Adm. James Stavridis Dishes on the Pros and Cons of Climate Change. This is a follow-up to the US Army War College Report commissioned by General Milley, which appeared in OpEd several days ago. More evidence that the MIC is busi connving and scheming for a buck.

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Adm. James Stavridis Dishes on the Pros and Cons of Climate Change

by John Kendall Hawkins

Last night I sat in on an hour-long webinar conducted by The Cipher Brief, a kind of Intercept for neo-conservatives, its well-traveled Wilbury contributors largely ex-military, national security wonks and Intelligence Community (IC) "retirees." A blurb at the site, from the Studies in Intelligence journal, says that "The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers."

The subject of the webinar was Climate Change, and included guests Christopher Gallagher (Enterprise Risk and Sustainability director for Lockheed Martin), Admiral James Stavridis (ex-Navy and a managing director at the Carlyle Group), and we're told, by host Suzanne Kelly, that ex-NSA chief James Clapper was "sitting in," along with an unnamed bevy of journalists, who were encouraged to submit their questions to the program guests. So, it's cozy, yeah cozy, being part of an hour long think tank thing that brings together the whole MIC and MAC (Media Access Control) shebang. After all, we're all in this quackmire together.

It should be noted that Suzanne Kelly is an ex intelligence reporter for CNN, and has previously hosted a corporate blog dealing with national security issues. In 2014, covering the Aspen Security Forum, she was one of the first to publish official criticism of Edward Snowden's recent "criminal" divulging of highly classified NSA documents -- made possible, a security wonk at her site whinged, by the use of a single Sharepoint server and giving Snowden administrator rights to it (what could go wrong with this arrangement?). This is the kind of crazy doh-oh moment that happens in the Apparatus (the place where tools convene) all the time -- that's why no one can do an audit of the goddamned thing. 'Failure of imagination,' they call it, time and time again -- you know, like they called the 9/11 intelligence fiasco. Like mean girls not talking to each other, the FBI and NSA didn't share intel gossip, they said. (Remember the hoot they had when someone told them of the potential blowback should they actually drop a Gay Bomb on the battlefield, and the pink wind should change suddenly? Doh-oh. The 2007 Ig Nobel Committee loved it.)

Kelly is also the author of the bestseller, Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War (HarperCollins, 2009) -- the kind of war work that a young Dylan used to spit on, but, says Kelly, which the Army War College currently uses in its Advanced Strategic Art program (and, I hope, along with The Pentagon Papers and the film Dr. Strangelove, which Daniel Ellsberg, in his must-read 2017 book, The Doomsday Machine, referred to as "a documentary.") Full disclosure: I haven't read Kelly's book on the Prince of Darkness, but you'd be advised to balance her account out with Jeremy Scahill's Polk award-winning Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books, 2007).

It was the second time I'd listened to a TCB webinar, as a subscriber, the first being last year when TCB had Kevin Mandia (of Mandiant and FireEye) on, along with "sit-in" ex-NSA head Michael Hayden, to discuss "Cyber Lessons in the Year of Covid," a fireside chat that cooled the cockles of my warm, warm heart. Mandia, who started out in cybersecurity with George Kurtz, now CEO of rival CrowdStrike, was tainted by a pirated software scandal at their company Foundstone. How hilarious to know that they are now both out to protect Fortune 500 company assets. More cockle-warming. But, on the webinar, Kev was served up softballs, and my proffered question about the CrowdStrike-Mandiant, one-two, "investigation" of the 2016 DNC "hack" never got raised. In fact, only one 'journo question' was answered. (Here's my piece on the Mandiant-CrowdStrike-FBI nexus, and more.)

So, there I am, a "Lefty" listening in to these Righty tootings -- not that it makes a whole lot of difference any more, since we're at that Americana end place in Animal Farm when none of the farm's animals, looking in at the meeting of minds between Mr. Jones and Napoleon, can tell one from the other anymore.

What I couldn't help but notice was how highly structured the program is. It's an hour long. Professionally produced. No doubt guests worked with Kelly on producing quippy answers to questions they'd been given ahead of time, along with time assignments. There was no spontaneity, no surprises from the guests. We Lefties goes off on tangents, and suddenly go, Sh*t, we've run out of time. Where does it go? The Right is scripted; they've been pulling the same thing for years; it obviously works. The Right is full-of-sh*t, hold it all in squeezy-rigid, and need nothing so much as a good barium enema, which they self-administer once a while, resulting in shock and awe in a ceramic realm somewhere, revolution to the Right or Left, depending on the hemisphere they flush in. The Left, on the other hand, likes to rant and rave because all they gots is words and jazz.

