Reds Under the Beds: Bloomberg Hypes the "Russian" Climate Threat

Portrait of Vladimir Putin, Source, Author Russian Presidential Press and Information Office

Portrait of Vladimir Putin, Source,
Author Russian Presidential Press and Information Office

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Bloomberg has joined a chorus of voices hyping up the alleged Russian threat. But the real threat is to President-elect Trump.

Russia Wins in a Retreat on Climate Change

By Noah Smith

President-elect Donald Trump has signaled ambivalence about many policies, such as Obamacare and infrastructure spending. But on at least one issue, his attitude is crystal-clear: climate change. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement designed to limit fossil-fuel use, and presented himself as a champion of the coal industry. His transition team even demanded that the Energy Department make a list of names of employees who worked on climate change. U.S. national policy seems set for an epic shift away from alternative energy and carbon reduction.

Who would win from a retreat in the war on climate change? Oil, coal and gas industries around the world, obviously, as well as coal-burning power companies. But the biggest winner probably would be another country: Russia.

Without oil and gas, Russia’s economy would be a shambles, and sharp declines in energy prices in the 1990s and again in the past three years sent its economy into deep recessions.

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There is no doubt Putin thinks the climate movement is a joke. During the G20 conference in Brisbane Australia, when asked why a fleet of Russian warships was parked just outside Australian territorial waters, the Russian embassy replied they were performing “climate change research”.

But why should Putin care about Western governments wasting money on useless renewables? Renewables need gas turbine backup, backup turbines which likely burn more gas cycling up and down to try to stabilise the grid, than they would if they burned steadily, supplying the full base load.

Europe will need Russian gas and oil for decades to come, given Europe’s ongoing rejection of nuclear power, opposition to fracking, and political efforts to shutdown coal plants.

So why would a prestigious news organisation like Bloomberg want to muckrake empty Soviet era paranoia?

There is one possible target of all the reds under the beds lunacy hitting our media lately which makes sense. The electoral college vote on the 19th December.

Dem congressman: Electoral College has ‘right’ to weigh Russian hacking

By Kyle Cheney



Cicilline appears to be the first member of Congress and the highest-ranking elected official in the country to endorse the notion that electors aren’t simply rubber stamps for their states’ popular vote. Earlier Saturday, he retweeted a Rhode Island-based national security expert who argued that the intelligence community “must brief electoral college about Russia before vote.”

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President-elect Trump’s political opponents, in my opinion, are hoping that their empty caricature of old style cold war paranoia will help awaken enough doubt in Republican electoral college voters minds, to cheat Trump of his victory.

314 thoughts on “Reds Under the Beds: Bloomberg Hypes the "Russian" Climate Threat

    • What is amazing is the the WH is suggesting that Putin is doing Trump’s bidding. The WH would have us believe that when Trump told Russia to hack Hillary’s 30,000 deleted emails, Putin followed his direction and hacked the emails.
      Which is amazing. Trump is not even in office and the WH is telling us that Putin is following Trump’s orders!

      • Putin hates Hillary’s guts….last year he said she was satan
        …Putin was not trying to help Trump…..Putin was trying to bury Hillary

      • The FBI told us that Hillary was “extremely careless” with her emails. But Obama told us that was OK, because she didn’t mean to do anything wrong. So why should anyone else care about cyber security, so long as they didn’t mean to do anything wrong?
        Why are the Russians being blamed for the US having poor cyber security? The CIA, FBI, NSA, these organizations exist to prevent Russian hacking. Clearly if the Russians hacked the US, then these organizations failed to do their job.
        Why blame the Russians? The job of the Russian intelligence agencies is to spy on the US. Just like the CIA spies on Russia, and the NSA spies on US citizens (as shown by Snowden). So maybe the Russians did a better job than the US? Or maybe since Obama wasn’t concerned with Hillary’s “extremely careless” handling of her emails,. maybe the Russians took this as a green light that the US wasn’t all that concerned with email security?
        This is the problem. If you make it easy for people to read your emails, you should not blame them if they read your emails, especial;y if that is their job. Why blame a thief if you leave your unlocked car on the street with the engine running and the keys in the ignition?


          OUCH! That is perfect! Basically the left and MSM are complaining that “carelessness” should only count when it adversely affects THEM, not the country!

      • Yeah, except there is no evidence that Russia was responsible for hacking Podesta (Hillary’s chief flunky) or the DNC. Julian Assange of Wikileaks said yesterday he did *not* get the leaked emails from the Russians.
        Don’t fall into the trap of assuming the Russians did it just because a bunch of Leftwing partisans claim that’s what happened.
        So far, the only U.S. intelligence person claiming the Russians were involved is James Clapper, the CIA Director, who is a political partisan shilling for Obama.
        The U.S. Attorney General said yesterday the Russians had not been connected to the leaks. The FBI Director says there is not solid evidence of Russian involvement. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) says there is no evidence of Russian involvement.
        This Russian hacking narrative is Obama/Leftist propaganda meant to harm President-Elect Trump.

      • @Latitude
        If I were Putin and picking whom I’d like to see in the White House I’d rather have a hack like Hillary who was a disaster as Secretary of State and likely to continue Obuthead’s “America Last” policies in the Oval Office. Trump is America’s Cheerleader-in-Chief and likely to give the Russians far more grief than the Dumbocrats would dream of doing. Someone make the case I’m wrong here.

      • Keeping America’s energy resources in the ground is what Hillary was promising and is what Russia needs economically.
        The Democrats America last geo-politics also leaves the world open for the Russians to take what they want.
        Lastly, if the Russians had done the hacking, why not keep that fact secret until after the election and then use it to blackmail a president Hillary.

      • TA, the CIA director is John Brennan, not Clapper. Clapper is Director of National Intelligence, and I am pretty sure it’s ONLY Brennan that is crying “Russia”.
        BTW, when Trump called on Russia to “hack” Hillary (he actually joked that they should release the 30,000 destroyed emails if they had them) Hillary’s server had already been shut down. For quite some time. And that was common knowledge.

      • In the first place there is zero evidence that Russia influenced the election. The only source is unnamed CIA sources….if they had evidence someone would take credit for it. All other Intel sources say there is no evidence of election hacking. What this is is the denial that the Democrat lost because of what they did or didn’t do while in power. The reason their grumpy is natural. One gets that way when sucking on sour grapes.

        Exactly phil…all this smoke screen about Putin
        We hacked Merkels phone for years….got emails, text messages, everything
        Mexico and Brazil too. Got their phone calls, emails, everything
        Who gives a flying….it’s what the emails said that matters
        …and they said the democrats broke the law
        When are we going to get past this and charge them?

      • Just as a point of detail, what Trump actually said was that IF RUSSIA ALREADY HAD Hillary’s deleted e-mails, it would be greatly appreciated if they would send us a copy. He did not “tell Russia to hack…”
        At the time he made this jocular remark, Hillary’s computer complex had already been discovered and disassembled. No hacking would have been possible in any case. How can one follow an impossible order? (Question to fake-news media, not to Ferd.)

      • D. J. Hawkins December 16, 2016 at 8:10 am
        I agree. This whole flap about DT and Putin being buddies is to cover up the influence peddling that Killary indulged in.

      • Hey if Americans perceive that Putin’s Russia could be a threat to the USA; the last thing they are going to do, is leave the American Defense system under a DB like the Clintons.
        Americans are not stupid; they want to be defended first.
        This ploy to ” free up ” Electoral College electors could just as easy backfire, and send Hillary State electors over tor reinforce Trump.
        Be careful what you wish for you democrat melons; it might not go your way.
        A mismatch between the electoral college, and the “popular vote” simply points out that the populous States Like California, Texas, and New York, simply do not have their fair share of members in the house of Representatives. If the house was apportioned properly to the 57 States, it would never be possible for the electoral college to differ from the “popular vote”
        And the “popular vote” is simply a show of hands. It has NO force of law in the Presidential Election process. The States elect the President; not the people.
        We also don’t get to elect the leaders of the United Nothing.

      • Doug,
        The FBI publicly concurs with CIA about Russian activity. The conclusion has been reported as coming from the “intelligence community”, which implies that DIA, NRO and NSA agree, but can’t do so openly. I hesitate to call it a “consensus”, but so it appears. Or they could all be lying, since the agencies have become so politicized.
        IMO the issue isn’t if Russia interfered in the US election, since it’s clear that to some extent Putin did, but whether it had any effect. Wikileaks might well not be totally dependent upon Russian hackers. And the wildest claims, ie of remotely tampering with voting machines, are almost certainly unjustified.

      • Michel J Dunn is correct, the hacking comment Trump made about Russia was clearly a sarcastic remark (aka ‘joke’). It is also interesting that the oversight committee on intelligence stuff called a hearing, invited the CIA etc, and they REFUSED to show up – hearing cancelled. So much for ‘proof’ the Russians did the hacking.

        You are right about that, godzi11a. I got them mixed up. Thanks for straightening that out.

      • MarkW wrote: “Lastly, if the Russians had done the hacking, why not keep that fact secret until after the election and then use it to blackmail a president Hillary.”
        Yeah, I think for those reasons both Russia and China would prefer Hillary. They have all sorts of ways of blackmailing Hillary.

      • George,
        Yes it would be, since one could still win by wider margins in an insufficient array of States, electoral college totals wise, than the margins they lost by in the sufficient array of States the winner prevailed in . .

        • YOu are correct. But poor George does not realize it is not the House that is throwing it, but the senate. Each state gets 2 senators regardless of population. Which means 2 senators for ~ 600k in Wyoming, but 2 senators for ~39 million in California.
          So capturing a lot of small states helps win elections. And that is the intent of the founders.

      • @Latitude

        Someone make the case I’m wrong here.
        DJ easy…Putin hates Hillary’s guts

        Personal animosity is only rarely a sufficient motive at these levels of power. If Putin really does loath Hillary, it would be more satisfying to get her into office and then humiliate her while taking the US down a peg or twenty. Twofer for the Russians.

      • Have you actually looked at a global map of the Pacific, and seen exactly where those man made Chinese Islands in the “South China Sea” actually are. They are right in the middle of the Phillipines, hundreds of miles from China.

      • The Chinese are trying to claim the whole South China sea as their personal lake.
        The next step is for other nations to keep the South China sea open to navigation by sailing through the area frequently.
        The world allowed the Chinese to steal Tibet and claim it as their own. Is the world going to allow the Chinese to steal the South China sea?
        At what point does the stealing stop?

  1. Michael Bloomberg has become a supplement for George Soros as a boogy man, with condiderable justitfication in both cases. While the American left obsesses about the Koch brothers, Bloomberg is even wealthier and more varied in his interests. Extreme positions on nutrition, gun control, and the environment are among Bloomberg’s causes, and he tends to support the most extreme positions on each. What a pity he decided to not run as an independent candiate for President, and split the progressive vote like Perot did in the 1990’s.

    • Russia’s greatest fear is that our government will unleash American energy companies to find all the oil and gas that they can. It doesn’t matter what our government thinks about global warming. Russia is going to keep selling gas, and Europe is going to keep buying it.
      As usual, Bloomberg is using fake data to gin about a non-existent controversy.

      • Exactly Mark. It’s been proposed that Russia has been active funding anti-fracking groups in both Europe and the US for exactly that reason. Gazprom sells a lot of natural gas to Europe. If Europe were to develop its own resources, that hurts Russia. The same is true with the US. Certainly Bloomberg knows that, it’s hardly secret.
        Russia has every reason to back Green or Green aligned political groups outside the country. Bloomberg’s got the motives completely backwards, which I believe qualifies as “fake news”. Someone call Zuckerberg.

