playing the BIG boards. options included. making the profits with this volitality !
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White House Stands by Kavanaugh as Accuser Says She’s Willing to Testify
“She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth.”
Inae Oh
Sept. 17, 2018 9:06 AM
Shortly after the interview aired, Kavanaugh released a statement again denying the accusations, adding that he was willing to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee to “defend” his integrity. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday,” the statement read. “I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”
The attorney representing Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, said on Monday that her client is willing to testify before Congress about her allegations.
“She is, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth, yes,” attorney Debra Katz said during an appearance on the Today show.
Katz said Ford had not taken a position on whether Kavanaugh should withdraw as President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Anthony Kennedy on the high court—though she noted that her client believes the alleged incident is relevant to the confirmation process. Ford came forward to the Washington Post on Sunday with detailed accusations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh when they were teenagers in the 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
“She believes that these allegations obviously bear on [Kavanaugh’s] character and his fitness—and the denials, of course, also bear on his character and fitness,” Katz said.
“She has taken a polygraph,” Katz continued. “She is a credible person. These are serious allegations and these should be addressed.”
Katz also said Ford believed the incident with Kavanaugh was an attempted rape. “She believes that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would’ve been raped,” Katz said.
TODAY
?
@TODAYshow
“She has taken a polygraph. She is a credible person. These are serious allegations, and these should be addressed.”
Watch @savannahguthrie’s full interview with Debra Katz, attorney for Kavanaugh accuser
7:32 AM - Sep 17, 2018
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242 people are talking about this
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Following the interview, the White House on Monday issued a new statement standing by Kavanaugh. “On Friday, Judge Kavanaugh ‘categorically and unequivocally’ denied this allegation,” White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement. “This has not changed. Judge Kavanaugh and the White House both stand by that statement.”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway offered a different reaction, telling Fox News on Monday that Ford “will be heard.”
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Kellyanne Conway on Ford: "This woman should not be insulted and she should not be ignored... This woman will be heard... that has to be weighed against what we already know, which is that Judge Kavanaugh is a man of character and integrity."
7:45 AM - Sep 17, 2018
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In the wake of the allegations against Kavanaugh, which first emerged last week through reports of a letter by an unidentified woman who had contacted Democratic lawmakers over the summer with her account, Democrats are demanding the confirmation process be put on hold until they hear more from Ford. (A committee vote on the nomination is currently scheduled for Thursday.) A handful of Republican senators, including Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), appeared to join their Democratic colleagues, signaling that the vote may need to be postponed.
Some Republicans calling on Ford to testify in the wake of her explosive story had reportedly believed that she would decline their invitations to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a move they presumably imagined would cast doubt on her credibility. Katz’s interview on Monday seems to have undercut that strategy.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh-testify/
Brett Kavanaugh Gave a Speech About Binge Drinking in Law School
Pema Levy
Sept 17, 2018
Following an allegation of a drunken assault, the speech takes on a different light
On the precipice of his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh stands accused of drunkenly assaulting a 15-year-old when he was in high school. A friend who was allegedly present for the assault, Mark Judge, actually wrote a book about being an alcoholic in high school. Kavanaugh appears to make an appearance in the book under the name “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” in which he “puked in someone’s car” and “passed out on his way back from a party.”
In April 2014, Kavanaugh gave a speech to the Yale Law School Federalist Society in which he recalled drinking and partying in law school. The speech recalls innocent hijinks, but in light of the accusations now leveled against him, they provide context to Kavanaugh’s partying, though several years after the alleged attack would have taken place.
Here is an excerpt of that speech:
I am approaching my eighth anniversary on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. I am approaching the 24th anniversary of my graduation from this school. That means I am approaching the 24th anniversary of my organizing 30 classmates in a bus to go to Boston for a Red Sox game and a night of Boston bar-hopping, only for us to return falling out of the bus onto the front steps of Yale Law School at about 4:45 a.m. One friend of mine, Steve Hartmann, actually had a Labor Law final the next morning. (I checked with him just yesterday to confirm that it was Labor Law.) True story.
On the bus, he actually had his book out and was reading his notes while people were doing group chugs from a keg. He got a P. I think the people doing the group chugs got H’s. Fortunately for all of us, we had a motto, what happens on the bus stays on the bus. Tonight, you can modify that to what happens at the Fed Soc after-party stays at the Fed Soc afterparty.
We had a good run my third year. We got our work done, but we had our share of fun. During our third year class party, it was a beautiful night then as it is tonight. We were at the Lawn Club. No one had done their SAWs. Most people didn’t even have their topics yet. But we didn’t care that night. We had a memorable evening. It is fair to say that we had a few drinks. Indeed, as a classmate of mine and I were reminiscing and piecing things together the other day, we think we had more than a few beers before the banquet. Might have been at Toads. Not a good idea.
