Friday, November 29, 2019

How Many 'Muricans Will Respond To The Global Climate Strike Today? Or Will They Just Shop Til They Drop?

No photo description available.
Image result for brane space,  climate fires



























From topmost image panel: Climate protesters last month during global strike; most recent reading of CO2 concentration at Mauna Loa observatory; Middle: Climate -spawned wildfire in California. Bottom: Brain afflicted with parasitic (bladder) worms and another person suffering from a filiarisis worm infection. Both of these will become more frequent as global warming ramps up in temperate countries.


Even as I write this two things diametrically opposite are happening: 165 million Americans are set to shop until they drop for bargains on Black Friday - and millions are set to demonstrate in a global climate strike around the world.   The strikes in dozens of cities are part of a global movement started last year by Swedish school girl, Greta Thunberg.  She has taken heat, no pun intended, from the knuckle dragger low IQ segment of the populace (mainly Trump worshipping, white conservative males) but has continued her mission undaunted by the disparaging apes.

Meanwhile,  5 million citizens of Sydney, Australia are choking from toxic plumes spawned by 150 wildfires related to global warming induced drought.  This is not new. In January, 2013 wild fires spawned in the midst of the hottest summer on record engulfed Tasmania with searing images including that below:
Tim Holmes

See e.g.

A Vision of Humanity's Near Future?

With world leaders gathering in Madrid next week for their annual meet and greet  over how to avert a climate catastrophe, the latest assessment issued by the United Nations said Tuesday that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising dangerously and failure to control emissions will lead to "climate chaos".  But that's more or less a bland euphemism. In fact, we are more likely facing a climate catastrophe given how long the rising CO2 and ocean effects have been lowballed.  Last month, by way of example ocean temperatures broke a record.  Further, over the last half century 90 percent of warming has been in the oceans, leading to higher acidification, with loss of corals and mnow threatening the survival of plankton as well - the primary oxygen generators for the planet.

According to the latest UN report, known as "Emissions Gap Report":

The summary findings are bleak."    

This given that countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions despite repeated warnings from scientists, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, further increasing their emissions last year.  The result, the authors added, is that “deeper and faster cuts are now required.”

Pathetically, the international climate negotiations, scheduled to begin next week, are not even designed to ramp up pledges by world leaders to cut their own countries’ emissions. That deadline is still a year away - allowing another major spike in CO2 concentration. .  This year’s meetings are instead intended to hammer out the last remaining rules on how to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord, in which every country pledged to rein in greenhouse gases, with each setting its own targets and timetables.

Newsflash, that 'ship' has sailed into the sunset and no longer viable! We already know the limits and targets set in the Paris Accord are too weak by a factor  of at least two.  Meaning that even if they were universally adopted and enacted (and enforced ) immediately it would not be sufficient to stave off a climatic catastrophe (stage 1 of such) in 11  years.  See e.g.
:
Climate report understates threat

Excerpt:

So far, average temperatures have risen by one degree Celsius. Adding 50 percent more warming to reach 1.5 degrees won’t simply increase impacts by the same percentage—bad as that would be. Instead, it risks setting up feedbacks that could fall like dangerous dominos, fundamentally destabilizing the planet. This is analyzed in a recent study showing that the window to prevent runaway climate change and a “hot house” super-heated planet is closing much faster than previously understood.

Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5 percent every year over the last decade, according to the latest  annual assessment. The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread hunger by mid-century. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must decline sharply, by 7.6 percent every year, between 2020 and 2030, the UN report warned. (The media claim that  2015 "emissions adjustments" have avoided the 4C increase is belied by the feedback potential cited in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' link above.)

The World Meteorological Organization reported on Monday that emissions of three major greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — have all swelled in the atmosphere since the mid-18th century.  According to Alden Meyer, director of policy and strategy at the Union of Concerned Scientists:

“We are sleepwalking toward a climate catastrophe and need to wake up and take urgent action,” 

The world’s 20 richest countries, responsible for more than three-fourths of worldwide emissions, must take the biggest, swiftest steps to move away from fossil fuels, the report emphasized. The richest country of all, the United States, however, has formally begun to pull out of the Paris accord.
Meanwhile, a vast swath of American consumers are oblivious to all this, more focused on getting their new HDTV on 'Black Friday'.  One might say, fiddling while the (new) Rome burns - or is about to.