Well, anyway, Lockheed Martin's Gallagher started off the program, not saying much of anything really. I'd like to describe his spiel as being akin to the first concert I ever went to -- with Iggy Pop opening for Led Zeppelin at Boston Garden, bikers beating the snot out of coppers in a drug-laced environment that counts as a pleasant childhood trauma, for a change -- but Gallagher ain't no Iggy Pop, and, sad to say, when the "prolific writer" Admiral Stavridis came on, he climbed no stairways to heaven in my heart. They're too stiff, the Right. They dance with their shoulders. All the time you're thinking as you watch, Reservoir Dogs, and I often feel stuck in the middle with the Left and Right these days. But Gallagher did say,

...transition climate security risks are amplifiers that exacerbate other risks. Examples include the geopolitics of reduced hydrocarbon revenue or green economy, critical mineral supplies. To respond to these interdependent risks, adaptable and resilient solutions are required.

Translated: We're still trying to figure out how we can make the usual buck off Climate Change.

Admiral James Stavridis. (Applause Track.) Says nothing about the Carlyle Group. But I wondered what he was up to there. Because I'm a Lefty. Or maybe not. Who knows? Who gives a thit? More preening words were expended on his years as dean at the Tufts University Fletcher School, which made me think of Tufts recent disavowal of the Sandler Oxycontin family gifts, and Dylan's kid who went there, and how I turned back a full scholarship there. And the Tufts campus is just down the proverbial road from Recorded Future, in Somerville, former home of the Winter Hill gang and a cinema where I saw Eraserhead on the large screen, the CIA-startup early warning system that recently castigated Edward Snowden, saying his leaks may have cost lives. Glenn Greenwald replying, Nuh-uh.

But what Admiral Stavridis did bring to the table for discussion was a watered-down version of the General Milley Army War College Report on the Effects of Climate Change, which I reviewed recently for these very pages. An exclusive. The Report was speaking for the military (Milley was chairman of the joint chief-of-staff under Trump when he commissioned the Climate report). To save time, Stavridis kept his remarks centered on the Navy. And himself. The Army Report mentioned several key areas of concern for the military as it helps "mitigate" climate change in the years ahead. Kelly begins her interview with the I'm-not-that-innocent, eye-fluttering question, "Is there really a connection between climate and US National security?" What the f*ck's the "really" for?

But before he's willing to answer that manly Question in anything resembling detail, he product-places his new book, a no-nonsense novel titled, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. There's some cheery news, wot? Apparently though it's not the end to everything we've ever cherished just yet. No, the Admiral takes the time to thrill would-be readers of his imagined Apocalypse to come that the book is the first of a trilogy, with 2054 and 2074 ahead. Nurse Ratchet with hope pills. Line up.

He tells us that 2034 deals with our coming war with China. He says, "I think tension with China is very obvious." This comes at me like blatant opportunism -- sell a China war as we continue to sword-swagger, accuse them of Pearl Harbor-like cyber mischief, and fear that they may cash in their chips on our economy -- and end our Way of Life. If the Russians gave us Trump (we claim), as payback for giving them Yeltsin (I claim), who's to say that the Chinese didn't give us oxycontin to pay us back for the Opium Wars (special envoy John Forbes Kerry's forebears were pushers in the Wars -- the real Swift Boat ), and, Hell, if there's any truth to the trans-Bering crossing of Paleo-Indians, maybe the Chinese will end up coming at America as if it were Taiwan. Break away republic, my dumpling ass.

Continuing with his novels-to-come, Stavs tells us that 2054 deals with "cyber quantum computing [and] artificial intelligence" and "moves the surviving characters and the plot lines into the middle of the century." Then in 2074, Stavridis tells Kelly "that's when the climate comes home to roost, if you will." What if you won't? (Can an HBO series be far behind?) Of course, these are all fictions, oceanic thoughts that keep the good, deep Admiral up at night -- along with his ghost writer, Elliot Ackerman. I dunno. Ghost writing for a novel? I had a hard enough time coming to terms with the alcoholic adventures of Hunter Biden's ghost-written memoir, Beautiful Things. Unh-huh. (See my sour review.) Both Biden's and the Admiral's co-production efforts seem like yet more evidence that the Left and their wordsmiths have been co-opted. Hmph.

