Author Russian Presidential Press and Information Office
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Bloomberg has joined a chorus of voices hyping up the alleged Russian threat. But the real threat is to President-elect Trump.
Russia Wins in a Retreat on Climate Change
By Noah Smith
President-elect Donald Trump has signaled ambivalence about many policies, such as Obamacare and infrastructure spending. But on at least one issue, his attitude is crystal-clear: climate change. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement designed to limit fossil-fuel use, and presented himself as a champion of the coal industry. His transition team even demanded that the Energy Department make a list of names of employees who worked on climate change. U.S. national policy seems set for an epic shift away from alternative energy and carbon reduction.
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Who would win from a retreat in the war on climate change? Oil, coal and gas industries around the world, obviously, as well as coal-burning power companies. But the biggest winner probably would be another country: Russia.
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Without oil and gas, Russia’s economy would be a shambles, and sharp declines in energy prices in the 1990s and again in the past three years sent its economy into deep recessions.
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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-15/russia-wins-in-a-retreat-on-climate-change
There is no doubt Putin thinks the climate movement is a joke. During the G20 conference in Brisbane Australia, when asked why a fleet of Russian warships was parked just outside Australian territorial waters, the Russian embassy replied they were performing “climate change research”.
But why should Putin care about Western governments wasting money on useless renewables? Renewables need gas turbine backup, backup turbines which likely burn more gas cycling up and down to try to stabilise the grid, than they would if they burned steadily, supplying the full base load.
Europe will need Russian gas and oil for decades to come, given Europe’s ongoing rejection of nuclear power, opposition to fracking, and political efforts to shutdown coal plants.
So why would a prestigious news organisation like Bloomberg want to muckrake empty Soviet era paranoia?
There is one possible target of all the reds under the beds lunacy hitting our media lately which makes sense. The electoral college vote on the 19th December.
Dem congressman: Electoral College has ‘right’ to weigh Russian hacking
By Kyle Cheney
A Democratic congressman is suggesting that members of the Electoral College should be able to consider Russian interference in the presidential election — and whether it influenced the outcome — when deciding how to cast their vote.
“To the extent that foreign interference in the United States presidential elections may have influenced the final result, I believe the electors have the right to consider that,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in a statement to POLITICO on Saturday.
Cicilline appears to be the first member of Congress and the highest-ranking elected official in the country to endorse the notion that electors aren’t simply rubber stamps for their states’ popular vote. Earlier Saturday, he retweeted a Rhode Island-based national security expert who argued that the intelligence community “must brief electoral college about Russia before vote.”
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/electoral-college-russian-hack-david-cicilline-232469
President-elect Trump’s political opponents, in my opinion, are hoping that their empty caricature of old style cold war paranoia will help awaken enough doubt in Republican electoral college voters minds, to cheat Trump of his victory.
I heard this somewhere:
“Hamedin’s Weiner dogged Hillary with Comey’s help.”
Russia is not the enemy . The Democrats are looking to blame anyone they can for their arrogant election screw up . First it was the race card fanning flames of civil unrest , then it was the disastrous Hail Mary recounts , now it’s the Russian conspiracy . If anything Russia did well with a weak Obama government with so many self enrichers getting a free hand at stealing tax payer money .
Trump will drain the swamp and the critters are not happy but Russia has got enough issues of far more importance than the virtual never ending USA election cycle .
The top dogs of the Democrats have such massive egos they can’t accept responsibility for blowing an election and all that entails . The other obvious pattern of the Democrat string pullers is they create distractions a plenty when they have lots to hide .
Russia may not be the enemy, but they aren’t our friends either. They have been making it a habit to invade our friends, and that is not a good thing.
Getta clue, MarkW, …… the US has no friends, ….. not even Saudi Arabia.
After WWII, the US has stuck its “nose” in most every country’s business, demanding that it do what the US wants it to do. Inclusively, to include Cuba, Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.
