Topics below:
On the claims of Christianity and Islam to “Represent/fulfill” that wisdom sage? Not if you ignore his core message and themes. More on the shared “bad ideas” in the major religious traditions.
And the “holy shitoli” presentation of Javier Milei at Davos. That is what courage and common sense looks and sounds like. The “Populism” that he speaks to is commoners pushing back against dominating elites who have abandoned common sense Classic Liberalism and persistently try to re-establish the elite/commoner divide in societies.
Then see below the Ken Haapala summary of the William Happer presentation on the warming influence of CO2. That warming influence is now “saturated” and increasing levels of CO2 will not contribute much, if anything, to any more warming.
Further, the warming that we have had so far (1.2 degree C over past century) has been beneficial to all life. And the rise in CO2 has also been beneficial to all life. We need more of both to get back to the optimal, natural levels for most of the Phanerozoic history of life, when all life flourished with more of its basic food and warmth- i.e. CO2 in the multiple-thousands of ppm, and temperatures up to 10 C warmer than today (i.e. the Eocene “mammalian paradise” of some 55-33 million years ago). The oceans did not “boil” and the planet did not ignite on fire in that world that was entirely free of ice for over 80% of its history.
Why did the oceans not “boil” (an ignorant alarmist exaggeration)? Because that extra heat energy is transported via ocean and atmospheric convection currents to the colder polar regions to naturally warm those areas and benefit life there. The media hysteria over melting ice and faster Arctic warming is a denial of natural states and climate processes. See the research on the natural factor of “meridional transport”, that Javier Vinos argues is the main influence on climate change. He posts his reports on “co2coalition.org” and “Wattsupwiththat.com”.
Sample of Vinos’ reports:
https://co2coalition.org/news/the-sun-climate-effect-the-winter-gatekeeper-hypothesis-parts-i-ii/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/01/tom-nelson-interviews-javier-vinos/
Why do elites like Mark Carney have such difficultly grasping this basic science of climate presented by experts like atmospheric physicist Happer and others?
The conclusion from Happer’s research? There is no scientific reason to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies. There is no “climate crisis”.
More on site themes: Wendell Krossa
Is there any greater cultic delusion today than “Lets destroy human civilization (i.e. degrowth, de-development, decarbonization) to “save the world” from an imagined climate apocalypse with no science to affirm it.
“Apocalyptic has been the most violent and destructive idea in history”, Arthur Mendel in “Vision and Violence.” Add the totalitarian’s formula “fear=control” (elite control of commoners). Their motivating reward for terrorizing populations is the money that flows afterwards, money from commoners to controlling elites.
Cultic delusion and a host of associated psychopathologies are detailed in reports by journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn, and many others.
See another of Taibbi and Kirn’s excellent weekly reports on the corruption behind our supposedly liberal democracies. An expose of unbelievable hypocrisy in the “Yellings” (not Hearings, according to Kirn).
“America This Week, Jan. 31, 2025: ‘The Apostate Hearings- RFK, Warren, and Democrat-on-Democrat Crime: Walter attends the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. hearings. We discuss highlights and (mostly) lowlights”, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn.
https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-jan-e1d
Among other things, Kirn and Taibbi discuss the Tuskegee experiment by “the US public health service. In other words, if you’re going to sit and declare the inviolable sanctity and virtue of the United States Health bureaucracy (as Elizabeth Warren does), let’s bring up the fact that that very bureaucracy, which this guy wants to reform and which you’re running him down for not being properly reverent toward, ran an experiment to give people syphilis and then watched them and see what happened.”
Some reporter has tried to vilify RFK, claiming that he will do another Tuskegee experiment on Americans, to kill millions of them, if he is confirmed.
They expose the hypocrisy of Senators like Warren who have been beneficiaries of major donations from the drug companies while she yells at Kennedy to not sue them. Astounding. She took almost a million dollars from drug companies for her last Senate run in 2019-20.
This from Joe Rogan and guest on secret experiments performed by US state agencies on Americans without their knowledge. No longer dismissible as “conspiracy theories”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLsuq3Zbcog
Also, this great brief (4 mins) by Joe Rogan and guest Gad Saad (actually a happy guy). Wendell Krossa
I sent this post to a discussion group:
“Just a couple of minutes (4 mins) of Joe and Gad on Elon Musk as “the most attacked man on Earth”. Joe rightly notes that without Musk buying Twitter, we would be far less free today. That began the exposure of the behind-the-scenes censorship infrastructure that Shellenberger, Taibbi and others have continued to expose…. And how that was undermining democracy and freedom today in Western liberal democracies. It continues, backed by governments across Western civilization.
