Emergency Theater for Paris Agreement: China, US rush to sham ratification

Tell the world it is all an act.

PR Stunts, Paris Agreement, Climate change, 2016.

It’s a do or die moment for The Cause. Brexit has hit them hard, and the Trump factor threatens to wreck everything. The Paris agreement has stalled pathetically at 1.1% of all human emissions (they need 55% to come into force). They need a gamechanger or the illusion of one.

Next week expect a grand performance from US and China — or rather from two men who look solemn and can sign important looking carbon chastity vows on behalf of 1.8 billion people. Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will say they have ratified the Paris agreement. Expect triumphant parades, and smiles, handshakes and talk of a historic moment. It’s all for show. China will agree to do nothing different until 2030 when its population growth peaks, and Obama can’t get the support of Congress.

But the gala performance may work if enough other countries fall for it — especially the stupidly obedient Anglosphere, and the trapped EU. India, Russia and Brazil will only buy into it they are fed enough pork. But the pork has to come from somewhere, and that’s us — The West. That’s who this show is for — western voters.

Paris Agreement, Ratification, Climate Change, 2016.

“Ratified” countries marked in dark blue. Map Climate Analytics

The Paris agreement has only won over 23 tin pot nations responsible for 1.1% of human emissions. They are doomed to failure without the US and China, which together control 38%. Once the largest two economies of the world are nominally, “technically”, signed — expect other countries to fall into line all over the world. That’s why it’s so important we make sure everyone knows that there is nothing real about this deal. The Chinese deal is symbolic, and an Obama deal has legal questions all over it.

In the real world, changing the planet’s weather costs a fortune. The US voters don’t care and won’t pay. The US Congress will never allow a meaningful economic hit to occur, so no real treaty, with real teeth, could get through.

China is a giant coal mine and CO2 pump

Australia is the largest exporter of coal in the world, but China digs up ten times as much as we export. In the run-up to Paris, China has built so many coal fired stations that as its economy falters it is even closing them but only because it has too many. It has so much coal power there is even discussion that it could sell the excess power to Germany because it can produce electricity so cheaply that even the transmission losses over such a distance don’t matter — electricity in Berlin is wildly expensive (thanks to their green obsession). The Chinese have been running full tilt to develop their manufacturing and electricity base — CO2 be damned. Last time there was a “historic” moment with Obama, China agreed to do nothing different til 2030. It was an unenforceable long term commitment with no consequences. Like all these international agreements, the net effect will be to produce more global CO2 as factories move to China where they produce four times as much CO2 as Western factories. But no one cares about actual CO2, just like they don’t care about real air pollution and the 5.5 million deaths from it. Xi Jinping wants the West to sign the Paris agreement — it will hobble the competition, plus China already profits from carbon penance even as it hopes to profit by selling coal fired electricity back to hobbled nations.
UNFCCC logo

US Voters and the US congress won’t pay to change the weather

Anything Obama signs is a gambit of a President in his last days. The only way the US will ratify the Paris deal is through trickery and deceit. There is not the will or interest in the US to pay for climate change. Nearly one third of people in the US say “climate change a total hoax”. Only 3% of US people think the climate is the most important issue. Fully  61% in the US say climate debate is not over, and  57% don’t believe what UN scientists say. Even the term “Environmentalist” is becoming a dirty word.

No wonder Obama didn’t talk about the climate leading up to elections, he knew he couldn’t win a mandate for it, and the Congress wouldn’t agree. Instead he’s going through the rogue EPA, and using regulations rather than legislation. The Paris agreement was not called a “treaty” and had to be “non-binding” so it could avoid the bomb of getting Congressional approval. But the bomb still ticks.

Myron Ebell describes the US legal headache:

Here is the language from Article Two, Section Two, Clause Two of the U. S. Constitution: “[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.”

The article by Li Jing references this curious requirement: “There are still some uncertainties from the US side due to the complicated US system in ratifying such a treaty, but the announcement is still quite likely to be ready by Sept 2,” said a source, who declined to be named.

Skeptics can still do a lot to stop this trainwreck

One: Spread the word to newspaper editors, journalists and everyone that the Obama-Xi Jinping deal will be a symbolic sham. The Paris Agreement will never change the weather, but it could wreck western economies.

Two: Help US voters understand what a Hillary election means. For all his faults, Trump may trash the climate gravy train. But Hillary is promising to outdo Obama.

UPDATE: Sept 21 is when Australia will apparently “consider ratifying the Paris Agreement”.

In Australia, treaty ratification does have to be reviewed by parliament but the final decision is the prerogative of the government, meaning Turnbull and Frydenberg may face an arm wrestle with their right-wing cabinet colleagues.

The official said Australia’s decision to accept the invitation of UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon to a special event for ratification on September 21 of this year was “under consideration”. (H/t Dennis A)

Tin-Pot time — Currently Paris ratification is only 0.04% of global CO2 emissions :

The ratified list: Barbados, Belize, Cameroon, North Korea, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Maldives, Mauritius, Nauru, Norway, Palau, Palestine, Peru, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Somalia and Tuvalu.

Note that Climate Analytics points out that the number was not set higher at 60% because then a block could have formed to stop it. The biggest emitters are: China, 20%;  USA,  18%;  EU,  12%;  Russia,  7%;  India,  4%;   Japan,  4%. Think of it the other way, it’s a challenge to organize a block of 45% refuseniks — whatever China and the US do will make or break this. Presumably all the little countries can be bought off with UN pork or threats, and the world is waiting til the US election.

9.2 out of 10 based on 89 ratings

129 comments to Emergency Theater for Paris Agreement: China, US rush to sham ratification

  • #
    Ross

    Frustrating when the world ignores climate sceptics, isn’t it, Jo

    [Not particularly, there are now sufficient numbers of sceptics around, for people like you to give up your free time to try to stem the tide, as feeble as your efforts are. We both know that climate sceptics are not being ignored, and that is what is upsetting you, isn’t it, Ross. Decision time: do you really want to go down with the ship? -Fly]

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    • #

      So Ross you don’t even bother to refute that the Paris agreement is mere theater. Who cares about CO2 or the climate eh? It’s just power and money isn’t it…

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    • #
      TdeF

      So it’s not about the truth, it’s about the side? That’s a huge admission.

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    • #
      Robin Guenier

      Sceptics are hardly being ignored by an Agreement that exempts developing countries (responsible for about 65% of global GHG emissions and comprising about 82% of humanity) from any obligation, moral or legal, to reduce their emissions – see LINK at #15 below.

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      • #
        MarkMcD

        Are you disputing Jo’s figures? You say “Sceptics are hardly being ignored by an Agreement that exempts developing countries (responsible for about 65% of global GHG emissions and comprising about 82% of humanity)” but if you look at the big 6, THEY have 65% between them. (20+18+12+7+4+4=65… 😀 )

        Perhaps you could give us source for your version?

        From the OP:
        “The biggest emitters are: China, 20%; USA, 18%; EU, 12%; Russia, 7%; India, 4%; Japan, 4%.”

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    • #
      bullocky

      Ross; ‘Frustrating when the world ignores climate sceptics, isn’t it, Jo’

      Are you typical of that ‘ignorance’ Ross?

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    • #
    • #
      Albert

      Warmest year ever when there was a hurricane and rain everywhere in the north and some of the south producing cloud which guarantees low temps. Why does the media report ”warmest year ever?”when it clearly wasn’t

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      • #

        why don’t they just stop collecting data and just ask Albert? Sheesh

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        • #
          MarkMcD

          I think Albert is looking at the world and not computer models. By data fiddling they come up with ever-increasing ‘warmest on record’ but it’s difficult to see how when we know precip and clouds LOWER the temps.

