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This isn't helping Florida citizens either, or the costs of climate change for everyone, or the overall economy. I suppose it'll help out Florida Power & Light and their income which I presume in turn are helping DeSantis income. Florida reportedly lost millions of dollars of federal energy funding, as Governor Ron DeSantis quietly rejected the assistance.
DeSantis' Quiet Veto Cost Florida $377M In Federal Energy Support: 'Real Loss,' Says Expert
What Happened: The funding, a majority of which was earmarked for energy-efficiency rebates, DeSantis rejected amounted to $377 million, Bloomberg reported, citing blogsite Capitolist, which has ties with state utility Florida Power & Light Co.
Some of the funding was also meant for electrification as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and money from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that became law in 2021, the report said.
Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service's Office of Energy reportedly noted that Energy Department that it was “respectfully” withdrawing applications for the funds. This followed DeSantis issuing a one-line veto, rejecting a $5 million grant for the state to set up programs to distribute the rebates.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-11/desantis-says-no-thanks-to-377-million-in-federal-energy-funds?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS&leadSource=uverify%20wall#xj4y7vzkg
Cascading impacts’ warning as Farmers becomes latest insurer to quit Florida
State’s efforts unable to persuade company to stay amid growing risk for carriers as climate crisis increases strength of storms
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/12/florida-farmers-insurance-climate-crisis
Right on man. I think they a lost a lot of participants when SETI stopped. Other projects didn't have the same public appeal as the ET and area 51 thoughts had I guess. More importance, more constructive with the other projects though imo. I only have four pc's in my humble place. Two major work, a "community", and a NUC. The NUC isn't on that much, just a tv entertainment in one bedroom, so I haven't put it on that, and one work is connected into a major institution and rules and security protocols kind of frown upon it. But the other two do their part with the combined 192GB ram and 72GB GPU memory which is far cry from what was running way back when I started "BOINCing". Then there's the few with offspring working it.
I would suggest anyone to do it, doesn't take that much effort, it's a really valid cause, and it's helping out humanity which can use all the help it can get.
I'm not any history scholar by any means, but someone ought to inform Hawley some other facts about the oldest son of John Adams. John Quincy Adams broke from and went against the Federalist of his fathers and believed much of what the Democratic Party of today promotes. Such as disagreeing with Federalist foreign policies, when he was president he advocated aggressively for large federal infrastructure projects fighting with congress that refused to fund them, establishing a national university system, connecting with other countries like Latin America, against the annexation of Texas and Mexican-American War (felt it was just an extension of slavery and it's connections with the congress), responsible for representatives to debate abolishment of slavery, advocated for women's rights and Native Americans. Basically like todays politics and against the same type of people like Hawley is now back then.
No, we weren’t triggered, we were mocking you for using a fake Patrick Henry quote. Now you are using a quote from John QUINCY Adams, who was NINE years old at the time of the Declaration. pic.twitter.com/B8m9WDC7lq
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 5, 2023
This despicable man @SenTuberville is knowingly contributing to further misplaced distrust of our institutions & he is significantly damaging the national security of our nation. @GOP senators: you all need to stop this. He is an embarrassment to all of you as he continues. https://t.co/yYSZaUZvIi
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) July 11, 2023
“For a member of the United States Senate to speculate about what white nationalism means, as if it's some benign little thought experiment, is deeply and terribly disturbing.”
— The Recount (@therecount) July 11, 2023
— Majority Leader Schumer condemns Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) comments about white nationalism pic.twitter.com/TMBq7cJP4e
Yahoo. Get ready, set, goooooo. Premarket should be fun. lol
Ran SETI for years on my pc's until they quit, never found any ET either. One can still use their pc power to look for quasi-stellar objects, pulsars, other astrophysics projects. I've been using my pc's now to run climate studies for Oxford University, molecular simulations of proteins for Barcelona Biomedical Research, and environmental research for BOINC Poland Foundation. My kids and grandkids run different projects also (Was my requirement for building their rigs).
Anybody can help out science with their pc's, give it go.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/
I find it very creepy that ChatCPT has already learned to lie and make shit up.
The GOP's motto; "Rules for thee, not for me".
We have no reason to believe the FBI & DOJ acted on this info.
Americans deserve answers.
Here's a couple of more date comparisons.
An older tweet that's standing the test of time.
This is not a coup by Prigozhin. This is an inner war between the St Petersburg gang of Putin and the Moscow gang of Gerasimov and Shoigu. This is the beginning of Putin‘s election campaign to become reelected on March 17, 2024. His lapdog Prigozhin is masquerading a coup to put…
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) June 24, 2023
Of course the GOP is crying that's it's just part of DOJ protecting the Biden's attacking trying to silence their witness, but they only unsealed it, making it public yesterday, not when it was originally filed. Isn't that what GOP/Comer originally asking for that the American people need to know, and that "what is the FBI hiding". Guess they should been more careful what they wished for.
They are all Marjorie Taylor Greene now https://t.co/qbm7hZOCtP
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 11, 2023
More deliciousness in the Comer/My informant is a Chinese spy scandal: Comer says his "informant" was indicted because of whistleblowing to GOP Congress. Um..look at the date on the sealed indictment: It was filed in 2022, before there WAS a GOP Congress. https://t.co/NK5BwlR9iV
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 11, 2023
Just watched interview with Gov Cooper and CNBC, which included discussion of the culture wars of other states and business. NC just got best state for business for the second year in row. To rank America’s Top States for Business in 2023, CNBC scored all 50 states on 86 metrics in 10 broad categories of competitiveness. Each category is weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials. That way, our study ranks the states based on the attributes they use to sell themselves. We developed our criteria and metrics in consultation with a diverse array of business and policy experts, and the states. Our study is not an opinion survey. We use data from a variety of sources to measure the states’ performance. Under our methodology, states can earn a maximum of 2,500 points. The states with the most are America’s Top States for Business.
TOP STATES FOR BUSINESS
America’s Top States for Business 2023: The full rankings
PUBLISHED TUE, JUL 11 2023 8:13 AM EDT
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/11/americas-top-states-for-business-2023-the-full-rankings.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/11/north-carolina-is-top-state-for-business-led-by-workforce-economy-.html
At a time when companies are clamoring for workers while trying to navigate a treacherous economy, no state is meeting their needs more effectively than North Carolina. The Tar Heel State is America’s Top State for Business in CNBC’s annual competitiveness study.
