There has been some discussion of Cowtan and Way 2013 take on HadCRUT4 at Lucia’s, Judy Curry’s, Nick Stokes and elsewhere. HadCRUt4 has run cooler than other datasets (including UAH satellite) in recent years. Cowtan and Way observe that HadCRU does not estimate temperature in many Arctic gridcells. Because Arctic temperatures have risen more than low-latitude temperatures, they state that recent HadCRU temperatures are biased low. (Since GISS extrapolates into the Arctic, it is less affected by this bias.)

By Richard Edmondson | Fig Trees and Vineyards | November 17, 2013

Jeremy Scahill, the “investigative journalist” who once publicly expressed his belief in the official 9/11 story, says he won’t take part in an international antiwar conference scheduled for later this month if he has to share the same platform with Syrian nun Mother Agnes.

By Jeff Stein | CQ SpyTalk | July 2, 2009

A few years back Sheryl Crow recorded a haunting song called “Three Days in Rome,” about a lover’s treacherous retelling of their affair in a novel.
Likewise, anonymous sources have been talking for years about a secret meeting two Bush administration Pentagon officials had in Rome with a notorious Iranian arms dealer, in December 2001.

Press TV – November 18, 2013

A Senior Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic will leave the negotiating table if the US Congress approves additional sanctions against Tehran.

The Republican Party, particularly the congressional wing, has one issue they're gearing up for the midterms: Obamacare. After doing everything in their power to sabotage it, from inception to roll out, the, Republicans want to focus all their attention on howling about what a failure it is. But are people buying their message?

Voice of Russia
November 16, 2013
Libya is in anarchy as US/NATO backed terrorists reign – Faraj Muftah
John Robles
Audio

India Today
November 18, 2013
INS Vikramaditya was spied upon by NATO aircraft and ship last year but the matter was hushed up
Shiv Aroor
INS Vikramaditya, India’s largest aircraft carrier, is safely in the Indian Navy’s hands now, and will begin its journey home shortly. But just a year ago, there was an incident that created a major stir on board the massive ship as it was put through trials at sea off the Russian coast.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Arnold Zweig: Selections on war
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Arnold Zweig
From Education Before Verdun (1935)
Translated by Eric Sutton

RT | November 18, 2013

Indonesia is recalling its ambassador to Australia over allegations that Canberra listened in on phone conversations of the Indonesian president.
Indonesia said the ambassador was being called to Jakarta for “consultations”.

Links for information can be found at the end of the post

The failures of foreign interventionism litter the world stage. Libya is disintegrating into an inter-tribal battlefield, with rival militias shooting it out Wild West style. Iraq is collapsing into chaos, as the country’s postwar order frays and splits along sectarian religious lines: and in Afghanistan, scene of our initial foray into the endless abyss we […]

Dick Cheney with a blond wig-- and rabiesI've been savoring every moment of Barton Gellman's book on how Cheney took over the Bush presidency, Angler and I recommend it highly. (You can buy at at the link in the last sentence, which goes right to the DWT Book Store.

At least 54 Iraqis were killed and 116 more were wounded, mostly in Baghdad and the mixed city of Tuz Khormato.

The Republican position on food stamps is to cut the program back by $40 billion. If the U.S. had a political party that represented working families instead of just wealthy campaign donors, it's position would be to raise taxes on multi-millionaires to stimulate the economy and get people off food stamps by providing a vibrant economy that creates jobs.

 Zionist, Arab despots ‘strategic partners’
 

 
By Finian Cunningham
The violation of children’s rights by the Israeli and Bahraini regimes is more than mere coincidence. It is indicative of a much broader strategic alignment that has emerged between the Zionist regime and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies.

I do not normally comment about school shootings. They are often obviously staged events like the Aurora Colorado movie theater shooting. Almost all of these shootings involve dangerous but legally prescribed drugs that the Physicians Desk Reference says can result in suicide and violence. These drugs are there to control us. Mass violence, gun laws and an expanding mental health state can only benefit the New World Order.

RT | November 17, 2013

A UK spy agency infiltrated international hotel booking systems for some three years, tracing high profile officials and wiretapping their suites, new leaks reveal. GCHQ’s top secret ‘Royal Concierge’ program tracked 350 hotels across the globe.
Germany’s Der Spiegel has published yet another episode of scandalous revelations from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, currently enjoying temporary asylum in Moscow.

by Judith Curry “I don’t know whether I can make the environmental argument, or the economic argument” – Tom Vilsack Associated Press The AP has an extensive article Push for ethanol had disastrous  outcomes.  Excerpts: The hills of southern Iowa … Continue reading →

By David Swanson | November 14, 2013

What Localities and States Can Do About Drones

JFK Murder Solved

“There is no doubt now that there was a conspiracy, yet most of us are not very angry about it. The conspiracy to kill the president of the United States was also a conspiracy against the democratic system –and thus a conspiracy against you. I think you should get very angry about that.” – Gaeton Fonzi, Investigator HSCA

It appears the the tide is turning..... on Turkey

RT | July 20, 2009

The real reason why the U.S. continues its presence in Afghanistan is Iran the country which is an annoyance for Israel, said Karen Kwiatkowski, a writer and former U.S. Air Force officer.

Related article

• Top Israel Lobby Senator Proposes Permanent US Air Bases For Afghanistan

Its satire! Note it is in the Satire section. Its good satire (allegedly) because it has a ring of truth. South Chicago aint laughing I guess….
My Money is on these guys and their rivals!
 
