because of numerous positive feedback loops, it is a near certainty that run-away global warming will occur and cannot be stopped.
The question is the path taken in the energy descent. The path will be more equitable in a multipolar world, and this is why I hope BRICS survive and are successful in creating a multipolar world.
Thank you Saker for your blog it has cast much light on the my desire to understand what is happening in Ukraine. It is great news that we now have a Oceania site as we’ll . As a person who lives in New Zealand I can appreciate its great beauty , but like many countries it has been greatly effected by the free market ethos which has turned a once mainly egalitarian country into one where poverty and all the problems that come with it is common to many areas . But it is definitely not as bad as the US , the UK or some of the E .U. New Zealand people are in the main both friendly and loving , but for many these materialist times have left them without the desire to raise their vision to a higher level , so they have little understanding of the forces , both material and spiritual at play in our world . We also have a prime minister who behaves like a infatuated school boy when in the company of power americans and Joys right about the rugby .
C’mon, people. I don’t begrudge anyone their opinion on climate change, whatever that opinion may be. But there are a million and one English-language forums out their on the internet already dealing with that topic.
I come to this blog to bone up on foreign affairs. I choose to come here because Saker is able to share with us a wealth of sources and reports that we can’t get ANYWHERE else in English. And because he does so in an intelligent manner with a Christian humanist bias and is able to share from his own (rather unusual) personal experience.
If any of you want your Saker with a climate-change debate added, I suggest you go check out the new Oceania blog. Let’s do our best to stay topical here.
Nature is wonderful, for it always seeks a balance, no matter how much out of balance something might be.
Climate change/Global warming? Here’s Global Dimming…
Not that it nullifies the aforementioned, but realize what would have happened if the latter did not exist…
Yes, over billions of years much has changed and many species have come and gone, weather patterns have changed, magnetic poles shifted and everything without our presences.
I’ll never forget that palm tree stump sticking out of the Gulf of Thailand a good 150ft off shore. When I asked a local, he told that that’s where the beach had been 15 years earlier.
Regardless who’s responsible, the changes are clearly visible all around the globe.
Of course this blog is not about science, but it is clearly indicated by this blog’s owner, The Saker, that any topic that enhances rational debate is welcomed and that makes me wonder why anyone wants people to ‘shut up.’
Really odd…
Predictions for Sunday, August 24, 2014:
‘Ukraine’ Independence Day celebrations in Kiev, military parade with Chancellor Merkel in attendance
1) NAF offensive
2) announcement of joint NAF/UA Army strike force
3) partisan and ‘terrorist’ activity in major Ukraine cities, including false flags
4) Russian humanitarian aid convoy enters
5) multiple simultaneous false flag events surrounding the entrance of the convoy
6) Novorossiya announces political and humanitarian support from new countries/entities
7) possible Strelkov overt return
Possibly – NATO false flag events in Europe to be pinned on NAF . . .
However, deforestation, desertification, habitat destruction, species extinction, cumulative poisoning by persistent pollution of manifold types, ecosystem impoverishment, and more… are real.
================================
Sure, but all that should be called properly: *Pollution*!
You don’t need to concoct sublime idiocies as man-made climate change to fight pollution.
You can change climate in your home, not for the planet.
On a planetary scale, climate changes all the time, nobody denies that, but to state that men can influence those changes is plain, absolute, *criminal* crap!
If common sense does not help you, or whenever in doubt, look at who sustain a certain theme and you shall know.
I still remember a meeting of our precious leaders a few years ago, where they agreed to lower Earth temperature by 3.7 C-degrees (I kid you not, there was even the decimal!).
I guess that the separation of Red Sea waters by a rod will be their next task.
Compared to the past days, temperatures here are 10-15 C-degrees lower, I have experienced excursions of 60 C-degrees between winter and summer in the same year; somewhat I’m not inclined to attribute that to Blair’s or Prince Albert’s farts.
(yes, a staunch supporter of the scam in Copenhagen in 2010, where he arrived and departed with his private jet….)