“They both note how critical that move was by Musk to buy Twitter and what world we would have been in, had he not done that. Gad is right that was the most critically important thing that Musk has done to save freedom/democracy. Without that, we would still be controlled by the ridiculous Woke ideology dominating public social media discourse and news media.
“As Joe says, that ideology would have been used by states “to control people under the guise of protecting marginalized people”. That gets to the virtue-signaling in “the psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism, the deformity of left-wing compassion” that enacts policies to produce mass-harm that left-wing people deny.
“Also, Joe’s interview of Mike Benz is still important to view as he details the growth of the censorship infrastructure, its many fronts and projects, its goals, etc. That is the larger context of what they are discussing here.
“As Joe says, it’s all about power, control and they- state elites- will use whatever they can to get their way- whether “DEI, Green energy bullshit”, etc. They are not doing it because they are trying to “save you”. That’s nonsense, says Rogan.” (End of discussion group post)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6du_fgzYKA
“Representing, fulfilling?”, Wendell Krossa
Previous comments on the shared bad ideas in all three Western religions– i.e. Judaism, Christianity, Islam- are below this top section. Those common bad ideas have incited and validated incalculable harm and violence across history and will continue to do so until they are confronted, changed, and new alternatives are found to replace them. Some of the worst of bad ideas are the features used to define human understanding of deity, the cohering center of human systems of belief and, from the beginning, humanity’s ultimate ideal and authority.
We have the alternatives to bad religious ideas offered in the “stunning new theology” of sages like Historical Jesus but as Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy said, the Jesus “diamonds” have been distorted and buried by Paul’s Christ myth that dominates the New Testament. (Note: Until the great contradictions, such as between Paul and Jesus at the core of Christianity, are confronted and understood, all religious reformism is just tinkering at the periphery that leaves the core of the problem- i.e. the pathologies in deity theories- in place and nothing really changes with the central archetypes/themes of human narratives.)
What’s the issue? This site, among varied concerns, is about ultimate freedom, ultimate safety and security, an ultimate assurance that “It’s going to be alright, for everyone, ultimately.” That is a big background re-assurance thing. The one thing we hold onto as we go through the worst in life.
The last, most critical phase of human freedom, is liberation from the “threat theology” that has enslaved human minds and spirits across history and continues to deform human personalities today in both religious and secular/ideological versions. Threat theology is very much the same old totalitarian’s formula of “Fear=control” that emerged with the earliest shaman taking fellow tribals down into those caves to scare the bejesus out of them with that anamorphic cave art. Such was the origin of art and religion according to prehistory expert John Pfeiffer in “Explosion: An Inquiry Into the Origins of Art and Religion”.
This site agrees with Bob Brinsmead that if there is no true freedom, then there is no authentic love. Freedom and love are inseparable twins. So don’t talk about “God is love” if your God embraces any of the features of threat theology that denies people true freedom from fear.
(Common features of threat theology: Anger/wrath in deity. Deity as tribal- favoring true believers, rejecting and damning unbelievers. Deity as Lord/King/Ruler, enforcing human submission under threat of damnation. Deity as punitive Destroyer in apocalypse and hell, etc.)
A note on the claim of Christianity to “represent/proclaim” Jesus, and the claim of Islam that it is the “fulfillment” of Jesus (and Moses), Wendell Krossa
https://counteringislamism.wordpress.com/waraka/
The author of “Waraqa’s Influence on Muhammad” notes that Islam claims to be “the fulfillment” of Moses and Jesus, taking them to their ultimate meaning. But Islam cannot make that claim with regard to Jesus and then ignore his actual message and his single most profound insight- i.e. his breakthrough insight on theology that God is an unconditional deity. That stunning new theology contradicts entirely the threat theologies of all ancient mythologies and the threat theologies of all religious traditions since.
The new theology of Jesus directly overturned the idea that God was a threatening deity. Read what he actually stated in the Matthew 5:38-48 and Luke 6:27-36 summaries of his central theme- “There must be no more eye for eye retaliation but instead love your enemies because God does. How so? God generously gives sun and rain, the two most critical gifts for agrarian society, to everyone alike, to both good and bad people. So be unconditionally merciful and generous just like God.” (My paraphrase of that message)
That is what James Robinson calls “the stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God… Jesus’ greatest contribution to the history of human ideas.”
“Non-retaliatory” hits the negative side of the theology. More comprehensively it is a statement of a stunningly inexpressible unconditional love in deity.
That stunning new theology of Jesus overturns entirely the psychopathology of threat theology that has darkened and enslaved human minds from the beginning of human mythmaking and all the way through the great world religions down to the “secular/ideological” gods of the modern era (i.e. “vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother Earth, punitive Universe, payback karma”, including versions like the cold and callous “Self-Organizing Principle” of “science”.).