    • The irony is of course is Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, took enough Democrat voters away from Hillary to cause her to lose the 3 states Trump won to give him the victory. With Gary Johnson’s voters, it’s impossible to say how his voter’s would have voted if he’d ahdn’t been on the ballot. But with a Green Party candidate, it is clear those voters would have picked the Democrat if there was a Green party candidate choice.
      And Trump will undo the Green-anti-carbon agenda. If there is any doubt, look at his cabinet and EPA picks to lead them.

      • I agree. If Trump does undo the Green agenda, what is interesting is the prospect that in the 2020 election, the Greens will succeed in taking even more votes from the Dems. The Libertarians may also lose traction if Trump is successful in his plans to do away with some of the more stifling business regulations.

      • That is a strawman. There is no telling how many of those Stein voters would just not have voted! I work with a lib (who does not care for Hillary, but hates Trump). And he said Stein was a fruit loop! So I do not think those who voted for Stein would have voted for Hillary. And we will never know.

    • Remember these words, from the Declaration of Independence


      • This could equally describe the malevalent and dictatorial evolution of the European Union and the UK ‘s break for freedom which is being contested at every turn.

    • Na, the right in this country has gotten so used to getting screwed that we would just shrug our shoulders and move on…

      • I’m afraid the fonz is right. Luckily, it ain’t gonna happen. Trump will take the keys to the gubmint on Jan 20, and begin dismantling this eight year long nightmare.

      • afonzarelli, I might have agreed if, say, Cruz, Bush, Fiorina or some other same-old-same-old had been the one to be cheated. But the right’s gotten a whiff of hope with Trump. I wouldn’t bet on that shrug.

      • There is no chance that the electoral college will not pick Trump. Only one elector has said they would change…dispute fake news of more. I do agree that the limbs are playing with fire and if they could put Hillary in the Civil War that might happen would be far greater than the other event in 1860

      • Only if there is evidence of interference. Obama crying “the sky is falling…and Putin did it” is not evidence. And what would that interference be? Mind control? Taking of hostages?
        This talk of “interference” is paranoid rot. It is at the level of claims of witchcraft. It is evidence mainly of the psychotic disturbance that seems to shake the left, as their delusions are smashed by a confrontation with reality.

      • I read they’re getting death threats and much harrasment
        is no one calling that “terrorism” and why? do many of the electoral mob just seem to be shrugging the threats off?
        any other time or place there would be a huge fuss over such behaviour

  2. So, assuming the Russian government was behind the leaked e-mails, are the journalists pissed off because it was Russia, or because Russia did what the journalists should have done?

    • You will note that the leaked e-mails are being condemned by Clinton backers, because they were leaked, not because they were not genuine e-mails or that they were fragmentary or in some other way misleading.

      • Exactly. That’s the elephant in the room that Clinton backers are ignoring. If the leaked emails had painted a positive image of Democrats and had shown them to really care about the things they claim to care about, like fairness and justice for all, the leaks would have actually benefited them in the election. Instead, it showed them seeking unfair advantage behind the scenes by colluding with reporters and cheating to get debate questions in advance. If the leaks hurt them, it was only because they revealed that these Democrats are not who they claim to be. And now it seems from their reaction, that Democrats would rather keep Americans in the dark than allow transparency to inform voters about who they really are.
        Now, if Republicans are also misbehaving behind the scenes, I would hope that someone leaks their communications, as well. I do not cheer when I find out that my team cheated to win. Unfortunately, some do. I’m appalled by those who want their team to win at all costs and don’t care if they have to cheat to do it. Our form of government was made for a moral people. It will not survive once a majority of Americans believe they must cheat to win and will not only tolerate but will encourage such behavior by the politicians they support.

      • Good point. The other issue is that they could have hacked and released lots of damaging stuff from the Trump camp, but they did not. That’s what made it a very effective intervention, the voter only heard one side of the issue.

      • Walter Sobchak – December 15, 2016 at 10:58 pm


        Exactly “partly” right you are, Walter S.
        And I stated “partly” right simply because Hillary Clinton and her “handlers”, including the FBI, CIA and Obama et el, ….. know damn well that those DNC E-mails, etc., were “extracted” directly from or via Hillary’s basement Server, …… and they sure as hell don’t want the American public to see evidence of that fact, …… therefore the Clinton backers have been pushing the agitprop “smokescreen” that “The Russians did it, ….. The Russians did it.”.
        GEEEEZE, ….. anyone with only a smidgen of PC “common sense” should know that Hillary’s E-mail address (ex: would have been on every DNC employee’s and Democrat donor’s “Send-To-All E-mail Contact List” and thus the very reason that Hillary’s basement server had accumulated 30,000+ E-mails that had to be deleted before the FBI was permitted access to her server.
        HA, bout anyone with an Expert Hacking License, ……. be they here in the US of A or across the pond somewhere, ……. could have been “uploading” E-mails and classified/secret info/data for the past ten (10) years.
        And nobody knows “nuttin” …… and nobody is gonna tell anyone “nuttin”.
        Especially the context/content of Bill Clinton’s E-mails that were also stored on Hillary’s basement server.

      • Louis, noble cause corruption.
        Once you become convinced that you are on the side of the angels, and that the other side is in league with the devil, it becomes easy to justify doing anything, even evil things, to defeat them.
        Then there are those who just want free stuff and don’t care who has to suffer for them to get more of it.

      • Gareth, what makes you so convinced that there was equally juicy stuff available to be hacked in the Trump camp?
        Or are you just letting your ideology think for you again?

      • lots of damaging stuff from the Trump camp, but they did not
        tons of damaging stuff was released about Trump. there was so much of it that Trump was in the news each and every day. and as the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
        the MSM and democratic campaign painted horns and a tail on Trump and called him the Devil. After awhile, no matter how much black paint you throw on someone, they don’t get any blacker.
        What the democrats failed to do was offer anything new. They offered to continue the Obama policies, which for a lot of people seeing the jobs dry up in towns across the US was not a message they could vote for,

        Julian Assange of Wikileaks was asked yesterday if he had been given any hacked emails from Trump, and he said he had received about three pages of stuff about Trump, but did not release it through Wikileaks because the information had already been made public elsewhere. So no damaging Trump emails were available to be released.

      • “Louis, noble cause corruption.
        Good point, MarkW. That’s where the radical Left is now. Anything goes, as far as they are concerned, when it comes to regaining their power and influence. Everything else is secondary, including Truth and U.S. national security.

      • ‘That’s what made it a very effective intervention, the voter only heard one side of the issue.’
        So what was CNN , ABC and the rest of Goebbels media pushing? The way I saw it this was an attempted political assassination like I’ve never seen before. While practically elevating Hillary to sainthood.
        You also act like this year was the first time we ever saw Hillary.
        No, what we’re seeing here is another low-down action by the most propaganda-oriented, most underhanded president in my lifetime, to discredit an overturn an election that threatens his agenda. And if he pulls it off, our liberty – such as it exists – is gone.

      • Gareth Phillips,
        you wrote, “The other issue is that they could have hacked and released lots of damaging stuff from the Trump camp, ”
        The Democrats, via very extensive, extremely well-funded Oppo research, did dig up everything they could find on Trump, and then the mainstream media reported every bit of it. Trump was seen as a very flawed candidate, especially his attitudes toward women. But attitudes are not crimes.
        Meanwhile the Mainstream Media essentially refused to dig into the Clinton Foundation real crimes (pay to paly from foreign donors and governments).

      • The FBI has already stated that attempts to hack the Republicans failed…..not because a choice was made to keep it secret. It is far more likely that WIKI leaks was given the information by insiders in the government

      • “The other issue is that they could have hacked and released lots of damaging stuff from the Trump camp”
        You assume there was some.
        Apparently, there wasn’t.

        • Cat, you didn’t hear the Assange interview on Sean Hannity’s radio program. In it, Assange said that he had recieved stuff on Trump, but it was only about four pages of info already public.

    • The Left is pissed-off that the American people got to see the truth via those DNC and Podesta emails about how Democrats and their media allies operate.
      It is no different than the Univ. East Anglia/CRU ClimateGate emails exposing the truth about the state of Climate science manipulations and lies. The damage to the Climate Hustle was and still is immense, as the truth when shown always is.
      The damage to the US Democratic Party (over how they actively colluded with the Hillary Campaign and the media to stop Bernie Sanders) is immense and will not be apparent for years as their (Bernie Sanders wing) supporters turn away. And the Democrats show no signs of an open and honest self-appraisal of their deep problems with telling the truth.

      • It is amusing that the 2 instances where the Republicans were “hacked” ( a phone call and email), that the world found out they were “conspiring” to follow the law!

    • The guy who hacked the emails, so he says, lives in E Europe and says he didn’t do it for the Russians, who he has also exposed in Wikileaks.
      Can anyone provide his trade name?

    • “Russians are the new Jews.”
      Now the radical Left in Europe has picked up on this meme and are blaming the Russians for *their* political problems. Merkel is blaming the Russians for her political troubles, and I saw a report that a European thinktank is now blaming the Russians for instigating the sexual assaults of European women by Muslim immigrants!

    • Well, actually the ‘new Jew’ is non-progressive, capitalist white guys. THEY are getting blamed for everything. Sometimes with the added label ‘conservative’ – pretty much regardless of their opinions on anything other than the particular issue at hand.
      The Russians are just helping.

    • normally nn’s posts go straight to the bit bucket because he/she is a hateful person with no filter and has routinely posted offensive comments about abortion, religion, and other topics, I’m sorry that some mod fished this one out. I’ve been so busy this week with AGU and other activities I didn’t have time to moderate as much as I usually do.
      Apologies to WUWT readers for “n n” seeing the light of day.

    • No, wiki leaks was very effective, doubtful that trump could have won without their efforts. That whole comey thing went down in the midst of revelations that hillary’s private server was a willful act. Who knows how that may have influenced his decisioning. (and from there, flashes of anthony weiner on televisions around the country had to have doomed her campaign) Even without comey, wiki leaks made hillary look bad…

      • No, the content of their own emails made them look bad. That is not who released them nor who ( allegedly ) may have ( allegedly ) hacked the server.
        It was those who WROTE the emails that made them look bad.
        It is about time that they owned it rather than trying to divert by blaming everyone else.

      • wiki leaks made hillary look bad…
        HA, Hillary has been lookin bad ever since she floated north on her and Bill’s Whitewater Raft.
        What most all Americans don’t realize is the fact that Bill Clinton, …… an upstart no-body from Arkansas, …… was only nominated and elected POTUS for the sole purpose of being the “whipping boy” when the US economy dropped to the bottom of the “economic cesspool”.
        Both the Democrats and Republicans thought for sure and/or knew for a fact that the US economy had stagnated and there was no hope of recovery.
        Thus, none of the “big name” Democrats or Republicans wanted the POTUS job when the “feces-hit-the-fan” and thus both Parties supported a Clinton “win”.
        But what none of those “expert” dummies seen or even imagined, …… that coming over the horizon was the initial start of a massive “economic” tornado that was eventually given the name of ….. “” ……. and it swept across the US with unpresented gusto, filling the Treasury coffers with truckload after truckload of taxable cash.
        And the dastardly terrible Budget Deficit ….. quickly turned into a super-duper Budget Surplus ….. and POTUS Clinton was given full credit even though he did nothing to cause it and barely knew it was even happening …… and the rest is history.

