MAIDAN VIDEO-Feb 18, RYANS HOPE, BEN GAZY, SOVS in SYRIA, DEM DEBATE, CONFEDERACY of DUNCES, FEEL the BURN, HOTWORLD, EVEREST, COKE GOES BETTER w THINGS

OCT 24 HAMMERBLOG: FEB 18 MAIDAN BATL, RYANS HOPE, BEN GAZY, SOVS in SYRIA, DEM DEBATE, CONFEDERACY of DUNCES, FEEL the BURN, HOTWORLD, EVEREST, COKE GOES BETTER w THINGS

KHARKIV, Ukraine:  

NEW YT VIDEO: CLIMACTIC BATTLES on MAIDAN, KYIV
The TRADE CENTER BURNS (view from inside) - 25 min Feb 18, 2014
~30 KILLED BY GOV. SNIPERS
HUGE ATTACK by 1000's of POLICE ACROSS KYIV in VIOLENT BATTLES;  PROTESTERS LOSE HALF OF MAIDAN BUT RETAIN CONTROL
- Tour of still burning TRADE CENTER 8am Feb 19 

MR. SPEAKER     Incredible, the TP nuts of extremist right have actually made the #3 power/succession job so undesirable that 2 guys ran from it, the embarrassing doufus Boner (at least he didn't start sobbing again), and the handicapped truth-teller Kevin McCarthy.. leaving it to the disgusting cold Nzi-eyed Paul Ryan, the guy who really wants to destroy the social net.. and throw grandma under the bus- no Medicare, Medicaid, SS. The danger of this extremist is proportional to the fawning press he got for being an "adult", because he actually negotiated w Dems (from his lunatic anti-Gov base positions). Having him that closed to the Presidency is chilling. But as a radio panel noted, he lost his WI hometown to Obama by 25 points; in his Cong. race lost it by 10%, and perhaps he could be deposed. He also, in persuading all the diverse factions of Repubs to support him, said he wouldn't be a slave to DC and would go home for weekends, though he voted against every family or medical leave act:

Ryan's first task is to defang the House "overthrow" clause that lets a mere majority demand a vote on the Speaker, the prospect of which cowed Boner + McCarthy- good luck. The bad news, if Ryan can forge this kind of comity among the barbarians, they would have greater power to deny Obama any successes, maybe even overturn vetoes!!

I wonder if the Dems should just just delay, block, and RF the speaker since any Repub "leadership" is the mindless destruction of all things holy. But I guess someone has to raise the debt ceiling. Romney may be the last sane Repub Pres candidate we see for a while. Even there, in the debates, every one had to deny evolution, let alone AGW!.

Ironically moves against the DNC chair Wasserman-Shultz ("I hear nothing!") for being undemocratic are an interesting contrast to the Repub "adults" failure to control the TP whack-jobs, and the (sic) Freedom Caucus wants to REDUCE the Speaker's power, ensuring disfunction and paralysis for decades.

BEN GAZY

In the 7th or 8th investigation (17 hearings) into the Ben tragedy ("scandal"), Hillary put in a bravura 11 hour performance before the Repub dwarves and the Daryl Issa-like "We would be Kings" Chairman Kurt Gowdy. The scandal of Benghazi is that the cheapjack Repubs are brutally exploiting foreign terror for their own slimy purposes, over + over-  one can think of the Libyan killers slapping 5 as they watch dubbed reports of Hillary's star chamber torture: "We did that!" Dems on the panel rallied admirably in her defense, and now are considering walking out- appropriate I think- give their TP persecutions the stamp of purely partisan.

Likewise the terrible email teapot tempest is explainable by the 6 year Clinton witchhunt that culminated in the Impeachment. No politician in 100 years has been more unfairly attacked, investigated, and pilloried than Hillary (someone want to do a rap song with those lyrics) and Billy Boy. There was another way to play that whole thing and simply not play- to REFUSE to show up, explain the multiple investigations and political nature of this one, and display some gumption- she may have got more points for that with the public, than the grudging respect she earned from 90210's Trey. Bottom line, Amb Stevens went into the hot spot of Benghazi against express advice on a bad anniversary to that crummy indefensible ranch-style house, with walls a person could vault without help.

