Climate Change – Page 11

Open Thread April 19, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 192023

Yesterday, when I turned on Colorado Public Radio on the computer, what was playing wa Alan Hovhaness’s Symphony #50, which has the subtitle “Mount St. Helens,” and yes, he wrote it literally during the 1980 eruption – he was living within view of it. CPR – both the news side and the music side – are going all out for Earth Day. Today’s newsletter from Mother Jones included a few pointed paragraphs on people who are progressive enough to vote for Biden but not progressive enough to support a housing project of the kind needed to make replacing fossil fuels actually work, because NIMBY (“Not in my backyard.”) I can’t give you a link, since those remarks are in the newsletter only, but I can link to the lead story by a different author with the same theme. It made me think that maybe part of the problem of getting a strong progressive political majority is a kind of Catch-22 – really good education and money tend to go together. But people without money need a really good education in order to see the quakity of and the need for progressive policies. And for those who have both the educatin and the money, the money tends to corrupt. Here’s one ver short quote from the newsletter – “Some on the left continue to be quite acrobatic in their defense of blocking housing, ignoring all evidence that this mostly benefits rich homeowners.”

In other news, Fox and Dominion settled for about $785 milliom. For anyone who (like me) is disappointed by this, I have ne word – Smartmatic.

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CPR News – Gov. Jared Polis signs bills protecting access to abortion and gender-affirming care in Colorado
Quote – Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a set of health care bills enshrining access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications, as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care. The goal of the legislation is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can come to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery without fear of prosecution. Bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans and Utah has severely restricted transgender care for minors.
Click through for details. This is the right thing yo do, but it can’t be denied that it will also strengthen Colorado’s medical community, and also bring dollars to the state. It makes me proud of my state and my Governor. But…

CPR News – Colorado Catholic health clinic joins forces with D.C. law firm to challenge state’s new abortion-access law
Quote – In a lawsuit, Bella Health argues that the new law targets religious clinics’ duty to help pregnant women in need — which they say is a violation of their constitutional rights. They say those duties include helping women continue their pregnancies after they take mifepristone, a pharmaceutical drug used in medication abortion, and later change their mind. “We opened [the lawsuit] because of our belief that life is a precious gift from God, worthy of protection at all stages,” said Dede Chism, a nurse practitioner and co-founder and CEO at Bella Health and Wellness, in a release. “When a woman seeks our help to reverse the effects of the abortion pill, we have a religious obligation to offer every available option for her and her child.”
Click tthrough for the other side of the story. I don’t normally use the same source twice, but in this case, the story is not complete without both. This part makes me ashamed of the misogyny and stupidity of – some of us – some people, and no state can claim not to have them.

Food For Thought

Open Thread April 17, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 172023

Yesterday, it was pretty quiet (she said thankfully.) I”ve been working on some doll clothes latelt, which has the advantages that the pieces are small (therefore light), they go fast (compared to human-sized sweaters), and they can be done with small amounts of yarn (with the caveat that, if I overestimate the amount of yarn I have, I may have to do some emergency re-designing.) Another disadvantage is that the stitches are so small they can be hard to see. That is less of a problem when the yarn is smooth and more of problem when it is fuzzy, of course, but the fuzzy yarns can be so effective in those little projects that I can’t resist using them sometimes.

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NM Political Report – Homeless shelters aren’t equipped to deal with New Mexico’s most troubled foster kids. Police see it for themselves.
Quote – More than 1,100 times from January 2019 through June 2022, someone at a shelter housing foster kids in New Mexico called emergency dispatchers for help with runaways, violent outbursts, disorderly conduct or mental health crises. Many of the kids placed in these shelters by CYFD have severe mental health or behavioral problems, including PTSD and depression, but shelters don’t provide psychiatric services. Kids break down, get into fights, destroy property, threaten staff or run away. Sometimes they say they want to kill themselves or try to. In these moments of crisis, it’s police and paramedics, not mental health professionals, who intervene.
Click through for full report, which is a joint product of ProPublican and a BGO called “Searchlight New Mexico.” If this is happening in New Moxico, you can bet it is also happening elsewhere. One word: priorities.

