Today is another high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. Congrats to the Patriots and the Cardinals who the Orb blessed yesterday. The later game was a nail biter, but I have to say, as a disinterested party, that the Cardinals had extraordinary assistance from the Zebras on more than one occasion. Today I suspect that the Panthers will dine on Fricassee of Seachicken. My Broncos can beet the Steelers, if the right Broncos show up and stay for all 60 minutes. I don’t have to tell you my plans for the day.
Jig Zoned Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:43 (average 6:03). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: A fact checker who has vetted all of the 2016 Republican Presidential debates was hospitalized for exhaustion during the sixth G.O.P. forum in Charleston on Thursday evening.
Martin Slessky, a former journalist who works for HonestyWatch, a Minnesota-based fact-checking organization, was resting comfortably after suffering what his doctors called a “total physical and mental collapse” during Thursday’s debate.
Harland Dorrinson, the executive director of HonestyWatch, said he first became concerned about Slessky’s health when the fact checker started having heart palpitations and shortness of breath every time Texas senator Ted Cruz spoke.
“I turned to Martin and said, ‘Are you all right? Are you going to be able to make it through this?’ ” Dorrinson said. “And he said, ‘I’ll be fine. Ben Carson is starting to talk now, that’ll be soothing.’ ”
But moments later, when New Jersey governor Chris Christie falsely claimed that he never supported the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Slessky experienced acute dizziness and blurry vision, and was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Andy, I’m amazed his job didn’t kill him.
From Daily Kos: Charles Carter and Vincent Smith were right-wing extremists planning a "Paul Revere 2016 Final March to Restore America" [Republican Ammosexuals Delinked] — a cross-country caravan to “remove the corrupt leadership that has taken over our beloved country and ousted her God and constitution.“
On Monday, police in Grayson County, Texas reported one person was dead as the result of a gunshot wound to the head. Although they didn’t name the victim or the suspect, Raw Story notes that right-wingers on Facebook were quick to identify the victim as Charles Carter and the shooter as Vincent Smith: [Republicans delinked]
Posthumous Barf Bag Alert!!
Throw the book at the Republican murderer. I shall not mourn the victim.
From NY Times: The United States and European nations lifted oil and financial sanctions on Iran and released roughly $100 billion of its assets after international inspectors concluded that the country had followed through on promises to dismantle large sections of its nuclear program.
So far diplomacy has worked, and Iran has taken steps that Republicans predicted would never happen. Nevertheless, Republicans are still beating the drums of war.
Here in BC, the provincial Liberal government (no relation to the federal Liberals), has hitched their wagon to the development of liquified natural gas (LNG), some of it with PetroChina and other foreign corporations. But much of the northeast LNG fields lie on Aboriginal lands, making access "difficult" fortunately. Some of the foreign nationals are pulling out, or at least have threatened to because they want the drilling now, not after negotiations with First Nations.
China has joined the fracking revolution to meet some of its energy needs and to try to decrease their pollution. I remember images of pollution in Beijing prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics. The air pollution was so thick that one could cut it with a knife. So now China is fracking to feed the economy and deal with pollution. Not surprisingly, the Chinese are running into the same problems as everywhere else, problems that threaten its very survival.
The US-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, sponsored by the US departments of Commerce and Energy, as well as China's National Energy Administration, has convened for the last 13 years. But the focus turned to shale gas in 2009, when President Obama and then-President Hu Jintao announced an agreement to develop China's immense resources. The partnership set the stage for companies in both countries to forge deals worth tens of billions of dollars.
Here at the 2013 conference, the first American to take the podium was Gary Locke, the US ambassador to China at the time. …
… underlying all the talk of new energy was an urgency to wean China from its decades-long addiction to coal. Locke promised that shale gas would do just that: "We can make further strides to improve energy efficiency, produce cleaner energy, increase renewables, and increase supply," he asserted. "Unconventional gas, especially shale gas, is just the start."
Constituting a whopping 70 percent of China's energy supply, coal has allowed the country to become the world's second-largest economy in just a few decades. But burning coal has also caused irreparable damage to the environment and the health of China's citizens. …
Scientists wrote in the medical journal The Lancet that ambient particulate matter, generated mostly by cars and the country's 3,000 coal-fired power plants, killed 1.2 million Chinese peoplein 2010. In late 2013, an eight-year-old girl in Jiangsu Province was diagnosed with lung cancer; her doctor attributed it to air pollution. And earlier this year, scientists found that up to 24 percent of sulfate air pollutants—which contribute to smog and acid rain—in the western United States originated from Chinese factories manufacturing for export. …
But China's push to wean itself from coal has also triggered a rush to develop alternative power sources. …
By the time of our trip, villagers living near fracking wells had already complained about the deafening noise of drilling machinery, the smell of gas fumes, and strange substances in their water.