DEM DEBATE

Hillary aced the Dem debate, notable for its lack of bile, with Bernie even throwing her a lifeline on her "damn emails!!!" She is finally showing the experience and depth of a lifetime in high politics. Thanks to DA for providing the link to the monstrous CNN 1gb file, which only crashed thrice- next time host it on a torrent (CNN could use the master encoders of my KAT- they can put 2 hrs of vid on 250Mb, but really 40mb audio would be enough!!)- no it crashes so often, I'm just listening to my converted MP3 (59Mb). My acquaintance, Keebler elf (Taibbi), and ex-RI Senator/Governor Lincoln Chafee was punching up and just quit along with Webb- I suggested to him 13 years ago that he should switch parties because "the Repubs had already left him". Ha ha, he quoted it in the debate!!

SOVS IN SYRIA

Although I think Obama has done many admirable things, his abandonment of Ukraine and reluctance to directly confront Putin has led to an extremely dangerous situation. If you don't confront a bully, he will keep going, and sanctions were the precise wrong move, slapping Russia on the knuckles as if it was a schoolboy rather then the ominous superpower Putin is regenerating. Nothing could have earned Putin's contempt and hatred more, and it made it easier for him to isolate and alienate Russians from the world... again. If instead Obama had supplied Ukraine with the weapons they needed in May-June 2014, esp HARM missiles to take out the Buks, Strellas, Hurricanes missile systems, Ukr could have flown air ops and maybe WON this Putinvasion in August 2014.

In every aggressive move, Putin paused and assessed- "Not gonna do anything, I can go further". Any spine in reacting to the outrage of Crimea, and he never would have subverted and invaded the Donbas. Now he's taken that an enormous step farther- military action in the ME, where Russians HAVE NEVER BEEN. It was a Red Line- in '73, when Brezhnev wanted to land paratroopers to help the flagging Arabs in the Yom Kippur War, the US went to Defcon 3 worldwide alert (with Nixon deep in the Watergate scandal and top aids plotting how to avoid a nuclear launch order) and Russia backed off.

He is largely behind the horrendous Syrian crisis and the torrents of migrants in his blanket support of Assad. He really doesn't care about fighting ISIS (but he loves the imprimatur of "world leader"), he just wants to save his precious naval base there, so he will and is going after the good rebels in Syria while mouthing Grand Alliance nonsense. He is a stone KGB killer (proven by the '99 aptmt bombings just after he became PM, linked to the FSB), and the US has shown itself dangerously impotent at this unprecedented escalation. And now the weary Syrian people in anti-Assad zones have yet another predator bombing and killing them.

The Saudis and other Sunni states must be apoplectic at the long-feared Russian ogre loose on the Arabian peninsula. But one thing nobody has mentioned, Syria is the only place in the world where a Shiite minority have brutally oppressed a large Sunni majority (a mirror image of Iraq)- Assad's overthrow could lead to a real bloodbath, egged on by all the Arabian Sunni states.

Of course we must give credit to George Bush and the lunatic neocon scheme to remake the ME by shattering Iraq- where the degenerates of ISIS came from isn't exactly clear, but THAT must have helped. The world must unite in their eradication- but Russia isn't really a part of that alliance. Their Syrian landing is just is a bold and reckless ploy to force BO to deal with him, save his only foreign base, project Russian power into new areas, distract the world from Ukraine, and help end the sanctions by appealing to world "unity" in the face of spectacular evil. Maintaining sanctions against an so-called "ally" is difficult.

Putin's so-called 2012 offer to get rid of Assad is one of those BS legends that was never serious- Russia would have still put it's naval base at risk since their blanket support for Assad was well known.

Confusing the mix is that all factions in America really don't know what to do- even we think Assad's survival may be a better outcome now, than the nightmare of, say, an ISIS victory. US policy is totally confused in Arabia: we fund and do air support for the loyal and effective Kurds even as we let the Turks slaughter them; we allow Saudis to bomb the Houthi Shiites in Yemen when the terrorists were all Sunnis, even as we work with Iran Shiite commandos in fighting ISIS in Iraq - I haven't the foggiest notion why we are standing by while the Saudis are killing them. But the revolt against Assad- a brutal bastard if there ever was one- started as a facet of the Arab Spring- sleazy Putin conflates all opposition to Assad with "terrorists", a dangerous and racist belief. With the US + Europe refusing to weigh in, Islamists took their place. In Hama, in reaction to a popular uprising, daddy Assad brought in artillery, shelled the place to dust, and killed 30,000 people!!! Who de terrorists???