Dear Saker
the link below by Black Swan trading offers a good analysis of the economic drivers behind the Kiev Nazi coup Feb. 2014.
http://www.blackswantrading.com/currency-currents/
BTW Saker, you really stepped into it when you decided to comment on climate change. Personally, I am very confident that Climate change is a meme created by USSA/EU vested interested designed to increase taxes, reduce freedom and control population. For those who really care about real environmental problems, look at unfolding disaster of Fukushima. This will kill the planet more surely than AGW and notice how no government agencies are paying attention because there is no profit to be gained.
Saker, please, stay focused on Ukraine and Middle East, and let other blogs handle the climate change debate.Don’t ruin a great resource.
Saker, I was a derivatives trader for JP Morgan, and I can tell you that we expected to earn TRILLIONS trading carbon credits.
If you truly understood the rampant greed and hubris of the key players behind AGW and now climate change, I think you would reconsider your opinions
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aXRBOxU5KT5M
Anyways, for the sake of sanity, keep this blog focused on Ukrainian and ME events. This resource is too valuable to ruin it over an endless debate fueled by vested interests.
Ukraine Overnight Interest Rates Soars to 17.5%; External Debt Cannot Be Paid Back; Ukraine Demands Rebels Surrender
The conflict has cost Ukraine $8 billion, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying today by the Unian newswire. Ukraine’s central bank raised its overnight refinancing rate to 17.5 percent today from 15 percent as it seeks to support the hryvnia. The Ukrainian currency fell as much as 1.6 percent before trading little changed at to 13.03 per dollar, taking its decline for the month to 5.8 percent.
Dear Mr. Former JP Morgan derivatives trader,
The fact that greedy bastards planned to make a killing off of carbon credits is a) not the least bit surprising; and b) irrelevant to the science behind AGM.
You’re coming at it from an interesting angle though; most deniers tend to be folks so brainwashed by the usual sources that they think the scientific method is a belief system and have no clue that weather is not climate, and so entrenched in their beliefs that they really do consider their ignorance every bit as good as an expert’s knowledge, at least if the propaganda they’ve swallowed whole calls said experts elitist. They’d never ask the plumber next door to do their open-heart surgery, and have no clue that training in the hard sciences is far, far more rigorous than med school.
AGM is real. And we’re being laughed at by everyone else on the planet for “believing” otherwise. Except, of course, when they’re enraged at our stupidity and shortsightedness.
Aw jeesh, AGW, not AGM!
Anon: 20 August, 2014 13:58
´Saker, I was a derivatives trader for JP Morgan, and I can tell you that we expected to earn TRILLIONS trading carbon credits. ´
This says nothing about the science!
The vampires suck money out of truth or lies- no difference!
Carbon credits, conferences, policies- all stinking shit to make the 1 % richer-that will never work. look only at the science.
The science says we will enter a new climate regime, the ´Anthropocene´, with a climate like 3.5 or even 20 million years ago- only with a LOT less forest and species to populate it. (at the time there were 20 elephant species!)
A rational humanity would take precautions, thinking about future generations and fellow human beings and other species.
But humans are not rational: they will burn every piece of coal, use every drop of oil, wage wars over it: ´the tragedy of the commons´.
We do not make the choices: the 0.00001% neolibcon psychopathic traitors. Democracy is hacked.
Unless some magic change, people will(!!!) burn everything, and nuclear fusion is still far away.
That means we will have to take climate change into account: it will mean mass migration of hundreds of millions of people (per event!). At the end of the century, world population will be ca. 1 billion, I think.
Most of us are slightly Russophile: Russia is going to do very well! Huge amounts of gas, much more agriculture, when enough lime is available (acid soils are not good farmland). Plenty of space to accomodate good workers from devastated countries.
The northern countries in Canada and Alaska are different: during the ice ages they were covered by ice sheets, kilometers thick. The glaciers have pushed most of the soil away, into the sea, most of it is almost bare rock.
Siberia has never been covered by ice sheets- too dry- hardly any snow.
There is a wealth of information about this on paper, from Soviet academia, never digitized, never translated.
Very solid science though!!! Important work for many climatology and ecology students.