While that's all sinking in, the Admiral lays out four main problems we face as a species and must address immediately, kinda. He preps our moral compass by telling us,

there's a human tendency to say, you know, I've got all these immediate problems around me. I'll just wait and kind of solve that one when I get there in 2074. But problem from hell, when you get there, it's too late.

Or, as he says later, "There is no Planet B." He's a regular chuckle festival with that strategic military wit. So, he says we need to deal first with Climate Change which "is conducive to massive storms and fires"[which] creates lost opportunity costs for our servicemen and women who often end up fighting these things." Number Two worry is the Arctic region and its meltdown, which is

going to open up much more significant geopolitical competition in an area of the world where we've avoided wars. If we open, if you will, a new front in human conflict, pretty massive one being impacted by climate.

Well, the warriors among us wouldn't want to miss out on a real life version of Ice Station Zebra, although Rock Hudson would need to be replaced by, I dunno, let's go with Duane "The Rock" Johnson. Pity the Russkie who fucks with him.

The Admiral's third concern is drought. No water, no crops. No crops, we drops. That means for the Yanquis that South-Central Americans will be moving on up to the East Side for some Jefferson. And shoring up "the four horsemen of the climate apocalypse" is the ocean. Then he snarks gratuitously at Al Gore, who, I snark first, couldn't even win his own home state during the 2000 presidential election (maybe Florida wasn't the problem), and he goes,

...with all due respect to Al Gore, who likes to say the Amazon is the lungs of the Earth. I don't think so. The lungs of the earth are the oceans in the sense that 60, 70 percent of the oxygen we're breathing comes from photosynthesis in the sea. So as all the climate change affects chemistry, above all temperature as well as the impact of rising sea levels, all of that bundle under the oceans, Suzanne, those are four, I think, pretty obvious, increasingly dangerous trends that have my full attention as someone who thinks a lot about national security.

But she doesn't follow up with: Where does the Carlyle Group fit into this, sir?

As in the Milley Report, the military has concerns that the requirements of Climate Change "mitigation" will pull the Pentagon away from its primary mission of national security. The Admiral adds that "at the end of the day, National Guard, Navy ships, all of them are pulled into this. What happens to their [war] training cycle when it's interrupted so that they can go off correctly and respond to these disasters?" Somehow, he adds, such training for war and national security will have to be made up. In short, if we bring the troops home and stop their operations from polluting the Earth, how do we keep our ginormous budget intact?

It's not long before Stavridis gets back to his favorite subject -- ice, and the opportunities of breaking some in the Arctic presents. The American military has plenty of ballbusters, but lags and sags when it comes to practical solutions in the ice cube region. Single malt full steam ahead. He moves the busted ball forward by saying,

We need more intelligence [of what the Russians are up to in the Arctic]... And as you know, Suzanne, one of our failings [in the past have been] not paying attention. And that manifests in lack of icebreakers.

(If we'd only had icebreakers on 9/11.) He adds, "China has 16 significant icebreakers. They very much see themselves as an Arctic nation." China again. A real threat or more hype for his book 2034? The Russians we know are there. I recall Daniel Ellsberg's revelation that the US military has a nuke-China-too policy, in case of a war with Russia, and wonder if it applies the other way, too. If we nuke the Chinese, do we nuke the Russians? Probably. You know, to be on the safe side.

This all reminds me of the serious enthusiasm that General Milley displayed in the War College Report on the effects of climate change -- the silver lining that melting in El Mucho Norte will reveal. In a way, both Milley and Stavridis echo Trump in their enthusiastic embrace of "fabulous" new real estate opportunities opening up, as the world falls apart. Think fiddling Nero in love. Suddenly, the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie makes its unexpected entry into the conversation. The Admiral goes,

I'll point out there are going to be losers in the world of climate change as follows. Arable land will move north. I mean, there will be potentially huge swaths of the planet that become arable land. The problem is going to be down on the equator, which is highly populated. If those go away because of extreme temperatures, all the winegrowing businesses in north Canada are not going to salvage what comes out of the disaster at the equator.

Winegrowing? Am I hallucinating? Will we open up a new ice wine region? Really white zinfandel? Is this when we give California back to the Mexicans, scorched earth policy thrown in for free, the next border immigrant crisis up at the Canadian border. Trudeau turning Vancouver into a pogrom? More bad hombre Latinos skating for the Canucks, Stanley Cup in their eyes?

