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.
Trumps facebook page today 16/12:
Donald J. Trump
2 hrs ·
Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?
Its odd that Hillary cheating on Bernie Sanders is not thought to be undermining American Democracy.
Yet exposing this fact is !
The radical Leftwing mindset is very odd. They live in Bizzarro World where everything is the opposite of what it is in the real world.
Putin walks away from “Climate Change”, Trump walks away from “Climate Change”–sounds like a win/win to me.
(Besides, it really, really destroys the Alt-Left’s favorite, unsubstantiated, pseudo-religious meme!)
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In a class on the lawful use of deadly
force the instructor stated that in most criminal trials, the defense
is either "SODDI" (Some Other Dude Did It) or "TODDI"
(That Other Dude Did
It). The Democrats are putting up a series of "TODDI"
claims to keep the discussion away from points they can’t win, such
as:
Hillary Clinton was a deeply
flawed candidate: corrupt, mendacious, lacking significant
accomplishments, and having serious health issues.
The Clinton campaign colluded in
secret with the DNC to favor her candidacy over Sanders, but the
voters found out.
The Clinton campaign colluded in
secret with journalists in the MSM to favor her candidacy over both
Sanders and Trump, but the voters found out.
The Clinton campaign (and almost
all polls) missed the extent of Trump support in key swing states
and devoted little or no effort to shoring up support there.
After the 2000 election results in
Florida showed Bush won, the Democrats made a number of “TODDI”
claims to move the decision away from the election itself and into
the courts where they had a better chance:
The “infamous butterfly
ballot” confused Gore voters into accidentally voting for
Bush.
There was an “undercount”
because of faulty ballot readers.
Black and Hispanic voters were
prevented from getting to the polls.
Curiously, these problems only took
place in three populous counties all run by Democrat elected
officials. The implication which seemed to escape reporters at the
time was that if Republicans had been in charge of these counties,
Gore would have won. The claims were trumpeted by the MSM with no
credible evidence for any of them (sound familiar?)
These pretexts were sufficient to get
the issue reviewed by the Florida courts, resulting in a series of
decisions which do the Florida Supreme Court justices no credit
whatsoever and finally a reversal by the US Supreme Court.
The current TODDI excuse for 2000 is
that the US Supreme Court “gave” the election to Bush.
Nonsense, SCOTUS stopped the Florida Supreme Court from continuing
their efforts to give the election to Gore.
Here we are in 2016 and the Democrats
are just singing a new verses to the same TODDI song.
The voters were misled by “fake
news”.
The US is even more racist than
anyone realized.
Russian hackers directed by
Putin interfered in the US election.
It’s the fault of the Electoral
College (actually, this verse is recycled from 2000, almost like
it’s becoming the refrain)
All of this TODDI smokescreen simply
avoids Democrats facing the obvious truth: they ran a horrible
candidate who in turn ran a lackluster and ineffective campaign.
This is not new; after his 1980 loss President Carter remarked “We
needed a lot more volunteers in 1980!” P. J. O’Rourke’s
riposte was “Pal, what you needed was votes.”
Jill Stein’s phony recount effort is
going nowhere; Trump’s victory margins in Pennsylvania, Michigan and
Wisconsin are much higher than Bush’s 2000 margin in Florida;
there is no chance a recount will change those results.
Democrats should be cursing Stein for splitting the vote, but instead
they treat her as if she is performing a valuable
public service. I believe the real goal was to delay
certification in those states so Trump would not have the necessary
270 Electoral votes on Dec 19. In any case, that has failed; the
Electors will meet three days hence with certified results from all
states.
So now the effort has turned to
“flipping” at least 37 Republican Electors so Trump can’t
get the required 270 votes. Charlie Sheen and other celebrities have
produced a video urging “patriotic” Republican electors
to violate their pledges to vote for Trump. I predict that will fail
as well. I also predict Democrats and their allies in the media will
continue to focus on every possible excuse for losing except
the only one that really made a difference: they chose a poor
candidate with no core message voters really cared about.
Let’s go through the new TODDI song,
one verse at a time:
(“fake
news”). Where have they been? Elections are almost nothing
but fake news! Every campaign tries to tilt news coverage to
favor their candidate by staging events for the sole purpose of
getting press. Poll results are completely “fake news”;
actual vote results are real news. In the case of long-term
politicians, it is always the case that what they are saying so
earnestly this election contradicts one or more things they said
previously. Voters have always been bombarded with conflicting
claims, usually made with flimsy supporting evidence. What
Democrats are upset about is that “their fake news was better
our fake news” (h/t Bob Hope).