The clouds faded as we climbed, revealing a quilt of farmland dotted withpingfang, or flattop houses. We drove down a road lined with new hotels, small restaurants, and hardware stores—the markings of a boomtown. Roughly the size of Minnesota, the Sichuan Basin—where many of China's experimental fracking wells are located—is home to some 100 million people, many of them farmers. It's not the only part of China with shale gas, butfracking requires a lot of water, and with a subtropical climate and proximity to the mighty Yangtze River, Sichuan has that, too, making it the nation's first fracking frontier. …
China's early fracking operations face many risks, but the incentives to keep drilling are too good to pass up. Based on early sampling, Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Liebreich estimates that China is currently extracting shale gas at roughly twice the cost of the United States. Analysts expect those costs to fall as China gains experience, but even at current levels, shale gas production has been up to 40 percent cheaper—and geopolitically more desirable—than importing gas. …
"You've got this 'damn the torpedoes' development strategy that sets out all sorts of quotas, expectations, and productivity targets that are not constrained or balanced in any way by environmental protection or public participation to hold people to account," says Sophie Richardson, director of Human Rights Watch's China program. Throw in corruption, she adds, and you see a toxic mix, one that has contributed to an unprecedented level of social unrest. …
Fracking may soon join that list. Protests have already stymied drilling operations in Sichuan. From 2010 to March 2013, the Wall Street Journalreported, Shell had lost 535 days of work at 19 of its shale gas wells due to villager blockades or government requests to halt operations. "There are a lot of people in China who don't want to take political risks—they have too much at stake," Osnos says. "But when it comes to something as elemental as their health, and that's what pollution really is about, then they're willing to take a risk."
The country's shale gas lies deeper underground and in more complex geologic formations than those deposits in the flatlands of Pennsylvania, North Dakota, or Texas. As a result, researchers estimated that the Chinese wells will require up to twice the amount of water used at American sites to crack open the reserves. …
In addition to his concerns about fracking's enormous appetite for water, Tian also worries about its waste: the chemical-laden water that comes back out of the rock with the natural gas. In the United States, it is typically stored in steel containers or open pits and later injected underground in oil and gas waste wells. In China's early wells, wastewater is often dumped directly into streams and rivers. If fracking—most of which takes place in China's breadbasket—contaminates water or soil, Tian argues, it could jeopardize the nation's food supply. In a seismically active area like Sichuan, leaks are a major concern: Even a small earthquake—which, emerging evidence suggests, wastewater injection could trigger—might compromise a well's anti-leak system, causing more pollution. In the past year alone, more than 30 earthquakes were recorded in the Sichuan area. …
As aJPMorgan research memo stated, "Unless the popular environmental concerns are so extreme, most countries with the resources will not ignore the [shale gas] opportunity."
As the drilling continued, Dai said, her groundwater started to run dry, and now only rain replenished it. She doubted the water was fit for drinking. "After you use it, there's a layer of white scum clinging to the pot," she said. They couldn't even use it to cook rice anymore. "You tell me if there's been an impact!".
Taken from Mother Jones, this article is from late 2014 but just as relevant.
Today has been a very quiet day fortunately because it has rained all day and I really didn't want to get wet. The furbabes are snuggled together on my bed, Annie with her arms around Winnie. I relaxed today, all day, and took time to watch part of the movie AVATAR so I could keep my knee elevated for a while. I'll watch the rest when I retire for the night, that is I stay awake long enough.
Short Takes
Take Part — Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying announced Wednesday [13/01/2016] that his government will end its legal ivory trade.
Hong Kong’s move comes as the price of elephant ivory plummets. In a report by conservation group Save the Elephants, the cost of raw ivory on the black market has fallen by almost half over the past 18 months. …
“If the trade closes, the value of ivory as an investment depreciates,” Knights said. “We see Hong Kong prices going down because of the public backlash against ivory, and that should have an impact on poaching. Couple that with stepped-up efforts in Africa to deter poachers, and the ivory trade ends up getting squeezed at both ends.”