      • OOPS, it appears that the server software deleted the name that was stated in this part of my commentary, to wit ……. (given the name of ….. “xxx” …….). The name I shudda used was ….. “dot-com bubble”.
        And here is proof of my HA HA … fanatical claim, to wit:

        The Dot-Com Exp——
        By Melissa Roglitz
        July 2000
        It’s really quite humorous to think that two three-letter syllables sum up the entire future of business: dot-com. Usually some intellectual or some government bureaucrat or some business entrepreneur creates a seven- to 10-syllable word to describe something so phenomenally important to the way we do anything, in this case business. But not this time. No. Just dot-com. Say it out loud three or four times in a row. Sounds funny, doesn’t it? Dot-com stands for an estimated $106 billion in revenues worldwide. Dot-com stands for a forecasted $634 billion to $2.8 trillion in electronic transactions between U.S. businesses in 2003.

      • I wonder whether Hillary could have even won her primary had her opponent not decided that the whole e-mail thing wasn’t worth talking about.

      • “It is about time that they owned it rather than trying to divert by blaming everyone else.”
        Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. The Left’s stock in trade is to blame everyone but themselves for any problems. They never accept responsiblity for anything. It’s *always* someone else’s fault.

      • afonzarelli — polls are quite easy to “adjust” by comparison with live turnout. The Dem team couldn’t fill a church on Sunday (one of Kaine’s stops), but Trump filled a stadium at freakin’ midnight at one of his rallies. You can find personal video after video of standing-room-only Trump rallies and barely half-full Clinton rallies.
        People who bother to go to rallies are certainly going to bother going to vote. This is why I doubt Clinton’s “popular vote” soi-disant “win”.

  3. This seems like the “bargaining ” stage of grief to me. The far left pushed too far & now they are paying the price. And as the saying goes “payback is a b!tch”

    • “Seriously, Western media (yes, here in Australia as well) seem to be united in a drive to start a war with Russia. It would be comical if it were not so dangerous.”
      That’s exactly right, and it *is* dangerous. We don’t want to get into a war over a Big Leftist Lie, but that’s where the Left is trying to take us. They want to poke the Russian Bear with a stick for their own selfish political purposes. They are oblivious to the fact that the Russian Bear may not like being poked, especially over a Big Lie. All they are thinking about is using the Russians to help themselves politically. That’s how stupid they are about foreign affairs and dealing with bully dictators. They have no clue about dealing with them.
      You would never hear a peep out of the Left about the Russians if they couldn’t use them to try to enhance their own political power.

      • With little over a month to fan the flames with Russia, the Obama administration might just end up making Trump look even better when he assumes office and quickly defuses a rapidly escalating bad situation.

      • Seriously, if Trump does anything at all to honestly benefit the country, as opposed to cutting it down to size and wreck social justice vengeance upon its citizenry, that by itself will already make him a better president than Mr. Citizen of the World.

      • I find it hard to believe that the Russians would go to war over a bunch of blustering BS from Killary and Obummer. Putin is probably laughing so hard he can’t see straight.

        Let’s hope that is what Putin is doing. And no rational person would go to war over this U.S. political argument.
        Unfortunately, we cannot be sure all the actors are rational. Is it rational for one nuclear power to have one of its aircraft enter into attack mode and then buzz 50 feet above another nuclear power’s naval vessel which is sailing in international waters?
        That’s a pretty high stakes game of chicken if you ask me. Very reckless. Anything can go wrong. Yet the situation was created deliberately.
        I think if I were in charge I would have to inform the other nuclear power that I don’t like playing chicken, and don’t like trying to guess whether their aircraft is fooling around or serious, and that they shouldn’t put me in a position where I might have to blow their aircraft out of the sky.

  4. Oooh! Those evil Russians! Is there anything bad they are not responsible for?

    • and tonight’s weather: Russia will be making some heavy rain in the north eastern states and also be responsible for some unseasonally mid weather moving into Florida and South Carolina …..

      • “…and now for the climate change forecast: The Russian sponsored climate change will cause at least 2 deg more warming before the end of the decade. The newest models expressly designed to show this effect do in fact show it to be true. Scientists agree.” [sarc for those who nee to have such explained]

    • well, the russians made the USA secretary of state put her business on a home computer with lame security so anybody could hack it.
      they also made huma abedin’s husband wave his collective WE around on the internet
      they also did this benghazi thing..
      and forced the clintons to run a front organization masquerading as a charity…
      and monica’s kneepads were made in the ussr…
      that’s how these vast right wing conspiracies turn out…

        The Russians also made Hillary bark like a dog in public. The song “Who Let the Dogs Out!” comes to mind.

    • yeah agree! cant believe the daft cow bishops mouthing off
      and throwing the china mess in to boot
      we did have a beginning trade ith Russi and it was looking good
      till we morons followed ussa sanctions n shot our own feet from under us!
      so presently we are allied AS target material
      all our mil budgets tied into crap that wont fly
      and we still have utter fools telling us its all sweet another few decades and billions and we will have an airforce..maybe
      and frankly i do NOT see our allies doing much when shtf, and they are stirring mightily right now.
      Trumps election was brilliant
      hes canned the TTP the TTIP, we might even have hope he cans the F35 too
      and we can then buy planes or build under contract some that WORK.
      heard mohbummer sayning usa has no hope now
      8 yrs of hope for change and you got?
      no hoper! n the change was for the worse.

  5. Mods, I find this post to be offensive, please remove: nn December 15, 2016 at 9:51 pm
    Russians are the new Jews.

    • I humbly disagree. Over history, the Jews have been blamed for a lot of things they didn’t do. Certainly the Soviets and Russians have been blamed for a lot of things they didn’t do, especially during the cold war. I think the metaphor may have been stretched to the breaking point but it is not entirely wrong.

    • I think it is an apt comparison.
      About 80 years ago a socialist party blamed everything they considered bad in the world on a group of people. Today, a socialist party (DNC) is blaming everything they consider bad in the world on a group of people (Russians).

    • CRS, DrPH
      December 15, 2016 at 10:08 pm
      Russians are the new Jews.

      I find your attempt to censor what I read offensive, DrPHuck
      Please remove yourself. Permanently.

    • I don’t find it offensive. I think it’s very accurate. Bit too close to the bone for your liking is it?

    • There is nothing offensive about it. Unless you are one of those people who are paid to be offended about everything.

  6. There is no doubt Leftists are making Russia the fall guy for Hillary’s spectacular failure…
    Leftist cannot admit that Hillary was a fatally flawed, dishonest, whiny, corrupt and incompetent candidate. They also can’t admit that the American people have wholeheartedly rejected Obama’s agenda of, “fundamentally transforming the US.”: (Climate Change hysteria, Obamacare fiasco, ISIS fiasco, open-border policy fiasco, war on cops, war on business, PC insanity, SJW, BLM, the worst economic recovery since 1947, bathroom rights… waaa???, etc.)
    Over the last 8 years, Democrats have lost 1,200 seats in: Federal & State Legislatures, Governorships and Mayorships, and are now the weakest they’ve been since the 1920’s…. Russian didn’t cause that, the democrats did…
    Rather than Leftist admitting their policies failed spectacularly and that they have lost voter confidence, they have to blame it something, and Russia seemed the obvious choice…
    How dare Wikileaks disclose the corruption, immorality, cheating, and dirty tricks of the DNC!!
    The Democrats couldn’t care less they got caught cheating and acting deplorably, but they’re apoplectic about getting caught doing it…. How childish…
    I hope Leftists never address the core problems of their party and play the blame game until they implode to insignificance…

    • As an aside, the last sentence in my comment in this tread should have been “as Perot did to the right”.
      What is more interesting, is the minor little fact that Wikileaks is denying that any state actor was responsible for the Democratic National Committee discosures, in an interview between Assange and Hannity on FNC. There is also a story citing the Daily Mail that an Assange associate said the disclosure was a leak from within the DNC, not a hack from outside.
      Obviously, the people pushing the Russian hack story should know those assertions, and at least address them. However, they probably do not much care.

    • I think you used the word caught one to many times in your penultimate sentence, and that its should read:
      “The Democrats couldn’t care less they got were cheating and acting deplorably, but they’re apoplectic about getting caught doing it…. How childish…”

    • No, they’ll be relevant as far as the eye can see due to demographics. It’s the alinsky left in their stupidity that has managed to keep the right relevant in this country. As we get browner and browner, the dems will soon only need to peel off 1 in 3 white voters (and eventually less than that) to maintain power. That shouldn’t be difficult for them even with these alinsky nut jobs running around…

        I think a lot of immigrants may turn conservative eventually. Many of them are religious conservatives already.
        Immigrants from South American nations tend to be socialists when they arrive in the U.S., and they tend to be poor, so they naturally are attracted to the American socialist party, the Democrats, because they want the state to give them money and the Democrats will do so in return for their votes (Blacks need not apply, because the Dems already have their votes, so can ignore their needs).
        But I think it will be different for second-generation immigrants, who will grow up in a country that is *not* socialist (Thank God for Trump!), and they will see that they like free enterprise and a booming economy and will decide that maybe the conservatives have the right idea for making life better.

    • What Mr Halla said. This was an internal leak, either from someone in the campaign or the DNC (no real difference). Assange stated several times in the interview yesterday that no state actors were involved. He said he was uncomfortable even making that statement and was balancing the need to protect sources with what he saw as a very reckless and dangerous move by those pushing the “Russian hack” meme. It was an inside job.

      • MarkW,
        That’s possible, but IMO Assange has more than one source for much of his material. He definitely has a close relationship with Russia.
        At first Clinton’s staffers thought she was kidding when she asked, “Can’t we drone Assange?”, but soon realized she wasn’t. Killing him wouldn’t end Wikileaks, as her staff must have known. It might discourage its operatives from assuming such a high profile, however.

  7. “Without oil and gas, Russia’s economy would be a shambles…” Substitute Russia with USA – same result.
    However, if bureaucratic shackles are removed from domestic oil and gas production, the export of those products could lower the world-wide price of energy, thus sending Russia’s economy into a tailspin.

    • I do not understand how anyone could want a large country to have a wrecked economy.
      Why do so many hate the Russian people so much that they are rooting for them all to suffer?

      • +100
        They might be nice people.
        Personally I don’t know any Russians.
        But then, I was in the US submarine navy with a TS clearance.
        If I associated with Russians I’d have lost my clearance and job.

      • It’s what the Russians are doing with their economy.
        Invading neighboring countries and the like, that makes people wish that they had less money to cause mischief with.

      • MarkW, who are the Russians invading?
        I know a lot of the world wishes the USA “had less money to cause mischief with.” Let us take the plank out of our own eyes.

      • Crimea, Ukraine, for starters.
        Isn’t it fascinating how the Russiaphiles consider any action that blocks the desires of Russia to be “creating mischief”.

      • Mark W – i work with a lot of expat Russians, most of them Jews who fled the old Soviet Union. Even they defend Russia’s right to the Crimea: the population is mostly Russian. It was our attempts to spirit the Ukrain away from Russian influence that triggered those issues.

      • Most of those “Russians” in the Crimea had been transported there by the Soviets, precisely to give them the “right” to take over the Crimea.
        As to the Ukranians, there desire to be free of Russian domination was always a home grown affair. Sure we gave them verbal support, but that was it.

