NOAA appears to pick and choose only data that confirms their bias. NOAA then disseminates this incomplete data to the media who manufacture alarming headlines but ignore the uncertainty of the conclusions.
Earlier this year, NASA issued a news release stating that 2014 was the warmest year on record. Few media acknowledged the footnote: Scientists were only 38 percent sure this was actually correct. That is less than 50-50.
NOAA fully understands margins of error and works with them on a daily basis. But where are these details in their news releases? While NOAA’s monthly projections usually warn of increased warming, they ignore satellite data that refutes their alarmist statements.
The ability to remain independent of political consideration seems like a minimum requirement for an agency that should provide unbiased scientific information. But NOAA’s habit of picking and choosing data raises serious questions about the agency’s independence. In fact, it shreds NOAA’s credibility.
As a self-proclaimed “environmental intelligence agency,” NOAA’s reports should be based only on the best available science that takes into account all sources of data. Unfortunately, NOAA continues to rely upon biased science in pursuit of a predetermined outcome. That’s not good science, it’s science fiction.
(Read more from “NOAA’s Climate Change Science Fiction HERE)
High-strength cannabis may damage nerve fibres that handle the flow of messages across the two halves of the brain, scientists claim. Brain scans of people who regularly smoked strong skunk-like cannabis revealed subtle differences in the white matter that connects the left and right hemispheres and carries signals from one side of the brain to the other.
The changes were not seen in those who never used cannabis or smoked only the less potent forms of the drug, the researchers found.
The study is thought to be the first to look at the effects of cannabis potency on brain structure, and suggests that greater use of skunk may cause more damage to the corpus callosum, making communications across the brain’s hemispheres less efficient.
Paola Dazzan, a neurobiologist at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said the effects appeared to be linked to the level of active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in cannabis. While traditional forms of cannabis contain 2 to 4 % THC, the more potent varieties (of which there are about 100), can contain 10 to 14% THC, according to the DrugScope charity. (Read more from this story concluding that marijuana damages brain HERE)
By Cory Bennett. Policymakers are searching for ways to defend the nation’s power grid from a major cyberattack, amid concerns the industry’s digital defenses are dangerously lagging and underfunded.
Security experts warn that energy companies, while attuned to the threat, are scrambling to play catch-up, leaving the all-important power grid exposed to hackers.
On Capitol Hill, the threat of a major power grid hack has mostly gone with little notice, sidelined by the bold cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, a series of hacks across the health insurance industry and the devastating intrusions at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), thought to be the largest ever digital theft of government data. . .
National Security Agency (NSA) Director Adm. Michael Rogers acknowledged in a congressional hearing that China and likely “one or two” other countries are currently sitting on the grid, with the ability to literally turn out the lights if they wanted to.
Rogers said these states, which likely include Russia and possibly Iran, “are deterred only by the fear of U.S. retaliation.” (Read more from this story about how Congress has failed to respond to other countries being able to shutdown US grid HERE)
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State Department: 80% of Attacks from China, Hacking Will Continue
By Bill Gertz. American companies doing business in China will face a continuing threat to their intellectual property under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s security policies, according to a State Department security report.
China’s large-scale information hacking is not limited to recent incidents like the theft of Office of Personnel Management records on 2.1 million federal workers, according to the report by department’s diplomatic security office produced for the Overseas Security Advisory Council.
Hacking is part of a much broader trend with an estimated 80 percent of all cyberattacks against Americans coming from China, the report says, noting that, despite the recent agreement by Mr. Xi to curb intellectual property theft, “threats to [intellectual property] are unlikely to disappear soon.”
The report adds, “Visitors to China should have no expectations of privacy. Taxis, hotel rooms, and meeting spaces are all subject to on-site and remote technical monitoring. Furthermore, the Chinese government’s access to infrastructure means that all forms of communication, including phone calls, faxes, emails and text messages, as well as Internet browsing history, are likely monitored.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 02:29:532016-04-11 10:55:42NSA: China, Other Countries ALREADY Can Shutdown US Grid; Congress Unable to Deal With Threat
By John J. Xenakis. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev alleged on Wednesday that Turkish officials were benefiting from ISIS oil sales, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was no secret that “terrorists” use Turkish territory.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Thursday renewed his accusation that Turkey’s officials were “accomplices of terrorists” for supporting the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh). Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has furiously denied such accusations of several occasions.
At a news conference on Thursday, Putin said that Russian spy planes had witnessed trucks carrying “industrial scale” amounts of oil from ISIS sources crossing the border from Syria into Turkey. He said it was “theoretically possible” that Ankara was unaware of oil supplies entering its territory from ISIL-controlled areas of Syria but added that this was hard to imagine. . .
