12/7/15

O’Reilly & Krauthammer Miscued on Clues to Obama’s Climate Agenda

by Sharon Sebastian

The O’Reilly Factor‘s Bill O’Reilly pressed renowned columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer for an answer. O’Reilly wanted to know why President Barack Obama is so relentless in his drive to convince the world that global warming is a bigger threat than ISIS. Krauthammer gave a frank psychoanalysis of Obama, but it failed to hold water on this topic.

What these two astute gentlemen of the media failed to apply was the old journalistic axiom: “Follow the money.” First, start with the question that begs an explanation. Why did former Vice-President Al Gore repeatedly declare that he was going to become “the first global warming billionaire” — did that not pique any potential Pulitzer Prize winning journalist’s curiosity as to what was behind that curtain? After losing his bid for the presidency, becoming the first global warming billionaire was Gore’s road not only to extraordinary wealth, but paved his return to global influence.

Set-up to unfold was a “golden parachute” scheme that would line the pockets of a cadre of elitists and global-warming advocates long after they were displaced from their seats of power. The scheme to retain or regain power and amass money is in plain sight. Some history and current day facts:

Few realize that the “green movement” is about building large personal fortunes for an elite few. President Barack Obama laid out his threat to bypass Congress and ignore the American people during his 2013 State of the Union address by exerting his authority under Executive Orders:

“I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.” — President Barack Obama, February 12, 2013.

Obama’s green energy plan put the coal industry on life-support, targeted oil and gas as the enemy and sought to impose restrictions on power plants that generate electricity to homes and businesses. What the President reportedly hides behind the curtain is his alliances with international green elites, a select group of political and Wall Street cronies, and energy regulatory czars who have orchestrated a CO2 carbon-taxing scheme that would put billions of dollars into their own pockets. Forced regulatory compliance is now being assembled through federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is a money scheme at the highest levels.

In 2010, the global-warming money transfer scam surfaced and named not only this president, but a former Democrat president and vice-president as participants planning to accumulate vast personal wealth. Again, any investigative reporter need only ask: Why did Al Gore so confidently tout that he was destined to become the “first global-warming billionaire”?

Long in the designing, the elements were close to being in full play. The plans were drawn, the carbon-credit trading exchange registered as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) was formulated and set to transfer cash (New York Times). A privately-owned Chicago bank was reportedly on the ready as a depository and for routing money transfers. That is, until the great global-warming-climate-change fraud stopped the United Nations-supported, elite group of well-connected “green” associates in their tracks. British Freedom quotes The Times of India:

“Billionaire globalists like George Soros fund green groups and seek to promote the globalist ‘climate change’ scam as a way to enrich themselves and infiltrate developing nations in order to financially exploit them and their natural resources for profit.”

The June 16, 2009 Bloomberg article, “Sandor Got Obama’s Nod for Chicago-Style Climate Law” by Jim Efstathiou Jr., reported that a carbon-capping bill set to be imposed on American businesses was the cornerstone of Obama’s environmental agenda. Bloomberg quotes CCX founder Richard Sandor as saying that the bill began “…way, way to the left with provisions to push U.S. utilities into bankruptcy.” The article further reads: “Sandor launched the Chicago Climate Exchange, or CCX, in 2003 after getting two research grants from the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation. Obama was on the foundation that gave us the grant, Sandor said. We know him well.” CCX reportedly is now under the auspices of Environmental Financial Products which lists its Chairman and CEO as Richard Sandor.

With CCX officials lamenting the sidelining of a carbon-credit trading exchange (similarly structured to the stock exchange, but with exorbitant transaction fees), Nathaniel Gronewold of ClimateWire published the following on January 3, 2011:

“Meanwhile, CCX’s sister institutions, the European Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange, will continue as long as there is corporate and state government interest in fighting climate change, even with the failure of cap and trade in the U.S. Congress, CCX officials insist.”

During the recent 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, Mr. Obama again upped his high-stakes play to push through his green agenda despite the high cost to even the poorest of Americans. Unlike Obamacare that revealed itself in a matter of years, this scheme can be carried along for decades based on false data and computers models only to be uncovered decades later and trillions of dollars too late. A list of powerful global titans remain on the ready to engage in a revived carbon-emissions trading program. They do so despite the evidence that weighs against any such necessity. The question is why?

