Enraged urban secular Iranians vs. riot police, Tehran, Dec-27:

Sirjan, Dec-26. Protest erupts at public hanging of two men condemned for armed-robbery:

Press TV (Iranian State) covers Anti-Riot Protests in Tehran, Dec-31:

Also: Footage [warning: graphic] of protester allegedly shot in the head by security forces, noon Dec-27, College bridge, Enghelab Street, Tehran. 

In the introduction to his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Al Gore posits two questions that a hypothetical future generation could ask when looking back at this first decade of the 21^st-century:

Not too many years from now, a new generation will look back at us in this hour of choosing and ask one of two questions. Either they will ask, “What were you thinking? Didn’t you see the entire North Polar ice cap melting before your eyes? Did you not care?”

Or they will ask instead, “How did you find the moral courage to rise up and solve a crisis so many said was impossible to solve?”

Very touching, but a false dichotomy nonetheless.  There’s a third question, and I think it’s the more likely one.  Not “what were you thinking?”, but:

Were you thinking at all?

The age of “going green” could just as easily be remembered as a time of mass public hysteria.

(After all, it wasn’t so long ago that “global warming” was the scare term of choice, not the more ambiguous “climate change.”  The alteration of terminology was so subtle, I hardly even noticed it.)

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Climategate, the incident and outrage surrounding the Climactic Research Unit’s emails (revealed in November when the CRU’s server was hacked).  Some of the emails’ content suggests that climate change research has been/is being manipulated to produce more shocking “evidence” of radical warming.  Some of the more infamous excerpts:

Phil Jones, Nov. 1999

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature 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.”

Phile Jones again, 2004

“The other paper by MM is just garbage. [...] 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!”

And very recently, Kevin Trenberth in Oct 2009

“The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.”

But it isn’t just lack of evidence of global warming at the moment that’s a problem in maintaining the climate change orthodoxy.  There are a couple troubling historical trends that prove problematic as well: they’re called the Little Ice Age, and the Medieval Warm Period.

Around 800 CE, the North Atlantic region of the world experienced radical climate change—a warm spell that lasted approximately 400 years.  Financial Post writes:

The Medieval Warm Period, which followed the meanness and cold of the Dark Ages, was a great time in human history — it allowed humans around the world to bask in a glorious warmth that vastly improved agriculture, increased life spans and otherwise bettered the human condition.

As one example, the Vikings took advantage of the newly ice-free seas to establish a colony on the island of Greenland during this period.

And after the 400 years of the MWP came the LIA (Little Ice Age), during which the Atlantic pack ice began to expand, warm European summers became more erratic, and crop failures led to the Great Famine of 1315-1317 all throughout Europe.  The catastrophic nature of the events led many to think the Apocalypse had come (sound familiar?).  The population explosion of the MWP came to a screeching halt as starvation killed thousands—and weakened a populace that would be hit by the Black Plague in just a few decades.

The Medieval Warm Period and subsequent Little Ice Age proved a problem for modern climate change researchers as well—by providing a precedent for radical warming and cooling periods (and I don’t believe it was CO2 emissions driving global warming of the 800s), history challenged the established position that (one) we’re living in the warmest times on record and (two) this climate change must be human-caused.

How to fix this?  Change history.

This week the Financial Post ran an article on William Connolley, U.K. scientist and Green Party activist who served as a one-man Minitrue for the climate change backers.

Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known – Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, just when opposition to the claims of the band members were beginning to gel, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site.

He rewrote Wikipedia’s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph.

He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.

In the end, Connolley re-wrote over 5,000 Wikipedia articles.  But let’s give a round of applause for computer hackers (and historians, for that matter).

With the release of the Climategate Emails, the disappearing trick has been exposed. The glorious Medieval Warm Period will remain in the history books, perhaps with an asterisk to describe how a band of zealots once tried to make it disappear.

For political ends, some scientists—the people we’re supposed to be able to count on to search out the truth—attempted to erase history.  This (not any of Al Gore’s fear-mongering) is what I’m ashamed future generations will have to learn about the first decade of the 21^st century.

AACK! Removed by YouTube censors. Try the (torrent). Trailer:

In this epic four-part YouTube video from mid-Nov, Shireen Mazari — editor of the Pakistani newspaper ‘The Nation’ — argues with a DAWN journalist about double-standards and the attitude of legal exceptionalism towards foreigners in Pakistan. (pt 2) (pt 3) (pt 4)

On Nov-5, ‘The Nation’ published a front-page article by Dr Mazari “asking” whether Matt Rosenberg (a Seattle-based journalist featured in the Wall Street Journal) was engaging in espionage in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). No direct evidence was presented. [Foreign journalists are prohibited from entering FATA, and Matt Rosenberg allegedly admits to repeatedly breaking this law.] Western media reacted to the “accusation” with hostility, saying that it placed Rosenberg in unnecessary danger — and top executives of 21 international media organizations complained in writing to the Pakistani Minister for Information.

Mazari — who often appears on Urdu-language TV (sometimes alongside Ahmed Quraishi on Geo-TV) — argues that nobody complained when the NY Times called Pakistani journalist Ansar Abbasi “a Taliban”. [Here's the article by Helene Cooper -- Abbasi is portrayed negatively, but not called the 'T' word (assuming it is the original version)... Aug-22: Abbasi responds to the NY Times.]

Previously, ‘The Nation’ outed Craig Davis — of the suspicious USAID-funded NGO Creative Associates International Inc (CAII) — as a spy/covert-contractor. Davis was arrested by Pakistani security services and deported. However he was returned on a private flight a few days later courtesy of the State Dept and the DC Pak Embassy.

BBC has a predictable angle: by covering US shenanigans in Pakistan — essentially a covert invasion — TV (and print) journalists are ignoring the “real issues”, and engaging in “sensationalism”…

[...] Viewers may well ask where is the passionate debate about the real issues that people face – the crumbling economy, joblessness, the rising cost of living, crime and the lack of investment in health and education or settling the long-running insurgency in Balochistan province.

[...] The explosion in TV channels in Urdu, English and regional languages has brought to the fore large numbers of largely untrained, semi-educated and unworldly TV talk show hosts and journalists who deem it necessary to win viewership at a time of an acute advertising crunch, by being more outrageous and sensational than the next channel.

A Dec-10 DAWN.com blog post by Nadeem Paracha claims that Pakistani nationalist TV programming is motivated by a desire for advertising revenue:

[...] Suddenly, they took the noble idea of missionary journalism, and instead of continuing to tread on the ‘objective middle ground,’ began moving way towards the populist right. And what’s more, once their bosses decided that this new trajectory was actually generating better monetary results (à la FOX News), the channels never looked back, sloganeering all the way to the bank!

[...] The topics of the show may have a ring of intellectualism and serious policy matters, but it does not take much time for the so-called ‘debate’ to spiral down into sloganeering, wild theory casting (by the ‘guests’) and self-righteous preaching (by the hosts).

Searches for ‘ClimateGate’ have turned downwards. At it’s height, almost as many people were searching the term as usually search for ‘Bob Marley’ — which is a LOT! [This is based on the global average -- for US search vols, a better comparison is 'Islam+Quran+Koran']. The peak in interest occurred around Dec-4. Another trigger event (like the original leak) now seems necessary to achieve a new high:

• BlogPulse chart confirms this — volume of ClimateGate blog postings peaks Dec-7.
• Search vol. charts by nation: Canada, Australia, US, UK.
• Original ClimateGate post.