In a BBC article almost a year ago, word came that China instituted a one year ban on the importation of ivory. Now China is taking the next step. This is an issue that Obama and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, spoke about during a visit in 2015.
Upworthy — What are the chances a 6th-grader from the biggest slum in Kenya ends up on stage in New York City, speaking to thousands of people?
Not very great, but Eunice Akoth did it. She's living her dream.
Eunice's dreams aren't exactly uncommon for a girl her age: to travel the world and to become a doctor. But the possibility of seeing them through is extra difficult simply because of where she was born.
Between unemployment rates, gender discrimination, and violence in her slum of Kibera — it's a long road out for girls like her.
My student faced the same type of childhood as many of the girls in Kibera . . . no education, beaten, married very young, raising babies when she was still a child herself. Her dream is to see her children, all of them, get an education, the education she never had. And to remind her of this, she has a painted rock in the garden that says "Dream".
Mother Jones — During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama reiterated his call to eliminate federal subsidies for fossil fuels in an effort to speed up the transition to cleaner energy sources. It's something he's asked for nearly every year of his presidency, and it hasn't happened yet. But this year, he added something new: a plan to charge oil and coal companies more for leases on federal land, to offset the damage their products do to the climate. …
The onslaught started at the end of December, when China announced plans to close 1,000 coal mines as part of its campaign to reduce crippling air pollution and the world's highest greenhouse gas emissions. …
Coal's future doesn't seem much brighter. More than two dozen coal-reliant states are suing the Obama administration over its climate plan.
As reported in another article by the same author in Mother Jones on 15 January 2016,
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced on Friday that she was placing a moratorium on new coal-mining leases on public land and that her department would begin a multiyear review of how those lease contracts are awarded. The policy change is likely to make the leases more expensive for mining companies, to generate increased royalties for the government, and to offset the damage coal production and consumption do to the environment.
"We haven't done a top-to-bottom review of the coal program in 30 years," Jewell told reporters. She added that her department will search for ways "to manage [coal] in a way that is consistent with the climate change agenda."
Coal has had its day and no amount of interference from the Republicans should change that course, but if they win the White House in November, look out! There is no reason why a small percentage of Americans, relatively speaking, should override the concerns of all Americans. Although Republicans will appear to agitate for coal workers, really they are in bed with the coal companies. With coal producing high green house gas levels, the planet can't afford to keep burning dirty coal. I had to chuckle at the author's comment,
But he [Lee-Ashley] said the financial overhaul should enjoy bipartisan support, since it boils down to giving the American people a fair price for their natural resources.
"When you look at the money being lost to taxpayers through these loopholes, anybody who believes in good business should be able to carry it forward," he said.
"Fair price" to a Republican does not meet our standards. Republicans are in the coal bin with the coal companies. Have a look at the article I presented back in October 2015, The Fall of King Coal.
My Universe — The third kitten, a liitle grey and white furball, has the longest meow I have ever heard . . . and all in one tiny body!
Here are the results of our “Control of Government” poll. Politics Plus Polls are not scientific, because those who respond are not balanced according to demographic categories. Therefore, we do not accurately reflect the makeup of the US population. Nevertheless, our polls are usually factually accurate, and more often than not, they reflect thinking or will of the national majority.
Since our polling site no longer enables us to copy and paste your poll comments, you may read them here.
All of us think Democrats will keep the White House, and 75% of us think Democrats will take the Senate back. But only 28% of us think Democrats will win the House. I voted with the majority.
We have a new poll up for you. Get into practice. Vote!
Today is a relatively lazy day, and I’ve needed one for a while. My helper friend may come to sort clothes. Today and tomorrow are high holy cays in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. Today the Chiefs visit the Patriots,and the Packers visit the Cardinals. Tomorrow the Seachickens visit the Panthers, and the Steelers visit my Broncos. May the holy Orb shine its blessed light on your team,, except the Steelers.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:27 (average 6:00). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Americans who watched Thursday night’s Republican debate on the Fox Business Network expressed deep disappointment that the billionaire Donald J. Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz did not actually punch each other’s faces in the course of the contest.
In interviews with voters across the country, those who viewed the debate complained that their hopes had been “unfairly raised” that the two candidates’ fists would come into contact with each other’s faces, and said that they were extremely irritated when that did not occur.
And Andy gets a big Amen!!