Were the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica to melt, sea levels would rise by an estimated 225 feet worldwide. Few orthodox pundits expect that to happen anytime soon, but many of us believe at the current rate of CO2 increase it may well be by 2100.  . In any case, those ice sheets now look a lot more fragile than they did to the climate change panel in 1995, when it said that little change was expected over the next hundred years.

In the years since, data has shown that both Greenland and Antarctica have been shedding ice far more rapidly than anticipated. Ice shelves, which are floating extensions of land ice, hold back glaciers from sliding into the sea and eventually melting. In the early 2000s, ice shelves began disintegrating in several parts of Antarctica, and scientists realized that process could greatly accelerate the demise of the vastly larger ice sheets themselves. And some major glaciers are dumping ice directly into the ocean.

By 2014, a number of scientists had concluded that an irreversible collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet had already begun, and computer modeling in 2016 indicated that its disintegration in concert with other melting could raise sea levels up to six feet by 2100, about twice the increase described as a possible worst-case scenario just three years earlier. At that pace, some of the world’s great coastal cities, including New York, London and Hong Kong, would become inundated. 

This year, a review of 40 years of satellite images indicate that the East Antarctic ice sheet, which was thought to be relatively stable, may also be shedding vast amounts of ice.  As the seas rise, they are also warming at a pace unanticipated as recently as five years ago. A warmer ocean means more powerful storms, and die-offs of marine life, but it also suggests that the planet is more sensitive to increased carbon dioxide emissions than previously thought.

By the early 1990s, climate scientists completed more precise studies of ice cores extracted from the Greenland ice sheet. Dust and oxygen isotopes encased in the cores provided a detailed climate record going back eons. It revealed that there had been 25 rapid climate change events like the Younger Dryas in the last glacial period.  The evidence in those ice cores  - many of them originally studied by Univ. of Alaska climate researcher Prof. Gunther Weller (at the Geophysical Institute) -

Prof.  Gunther Weller (1987) at Geophysical Institute 

was articulated in several papers in the 1980s,  showing the most rapid warming in the Arctic.  His work and that of colleagues  has disclosed that over the past 800,000 years the CO2 concentration of  300 ppm was never crossed until after the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the burning of fossil fuels.  Prof. Weller's work was also critical in highlighting the phenomenon of "Arctic amplification".  In papers and seminars delivered at the GI over 1985-1990 he pointed out that a much warmer Arctic translated to a much more unstable polar region with more frequent intrusions ("waves")  of polar air.  This would  lead to frigid temperatures in parts of the U.S. such as we've seen the past few years.  In one seminar he described it "almost like moving the Arctic to the continental U.S."

Such ice core measurements have since proven pivotal in overturning the conventional wisdom. As the science historian Spencer Weart put it:

How abrupt was the discovery of abrupt climate change? Many climate experts would put their finger on one moment: the day they read the 1993 report of the analysis of Greenland ice cores. Before that, almost nobody confidently believed that the climate could change massively within a decade or two; after the report, almost nobody felt sure that it could not.”

In 2002, the National Academies acknowledged the reality of rapid climate change in a report, “Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises,” which described the new consensus as a “paradigm shift.” This marked  a reversal of its 1975 report.


The melting of permafrost has also defied expectations.   See e.g.

More Rapid Permafrost Melting Triggers Emergency C...

This is ground that has remained frozen for at least two consecutive years and covers around a quarter of the exposed land mass of the Northern Hemisphere. As recently as 1995, it was thought to be stable. But by 2005, the National Center for Atmospheric Research estimated that up to 90 percent of the Northern Hemisphere’s topmost layer of permafrost could thaw by 2100, releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.  Janice and I experienced melting permafrost's effect first hand while visiting Fairbanks, Alaska in March, 2005. There, we witnessed the collapse of a 150' high ice tower  (part of an ice design exhibition) which was traced to melting permafrost below.  We also noted the displacement of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline - again from melting permafrost- while on a snowmobile expedition, e.g.
Image result for brane space, Geophysical Institute

Most appalling, if  the Trump administration has its way, even the revised worst-case scenarios may turn out to be too rosy. In late August, the administration announced a plan to roll back regulations intended to limit methane emissions resulting from oil and gas exploration, despite opposition from some of the largest companies subject to those regulations. More recently, its actions approached the surreal as the Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into those auto companies that have agreed in principle to abide by higher gas mileage standards required by California. The administration also formally revoked a waiver allowing California to set stricter limits on tailpipe emissions than the federal government.