What did Historical Jesus actually say in his stunning new theology? He stated that, in his new theology, there was no anger, no threat of punishment, no judgment, no exclusion of anyone from the love of God, and no hell.
There was only “no conditions love” for all- i.e. “sun and rain given to both good and bad people”, without exclusion. That meant no tribal division between “true believers/unbelievers”. Hence, no such thing as a “cosmic dualism” between God and Satan. Only ultimate oneness that is love.
The Prodigal Father story, told by Jesus, further illustrated the unconditional nature of God. There was no sacrifice demanded before forgiving failing people, no conditions before God would love them and welcome them generously and fully along with everyone else.
No religion can make the claim to “fulfill Jesus” if it ignores his very message on the nature of love as unconditional and if it ignores his central theological insight on God as unconditional love.
But yes, Islam “fulfills” the beliefs of Jewish Christianity on a variety of issues such as the rejection of Jesus as a sacrifice for sin (his redemptive death), the rejection of his virgin birth and divinity. And Islam embraced Jewish water purification and so on. Islam further embraced the features associated with Paul’s Christ myth- i.e. judgment and severe punishment for refusing the message/messenger (i.e. hellfire), and the demand for obedience and submission to God, etc.
However, those beliefs and practises have nothing to do with Historical Jesus, his message and his new theology.
So also, Christianity can not make the claim to represent Jesus, to be the religion of Jesus, and then distort and bury his message, his breakthrough insight on an unconditional God, with the Christ myth of Paul and its highly conditional salvation scheme (i.e. the supreme condition of the sacrifice of Jesus as a godman to pay for all sin and thereby appease the wrath of Paul’s God).
Both these religions fail on the most critical points- i.e. a clear embrace and promotion of the actual message and theology of Jesus.
More to the point, they cannot embrace Jesus’ message and theological insight because that message and insight spells the end of all conditional religion, all religious conditions. According to Jesus, the entirety of theology is summed in the statement that “God is unconditional love”. Hence, the summary of his message as “Love your enemies unconditionally because God loves them unconditionally”. An entirely non-religious message.
And, as always, when commenting on the “stunning new theology of Jesus” (James Robinson) I add those necessary qualifiers that the nature of Ultimate Reality, while presenting an aspirational ideal for human thought, emotion, motivation, and response, it is not prescriptive for criminal justice systems obligated first and foremost to protect the innocent by restraining/incarcerating violent people.
The stunning new theology of Historical Jesus works to challenge the cohering center of human narratives, overturning deforming myths like cosmic dualism, threatening forces/spirits behind the natural world, and varied other religious archetypes that have long incited and validated the worst impulses in people.
This is what “speaking truth to power” looks like. A courageous anti-Wokeism champion- Javier Milei
This speech evoked a “Holy Fuckoli, and holy shitoli”, from me.
Damn, this is refreshing clarity and straightforwardness. Heroic figures like Javier Milei are not cowed by threats, smears, or vilification. With steel in his spine, he stood and bluntly stated the case for freedom. Listen to him (link below) condemn the very people sitting in front of him (Klaus Schab and Co) for pushing “bad ideas” in that very forum, the dangerous and destructive ideas of Woke Progressive collectivism.
Did they invite him back because, unwilling to admit it themselves publicly, they now realize how wrong they have been? Do they sense the emerging and strengthening populist pushback building across Western societies against their leftist Woke Progressive extremism? Do they, cowardly, feel that they need some outside voice to speak the truths that they are beginning to recognize as common sense?
Here is Milei giving his second speech to the Davos WEF Woke Progressive socialists. Amazingly, they asked him back when last year he also stood there and told them how wrong and dangerous their ideology was- i.e. Woke Progressivism infecting societies as the new front for collectivism. Here he speaks the same points as last year, right to their faces. He repeatedly reminds the audience in front of him that the perversions and dangers of Wokeism have been promoted by forums like the very WEF group that he is speaking to.
His begins his speech with some history of the amazing success of capitalism:
Milei notes that when the West elevated people’s individual liberty above tyrants, this new liberalism then unleashed human creativity and the process of wealth generation that has grown 20-fold since. The new era in human history began in the early 1800s and has now lifted 90% of the human population out of poverty. Even as the human population increased 8-fold over the same time frame. This amazing success has been due to the fundamentally new values of respect for life, liberty, and property and all the freedoms of Western civilization that we value today (i.e. free speech, free trade, etc.).
Milei then interjects with a statement re the lead example of the creative innovation that has emerged from societies of freedom- i.e. Elon Musk. He notes how Wokeism has vilified Musk recently for an exuberant hand wave while expressing gratitude to an audience. The very same arm extension that is used repeatedly in speeches by AOC, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and many others. But not a peep from Wokesters about those exact same arm stretches. Ah, the pathetic and sickening pettiness of extremist tribalism.