And if that country refuses, the US will support a coup to overthrow said government leaders …… or ….. send in assassins to kill the government leader ……… or ….. launch a military invasion to depose and/or kill said government leaders.
“DUH”, don’t you be fergettin that the US did every thing imaginable to prevent the post-WWII Jewish refugees from western Europe, Germany and eastern Europe from migrating to another country …… and the US also tried their damnest to prevent those same Jewish refugees from creating the State of Israel in the unclaimed desert area denoted as Palestine on Middle East maps.
http://israelandpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/shrinking_map_palestine_two_state_solution1.jpg
Seems to me our economy would be in shambles just like everyone else without oil and gas as well. Blaming the Russians is giving them too much credit. Hillary lost it all on her own.
Absolutely – Hillary lost because she didn’t want to get her designer shoes dirty.
The American citizens had no right to know that Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the nomination.
Thats interfering in the old American way of elections.
In a distant era occurring so long ago that nobody could possibly remember it without the aid of a prosthetic memory device–like google, a piece of string or something–this happened…
That was way back in October of 2016. Narratives have changed a lot since those heady old days.
So, am I to conclude that there will not be a President Trump , no EPA reorganisation but instead a renewed and more vigorous attack on any kind of climate scepticism?
I do not understand why this very important point is not appreciated by our politicians. It is not difficult since anyone who owns a car knows that fuel economy is worse in urban driving with start/stop conditions, than it is when proceeding at a steady speed on the freeway/motorway.
Renewables are a fail since they fail to achieve their primary objective. They do not result in the meaningful reduction of CO2. Germany that has gone hell for leather on renewables this millennium has not seen any reduction in CO2 emissions these past 15 years. By contrast the USA which has switched from coal to gas, has seen significant reductions in CO2.
If renewables do not result in the meaningful reduction of CO2 then they have no point whatsoever since the energy they produce is more expensive, unreliable and no despatchable. They are a fail on the economic case and energy security front so why do our politicians force through such a stupid policy. I guess we all know the answer. Hopefully Trump will drain the swamp and we will see a very big pull back from these stupid policies.
The Texas grid does use some wind, and it couples well with turbines. It just takes good engineering. Nowadays I live in Spain, and they have a pretty decent wind and solar kit. They back it up with hydro. The price i pay for electricity is about 30 % higher than in Texas.
Problem is you need a lot of hydro to store energy.
Consider running a single 2Kw household electric heater for a day. 2Kw x 86400 seconds in a day = 172.8 megajoules.
How much pumped water do you need to store 172.8 mega joules?
Assume a 100m drop.
Energy = Force x Distance = Acceleration x Mass x Distance
172.8Mj = 9.8ms^-2 x mass x 100m
mass = 172.8Mj / (9.8ms^-2 x 100m) = 176,326Kg of water – 176 tonnes of water.
You need 176 tonnes of water to drop 100m to power a single household electric heater for a day.
This is why hydro schemes are vast, and why hydro can only supply a small fraction of the total energy storage capacity required to have a hope of stabilising intermittent electricity sources.
“Fernando Leanme December 16, 2016 at 2:06 am
It just takes good engineering.”
Sarc surely?
It couples well with turbines, but it will never couple efficiently. Constantly turning the turbines on and off kills any hope of energy efficiency.
How many birds do those Spanish windmills kill every year?
It is possible that the renewable energy sources will be made viable by industrial sized ceramic super capacitors.
http://insights.globalspec.com/article/3489/ceramic-based-ev-battery-is-lightweight-green
They are far better than lithium batteries. Never underestimate the scientific community.
there is another problem with gas turbines
standard gas turbines have a lower efficiency though stop and go, and also a higher wear and tear.
but even with asteady load they are way less efficient than modern dual cycle gas turbines, which cannot run in a stop and go mode.