CNN’s shameful faux-objectivity is an insult to sentient life throughout the universe — the Gore/ClimateGate interview is a perfect example. Al furrows his brow, chuckles amicably, and speaks to us like we’re children:

• “Ha ha.” [Reaction to the initial mention of ClimateGate]
• “They took a few phrases out of context, these are private emails more than ten years old.” [Actually no, the latest emails are from just before the leak. And 95% of the data in FOI2009.ZIP is not email text! Shh... don't tell anyone.]
• “Is there any substantive reason to worry about them? No. Does the noise machine of the climate deniers blow them out of proportion and fool some people into thinking they have substance? That’s another matter…”
• “Theres an air of unreality about the discussion of arcane points from emails from long ago.” [Repeat the lie, laugh reassuringly...]
• [Re: data manipulation.] “The climate deniers tried to create the impression that that’s what was in those stolen emails, but when you put them in context it’s clear that’s not what they [chuckle] were doing.” [It won't be clear until there is an unbiased investigation. Also, this was a leak, not a hack.]

I’ve had to point out to numerous people on “both sides” that despite my original post, I still trust the core science behind this — that greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and warm the planet — and that most of the prominent “skeptics” would entirely agree. The problem, as I see it, is that the incestuous group of establishment scientists can’t accurately quantify the impact of the human component — or account for other anomalous factors in the climate system — and have been misleading the world about their ability to do so. I wonder whether CRU’s models and the IPCC’s projections are too inaccurate to be used to form policy.

There’s much to look at in FOI2009.ZIP. One popular quote I keep thinking about is from Kevin Trenberth (head author of the 2007 IPCC document — AR4), who wrote in a 2009 email [i.e. not ten years ago], “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.” He concludes that either “the data is wrong”, or that the measuring system is “inadequate”.

The clock is ticking. Do we want to form policy based on “approximate” science — or take a few steps backwards and maybe bring some of the ex-communicated scientists back into the fold? Our standards have to be of the highest order — there is too much at stake to let Al Gore chuckle the truth away:

Finally, some more details in the emerging scandal — entirely untouched (in any meaningful sense) by Western MSM — involving Pakistani Security/PMC Inter-Risk, a DynCorp subcontractor. Inter Risk was raided by FIA in Sept, a number of arrests made, and a small number of unlicensed weapons and other equipment was seized. Strangely, images of the seized weapons clearly show they are not the “sophisticated AK-47s” that the US Embassy instructed Ali Zaidi [Inter Risk CEO] to import, and then lobbied to receive “prohibited bore” licenses for — allegedly with illegal incentives. [Indirectly, it would seem... see my original post on the raids/arrests.]

It appears that this is about much more than dodgy weapons paperwork. Perhaps nationalist security/intel factions were alarmed by Inter-Risk/DynCorp’s covert training center at Rawat, disguised as an auto-repair workshop. Before it was raided and closed, 118 former Pak SSG [i.e. special forces] were up-skilled, ostensibly for static security and purely defensive actions, (e.g transport) [!]. After the raids, US Embassy officials reportedly hindered FIA access to these men.

Similarly intriguing was the related arrest of Jamil Abbasi, a “human rights activist” with alleged links to the US Embassy. Abbasi and Zaidi have been under FIA lock-up for about two months.

The latest revelations include the arrest of “Mr Qadir” (a personal assistant to the State Minister, Tasnim Qureshi) and “Dr. Iqditar Dara” — who was hired by DynCorp to lobby the Pak Govt, and claims to have independently hired Jamil Abbasi because of his connections in the ruling PPP party.

Another unusual detail that wasn’t widely availably in English: after the Interior Ministry confirmed that Inter-Risk had been disbanded (Oct-2), Inter-Risk petitioned the Lahore High Court to overturn the ban — and incredibly, “the Rawalpindi Bench of the Court issued a stay order on Nov. 11, restricting the government from interfering in Inter-Risk’s ‘lawful’ business.” [Quraishi]

[Update #1: Wow. Retired SSG Subedar [≈Lt.] Zafar Iqbal has been arrested in relation to the attacks on Army brigadiers in Islamabad — while in possession of a International Red Cross vehicle (ICRC 72-31)! He has close ties to Ali Zaidi and was allegedly involved in recruiting for Inter Risk.]

[Update #2: I once more approached DynCorp for comments -- but media liason Doug Ebner insisted that the questions should be asked of State, the Embassy, or Inter Risk instead. Perhaps the intended implication is that DynCorp is 100% "hands off" with Inter Risk, and provides no oversight  -- and presumably no training?]

It’s unlikely that concerned Westerners would be aware of any of these disturbing events were it not for the work of Pakistani journalist/intellectuals writing in English, such as Dr Shireen Mazari — and Ahmed Quraishi, whose Nov-2 article provides these details:

[...] The name of Mr. Tasnim Qureshi, the State Minister, came up frequently in the interrogation with his assistant. The Minister’s signatures are all over the paperwork for those illegal weapons. But Mr. Qureshi belongs to the second tier of PPP politicians. He is not expected to have approved the licensing of illegal weapons without clearance from Interior Minister Rehman Malik and/or other senior authorities in the government.

[...] According to the interrogations, Mr. Dara and Mr. Abbasi shared the US $ 270,000 with the Minister’s assistant Mr. Qadir. [$2000 per license]

Inter-Risk was given one-year provisional approval by the authorities to represent DynCorp in Pakistan. This was in 2008. But by early this year, Inter-Risk failed to get official approval for a license legalizing DynCorp’s activities in Pakistan.

When Inter-Risk’s offices were raided by the Pakistani police in September, DynCorp’s American trainers had already trained and ‘graduated’ 59 former Pakistani SSG officers from their illegal training facility on the outskirts of Islamabad. [...] Another 59 former SSG officers were undergoing training in September when the operation was forcibly terminated by Pakistani police.

[...] The US Embassy was upset when, on Sept. 2, Chief Commissioner Islamabad suspended Inter-Risk’s license to operate as a private security firm, and three weeks later the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Inter-Risk to wind up its business permanently. This in effect meant shutting the doors on DynCorp in Pakistan.

So upset was the US Embassy that no less than the Deputy Head of Mission, Mr. Gerald Feierstein, held a press conference on Oct. 1 to announce publicly that Inter-Risk and DynCorp, both US Embassy contractors, were not barred from operating in Pakistan. He tried to portray the action against Inter-Risk as a misunderstanding.

Next day, the Interior Ministry issued a statement announcing ‘to whom it may concern’ that Inter-Risk has been disbanded. [...] It was obvious the statement came out under pressure from Pakistani security officials outside the Ministry, possibly from the three main intelligence agencies, the FIA, ISI and the MI.

[...] These [four arrested] men are also suspected to know something about another suspicious US activity on Pakistani soil: the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program under US State Department, based at the police training college in Sihala, a few kilometers away from Pakistan’s most important nuclear installations.

[...] The Interior Ministry came down hard on those police officials who blew the whistle on what the Americans are doing there. This action compounded Pakistani suspicions, in addition to the fact that US citizens based at the Sihala facility insist they want to remain in the area despite the fact that they have not conducted any training programs for some time now.

According to reports, there is a strong suspicion that radioactive material detection equipment is installed at the facility. Low-ranking Pakistani staffers working with the Americans at Sihala have been found driving cars with fake number plates. And four US citizens were arrested in July in the maximum security zone around the Kahuta security facilities. In two and a half hours of interrogation, they couldn’t explain what they were doing there. Finally federal Interior Ministry intervened and forced their release without pressing charges.

See also:

• SAMAA, Nov-27 “Govt takes notice of Inter-Risk hiring”
• The Nation, Dec-2 “PS to State Minister of Int in FIA custody”,
• Ansar Abbasi (in Jang) 9-Oct “How Pakistan Interior Minister Helped US Embassy Import Illegal Weapons Without Telling ISI”
• Catastrophist posts: Oct-31 — the Inter Risk raids/arrests; Nov 9 — the emerging “Blackwater Pakistan” meme. All Pak/Afghan posts.
• DAWN.com 30-July [i.e. before the Inter-Risk raids] “Arms licences scam shakes interior ministry”
• Jeremy Scahill’s Nov-23 article on Blackwater’s support work for JSOC in Pakistan, and the Blackwater-Kestral relationship.
• Wackenhut (G4S) providing security for US-occupied private residences in Islamabad.
• July ‘08 – Nation reports ISI and IB to be moved under Interior Ministry supervision — [A move later abandoned after it "backfired"]
• Dec-2: Watan Party petitions Lahore High Court to search US Embassy for illegal weapons, evidence of involvement in terrorism.

