The John James Newsletter 99 – drumming up WWIII?
19 December 2015
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other
Anon
At the heart of racism is the assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being
Friedrich Otto Hertz
Russia Just Suddenly Reemerged as a World Power While the West Wasn’t Looking
The Russian leaders needed time for internal consolidation, restoration of the economic and financial systems, ensuring their self-reliance and independence from the West, and rebuilding the modern army. Finally, Russia needed allies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43709.htm
and
http://www.russia-insider.com/en/russia-invisible-war/ri11783
N-deal, bullet train, defence: India, Japan fast-track ties
To introduce high speed rail on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector through Japan’s Shinkansen, known for its speed, reliability and safety.
Privacy is gone, mass surveillance is here to stay
“The Five Eyes intelligence arrangement [of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US] is so invasive in terms of mass surveillance of domestic and international telecommunications that while some experts can achieve practical privacy for themselves for limited number of operations… it’s gone for the rest of the populations,”
https://www.rt.com/news/325524-assange-privacy-rt-10/
Gideon Polya has a perspective on methane in Newsletter 95
Methane is 21 times more effective greenhouse gas than C02 on a 100-year time frame. But the global warming potential of methane over 20 years with aerosol impacts considered is about 100 times that of CO2 (1). That is, each particle of methane will over the next few years create 100 times more blanketing than a particle of C02.
It has been estimated how much C02 we can emit if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a 2C temperature rise. This is our carbon budget. The budget figure was calculated at 600 billion tonnes tops (2).
The anticipated single burst of methane from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is 50 Gt (1 Gigaton being a billion tonnes). By calculation 50 bt methane @ 100 times CO2 = 5,000 tonnes CO2-e. This is about nine times more than the world’s carbon budget. We are doomed unless we can stop this Arctic methane release (3).
1. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716 and Fig.2 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716
2. http://www.ecoequity.org/2009/10/solving-the-climate-dilemma-the-budget-approach and http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Critical-Decade-2013-Summary_lowres.pdf
3. https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed and https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming
Adelaide school taps geothermal energy for pool heating, air conditioning
The water circulated through a polyethylene pipe within the GHX will extract heat from the ground and deliver it to a series of Ground Source Heat Pumps, and supply the pool hall with space heating and/or cooling.
Beyond Paris: what was really achieved at the COP21 climate summit, and what next?
A multi-national summary
Paris deal: Great for wind and solar, and a $46 trillion hit to fossil fuels
The implications for the fossil fuel industry are profound, and will likely cause it to suffer a loss in revenue of around $US33 trillion out to 2040 over business as usual.
World Leaders Signed a ‘Death Warrant for the Planet’ at COP21
The Agreement’s vision of a world ‘well below 2 degrees’ moves the needle forward, but its weak commitment to ‘pursue efforts’ to limit warming to 1.5 degrees’ reflects a continued denial of fundamental climate realities.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43729.htm
We are horribly close to war.
Compare the US battle stations around the world with the new generation of Russian military equipment, wider coalitions in the Syrian proxy-war, and the new Saudi treaty intending to unite Sunni nations into one anti-Shiite banner.
“Sarajevo 1914 anyone?”
Its an unfolding and horribly risky story. Keep your eye on it!
You Want War? Russia is Ready for War
Russia will use nuclear weapons if necessary if its conventional forces in Syria are threatened. If Ankara under the cover of NATO responds by launching the Turkish Army on Russian positions, Russia will use nuclear missiles, drawing NATO into war in Syria and Europe. They have to keep the Bosphorus open.
http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20151215/1031786484/russia-ready-war.html
So Why Did Turkey Shoot Down That Russian Plane?
Would a dustup between Turkish and Russian planes bring NATO — and four nuclear armed nations — into a confrontation? That possibility ought to keep us up at night.
http://fpif.org/turkey-shoot-russian-plane/
Turkey Smuggled Sarin Gas to Terrorists in Syria
Under a UN deal, Syria eliminated its entire chemical weapons stockpile. No evidence indicates it used any toxic agents throughout nearly five years of conflict. Plenty reveals terrorists’ used sarin on numerous occasions.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/turkey-smuggled-sarin-gas-to-al-qaeda-terrorists-in-syria/5495775
US Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations
These forces carry out operations almost entirely unknown to the American taxpayers who fund them, far from the scrutiny of the media or outside oversight. Every day, in around 80 or more countries that Special Operations Command will not name, they undertake missions the command refuses to talk about.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176048/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_a_secret_war_in_135_countries/
Saudi Royal Family Announces Its New Global Sunni Military Empire
Saudi Arabia was founded in 1744 by an oath between Saud and Wahhab to exterminate Shiites and then take over the world. The Saudi royal family were the main funders of Al Qaeda. “Without Saudi money you have nothing.”
