“It’s shocking to realize how seldom we change our basic beliefs or understanding when confronted with new information that normally would affect change. Instead, we bend or ignore facts to fit our established world view. John Maynard Keynes once said “When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?” Sadly most people don’t subscribe to this logical practice. Instead, conformation bias and denial are the tools we use to manage and manipulate information to our liking. And there are plenty of governmental, corporate and private citizens ready to help us accomplish this through deliberate and targeted propaganda. The most common personal warning sign that this is happening is the pain of cognitive dissonance, which is usually set off when new information is in conflict with long established and dearly held views.

Rarely do we push through this cognitive pain to reappraise our inventory of established truths for validity or relevance. It’s so much easier to discard ugly deviations, or cherry pick information that confirms our preferred vision, rather than conduct the top to bottom review that’s called for when the facts change. Intellectual laziness is the polite term for this phenomenon. I think a more honest explanation is deliberate and mostly conscious denial. However, even when I’m alert for and aware of this phenomenon, I’m still surprised how often I participate. It’s frightening to see how deeply conditioned we are in the art of self deception. The truth hurts, so I employ the most powerful pain killer know to man, that of denial. It’s extremely difficult to reject popular opinion and strike out on our own independent path. Group think is indoctrinated into us from birth and socially rewarded at every turn. It’s emotionally safer and more comfortable if you stay near the center of the pack. Herd mentality in all its glory, which is corralled by the public myth and which we too are the keepers.”

End of Empire – Propaganda and the American Myth

Zero Hedge by Cognitive Dissonance on 11/29/2009

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”….ourselves. With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.

If only life were as neat and orderly as my ancient history text book showed it to be. There it was on glossy paper, spread out across two sets of adjoining pages, maps of the ancient and modern world. Including time lines top and bottom, with countries outlined and identified. Underneath their modern English names were one or two older names in smaller stylized script, often including exact beginning and end dates. I remember one in particular that caught my eye. “United States of America” followed by the year 1776. But with no end date indicated, it looked like unfinished business to me. You’ve got to love those historians and their exact dates.

Of course, in reality there are no exact dates for the birth and death of city/states, other than in the author’s mind. Children continue to be born, the old still die, and life goes on under different circumstances. But you’re rarely informed of the subjective nature of historical events when you’re young and impressionable, so they’re presented in the history books as fact. The last thing the reigning Empire wants is to appear uncertain about previous Empires. Even before we begin to read and comprehend on our own, we’re presented with the illusion of a beginning and end to everything, often with very clear lines of demarcation. This concept is continuously reinforced through our daily indoctrination of carefully scripted news stories, care of our modern media saturated existence. Naturally, critical thinking is optional and definitively not encouraged.

Mix in a healthy dose of hard core science, where you learn very early there are correct and incorrect answers to all your questions, and a pattern of social myth making emerges. Of course, the correct answers are held for public safekeeping by our cultural high priests and authority figures, be they academic, governmental, scientific or religious. Lest you forget, cultural icons and heroes must always be respected and deferred to. Maybe now’s a good time to remember that most history and science books are written and re-written by those very same keepers of the public mythology. What we believe as a culture, sometimes called our public myth, is usually determined by those whose pockets are the deepest or most powerful, not by those who are the wisest and most knowledgeable.

Have you ever read a book written by the survivors of the vanquished, the so called losers? I have, a number of times, and it’s usually very enlightening to see the world from the other side of the bloody divide. In their hands, our cultural myths aren’t treated with the same loving care and respect we afford them, nor should they be. But of course they must be lying because they have an ax to grind. Revisionist history is how those in power politely describe the writings of the defeated and the victims crushed in the head long rush of conquering empire. The public myth tells us that the losers can do nothing but taut the victorious with their lies. Ignore them and they’ll go away. Besides, the winners never lie about the facts, though we’re told there’s plenty of room for differences of opinion. And just about everything can be reduced to an opinion if you’re looking to obscure.

Of course, one of the unspoken duties of the winners is to distort the written and visual record, so that it conforms to the public myth. This is the principle reason why recently retired or replaced holders of powerful governmental and military positions are handed huge advances to write their memoirs. These sacred tomes of divine wisdom are quickly embraced by other propagandists as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help their Gods of propaganda. Once in hand, it’s quickly woven into the fabric of the public myth as supporting documentation. Thus another slice of the propaganda cycle is complete and ready for its next rotation.

We possess extremely complex belief systems and world views. How they develop and evolve is greatly influenced by external information sources we rarely question or challenge. After all, these sources are our cultural authority figures, the experts, professionals and intelligentsia that form our cultural propaganda delivery and support system. These sources cannot be seriously questioned, particularly from within, without being declared a heretic. Just look at how Zero Hedge, and other non-conforming web sites, are treated as an example of how heresy is handled these days. While we may not pay much attention to everything we hear or see, our unconscious is absorbing it all, raw and unfiltered. This information feeds into and supports our world view with little conscious thought or scrutiny. This is the reason why repetition is so vitally important to effective propaganda. Our brain always absorbs even when we do not look and listen.

