Critical thinking on the topic of "Chemtrails"

Having served in the military and been very close to the air craft that produce contrails and even have jumped out of them and seen the contrails I can tell you that they are indeed water vapor. The science on contrails is well known. There is an impact on climate as it changes the amount of heat escaping the atmosphere back down to the Earth but these are not crop dusters spraying the Earth.  Contrail refers to the condensation of water. Condensation Trails -> ConTrails
First I'll go into the science on contrails then I'll go into just some evidence against "chemtrails".

There are 2 different processes that is going on here, for the formation of contrails.  The first one involves exhaust from the engine. Burning fossil fuel produces water vapor and carbon dioxide.  The water vapor alone doesn't produce the contrails.  It is a combination of factors.  The water vapor introduced into the atmosphere increases the humidity past its saturation point.  The exhaust provides particulate matter for the water vapor to condense around and at high altitudes these water drops freeze.  Depending on the conditions this can occur very close to engines or a bit away.  The reason they don't just "dissipate", "evaporate", "disperse" is the same reason clouds don't because that is what these are, clouds.

The second, and more minor cause is differentials in pressure.  This type also is more visible at lower altitudes and can even be observed on even small aircraft.  The vortex from points on the plane like wing tips, tail and propellers cause these types of contrails. These contrails will last as long as the exhaust contrails but depend on slightly different atmospheric conditions to form.  I've seen these trails form during take off but like the contrails from the exhaust they tend to disappear faster because the atmosphere near the ground is very different then high altitudes.

OK, that is a very basic and quick run down on contrails.  Is there an impact on the environment? Yes, It amounts to an estimated 120KW of energy retained per square kilometer.  If anyone is interested in the climate change science I can point you to the peer reviewed papers on the science.

Now for the evidences of a conspiracy of global chemical spraying.
1) You'd have to involve to many people to keep it so secret.  All those chemicals would have to be manufactured, transported, and loaded on to the planes.  At every point you are talking about countless people needing to be involved yet no credible evidence has ever come to light involving "chemtrails"
2) All these planes would have to have a storage and dispersal system installed which wouldn't be hard to see. If you believe that extra chemicals, to make you sick, are in the fuel then you don't know the testing that goes on with fuel. Don't be insulted most people don't. I've had extensive bulk fuel training while in the USMC.  Not like it is a course given to every person in high school.  Typically diethylene glycol monoethyl ether is the antifreeze used with very pure kerosene to produce jet fuel.  You really don't want the fuel lines in your 777 freezing up at cruising altitude.  The name might even sound very scary but so does dihydrogen monoxide and I bet you have no problem with that.  Is the antifreeze safe to drink, of course not.  It is a chemical compound that should not be ingested.  Go here to read all about the chemical information on it.
3) If they where trying to disperse a chemical do you think they would do it in a manner which stays condensed in a very local region high in the atmosphere?
4) While I support peoples home grown veggies how does this help against a supposed atmospheric chemical spraying program?  Again if some world organisation wanted to contaminate your food and water then there are a lot more efficient ways to go about it then spraying chemicals into the high altitude where those same chemicals are more likely to be broken down by natural conditions long before they reach the surface.

Finally saying Bill Gates admits to some "chemtrail" conspiracy is easy.  I can say Santa told me that aliens control us with radio waves and I should wear a tin foil hat.  Don't be insulted by the analogy.  I'm just pointing out that there seems to be as much evidence of Bill Gates saying any such thing as Santa.  It is very easy for us to hear someone say "Bill Gates said [x]" and believe it without ever hearing Bill Gates actually saying it but being convinced he has. It is also very easy for us to hear someone give some talk.  Hear/ see something else and think we heard the first person say something they didn't.  It is very common.  They human mind is very good at inventing memories that didn't actually happen.  So if someone like me asks for your source please don't get offended.  If you want to know the source(s) to any of my statements I'm happy to provide it. Some might be my personal experience but I'll never tell you that I heard from person [x] that person [y] said something in the scientific arena. I've read the "article" about chemtrails and Bill Gates involvement with geo-engineering.  It provides a very distorted take on the facts. Even while citing the information they've clearly distorted the information from the source which it self is only a blog post and not one supporting the idea of chemtrails at all. It is just this type of misinformation that makes me want to throw out the entire article.  The fact that the "global research" web site is host to tons of conspiracy articles like the twin towers on 9/11 were not taken down by the air craft hitting them but the government having them rigged with explosive lends even more evidence that this sight isn't a good source despite how professional it looks.  Some articles, like the one Ali linked to, are sourced well but following the sources there is extreme quote mining going on at best and out right distortion of the source material at worst.

