How much do they hate the Koch brothers? So much, that when the Koch’s paid for a new hospital care centre, nurses stormed the streets.
Washington Beacon: it was the New York State Nurses’ Association, the NAACP New York State Conference, and SEIU Local 1199, among others, who marched on the soon-to-be-built David H. Koch Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, which was funded in part by a $100 million donation from the man one prominent liberal recently predicted would go down in history as a “famously evil person.”
The donation was the largest in the hospital’s history, and will presumably create a fair number of new nursing jobs. So why are the usual suspects up in arms? Well, the agitators were apparently agitated because this particular hospital didn’t need all the money. Oh yeah, and because it was International Women’s Day, and the Kochs are the primary funders of the “war on women’s reproductive rights … and many other issues of concern to American women.” They’re also behind “the effort to defeat and repeal healthcare to all Americans,” whatever that means.
From the twitter #kochBros
David Koch is against affordable healthcare. Why is his name on a hospital? #stopKoch
The real issue apparently is “Affordable Healthcare”. If you are dependent on big-government largess (or aiming to be that way), I guess the last thing you’d want is successful free market philanthropy.
Once upon a time people who created productive industries and gave away large sums of money were lauded, now there is no amount of money the Koch’s could give…
If you like your small hospital, you can keep your small hospital?
Oh the dilemma, The Koch’s support of climate skeptics* means the hospital gift is tainted money:
The donation will bear his name, David Koch on a new outpatient facility and he sits on the Board of Trustees at the hospital. This just goes to show what wealth is doing today in the US, sure the hospital welcomes the money and who wouldn’t but it’s strange spot to be in with the political side of where Koch goes with their campaigns, so I guess in essence we need fossil fuels to keep some hospitals going? It’s a strange world we live in today. BD
Grist are right into the irony (as they see it). The hospital is “desperate” because of the extra patients due to the trauma of Hurricane Sandy, and yet The Kochs helped made Hurricane Sandy worse!
“NewYork-Presbyterian declined to comment on whether the hospital is comfortable accepting millions of dollars from a donor whose companies create the conditions for future superstorms.”
h/t Marc Morano Climate Depot
*I’m not one.
I had a very young child once, who refused to eat his ice cream, because he wanted it with chocolate sauce.
Just sayin’…
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If the hospital don’t want the money I can think of a number of deserving climate bloggers who would be prepared to step in and take the cash.
If some of it could be channelled to their occasional readers I would not be unhappy, either!
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In fact, I would be prepared to inspect every note, in order to sort the Green ones (which are good, by definition) from all of the others, which are bad.
My fee for doing this, would be 10% of all the “good” ones, plus all of the “bad” ones, being donated to Jo’s blogging efforts, plus payment of my out-of-pocket expenses, plus air fares, and accommodation in a five-star in down-town Manhattan.
I can be contacted via Jo.
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Gees you guys are getting greedy..
You have your massive “big oil” cheques, and now you want all this extra..
And we don’t even have a union ! Perhaps that’s what we need.. a union !
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Here is Dilbert’s way of seeing the world to reduce stress …
Very appropriate on this thread …
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Dilbert has the answer to everything.
00
RW as this is in the US there is the exceptionally strong possibility that ALL the bank notes fdrom Koch will be some shade of green – different numbers but all green.
Given there will be few bad ones the fee should be adjusted to involve Jo as our agent.
But never mind you’ll need a capable assistant and my contact details are the same.
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bloody old age and not so nimble fingers – that should have read “from Koch”
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Um, I knew that. It was supposed to be part of the joke – green-back – green-movement? OK, fergeddit.
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Yeah Rereke, and you can keep all the Zimbabwean dollars.
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“…so I guess in essence we need fossil fuels to keep some hospitals going?”
Well yes actually, or do you think that all that hi-tech equipment runs on fairy dust.
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20 odd years ago you could get baby bibs which said-” I don’t know what I want, BUT I WANT IT NOW!!!”
The children of the 80’s have grown up./sarc
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Well, grown older, anyway. “Up”, not so much.
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vertically
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And why not? The Koch brothers are a nice scapegoat for Democrats.
Jo would not let anything even remotely like what I think of Senate Democrats at the moment stay up on her blog for one second. But I think you’ll get my message.
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Ironically, If they don’t accept the $100m, the Koch brothers are $100m richer. 🙂
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And then there are the Republicans. I just saw this item discussing Senate minority leader McConnell’s saying they will crush the tea party.
I sent him a rather blistering “thank you” for further fracturing a party that desperately needs unity of purpose, unity of direction and a coherent plan, not business as usual. I hope everyone who cares about taking back the senate this year and the White House in 2016 will do the same.
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Forgot this: http://www.senate.gov is where you’ll find him. Click Senators and then sort by name to find him easily.
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Can you say “Whig”? Sure you can…
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Certainly I can. But…
I’m not exactly sure what you mean so pardon me for being a little dense — maybe it’s still too early in the morning. In any case, I’d give a lot for a political party that was HONEST and had a firm GRIP on both ECONOMICS and HISTORY. A firm grip on THE CONSTITUTION would not hurt either. We have none of that at the moment except in a few individuals who’re seen as enemies of the status quo, nothing but threats to the aspirations of the congressional power brokers.
It’s ideologues, particularly on the left and self serving grandstanders on both sides.
Now if you’re implying that I want the Whig party consider this. Another party further splinters the vote and makes it easier for Democrats to present a concerted act, even a bad one, and get elected.