It is the second consecutive year at the top for North Carolina — a rare feat in the CNBC study, which launched in 2007. Business and the economy in the state have been on a tear since the pandemic, and the state has scarcely looked back.
Tomato, tomato. "Stupidity is an opinion that ignores a fact." Traitor trump 2016; "I love the poorly educated". Couldn't find much connection with being a true American.
White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a race[1] and seeks to develop and maintain a white racial and national identity.[2][3][4] Many of its proponents identify with and are attached to the concept of a white nation, or a "white ethnostate".[5]
White nationalists say they seek to ensure the survival of the white race, and the cultures of historically white states. They hold that white people should maintain their majority in majority-white countries, maintain their political and economic dominance, and that their cultures should be foremost in these countries.[4] Many white nationalists believe that miscegenation, multiculturalism, immigration of nonwhites and low birth rates among whites are threatening the white race.[6]
Analysts describe white nationalism as overlapping with white supremacism and white separatism.[7][4][6][8][9][10] White nationalism is sometimes described as a euphemism for, or subset of, white supremacism, and the two have been used interchangeably by journalists and analysts.[8][11] White separatism is the pursuit of a "white-only state", while supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to nonwhites and should dominate them,[6][8][9] taking ideas from social Darwinism and Nazism.[12] Critics argue that the term "white nationalism" is simply a "rebranding", and ideas such as white pride exist solely to provide a sanitized public face for "white supremacy", which white nationalists allegedly avoid using because of its negative connotations,[13][14] and that most white nationalist groups promote racial violence.[15]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nationalism
white nationalist
noun [ C ]
US /?wa?t 'næ?.?n.?l.?st/ UK /?wa?t 'næ?.?n.?l.?st/
Add to word list
someone who believes that white people have their own racial and national identity (= what makes someone who they are) and should have the most power, authority, and rights in a country, usually based on the idea that they are better in some way than people from other groups:
white nationalist
adjective
US /?wa?t 'næ?.?n.?l.?st/ UK /?wa?t 'næ?.?n.?l.?st/
having or expressing the belief that white people have their own racial and national identity (= what makes someone who they are) and should have the most power, authority, and rights in a country, usually based on the idea that they are better in some way than people from other groups:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/white-nationalist
white nationalists
: one of a group of militant white people who espouse white supremacy (see WHITE SUPREMACY sense 1) and advocate enforced racial segregation
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20nationalist
Racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems (e.g. apartheid) that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
racist
[ rey-sist ]
noun
a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that one's own racial group is superior or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
adjective
of or like racists or racism:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/racist
AMEN, brother, AMEN! One for your words, and one for his. I'm all for digging old Franklin up and giving him a cigar. At least put his words on a plaque and put it up instead of the ten commandments. Sure in hell don't listen to the ten, give Franklin's a try, wouldn't hurt.
A bit political, but what isn't these days. Seems like it's the for all excuse all thing. The mysterious "missing" "whistle blower" that the GOP were coveting and using with Hunter Biden "investigations" cough, cough. Just an everyday Chinese spy, still whole thing just a whole bunch of security and criminal issues for the US used for political purposes. Meanwhile Rome burns.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/us-attorney-announces-charges-against-co-director-think-tank-acting-unregistered
PRESS RELEASE
U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against Co-Director Of Think Tank For Acting As An Unregistered Foreign Agent, Trafficking In Arms, Violating U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, And Making False Statements To Federal Agents
Monday, July 10, 2023
Shareright caret
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
Gal Luft, a Dual U.S.-Israeli Citizen, Allegedly Evaded FARA Registration While Working to Advance the Interests of China in the United States and Sought to Broker the Illicit Sales of Chinese-Manufactured Weapons and Iranian Oil to China
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Matthew G. Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Christie M. Curtis, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an eight-count Indictment charging GAL LUFT with offenses related to willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations, and making false statements to federal agents. LUFT, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was arrested on February 17, 2023, in the Republic of Cyprus based on the charges in the Indictment. LUFT subsequently fled after being released on bail while extradition proceedings were pending and remains a fugitive.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and co-head of a Maryland think tank, engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes. He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement. As the charges unsealed today reflect, our Office will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement partners to detect and hold accountable those who surreptitiously attempt to perpetrate malign foreign influence campaigns here in the United States.”
FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie M. Curtis said: “As alleged, the defendant engaged in multiple schemes to evade sanctions and laws intended to protect our national security. The FBI is determined to defend our nation by enforcing laws designed to promote transparency of foreign influence within the United States.”
According to the allegations contained in the Indictment, other filings, public information, and statements made during court proceedings:[1]
For years, LUFT, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who serves as the co-director of a Maryland-based think tank, engaged, along with others, in multiple international criminal schemes.
First, LUFT conspired with others in an effort to act within the United States to advance the interests of the People’s Republic of China (“China”) as agents of China-based principals, without registering as foreign agents as required under U.S. law. As part of this scheme, while serving as the co-director of a Maryland-based non-profit think tank, LUFT agreed to covertly recruit and pay, on behalf of principals based in China, a former high-ranking U.S. Government official (“Individual-1”), including in 2016 while the former official was an adviser to the then-President-elect, to publicly support certain policies with respect to China without LUFT or Individual-1 filing a registration statement as an agent of a foreign principal with the Attorney General of the United States, in violation of FARA. Among other things, in the weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, LUFT and a co-conspirator (“CC-1”), who is a Chinese national and worked for a Chinese nongovernmental organization affiliated with a Chinese energy company, created a written “dialogue” between CC-1 and Individual-1, in which LUFT wrote Individual-1’s responses and included information that was favorable to China. The dialogue was then published in a Chinese newspaper online and sent to, among others, individuals in the United States, including a journalist and professors at multiple U.S. universities. When LUFT was writing the dialogue, CC-1 told LUFT that “n these articles, we do not want to spill all the beans yet, just enough to let ‘people’ know he [i.e., Individual-1] is in the corridor of power to be. Just broad stroke policy consideration that leaves plenty of room for interpretation and imagination to be filled in later.” After the purported “conversations” were published, LUFT told CC-1 that certain information, favorable to China, had been “tucked between the lines.” Shortly after the 2016 election, LUFT and CC-1 also discussed possible roles Individual-1 might have in the incoming U.S. administration and discussed Individual-1 taking a “silent trip” to China. LUFT responded that “[w]e are debating about his role in the new admin. There are all kinds of considerations . . .We should talk ftf [i.e., face-to-face] as there can be a supremely unique opportunity for china.”