It’s shocking to realize how seldom we change our basic beliefs or understanding when confronted with new information that normally would affect change. Instead, we bend or ignore facts to fit our established world view. John Maynard Keynes once said “When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?” Sadly most people don’t subscribe to this logical practice. Instead, conformation bias and denial are the tools we use to manage and manipulate information to our liking. And there are plenty of governmental, corporate and private citizens ready to help us accomplish this through deliberate and targeted propaganda. The most common personal warning sign that this is happening is the pain of cognitive dissonance, which is usually set off when new information is in conflict with long established and dearly held views.

Rarely do we push through this cognitive pain to reappraise our inventory of established truths for validity or relevance. It’s so much easier to discard ugly deviations, or cherry pick information that confirms our preferred vision, rather than conduct the top to bottom review that’s called for when the facts change. Intellectual laziness is the polite term for this phenomenon. I think a more honest explanation is deliberate and mostly conscious denial. However, even when I’m alert for and aware of this phenomenon, I’m still surprised how often I participate. It’s frightening to see how deeply conditioned we are in the art of self deception. The truth hurts, so I employ the most powerful pain killer know to man, that of denial. It’s extremely difficult to reject popular opinion and strike out on our own independent path. Group think is indoctrinated into us from birth and socially rewarded at every turn. It’s emotionally safer and more comfortable if you stay near the center of the pack. Herd mentality in all its glory, which is corralled by the public myth and which we too are the keepers.

I often say all writers are essentially propagandists and that applies to me as well. I’m using this forum to cherry pick information which I then present in the most compelling manner to make my case. In effect, I’m feeding you my spin, which along with other pieces can be used to build a myth. The most effective propaganda is that whose basic premise is slipped by the reader or TV viewer so smoothly it’s never recognized. Once the premise is planted and accepted, the hard work is done and the fish is quickly reeled in. What’s that you say? You’re too smart to let the wool be pulled over your eyes? That you can discern truth from lies and would eventually figure it out given enough time and inclination? Honestly ask yourself, how much effort would you put into examining something you already believe to be true? Wouldn’t you deem it a major waste of your time? Consider the premise I put forth in the title of this article. Did you notice? Did you question? Or did you accept and start to read?

Most people see information as chunks of data that can be compartmentalized, examined and manipulated. But rarely do we recognize that many of the truths we hold as impeccable are based upon long lines of information. If at any point this information could be proven false, the entire line is suspect, along with your impeccable truth. Consider a long string of mathematical calculations. While there may be dozens of individual problems with separate answers, each answer then feeds into another calculation as a sum or variable. Make a mistake at any point in the line and the entire data stream is corrupt. How we view our world is based upon many preconceived notions and beliefs. Change just one small piece we previously thought correct and everything changes to some extent. Change two or three and suddenly we have a crisis of confidence and a cognitive dissonance. Yet when we feel that pain, how often do we reboot and reexamine everything? Why would you reexamine what you think you know to be correct, particularly when most everyone else is in agreement? Peer pressure and conditioning are hard to resist, even in the privacy of your own mind. “We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My basic premise and the basis for this series of articles is that the American Empire is ending. In fact, it has peaked and is now in rapid decline. While I can’t offer an exact date for this change of direction, it doesn’t diminish my argument in the least. I’d be hard pressed to give you the date for the decline of the Roman Empire, but clearly it followed the same trajectory. Did Rome’s downward spiral start when the capital was moved to Constantinople in 330 AD? Or when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 AD? It matters little at this point, except to the historians. While America descends, China and India ascend.

Actually I would argue that while Empires come and go, the culture of environmental and human exploitation and destruction we call civilization has grown in efficiency over the past 3000 years. We Americans now stand proudly at the pinnacle of the insanity, picking up where the Romans and Europeans left off. I’ll leave that thought for another day but I think you get my point.

America as a social and financial entity ceased to function at peak efficiency decades ago. This rapid decline is the main reason behind the massive increase in financial engineering, which is now coming apart at the seams, deliberately in my view. To argue over this or that detail is to be in denial of the obvious. In fact, I consider the official bickering over these details as a deliberate attempt to distort and distract while the final looting and rape occurs. Using propaganda and other psychological operations, our leaders lie about the economic condition of America. They do so not because they expect the lie to withstand close scrutiny, but rather to enable those who wish to believe the lie a plausible excuse to do so. Remember our conditioning. When in doubt, defer to authority and suspend disbelief.