Critical thinking is the clear rational and open minded investigation of topics that results in conclusions informed by evidence.  The evidence does not support a world wide conspiracy to spray chemicals into our atmosphere using air crafts of all types involving what would probably need millions of people all around the world to pull off.  Contrails science is pretty straight forward.  Is our atmosphere polluted?  Yes and we should stop that.  The biggest causes are burning of fossil fuels and chemical by products.  We should have better environmental regulation but while you're focused on contrails of aircraft, which should be addressed too, what are the corporations around you doing to the environment.  Not to make you sick but just because they want more profits and don't care about messing up the environment if they can get away with it.

If anyone is really interested I could be convinced to write up a longer blog post on this with references.
Or you could believe that I'm part of the conspiracy.

Do you really want change in the government?

With the US Congress's approval rating approaching single digits it would be easy to think that Americans are ready for change.  Sadly many Americans just don't give a shit.  31% of Americans it seems and that is 31% that admit it.  Forget about the 31% the say they support the GOP and 37% that say they support the Democrats but really don't give a shit.  We just finished having primaries for house and senate members and even though 67% of people poles said they want their representative voted out 45% of people when faced with a change said they approved of what their representative was doing.  So Congress's approval rating is 11%, 67% of people said they want their representative voted out but then when faced with a change 45% said they actually approve of their representatives.  If you made it past 1st grade maths you should see those numbers don't add up.  Note they aren't from different poles.

So what does this mean?  It means people are afraid of change.  Especially change that they control.  Most people would rather sit back and do nothing then go forward and cause a change to the system even when they admit the system is fully broken.

These mid term elections often receive less then 40% turn out of eligible voters and numbers show that even though more people say they would support democrats (37%) over republicans (31%) the truth is that among likely voters the numbers are about 50/50.

The issue here is Americans are getting lazy with our involvement in government.  We like to say that we support this or that political view.  We'll share face book posts like crazy but when it comes to actually making an effort with our government it becomes just all to hard for most Americans.  This is a major reason the ultra rich have been so successful in taking away the rights of common citizens.  Today you are a second class citizen behind the rich.  The facts show that it doesn't matter what you and I want with regard to political decisions but if you are part of the top .1%, not even 1%, then the politicians almost always vote in your favor.  Corporations are now first class citizens that are above the law.  They are allowed to avoid paying taxes by shipping profits to countries like the Bahamas.  They are actually paid by our government in the form of subsidies, tax credits, interest and risk free loans and many other forms of corporate welfare to the tune of hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars a year even while making record profits.

Mean while many of those same corporations continually chip away at your rights as a citizen.  You don't need to be paid a living wage.  You don't need health care. Your vote shouldn't count as much as people richer then you.  You should not be allowed to sue them if they've done anything wrong to you.  They should not be held responsible for the actions taken by their executives.  They should be able to force their will on you and your property without any recourse by you.  They should be able to dictate what content and news you are allowed to view/ hear.

If you've made it this far congratulations for making it through another one of my posts on the growing inequality in our world.  Of the few that made it this far most of you will move on to sharing some useless post on face book and watching videos of kittens on YouTube and put this post out of your mind.  I hope I've actually caused at least 1 of you to actually think about the situation so that maybe just maybe down the line this might be just one of the things that eventually led you to actually care about the country you live in.  To not just say you love your country but to actually do something to fix your country.  I wish I could bet that you would but I'd loose that bet far more often then I'd win.  Sorry but my faith in you is not that great and I wish for you to prove me wrong.

If you want a place to start then go and see how you can help reclaim our government that is supposed to be of the people by the people and for the people. Not just for corporations and the rich that control them.  If it is just all to hard just donate $10 to help those that will make the real effort.

Get off your ass and really support our troops!