A new report by Dr. Indur Goklany, an international authority on climate change, was published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Dr, Goklany states:

“The academies claim that fossil-fuel use has reduced the world’s sustainability and resilience. But despite record human numbers and carbon-dioxide emissions, human wellbeing has never been higher, by virtually any measure whether climate-sensitive or not. The average person has never lived longer or been healthier or wealthier. Living standards are at their highest ever; poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and mortality from vector-borne diseases and extreme events are at record lows. There is no indication that these trends are being reversed.”

In the face of highly publicized studies based on real science, and not computer models, that global temperatures have not substantially risen for more than a decade, Obama gears up to invest multiples of billions of America’s tax dollars into the green abyss, even while other countries across the globe are backing away. Why does Obama ignore real science?

Other scientific facts come from Edmund Contoski, an environmental consultant for more than 40 countries. In Liberty Unbound, Contoski writes: “Nature itself foils the environmentalists as The U.S. Department of Energy admits that once emitted that 98% of all the carbon dioxide emissions are again absorbed by nature. Contosky then queries, “Termites emit ten time more CO2 than humans, should we cap-and-tax them?”

Again, with the scheme hidden in plain sight, the media neglect the global green machine being run by an elite group that will reap financial gain at America’s loss. Perhaps a great investigative journalist will make a mark on history by peeling back the layers of this geo-political fraud. Armed with this information, perhaps Mr. O’Reilly or Dr. Krauthammer will use their access to vast journalistic resources to earnestly answer Bill’s question to Charles on why Barack Obama is pushing, at the expense of America and beyond all logic and recent scientific data, for a long-term and massive financial commitment to climate change. Start with money and power.

Whoever controls the world’s energy distribution, controls the world. If they can get the little people to “believe” that climate change is a bigger threat than ISIS, the global elites of the future will have the ultimate golden parachute.

CCX now transfers to: Page Not Found. The Chicago Climate Exchange reportedly changed names. While ultimately drowning the carbon-trading scheme and not shorelines, nature turned on the CCX planners when the Himalayas did not melt, the polar bear population grew, and carbon dioxide output revived and increased farming yields that today feed millions more people across the globe as a result.

Yet, the other shoe is about to drop and it is nuclear in its impact. It is Obama’s coup de gras for America. Buried in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is Obama’s climate agenda on steroids. It shifts independent powers to the president while putting America at the mercy of 140 member TPP countries that outnumber and hold sway over the United States’ “one” vote. Disguised as open trade to keep America competitive, it sets-up the means for America’s detractors to put a crippling chokehold on America’s sovereignty and economy. It is dangerous.

TPP is designed to become an international regulatory body from China to Vietnam armed with enough voting numbers to subdue the United States into submission while enforcing massive fines if American businesses do not transfer jobs and resources offshore. Expect political sleight-of-hand from both sides of the aisle when a Congressional vote on the Trans Pacific Partnership comes up next year. American must hold their leaders accountable. Send a copy of this article as a warning that will strip them of the excuse of any ignorance of “unforeseen circumstances” upon which they too often rely. Under Obama’s climate change, money and power supersede national security. Perhaps, Messrs. O’Reilly and Krauthammer will look behind that door as well.

Sharon Sebastian, author of the book, “AGING: WARNING Navigating Life’s Medical, Mental & Financial Minefields” (here), is a columnist, commentator, and contributor in print and on nationwide broadcasts on topics ranging from healthcare, culture, religion, and politics to domestic and global policy. Sebastian’s political and cultural analyses are published nationally and internationally. Website: www.AgingWarning.com

08/1/15

Donald Trump’s Greatest Hits

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

Donald Trump has gotten popular, in part, by challenging the media. But he has praised journalists on occasion. His 2011 book, Time to Get Tough, said David Gregory was “doing a fine job filling some awfully big shoes over at Meet the Press.” It was a reference to legendary and highly respected host Tim Russert, who had passed away.

So-called “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,” who replaced Gregory, is a favorite Trump target. “The thing I find most offensive about Chuck Todd is the fact that he pretends to be an objective journalist,” Trump writes, “when in reality the guy is a partisan hack.”