Milei continues, stating that the West lost its way over past decades as collectivists saw opportunity during crises to take control and redistribute the wealth that capitalism had created. Collectivists did that through centralized planning, setting in motion a process whose disastrous consequences we are suffering today.
And this- “The elite class promoted a socialist agenda while insidiously operating within the “liberal” paradigm. This new political class distorted the values of liberalism. They replaced freedom with “liberation” using the coercive power of the state to redistribute the wealth created by capitalism”.
He goes on to explain how the collectivist redistribution was justified by ideas of Marxist “social justice” that enabled state elites and bureaucrats to gain ever-more power through ever-further expansion of the state, arguing that the state must provide for ever-more basic “equity” rights.
He says further that we have moved away from individual freedom to “liberation through state intervention”. Wokeism is built on this framework and upheld through varied state institutions whose purpose is to penalize dissent.
He notes the varied related crusades/movements, like radical environmentalism, that view humanity as a cancer to be eradicated and economic development as a crime against nature.
It’s hard to believe that the WEF chiefs invited him back to state these things once again to their faces. Kind of like the Golden Globes inviting Ricky Gervais back repeatedly to insult the Hollywood elites to their faces and make them squirm with joking references to their protection of Harvey Weinstein over past years, and associations with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Milei touches on the many destructive perversions of Wokeism as, for example, in 5-year-old children being subjected to trans activism when it is not possible for them to be aware of what they are being pushed into. And that if parents refuse to agree to the mutilation of their children’s bodies, then the state agents will coercively take over on behalf of “the best interests of the child”.
He adds that those who try to protect children, and other “victims”, are vilified and bullied with smears of “transphobia”, etc.
He courageously damns the “sinister and murderous” ideology of Marxism/collectivism now pushed in Wokeism and he condemns the WEF as a major player- “This organization, along with international bodies, have been the main ideologues of this barbarity”.
He then details how Woke progressives try to vilify and silence challenges to their perverse ideology through censorship or through legal means (i.e. criminalization of dissent). He says that beneath their rhetoric of “inclusion, diversity, democracy and tolerance”, which they often preach and which are blatant lies, they really desire to eliminate dissent, criticism, and ultimately freedom, in order to maintain their ideology and its benefits to themselves. He illustrates with the fact that European leaders are now pushing for censorship of those not supporting Woke ideology.
Woke is trying to replace free societies with coercive state collectivism and its redistribution programs. According to Milei, in Wokeism there are only two classes- i.e. those working to produce wealth, and on the other side, the beneficiaries of that wealth through state redistribution to state bureaucracies, media, and the “indoctrination centers disguised as universities”.
He says the political class hides behind well-meaning rhetoric. Others also point to this abuse of words/terms as the psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism that virtue-signals with appeal to the left-wing perversion of “compassion” that actually harms the “victims” it claims to fight for.
He is helpful in explaining that state intervention leads to market distortions such as in pricing and the poverty that intervention and distortion produces. And how it kills economic growth. Wokeism is just a creation of “the party of the state” to justify state intervention and increase public spending.
To reclaim and restore the progress of the West, says Milei, will require drastic reduction in the size of the state. Also, drastic reduction of all international organizations, as the only way to root out this perverse system of Wokeism and give back to taxpayers what belongs to them.
The functions of the state, he argues, must again be limited to protecting life, liberty, and property. Additional state programs undermine the basic functions of government and lead to the suffering of all under the massively expanded states of today.
He is right that the only real conflict is between free citizens and the political caste of elites that cling to power and “double down” on efforts to censor, persecute, and destroy dissenters. As Richard Landes has noted, this has been the battle over the millennia- to establish the “elite/commoner divide” in societies. Fortunately, across the West today citizens are pushing back for the restoration of freedom and equality. The WEF, says Milei, if it is to take part in the growing revolution for freedom, it will have to admit its part in Woke Progressivism.
He argues for bravery to think in new ways, to move outside the consensus of elites and to reclaim truths that were obvious to our ancestors, truths that were at the core of Western success, meaning basically “freedom”, if we wish to halt this Wokeism path that is leading to catastrophe. He ends with his paraphrase of Trump- “Make the West great again.”
He then concludes- “Long live freedom, damn it.”
Note:
Milei’s comment on the surging movement of commoners to reclaim freedom today is a reference to the emergence of “populism” across Western liberal democracies. That movement is generally about the restoration of true democracy, true Classic Liberalism.
And how have the Woke Progressive elites responded? They are desperately trying to discredit populism as “far right, right wing extremism”, meaning dog whistle for “Nazism, fascism, right-wing authoritarianism”. But majorities now see through those distorting smears and reject the vilification of commoner’s simply wanting the restoration of freedom. In response, socialist Woke elites are doubling down trying to censor, silence, even criminalize the commoners who are challenging their control.