Could CRU’s climate-models be providing skewed results for the UN IPCC’s projections on global warming? Eggheads: I want to know whether it’s going to be 0.5 degrees or 5 degrees warming this century — and I don’t want to be called a skeptic or future-holocaust-denier for asking the question!

While MSM continues its sparse coverage of ClimateGate (usually focusing on basic email quotes), software developer Michael Suede posts a YouTube video beginning to analyse the climate-modelling code (and coders’ comments) in FOI2009.ZIP. This is what CNN should’ve been doing on Day One… [analysis begins at 1.50]:

The worst part is that it may already be too late to produce a truly independent climate model. CRU deleted their raw weather station datasets and say they now only have “value added” proprietary data. Thanks CRU.

Phil Jones and Co. ought to know that the credibility of their “research” hinges on its “reproducibility” i.e. independent verification — which may now never be possible… and that’s unacceptable, given the stakes. Watching the vitriol and asshattery in forums & blogs, and most of all on TV, I fear this is only just getting started. Families will be divided, and Copenhagen could be very, very ugly. Think Seattle WTO times a thousand, to the power of 9-11, with Buddhist “punks” torching themselves in the Radhuspladsen and TwitBooking to their last…

See also:

• Michael Suede’s blog and previous video (Nov-23)
• WattsUpWithThat code analysis.
• HARRY_READ_ME.txt

[Updated] ClimateGate breakout now in full view. Remarkably different patterns of interest in the US and UK. MSM damage-control (or blackout) initially more effective in the UK…

[Previously: Climategate/CRU-hack/leak post... MSM TV coverage... Search volume profiles for Climate Change / Global Warming memes.]

What were Americans paging each other from 3am Sept 11, 2001 to 3am Sept 12? Wikileaks has 573,000 “pager intercepts” — [ZIP]. Appears to be nationwide, not sure how comprehensive. Seems infignificant (not another goldmine) — but note early use of language: “bombings”, “multiple explosions”… [just like other primary sources], car-bombs, police & fire off-duties ordered to gear up, horoscopes, headlines, call me-s, “intimate” messages, and presumably a whole lot of pages for pot delivery.

Update: Reddit page for analysis… actually, this is interesting. Nine Secret Service pagers ["@usss.treas.gov"] were sent this message:

2001-09-11 10:31:03 Skytel [005344006] B  ALPHA UD REPORTS ANONYMOUS CALL TO JOC REPORTING ANGEL IS TARGET

This is the threat made against the President by a source which reportedly referenced at least one supposedly secret SS codeword: Angel, meaning Air Force One. But as a 2004 WSJ article revealed, the codeword had been public for some time prior to ‘01. [Possibly since '63! ...Its unsecure use by SS also suggests it isn't super-top-secret.] What was the real threat made against Bush Jr that caused such panic? Were daily pass-codes mentioned which would really give the impression that high level SS security protocols were compromised?

Webster Tarpley says yes, “cosmic level” keywords were mentioned, including some implying access to the nuclear arsenal. The “Angel Threat” — and 9/11 training ops featuring a rogue faction with nukes — are a central part of Webster Tarpley’s theory that 9/11 was a coup by an elite cabal (“the invisible government”) who applied some necessary pressure to ensure Bush Jr’s compliance:

Declan McCullagh wrote a good overview of the data release:

One string of messages hints at how federal agencies scrambled to evacuate to Mount Weather, the government’s sort-of secret bunker buried under the Virginia mountains west of Washington, D.C. One message says, “Jim: DEPLOY TO MT. WEATHER NOW!,” and another says “CALL OFICE (sic) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. 4145 URGENT.” That’s the phone number for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Continuity Programs Directorate — which is charged with “the preservation of our constitutional form of government at all times,” even during a nuclear war. (A 2006 article in the U.K. Guardian newspaper mentioned a “a traffic jam of limos carrying Washington and government license plates” heading to Mount Weather that day.)

A selection of pages:

2001-09-11 16:15:27 Metrocall [0156144] A ALPHA (38) THE GREAT BABYLON IS FALLING AND IT’S BECOME THE HABITATION OF DEVILS AND THE HOLD OF EVERY FOUL SPIRIT. A CAGE OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL BIRD.(call id:9196804099)

2001-09-11 10:39:22 Metrocall [1198314] C ALPHA Frm: IPN Sub: New York City Txt: UPDATE: Confirmed Car bomb has just gone off at the State Department IPN

2001-09-11 11:32:56 Arch [1146801] A ALPHA If I do not hear from you by High Noon, I am going to pick Laura up at school and tell her her Father is dead. 508-5487-7302

2001-09-11 10:22:27 Metrocall [0118621] D ALPHA If I focus too much on your body, it’s because I have a piece of your heart here with me. I cannot touch your body thru these electrons

2001-09-11 10:20:18 Metrocall [0118621] D ALPHA I’m still focused that scene. you entering me, me squeezing you.

2001-09-11 10:20:03 Metrocall [0749265] A ALPHA Frm: Y! Txt: Explosion rocks second World Trade Center tower.

2001-09-11 10:19:59 Metrocall [1400935] B ALPHA /:DDC/: AT 0851, OPCON B4 WAS DECLARED. HEIGHTENED ALERT DUE TO TERRORIST ACTIVITY IN THE UNITED STATES. BE AWARE AND REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES TO YOUR SUPERVISOR. MJF

2001-09-11 10:19:52 Metrocall [0644837] B ALPHA Explosion and fire at Skyline Towers in Mason’s area.

2001-09-11 10:17:50 Skytel [007464623] D ALPHA CAR BOMB EXPLODED AT 15 AND F STREET JOC

2001-09-11 10:17:50 Metrocall [1261472] A ALPHA second explosion at the pentagon

2001-09-11 10:17:37 Metrocall [0118621] D ALPHA Our love climbs the heights of ecstasy, though we are sometimes mired in the pits of longing.

2001-09-11 10:14:07 Metrocall [1575692] D ALPHA MONITER NEWS CHANNELS AND ASSUME RADIO WATCH ALSO EOC IN BEING ACTIVATED

2001-09-11 10:13:41 Metrocall [1064395] C ALPHA uPTH]QAVihJmNH“qjdVd`jkjZyABfPZ]Rf`@RA@v}nPL [encrypted? data?]

2001-09-11 10:13:10 Arch [0910241] A ALPHA ||i’m home there is lots of smoke outside of my window i can’t see anything or use my phone i’m really scared please get help HHeller,IBSG-Cisco|144

2001-09-11 10:11:50 Skytel [005063329] A ALPHA (1 of 2) Per Chief Miller: All team members are to respond immediately to 300 Los Angeles “swamp”. Have uniforms/long guns, comm. and armor, gas masks, long baton. Immediate response required with acknowledgement via Nextel to DUSM Plott

2001-09-11 10:11:44 Metrocall [002106649] C ALPHA SWAT TEAM MTG in H290 at 9:10AM to discuss Our Business Impact of World Trade Ctr Incident. Tue Sep 11 09:06:43 CDT 2001

2001-09-11 10:11:43 Metrocall [1262189] D ALPHA WMD EXERCISE CANCELLED FOR WED EVENING…RB

2001-09-11 10:06:33 Skytel [005113370] C ALPHA This is just a message to check availability if necessasry. There has been multiple explosions at World Trade Center in NY, one at Pentagon. Call 202-646-3702 and leave message with availability. Ben Strong-National US&R Program (85

2001-09-11 10:04:09 Metrocall [1261437] D ALPHA Another bomb/explosion under the world trade center h

2001-09-11 09:47:42 Skytel [0001377] A  ALPHA coxwm@SOCSO.SOUTHCOM.MIL||* return to base with extreme caution threatcon C assault force commander phone CDR C 3/7 [Special Operations Command South]

2001-09-11 09:20:44 Skytel [005414004] B ALPHA US military has go to a high level DEFCON alert. Fighter aircraft have been scrambled. (61

2001-09-11 08:46:46 Arch [1612975] D ALPHA PAGE FROM lifeline: alert 8933585 ETS appl nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com ETS RTCE: – Market data inconsistent…Cantor API problem Trading system offline on nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com, run by etsuser on nbetpsd27, pid = 24277

[Updated 0530 GMT Nov-29] Link to original CRU-hack/leak post with updates, quotes, links, etc.