As to why so many people, especially US conservatives, deny climate change I think it can be explained by a very simple intellectual error that plagues almost everyone I know. The error is “this idea/theory/event serves a political interest, and therefore is false.” It’s really just that simple.
This explains why some people deny the Holocaust (it serves the political agenda of making the Jews evoke our sympathies, which doesn’t jive with their hatred of Jews), the moon landing (it serves American exceptionalism or scientism, which they reject), and climate change. There are a whole host of others as well.
Conservatives – or at least real paleo-conservatives, whose instincts at least remain among many Republicans – are deeply skeptical of big, centralized government action. They fear planned economies, over-regulation, authoritarianism, and extension of government interference into our lives. And if ever there were a narrative that supported all that, it’s climate change.
Think of it. It’s a problem that can only be fixed by enforced, worldwide coordinated activity – the epitome of centralization. Every action you take in modern life requires energy. Every bit of food you eat, job you work, entertainment you employ, tools you use – you name it, it requires energy, and therefore is a potential contributor to the problem. Which means it must be regulated, controlled, planned and meddled with. From this perspective, it’s a totalitarian’s dream come true. (Of course, the terrorism narrative is already serving that end quite well, but huge numbers dismiss that because they defended Bush for eight years out of blind party loyalty.)
If climate change is real, from this view, then big government may well be the answer. Yet they know that more government is always bad; therefore climate change is false. Give them a way to think climate change requires decentralization and free markets, and after a cooling-off period, they’ll be fine with it.
But if there are no free market solutions to the problem, if it really does require doing “everything the left always wanted to do anyway” then the problem must be denied. This won’t make the problem go away of course; it simply means that at some point climate catastrophe will do to conservative ideology what the fall of the Berlin Wall did to communism.
The irony is, of course, that anthropogenic climate change almost certainly can’t be fixed by enforced, worldwide, coordinated activity — all attempts to do it that way have foundered on the unwillingness of the political class to accept the limitations on their own lifestyles that fixing climate change would require. A conservative analysis of climate change, it seems to me, would point out the futility of such top-down solutions, and focus on the perverse incentives put in place by governments that privilege fossil fuel use and guarantee that those who benefit most from fossil fuel extraction and burning don’t have to pay the costs of their actions.
Dear Nora
for the purposes of this blog, when it comes to man made global warming/climate change, lets agree to disagree and focus on areas of commonality.
We are both reading this blog because in part because we are fed up with the MSM demonization of Russia and rush to WW3.
If a war between Russia and the USSA goes nuclear, we would experience unequivocal human caused global warming. On this point I believe we agree and should do our best to prevent it.
Have a great day.
George
“Larchmonter445 said…
Dublinmick
Which humans changed the climate the first 6 billion years on Earth? Because it changed a hell of a lot for every year of the Earth’s existence.”
One last interjection here. This is my opinion only. Some things that affect Russia cannot be discussed inside a bubble whether or not some understand that or not. I never suggested climate change was man made nor does the link provided. Some take on the self appointed role of forum enforcer on many forums and in this case seem to use prepackaged responses from some discussion they have encountered elsewhere.
Most any forum will sometimes wander into other areas once in awhile that are relevant regardless whether or not some recognize it. What ruins a blog in my opinion is when some seek to blunt a valid discussion.I thought Robert hit the nail on the head with his summation.
Exxon and BP have so far ignored EU sanctions on Russia and plan to go ahead with arctic exploration. Russia is planning new bases in the Arctic area to safeguard resources which they view as Russian. This all revolves around receding ice and methane eruptions. So it is a flight into wonderland to say this does not effect Russia.
One of America’s largest naval bases, Norfolk, Virginia is also is also experiencing huge problems due to rising ocean level. Now many of the streets there are impassable on high tides. Some areas of Miami are also impassable due to King tides which cover the streets. This never used to be the case and it is a story well known on the east coast of America. I venture to guess that Saker, living in Edgewater has witnessed some of this. I live in Central Florida have have done some red fishing in that area since I was a kid.
The St. Johns River flows into the Atlantic ocean at Mayport and is only a few inches above sea level. If if the ocean level rises much more it will begin to flow inland forming a few islands.