One wonders how many Americans will pause to think of all this as they go on their merry buying sprees today. Also, how many will be mindful that the products they purchase will have direct further impacts on the rapidly destabilzing climate.  I mean, who gives a damn about parasitic worms invading one's brain when there are deals at Best Buy to be had?

See also:

The California Wildfires - A Preview Of The Runaw...

And:



And:

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Trump Jr's Book Shows He's As Much A Lying Mudslinger Maggot As Daddy Dotard



Trump Junior believes that his new book, 'Triggered: How The Left Thrives On Hate And Wants To Silence Us', is spectacular because it ended up on the NY Times 'best seller list'.  But what he isn't saying is that his book has an asterisk beside it indicating millions of copies were bulk purchased by just 1 or 2 sources.  Did Daddy Dotard help out with bulk purchases to boost the book's prominence? Very likely because it surely wan't anything to do with inherent quality. What we do know is the book has been used as part of "donations" to ens of thousands of mainly big money sources.

Trump Junior's  book, to put it mildly, is utmost doggerel and political bunkum- albeit that bunkum is laden with lies that can get the low IQ crowd to believe them.  Hence, it emphatically isn't geared to the "elites" but to "the lower half of the IQ curve" in the words of Harvard Government professor Harvey Mansfield.  That includes all those who continue to believe using Russian-confected conspiracy material is just fine - if it helps bring down the Dems.   One of the most sickening passages references the day before Donnie Junior's misbegotten father got inaugurated. It occurred at the Arlington National Cemetery where Trump was to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Concerning that occasion Trump Jr. wrote:

"I rarely get emotional, if ever.  Yet as we drove past  the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment. I had a deep sense of importance of the presidency and a love of our country."

The twerp then had another "revelation" as Daddy stood in front of the tomb  surrounded by more than 400,000 graves. And as the army band played Taps young Donald ruminated on "how the Trump family had already suffered"  and "this was only the beginning".

Even more choice:  his addendum that "I also thought of all the sacrifices we'd have to make to help my father succeed-  voluntarily giving up huge chunks of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance we were 'profiting'  off the office."

Seriously, you wretched mutt?  Sacrifices? Of what?  Having to give up your profits from further dubious deals? Don't make me laugh! Not making enough profits over grifting scams (like numerous planned casino bankruptcies)  as well as the Trump University fraud and shell charities to enrich the Trump foundation. No, you guys didn't sacrifice (or suffer), not like the Kennedys - with two assassinations, the severe retardation and a frontal lobotomy of JFK's sister Rosemary, and other heartbreaks.  And if you'd have looked a bit beyond your Trumpian egos  at Arlington you might have come to the resting place of a real president, for whom the office meant an abiding dignity. Also doing actual work - as opposed to tweeting and watching FOX 9 hours a day.   I refer, of course, to the Eternal flame at Arlington, 




 But for Trump Jr. that memorial would be too much to take in, given he'd have to face the legacy of a real president for the people, as well as the profound inadequacies of himself and his whole grifter family.    As author  Matt Gallagher - an Iraq war veteran- put it in a Twitter post:

"Imagine going to Arlington...and being moved to think about money.  You are a soup sandwich @DonaldJTrumpJr, and my friends buried there would tell you the same thing."

Another Iraq vet, Ruben Gallego, commented: "Sacrifice is only a word to the Trumps."

Trump Junior's book, when all is said and done, is merely another transparent effort to normalize the political deviance of his father's residency in an office for which he's totally unqualified.   

Worse, the  political deviance ratified by the likes of Don Jr and the retinue of Dotard enablers has only further hurled this nation into a cesspit of lies and paranoia from which it may never recover.   Point of fact: Three years into this reprobate's presidency fatigue has set in for most Americans.  There is no vision offered, and we know where there is no vision, the people perish.  In this case the first phase is the inability to discern facts from fiction, thanks to Trump's 13, 435 tallied lies spouted thus far.

The relentless assault on truth and reality-  to which Trump Jr. has now added-  has resulted in millions of disabled minds, which have either lost - or never developed - critical thinking skills. Truth barometers. Proof?  A new poll by the Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts found that 47 percent of Americans believe it's difficult to know whether the information they see or read is true.