So leaving away wind/solar power and just converting to dual cyyle gas turbines would cause less overall CO2 emissions plus lower electricity costs.
Combining these dual cycle gas turbines with communal heating by the left over heat will give an efficiency of more than 90%.
So there is no need of any renewable energies, except for remote areas and special cases,
Assuming that you are referring to “steam heat”, ……. just how much “communal heating” (# of homes) do you figure the “left-over” heat from one (1) gas turbines will provide?
Interesting that the conservative minded posters here seem to accept, by and large, that hacking did take place and emails were released via Wikileaks. Are they aware that this is not official Trump policy which states that it is all nonsense?
Only in your warped mind is it not official Trump policy to recognize as fact that,
a) Democrat emails were “hacked”
ii) then “leaked” to WikiLeaks,
iii) then “released” for public consumption.
Nobody disputes those self-evident facts, not anywhere.
Trump even said, “I love Wikileaks” at one of the debates. Skepticism, disbelief, mockery, etc, is generally directed at the evidence-free accusation that Russia is behind it all.
I suppose quoting that “official policy” you alluded to would have negated the opportunity to beat up your silly little strawman.
It never ceases to amaze me how leftists assume that everyone else is required to believe only what our leaders tell us to believe.
I guess it’s just another example of projection.
Trump did not say that Hillary Clinton’s and the DNC’s e-mail’s were NOT hacked. He stated that the belief that Russia intervened to help him is absurd.
The Democrats’ argument seems to be that the Russians hacked Clinton’s and the DNC’s e-mails due to carelessness or iineptitude on the part of Clinton and the DNC, therefore the electors should vote for Clinton instead of Trump.
Australian governments, under ALP & Liberal parties, gave:
* $88 million to the Clinton Foundation, and,
* $450 million to the Clinton-affiliated “Global Partnership for Education”
over the past ~ 10 years.
Feb 2016:
==========
Labor volunteers have been caught on hidden cameras bragging about using Australian taxpayer funds to work on a US presidential campaign and interfering with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaign signs.
In a video posted online by the conservative undercover campaign group Project Veritas Action, four Australians are recorded saying they received taxpayer funds for flights, accommodation and daily expenses while organising for Democratic senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, a possible breach of US election law.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/alp-operatives-on-taxpayerfunded-us-trip-caught-up-in-hidden-camera-campaign-sting-20160227-gn5chk.html
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Why is my nation not in the shaming spotlight for having tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to interfere with your election outcome?
You nation is not in the ‘shaming spotlight’ because the American government has been interfering in virtually every ‘free’ nations electoral process for decades trying to do exactly what your government did, shape an election outcome to favor our interests. We do what the Russians have done, we’re just not as clumsy as they are.
With the literally stunning news (to me at least) that the Obama Admin knew about the Russian efforts & intentions as far back as summer 2015 and DID NOTHING, SAID NOTHING in all that time I think the current hyperventilation about this issue should be focused on the outgoing admin as to why they essentially ignored evidence of a hostile power attempting to interfere/influence an American election.
Now the American AG has stated that there IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THERE WAS ANY ‘HACKING’ OF ANY VOTING MACHINES and that this information was communicated to all 50 State governments. I wonder why she didn’t so state after Jill Stein started her ludicrous attempt to destroy the integrity of the election.
On a scale of “from Stalin to Gorbachev”, Putin seems to fit right in the middle of your average Soviet-style dictator, all of whom the Leftists adored during the Cold War. Even Stalin was admired, in spite of having killed up to 25 million kulaks (freed serfs).
So what is it they find offensive about Putin? His admiration of free-market economics? Perhaps, but I think EW is spot on. It’s all about the election.
But what is the motive for blaming recent cyber attacks on the Democrats? It’s almost certainly not Putin. If he really hacked Hillary’s servers then he would own tons of emails which he could use to black-mail and make Hillary do his bidding.