A classic sales technique is the assumed consent close. Rather than directly asking you to purchase this new car, I simply assume you are purchasing and begin asking you closing questions. “Do you prefer the red one we looked at first or the blue convertible with the beige interior? Could you please get your insurance card out of the glove box before you clean out your car? Just sign here and here. Thanks.” You’d be surprised how many new automobiles, rooms of household furniture, whole life insurance, variable annuities and pieces of expensive jewelry are sold in this manner. Something similar to this technique is being used by the mass media to sell us something we already wish to buy. Only they aren’t selling the death of America, but rather its remarkable resilience and miraculous comeback. We’re being sold false hope, disguised as assumed consent questions such as, should we audit the Fed, can we expand healthcare with a public option, will Son of Stimulus be rolled out by the first or second quarter of 2010, should we……..well, you get the picture.

False hope binds us to impossible conditions and situations. Please read that statement again and then let it sink in for a minute.

As long as we believe there’s residual value in keeping America on life support, we’ll continue to pour borrowed money into this mess, rather than roll up the derivatives, fire the managers and start over. We don’t wish to face the reality that we’re in way over our heads. As long as we’re not forced to look too closely at the horrible condition our country’s in, we’re all too willing to do our part and avoid applying critical thinking to the subject. Like an old bull unknowingly led to slaughter because he thinks he’s off to mount another cow, we’re desperately trying to keep alive the magical American myth of life, liberty and apple pie while shielding our eyes from the rotting corpse it’s rapidly becoming.

That’s probably too harsh for the average American’s sensibilities, but let’s ask ourselves a few questions in an effort to find the truth, or at least something approaching the truth as we know it. Let me be clear on something before I get flamed for my harsh tongue. I’m not America bashing in the least. I’m America myth bashing. The American myth of exceptionalism is enabling her destruction as we stand idly by, applauding the mythical facade our leaders and media display 24/7. As long as we cling to the hope that all she needs is a tune up and some minor repairs, we’re condemned to a long and painful death spiral. We’re being sold exactly what we want to hear when we need to hear it. To claim otherwise is to lie to ourselves and to each other.

America is crumbling from the foundation up, and yet we gather around the TV, talking about a fresh paint job and a new screen door, both bought on credit, while handing our grandchildren a bill they’ll never be able to pay. The only way we can live with this lie while perpetrating these despicable acts upon our own family members is to deny it’s even happening. The big lie, which we must continue to tell ourselves, has taken on a life of its own and is consuming everyone and everything in its path. We are addicted to our own public myth and to sustain the lie, we simply ignore the truth. The only way to break through this lie is to go back through decades of propaganda and myth and find out what went wrong. Since this would be too painful, both individually and as a society, we distort reality as quickly as we change cable channels. It’s not just our leaders who are corrupt but we as well.

We have become cowardly, unwilling to commit to the tough decision of setting aside instant gratification in order to assure our grandchildren a home to live in. This is the ultimate act of selfishness, compounded by the fact that we claim we’ve been hijacked by our leaders. Sadly, our leaders are doing exactly what we want them to do, which is to continue the lie. Did we really think we could put our toys and war machines on the charge card and not worry about the bill, just because some politicians said we could? What are we, 5 year olds, pointing our fingers elsewhere when asked who broke the vase? Even if we personally followed the path of fiscal prudence, why didn’t we scream bloody murder, demanding we stop this insanity before the country began its suicidal plunge? Why do we still remain silent? Our hands are bloody and the only question is, how much is yours and how much is mine. Citizenship is all about individual responsibility, something we’ve been avoiding for a while now, at least since we started calling ourselves consumers.

Look at the endless propaganda on TV that’s used to lull us back into a drugged stupor, so we don’t dwell on what we’re doing to our children’s children. American flags wave in the background as chiseled men and full breasted women expound on how wonderful we are for building and loving this great nation of ours. The great American love story, brought to you nightly on prime time TV. This is where the bad guys always loose, men are men and women are sexual objects to lust after. Watch closely children, this is the American dream. Why wouldn’t we love America the myth? It’s everything we want without the pain. Nationalism is our unifying religion, a potentially fatal addiction to our public myth that enables us to fiddle while America burns. More drugs over here doctor, the patient’s waking up.

So how do we deal with this, and what does this have to do with Zero Hedge? Well, I would say it has everything to do with ZH, but then again I’m just a propagandist, weaving my magical myth. But to be honest, in desperation I’m seeking another way, a different path. I’m tired of moving in and out of the various stages of loss and grief. One moment I’m screaming at my zombie neighbor, imploring him to wake up and see the insanity. The next I’m filled with self righteous indignation as another patsy banker’s head is placed on the public pike. Sometimes I start my morning bargaining with unseen powers, begging for a truce or cease fire, only to end my day crying in my hands in fear and frustration of it all. And I’m not alone.

