Fires

Yet another mass shooting happened overnight near my sister’s home in Virginia. After the body counts, the gnashing of teeth, and the solemn looks of talking heads interviewing the survivors and grieving family members, the right-wingers will step in and victim blame. The Alex Jones(s), Marjorie Taylor Greene(s), and Lauren...

More
  • November 23, 2022

“No, no. There's 52 senators who don't agree, okay, and there's two that want to work something out if possible in a most rational reasonable way.” Joe Manchin fessing up that he and Sinema are Republicans to CNN reporter. Manchin Cheerfully Gives Republicans A Senate Majority (video in link) West Virginia is...

More
  • October 19, 2021

Civilized societies dictate that every opinion counts: but is that true? Put another way, yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion but the real question is; should every opinion count? Oh sure, there is value in hearing everyone out, but what happens once that opinion is given is what separates...

More
  • September 1, 2021

Donald Trump, the man with gold-plated bathroom fixtures and a 10,000 dollar portrait of himself bought with money donated to his corrupt and now-defunct charity, thinks that the 1.7 million [tax-free] dollars paid to his CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were a fringe benefit, or just Trump change. Anyone still buying into...

More
  • July 2, 2021

A couple of days ago, alleged congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene sent a letter to Joe Biden. I read it; you don’t have to. Unless you read at a third-grade level or worse, it might be hard for you to follow. It essentially boils down to “Wuhan lab … Chinese-made virus...

More
  • June 6, 2021

While they were reading the verdict of Derek Chauvin, 16 year old Ma’Khia Bryant was being shot 4 times by Columbus, Ohio police. She died at the scene. The police had been called because an adult woman tried to fight Bryant.  (Updated) Warning: graphic videos: The Columbus Dispatch reported that police officers were sent...

More
  • April 21, 2021
  • 1

Darn those class commitments, aligning us to our political choices in a democracy, made worse by all those folks who knew they were in that Gilded Age. “If the future of the Democratic Party is in the rich suburbs, the future of American politics is another long Gilded Age.” Matt...

More
  • February 28, 2021

Rush Limbaugh was more of a conservative index and perhaps a reactionary icon. He claimed whenever cornered with a political lie that he was an entertainer rather than any credible media source. “Rush Rooms”  everywhere should be festooned with black crepe. x Trump Plaza in Atlantic City has been demolished,...

More
  • February 17, 2021

“Democracy is not self-executing.” Trump manufactured numerous technicalities to make a long-shot work, and failed. He tried to fabricate a state of martial law via an inside job, as the Trump Defense Secretary disarmed DC National Guard prior to the 6 January insurrection. Fortunately the proto-fascists in the mob were far...

More
  • February 6, 2021

“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” ~ Aristotle It is a fact that the biggest threat to our species is not climate change, though it will likely end much of what we experience today, but rather our war on bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is under attack from...

More
  • February 6, 2021

I keep vigil. Last summer, record-breaking wildfires in Siberia, “in and around the Arctic circle,” continue to smolder and burn; the fuel feeding the fires is peat, decomposing organic matter that has been stored in the earth for millenniums. According to NASA estimates, at least half of wildfires burned in Siberia in the...

More
  • January 29, 2021

When California’s deadly and worst wildfire struck the state of California, intense drought provided the fuel necessary when a PG&E Pacific Gas and Electricity sparked the catastrophe. California has a Mediterranean climate, which is particularly vulnerable to our climate crisis. That explanation was too much for the simple-minded QAnon nutballs. To...

More
  • January 28, 2021

When California’s deadly and worst wildfire struck the state of California, intense drought provided the fuel necessary when a PG&E Pacific Gas and Electricity sparked the catastrophe. California has a Mediterranean climate, which is particularly vulnerable to our climate crisis. That explanation was too much for the simple-minded QAnon nutballs. To...

More
  • January 28, 2021

The Rand corporation think-tank reports that there are bipartisan efforts to set up a 1/6 commission, but the reality is that there’s still so much fact-finding and discovery ahead. Trump mob actions go back far but gained importance in events like Trump’s trips to Arizona and Oklahoma, where armed elements chose...

More
  • January 27, 2021

As with most faculty politics, there is a subtext to the story of a professor fired for specious reasons. Garrett Felber was fired for failing to “communicate face-to-face” with his department chair at University of MIssissippi, even as he was outspoken about a variety of university actions after the selection of...

More
  • December 22, 2020

I am sure others have put this together, but I think it is something that needs to be out there. Two things are happening simultaneously.  The United States is suffering its worst cyber attack, possibly in history. Trump and his minions are raising the temperature on a military coup.  Even...

