QUOTES
from Michael Hammerschlag’s Commentaries
If the Soviets do this, let the Warsaw Pact go free…. The Cold War is over. The bombs, the missiles, the threat of nuclear war, nuclear winter, the support for terrorists and revolutionaries, the prison camps, probably the Communist Party itself…. All over, in time. - Winds of Change June 1989
I really fear US will become a target of
Palestinian [sourced] rage that will dwarf anything that's happened
in Israel: a Paki or Russian nuke (or biological)
attack. In fact I think something like that
is inevitable, and would turn the USA into
an instant police state. Letter to Israeli friend August 13, 2001 The end result of all this will be a nuclear
detonation in NYC or DC … since they can’t
blow up Israel without blowing up the Palestinians.
– STM Newsletter- July 14, 2001 “Will it be NY or DC, NY or DC.” - phone conversation w friend in Greenwich
Village- Sept 5, 2001
We must acknowledge that the age of oil is
over or very soon (20-30 years) will be.
Oil is the raw material for nearly all of
our organic chemicals, plastics, and drugs;
and a future world may look back with incredulity
at our stupidity, “They just burned it….
for heat. Within a few decades, the greenhouse effect
may raise worldwide temperatures enough to
melt portions of the polar ice caps and inundate
every coastal city on earth.”- Feb 1980 – Energy for the Long Run- East Side
The other desperate necessities: a big dumb booster to send aloft cargo cheaply, and a small 747 launched rocket plane (X-34+33) that can carry 4-6 passengers to orbit quickly, easily , and cheaply are proceeding glacially. 27 years after Apollo 13, if a serious accident were to happen aboard the MIR, shuttle, or ISS, people would probably die long before we could launch a rescue mission. Without a 24 hr rescue capability, it's unfair and dangerous to even expect people to work in space. State of Space- Oct ‘97
All Americans now suffer from Gulf War Syndrome, the idea- because of the spectacular success
of wars in the Gulf, Bosnia, Serbia, and
Afghanistan, that wars can be fought painlessly,
with almost no casualties…. Inexplicably,
cravenly, Congress has sleepwalked into authorizing
military force (against a majority of US
opinion: 51% to 38% -Zogby†)- perhaps with
the notion that Bush is bluffing, and Saddam
will back down. But Saddam, who could have
left Kuwait with all his booty on Jan 14,
1991 and emerged unscathed.. can be counted
on to do the most self-destructive thing….
If we invade Iraq, it will be only because
George Bush wants to… and that’s not a good enough reason. Bush’s Wanton War – Oct 2002 Liberal Slant
22 drainage pumping stations operate continuously to keep city from flooding so it is already in flood equilibrium, but these stations will fail during hurricane hit. City could become 350 sq. mi. abandoned destroyed bathtub filled with warm toxic chemicals from vast chemical/oil industry, sewage, 1000's of businesses. Sat Aug 27, ‘05 Big Beast Blasts Big Easy - Hammernews
8 years ago I took some pictures inside Westminster Abbey, having dumped my backpack on a rear bench. When I returned 2 minutes later, a rector was gazing at it with unabashed horror. It had to be a bomb. England was then still a war zone with the IRA and any package, bag, or backpack was dangerous and often prohibited. …. If we do go into Iraq, we should expect that to happen here. We can handle a few thousand fanatic Al Qaida members, but if even a couple of tenths of a percent of the world’s billion Muslims go critical with rage, that’s 2 million potential terrorists. We can’t stop that, especially if they are willing to use personal suicide bombings, like they do in Israel. – Jan 2003 Coming Attractions NPR Commentary
All these proposals rely on these huge continuing surpluses (which due to Social Security under-funding, don't really exist), which could end in a few months, … In fact, the very idea of assuming these unprecedented surpluses will last a decade, let alone a few years, is idiotic. But George wants to commit the entire surplus now to encourage the economy not to tank, and pray that two or five years down the road, the money will exist. He also wants to build a $1 trillion missile defense system that, uh, doesn't exist. It’s the Economy, Stupid (Don’t Wreck It) – Jan 2001 Online Journal
Each 2° rise puts 6% more water vapor into
the air, fuel for hurricanes... A 4° rise would raise hurricane winds 9-16 mph, "doubling
the damage from the strongest ones", according to a NOAA hurricane expert.
Almost all computations have only considered
carbon dioxide (up 1 billion tons in the last decade), but methane is a 21
times more potent greenhouse gas; as are
nitrogen oxides (from cars)- the warming
effect of nitrogen oxides may be 3-4 times more than of carbon dioxide. And the water driven into the atmosphere
by the added heat (up 10% in the last 20
years) is a potent greenhouse gas itself.