An army where every unit has the same strategic plan always beats the one with a bunch of different uncoordinated units thrashing around like injured bugs about to die. And that’s exactly what happens to them.
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That seems to be the belief–a third party will allow the Democrats to continue. However, there were third parties off and on in history and they somehow rose to power. Democrats did a complete reversal of philosophy from Kennedy to Johnson. It has worked before–guess maybe we should figure out how they did this in the past and see if we can use it now or use it to figure out how to fix the mess with some modification. It seems unlikley the entrenched, pork-barrel republicans are going to voluntarily give up. One of my senators believes he is entitled to the job for as long as he wants it–he fully believes he can walk on water and no one but a viscious enemy would oppose him in his own party. He’s great at soaking up every kind of tax incentive out there while preaching fiscal responsibility. Can he be convinced to change? Unlikely–once you believe you are better than everyone else and entitled to rule, there’s really no fix. Except replacing him. Maybe even with a Democrat, since he looks like one anyway……Time for a study of how this got changed in the past.
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Sheri,
I thought that out there in the middle of Wyoming you just peppered their backside with rock-salt (both barrels). 😉
Harry Reid has been going on and on like a senile old man but he’s still getting support from somewhere because Nevada reelected him anyway.
I’m all for whatever will work. But when your opponent is willing to lie, cheat and, if necessary, steal the elections necessary to stay in power I’m not moved to want a 3rd party. I’m moved to want some kind of commensurate power. And that, as you will no doubt point out if I don’t, makes me no better than they are.
So then what? How often to you hear about a Whig, a Libertarian or any other splinter party? Not very. So what’s left? Republicans or a miracle.
PS: If you think your guy is bad you should try Barbara Boxer. She may not be as nationally prominent as Nancy Pelosi but she’s every bit as much entitled.
20
One thing that would help is term limits. And I mean 1 term per lifetime. You could either spend it in the House or in the Senate and then you go home. Period. But term limits would have to be added to the constitution because the supreme court has ruled (correctly) that the way the Constitution is written the states have the right to determine who represents them without federal restriction. And now how much chance do you think that would have of getting itself ratified by enough states?
I might be amenable to making a representative’s term 4 years and a Senator’s term 9 or even 12 years. But that’s all. Once in office you don’t get to worry about reelection. Reelection is the root of 110% of the problem.
10
I’ll pass on the offer of Barbara Boxer. She is definately entitled. Actually, in Wyoming if the politician can bring home money to oil, gas and ranchers, that’s what counts. Plus, our population is growing and the entitled from other states are coming here. Nothing a brutal winter won’t correct.
Sadly, the winter won’t fix the political mess. 🙂
Once we had two parties, these parties dominated presidential elections. Independents occasionally take governorships and a few other seats. Perhaps we don’t really need another party, but rather an awakening of the population. You can’t get another party if everyone has their hands out. What would cause said “awakening”? Either a miraculous awakening of the greedy, apathetic voter base, or when the government runs out of money, you need a wheelbarrow full of $100 bills to buy bread and not so pleasant outcomes begin. Can we stop that? Don’t know. Only time will tell. Humans really are not very bright when taken as a whole. Yes, they can invent really cool things, but they seem incapable of actually improving upon themselves and society. Maybe that’s just the way it is. (Maybe we can’t change the overall behaviour of humans any more than we can control climate.)
10
But Sheri, over that 60 or so years, they have been able to change human behaviour. The hand-out mentality for zero work has been the really big change, and its very much a socialist ideal.
11
No argument there, Griss. One supposes now the question is how do we change it back? How do we make independence and properity look more appealing than sitting in front of the big screen, talking on the cell phone your government gave you, using food stamps and having rent control? I suspect this won’t be easy……
10
And so it is everywhere I think. And in the end, it was designed that way. You send people to DC who will look out for your state’s or your district’s interest. But staying honest about it would help.
Now, if you’re not willing to take Boxer, how about Feinstein? She’s not much either but compared with Boxer she’s a high class act. I’m sure she’d dress up Wyoming’s image in the Senate no end. How about it, Sheri? Why not give her a try? 😉
00
Feinstein is tempting. But I think I’ll have to pass. Since we got Barrasso, our image is pretty dressy!
00
My point was that it appears that the current Republican party has decided to provide a re-run of the 19th century dissolution of the Whigs; Whigs redux if you will. I’m not happy about it, but until they grow both a spine and a pair, working folks trying to make ends meet are going to look elswhere.
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@D.J. Hawkins – Are you American? Just curious. But I tend to agree with you. Perhaps they can stop the dissolution in time. But so far, they do not look like they know how.
The Whigs basically disappeared in 10 years. The republicans of today will take a bit longer, but they are on the same path.
00
Guilty as charged. I can tell you that a lot of people I run into of the conservative stripe view at least the national leadership of the Republican party as “Democrate Lite”. The national set want to claim the mantle of Reagan without providing his leadership or his steadfastness. Your mileage may vary on the local level.
00
So how many of those protesters are still driving “climate destroying” cars, in particularity gas guzzling SUVs? The hypocrisy is amazing, to the point that these protesters have a serious problem with logic and common sense needing immediate physiological attention and instruction.
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Not to mention many of them would support the notions of wealth re-distribution and higher taxes on the wealthy. At the same time as rejecting the filthy money when it is donated.
As is normal in the so called left of politics these days, no one has a clue what they stand for or why they stand for it, they just know they are going to protest loudly about it.