(US is
racist). As others have pointed out, in key swing states Trump
carried counties which had previously gone for Obama in 2008 and
2012. Somehow 8 years of the Obama administration have turned
previously progressive voters into racists? The term “racist&rdqu
o;
has become a handy substitute so liberals don’t have to actually
debate their policies and records – just call anyone who
disagrees a “racist” and they will run away. It has
worked far too well for far too long; I for one devoutly hope this
election signals its demise.
(Russian
hackers). So far, there is zero evidence reported vote totals were
compromised, but keep in mind that this is only possible with
electronic voting systems which Democrats insisted we had to
adopt fix the “undercount” problems with physical
ballots. The traditional way to steal elections is done at the
local level and involves knowing the registration rolls and the
actual voters in each precinct. Precinct captains and block
captains, all patronage workers, know every voter, who needs a ride
to the polls, or a little “walking around money”, and
who is registered to vote but never does or does not plan to this
year. When the call comes in to “find” some more
votes, a bunch a loyalists will each be given one of these names (or
two, or three – sometimes it’s really blatant) and then taken
to the polling place where they pose as registered voters and turn
in the desired ballot. It’s the original form of identity theft and
what kept all the big city political machines in power for so long.
Who do you suppose resists attempts to audit the registration lists
and purge ineligible voters? Democrats. Who opposes requirements
for voters to show photo ID? Democrats. Who opposes attempts to
keep illegal aliens form voting? Democrats. Coincidence? I think
not.
The other charge is Russian hackers were behind the Podesta email
leaks – certainly possible but only speculation and flimsy
evidence offered so far. But even if true, the charge of
“interfering” comes down to revealing to the public what
the Clinton campaign was actually doing in secret and lying about.
If you believe integrity in government is important, then we
are better off not having a dishonest person in office. That the
Russians might believe they also are better off is irrelevant.
(The
Electoral College). Granted this is a weird provision, little
understood in the US and copied nowhere else that I know of. But in
both its original form and the current one, it preserves the concept
of a union of sovereign
states. Originally, Electors were appointed by the State
legislatures (no direct popular vote at all). As amended, they are
awarded based on popular vote in each state. Some states are
“winner take all”; others award Electors proportionally.
In fact, there are variations beyond that. Just as the World
Series is won by the team which wins the majority of the games and
not the team which gets the most total runs, the US Presidential
election goes to the one who gets a majority of Electors and not the
one who wins the popular vote.
You can argue
which system is more “fair”, but the rules were known to
all campaigns at the outset, and US Presidential campaigns are
designed around the reality of the Electoral College. If it
didn’t exist, campaigns would be run differently.
When all the dust has settled, I’m
confident Trump will be sworn in and Democrats will nurse their
victimhood by clinging to one or more of these excuses. They will
want to get rid of the Electoral College, clamp down on “fake
news” and candidates who “appeal to hate”, and any
number of other excuses to avoid confronting the truth: they ran a
terrible candidate who did a poor job of communicating an unappealing
platform. You can’t expect to win the Oscar with a lousy cast
performing a lousy script. Even Hollywood actors should understand
that.
Hmm, I guess WordPress doesn’t like LibreOffice HTML output. Sorry for the formatting mess. What does one use to maintain readable format in comments other than HTML-by-hand?
WordPress only accepts a subset of HTML. There’s a list somewhere of which tags are accepted, but I don’t know where.
The SC decision that stopped the re-count was 7-2.
The 5-4 decision that most leftists keep repeating was on whether there was sufficient time left to order a statewide re-count using the new rules that the Gore camp was demanding.
(Note, there was no basis in Florida law for using the rules that Gore was proposing.)
The electoral college winner only needs to win a majority of the votes cast.
If the PA delegation does not cast their votes, the number of votes needed to win will be less than 270.
There is evidence that in certain heavily Democratic districts around Detroit, that the number of votes reported on election night exceeded the number of ballots found in the ballot boxes.
This wasn’t enough to swing any elections, Trump won the state anyway, and those congressional districts were won by the Democrats by something like 80% of the vote.
However such shenanigans are one of the big reasons why I do not and never will support a popular vote for president.
Yes, we need a review process and we need to implement voter ID.
I hope that voter ID will be a priority of the Trump Administration. I favor states’ rights, but in federal elections, national laws are clearly needed to end the rampant election fraud which perpetuates Democrat misrule.
@Chimp – Voter ID is a non-starter. I am sure very voter in California had the proper ID. The problem is a million or so were not LEGAL voters.
The government can tell you every place you have been in the past 5 years, sometimes with pictures. But conveniently, they cannot tell if you are a citizen or not.
Prior to the 2000 election, polls made it look like Bush might win the popular count but lose the electoral college.
