8/27/20: The big story for today will be disaster along the Gulf
Coast, knocking COVID-19, a new round of protests over a police shooting in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, and even Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech at the
Republican National Convention out of the headlines.
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“There’s many more steps to go down into the pit.”
Professor Ian Howat, Ohio State
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Meanwhile, a second hurricane is brewing, as more and more Republican voices are raised in alarm, against their own party’s standard bearer, a man with no standards, save for, “Me, Myself, and I.”
First, Laura. Thursday night the Category 4 monster, made landfall, slamming into Texas and Louisiana. Experts say it was the strongest storm to hit the coast in over a century, with winds in excess of 150 mph.
(At 157, you have a Category 5 storm.)
Fortunately, a predicted storm surge of twenty feet did not materialize; but wind damage was “catastrophic.”
Live coverage from the area is compelling. It’s clear people along the coast and far inland need help. CNN describes buildings as “obliterated,” and “chunks of the beach missing” in Creole, La. Roads along the coast are destroyed or blocked by debris. I-10 is closed, after a ship was ripped from its moorings and wedged under a bridge. Volunteers were trying to protect what they could at First United Methodist Church in Lake Charles, but with almost no roof left, and rain coming down, it was a thankless task. Damage along the Texas coast was extensive, but not as bad as expected, which would still mean “terrible.” Residents along the coast are being warned that if they return to their homes, they may face weeks without power. In Louisiana, hundreds of thousands are without power and tens of thousands have no water, after city and local water plants were badly damaged.
Thankfully,
only a handful of deaths have been reported.
Hurricane Laura, of course, is a harbinger of worse disasters to come. Yet, we can expect the president in days ahead to avoid the slightest hint that scientists have been right for years. Climate change, they have warned repeatedly, will lead to more hurricanes, and more powerful ones.
As always, we are aware at this blog that one data point proves nothing. The fact this was the strongest storm to hit the region ever, tied with a storm in 1856, proves nothing. A single data point proves nothing.
Yesterday,
of course, we covered a plethora of data points, all pointing to the same scary
conclusion (see: 8/26/20).
Today, the Insurance Information Institute, supplies us with fresh and compelling evidence. Analysis from 1851 to 2015, shows that during that period no hurricane ever struck the U.S. before June. This year is the sixth in a row during which hurricanes have formed outside of the normal season.
Simply put, Atlantic waters are warming significantly, and warming faster than scientists feared. (You have to be almost willfully ignorant to miss this, as, for example, the president himself.) Waters in the Gulf of Mexico are also warmer, “freakishly” so, allowing storms to pick up force as they approach landfall.
Six
years in succession – that’s significant evidence. Yet, the best we can say for
the current, clueless occupant of the White House is that he has stopped
calling climate change a “hoax,” at least on Twitter.
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Ice that took thousands of years to form is melting.
THE EVIDENCE continues to build, even if the “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” crowd in the White House refuses to admit it. Scientists reported this week that the Greenland ice sheet is endangered and ice that took thousands of years to form is melting.
“We’ve passed the point of no return but there’s obviously more to come,” Ian Howat, a professor at Ohio State, explained. “Rather than being a single tipping point in which we’ve gone from a happy ice sheet to a rapidly collapsing ice sheet, it’s more of a staircase where we’ve fallen off the first step but there’s many more steps to go down into the pit.”
Sea levels are
sure to rise, the only question being, how fast and how far in the next hundred
years? Only our grandchildren and their grandchildren will be around to find
out the result.
 |
Something abnormal is developing in Greenland: surface melt. |
Some people believe in climate change. For example: NASA
scientists. Some don’t. Such
as: Tin Pot Don and the poor sods who follow his pronouncements like he’s preaching
some anti-science gospel. Still, the data points continue to accumulate.
Phoenix just set a record for most days in a year, eight so far in 2020,
with temperatures hitting 115°, and plenty of summer left. The average daily high of 107.9 degrees,
so far this summer, is another record. So is the average low of 84.2 degrees.
July went into the record books as the hottest month in Phoenix history. Death
Valley, California hit a high of 130° Sunday. Scientists believe that may be
the hottest temperature ever recorded on earth. (Two higher readings in the
1930s are suspect.)
You can find all the evidence you need to explain why the
Greenland ice sheet is melting, assuming you’re not too lazy to look. January
2020 was the hottest January, globally, ever. June 2020 was the third hottest June. You can ask the scientists at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration if you don’t believe what a
small potatoes blogger says. The first three months of this year were the second hottest ever, trailing only January-March 2016.
The data accumulates.
*
ALSO: Don’t be a knucklehead. The science is crystal clear: Wear a
mask for your own safety and out of respect for the safety of those around you.
(See also: 7/30/20; 8/26/20.)
More than a thousand Americans have died on sixteen of the
first twenty-seven days of the month.
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“Hurricane Bone Spurs” is a threat to democracy.
IN OTHER NEWS of great import, growing numbers of Republicans and conservatives continue to warn about the dangers of Hurricane Donald, a destructive force unlike any in our nation’s history.
His hate-filled, hate-fueled first term in office is a harbinger of what to expect if he secures a second.
For the first time in U.S. history, Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been forced to come out and say, that the military will take no role in settling a disputed election. “I foresee no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process,” he told members of Congress. “We will not turn our backs on the Constitution of the United States.”