How can they when bombarded by daily drivel from the likes of FOX and Limbaugh, which twists reality -  and the brains that access its perversion  - convinced they are getting the truth?   This fact deficit not only explains  the ascension of Trump but may also well account for his re-election, god forbid.  Especially if Americans fail to see why impeachment is essential to rectify the ship of state by removing a toxic, corrupt demagogue and autocrat who's setting dangerous precedents for lawlessness.

Trump Jr's book also shows clearly the reason why the whole Trump family needs to be dispatched into political exile.     He claimed his 300-odd page tripe was a book "the left elites don't want you to read".  I'd revise that to be: "the book no one with even moderate intelligence would want to read."

And NO, I did not read this offal, I extracted the fundamentals for this post from reviews and articles. I do not need to actually go into a porto-potty and use it to know it's full of shit. Duh!

See Also:

And:



https://www.truthdig.com/articles/donald-trump-jr-is-actually-laughing/


Excerpt:


"It is the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Don Jr. joins his father for a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, and Don Sr. lays a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. An Army bugler plays taps. “In that moment,” Don recalls in his new book, “Triggered,” he thought of “all the attacks we’d already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we’d have to make to help my father succeed,” including giving up bits of the family business.



Reviewers and media wags have taken this as a moment of revealing bathos: this man-child of almost indescribable privilege, who has earned nothing and given nothing, finds his “hyper-rational, stoic” sensibilities melt away as he compares taking a haircut on family profits for a few years to the eternal sacrifice of the unidentified and unrecovered men and women who have died in this country’s many wars."

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

New Research Enables Space Physicists To Gain Insights Into Heliosphere



For some time  space physicists and solar physicists have pondered the hypothetical properties of the heliosphere - the protective bubble created by the solar wind and depicted in the image above.  Understanding the physics at the bubble's edge- called the heliosheath -  is not easy.  This is given it's in constant flux and pushes out against the broader interstellar magnetic field that permeates our corner of the Milky Way.

For reference, the heliosheath occurs at the far edge of the heliosphere. More technically, it occurs between the "termination shock" and the "heliopause".    The heliopause  is the interface where the solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium. One can therefore think of it as a three dimensional region or surrounding “envelope” at which the solar wind's strength is no longer sufficient to overcome the stellar winds of the external stars. In technical terms, this absence of counter-pressure signals the end of the solar system.   Thanks to data from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft,  we now know the outer boundary of the heliosheath  is located roughly 18 billion kilometers from the Sun. Or 119 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun -  right where Voyager 2 found it in November, 2018.

Now,  Dialynas et al.  have combined Voyager data with observations from NASA's Cassini mission - which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017- to  gain much more insight.  Basically, the researchers recognized that the missions, although launched 20 years apart, had collected complementary data. Voyager 1 and 2 had instruments that measured energetic ions as the craft crossed the heliosheath and exited the solar system. Cassini, meanwhile, was able to remotely observe energetic neutral atoms  arriving in all directions from the heliosheath.


The energetic neutral atoms come from the heliosheath, where fast solar wind protons collide with neutral hydrogen atoms from interstellar space and “steal” an electron from the interlopers. The Voyager probes took in situ measurements of the parent heliosheath proton distributions as they passed through this region. Meanwhile, the protons with newly added electrons become energetic neutral atoms and shoot off in all directions.

The synergy among the spacecrafts’ observations allowed the researchers to use Voyager data from the heliosheath to ground transmissions and thereby calibrate energetic neutral atom data from Cassini, which was more sensitive to lower energetic particles than Voyager. Together, the spacecraft extended data on the intensity of both energetic neutral atoms and ions to include a broader range of energies, which gave the team a window into the physics in the heliosheath as the solar wind and interstellar medium press against each other.

The researchers found that in the energy range considered in their study (>5 kiloelectron volts), lower-energy ions with energies between about 5 and 24 kiloelectron volts played the largest role in maintaining the pressure balance inside the heliosheath. This allowed the team to calculate the strength of the magnetic field and the density of neutral hydrogen atoms in interstellar space—about 0.5 nanotesla and 0.12 per cubic centimeter, respectively.

Their finding that the lower-energy ions dominate the pressure balance in the heliosheath means that space physicists will have to rethink their assumptions about the energy distribution of such particles in the heliosheath..  See e.g. Geophysical Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083924, 2019.