In many ways, as Trump said, David Gregory was doing a fine job. Some of the criticism of Gregory’s performance as “Meet the Press” host missed the mark, such as when he interviewed Edward Snowden collaborator Glenn Greenwald. As we noted at the time, some in the media were aghast that Gregory asked Greenwald a perfectly reasonable question on “Meet the Press:” “To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?”

Snowden, the NSA leaker, has been charged with espionage and still resides in Russia.

In his book, Trump takes on Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” on the Comedy Central network who is quitting after years of service to President Obama and the liberal-left. Stewart’s strategy is spewing curse words and invective toward conservatives and Republicans.

Trump recognized Stewart as Obama’s tool before it was recently revealed that Stewart was secretly meeting with people in the Obama White House, including President Obama, in efforts “by the president and his communications team to tap into Mr. Stewart’s influence with younger voters,” as The New York Times put it.

“I actually enjoy the guy,” Trump’s book says of Stewart, “but when he did a segment mocking presidential candidate Herman Cain, and used a very racist and degrading tone that was insulting to the African American community, did he get booted off the air like Don Imus? No. Where was the Reverend Jesse Jackson? Where was the Reverend Al Sharpton? Where was Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd to provide hard-hitting journalistic ‘analysis?’  Nowhere. Stewart should have lost his job—at least temporarily. But he didn’t and he won’t because liberals in the media always get a free pass, no matter how bad their behavior.”

Cain himself had noted that Stewart had mocked him using the racially-charged “Amos & Andy” dialect. He concluded that Stewart has a problem with black conservatives.

In other comments in his book, Trump discussed the journalists “who are obsessed with protecting Obama,” noting that ABC’s George Stephanopoulos is among the “big Obama fans.”  He added that “it was incredible to see how overprotective reporters got toward Obama when I simply said what everyone in America was thinking: ‘Where’s the birth certificate?’”

While he praises Fox News and Roger Ailes, the executive behind the popular channel, Trump faults the “disappointing behavior by people in the press” which “occurs on both sides of the aisle,” and singles out Charles Krauthammer of Fox News for special criticism. Trump said Krauthammer had attacked him on the air as a joke candidate, and that he was not given any rebuttal time.

Discussing a speech he gave to Republicans, during which he had used “strong language,” Trump admits, “I’m not a big curser but it did take place” and the controversial remarks were reported by the media. But Trump counters: “Of course, Joe Biden dropped the f-word in front of the entire media on a stage with the president. But Biden gets a pass because he’s with Obama, and as we all know, Obama can do no wrong in the media’s eyes.”

Other quotable comments from his book include the observation that The New York Times is Obama’s “favorite newspaper,” and that “The press constantly maligns, ridicules, and mocks the Tea Party folks.”

During the current campaign, Trump has not shied away from putting reporters on the spot.

Asked a question by Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart, who distorted his position on illegal immigration, Trump fired back, “You know what, that’s a typical case. Wait. That’s a typical case of the press with misinterpretation. They take a half a sentence, then they take a quarter of a sentence, they put it all together. It’s a typical thing. And you’re with Telemundo, and Telemundo should be ashamed.”

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he said, “Anderson, you are not a baby, okay. You are not a baby.”

Asked by NBC’s Katy Tur if he had a gun and used it, he responded, “It is none of your business, it is really none of your business. I have a license to have a gun.”

After The Wall Street Journal attacked Trump and his conservative supporters in the media, the businessman responded by saying the paper had a “dwindling” readership and “is worth about one-tenth of what it was purchased for…”

After Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard said he was “finished” with Trump, he responded, “Bill, your small and slightly failing magazine will be a giant success when you finally back Trump.”

Fox News media reporter Howard Kurtz notes, “Look, Trump thrives on being attacked. He’s a great counterpuncher. He particularly relishes doing battle with the media. And this latest story hands him a big fat gift to do just that.”

That “latest story” was in The Daily Beast and concerned some allegations about alleged marital rape from Trump’s divorce proceedings. Trump’s ex-wife Ivana responded, “I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit.”

She added, “Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him the best of luck on his campaign.”

Since then, a story has surfaced about Trump criticizing an opposing attorney who wanted to breast-pump in front of him. Trump told CNN he may have said to her that it was “disgusting.” He added, “Bottom line. I beat her.” He said the judge had even awarded him legal fees.