But despite the half-century Russian backing of the Assads, Putin has been humiliated again and again by Bashir - 2 or 3 of his peace initiatives were stymied by Assad promptly arresting the Opposition negotiators. So he is now in a great position to force the bloody eye-man to the table... or else, and then become the savior of the ME- that is the context of Assad's Oct 21 visit to the Kremlin. It is dubious sanctions for Ukraine could be maintained, in that event.  

Worse, Vladimir Vladimirovich has forged an alliance of sorts with Iran and even Iraq, so for the first time Iranians are fighting far from their shores and there's nothing America can do about it- Putin is offering "protection".

Ash Carter constantly decrying Russian perfidy in blowing away the anti-Assad "liberals" while America sits on it's hands accentuates US impotence; and Obama's talk of willingness to work with possible partners is foolishly naive. Putin's second aim is to embarrass and humiliate America, while displaying it's impotence in the face of a challenge. But at some point, America's grinding humiliation will turn sharp, and Obama will be forced to react to this unprecedented Russian incursion.

This easily could escalate to a superpower showdown with one misplaced or mistaken missile or bomb- this Cold War 2 could be more dangerous than the first because both countries and their relatively young leaders have forgotten the calculus, strategies, and risks of MAD.

CONFEDERACY of the DUNCES

One of the most amazing things about the Repub contest is the rapidly sinking somnambulent Jebby campaign (6%)- Trump absolutely nailed him with that low-energy comment and Jeb has seemed to want to prove it. Jeb is out of practise and out of his depth in national politics- witness his defense of GB2's ME record- what faction of Repubs did he appeal to- the 13% of imbciles who STILL think the Iraq Invasion was a neat idea??? Bringing that up exposes a huge vulnerability- that Bush allowed 9-11 to happen, blithly ignorantly arogantly... or much much worse... coldly and deliberately, to get his Daddy-redeeming Saddamicidal war. And America in the words of Momma Bush, "has had enough of the Bush's".

Donald Trump is the most entertaining candidate in years, and frankly, I think he won't necessarily fade- the bar for "blunders" is SOOO high, what could he do to blow it- he would just come back with some quip that would make him more popular. Maybe serious investigations into his financial shenanigans ("losing other peoples money", said Fiorini in her best line). I think you can't count the guy out., and his circus tactics may be very effective against Hillary- but Hill has shown such confidence, comfort, and grit lately maybe she could handle him. The Donald's one contribution may be the canard that one incredibly stupid un-PC comment is fatal- he battles back from every and anything; much of America is tired of the gotcha PC sensibilties of the media, always eager for another scalp.

The detestible drop-out Koke-itute Scott Walker thankfully dropped out- he was an unlikely candidate with his squeaky voice and hateful policies, but nobody is more scary than the creep Cruz- hated even by most of his party, he could be the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy.
The silver-penned scribe Frank Rich thought Rand Paul was the great right hope, but as I thought, he was too wierd, Frodo-ish, and "liberal" for their base base. I love how Repubs are rallying behind the soft-spoken neo-facist crackpot Ben Carson ("See, we don't hate negros"), as if he had a chance in any alt. dimension.

FEEL THE BURN
would be a better slogan if it wasn't lifted from those poisonous energy drinks, but for a while I led myself to believe- maybe it could be, maybe Bernie can battle through the trillions of dollars and entrenched interests arrayed against him.... but I'm not that young. I've seen Gary Hart, and then the great Howard Dean immolate in 2 weeks each, set on fire by the fair + unbalanced press so quick to rally for the real power in this country- the bankers, big oil, pharmcos. And his relentless conviviality re. Hill (which I like) is another argument that he's not playing to win, or so the media will spin it. It would be nice if Hillary would chose him for Veep, but not sure that they are ideologically or personally compatible.. but then were Hillary + Obama??? What she could get is the fire and passion and money of the millions of Sanderites moved by his message. But I expect some nice cabinet post for him.