Second, LUFT conspired with others and attempted to broker illicit arms transactions with, among others, certain Chinese individuals and entities. In his role as a broker or middleman, LUFT worked to find both buyers and sellers of certain weapons and other materials, without a license to do so as required under U.S. law, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Among other things, LUFT worked to broker a deal for Chinese companies to sell certain weapons to Libya, including anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers, and mortar rounds (which LUFT and his associates referred to in coded language as “toys”). LUFT also worked to broker deals for certain weapons to be sold to the United Arab Emirates, including aerial bombs and rockets. LUFT further worked to broker deals for certain weapons to be sold by a Chinese company to Kenya, including unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”) – and specifically “strike” UAVs, which LUFT acknowledged “[t]he US doesn’t want to sell[, . . .] hence the opportunity.” LUFT also discussed brokering a deal for weapons to Qatar and told CC-1 that Israel was “not a good fit” as the middleman for the deal because it had the “[s]ame problem the [] Q [i.e., Qataris] have w uncle [i.e., the United States]. Need a third party. . . . I will activate.” In his role as a broker for illicit arms deals, LUFT worked on a commission basis and traveled to meetings and received and passed on documentation needed to secure the deals. During a voluntary interview with U.S. law enforcement in which he was asked questions about his involvement in arms trafficking, LUFT made multiple false statements, including that he had not sought to engage in or profit from arms deals.
Third, LUFT conspired with others and attempted to broker deals for Iranian oil – which he directed an associate to refer to as “Brazilian” oil in an effort to conceal the activity and evade sanctions – in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In his role as a broker or middleman, LUFT solicited buyers and passed on pricing and other information. One offer letter for Iranian oil that LUFT received noted that the “origin” of the oil was “Iranian / It can be presented as UAE origin without Iranian papers.” He also assisted in setting up meetings between Iranian representatives and a Chinese energy company for the purpose of discussing oil deals. During a voluntary interview with U.S. law enforcement in which he was asked about his role brokering deals in Iranian oil, LUFT made multiple false statements, including that he had tried to prevent oil deals with Iran and had not been present during meetings with the Chinese energy company and Iranians.
* * *
LUFT, 57, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who formerly resided in both Maryland and Israel and is now a fugitive, has been charged with the following offenses, which carry the maximum prison terms listed below. The statutory maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by a judge.
Count
Charge
Maximum Prison Term
One
Conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act
Five years
Two
Conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act
Five years
Three
Violation of the Arms Export Control Act (relating to Libya)
20 years
Four
Violation of the Arms Export Control Act (relating to the United Arab Emirates)
20 years
Five
Violation of the Arms Export Control Act (relating to Kenya)
20 years
Six
Making false statements
Five years
Seven
Conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act
20 years
Eight
Making false statements
Five years
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and its New York Field Office, Counterintelligence Division. Mr. Williams also thanked the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for their assistance.
If you have any information about LUFT’s whereabouts, please contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. Tips can be reported anonymously and can also be reported online at tips.fbi.gov.
This matter is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel C. Richenthal and Catherine Ghosh are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Scott Claffee of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the Indictment and the description of the Indictment set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.
U.S. v. Luft Indictment
Contact
Nicholas Biase
(212) 637-2600
Updated July 10, 2023
Nice old geological pic. That's great. Ghosts lakes, prehistoric slides, 120,000 year heat waves, man created water displacement causing earth shifting angle and rotation. We really should listen more to what she's saying.
I wouldn't worry about weather to much as AI will get us before that.................
Serious, life-threatening flooding is occurring today across much of Vermont. Emergency crews have conducted rescues in multiple communities. About two dozen state roads are closed as of 10AM. Flash flood warnings are in effect from the Massachusetts line to the Canadian border. pic.twitter.com/09ryZ1N7bR
— Vermont State Police (@VTStatePolice) July 10, 2023
HOMES THREATENED by sliding hillside | FS106 | Pear Tree Ln #RollingHillsEstates | #LACoFD units were on scene monitoring situation. 12 homes evacuated. pic.twitter.com/ruXIhKD82m
— L.A. County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) July 9, 2023
Sweden will likely become NATO member by the end of the year, if not even at the NATO summit. #Velsig #foresight https://t.co/v73wsPe6Qj
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) May 28, 2023
Well you'll sweat a bit more and might have to remember to tie your boat to your upper window, but at least your house isn't falling into the canyon. On the western side;
HOMES THREATENED by sliding hillside | FS106 | Pear Tree Ln #RollingHillsEstates | #LACoFD units were on scene monitoring situation. 12 homes evacuated. pic.twitter.com/ruXIhKD82m
— L.A. County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) July 9, 2023
Heres what you didnt see from todays #RollingHillsEstates land/house slide.Below in the canyon the dirt & hillside areas were moving very rapidly dumping in the base of the canyon.These homes will eventually fall into the canyon floor as the earth below keeps moving. 07-09-23 pic.twitter.com/cQ4WYbbVes
— Matt Hartman (@ShorealoneFilms) July 10, 2023
It's getting a lot of help. Like when your freezer goes out and you don't have any ice cubes to cool your drink. The oceans abilities to continue to sink 90% of the excess heat is greatly diminished when all of our ice caps are melting and earth's freezer is on blink. But in this case, you can't call your guy to fix it. All you have are the guys that keep turning up the heat.
The modeling for Aug, Sept and Oct continue to project an active hurricane season for Atlantic. For example;
Ocean warming since 1991 doubles the size of the marine heat wave forecasted for September 2023
BY REBECCA LINDSEY REVIEWED BY MICHAEL JACOX AND DILLON AMAYA
PUBLISHED JULY 7, 2023
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/ocean-warming-1991-doubles-size-marine-heat-wave-forecasted-september
Earlier this week, NOAA launched a new website for monitoring and forecasting the size and intensity of ocean heat waves up to a year in advance. According to the experimental forecast issued in June, 50 percent of the global oceans could experience heat wave conditions by September 2023. The forecast system also estimates how large and intense heat waves are without global warming’s influence on the ocean over the past three decades. Without the warming effect, the models predict that only 25 percent of the global ocean will be impacted by heat waves in September.
This pair of maps shows the probability that monthly average temperature in September will end up being in the warmest 10 percent (the 90th percentile) of Septembers for a given location between 1991 and 2020. The top map shows the forecast with the effects of long-term warming included, and the bottom map shows the forecast without the observed sea surface temperature trend between 1991 and 2020. Places that are darkest blue indicate a less than 10 percent chance of experiencing a heat wave; places that are brightest yellow indicate that the chance of a heat wave is greater than 90 percent.