It seems to be a favorite tool of “anonymous” these days to come with the standard line of, This blog used to be about such and such and now these terrible comments are going to cause me to go elsewhere”.
Everyone knows Al Gore is a clown, just the fact that he mentioned a carbon tax was all some need to decide their position on climate change without even looking into other aspects. Algore may well have been a plant to establish such a mentality. Who knows.
I enjoy this blog there is some great information here but from now on I will for the most part try and stick to read only and take the suggestion to check out the one in New Zealand as to whether or not the discussion is being herded.
George,
This unfortunately is a matter of fact, not opinion.
You can obviously see quite clearly the effects of propaganda and brainwashing in The Empire’s presentation of events in Ukraine; otherwise you wouldn’t be here. But what you’re not seeing yet is the efforts done to both sides of the Great American Culture Wars by the various highly-compromised sources in which each side has put their trust. We’ve all been snookered, in so very many ways, by the very folks we relied on bc we knew the MSM were full of it — but the people supposedly “on our side” have their own self-interest, not ours, in mind.
So yes, you’ve been betrayed: it’s real. The IPCC reports are political documents and right from the start, in their very first document, they downplayed the risks, and those risks have since become significantly worse. The models of what lies ahead keep changing as new data comes in (which is the way science works), but the amount of validated material substantiating the changes that have already occured is at this point conclusive.
You’d need to see some of the articles yourself bc no one summary can do them justice, and you’d probably need some quantitative if not scientific background to know how to interpret them. The scientific method is nothing more than a tightly-controlled (in terms of defining and controlling for variables) method of reliably gathering, testing and validating data, then generating and testing hypotheses that best fit the data. There’s no opinion in there at all; if things are done right (the methods section of a paper), and the results replicated, the work stands until something else adds or subtracts from it. Which is expected, and has happened; that’s how science is done.
But we’ve been keeping up with this for years, sifting the good studies from the bad, and yes, the data speaks for itself, and no hard feelings but it’s very, very real.
The science says…..
==============================
So much for the claim that science is not a belief system.
A few centuries ago, the science said that you need to cut the penis to a syphilitic to cure him and that the Sun revolved around the Earth (yes, that was the position of the entire scientific community at that time, not only of the Papal hierarchies).
Lavoisier claimed that it was not possible for a meteor to fall upon the Earth and Semmelweis was ridiculed when he suggested to wash the hands before to go to a parturient after performing an autopsy.
Today you have the supreme idiocy to cure cancer destroying the immune system of the patient peddled as science, and so on and so forth.
Yet, they continue unperturbed to pose as little gods in human features.
They blather about what has happened a billion years ago, and how, like they were there, you almost wait for a clip from them, so serious and confident they look….
If you point out that their sacred dating methods have failed ALL the time to give the exact age of an object when that age was known, they just stare as addicted and will start over one moment later describing the sexual habits of dinosaurs, 265 millions of years ago, just before the sunset….
They are specialized in pecker theorems: namely, to prove something assuming as indisputable what they have to demonstrate.
For example, if you ask to know which scientific experiment has demonstrated that current climate changes and their effects are caused by human activities, they will show you some effects of this climate changes. The human cause, the thing to demonstrate, is given as axiomatic!
This they call scientific method, and are able to stay serious in the while.
The climate of this planet depends on gigantic cosmic forces tuned so finely that can be defined only as miraculous; in other words, the climate here is in the hands of God!
Men are just fly poo when compared to those forces and their subtle equilibrium.
The science fetish, as described above, is just another idol, and there’s nothing men like more than an idol to worship, no matter how ludicrous and inconsequential is the mythology concocted to support it.
Everything but God!
@Maedhros Wel said, thank you!
As far as the “scientific method” and common research consensus based on it being the main argument of the AGW zealots – it’s been massively abused in all fields of science, I’ve seen it myself when doing research. A basic aspect, the traceability of the results to the source data – very questionable in many published cases. Getting access to the raw data from the authors is much more difficult than it should be, some times impossible despite numerous assurances (my personal experience).
There is more and more cases coming to the surface about how the results presented in peer reviewed, highly respected journals are manipulated. Most of the time it’s about money.
