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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

Climate change makes fire spread quicker and through a larger area, rather than igniting blazes.

Well said

It also tends to increase the likelihood of a blaze starting and the period in which blazes are likeliest to flourish.

[josh]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/quiz-which-candidate-agrees-with-me/?fbclid=IwAR1IG4UwkJkEu0DiNJtQ51IjYRsGMm95jtQJS-E1d9gS3FwPPrWk58DRerk

It only has some of the candidates, but it has plenty.

I am not fond of some of the formatting that led to my answers matching differently than had they been less muddled.

[LarryBnDC]

[josh]

Bridgegate feels like it was forever ago, but they're all in the Supreme Court now, where the defense is arguing that politicians lie all the time and therefore it isn't really wire fraud, at least not in any federal sense of the phrase or law.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/18/opinions/supreme-court-bridgegate-case-rodgers/index.html

The Court needs to find these jokers guilty, rather than finding yet another way in which government officials can commit fraud and get away with it.

Also... it has ramifications for down the line.

[josh]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/mike-pence-senate-impeachment-op-ed/index.html

Mike Pence thinks Democratic senators should acquit Trump.

Why not? A few in the House did.

Because the person Mike Pence is asking them to emulate is the late Republican Senator Edmund Ross, who famously voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson.

And the reason emulating him is a bad idea is that Ross was bribed to vote in Johnson's favor and was as corrupt as Trump is hoping the GOP senators he has been paying off with campaign cash will prove to be.

[bambu.]

Bambi,  facts don't exist in isolation.   Sometimes you add several together.  Average temps in Australia went up over a degree Celsius in one century.   (usually,  in interglacial periods,  this takes thousands of years)  Marine water temps also rose,  with results of coral reef damage (again,  not in a normal cycle).   Greenhouse gases rapidly increasing, all specifically traceable (through spectrometer analysis and other reliable methods) to human sources.   NOx from tailpipes,  for example.   (the x signifies two forms of nitrogen oxide)   Species migration to new habitats.  Again,  over a very short period,  due to unprecedented rates of change.   Ice melting (the rate of melt is,  again,  part of a very solid body of evidence).   Positive feedback effects -  another fact that adds to your understanding of the science:  when highly reflective ice vanishes,  and is replaced with darker,  more energy-absorbing land surface or open ocean,  that area of earth is now accumulating heat energy that was formerly reflected back into space.  So overall heat retention accelerates.   This changes oceanic currents and drives hotter dryer weather in Australia.

So,  when the rate of drought and resulting bush fires picks up, that's a fact that EXISTS IN RELATION TO OTHER ALREADY WELL ESTABLISHED FACTS ABOUT ABNORMAL RATES OF CLIMATIC CHANGE,  NOT BY ITSELF.   It's like a trial in court, where there are MULTIPLE LINES OF EVIDENCE.

Thank you for that.
What to do about it? Australia has to live? Gotta keep the lights on and aircon running.
Average Joe is broke, stores are broke, closing down everywhere.
Federal govt is trying to stay afloat, trying to have a budget surplus. Trying to pay for all the free stuff the People demand.


Instead of commuting by car to office towers, people could work from home...all they need is a phone/s, computer/s, office supplies, filing cabinet etc.
Sell the office towers for housing.
Car pooling with co-workers, ...cramped up, hot, stuffy, talk talk talk, bad drivers, horrible music, dirty feet, coughing, sniffling etc, loud voices, ….misery in the extreme.

1 - mass transit (electric rail has been a viable mature technology for a century)

2 - more natural light in houses and public buildings and offices

3 - energy-efficient swamp coolers instead of conventional compressor ACs

4 - earthtube cooling

5 - telecommuting (subsidize home office equipage with money saved in needing less office building space)

6 - new work dress codes allowing lighter attire in hot climates,  which means office thermostat can be set five degrees higher,  and also makes walk/bike home a more comfortable choice

6a - subsidize lower-emissions concrete production to get factories up and running

7 - brainstorming positive measures rather than negative focus on "misery"

8 - recruit homeless people to plant foliage that absorbs pollutants and carbon,  providing small apartments near the planting projects for them

9 - rebate on auto registration and fees to carpoolers

10 - annual bonus check to drivers of electric cars,  since they cost the nation less in fuel infrastructure and pollution damage

I could go on.   As Fred Rogers said,  "the greatest nation in the world is Imagi-nation. "

Pray tell, what is a 'swamp cooler'?...and what is 'earth tube cooling'?

https://just-fucking-google.it/

Oh, evaporative coolers.
Tried them decades ago. Put water in them, they blow the water around your house, and you can guess the rest.
Ended up using in with no water in it, as a large fan, at night, in the large double garage to keep the Bull Terrier cool but not cold, and our electricity bill affordable.
'Evaporative coolers' are not 'air conditioners.'
We need aircon to take water out of the house humid air and dump it outside.
Cool, and easier to breathe.