Confusion clouds Saudi Arabia’s anti-IS coalition
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-security-idUKKBN0TZ1GY20151216
Hydrogen bombs for India?
The weapons could upgrade India as a nuclear power — and deeply unsettle Pakistan and China.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/16/india_nuclear_city_top_secret_china_pakistan_barc/
Japan’s far-flung island defense plan seeks to turn tables on China
Tokyo is responding by stringing a line of anti-ship, anti-aircraft missile batteries along 200 islands in the East China Sea stretching 1,400 km from the country’s mainland toward Taiwan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-military-china-exclusive-idUSKBN0U107220151218
Global arms industry: West still dominant despite decline; sales surge in rest of the world
Sales of arms and military services by the largest arms-producing companies totalled $401 billion in 2014.
http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/2015/SIPRI-Top-100-December-2015
A Shadow War and an American Drone Unit Under Wraps
US has constructed a staggering set of bases in the Greater Middle East and on the island of Diego Garcia and has been building drone bases around the world. It is the structure for an Imperial Age.
What ISIS really has in mind
The objective of ISIS is not to kill Americans, Britons and French, as many foolishly believe, but to drive the western powers out of the Mideast and Muslim world. “If we could only draw the western imperial forces deep into our countries and then attack them piecemeal.” ISIS has precisely such a plan. Osama bin Laden taught: “enmesh the imperial powers in a number of small, bloody wars. Wear them out and bankrupt them. The economy is the Achilles heel of western powers.”
http://ericmargolis.com/2015/12/what-isis-really-has-in-mind/
The US Is Teaming Up With Al Qaeda, Again
In the wake of 9/11, the story of US support for militant Islamists against the Soviets became a touchy subject. The dirty work — the actual management of the campaign and the dealings with rebel groups — was left to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence so that 70% of US aid went to the fundamentalists.
http://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/a-special-relationship/
‘The Warning Bells are Deafening’: Super El Niño Threatening Global Hunger Crisis
Stark warning aimed at those likely to be ravaged by record weather system, as well as wealthy governments indebted to nations most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change
Monbiot: Life and Death
Our violence towards the living planet is intensifying. The megafauna that once dominated most of the world is now confined to small and shrinking pockets. At the current rate of poaching, rhinos and elephants could vanish from almost every corner of Africa by the time a child born today leaves school. Lions once lived almost everywhere: across Europe, Asia, the Americas and throughout Africa. In the 1940s there were some 450,000 remaining in Africa. Now there are 20,000, and the population is forecast to halve in 20 years. In just one fire season, much of the Indonesian rainforest has been fragmented and incinerated. The marine ecosystem is collapsing in front of our eyes, foodwebs unravelled by overfishing and pollution. Soil is being lost so fast that the world has, on average, just another 60 years of crop production. The climatic space in which human civilisation flourished is slamming shut.
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/12/15/life-and-death/
Federal Reserve begins “dovish tightening” with first rate hike in nine years
Last week, junk bond funds were hit with $3.5 billion of withdrawals, and the crisis is spreading beyond junk bonds. It brings back memories of 2008. Defaults are ticking up, and it’s starting to spread to other sectors.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/12/17/bank-d17.html
What Does The “Rate Hike” Mean?
It favours banks sitting on excess reserves over banks who are lending to businesses and consumers in their community. In other words, the rate hike just facilitates more looting by the One Percent.
http://www.countercurrents.org/pcr171215.htm
Folding graphene like origami may allow us to wear sensors in our skin
Our findings open the door to new engineering approaches where the electronic properties of nano-devices can be tuned by small and precise variations of their atomic-scale structure.
https://theconversation.com/electronics-are-getting-small-and-that-is-causing-big-problems-48683
and