Much more of the ocean, especially in the Indian and Pacific basins, is colored blue and purple in the bottom image, meaning that much less of the ocean is expected to experience a September heat wave when the influence of global warming over the past three decades is removed. A notable exception is the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, where the forecast indicates a high chance of a heat wave even without long-term warming, thanks to the developing El Niño event.
In the Atlantic, meanwhile, the climate system appears to have been primed for a hot summer. While the chances of a heatwave across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and tropical Atlantic would have been lower in a world without warming (bottom image), they were still pretty substantial–over 50 percent in many areas (dark pink to orange). As it is, however, the odds are greater than 70 percent across most of the region, and above 90 percent in places. (As with any forecast, the skill varies from place to place, and the uncertainty gets larger with longer lead times. The forecast page also provides maps of skill at various lead times so users can gauge how much confidence, based on past performance, underpins each forecast.)
Marine heat waves can cause mass coral bleaching, toxic algal blooms, and other heat-related disruptions of ocean ecosystems. These impacts can lead to mass die-offs of fish, marine mammals, and seabirds. Billions of dollars are lost in such events around the world each year. The new marine heatwave site can help fishing fleets, ocean managers, and coastal communities anticipate and prepare for the variety of impacts that occur during these events.
Read the full web story or explore the site on your own.
https://psl.noaa.gov/marine-heatwaves/#report
I saw that. I might again suggest a follow for this lady. She is very knowledgeable and respected for that knowledge around the world. She advises and consults some pretty high up people in governments and businesses. She has had pretty accurate thoughts before they happen especially with Russia, including projecting when Putin would attack Ukraine before he did it.
https://twitter.com/vtchakarova
Velina Tchakarova
@vtchakarova
Geopolitical Strategist| Chief Strategic Foreseer | I coined #Dragonbear |#geopolitics |#GlobalSystem | #realpolitik | #foresight | #trends | #risks | #RWRI
Consulting AgencyViennaforaconsciousexperience.comBorn July 16Joined November 2011
6,676 Following
128.9K Followers
2 Subscriptions
Followed by Visegrád 24, AlexAlvarova@toad.social, and emptywheel
Being older may not save us, happening too fast, may be what takes us out and it isn't going to be a good way to go.
Besides the northeast problems, in Gulf of Mexico, water temperature heat anomalies, water temp as high as 95 deg yesterday. What does that mean? People in Florida might want to keep stocked up in emergency supplies, maybe a little hell to pay in the next 4 months.
No worries though right? Might be a little cooling relief
Saharan dust cloud heads toward Florida, several Southern states
The dust cloud is expected to hit several Southern states this coming week
Dust from the Sahara is carried across the Atlantic by trade winds
The plume may lower temperatures and reduce air quality
Stephanie Whiteside
Updated: JUL 9, 2023 / 04:15 PM CDT
https://www.newsnationnow.com/weather/saharan-dust-cloud-florida/
Then again, how much cooler does one think we're going to get.
Besides that, lets take a few examples around the US and the world. All just in the last 48 hrs. There is many more than a few, this is only the beginning. The earths temp currently is the highest in 120,000 years.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4086841-were-experiencing-earths-hottest-weather-in-120000-years-and-its-just-getting-started/
#Beas River today created History by touching the 1877 Built #Victoria bridge 🙏🏻
— Weatherman Shubham (@shubhamtorres09) July 9, 2023
Several Bridges in #Mandi district surrendered today in front of Beas
9th July 2023 = A Date to Remember#HimachalPradesh pic.twitter.com/Y7OebGtgcr
A look at 12 hour rainfall across the Northeast. Another round developing tonight/ tomorrow with a focus on the mountains… Berkshires MA and Green/ White Mtns of VT and NH. Flash flooding likely! pic.twitter.com/BZohXNDaEA
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) July 10, 2023
#Baddi #HimachalPradesh
— Gurmeet Singh (@IamGrumpyyy) July 9, 2023
Tributary of Sirsa pic.twitter.com/cGGgxNLX9x
Flash Flooding in Norman OK
— Jordan Hall (@JordanHallWX) July 9, 2023
Vehicles submerged, drivers still trying to drive through flood waters. #okwx @SevereStudios pic.twitter.com/vQh2Ac1YRD
Around the world, governments are outlawing protests, locking up climate protesters who inconvenience motorists
— Prof Ray Wills (@ProfRayWills) July 7, 2023
Meanwhile extreme weather floods roads
What's worse?
Inconvenience for climate change?
Or, inconvenience by climate change? #Zaragoza Spainpic.twitter.com/11IYXXUkBC https://t.co/tNPtcItvow
Scariest video of today 🙏🏻🙏🏻
— Weatherman Shubham (@shubhamtorres09) July 9, 2023
Manikaran Valley , Himachal Pradesh pic.twitter.com/V94IbsJVBD
Torrential rain event underway in Kyushu #Japan as band of storms that’s been stationary for last 7hrs has dumped over 300mm of rain in places so far since midnight. Highest level emergency warnings are in place, likely dangerous flash flooding underway pic.twitter.com/bNiUkABEVs
— James Reynolds (@EarthUncutTV) July 9, 2023
Route 218 from cornwall to West point is gone pic.twitter.com/zdxMJAkQ7M
— NsfwWx ❄️ (@NsfwWx) July 10, 2023
The news source, polinews.org or aka Political Tribune or aka DC Tribune or aka who knows, might be a little iffy. Seems a bit click-bity and doesn't really show up either in the media bias data (https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/) or the general searches with the exception of just the social media sites.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/dc-tribune/ had this to say about them.
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Left Bias sources.
Overall, we rate the Political Tribune far-Left Biased based on story selection and wording that always favors the left and Mixed for factual reporting due to the heavy spin of information that changes the context of stories and two failed fact checks.
In review, the Political Tribune exhibits overt left-wing bias through the extensive use of strong emotional wording............ Overall, we rate the Political Tribune far-Left Biased based on story selection and wording that always favors the left and Mixed for factual reporting due to the heavy spin of information that changes the context of stories
They create so much hate. dysfunction, and disorder that they turn on themselves to get rid of some it. The Karens and MTGs used to be just called dumb white trailer trash, now we call them congress and GOP leaders. Looking for the day that they are just called trump trash and taken out to the curb. While the scuffles may be verbal as leading Republicans jostle to become the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, down at the state level things have actually turned physical — at least in Michigan, and not for the first time. This is also not the first time internal tensions have erupted. The Washington Post reported in June: “At least four county parties in Michigan have been at open war with themselves, with members suing one another or putting forward competing slates that claim to be in charge. The night before an April state party meeting, two GOP officials got into a physical altercation in a hotel bar over an attempt to expel members.”