From Daily Kos: Politico has a new piece up last night discussing Elizabeth Warren and the role her endorsement could play in the Democratic primaries.
Most striking among everything that was said is the sense that seems universal in Washington- Elizabeth Warren supports Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, but has some difficult political calculations to go through as to when to make that public.
Democrats in Washington and New Hampshire — especially the ones supporting Hillary Clinton — want Elizabeth Warren to end the wait and endorse a candidate soon.
New Hampshire Democrats know that Warren’s support could be a boon for Clinton in the state where polls show a neck and neck race.
Sanders and Clinton supporters are both hoping to get the endorsement, but no one wants to push Warren on the timing.
If true, this will be the first time I’ve ever disagreed with Liz.
From NY Times: Even if he defeats Hillary Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire next month, Senator Bernie Sanders faces a daunting problem when the presidential race moves on to bigger, more diverse states: winning over black voters.
Starting this weekend in South Carolina, he is trying to solve it.
With a blitz of appearances, ads on black-oriented radio stations, a tour of historically black colleges and the help of well-known and not-so-well-known African-Americans, Mr. Sanders is racing to get the word out: He is a lifelong civil rights advocate who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He talks substantively about issues vital to many blacks, like “radically rethinking police procedures,” even in front of all-white crowds. And the economic policies that he relentlessly argues would combat income inequality and injustice across the board, he says, apply all the more to persistent racial disparities in American life.
The BLM activists who took over Bernie’s stage to gain publicity did a disservice to the African American community, because they left an impression that Bernie is not a viable candidate for black voters. When I worked on Vietnam Summer, Dr. King told us over and over that policies, like the war, that increased economic inequality, were most racist, because they effected the black community worst of all. Bernie’s stand for economic equality for all reflects his commitment to racial equality and Bernie is the best choice black people have.
Just one thing this week which seems to me to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with. Just as a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."
The thing is, ladies, this guy lives just the up the street and around the corner from me. (OK, the "street" is I-25 and the "corner" is the interchange with I-70, but he's still in my state.) His name is Jerry Sonnenberg.
He is in a position of authority, to which he was elected by the people who live around him. (Many of them voted to "secede" from the state a while ago. Maybe you could chase them all into Kansas. Not everyone there, just those who voted for him, would be fine.)
Recently our President gave a speech about putting some reatrictions on guns – I know you don't need them for your work, but I'm sure you know what they are. They kill people. That's what they are made to do is kill people. Unless they are killing animals. They are not like swords and spears; they kill from a distance; sometimes a very long distance. And they aren't limited to killing one person at a time. Some can kill many prople with just one motion. And people here have been using them to do just that. A little over three years ago, one person used a few of them to kill six adults and 20 tiny children in their achool.
When our President referred to that incident, he had tears in his eyes. The tears that this Sonnenberg person wants to use as gun oil to lubricate his rifle.
Our President is a humble man. He doesn'r grab publicity for a lot of the things he does. So it's possible, maybe even likely, that this Sonnenberg person didn't know this about him. But when he went to Sandy Hook after those 26 deaths, this is what he did, as described by an eyewirness:
I went downstairs to greet President Obama when he arrived, and I provided an overview of the situation. “Two families per classroom … The first is … and their child was … The second is … and their child was … We’ll tell you the rest as you go.”
The president took a deep breath and steeled himself, and went into the first classroom. And what happened next I’ll never forget.
Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son. … Tell me about your daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.
And then the entire scene would repeat—for hours. Over and over and over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. We spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and prayer.
I would say our President earned every tear that was shed during that speech. I would speak differently about this Sonnenberg person. But I will let Amy Runyon-Harms, the director of the group Progress Now Colorado, say it for me instead:
"Thanks to Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, the right wing’s boundless contempt for the President is now an insult to the victims he wept for. Sen. Sonnenberg is a disgrace to the Colorado Senate, and to the victims and survivors of mass shootings that have occurred in our state, We want President Obama and all victims of gun violence to know that Jerry Sonnenberg does not speak for Colorado.”
Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone – I don't care which of you takes this guy on, or if you all want to share the job. Just – get him out of here. Thanks.
The offensive photo has been removed from the story; but I had seen it and found a copy. I thought the Erinyes needed to see it. The photo of ammosexual Sonnenberg handling his – ahem – is from the story. Amy Runyon-Harms is better looking; her photo is a publicity still from PBS.