Melanie Phillips, Daily Mail columnist, on BBC Question Time… audience shocked. Audible gasps. (Fast-forward past the first question) (pt2)

Canadian TV spends an entire hour with Lord Monckton (pt2) (pt3) (pt4) (pt5):

Fox has Kevin Trenberth! (And Myron Ebell — meh.)

CNN doesn’t cover this well:

Senator Inhofe on CNBC’s Kudlow Report:

(Fox) Neil Cavuto w/ Inhofe; then (from 3.50) a heated argument with Ed Begley Jr. Wow….

Stephen J. Dubner (Super/Freakonomics) on Fox — “the kangaroo does not emit methane”…

Earlier Coverage: (Fox) Cavuto w/ Pat Michaels & Dan Weiss, MSNBC Morning Joe, Russia Today re-coverage and argument, BBC Newsnight damage-control (and pt2), RT with UK MP Peter Lilley, Australian Lateline (story, Tim Flannery interview + pt2), Fox, Early RT #1, #2. Polar-bears fall from sky, die horribly in new European “climate change” PSA.

Mass Hysteria or Crowd Psychology

Between 1480 and 1700, there was mass hysteria in Europe and the American colonies regarding witches.  The hunt was on and the witch trials began which resulted in the executions of a multitude of individuals.  People believed during that time that when bad things happened – famine, bad crops, natural disasters – it meant God was angry and they believed witches were responsible.

In our century, the witch is carbon dioxide and the witch hunters believe that it is responsible for global warming that threathens to bring the earth to extinction.

Only problem is:  there is no truth to the whole global warming / climate change catastrophe hysteria.  Carbon Dioxide makes up less than 1% of our  atmospheric gases and any gradual rise will not threaten our planet.  Carbon Dioxide levels have varied over the centuries according to geological studies.  Dudley J. Hughes, a geologist, wrote in his article entitled, “Carbon Dioxide Levels are a Blessing, Not a Problem” that studies of ice cores from glaciers and sedimentary rocks that cover the Earth suggests that the Earth’s atmosphere in ancient times had considerably more CO2 than today.  It has also been shown that CO2 is also needed for plant growth.  More CO2 means more plant life, less CO2 means less plant life.  People and animals on Earth are dependent on CO2.  It is crucial for life on our plant.  IT IS NOT A POLLUTANT!

So why are there so many people all around the world intent on making all of us believe that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and that we need to get rid of as much of it as possible.

Crowd Psychology.

Some Social Psychologists says that with crowd psychology ordinary people can typically gain power by acting collectively.  Historically, large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses due proccess.  Some big examples of this is blood-letting in past centuries, the witch trials, now global warming/climate change.

Here is what Dudley Hughes wrote about blood-letting:

For centuries, bloodletting was an accepted medical procedure administered by physicians to treat patients for most illnesses. In today’s world, we find it almost inconceivable that such a practice was condoned by entire populations.

Similarly, the claim that increased carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is causing “global warming” has been accepted as “fact” in many countries worldwide. This belief has no more scientific foundation than the bloodletting of past generations.

The question is:  How do we turn this around?  People in very high places believe all this and are forcing the rest of Earth’s population to accept it and make drastic changes in our livestyle.

Their propaganda contnues foward.  Al Gore has a new book called “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis”.  In the book he quotes Deuteronomy 30:19 which says, “I’m offering you a choice of life or death – You can choose either blessings or curses”.

His book also uses slight of hand with Photoshop to show you planet Earth with hurricanes, no polar cap and hardly any Florida.  Here they are side by side:

Don’t follow the Mass Hysteria.

Don’t follow the Crowd Psychology.

Think for yourself.  Follow the research.  Research by scientists – not computer models.

Christians need to pray.  Pray for those involved in this hoax from the very top.  Some people genuinely believe in this global warming crisis.  Others have more sinister agendas and are using this as a means to an end.

Check out this article about the hoax:  http://conservativehideout.com/wordpress/?p=2184

Wow. Confirmed this is real. Uncompresses to 165 MB — of which 7.6 MB are emails — and the rest is funding data & grant applications, external correspondence, PR docs, modelling code, methodological notes, datasets, reports, graphs (etc) from the CRU (Climate Research Unit) at East Anglia University — not the ‘Hadley’ Center for Climate Prediction & Research (i.e. UK Meterological Office at Exeter) as is being reported. CRU prepares climate models and influences intra-governmental policy. [Latest Update: MSM videos... New Zealand's Climategate & pdf... scroll down for old updates.]

HACK OR LEAK?

[Get the ZIP file here or here (or torrent). Read/search the emails here. Funding spreadsheet, pdj_grants_since1990.xls is online here. HARRY_READ_ME.txt is here. Update: Individual files from ZIP here. Thank you, hackers/leakers. Keep information free!]

Excerpts and quotes from what have been dubbed the “ClimateGate” emails are starting to show up around the ‘net. Tony Hake at Examiner.com has a good compilation. Or Bishop Hill. Some parts are pretty damning… and despite the apparent attempts to delete emails, there’s a lot here — this could be big. Waiting now for the first comprehensive review of the haul [Update: try this], and to see what the MSM angles are. A few obvious choices:

(1) Deleted data & FOIA requests. CRU made headlines in August with this bizarre and troubling admission:

The world’s source for global temperature record admits it’s lost or destroyed all the original data that would allow a third party to construct a global temperature record. The destruction (or loss) of the data comes at a convenient time for the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in East Anglia – permitting it to snub FoIA requests to see the data.

Phil Jones: “We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”

According to Steve McIntyre’s Climate Audit blog, CRU undertook an “unprecedented” public data purge in July. This deletion of files (from the public ftp server) is discussed in the emails — as well as references to deleting emails and data rather than allowing them to fall into the hands of non-establishment scientists (through UK FOIA requests). CRU have confirmed they no longer have original datasets — only their “value added” proprietary data. Why?

(2) Damning quotes from elite climate eggheads casting doubt on the entire climate modelling project… Kevin Trenberth, head of Climate Analysis at NCAR in Colorado — and a central author of the UN’s IPCC Fourth Assessment (AR4) — is quoted in a late-’09 email [1255553034.txt]:

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

(3) Emails suggest CRU engaging in anti-scientific deception, skewing of data, media gameplay and more…

0876437553 – “I am very strongly in favor of as wide and rapid a distribution as possible for endorsements. I think the only thing that counts is numbers. The media is going to say “1000 scientists signed” or “1500 signed”. No one is going to check if it is 600 with PhDs versus 2000 without. They will mention the prominent ones, but that is a different story.”

0942777075 – “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

1254108338 – “So, if we could reduce the ocean blip by, say, 0.15 degC, then this would be significant for the global mean — but we’d still have to explain the land blip.”

1089318616 – “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 !”

0843161829 – “I really wish I could be more positive about the Kyrgyzstan material, but I swear I pulled every trick out of my sleeve trying to milk something out of that.”

1107454306 – “The two MMs [McIntyre and McKitrick] have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone.”

1109021312 – “Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act !”