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          • #

            ah the all seeing Albert. I didn’t realise it was ALBERT the one who digests random information by looking around him and can come to a conclusion that no amount of actual data can be used to derive. Be kind to simple beings like me oh ALBERT.

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            • #
              Albert

              GA, I rely on raw data and have done so for many decades. When the alarmism is not backed up by real data, I know it’s just alarmism. There’s a never ending alarm about sealevel rise, yet there’s NO alarm about people raising hundreds of thousand of wharves around the world, nor are millions of sandy beaches being raised.
              Both elNino and laNina change sea levels temporarily and it’s normal for corals to be bleached.
              I also rely on weather radar and could see the Wivenhoe dam being filled by an unprecedented event that required action. We had the December average in Queensland of 50 years ago and no action was taken to protect an earth dam, INSANE
              The Typhoon that caused so many fatalities and damage to the Philippines was not the strongest, it just hit in the worst place where the storm swell passed through 2 land masses. I was watching it on weather radar

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              • #

                oh… you mean you use data and not intuition? That is disappointing. Where is this data that caused you to conclude that this year is not so hot? What are the errors, SDs etc on your estimates?

                And thanks for the tip about Wivenhoe. Next time it is raining I’ll tune in to the radar to watch the live feed of it being filled. Should be fun. They can throw away their various meters and stop wasting time on site.

                And great information about the Philippines. So relevant to the debate.

                As for sea level rise, you are right. I mean OMG! They are predicting 1-2 mm/year. If that is true why aren’t the port authorities in a blind panic? If they have say 50cm to play with at high tide they will need to get cracking to raise the levels in the next 100 years or so when the water will lap over the edge. And no one at the ports are doing a thing! They must know something.

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              • #
                Albert

                Reply to GA, you said, ”And thanks for the tip about Wivenhoe. Next time it is raining I’ll tune in to the radar to watch the live feed of it being filled. Should be fun. They can throw away their various meters and stop wasting time on site.”
                GA, I’m a radar expert from the old black and white days to today’s colour radar, I’m familiar with the Wivenhoe rain gauges, I’ve seen them being constructed and also repaired. December had 6 times the Dec average rainfall, equal of 50 years ago, we had multiple floods of Emerald, Rockhampton and all 93 Queensland rivers were in flood. Wivenhoe is an earth dam with only 1 fuse and not the 2 fuses recommended. An earth dam should be protected before a wet season and not when forced by overfilling as overfilling will be catastrophic and may cause dam failure and the deaths of over 150,000 people.

                We knew the SOI before the big wet, there is no excuse for not protecting Wivenhoe and Grantham in the same region had a massive storm over it, (also on radar) that caused the flood, the storm line continued to Toowoomba and flooded the natural floodway that was covered with car parking. The floodway led to a swamp
                GA, there were many experts who warned of Wivenhoe and Brisbane flooding, I was one of them in the media on the Monday, I was ignored as were all the others
                The Wivenhoe gates were opened in the dead of night 5 gates, 12 metres wide lifted 12 metres high, equal to a breach in the dam wall and no warning was given. The spillway could not be filmed at night, the water may have risen over 50 metres into the air.
                Hydrology is a Science and when spillway gates are opened the time of flooding anywhere down the rivers can be predicted with the known tides, the speed of the water, the river level and when the water will arrive. We were not told of the massive release of water and many downstream woke in blackness in flooded homes. There was damage of over $5 billion, about 35 suicides and I believe the catastrophic release from evidence I’ve seen was not necessary

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              • #
                KinkyKeith

                Albert,

                In your last comment about radar and midnight release of water, you describe all that is wrong with modern society.

                Politics and personal needs trump any science or public good involved.

                The hardest part to read was the 35 suicides.
                KK

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              • #

                err ok. I hope you paraded your insight at the inquiry which found that the whole thing was a shamozzle. Your black and white experience would have nailed the coffin shut

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              • #
                Albert

                KK, The suicide reporting was avoided by the media as they believe there will be copies. My number of 35 was from Rotary, they were required to attend to the grieving families, there may have been more. In my area there were 5, mostly business owners who lost everything.
                After the waters subsided, I asked a printing factory owner if he could have saved anything with at least a 2 hour warning, he told me he could have saved ½ million dollars of expensive paper.
                They emptied ⅓ of the dam in a few hours and warned no one, that should be a crime. The outflow damaged 60 km of riverbank

                GA, I did send all my known facts to the inquiry, it made no difference. You obviously are not aware of the ”terms of reference” for the inquiry, it focused mainly on emergency services which were exceptional, and not on why the Government allowed an earth dam to be filled to the point where they made a panic release in the night and warned no one. We had a 50 year good cycle and an earth dam with a SOI that warned me and many others, including the former Premier who warned of a 1974 flood as I did. Anyone can check the SOI charts for 1974 and 2010/11
                Many years earlier under a National Party Government, the mere hint of a cyclone headed towards Mackay had the Premier tell the dam operator to make emergency releases as fast as possible

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            • #
              Albert

              GA, you said, ”why don’t they just stop collecting data and just ask Albert?”
              It would surprise you that I also use raw data from the alarmists sites, I just don’t alter it

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              • #

                No it disappoints me. I thought you had real insight not boring data. So where can I read your analysis of the data. The devil is in the errors, SDs etc.

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              • #
                KinkyKeith

                Grow Up.

                Is that an echo from an earlier comment by GA?

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              • #

                KinkyKeith August 30, 2016 at 3:33 pm

                “Grow Up. Is that an echo from an earlier comment by GA?”

                Comments having 1.xx.xx.x never grow up! That is why PI is so very much better than ‘e’ and ‘psi’!
                All the best! -will-

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    Playing the numbers game, and talking weasle words is a sure sign that it is a scam.

    I would not buy a used car from either Obama, nor Xi Jinping. Mind you, with all the armour plating, I probably couldn’t afford the fuel costs, anyway.

    442

  • #
    Joe Lalonde

    Jo,

    It is a sad state to be battling our own governments over their dictatorship of the citizens “for their own good”, rather than having public debates and true, honest science studies that are not bought by our politicians to push our own economic destruction.

    432

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Klimat Change is all about a deceptive weasel run around democracy by Communists.

      You can work out who the communists are by who supports the UN global strait jacket of COPxx

      Easy……

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Joe L.
      The papers in England today report that senior bureaucrats are trying to stall the BREXIT. An obvious leak from No. 10 to pressure them into compliance with democracy.

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  • #

    Gonna sit right down
    and write them wreckers a letter,
    how their cli-sci treaties can’t ever
    do us good, cost a fortune, bleed us dry,
    and you hafta’ wonder why, hundred years
    from now, them temps, maybe, says Bjorn
    Lomberg, down by – point – o – three.

    http://www.lomborg.com/press-release-research-reveals-negligible-impact-of-paris-climate-promises

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  • #

    “Skeptics can still do a lot to stop this train-wreck”
    This is no mere train-wreck! This is the eco-loon inmates taking over the whole asylum, while the incompetent politicians stand around with one thumb in their mouth, the other up their ass! When the Banksters say “switch” all politicians do indeed reverse the local position of their two thumbs. There is no other obvious change on the smooth way to complete destruction!
    Oh! woah are we!!

    392

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Random red thumb guy hasn’t shown up yet….. Must be school holidays….

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    • #
      Annie

      You spoke too soon!

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Must be an extra long work experince program….