[josh]

Suddenly Trump has lost enthusiasm for his trial
Opinion |

Then and now: Republicans on impeachment witnesses
https://d21rhj7n383afu.cloudfront.net/washpost-production/The_Washington_Post/20200109/5e1775f5d60180000956765c/5e17785246e0fb00099e8193_1509128713498-xfd55s_t_1578596453502_640_360_600.mp4?player=powa
Fifteen of the GOP senators who will try President Trump's impeachment were in Congress during the Clinton impeachment. Only one voted to acquit Bill Clinton. (Video: Joy Sharon Yi, Kate Woodsome/Photo: AP, Washington Post, Reuters/The Washington Post)

By
Dana Milbank
Columnist
Jan. 13, 2020 at 4:54 p.m. EST

Nobody ever accused President Trump of being consistent.

For weeks, the president clamored for a “fair trial” in the Senate to clear him of impeachment charges.

“I look forward to it,” he said on New Year’s Eve.

Trump also stated he wanted his aides “to testify in the Senate where they’ll get a fair trial.” White House counsel Pat Cipollone urged House Democrats to finish impeachment “so we can have a fair trial in the Senate.”

Now the House is about to deliver the impeachment articles — and suddenly Trump has lost enthusiasm for a trial.

“Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial,” Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon, “rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have. I agree!”

Lest “many believe” that was just a fleeting thought, Trump retweeted it Monday morning.

“Many believe,” of course, is Trump-speak for “I believe.” And I understand why “many believe” a fair Senate trial would hurt Trump, if it means producing the documents and witnesses Trump refused to provide to the House. His defenses would wither faster than his explanations for the assassination of Iran’s Qasem Soleimani.

First, Trump said Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks on U.S. interests. When lawmakers, including Republicans, said their classified briefings produced zero evidence of an imminent threat, Trump took his case to Fox News.

“I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies” that Soleimani attacked, Trump declared.

But it turns out Trump believes this in the absence of evidence. Asked by CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday about whether there was a specific threat to four embassies, Trump’s defense secretary, Mark Esper, replied: “I didn’t see one with regard to four embassies.”

So, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Esper: “Was Trump embellishing?”

“I don’t believe so,” Esper replied. This is because Esper shares Trump’s evidence-free belief that Soleimani would have attacked four embassies.

This is fun! The truth is whatever Trump believes it to be — much as when he said his net worth was based on how he feels.

There was a time when people got in trouble for making things up like this. George W. Bush never lived down the infamous “Sixteen Words” in his 2003 State of the Union address: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

And when the Obama administration used talking points falsely claiming the attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi was sparked by an anti-Islam video, Republicans answered with years of rage.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Obama White House officials “scumbags” that “lied about” the Benghazi attack. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said the administration “made up a tale” and declared it “worthy of investigation.”

But now Graham and McConnell can both be expected to embrace Trump’s faith-based defense, both on the “imminent” Iran threat and on the president’s innocence in the Ukraine affair. It brings to mind the “I Believe” number from the musical “The Book of Mormon.” (“I believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob! … And I believe that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri.”) A Republican just believes.

How would the I-believe defense play out in the Senate trial?

Chief Justice John Roberts: Did President Trump ask the government of Ukraine to announce investigations into a political opponent and a discredited theory about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election?

Cipollone: I don’t believe so.

Roberts: Did Trump withhold security aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting contingent on these investigations?

Cipollone: I believe otherwise.

Roberts: Did Trump direct officials to defy subpoenas and withhold documents?

Cipollone: I believe you are mistaken.

Graham: Move to dismiss!

Trump, after expressing his newfound belief that a Senate trial wouldn’t help his case, moved on to sharing other beliefs Monday with his Twitter followers, including a belief that “I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare” and a belief that “the corrupted Dems [are] trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue.” His evidence for the latter belief: a doctored picture of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wearing Muslim garb in front of an Iranian flag.

It’s a safe bet that when the trial begins late this week or early next, Trump’s Senate sycophants will seek the dismissal he requested. Others may try to blow up proceedings by hauling in Hunter Biden. I’d like to think the requisite four Republican senators will join Democrats in demanding a legitimate trial.

But I’ll believe it when I see it.

[Hairy Lime]

President Trump sent a scathing indictment of Iran's leadership on Friday when he told Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to stop killing his people and to make his country "great again."

"The noble people of Iran -- who love America

The fuck? Has he been brain dead for the last 40 years?

-- deserve a government that's more interested in helping them achieve their dreams than killing them for demanding respect," Trump tweeted.

