Saturday, July 01, 2017

Richard Clarke Explains What's Going On


Ever wonder what's going on with Trump and this Russia business? Some think it's all smoke and mirrors. Not Richard Clarke.

America's former counter-terrorism czar explained what the public is missing about Russia and the election that brought Trump to power.



This explanation continues with earlier remarks Clarke made about Russia, Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner.

15 comments:

Owen Gray said...

If Clarke is right, there is a very bad moon rising.

rumleyfips said...

We, stupid Canadians , have been yipping and yapping about more military spending for years. New ships, F35's: more,more,more. Before us we have the battlefield of the future presented but our best military minds can't understand cyberspace. What has to be done to make our generals, politicians and reporters understand.

The Mound of Sound said...


It's pretty hard for a Hussar to see war as anything beyond a cavalry charge.

Toby said...

Mound, thanks for the Clarke videos. Not only does he explain the Russian interference in the American election in a way that conforms with what I know about computers but he also introduced me to James Hansen. So I moved over here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/22/sea-level-rise-james-hansen-climate-change-scientist

Hansen understands the exponential effect, the acceleration of global warming. The warmer it gets the faster it will get even warmer. And faster and faster and faster, etc. Our exalted leaders who think they can stop the warming at 1.5 or 2 are simply dreaming.

I have faith that humans will survive but the numbers could easily be a few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers. I think it was Einstein who said he did not know how WWIII would be fought but he knew that WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones. Global Warming could be our WWIII.

Dana said...

Toby, I'd be interested in learning what you think those few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers will be hunting and gathering.

What flora and fauna do you figure are hardy enough, nutritious enough and will be able to reproduce sufficiently?

Toby said...

To follow up on Hanson, here's a good video. "Jim Hansen: Hell Will Break Loose - Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLk8Uy2-Lsk

The Mound of Sound said...

Toby, Hansen was America's top climate change advocate during his years as the director of NASA's Goddard Space Laboratory. In 1988, using models produced by the latest computer technology, Hansen appeared before Congress to sound the alarm about global warming. I have one of his books kicking around here somewhere. Fascinating guy. He even got himself arrested in a climate change protest.

The Mound of Sound said...


Dana, I'm pretty sure there'll always be something for the hunter-gatherers. It may consume most of their waking hours gathering enough to subsist upon but there won't be any X-Box to compete for their time.

Toby said...

Dana, hunter gathers would have to eat whatever they can find and most of it would not look appetizing to you and me. Start with insects and worms.

Anonymous said...

Start with insects and worms.

Luxury..

We had to live on...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

Global warming ( call it what it is) will cause huge population movements; indeed we are seeing it now tho we blame it upon political issues.

TB

Northern PoV said...

I have faith that humans will survive but the numbers could easily be a few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers.

I'm with Dana.

Best hope for survival is for high-tech enclaves who can maintain the civil infrastructure (ie education etc) to support production of energy.

PS: How's that impeachment coming along Mound?

Dana said...

A recent Stephen Hawking comment:

"“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, *with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulfuric acid*,” the professor explained. “Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now.”

Well cooked insects and worms.

The Mound of Sound said...

Soon, NPoV, soon - I hope. If the Repugs see Trump as a mortal threat to the hold on Congress in the mid-terms they'll turn on him fast enough.

The Mound of Sound said...

Dana, Hawking is obviously right. Yeah, it is in our power to undo much of the damage that global warming threatens to trigger. It's not our ability to act. It's our utter lack of will. Climate change is just one of three, perhaps four, existential challenges facing mankind and, unfortunately, most other life on Earth. We can't succeed on any of them without resolving them all.

How are we going to bring the Earth's population down to a sustainable level. Right now that would entail trimming out numbers by far more than half. How do you build the essential consensus for that without getting into the discussions we won't get into - about things such as equity and fairness. Suddenly climate change spills over into depopulation and then into shrinking the global economy until it becomes a sustainable subset of the environment. All three of them inevitably invoke the "lifeboat syndrome." That means a new form of organization that would be seen by some as deprivation, rationing.

Can you imagine the degree of enlightenment that would require and how we're light years away from that mindset? Dana, I just don't think there's nearly enough time left to get the helm hard over before we hit that iceberg.

Dana said...

Oh, I agree entirely.

Trying to live cheerfully, creatively, cooperatively and yet not in denial is the hardest part.