In addition to accusations that Turkey’s officials were “accomplices of terrorists” and that Turkey was buying oil from ISIS, Russia says that it will adopt a set of economic sanctions having to do with trade, transport, and tourism:
•Big energy projects, including a gas pipeline and cooperating in building Turkey’s first nuclear plant, may be canceled.
•Civilian flights to and from Turkey will be limited. In addition, tourism to Turkey will “obviously” be curtailed, because of the danger of terrorism.
•Food safety checks on agricultural imports from Turkey will be increased. Every shipment will now have to be inspected, which will result in substantial delays. (Read more from “Russia Accuses Turkey of Aiding Terrorists” HERE)
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Putin Says Russian Su-24 Shot Down Because of United States
By Jennifer Newton, Will Stewart and Corey Charlton. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia ‘not to play with fire’ after Vladimir Putin suggested the Su-24 jet was shot down after the U.S passed on details of its flight path. . .
Moscow has threatened Ankara with economic retaliation for the incident and Putin even accused the U.S of leaking information about the flight to Turkey after they gave them prior warning of the mission. . .
[Putin] vowed to join France in coordinating bombing campaigns against ISIS forces and agreed to share intelligence information.
He told a press conference yesterday: ‘The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time.
‘Why did we pass this information to the Americans? Either they were not controlling what their allies were doing, or they are leaking this information all over the place.’ (Read more from “Russia Accuses Turkey, U.S.” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 01:14:502016-04-11 10:55:42Russia Accuses Turkey of Buying Terrorist Oil; Turkey Warns Russia: Don’t “Play With Fire”; Russia Blames U.S. For Jet Loss
By Faith Karimi. Pope Francis celebrated a historic Mass in Kenya on Thursday before delivering a stern environmental warning just days ahead of a key climate change conference in Paris.
“It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects,” the Pope said, urging nations to reach an agreement over curbing fossil fuel emissions.
He urged politicians to work together with the corporate and scientific worlds, and civil society leaders in finding solutions to stop environmental degradation.
No country, he said, “can act independently of a common responsibility. If we truly desire positive change, we have to humbly accept our interdependence.” (Read more from “Pope Makes Radical, Ridiculous Global Warming Claims” HERE)
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Pope Francis in Kenya Hits out at Land Grabbing
By BBC News. Pope Francis has criticised private developers for grabbing land from poor people, during his visit to Kangemi, a slum area of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
He referred to an incident earlier this year when police fired tear gas at children protesting against developers trying to take over their playground.
The pontiff later made an impassioned plea against corruption, saying: “Corrupt people don’t live in peace.”
To take a stand against tribalism, he got his audience to hold hands.
“If you don’t dialogue with each other, then you’re going to have a division like a worm that grows in society,” he told a large crowd of young people who had gathered in Nairobi’s Kasarani stadium to hear him. (Read more from “Pope Francis in Kenya Hits out at Land Grabbing” HERE)
US President Barack Obama Thursday delivered a Thanksgiving message in which he compared modern refugees to the pilgrims whom the holiday celebrates, urging Americans to open their arms to the potential immigrants.
“Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims — men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families,” Obama said in his weekly address, referring to the boat on which the pilgrims arrived in the New World.
Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the group after fleeing religious persecution in England. For many Americans, it has become a family-oriented day marked with an enormous meal of roast turkey, an assortment of side dishes and a slice or two of pie.
“I’ve been touched by the generosity of the Americans who’ve written me letters and emails in recent weeks, offering to open their homes to refugees fleeing the brutality of ISIL,” Obama said, referring to the Islamic State group.
Immigration has taken center stage as an important issue ahead of the 2016 presidential race but reached fever pitch following the deadly Paris attacks earlier this month. (Read more from “Obama Compares Syrian Refugees to Pilgrims in Thanksgiving Address” HERE)
By Cathy Burke. A National Review commentator is blasting an attack ad from GOP presidential contender Gov. John Kasich that links front-running rival Donald Trump to Nazi Germany.
The 60-second spot, titled “Trump’s Dangerous Rhetoric,” features retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, paraphrasing Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller, who spoke out against the Nazi regime and spent years in Nazi concentration camps, as images of Trump’s controversial remarks flash on screen.
Conservative blogger Jim Geraghty writes in his National Review newsletter “Morning Jolt” that there are more indications “the country is sliding into a fascistic direction” elsewhere.
