I have a nurse coming this morning to help me set up services at home, so if this is late, that’s why. Tomorrow I have to go to TriMet to have my wheelchair measured, so expect only a Personal Update, and that late. Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos service is with the Raiders, and I get to see it. Wooo Hooo!!
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (Classic 10/2014):It’s been in the news. Now it has been confirmed. As of this past weekend, Raymond Leo Burke, America’s highest-ranking cardinal at the Vatican, was officially removed from the Vatican’s Supreme Court, and demoted to chaplain of the Knights of Malta, where he will reign with much less responsibility. The ultra-Conservative and anti-gay cardinal, continuously challenges the jurisdiction of Pope Francis, and the Catholic Church’s new receptive stance on homosexuality.
How ironic it is to find the demoted cardinal is from the United States. What does that say about America – that even the Catholic Church and a pope are ahead of so many anti-LGBT lawmakers and extremists in this country.
Weeks after taking office in 2013, Pope Francis asked, ‘Who am I to judge?’ speaking of the LGBT community.
Although I disagree with Francis on many issues, he is more willing to coexist than any other Pope has been.
From NY Times: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas surged to a 10-point lead in a new poll released Saturday of likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa, signaling that his campaign is gathering momentum and suggesting that a long nominating fight is ahead.
Donald J. Trump, who continues to lead most national polls, was second in the Iowa poll, with 21 percent naming him as their first choice, compared with Mr. Cruz’s 31 percent.
Ben Carson, after leading an October survey by the same pollster, commissioned by The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, tumbled to 13 percent, followed by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida at 10 percent.
If anyone could be worse than Hairball, it’s Uranus Inspector.
From Think Progress: In a literally world-changing deal that was almost unthinkable just a year ago, some two hundred leading nations unanimously embraced a plan that will leave most of the world’s fossil fuels unburned.
As part of a concerted effort to avoid catastrophic climate change, the world unanimously committed to an ongoing effort of increasingly deeper emissions reductions aimed at keeping total warming “to well below 2°C [3.6°F] above preindustrial levels.” The full text of this Paris Agreement goes even further, with the parties agreeing “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”
Already, global coal use appears to be plateauing, and global oil use will likely follow suit in the next decade as countries ratchet up their CO2 targets.
To get an idea of how challenging these negotiations have been, imagine trying to get a substantive agreement on any major topic in the U.S. Senate if the requirement for success were unanimity! Tragically, conservatives in Congress are doing everything that they can to undermine this deal, which is humanity’s best chance to avoid decades if not centuries of needless suffering for billions of people.
In my view, this plan does not go far enough, but I prefer it to nothing at all.
Cartoon:
7 Responses to “Open Thread–12/13/2015”
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Both of those commitments are very positive – be as late as you want or need. Ger the most out of them! I'm glad you get to attend worship communally. I wish you religious ecstasy.
DKos – John XXIII was darned good. He was so good, in fact, there has been speculation his death was hastened by cardinals who though he was a huge mistake. His and his successor's, John Paul I. Of course he was in the sixties, so his language was not always the way we would say things now. I vividly remember his statement about having been brought up to believe that only the truth had rights, but he now (then) sees (saw) that error also has rights. Today we would say something like, even though I was stictly brought up, I now see that everyone has a right to believe anything, whether I agree with them or not, and to be treated like a human being, regardless of anyting he or she may have done.
NY Times – None of those is what I would call a huge number. I still keep hoping that Trump will end up running as an independent and split the hate vote.
Think Progress – If this deal does not go through, there likely will not be centuries of suffering for billions, because billions will not survive for centuries. Although I suppose mutations would occur to keep alive some creatures who descend from what is now the human race. Unfortunate that adaptations necessary o survive climate change do not necessarily involve any intellectual or emotional improvements.
Cartoon – Yes. Indeed. A critical turning point in US political history.
As Popes go, on the whole, I"m liking this one … a LOT!