1210341221 – “2. You can delete this attachment if you want. Keep this quiet also, but this is the person who is putting in FOI requests for all emails Keith and Tim have written and received re Ch 6 of AR4. We think we’ve found a way around this.”

1212073451 – “Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?”

1228330629 – “If he pays 10 pounds (which he hasn’t yet) I am supposed to go through my emails and he can get anything I’ve written about him. About 2 months ago I deleted loads of emails, so have very little – if anything at all. This legislation is different from the FOI”

1106322460 – “Proving bad behavior here is very difficult. If you think that Saiers is in the greenhouse skeptics camp, then, if we can find documentary evidence of this, we could go through official AGU channels to get him ousted.“

(4) PR Firms “selling” the monotheistic ‘Climate Change’ message — i.e. Unity of the holy trinity: Climate Change / Climate Debate / Climate Response.

ZIP file contains a 2005 Climate Communications document by UK PR-firm Futerra Sustainability Communications, “The Rules of the Game” — now updated as “New Rules: New Game” (pdf) at Futerra’s site. Also check out their “Greenwash Guide” (pdf).

Here’s Futerra-founder Solitare Townsend talking about communication strategies for “winning” the climate debate:

Updates:

• 0100 UTC Nov-25: Recommend you go to my page with MSM TV coverage. Starting to get interesting.

• Lord Lawson calling for public inquiry into data manipulation.

• For the latest, try Climate Depot.

• HARRY_READ_ME.txt is getting some attention. Brutal quotes: “These are very promising. The vast majority in both cases are within 0.5 degrees of the published data. However, there are still plenty of values more than a degree out.” More? “I am seriously worried that our flagship gridded data product is produced by Delaunay triangulation – apparently linear as well. As far as I can see, this renders the station counts totally meaningless. It also means that we cannot say exactly how the gridded data is arrived at from a statistical perspective – since we’re using an off-the-shelf product that isn’t documented sufficiently to say that. Why this wasn’t coded up in Fortran I don’t know – time pressures perhaps? Was too much effort expended on homogenisation, that there wasn’t enough time to write a gridding procedure? Of course, it’s too late for me to fix it too. Meh.“

• WattsUpWithThat blog is looking at files in /documents/osborn-tree6/mann/oldprog — specifically maps12.pro, maps15.pro and maps24.pro. In the programming code itself there is this commented text: “Uses “corrected” MXD – but shouldn’t usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures.” And in documents/harris-tree/recon_esper.pro: “Specify period over which to compute the regressions (stop in 1960 to avoid the decline“.

• MSM initially downplaying emails. Focusing on the “cybercrime” and “skeptic/denier hysteria” angles. Damage control: the leaked emails were “cherry-picked” to promote a “skeptic” agenda. The Australian. German paper Die Welt now has a story: “The Tricks of the Researchers on Climate Change“. Daily Mail, WaPo, Times Online. Huffy Post’s Brendan DeMelle misses the point and gets huffy about the “illegal hacking”. Brisbane Courier Mail’s Graham Readfearn mocks story.

• Care for a more propagandistic, pseudo-academic response? This blogger focuses on a skeptic paper (Douglass, Christy, Pearsona and Singer) discussed in the emails — and particularly the corrupt skeptic, Fred Singer. A small proportion of the leaked emails do indeed relate to suppressing perceived fraud and trickery on the skeptic side [normal scientific in-fighting, perhaps?] He concludes the leaked emails show “correct and careful behavior”, and that those who disagree are part of a fringe “skeptic/denier” minority — people who should be mocked because they are upset primarily by “Al Gore’s success in informing people about climate change and winning prizes and making money.” [LOLcat, come home and eat!!!]

Links, etc:

• Ian Wishart in NZ’s Investigate Magazine 20 Nov issue (pdf)
• WSJ blog (Keith Johnson) – good comments, thanks ST.
• First WattsUpWithThat blog post.
• Telegraph.co.uk – Climategate by James Delingpole.
• Original leak post on The Air Vent blog.
• Comments and reader-analysis at Climate Audit blog
• Blogcritics.org discussion.
• Dismissive comments at Real Climate blog.
• Related: HSBC & Lord Stern’s Climate Change Model — pseudo-statistical propaganda?

NYT video-report on Pakistani pop/rock bands getting more political (i.e. “embracing conspiracy theories”):

Music video for co-VEN — (great band, will appeal to Western ears) — title track from their third album “Ready to Die”. [Lyrics... Live performances... Feb-07 Interview... '09 Rolling Stone India article]

“…chali shatranj kee baazi…” (the chess game has started)

Here’s CNN’s hit-piece on the “Oath Keepers” — a group of US military/police who pledge not to obey illegal orders to act against the American population. CNN made it part of their series on militas / the “Patriot movement”.

To completely miss the point — and vilify this group in a cringingly unprofessional way — Jim Acosta turns it into a rambling mess of a story about Obama-haters, detention camps, gun control, martial law — and “fringe websites” spreading “false rumors”.

Sloppy journalism — or perception management? [See "CNN: The CIA's News Network?" by Dave McGowan.]

Jim Acosta:

“President Obama has inherited some issues from the Bush administration which many libertarians, many folks in the so-called ‘Patiot movement’ don’t like. Things like the bail-out, things like the Patriot Act.”

[...] Are they planting seeds in peoples minds that these things could develop, when really there’s no likelihood that any of this is going to happen?”

Using Google Trends and Insights, it’s possible to build up a rough picture of the scale and geography of “global warming”-related search-terms over time…

First up, it’s “global warming” vs. “climate change” vs “al gore” vs “inconvenient truth”:

• “Global warming” is still the dominant term, but surprisingly seasonal.
• Going by the last few months’ volume, “climate change” seems to have about 65% of its “strength”. [A chart here gives a combined reading for these two terms.]
• The “Inconvenient truth” meme broke-out with the release of the film, and fell away in mid-07 — about 12 months of solid interest. Similarly, “Al Gore” searches — which showed truly dramatic spikes during ‘07 — have dwindled.

In 2004, strong interest in “global warming” seemed limited to the Anglosphere, plus India. Turkey, the Phillippines, China, Sth Africa, Japan, Germany, France, and Malaysia were next. Then the global explosion of interest in the first half of ‘07:

• In the following months, “global warming” search breakouts would be detected in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. The latest was Kenya in early ‘09.
• “Climate change” currently shares equal status with “global warming” in just two parts of the world: NSW, Australia, and Ottawa, Canada.
• “Al Gore” remains unexpectedly popular in northern Europe, but — aside from some additional interest in Argentina, Portugal, and India — he was only an international memestar for those twelve months after the film.

Now lets move on to the lower-end of the keyword-volume scale…

• Interest in “global cooling” broke-out in late-05 in the US — and despite some interest in Australia, Canada, UK and India, it remains a vastly more popular search term in the US.
• “Carbon credits” became a popular search term in late-06 in India and Australia — and New Zealand, Sth Africa, Singapore and Hong Kong were all proportionately higher than the US, where interest is relatively low.
• “Carbon tax” rose to become a significant search-term in Canada during the first half of ‘08. Interest remains high in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and Italy.
• Terms referencing “skeptics” [separate chart] appeared on the scene in the US as an apparent knee-jerk reaction to the ‘07 spike in non-skeptical interest — and have been breaking-out during recent months. Australia is “leading”, followed closely by the US, then Canada and the UK. Surprisingly, no other nations registered significant search volume for these terms in English.

• In the chart above, we see that skeptics have increasingly come to see “global warming” as something more sinister and man-made than a simple “myth”. (A trend which begins after the early-07 spike).
• This clip (Lord Monckton’s warning before the Copenhagen Climate Conference) caused associated break-outs in late October. Monckton is touring the US, speaking against the globalist institutional “response” to climate change: the clip was taken from this 90min talk at the Minnesota Free Market Institute.