“We can argue about whether Trump and his style are good for American politics, but it’s not like he’s appearing … out of nothing,” Geraghty writes. “If you fear the country is sliding into a fascistic direction, cast your gaze wider.”
“If you really fear the leader of an angry mob roughing up reporters, suppressing all dissent, and making far-reaching, unrealistic demands that their ideology rule everywhere… don’t look to a Trump rally,” Geraghty warns. “Look to a college campus.” (Read more from “Why Would Loser-John Kasich Use Campaign Funds to Attack Trump, Compare Him to Hitler?” HERE)
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John Kasich Web Video: Donald Trump Is Pretty Much a Nazi, Right?
By Jim Geraghty. We still don’t know whether Donald Trump really wants Muslims to register with the government. He’s never directly proposed it. He’s given a half-distracted, loosely-worded affirmative answer to a reporter when it was first brought up by the reporter. Every time he’s asked since, he gives an answer about Syrian refugees. Chances are this is a deliberate strategy. When the media writes denunciatory headlines about his comments, Trump wins over the support of the Americans who think a national registry of Muslims would be a good idea. But he also has plausible deniability, as he’s never actually proposed it or explicitly said he supported it.
Mr. Moe himself engages in frustrating verbal slipperiness, claiming Trump says he’s “going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants” when he’s done nothing of the sort. He’s proposed rounding up illegal immigrants of every race, creed and color. We deport illegal immigrants every year and deported roughly 400,000 in 2012 – a policy that is Constitutional, legal, and morally justifiable. Trump is proposing an expansion of existing law – nothing Nazi-ish about that.
Moe charges, “Donald Trump says it’s okay to rough up black protesters.” Here’s Trump’s comment: “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” Trump said on the Fox News Channel on Sunday morning. “I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble”. . .
We can argue about whether Trump and his style is good for American politics, but it’s not like he’s appearing ex nihilio, out of nothing. If you fear the country is sliding into a fascistic direction, cast your gaze wider. We’ve seen our government jail filmmakers after blaming terrorist attacks on him; one party push for a Constitutional limit on political speech around elections; an NSA metadata collection program that ignores the Fourth Amendment; political targeting from the IRS; promotion of the elimination of due process on college campuses, and now, the promotion of eliminating the Constitutional rights of Americans on “terror watch lists” — lists that have no judicial review, no appeal, little sense of how an American ends up on it and even less idea of how to get off it if you’re wrongfully accused. . . (Read more from “John Kasich Web Video: Donald Trump Is Pretty Much a Nazi, Right?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-27 02:34:192016-04-11 10:55:42Why Would Loser-John Kasich Use Campaign Funds to Attack Trump, Compare Him to Hitler?
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernard Sanders’ economic plan triggered Gmail’s “phishing scam” antenna, with the mail system saying the senator’s liberal campaign promises — including lower prescription drug prices and free college for all — sound like frauds.
“Be careful with this message. It contains content that’s typically used to steal personal information,” Gmail said in a bright red warning box that appeared at the top of a message sent by Mr. Sanders’ campaign Friday, laying out his “Agenda for Working Families.”
“This message could be a scam,” Gmail says in its page explaining why it flagged the message as a “phishing scam.” Phishing is a specific type of spam email that scammers use to try to entice users to disclose bank accounts or other sensitive information.
The Sanders campaign declined to comment for this article, but a representative for Google, the Internet giant that runs Gmail, said the company thinks it has figured out the problem.
“A regression in the spam filter’s machine learning framework was determined to be the root cause. The issue affected only a very small percentage of the overall email received by Gmail and it has now been resolved,” the representative said. (Read more from “Google Deems Bernie Sanders’ Economic Plan a ‘Phishing Scam'” HERE)
A sign a Georgia county sheriff erected earlier this week is generating a strong response, nationwide.
Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley placed a sign in front of the sheriff’s office on Tuesday morning, which reads:
WARNING: Harris County is politically incorrect. We say: Merry Christmas, God Bless America, and In God We Trust. We salute our troops and our flag. If this offends you…LEAVE!
The sheriff got the idea from the picture of a similar sign he saw posted in another part of the country. “I’m humbled by the attention the sign has received,” Jolley told WTVM. “Over the years, I’ve witnessed the silent majority grow and as a true patriot and a Christian, I felt it was time for the silent majority to speak up. I truly believe what’s on the sign.”
Since putting up the sign up, the sheriff has received hundreds of emails and Facebook comments in support of its message, according to WRBL.