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Safetyguy66 you bring up an interesting point. They won’t accept the money if it’s donated to them but they will go out of their way and “steal” it from the very same people via draconian taxes and the like. That tells us who these protesters really are; they are evil and want to destroy our Australian way of life.
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PeterS – “Western way of life”
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Perhaps at a subconcious level, these people KNOW having things handed to you makes you the sad, pathethic or needy one. Hospitals need money to take care of sick people–people who genuinely cannot care for themselves. The nurses are the “secondary” needy ones–someone has to pay them. A donation says they are beholden to the donor. Ripoff by taxes means they worked enough to steal other people’s money using a middle agent. Plus, most have convinced themselves they “earned” the government welfare (which the Koch brothers just stole their corporate welfare) while an outright charitable donation they did nothing to earn. They can vote in the welfare but not the charity. Actually, it’s all pretty much growing insanity but we like to make these things look “normal”.
Again, if stupid people would stop giving money to these insane people, the insane people might be jolted back into reality. The insane ones do not have enough skills or money to support themselves but continuing support from real producers just feeds their illusions. If those who produce refused to support this, it would end.
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I am looking forward to boycotts of the various Nobel prizes, because …………… you know ……………. that the Nobel family fortune was based on explosives and armaments …………….. and, after about 150 years they would have a lot of blood on their hands. If we are to have philanthropy, it must be pure as.
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They look like the same Rent-a-Picket crowd Bill Shorten and the AWU call in to demand higher wages or else, and then proceed to close down iconic Australian industries.
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The Kochs did violate one very good rule about charity, however. Had they given the money anonymously — and that can be arranged so as to be very hard to trace — the money would have been just fine with all the complainers. But the name on the new facility would not have been Koch.
We humans always think of getting the credit for a good deed, do we not? So now the name Koch is on the new facility and the dishonest are having a field day. I wonder what the sick will think of the whole thing. Personally, if the Philip Morris tobacco conglomerate were to donate the money for a new hospital wing, I’d smile, say thank you and take the money.
And screw the complainers!
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I have nothing against the Kochs, by the way. I wish them all the success they can get. But I do hope they were not trying to rehabilitate their image with this donation.
The problem is similar to Newt Gingrich when he lost his seat in the House of Representatives (don’t remember the year). Liberals hated him because he was effective. He could work with Bill Clinton and convinced Clinton to do some very conservative and beneficial things. But Newt couldn’t avoid opening his mouth and thereby gave his political enemies ammunition with which to defeat him. Had he opened his mouth less and just kept on doing the work he was doing, who knows how much longer he could have kept his seat?
00
Newt never lost his seat. He resigned. Having handed the House to the Republicans, the Old Guard manuvered to force his resignation as Speaker and then he resigned from the House in 1999. He brought some of his troubles on himself, but his earstwhile colleagues were more than happy to blame him for the disappointing results of the 1998 mid-terms. You would never have seen that sort of thing from the Democrats directed at, say, Nancy Pelosi.
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D. J.,
Are you sure? I remember his resigning as speaker (political enemies can have the same as well as different stripes) but not resigning his seat in the House. But in any case, I think if he had simply kept silent and continued working away then things would have worked out quite differently for him and probably for the country.
In spite of every criticism and complaint leveled at Newt, he was a man who knew how to get the right things done and could do them even in the face of a president who didn’t want to go along.
I wish Republicans had had the good judgment to nominate him for president in 2012. I still think he could have given Obama a run for his money that would go down in the history books, regardless of the outcome of the election. Give me an experienced fighter any day. And when he comes with Newt’s grasp of history, so much the better, especially against Obama who understands history not in the least.
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Yes, Wikipedia can be your friend ;-). Also, he was putting his energy into the 2000 presidential campaign. Nothing worse than fending off complaints that you aren’t doing your current job while trying to get your next one.
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I guess I’m getting old. Memories don’t always pop up just when I need them anymore. And at the time I wasn’t moved by the current necessity to follow national affairs quite as closely either.
You can have your pick of either of those weak-kneed excuses (or both). 😉
00
However, Newt Gingrich was far from the first or the last politician to ignore his current job so he could prepare the way to his next one.
00
True enough. I admire that he was willing to go “all in” on the presidential run. He might well have run for both positions and stayed in the House if the top spot eluded him. I don’t know how secure his district was.
00
Perhaps the Kochs should withdraw the funding making sure that it is made abundantly clear that the money was withdrawn at the request of the New York State Nurses’ Association.
The nurses would be about as popular as a fart in an elevator after that.
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And what exactly is wrong with a fart in an elevator ? 😉
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This is one issue on which I am willing to adopt far-left ideology….
A fart in an elevator is perfectly ok.. so long as its MY fart.
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It depends on your position!
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The Griss – It depends on your position!
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Being a basically polite guy, I always let others on first, and stand at the front of the elevator. 🙂
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That way, I can hold the doors open for them as they get off……… gasping. 🙂
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I would do it that way, but I doubt they are going to. If everyone who protested oil money (like throwing rotten fruit at Al Gore…..well, no, it’s okay he took 500 million in oil money…..no one protested that) anyway, if we cut off the fossil fuels (and any electricity produced with gas or coal) and fossil fuel money donations to said people, I think the message would have more impact.
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Sheri,
I don’t know exactly what will work. But I certainly hope the inevitable trouble hits those causing it long before it hits you and me. Unfortunately history tends to indicate the opposite.