HOTWORLD

Why These 2 Years 2015 + 2016 are + will be hellishly hot- every month now is a new record, it was summer heat 29C 84F in Oct here, unheard of in eastern Ukr. We are in what climate scientists call conservatively, a GODZILLA EL NINO, with spectacular unprecedented heating all across the North Pacific. This year is a stunning .17C hotter than the last hottest year in history, which for 3 years has been ... LAST YEAR, a huge leap. With this incredible northern heat, look for the polar ice cap to melt completely next summer- first time in 4-21 million years. Great News- The NorthWest Passage is OPEN!!!! Except for dodging the bodies of the polar bears.
      To the top of the world- the North Pole, in 1-2 years anyone can do it in any ship. They said it was slush until 100 miles from the Pole. The Ruskies have 40 ocean going icebreakers, inc 6 nuclear, to our ... 2.

I think this AGW extinction is faster than any other- and we've just started the mass effects of AGW- that will clean house in just a few hundred years. As I say to my students- we live in historic times- you will see things no human ever has.

But humans are the most successful parasites- we will never disappear... but most will die- I figure 1.5 billion people alive in 2100. Must write that commentary, doing a blow by blow breakdown of the sequential AGW decimations over this century- it won't be pretty, not sure if it's even moral to have kids nowadays. The only thing that WILL work, sulfur abatement, will have unpredictable nightmarish effects.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33078-godzilla-nino-and-the-blob-how-weather-cycles-and-ocean-temperatures-mask-global-warming

EVEREST

Just watched the breathtaking new movie Everest about famous disaster (1996) that was subject of INTO THIN AIR, the John Krakauer book (which I read)- 11 (3 on North Side) died in blizzard, and aftermath, when an insane 4 parties tried to assault the mtn simultaneously (33 people), traffic jams on the treacherous 1 lane route delayed everyone into a catastrophe. It's filmed partly on the mtn, up to camp one.                                  Mt Rainier

Kicker is I KNEW TWO of the guys that died- I met them on Mt Rainier, where they were Mtn Rangers/Guides. Rainier is the big place 70% of US Himalaya climbers train- it's a monster 5000M volcano starting from sea level, with the highest snowfall on Earth (128 ft one season), 100sq miles of glaciers, and viciously changeable winds. I was hiking alone under aptmt bldg blocks of ice perched directly over me in record shirtsleeve heat at 13,400 ft - the next year one let go and squashed 15 people, but much worse was the fact that I was walking on a

latticework of ice ribbons that I could look 30 ft straight down through- with the roar of melt water maybe 30-40 ft below- it could have crumbled anytime- I would have been gone- I was the ONLY one on the mountain that high- 12 people had gone down past me, maybe I would have appeared locked in a glacier in 100-400 years. The route up was melted away, so I circled around to the solid shade of the Northern side with a view of Seattle-Tacoma, ate a calm lunch, and estimated my chances of survival at about 50%.. if I did everything perfectly returning.

Rainier is the mtn on Windows 8 screens- it's 40 miles, 70km from Seattle, but hovers impossibly high (like 35,000 ft cause of light refraction) above the clouds. Though I had climbed the shear 1200 ft vertical rock Devils Tower, Mt Rainier is the hardest thing I ever did- a 1 vert mile 45% snowfield with a 40kg pack, with baking sun, spectacular UV (burned through hats and slathered on SPF30), and overdressed.

I met Fischer, he was kind of rude to a question and believe I met Rob Hall also, the two adventure tour organizers.

But my connections to this movie are more extensive- at 2013 Molodist Film Festival, of all 250 movies I chose 2 Icelandic movies to review, mostly this incredible gut-wrenching true story of survival after a shipwreck- THE DEEP, done by the same gonzo director as EVEREST, Baltazar Kurmakur, extensively interviewing the cinematographer twice. Kurmakur almost drowned, lashing himself to the boat to film the sinking (which it did, twice accidentally).