Zero Hedge seems to be a refuge for the walking wounded, a safe haven inside occupied territory for the psychically damaged and demoralized. But we need more than rest and relaxation in order to regain our feet. We need to heal and grow our ranks, to find a way to help ourselves and those who follow us into the refuge. Surrounded by lies and deceit, we are indoctrinated to such an extent that we still speak the language of denial without realizing it. We have no choice but to start at the beginning. While Zero Hedge speaks truth to power, we need to speak truth to ourselves, to talk openly about what has happened and where we’re going. Part of the seduction of denial is the avoidance of personal responsibility. In my view this must stop, thus my declaration that we’re all responsible for this mess. I have no doubt America can be repaired but the process starts at the personal level.

From a financial point of view, I’m sure we’ve all held a winning trade past its prime, giving back money we should have booked. And who hasn’t kept a dog way too long, when we should have thrown it overboard months ago? While I’m certain there are multiple reasons for poor investment performance, a fearless and thorough examination often shows that bad investment decisions are the result of personal shortcomings, such as wishful thinking or denial. For myself, when this happens, I find I’ve violated one or more of my trading rules. They are as follows.

One, know myself, particularly my strengths and weaknesses. Two, know my trading environment or don’t play in the sandbox. Three, always consider the other side of trade. If I’m buying, why is the other guy selling? If I’m selling, why is the other guy buying? Look for weakness in my thinking. Four, from time to time, mentally clear my computer screen of existing positions and then follow step three with each holding. If I wouldn’t buy or sell it now, why am I holding it? Five, trust my instincts, not my heart. My heart lies to me all the time with plenty of help from my brain. Instinctually I usually know when to buy or sell but often I ignore my gut feeling and wind up screwing the pooch. Over the years I’ve found that too much thinking gets in the way and often makes things worse.

These trading rules, as with life itself, requires a clear eyed view and a deeper understanding of ourselves, our fellow man and the real world, not as we wish to see it but as it really is. Unfortunately we still engage in wishful thinking way too often, constantly pushing the hope “dope” button and regretting it afterwards. Considering the direction our world is headed, it’s going to be more difficult to think clearly unless we make personal changes. Old habits die hard because we desperately cling to them for emotional support. Understanding why we do this will go a long way to helping us jettison that old baggage. Even if we are trapped on the crazy train to hell, just because we can’t get off doesn’t mean we must participate in the insanity.

So with the active participation of my fellow Zero Hedge readers, I would like to continue this exploration in a series of “End of Empire” articles, each time focusing on a different aspect of the unraveling. We need to develop our intellectual, emotional and financial coping techniques. Of particular importance to me will be the comments and feedback I get from you, for I assure you I don’t have all the answers. This isn’t a rally to arms but rather a cry for help. Either we heal as a community or we continue to hemorrhage, alone and isolated. It’s going to be a wild ride so let’s buckle up and do this together. After all, there’s safety in numbers, inside the new herd mentality of Zero Hedge.

Cognitive Dissonance

Die Religion … ist das Opium des Volkes

Nice one Marx.

‘Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.’

Religion is playing more of a part in UK culture today than it has for the past thirty years, but instead of Christianity be the focus of debate it is the Islamic belief system that is under discussion. But that as they say, is another story for another time.

Christianity in the UK has been replaced by the love of consumerism, on a Sunday, instead of church the average family joins the happy congregation in those cathedrals to capitalism, the Mall.

A slightly dated (2005-2006) report suggests:

Around 5.6 million adults aged over 16 (out of a possible 41.9 million adults) shop at supermarkets every Sunday and 2.8 million shop at other large shops every Sunday. 53% of the individuals who shop at a large shop also shop at a supermarket on Sundays; this represents around 1.5 million people. 6.9 million people make at least one shopping trip to a large shop every Sunday. Over one third of individuals shop at least once a month on a Sunday (46% at supermarkets and 36% at other large shops).
It is estimated that 10.1 million people never shop at a supermarket on a Sunday and 11.9 million never shop at other large shops on Sundays. (ONS PDF)

A report looking at Church attendance at about the same time suggests that 3,166,200 people attend church on a Sunday. In slightly more contemporary studies, Christian Research, the statistical arm of the Bible Society, fears that by 2050 Sunday attendance will fall below 88,000, compared with just under a million now.

So what is the new opium of the masses?
Shopping and Consumerism.

And who is the new Messiah?

David Fucking Beckham.

The old testament was all about control. It was the word of God demanding obedience, it warned you of what would happen if you fucked up and failed to follow the true path. It was designed to subjugate and control the masses.

Do what we say or it’s a pillar of salt for you sunshine.