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Sadly, I think such behaviour will only begin to moderate when we have given these bizarre psychos what they want. 50 years of the Ministry of Love should lead to a final, Earth shattering Revolution which will send Leftism to the grave. I believe this will happen in some form, one day…
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Good God! It must be flouride induced insanity. By the way, Koch bros. give a lot to public television in spite of PBS Left leaning bias.
What do they make of that?
I say anyone that is outraged by this and takes ill, should be denied use of the new facility.
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Amen brother. Amen!
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No. Ill people should never be denied treatment.
Just charge them double.
21
The way to make Sandy (huge in area but no category at landfall) worse was to build a huge metropolis near sea level in a notorious hurricane belt (Long Island Express 1938 etc). To improve on nature’s malice you could have dumped rubble into the mouth of the Hudson, narrowing it by 700 feet, to make more Battery Park real estate using rubble from the construction of the Twin Towers. Then all you needed was an unlucky tide time and a mayor more concerned with soft drink sizes.
That was how to make Sandy worse. Koch bros don’t come into it.
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That mayor has a lot to answer for causing Sandy to be as bad as it was. The bar at my hotel was still under Sandy induced repairs twelve months ago when I had to visit NY. Unforgivable I tell you.
🙂
30
The money is unacceptable because the Koch guys skipped over the middle man, i.e. the tax collector.
If the Koch brothers had been subject to an arbitrary retroactive windfall carboniferous tax of $100 Million and that amount all went to the health care system, that would be cause for lefty head-nodding. Even if the tax collection system skimmed off 15% on the way past for admin expenses, people would nod and say, yeah, that’s justified.
But Koch skipped that step and put all the money where it could provide actual health care without being told to do so by their betters. That’s where they went wrong. What the heck were they thinking?
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If the money goes through government, then 1/3 will be spent on research as to where the money could be better spent.
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*I’m a climate change sceptic (who am I to say what the climate can or can not do), as if there really is such a thing as a typical climate to change because of a degree on average warming around the globe. I might be biased because I have lived in Melbourne but even Darwin has cooled to 10°C and Hobart has reached 42°C.
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“David Koch is against affordable health care. Why is his name on a hospital?”
Looks like the latter is a good reason to doubt the former.
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I wondered at all the angst against the Koch family until I saw that their father was one of the founders of the John Birch Society,which is one of the very few true conservative and libertarian organisations left in the world.
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I peruse the JBS website now and then, if you really want to get a left winger wound up just start talking up the JBS and casually wave off the ensuing rant and abuse, it’s really quite funny. 🙂
30
Every dogmatic belief system needs its figure of hate. In George Orwell’s 1984 it was Emmanuel Goldstein. In the world of climate alarmism and anti-capitalism it is the Koch brothers in the USA. In the UK the hate figure is Margaret Thatcher.
The difference is that the fictional Emmanuel Goldstein “was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party’s purity.” The Koch brothers have always been opposed to big government and crony capitalism. But if you research David H Koch – like Wikipedia – he has long supported medical charities, donating $395m from 1998-2012, so this generous donation should as no surprise.
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Give the ‘Protesters’ what they want, No Hospital.
Watch them cry when they need It the most,
Hypocrites.
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I’m with the Koch’s, do they have a fan club. The seem eminently sensible to me. I might add that big-oil is in MY pay, since I own bits of 3 or 4 oil and gas companies. And my motto is dig baby dig!
More CO2 is great for the planet and I’m all for humanity using as much as needed to raise living standards for all.
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Absolutely incredible!
If the Koch brothers give oil money to a hospital that is, of course, evil. When the oil and gas industry gives money to the Sierra Club that is, of course, virtuous?
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/02/17/big-oil-money-for-me-but-not-for-thee/
The greens have mobilized their union cronies because anything showing the Koch brothers in a positive light is blasphemy. Gaia forbid that the green’s poster boys for evil incarnate should be shown to be anything other than that which contradicts the infallible teachings of the green elect!
I suppose that if the union members failed to obey, the Gaians could have invoked interdiction or excommunication against any of the recalcitrant faithful! Maybey the uncooperative members would have been fired or blackballed?
Wow! Now that is evil!
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Nic Lewis unravels another messy concocted study from the true believers. Seems if you don’t like some numbers you just change them, just like the temp data sets.
http://climateaudit.org/2014/03/10/does-inhomogeneous-forcing-and-transient-climate-sensitivity-by-drew-shindell-make-sense/#comments
Interesting that Steve Mcintyre has found that the average of the models as used by the IPCC are about 50% higher than observations as Nic mentions in this post. Once again CAGW is not supported by any of the evidence, so what is wrong with our MSM?
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It seems even Bangladesh is waking up to a prosperous fossil fuel future. Good for them.
http://www.thegwpf.org/economy-first-bangladesh-increase-coal-power-generation-2-50/
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I know it’s off topic, but every time I see something like this, I use it to highlight how Developing Countries (and here Developing is code for poor Countries) are in a situation where they have no access to something that we here in Australia take so utterly for granted, a regular and constant supply of electrical power.
Bangladesh has a population of 154 Million people, which is 6.7 times that of Australia.
Bangladesh generates a total of 45TWH of power each year.
Australia generates a total of 228TWH a year 5 times that of Bangladesh.
Just the residential sector alone here in Australia consumes 63TWH of power which is 40% more than Bangladesh generates for the whole Country.
Bangladesh hopes to open up some new coal fired power plants, including a huge new plant of 1320MW, which is half the size of Bayswater, and this new plant will supply an additional 20% of power to what Bangladesh currently consumes.