But in some cases, like AIDS, swine/bird flu, Ebola, the reasons are much more sinister. “Spanish flu” originated in the US, mind you. Many trails lead to Fort Detrick, MD, including AIDS.
So no, there is no trust at all in “fact-based” AGW.
Maedhros,
Your screed against science and scientists strongly suggests you have little acquaintance with either. Believe it or not, it is quite possible to be simultaneously a scientist and a person of faith — say, a Christian. (No, not the kind who believes the earth is 6K years old and Jesus rode dinosaurs; the other kind.)
Yes, God created the universe and everything therein. But people of all cultures have always wondered how He dunnit and how the various pieces fit together. First there were myths, then the development of mathematics, and then chemistry and physics: people again of all places trying to understand how things really work. The scientific method is just a tool used
by people and yes, there are good scientists and bad scientists, and good work and bad work — we’re all human and quite clearly flawed. So some studies pass the test of time, and others fail — but we learn from all of them. However, when used properly it’s a valid and reliable tool for separating the wheat from the chaff, and accruing the knowledge upon which, frankly, our lives now depend. The best example possible is what you’re doing this very instant: i.e., God may have created the universe but He didn’t create the Internet: it took all those years of all those people accruing data, carefully validating it by this very tool you hold in such contempt, and building upon the body of knowledge thus obtained for this “miracle” to happen. And no, the human cause of AGW is not given as axiomatic; that determination is the result of many different kids of studies in many different places over a fairly long period of time.
Pro Peace,
So you’re a scientist too — in what field? What kinds of studies do you do? And yes, the field has definitely deteriorated in this country since Jews, spooks and the MIC took over academia — more scandals, more cutthroat, less collegiality and certainly less sharing of data and problems with peer review. Again, scientists are human too, which you of course should know. But your distrust sounds deeper than that, and makes me wonder how you can continue doing research at all if you’re putting the very tools by which you presumably do it in scare quotes.
Btw, Mr. Nora will be responding shortly; maybe you two can share war stories.
I don’t generally comment on blogs but my wife has kept me apprised of this discussion and I feel obligated to address several misconceptions some people may have regarding my field.
Part 1
“A few centuries ago, the science said that you need to cut the penis to a syphilitic to cure him.”
No one claims that medicine became a science before the 20th century. Medicine did ultimately change its view about syphilis treatment when they had adequate data. Also, science in general was still developing a few centuries ago. Furthermore, it is not appropriate to compare medical claims of two centuries ago with non-medical, rigorous scientific conclusions based on massive amounts of data analyzed by thousands of qualified scientists in the late 20th century.
“and that the Sun revolved around the Earth (yes, that was the position of the entire scientific community at that time, not only of the Papal hierarchies).”
The scientific community did not exist at that time; also, people in the Middle East had a very good understanding of the the solar system at least 1000 years ago.
“and Semmelweis was ridiculed when he suggested to wash the hands before to go to a parturient after performing an autopsy.”
New scientific ideas are always received with skepticism and may be ridiculed, until the data is in and the conclusion is irrefutable. This was an event in the mid-19th century. No one challenges his ideas today. The data is in for climate change too.
“Yet, they continue unperturbed to pose as little gods in human features.”
Scientists have the same human flaws as everyone else. Some are arrogant egotists, some are narcissists, some do strut like little gods, but the overwhelming majority of serious scientists are humbled by nature and serious and excited by their work.
“They blather about what has happened a billion years ago, and how, like they were there, you almost wait for a clip from them, so serious and confident they look….”
The news media will do this, not the scientists. Indeed, most scientists are very unhappy with how their work is presented to the general public.
Part 2
“If you point out that their sacred dating methods have failed ALL the time to give the exact age of an object when that age was known, they just stare as addicted and will start over one moment later describing the sexual habits of dinosaurs, 265 millions of years ago, just before the sunset…”
No dating method can give an exact age. At best a method can give an age range that is not too large. These methods are carefully calibrated by checking estimates against known ages that are independent of the method. Furthermore, often more than one dating method will be used on a sample to establish confidence in the age estimate. And I am wondering how you know “they” just stare as addicted.