The Erinyes and I will be back with more new material when we can. See you then.
I found that this filled out the impacts of children when added to the better known factors of school to prison pipeline with criminalization of kindergartners, child hunger, TX trying to change population used for voting districts to eliminate children from counting (never mind that many become old enough to vote during the decade the districts last) and the anti-abortion frenzy trying to make them be born.
While I celebrate the increase in the recent budget for Alzheimers research and the special promised cancer research focus from SOTU, we are too far behind on PTSD solutions IMO–I had an uncle with night terrors from WWII who died before anyone had heard of PTSD.
Please express yourself on this sandwich of issues seeking solutions balanced by a couple of solutions to celebrate.
It was a busy day today, much of it spent teaching English or tutoring mathematics. I was slowed down by 2 blood sugar lows this afternoon (cannot drive during those), but after a short shop, arrived home.for dinner and a nap. Sitting here, two of my furbabes are cuddled up together under the desk and purring away. There is nothing like a purring cat, except maybe two or three purring cats. It seemed that everywhere I turned today in the news, there were articles about fracking and coal.
Short Takes
Alternet — Five years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was commissioned by Congress to undertake a study on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water. This newer method of oil and gas extraction involves the pumping of highly pressurized water, sand and chemicals into underground rock formations.
Fracking has driven the boom in U.S. oil production and contributed to the steep drop in gasoline prices, but the environmental impacts of this relatively new technique are not well understood.
The EPA’s draft study—released in June to solicit input from advisers and the public—found that fracking has already contaminated drinking water, stating in the report:
“We found specific instances where one or more mechanisms led to impacts on drinking water resources, including contamination of drinking water wells…
The first time I read and saw coverage of fracking and its affects on drinking water, maybe 4 years ago, there were flames coming out of kitchen faucets! Flames! Wells were being contaminated. Water from contaminated wells could not be used for any purpose. The EPA has landed squarely on both sides of the issue at various times. Potable water is a necessity for humans and animals alike. Potable water is a human right. The EPA must take a cautious approach . . . fracking is a problem for water quality.
CBC — Tremors caused by industrial activity will become more frequent and large enough to cause significant damage in the future, warns an expert on human-caused earthquakes.
"As we generate more and more earthquakes, we expect that some of them are going to be larger," said Gail Atkinson, who studies induced seismic activity at Western University in London, Ontario.
"So this is another example of the potential for oil and gas activity to generate some larger earthquakes which could become damaging."
Induced earthquakes are closer to the surface, so the shaking is more intense than a natural earthquake which happens many kilometres further below, said Gail Atkinson, who studies induced seismic activity at Western University in London, Ontario.
An induced earthquake that registers 4.0 on the Richter scale can shake the ground more than a natural 5.0 magnitude quake, she said.
Another issue with fracking is earthquakes. Alberta has been hit with earthquakes, something not normally seen there, as a result of fracking. Back in 2014, Jeff Gu, a seismologist at the University of Alberta, commented that "The study [a peer reviewed published study in the Journal of Geophysical Research] concludes that waste-water injection into the ground is highly correlated with spikes in earthquake activity in the area." When will we learn?
Huffington Post — Unfortunately, Chelsea Clinton misrepresented Senator Sanders' position, and her premiere performance on the stump backfired, producing a flood of political donations to Sanders.
Here's what she said: "Senator Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the [Children’s Health Insurance Program], dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance." Whew! She would have us believe that the Vermont senator is a one-man wrecking crew, an enraged King Kong — or, to be modern about it, a mendacious Darth Vader — proposing "to go back to an era — before we had the Affordable Care Act — that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance."
When I first saw this comment elsewhere, I said "Say what?". There is absolutely no way that Bernie said, or even implied such a position. Could it be that the Clinton camoaign, or at least Chelsea Clinton, is worried about Bernie's poll numbers, especially as the first of the primaries and caucuses approaches?
My Universe —
This first picture is very common here on the Pacific coast. There is something very special about watching these giants of the oceans cruising along.
And I have always wanted to swim with dolphins . . . to feel their freedom in the water and watch their playful antics.
"Thanks to Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, the right wing’s boundless contempt for the President is now an insult to the victims he wept for. Sen. Sonnenberg is a disgrace to the Colorado Senate, and to the victims and survivors of mass shootings that have occurred in our state, We want President Obama and all victims of gun violence to know that Jerry Sonnenberg does not speak for Colorado.”