        “Now sit here and anything that fits these criteria ( common sense, solid science, anything that expose the UN as sham, anything that goes against the Klimat Mafia ), you hit with a red thumb….science is completely irrelevent…”

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          And only 5 red thumbs…disappointing….although clearly I’m ticking them off enough…

          Meh…The Big Lie is what it is….

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        A joke:

        Q: Whats the difference between the classic Nigerian Scam and “Climate Change which sends big bucks to the UN to fund a solution to a non existant problem”?

        A: Nothing, as far as I can see…..in both cases you get robbed…

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        • #
          MudCrab

          Oooo!!! I know this one!

          The Nigerian Scam doesn’t insult you first.

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        • #
          Geoff Sherrington

          What is the difference between an alarmist climate modeller and a Nigerian woman?
          The Nigerian woman has a black box that works.

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    • #
      tom0mason

      Schools out!

      53

  • #
    bobl

    Anyone have a line to Trump?

    Trump should be out saying this will destroy American jobs for generations as China as a developing nation doesn’t have to do anything, all the pain is on the North American side of the deal – This is GOOD BUSINESS – for CHINA that is!

    Here’s a line for you Donald, “I will end ratification of this deal if elected in record time, I will not sacrifice one American Job on the altar of so-called climate change.”

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Kellyanne Conway is Trump’s latest Campaign Manager, if you go to his campaign site, you will find a generic email address. If you expressly say the email is for her, it will probably get through.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Well yes, to put it in perspective –

      China makes money off the rest of the world while laughing at the West, and sails full steam using a coal economy, while the Klimat Politburo scream blue murder over cow farts killing the planet…..

      If aliens turned up and we explained what was going on, they wouldnt believe us….

      I had to explain to my 11 year old that the climate stuff which *has* to be taught to kids, is wrong. She brought up the ice melting in Antarctica, and I was able to tell her it was due to volcanoes under the ice….she looked at me and I could see the “Er…hang on…”.

      I said to her to repsect her teacher and to respectfully ask questions that would in essence shred The Big Lie, but I also said teachers are caught in the middle having to peddle climate lies as promulgated by the govt curriculum…She got it. I said there is no solid scientific proof of climate change by man, and so thats where we are…me trying to explain why the govt is messing with her head….sucks….but what would be worse is her mindlessly swallowing Klimat propaganda…..

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  • #

    And on a somewhat related note, it seems that the UNFCCC’s official tweeter is soooo desperate to conjure up a semblance of support, a few hours ago they fell into the trap of endorsing a mashable post via twitter.

    Mashable had featured Mr. Mann-o-matic and others in hyperventilating despair mode!

    UNFCCC tweet:

    Hurricane season not yet over & world has already seen multitude of 2016 #climate impacts http://on.mash.to/2bwyYNn

    And the featured Mann-quote:

    The signal of climate change is no longer subtle

    Amazing, eh?!

    P.S. I have a screencap if this particular UNFCCC tweet should mysteriously disappear;-)

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    • #

      I like your attitude, but perhaps a slight name change is in order, temporally. For you Hilarity O might be in order, not to be confused with the current Hitlery C, Da Witch, et cetera!
      [Hilary has been a commentator here for longer than you have, Will. Her comments are always to the point, and thus is she respected -Fly]

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      • #
        Gee Aye

        Grow up

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      • #

        Thanks for the vote of confidence, Fly. And, more importantly, many thanks for the work that you, Jo and your fellow mods do to keep this blog humming with civility:-)

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      • #

        Will Janoschka August 28, 2016 at 6:05 pm

        I like your attitude, but perhaps a slight name change is in order, temporally. For you Hilarity O might be in order, not to be confused with the current Hitlery C, Da Witch, et cetera!

        [Hilary has been a commentator here for longer than you have, Will. Her comments are always to the point, and thus is she respected -Fly]

        I know! I have no desire for anyone to get HO mixed up with “Da Witch” 🙂

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  • #
    tom0mason

    Hopefully EU will sign.
    And that will be the end of Europeastan’s progress on all fronts.

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  • #
    tom0mason

    The Paris agreement is the keystone for the push to Agenda21 2030 Agenda. Without the Paris agreement getting government to kowtow to that Agenda would be impossible.

    Part of the increase in pressure may be the upcoming Conservation Conference in Hawaii, where plans for the first steps towards 2030Agenda are sure to be discussed (even if informally), possibly to get parts of embedded into their agreements.

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  • #
    TdeF

    It is amazing to think of CO2 as pollution, that carbon lifeforms would vilify the single source of their own existence and seek to stamp it out? We are no more in charge of CO2 levels than we are of the earth’s climate, glaciers, asteroids and volcanoes, tectonic movement or orbit but taxation will fix it?

    From ignorance to total arrogance, the human trip has only been thirty years and now we seem to believe the United Nations is the font of all science wisdom instead of purely a politicians self interest club, interested only in its own survival.

    Then Barack Obama must be the worst President in the history of the US, from all sides. Everything he and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has done has been a disaster. Climate must be the most absurd waste of peace in human history, while Obama backs all the wrong players around the world where in his view everyone is a freedom fighter. In fact his judgment is so bad, you have to really wonder if it is all intentional. Many do. Bring on the election. In Australia, bring back our real PM (You know who he is) and consign the conspirators to the dust bin of history. Sell the ABC/SBS monster. No one needs it.

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  • #

    I’s a treaty, and has to be ratified by the US Senate. So they say…but Obama doesn’t believe in the US Constitution, and no one will call him on this…

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    • #

      “but Obama doesn’t believe in the US Constitution, and no one will call him on this…”

      Kick back, grab a beer and some pretzels and watch! If you are not already reloading all brass like mad!

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        I would think people are buying reload kits while they are still legal…eventually they will outlaw them.

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        • #

          No kits! We hab fine molds for your lead. PLUS 0.1 grain measures for your powder, for your own rifle, dat can make your bullet go where you wish even when you are nodding off, yet checking out ‘her’!
          All the best! -will-

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  • #
    Manfred

    Over on the other side of the Tasman, that UN sycophantic eco-global bug on the flea of a gnats backside, NZ, where the incumbent National Government have announced to the euphoric strains of an MSM anthem their intention to ratify the Paris extravaganza, there are few surprises left. What was decidedly nauseating however in its toxic unexpectedness was the accompanying announcement of, “we’ll all have to do our bit.” It had a definite putrid stench about it, the sort that typically accompanies political rumination around a range of new taxes and legislation.

    It’s more than high time for Alt-Right push back.

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  • #
    Robin Guenier

    China, supported by other major emerging economies, has dug a barely-conceiled elephant trap for the West – essentially the US and EU. And the latter seem eager to fall into it. Extraordinary.
    LINK

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    • #
      tom0mason

      Robin Guenier

      “China, supported by other major emerging economies, has dug a barely-conceiled elephant trap for the West – essentially the US and EU. And the latter seem eager to fall into it. ”

      And your link is one the money, except (IMO)the US and Europe appear to be in competition, racing each other at full speed up the debt slope, readying themselves for a massive and somewhat complex dive into the rhinestone studded trap below.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      The Australian government will one of the first to leap into the pit, led by the Bishop with the knife.

      130

  • #
    Olaf Koenders

    Carbon chastity vows..? Sounds more like an attempt at a carbon chastity belt. But it’s full of holes.

    70

  • #
    DennisA

    It took eight years to ratify Kyoto, from 1997, the Kyoto Accord to 2005, with full ratification and only then by bribing Russia with WTO membership.