“For example, if you ask to know which scientific experiment has demonstrated that current climate changes and their effects are caused by human activities, they will show you some effects of this climate changes. The human cause, the thing to demonstrate, is given as axiomatic!”
No experiment is possible. At best, hypotheses are made about consequences of human activity, such as changes in the ratio of oxygen or carbon isotopes that occur due to industrial emissions. The test of the hypothesis is then done, for example, by sampling ice cores from glaciers or the arctic/antarctic or sea floor sediments and looking at isotope ratios in the different strata. Results are consistent with predictions. No axiomatic assertions are made.
“The climate of this planet depends on gigantic cosmic forces tuned so finely that can be defined only as miraculous; in other words, the climate here in in the hands of God!”
The computer simulations of world climate can not exactly reproduce reality, but they can give a big picture that is founded on all the best data and knowledge we have. Simulations done using a wide range of approaches and assumptions ALL lead to the same conclusions.
I said I was finished with this one but well it is simply too interesting to just drop. Hopefully the Saker won’t ban me for this one but it is a topic I have long looked into.
Nora you are truly the voice of reason! :)
I will leave a link here from a Russian scientist who is very well thought of. I in fact have linked him many times. Dr. Alexey N. Dmitriev
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/peterr/annex/PhenomenaReported1/PR.html
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/esp_ciencia_solarsystem02.htm
Without going into a long song and dance I will say this. The oceans are rising and it is not due to global cooling. Many islanders around the world are evacuating because the ocean is submerging the freaking islands. This is not open to debate, try google.
As I said earlier many places on the east coast of America are experiencing huge tides that submerge streets. Las Vegas is running out of water and it is not due to global cooling. The Russian area of Siberia is experiencing both forest fires and flooding and it is not due to global cooling.
O.K. I am finished with this and will not bring it up on another thread.
dublinsmick,
Thank you. (blushes)
I’m really deeply flattered. ;~)
Thank you, Nora and Mr. Nora.
Leolo Lazone
Dear Nora,
My background is in computer science/data analysis. I moved some time ago from scientific research to a business oriented environment. There is less overblown-ego-centric attitude here, less religion-like worshiping of the only one approach for conducting research. Objective measures are satisfaction of customers, sponsors, owners.
Here is some food for thought:
“Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong
http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2013/oct/04/open-access-journals-fake-paper
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/sep/13/scientific-research-fraud-bad-practice
Just one more: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/climategate.php
To All: thank you for your interesting, as always, input and discussions.
Pro Peace,
Absolutely yes to the current corruption of the research process apparent in many areas of scientific endeavor; I believe one or the other of us mentioned that, but I don’t think we mentioned the role of corporate financing, and certainly should have! So yes, the peer review process probably needs some major tweaking, but that’s still not to say that all results are therefore invalid: it really affects far more the papers (and research) that are accepted either for funding or publication. But again, we’re all mere mortals and frankly, the best hard science right now isn’t necessarily even done here any more: that’s how much our funding process etc. has effected things. For real for real. The job situation also sux big time, so people in the hard sciences end up post-doc-ing for ten, twelve years before finding anything, if they do.
But while your field has the word science in it, and you certainly use data analysis, you’re not, strictly speaking, a research scientist conducting experiments via collecting data, controlling variables, and analyzing the results. Science became so popular back in the day that lots of fields tried to adopt scientific methods in their research but, for example in both psychology and economics, there are generally so many of Rumsfeld’s unknown unknowns that all the variables really can’t even be pinned down, much less played with under controlled circumstances. So all too frequently, the most interesting questions really can’t be answered validly, and also, of course, a lot of oversimplistic stuff playing well to the audience in question, comes out in the literature but can be picked to pieces quite easily by anyone with a decent background in statistics or research design.
But we’ll certainly agree with you that academia in general has deteriorated a whole lot — always used to be petty fiefdoms and such, but like everywhere else in this country over the past thirty years or so, it’s gotten exponentially worse, and very hard for a tyro to break into (I’m wanting to say “without a warlord for protection” !!) ;~)