So whatever we thought we've been doing to the earth's climate
(doubling the CO2 since 1800), we may have underestimated 3-5 fold. We may see the melting of the ice caps, the
flooding of port cities and Florida and Louisiana;
catastrophic droughts, floods, and storms. A Warm and Bright Future- Sept 1998 Maui Time
As we plunge into the most reckless, unjustified,
and immoral war since the Philippines and
commit a blunder that may echo down through
the decades; let's say it clearly, without
shading or pretense, without genuflection
or fig leaf: our President is a liar…The result of all this untruth is that 42%
of our people think Saddam was involved in
planning 9-11, 55% think he’s in league with Al Qaida…Their job is to fight, and kill, and maybe
die for their country- many want to trade
their practice video games of death for the
real ones, till they see the result. Being
wounded or killed isn’t the only threat;
one can be wounded by killing. FIRM of MIND; SOFT on FACTS – Mar 20, 2003 Liberal Slant, Smrk Chp
China over the next 5-50 years will be the greatest geopolitical threat to world peace. China is now an incredibly unstable place- a spectacularly corrupt booming market economy run by ex-communist dictators with a 3 million-man army splintered into many semi-autonomous corporate fiefdoms. Fueled by 2 centuries of foreign colonialism and humiliations and the rising wealth and confidence from a 11% annual growth rate, the dictators have been using nationalism as a unifying opiate… China, despite it’s boom, is still a 3rd world country-- a police state with 350 million people in poverty, 120 million displaced roaming migrants, pitiful sanitation, 1 telephone per 77 people, and an income of $2200. Last March, to signal it’s displeasure with the most independent Presidential candidate and terrorize the voters, China fired missiles into the ocean only 22 miles from Taiwan’s ports – Dragon Rising – Feb 1997
Kerry has to focus on a single theme (like
Bush did with inconsistency)- that Bush lies- every Administration statement can be
successfully mined for evidence of this.
It also would inoculate Kerry from the outrageous
slanders that Bush concocts (including the
Swift Boat Bushies). Chuckle them off: "See, there
he goes again.", rather than whine about
unfair attacks. Once one overcame the media
barrier to that word, the press would finally
start to analyze Bush's serial lies- they
would be in play…. The second theme should be corruption - the
$10 bil Veep/Halliburton contracts and sleazy
overcharging (running empty trucks through
the desert), the great
Sanctions and embargoes all to often fail miserably: they take forever to work while the killing goes on, they hurt the innocents while leaving the guilty unscathed, the provide a sop to Western democracies while forestalling more effective actions, they become congealed moral dictates that diverge from their raison d’etre and resist reassessment, and they leave smashed economies and basket-case nations that take years to rebuild. Sanctions on Sanctions – August 1993 Moscow Guardian
Iraq was created by Imperial British fiat
in 1920 out of the Mesopotamian dust from
3 provinces of the 380 year Ottoman Empire.
It never existed before. It has been historically
ungovernable, even during the 37 year British
established monarchy- they had 50 changes of Government. In 1933,
Iraqi King Faisal said, “There is still no (Iraq) people but ..masses..
lacking any patriotic ideal, connected by
no common tie, prone to anarchy, and always
ready to rise up against any government whatsoever.” … There may be a way to prevent or limit
the onrushing civil war: partition Iraq into Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish
states: a Kurdish north, Sunni center, and Shiite
south below Baghdad. For 12 years we de-facto
already did this with the no-fly zones.