They're at it again;
Violent brawl breaks out at Michigan GOP committee meeting
Tensions stemming from budget questions boiled over committee meeting
Oliver O'Connell
New York
5 hours ago
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/michigan-republican-party-fight-b2372077.html
Tensions boiled over within the Michigan Republican Party on Saturday resulting in an altercation at a hotel to which the police were called.
Not quite a "violent brawl" but here's an article for the one last April (with video of the altercation).
Michigan GOP infighting leads to actual fight between Karamo, DePerno backers
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-gop-infighting-leads-actual-fight-between-karamo-deperno-backers
April 18, 2023
Jonathan Oosting
Michigan Government
LANSING — An alleged assault on the eve of a Michigan Republican Party leadership meeting stemmed from an escalating proxy battle between new state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo and former ally Matthew DePerno, party insiders say.
Authorities say local police were called to a patio bar at the Doherty Hotel in Clare on Friday night, where members of the Michigan GOP’s new state central committee gathered for their first formal meeting the following day.
A video recording obtained by Bridge Michigan shows a confrontation between Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis. After they exchanged words, Sackett appeared to knock a cigarette and phone from the hand of Pehlis, who responded by thrusting an open hand at Sackett's head.
What Elroy said, yes Russian oil exports have increased, but their income has decreased from it having to sell that oil like a criminal selling hot goods, with countries like India buying the blood oil for cheap. I regard countries like them as someone who knows something is stolen and even killed or maimed the victims, yet still buys it supporting the crimes and blood spilled all for their own greed and self benefit. In this case supporting the massive murder of civilians, war crimes, including raping and torturing of young women, girls and boys, along with the scorched earth policy effecting pretty much everyone in the whole world.
But there of course is more to the story, like creating an environment to the extreme that..................
We’re experiencing Earth’s hottest weather in 120,000 years, and it’s just getting started
BY JEFF BERARDELLI - 07/08/23 9:03 PM ET
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4086841-were-experiencing-earths-hottest-weather-in-120000-years-and-its-just-getting-started/
Something that never gets accounted for in the debate of costs of green vs black arguments is the trillions and trillions of dollars and lost life and quality of living costs that extreme weather and destruction of the environment have cost us, and will continue to increase exponentially our costs of using fossil fuels in the near future.
Along with Russia's increase of the 6.9% figure in this article;
Tankers: US Crude Oil Exports Up 23.5% In the First Five Months of 2023
in Hellenic Shipping News 08/07/2023
The US crude oil export trade has grown significantly over the past few years, with further growth during the first five months of 2023. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “2023 so far has been another positive period for crude oil trade, despite the high oil prices and risks of economic recession. In Jan-May 2023, global crude oil loadings went up +9.4% y-o-y to 906.8 mln tonnes, excluding all cabotage trade, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. This was well above the 828.6 mln tonnes in Jan-May 2022 and the 769.0 mln tonnes of Jan-May 2021, but also slightly above the 880.1 mln tonnes in the same period of 2020. Exports from the Arabian Gulf were up +4.2% y-o-y to 365.9 mln t in Jan-May 2023, and accounted for 40.4% of global seaborne crude oil trade. Exports from Russia have also increased by +6.9% y-o-y to 100.2 mln tonnes, or 11.1% of global trade. From West Africa, exports declined by -0.7% y-o-y to 72.1 mln t. From South America, exports surged by +22.5% y-o-y to 62.3 mln tonnes in Jan-May 2023”.
Source: Banchero Costa
According to the shipbroker, “in terms of demand, seaborne imports into the European Union (27) increased by +7.2% y-o-y to 196.9 mln t in Jan-May 2023, with the EU accounting for 21.8% of global seaborne crude oil imports. Imports to China increased by +13.4% y-o-y to 207.0 mln t in Jan-May 2023, accounting for 22.9% of global trade. Volumes into India increased +4.7% yo-y to 99.0 mln t in Jan-May 2023”.
“The Unites States significantly boosted their crude oil production and exports since the shale “revolution”. Exports from the USA sharply increased in recent years, to the point that it is now the fourth largest exporter in the world, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia. In the full year 2022, USA ports accounted for 8.0% of global crude oil loadings (excluding cabotage).
About 52 percent of international crude exports from the USA are loaded in Corpus Christi, about 22 percent from Galveston, about 8 percent from Houston, about 5 percent from LOOP, about 3 percent from Bayport, about 3 percent from Beaumont. Given persisting infrastructure limitations, only about 51 percent of crude oil volumes loaded at USA ports are loaded on VLCCs. Most VLCC cargoes are loaded in Corpus Christi, Galveston and LOOP. About 23 percent of volumes are loaded on Suezmaxes, and as much as 25 percent is loaded on Aframaxes”, said Banchero Costa.