      • mellyrn
        December 16, 2016 at 8:10 am
        Russia has invaded Georgia, Ukraine and Syria lately. In previous centuries, it invaded in every direction, after throwing off the Tatar Yoke. Besides spreading over Eastern Europe, Siberia and Central Asia, Russia repeatedly attacked Western Europe in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, just as Sweden, France and Germany did it.
        Crimea belonged to the Crimean Tatars, vassals of the Ottoman Turks, who raided Ukraine for slaves. Ukrainian Cossacks fighting variously for themselves, Poland-Lithuania and Russia defeated them, then Russia kicked the Turks out of the Sea of Azov in the 18th century, with the help of the Scottish US navy hero John Paul Jones. Stalin murdered the Crimean Tatars and transported them to Central Asia.

      • MarkW
        December 16, 2016 at 6:44 am
        “It’s what the Russians are doing with their economy.
        For your info, Crimea was Russian and Khruschev, who was from a town near the border of Ukraine gave Crimea to them – it didn’t matter much then because it was still part of the USSR. Russians have a long history of Crimea being a strategic part of their country on the Black Sea. As far as the Donetzk and Lugansk, the breakaway republics in the Dombass region that borders Russia, the residents are ethnic Russians. Referenda in the two new republics won support of over 90% for the breakaway. They took this step when the neo nazis in Ukraine took over the government in Kiev in a coup. The eastern part of Ukraine has a strong fascist history and ‘present’ and the German invasion was welcomed there. Indeed, they assisted with enthusiasm the extermination of Jews and numbered second only to Germans as war criminals engaging in these atrocities.
        Let’s even let the Huffington Post, an organ of the Democrats, inform you of the type of people being supported by Obama:
        Read the whole thing and you will be amazed at what the US government is supporting and funding. Also, are you aware that one of Joe Biden’s sons is on the board of directors of the Ukrainian oil company. They’ve also had three foreign citizens educated in the US (one born in the US) installed as ministers in the cabinet in Kiev who replaced ministers not friendly with the US.

    • I don’t know which “bureaucratic shackles” you are referring to, but as far as I can see neither Texas, nor North Dakota, have onerous regulations. I would probably be a bit stricter, and I’ve been in the oil business for 40 years.
      I got the sense many of you have this illusion that the USA has these supergiant cheap oil reserves. It doesn’t. The USA has a lot of oil in place, what we call resources, but these require a huge effort and mountains of cash to be economic. And this means we need higher oil prices to reverse the current oil production decline rate.

      • The bureaucratic shackles are the decline in leasing on federal lands, for one thing. Texas has very little if any federal lands, so if you operate mostly in Texas, you would not encounter that restriction.

      • Fernando, I do not want to deny that you were 40 years in the oil sector. However, the technical development continues today and the cost of salvaging American shale gas and oil is now much lower than drilling in the deep sea, the Arctic or the North Sea, for example. It is also important to remember that the American oil is directly in front of the consumers. It does not have to be transported by ship or pipeline across continents. This cheapens the whole still further. To the end, the energy is still safe from the production to consumption in America. Heart, what do you want more. And this is what Trump also sees.

    • Something to consider in that analysis Chad is that dramatically falling oil and gas prices wouldn’t just wreck the Russian economy, it would wreck the world economy, including the US. That may provide some insight into Trumps choice for SecState, and may also send re-assurances to oil producing countries all over the world.

    How would you feel as an elector about being briefed by the losing party which still is in power about how to vote?

    • The electors may need a security clearance.
      It sounds like only 20 Republican electors might be in play, and this number is from a Lefty who is pushing the electors to dump Trump, so I wouldn’t put much stock in that number, Even if 20 voted against Trump, that still would leave Trump with enough to win.
      And if he loses in the Electoral College, which I think is *very* unlikely, then the decision goes to the Congress, where Trump will be the one selected.
      The Democrats are accusing Russia of disrupting the American electoral process, but it’s really the Democrats who are the ones doing the disrupting.

    • Also, a Harvard Law professor is offering “free” legal advice to the electoral college. Sheesh, Democrats need to be put in the penalty box for a generation until new, unslimed politicos can be cleansed of this ugly, ugly, amoral dirt that coats them.

      • “Democrats need to be put in the penalty box for a generation”
        I think that is pretty much assured now that Trump has been elected. If Trump is successful in what he does, I can see at least 16 years of Republican control. Very possible.

      • Me thinks the Democrats and their highly partisan supporters are screaming …… “FIRE” ….. in an over-crowded theatre and they need to be prosecuted for it..
        There are Federal Laws that restrict the content of newsprint and/or news media.
        The OP-ED section of a newspaper is the only place for voicing a “political opinion” that doesn’t require a “paid-for-by-whom” claimer. All published political “ads” must include aforesaid claimer.

        Government Regulation of the Media
        Media Doctrines
        The FCC has also established rules for broadcasts concerning political campaigns:
        Excerpted from:

    • If the electoral college doesn’t elect Trump, there will be a civil war and I will be among the first to call for it.
      And as you guys are sure to have noticed, I don’t like Trump.

        • I have never turned on such a tiny dime as I did on Donald J Trump. I did not even listen to him much until he got the nomination and gave his speech. When he spoke about TTP and TTIP (and NAFTA), I knew that he was a genuine interloper, and a good leader. He had no help from the Republicans in making trade deals and bad treaties into a central issue for this election.
          A lot of English speaking countries have “Labour” parties. This is a very unfortunate moniker because the people who make, fast track and sign these treaties and trade deals with foreign powers are stripping this country of its ability to “labor” and profit. TiSA, the trade in services agreement, opens all countries to large foreign multi-nationals who want to run the signatory’s water, telecomunications, mail, wastewater and power generation.
          I even saw one clause that said that the participating country would give up any right to reject agricultural products for bad quality. And Paul Ryan was helping to fast track these deals. Donald J Trump said he will reject them and re-negotiate NAFTA.
          And it may be that even the unions can figure that bomb out.

        • By the way, Wikileaks provided leaked TiSA and TTIP documents.
          We should all thank God and our fellow Americans each and every day that we did not get turned over the H>er. How this relates to Reds? Russia is est. bases in the Med and in Cuba again. But Vladimir Putin has also been watching the destabilization of the ME through Hillary’s arms deals, The destruction of Libya in particular has resulted in the floods of people coming out of Africa. This country was the “cork” on the bottle of Africa. See Libya Ticktock and Wikileaks.
          What Putin says it that “The situation has become very very fluid in the last two years.”


    That’s really funny. We used to joke about something having “more antennas than a Soviet fishing trawler. The joke about naval vessels actually doing something innocent turns the joke on its head.

      • oddly, many russians DO like the way he runs russia;-)
        and I know an expat us navy chap who loves it says how damned great it is to live there and he flatly refuses to go back to USSA(his term that I also use) even to visit his family
        he tells me price of food n rent n power and theyre excellently affordable on his small pension. he had a fall broke bones
        the health system works well and is also affordable , back in murrica hed have been in serious debt IF he got sorted at all. his words! ambulance hospital xrays plaster and home the next day. with a very small outlay around couple hundred us dollars.
        hes laughing at sanctions
        says they now get far Bigger range of fruit veg and other foods than prior.
        he travelled the globe and lived in many nations so I reckon hes pretty good at judging where he is better off;-)

  10. Julian Assange was interviewed today and stated that the Wikileaks emails did not come from Russia or from any state entity. If he is lying, he risks losing all credibility should the evidence contradict him. But liberals don’t need any proof before affixing the blame. They know that Putin is behind it, just as they know that fossil fuels are evil and are behind future catastrophic global warming.
    If it turns out that the email leaks were an inside job, as some are claiming, there will be no apology or retraction for the fake news they created and widely distributed. To them, the ends justify any and all means. And if their fake news manages to convince enough electors to change their vote, they will have accomplished the very thing they accuse the Russians of doing: undermining our election process and overturning the will of the voters.

  11. In my opinion, it is unbelievably irresponsible to construct a narrative that the “Russians” were responsible for Trumps election victory. This kind of rhetoric can lead to war between nations and for what? To elect a failed candidate who needed 3 days of napping between campaign stops? Sad and dangerous for any nation to entertain such foolishness.

      • TerryS, now you should be aware of what exactly is occurring when one is suffering a mild form of “depression”.
        Just talk “out loud” about it, ….. to yourself, ….. to the bedroom ceiling, ….. to a tree …… or to your pet animal ….. and your bout of “depression” will be cured.

  12. Let me get this story straight (sorry I’m Canadian). The liberal media and the Democrats are royally pissed the electorate (the deplorables I presume) chose Donald Trump last month over Hilary Clinton. How Could They, didn’t they know that Hilary was going to save the planet! They (the liberal media and the Democrats, not the deplorables) claim the Russians somehow influenced the election, and that president-elect Trump and some of his proposed cabinet members are just too friendly towards the successor to the USSR (Russia) and its current Czar (Putin).
    Wasn’t it the Liberals way back in 1980 (?) who said that then president Reagan (a Republican also) was a cowboy and his animosity and tough stance towards the USSR could (would?) result in a nuclear war? That is Reagan, they argued, should change his attitude and be more friendly towards the USSR and its premier, Gorbachov. No more Evil Empire and no more demanding that walls be torn down.
    Times change I guess, or maybe liberals are still pissed off that Reagan was one of the Catalysts (along with Maggie Thatcher) that brought down the USSR twenty-six years ago.
    If I’ve got any of this wrong, please feel free to correct me. By the way, it’s bloody cold and snowy up here in the Great White North – I’ve just finished shoveling 20cm. of the white stuff today with a high temperature of -7°C (normal 1°C). I live outside Toronto which has the mildest (usually) winters in Canada with the exception of down Windsor way (across from Detroit) and of course the Left Coast (Vancouver et al.)

    • I agree with your take on US politics as a US political wonk. The only thing I could say about Canadian politics is that Justin Trudeau won in a three (?) way race, and is probably a minority choice, but he is better looking than US airheads of similar politics.

  13. If Putin really wanted to undermine the West, he could expose their most Sacred ideology of CAGW as unfounded. Why has is he played his cards in the way he has? How will he play this card in the future?
    Government’s Climate Representative Inflicted ‘Heavy Damage’ On Britain’s Reputation at Russian Conference
    July 8 Press Conference with Andrei Illarionov (Presidential Economic Adviser)
    On the Results of the Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol Seminar in Moscow
    The British Lysenko?
    Sir David King is Tony Blair’s Chief Scientific advisor and a famous proponent of the notion that climate change is a more serious threat than terrorism. He is used to getting his way, and he usually does in European climate circles. When he doesn’t get his way, he can be petty and petulant, as he was when he recently refused to open a climate conference in Moscow since the participants included too many climate skeptics for his taste. The Russians and Brits, instead of reaching a greater understanding over climate policies, now seem further apart than ever before. Given where British policy has been heading, that may be good news.
    Pachauri’s voodoo science
    The position of Chief Scientist in the UK began to become political under the previous chief scientist Sir David King, and a good example of how this esteemed position has become corrupted by the politics of climate change, is King’s activities in Moscow in 2004. He was invited as a guest of Russia’s Academy of Science to an international conference on climate change. Russia had refused to sign Kyoto and King saw it as part of his job description to twist Putin’s arm and get him to sign.
    First, King demanded that all “climate sceptic” scientists be thrown out of the conference but when the Russians refused King threatened to leave. He then declared that two thirds of the attending scientists were “undesirable” and should not be allowed to speak.
    According to Christopher Booker in The Real Global Warming Disaster, King and his team continually disrupted the conference to the extent that on four occasions the conference “broke up in disorder”. What irked King was that the scientists attending the conference “dared to contradict the received IPCC line”. Incidentally, it was at this very conference that Russian scientists pointed out that the snows of Kilamanjaro were melting because of 19th Century land clearing on the slopes of the mountain and not because of global warming, and indeed had started as early as 1880. This fact continues to be ignored by IPCC climate-change scientists and their political supporters.
    The extraordinary thing was that Sir David King was successful in Moscow. He managed to get Putin to change Russia’s opposition to signing Kyoto by offering Russia, through Tony Blair, “developing country status” when gaining entry to the World Trade Organisation. Putin was also explained the financial benefits Russia would gain by selling carbon credits to other countries.