"Instead of leading Iran toward ruin, its leaders should abandon terror and Make Iran Great Again!" the president added.[/i]

His inane and meaningless slogan does not improve by being imposed across cultures - for one thing, all of Iran's rulers have been Iranians rather than white Christians. And I wonder when he thinks iran was great. Somehow I suspect it is more likely lap dog of the oil industry era than, say, Cyrus or Abbas.

[barton]

Stop pestering Kid with facts.   It just makes him fussy, especially when his bottle is late.


You immaturely lose again.

Here again are your false imputations of others here...

Sure - and in more ways than one.  You seem to get pissed off that one of the ways is not fully labeled by everyone - but also dismiss the other (arson, poor planning to combat the fire, etc)

All climate change all the time is what is annoying as fucking hell,  See it as PART of a developing worldwide problem - a concern that needs immediate measure - rather than a means to the end of the world withing ten years - and we will all get along better.   

This is mature discourse?   

I have posted,  what,  a hundred posts here on how climate change is part of other global issues affecting the planet?   Population growth,  political conflicts, corporate malfeasance (VW falsifying pollution tests on its diesel vehicles, for example), forest management, urban sprawl into woodlands,  etc.   When you lie about someone's words here,  it suggests either you just don't read or that you are blind with partisan bias or are desperate to score points,  or all of those.   So long,  troll.

[oilcan]

Repellent irony....

  The Virginia Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun advocacy group, sponsors what has always been a peaceful rally every year on Lobby Day, which coincides with the state’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.... 

[barton]

Pretty tone-deaf.   These folks know what King stood for...and how he died??   JFC.

Meanwhile, China looks at other global threats besides greenhouse gases,  and comes up with a plan that may be worth emulating...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/19/china-moves-to-phase-out-single-use-plastics

Losing oxygen is not good for our atmosphere....

https://www.uspw.net/how-plastic-suffocates-the-ocean.html


 

[LarryBnDC]

Just a reminder about the Representative who sued a cow, the dish and the spoon...


https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-dark-twisted-failure-of-devin-nunes-202154/

[bambu.]

The United States is a net exporter of coal. However, some coal is still imported, mostly for power plants on the eastern and southern coasts of the country, where it is cheaper to ship in coal by sea from South America than transport it from mines in the northern and western United States.

In the third quarter of 2018, the U.S. exported 29.1 million short tons of coal (15% of total production)2 to dozens of countries around the world. The largest markets were India (12.8% of all exports), Netherlands (12.0%), Japan (8.5%), South Korea (8.5%), and Brazil (6.7%).2

In the third quarter of 2018, the U.S. imported 1.4 million short tons of coal, mostly from Colombia (58%), Canada (17.8%), and Indonesia (17.8%).2

Coal exports decreased from 2012 to 2016 as U.S. coal production declined, mostly because cheaper natural gas and renewable energy sources decreased the demand for coal as a fuel for electricity generation.3 Since late 2016, coal exports have increased due to a slight increase in production and a continued decrease in U.S. coal consumption. Third-quarter 2018 coal exports were slightly higher than third-quarter 2013.2

https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/how-much-coal-does-us-export-and-import [/I]

#####

Why?
Because Americans have to live...the world needs to live...keep the lights on, keep the fridges/freezers going [cold Coke is good, hot Coke is 'ew'.]

US economy/industry is finely balanced, no way can the US stop using/exporting coal at this point in time.
Someone should tell the 'climate change' brigade.

[FlyingVProd]

Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang are two Californian rich guys who are running for President.

Tom Steyer has done things to help the children to have fresh locally produced fruits and vegetables with their school lunches, and he has done other good things. He seems like a smart guy, and he is worth a look.

Andrew Yang's father invented over 60 patents when he worked for GE (you can check for the exact number), so he comes from a smart family whom have contributed to America. He wants to give every American a basic income of $1,000.00 per month. But, he wants to take the money from American manufacturers, and instead I would suggest putting a tariff on imports to pay for it. However, I would suggest only giving aid to those who need it, and if you do not need aid then you should not receive something that you do not need. We should only give aid to the people who need it. I do not agree with Andrew Yang on everything, but he is worth a look. And Yang might make a good Vice President.

For the Republicans, Senator Marco Rubio is doing a great job in Florida, maybe he can run in 2024.

Salute,

Tony V.

[oilcan]

Absolute hogwash.

Simple conservation measures would allow every coal plant to go offline in five years.   Switching to a plant based diet would cut the cubic footage of fridges needed in half or more.    We have to make that switch anyway,  due to the methane and waste products from meat production. 

We make sure cokes are chilled around the world but refuse to provide funds that would allow cold storage of life-saving vaccines and meds where they are desperately needed.  Selling cokes is more important than saving lives.  Right.

And,  trust me,  you can live without soda pop.