When the Gore campaign manager was asked about this, he declared that had the election been a popular vote election, both campaigns would have run vastly different campaigns. Which made the whole question moot.
If there was an effort to work with Russia to improve the lives of their citizens their desire to eat someone else’s lunch would wain . Democrats lost get over it . You get another crack at it in 4 years but grow up .
The Russians didn’t create the Clinton Foundation , delete 30,000 E mails , faint , call people Deplorable,
campaign with Al Gore , marry Bill , take previous loyal Democrats for granted , not show up in States,
threaten coal workers and the entire fossil fuel industry ETC ETC .
Improving the lives of the Russian people is the responsibility of the Russian government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/vladimir-putin-wants-a-new-world-order-why-would-donald-trump-help-him/2016/12/15/ad12a046-c30d-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html?utm_term=.206e0f038498
WikiLeaks claims that they got the emails from an “insider”, while intelligence sources believe they came from the Russians.
What if they are both right ?? Is there a Russian mole in the DNC ??
Unless you can give names of these “intelligence sources,” they are so much fiction. The Russian meme has been repudiated by the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI, to name several public sources. This, my friends, is Fake News.
What’s weirder is the report that a Chinese warship sailed up and stole a underwater vehicle from a US research vessel in international waters of South China Sea.
Obama is asking the Chinese to return it. They probably will after they reverse engineer it.
The Chinese don’t even have to hack us anymore to get our technology, we now deliver it to them.
China’s leaders have no respect for the current U.S. leaders, so they snatch our drone, plus they get to show Trump how tough they are.
We are going to have quite a time with China in the future, but at least we have a leader now who can possibly deal with it. Obama certainly could not. Nor could anyone else on the Left. Bullies scare them.
“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.”
Nonsense. Economies thrive on cheap energy.
Surely the economy of large country like Russia is not dependent on oil exports.
Sorry, Russia is a large country, but it has never been much of a first world country.
Oil and gas are about the only thing Russia has that anyone wants to buy. It’s the only way to finance the purchase of all the things Russians want, but don’t make for themselves.
Yes, Russia’s economy is dependent on oil and gas exports.
Its GDP is about as large as Italy’s.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jul/27/lindsey-graham/graham-russia-has-economy-size-italy/
Bloomberg is not a prestigious news organization. It is the power tool of Michael Bloomberg as The Washington Post is of my boss. These are people who thought “Citizen Kane” was a do it yourself youtube video.
If these Russians were the old Red ones we would get sermons on getting along with them as we once did. I don’t know about others here but I am waiting expectantly for the mother of all battles on US climate policy. I cannot think of another issue where the lines are so sharply drawn or trenches so deep. We are going over the top at their main power.
Obamacare must also be a strategic objective.
Confirmation hearings will provide theatrical heat but little light. In the end, at least most of Trump’s skeptical nominees will be confirmed, IMO.
That, and imigration.
“If anyone is deluded enough to believe life is going to go on following an exchange of nuclear weapons let me correct you, the modern world is structured in such a way that any severe dislocation caused by any nuclear exchange will bring about the deaths of millions and millions, the cause being being starvation. Then again given the attitude of many people today in positions of influence and power perhaps that is what they want. If so they are stark raving bonkers.”
I think it will be a huge battle. Trump will be facing off with the Elites of the entire world. This is an issue where the Left/Greens feel like they have the moral highground because they care so much for the planet, and have the science on their side because they have a Hockeystick chart, and 97 percent of scientists support them. So they are going to be very energized over the CAGW issue.
The Skeptical side better have all their ducks in a row, because they are going to be challenged.
The “97 percent” meme has to be debunked.
The “hotter and hotter” meme has to be debunked.
The “Hockeystick chart” has to be debunked, and a real chart provided.
That will be a good start.
The newspaper says:
“Who would win from a retreat in the war on climate change? Oil, coal and gas industries around the world, obviously, ”
This is how their minds work. They see cheaper energy as only benefitting corporations rather than lifting the standard of living of everyone especially the poorest who spend disproportionately on energy!
How can these people have got an education without understanding even the simplest aspects of how the world works? The degree to which their virtue signally impairs even the simplest brain functions is shocking.
I say only one word: P I Z Z A G A T E.
Eric writes: “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.”
What IDIOCY. Yes, renewables do require a larger reserve. Every MWh of power a wind turbine produces does not reduce CO2 emissions by as much as expected for not burning the fossil fuel needed to produce 1 MWh of electricity. Yes, a lot of fuel is used to quickly ramp up electricity production when needed. However, their is NO way that renewables require burning more natural gas. Plant operators turn down or turn off their plants because it is cheaper – they use less fuel – than leaving them running steadily. Cycling plants up and down causes more wear and tear, but they still cycle because it is cheaper. Plant operators cycled their plants long before renewables appeared on the scene because it saved fuel and money.