Source: Banchero Costa
The shipbroker added that “in the 12 months of 2020, the USA managed to ship 137.8 mln tonnes of crude oil, up by +7.1% year-on-year. However in 2021 the USA exported just 134.3 mln t, down -2.5% y-o-y. In 2022, exports from the USA surged by +22.9% y-o-y to 165.1 mln tonnes. In the first 5 months of 2023, seaborne crude oil exports from the USA surged by a further +23.5% y-o-y to 79.5 mln tonnes (excluding cabotage), from 64.3 mln t in the same period of 2022. In terms of destinations for the shipments, it is quite diversified, with about 45% to Asia, 42% to Europe, and the rest to the Americas. Direction Europe, about 52.7 mln tonnes (32.0 percent of the total) were shipped from the USA to the European Union in the full 12 months of 2022, whilst about 17.1 mln tonnes (10.3 percent of the total) went to the United Kingdom. Specifically, 12.8 mln tonnes were shipped in Jan-Dec 2022 to the Netherlands, 8.3 mln t to Italy, 7.8 mln t to Spain, 7.2 mln t to France, 6.9 mln t to Germany, 2.5 mln to Denmark. Overall exports from the USA to the European Union increased by +44.7% y-o-y in the full 12 months of 2022, whilst to the United Kingdom increased by +32.6% y-o-y. Direction Asia, about 19.3 mln tonnes were shipped from the USA to South Korea in the 12 months of 2022 (11.7 percent of the USA’s total), an increase of +6.8% y-o-y. Exports from the USA to India declined by -18.8% y-o-y in the 12 months of 2022 to 15.4 mln tonnes. Volumes to Singapore surged by +311% y-o-y to 12.9 mln t from just 3.1 mln t in 2021. To Mainland China volumes increased by +9.8% y-o-y to 10.8 mln tonnes, and to Taiwan by +19.6% y-o-y to 8.1 mln t. To Japan volumes increased by +92.4% y-o-y to 1.5 mln t in Jan-Dec 2022”, Banchero Costa concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
Moody's weekly market outlook. One can sign up for notifications to their inbox. I find it a pretty good summary of the weeks current economic data and projections and/or forecasts. Range of economic subjects; major global economies, energy, gdp, emerging markets, geopolitical calendar, labor market, investment and housing, ratings and corporate credit quality (which downgrades outnumbered upgrades 6 to 3 last week in the US and 5 to 3 in Western Europe), and more every week. Understandably doesn't cover every darn thing, usually only a couple of dozen pages, but very informative market data summaries, graphs, and outlooks of the massive amount of info in a week in some major categories. Moody's of course has many other resources that one can go to for more involvement depending on one's needs, if any. More tuned for the big guys than the low retail, but still has some resources that the little guy/gal/x can use if desired.
WEEKLY MARKET
OUTLOOK
JULY 6, 2023
https://www.moodys.com/research/doc--PBC_1374989
With Trump in trouble, Republicans step up assault on DoJ and FBI
Critics say party that touted its law-and-order credentials now intent on wrecking institutions that get in Donald Trump’s way
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/08/republicans-trump-assault-doj-fbi
David Smith
David Smith Washington bureau chief
@smithinamerica
Sat 8 Jul 2023 07.00 EDT
When Merrick Garland was nominated to the US supreme court by Barack Obama, Republicans refused to grant him a hearing. Now that Garland is the top law enforcement official in America, the party seems ready to give him one after all – an impeachment hearing.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are moving up a gear in a wide-ranging assault on the justice department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that would have been unthinkable before the rise of Donald Trump. The party that for half a century claimed the mantle of law and order has, critics say, become a cult of personality intent on discrediting and dismantling institutions that get in Trump’s way.
“I often think, what would Richard Nixon say?” observed Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “He was the original ‘law and order’ president, with that slogan. What would he think now the party is going after the primary institutions of law and order, at least at the federal level? The law and order party has become the paranoid party.”
The trend, apparent for years, has become palpable since Republicans gained narrow control of the House of Representatives in January. Within a month they had set up a panel, chaired by Trump loyalist Jim Jordan, to investigate “the Weaponization of the Federal Government” and examine what they allege is the politicisation of the justice department and FBI against conservatives.
Their frustrations intensified last month when Trump became the first former president to face federal criminal charges, over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Far from condemning a potential law-breaker in their own ranks, nearly all Trump’s rivals for the presidential nomination in 2024 accused the FBI of political bias, with some even calling for its abolition and vowing to pardon him if elected.
Many Republicans then spoke of a “two-tiered” justice system when Joe Biden’s son Hunter struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors over tax evasion and gun possession charges that will keep him out of prison. A former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee has alleged political interference in the investigation and accused Garland of failing to tell Congress the truth, a claim Garland denies.
Some Republicans, especially on the far right, are now demanding Garland’s impeachment, a sanction that no cabinet official has suffered since 1876. Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, told the conservative Fox News network recently: “Someone has lied here. If we find that Garland has lied to Congress, we will start an impeachment inquiry.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, is discovering that his status as a Trump appointee offers no immunity against the Republican onslaught.
In May congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a leading Trump ally, introduced articles of impeachment against him, claiming that “the FBI has intimidated, harassed, and entrapped American citizens that have been deemed enemies of the Biden regime” and that he “has turned the FBI into Joe Biden and Merrick Garland’s personal police force” with “Soviet-style tactics”.
Last month the House oversight committee was poised to hold Wray in contempt until he agreed to let all its members review a 2020 document containing bribery allegations against Biden – allegations that Democrats say were examined and dismissed by the justice department during Trump’s presidency.
Wray is now due to testify at a House judiciary committee hearing, chaired by Jordan, on Wednesday, with topics likely to include Trump’s indictment, Hunter’s plea deal and the special counsel John Durham’s criticism of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
Greene has also introduced impeachment articles against Biden and other members of the cabinet and indicated that she intends to force floor votes on her resolutions. This would doubtless create a spectacle for conservative TV channels and satisfy a desire among the “Make America great again” (Maga) base to avenge Trump after years of hearings in which he was the accused.
However, any impeachments would be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate and could backfire among the electorate at large, with many voters sensing a desperate attempt to distract from policy debates.
Sabato commented: “It would excite their activists, but most Americans would be repulsed and shake their heads and say, these people need to get their house in order, then we’ll consider voting for them. I’m sure Biden, in a way, hopes he is impeached, and the others too.
“It’s a waste of time: there’s no chance of the conviction in the Senate. They just sticking the knife in their own chest. They’re committing suicide. It’s fine, go right ahead, have a good time!”
Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project watchdog, agreed. He said: “The party of Maga is following the leader, Donald Trump, who is currently in serious legal troubles across the country. The party seems willing to try to deflect from those legal problems by running interference vis-a-vis investigations that they’re doing in Congress. What they’re doing is playing 30% of their base without realising you need another 20% to win elections.”
Some establishment Republicans are aware of such dangers and reluctant to abandon the party’s law-and-order credentials, not least because they see crime as a major talking point in next year’s elections. It is a particularly awkward issue for 18 Republican members of the House from districts that Biden won in the 2020, all of whom have good reason to avoid voting with extremists such as Greene. The internal struggle threatens a political headache for McCarthy.
Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “There are definitely people in the Republican party and in Congress who would like to proceed to impeach the head of the justice department, Garland, to go after the head of the FBI and to even go after Joe Biden.
“But there are cooler heads who appreciate that the kind of paranoia-infected Trump contagion is wrong and could be a real setback for the 2024 election.
“Independent voters, who tend to swing US elections that have become so close, don’t buy into the Trump line. You don’t see support for this unhinged view that the justice department and the FBI are somehow corrupt. There’s not support for that except in the fringe of the Republican party. The question, though, is does the fringe of the Republican party have enough leverage, particularly in the House of Representatives, to force impeachment votes and other measures?”