Launched by lies, this war was based on fantastically
hopeful or foolish assumptions- so there
was no planning for the aftermath. From our failure to provide MP’s and our
troops allowing the looting and trashing
of every institution, to failing to immediately
guard or destroy the huge numbers of weapons dumps*, to taking our sweet time in restoring
electricity, to insisting on vastly inflated
sweetheart contracts to American rather than
Iraqi companies; blind stupidity and
monumental arrogance reigned. STOPPING the NEXT BOSNIA - Nov. 2003- Capital Times
*Shells of which now used to blow up our
soldiers every day
Now with Lieberman’s elevation, Clinton’s
primary Democratic critic, that issue (irresponsible
impeachment) is not going to be touched-
replaced with the tacit admission that “yes,
in fact, Bill was scum… and I had nothing
to do with him”. It will constantly put Gore
on the defensive on an issue that could have
scored him major points, though he had nothing
to do with Mr. Clinton’s personal sins, and
no need to reply to them. – The Wrong Man - Aug 2000
Alarming all who worried about Vladimir Putin’s KGB past, a coordinated
campaign against oligarchs* Gusinsky and
Berezovsky has delivered both the two largest
Russian television networks: ORT and NTV
(the only independent one), into nominal
government hands. The third, RTR, is already
government controlled. …Of the several vital
measures of a civil society: a fair and balanced
court system, trustworthy and honest police,
a consistent and responsive government- the
only one that was functioning: a free press, is now seriously
endangered. With Yeltsin, these acts were
shots across the bow, but Putin has decided
to run them through to their logical conclusion:
government control, through cutouts, of television
and other media outlets- the situation before
that led to the huge paper- Pravda (Truth), printing mostly lies. The psychological
damage caused by the promulgation of lies
in the Soviet Union was immeasurable. - RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TAKES CONTROL of TELEVISION - April 2001 Media Channel
To really effect an Islamic takeover, they
need to drive the US out. We are going to
understand why Saddam was the monster he
was- pie in the sky amber waves of grain doesn’t mean much in this brutal world.
It’s likely more American will die in the
next year in Iraq than died in the war. The idea that Iraqis can resolve leadership
issues between the Sunni overlords and the
surging Shiite majority without bloodshed
is wishful thinking,… WARBLOG – May 1, 2003
For America, seared by the hostage travesty,
horrified by worldwide émigré assassinations
and the murders of hundreds of foreigners
in Algeria and Egypt by Islamic Fundamentalists;
enraged at the 350-odd bombing deaths of
American diplomats and Marines in '83 and
Army in '96, '93 World Trade Center bombing,
'88 Pan Am 103 bombing; alarmed at Iranian
missile, submarine, and nuclear plant purchases
from China and Russia... no thaw (with Iran)
is possible. For Khatami, it's also impossible
for now- he must prove his toughness on America
to hard-liners. Eventually it must come from
Iran, perhaps in canceling Khomeini's $2 million murder contract on author Salman Rushdie. A 1995 total US embargo on Iran should be
maintained, unless they give up their quest
for nuclear weapons (thrilled by NATO expansion,
Russia is going ahead with sale of a nuclear
power plant to Iran)- they're still the only
nation that might use them against us. –
NEW HOPE for IRAN – Oct 1997
Over the last half century, North Korea has
been the world’s most consistent terrorist
nation, repeatedly sending assassins, saboteurs,
and infiltrators into the South. After losing
their Soviet and Chinese stipends, the North
suffered floods, drought, and an appalling
famine from 1995 to 1999, where up to 2 million
people (of only 22 million) starved to death
while the detestable “Dear Leader” held huge
celebratory rallies in sports stadiums for
foreign dignitaries. The people, who were
banned from even foraging for food, died in their homes eating bark and grass,
while what food there is goes to their huge
military… North Korea is now one big lunatic
above ground cemetery….But trying to project
chess-like rationality onto the erratic,
lying, and vicious NK leaders is a fool’s
errand. They already have furnished missile
and nuclear technology to Pakistan (and missiles
to Iran) that may yet result in the first
real nuclear war. If they crank up their
plutonium generation, they can distribute
it widely enough that some of it will result
in a man-made sun dawning on an American
city. The plutonium in a Hiroshima size bomb
is the size of a baseball and can be safely
shielded by cardboard.- SPEAKING LOUDLY WITHOUT ANY STICK – Feb 2002 Bartcop
But the worst possibility, the worst thing that could happen from global warming... might be...... another Ice Age. 90% of the last 250,000 years (and more like 2 1/2 mil) have been Ice Age with a 2 mile thick sheet of ice covering Europe and North America down to Chicago and New York City… only about 25,000 years have been warm, habitable- like now. The last warm period lasted only 12,000 years, ours has lasted about 11,000. …. once the ice sheets accumulate and start moving, nothing will stop them. According to several theorists, the root cause of the Big Chill is the interruption of ocean currents (same thing that causes El Nino), specifically the Gulf Stream, which flows 100 Amazons of warm water from the Caribbean to England and Northern Europe. Circling Iceland, the heavy (now, from evaporation) salty water sinks to the bottom and returns south to make a grand loop. Huge amounts of melted fresh water from Greenland's ice cap could dilute the salty Gulf Stream water so much that it isn't heavy enough to sink, interrupting the return mechanism and then the warm flow north. A Warm and Bright Future- Sept 1998 Maui Time