Interestingly, pressure balance considerations also entered in early models and computations to do with another part of the heliosphere:  the solar corona .   In the past century an interesting question was whether the corona was static or not. In a static case its boundary would be more or less fixed, so there'd be no expansion even in times of high solar activity.  For this to occur there would need to be a consistent pressure balance, i.e. between the outward coronal  (& solar wind) pressure and inner directed pressure, from the interstellar medium.

 A static corona  superficially appeared  to be quite reasonable.  And so it was that the father of space physics,  Sydney Chapman,  first assumed a condition for hydrostatic equilibrium applied:

dp/ dr = -
r {GMs/ r2}

Where G is the usual Newtonian gravitational constant, and r defines the plasma density for the corona, with n the number density for protons, e.g. 

r = n(mp

while Ms is the mass of the Sun, and r the distance from the solar center:

The coronal pressure (p) is given by:

p = 2 n T

Provided both protons and electrons are assumed to have the same temperature.

Ultimately, detailed computations showed the static corona model could not be accurate.   
If the static model were accurate, the pressure at infinity, i.e.

p(¥) = p(Ro) [exp – 7k/5 * 1/ T(Ro) Ro

 Should be zero  (p(¥)   = 0) , not a small finite pressure that’s effectively equal to the coronal base pressure. This finding led to the further investigations that disclosed a solar “wind” had to flow outwards from the corona. 

See also:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL068607/full


And:

New Research Into The 'Slow' Solar Wind Sheds Ligh...

Monday, November 25, 2019

Solutions To Binary Star Problems

The problems again:

(1) Find, approximately, the periods of revolution of the following binary star systems in which each star has the same mass as the Sun, and in which the semi-major axis of the relative orbits has the value:

(a) 1 AU

(b) 6 AU

(c) 100 AU

(2) For each of the systems in (1), at what distance would the two stars appear to have an angular separation of 1"?

(3) The true relative orbit of Epsilon Ursae Majoris has a semi-major axis of 2½" and the parallax of the system is 0."127. If its period is 60 years, find the sum of the components in solar mass units.

(4) A hypothetical spectroscopic-eclipsing binary system is observed and its period is 3 years. The maximum radial velocities with respect to the center of mass of the system are:


Star A: 4π/3 AU/yr   and  Star B: 2π/3 AU/yr

(a) Find the ratio of the masses of the components.

(b) Find the mass of each star in solar units. 

(Assume the eclipses are central)

Solutions:

1)   For each system we have: m1 = m2 so total mass = 2Ms (solar masses)

Then:  m1+ m2 = (a)3/ P2 and

P = [(a3)/ (2)]½

(a) IF  a = 1 AU

P = [1/2]½ = 0.707 yr.

(b)IF  a = 6AU

P = [(6)3 / 2]½ = 10.3 yr.

(c) IF a = 100 AU

P = [(100)3/2]½ = 707.1 yrs.

(2)
We need to determine the distances for the two stars in each system of (1) to appear to have an angular separation of 1". 

We require:

m1 + m2 = (d a")3/ P2

and need to find d for different a" = 1"

Simplifying:

(a) P = 0.707 yr.

(d a") = [(m1 + m2) P2]1/3

Then: d = [(2) (0.707)2)]1/3 = 1 pc

(b) P = 10.39 yr.

Then: d = [(2) (10.3)2)]1/3 = 6 pc

c) P = 707.1 yr

Then: d = [(2) (707.1)2)]1/3 = 100 pc


(3)We note the true relative orbit of Epsilon Ursae Majoris has a semi-major axis of 2½" and the parallax of the system is 0."127. The period of 60 years then allows us to find the sum of the components in solar mass units. 

First, find the distance d from the parallax method:

d = 1/p"  =  1/ 0."127 = 7.87 pc

Apply Kepler’s 3rd law for binaries separated by a”.

m(A) + m(B) = (d a")3/ P2 


where a" = 2½" and d = 7.87 pc with P = 60 yrs.

Then:

m(A) + m(B) = ((7.87) (2½" )]3/ 602 = 2.1 solar masses 


(4)The graphs of the radial velocity curves for the stars, matching the physical situation of each, are given in the diagram below. The important thing is to have the maxima and minima in the correct directions at the key points in their respective orbits. 














Positions (1) and (2) in the graphs allow us to obtain the maximum relative velocity for the system, for which:

V = (4π/3 + 2π/3)AU/yr = 6π/3 AU/yr = 2π AU/yr

P = 3 yrs.


(a) Find the ratio of the masses of the components. 