Here in Australia, we take electrical power for granted.
In Bangladesh, a vast proportion of the population have NO electricity in their homes at all.
I can see Green urgers in the already Developed World tut tutting that Bangladesh should not be building CO2 emitting power plants for the sake of the Planet.
Tony.
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Tony
In rural Central China, I have seen people spending their day picking through the refuse from a nearby coal mine washplant. They were using the few meagre coal cobbles they might find for heating and cooking
China still has about 1bn people in that sort of desperation, although it has lifted over 300m people into the “lower middle class” in about twenty years (unheard of previously in human history, genuinely unprecedented)
10
Man, you ought to see the absolute incredulity at warmist sites when I mention that around 800 million people in China, around the same in India, and around the same in other still Developing Countries, around 35% of the World’s population, people who have virtually no electrical power at the Residential level at all, not just a small amount of power, but NO power whatsoever.
I’m just accused of flat out lying.
People just have no concept of that. They just automatically think that if they have access to what we think of now as a staple of life, (like air to breathe and water to drink now for use here in the already Developed World) then everybody has it.
There’s only one way to bring cheap, (and dare I even mention reliable) electrical power to these people, and it most definitely is not renewable power.
As recently as 6 years ago, Australia was consuming more power in the Residential sector than in the whole of China’s residential sector, and China has a population 57.8 times that of our population here in Australia.
The only reason that people in China are now gaining some access to electrical power at all is that China is rapidly Industrialising, and the side benefit of all that power going to the first port of call, Industry, is that those people are now having housing that is actually connected to electrical power.
It’s considerably worse in India, and in other still Developing Countries.
When people read where I say this, the ONLY response is that I’m lying, flat out.
As a benefit of all that electrical power generation being constructed, electrical power generation technology is rapidly advancing, but only in China, because it’s absolute anathema in Our World.
This is about the only place I can mention it without being flamed, which is encouraging on another front. It shows me that visitors, both lurkers and people who do comment here at Joanne’s site are actually willing to take it in.
I don’t set out purposely to boost coal fired power. It’s just the only way to generate huge amounts of power in the one place, and with a constant and reliable output, which actually can get power to the quite literally, billions of people who do not have it at all.
THAT is why I sometimes get angry with warmists here who just automatically assume that I am a vandal who supports the destruction of the World due to CO2 emissions.
Tony.
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When checking on power generation in China, a few years ago,both out of curiosity and also to reply to a radio host on Chinas green energy take up, I came upon a study of the population percentage with access to electricity, (sadly didn’t bookmark or save the link,)I was surprised to find that people in outlying villages with access to streams use small water driven generators, to watch TV in the evening, no cooking or lights in many cases, just TV.
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Well put Tony. For some time now I’ve believed that modern industrialisation is the key to sound environmental policy. Poor people are just to busy surviving to worry about the the environment where modernised nations have stringent environmental controls in place. As you know, affordable electricity is the key. If the greens are truly serious about a clean world they should be promoting modern reliable and affordable power generation. A related benefit to this is that as nations become more prosperous they tend to naturally limit their population growth. With all the green hysteria regarding over population, one would think they would’ve cottoned on to this. Instead they seem hell bent on restricting developing nations from reaching industrial parity.
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Koch is a German word – means “Cook” in English. With the Koch Brothers being AGW sceptics then that surname is a bit of a misnomer.
10
This sort of lunacy is the same as the recent vilification of Transfield and their suppoort of the arts (for being associated with both Israel AND Manus Island!). What is really in play is the narcissistic left looking around desperately for some issue to attack attack attack on, for someone to vilify as evil evil evil. Really anyone will do it just depends on the supply sacrificial villians/witches at the time. Just like the old days in the 60’s when it was all so easy to wander down to the demo du jour, high on the moral ground of anti war and/or anti racism. Now they are reduced to this. Perhaps this is all they really were even back then notwithstanding the substance of the issues of the time.
To put it another way imagine an experiment. In one case a piece of fine fillet steak is placed on the floor of a test chamber and then a trapdoor opened for the flies to buzz in. The substantive matter to test for is if the steak is replaced by a fresh turd will the flies boycott it?
20
The left are nuts.
61
Repent and be saved sinners!
The end of the world is near due to your sins!
The seas will rise! The weather will storm!
…Human sacrifice! Decrease the surplus population!
……..No Golden Rice for those 5 million kids!
(but “Roundup Ready” soy tofu for them)
…. dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
disasters of biblical proportions!
Who ya going to call?
….Eco-Religion Busters!
40
No one who values their health should willingly go to a hospital with nurses as stupid and ill-informed as the ones in that protest.
90
A friend of mine was a farmer in Zimbabawe and he told me how one day his workers elected some union reps in to help them out. They had discovered that my friends practise of giving his workers free breakfast and lunch was ‘paternalism’ and Mugabe had said that was a bad thing. It was just the white man’s way of trying to incentivise workers and influence them etc
With shrewd cunning negotiation the union reps forced my friend to back down.
He agreed to no longer provide free breakfast and lunch. The union reps had won a huge victory and they walked out of the office as big as ten men, fully puffed up with pride.
The next day there was no free breakfast.
A lunch time there was no lunch.
There as a hasty meeting of the workers.
By evening there were no union reps and everything reverted back to the way it was.