Woke Progressives continue their campaign to discredit the new heroes for freedom, notably Elon Musk, Giorgia Miloni of Italy, Trump, and others. But many citizens are seeing through the lies and propagandizing. This is encouraging news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNbGD37Dz0
Critical to human freedom is to sharply limit the number of state elites and bureaucrats that persistently seek to meddle in and control the lives of citizens.
Totalitarian elites and bureaucrats undermine citizen’s freedom by (1) taking their income (taxation) to redistribute (the arrogance of elites/bureaucrats that they know better how to spend people’s money and taking that freedom of choice from citizens by state force), and by (2) increasing the regulatory burden that is state intervention and control of citizens (again, the arrogance of state elites that they know better how all should live and choose).
Milton Freidman suggested that the optimal size of the state (all three levels- federal, state, municipal) should be at about 15% of GDP. That would result in “the most good for the most people”. And he was a strong empiricist.
The IMF gives these figures for the size of the GDP that various states consume (not sure if these figures include all levels of government):
“% of GDP; United States- 36.26; France- 58.34; Japan- 44.09; United Kingdom- 44.3; Sweden- 47.32; Australia at 38%, and Canada at 41%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_government_spending_as_percentage_of_GDP
The National Post article below… Canada’s massive expansion of the public sector under Trudeau.
“The federal public service needs downsizing and Poilievre’s the man to do it: The federal workforce has added around 111,000 staff members since Trudeau took office”, National Post View, Jan.26, 2025
“Since the ascension of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the federal public service has grown by about 111,000 staff members — from about 257,000 during Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s last year in government, to roughly 368,000 in the 2023-24 fiscal year. That’s an increase of about 43 per cent. In the same period, the general population grew 15 per cent.
“The painfully inflated bureaucracy is a huge cost to taxpayers. But it also threatens to block much-needed reforms. Nearly a third of the federal workforce was hired under Trudeau-government values and have worked under the Trudeau government’s expectations. We can likely expect some reluctance to implement a new government’s desired changes, as appears to be the case in the United States.”
While President Donald Trump is trying to cut bureaucracy in part by eliminating DEI programs and personnel, “some bureaucrats have been accused of trying to conceal DEI programs by couching them in different language….”
Trudeau has expanded bureaucracies across the public sector but even that is not enough increase in state expansion and spending.
“It’s clear that even Trudeau, the public-sector cheerleader that he is, doesn’t think his current employees can do the work: every year, his spending on private consulting firms rises by another billion or so, reaching $15 billion in 2023.”
And on lying propaganda- Watch mainstream media today, as they have done unceasingly over the last decade with Trump, generate absolute hysteria over the Musk “Nazi salute”. The full video shows that it was nothing of the sort, but as Musk and others have explained, an exuberant gesture to express his gratefulness “from my heart to yours”.
Here, in the link below, is the brief speech (4 mins) of Elon Musk at one of the Trump Inauguration events. It exposes the great lie now being propagandized across the planet that it was a “Nazi salute”. Greg Gutfeld recently played video clips of the Clintons, AOC, and many other Democrats who use the very same arm extension in their speeches. And, of course, mainstream media remain silent on that.
I can not get over the ongoing insanity of the Woke Progressive distortion, exaggeration, and propagandizing over the past 10 years to smear opponents as “Right-wing, Nazi, Hitler, racist, fascist”. They refuse to give up the utter madness, nuttiness, lunacy of this childish behavior.
The context of “the salute”…
Musk states in the video clip below that this last election “was a fork in the road of human civilization”. There are elections that come and go, he said, but “this one really mattered”. He then told the crowd, “Thank you for making it happen”.
He then slapped his hand on his chest over his heart, followed with the extension of his arm straight out. Similar again to the many Democrats who use the same arm motion in their speeches (the extended arm). He then put his hand on his heart again, saying, “My heart goes out to you (explaining his arm extension). It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured”.
It takes some horrific deformity of mind, twisted by tribal ideology and hatred of differing others, to intentionally misinterpret what he said and did. And then to vilify, demonize, and dehumanize the man for his speech and actions celebrating the reclaiming of freedom for civilization. Sheesh, eh.
Musk, a sincere friend of Jews, was trying to communicate that this was a critical election like no other, a turning point in the history of human civilization. This man sees the issues at stake with regard to human freedom and has taken horrific abuse in his stand for freedom. A rare and heroic figure to be celebrated.