The ratio of the masses will be in the ratio of the radial velocities or: 

4π/3: 2π/3 =  4π/ 2π  =  2: 1

(b) To get the mass of each star in solar units.(Assume the eclipses are central)

Recall that to get distance:

a = (V x P)/ 2π = (2π AU/yr x 3 yr)/ 2π = 3 AU

and: m1 + m2 = (3AU)3/(3 yr) 2 = 3 solar masses

The masses are inversely proportional to the radial velocities in their orbits. Since:

Star A has vA = 4π/3 AU/yr = 2 v B where v B = 2π/3 AU/yr

then:  m(A)/ m(B) = v B / v A = 1/2

or m(A) = m(B)/2 or m(B) = 2m(A)

But: m(A) + m(B) = 3  so: m(A) + 2m(A) = 3

3 m(A) = 3

and m(A) = 1 solar mass, m(B) = 2m(A) or, 2 solar masses


The Senate Impeachment "Trial" Will Be A GOP Farce Based On Endless Russian Conspiracy Ideations




No photo description available.

"Donald Trump ought to be impeached and removed from office. This isn’t what I thought two months ago, when the impeachment inquiry began. I argued that the evidence fell short of the
 standards of a prosecutable criminal act. I also feared impeachment might ultimately help Trump politically, as it had helped Bill Clinton in 1998. That second worry might still prove true.

But if the congressional testimonies of Marie Yovanovitch, Bill Taylor, Gordon Sondland, Alexander Vindman and especially Fiona Hill make anything clear, it’s that the president’s highest crime isn’t what he tried to do to, or with, Ukraine.

It’s that he’s attempting to turn the United States into Ukraine. The judgment Congress has to make is whether the American people should be willing, actively or passively, to go along with it...it’s to the enduring shame of the Republican Party that they have been willing to debase our political standards to the old Ukrainian level just when Ukrainians are trying to rise to our former level....  The one way to stop this is to make every effort to remove Trump from office. It shouldn’t have to wait a year."  - Bret Stephens, NY Times, Nov. 23, 'The United States Is Starting To Look Like Ukraine'

"Trump's quid pro quo attempt with Ukraine is of a piece with the corrupt practices ushered in by right wing populists all over the world. They had vowed to smash the rules but it turns out it was mostly for self-enrichment."   -  David Brooks, NY Times

"I have contended from the beginning that impeachment was important regardless of Republican support, regardless of the chances of conviction and removal in the Senate. Impeachment is important because our system of democracy is being tested. The Constitution is being tested. And, not moving to impeach would in a way enshrine abuse of power as a precedent....


Trump knows that the impeachment inquiry can simply be seen as part of the show, and if he can put on a bigger, better show, he can survive it. Trump is not concerned about truth, protocol, tradition or the sanctity of the Constitution.. Trump cares about Trump. Trump cares about the Trump brand and the Trump show. Trump will reduce this country to rubble before he will submit to correction"  - Charles Blow, NY Times


Thanks to multiple investigations and reporting we now know the White House and congressional Republicans allied with "Capt. Bonespurs"  Trump are preparing for a Senate trial in which they will not only declare Trump’s innocence but also present a version of events that portray him as the victim of a broad plot to undermine his presidency even before it began.  That  specious - already debunked narrative -  will claim that it was Ukrainians who meddled in the 2016 election instead of the Russians.  This was an unfounded allegation totally refuted by Dr. Fiona Hill last Thursday. 

Also, an intel report released Friday noted the Ukraine - CrowdStrike BS was being peddled by Putin and the Russians to frame Ukraine.  But the Reeptards will run with it because they are traitors first-  and sowers of  propaganda and lies second - who consistently place party and obeisance to Trump,  over country.

In a telephone interview with “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning Trump went on an unhinged, 57 minute paranoid bender.  We have no idea if he was on opiods, MJ candy, crack or just too many greasy burgers (with the fat coagulating in his brain) before he dialed in.  But his sputterings and drivel - which ordinarily would have the guy on the street in a straitjacket - didn't go unnoticed by the FOX trio.   After  alluding to“the Democrats and their media machine, the fake, corrupt media”, the psychotic preznit went on to bawl:

"The F.B.I. went in, and they told them, ‘Get out of here, we’re not giving it to you,’ They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it is called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian. I still want to see that server.”

