I don’t know why Republicans are so in love with enforcing climate change. Ok, actually, I do. Republicans love the huge bundles of secret cash that they get from corporate criminals, who think nothing of destroying our earth en exchange for more dirty profit.
The Senate voted on Tuesday to block President Obama’s tough new climate change regulations, hoping to undermine his negotiating authority before a major international climate summit meeting in Paris this month.
The Senate resolution, which passed 52 to 46, would scuttle a rule that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. That Environmental Protection Agency rule, released in August, is the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s efforts to address climate change. A second resolution, which also passed 52 to 46, would strike a related E.P.A. rule intended to freeze construction of future coal-fired power plants.
Three Democrats from states in which coal plays a major role in the economy, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, broke party ranks to vote in favor of the resolutions.
But three moderate Republicans, two up for re-election next year, Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, as well as Senator Susan Collins of Maine, broke from their party to vote against the resolutions and back the environmental regulations.
If the resolutions reach the president’s desk, Mr. Obama has promised a veto… [emphasis added]
I think the author has it right when he says Republicans want to undermine Obama’s negotiating authority. To intentionally sabotage the ability of President Obama to conduct foreign policy is criminal sedition.
Yesterday was good but tiring. Last night, I made my first pivot transfer rotating to my stump side using a walker. That is much more difficult than rotating toward the good leg. I successfully landed on a portable commode. While not ideal, it sure beats Republicating in a bedpan. I made seven laps around the unit. Five was my previous high. I almost ketched me a purdy nurse, but not quite.
Short Takes:When warm water stored below the surface of the western Pacific ocean moves east along the equator it moves the earth’s tropical atmospheric convection cells with it. Responding to the eastward shift in the tropical convection, the jet stream moves south on normal on the west coast bringing heavy winter rains to California in strong El Niño years. With this year’s El Niño at record or near record strength NOAA’s CFS climate model predicts a strong southward drop of the storm track off the west coast. A very stormy winter can be expected from California, across the gulf states and up the east coast. This year’s intense jet stream pattern will bring much warmer than normal temperatures to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
El Niño will shift the storm track south this winter into California, the gulf states and the southeast. The northeast and eastern Canada will be much warmer than normal, warmed by flow off the north Pacific.
This winter, California can expect heavy rains, floods and mudslides, but snow levels (elevation of rain snow line, not amounts) will be high because moisture flows from the tropics in an El Niño winter are warm and wet. California’s water situation will improve but ground water levels are unlikely to rebound to levels seen before the drought began. One year’s rains will not alleviate the long-term water problems caused by the record California drought but reservoir levels will rebound.
Click through for much more. It looks like California is about to get Californicated. And Oregon may have a cold winter.
From The New Yorker: There are growing fears among supporters of the Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that his new focus on Muslims is distracting him from his campaign against Mexicans.
After the billionaire said he would consider shutting down mosques if he were President, supporters expressed concern that such signature proposals as a wall with Mexico and mass deportations were being lost in the shuffle.
Carol Foyler, who viewed a recent Trump appearance on television, said that she was “alarmed” to hear him talk about closing mosques “without mentioning the wall with Mexico even once.” “I just worry, I guess, that with all of this talk about Muslims he’s really forgetting about Mexicans,” she said. “It feels kind of like a bait-and-switch.”
But Andy, don’t you think that the hairball will announce that Mexicans are Muslims?
From Upworthy: Jeremy Hoffman spends his days studying ocean sediment samples.
That may not sound very interesting, but for Hoffman, it’s fascinating: He’s reconstructing climate records from Earth’s past.
So you can imagine how the 26-year-old paleoclimate scientist feels about climate change doubters, people who say Hoffman — and 97% of his colleagues — are wrong about the effects of human activity on global climate.
He’s tried to convince them using traditional methods, but some people can’t be swayed by peer-reviewed papers.
So he’s decided to use a different tool: parody songs.
That parody song needs to go viral. Please spread it around.
