Mexico´s CO2 Submission Curveball

Mexico’s foreign and environment ministries presented their emission´s goals for 2030, sent to UN “Global War on Climate Change” headquarters.  

The Mexicans claimed their goals represent a 25 % reduction “versus the business as usual case”. I found the slides  (in Spanish) at a Mexican government website, so I can confirm they pulled a fast one. They assumed that “under business as usual” their emissions would increase from 781 (2013)  to 1110 (2030)  million tons of CO2 equivalent. Then they prepared a “goal” for 2030: 829 million tons.

Draw a cartoon in your mind, 781, a line up to 1110, which sits on top of the 829. 

Mexican Mariachis singing a song 

(photo from Reuters, Andrew Winning)

I went ahead and interpolated the 2015 emissions levels: 817 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Their goal, 829 million tons, wow, that´s 1 %,  a teensy bit over the 2015 figure. Not bad for a country full of Catholics and Evangelicals who will have lots of babies and are hoping to grow GDP by a whopping 3.3 % a year.

Blog post written by a US soldier in Iraq

TURNINGTABLES was a blog written by a US soldier located somewhere in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.  The posts were signed "Moja".

Given the growing intensity of the conflicts  in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, and Chad, and the way Netanyahu is goading the US to maintain a hostile posture towards Iran, I suspect things are going to go downhill and we are about to see US  soldiers going to fight in those bullshit places in the near future. I don´t think any of it is worth it, but that´s the way things rock and roll when those who make the decisions don´t put their hides on the line.

So I decided to re-read some of Moja´s posts, and I want to show you one of the last ones:

September 5, 2003:

“i was listening to an ex-marine turned army staff sergeant...and an ex-abrahms tanker turned signal puke...they described the scene as a long stretch of road running through the middle of a small foreign town...fox holes and machine gun nests littering the road way...snipers plugged up in windows...the enemy dug in deep...an assault by ground forces would prove catastrophic...there were very few options that would lead to victory over these circumstances...

US Abrams tanks in Baghdad, 2003 (from Wikipedia)

the good guys brought in the tanks...lined them up side by side facing down the fortified roadway...simultaneously the tanks fired two rounds down range...the rounds created enough of a vacuum that the enemy soldiers were sucked from their fortifications and into the middle of the street...where they were gunned down from a top the turret...or rolled over by tank tread...

I interview Ebenezer Rabbet (ˈrabət)

The Rabbet legend begins with a delightful children’s blog about an orphan rabbit named Ebenezer   – a bunny with a magical destiny.  This rabbit is credited with doing more for scientific literacy than any other blogging  animal on the planet. 

Rabbit with portable computer bag

Rabbits are very common in  amusement parks and petting zoos, but  I interviewed Ebenezer Rabbet at his office in the posh California mansion  he had purchased,  using the cash he gets from Yingli Green Energy for pushing solar energy.

Fernando: So, this is the first time we’ve met.

Rabbet: Yes, it is.

Fernando: And my sources tell me that your real name isn´t really Ebenezer.

Rabbet: (laughing) Yeah.

Fernando: Ebenezer is…

Rabbet:  Is just the nom de plum – well, it’s because my agent, when my first blog post  came out, thought ‘this is a blog that will appeal to autistic males between the ages of 30 and 70’ but they didn’t want the guys to know a rabbit was writing  it. So he said to me ‘could I use your real name but tell them you´re a college professor’ and I said ‘fine’. But I only have one name. Just use something similar - use Ebenezer. 

Fernando: Ebenezer, that´s it.

Rabbet:  Yeah.

Fernando: You  fooled the guys for a while.

Rabbet: Yeah, not for too long.

Fernando: Not for too long.

Rabbet: Yeah – because I started getting my picture in the press and no one could pretend I was a man anymore. It´s the ears, they´re way too long.

Fernando: Yes – and I don’t think the guys have minded.

Rabbet: No – it hasn’t held me back, has it? Clearly not held me back. They don´t really care if I´m just a rabbit. I don´t need a college degree to write a blog. And I´ve done a lot to reduce rabbit hunting. To me it´s cannibalism, if you don´t mind me saying so.

The New Poor Working Class Will Destroy the Established Order

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman versus slave, lord versus  serf, communist party commissar versus  worker, oppressor against the oppressed, have stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in ruin of the contending classes. 

"The Revolution Will Move Forward" 

In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters; in 21^st century socialist societies we have the communist party elite, the military, the security services, and gangsters allied with the regime, all aligned against the people. All of these classes have gradations, the ones at the top live in incredible luxury, while the people suffer in poverty and are subjected to numerous indignities and abuses.

Marvinia Jimenez, on her knees just before she´s 

savagely beaten by Chavista Guards (Venezuela, 2014). 

The modern 21st century socialist or chavista society that has sprouted from the ruins of failed capitalist society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.