THE PENTAGON — Troops headed overseas will soon be offered the most realistic combat training yet, as Pentagon officials announced late Friday that pre-deployment training would take place in Detroit and Chicago.

By James Petras :: 11.16.2013 

Introduction
Revelations about the long-term global, intrusive spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other allied intelligence apparatuses have provoked widespread protests and indignation and threatened ties between erstwhile imperial allies.
Allied regimes have uniformly condemned NSA espionage as a violation of trust and sovereignty, a threat to their national and economic security and to their citizens’ privacy.

People pay less attention to politics in one-party states. And with the decline of the Louisiana Democratic Party following the 1964 Civil Rights bill, that state has become more and more of a right-wing Republican bastion. African Americans dominate one (of 6) congressional districts, LA-02, basically New Orleans and the black neighborhoods on the north side of Baton Rouge, 80 miles away. That shockingly gerrymandered district attempts to pack as many African-Americans (and Democrats) into one district as possible and it is 63% African American (the state is 32% African American).

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
November 15, 2013
NATO Secretary General announces dates for 2014 Summit
I am pleased to announce that the next NATO Summit will take place on September 4‑5, 2014. I also welcome the recent announcement by the British Prime Minister David Cameron that the UK will host NATO Heads of State and Government in South Wales.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Giuseppe Berto: Bombing produced cities of the dead

Incendiary explosions in the lobby and in the basement levels accompanied the destruction of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC). The evidence for these incendiary explosions is significant and includes numerous eyewitness testimonies and photographic evidence. The official, government investigation conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) did not address these phenomena in any meaningful way and offered only a weak suggestion that is demonstrably false.

By Jonathon Cook | November 15, 2013

Remember back to 2009, when there was a huge row over allegations in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Israel had been secretly harvesting body parts from Palestinians in the occupied territories.
There were problems with this story, which suggested that Israel had a shoot-to-kill policy so that it could get organs from those it killed.

Malcolm and JenniferMy grandfather was a Socialist. He told me to always be wary of anyone from the Democratic Party. Funny because Malcolm X and he had similar views of the Democrats back them. Mal: "We won't organize any black man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out. Both of them have sold us out; both parties have sold us out.

Press TV – November 17, 2013

A previously unknown Greek far-left group has claimed responsibility for the shooting of two members of the country’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group.
Golden Dawn members Emmanuel Kapelonis, 22, and Giorgos Foundoulis, 27 were killed in a drive-by shooting outside the local branch of the far-right party in the suburb of Neo Iraklio in a northern suburb of Athens.

It is indeed Sunday again, and time for my weekly rant….First, I really wonder myself why I am always apologizing for not putting up articles daily at this blog.  I absolutely have no reason for any apology as far as I am concerned… I do have a life and I do have requirements in my daily life that have shown to be increasingly hectic over the last while.  Family and personal issues have always come first for me, and it does take me away from doing this blog.

The administration of President Barack Obama appears to have succeeded in preventing Congress from enacting new sanctions against Iran before the next round of nuclear-related talks between the U.S. and other great powers and Tehran scheduled for Geneva Nov. 20. As a result, optimism that at least an interim deal may soon be achieved between […]

by KenThe American Prospect, as part of a special feature called "The State of Work in the Age of Anxiety," has an important piece by Harold Meyerson called "The 40-Year Slump," of which I can only hit some of the highlights here.

At least seven people were killed and 15 more were wounded across Iraq.

Jason Thigpen is running for Congress in eastern North Carolina (the Outer Banks, most of the coastal plain, from the outskirts of New Bern, down the 17 to Jacksonville and on past Camp Lejeune into Wilmington. The district has been trending Republican in recent years but Democrats have a 12% voter registration edge and Jason is just the kind of guy who can appeal across the partisan divide without abandoning his progressive values. He penned this guest post.

           The Arafat Assassination

 
by Uri Avnery
FROM THE first moment, I did not have the slightest doubt that Yasser Arafat was assassinated.
 It was a matter of simple logic.

NewWorldNextWeek.com: Episode173 - Afghan Opium Record, GCHQ spoofs LinkedIn, GMO Apples Welcome to New World Next Week - the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news.

By Scott Creighton | American Everyman | November 16, 2013

What is the stunning similarity between the Renisha McBride story and that of Miriam Carey? What justifies prosecution in the former and complete silence in the latter? You might be surprised just how obvious this hypocrisy is. And no, it’s not about race.

Sad, pathetic person

Yet the same people that were screaming at the Bush admin for doing this are silent?

Anonymous hacktivist told court FBI informant and fellow hacker Sabu supplied him with list of countries vulnerable to cyber-attack
 

Hammond said: ‘I took responsibility by pleading guilty, but when will the government be made to answer for its crimes?’ Photograph: Michael Gottschalk/AFP

London Guardian

The Israel Lobby Is Killing Iran Negotiations

by MJ ROSENBERG

RT | November 16, 2013

A senior United Nations official responsible for freedom of expression has warned that the UK government’s response to revelations of mass surveillance by Edward Snowden is damaging Britain’s reputation for press freedom and investigative journalism.

DHS protocol governs shutting down wireless networks to prevent bomb detonation
Free Beacon

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”  ~ Henry Ford

By Mike Masnick | Techdirt | November 15, 2013

Not even waiting for the Supreme Court to halt the vote count in Florida and award the White House to Bush, Cheney moved with incredible speed to fill every position in the national security apparatus with his own people and claim that part of the government as his own turf. If there is one person who can be blamed for dereliction of duty in the events that led up to 9/11, it is Dick Cheney.