Which is 100 percent, undistilled horse shit. Hell, even Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocey (two of the FOX trio) had their mouths agape. Kilmeade - once he caught his breath - even had the sense to ask the Traitor- in -chief for his sources.  All he could do was bark 50 more minutes of lies. 

The strategy was similar to the Trump legal team’s handling of the Mueller inquiry, which they frequently charged was not following normal procedures. Thus when the special counsel’s report did not reveal ironclad evidence personally connecting Mr. Trump to the Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, the asshole and his advisers seized on it as a reliable disinfo weapon.  "Lookee here, we're exonerated!"  Of course, Mueller said no such thing.

But the point is, using that false perception Trump was emboldened to do corruption on steroids. Freed from Mueller's close scrutiny and the threat of any sanctions,  Donnie Dotard has elected to promote the debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.  This was a day after the former top Russia expert  -  British-born Fiona Hill  -  called it a “fictional narrative” in  her dramatic impeachment testimony.

In her testimony Thursday, she scolded Republicans loyal to Trump  that they must stop pushing the idea that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it plays into Vladimir Putin’s hands.  Dr. Hill  also in her opening text, vigorously attacked the debunked conspiracy theory used by Republicans to defend their master against allegations that he sought to bribe Ukraine for his own political gain.

Back to the Fox and Friends farce.  In the incoherent, often rambling 57-minute interview, Trump also:
  • Claimed, without evidence, that he was trying to root out corruption in Ukraine when he withheld aid over the summer.
  • Claimed he was the reason China had not taken steps to crush pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
  • Said government officials had praised the former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch – a highly regarded diplomat whom Trump has repeatedly smeared – because “she’s a woman, you have to be nice”.
  • Complained that Marie Yovanovitch, who has served presidents in both parties, was “an Obama person” and took too long to hang his picture in the Ukraine embassy.
  • Called the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the top woman in Congress, “crazy as a bedbug”.
The Fox & Friends hosts were largely passive bystanders during what effectively became a Trump monologue, though as I noted, Brian Kilmeade at one point did ask the orange goofball for his sources.  "Sources? What're those? I don't need no sources!  Lotsa people have said....."

This is the depraved, corrupt jackass we have as president, who needs to be ousted from his unearned office as soon as feasible, e.g.


by Paul Street | November 22, 2019 - 7:09am | permalink


Let's get into our heads that Trump's behavior is not just pro forma and "normal".  NO, it instead marks the epitome of corruption.  That is,  a person given public power to act for the people but who then takes that and uses it for his own selfish, private gain.  Most constitutional scholars - not the dopey "Federalist Society" idiots-  grasped that the Founders took corruption most seriously. Indeed, it was central to the founding of this country.  After the decision to become these 'United States' the next question was how do we protect against corruption. 

A quarter of the time, at the Constitutional Convention, the Framers were all about corruption in sundry aspects:  the treaty power, the size of districts, the Electoral College.  Everything was debated in terms of how do we protect against corruption.  Inherent to this, implicitly understood was the danger of Republics, or their potential weakness.

That is, they could become corrupted if a corrupt politician or demagogue - especially one with an energetic minority (or majority) backing, somehow was elected.  Thus, the framers were less afraid of external threats than internal threats of corruption.   One of the Founders and Framers most aware of this was George Mason. Who, at the Constitutional Convention, said the following:

"Shall the man who has practiced corruption, and by that means procured his appointment in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment by repeating his guilt?"

In other words, should an unfit swine like Donald Trump, who's already escaped accountability in the Mueller investigation, be now allowed to once more use bribery of a foreign power to get re-relected, and thereby escape his just punishment?

Thus, Mason was aware that it's not just the corruption he was worried about (as well as other Founders, like James Madison) but also if such man becomes corrupt enough that he can corrupt the electoral process itself, to get into power again- and escape all sanction.

The Mason quote, interestingly, came in the midst of the Framers' debate about impeachment. The original drafts for the impeachment provision  were more concerned with malpractice or the neglect of duty. But Mason and others were so worried about corruption that they insisted the provisions include bribery, treason and maladministration. 

They then decided the last was too broad and ambiguous so it was taken out an replaced with "high crimes and misdemeanors" -  which had a very precise meaning at that time (i.e. in the English tradition).  For reference, the three major proponents of the impeachment power were: Edmund Jennings Randolph, Mason and James Madison.