I thoroughly enjoyed a cup of tea and reading my book after my hair cut. The rain had stopped so it was at least dryer, but the wind . . . there were trees down everywhere and power was out to some 110,000 homes here during a very powerful wind storm.. Fortunately I was not affected so you get this Open Thread. There were some 384 outages in Metro Vancouver alone. Those affected will be without power for 24 – 36 hours. I think the McDonald's drive through will be busy tomorrow for breakfast!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:24 (average 6:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Huffington Post— Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) ended his presidential campaign on Tuesday.
"I've come to the realization that this is not my time, so I've come here to announce that I am suspending my campaign for president of the United States," he told Fox News' Bret Baier.
Jindal, who entered the presidential race in June, has remained near the back of the Republican pack since then. In recent months, his persistently low polling numbers relegated him to the smaller televised events that preceded each of the main GOP debates.
This is the interview with Bret Baier of Faux:
Another one bites the dust! What a waste of money for someone who wasn't going to win the nomination in the first place. I wonder how many more will pull the plug before Iowa and New Hampshire?
Financial Post — Executives in the Canadian oilpatch are dismayed the federal government is poised to ban crude oil tanker traffic on the North Coast of B.C., which would hurt the Northern Gateway pipeline’s chances of being built.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed through on one of his election promises when he asked Transportation Minister Marc Garneau to “formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast” in a mandate letter published Friday.
Click through for the rest of the article. Of course the anti-pipeline and anti-tanker people are happy, but oil industry people are not. Nobody is going to walk away from this quietly. Another article in the Financial Post notes,
[Vancouver-based energy lawyer with Watson Goepel LLP Warren] Brazier said the way the mandate letter is worded, there could still be exports of refined crude oil from the north coast — such as B.C. newspaper executive David Black has proposed with his $19-billion Kitimat Clean refinery project, which would be built in Kitimat.
So it's not over yet.
Huffington Post — The U.S. can either lead by example or turn its back on human suffering, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in an impassioned 12-minute address on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Speaking in response to the calls to turn Syrian refugees away from the U.S. following the bombings and attacks last week that left a combined 172 people dead in Beirut and Paris, Warren argued that the country now faces a stark moral choice.
Click through for the rest. Go Lizzie!
Think Progress — A Texas state legislator wants the U.S. to stop allowing Syrian refugees into the country. His reasoning: They might be able to buy guns in his state.
Rep. Tony Dale (R) made this argument in a television interview on Monday and in lettersto Texas’ U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz (R) and U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul and John Carter (R).
“While the Paris attackers used suicide vests and grenades,” Dale wrote, “it is clear that firearms also killed a large number of innocent victims. Can you imagine a scenario were [sic] a refugees [sic] is admitted to the United States, is provided with federal cash payments and other assistance, obtains a drivers license and purchases a weapon and executes an attack?” He urged the lawmakers to “do whatever you can to stop the [Syrian refugee] program.”
Click through to the rest of this absurdity! I am still shaking my head over this. In my mind, this is thinly disguised discrimination.
My Universe— Have you ever wondered what the name is of Simon's cat? Perhaps today's video will give you some ideas.
Well Monday is done and Tuesday is upon us. There was no ice in the morning but the rain was vicious all day. In West Vancouver, there was some snow, and I am sure there was some snow in the mountains above me . . . I just couldn't see it because of the thick rain clouds. It has been raining today but rain and wind should intensify later this afternoon. After I have my hair cut this afternoon, I just might stop for a nice cup of Earl Grey tea (my favourite) and relax with a book.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:56). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Daily Beast— A series of interviews with Ben Carson prove once again that foreign policy isn’t brain surgery. No, seriously.
In the wake of the horrific terrorist attack in Paris on Friday, Ben Carson has done a great job showing the world just how little he knows about foreign policy over and over again.
Click through for the rest of this short piece, which is apparently much longer than Carson's foreign policy knowledge. And this is the pseudo politician that many Republican voters want in the White House? I wonder how long it will take Carson to call this question a "gotcha question" and start railing against the "liberal press" [snark]?