  14. My view is an odd one.
    I believe that Russia has benefited mightily from the Green movement, at least in Europe, and probably still funds it – it is after all more or less these days what the old CND was. A bunch of well meaning partially educated middle class idiots, who think the world ought to be a better place than it is, and this can be achieved by ‘magic thinking’
    The real point s that renewable energy – the tangible outcome of climate change hysteria, barely works.
    Studies done in Ireland show that half the gains from windmills are lost in the stop start cycling of the gas turbines used to balance it.
    The same is almost certainly true of solar.
    Europe doesn’t have the space or the geography or the population density or the storage, actal or ptential to be ‘all renewable’.
    But it could be around 85% nuclear, or more.
    It has great coal reserves in Poland and East Germany
    It could be self sufficient with fracked gas.
    Isn’t it odd that the one thing that NEEDS gas for efficient balancing is renewable energy, and the three things that compete with (Russian) gas are all on the Green party major hate list?
    Cui Bono?

      • It hasn’t been tested anywhere except in a small scale in Poland yet, so it’s kind of early to dismiss it. The Paris Basin has considerable potential, but fracking has been prohibited in France.

    • Brent
      The EU also gave Russia seven billion Euros for signing the Kyoto Protocol which was, I presume, the cost of implementing it.

  15. “Stefan Molyneux breaks down all of the information supporting the claim that Vladimir Putin’s Russia “hacked” the U.S. Presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. ”

  16. Interesting how Russia has now become more acceptable and worthy partners to those on the Right. Putin is smiling at the “useful idiots” and Reagan must be spinning in his grave.

  17. I admit to be more worried now about the risks of war on massive scale than at any other time in my life. I am old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis with all of its risks, but the behaviour of western governments and its lackey media today is quite worrying to put it mildly. Militarily Russia does not possess the ability to threaten on a meaningful scale apart from using nuclear weapons, they are fully aware of this fact and have legitimate concerns over the accusations being thrown at them by mentally unstable westerners. If anyone is deluded enough to believe life is going to go on following an exchange of nuclear weapons let me correct you, the modern world is structured in such a way that any severe dislocation caused by any nuclear exchange will bring about the deaths of millions and millions, the cause being being starvation. Then again given the attitude of many people today in positions of influence and power perhaps that is what they want. If so they are stark raving bonkers.

    • I think a lot of people are afraid we will be wrecklessly dragged into a conflict with Russia. Europeans also have cause for concern as the EU is moving ahead with its plans to form a European Union army.
      This could be the most tone deaf thing the Democrats have ever done. And that is saying a lot for that bunch.

      • recklessly
        Esp. after John Kerry and John McCain were so trigger-happy regarding Syria. Who were we going to be fighting with and arming?

      • Kerry and McCain should never have been elected to serve in the US Congress because they both have been unfit to serve from the “get-go”.
        And neither one of them has ever been responsible for and/or ever accomplished anything of “value” that has benefitted the citizenry …… during all the years they have served as elected officials.

        • Samuel C Cogar


          Kerry’s entire “life” has been based on leveraging his scant but controversial 92 days in Vietnam (yes, Virginia, only 92 days – which includes several days of training, leave (out of country), and rest and recovery days. He left early to return to Boston to work in his Senator’s re-election campaign.) Once back in Boston’s senate office, he has never worked anywhere else. Though, admittedly, we do not know who paid his salary and expenses while negotiating with the Communist North Vietnamese (and their Russian and Chinese puppet-masters.)
          McCain? A POW of course, but also convicted of corruption as the only republican in the Keating 5 savings and loan scandal. Almost an ace fighter pilot, McCain’s is most famous for destroying 5 US Navy jets in his flying career: 2 while in training, one in a power line crash in Spain, one on the flight deck during the horrible Forestall fire, and his final while over North Vietnam on a combat mission. Note: McCain performed admirably and bravely during the fire to dispose of bombs and remove survivors from the flames, but had a notoriously bad reputation in high school, the Acadmeny, and in every one of his navy commands for fighting, bad temper, bad and reckless judgement, preferring “fun times” and disobeying regulations, and poor study habits and no self-discipline. His father and grandfathers were four-star admirals.

      • RACookPE1978,
        I have detested John McCain ever since they have been touting him as being some sort of a high ka-fluting, colossal “HERO” …… simply because he let his fighter jet get shot out from underneath his arse and had to spend the next 5 years as a POW. And if that wasn’t bad enough, when the controversy about the effectiveness of “Water-boarding” was being discussed, McCain stands up in front of gawd and everyone, re-touting his 5 years as a POW ……. and attesting as a FACT that ….. “torturing POWs to get military intelligence info, don’t work”.
        Well “DUH”, iffen I had been held captive as a POW for 5 years, …….. I sure as hell wouldn’t admit to anyone …… that “torturing” POWs was an effective way to learn military intelligence.
        And John Kerry’s claim of being “wounded in action” and his demanding of being awarded a Purple Heart …….. was based solely on his untrue BS claims, as far as I am concerned.
        Kerry claimed he was on his PT boat in the middle of the river, trying to save a GI who was in the water, when the Viet Cong, on both banks of the river, were shooting hundreds of rounds of ammo at him on his boat while he was trying to save the guy in the water. Kerry claimed he saved the GI who was in the water …… but he suffered a “flesh wound” on his hand and arm from one (1) of those VC bullets.
        Well “DUH”, ….. shur nuff, ….. Kerry was “wounded” by one (1) of those dozens n’ dozens of Viet Cong bullets ……… but Kerry’s patrol boat never suffered a single “hit” from all that shooting.
        “While in Cam Rahn Bay, he (John Kerry) trained on several 24-hour indoctrination missions, and one special skimmer operation with my most senior and trusted Lieutenant. The briefing from some members of that crew the morning after revealed that they had not received any enemy fire, and yet Lt.(jg) Kerry informed me of a wound — he showed me a scratch on his arm and a piece of shrapnel in his hand that appeared to be from one of our own M-79s. It was later reported to me that Lt.(jg) Kerry had fired an M-79, and it had exploded off the adjacent shoreline. I do not recall being advised of any medical treatment, and probably said something like ‘Forget it.’ He later received a Purple Heart for that scratch, and I have no information as to how or whom. — Commander Grant Hibbard, USN (retired)

    • “I admit to be more worried now about the risks of war on massive scale than at any other time in my life”
      Do you really think Hillary et al will STEAL the presidential election ??

    • In other words, we shouldn’t worry when Russia invades neighboring countries, because opposing such moves might lead to a nuclear war.

      Some Chinese military thinktanks have been making noises about the possibility of having a successful nuclear war. Military thinktanks do all sorts of scenarios, but this particular scenario is capturing the attention of some of these groups lately.
      I suppose a Chinese dictator might think that he and his loyal followers could survive even a large-scale nuclear retaliation, and could recover, while thinking the U.S. and Western Europe would not be able to recover as well and would be vulnerable after expending their nuclear weapons.
      Yeah, I know it’s crazy, but we live in a crazy world.
      Our job is to assure any potential attacker that they themselves, personally, will never survive an attack on us. That they can’t dig a hole deep enough to escape justice. That will deter the rational ones.

      • Ya’ll need to keep in mind that ……… iffen a nuclear “war” erupts between the US and Russia ……. that both North Korea and China will ALSO be in the “cross-hairs” of the nuclear missiles being launched by both the Russians and Americans.
        When it comes to “knock down/drag out” barroom brawls, …… the last man “standing” is always the “winner”, …… ya know.

  18. If I were a bored teenager in any country in the world who has to go to stupid college rather than sit in my bedroom and prove myself to be cleverer than everyone, as master of the dark art of hacking, I would find the revelation that H Clinton has a private server as being gods gift of a new target for my skills.
    The Brits tend to be rather good at getting into nasa and the pentagon, maybe we are actually the new Russians .

  19. Russia is not the enemy . The Democrats are looking to blame anyone they can for their arrogant election screw up . First it was the race card fanning flames of civil unrest , then it was the disastrous Hail Mary recounts , now it’s the Russian conspiracy . If anything Russia did well with a weak Obama government with so many self enrichers getting a free hand at stealing tax payer money .
    Trump will drain the swamp and the critters are not happy but Russia has got enough issues of far more importance than the virtual never ending USA election cycle .
    The top dogs of the Democrats have such massive egos they can’t accept responsibility for blowing an election and all that entails . The other obvious pattern of the Democrat string pullers is they create distractions a plenty when they have lots to hide .

    • Russia may not be the enemy, but they aren’t our friends either. They have been making it a habit to invade our friends, and that is not a good thing.

      • Getta clue, MarkW, …… the US has no friends, ….. not even Saudi Arabia.
        After WWII, the US has stuck its “nose” in most every country’s business, demanding that it do what the US wants it to do. Inclusively, to include Cuba, Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.
        And if that country refuses, the US will support a coup to overthrow said government leaders …… or ….. send in assassins to kill the government leader ……… or ….. launch a military invasion to depose and/or kill said government leaders.
        “DUH”, don’t you be fergettin that the US did every thing imaginable to prevent the post-WWII Jewish refugees from western Europe, Germany and eastern Europe from migrating to another country …… and the US also tried their damnest to prevent those same Jewish refugees from creating the State of Israel in the unclaimed desert area denoted as Palestine on Middle East maps.

  20. The American citizens had no right to know that Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the nomination.
    Thats interfering in the old American way of elections.

  21. So, am I to conclude that there will not be a President Trump , no EPA reorganisation but instead a renewed and more vigorous attack on any kind of climate scepticism?


    I do not understand why this very important point is not appreciated by our politicians. It is not difficult since anyone who owns a car knows that fuel economy is worse in urban driving with start/stop conditions, than it is when proceeding at a steady speed on the freeway/motorway.
    Renewables are a fail since they fail to achieve their primary objective. They do not result in the meaningful reduction of CO2. Germany that has gone hell for leather on renewables this millennium has not seen any reduction in CO2 emissions these past 15 years. By contrast the USA which has switched from coal to gas, has seen significant reductions in CO2.
    If renewables do not result in the meaningful reduction of CO2 then they have no point whatsoever since the energy they produce is more expensive, unreliable and no despatchable. They are a fail on the economic case and energy security front so why do our politicians force through such a stupid policy. I guess we all know the answer. Hopefully Trump will drain the swamp and we will see a very big pull back from these stupid policies.