Each talked not only about corruption but foreign corruption, i.e. the unique dangers  of an executive have powers in the foreign realm. Randolph, for example,  was worried about an executive becoming corrupted in matters of war and peace, because people wouldn't necessarily know about them. Say Trump making a secret deal with Kim Jong Un or Recip Tayyip Erdogan, that was against U.S. security interests.

Other framers objected that there shouldn't be an impeachment clause and Charles Pinckney  e.g.
Charles Pinckney, South Carolina
even said in effect, 'Don't worry! If there's another election that is all you need."

The overwhelming response (of the then states; delegates) was oh no, we actually need this.  The reason was that the threat of foreign corruption was so great and could do so much damage to the country, say to have someone continuing in office while serving their own private, selfish ends at the expense of the public. Especially in foreign affairs,  but in all affairs. So we can't simply wait for an election and hope enough people (AND the Electoral College) ensure the corrupted individual isn't returned to power.   Hence the need for the impeachment clause. 

This is exactly the case with Trump and why impeachment - as well as rapid removal from office - is essential..

The problem is that if the majority Reeps in the Senate adopt the governing narrative (seeded by the Russian security services) that Ukraine was really the interloper in the 2016 election and Trump was the victim- then we are witness to no more than a kangaroo court with no positive outcome for removing the turd.  Worse, by carrying water for the already discredited GRU and their conspiracy codswallop - like Lindsey Graham plans to do to use against the Bidens - we can declare that all these miscreants are de facto traitors. They are openly using debunked material from a foreign security service to undermine our Republic, and indeed, to destroy it.

As Jeffrey Stacey in a Times op-ed observed:

"What the Trump administration and the rest of us need to acknowledge is that these campaigns are a type of low-grade full spectrum warfare — military jargon for the combined use of new and complex methods for attaining victory. To be sure, the attacks have been mostly bloodless, except in eastern Ukraine. But they constitute warfare nevertheless — fully analogous to the Cold War, when Russia also challenged the United States for the balance of influence around the world."

In effect if the Senate Republicans make use of these false narratives spread by the GRU and ancillary assets  in any impeachment trial, then they are doing Russia's work for them to destroy our own nation. They are  then all traitors and need to be treated as such, no exceptions.  Even more compelling to the case here,  even as Republican lawmakers vociferously defended Bonespurs, they received a briefing “that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election.”

This was based on a leading New York Times story on Friday   

Given they had the report from our intel services and still chose to ignore it to attack our Republic they all need to be hung, drawn and quartered, in effigy if not in reality- because they are the REAL "human scum".  

Starting with the orange fungal pestilence fouling the White House, who now has insinuated his corruption into the military by effectively pardoning a convicted war criminal, former Seal Edward Gallagher.  (Gallagher was turned in by his own platoon last spring. Several fellow SEALs reported that he had shot civilians and killed a captive Islamic State fighter with a custom hunting knife during a deployment in Iraq in 2017.  In other words, plain war crimes not unlike William Calley's in Vietnam.  Crimes that his platoon reecognized brought dishonor on them all.) Never mind conservative talk show monkeys have turned Gallagher and other imps into "heroes". 


 This  latest intervention by Trump was deemed so outrageous and vile by the Secretary of the Navy (Richard Spencer)  that he was led to write - after being forced out by Pentagon punk Mark Esper (the guy who chirped the Kurds were "on their own" after Trump pulled out the military from northern Syria):

"I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took...to support and defend the Constitution".

Effectively calling out his mock "commander in chief" Dotard as doing the opposite.   Let us also process that when Gallagher appeared on FOX News Sunday to claim "this is all about ego, not order and discipline" he omitted one of the primary charges against him:   that he threatened to kill any fellow Seal who reported him to the chain of command for his war crimes.  In other words, this guy is garbage like Trump. 

Let's further note here that Trump has angered and alienated a number of military leaders by intervening in the cases of three American service members who had been accused of war crimes.   Why?  Because Trump, a criminal himself, seeks to often intervene on behalf of other criminals - especially other traitors, war criminals.  Not to mention garden variety vermin like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. 

But the signal takeaway is that the Swine-in -chief now believes he can intervene in any domain he wishes to insert his distinct brand of corruption.

As far as the Senate impeachment trial goes, given the GOP majority plans to use debunked Russian (GRU)  material to try to make a case, then it is by definition a farce.  In which case I have no intention of wasting my time watching a propaganda performance - sponsored by Vlad and the Russkies no less.



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