As
in – we all have to worry about a certain orange fool refusing to vacate the
White House if he doesn’t win.
Hurricane Laura may have pulverized the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Donald, sometimes called “Hurricane Bone Spurs” is a threat to drown out democracy. We have covered this story extensively if you’d care to look. We have compiled a lengthy list of retired U.S. generals and admirals, as well as other voices from the military, outlining the dangers Trump poses to democratic norms. We have put together the many warnings of members of Trump’s own party. But now the chorus of alarm is growing louder, more insistent. Today, 34 Republicans who worked on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign issued a letter, in support of Joe Biden.
They write:
What unites us now is a deep conviction that four
more years of a Trump presidency will morally bankrupt this country,
irreparably damage our democracy, and permanently transform the Republican
Party into a toxic personality cult [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].
We can’t sit by and allow that to happen.
Jennifer Horn, former chairwoman of the Republican Party for New Hampshire, also weighed in today. A founding member of the Lincoln Project, another organized GOP effort to defeat Trump, she explained her group’s support for Biden.
I mean, I’m not
trying to tell people that Joe Biden is going to be a conservative president,
but what I think is…generally true about Joe Biden, I think he’s a decent
person. And I think that he cares about the country more than he cares about
himself. And I think that those two things alone put him light years ahead
of Donald Trump for being qualified to be president, the United States.
Even several billionaires and their wives have signed on with the Lincoln Project because no tax cut, no amount of money you can ever make, can make up for desecration of the U.S. Constitution.
The warnings keep coming. “Country first,” John McCain used to say, putting partisan politics aside to work for the common good. Now more than a hundred former McCain staffers have signed a letter saying, they too will put, “Country first.” They will work to elect Biden.
This effort is led by Mark Salter, Mr. McCain’s former chief aide and speechwriter. “We have different views of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party platform – most of us will disagree with a fair amount of it – but we all agree that getting Donald Trump out of office is clearly in the national interest,” says Salter.
“Character matters in our leaders.”
Finally, a group called 43 Alumni for Biden issues a letter, signed by 21 staffers, so far, who worked for George W. Bush. They, too, focus on personal characteristics more than policy, writing:
We are a group who served in George W. Bush’s
administration. We have seen the importance of leadership up close and we know
Joe Biden is the choice we need to make in November.
Character matters in our leaders. Joe Biden has proven
himself over years of public service. We have seen him respectfully reach
across the aisle, consider a different point of view and make a thoughtful
decision to benefit the nation. Joe Biden is courageous and will tell the
American people what we are facing, but will also have a plan to guide us
through this difficult time. He is someone who has endured tragedy and can
empathize with the pain of losing a loved one too soon. Joe has also
experienced parental job loss and has lived with its consequences. Joe has
faced adversity and come through it with his dignity intact. He will help us do
the same during these trying times.
Over the past four years we, as a nation, have struggled
with truth. Conspiracy theories have been legitimized and facts have been
dismissed [emphasis added]. The expertise of world-renowned scientists and
physicians have been sidelined while the opinions of pundits have been
embraced. Meanwhile, more than 170,000 Americans are dead due to this
mismanaged crisis. As a nation, we have lost our moral compass. Children should
never be separated from their parents and caged for seeking asylum in the US.
It is cruel and inhumane. We need to get back to basics: facts matter, there is
right and wrong. We can do that with Joe Biden in the Oval Office. He will
listen to and work with experts to craft and execute plans to solve problems
and ease suffering. Joe will act with integrity, he knows no other way to lead.
We can trust him.
The onslaught of insults and vulgarity we have witnessed in
recent years must stop. Our children are watching us. If we explain away
misogyny and racism as political tactics we are complicit in normalizing
completely inappropriate behavior. This is not who we are as a nation.
Americans want a successful country, but how is that possible if what we see
modeled from the White House is disrespect and outright hate?
Joe’s kindness is sorely needed right now.
*
DID SOMEONE MENTION GOOD CHARACTER? Jerry Falwell Jr. has been having a really bad month. And his wife Becki’s month hasn’t been any better. The purportedly Christian couple, big fans of President Trump, continue to see their reputations battered.
First, there were stories about Mrs. Falwell’s affair with a pool boy, and salacious stories about Mr. Falwell watching them from the corner.
Next, a young Liberty University student alleged that Mrs. Falwell assaulted him one night, when he slept over at the Falwell home. He was a friend of their son; and she treated him to a bit of oral sex.
“She
was the aggressor,” he says.
*
IN OTHER GRIM NEWS, another week of jobless claims and we top one million again. Throw in people filing for relief under a special pandemic program and the total rises to 1.6 million.
President Trump is still predicting a “V-shaped” recovery. In a recent survey, however, economists warn that we will not regain all our lost ground until 2022. The Economic Conference predicts a decline in GDP of 4.9 percent for 2020. This will be followed by anemic 2.0 percent growth in 2021.
In a second
poll conducted by the National Association for Business Economics, more than
60% of respondents agree that the U.S. economy will not recover, and reach the same level as Quarter 4 in 2019, until at
least 2022.
STOP HURRICANE DONALD BEFORE IT BECOMES A CATEGORY 5.
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