Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Kerry v Massie, A Study in Democratic Party Failure. April 9, 2019

Considering John Kerry’s Failure to Communicate with and Confront GOP.

I made these remarks after finishing a review of some deceptive opining by Mike Hulme.  
It occurs to me I'd like to share the same message over here
since I seriously am looking for someone to work for.
citizenschallenge - at - gmail com

We must learn from our failures!  Case in point John Kerry’s implosion under Congressman Massie’s deliberately cynical and distracting questioning on April 9, 2019.  Here I propose an alternative version of how that exchange could have been turned into a winning moment for rationalism, constructive learning and honest science, rather than descending into the waste of precious time it turned into.
It takes more than superficially knowing climate science bullet points.  You need to internalize the understanding behind those bullet points.  This is impossible without a deep appreciation for our climate engine’s evolutionary story.  
You must also anticipate the GOP’s repetitive juvenile misdirection and the rhetorical dirty tricks they have honed to perfection over the decades.

{This is also an open letter that I sent off on May 3rd to 
GOP Massie’s three offices.  It begins with the following.}
Honorable US Representative Thomas Massie, 
I am an engaged student of Earth Sciences and since our global heat and moisture distribution engine, read climate system, dictates global environments, climate sciences has become central to my pursuit of understanding our beautiful magnificent Earth and her life story.  I’m simply a student, but I’ve been at it five decades now, so I know a thing or two.
I believe in constructive honest debate as opposed to theatrical political debate.  This exercise is a combination of sincere letter to you where I answer the questions you raised, in the hope you learn something;   > a direct challenge and examination of your malicious rhetorical games;   > along with an examination of Secretary John Kerry’s text book example of why Democrats keep losing;  > and of course, as always, a personal learning project.
Incidentally, it’s worth pointing out that it requires a serious appreciation for our planet’s deep-time evolution, a prerequisite, before any true understanding of our global heat and moisture distribution engine is possible.  I build my presentation around the video of your April 9th performance. 
A response would be appreciated.

Sincerely, 

Peter Miesler
aka Citizenschallenge
near Durango, Colorado

{I suspect GOP's Congressman Massie will hide, they aways do, but should I get a response I’ll be sure to share it here.}

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Considering John Kerry’s Failure to Communicate with GOP’s T. Massie 4/9/2019

Kerry’s Failure to Communicate with and Confront GOP.

I made these remarks after finishing a review of some deceptive opining by Mike Hulme.  
It occurs to me I'd like to share the same message over here
since I seriously am looking for someone to work for.
citizenschallenge - at - gmail com

Watching GOP Rep. Thomas Massie April 9th questioning of John Kerry I was struck by how much Massie’s questioning and attitude resembled a smug entitled middle schooler, gotcha games and all.  It was laughable.  If not for the societal tragedy of having such a know-nothing in such a position of power.

That’s why I vowed to give his little theater a closer look when I could.  Now I can and of course it turns out more convoluted and time consuming than expected.  Instead of the single post I had originally envisioned, I’m going to have to go with installments.  

My first post was a closer look at the person who was at the heart of Massie's “pseudoscience” word play.  Namely, Trump’s climate “brain trust” the infamous William Happer a man who’s a firm believer in taxes being more important than truthfully understanding climate science.  A one time physicist who in old age hires himself out to attack active scientists.  

William Happer is motivated by extreme right wing political passions and a paycheck.  He is the poster boy of a Professional Pseudoscientist if there ever was one. 

That collection serves as supporting information for this second installment where I’ll focus on Rep Massie’s bizarre and basically unhinged insinuation that climate science is pseudoscience.  

Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Happer files - What a Kangaroo Judge looks like.


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Dr. William Happer, one time scientist 
and current  master of the art of 
Science by Rhetoric and Malicious Slander.

A closer look, with links and selected quotes from a dozen articles.
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Now that I’m back home, I’ve been working on catch up, starting with the Kerry, Representative Massie exchange during the 4/9/19 House Oversight hearing.  
I learned that Kerry's allusion to Kangaroo Court was inspired by rumors that the infamous cold-warrior William Happer has been elevated to run Trump's climate science review board or whatever it is.  I’ve also found out that Kangaroo Court is an actual legal term.  Check it out,
  1. A bogus court, the intention of which is to provide the illusion of a fair justice system where none exists.  (https://legaldictionary.net/kangaroo-court/)
I’m familiar with William Harper’s long history of misrepresenting well understood climate science.  He misleads by way of an amoral disregard for honesty.  
Instead he’s mastered Science by Rhetoric and irrelevant distractions, rather than science by constructively assessing all the known facts in a good-faith learning process.  It’s crazy making and confusion that Happer has dedicated his dotage to.
If a Kangaroo Court is mission focused in complete disregard for reality, then referring to Dr. William Happer as a Kangaroo Judge is a stone sober descriptive, plain and simple. 
To support this contention I offer the following collection of quotes and links from,
          By Graham Readfearn • February 20, 2019
              Posted on February 16, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics
             John Abraham | May 2, 2016
             By John Mashey • June 7, 2016
              Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent | December 8, 2015
             By Lawrence Carter and Maeve McClenaghan | December 8, 2015 
              September 21st, 2011 |  Global Warming Denial Machine
              Michael C. MacCracken, Ph.D. |  September 2011
             Gavin Schmidt @ 9 February 2017
             BEN DIMIERO ››› December 15, 2010
             by Jeremiah Tattersall  |  April 28, 2011
Skeptical Science Blog Posts regarding Dr William Happer
             John Abraham  |  January 20, 2016 
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Physicist William Happer, the 'Unmoored' Climate Science Denier Heading a White House Climate Probe
By Graham Readfearn • February 20, 2019