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  • #
    Ava Plaint

    The walls of RER-B Metro station at Gare du Nord are still plastered with obscure équations from the Paris Summit, claiming to justify the climate models.
    Gare du Nord us where most people flying into Paris arrive from Charles de Gaule airport.
    It might impress academics but it seems to be l’ost on nearly everybody else.

    Baffle them with science

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    • #
      TdeF

      They could put up Henry’s law which shows how CO2 equilibrium levels are set by ocean surface temperature and air pressure or the equation for radioactive decay of C14 in the air which proves all the fossil fuel CO2 has vanished, using the relaxation time constant from the atom bomb graph. I wonder if the equations can predict El Nino as we know they cannot predict it, whether they are sufficient to predict anything? Only Will Steffen believes El Nino is a product of Global Warming, without any reason to believe it. No, this graffiti is an extreme event, unsustainable and a blot on the landscape caused by inadequate science.

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  • #
    ScotsmaninUtah

    The EPA – turned to Darkside many years ago

    No wonder Obama didn’t talk about the climate leading up to elections, he knew he couldn’t win a mandate for it, and the Congress wouldn’t agree. Instead he’s going through the rogue EPA, and using regulations rather than legislation

    A Democratic controlled Whitehouse may never get the Senate or House approval for its fossil fuel emissions regulation, However it has shown that it can use effectively the EPA to achieve what it cannot democratically.

    Only 1 month and a bit until the U.S. election ….

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    • #
      tom0mason

      ScotsmaninUtah,

      The Paris agreement also has lots of elements in it designed to ease the passage of 2030Agenda (Updated Agenda 21). The much heralded EPA changes may be a false flag designed to distract.
      Consider if Obama has had enough time, all he had to do is split-up the ‘Treaty’ functional/procedural requirements, incorporating them into ‘updated’ mandates into each of the many relevant departments and agencies working practices. Maybe this has already happened.
      Turning to the UN, Obama can then assure the UN all the Treaty requirements are already part of normal business in the US, and just for publicity sign the treaty anyway. It is then irrelevant whether or not the senate signs as it will be happening just not called a treaty obligation.

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  • #
    cedarhill

    Obama may not even submit the treaty he signs to the Senate.

    What he will do is use the treaty as a cause to implement more regulations under the public relations claims you’re used to hearing from the AGW crowd. The international media will claim it’s another historic moment in saving the planet, et al. In fact, Congress has delegated so much power to the executive that one or more agencies (the EPA, Dept of HHS, Commerce, even the State Dept) can join in in the fun of implementing most of it’s provisions sans Congress. Of course Federal lawsuits will seek to block them but it’ll be years and then, remember, it only takes five people in the US to say it’s all OK.

    That shows you how powerful these folks are since this is being done without a shred of science beyond very poorly written software programs.

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    • #
      clive

      But let’s not forget,the”Trumpsters”Trump has already said that he will deal with the UN,when he gets in and I do believe that there are a lot of armed people in the USA,who will be looking for “Leftards”should the “DemocRATS and RINO’s elect Hitlery.

      50

  • #
    pat

    ***emerging economies’ quid pro quo on “climate change”!

    28 Aug: AFR: Ye Yu: Can China help shape global governance at G20
    (Dr Ye Yu is a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies. This article is part of a series from East Asia Forum in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University)
    The 13th Five-Year Plan set out China’s intention to “actively participate in global economic governance and [to contribute to the provision of] global public goods, increasing [the power of dialogue] in global economic governance”…
    The major achievement of the G20 in the last eight years has been through collective measures in response to the global financial crisis via expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. This involved a kind of grand bargain between the developed and emerging economies of the G20. The former made concessions on IMF quotas and World Bank voting power reform ***in exchange for the latter’s cooperation on exchange rates, trade, ***climate change and IMF contributions…
    And China has promoted green financing and the timely implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda…
    http://www.afr.com/news/world/can-china-help-shape-global-governance-at-g20-20160828-gr2w1z

    25 Aug: WSJ: Kenneth S. Rogoff: The Sinister Side of Cash
    Paper money fuels corruption, terrorism, tax evasion and illegal immigration—so the U.S. should get rid of the $100 bill and other large notes
    (Dr. Rogoff is Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. This essay is adapted from his new book, “The Curse of Cash,” which will be published in September by Princeton University Press)
    In turn, $50 and $20 bills would also be phased out, though $10s, $5s and $1s would be kept indefinitely…
    In principle, cutting interest rates below zero ought to stimulate consumption and investment in the same way as normal monetary policy, by encouraging borrowing. Unfortunately, the existence of cash gums up the works…
    Take cash away, however, or make the cost of hoarding high enough, and central banks would be free to drive rates as deep into negative territory as they needed in a severe recession…
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sinister-side-of-cash-1472137692

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      Mari C

      Huh. Time to convert the cash into something more like gold, platinum, other precious commodities, maybe.

      A pizza will end costing 2 carats of rubies, or some such.

      And with the drop of a coffee cup, 100,000 accounts could be erased from a system and leave all those people “penniless”

      Brilliant!

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    Real people do not work for the U.N.

    I have a friend “Glen” he is an ardent socialist and Global climate supporter.
    He is a really cool guy but he has decided to vote Green in the next UK election as he feels that both Labour and Conservatives have not given him what he wants.
    He is not convinced bout my opinions of the Global warming issue or the “dead end” nature of Socialism.

    On the flip side John and Jo are a supporters of business , she works hard as does her husband and they regard AGW as a “side show”.

    However , like me these people are nobodies, we have no power , no influence , but what we do have in common is we work, take that away and we unite to vote together.

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      OriginalSteve

      Have a look at the twisted barrel statue out the front of the UN – its agenda is global disarmament, which is just rank Socialism.

      If you want to know who are the true communists, look at who sucks up to the UN.

      Dont forget – the UN cant exist unless individual sovereign govts fund it….but why? What is the desired end state?

      Riddle me that, Batman….

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        clive

        It’s called keeping we “Plebs”in our place.

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        Dennis

        One World Government based on four regional authorities all UN based or closely associated.

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          OriginalSteve

          The world is organizing into 10 super nations, – ASEAN , EU, NAFTA etc and interestingly, this is predicted in the Bible book of Daniel with the statue with the golden head etc.

          Watch this space….

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    richard ilfeld

    The US issue in a nutshell:

    If it is a treaty and ratified by the senate it has the force of law, and in theory can’t be overturned by subsequent administrations without formal renunciation and and senate vote to repeal.

    While treaties are not always held sacred, they do for a basis for what passes for international law, and hold much sway. A good example that is related is the fabric of fisheries treaties.

    Anything not a full treaty is BS written in sand, and can and will be overturned on a whim. UN stuff is pretty meaningless in US politics — we think of the UN often as the home to New York’s worst parking offenders as double parking seems to have diplomatic immunity.

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      OriginalSteve

      I have seen Australian govt Bills written around UN treaties, as such, the UN is becoming by stealth ( i.e. sneaky politicians ) , the law of the land…..

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    Dave in the States

    This push, and the run up to the election, must be why this sorry piece of propaganda and disinformation appeared in my home town’s small town newspaper Friday:

    http://www.peacevoice.info/2016/08/05/our-deteriorating-environment-is-anybody-listening/

    Notice a lot of calls to get China and the US to get going on this.

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    Ruairi

    The Emperor heads to Hangzhou,
    Where Obama and Jinping in tow,
    Sign a climate-change deal,
    Claim his clothes to be real,
    Which the world sees as nothing but show.