    • The Texas grid does use some wind, and it couples well with turbines. It just takes good engineering. Nowadays I live in Spain, and they have a pretty decent wind and solar kit. They back it up with hydro. The price i pay for electricity is about 30 % higher than in Texas.

      • Problem is you need a lot of hydro to store energy.
        Consider running a single 2Kw household electric heater for a day. 2Kw x 86400 seconds in a day = 172.8 megajoules.
        How much pumped water do you need to store 172.8 mega joules?
        Assume a 100m drop.
        Energy = Force x Distance = Acceleration x Mass x Distance
        172.8Mj = 9.8ms^-2 x mass x 100m
        mass = 172.8Mj / (9.8ms^-2 x 100m) = 176,326Kg of water – 176 tonnes of water.
        You need 176 tonnes of water to drop 100m to power a single household electric heater for a day.
        This is why hydro schemes are vast, and why hydro can only supply a small fraction of the total energy storage capacity required to have a hope of stabilising intermittent electricity sources.

      • It couples well with turbines, but it will never couple efficiently. Constantly turning the turbines on and off kills any hope of energy efficiency.

  23. there is another problem with gas turbines
    standard gas turbines have a lower efficiency though stop and go, and also a higher wear and tear.
    but even with asteady load they are way less efficient than modern dual cycle gas turbines, which cannot run in a stop and go mode.
    So leaving away wind/solar power and just converting to dual cyyle gas turbines would cause less overall CO2 emissions plus lower electricity costs.
    Combining these dual cycle gas turbines with communal heating by the left over heat will give an efficiency of more than 90%.
    So there is no need of any renewable energies, except for remote areas and special cases,

    • Assuming that you are referring to “steam heat”, ……. just how much “communal heating” (# of homes) do you figure the “left-over” heat from one (1) gas turbines will provide?

  24. Interesting that the conservative minded posters here seem to accept, by and large, that hacking did take place and emails were released via Wikileaks. Are they aware that this is not official Trump policy which states that it is all nonsense?

    • Only in your warped mind is it not official Trump policy to recognize as fact that,
      a) Democrat emails were “hacked”
      ii) then “leaked” to WikiLeaks,
      iii) then “released” for public consumption.
      Nobody disputes those self-evident facts, not anywhere.
      Trump even said, “I love Wikileaks” at one of the debates. Skepticism, disbelief, mockery, etc, is generally directed at the evidence-free accusation that Russia is behind it all.
      I suppose quoting that “official policy” you alluded to would have negated the opportunity to beat up your silly little strawman.

    • It never ceases to amaze me how leftists assume that everyone else is required to believe only what our leaders tell us to believe.
      I guess it’s just another example of projection.

    • Trump did not say that Hillary Clinton’s and the DNC’s e-mail’s were NOT hacked. He stated that the belief that Russia intervened to help him is absurd.
      The Democrats’ argument seems to be that the Russians hacked Clinton’s and the DNC’s e-mails due to carelessness or iineptitude on the part of Clinton and the DNC, therefore the electors should vote for Clinton instead of Trump.

  25. Australian governments, under ALP & Liberal parties, gave:
    * $88 million to the Clinton Foundation, and,
    * $450 million to the Clinton-affiliated “Global Partnership for Education”
    over the past ~ 10 years.
    Feb 2016:
    Labor volunteers have been caught on hidden cameras bragging about using Australian taxpayer funds to work on a US presidential campaign and interfering with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaign signs.
    In a video posted online by the conservative undercover campaign group Project Veritas Action, four Australians are recorded saying they received taxpayer funds for flights, accommodation and daily expenses while organising for Democratic senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, a possible breach of US election law.
    Why is my nation not in the shaming spotlight for having tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to interfere with your election outcome?

    • You nation is not in the ‘shaming spotlight’ because the American government has been interfering in virtually every ‘free’ nations electoral process for decades trying to do exactly what your government did, shape an election outcome to favor our interests. We do what the Russians have done, we’re just not as clumsy as they are.

  26. With the literally stunning news (to me at least) that the Obama Admin knew about the Russian efforts & intentions as far back as summer 2015 and DID NOTHING, SAID NOTHING in all that time I think the current hyperventilation about this issue should be focused on the outgoing admin as to why they essentially ignored evidence of a hostile power attempting to interfere/influence an American election.
    Now the American AG has stated that there IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THERE WAS ANY ‘HACKING’ OF ANY VOTING MACHINES and that this information was communicated to all 50 State governments. I wonder why she didn’t so state after Jill Stein started her ludicrous attempt to destroy the integrity of the election.

  27. On a scale of “from Stalin to Gorbachev”, Putin seems to fit right in the middle of your average Soviet-style dictator, all of whom the Leftists adored during the Cold War. Even Stalin was admired, in spite of having killed up to 25 million kulaks (freed serfs).
    So what is it they find offensive about Putin? His admiration of free-market economics? Perhaps, but I think EW is spot on. It’s all about the election.
    But what is the motive for blaming recent cyber attacks on the Democrats? It’s almost certainly not Putin. If he really hacked Hillary’s servers then he would own tons of emails which he could use to black-mail and make Hillary do his bidding.
    The New York Times published some of the details of these hacks a few days ago, claiming a Russian gang, which the FBI referred to as the “Dukes”, was responsible for phishing John Podesta’s email password, and other hacks. Apparently Obama and the Democrats knew all about these attacks in 2015, but did nothing at the time stop or publicize the attacks. (That is sufficient proof to me that they really didn’t know who was behind these attacks)
    But that moniker (“Dukes”) actually is a reference to Duqu, a powerful exploit uncovered in 2011 by Kaspersky Lab in Moscow, bearing resemblance to Stuxnet (which was likely crafted by Israel/UK/US). In fact, back in 2015, the Duqu gang attacked the Kaspersky Lab itself, with a powerful new toolkit which Kaspersky called Duqu 2.0. It was a very sophisticated and stealthy tool which only a nation-state could have engineered. But it is possible that other groups have acquired this tool and are using it too.
    So, assuming for the sake of argument that the attacks were indeed an attempt to influence the US elections, it is clear that Israel would have more to gain (vis-a-vis Iran deals etc) by having Trump in the White House.
    I’m not saying that is a bad thing. 😐

  28. The attempt by disgruntled lefties to hijack the Electoral college is the real news. The news of course is largely controlled by people who support deliberately lying. The Climate change consensus is sustained by deliberate deception. So it is no surprise to see an overlap of interests and methods

  29. The group who will profit most from returning to coal fired power is humanity.
    I visited Russia in 2006 and again this year.
    Two thins have stood out:
    1. The improvement in living standards and happiness of the people is incredible.
    2. The vast majority of people adore and respect Putin.
    Why is so horrible to think of Russia and the US strengthening ties?
    The same thinkers who now deride Russia are those who saw the Soviet Union as the model to which we should all have aspired thirty years ago.

    • “Why is so horrible to think of Russia and the US strengthening ties?”
      It’s not horrible to me. I think the American people and the Russian people get along just fine when given the chance. We weren’t doing badly together not so long ago, before Putin took over.
      Putin is the problem. If Putin wanted to get along, he could get along with us. We are not looking for a confrontation, but we are not going to sit still if Putin pushes things too far, and he is getting close to doing that now for some crazy reason.
      So the key is in Putin’s hands. I don’t know if he will be reasonable in the future with a new approach, but it won’t hurt to find out. Like the man said: “Talk, talk, is better than war, war.”
      Being reasonable on our part doesn’t require us to give up our principles and interests. At the same time, the U.S. should build up its military forces to the point where no rational person would ever think of attacking us. We want to talk to dictators from a position of strength. They understand strength and respect it, however grudgingly.

      • Putin wants to reestablish a Russian empire that exists mostly in Russian mythology.
        It isn’t in our interests to let him do that. Especially since the only way to that is to invade countries that are friendly towards us.

      • TA and Mark W,
        You miss a very important point.
        The Russians respect and like their LEADER.
        The people in the USA do not respect their current leader nor his replacement (yet).
        It does not matter what the Yanks think of Putin, nor what the Ruskies think of Oh Bummer.
        If you can not see the demise of the USA under Oh Bummer then you need a new seeing-eye dog. During this period, Russia has bloomed.

      • Putin’s whole schtick is Russian nationalism, combined with social conservatism. It’s why he remains popular despite a sick economy, foreign adventures and increasing authoritarianism, to include murdering dissidents.
        Also, his interventions have been motivated by economic concerns, mainly regarding the energy industry and arms sales, as well as traditional Russian imperialism.
        However, his popularity is falling. It’s still probably above 60%, though, a level at which few US presidents have been able stay for long.

      • “Putin wants to reestablish a Russian empire that exists mostly in Russian mythology.”
        That’s what a lot of people say. But I have to question whether Putin is serious about creating a new Russian empire. I just don’t see how a rational person would think he could start off conquering his neighbors without getting attacked himself. Does Putin think he and his nation have that much ability?
        My thinking is if Putin is rational, he is mainly bluffing and is seeking only minimal gains, like Crimea, and if he is not rational then there is big trouble ahead for everyone.
        Putin is not acting rationally now with regard to his confrontational stance towards the U.S. He claims his actions are only in reaction to U.S. moves, but that is not true, and can be seen by anyone who cares to look. It is Putin who is the one raising the stakes, and the U.S. and Europe are reacting.
        What’s the end game, Mr. Putin?

  30. I guess that all readers here; whether left, right or in the middle realise that the media totally distorts the message.
    When you become a climate sceptic you realise how the media conditions people to accept ‘the consensus’.
    How often to climate sceptics get fair airtime?
    Same with the Trump candidacy, any mud that could be thrown was fired Trumps way while Clinton was promoted as the only rational choice for electors.
    The left who suffered the 1950 McCarthy witchhunt now join in the demonisation of Russia and Putin, not realising its the flip side of the coin.
    The establishment media tolerates only a small spectrum of opinions, move outside of these narrow confines and you will be described as irrational,racist ,populist, mad, misogynist, dangerous,lunatic,islamophobic and so on.
    So be good sceptics listen to all sides of each debate, keep an open mind and evaluate the evidence to reach rational conclusions.

      • It wasn’t. It became wrong over the past 60 years of left wing propaganda pushed by the progressives in tne media and Hollywood. This is a street fight, not the Marquise de Queensbury rules boxing match many of the posters on here and guys like John McCain and GW Bush in the republican party think it is. Toughest and nastiest guy wins. Freedom is at stake. Bunch of lickspittles.

    • Be skeptical of CAGW and of Leftwing politics and the Leftwing News Media. With regard to the Leftwing News Media, you would be better off assuming they are lying to you, than taking their words at face value. You will be correct most of the time.
      And I guess I really should not call it lying in many cases. The Leftwing News Media has its share of True Believers and they hear the latest Leftwing meme and believe it wholeheartedly, and pass it on as the truth because they believe it’s the truth.
      So you can’t really call those kinds of people liars. They are dupes. They are the easily influenced. They are part of the Leftwing News Media.
      Some Leftwing reporters deliberately lie, and some are True Believers, and I have watched them for decades and can’t really tell you which is which, when I watch these reporters.
      I used to think they were all deliberate liars, but I’m leaning more to the idea that most of them are True Believers. But, it’s impossible to tell without being a mindreader. Just have to guess. Either way, they don’t get you the truth, they get you the latest Leftist political narrative, so be skeptical of everything they say.