There seems to be a new controversy brewing with regard to the U.S. Department of Vetrans Affairs.  Unless you've been sleeping under a rock in the last few decades you would know about the crazy wait times veterans are having to go through to receive the medical care they rate and deserve.  It would be easy to point to Obama and say it is all his fault and he does hold some responsibility for the situation but here is this blog post I'll list some things you need to think about as you hopefully then go on to contact your federal representatives and tell them you do not accept our federal government sending our young men and women into multiple wars then when they come back decide that you don't want to fund a medical system that will fix what the wars have broken.

I already see members of the GOP complaining that the Obama administration is not taking care of our veterans but they seem to selectively forget that it is they who have repeated blocked attempts to provide more adequate funding for the VA.  Mitch McConnell filibustered a 21 billion dollar bill for the VA that had passed the procedural vote 99 to 0.  Then then turned around and complained about the very bill they said they wanted.  They actively fought against helping our veterans then quickly turned around and ram through a bill that exempts the coal mining industry from environmental regulations.  They named it "Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America".

Let me translate the title for you
"Preventing Government Waste" - Don't let the government regulate and test the environmental impact of coal mines to include water safety from chemicals used by the mines entering the water table.
"Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America" - The coal industry that is already making huge profits and allowed to pollute the environment on top of receiving billions in federal subsidies, tax credits and other corporate welfare benefits needs to cut production costs even more so that their share holders make more money.

So the GOP will filibustered a bill helping our veterans but will ram through a bill that allows an already profitable industry to fuck up our environment even more.

You might ask why the VA needs more money.  Don't we give the VA billions already?  Yes but the VA has been on a bad track since the 60s.  The fact that we've doubled the amount of veterans needing care from the 2 wars the Bush administration started didn't help.  Let me be clear here.  The GOP is a war mongering party that took every opportunity to engage in military action and funding a huge military industrial complex, a.k.a. corporations that profit greatly from said wars, then consistently says that the actual people that fight the wars need to tighten their belts because it cost to much to send them to war.  We'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year paying companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon and many otheres but can't even scrap together 3% of our military budget to handle the wounds we inflict on our soldiers by sending them to wars.

The GOP doesn't have a problem passing tax cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars a year for the rich.  Lets look at the Koch Brothers.  Each of them earn about $700,000 an hour.  That isn't 40 hours a week.  That is for every hour of every day of the year.  They save about over $100,000/hr directly from the Bush tax cuts. Even if they paid the top rate which they don't.  Each of them saves literally billions of dollars a year because of tax cuts.  They invest hundreds of millions into the GOP essentially buying politicians to ensure that the tax brakes for the rich keep coming, push for a removal of the minimum wage because paying someone $7.25/hr is creating a culture of dependency.  If you agree with him until I point out he wants to pay people even less.  What the fuck do you think will happen to a family that is already on minimum wage if they now only get 1/2 or 1/4th of their current income?  Who do you think will pick up the slack.   Note they, and the politicians they've bough, fought against bills to help returning vets with getting jobs and starting businesses. Tax cuts for the rich at the cost of fixing our broken vets seems to be one of the GOP's motives here.

You might say why do we need the VA?  Many people have an image of dirty hospitals can poor care when they think of VA centres but this is far from the truth.  When vets do eventually get the care from the VA they tend to be happier then those that are cared for by the civilian system.  The complaints about in patient care has dropped by over 20% in recent years.

While the GOP have been fighting against supporting the VA deal with over 883,000 claims in their system, more then double of 2009, they do things like try to force the Air Force to buy 42 new C-27Js when the Air Force says they don't want them, that they are already moving the some of the already purchased aircraft to the USAF storage facility in Arizona, you know the one..it is in tons of movies. Or how about the Army being force to buy dozens of new M1A1 tanks it doesn't even want.  They politicians will say it is to save jobs but the cost is stupid.  Take the C-27Js cost $53,000,000 each to buy.  The 42 aircraft will save 800 jobs at the Mansfield National Guard Base.  Who the fuck thinks that spending billions to save 800 jobs is a good idea?  I'll make a useless point and say that the air craft are produced by an Italian company but it doesn't matter.  Even if it was an "American" corporation the truth is that they are multi-national corporations that funnel most of their profits through places like the Bahamas to avoid paying taxes.  Here is what you do.  Don't spend that 2 billion dollars on aircraft that we don't need.  Don't give the money to a multinational corporation that pays almost nothing in taxes and funnel that into the VA's budget and you would have increased their capacity to take care of our vets by over 10%.
Lets just focus here BILLIONS on equipment we don't need just in these 2 cases but fuck our troops is the message that congress is send us.  This is because these corporations kick back part of their HUGE contracts into the campaign financing of politicians.  It is literally kick backs here just legal.  The politicians will call up these multi-national corporations and beg for often just tens of thousands of dollars in donations then when in office push through bills that earn these same corporations hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.