Same with old school governance and capitalism. Do what we say or we’ll fuck you up, financially and physically.

Both told the masses to shut up, behave, listen to your masters and accept the common line.

Slowly over time, the masses became more aware, demanded greater input into their lives and who came a long?

Jesus. And David.

He was the spin, the sweetener in Christianity. He was the character that brought Christianity to the masses in a way that they had never considered before. He made religion accessible. He was just like every other Joe… poor, a carpenter by trade (maybe) and a man of the people.

No longer was Christianity just for the rich and powerful, the common person could believe too.

Of course, with the understanding that you still did what you were told and listened to your betters…

David Beckham fills the same role. He is a successful working class kid who is handsome and beguiling, rather than clever words, he sells through looks and posturing.

He is the draw for the average person to capitalism, you too can have the lifestyle, the wedding, the glamour of the rich. After all, look at David Beckham…

The post capitalist society we live in revels in the banality of popular culture, it uses reality tv to give our youth the dream of fame and fortune whilst actually being good at fuck all. You don’t need to achieve, you just need to get credit, buy all the trappings and keep hoping that one day your inner talent will be found.

In a slightly ropey study of 3000 families, paid for by ITV, the top career choices were listed thus:

1. Sportsman 12%
2. Pop star 11%
3. Actor 11%
4. Astronaut 9%
5. Lawyer 9%
6. Emergency services 7%
7. Medicine 6%
8. Chef 5%
9. Teacher 4%
10. Vet 3%

Comparatively, twenty five years ago:

1. Teacher 15%
2. Banking/ finance 9%
3. Medicine 7%
4. Scientist 6%
5. Vet 6%
6. Lawyer 6%
7. Sportsman 5%
8. Astronaut 4%
9. Beautician/hairdresser 4%
10. Archaeologist 3%

Personally I am glad to see astronaut is still in there somewhere…

The pendulum swings relentlessly.

We have seen over the course of history when, coming out of the Slough of Despond, someone manages to rise up and push for what’s right. At least, as far as we can tell. So they build up some momentum, and things look good for awhile. In the past it took a few generations, but these days it’s much quicker. Eventually, greed gets a foothold and the whole thing goes downhill until we are back at the Slough of Despond. There are mega-cycles and mini-cycles, too, but trends aren’t that hard to spot when you find some place to stand outside of the mess.

Right now, the West in general, and America in particular, are way out on the swing toward greed. That is, almost everything we expect to see enforced in laws is not, unless it pays. The few things vigorously enforced are those which benefit the greedy. Less and less of the pretense is put up, as the facade is coming off. So don’t expect anything resembling common justice unless you get it yourself. That’s really sad.

A really good example of this is highlighted in the film, Food, Inc. Just a tiny handful of mega-corporations own all food production in the US, and they own all the enforcement of food regulation, too. The deck is stacked against actual good nutrition. For example, it is almost impossible to buy anything with corn or soy which isn’t GMO. And it’s almost impossible to buy anything at all which doesn’t include corn or soy.

The only light in the darkness of this picture is the rising organic food industry. Yes, it’s an industry. And it’s being bought up by the same handful of big food makers. But you can, if you work hard at it, find a few who haven’t sold their souls. That is, the product which began as a tiny little operation of true believers may still be the same product. It usually costs more.

Which simply points out the greed of the victims. Were it not for the fierce demand food be fast, convenient and cheap, those major conglomerates would have never made it that far. Of course, the biggest problem in this formula is the demand for cheap. We aren’t willing to pay what things naturally cost, so someone else obligingly leaps on that and builds a business. It grows, and there is the natural demand for uniformity, which makes food a “product” as opposed to something natural. Once those vendors get big enough, they realize the only way to stay on top is to control everything in the business. That means keeping you from ever considering how messed up the whole situation is.

Frankly, the sin is ours, but now it’s out of our hands. The movie tries to portray the notion you can demand a change and get it, but don’t count on that. You can scarcely find that a copy of that movie in the first place. Would you have heard of it any place else? Sure, but only if you look for that sort of thing in the first place.

At any rate, the pendulum swings. Very soon, the whole system will collapse and many of us will likely face starvation, because we have entirely far too much invested in the current system. There are a few limited opportunities to fix this mess before it collapses, but I would be totally amazed if we even notice them, much less availed ourselves of them as a nation. No, we’ll let the pendulum swing back the other way before we catch on, and then we’ll slowly adjust and maybe, just maybe, push aside the greed and do what’s right. For awhile.

I went to high school in the early 1970s, mostly in Alaska. We had hippies up there, but it was hard to tell them from rural residents who weren’t native. The antiwar stuff was more a matter of fashion for most kids, but we had some who were serious about it. Along with that were the population fear mongers, anti-pollution freaks, climate change folks, and dopers. Oh yeah — climate change meant fearing global cooling.