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That works if you get in right away. Now, in the US, if the hospital takes money from an oil company there are protests because everyone knows the money will not be taken back. In other words, there will lunch. Or in the case of Obamacare, he just lies and blames someone else. In your example, the union leaders would have showed up, wailed that the evil company forced them to remove lunches in exchange for other benefits and promised lunch would be worked back into the contract later on. The workers would have breathed a sigh of relief and gone hungary daily believing lunch was coming. It works every day in the US–people who honestly believe they lost their insurance because the evil insurarer took it away, not that Obama outlawed it. There is the most incredible ability to believe contractory, onging lies from a government telling you they are just helping you, you poor, incompotent fool and you should be soooo greatful to them. It works, day after day after day. You could literally beat these people bloody and then convince them it had to be done for their own good. Let’s hope other countries don’t follow suit with the US.
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Quote:
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.
It will be far easier to limit the and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.
The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America.
Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.
The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool.
It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
Vaclav Klaus.
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When the wicked rule the people mourn!
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That is actually in the Proverbs.
00
OT. . .
Oh Gawd! *face palm*
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/could-climate-change-bring-back-smallpox/story-fn5fsgyc-1226851404396
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Its certainly a guessing game trying to predict the next thing that climate change will cause. 🙂
Quite hilarious.
00
My guess is alien invasion.
oooops. Sorry, already been done.
“The possibility of harmful contact with ETI suggests that we may use some caution for METI.
Given that we have already altered our environment in ways that may viewed as unethical by
universalist ETI, it may be prudent to avoid sending any message that shows evidence of our
negative environmental impact. The chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere over recent
time may be a poor choice for a message because it would show a rapid accumulation of carbon
dioxide from human activity. Likewise, any message that indicates of widespread loss of
biodiversity or rapid rates of expansion may be dangerous if received by such universalist ETI.
On the other hand, advanced ETI may already know about our rapid environmental impact by
listening to leaked electromagnetic signals or observing changes in Earth’s spectral signature. In
this case, it might be prudent for any message we send to avoid denying our environmental
impact so as to avoid the ETI catching us in a lie.”
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1104/1104.4462.pdf
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I’m not so sure Heywood,
Former Greens leader Bob Brown said, “That’s why they are not communicating with Earth. They have extincted themselves. They have come and gone. And now it’s our turn.”
So if they’ve “extincted themselves” then they can’t invade us. Phew, we’re safe! Bob says so.
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Not that I just want to repeat myself from #10 above. But screw the extraterrestrial complainers too. This world is ours, not theirs.
Why are we so stupid?
20
Nah, it’s easy Griss, think of something bad and blame it on climate change.
30
“Think of anything and blame it on climate change”, seems to be the current meme.
Quite OCD. !
20
winning hearts & minds:
10 March: Guardian: Adam Vaughan: Richard Branson tells climate deniers to ‘get out of the way’
Virgin chief writes on his blog that businesses should follow Apple’s example and take a stand against climate scepticism
While Tim [Cook] told sustainability sceptics to ‘get out of our stock’, I would urge climate change deniers to get out of our way,” he said…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/10/richard-branson-climate-deniers-get-out-of-the-way
8 March: Guardian: John Vidal: Richard Branson pledges to turn Caribbean green
Virgin boss says that pursuing environmental and renewable energy projects is ‘more interesting than making a few more bucks’
Last week Branson hosted a summit of financiers, politicians, energy companies, lawyers and others on Moskito and Necker to work up a plan to “green” the Caribbean, island by island. Five prime ministers and 12 governments, as well as international bankers and investors, heard renewable energy experts explain how the region’s islands, which currently generate nearly all their electricity from diesel, could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year and reduce emissions by 50% or more.
Necker and Moskito will be 75-80% converted to use renewable energy and become working models for how other islands could cut expensive diesel imports, while all Caribbean governments will be offered a technical and financial blueprint on how to switch, by US energy thinktank the Rocky Mountain Institute and Branson’s green business group, Carbon War Room…
Last week the US government’s private-sector lending arm said it would support the efforts by the islands to go green by offering loans of up to $250m for renewable energy and energy-saving projects…
“Governments [here] need help. I think a lot of ministers may be new to the job; they can’t be experts at climate or energy. Some need a helping hand to make the transition to renewables. We can really save families 40% of what they have to pay for electricity,” he said.
The irony of a man whose rail and airline companies are significant climate polluters trying to “green” small island states is not lost on Caribbean governments. Branson said it has led him to invest heavily in green fuels, solar panels and other “clean-tech” developments. “There is no question that Virgin is involved in a number of businesses that emit a lot of carbon, and that is one of the reasons why I have to work particularly hard … but, more importantly, to try to help other people balance their books as well,” he said.
However, he said he has lost many millions of pounds in failed green investments. “…
Peak oil – the expected point of maximum global oil production before it starts to decline – and a widely predicted hike in fuel prices have not happened and, if anything, he said, the world should expect the oil price to fall rather than rise in the next few years because of fracking…
British author Tom Bower calculated in his new book, Branson, Behind the Mask, that the entrepreneur had lost $300m in failed green investments and used the British Virgin Islands to hide his accounts in a succession of 11 companies. “He, most unusually, invested his own money and has lost most of it; and all his claims have proved to be wrong – namely: peak oil, oil prices, Virgin’s use of alternative fuels and the potential profits,” Bower said. The author accused Branson of not understanding the science or human costs of biofuels, and latching on to green businesses for political motives and profit, rather than for environmental reasons. “He embraced environmentalism and aligned himself with Clinton and Gore, to get on the top table of US and British politics,” said Bower…
Tony Blair, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and other politicians have visited Necker, but not David Cameron, whom Branson strongly supports for his commitment to nuclear power…
I have studied how many people have been killed in nuclear accidents – it’s less than 1,000.
