monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Emeritus Professor David South of Auburn University, who has testified before Congress on issues related to atmospheric CO2 concentrations, first learned in 2012 of the “new discoveries” made by Nikolov and Zeller.

“Using correct math procedures, Nikolov and Zeller realized our atmosphere warms the Earth by about 2.7 times more than is commonly believed,” he said. “The reason for this extra warmth is simply due to the pressure from the mass of the atmosphere."

“Using Ned and Karl’s simple equation, people can now accurately predict the average temperature of many planets by just knowing two things, the total surface atmospheric pressure and how much sunlight reaches the atmosphere,” he explained.

But of course, it will take time for the new knowledge to catch on and become accepted, he cautioned.

“As with any new discovery, many from the old school choose not to accept new ideas,” South continued, pointing to the early dismissal of the continental drift theory when it was first outlined in 1915.

Today, a similar pattern is happening, with some “older experts” who assume that “ignoring the paradigm shift will somehow protect their reputation” choosing not to believe in “the Nikolov-Zeller (N-Z) equation” or to “admit their math errors,” South said.

“I find many advocates will choose not to learn about new findings while true scientists will admit to math errors,” he added. “There will continue to be those from the old school who refuse to accept correct math and who choose to ignore the fact that atmospheric pressure affects the temperature of the Earth.”

Nils-Axel Mörner, the retired chief of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics Department at Stockholm University, was among those who expressed support for the findings.

“The paper by Nikolov and Zeller is exceptionally interesting, a big step forward, and probably a door-opener to a new ‘paradigm’,” he said.

Mörner, who served as an expert reviewer for the UN IPCC until realizing that it was not truly interested in science, added that he “fully” endorsed the conclusions offered by Nikolov.

Yet another prominent expert who suggested the new paper was important and needed to be considered was Nicola Scafetta, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II.

“Although this paper appears to contradict the atmospheric greenhouse theory, I believe that it needs to be taken into account for a very simple motivation: at the moment there is a severe uncertainty regarding the effect that CO2 causes to the Earth’s climate,” he said.

After outlining what he said were the flawed views on CO2 advanced by many governments and man-made warming theorists, he argued that the “claim that science has ‘determined’ what [greenhouse gases] such as CO2 can do to the atmosphere is false.”

“The uncertainty is simply still too large,” he added, pointing to his own research findings showing “at most a small climate sensitivity to CO2.”

“Might the above uncertainty and the fact that more and more studies are indicating a smaller and smaller climate sensitivity to CO2 be due to some fatal error that the study by Nikolov and Zeller would suggest?” Scafetta asked. “I say that there is a need to be open to alternative interpretations and evaluate them carefully.”

Another scientist who highlighted the potential significance of Nikolov’s and Zeller’s findings was Gary L. Achtemeier, a retired federal research meteorologist.

Achtemeier noted that the geophysical heating mechanism proposed by the two scientists – the pressure produced by the atmosphere – explained the entire temperature difference between the Earth and the moon.

Combined with an earlier paper published by Nikolov and Zeller (under the pseudonyms Volokin and ReLlez), Achtemeier said the findings “challenge the foundations of the current climate theory.”

“Their success resides in the inclusion of knowledge of the thermodynamics of other planets and moons with atmospheres residing in our solar system,” he said.

The implications could be enormous.

“The current climate theory which depends exclusively on greenhouse gas heating to explain the thermal effects of Earth’s atmosphere is demolished,” Achtemeier said.

Veteran songwriter Randy Newman has revealed he wrote a song about Donald Trump for his latest album – comparing the relative size of their penises.

In an interview with Vulture, Newman revealed the lyrics to the song:

My dick’s bigger than your dick / It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true / My dick’s bigger than your dick / I can prove it too / There it is! There’s my dick / Isn’t that a wonderful sight? / Run to the village, to town, to the countryside / Tell the people what you’ve seen here tonight.

He added that the chorus read merely: “What a dick!” Newman said he decided to leave it off his forthcoming album, Dark Matter, because “I just didn’t want to add to the problem of how ugly the conversation we’re all having is.”

Dark Matter does, however, feature a song called Putin, a grand orchestral number that riffs on traditional Russian folk music and imagines the Russian president pondering war in the Mediterranean and glumly complaining about democracy: “I dragged these peasants kicking and screaming / Into the 21st century / I thought they’d make it / I must have been dreaming / These chicken farmers and file clerks gonna be the death of me.”

Newman is perhaps now best known for his heartwarming songs in Pixar movies such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc, but his career has often featured pointed, socially conscious songwriting. His 1974 album Good Old Boys contained Rednecks, which dealt with racial bigotry and tension between northern and southern US states, while Kingfish celebrated egalitarian Democrat politician Huey Long. His 1988 song It’s Money That Matters, meanwhile, lamented both poverty and consumerism, while 1972’s Political Science was a scathingly sarcastic ode to American imperialism.

US to ban American tourists from visiting North Korea for 30 days from next week, tourist agencies report.

Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours said the ban would be announced on 27 July to come into effect 30 days later.
The US has not confirmed the news.
Young Pioneer Tours was the agency that took US student Otto Warmbier to North Korea. He was later arrested and jailed for 15 years, before being returned in a coma to the US in June. He died a few days later.

Seems the Russians have infected the entire system

Mike Pence is worse than Trump.

Very very bad end game.

High time to go back to paper ballots.

The Ukrainian military says five of its soldiers died in heavy rebel shelling of Ukrainian army positions at Avdiivka just north of rebel-held Donetsk.
Three Ukrainian troops died earlier when a mine blew up, the military said.
The US Department of State called it "the deadliest one-day period in 2017" in the eastern Ukraine conflict.
In a video tweet on Thursday, the state department blamed the "Russian-led" rebels for the flare-up and urged both sides to observe the fragile ceasefire.
The rebels also reported clashes on Thursday but did not confirm the Ukrainian death toll.
The UN says more than 10,000 people have died since the eastern Ukraine conflict erupted in April 2014, soon after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. The fighting has displaced more than 1.6 million people.
A ceasefire was agreed in Minsk in February 2015, but its terms are far from being fulfilled.
A Ukrainian military statement on Facebook said the pro-Russian rebels fired mortars, grenades and machine guns in the Avdiivka area, and Ukrainian troops returned fire.
It was the most intense fighting since 11 June when four Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
Western governments accuse Russia of helping the rebels with regular troops and heavy weapons. Moscow denies that, while admitting that Russian "volunteers" are helping the rebels.
On Tuesday the Donetsk rebel chief, Alexander Zakharchenko, announced plans to create a new "state" to replace Ukraine. He called it "Malorossiya" (Little Russia) - but the Kremlin later dismissed it as just his "personal initiative".

Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons, according to people familiar with the effort.

Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

Now you have your answer.

Trump may never pardon himself, but the fact that he even asks about it is a huge story in and of itself. This whole thing seems to be moving in one direction — a direction that is decidedly not away from a constitutional crisis.