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    Roy Hogue

    Actually Jo, Obama only needs the support of the senate, not the entire congress to ratify whatever he signs and it then become as if it was U.S. law. It’s like always though, the devil is in the details. So legislation implementing the agreement will be needed. And all of those things are very dicey to say the least.

    Why? Because it is by no means certain who will be elected in November nor is it by any means certain that Republicans will retain their control over the senate. So whatever Obama signs will then be left for his successor to deal with. And a democrat controlled senate would easily ratify the agreement.

    I don’t know how to read the senate problem well enough to comment further but if I was a bookie I would give really good odds that Hillary will be the president come January 20, 2017.

    I’ve been thought to be a nut by some and others remain politely silent. But I live here and I watch what happens as I have done for years, who says what and what the result is and Trump has less chance of being elected with every passing day. He may be speaking the truth about the general situation, something I recognized very early. But he cannot master the details of what is true or false and he has no grip on the numbers nor can he explain himself adequately and he’s flopping around as I feared he would, like a fish on the dock. To compound his problem, nearly half the population is benefitting from some government giveaway and here is Donald Trump, promising by easy implication if not explicitly to take all that away. Frankly, he acts as if he didn’t want to win. The outcome will change only if there is a miracle at the polls in November. When Karl Rove, if you know who he is, the architect of several past successful presidential campaigns and a considerable optimist, is sending out emails to Republicans stating that the situation is desperate, you look for the lifeboats. Only there are none.

    I devoutly wish I didn’t have to say this but you cannot count on Trump for anything and probably not the senate either. I’m watching my country basically commit suicide. It will not come out of this election the same as it went in. The constitution has been under attack for years and now they see their chance to radically change it and they’re going for it all out, no holds barred.

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      Roy Hogue

      And I’m well aware that those like me, the radical right wing extremists terrorists, as already promulgated by Homeland Security, will be wearing targets on our backs, hopefully only figuratively but as much a persona non grata as any diplomat ordered to leave the country.

      No one ever said life would be easy. But sticking up for your principles shouldn’t be such a trial. Yet such is our enemy that sticking up for your principles has become risky. But I’m too old to let myself be intimidated, come what may. So I will speak out at any chance I have and fight with the only weapon I have, my words, until the bitter end.

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        Roy Hogue

        And I have never seen it like this before, not in all my adult years.

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        Roy Hogue

        This is a man who was born in the United States, presumably educated here, including more than one course covering the constitution and he can easily get his hands on a copy of it and read it if he can’t remember its details and yet he could not or would not immediately answer the question,

        …that children born to people who are in the U.S. illegally are not U.S. citizens. That, he [Pence] said, “is a subject for the future.”

        by saying,

        Yes, they are citizens because the Constitution says they are and that is that, it’s settled, period,

        is inexplicable to me and also thoroughly disgraceful. I’ve called him a bloviating Jackass and he lives up to that right to the bitter end. And I’m forced to vote for him. And shame on Mike Pence who surely must know better than to say it’s a subject for the future because it is not. Or do they, for the first time in our history, want to stoop so low as the take away the citizenship of someone born a citizen, someone for whom there is absolutely no provision for removing citizenship or any of its rights?

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          KinkyKeith

          Interesting comments Roy.

          Sadly the politics of the western world is mired in vote buying and manipulation of voter perceptions via the media.

          Much as I empathize with your anxiety over the leadership vacuum over there please don’t think your country is the only one in trouble; we are all doing it tough when it comes to progress, vision and common sense.

          Humanity seems to be marching up and down in the one spot and we are getting tired and dispirited.

          KK

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            Roy Hogue

            KK,

            Believe me, I know you and I, Australia and America, are in this together. The only possible difference that can count for anything is that you don’t have Bill and Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. And that may be one of those differences without a useful distinction come next year.

            Roy

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              Roy Hogue August 30, 2016 at 2:02 am

              “KK, Believe me, I know you and I, Australia and America, are in this together. The only possible difference that can count for anything is that you don’t have Bill and Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. And that may be one of those differences without a useful distinction come next year. Roy”

              That difference may very well become the distinction. You folk in the AU seem well equipped to roll with the punches! In the USA all is much more fragile and now likely to descend to despair and anarchy! 🙁

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              KinkyKeith

              Will, when you talk about despair and anarchy you need to become better informed about the state of the nation in terms of our Aboriginal population.

              Many fine people amongst them, no doubt, but the politics of the last 50 years, focussing on vote buying, has left them largely isolated and living in emotional and physical squalor.

              Violence and alcoholism are endemic.

              They are not “rolling with the punches.

              KK

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          Roy,
          Children born of foreign diplomats within the US are not automagically ‘citizens’ of the USA!. And so it is with all others! In the US the rights of citizens ‘must’ be pass on to any offsprouts no-matter how nasty! The US government historically has given dual citizenship to any local newborn.
          The US Constitution is completely silent on this issue. I will stop without giving some rights to hostile invaders or there ugly crotch fruit!

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            Roy Hogue

            Children born of foreign diplomats within the US are not automagically ‘citizens’ of the USA!

            Will,

            I agree with you. But hear me out before you say anything more. The 14th Amendment is long and deals with a number of things, certainly a case where several amendments would have been better. But it is very clear in Section 1, the first sentence, the only one that really matters to this discussion:

            All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. — emphasis mine

            There is a clear but implicit distinction in that sentence, the foreign diplomat and by extension of the same international treaty, his family including children born here, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States or any state. That’s what diplomatic immunity is all about — they are intentionally made not subject to our jurisdiction. They may live here, work here and do that for a long time. But legally they are still at home and subject to the laws of their own country, not ours. And the only way that can change is if their country voluntarily gives up the person’s diplomatic immunity.

            The word “naturalized”, as is typical throughout the constitution, is not defined in that document because it was thought to be well defined and understood when amendment 14 was written. And it still is well defined and understood today.

            On the other hand, the child born here to parents who entered illegally is definitely subject to our jurisdiction, therefore meeting both requirements of Section 1’s first sentence and therefore a citizen without any ambiguity whatsoever.

            I’m no lawyer but I don’t think this amendment or any part of it is hard to understand or subject to any other possible interpretation. Only the damned layers or those who don’t want it to say what it says and haven’t the power or the courage to get it changed legitimately will try to make it otherwise than it is. Plain English is plain English and the Constitution is as plain as it can get.

            Since the Constitution is the foundation upon which an entire nation has been built, relying on its provisions to be stable, just as my house relies on its foundation to be stable, the desire to mess around with the Constitution is equivalent to someone coming along with a large backhoe and starting to dig under my house. My house cannot stand for very long once that digging starts to undermine it and neither can the country stand for very long if its foundation is undermined. And the process of undermining it is well along as you know.

            If there is anything in these entire United States that everyone needs to understand and follow, it’s the Constitution.

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              Roy Hogue

              I think you can see why I think it’s so important to understand the constitution and then follow it. And I have no patience with those who say it’s a “living document” (they don’t say what that is) that needs to grow and change with the times, requiring only the Supreme Court to redefine what it says and away we go with possibly a whole new Constitution on the whims of only 9 justices or whatever influences them.

              If they want to claim that then they need to show me language in the Constitution that says it’s a “living document” and there is no such language they can point to. The Constitution is static, requiring explicit action of a majority of the states according to one of two ways the Constitution itself defines before as much as one word of it can be changed. Yet we have not one but two candidates for the highest office in the country who don’t show any evidence that they understand the foundation upon which their administration of the people’s business will rest. And their apologists are right behind them in that folly.