npr – Swimming pools and lavish gardens of the rich are driving water shortages, study says
Quote – More than 80 metropolitan areas around the world have faced severe shortages in the last two decades, a figure that’s only projected to rise, impacting more than one billion people in the next few decades. And the threat doesn’t discriminate between hemispheres or climates. Moscow, Miami and Melbourne, Australia, were among the most impacted in the last decade. For the purposes of the study, researchers zeroed in on just one location, Cape Town, South Africa.
Click through for full study. They used Cape Town because it was easy (for less than admirable reasons.) Humanity has known since before there was English to say it in that the love of money is the root of all evil (Radix malorum est cupditas, if anyone cares.) Beau of the Fifth Column (who appears regularly in the Video Thread) prefers to call it “power coupons.” Maybe we all should.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 3/26/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:18 pm Open Thread, Politics

Mar 262023

Talking Feds with Harry Litman – Former Prosecutor Decodes the Manhattan DA’s TRUMP INDICTMENT Plans (long, but very nuts and bolts – and Glenn skipped a day.)

MSNBC – Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg receives threatening letter with white powder

Farron Balanced – Fox Host Whines About Democrats Making Conservatives Look Like Idiots

Afroman – Will You Help Me Repair My Door? (This is funny [and the CC is not bad], but the incident was not at all funny.} https://www.wonkette.com/humiliated-cops-sue-afroman

Bulldog Obsessed With His Skateboard Hates When His Parents Try To Take It Away From Him

Beau – Let’s talk about the permafrost zombie virus….

Video Thread 3/24/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:54 am Open Thread, Politics

Mar 242023

Glenn Kirschner – Judge ORDERS Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify AGAINST Trump, and appellate court agrees!

Thom Hartmann – Fascist Bullies Don’t Stop… Unless We Stop Them

Ring of Fire – Trump’s Biggest Legal Problem Isn’t Getting Enough Attention

MSNBC – Supreme Court hears case on Navajo Nation water dispute

Abandoned Puppies Are All Grown Up And Looking For Their Forever Homes

Beau – Let’s talk about the water situation out west…. (Most of the snowpacks are above normal. There is ONE which is at only 80%. It is the one that feeds the arkansas River. The Ark is rhe river I would drive along after turning left at Pueblo when Virgil was in Las Animas. I feel like Rick – “Of all the basins feeding all the rivers, the one that is below normal is mine.”)

Open Thread March 7, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 072023

Yesterday, I got the email that my prescription is ready, and the verdict from my doctor that (he doesn’t know either, and the) I should stop by an urgent care facility and have them look. So today I will be doing that. So, today, I have a couple of unusual articles, and tomorrow, there may be only a personal update, or maybe a personal updant and a video thread – those are a little easier to put together than the Open Threads. Oh, and I also got the confirmation to visit Virgil this coming Sunday.

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Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Finally, a Peek Into the Arctic Seed Vault That Could Save Humanity
Quote – The Global Seed Vault in the Norwegian Arctic, which opened in 2008, is closed to the public and shrouded in mystery, the subject of numerous internet doomsday conspiracy theories. Now, to celebrate the vault’s 15th anniversary, everyone is invited on a virtual tour to see inside the vast collection of tubers, rice, grains, and other seeds buried deep in the mountain behind five sets of metal doors. The deep-freeze, designed to last forever, is co-managed by the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust and NordGen, the genebank of the Nordic countries. The seeds could hold answers to agricultural challenges posed by climate crisis, invasive species, pests, changes in rainfall patterns and rampant biodiversity loss are studied, and it opens three times a year to accept new deposits from other seed banks around the world. Scientists say they hope people will learn more about their work through the virtual tour—without running the risk of falling prey to a polar bear.
Click through for story, and for the link to the tour, which is over the words “invited on a virtual tour to see inside the vast” – not highlighted, but there is a thin red underline.