For turning the tables on the media, Trump deserves the praise of those who are sick and tired of the liberal media setting the national agenda and demonizing conservatives.

I have a feeling that the Donald Trump hit parade will continue.

07/6/15

How Many?

Arlene from Israel

How many times can I write about the P5+1 negotiations with Iran and demonstrate how Obama has caved even further?  How outrageous and terrifying and jaw-droppingly perverse it all is?

The new deadline for completion is tomorrow, July 7th.  And so I must return to this subject once again.  I will not belabor details of how the US administration has backed off in the face of Iranian intransigence, or has misrepresented the situation.  Unless you are deeply into those negotiating details, you are likely to find your mind spinning when confronted with yet more of them.

Here, I prefer to provide an overview, beginning with commentator Charles Krauthammer, who calls this upcoming deal “The worst agreement in U.S. diplomatic history”.

Krauthammer says we don’t even need to focus on those details in order to understand the depth of the problem (emphasis added):

The devil is not in the details. It’s in the entire conception of the Iran deal, animated by President Obama’s fantastical belief that he, uniquely, could achieve detente with a fanatical Islamist regime whose foundational purpose is to cleanse the Middle East of the poisonous corruption of American power and influence.

“In pursuit of his desire to make the Islamic Republic into an accepted, normalized ‘successful regional power,’ Obama decided to take over the nuclear negotiations. At the time, Tehran was reeling — the rial plunging, inflation skyrocketing, the economy contracting — under a regime of international sanctions painstakingly constructed over a decade.

“Then, instead of welcoming Congress’ attempt to tighten sanctions to increase the pressure on the mullahs, Obama began the negotiations by loosening sanctions, injecting billions into the Iranian economy (which began growing again in 2014) and conceding in advance an Iranian right to enrich uranium.

It’s been downhill ever since. Desperate for a legacy deal, Obama has played the supplicant, abandoning every red line his administration had declared essential to any acceptable deal.

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“Inspections. They were to be anywhere, anytime, unimpeded. Now? Total cave..Nuclear inspectors will have to negotiate and receive Iranian approval for inspections. Which allows them denial and/or crucial delay for concealing any clandestine activities.

“To give a flavor of the degree of our capitulation, the administration played Iran’s lawyer on this one, explaining that, after all, ‘the United States of America wouldn’t allow anybody to get into every military site, so that’s not appropriate’…the absurdity of morally equating America with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism…

“Coming clean on past nuclear activity. The current interim agreement that governed the past 19 months of negotiation required Iran to do exactly that. Tehran has offered nothing. The administration had insisted that this accounting was essential because how can you verify future illegal advances in Iran’s nuclear program if you have no baseline?

“After continually demanding access to their scientists, plans and weaponization facilities, Secretary of State John Kerry two weeks ago airily dismissed the need, saying he is focused on the future, ‘not fixated’ on the past. And that we have ‘absolute knowledge’ of the Iranian program anyway — a whopper that his staffers had to spend days walking back.

Not to worry, we are told. The accounting will be done after the final deal is signed. Which is ridiculous. If the Iranians haven’t budged on disclosing previous work under the current sanctions regime, by what logic will they comply after sanctions are lifted?

“Sanctions relief. These were to be gradual and staged as the International Atomic Energy Agency certified Iranian compliance over time. Now we’re going to be releasing up to $150 billion as an upfront signing bonus. That’s 25 times the annual budget of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Enough to fuel a generation of intensified Iranian aggression from Yemen to Lebanon to Bahrain.

“Yet three months ago, Obama expressed nonchalance about immediate sanctions relief. It’s not the issue, he said. The real issue is ‘snap-back’ sanctions to be reimposed if Iran is found in violation.

Good grief. Iran won’t be found in violation. The inspection regime is laughable and the bureaucratic procedures endless. Moreover, does anyone imagine that Russia and China will reimpose sanctions? Or that the myriad European businesses preparing to join the Iranian gold rush the day the deal is signed will simply turn around and go home?

“Nonnuclear-related sanctions. The administration insisted that the nuclear talks would not affect separate sanctions imposed because of Iranian aggression and terrorism. That was then. The administration is now leaking that everything will be lifted.