I agree that Cruz is worse than Trump. "The Donald" is all just bombastic, bloviating blather – but Cruz has an Agenda … and it ain't pretty!
One of the nice things about the "Paris Agreement" coming out of COP21 (besides causing Wingnut heads to ass-plode AND being way better than nothing) is that it's an Accord, not a Treaty – so it does NOT require Congressional imprimatur.
Of course that doesn’t mean they won’t do everything they can to prevent its implementation – just another reason to GOTV and switch the Senate from “R” back to “D” next year!
DK: I love Pope Francis, kudos to him for demoting this Cardinal.
NYTimes: They all make me ill.
Cartoon: A sad day indeed. Gore had won the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, but narrowly lost Florida, giving the Electoral College to Bush 271 to 266. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, took office on January 20, 2001. We know how that went, don't we??
Hope your day goes well, take all the time you need. And then some. Take care, enjoy your day/evening, and Thanks, Tom.
Daily Kos: Demotion of a Cardinal. A bit unusual but it had to be done in order to follow Pope Francis teachings and spiritual edicts and decrees.
Hierarchy Of Catholic Church Cardinal is but one step away from nomination to ascendency to Pope.
TC: You will do what needs to be done not only for your health but for your safety.
NY Times: What are the people in Iowa smoking these days? GMO corn? They are putting the Uranus Inspector, Ted Cruz, ahead of Donald "Hairball" Trump by 10 points. Since Iowa is a conservative state, it does no good to follow its polls on all candidates. Polls are designed to influence certain outcomes based on the types of questions asked to the respondents. No one should put much faith nor credence in any poll. Carson is out and soon.
Think Progress: I still do not think the Paris Agreement did much to help alleviate global warming. More needs to be done but if the big polluting corporations don't follow up and do what the World needs for them to do, there won't be much of a planet left nor any human specie, animal left.
Corporations are just giving lip service and plan on continuing raping and pillaging the earth for greed and profits. The GOP/TP/Koch Party intends to carry on their businesses regardless of the Paris Agreement. They all want to do away with EPA restrictions.
Cartoon: The election theft should never have happened but it did per Supreme Court and bogus election count results in various states like Florida and Ohio. USA and the World would be in a different place if Al Gore had won!
The perfect example of judicial political activism results.
The one best hope for the US is the number of large corporations that understand their profits depend on climate change being adequately addressed globally towards the more stringent target.
Perhaps IA will lead the party leaders to choose salvation of the GOP rather than aligning with facism.
This Pope is showing the leadership faith leaders historically were expected to and hopefully the media will begin choosing more wisely on who they seek to provide perspectives they label Christian in the future.
So glad these critical services have finally gotten scheduled!
I hope the Home Health nurse was helpful.
Daily Kos: I just wish some of our Republicans were as tolerant as Pope Francis.
NY Times: I think I am more afraid of Cruz in the White House than Trump.
Think Progress: I think it is amazing that this much was done. We can hope for more. Several Republicans were on CNN today explaining how this was going to ruin our economy.
Cartoon: I wish he had challenged it. It will take us 100 years to recover from Dubya.
You sound as of old, TomCat: very busy. And you got to see your favorites play. See, I told you you'd be glad to be home ;-))
As I'm very busy myself I'll have to pick and choose:
NY Times: Donald Trump down in one poll with Ted Cruz taking the lead. It's hard to translate but the Dutch would ask in cases like this: Does it matter which one you're bitten by, the dog or the cat?
Think Progress: The consensus among environmental groups here is that on paper it all sounds great that the parties are agreeing “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” But when the individual efforts each country has committed itself to are added up, the rise in temperature is expected to be at least 3°C, well above danger level. And that is still only a commitment on paper.
Definitely not good enough, but they tried and at least nobody there dared to deny global warming and climate change. But it just isn't enough, so prepare to say goodbye to many species and hello to the suffering of many more including ours.
Cartoon: Something to look forward to in 2016: the breaking of this record?