Some things weren’t really a problem. Population, as Crichton shows, was already on the decline. Protests against the “population bomb” were utterly misplaced. The anti-war folks were generally correct, but I’m not really sure they had that much do with our the US actually leaving SE Asia. We lost on the ground, and I simply don’t believe some of the bogus recriminations about how we lost it here first. We never should have been there in the first place, so if that’s the case, we should be protesting again.

Pollution was an issue, and still is, but Crichton is completely wrong about pharmaceuticals — they have already been shown a serious danger. Industrial pollution we are reducing, not a moment too soon, and not nearly in enough places. And Chernobyl is hardly a non-issue. I sincerely hope we learned our lesson there. Nuclear technology is hardly that safe. It can be done, but most governments tend to lavish such things with neglect. Only rarely do people in power actually care about their fellow humans, so we can expect more disasters, such as Yellowstone.

But the new fear of global warming was never anything but pure hogwash, an attempt at watermelon politics: green is the color you see, but it’s pure red murderous communism inside. It remains a profit seeking, fear mongering power grab, and humanity be damned. Instead, it seems the old fears of ice ages were accurate. But that doesn’t mean burning petroleum isn’t harmful on the scale we now do it. It may not kill us all, but the long term effects are dismissed by the heedless masses.

Still, I am much more concerned with something deeper. All of the above would never be an issue if we simply lived by God’s Laws. It’s the moral pollution which will kill us first.

By Jim O’Neill Friday, November 27, 2009

“They are not merely bad scientists — they are crooks. And crooks who have perpetrated their crimes at the expense of British and U.S. taxpayers.

I am angry, and so should you be.” —Lord Christopher Monckton November 23, 2009

In a recent article, Lord Monckton pointed out that, far from suffering from global warming, the planet has experienced “rapid and significant cooling” over the past nine years.

That bears repeating. Over the past nine years the world has experienced “rapid and significant cooling.” There has been no global warming—it is a Big Lie.

The whole “global warming” myth is a scam, a fraud, and most significantly, a crime.

Click the link below for more:

Climategate Criminals, and Getting Our Money Back.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague.

SNIP

“We have to check if crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide have been committed in Afghanistan,” Mr. Ocampo told me.

LINK

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

Serra Pelada gold mine, Brazil (Photo by Sebastiao Salgado).

In chapter two, one of the most powerful and persuasive, Robinson charts the crisis of developmental capitalism, or import-substitution industrialization, in the 1960s and 1970s, and then shifts to neoliberalism, or export-led development, in the 1980s and 1990s across Latin America. Drawing on the historical materialist categories of proletarianization and primitive accumulation, he examines the contours of the new economic model through a focused exploration of nontraditional exports and services. He offers a penetrating look at the cut flowers industry in Ecuador and Colombia, the explosive growth of the fruits and wines sector in Chile, soy production in Argentina and the rest of the Southern Cone, and winter fruits and vegetable production in Central America. He demonstrates how there has been an “accelerated replacement of noncapitalist by capitalist forms of agricultural development” and a “concomitant displacement of the peasantry and its conversion into a rural proletariat. This has occurred along with an increase in rural to urban and transnational migration”; promotion of “flexible…work in the new agro-export platforms”; a move to “predominance of female workers in these platforms”; and “the articulation of local agricultural systems…to global agricultural and industrial food production and distribution chains.”

Serra Pelada gold mine, Brazil (Photo by Sebastiao Salgado).

Jeffery R. Webber, of University of Regina, reviews the book Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective by William I. Robinson in the October edition of the Monthly Review:

In chapter two, one of the most powerful and persuasive, Robinson charts the crisis of developmental capitalism, or import-substitution industrialization, in the 1960s and 1970s, and then shifts to neoliberalism, or export-led development, in the 1980s and 1990s across Latin America. Drawing on the historical materialist categories of proletarianization and primitive accumulation, he examines the contours of the new economic model through a focused exploration of nontraditional exports and services. He offers a penetrating look at the cut flowers industry in Ecuador and Colombia, the explosive growth of the fruits and wines sector in Chile, soy production in Argentina and the rest of the Southern Cone, and winter fruits and vegetable production in Central America. He demonstrates how there has been an “accelerated replacement of noncapitalist by capitalist forms of agricultural development” and a “concomitant displacement of the peasantry and its conversion into a rural proletariat. This has occurred along with an increase in rural to urban and transnational migration”; promotion of “flexible…work in the new agro-export platforms”; a move to “predominance of female workers in these platforms”; and “the articulation of local agricultural systems…to global agricultural and industrial food production and distribution chains.”