  31. If you notice, we’re not beating the Russians down for doing hacking because I assume we are doing the same to them…. and everyone else. I’m sure all technically advanced countries do this. So anyway, shame on Hillary who should know this for being so careless knowing someone like her would be a target.

  32. 25 years ago, Mothra emerged from its cocoon with the felling of the Berlin Wall. Now stronger and mightier than ever before, Russia is conquering the world!
    What the chicken littles do not understand is that nature abhors a vacuum. Obama created a power vacuum. Russia merely stepped into it.

  33. Anyone hear Obarmy’s “take” on it on NPR this morning. It was painful to listen to, with all of the uhs, ahs, and pauses, but the upshot was, that it distracted everyone, from the news media on down to the voters, such that we didn’t concentrate on the real issues – the stark differences between Hillary and Trump, which COULD have benefited Trump. Yep, they are trying to weasel out of this election any way they can. It’s disgusting.

  34. The threat to Russia’s oil income can hardly come from global warmist policies that try to keep oil in the ground. That merely rewards Russia by driving up prices. And Warmist’s attempt to reduce carbon emissions takes the form of removing fossil fuel power plants. And those plants don’t use oil. Oil hasn’t been used to make any significant amount of electricity for many years. I remember a Dem Senator Max Baucus once dedicating a wind farm and saying “Take that you Arab oil barrons”
    unaware that a windmill poses zero threat to oil producers. Baucus was head of a Senate energy committee!!!!! What Russia is big on these days is building and selling nuclear power plants – their nuclear designs nowadays (unlike back in Chernobyl days of yore) lead the world. Especially in fast neutron reactors. They sell plants throughout the world – China, the Middle East, everywhere. And they can build them substantially cheaper than Westinghouse can. They also finance the plants and often contract to fuel and/or run the plants themselves. Russia has managed to reduce carbon emissions many times over any reductions achieved by U.S. states (excepting South Carolina and Georgia). All this despite Putin’s disregard of any dangers from global warming.

    Hate to say it, but I agree. This all seems like a last ditch ploy to prevent DJT from becoming President. Don’t these folks understand the blowback on this?

  36. Funny how quickly Russia went from a punchline in a “serious” Presidential debate, to being Dr. Evil, all in about four years.
    Oh well, St. Obama is now drawing a red line against Russia. Like the red line in Syria, it is awesome in its intention.

    • Caligula –
      I think the U.S. will soon be (rightfully) accused of @$$-@SS-inating Putin as he will die from laughing at the Dims.
      I have been looking at recent pictures of Putin to see if he has taped-up ribs. He must have at the very least split his sides laughing by now.

      • Yes, funny how a phone call to Taiwan is the first step towards ticking off a nuclear war with China, but basically insulting Russia is just good ol’ hardball politics.

      I hope this red line is the same as the Syrian red line: Obama does nothing.
      Obama is now talking tough on hacking, but what kind of retaliation does he think he can do that won’t harm us, too? Here’s a thought: How about securing American computers (white lists, for one), and doing other things like disconnecting essential infrastructure from the internet, so we don’t have a major problem with hackers in the future? No retaliation requried.

  37. Trumps facebook page today 16/12:
    Donald J. Trump
    2 hrs ·

    • Its odd that Hillary cheating on Bernie Sanders is not thought to be undermining American Democracy.
      Yet exposing this fact is !

      • The radical Leftwing mindset is very odd. They live in Bizzarro World where everything is the opposite of what it is in the real world.

  38. Putin walks away from “Climate Change”, Trump walks away from “Climate Change”–sounds like a win/win to me.
    (Besides, it really, really destroys the Alt-Left’s favorite, unsubstantiated, pseudo-religious meme!)

  39. Default
    @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.5in }
    p { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
    a:link { so-language: zxx }
    In a class on the lawful use of deadly
    force the instructor stated that in most criminal trials, the defense
    is either "SODDI" (Some Other Dude Did It) or "TODDI"
    (That Other Dude Did
    It). The Democrats are putting up a series of "TODDI"
    claims to keep the discussion away from points they can’t win, such
    Hillary Clinton was a deeply
    flawed candidate: corrupt, mendacious, lacking significant
    accomplishments, and having serious health issues.
    The Clinton campaign colluded in
    secret with the DNC to favor her candidacy over Sanders, but the
    voters found out.
    The Clinton campaign colluded in
    secret with journalists in the MSM to favor her candidacy over both
    Sanders and Trump, but the voters found out.
    The Clinton campaign (and almost
    all polls) missed the extent of Trump support in key swing states
    and devoted little or no effort to shoring up support there.
    After the 2000 election results in
    Florida showed Bush won, the Democrats made a number of “TODDI”
    claims to move the decision away from the election itself and into
    the courts where they had a better chance:
    The “infamous butterfly
    ballot” confused Gore voters into accidentally voting for
    There was an “undercount”
    because of faulty ballot readers.
    Black and Hispanic voters were
    prevented from getting to the polls.
    Curiously, these problems only took
    place in three populous counties all run by Democrat elected
    officials. The implication which seemed to escape reporters at the
    time was that if Republicans had been in charge of these counties,
    Gore would have won. The claims were trumpeted by the MSM with no
    credible evidence for any of them (sound familiar?)
    These pretexts were sufficient to get
    the issue reviewed by the Florida courts, resulting in a series of
    decisions which do the Florida Supreme Court justices no credit
    whatsoever and finally a reversal by the US Supreme Court.
    The current TODDI excuse for 2000 is
    that the US Supreme Court “gave” the election to Bush.
    Nonsense, SCOTUS stopped the Florida Supreme Court from continuing
    their efforts to give the election to Gore.
    Here we are in 2016 and the Democrats
    are just singing a new verses to the same TODDI song.
    The voters were misled by “fake
    The US is even more racist than
    anyone realized.
    Russian hackers directed by
    Putin interfered in the US election.
    It’s the fault of the Electoral
    College (actually, this verse is recycled from 2000, almost like
    it’s becoming the refrain)
    All of this TODDI smokescreen simply
    avoids Democrats facing the obvious truth: they ran a horrible
    candidate who in turn ran a lackluster and ineffective campaign.
    This is not new; after his 1980 loss President Carter remarked “We
    needed a lot more volunteers in 1980!” P. J. O’Rourke’s
    riposte was “Pal, what you needed was votes.”
    Jill Stein’s phony recount effort is
    going nowhere; Trump’s victory margins in Pennsylvania, Michigan and
    Wisconsin are much higher than Bush’s 2000 margin in Florida;
    there is no chance a recount will change those results.
    Democrats should be cursing Stein for splitting the vote, but instead
    they treat her as if she is performing a valuable
    public service
    . I believe the real goal was to delay
    certification in those states so Trump would not have the necessary
    270 Electoral votes on Dec 19. In any case, that has failed; the
    Electors will meet three days hence with certified results from all
    So now the effort has turned to
    “flipping” at least 37 Republican Electors so Trump can’t
    get the required 270 votes. Charlie Sheen and other celebrities have
    produced a video urging “patriotic” Republican electors
    to violate their pledges to vote for Trump. I predict that will fail
    as well. I also predict Democrats and their allies in the media will
    continue to focus on every possible excuse for losing except
    the only one that really made a difference: they chose a poor
    candidate with no core message voters really cared about.
    Let’s go through the new TODDI song,
    one verse at a time:
    news”). Where have they been? Elections are almost nothing
    but fake news! Every campaign tries to tilt news coverage to
    favor their candidate by staging events for the sole purpose of
    getting press. Poll results are completely “fake news”;
    actual vote results are real news. In the case of long-term
    politicians, it is always the case that what they are saying so
    earnestly this election contradicts one or more things they said
    previously. Voters have always been bombarded with conflicting
    claims, usually made with flimsy supporting evidence. What
    Democrats are upset about is that “their fake news was better
    our fake news” (h/t Bob Hope).
    (US is
    racist). As others have pointed out, in key swing states Trump
    carried counties which had previously gone for Obama in 2008 and
    2012. Somehow 8 years of the Obama administration have turned
    previously progressive voters into racists? The term “racist&rdqu
    has become a handy substitute so liberals don’t have to actually
    debate their policies and records – just call anyone who
    disagrees a “racist” and they will run away. It has
    worked far too well for far too long; I for one devoutly hope this
    election signals its demise.
    hackers). So far, there is zero evidence reported vote totals were
    compromised, but keep in mind that this is only possible with
    electronic voting systems which Democrats insisted we had to
    adopt fix the “undercount” problems with physical
    ballots. The traditional way to steal elections is done at the
    local level and involves knowing the registration rolls and the
    actual voters in each precinct. Precinct captains and block
    captains, all patronage workers, know every voter, who needs a ride
    to the polls, or a little “walking around money”, and
    who is registered to vote but never does or does not plan to this
    year. When the call comes in to “find” some more
    votes, a bunch a loyalists will each be given one of these names (or
    two, or three – sometimes it’s really blatant) and then taken
    to the polling place where they pose as registered voters and turn
    in the desired ballot. It’s the original form of identity theft and
    what kept all the big city political machines in power for so long.
    Who do you suppose resists attempts to audit the registration lists
    and purge ineligible voters? Democrats. Who opposes requirements
    for voters to show photo ID? Democrats. Who opposes attempts to
    keep illegal aliens form voting? Democrats. Coincidence? I think
    The other charge is Russian hackers were behind the Podesta email
    leaks – certainly possible but only speculation and flimsy
    evidence offered so far. But even if true, the charge of
    “interfering” comes down to revealing to the public what
    the Clinton campaign was actually doing in secret and lying about.
    If you believe integrity in government is important, then we
    are better off not having a dishonest person in office. That the
    Russians might believe they also are better off is irrelevant.
    Electoral College). Granted this is a weird provision, little
    understood in the US and copied nowhere else that I know of. But in
    both its original form and the current one, it preserves the concept
    of a union of sovereign
    states. Originally, Electors were appointed by the State
    legislatures (no direct popular vote at all). As amended, they are
    awarded based on popular vote in each state. Some states are
    “winner take all”; others award Electors proportionally.
    In fact, there are variations beyond that. Just as the World
    Series is won by the team which wins the majority of the games and
    not the team which gets the most total runs, the US Presidential
    election goes to the one who gets a majority of Electors and not the
    one who wins the popular vote.
    You can argue
    which system is more “fair”, but the rules were known to
    all campaigns at the outset, and US Presidential campaigns are
    designed around the reality of the Electoral College. If it
    didn’t exist, campaigns would be run differently.
    When all the dust has settled, I’m
    confident Trump will be sworn in and Democrats will nurse their
    victimhood by clinging to one or more of these excuses. They will
    want to get rid of the Electoral College, clamp down on “fake
    news” and candidates who “appeal to hate”, and any
    number of other excuses to avoid confronting the truth: they ran a
    terrible candidate who did a poor job of communicating an unappealing
    platform. You can’t expect to win the Oscar with a lousy cast
    performing a lousy script. Even Hollywood actors should understand

    • Hmm, I guess WordPress doesn’t like LibreOffice HTML output. Sorry for the formatting mess. What does one use to maintain readable format in comments other than HTML-by-hand?

      • WordPress only accepts a subset of HTML. There’s a list somewhere of which tags are accepted, but I don’t know where.

    • The SC decision that stopped the re-count was 7-2.
      The 5-4 decision that most leftists keep repeating was on whether there was sufficient time left to order a statewide re-count using the new rules that the Gore camp was demanding.
      (Note, there was no basis in Florida law for using the rules that Gore was proposing.)