Anyway, toward the end of the evening a friend of mine who shall remain nameless – and this is a story that is really about a friend of mine, not about me where I am disguising myself as a friend of mine — my friend broke a table in the Lawn Club reception area. Smashed it into multiple pieces. I actually still possess a photo of him sprawled on the floor on top of the table. How’d did he break it, you might ask? The old-fashioned way. He lost his balance and fell into the table, drink in hand, and the table collapsed. My friend was a big guy.
Now, you might think that we would have quickly left the Lawn Club after that, with some sense of shame. But you’d be wrong. My friend actually tried to get another drink at the bar. Proving something I have always known – that bartenders have a lot more common sense than many law school students – the bartender refused to serve my friend.
But that’s where one of our many fond memories of Yale Law School came in. Professor Steve Duke, who himself might have had a few cocktails, came to the rescue and told my friend that he would take care of the situation and argue his case to the bartender. His actual words, as we recalled the other day, were “I’ll take your case.” And sure enough, Steve Duke – or as we called him for reasons too bizarre to recall now, the Dukie-stick – won the case and got my friend some more beers. That’s probably one Professor Duke deserved to lose. The moral of this story: I suppose there are a lot of them. But here’s one I like: Don’t ever let it be said that Yale Law professors are not there when you most need them.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/brett-kavanaugh-gave-a-speech-about-binge-drinking-in-law-school/
that's your analysis. ROTFLMAO. you are mild entertainment at best.
you also have a nice day.
incorrect on both. try again.
even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
you have one more attempt.
Let me guess you don't use Proctor and Gamble products and you're a card holding member of the flat earth society.
(edit) we, you and i, and others, can agree to disagree. that is good. it is healthy.
imho,...all of us only hold a piece of the puzzle on any topic discussed.
i don't base my friendships on the individual agreeing with me and if they don't i don't discount them as a friend.
i base my friendships on the individuals character and integrity and humanness they exhibit. in other words,...they walk their talk.
as an example,...i have had conversations and debates with ardent Trump supporters. HUGE disagreements,...hated exchanges. after wards we take off and have a beer at the local pub.
i have had other friends ask "how can i hang out with this asshole?"
my response,..."because they are valuable as a person and politics have nothing to do with our friendship."
i choose to have the fullest picture as possible on any topic,...puzzle pieces are put in place by utilizing them,..not throwing them away.
i'm seeking the bigger picture and by practicing that i get to place another puzzle piece on the board and i receive the bigger picture coming into view.
"It is not the unknown we fear, but the known coming to an end."
~ Krishnamurti
fuagf,...it appears that some are willing to roll the dice. it all changes by the hour.
all that can be performed is damage control which i'm sure is being conducted now.
spin, spin, spin until they hit a story that the public will swallow. so far it ain't working with some GOP members retracting and asking to stop the confirmation until this matter is resolved.
news at 11,... 8^)
Asian plastic is choking the world's oceans
Dominic Faulder, Associate Editor, Nikkei Asian Review
August 01, 2018
More than 80% of marine plastic pollution comes from Asia
BANGKOK -- The recent death of a short-finned pilot whale in Songkhla, southern Thailand, triggered a bout of long-overdue national anguish. The creature, discovered in June, was filled to its blowhole with 85 plastic bags that it had mistaken for food. Endangered finless porpoises, Irrawaddy dolphins, and turtles have also been recent casualties of plastic ingestion in Thai waters.
A video of British diver Rich Horner swimming through dense shoals of plastic waste off the Indonesian resort island of Bali went viral in March. Appalled viewers watched as Horner, along with a lone manta ray and the occasional fish, become enveloped in cascades of plastic bags and wrappers.
And near Mumbai, a dead whale recently washed ashore from the Arabian Sea, killed by ingested plastic like its cousin in Thailand. The city's famous Marine Drive is blighted by tons of washed-up waste after high tide; in the absence of an effective municipal response, locals often take it upon themselves to clean up.
Such ominous incidents are finally triggering awareness of the environmental catastrophe caused by plastic waste. The U.K., Chile and China are among countries moving against the profligate use of plastic bags, while companies like Starbucks face mounting pressure to ban plastic straws.
Nowhere is the need for action greater than in Asia, the source of over 80% of the plastic that ends up in the world's oceans. But in most of the region, efforts to tackle the pollution are inadequate or nonexistent.
Plastic and other waste clog a river in Cambodia. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)
Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, who was appointed executive director of the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity in April, acknowledged that her group was spurred into action this year only after the scale of the region's problem was highlighted by Ocean Conservancy in Washington.
"Our efforts to protect marine biodiversity started to become more proactive this year after some [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member states were identified as top marine pollutants," she told the Nikkei Asian Review.
In the 2017 report, Ocean Conservancy found that "Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam dump more plastic into the oceans than the rest of the world combined."
Alarming statistics are not hard to come by. A similar report by Science magazine in 2015 listed these countries, along with Sri Lanka and Malaysia, as among the world's worst plastic polluters. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, found that "more than a quarter of all the world's marine plastic waste may be pouring in from just 10 rivers, eight of them in Asia."