Vivek, Ramaswamy, Javier Milei, Mike Benz, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and others also spell out the issues at stake and fill in the larger context of what has happened over past decades with the Woke Progressive corruption of our liberal democracies that has threatened the core values of our civilization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crr7j0udrc4
These former spy chiefs, fresh out of the CIA, go right to work at mainstream media outlets that operate as the propaganda arms for Democratic Woke Progressives, in direct contradiction to Frank Church’s 1970s warnings about the CIA controlling media narratives.
John Brennan continues his slippery explanations about the Hunter Biden laptop, defensively claiming that he was just acting honorably to protect the US from the bad guys when he and fellow spooks stated that the laptop “appears to have the hallmarks of Russian disinformation”.
OK, but then why not let the laptop be made public and thoroughly investigated? Why shut that story down completely (censorship) just before an election to tribally protect your guy? Some 10% of Biden voters said that if they had known that the laptop was real (the FBI knew it was real in 2019 and hid that information from the public), then that 10% would not have voted for Biden.
Here Matt Taibbi exposes the lying and propaganda role of Brennan….
“Ex-CIA Chief John Brennan Should Be Sent to Mars: Nothing is more dangerous than an out-of-work spy”, Matt Taibbi, Jan. 25, 2025
https://www.racket.news/p/ex-cia-chief-john-brennan-should
Some basic math on “landslides”- He represents the “common sense” 70%, Wendell Krossa
The US situation speaks to the greater populist pushback against the leftist Woke Progressivism that has tried, over past decades, to take control of our liberal democracies and install a new collectivism run by Progressive elites. Progressivism today operates to re-establish the ancient “elite/commoner” divide that overthrows the Classic Liberal protection of the rights and freedoms of all individuals, equally.
This from “New York Post”
“Most voters say country is on wrong track, demand ‘substantial change’: exit polls”
Polls “ABC news- Heading into 2024, most Americans believe country headed in the wrong direction: Poll”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/americans-country-headed-wrong-direction-poll/story?id=104633234
Polls have consistently shown that over past years, and right up to the Nov. 2024 election, some 70% of Americans stated that their country was on the wrong track with open border immigration (and newcomers not embracing Classic Liberal values), de-carceration policies and increased crime (i.e. decriminalization setting violent people free), and economic policies that enlarged the elite-dominated bureaucratic state in an expanding totalitarianism through escalating “redistribution taxation” to support the managerial state along with increased regulation to control the “ignorant” commoners.
Now Trump got roughly 50% of American’s votes in the election. That other 20%, who agreed with his policies and realized that their side was on the wrong track with their policies, held their noses and voted for the stink of Biden/Harris because of personal animosity toward the person of Trump. But Trump generally represented their views on policies. And they are grateful, even though many are afraid to admit this, that he was elected. So, his majority was a true “landslide” of historical proportion if you include that other 20%.
Why could they not vote for Trump? One reason- They were thoroughly duped about the man due to the constant bombardment of media lies over past years that he was “Hitler, a dictator, a Nazi, a fascist, a racist, etc.”. And they were deluded by that greatest of all lies- i.e. that he was in hock to the Russians. Locked into that 24/7 flood of propaganda, and fearful to challenge it, many of the 20% felt they had no other choice but to vote against their best interests.
I share some cringing at the malefactions/transgressions of the man in the past, especially at his petty vengefulness toward critics and sometimes childish name-calling, mocking the physical appearance of others with ad hominem attacks. But that Butler bullet through his ear did change the man and like all of us, he gets the follow-up chances to make changes to temper his past behavior, to grow, develop, and mature. And he appears to be doing well on that score.
Further, to the positive, he is just such an entertainingly funny guy. And so smart on critical issues like foreign policy and fundamental economics.
Hence, the muted protests now as Trump enacts the promises that he made. Those other 20% who did not vote for him, undoubtedly still affirm his actions now on common sense policies to keep all safe and secure (border and crime), and to increase the prosperity of all citizens.
And that is what populism is today- a majority of common-sense citizens who want a return to true liberal democracy. Hence, despite ongoing leftist Woke Progressivism smearing populism as “far right, right-wing”, Winston Marshall has rightly stated that “populism is democracy”. The movement consists of moderate leftists, centrists and independents, and moderate conservatives, among others.
Trump represents the worldwide populist pushback against the destructive policies of far-left Woke Progressivism that tried to take command of liberal democracies over the past decade. That neo-collectivism continues to ruin Britain and Germany. Over past decades Woke Progressivism merged with climate alarmism, both driven by the same collectivist apocalyptic millennial themes.
Haapala on Happer- “There is no ‘climate crisis’… We should have the courage to do nothing about CO2 emissions. Nothing needs to be done.”