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          Mari C

          The basic crux of the immigrant issue is simple – if they weren’t brown, we’d be ok with it. As it is, they do the mucky manky demeaning hard hot sweating and dangerous jobs no one else wants. But the language and cultural differences, the deep natural tans, these things are frightening for the average republican citizen (and democrat, if the immigrants show up outside of Texas, in, say, Vermont) and the politicians foster this, as does the media.

          I think someone pointed out that if there are no southern immigrants, legal or not, Trump’s grandkiddies might have to mow their own lawns.

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            Roy Hogue

            Mari,

            Sorry I didn’t notice what you said until now, so I hope you will see this.

            What you describe may be the way it is in current reality. At least we’re told that by apologists for the open borders, just walk across as you please hardliners. But it’s undermining the very fabric of the country as it happens. And frankly, I don’t believe we couldn’t get along just fine if we actually enforced the laws as they are written. We have ignored the law for a long time and the status quo may have a lot of inertia to overcome before things can change back to what they should be but they must change or the very culture of the nation will change in a way that I don’t like, a way that will make this country unrecognizable as what it was when it started out. If that happens by legitimate means, fine. But the way it’s happening now is not fine.

            By the way, I have no problem with a guest worker arrangement that would allow entry to work, to do those jobs that “Americans won’t do” as long as we know who comes in, where they go and the terms of their guest worker status have a time limit. We had such an arrangement for years and it worked. Mexican citizens worked the fields of the California central valley and at the end of the growing and harvest seasons, went home again. It wasn’t without problems but what is without problems? So solve the real problems, don’t give away your country to those with no right to have a piece of it.

            It’s not a matter of brown vs. white skin for me and for conservatives generally. It’s a matter of change according to the Constitution and laws of the United States or change by force of numbers, numbers of people who have no legitimate claim on the privilege of living or being able to vote here.

            We have had many different cultures introduced into our own by legitimate immigration and we have absorbed it all without any persistent problems. But what’s happening now is simply change being forced upon us by unconstitutional and illegal means. And it will never work. We cannot be the world’s charity ward and that’s what current policy amounts to.

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      Sceptical Sam

      I’m watching my country basically commit suicide.

      Roy, perhaps we have to go through the forge of disaster, poverty and loss before this generation wakes up to what its facing.

      Perhaps we need another Great Depression, and a war to follow so that the free people of the world better appreciate what is important. We have become soft. Political correctness is the weapon of our enemies.

      Universal dictatorship is unsustainable. History demonstrates over and over that mankind will not stand for it. Even in Russia, under the psychopath Stalin or in China under its psychopath Mao, there were those who resisted and who eventually brought them to heal. The point is that you have to be prepared to make the sacrifice – to die for your principles if necessary, rather than live under your enemy’s yoke of oppression.

      Yes, it might be brutal. It might be bloody. It might be a lot of very nasty things. But the alternative is worse.

      Thank God that the citizens of the USA still have the right to keep and bear arms.

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        Some of my neighbors keep and bear arms. The local bear population is getting rightfully pissed! 🙂

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        Perhaps we need another Great Depression, and a war to follow …

        Believe me, you do not need a war. Nobody needs a war.

        But I respect your right to arm bears, even if you can only bare arms.

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          For any civil society, A well regulated Militia is required if only to prevent outsiders, and especially your own government from futzing with you to much! 🙂

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          Sceptical Sam

          2nd Amendment:

          A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

          And rightly so.

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        Roy Hogue

        Sam,

        We didn’t NEED to go through any of that in my view. We’re going through it only because we failed to follow what we easily knew was good policy instead of bad. We failed to teach successive generations and insist that they get it right and here we are.

        I still believe very much that life got too easy in the west and with that ease came an ability to put off the consequences of bad decision making until the consequences and their cause couldn’t be connected by so many people that there was no longer a recovery possibility without a lot of trouble.

        I doubt that the people, armed with what their government allows them to have and lacking the military grade stuff their government rightly forbids them to have, can change much by force. There will not be another American revolution by armed citizens against an army with essentially equal force.

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    pat

    29 Aug: Australian: David Crowe: Emission rules shift cost on to new car buyers
    Australians will be forced to pay at least $1500 more for every new car under a federal government move to impose strict new rules on vehicle emissions.
    The standards are being prepared in the name of improving air quality but are being challenged by motoring groups that fear the price of new vehicles could jump as much as $4863 if the government were to bungle the changes…
    It comes as the “diesel dupe” scandal at Volkswagen undermines confidence in claims made for new vehicles…
    The new analysis by the ­Centre for International Economics cites the government’s own work to warn of the $1500 additional cost for every new ­vehicle but says this could rise to $4863 if the technology needed to cut emissions ends up costing more than it is worth…
    ***One concern is that wealthier Australians will be able to absorb the price hike from stricter emissions standards but that people on low incomes feel a bigger ­impact, as a percentage of their incomes, from tariffs on car ­imports as well as government rules that restrict the importation of second-hand cars…
    Environmental groups back the new standards in the name of improving air quality and health, while consumer group Choice is also calling for better standards, and warning that the Volkswagen scandal shows the government cannot trust the carmakers on the issue…
    Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg and Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher will announce today that they will lead the work to help meet the government’s target of reducing all Australian emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/emission-rules-shift-cost-on-to-new-car-buyers/news-story/4e774eee872aafb4261e7437421f0279?nk=888dcc1a7ce82e9790d57c7fabb99826-1472423521

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      Myrddin

      pat

      Thanks for the peek behind the Paywallian on the latest slap to the base by the Turnbull United Party.

      Australians will be forced to pay at least $1500 more for every new car

      Pocket – slug – here we go again.

      consumer group Choice is also calling for better standards

      at a cost of at least $1500 per new car. With ‘friends’ like Choice, what hope do consumers have to see the spiralling cost of living reined in ?

      and warning that the Volkswagen scandal shows the government cannot trust the carmakers on the issue…

      In line with Conquest’s Second Law – Choice was long ago captured by green-left extremists who constantly rail against the evils of Big Retail, Big Grocery, Big Telecoms, Big Petrol – you name it. Strangely, in their obviously preferred worldview – when Big Government and Big Union are running everything – Choice becomes redundant – because there will be no consumer choice.

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        OriginalSteve

        Well the trick will be to not buy new cars…see how fast the govt caves in….

        Also, it would be easy to force car makers to hand over the code to their engine ECUs to be examined prior to allowing the vehicle to be sold. Anyone found running non as-shipped standard code within 12 months of purchase gets heftily fined.

        It must not apply though to after market tuners, who often get cars running way more efficiently than a stock ECU map.

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    Robdel

    I just heard on the radio that coffee production will halve within the next few decades because of climate change. That was effectively negated by the remark that coffee production tripled over the last century. These cagw proponents are full of contradictions.

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      “contradictions” is not the right word. There is another word starting with “c” that is much more appropriate.

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    Neville

    Jo I think your Co2 emissions per country needs an update. Even Wikipedia has new percentages that show that—–
    USA= 15.6%
    China=22.7%
    EU = 10.9%
    Russia=5.4%
    Japan= 2.9%.
    India=5.7%.
    Beth the serf is correct . Lomborg’s team has a PR study that shows that COP 21 will deliver 0.05 c to 0.17 c reduction in temp by 2100. IOW no measurable difference at all. Or to quote Dr Hansen, COP 21 was just BS and fra-d. Here’s that Wiki update.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions

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      Manfred

      Neville, I see the meaningless “% of global total” deliberately and misleadingly implies total atmospheric CO2. These charlatans lack the temerity, conviction and shear cojones to state the percentage emission as a fraction of the total global atmospheric CO2. They’d be laughed out of existence if the wider populous really understood the trivial, infinitesimal quantities involved eg. Australia produces (by my est. reckoning) 0.0000002% of global CO2 total.