Of course, I’m just searching English-language terms, so despite the massive weight of searchable English-language content online, this is a little deceptive. The final charts show “global warming” in some other languages, first at a lower order of magnitude — and then higher for Japanese, Spanish and Indonesian. (Portugese, would be yet another magnitude higher.) See them here alongside English results — they are puny!

• “Global warming” in French — which showed strong early interest — and in German has fallen more dramatically than the English term.
• The Indonesians are late-adopters, and the Chinese surprisingly early. Russian interest has grown more strongly than in the West.
• Spanish-language interest has not leveled off significantly since ‘07.
• Japanese results are surprisingly even.

To be continued…

Rolling Stone Top 500 Greatest Songs vs. US Oil Production
Did M. King Hubbert predict the decline of rock music?

I’m no huge fan of Metallica — or any of the bands he mentions — but this guy knows what’s up:

Graph via Overthinking It blog (via BoingBoing).

Finally, something all Pakistanis can agree on: Seymour Hersh needs to shut up. His Nov-16 article has drawn the ire of Pakistani commentators, and pushed the issue of US intervention in Pakistan further into the current MSM cycle. In the article, published in the New Yorker, Hersh “wonders” whether Pakistan’s nukes are “safe”, and whether a “fifth column” within the Pakistani military isn’t just a Taliban-friendly coup-faction in-waiting. The key factoid picked up by MSM — old news, really — is the allegation that the US has a rapid-reaction force, bolstered by JSOC troops, ready to secure any foreign nukes. Hersh says US forces have some sort of “understanding” with the Pak military…

Hersh: “We’re not talking about the Pakistani Taliban taking over, that’s not going to happen. But, basically — in case of a mutiny — is the worry we have. Realistic or not. Uh, they’re there in case the Pakistanis want backup. They can say to us ‘we need help’. [...] Clearly there’s a ‘fifth column’… an element inside the military that is capable of helping jihadists, or revolutionaries, or terrorists. I’m not sure that everybody who’s doing the bombings are Taliban, they could be Pashtun. One of the things is, how little we really know… how little we really understand what’s going on.”

MEDIA PSYOPS? “PRIMING THE MARKS”…

So, if there were to be a ‘coup’, and it were deemed unfriendly, the US would presumably invade parts of Pakistan to “secure” its nukes — a provocation bound to escalate things.

Another hypothetical to ponder: by some miracle, free and fair elections are held in Pakistan, and the resulting civilian government — we assume with the support of nationalist factions within the military & ISI — reverses its policy of US lapdoggery and, say, convinces China to provide “aid” instead. Would the nukes then need securing? Could US forces secure all the triggers in time, before nukes could be assembled and used as leverage to keep them out?

In the words of Hersh’s anonymous “senior government official”:

“Today you’d like control of our day-to-day deployment. But why should we give it to you? Even if there was a military coup d’état in Pakistan, no one is going to give up total control of our nuclear weapons. Never. Why are you not afraid of India’s nuclear weapons? Because India is your friend, and the longtime policies of America and India converge. Between you and the Indians, you will fuck us in every way. The truth is that our weapons are less of a problem for the Obama Administration than finding a respectable way out of Afghanistan.”

Here’s Hersh educating the public on MSNBC “Morning Joe”, a purveyor of high-quality breakfast propaganda and fluffery (pt2):

More video: Hersh on US public television (Worldfocus)… Hersh on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell…

“WHERE’S MY JOHNNIE WALKER, HAJI?”

One passage is getting special attention: Hersh takes the absence of Johnnie Walker Black to be an “undeniable sign” of the influence of fundamentalism in Pakistan.

During my stay in Pakistan—my first in five years—there were undeniable signs that militancy and the influence of fundamentalist Islam had grown. In the past, military officers, politicians, and journalists routinely served Johnnie Walker Black during our talks, and drank it themselves. This time, even the most senior retired Army generals offered only juice or tea, even in their own homes.

Ahmed Quraishi responds to the article and suggests that cooperation with the Americans is just part of a necessary game:

Common wisdom in both the Pakistani political elite and some parts of the military bureaucracy says that ‘engaging’ the Americans on the subject of the security of Pakistani nukes can be beneficial to Pakistan. It would keep Washington engaged. It would provide opportunities to milk the Americans of more aid money.

But no one in the policymaking circles is apparently weighing the downside: The ‘engagement’ is emboldening the Americans.  The ‘engagement’ – or secret talks, call them whatever you want – are sending the wrong signals to ordinary Pakistanis at a time when more of our people are convinced that Pakistan’s troubles stem from American failures in Afghanistan.

Pakistani schools and colleges are under attack when those in Iraq and Afghanistan are safe.  This is happening because of American policy blunders and not just because of extremism inside Pakistan. Our problems are also the result of Islamabad refusing to submit completely to the US military strategy that wants to give India a larger role in Afghanistan.

Finally, Dr Shireen Mazari weighs in on Hersh’s claim that Pak’s nukes are broken down into parts and stored separately…

[...] This is absolutely false and nowhere has the military ever claimed this either in any reference to doctrine. In fact, the weapons are not de-mated at all but are simply not on hair trigger alert [...] Finally, the most far-fetched claim, citing an American official, in Hersh’s piece is that the army is controlled by the Punjabis who cannot get along with the Pushtuns, so somehow that creates a simmering undercurrent within the military, creating a veritable goldmine for mutiny!

©11-11-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. – Umberto Eco

In trying to understand and counteract the growing climate of fear in the world around us as the Pluto-Saturn square peaks, I first turn to the technique of mixing and matching keywords. Though in no way comprehensive, it’s useful as a starting place for grasping the meaning of an astrological aspect. Let’s see what pairing phrases for these two planets can teach us.

• Some keywords for Saturn: fear, anxiety, constriction, authority
• Some keywords for Pluto: control, power, wealth
• Now try the formula: Saturn + Pluto = _____________

Here are some truths I see reflected in that formula:

• Fear disempowers us.
• Anyone who frightens us badly enough can control us.
• When someone frightens you, ask yourself their motive.
• Money, control and power are the three biggest motives for fearmongers.
• To regain your power, let go of fear.

Whenever a controlling individual–or a social institution–plays on your fears, remember that fear is a potent tool for disempowerment. At some level, whether conscious or not, people who try to intimidate us want to control us. They want us to give over to them something we value—money, possessions, our will, or even some part of our free will.

What Kinds of People  Might Be Using Scare Tactics on Us?

If we’re alert to it, we can see these time-honored tactics used at every level from the schoolyard bully to the battering spouse to the absolute dictators of history.

Politicians play on our fears in order to get us to vote for them. The media continually play up threats to security of one kind or another with sensationalized news items and blaring commercials. They want to keep you riveted in front of the television set, watching their newscasts and buying their sponsors’ products.  FEAR SELLS.

We even see fear-mongering, sorry to say, in those in the New Age movement who make dire predictions around the Mayan Calendar and 2012. FEAR SELLS.

Might there by any wild stretch of the imagination be a certain number of astrologers who use the widespread fears about current and coming astrological conditions to build up their importance to clients? Could be. FEAR SELLS. 

When you encounter anyone of any religious, spiritual, professional, or political persuasion whatsoever who is peddling fear, recall the earlier formula:

• Fear disempowers us.
•  Anyone who frightens us badly enough can control us.
• When someone frightens you, ask yourself their motive.
•  Money, control and power are the three biggest motives for fearmongers.
•  To regain your power, let go of fear.

Ways of Fighting Fear that DON’T  Work

The climate of fear that is so pervasive just now causes too many of us to freeze up and be ineffective in handling the very real challenges we all face. As more and more people are paralyzed with anxiety, the main solution promoted by physicians and billions of dollars in advertising is to lull ourselves with anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, and sleeping pills. Multitudes of others self-medicate to handle the overwhelming stresses of our times by drinking, smoking, toking, or a vast variety of addictive pursuits.