In Friday’s aftermath, French news broadcast Le Petit Journal interviewed the unnamed child to ask if he understood what happened in his city and why the shootings happened. “Yes, because they’re really, really mean,” the boy said. “Bad guys are not very nice.”
As the boy began to worry that his family would have to move, the father stepped in. “No, don’t worry. We don’t need to move out,” the dad said. “France is our home.”
Click through for the rest of the article and a video of the boy and his father. It is a hanky moment to be sure. the innocence of a child juxtaposed against the carnage of bombs.
And here is something I received from Wendy Kelly @ Care2 that is very moving.
The husband of a young woman who died in the horrific Terrorist Attacks in Paris has written a heartbreaking letter to her killers.
Antoine Leiris, a journalist at France Bleu, declared that he and their baby son would not live in fear of terrorists.
In the tragic note, titled 'You will not have my hatred' he wrote: "On Friday evening you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred.
"I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls. If this God for whom you kill blindly made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife is a wound in his heart.
"So no, I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you. You want it, but to respond to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.
"You would like me to be scared, for me to look at my fellow citizens with a suspicious eye, for me to sacrifice my liberty for my security. You have lost. The player still plays.
"I saw her this morning. At last, after nights and days of waiting. She was as beautiful as when she left on Friday evening, as beautiful as when I fell head over heels in love with her more than 12 years ago.
"Of course I am devastated with grief, I grant you this small victory, but it will be short-lived.
"I know she will be with us every day and we will find each other in heaven with free souls which you will never have.
"Us two, my son and I, we will be stronger than every army in the world. I cannot waste any more time on you as I must go back to [my son] who has just woken from his sleep.
"He is only just 17 months old, he is going to eat his snack just like every other day, then we are going to play like every other day and all his life this little boy will be happy and free.
"Because you will never have his hatred either."
These two fathers also remind me of Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian medical doctor, now resident in Canada, who wrote the book I Shall Not Hate following the killing of three of his daughters by Israeli forces in Gaza some years ago.
The Atlantic — In the face of overwhelming scientific consensus, today’s Republican leaders either deny climate science outright or insist that any solution, as Marco Rubio recently claimed, “would have a devastating impact on our economy.” This has relegated the GOP to playing defense at the moment that President Obama is turning climate mitigation into a central pillar of his legacy and heading to Paris to broker a global climate agreement. Republicans have backed themselves into a losing climate position that not only reflects poor science, poor economics, and poor strategy, but also betrays enduring conservative principles.
Click through for the rest of the article. I think the following statement from the article sums things up.
"But what makes for good policy does not necessarily make for good politics."
Republicans are much more interested in ideology than in governing for the public good. The Conservative government in Australia has approved the Carmichael coal mine backed by India's Adani Enterprises in central Queensland. The CO2 emissions alone outstripe many of the world's major cities. And what it means to the Great Barrier Reef is past appalling.
What it means to a world already facing increasing temperatures is more trouble. 2015 is set to be the hotest year on record and 2016 will likely follow.
Here are the results of our “Horror Movie” 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.
Yesterday was a much better day. I made four laps around the unit. My previous high was one lap.
Short Takes:
From Washington Post (Thanks to Judi Angel {aka JL A} for bringing the issue to my attention.): The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will review whether Virginia lawmakers improperly packed minority voters into one congressional district at the expense of their influence elsewhere in the state.
The court will consider whether earlier court decisions that ruled the districts invalid were correct. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia has twice invalidated the boundaries of a snake-like district that stretches from Richmond southeast to Norfolk — and ordered lawmakers to redraw the election map.
The Supreme Court’s action represents a small victory for Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City), whose chambers would draw up the boundaries. Republicans had insisted on letting appeals play out before they abided by the order in case the high court intervened, as it did Friday.
There are two downsides to this. The first is that the Republican Reich can disobey the District Court decision until SCOTUS decides, which could be as late as the first Monday in October. The Second is the fascist five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD). This case is so obvious that I suspect SCROTUS will decide correctly but too late to implement the decision before the 2016 election.