Justice News – Readout of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s Trip to Ukraine
Quote – At the Opening Session of the conference, the Attorney General provided remarks in which he discussed, among other things, the Justice Department’s role in collaborating with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General and the moral and personal responsibility he feels in pursuing accountability. “Just over twelve months ago, invading Russian forces began committing atrocities at the largest scale in any armed conflict since the Second World War. We are here today in Ukraine to speak clearly, and with one voice: the perpetrators of those crimes will not get away with them,” said Attorney General Garland.
Click through for this news. I had no idea this happened while it was happening (not that anyone did outside of those with a need to know), but I’m glad it did. The meing included Ukrainian and Polish law enforcement, and possibly others. The print is very small – instead of using the magnifier, since there was so much of it, I copied the text ans pasted it into a blank document where I could adjust the font size.

Food For Thought

From 2021, but very pertinent

Open Thread February 21, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 212023

Yesterday, I saw that snow for Wednesday the 22nd, which was predicted a week ago and then not predicted for several days, is now back on the agenda. As far as I know, I’m not going anywhere, so that’s fine. And – I learned that President Joe was in Ukraine “to reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Who besides me is grateful for him? And speaking of Ukraine, the Met Opera is putting on and broadcasting another Concert for Ukraine this Friday. Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Fifth, and a piece by a contemporary Ukrainian composer, all very accessible (classical term of art for “easy listening.”) My local radio station is broadcasting it at 5:00 p.m. MST Friday. I expect anyone who wants to hear it will be able to find a way to do so.

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Robert Reich – Jimmy Carter and the end of democratic capitalism
Quote – For years, the rap on President Carter has been that his presidency failed yet his post-presidency was the best in modern history. This is way too simplistic. During Carter’s term of office, the OPEC oil cartel raised oil prices from $13 a barrel to over $34, resulting in double-digit price increases across the economy. Paul Volcker, Carter’s appointee as Fed chair, was determined to “break the back of inflation” by hiking interest rates to nearly 20 percent by 1981, bringing on a deep recession and causing millions of people to lose their jobs — including Carter.
Click through for full argument. It wasn’t just the Federal Reserve – that might have been enough, but we’ll never know, because there was also the Iran hostage crisis, despicably and corruptly used by the GOP. The Reich on the left, as usual, is right, though, to implicate corporate backlash. I don’t know why we haven’t learned to forestall backlash. We’ll need to if we are ever going to make real progress.

The 19th – Mothers of the movement: Black environmental justice activists reflect on the women who have paved the way
Quote – The communities exposed to human-made environmental hazards were and still are largely Black. Race is one of the strongest predictors of the location of hazardous waste sites, which are consistently located near Black and low-income neighborhoods, according to a study by the United Church of Christ. For Black History Month, The 19th spoke with current leaders in the environmental and climate justice movements, including [Leah] Thomas, about the trailblazing Black women in their own lives who have inspired and shaped their work.
Click through for article. Granted that there is no category of humans who are all perfect, and Black women are no exception to that – I still feel that Black women are an underappreciated Nationa Treasure.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 2/16/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:57 am Open Thread, Politics

Feb 162023

Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence will fight a grand jury subpoena to testify about Trump’s election crimes, & he will lose

Twitter – Shannon Watts. It was just a matter of time before there was a two-time survivor.

A survivor of the Sandy Hook School mass shooting in 2012 is a student at Michigan State University: “I am 21-years-old and this is the second mass shooting I’ve lived through. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.” pic.twitter.com/Jcafl57tmZ

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) February 14, 2023

Thom Hartmann – Biden’s Shocking Net Worth Revealed!

Liberal Redneck – Ohio Train Derailment and Corporate Greed

Brent Terhune – Chinese Spy Balloon

Pittie Begs His Mom To Keep A Pittie Puppy Half His Size

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s laptop problem….

Video Thread 2/6/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:10 pm Open Thread, Politics

Feb 062023

Glenn Kirschner – Pence conceals Trump crimes then profits off them in book; the need to reform ethics in government (It’s likely called misprision because that word, which originally meant just “take wrongly,” was from its inception mostly applied to actions of government officials. For the rest of is, there’s “aiding and abetting” and “accessory before/after the fact.”)

Meidas Touch – Jan 6 Insurrectionist gets BRUTAL sentence and COLLAPSES in Court (as a former Marine myself, I say it’s a step in the right direction. It probably includes concurrent service. Consecutive would have been better.)