The main weakness in this otherwise compelling portrait of the political economy of the Latin American countryside today is the one-sided structural power allotted to capital. Opportunities for increases in agricultural workers’ bargaining power under certain conditions, such as those examined by Ben Selwyn in his important study of export grape production in North East Brazil, are elided.

It’s all about money!!!

The former US vice president is in line to make a large profit from a firm producing smart meters which monitor household electricity use.

He is a partner in a Silicon Valley venture capital firm which invested £45 million in Silver Spring Networks, a small California company which has been developing technology to monitor household power use to make the electricity grid more efficient.

Last week the US Energy Department announced £2 billion in grants and a proportion of that, thought to be more than £305 million, will go to utility operators with which Silver Spring has contracts.

The venture capitalists who invested, including Mr Gore, now look set to receive a handsome return. Al Gore ‘profiting’ from climate change agenda – Telegraph

Oh, and if you have seen the movie by Al Gore the wannabe President “Inconvenient Truth”, you may remember the scene of the Polar Bears stranded on melting ice caps. Well… truth is, they were not stranded at all! Media watch exposed the truth on this matter you can watch that HERE.

And did you know that there are 30,000 scientists are wanting to sue Al Gore for fraud, hoping to actually have an open debates with him and other scientists regarding this issue! In this video it is noted that “Global warming”, whoops, I mean “Climate Change” has become an environmentalists religion where you can’t even have an open debate!

Oh and there are at least 11 “Inconvenient inaccuracies” in Al Gore’s film, did you KNOW that?

Related:

Climate Change

I suppose it’s possible you haven’t heard about the exposé of the climate scientist’s email and documents. In essence, someone scooped up a copy of lots of private email between some climate guys, along with documents and some software code, all of which indicates these climate guys were lying about what their studies indicated about climate trends. They have been saying all along we are headed for global warming, and they further wish to blame humanity for it. They honestly expect us to believe somehow what we are doing is producing way too much carbon dioxide, and it’s causing the planet to change somewhat, rather like a greenhouse. Or something equally stupid.

There have been thousands of blog posts about it, so I won’t even bother to link. Just search for “climategate” using any Internet search engine. By the way, the college is in the UK, but it’s getting tons of funding from the US taxpayers.

The first point is this: The fraud has been exposed. Most of the secret exchanges would be quite different in tone and content if their work had any integrity. Some of their exchanges made clear they were hiding information, twisting other information, doing their darnedest to make it say what they wanted it to say. Then there was the software code, which was a huge tangled mess, say coders, because the author was participating in making the computers produce more lies about climate change. So, what’s really going on is the climate is cooling. We are headed for an ice age, if anything.

The second point is this: The exposure of fraud won’t make any difference. Powerful forces are too deeply invested in the climate lies, and will simply act as if nothing happened. Truth, facts, and what we all know, matters not a whit to them. You and I will be forced to live as if the climate lies are true.

It makes me very sad. If we think about this, we realize the only way to stop this madness is to kill an awful lot of bad people. Of course, you may realize they would certainly not hesitate to kill you and I. But perhaps you also know the vast majority of the human race would prefer to swallow this crap because it means somewhere in there is also their favorite drug. They don’t have to face reality; that’s someone else’s problem. They get whatever drug makes them happy — literal or figurative — and stick their fingers in their ears. They don’t hear the truth because it costs too much.

Don’t look for a popular uprising.

By Alan Caruba Thursday, November 26, 2009 Canada Free Press

Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kerry, Boxer, Markey, Waxman

As the global warming fraud unravels, it’s a good time to look at the politicians who have been some of the most outspoken advocates, using global warming/climate change to advance “Cap-and-Trade” legislation and other related laws and regulations.

Sen. Kerry said that failure to pass the Senate version of “Cap-and-Trade” (of greenhouse gas emission credits) would be comparable to another 9/11. He also has blamed tornadoes on global warming. The man is a complete idiot.

Click the link below for more:
A Political Who’s Who of Global Warming Liars.

While  Australian politics is in turmoil because MPs and senators are refusing to back action on global warming – on the eve of the Copenhagen Climate Change summit. I have written about this ‘Copenhagen Climate Change Summit’ before HERE and HERE. Dr Calvin Smith has also written something about climate change and in that post he speaks about something that I hadn’t heard of before. Apparently there was some kind of hacking going on and that hacking uncovered some very interesting cover ups within the whole climate change movement…

I’ve posted here several times on the issue of climate change and my scepticism is pretty well-known elsewhere. Importantly, ideological (rather than scientific) segments of the green lobby seem to engage in the worship of creation, rather than the Creator, and indeed part of the movement draw on ancient ‘geolatrous’ paganism such as Druidism. Leaving the purely scientific aspect to one aside, then, it is very much a religion with its own belief system, together with its own heretics (climate change deniers) and thus inevitable witch hunts.