The Admiral moons over the oceans, and it's reflected in his words, and the book he wrote about them. He goes,

...what I really worry about...the end game outcome here would be a fundamental change in the chemistry and temperatures of the ocean that reduces the ability of the production of oxygen, which is 60, 70 percent. You get different numbers...by photosynthesis in the sea. And I talk a lot about this in [my book,] Seapower: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans. [Available at Amazon, the lungs of online commerce.] It's also influenced, by the way, with toxic dumping. There's a plastic field that [is the] size of the state of Texas -- I'm not making this up -- in the Central Pacific. All of that affects fisheries, affects livelihood. But again, the apocalyptic threat here would be something that dramatically impacted photosynthesis.

Umm, we need to keep in mind that green stuff. US capitalism's a kind of photosynthesis, say the neolibs. If it were up to them, money would grow on trees. Hide the CRISPRs, kids.

Finally, Kelly gets around to servicing listener questions. I perk up, with eternal hope again sprung in my Lefty heart. She says, "Let me get to a couple of questions here from other folks...and Brian actually has a question for you first and [as he's] sitting closest to me, he gets priority. Sorry, everyone, we'll get to yours as well." Isn't Brian parqt of the production team? , And, he's not in view; maybe he was under the table looking for Sharon Stone. (We gave the Russkies p*ssy Riot, and they'll give us p*ssy Apocalypse, if things go according to Bizarro Hoyle.) She goes,

As the US shifts more military and national capacity to electric and away from fossil fuels. Do you believe the adversary's military strategists are thinking differently about defeating the US capabilities? I love this question because it plays a lot into your book.

F*ck his book. And, no, just as with Mandia, my question for the Admiral never came up and was never answered. What, am I a potted plant? In fact, only Brian's question got answered; the entire press squad had to just cool their heels, letting the Right know what we were concerned with. Won't get fooled again, my ass.

The Admiral responds by referencng the ex-NSA chief, for some reason: "General Clapper has said correctly that 9/11 was not only a failure of intelligence, it was a failure of imagination. We weren't able to imagine where we were headed." Clapper Trapper lied before Congress though, and did it like a chimpanzee, rubbing his bald spot. I mean, if there was ever a guy, next to Brennan, who I'd expect to have less on-board imagination, it's James Clapper. And not exactly original either. The next thing you know the Admiral is talking smack about the wonderfulness of Googleheads. He goes, everyone should read "The excellent national security report on artificial intelligence by Eric Schmidt and Bob Work." (Here it is, read it, all 600 plus pages.) Then we segue into the need for lithium (and, you know, I'm thinking a couple of these guys, you can't argue against their need for some) because the quantum and AI and...and...and...Then suddenly, like a freight train:

...news flash, there are going to be additional pandemics.

Suddenly, I'm seeing rolling waves of pearlharbors ahead; I sit up, then sit down, like the tide going in and out.

Then comes the upper cut and far right cross. To solve problems, the Admiral reckons we need the know-how, the do-how of those crazy lateral thinking killing machines known as the Red Cells. He goes, "I'm a big fan of red cells, red teaming, CIA Red Cell is just a national treasure, unity, iconoclastic contrarian thinkers who will take you to the far end of where this goes, both good and bad." Iconoclastic contrarian thinkers? f*ck, was Abbie a Red Cell? Revolution For the Hell of It suddenly has new meaning. Yeah, but the Red Cells, AKA, Seal Team 6 types? Put together out of the ashes of 9/11? Them? Set up, we're told -- hold me down -- to run what are essentially false flag operations? That's all I could handle. Unravelling begins for me with these kinds of references.

The Milley Report closed with the government owning up to cloudseeding to change the climate, and, what's more, declared that we're actually in a war of climate-f*cking by way of cloudseeding. Could those chemtrails stories be true? This webinar closes similarly. Reference is made to the "presence" of another ex-military wonk, Director Robert Cardillo, the former director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, who took over for James Clapper. He's brought in to reference "spectral imagery" of the planet. Milley's report suggested the need for a dominant space presence to keep track of adversary nations engaging in cloudseeding to f*ck with the weather; Stavridis sees the need for space patrols to keep tabs on hot spots. UAPs, huh?

Milley came to the conclusion that we are pretty much doomed if we need to count on changes in the military to adapt to the requirements of Climate Change "mitigation." Stavridis draws similar conclusions, but has managed to find a ghostwriter to squeeze a 3-book deal from Penguin Books out of the impending end of the world.

Marvelous.

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For the brave, TCB has put the webinar up on YouTube.

(Article changed on Aug 04, 2021 at 5:04 PM EDT)

Authors Website: https://tantricdispositionmatrix.substack.com/

Authors Bio:

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.