While prescription medications and addictions do lessen the emotional upset and relieve stress temporarily, they don’t change the fundamental fact that the system isn’t working any longer.

Overused, they can cause the general public to ignore the need to make some deep level changes that, at the very least, will be inconvenient and at most will require great sacrifices from all of us. For far too many, pills just make it easier to ignore the crisis we’re in rather than to take productive action.

So What Can We Do?

Productive action is the only way out of this complex situation. NO magic bullets—we’re fresh out of them. I, for sure, don’t have any and I wouldn’t trust anyone who claimed they did.

This series—the Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—is in no way, shape or form a magic bullet,  just a suggested method for arriving at actions that may prove useful and a collection of tools that might help achieve them. You’ re invited to use any parts of it that speak to you at the moment and leave the rest behind. Come back to it at any point during this year-long aspect when it seems relevant. If you think of others who might find it helpful, feel free to pass the link along.

All we can realistically do is to pursue wise, well-planned endeavors that entail plenty of sweat equity and a long, long view of consequences. Actions like that over time can transform individual lives. If enough individual lives are altered for the better, it can make a difference in our world. Does that sound like Pluto in Capricorn, with maybe a tinge of Saturn squaring it? That’s what it sounds like to me.

Does it feel like a miracle is what it would take to get through this? Whenever I am deeply upset, I dust off my dog-eared copy of A Course in Miracles. It’s the text for a life path, a discipline in which I am but a dilettante, but it’s the only thing that stops my tumultuous emotional storms at times like that. I open it at random, and the exact answer I need is right there at my fingertips.

Often, however, all I really need to do is to recite to myself a verse from the first chapter that I’ve held to myself as a talisman for a couple of decades. Maybe it will help you, too:

“Nothing real can be threatened.

“Nothing unreal exists.

“Therein lies the peace of God.”

Note: If that verse intrigues you, a place to start looking for more information is A Course In Miracles – Foundation for Inner Peace.

 More Posts for your Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit:

• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—an Overview of the Series
• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 1 (Houses and Areas of Life Affected)
• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 2  (Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios)
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #3 — Taking Concrete Action to Change your Life
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #4: Key Players in your Drama
• What Makes a Person Controlling? How Can It Stop?
• How the Pluto-Saturn Square may Affect People born with that Aspect
• From Clutter to Closure–Using the Pluto-Saturn Square
• Internet Find of the Week: New Resources for Healing Grief and Loss

 Related Posts for Using the Transit to Change Unwanted Patterns:

• Cash in on the Hidden Gold Beneath Your Fears
• Saturn Transits—What do They Mean to your Career?
• Healing Tools For Plutonians: Transforming The Self And Others
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
• Stuck For What Seems Like Forever? Maybe Areas of Unforgiveness are the Cause
• In a Crisis? Rescue Remedy Can Help You through It
• Hope for Those in the Dark Night of the Soul

If this post was helpful, DON’T MISS THE NEXT INSTALLMENT IN THIS SERIES.  Sign up for a subscription, and get a FREE EBOOKLET for Skywriter Subscribers Only: Mothers, Daughters, and the Moon, a 50-page excerpt from The Moon in your Life. Read more about it here: NEW: FREE BOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS!  If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com. To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post with a request for the booklet in the subject line.

Transiting Saturn and Pluto will be forming a difficult 90° angle called a square during much of October 2009-October 2010, within a 5° range. People who follow astrology are becoming very anxious about what the aspect may mean, both personally and globally.

While I’m not denying that for some people, this will be a challenging aspect, the more anxious you become about some vague danger from huge forces you see as outside your control, the less effectively you’ll cope with it.

 I’m creating this series called A Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit to give you information and tools to handle the transit—not just to cope, but to use those energies constructively to improve long-standing conditions in your life. Here, for those of you who just joined us, is an overview of the series, with links to guide you through the process.

Putting the Panic to Rest

People, Pluto and Saturn are NOT out to get you! The planets don’t CAUSE anything to happen to us, they just correlate with what’s going on in the world. You’ve lived through Pluto transits before. You’ve lived through Saturn transits before. You’re still here.

Depending on your age, you’ve probably even lived through the combined Pluto-Saturn-Uranus transits before, back in the mid 1960s.  You’re still here. This is the 4^th time in a little over a century that the trio formed major aspects. We’re still here.

 We’re immortal, indestructible souls, and we’ve lived through times like these in our endless cycles of lifetimes hundreds if not thousands of times over the eons that humanity has inhabited this planet. We’re still here. If you’re buying into the fear-mongering about the supposed End of the World in 2012, read “Catastrophobia: What Causes it and How to Heal it” by Diana Stone. 

Who does the Pluto-Saturn square affect? The slow-moving transit between Pluto and Saturn won’t affect everyone directly, only those with planets, the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or Midheaven (10^th house cusp) in the early degrees of the Cardinal signs— Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn—in their birth charts.  

(We’re focusing on the Saturn-Pluto aspect by itself first to give you tools to work on any major issues this first aspect may bring up and get on a more solid foundation. That way you’d be better equipped to deal with Uranus later.)

How will the kit help you? It’s a series of posts and downloadable files to help you sort out how the Pluto-Saturn transit relates to you personally and your loved ones—if it relates to you at all.  At each stage, you’ll learn more about the astrological and psychological makeup of this combination of energies. You’ll be given some self-help and healing tools to sort out what it means for you and those charts you’re scanning so avidly.

Who am I to be writing this? For those of you who just wandered in off the internet and don’t know me, here’s a bit about my qualifications to reassure you that I know what I’m talking about. I earned a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University in 1967, and within a year (circa Linda Goodman) began my astrological studies.  I began doing charts for people a year after that and have continued to work with people with the dual combination of astrology and psychotherapy in the 40 years since. After 10 years of practice, in the early 1980s, I wanted better tools for deeper level healing of the issues clients presented, so I began working with flower essences, energy work, lightwork and other methods. If you need more information, see the About  Page.

What You’ll Get from this Series of Posts

We’re going through a fairly orderly process, although in a somewhat disorderly way, as inspiration strikes or as readers’ needs become apparent. Lots of you have joined us in the middle, so here’s what you’d learn by working with the posts in order, step-by-step:  

The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 1: Areas of Life Affected—the houses, including a downloadable file on houses for more detail about applying this to your own chart.

The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 2:  Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios—gauging how probable they are, and picking an area that needs work to start on now, to pave the way for improvement.

Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #3 — Taking Concrete Action to Change your Life:  Analyzing the parts of your life that aren’t working for you and coming up with specific actions to change them is enhanced by setting realizable goals that take you to a new place, step by concrete step.  Learn what experts know about setting goals and sustaining the motivation to actually REACH the ones you’ll  work on during this transit.

Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #4: Key Players in your Drama: Who are the people–past and present–who play the roles of Pluto and Saturn in tis episode of your life story?

From Clutter to Closure–Using the Pluto-Saturn Square:  How clearing away the clutter in your home can help you get a perspective on the deadwood in your life as well.

How the Pluto-Saturn Square may Affect People born with that Aspect Why people born with major aspects between Pluto and Saturn may find it a time of challenge—and resolution of long-standing issues.

Saturn’s Delays and Why We Should Embrace Them: Especially during this year-long aspect, those frustrating delays are revealed as a benign facet of the Divine Plan. 

There’s much more to come, so subscribe if these aspects concern you!