The New York Times published some of the details of these hacks a few days ago, claiming a Russian gang, which the FBI referred to as the “Dukes”, was responsible for phishing John Podesta’s email password, and other hacks. Apparently Obama and the Democrats knew all about these attacks in 2015, but did nothing at the time stop or publicize the attacks. (That is sufficient proof to me that they really didn’t know who was behind these attacks)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0
But that moniker (“Dukes”) actually is a reference to Duqu, a powerful exploit uncovered in 2011 by Kaspersky Lab in Moscow, bearing resemblance to Stuxnet (which was likely crafted by Israel/UK/US). In fact, back in 2015, the Duqu gang attacked the Kaspersky Lab itself, with a powerful new toolkit which Kaspersky called Duqu 2.0. It was a very sophisticated and stealthy tool which only a nation-state could have engineered. But it is possible that other groups have acquired this tool and are using it too.
https://www.wired.com/2015/06/kaspersky-finds-new-nation-state-attack-network/
So, assuming for the sake of argument that the attacks were indeed an attempt to influence the US elections, it is clear that Israel would have more to gain (vis-a-vis Iran deals etc) by having Trump in the White House.
I’m not saying that is a bad thing. 😐
The link to the actual NYT article is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html
The NSA suffered a huge blow to their credibility recently when secret cybersecurity tools from their cyberwar unit were stolen and offered up for sale.
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/10/03/shadow-brokers-are-disappointed-about-lack-of-interest-in-nsa-tools-auction/
Putin likes the free market? Funny, he’s never given any indication of that.
Putin has openly stated his admiration for the infrastructure that runs China’s ‘free market’. And he has surrounded himself with a fawning press and a ‘cult of personality’ which has made him politically invincible.
Oops, did I say ‘Putin’, I meant to say ‘Obama’.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/not-model/article/784918#
:-]
What Obama and Putin both admire is state control of public enterprises (e.g. schools, health-care, police forces etc). Free market? Not so much.
Fake news – Man induced climate change and fixing the non existent problem.
The attempt by disgruntled lefties to hijack the Electoral college is the real news. The news of course is largely controlled by people who support deliberately lying. The Climate change consensus is sustained by deliberate deception. So it is no surprise to see an overlap of interests and methods
The group who will profit most from returning to coal fired power is humanity.
I visited Russia in 2006 and again this year.
Two thins have stood out:
1. The improvement in living standards and happiness of the people is incredible.
2. The vast majority of people adore and respect Putin.
Why is so horrible to think of Russia and the US strengthening ties?
The same thinkers who now deride Russia are those who saw the Soviet Union as the model to which we should all have aspired thirty years ago.
Yes, keep your friend close and your enemies closer.
“Why is so horrible to think of Russia and the US strengthening ties?”
It’s not horrible to me. I think the American people and the Russian people get along just fine when given the chance. We weren’t doing badly together not so long ago, before Putin took over.
Putin is the problem. If Putin wanted to get along, he could get along with us. We are not looking for a confrontation, but we are not going to sit still if Putin pushes things too far, and he is getting close to doing that now for some crazy reason.
So the key is in Putin’s hands. I don’t know if he will be reasonable in the future with a new approach, but it won’t hurt to find out. Like the man said: “Talk, talk, is better than war, war.”
Being reasonable on our part doesn’t require us to give up our principles and interests. At the same time, the U.S. should build up its military forces to the point where no rational person would ever think of attacking us. We want to talk to dictators from a position of strength. They understand strength and respect it, however grudgingly.
Putin wants to reestablish a Russian empire that exists mostly in Russian mythology.
It isn’t in our interests to let him do that. Especially since the only way to that is to invade countries that are friendly towards us.
TA and Mark W,
You miss a very important point.
The Russians respect and like their LEADER.
The people in the USA do not respect their current leader nor his replacement (yet).
It does not matter what the Yanks think of Putin, nor what the Ruskies think of Oh Bummer.