Eric also writes: “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.”
“Old style cold war paranoia” died in 1991, with the break-up of the USSR. Unfortunately Russia retained thousands of nuclear warheads. Now we are faced with a Russian leader who says the breakup of the Russian Empire at the end of the Cold War was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Putin is clearly intent on re-uniting all Russian-speaking people and former vassal states, despite a treaty signed by Russia, the UK and the US guaranteeing Ukrainian territorial integrity in return for dismantling nuclear weapons left on Ukrainian territory after the breakup of the USSR. (Anyone with a knowledge of history might recognize a parallel with Hilter’s objectives between WWI and WWI.) Fortunately, the financial stability of Russia depends on exports of fossil fuel. Perhaps the Trump administration can find a way to cooperate with Russia, but the two previous administrations tried very hard and failed.
It isn’t obvious to me why “new style cold war paranoia” should cause a significant number of Republican electors to turn against Trump. The Russians appear to have merely provided documentary evidence about the activities of Trump’s opponents. People voted for Trump based on what they knew, and very little of that came from Russian hacking. (False “news stories” from Eric’s fellow bloggers may have been more important.) However, our founders were deeply afraid of populism and they wanted the Electoral College to use its judgment. Electors using their judgment is no more cheating than their electing a President who didn’t win the popular vote. (A shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio would have elected Kerry – the loser in the popular vote – in 2004.) If we don’t like these possibilities, we’ll need to change the system.
The election result has completely unhinged the left in the US. Just like 911 for conspiracy nitwits, the loss to Trump was just so incredible it couldn’t possibly be true. There must be some other explanation: The RFussians.
Danger is, this madcap thinking could severly damage the planet, as the hysterical contagen spreads.
“Without oil and gas, Russia’s economy would be a shambles”
Without oil and gas, any economy would be a shambles, including the US economy. The only reason the US has been able to build token positions in wind and solar energy is because of the huge economic surpluses it garners from its fossil fuel economy.
Look at the bright side – for the first time in 90 years, Democrats are actually saying that Russia is an enemy of the US.
What did anyone expect after Obama pulled up his skirt, and told him, (on a hot mike) that his virtue would be cheap after he was re-elected.
Clinton was for Putin before she was against him. When it enriched the ill-gotten coffers of the Clinton Crime Family Foundation, she was happy to sell US uranium to Russia.
Same as she was for supposed port security when it benefited her, but now dreams of open borders.
Regarding Putin: Unleashing America’s energy economy will bankrupt Russia, who is already in a demographic death spiral. Trump is pulling an anti-Nixon – getting closer to the lesser threat (Russia vice China) in order to counter-balance the now greater threat (China vice Russia).
Correct. This is why Putin has colluded with Saudi Arabia to keep prices low, in hopes of driving North Dakota drillers and pumpers out of business. This policy is counter-intuitive, since both Russia and Gulf producers would so benefit from higher prices. Their common enemy is the US and its new fields.
The GRU did do active measures to try influence the election. They wanted a NATO-sceptic to win. This is simple stuff. Who benefits, who loses. Now to be fair, Clinton was a terrible candidate. So, they did not have to try hard.
Hilarious celebrities against Trump. They’re really good at making me laugh
271st comment, trump wins
Some celebrities didn’t get the memo . It isn’t popular vote that wins for obvious reasons and despite the hurt feelings with Hail Mary recounts Trump still won . What would the Democrat reaction be if it was the other way around ? The reason the Democrats are such sore losers is because they have come face to face with the fact their hijacked party is broken . They even went so far as to turn against and take for granted their rust belt pals . They gave it away just like the $billions wasted on the oversold global warming scam.
The ecstasy of anti-Russian racism into which the walking-dead Washington establishment is falling, is as good a reason as any of why the USA needs a hefty dose of its own medicine – regime change.
The whole premise is a crock but Barry loves to stick his oar in where it was not wanted, he overtly and preposterously rammed his nose into the crowd debating the Brexit referendum and told us in no uncertain tones to vote to stay in the slave Empire of Brussels -“or else”!
So FO to Barry! Alack, you’ll not be missed on this side of the pond and as for the witch hunt over what Putin did shlock horror, it’s – utter paranoia from a spook service which is out of synch – I don’t know it they’ve fekkin noticed BUT – Russia ain’t the enemy, whereas Clinton’s buddies in the US liberal establishment – are the enemies of western Christendom.
Now Putin has engineered Brexit!
Notice the speech in Parliament about the extent of an ongoing Russian “cyberwar.”
Interview with Nigel farage follows.