Articles to read if Pluto and Saturn are transiting your career houses (2, 6, 10, or the Midheaven) or are in those houses natally:

• Saturn Transits—What do They Mean to your Career?
• Pluto in the Career Houses–The Power to Manifest or Fail for Spite
• Vocational Angst for the Pluto-Uranus in Virgo Generation

Supportive Tools for Releasing Emotions that Get Stirred Up:

• Healing Tools For Plutonians: Transforming The Self And Others
• Understanding Healing Reactions or Healing Crises
•  flower essence information-ch1 Introductory Chapter of my book on Flower Essences
• In a Crisis? Rescue Remedy Can Help You through It
• Internet Find of the Week: New Resources for Healing Grief and Loss
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
• Hope for Those in the Dark Night of the Soul
• Stuck For What Seems Like Forever? Maybe Areas of Unforgiveness are the Cause
• How to Forgive–Moving from Pluto to Neptune
• What Makes a Person Controlling? How Can It Stop?
• PTSD and Second-Hand Angst: a Healing Resource, by Michele Rosenthal
• Shields Up! Fight Second-hand Fear and Despair!
• The Ultraviolet Jackhammer-A Tool for Demolishing Negative Beliefs

Fighting Catastrophobia: Many who follow astrology are very worried about the Pluto-Saturn aspect and about the accompanying t-square with Uranus, both personally and on a global level. For many, the media AND astrological hype about these transits are resulting in an unnecessary level of panic and dread.   (If you’re buying into this End of the World fear-mongering, read the revealing and sensible  “Catastrophobia: What Causes it and How to Heal it” by Diana Stone.)

DON’T MISS THE NEXT INSTALLMENT.  Sign up for a subscription, and get this FREE EBOOKLET for Skywriter Subscribers Only: Mothers, Daughters, and the Moon, a 50-page excerpt from The Moon in your Life. Read more about it here: NEW: FREE BOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS!  If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com. To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post with a request for the booklet in the subject line.

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

The blogosphere is a delicious, startling labyrinth of self-expression in which you encounter fabulous fables and the art of life in its vast, infinite diversity. It’s the repository of an impressive array of talent in the field of astrology—gifted practitioners who on the whole have remained undiscovered by “mainstream” astrology conferences and publications. I set out at daybreak today to discover who else out there is posting helpful or inspiring materials on the Pluto-Saturn square. Here are some that I found.

ElsaElsa always has a good exchange of information and experiences going among her regular followers.  Currently she’s featuring a discussion about the Pluto-Saturn square here: Pluto Square Saturn transit « ElsaElsa Boards

Node-o-rama is an astrology forum, and currently members are sharing their experiences on this aspect here: Node-o-rama / Pluto square saturn

I hadn’t thought about the influence the Pluto-Saturn square would have on electional charts—that is, charts you choose for the date you start something, like a business or marriage.  I do know a couple of electional astrologers who have bailed out and aren’t doing any of that work for clients for the duration.  Saturn in Libra in and of itself might speak to thinking carefully about your commitment choices.

Read what Karen Christino, an astrologer who specializes in wedding charts and the author of YourWedding Astrologer—How to Plan a Marriage Made in Heaven, has to say: Saturn Square Pluto » Wedding Outlook » YourWeddingAstrologer.com.

One of my astrological colleagues, Jeff Jawer has always been excellent on Pluto throughout the 40 years that I know him.  Long a fixture at astrology conferences internationally, he’s co-founder with Rick Levine of that invaluable source of astrology information, StarIq. Jeff can be counted on for honest, sage advice.  Here’s a bit of what he had to say on this transit:

“Both Saturn and Pluto are about contraction and a square is arguably the most difficult aspect, so we can expect some tough sledding ahead. As a humanistic astrologer I believe that every pattern has a positive purpose and meaning yet some, like this one, are bound to test us before yielding desirable results…Instead of freezing with fear or panicking, slow-moving Saturn in logical Libra is a reminder to stay cool and think our way through the crises we face.”   Read the rest of his article here:  Saturn Square Pluto: Reshaping the World

Another article I liked was at Julie Demboski’s Astrology.  I will quote a bit of it here, and then you can read the rest at The Saturn-Pluto Square.

“Saturn will require the utmost seriousness and honesty–as Pluto will rile the depths until truth be told. No wonder many people are worried about this! But, not to fear–it’s an excellent long-term opportunity to make significant, down-to-the-roots changes that can immensely better your world.

“Will it take work? Yes, Saturn’s involved; Will it be dramatic and messy? Yup, Pluto can bring forward the secrets and question the theatrics that have been protecting them like no other. Is this bad? Only if you don’t want to do the hard work–but this doesn’t have to be especially hard, with the difference between difficult and relatively smooth being one’s willingness to address what comes forward. It’s that simple. Parsing out the effects of this square over time is best done in two ways: an inspection of the ways it contacts the natal chart, naturally, and in watching what through transit touches the square.”

One of the interesting places I landed was radiantwoman, an abandoned blog by a woman named Miriam who wrote reams of perceptive observations and excellent suggestions about the midlife square between transiting and natal Pluto. Those of you who are having it right now would have Saturn in the picture as well, making it an even more intense period of pondering your life and evaluating what works.  Here are links to some of her articles:

• Pluto in Your Horoscope (includes transits, house positions)
• What is Pluto square Pluto?
• Five Ways to Use Pluto square Pluto Positively
• Pluto square Pluto story

An Alternative to Gloom and Doom–Action!

Many of the other posts I encountered were heavy on the gloom and doom scenarios. I won’t kid you—if you have planets, the Ascendant, or Midheaven in the first few degrees of the Cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, you may well face some real challenges in the next year. The more specific information you can get about your own chart and the potential stresses—and gains—this passage represents, the less vague dread you’ll feel and the more concrete, effective action you can begin to take.

I approach tough transits like these through the lens of my social work training, and social work is not archetypal, mythical, theoretical or symbolic. It’s a practical application of psychology and sociology with a problem-solving focus. One productive problem-solving process consists of helping people examine four key questions:

1. What is the problem?
2. What is your contribution to the problem?
3. What strengths do you bring in dealing with the situation?
4. What are your options?
5. Where can you turn for help?

I’m creating this ongoing series–The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit–to lead you through an exploration of what the issues are and what you can do to help yourself.  I surely don’t have all the answers but hopefully can point you toward some resources where you can turn for help if you need it. I’m retired from direct client work now, so I can’t answer questions about your individual charts.  If you need an astrology consultation from someone who’s sane and grounded, I’ll be glad to give you a list of people whose work I know and admire.

One Immutable Truth–Pluto and Saturn are NOT out to Get Us

One thought I will leave you with. In the last century alone, our world has been through three major Pluto-Saturn-Uranus configurations. We are immortal, indestructible souls. In our endless lifetimes, we have lived through a great many Pluto-Saturn-Uranus transits. We’re still here, and we’ll get through whatever the cosmos has in store this time. 

Keep in mind that the planets don’t actually CAUSE anything to happen to us. Their positions in our birth chart and by transit are just mirrors of what is going on in our lives.  They don’t cause our difficulties, any more than the mirror causes us to age or sag.  Pluto and Saturn are not out to get us, and to demonize them only adds to the generalized panic. 

And, no, I don’t believe the world will end in 2012.  To tell you the truth, I’m fr#/g SICK of the end of the world–it’s already ended three times during my 40 years in astrology—and I’m just not biting on the BS this time around.  BRING IT ON!!!

More Posts for your Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit:

• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 1 (Areas of Life Affected)
• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 2  (Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios)
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #3 –Setting Goals that Work
• From Clutter to Closure–Using the Pluto-Saturn Square
• How the Pluto-Saturn Square may Affect People born with that Aspect
• Cash in on the Hidden Gold Beneath Your Fears
• Saturn Transits—What do They Mean to your Career?
• Healing Tools For Plutonians: Transforming The Self And Others
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
• Hope for Those in the Dark Night of the Soul     

DON’T MISS THE NEXT INSTALLMENT.  Sign up for a subscription, and get this FREE EBOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Mothers, Daughters, and the Moon, a 50-page excerpt from The Moon in your Life. Read more about it here: NEW: FREE BOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS!  If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com. To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post with a request for the booklet in the subject line.

 Art credit:  The charming antique postcards were supplied by Skywriter subscriber, Trish Jacobs, who sells cards like these at: www.frenchkissed.etsy.com. Visit and prepare to stay a while!