But as I’ve posted elsewhere, the number of ‘heretics’ is increasing steadily.

And spectacularly (and I must admit somewhat fabulously) there emerged news last week of a server containing many of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, which counts various well-known scientists promoting man-made climate change, being hacked and various files and emails stolen and published across the Internet. What has caused such a furore is how these documents reveal a deliberate and concerted attempt by some well-known pro-climate change scientists to hide inconvenient facts which call into question their dogma, as well as besmirch serious and highly qualified scientists who deny or even simply question aspects of climate change. Calvin L. Smith: I Can’t Help Feeling a Little Smug (sorry)

So after a lot of research, I have come up with several newspaper clippings that may interest you regarding the emails:

• Climate Emails Stoke Debate – Scientists’ Leaked Correspondence Illustrates Bitter Feud over Global Warming

The scientific community is buzzing over thousands of emails and documents — posted on the Internet last week after being hacked from a prominent climate-change research center — that some say raise ethical questions about a group of scientists who contend humans are responsible for global warming.

The correspondence between dozens of climate-change researchers, including many in the U.S., illustrates bitter feelings among those who believe human activities cause global warming toward rivals who argue that the link between humans and climate change remains uncertain.

Some emails also refer to efforts by scientists who believe man is causing global warming to exclude contrary views from important scientific publications.

• Hacked E-Mail Is New Fodder for Climate Dispute

Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change.

The e-mail messages, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skeptics, and casual comments — in some cases derisive — about specific people known for their skeptical views. Drafts of scientific papers and a photo collage that portrays climate skeptics on an ice floe were also among the hacked data, some of which dates back 13 years.

• Climate change scientists face calls for public inquiry over data manipulation claims

Leading British climate change scientists are facing calls for a public inquiry after hacked email exchanges appeared to indicate that scientific data may have been manipulated to strengthen the case for man-made global warming.

[…]Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, led calls for a full investigation into the leaked files, saying that the good reputation of British science was under threat.

In one email Professor Phil Jones, director of the university’s respected Climatic Research Unit, referred to a "trick" he applied to raw data to "hide the decline" in global temperatures.

The email correspondence also apparently showed that Prof Jones lobbied for the sacking of a journal editor who published papers that questioned the scientific consensus on global warming.

• Climate scientist at centre of leaked email row dismisses conspiracy claims

Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia denies emails provide evidence of collusion by climatologists to fix data

He confirmed that all of the leaked emails that had provoked heated debate – including the now infamous email from 1999 in which he discussed a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures – appeared to be genuine.

"The use of the term ‘hiding the decline’ was in an email written in haste," he said. "CRU has not sought to hide the decline." (The University of East Anglia has now posted a detailed explanation of why this phrase was used on its website)

If you want to sift through any of these emails yourself see:

• Alleged CRU Emails – Searchable

On 20 November 2009, emails and other documents, apparently originating from with the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.

If real, these emails contain some quite surprising and even disappointing insights into what has been happening within the climate change scientific establishment. Worryingly this same group of scientists are very influential in terms of economic and social policy formation around the subject of climate change.

Here are just some of the correspondence via email:

From: Phil Jones. To: Many. Nov 16, 1999
"I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline."

Critics cite this as evidence that data was manipulated to mask the fact that global temperatures are falling. Prof Jones claims the meaning of "trick" has been misinterpreted

From Phil Jones To: Michael Mann (Pennsylvania State University). July 8, 2004
"I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

The IPCC is the UN body charged with monitoring climate change. The scientists did not want it to consider studies that challenge the view that global warming is genuine and man-made.

From Phil Jones. To: Michael Mann. Date: May 29, 2008
"Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise."

Climate change sceptics tried to use Freedom of Information laws to obtain raw climate data submitted to an IPCC report known as AR4. The scientists did not want their email exchanges about the data to be made public.

To read more about it see:

Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, and by the way. I do believe there will be some kind of heating up. In fact it is outlined in the bible…

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

So, as you can see, according to the bible it is God who heats up the heavens and earth, NOT MAN!!!!

…just saying!

Thanks to Tom Feeley at Information Clearinghouse for todays’ quotes:

“War, we have come to believe, is a spectator sport. The military and the press … have turned war into a vast video arcade game. Its very essence- death – is hidden from public view.”

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for New York Times

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“War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.”

Karl Kraus (1874&1936)

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“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph”

Haile Selassie

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“Television is altering the meaning of “being informed” by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation… Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information – misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information – information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.”

Neil Postman

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” The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent.”

Gore Vidal
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Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq “1,339,771″
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

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Cost of War in Iraq
$703,556,714,016

Cost of War in Afghanistan
$232,497,634,270