From Daily Kos: Chris Whipple has written a story at Politico offering a long teaser of the upcoming Showtime documentary The Spymasters. He and two colleagues spent more than a hundred hours interviewing the 12 living CIA directors, with considerable focus on the 9/11 attacks. Although the overall picture of failure by the administration to prevent the attacks has long been known, the story and documentary provide some added details. The key detail is that the warnings the Bush White House received from the CIA in the summer of 2001 were a lot more chilling than the infamous August 6 presidential daily brief.
Click through for more. Perhaps this is because both the Bush and Bin Laden families made a bundle by short selling the companies hardest hit financially. They did this through a wholly owned subsidiary of the Carlyle Group.
From The New Yorker: On Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press,” Jeb Bush said that it was time for the United States to go to war with ISIS, and to put together an international coalition to rout the jihadis from their strongholds in Syria and Iraq. “We should declare war and harness all of the power that the United States can bring to bear, both diplomatic and military of course, to be able to take out ISIS,” Bush, who is trailing badly in the G.O.P. Presidential polls, said. “We have the capabilities of doing this, we just haven’t shown the will.”
Somewhat ironically in retrospect, last Friday was designated as Kindness Day…which took the back seat as the horrific events in Paris were gradually reported. Given the impact such events have on all people of compassion, I find I need, and perhaps others do too, news about kindness and people treating others with respect and dignity…and so my humble terse choices for the day…
Sometimes we can be a better human and increase our success, too…here’s one example:
I have said over and over again, If you want to understand the Republican Party, what you need to see is that everything the Republican Party does is intended to fulfill one of two goals. The lesser goal is the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to billionaires. The greater goal is the establishment of a permanent Republican Reich, a fascist plutocracy, in which elections have predetermined results and exist for show only. The following article helps explain the greater goal.
The Federalist Society is the intellectual nexus of America’s conservative legal establishment. It was the incubator of both SupremeCourt suits that tried (and failed) to gut the Affordable Care Act, and its events are often the best indicator of what Justice Samuel Alito’s opinions will say two years down the road. The Society’s annual national lawyer’s convention, moreover, typically showcases the many diverse strategies its members have devised to implement conservative policy in any branch of government willing to listen to them. Past convention speakers offered proposals as ambitious as eliminating anti-discrimination law, eliminating the minimum wage, and declaring much of the twentieth century unconstitutional.
This year’s convention, however, which was held this past weekend, took on a decidedly different tone. While flagship conservative ideas such as eliminating unions and protecting anti-gay discrimination certainly were mentioned at the Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, the panels were fixated on a single idea — restricting or abolishing the power of federal agencies to regulate. Indeed, this topic came up so often that one could be forgiven for assuming that this year’s convention schedule was planned by Captain Ahab, with the Obama administration’s regulations playing the role of Moby Dick.
Given the Federalist Society’s influence among Republican lawmakers — especially the kind of Republican lawmaker who wears judicial robes — it is very likely that many of their proposals will be implemented if the 2016 election gives the GOP control of all three branches of government. It should be noted, moreover, that their proposals to hobble federal agencies are likely to give a structural advantage to Republicans that could very well become permanent. Republicans would still be capable of implementing their preferred policies, while Democrats would struggle to do the same even in the immediate wake of an electoral victory…
Click through for the specifics on how Republicans want to do this. If you’re wondering how Republican hatred for and/or discrimination against Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBT people, women, students, and seniors fits into the two goals, it’s simple. They need their rabid base to win elections, so it satisfying that base contributes to establishing a permanent Republican Reich. The discrimination against the poor serves the former goal. We must prevent them from achieving either!
The Senate voted on Tuesday to block President Obama’s tough new climate change regulations, hoping to undermine his negotiating authority before a major international climate summit meeting in Paris this month.
The Federalist Society is the intellectual nexus of America’s conservative legal establishment. It was the incubator of