  ICELANDIC TRIALS-- In the News - Kurmakur made EVEREST⁵ Kyiv Post Two Icelandic films by cinematographer Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson and director Batasar Kurmakur made as splash at Molodist: The Deep, an incredible true tale of shipwreck survival in the Arctic, and XL, a kaleidoscopic 60-ish story of the vast excesses of a Parliament Deputy. LOCAL - Oct 21, 2013    5 - I met expedition leaders + fatalities Scott Fischer + Rob Hall climbing Mt Rainier in '87 (huge volcano on Windows 8 that looms over Seattle), where they were Mtn guides/rangers

Lastly I wrote for Outside mag (Krakauer's employer) they bought my spectacular photo essay on the Paradise Ice Caves under the glacier at 5800 ft on Mt Rainier (and I met w editors in Chicago coming back from scuba expedition to Yucatan- had a comparative story on all Cozumel dive operators in between exploring/sleeping in

Mayan ruins), a 100 year old tourist attraction that melted away from AGW within 5 years, every color of blue, spectacular screaming air bubbles trapped in an icy cage for 200,000 years - I went into these caves with a tripod for 2 1/2 hours while car-sized blocks of ice dropped from the ceiling and captured truly great stuff- unfortunately I told them that the climbing season had already ended in mid Sept, they never ran it, and a year later, when I asked for the uncopied original slides back, the morons said they mailed them to a dead address without any other notification. Gone. Tragic, because with my spectacular every shade of green pics from the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic Nat Park, and yellow/orange/red lava flows in Hawaii (which graced 5 galleries)... I could have had a bang-up nature photo art show suitable for the highest museums: PRIMARY COLORS.. real unaltered pics of natural blue, green, red shades of every possible hue.

Interestingly, there is a huge controversy over truthfulness- Kurmakur says he didn't rely on INTO THIN AIR at all (BS), but Texan Carl Beck's book (who was left for dead, snow blind, and unresponsive for a day, and woke to miraculously return by himself! so his memory must be sketchy) and had access to the actual audio tapes of radio transmissions and 4 of the climbing party- he shows Krakauer hustling down and ignoring Beck's possible distress. In his book Krakauer claimed:

A. The AOL journo gadfly woman Sandy Pittman (wife of AOL/NBC head) hauled alot of junk up there- faxes, coffee machines,  that slowed everyone down. Pitman disputes that, saying the coffee maker was under a lb., and that she was a convenient target. She is only 1 of 2 US woman to have done the "7 Summits".

B. The Russian guide Anatoli Boukreyev who was supposed to fix the ropes on the Hillary Step and South Summit, got mad at something and just didn't do it... causing hours of delays that led to the disaster, then later when it all turned South, he did repeated rescue missions in the blizzard that saved 2-3 people above Camp 4. 

That sounds just like Russians I know- criminally irresponsible and noble +heroic at the same time. The film shows him arrogantly refusing to use Oxygen- limiting his ability to help. I believe Krakauer, because Italian Reinhold Messner, who met both people, says Boukreev was exactly as Krakauer described him- arrogant + uncaring- Messner, if people don't know, is maybe the greatest mtn climber ever, a superman who never used oxygen and was the first to do every Himalaya summit without it (late 70's)- fast and light in an Alpine/Yosemite clean-climbing ethos. Other superman who could go up and down Everest like a roller coaster w/o oxygen were Boukreev, David Breashears, Ed Viesturs.  Frontline did an examination of the disaster in 1997. It was the most fatal year on Everest until 2014, when an avalanche killed 15 Sherpas, surpassed by the 7.8 mag earthquake avalanche in April 2015 that killed 19! Historically 20% of people who attempt it, are killed.

But these people are all supermen, by my rights- the agony of altitude acclimatization, even at a lousy 14,500 ft (60% pressure) must be experienced to be believed, everything hurts- it feels like you've been worked over by Mike Tyson. And these people were at twice the altitude- 33% pressure!!!! Krakauer replies to the critics.

I loved the altitude though- once acclimatized (blood thickens and hemoglobin increases)- you can feel the lack of pressure: light, airless, carefree.. like you can fly. I worked on a 13,800 ft Mauna Kea telescope + wouldn't go down to Hilo from the 9200 ft camp on the weekend cause I didn't want to go through the pain again- everyone was in absolute misery Monday- slow and robotic. 