These quotes from William Happer’s article below:
“As a scientist who actually knows a lot about climate (and I set up many of our climate research centers when I was at the Department of Energy in the early 1990s) I can assure you that there is no climate emergency. There will not be a climate emergency. … Policies to address this phony climate emergency will cause great damage to American citizens and to their environment….”
“(CO2) is not a pollutant at all, and we should have the courage to do nothing about CO2 emissions. Nothing needs to be done.”
https://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=13458
A summary of the above report (see all illustrative graphs in link above):
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/27/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-628/
Here is a link to another full report of Happer’s research:
Happer, along with Richard Lindzen and others, ranks among the best of atmospheric physicists and experts on the warming influence of CO2, and concludes from the best of evidence that there is no “climate crisis”.
The quotes below are from Ken Haapala’s “The Week That Was: 2025 01-25, Weekly Climate and Energy New Roundup #629”, a publication of “The Science and Environmental Policy Project”, published on Wattsupwiththat.com.
I will intersperse more quotes from the original article by Happer to the ones Haapala used in his comments below.
Haapala opens this episode of This Week commenting on “a 2021 presentation by AMO physicist William Happer who presents our understanding of the greenhouse effect and its role in climate.”
Haapala says, “What Physical Evidence? Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physicist William Happer has a strong, lengthy post in WUWT that goes to the central issue of understanding the greenhouse effect and why greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, are not causing dangerous warming. In it Happer discusses the frenzy over climate and concludes the paragraph with:
He quotes Happer, “Those who think that way, in many cases, mean very well. But they have been misled. As a scientist who actually knows a lot about climate (and I set up many of our climate research centers when I was at the Department of Energy in the early 1990s) I can assure you that there is no climate emergency. There will not be a climate emergency.…
“Crusades have always ended badly… They have brought hardship and death to multitudes… Policies to address this phony climate emergency will cause great damage to American citizens and to their environment.”
Happer then says more about what motivates some people to zealotry in the climate alarmism crusade, “This is really not a question of science. This is a question of a secular religion for some.”
Happer illustrates that the press is deceitful when it uses photos from polluted Asian cities as examples of greenhouse gas pollution. He responds, “CO2… is not a pollutant at all.”
Insert to add to Happer’s explanations below: Scientist Javier Vinos posts his reports (“The Sun Climate Effect: The Winter Gatekeeper Hypothesis”) at “co2coalition.org” and “Wattsupwiththat.com”. He details the atmospheric processes that convect heat from the tropics to the poles to then radiate back out to space through the clearer polar atmospheres.
Continuing with Haapala’s comments on Happer’s research and my further insertions of quotes from Happer…
“The Earth is most intensely heated in the tropics… There is more solar energy coming in at the tropics than goes out as cooling radiation to space. The excess heat must be convected to polar regions by warm air and ocean water…
“Earth maintains its temperature by balancing the solar heating during the day with the thermal cooling to cold space, both during the day and night. Climate involves a complicated interplay of the sunlight that warms us, and the thermal infra-radiation that escapes to space. Heat is transported from the tropics to the poles by the motion of warm air and ocean water…”
“Happer explains the atmospheric circulation that transports heat from the equator to the poles. Ocean circulations also do the same. It is important to realize that this convection is far more important in transferring heat from the surface to the lower atmosphere than radiation. Radiation and greenhouse gas delaying radiation to space does not become important until about 10 km or so (33,000 feet) in mid-latitudes. [Higher elevation in the tropics and lower in the polar regions. At these altitudes, there is little water vapor remaining.]”
Haapala then inserts this further important explanation with regard to what Happer is stating:
“[TWTW comment: That Earth’s primary method of transporting heat from the surface to the middle atmosphere is convection illustrates the folly of the IPCC and its collaborators using surface-air temperatures. These are measured by instruments a few feet above the surface yet are used to claim that increasing temperatures are caused by increasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect occurs in the atmosphere, particularly above the mid-latitudes, not a few feet above the surface.]”
Happer’s actual comments on this: “(The solar heat on the Earth’s surface) is eventually released by radiation into space… But for the first few kilometers of altitude, a good fraction of that heat is not carried by radiation, but by convection of warm, moist air. CO2 has no direct effect on convection near the surface. But once you get up to 10 kilometers or so, most of the heat if transported by radiation.”
My insert here on these facts: I have repeatedly stated on this site, along with others making the same point, that arguing over energy policies and pushing for the delay in full decarbonization, from the alarmist’s date of 2030 to a more reasonable 2050, is useless if you then spin on your heel and admit to the alarmist’s claim that yes, we must do something about the “climate crisis”. If you don’t confront the basic science of climate, then you lose the entire argument/debate.
Nothing is more absolutely critical to the climate science debate than the warming influence of CO2 and the fact that influence is now “saturated”, a physics term meaning that adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will contribute very little, if anything, to any possible future warming. Research shows we may actually be heading into a future cooling period. Javier Vinos suggests we won’t know which way climate will go till the 2030s.