More
  • December 19, 2020

COVID-19 patients in American hospitals has surpassed 100,000 for the first time as supply networks will be attacked by gangsters hijacking supplies, and there will inevitably be the problems of guaranteed purity and authenticity. Distribution will get compromised and regulation will be stressed. CNN: The United States reported at least...

More
  • December 3, 2020

“Until now, Donald Trump served as a support for the Brazilian president to act irresponsibly. Now with the U.S. adding to Europe’s pressure, Brazil is more isolated, and the government will find it harder to stay on this foolish path.” Alessandro Molon, the opposition Brazilian Socialist Party  The Amazon is half...

More
  • December 2, 2020

Trump doesn’t care whether he loses his security deposit. He just wants the chaos of dying meat processors, conspiracy-driven ICU trespassers, and a quarter-million dead Americans from COVID-19. And in foreign policy, Trump’s inviting skunk, gophers, and groundhogs into the crawlspaces before moving out.  Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's order...

More
  • November 19, 2020

CISA director Chris Krebs learned he was fired by reading Trump’s tweet. Trump and the bunker path of scorched earth could end in Trump fleeing Berlin and driving a scooter into a lake. “Like a drowning man, he grabs on to whatever false accusation he can as a lifeline.” x...

More
  • November 18, 2020

The Greater Glider, one of many marsupials that evolved in Australia, is three species and not one as had been previously thought. The findings from a new study mean that the population of each species is smaller than thought. The species is not a new mammal discovery by humans; we've known about...

More
  • November 11, 2020

Trump has just fired Esper. By tweet, of course. x I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020 x …Chris...

More
  • November 9, 2020

Jo Biden had offered 20 billion to preserve the Amazon. It was ridiculed denied by the Trump of the Tropics, Jair Bolsonaro. Perhaps a similar offer to the nations involved in Africa would be a rational response and likely considered. It’s worth a try. I highly suspect this diary will...

More
  • November 3, 2020

Trump really thinks like a mafia don, granting and withholding favors (and sometimes killing people) according to his whim and needs. He that the government is his personal business, that he can dole out taxpayer money to his friends and withhold essential services from his enemies as though he were...

More
  • October 28, 2020

The hope for a post-Trump era will bring with it already growing challenges to democracy. Along with $3 for a glass of water. x Pres. Obama campaigning for @JoeBiden: “If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this...

More
  • October 27, 2020

Trump administration rejects California's disaster assistance request for wildfires I’m just going to cut and paste a couple of ‘graphs and go hide under the covers. (CNN)The Trump administration has rejected California's request for a disaster declaration for six destructive wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres across the...

More
  • October 16, 2020

Will Trumpian domestic terror’s “strategy of tension” for the next decade ultimately be predicated upon the little tiny fishes, or the strawberries, or the tow target. “California is gonna have to ration water. You wanna know why? Because they send millions of gallons of water out to sea, out to...

More
  • October 12, 2020

The highest free-standing mountain on earth is on fire—Mount Kilimanjaro (elevation 19,341above sea level) located in Tanzania.  Africa's tallest peak consists of three dormant volcanic cones – Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. Wildfires have been increasing in number and intensity across the entire planet. This fire is especially cruel as wildlife may not flee in...

More
  • October 12, 2020

There’s better news for 2020 because the Dornsife poll had predicted the approaching bad news for Clinton in the 2016 election, however accidentally. Biden is in much better shape with three weeks left. But there will be disinformation as the GOP gets desperate. For example, it can be hazardous to draw broad conclusions...

More
  • October 12, 2020

Yale Environment 360 notes  “just as global warming has propelled the Arctic Ocean past a tipping point which will lead to a largely ice-free Arctic in summer in the coming decades. Wildfire scientists say that rising global temperatures and worsening droughts mean that the world has entered a new era...

More
  • September 29, 2020

Fuck him: Loren Culp, the Republican nominee running to unseat Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), is pushing a conspiracy theory that many of the wildfires raging in the Pacific Northwest are the result of a coordinated arson campaign. In a 13-minute campaign video posted to Culp’s YouTube late Wednesday, the...

More
  • September 18, 2020

Oh boy: Political clashes about the role of climate change in catastrophic West Coast infernos are spilling into a U.S. Senate race in New Mexico, where a Republican meteorologist is campaigning for an open seat. U.S. Rep. and Democratic Senate nominee Ben Ray Luján accused rival Mark Ronchetti on Monday...

More
  • September 17, 2020

So many contradictions, so little time, as non-socially distanced followers are kept away from Trump by a thin white line. x What about everyone else? https://t.co/XExDwnbqOO — Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) September 14, 2020 x Notice the big empty space on the right? That's where @realDonaldTrump “works” the ropeline. The...