There is a bright note here with some conservatives.  Bill O'Reilly just did an interview with Carl Rove, the man that orgistrated and responsible for a war that cost over 4,000 American soldiers and well over 100,000 Iraq civilians their lives, and pointed out that during the Bush administration there was a 3 billion dollar shortfall with the VA's budget.  Bill O'Reilly then points out to Carl Rove that the VA gave the incoming Obama administration, in 2008, a report that said "that the problems and causes associated with scheduling, waiting times and wait lists are systemic throughout the VHA".  O'Reilly says "the problems existed on the day Bush left office".  Carl Rove just said "no no no" denying the facts.  This isn't a problem that happened under Obama's watch.  Sure it continued and got worse as we brought more and more troops back from those wars Carl Rove got Bush to start.  Obama couldn't just not bring back the troops and avoid the problem.  They've been trying to increase the VA's budget and bring its administration system up to date but the GOP keep blocking the funding.

It is all because multi-national corporations have huge lobby efforts with hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars to buy our politicians and our vets only have you and I supporting them.  How about do more then share a post saying you support our vets.  How about you get off your ass and call your federal politicians and tell them you want them to do right by our broken soldiers.  If soldiers are willing to put their lives on the line to protect your freedoms, even if it is because of lies by people like Carl Rove, then you can spend a bit of your time actually involving yourself with the governing of our country and actually support those that protect us.  Then after you tell your politicians that tell them you are supporting a constitutional convention to remove big money from politics and that the Wolf Pac is coming for them.

Go and see how you can help reclaim our government that is supposed to be of the people by the people and for the people not corporations.

Mitch McConnell, GOP Hypocrite Grand Wizard and Senate Minority Leader.

Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate is complaining that Alison Grimes who is running against him in Kentucky has received some funding from out of state, notably from some Hollywood people like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Ben Affleck, J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Danny DeVito, Jack Black, Jennifer Garner, Mike Myers, James Cameron, Jon Hamm and Nicolas Cage to name just a few.  She raise $250,000 from these people.  Now you can ask why they care if they aren't from Kentucky she is taking their money.  But then you'd have to realize that Mitch McConnell got about $16,000,000.00 from out of state.  That is 80% of the money he has raised.  So apparently  to the leading GOP Senator  raising $250,000 from individual citizens is worse then him raising $16,000,000.00 from bank executives that he does everything he can to keep them from getting in trouble when they break the law.
Who are you more worried about having an adverse influence on politicians.  Cameron Diaz or someone like Winfried Bischoff, CEO of Citigroup in 2008, who thought it was a good idea to use federal bail out money to give over $3,500,000,000.00 in bonuses to executives.  Bonuses ... to executives that played a major role in the banking collapse.
This is just one reason I say Fuck the GOP.  This is like Ted Bundy criticizing me for bumping into someone on the street.  As Jon Stuart says these GOP members just live on Bullshit mountain and not in the real world.
This old white man needs to be booted out of office.  I would love to see some new faces take their place.

How about this ... let us get fucking big money out of politics all together.  http://www.wolf-pac.com/ is an organisation not funding politicians but funding the fight to reclaim real citizens rights.  Almost all Americans agree that the federal government is being destroyed and control by corporate and big money donors.  We need 33 states to call for an amendments convention of the states.  We have 1 state down 32 to go.  Because corporations are not people.  Unfortunately they are treated better then people.  They don't get in trouble when they break the law like we do.  If I steal a few hundred dollars I'll be arrested and serve some time in jail.  If a national bank defrauds millions of Americans for hundreds of millions of dollars no one goes to jail and at worst they are hit with a fine of just a small portion of the money that they've stolen.

Go and see how you can help

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