If you can not see the demise of the USA under Oh Bummer then you need a new seeing-eye dog. During this period, Russia has bloomed.
Putin’s whole schtick is Russian nationalism, combined with social conservatism. It’s why he remains popular despite a sick economy, foreign adventures and increasing authoritarianism, to include murdering dissidents.
Also, his interventions have been motivated by economic concerns, mainly regarding the energy industry and arms sales, as well as traditional Russian imperialism.
However, his popularity is falling. It’s still probably above 60%, though, a level at which few US presidents have been able stay for long.
“Putin wants to reestablish a Russian empire that exists mostly in Russian mythology.”
That’s what a lot of people say. But I have to question whether Putin is serious about creating a new Russian empire. I just don’t see how a rational person would think he could start off conquering his neighbors without getting attacked himself. Does Putin think he and his nation have that much ability?
My thinking is if Putin is rational, he is mainly bluffing and is seeking only minimal gains, like Crimea, and if he is not rational then there is big trouble ahead for everyone.
Putin is not acting rationally now with regard to his confrontational stance towards the U.S. He claims his actions are only in reaction to U.S. moves, but that is not true, and can be seen by anyone who cares to look. It is Putin who is the one raising the stakes, and the U.S. and Europe are reacting.
What’s the end game, Mr. Putin?
I guess that all readers here; whether left, right or in the middle realise that the media totally distorts the message.
When you become a climate sceptic you realise how the media conditions people to accept ‘the consensus’.
How often to climate sceptics get fair airtime?
Same with the Trump candidacy, any mud that could be thrown was fired Trumps way while Clinton was promoted as the only rational choice for electors.
The left who suffered the 1950 McCarthy witchhunt now join in the demonisation of Russia and Putin, not realising its the flip side of the coin.
The establishment media tolerates only a small spectrum of opinions, move outside of these narrow confines and you will be described as irrational,racist ,populist, mad, misogynist, dangerous,lunatic,islamophobic and so on.
So be good sceptics listen to all sides of each debate, keep an open mind and evaluate the evidence to reach rational conclusions.
During the 1950’s there actually were communists in our government.
Why was it wrong to expose them?
It wasn’t. It became wrong over the past 60 years of left wing propaganda pushed by the progressives in tne media and Hollywood. This is a street fight, not the Marquise de Queensbury rules boxing match many of the posters on here and guys like John McCain and GW Bush in the republican party think it is. Toughest and nastiest guy wins. Freedom is at stake. Bunch of lickspittles.
There are still communists in our Government Mark.
Be skeptical of CAGW and of Leftwing politics and the Leftwing News Media. With regard to the Leftwing News Media, you would be better off assuming they are lying to you, than taking their words at face value. You will be correct most of the time.
And I guess I really should not call it lying in many cases. The Leftwing News Media has its share of True Believers and they hear the latest Leftwing meme and believe it wholeheartedly, and pass it on as the truth because they believe it’s the truth.
So you can’t really call those kinds of people liars. They are dupes. They are the easily influenced. They are part of the Leftwing News Media.
Some Leftwing reporters deliberately lie, and some are True Believers, and I have watched them for decades and can’t really tell you which is which, when I watch these reporters.
I used to think they were all deliberate liars, but I’m leaning more to the idea that most of them are True Believers. But, it’s impossible to tell without being a mindreader. Just have to guess. Either way, they don’t get you the truth, they get you the latest Leftist political narrative, so be skeptical of everything they say.
The electoral college flap is nothing more than a flap. In the unlikely event that enough electors would change their votes it is still up to the Congress to accept or reject the results. 3 U.S.C. 15 covers this situation
http://history.house.gov/Institution/Electoral-College/Electoral-College/
If you notice, we’re not beating the Russians down for doing hacking because I assume we are doing the same to them…. and everyone else. I’m sure all technically advanced countries do this. So anyway, shame on Hillary who should know this for being so careless knowing someone like her would be a target.