The acrimony threatens to dominate the rest of the year in an already unproductive Congress. Republicans might take aim at law enforcement budgets and have already withheld more funding for a new FBI headquarters.
Their stance represents a stunning reversal for a party with a long tradition of pitching itself as pro-police and tough-on-crime, from Nixon speaking of cities “enveloped in smoke and flame” to Ronald Reagan’s embrace of mass incarceration. It has its roots in the years of political attacks by Trump against an alleged “deep state” that is out to get him – and, by extension, his supporters.
His rancour towards the FBI began in earnest when the bureau scrutinised alleged ties between his 2016 election campaign and Russia while deciding not to prosecute him opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, for using a private email server when she was secretary of state. Then FBI director James Comey rebuked Clinton, calling her handling of classified information careless, but said there was no clear evidence she or her aides intentionally broke laws.
Trump’s relentless broadsides via campaign rallies and social media had an effect: a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February 2018 found that three out of four Republicans thought the FBI and justice department were actively seeking to undermine Trump through politically motivated investigations.
The sowing of distrust reached full bloom with a baseless conspiracy theory that the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol was a hoax orchestrated by the bureau. Seen through this prism, each FBI investigation of those involved and each justice department prosecution of them is a violation, not an affirmation, of law enforcement.
Kurt Bardella, who was a spokesperson and senior adviser for Republicans on the House oversight committee from 2009 to 2013, said: “It’s really something to watch the political party that spent the 2022 midterms hollering about being pro-law enforcement and anti-defund the police when now they’re using all of their resources and their very narrow House majority to do exactly that: tear down law enforcement and defund the police.”
Bardella, now a Democratic strategist, added: “It seems like Republicans love the idea of law enforcement except when it comes to white-collar crime and when it comes to people of their own. It’s interesting that they want two sets of justice systems: one that looks the other way and condones the multitude of crimes that their leader, Donald Trump, has been accused of and another justice system for just about everybody else.”
As erosion exposes the buried the GOP and their extremist cohorts attempt to cover it back up.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tulsa-1921-an-american-tragedy-cbsnews-special/
I'm sure this book that I pre ordered a few days ago for next month will be banned on some list. Maybe not for grade school reading, but maybe high school and definitely college should be required. A 109 yr old memoir. If tired of all the traitor trump political books, recommend this one highly.
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Them-Bury-Story/dp/1737168405
Who is this prodigious centurion?
https://apnews.com/article/viola-fletcher-book-memoir-tulsa-race-massacre-0042fdce69750104e9dd6aef69f63de0
Definite required reading for this guy who should be kicked out of the school system and all the other GOP fanatics (like M4L) that want to rewrite history, indoctrinate our children with methods and teachings of Hitler and Putin.
Outrage as Republican says 1921 Tulsa massacre not motivated by race
Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters decried for comments on 1921 massacre in which hundreds were killed by white mobs
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/08/oklahoma-republican-tulsa-race-massacre
Adam Gabbatt
@adamgabbatt
Sat 8 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT
The state official in charge of Oklahoma’s schools is facing calls for impeachment, after he said teachers should tell students that the Tulsa race massacre was not racially motivated...............................................................
July 7, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
JUL 8, 2023
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-7-2023
For more than a week now, I have intended to write a deep dive into the right-wing Moms for Liberty group that held their “Joyful Warriors National Summit” in Philadelphia last week, only to have one thing or another that seemed more important push it off another day. This morning it hit me that maybe that’s the story: that the reactionary right that has taken so much of our oxygen for the past year is losing ground to the country’s new forward movementFor more than a week now, I have intended to write a deep dive into the right-wing Moms for Liberty group that held their “Joyful Warriors National Summit” in Philadelphia last week, only to have one thing or another that seemed more important push it off another day. This morning it hit me that maybe that’s the story: that the reactionary right that has taken so much of our oxygen for the past year is losing ground to the country’s new forward movement.
Today the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics pushed ahead of them by showing that the U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June. The rate of job growth is slowing but still strong, although the economy showed that the Black unemployment rate, which had been at an all-time low, climbed from 4.7% to 6%. Since Black workers historically are the first to lose their jobs, this is likely a signal that the job market is cooling, which should continue to slow inflation.
In the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called out the media outlets so focused on the idea that Biden would mismanage the economy and that recession was imminent that they have ignored “29 consecutive months of job growth, inflation steadily declining, durable goods having been up for three consecutive months, 35,000 new infrastructure projects, an extended period in which real wages exceeded inflation and outsize gains for lower wage-earners.” As reporters focused on the horse-race aspect of politics and how voters “felt” about issues, she noted, “[w]e have seen far too little coverage of the economic transformation in little towns, rural areas and aging metro centers brought about by new investment in plants, infrastructure projects and green energy related to the Chips Act.”
Also of note is that today is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s first day of talks with top Chinese officials in Beijing, where she will also talk to U.S. business leaders. At stake is the Biden administration’s focus on U.S. national security, which includes both limiting China’s access to U.S. technology that has military applications and bringing supply chains home. China interprets these new limitations as an attempt to hurt its economy. Yellen is in Beijing to emphasize that the U.S. hopes to maintain healthy trade with China but, she told Chinese Premier Li Qiang, “The United States will, in certain circumstances, need to pursue targeted actions to protect its national security.”
Meanwhile, China’s faltering economy has led to new rules that exclude foreign companies, leading U.S. businesses to reconsider investments there. Chinese leaders have tried to reassure foreign business leaders that they are welcome in China, while Yellen told U.S business leaders: “I have made clear that the United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies. We seek to diversify, not to decouple. A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.”
The success of Biden’s policies both at home and abroad has pushed the Republican Party into an existential crisis, and that’s where Moms for Liberty fits in. Since the years of the Reagan administration, the Movement Conservatives who wanted to destroy the New Deal state recognized that they only way they could win voters to slash taxes for the wealthy and cut back popular social problems was by whipping up social issues to convince voters that Black Americans, or people of color, or feminists, wanted a handout from the government, undermining America by ushering in “socialism.” The forty years from 1981 to 2021 moved wealth upward dramatically and hollowed out the middle class, creating a disaffected population ripe for an authoritarian figure who promised to return that population to upward mobility by taking revenge on those they now saw as their enemies.