Our epoch, the epoch of the 21st century socialist (designated Castro-Chavista henceforth), possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two hostile camps, into two groups directly facing each other — Castro-Chavistas and the people.

We see, therefore, how the modern Castro-Chavista regime is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.

The science is settled

"The science is settled" is a political slogan. I think it tends to be believed by people who don't understand how life works.

 Gore and former IPCC chief Pachauri  

showing off  their Nobel Peace Prize awards

This can be demonstrated simply by pointing out that even the experts lack agreement on the amount of global warming we will experience. The fact that this doubt or uncertainty exists is quite uncomfortable to those who prefer their science in black and white. What I call the sloganeers like Gore,  Oreskes, and McKibben. 

Some sloganeers are incredibly full of shit:

Bill McKibben:  ¨….summer sea ice in the Arctic has mostly disappeared, and at the South Pole, scientists in May made clear that the process of massive melt is now fully under way, with 10 feet of sea-level rise in the offing.”

“We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  

Chris Turney, leader of trapped Antarctic expedition

I interview Elon Mursk

Two days ago I went to London to cheer for Paris Saint Germaine in the Champions round and  I ran into Elon Mursk at Sofra´s take out on White Horse Lane. I couldn´t pass up the chance to interview him.  

Mursk during the interview, sitting outside Sofra´s 

I offered him falafel coins and a plate of almond pistachio baklava and he really liked the idea, so we sat down and had this brief chat:

F. Leanme:  I noticed you carry an ID tag with the name Elon Mursk, so I figured this was a great opportunity to find out what you think of your business in general, as well as the prospects for solar power and rocket science.

E. Mursk: Yea, well. First, I have to say my  interest in electric vehicles goes back a long time…goes back 20 plus years.

F. Leanme:  So you  got interested in electric vehicles… I understand you watched the death of the EV1, when they were all smashed. Talk about that and why you felt even after founding your rocket science venture you had to get involved in battery powered cars.

Venezuelan ambassador: A bullet going through an opponent´s head makes a hollow sound

Roy Chaderton, Venezuela´s ambassador to the Organization of American States, made a very controversial statement speaking on Venezuelan national TV´s “Zurda Conducta” (Leftist Behavior) show.

The asshole who represents Venezuela

 in the Organization of American States

The following is my translation of what he said (note: a “squalid is the term used by the chavistas to refer to those opposed to the Maduro regime, which happen to be about 80 % of the population):

"The snipers aim at the head, but a squalid´s head isn´t unlike a chavista head,  except the content . The sound produced by a squalid´s  head is much smaller, it is like a snap, because the opposition cranium is hollow , so the bullet goes through quickly , but it´s passage  is known after the projectile passes , "

A video with subtitles in English is shown here:

The lone wolf president

This essay is by former U.S. judge Andrew Napolitano, was published at Lew Rockwell's. I´d like to quote a couple of paragraphs, the full essay is in the link below.

Lone wolf Obama

"In 2012, President Obama signed executive orders that essentially said to about 1.7 million unlawfully present immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before their 16th birthdays and who are not yet 31 years of age that if they complied with certain conditions that he made up out of thin air they will not be deported.

In 2014, the president signed additional executive orders that essentially made the same offer to about 4.7 million unlawfully present immigrants, without the age limits that he had made up out of thin air. A federal court enjoined enforcement of the 2014 orders last month.

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission — the bureaucrats appointed by the president who regulate broadcast radio and television — decreed that it has the authority to regulate the Internet, even though federal courts have twice ruled that it does not."

Finland Threatens Europe

For defense planners in Washington, London and Brussels, the sight of Finnish forces pouring into European Union territory will  overturn two decades of strategic assumptions.

The result could be a late attempt to reverse years of European defense cuts and lead to a move to reinforce defenses in countries surrounding the Baltic Sea.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Western alliance has shifted its attention to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Somalia,  as well as spending a lot of drone flying time killing Al Qaida leaders in Africa and the Middle East.   But by the time NATO government leaders meet in August  in Ibiza, some people believe their focus will have returned to deterring Helsinki.

In Washington on Wednesday for meetings with senior officials, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg  accused Helsinki  of acting to "rip up the international rulebook, trying to redraw the map of Europe and creating... the most serious security crisis since the end of the Cold War".

The changed NATO attitude is caused by the rise to power of Finnish autocrat Lordi Pekkala. Known for his outlandish suits and very warlike posture during his speeches, Supreme Leader Lord  Pekkala (as he likes to style himself)  and his imperialist  party, “Öur Höme is Greater Finland”, have made it clear they are dissatisfied with international  borders as drawn by European powers after the two World Wars and  the NATO interventions in Kosovo, Sudan, and Ukraine.

Lordi Pekkala giving a Speech at the 

newly built National Glory Amphiteater

"It goes to the heart of what NATO is about, we are supposed to dictate terms after a military  victory, and not the other way around. I can´t stand the idea of seeing a Finn rule over Europe",  Stoltenberg  told a forum at Georgetown University.