25 years ago, Mothra emerged from its cocoon with the felling of the Berlin Wall. Now stronger and mightier than ever before, Russia is conquering the world!
What the chicken littles do not understand is that nature abhors a vacuum. Obama created a power vacuum. Russia merely stepped into it.
Too right you are. I don’t think Russia is all too bothered with the USA. China?
Anyone hear Obarmy’s “take” on it on NPR this morning. It was painful to listen to, with all of the uhs, ahs, and pauses, but the upshot was, that it distracted everyone, from the news media on down to the voters, such that we didn’t concentrate on the real issues – the stark differences between Hillary and Trump, which COULD have benefited Trump. Yep, they are trying to weasel out of this election any way they can. It’s disgusting.
The threat to Russia’s oil income can hardly come from global warmist policies that try to keep oil in the ground. That merely rewards Russia by driving up prices. And Warmist’s attempt to reduce carbon emissions takes the form of removing fossil fuel power plants. And those plants don’t use oil. Oil hasn’t been used to make any significant amount of electricity for many years. I remember a Dem Senator Max Baucus once dedicating a wind farm and saying “Take that you Arab oil barrons”
unaware that a windmill poses zero threat to oil producers. Baucus was head of a Senate energy committee!!!!! What Russia is big on these days is building and selling nuclear power plants – their nuclear designs nowadays (unlike back in Chernobyl days of yore) lead the world. Especially in fast neutron reactors. They sell plants throughout the world – China, the Middle East, everywhere. And they can build them substantially cheaper than Westinghouse can. They also finance the plants and often contract to fuel and/or run the plants themselves. Russia has managed to reduce carbon emissions many times over any reductions achieved by U.S. states (excepting South Carolina and Georgia). All this despite Putin’s disregard of any dangers from global warming.
Fernando Leanme – that is a piece of very interesting news that needs to more widely disseminated.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/12/us-intel-vets-dispute-russia-hacking-claims/
It’s the Red Scare again, except this time the foreign menace has planted Republicans among us.
Red Scare? I guess that is why the MSM assigned the color to the Republicans. So they could have a new red scare! LOL
“President-elect Trump’s political opponents, in my opinion, are hoping that their empty caricature of old style cold war paranoia will help awaken enough doubt in Republican electoral college voters minds, to cheat Trump of his victory.”
Hate to say it, but I agree. This all seems like a last ditch ploy to prevent DJT from becoming President. Don’t these folks understand the blowback on this?
Funny how quickly Russia went from a punchline in a “serious” Presidential debate, to being Dr. Evil, all in about four years.
Oh well, St. Obama is now drawing a red line against Russia. Like the red line in Syria, it is awesome in its intention.
Caligula –
“Oh well, St. Obama is now drawing a red line against Russia. Like the red line in Syria, it is awesome in its intention.”
I think the U.S. will soon be (rightfully) accused of @ur momisugly$$-@ur momisuglySS-inating Putin as he will die from laughing at the Dims.
I have been looking at recent pictures of Putin to see if he has taped-up ribs. He must have at the very least split his sides laughing by now.
Yes, funny how a phone call to Taiwan is the first step towards ticking off a nuclear war with China, but basically insulting Russia is just good ol’ hardball politics.
“Oh well, St. Obama is now drawing a red line against Russia. Like the red line in Syria, it is awesome in its intention.”
I hope this red line is the same as the Syrian red line: Obama does nothing.
Obama is now talking tough on hacking, but what kind of retaliation does he think he can do that won’t harm us, too? Here’s a thought: How about securing American computers (white lists, for one), and doing other things like disconnecting essential infrastructure from the internet, so we don’t have a major problem with hackers in the future? No retaliation requried.
“How about securing American computers ”
Yeah, well you can’t secure against stupid:
http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/12/john-podesta-got-hacked-because-of-a-typo.html