In the past two years, according to a recent working paper by economists David Autor, Arindrajit Dube, and Annie McGrew, Biden’s policies have wiped out a quarter of the inequality built in the previous forty. And at the same time that Biden’s resurrection of the liberal consensus of the years from 1933 to 1980 is illustrating that the economic problems in the country were the fault of Republican policies rather than of marginalized people, the extremism of those angry Republican footsoldiers is revealing that they are not the centrist Americans they have claimed to be.
Moms for Liberty, which bills itself as a group protecting children, organized in 2021 to protest mask mandates in schools, then graduated on to crusade against the teaching of “critical race theory.” That, right there, was a giveaway because that panic was created by then-journalist Christopher Rufo, who has emerged as a leader of the U.S. attack on democracy.
Rufo embraces the illiberal democracy, or Christian democracy, of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, saying: “It’s time to clean house in America: remove the attorney general, lay siege to the universities, abolish the teachers’ unions, and overturn the school boards.” Radical right activists like Rufo believe they must capture the central institutions of the U.S. and get rid of the tenets of democracy—individual rights, academic freedom, free markets, separation of church and state, equality before the law—in order to save the country.
Because those central democratic values are taught in schools, the far right has focused on attacking schools from kindergartens to universities with the argument that they are places of “liberal indoctrination.” As a Moms for Liberty chapter in Indiana put on its first newspaper: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.” While this quotation is often used by right-wing Christian groups to warn of what they claim liberal groups do, it is attributed to German dictator Adolf Hitler. Using it boomeranged on the Moms for Liberty group not least because it coincided with the popular “Shiny Happy People” documentary about the far-right religious Duggar family that showed the “grooming” and exploitation of children in that brand of evangelicalism.
Moms for Liberty have pushed for banning books that refer to any aspect of modern democracy they find objectionable, focusing primarily on those with LGBTQ+ content or embrace of minority rights. During the first half of the 2022–2023 school year, PEN America, which advocates for literature, found that 874 unique titles had been challenged, up 28% from the previous six months. The bans were mostly in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina. A study by the Washington Post found that two thirds of book challenges came from individuals who filed 10 or more complaints, with the filers often affiliated with Moms for Liberty or similar groups. And in their quest to make education align with their ideology, the Moms for Liberty have joined forces with far-right extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, sovereign citizens groups, and so on, pushing them even further to the right.
Although the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Moms for Liberty an “extremist group” that spreads “messages of anti-inclusion and hate,” the group appeared to offer to the Republican Party inroads into the all-important “suburban woman” vote, which party leaders interpret as white women (although in fact the 2020 census shows that suburbs are increasingly diverse—in 1990, about 20% of people living in the suburbs were people of color; in 2020 it was 45%).
When Moms for Liberty convened in Philadelphia last week, five candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, including Trump, showed up. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told them: “When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization, I said, ‘Well then, count me as a mom for liberty because that’s what I am.”
But here’s the crisis for the Republican Party: Leaders who wanted tax cuts and cuts to social programs relied on courting voters with cultural issues, suggesting that their coalition was protecting the United States from radicalism.
But the Republican embrace of Moms for Liberty illustrates dramatically and to a wide audience how radical the party itself has become, threatening to turn away all but its extremist base. A strong majority of Americans oppose book banning: about two thirds of the general population and even 51% of Republicans oppose it, recognizing that it echoes the rise of authoritarians.
As historian Nicole Hemmer points out today for CNN, Moms for Liberty are indeed a new version of “a broader and longstanding reactionary movement centered on restoring traditional hierarchies of race, gender and sexuality” that in the U.S. included the women of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and segregationists who organized as “Restore Our Alienated Rights” (ROAR) in the 1970s. Hemmer observes: “The book bans, the curricula battles, the efforts to fire teachers and disrupt school board meetings—little here is new.”
In the past, a democratic coalition has come together to reject such extremism. If it does so again, the Republican marriage of elites to street fighters will crumble, leaving room for the country to rebuild the relationship between citizens and the government. When a similar realignment happened in the 1930s under Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Republican Party had little choice but to follow.
—
Notes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/07/may-jobs-unemployment/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/07/supreme-court-legitimacy-restoration/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/07/janet-yellen-china-economic-ties/
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/todays-suburbs-are-symbolic-of-americas-rising-diversity-a-2020-census-portrait/
https://apnews.com/article/moms-for-liberty-adolf-hitler-newsletter-quote-bcce698e901b9e782970030ccd710512
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/19/22787269/conservatives-america-chris-rufo-patrick-deneen
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/duggar-family-documentary-shiny-happy-people-amazon-prime-rcna87740
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d93qd/moms-for-liberty-proud-boys
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/06/moms-for-liberty-john-birch-society-far-right-book-bans
https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/
https://www.salon.com/2023/07/05/moms-for-liberty-are-in-for-a-rude-awakening/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4032438-nearly-half-of-republicans-oppose-book-bans-poll/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/07/opinions/moms-for-liberty-conservative-women-history-hemmer/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/business/economy/jobs-great-resignation.html
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31010/w31010.pdf
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By Heather Cox Richardson · Hundreds of thousands of paid subscribers
A newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-7-2023/comments
Traitor trump continues to be the biggest loser. He and his team of landslide losers are caught in the middle of a flood becoming a tsunami.
JUST IN: Trump's appeal of the ruling that required Mike Pence to testify to the Jan. 6 grand jury has been dismissed over Trump's objection.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 7, 2023
Even though Pence already testified, Trump continued to press the appeal. pic.twitter.com/3obSa51O3g
I’m sure Jim Jordan will investigate this weaponization ASAP. https://t.co/fe5MzrlXgd
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 7, 2023
Another filing today (38 pages).
https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rvt7KS1jA1U4/v0
THIS REPORT IS NOT A FINAL ORDER OF DISCIPLINE*
* Consult the ‘Disciplinary Decisions’ tab on the Board on Professional
Responsibility’s website (www.dcattorneydiscipline.org) to view any subsequent
decisions in this case.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
BOARD ON PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
AD HOC HEARING COMMITTEE
In the Matter of:
RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI,
Respondent.
A Temporarily Suspended Member of
the Bar of the District of Columbia
Court of Appeals
(Bar Registration No. 237255)
Board Docket No. 22-BD-027
Disciplinary Docket No. 2020-D253
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
OF AD HOC HEARING COMMITTEE
There really is no need to hold back. Tell us how you really feel. lol
Well this is awkward pic.twitter.com/FJiinXe6No
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 7, 2023