Not everyone is pleased with the sheriff’s sign. The atheist group, the American Humanist Association sent him a lengthy letter on Wednesday, saying that a “concerned citizen” had contacted their office. The letter demands the sign be removed immediately, charging it violates the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. (Read more from “Sheriff Posts This Controversial Warning Sign to Everyone Entering His Town” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-27 02:32:022016-04-11 10:55:43Sheriff Posts This Controversial Warning Sign To Everyone Entering His Town
Democrats love to employ an adroit Alinsky-style tactic to deflect attention away from their unpopular stance on a prominent issue: play bait-and-switch by ignoring the issue at hand and parlaying focus to a new proposition they previously opposed.
Over the past week, in order to distract from the dangerous and costly Islamic refugee issue, liberals have sought to shift focus to the vulnerability of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Unfortunately, they have never felt concerned about this issue before and are unlikely to seriously pursue meaningful reforms to the program outside of distracting from the broader Islamic immigration issue. But since they’re putting the offer on the table, Republicans who have argued for years that the waiver program needs to be addressed, will gladly forgive their past neglect of the issue and give them the chance to carry out meaningful reform.
Under the Visa Waiver Program, foreign nationals from 38 countries, mainly from Europe, are allowed to enter the U.S. temporarily without obtaining a visa and undergoing the extra scrutiny. The premise for the VWP is that nationals of countries that do not pose a security risk or have a history of illegal immigration should be able to travel more freely to foster a better business and tourist climate. Ideally, we should have an easy travel policy between western nations because it’s mutually beneficial for our economies. However, the growth in Islamic terrorism over the past few decades has made this program extremely vulnerable.
Ahmed Ajaj and Ramzi Yousef, two Islamic terrorists involved in planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, came here from European countries under the VWP. Zacarias Moussaoui, who was involved in the 9/11 plot, came here with a French passport and Richard Reid, the notorious shoe-bomber, came to the U.S. with an English passport. There is now a well-founded concern that with the growing Islamic make-up of Europe, millions of potential security risks could travel freely from Europe to the U.S. Remember, as we are now seeing in the aftermath of the Paris attack, most of the Islamic terrorists living in Europe were not on any no-fly lists. The problem of VWP is exacerbated by the fact that we still don’t have an Exit-Entry system on the back-end to ensure that temporary visitors leave after 90 days, making the need for better screening on the front-end even more important.
It’s for this reason I’ve been promoting legislation to shut down the VWP and audit the system for a number of years. Democrats have been nowhere to be seen on this issue. Now that they are in hot water over the broader Islamic immigration issue, they want to shift the focus to temporary visas. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and liberal commentators, are now expressing concern over the program. Liberal Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced an extremely narrow bill to merely bar individuals who travelled to Syria and Iraq over the past 5 years from entering the U.S. without obtaining a visa from the State Department.
The Democrats’ faux focus on the VWP is transparently deceptive for a number of reasons:
These same politicians evidently trust the vetting of permeant immigrants from failed states like Syria and Somalia, yet they now have problems with the information sharing between first-world countries under the VWP with regards to temporary visitors?!
These same Democrats are completely silent as we admit 60,000 Saudi nationals every year on student visas.
These same Democrats oppose Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) plan to subject visas from Islamic countries to a higher degree of scrutiny.
These same Democrats opposed Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) bill to strip citizenship, through due process, of those caught fighting for ISIS. Last week, Sens. Durbin (D-IL) and Leahy (D-VT) objected to Sen. Cruz’s request for unanimous consent to pass his bill.
Finally, liberals are trying to obfuscate the more foundational threat: a growing population of homegrown Islamists. The entire city of Brussels has been on lockdown, not just because of a handful of fugitive terrorists but because of the massive homegrown problem that is plaguing the city. Over 20 individuals were arrested in Belgium, of which most were likely homegrown, not infiltrators from Syria.
This growing trend in Europe has already come to America. We have had dozens of attempted terror plots and a number of small scale homegrown Islamic attacks since 9/11 – long before ISIS became the cool kid on the block. The growing trend of second generation Muslims in western countries becoming more radicalized, thanks in large part, to the proliferation of cyber jihad, has created an existential threat to this nation. That is the threat the political class seeks to ignore. It is a lot easier for them to discuss temporary visas from Europe as a shiny object.
Conservatives would be wise to call their bluff and pass a moratorium on the VWP to prove their dishonesty, and immediately return to focusing on the broader threat unbridled Islamic immigration poses to western civilization. (For more from the author of “The Visa Waiver Program Bluff” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-27 02:31:382016-04-11 10:55:43The Visa Waiver Program Bluff