“One Chinese coalmine disaster can kill more than that. If you have a global catastrophe, you have to take extreme measures. Nuclear seems to be an important weapon that the world has.”
More controversially, along with billionaires such as Bill Gates, Branson supports the idea of high-risk, quick technological fixes to “geo-engineer” the global climate if emissions were to get out of control…
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/08/richard-branson-caribbean-green-virgin-renewable-energy
00
“Last week the US government’s private-sector lending arm said it would support the efforts by the islands to go green by offering loans of up to $250m for renewable energy and energy-saving projects.”
In the 80’s the US Government’s private sector lending arm went into South America with promises of infrastructure assessments then large loans.
Those infrastructure plans were then accepted with the help of of corrupt South American government officials.
US companies won all the contracts and the cash stayed in the US while the debt stayed in South America.
This is just another Green Fraud.
10
Hmm!
I wonder if the article mentions that Branson OWNS both these islands, both Necker and Moskito, both relatively tiny islands really, with just his private resorts on them.
Easy to convert them to renewables, and, umm, after all, as long as it’s with his own money.
I mean, Necker Island, 74 Acres in size with accommodation for 28 people.
Oh, laugh out loud Tony.
Go for your life mate.
Tony.
30
“US government’s private-sector lending arm said it would support the efforts by the islands to go green by offering loans of up to $250m for renewable energy and energy-saving projects”
So Branson is running out of money and wants the US suckers to help fund renewables for 2 tiny islands, that he just happens to own.
Is that the picture?
10
Wouldn’t it be even better to ban all forms of transport into and out of the Islands that use any form of fossil fuel?
20
In between the idiot progressive health union resisting largesse from the Koch brothers (how many did in fact demonstrate….couldn’t find that anywhere?) and an Australian academic obsessed with extreme weather telling the fawning, braindead MSM that the surf will diminish thanks to climate change (CAGW), to the tragedy in the South China Sea and the Crim-e-a-River…..it has been a tedious, nonsense filled day, the news peddled frantically by all manner of speculators, entrail gazers, spin meisters, modellers and catastrophists
Blerdy hell. Does anyone actually have a life they want to get on with? /rhet.
30
You have to realise, these people KNOW that the global temperature is starting to drop.
They may deny it to others, but they are not all as totally and wilfully blind as some of the ‘clowns-dressed-as-trolls’ on this site.
They are panicking in desperation to try and grab as much as they can from the climate trough before it dries up completely.
Expect the claims to get more and more ABSURD, and the rhetoric to get more and more HYSTERICAL before it dies a NATURAL death.
52
Has anybody had a look at that #kochBrothers twitter feed? And they call sceptics conspiracy theorists.
20
how interesting that, apart from The Guardian, there doesn’t seem to be any MSM coverage of Branson’s Summit. wouldn’t you think the MSM would be shouting this from the rooftop (solar of course)?
12 Feb: VIDEO: British Virgin Islands Beacon: Regional leaders meet at Branson’s energy summit
As Mark Grundy sees it, the Caribbean’s difficulties in moving to renewable energy are best seen from the air.
“Solar and wind? You fly over Barcelona and Germany, it’s everywhere,” said Mr. Grundy, the communications director of the non-profit organisation Carbon War Room. “You fly over the Caribbean, you can’t see it.”…
More than 100 delegates — including representatives of 12 Caribbean countries — met at Mosquito Island last week for a three-day summit aimed at changing that.
“The people who will suffer the first from climate change will be small island states, so what we did here was we brought together governments, we brought together clean energy companies, and we asked the governments where are the roadblocks to just getting on and doing it,” said Sir Richard Branson, Mosquito’s owner and the summit’s organiser…
CWR aims to overcome the market barriers that prevent renewable energy from taking root, Mr. Grundy said. The group brings in consultants to help countries perform feasibility studies, prepare bidding documents, and attract the attention of large companies that otherwise would be reluctant to commit resources to the region’s relatively small projects, he added.
http://bvibeacon.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4542:regional-leaders-meet-at-bransons-energy-summit-video&catid=879:local-news-feb-13-2014
one shudders to think of who will pay back the loans. i have this funny feeling Branson gets his NRG deal for free, because he is insistent that it is a “demo”. some details in this one for your comment, TonyfromOz:
12 Mar: AltEnergyMag: Rocky Mountain Institute Works with Sir Richard Branson and Caribbean Leaders to Fast-Track Renewable Energy Across the Region
NRG Energy to install solar and wind power on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island.