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“Taken together, the catalog of capitulations is breathtaking….

What’s left? A surrender document of the kind offered by defeated nations suing for peace. Consider: The strongest military and economic power on earth, backed by the five other major powers, armed with what had been a crushing sanctions regime, is about to sign the worst international agreement in U.S. diplomatic history.

“How did it come to this? With every concession, Obama and Kerry made clear they were desperate for a deal.

“And they will get it. Obama will get his ‘legacy.’ Kerry will get his Nobel. And Iran will get the bomb.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-worst-agreement-in-us-diplomatic-history/2015/07/02/960e8cf2-20e8-11e5-aeb9-a411a84c9d55_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Credit: Real Clear Politics

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Kerry has been making noises about how “We are close, but will not ‘shave margins’ to clinch an Iran deal.”

Do not believe him.  This is the one thing that we know will not happen.  After all of the concessions, all the work of pseudo-negotiations, Kerry is not about to throw up his hands and say, We tried, but we couldn’t reach an agreement and we declare negotiations failed.

Not only does the Obama administration want an agreement at all cost, they want it now:  According to the Corker-Cardin bill (the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015), if an agreement is sent to Congress by July 9, the House and Senate have 30 days to review it.  If it is submitted later, there is a period of 60 days provided for review.

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So, it is possible that the parties will announce a full agreement that can be implemented immediately.  But, in light of the present situation, this is not likely to actually happen.

It is also possible that negotiations might be extended yet again, all the way through the summer.  It seems that if negotiations continue throughout the summer, the review time permitted to Congress reverts to 30 days again.  Seems a bit confusing, but this may have something to do with the fact that there is a Congressional recess involved in this timing.

What may be the most likely scenario is that “there will be a non-agreement agreement. The parties will announce they’ve resolved all outstanding issues but they still have to fill in some details.” This is how Omri Ceren of The Israel Project (TIP) sees it.

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And then, my friends, once the “outstanding issues” are resolved, the matter will be referred to Congress.

Which means a great deal rests with each of you in the US.

Please, see and share this short and very powerful video.  At its end, a mechanism is provided for you to contact your elected members of Congress:

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/has-the-world-learned-nothing-from-history-graphic/

“Indifference is never an option,” says Eli Wiesel, in this video.

Credit: Bloomberg

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I’ll pick up with other highly important issues next posting. Here I close with links to some matters directly relevant to the Krauthammer article:

“Oil-rich Iran is poised to benefit from an explosion of business from the west after a nuclear deal is signed and France has already taken its place on the starting line to get a piece of the pie…

“Since the start of tortuous nuclear negotiations with Iran, France has been seen as taking the toughest stand. Now as a deal nears, Paris must be ready to dash in and grab a slice of the long untapped market.

’The first repercussions of any deal will be the opening of the Iranian market. That’s what all the Western countries are waiting for,’ a top western diplomat said recently.  (Emphasis added)

“’They are jostling as if they’re at the start of a marathon, and are keeping a close eye on one another.’”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4676353,00.html

This solidly puts the lie to any claim by Obama that “snap-back” sanctions would work.

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“Ram Ben Barak, director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and a leading candidate to be the next head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, told the Makor Rishon newspaper that ‘the deal which is about to be signed will allow Iran to decide by itself when it will be nuclear [armed], and that is the most problematic.’

“He said the lifting of sanctions would give Tehran ‘an ocean of money,’ allowing it to buy influence across the Middle East and ‘advance to a position where no one will be able to threaten it and it will acquire control wherever it pleases.’”  (All emphasis added)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-israeli-official-nuke-deal-will-set-up-iran-to-take-over-middle-east/

Indifference is never an option.

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Today is the sixth of July, which means I have passed the Fourth of July.  Once upon a time, I noted this day in my postings, and marked it with a graphic of fireworks.  The US is the land of my birth, and I still have a strong connection to her.  But mostly these days I worry about America.

It does not seem to me to be a time for fireworks (although I am sure many did enjoy the celebrations).  Instead, it seems to me a time for prayer: that America might grow strong again and reach her former grandeur, based on her traditional values.

 

Happy 4th of July

Credit: theedesign