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Diary 4/24/19_Democrats Stop Talking Past GOPs Trumpsters



We’re* going to lose this struggle to save American democracy if we continue talking past each other!  Trump supporters, or rather their arguments and PR strategies, must be better recognized and exposed and understood and vocally countered by an energized, engaged grassroots movement!

Stop following the GOP script - get better educated and eloquent and create a new one.  Then directly address Trumpism and the vandalism its inflicting upon our society - something that has not been happening. 

Intellectually Confronting the Faith-blinded and the Faith-shackled would provide a much needed second benefit, to better educate OUR OWN people, who for the most part don't understand today's issues and rather withdraw within the comforts of consumerism than get engaged. 


Many get a little offended at what I write, but this is about getting real and trying to win hearts and minds and stir Democratic passions for a change.  New approaches are required - where we at least learn to clearly enunciate what we believe and why.  To better explain ourselves* and at least demand recognition of physical reality and down to Earth facts.   
          (* That would be rationalists, liberals, progressives, children of the intellectual enlightenment you could say.  )

If any of that makes sense to you, please take a moment to scan through these thoughts and arguments from someone who's been paying attention to this show since about the 60s.


Best wishes,

Peter Miesler
aka citizenschallenge
citizenschallenge _  gmail _ com

It would be nice to network with like minded.  As my virtual debate with Jim Steele shows I'm ready for constructive debate and can produce.  I'm also ready to demonstrate that there is no contrarian dodge that can't be turned into a learning moment.   

Thank you.

We The People of the United States have a moral, ethical right - along with a pragmatic need - to learn what scientists have learned about this planet's biosphere and climate engine without constant dishonest crossfire. 
   
We should not tolerate serious scientists always being drown out by amoral, ruthless, and frankly ignorant arguments - that an astoundingly totalitarian GOP PR factory repeats over and over again, without ever learning a damned thing from the evidence in front of us. 

Intellectually Confronting Faith-Based thinking and Dogma Driven Deceptions

Considering our dysfunctional public dialogue in 14 verses.

Map v Territory Problem, Statistical Certainty vs Geophysical Realities

Who says understanding Earth’s Evolution is irrelevant? 2018

Saying No To Reality. Questioning the Geologic Column.

Considering the Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

Steele’s ‘What’s Natural?’ Dissecting libertarian deception, a fishy tale.

STOP CALLING SURFACE "COOLING" GLOBAL COOLING ! ! !

Breen LandUseCode Community Meeting - This Is What Democracy Looks Like !

CC's Climate Science Deception - Hall of Shame

Appreciating Earth's Evolution

12) “Faith-based Thinking: God or EGO?" - GOP's hate-on for Pluralism

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This is a learning (and sharing) project dedicated to dissecting, examining, and confronting the deception dependent Republican assault on climate science and rational constructive debate  ~ I invite good-faith discussion.

This is both my personal learning project and my contribution in the struggle to confront the ongoing Republican/ libertarian assault on rational science and constructive learning, as manifested in their malicious strategic Attacks on Science ~ A collection of articles, scientific resources, plus my own essays and indepth critique of various presentations from unidirectional-skeptics ~ Hopefully a resource for the busy, yet discerning, student who's concerned about the health of our Earth

An information source for conservationists wanting to become proactive in the struggle to protect Alberta Park from development. ~ ~ ~ This is a collection of essays and information sources arguing for Mr. B.J. “Red” McCombs to retract his ill considered development plans and return his Alberta Park parcel back to its rightful fold within the Rio Grande National Forest.

        Americans for Koch's Prosperity, et cetera.


We (that is children of the intellectual enlightenment) need to stop playing by the GOP's totalitarian script.  

Create our own narrative also directly lovingly, intellectually but with inner conviction confront the insanity of believing you know God on a direct personal level.


After all, that is the fantasy mindscape feeding this Alt-Right hostile take-over attempt upon our United State of America government. 