Continuing with Haapala’s comments on Happer…
“Happer then goes through what is known about the influence of greenhouse gases blocking, delaying, the transfer of radiant energy through the atmosphere. Except for clouds, atmospheric gases block little radiation in the visible wavelengths, but block radiation in the infrared wavelengths, which are not visible to humans. By far, water vapor is the dominant greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is secondary and decidedly minor. Happer illustrates that each primary greenhouse gas prevents certain wavelengths from freely escaping to space.”
Happer adds that the gases that block the radiation of heat back out to space are called “greenhouse gases”
He further quotes Happer, ”This keeps Earth’s surface temperature warmer than it would be (by about 20 or 30 degrees). [C or about 35 to 55°F] The Earth would be an ice cube if it were not for water vapor and CO2; and when I say water vapor, you should understand that I really mean water vapor and clouds, the condensed form of water. Clouds are at least as important as greenhouse gases, and they are very poorly understood to this day.””
Haapala then shares Happer’s more detailed research on the CO2 warming influence…
“Happer discusses that the difference between the Planck curve and the Schwarzschild curve is the greenhouse effect. He then discusses how little the difference is increased if you double CO2 from today’s concentrations. He then states:
““The message I want you to understand, which practically no one really understands, is that doubling CO2 makes almost no difference. Doubling would replace the black curve by the red curve. On the basis of this, we are supposed to give up our liberties. We are supposed to give up the gasoline engines of our automobiles. … Do not let anyone convince you that that is a good bargain. It is a terrible bargain. The doubling (of CO2 levels from today’s 426 ppm) actually does make a little difference. It decreases the radiation to space by about three watts per square meters. In comparison, the total radiation to space is about 300 watts per square meter. So, it is a one percent effect—it is actually a little less than that, because that is with no clouds. Clouds make everything even less threatening.”
Haapala then adds quotes from Happer that explain “greenhouse gas saturation”.
““Saturation is a jargon term that means CO2 has done all the greenhouse warming it can easily do. Doubling CO2 does not make much difference. You could triple or quadruple CO2 concentrations, and it also would make little difference. The CO2 effects are strongly saturated.””
He notes Happer’s comments on the discredited climate model forecasts that “ran too hot”, meaning they predicted warming in the range of 3-6 degrees Centigrade but actual climate warming over the last century has been about 1.2 degree C and that has been beneficial to all life.
Haapala quotes Happer again:
““The alleged harm from CO2 is from warming, and the warming observed is much, much less than predictions. In fact, warming as small as we are observing is almost certainly beneficial. It gives slightly longer growing seasons. You can ripen crops a little bit further north than you could before. So, there is completely good news in terms of the temperature directly. But there is even better news. By standards of geological history, plants have been living in a CO2 famine during our current geological period.””
Happer adds more: “(On the paleoclimate scale) CO2 levels have been five times, ten times, even twenty times greater than today… During all this period (i.e. the Phanerozoic history of life over the past 500 million years), with much higher CO2 levels, life flourished on Earth… it flourished better when there was more CO2. Plants really would prefer to have two, three, four times more CO2 than we have today.”
He then goes into photosynthesis showing that with less CO2 plants need more holes to absorb the scarcer CO2 and those holes also diffuse water out from the plant, drying plants out. But with more CO2 the plants need fewer holes to get their basic food and they do not leak as much water (CO2 combines with water to make sugar for plants). Hence, they suffer less from drought and that helps explain the amazing greening of the Earth over past decades.
He says, “More CO2 actually benefits the world. So, why are we demonizing this beneficial molecule that is making plants grow better… It is not a pollutant at all, and we should have the courage to do nothing about CO2 emissions. Nothing needs to be done.”
Happer’s conclusions: “So, the takeaway message is that policies that slow CO2 emissions are based on flawed computer models which exaggerate warming by factors of two or three, probably more. That is message number one. So, why do we give up our freedoms, why do we give up our automobiles, why do we give up a beefsteak because of this model that does not work?”
Once again, a repeat of his conclusion: “(CO2) is not a pollutant at all, and we should have the courage to do nothing about CO2 emissions. Nothing needs to be done.”
One more
If you want to know why a restorative approach in criminal justice is the better option to protect others from recidivism then watch the documentary on Carl Panzram. Dangerous, repeatedly violent people must be locked up but then treated humanely while incarcerated. Panzram’s story makes this point well.
“Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance”, John DiMaggio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxhcYl8AGbQ&t=46s
Panzram details the brutally inhumane manner in which he was treated as a child, and continued on through his prison experiences, that then produced the murdering monster that was Panzram.