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    pat

    28 Aug: Financial Times: Edward Luce: US election: Nobody is talking about climate change
    People are afraid that doing something about global warming will make them poorer
    By any barometer, US politics has hit extreme weather in 2016, yet global warming ranks near the bottom on the list of voter concerns…
    There are two big obstacles. The first is that voters increasingly distrust ***experts nowadays…
    Second, people are afraid that doing something about global warming will make them poorer. Terms such as “carbon tax” imply a higher cost of living. This makes the politics very hard. To avoid the word “tax”, governments have resorted to efficient remedies such as cap and trade schemes, which are floundering in Europe, California and elsewhere, since they are run by bureaucrats and vulnerable to lobbying…
    ???Most global risk warnings for 2016 put a Trump win high on their list…
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a221c20c-6abb-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html?siteedition=intl

    ***so-called “experts”, Luce. plus people aren’t “afraid” CAGW policies will make them poorer. they KNOW they will.

    ???no “global risk” link provided, but the CAGW-infested Economist is the only example i can find (reported by MSM worldwide at the time) and they misrepresent everything about Trump’s policies, as do most people who follow the MSM rather than read them for themselves.

    17 Mar: BBC: Trump presidency rated among top 10 global risks: EIU
    Donald Trump winning the US presidency is considered one of the top 10 risks facing the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (LINK)…
    However, it does not expect Mr Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton…
    He is rated as riskier than Britain leaving the European Union or an armed clash in the South China Sea…
    The EIU ranking uses a scale of one to 25, with Mr Trump garnering a rating of 12, the same level of risk as “the rising threat of jihadi terrorism destabilising the global economy”…
    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35828747

    as for the prediction Clinton will win, the virulently anti-Brexit Economist got that VERY wrong:

    23 Jun: Economist: How we calculated our extrapolated Brexit vote shares
    After repeating this exercise for every counting area and adding up the results, we concluded that this method was probably systematically under-representing “remain” supporters. It suggested that “leave” would win the referendum comfortably—precisely the opposite conclusion from the one reached by betting markets, which see “remain” as the overwhelming favourite. To bring our estimates in line with the wisdom of crowds—if you think you’re smarter than a prediction market, think again—we simply reduced the projected “leave” share by the same amount in every counting area, so that our national forecast matched the bookmakers’ expectation of 54.8% for “remain”…
    http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/06/projecting-eu-referendum

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    pat

    more theatricals, even setting aside the pros & cons of biofuels:

    25 Aug: Reuters: Marcelo Teixeira: Brazil Climate Pledge Questioned After Ethanol Snub
    Biofuel and climate experts have questioned Brazil’s commitment to a plan to cut carbon emissions by raising ethanol use after the country’s government this week said it planned to scrap a tax break on the biofuel.
    Brazil pledged under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to increase cane-based ethanol and biodiesel in its energy mix to nearly 18 percent by 2030. That would require an increase in annual production to 50 billion liters of ethanol by 2030 from around 30 billion in 2015/16, experts said.
    It was one of the marquee components of Brazil’s proposed contributions to the agreement to wean the global economy off fossil fuels and arrest global warming.
    But the government on Wednesday said it had no plans to extend a tax break on ethanol sales that expires in December, underscoring its desperation to boost revenues as Brazil suffers its worst recession since the 1930s.
    The loss of the tax break would make the biofuel less competitive against gasoline at the pump, prompt drivers to flock back to the petroleum-based fuel, and jeopardize Brazil’s flagship Paris proposal, experts said.
    “Brazil’s intended contributions are very pretty on paper, but so far it’s just that: a declaration,” said Andre Luis Ferreira, a director at the Institute of Energy and Environment, in Sao Paulo…
    Elizabeth Farina, head of cane industry association Unica, said the return of the ethanol tax would likely push cane mills to further switch from the biofuel to sugar production next year, as the sweetener already offers far better margins…
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-ethanol-quarrel-idUSKCN1112HG

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    lindsay phillips

    Hi Jo,
    Thanks for the as-usual “ab-fab” discourse.
    But I can’t help but draw your attention … & others that may be interested … to the following scintillatingly funny fact.
    If you can, please show the statement from the Chinese President Xi JinPing, which makes a slightly oblique (verging on unusually direct!) statement critiquing the United States’ President actual bona-fides to make such an undertaking. (1001 x LOL’s!!!)
    Warmist of regards, Reformed Warmist of Logan.

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    Iren

    Here’s an interview by Principia Scientific International with Prof. Michael Hart on his new book Hubris – The Troubling Science of Economics and Politics of Climate Change which should be mandatory reading for every alarmist. The simple fact is that the whole scare is, and has always been, purely political.

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    Graham

    Article 6: section 8
    “Parties recognize the importance of integrated, holistic, and balanced non-market approaches being available to Parties to assist in the implementation of their nationally determined contributions

    Article 7: Section 5
    “Parties acknowledge that adaptation should follow a country-driven, gender-responsive, participatory and fully transparent approach…and should be based on and guided by the best available science and,as appropriate, traditional knowledge, knowledge of indigenous peoples

    I’m in mind of Tim Minchin. Surely traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge that has been verified by the scientific method already falls under the category of best available science. If not, then why is it relevant?

    As for ensuring a gender responsive, non-market redistribution of finance and technology (that’s article 9) don’t get me started. This document is pure drivel!

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    pat

    29 Aug: ABC AM: Cutting ARENA will send renewable innovation offshore: Former CEO
    MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Greg Bourne, ARENA was established, as I said, in 2012. Is it still necessary?
    GREG BOURNE: Absolutely. ARENA has done an amazing job over the last four and a half years – something like 250 projects, none of which would have gone ahead without grant funding…
    MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But isn’t this, the funding and the innovation generally in the renewable sector, happening anyway?
    GREG BOURNE: It is happening. It’s happening overseas very definitely. Here what all the financiers want to see is they want to see demonstration, they want to see that, you know, the proof, if you like; they want to be able to touch it and feel it. And that’s what’s happened with the large solar rounds, with all of the other things such as network upgrades.
    People get very, very nervous putting their equity in their debt. What grant does is it de-risks some of these projects and allows people to say yep, this will work, let’s go with it…
    MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: So if this sort of innovation is happening overseas, why do we need to spend $1.3 billion on it?
    GREG BOURNE: Because a lot of the work of course is done at home in Australia with our own particular situations, our own particular price points and so on…
    MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: So essentially your argument is that, what, that the market alone can’t drive this innovation? Is that what you’re saying?
    GREG BOURNE: The market alone in Australia will not drive this innovation…
    I think the other key thing, Michael, a lot of people look at grants and they say oh this is just subsidies. But a grant is a true investment in trying to bring about a new future. It’s completely different from a subsidy trying to protect something which is just the status quo…
    Many of the projects in the pipeline – I think there’s something around about $7 billion of projects in the pipeline – will just basically stall and stop.
    Those people who have equity will put it overseas, elsewhere…
    We have as Australia committed to our Paris commitments in terms of trying to reduce our emissions…
    http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2016/s4528300.htm

    always a proponent on their ABC.