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Citizenschallenge, why are you an Earth Centrist?

First there was a lifetime of living and absorbing lessons, then there was an essay, then there was an invitation to give a talk, then the challenge to inject some relevant bio and double the essay into 20 minutes that hold the audience's attention, okay can do, at least I’ll try.   
Then the skeptics’ group that invited me imploded.   
So it goes. 
Life is busy and now the script sits here, I like it, though I keep tinkering with it. Guess foremost it’s a continuing education project for me.  Still now with spring loading me up with chores and distractions I want to do something with it. So, I’m putting it out here and I invite thoughtful responses.
{For a fun distraction, any Bluegrass fans out there? }
Rational comments, pro, con, observational, are all welcome, nonsense will be ignored.  Thoughtful will be respected and posted no matter what it says.   

Hello, my name is Peter Miesler and I am an Earth Centrist,
… and I admit, I’m hoping you’re wondering what in the world is that and why on Earth should you care.
I even spent a couple weeks last year writing an essay describing this particular perspective.  It turned out pretty good, it was tight, flowed well, told a good story that held attention and people liked reading it.
I sent it around, even received a couple attaboys from some genuine science Who’s Who, who are usually silent, which did me a bit of good.  I’m not the crazy one after all.  :-)  I have enunciated something valuable.  But that was about it, then a return to the good 'ol sound of one hand clapping.


© Steven Orfield 
When reading it to friends, though they listened with interest, it left them a bit perplexed rather than enlightened.  Okay? Fun interesting read, now what am I supposed to do with it?  What is it actually about?  And so on.  In responding I was down to, ‘it’s about perspectives and how we process the information that’s flowing through our senses.’  

Thinking on it some more I know that it's about much more than that.  It's about grasping for an appreciation of DeepTime, Evolution, and the dance of life and geology that created this world we were born out of and will die back into.  Something that offers individuals a path to understanding their own place in time and the universe within a sane reality based over-arching perspective.

Something that offers peace in the face of our individual mortality and that eternal question of “Why?”.

Something that offers spiritual fulfillment through a visceral appreciation for how time and life on this Pale Blue Dot created us and this world we inhabit today and will return to upon finishing our short dance across life’s stage.  Why isn't that cosmic gift enough?

Something that can offer rationalists and atheists a sense of our own spiritual fulfillment - in contrast to the faith-shackled's nonstop trumpeting about praising EGO and being intolerant towards others.  

Something that offers us Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment the inner moral foundation and spiritual fortitude to step up and lovingly, constructively, challenge and confront those sad brainwashed souls eye to eye.  

All of us have them in our lives, why not discover ways to ask them how they live with the cognitive dissonance inherent within their “my way only” religions? 

Maybe slow down those self-certain ME FIRST Trumpkins from steamrolling rationalists into oblivion.  Listen to them, lordie knows it's what they’re dreaming of doing.  We had better stop ignoring that or a genuine horrendous civil war will unfold in parts of our country.  They haven’t been stocking piling those straw men and contrived angry passions and weapons and ammo for nothing! (4/3/19)  But I digress.

Before I get to the Earth Centrism, I think I need to look at some of the origins of my own individual perspective.  After all, give the same book to a dozen readers of diverse backgrounds, …  

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

What's Natural about Steele's Sea Level conundrum? Pacifica Tribune 3/20/2019

In his March 20th What’s Natural? column, Jim Steele winds up in a conundrum because he’s obsessing on Greenland while trying to figure out California’s sea level rise.  It got me to thinking about those six blind men grappling to make sense of an elephant while focusing on individual parts.  
Steele’s conundrum will never get resolved until he pulls back and starts taking in the whole of our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine.
The biggest problem is that Steele’s confusion is deliberate.  See, Jim’s no teacher, he’s a performance artist who has become skilled at taking bits and pieces of true facts, ignoring great swaths of important information, then concocting just so stories to entertain and sooth, rather than inform and prepare.  
He gets away with it because his audience wants to be deceived - and because rationalists fear to confront such belligerent self-certain willful ignorance. 
Why do I care?  Because I love this planet and truth matters! 
Because someone needs to be a Witness for honesty and defender of We The People’s right to learn about this wonderful fantastical planet Earth that created us >>> without the constant cross screaming of malicious dedicated liars!
I’ve dissected March 20th’s Pacifica Tribune’s What’s Natural? because it offers me another opportunity to examine ‘libertarian’ fraud in action, while giving me an excuse to share a treasure trove of related links to solid educational resources for the curious.  
REPRINTED UNDER PROTECTION OF FAIR USE COPYRIGHT LAWS.  
My intention is a point by point review of 'libertarian' deception in action.
Click on image for better viewing and comparing.

Peter Hadfield made an easy to follow overview of the meme Jim’s parroting.

potholer54  |  Published on May 15, 2017
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