The Summit, held last week in the British Virgin Islands, was attended by representatives of twelve countries, as well as CEOs and executives from over thirty corporations and institutions, including Philips, Johnson Controls, Sungevity, Vestas, NRG, CARICOM, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and The World Bank. The commitments were complemented by news that Virgin Limited Edition and Sir Richard Branson, who had committed Necker to the ‘Ten Island Renewable Challenge’ as a ‘demo’ island, awarded the contract to transition it on to renewables to U.S. energy giant NRG…
“Islands are a microcosm of larger energy systems around the world and offer an excellent test bed to demonstrate and scale innovative, clean energy solutions,” said Amory Lovins, co-founder and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute. “We’re pleased to bring our decades of experience helping businesses and communities cost-effectively shift to efficiency and renewables to help island nations move beyond clean energy roadmaps to tangible, on-the-ground results.”…
About Carbon War Room
The Carbon War Room is a global nonprofit, founded by Sir Richard Branson and a team of like-minded entrepreneurs, that accelerates the adoption of business solutions that reduce carbon emissions at gigaton scale and advance the low-carbon economy…
About Rocky Mountain Institute
Since 1982, Rocky Mountain Institute has advanced market-based solutions that transform global energy use to create a clean, prosperous and secure future. An independent, nonprofit think-and-do tank, RMI engages with businesses, communities and institutions to accelerate and scale replicable solutions that drive the cost-effective shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables.
http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2014/02/12/rocky-mountain-institute-works-with-sir-richard-branson-and-caribbean-leaders-to-fast-track-renewable-energy-across-the-region-/32327
00
almost no MSM interest in the Bonn climate talks, maybe because they are “shaky” (shady?):
U.N. climate talks make shaky start to year as procedures questioned
BONN, March 10 (Reuters) – U.N. climate negotiations resumed on a shaky footing on Monday as some delegates questioned how the meeting was being run amid calls for more urgency at the talks, which after two years have made scant progress towards a global climate change deal.
https://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.4447219
odd piece, full of NUANCE!
10 Mar: Bloomberg/Businessweek: Matthew Carr: Switzerland Seeks Precision as Nations Shape Carbon Markets (1)
Nations setting up carbon markets must standardize their emission-reduction benchmarks to ensure international efforts to limit global warming stay on track, according to Switzerland’s climate envoy.
At least 30 of 200 countries meeting at talks this week in Bonn are developing carbon trading systems to help meet emissions targets under a worldwide treaty to start in 2020. Nations should measure greenhouse-gas cuts as tons of carbon dioxide even if they pursue hard-to-quantify policies such as emissions taxes and energy efficiency rules, said Franz Perrez, who represents the alpine nation in United Nations talks…
Switzerland is a member of the Environmental Integrity Group, a UN climate negotiating group that advocates strengthening current global emissions targets. The group, formed in 2000, includes South Korea, Liechtenstein, Mexico and Monaco…
(Ukraine?)South Africa, Brazil and Ukraine are among countries considering carbon markets that met last week in Mexico City under the auspices of the Partnership for Market Readiness, a World Bank program to develop nations’ emissions trading…
“The 2020 pledges so far are not of the right order,” said Bob Ward, the policy director at the institute, which is at the London School of Economics. “The climate is becoming more hostile, making it more difficult for poorer countries to develop economically,” he said March 7 by phone.
Technical work on measuring the impact of markets, taxes and emissions regulation has begun, said the World Bank’s Wang. Many poorer nations probably won’t immediately choose emissions trading systems, she said…
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-03-10/switzerland-seeks-precision-as-30-nations-shape-carbon-markets
still preaching:
10 Mar: Responding To Climate Change: As it happened: UN climate change summit opens in Bonn
1205 – Assad Rehman from Friends of the Earth UK:
Warns negotiators how they will be judged… “to meet this test you must drastically scale up your work”, says it is “indefensible” that chairs have not moved into formal negotiations on a 2015 deal. Says a vision to limit warning to below 1.5C vital…
http://www.rtcc.org/2014/03/10/live-un-climate-change-talks-in-bonn/
00
Australia is listed as a PMR participant – which is different from being there, i think:
pdf: World Bank Carbon Finance Org: The Partnership for Market Readiness
Shaping the Next Generation of Carbon Markets
The PMR is made up of Contributing Participants who provide financial support to the PMR Trust Fund, and Implementing Country Partici-pants (listed be-low in proposed activities tables) who receive PMR funding…
PMR Implementing Country Participants—Proposed Activities in Other Regions
(SEE UKRAINE)
https://wbcarbonfinance.org/docs/PMR_Brochure_v2.pdf
pdf: PMR Update: Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR): Update Since PA7
Eighth Meeting of the Partnership Assembly Mexico City, Mexico
March 3-5, 2014
http://www.thepmr.org/system/files/documents/PA8_Update.pdf
10
Something the loony lefties and greenies have not thought of, that could get conservatives onside: Before ‘climate change’ there was no Gay Mardi Gras. A win-win in sight ?
🙂
30
We had a very similar rent a crowd at the hospital (different one) where Tony was opening a new medical research building. They were protesting about the death on Manus Island while completely blind to the 1000 or more who died under the Rudd system.
51
Well clearly the reason they are protesting against Abbot is because he removed a policy that killed so many people. They want Labor’s policy put back so more can be killed. As if the left haven’t got enough blood on their hands. What hypocrites.
10
Unfortunately we are an insane country. Liberals are at this very moment trying to shut down hospitals (non-profits) because they do not like their abortion stance. They are going to “show those stupid Catholics” by demanding them to violate the tenets of their faith. But the unstoppable force is meeting a unmovable object. The Church bows to no man.
This is more of the same. It reminds me of “Goodlife” – a term coined by Fred Saberhagen in his Beserker series. These insane idiots only hold “goodlife” as sacrosanct. Even if their “intentions” kill millions, it is for the “good” of those millions they die.
The 20th century saw the rise of several regimes like that. And millions died because of it. Mankind does not learn. We are truly a stupid species.
10
Matt and I were accused of being in the pay of The Koch Brothers. The fact that we lost our lives’ savings and right-hand man because of our stand against the climate change mafia does not make these zealots change their tack. Grist probably wouldn’t “get” that irony.
This is comical.
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