More
  • September 15, 2020

The climate arsonist is now in California, on a hastily scheduled addition to his campaign trip and repeated his nonsense from the last time he was there, touting Finland’s approach to forest floor management. And Trump later claimed that the climate will get cooler. (Probably after the nuclear winter) Trump...

More
  • September 14, 2020

‘Mother Earth is angry’. Speaker Nancy Pelosi Earth’s most extensive tropical wetland engulfed in a wildfire since the beginning of January. Still, recently the fires have accelerated due to climate change and human stupidity and greed. Plantlife and iconic wildlife are paying a devastating price in this human-made ecological calamity....

More
  • September 11, 2020

I live in Oregon. My state is burning. People are losing their homes and being forced to evacuate. I’m choking on smoke and God knows what else. Where is Donald Trump? Oh, that’s right. I live in a blue state. Never mind. So in case you’ve never checked out the...

More
  • September 10, 2020

“What is Moria? It is where Europe’s ideals—solidarity, human rights, a safe haven for victims of war and violence—dissolve in a tangle of bureaucracy, indifference, and lack of political will. It is the normalization of a humanitarian crisis. It is the moral failure of Europe”. Rachel Donadio Over twelve thousand...

More
  • September 9, 2020

“What is Moria? It is where Europe’s ideals—solidarity, human rights, a safe haven for victims of war and violence—dissolve in a tangle of bureaucracy, indifference, and lack of political will. It is the normalization of a humanitarian crisis. It is the moral failure of Europe”. Rachel Donadio Over twelve thousand...

More
  • September 9, 2020

Like the fantasy airline flights filled with numerous thugs, the delusional election stunts continue. The riff here is on “autonomous zones”. x This is the latest attempt to distract from the fact that COVID-19 has infected over 6 million Americans, killed 185,000 people, and destroyed the American economy. The only anarchy...

More
  • September 3, 2020

“Coming from out of town to drive through crowds of people, spraying mace, and shooting paintballs all falls under “self defense.” Interesting. So if BLM travels to the suburbs and does the same, you would defend it as well?” Or more stupidly, is Trump condoning their use by non-LEOs when he...

More
  • September 1, 2020

Blake is currently paralyzed from the waist down having been shot seven times by police.  x BREAKING: Jacob Blake, a Black man shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is paralyzed from the waist down, his father tells the Chicago @Suntimes. Doctors don't know if the paralysis will be permanent. https://t.co/pCiKvzTK2Z— The...

More
  • August 25, 2020

Climate change denier Donald Trump has been credibly accused by his former DHS Chief of Staff (Miles Taylor) of ordering FEMA to withhold funds for California climate change victims during the aftermath of devasting wildfires in 2018. The personification of cruelty, Trump reiterated the same threat to the state of...

More
  • August 22, 2020

William Barr’s opening statement has been released and apparently anarchists abound as the Mueller report signaled a “bogus Russiagate scandal”. Hopefully House questioners will ask Barr why sending DHS “contractors” to cities isn’t the kind of provocation where gaslight gets thrown on a fire.  x YouTube Video x In an opening...

More
  • July 28, 2020

So much Tom “Lando” Cotton secession in a three block area of Portland, even smaller than Seattle’s CHAZ/CHOP neighborhood. Defenders of the Portland operation point to the unrest — vandalism and fires targeting the federal courthouse — as evidence of the need for federal intervention. The government has the authority...

More
  • July 25, 2020

Trump's protection squads may deploy drones in Portland, as he aches for another Minneapolis or DC. Feds control airspace over Portland to minimize news coverage and facilitate drones, as street confrontations continue against a background of DHS attempts to make the suburbs scared of manufactured urban conflict. These actions, like the...

More
  • July 18, 2020

Most of us have been experiencing warm to hot temperatures. It doesn’t appear that the misery will go away any time soon. There is a lot of news lately on our warming planet. I shared a few articles on the subject, but they barely scratch the surface of what is...

More
  • July 10, 2020

“We have to be aware that climate change and biodiversity loss are stress factors for ecosystems, for humans, for animals, and for the microbiome. Our research shows that if the different axes of the disease pyramid are destabilized, new infectious diseases can be expected, including for humans.” Dirk Schmeller, Université de...

More
  • June 30, 2020

Even if a small fraction of the Arctic seafloor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we’re fucked. Climatologist Jason Box, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland We all have our hands full at the moment, with multiple catastrophes occurring at once. Before scrolling past the headline of this diary, I implore...

More
  • June 21, 2020

Even if a small fraction of the Arctic seafloor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we’re fucked. Climatologist Jason Box, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland We all have our hands full at the moment, with multiple catastrophes occurring at once. Before scrolling past the headline of this diary, I implore...

More
  • June 21, 2020