Acclimatization only occurs at about 12,000 ft- I went up Mt Whitney slow, waiting out 5 days of rain at the 8300 ft trailhead- didn't help much, the last 500 vert ft were hell, even though a view of the lowest spot in US (Death Valley) awaited, me from the highest (in lower 48). I was about half hour late though- clouds had rolled in- a bstard chipmunk had tortured me in my nice enclosed 12,300 ft high cave all night- running across my face every time I slept as punishment for trying to nail him with a rock. Always wanted to test myself on bigger mtns- the 18,500 ft volcanoes of Mexico- to see if my body could handle that height.

Icelanders may have a slight anti-American bias (they basically imprisoned the bankers, tossed out the Gov, and defaulted on their monster debts after 2008 crisis- booya!), but Kurmakur had the tapes- being a huge audio tape guy from childhood, I was first was inclined to believe that. But that doesn't mean anyone lied- one's brain doesn't work at altitude - it does what it wants, and even simple 1 step every 10 second trudging must be forced as a program that keeps looping, because your mind just says, "F this, this hurts, I'm not going to do it anymore".... autonomously!! At those altitudes, everyone is very very foggy, why when Rob Hall 
benevolently agrees to help his 2 time client ($50-65K a trip) to the top, way too late, he signs his death warrant. As they say, above 26,000 ft is the Death Zone, and the 2pm turnaround time is written in stone... or blood.

And in the most haunting incredible scene that punched me in the gut, trapped on Hillary Step at 28,700 ft, immobile, frozen from the waist down, dying, hopeless, Rob Hall calls his 7 month pregnant wife on the other side of the world in New Zealand by sat phone. Can you imagine THAT conversation? It struck me though, that, you NEVER have to be alone.. if you don't want to.

DOWNING DRONES:

In a flash, the Gov has ordered the registration of all drones, prodded by the prospect of millions of these things flying off the shelf at as little as <$100!!
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/10/21/done-policy-intercept-department-transportation-domestic-drones

COKE GOES BETTER WITH THINGS

Incredibly, on a radio show dedicated to the lunatic idea of banning sodas, it came out that Coca Cola doesn't necessarily have the taste of the African  kola nut anymore but it does have the real FLAVOR OF COCAINE!  

The Kola nut is a caffeine-containing nut of tropical evergreen trees of the genus Cola, primarily of the species Cola acuminata and Cola nitida.[1] Cola acuminata, an evergreen tree about 20 metres in height, has long, ovoid leaves pointed at both the ends with a leathery texture. The trees have yellow flowers with purple spots, and star-shaped fruit. Inside the fruit, about a dozen round or square seeds develop in a white seed-shell. The nut’s aroma is sweet and rose-like. The first taste is bitter, but it sweetens upon chewing. Kola nuts contain about 2% caffeine, as well as containing kolanin and theobromine. All three chemicals function as stimulants.   It is chewed in many West African cultures, individually or in a group setting. It is often used ceremonially, presented to chiefs or presented to guests. Kola nuts are perhaps best known to Western culture as a flavoring ingredient and one of the sources of caffeine in cola and other similarly flavored beverages, although the use of kola (or kola flavoring) in commercial cola drinks has become uncommon.

One account holds that in the 1800s, a pharmacist in Georgia, John Pemberton, took extracts of kola and coca and mixed them with sugar, other ingredients, and carbonated water to invent the first cola soft drink. His accountant tasted it and called it "Coca-Cola". The current recipe is a jealously guarded trade secret; it is unknown whether kola nut is still used in Coca-Cola, however the recipe continues to use "de-cocainized" coca extract.

Moreover, at least one of the ingredients called for in the recipe would be next to impossible to secure in the U.S. (or to bring into the country): decocainized flavor essence of the coca leaf. As it now stands, only Stepan Co.'s New Jersey plant possesses the necessary DEA permit to import the leaves and remove the cocaine from them. Anyone looking to reproduce the drink would have to go to Stepan to get one of the key ingredients, and Stepan would refuse to sell to them.

Man this NJ company imports 1000 TONS A YEAR of cocaine!!! Sells the "waste" cocaine to Malinckrodt Chemical Co. So tens of millions around the world are addicted to the taste of cocaine!!!
How Coca-Cola Obtains Its Coca -NYT