    • The electoral college winner only needs to win a majority of the votes cast.
      If the PA delegation does not cast their votes, the number of votes needed to win will be less than 270.

    • There is evidence that in certain heavily Democratic districts around Detroit, that the number of votes reported on election night exceeded the number of ballots found in the ballot boxes.
      This wasn’t enough to swing any elections, Trump won the state anyway, and those congressional districts were won by the Democrats by something like 80% of the vote.
      However such shenanigans are one of the big reasons why I do not and never will support a popular vote for president.

      • I hope that voter ID will be a priority of the Trump Administration. I favor states’ rights, but in federal elections, national laws are clearly needed to end the rampant election fraud which perpetuates Democrat misrule.

        • @Chimp – Voter ID is a non-starter. I am sure very voter in California had the proper ID. The problem is a million or so were not LEGAL voters.
          The government can tell you every place you have been in the past 5 years, sometimes with pictures. But conveniently, they cannot tell if you are a citizen or not.

  40. Prior to the 2000 election, polls made it look like Bush might win the popular count but lose the electoral college.
    When the Gore campaign manager was asked about this, he declared that had the election been a popular vote election, both campaigns would have run vastly different campaigns. Which made the whole question moot.

  41. If there was an effort to work with Russia to improve the lives of their citizens their desire to eat someone else’s lunch would wain . Democrats lost get over it . You get another crack at it in 4 years but grow up .
    The Russians didn’t create the Clinton Foundation , delete 30,000 E mails , faint , call people Deplorable,
    campaign with Al Gore , marry Bill , take previous loyal Democrats for granted , not show up in States,
    threaten coal workers and the entire fossil fuel industry ETC ETC .

  42. WikiLeaks claims that they got the emails from an “insider”, while intelligence sources believe they came from the Russians.
    What if they are both right ?? Is there a Russian mole in the DNC ??

    • Unless you can give names of these “intelligence sources,” they are so much fiction. The Russian meme has been repudiated by the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI, to name several public sources. This, my friends, is Fake News.

  43. What’s weirder is the report that a Chinese warship sailed up and stole a underwater vehicle from a US research vessel in international waters of South China Sea.

    • Obama is asking the Chinese to return it. They probably will after they reverse engineer it.
      The Chinese don’t even have to hack us anymore to get our technology, we now deliver it to them.
      China’s leaders have no respect for the current U.S. leaders, so they snatch our drone, plus they get to show Trump how tough they are.
      We are going to have quite a time with China in the future, but at least we have a leader now who can possibly deal with it. Obama certainly could not. Nor could anyone else on the Left. Bullies scare them.

    Nonsense. Economies thrive on cheap energy.
    Surely the economy of large country like Russia is not dependent on oil exports.

  45. Bloomberg is not a prestigious news organization. It is the power tool of Michael Bloomberg as The Washington Post is of my boss. These are people who thought “Citizen Kane” was a do it yourself youtube video.
    If these Russians were the old Red ones we would get sermons on getting along with them as we once did. I don’t know about others here but I am waiting expectantly for the mother of all battles on US climate policy. I cannot think of another issue where the lines are so sharply drawn or trenches so deep. We are going over the top at their main power.

    • Obamacare must also be a strategic objective.
      Confirmation hearings will provide theatrical heat but little light. In the end, at least most of Trump’s skeptical nominees will be confirmed, IMO.

      I think it will be a huge battle. Trump will be facing off with the Elites of the entire world. This is an issue where the Left/Greens feel like they have the moral highground because they care so much for the planet, and have the science on their side because they have a Hockeystick chart, and 97 percent of scientists support them. So they are going to be very energized over the CAGW issue.
      The Skeptical side better have all their ducks in a row, because they are going to be challenged.
      The “97 percent” meme has to be debunked.
      The “hotter and hotter” meme has to be debunked.
      The “Hockeystick chart” has to be debunked, and a real chart provided.
      That will be a good start.

  46. The newspaper says:
    This is how their minds work. They see cheaper energy as only benefitting corporations rather than lifting the standard of living of everyone especially the poorest who spend disproportionately on energy!
    How can these people have got an education without understanding even the simplest aspects of how the world works? The degree to which their virtue signally impairs even the simplest brain functions is shocking.

  47. Eric writes: “Renewables need gas turbine backup, backup turbines which likely burn more gas cycling up and down to try to stabilise the grid, than they would if they burned steadily, supplying the full base load.”
    What IDIOCY. Yes, renewables do require a larger reserve. Every MWh of power a wind turbine produces does not reduce CO2 emissions by as much as expected for not burning the fossil fuel needed to produce 1 MWh of electricity. Yes, a lot of fuel is used to quickly ramp up electricity production when needed. However, their is NO way that renewables require burning more natural gas. Plant operators turn down or turn off their plants because it is cheaper – they use less fuel – than leaving them running steadily. Cycling plants up and down causes more wear and tear, but they still cycle because it is cheaper. Plant operators cycled their plants long before renewables appeared on the scene because it saved fuel and money.
    “Old style cold war paranoia” died in 1991, with the break-up of the USSR. Unfortunately Russia retained thousands of nuclear warheads. Now we are faced with a Russian leader who says the breakup of the Russian Empire at the end of the Cold War was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Putin is clearly intent on re-uniting all Russian-speaking people and former vassal states, despite a treaty signed by Russia, the UK and the US guaranteeing Ukrainian territorial integrity in return for dismantling nuclear weapons left on Ukrainian territory after the breakup of the USSR. (Anyone with a knowledge of history might recognize a parallel with Hilter’s objectives between WWI and WWI.) Fortunately, the financial stability of Russia depends on exports of fossil fuel. Perhaps the Trump administration can find a way to cooperate with Russia, but the two previous administrations tried very hard and failed.
    It isn’t obvious to me why “new style cold war paranoia” should cause a significant number of Republican electors to turn against Trump. The Russians appear to have merely provided documentary evidence about the activities of Trump’s opponents. People voted for Trump based on what they knew, and very little of that came from Russian hacking. (False “news stories” from Eric’s fellow bloggers may have been more important.) However, our founders were deeply afraid of populism and they wanted the Electoral College to use its judgment. Electors using their judgment is no more cheating than their electing a President who didn’t win the popular vote. (A shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio would have elected Kerry – the loser in the popular vote – in 2004.) If we don’t like these possibilities, we’ll need to change the system.

  48. The election result has completely unhinged the left in the US. Just like 911 for conspiracy nitwits, the loss to Trump was just so incredible it couldn’t possibly be true. There must be some other explanation: The RFussians.
    Danger is, this madcap thinking could severly damage the planet, as the hysterical contagen spreads.

  49. “Without oil and gas, Russia’s economy would be a shambles”
    Without oil and gas, any economy would be a shambles, including the US economy. The only reason the US has been able to build token positions in wind and solar energy is because of the huge economic surpluses it garners from its fossil fuel economy.

  50. Look at the bright side – for the first time in 90 years, Democrats are actually saying that Russia is an enemy of the US.

  51. What did anyone expect after Obama pulled up his skirt, and told him, (on a hot mike) that his virtue would be cheap after he was re-elected.

  52. Clinton was for Putin before she was against him. When it enriched the ill-gotten coffers of the Clinton Crime Family Foundation, she was happy to sell US uranium to Russia.
    Same as she was for supposed port security when it benefited her, but now dreams of open borders.

  53. Regarding Putin: Unleashing America’s energy economy will bankrupt Russia, who is already in a demographic death spiral. Trump is pulling an anti-Nixon – getting closer to the lesser threat (Russia vice China) in order to counter-balance the now greater threat (China vice Russia).

    • Correct. This is why Putin has colluded with Saudi Arabia to keep prices low, in hopes of driving North Dakota drillers and pumpers out of business. This policy is counter-intuitive, since both Russia and Gulf producers would so benefit from higher prices. Their common enemy is the US and its new fields.

  54. The GRU did do active measures to try influence the election. They wanted a NATO-sceptic to win. This is simple stuff. Who benefits, who loses. Now to be fair, Clinton was a terrible candidate. So, they did not have to try hard.

  55. Some celebrities didn’t get the memo . It isn’t popular vote that wins for obvious reasons and despite the hurt feelings with Hail Mary recounts Trump still won . What would the Democrat reaction be if it was the other way around ? The reason the Democrats are such sore losers is because they have come face to face with the fact their hijacked party is broken . They even went so far as to turn against and take for granted their rust belt pals . They gave it away just like the $billions wasted on the oversold global warming scam.

  56. The ecstasy of anti-Russian racism into which the walking-dead Washington establishment is falling, is as good a reason as any of why the USA needs a hefty dose of its own medicine – regime change.

  57. The whole premise is a crock but Barry loves to stick his oar in where it was not wanted, he overtly and preposterously rammed his nose into the crowd debating the Brexit referendum and told us in no uncertain tones to vote to stay in the slave Empire of Brussels -“or else”!
    So FO to Barry! Alack, you’ll not be missed on this side of the pond and as for the witch hunt over what Putin did shlock horror, it’s – utter paranoia from a spook service which is out of synch – I don’t know it they’ve fekkin noticed BUT – Russia ain’t the enemy, whereas Clinton’s buddies in the US liberal establishment – are the enemies of western Christendom.

  58. Now Putin has engineered Brexit!

    Notice the speech in Parliament about the extent of an ongoing Russian “cyberwar.”
    Interview with Nigel farage follows.

  59. What disappoints me is there are very intelligent people wasting years of the lives on twaddle. People! Please turn your thoughts to real problems of the Human Race I am sure you could be incredibly helpful. Gees what a waste.

  60. I have a lot to say but don’t want to take up to much of your time. I’ll try in a few words and hope that you can fill in any blanks appropriately. (And apologies to those who came close to my observations.)
    It looks to me as if the MSM, the “elite”, the UN, many university departments, and whoever else you care to name, are all pushing the Russian (= Putin) idea…..with Russian (= Putin) backing. It is less costly to them and can be more effective. Are those who innocently or otherwise are in favor of “fighting” global warming really only serving the Russian / Putin war against us? Are those who call for us to leave it in the ground really acting on behalf of communist (or other, related) goals, those of defeating the West by more subtle means than outright war.
    Ian M

    • Ian. it is a trifle more subtle than that. The environmental movement as a whole is a mass movement, as used by Eric Hoffer in “The True Believer”. As such, it has quasi-religious elements, as well as political and social. Global warming is a theme/theory picked up by that mass movement, as well as various politicians like Putin or Gore.
      The common themes in environmentalism (as distict from concern about the environment, a very different thing) tend to be a faith in “nature” (people do not count as natural!) and a dislike of technological and capitalistic society. Paul Ehrlich exemplifies this sort of socialist misanthropy, and many of the organized green groups are in sympathy with Ehrlich.
      As most of the writers for this site, and most of the commenters, are emphaticly not members of the green movement, there is a great deal of philosphic/political/scientific shared values antithetic to global warming and the green movement in general. If you are not a devout member of the green movement, it will probably take at least several months to get a good sense of the extendeded argument expressed by this site and it’s commenters. If you are a devout green, you will read enough to react with “gross heresy”! and stop there.

  61. Quote “——-backup turbines which likely burn more gas cycling up and down to try to stabilise the grid, than they would if they burned steadily, supplying the full base load.” That ‘thinking’ is way past obsolete.

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