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    pat

    some humour dedicated to The Economist:

    27 Aug: Marketwatch: Matthew Lynn: Opinion: The real casualty of Brexit: reputations of economists who predicted doom
    Did the forecasters let their political views cloud their economic judgment?
    Did you hear the one about the economist who drove into a swimming pool and broke his neck? He forgot to seasonally adjust. Have you seen the version of Trivial Pursuit designed by an economist? It has 3,000 questions and 10,000 answers…
    What‘s the difference between an economist predicting a Brexit-triggered recession and a confused and senile old man? The economist is the one with a calculator…
    The U.K. economy would be plunged into recession, we were told. The banking system would go down. The eurozone would take a terrible hit.
    And yet the real casualty turns out to be something quite different: The reputation of professional economists…
    As it turns out, however, Britain is doing just fine, and so is the rest of Europe. That is surely a calamity for which the profession deserves a beating — and at the very least should start asking itself some serious questions…READ ON
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-real-casualty-of-brexit-reputations-of-economists-who-predicted-doom-2016-08-24

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    pat

    another joke “economist”:

    25 Aug: Bloomberg: Citigroup: A Trump Victory in November Could Cause a Global Recession
    Economic growth would suffer, says Willem Buiter
    The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States could lead to chaos in markets and increased policy uncertainty that tip the world into recession, according to Citigroup Inc…
    Buiter, for his part, has been warning of a global recession for nearly a year, though he previously saw a deceleration in Chinese growth as the proximate cause…
    Citi’s base case, however, is for Hillary Clinton to prevail in the presidential election…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/citigroup-a-trump-victory-in-november-could-cause-a-global-recession

    Sept 2015: Bloomberg: Citigroup Inc. is sounding the alarm bells for the world economy.
    In an analysis published late on Tuesday, the New York-based bank’s chief economist, Willem Buiter, said there is a 55 percent chance of some form of global recession in the next couple of years…
    “The world appears to be at material and rising risk of entering a recession, led by EMs and in particular by China,” wrote Buiter, a former U.K. policy maker…
    Buiter is a frequent outlier. Counterparts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are playing down the risk posed by China to rich economies…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-09/citigroup-sees-55-risk-of-a-global-recession-made-in-china

    April 2015: Bloomberg: Citi Economist Says It Might Be Time to Abolish Cash
    In a new piece, Citi’s Willem Buiter looks at this problem, which is known as the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates…
    Buiter’s note suggests three ways to address this problem:
    1. Abolish currency.
    2. Tax currency.
    3. Remove the fixed exchange rate between currency and central bank reserves/deposits.
    Yes, Buiter’s solution to cash’s ability to allow people to avoid negative deposit rates is to abolish cash altogether. (Note that he’s far from being the first to float this idea. ***Ken Rogoff has given his endorsement to the idea as well, as have others.)…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi-economist-says-it-might-be-time-to-abolish-cash

    ***MSM always happy to give Rogoff a voice – see comment #21 WSJ article above.

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    pat

    AFGE federal union members & what seems to be carpenters’ union of some sort make up most of the tiny audience, yet MSM – especially network TV & cable, created camera angles to make the crowd look large, & said Clinton spoke to a packed house!

    PIC: 25 Aug: Conservative Treehouse: sundance: Even With Union Attendance, Very Small Crowd for Hillary in Reno
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/08/25/even-with-union-attendance-very-small-crowd-for-hillary-in-reno/comment-page-1/#comments

    below, video is superb. it certainly tells a story the MSM is hiding:

    28 Aug: GatewayPundit: Aleister: Crowd at Trump Rally in Akron, Ohio is a Sea of Women, Minorities, Independents And Former Democrats (VIDEO)
    The media is deliberately not showing Trump crowds like this one to the American people.
    It would destroy their narrative.
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/08/crowd-trump-rally-akron-ohio-sea-women-minorities-independents-former-democrats-video/

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    pat

    former New York Times reporter, Goodwin, tells it like it is…except the headline should read – “Mainstream journalism worldwide” is collapsing before our eyes – and it’s not just over Trump:

    21 Aug: NY Post: Michael Goodwin: American journalism is collapsing before our eyes
    The frenzy to bury Trump is not limited to the Clinton campaign and the Obama White House. They are working hand in hand with what was considered the cream of the nation’s news organizations.
    The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America.
    The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent…
    Indeed, no foreign enemy, no terror group, no native criminal gang suffers the daily beating that Trump does…
    By torching its remaining credibility in service of Clinton, the mainstream media’s reputations will likely never recover, nor will the standards…
    Liberal bias in journalism is often baked into the cake. The traditional ethos of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable leads to demands that government solve every problem. Favoring big government, then, becomes routine among most journalists, especially young ones.
    I know because I was one of them. I started at the Times while the Vietnam War and civil rights movement raged, and was full of certainty about right and wrong…READ ALL
    http://nypost.com/2016/08/21/american-journalism-is-collapsing-before-our-eyes/

    on a positive note, the bias has been so blatant, it has backfired, just as the relentless CAGW propaganda from ABC has surely caused Aunty to lose credibility.

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    pat

    btw the anti-BREXIT mob haven’t given up either:

    28 Aug: Daily Mail: Glen Owen: PM lays down the law on Brexit! Cabinet Ministers summoned to Chequers to create action plans on making EU vote a success as May orders an end to ‘turf wars’
    The meeting – the first to be held by the Prime Minister at her Chequers country retreat – will mark a sharp escalation in Mrs May’s efforts to assure restless Eurosceptics in her party that she is on track to deliver an early exit from the EU and will not fob them off with ‘Brexit-lite’…
    Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith is leading the calls from the Tory backbenches for Mrs May to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty early in 2017 to trigger the two-year process towards Brexit.
    Mrs May reportedly believes ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and will not offer opponents to stand in the way of Britain’s withdrawal…
    ***The news comes as senior figures in the government have complained about pro-EU civil servants complicating the work of new Brexit Ministers.
    Issues have been raised by government sources about officials in the Treasury and the Foreign Office for hindering the progress of the new Department for Exiting the European Union…
    The source added some civil servants were also ‘miffed’ at at having to take the UK out of the EU, claiming: ‘A lot of these people are institutionally wedded to the status quo.’…
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3761839/PM-calls-school-Cabinet-showdown-Chequers-bang-heads-Brexit-order-end-feuding.html

    27 Aug: UK Telegraph: Steven Swinford: Theresa May will trigger Brexit negotiations without Commons vote
    Theresa May will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before opening negotiations to formally trigger Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, The Telegraph has learned.
    Opponents of Brexit claim that because the EU referendum result is advisory it must be approved by a vote in the Commons before Article 50 – the formal mechanism to leave the EU – is triggered.
    However, in a move which will cheer Eurosceptics, The Telegraph has learned that Mrs May will invoke Article 50 without a vote in Parliament…
    A Downing Street source said: “The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that the British public have voted and now she will get on with delivering Brexit”…READ ON FOR SABOTEURS’ PLANS
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/26/theresa-may-will-trigger-brexit-negotiations-without-commons-vot/

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    richard verney

    I take it from the blue shading on the map that Norway has ratified the Paris agreement.

    Norway has a small population and produces much of its electricity from hydro power and thus it is not a significant CO2 emitter. I do not consider it appropriate to refer to Norway as a tin pot country, it most certainly is not unless of course simply having a socialist government is one of the definitions of tin pot.

    I am not an American and therefore not familiar with US law, but the Paris Agreement is not binding and contains a unilateral withdrawal provision enabling countries that have adopted/ratifies the convention to serve notice and withdraw from it. In these circumstances Obama may not require any ratification from Congress or the Senate.

    I seem to recall hearing that Kerry at the time specifically claiming that the treaty/convention was non binding.

    China is taking the West for mugs. Who can blame them. The West is naive since the really big polluters (China India Russia) will do nothing to cripple their economies by reducing emissions.

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