Research shows that between 8 million and 13 million tons of plastic are dumped into the global marine environment annually. A recent United Nations Environment Program report, "Single-use plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability," estimates the damage to the global marine ecosystem at $13 billion annually.
Southeast Asia has seen some of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, and production of plastic has boomed accordingly. But consumption has outpaced waste management.
The hospitality industry has spread to the region's remotest beaches -- areas that are least able to deal with tourist detritus. Travelers expect plastic containers of soap, shampoo and body lotion, throwaway toothbrushes and shower caps. There are plastic water bottles in every room and straws in every drink.
Rubbish is collected by local authorities who have few funds and even less knowledge about how to recycle properly. The waste often goes into municipal landfills and dumps that are unprotected from heavy rains, mudslides and flooding. A significant portion later washes out to sea from rivers.
A case in point is Ngapali beach in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine State, which was named one of the 10 best beaches in Asia by TripAdvisor in 2016. Development has been largely unregulated, so rubbish bags are piled up along a river. During the monsoon, the bags are swept out to sea, then dumped back on the foreshore. "I fear Ngapali could be destroyed by these environmental problems," Ohnmar Khin, who runs the luxury Sandoway Resort, told Nikkei.
Consumer habits and overpackaging make matters worse. In a single day, the average Singaporean uses 13 plastic bags while the city-state as a whole goes through 2.2 million plastic straws. Thais use a more modest eight bags a day, which amounts to over 500 million each week in Bangkok alone.
Indonesia reportedly uses 10 billion plastic bags annually, though this may be a very conservative estimate. Official efforts to tackle the problem have failed. A three-month trial in 2016 that introduced a fee for plastic bags in several big cities reduced their use by 55%, but customer complaints against the 200 rupiah (1.4 cent) charge thwarted an extension.
Americans and Europeans use more plastic per capita than people in Asia but recycling and waste disposal practices are generally more effective. And while the dark side of plastic has become evident, many of its applications remain essential to health, hygiene, and convenience.
A man collects plastic waste at a garbage dump in Bali on April 27. (Getty Images)
Debi Goenka, the founder of Conservation Action Trust, an Indian NGO, confirms that India, with its massive 1.3 billion population, has less plastic waste per capita than more advanced economies, but great difficulty managing it. "Our consumption patterns compared to the rest of the globe are pathetic, but we are getting to that stage now," he told Nikkei.
Plastic, plastic everywhere
During a three-month expedition to Antarctica in early 2018, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise confirmed the presence of microplastics in the water, snow and ice, and sighted larger pieces of waste from the fishing industry. Old buoys, nets, and tarpaulins float among the icebergs.
"Even the 'world's last wilderness' is contaminated with microplastic waste and persistent hazardous chemicals," Greenpeace campaigner Louisa Casson reported.
The prognosis is bleak. The U.K.-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation expects there to be more plastic than fish in the oceans within three decades. Experts say all seabirds will have ingested plastic by 2050, and 600 marine species will have been harmed.
"Plastic is not the major driver of fisheries decline, but in a precarious situation it contributes unnecessary pressure," says Jerker Tamelander, who runs the coral reef unit at the United Nations Environment Program in Bangkok. "Even if the fisheries were sustainable, plastic would be a significant problem because the volumes are so vast."
Part of the problem is abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear, or ALDFG. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, so-called ghost nets make up 10% of marine litter. There are an estimated 640,000 tons of fishing nets lost or discarded at sea, mostly made from heavy nylon. These can travel thousands of kilometers, and continue "fishing," or smothering reefs, for centuries. It has been estimated that 80% of ALDFG found around Australia originates in Southeast Asia.
On dry land, Southeast Asia's plastic waste problem has been aggravated this year by e-waste from used electronic devices and old white goods that contain large amounts of hard plastic, particularly in the casings. Hard plastics in electronic components are often treated with brominated fire retardants, many of which have been banned in the U.S. and Europe after studies found links to a variety of serious health problems.
China, the world's largest commercial processor of e-waste from home and abroad, implemented a ban on imports from the U.S. and Europe this year. It is overwhelmed by what it once hoped would be a remunerative industry. E-waste imports in countries like Thailand and Malaysia have surged since.
A man sits among massive piles of plastic and other waste on a beach in Munbai, India. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)
Shunichi Honda, a UNEP program officer in Japan, believes that efforts need to be made to stimulate local processing capacity of all waste if the goals of a 1989 U.N. treaty, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, are to be achieved.
"Some countries in Asia do not have proper facilities for e-waste disposal," Honda told Nikkei. "We really have to think about economic incentives, and how a country can deal with e-waste itself."
Slow to respond
ASEAN is only belatedly waking up to this dire environmental crisis. In early July, the grouping's secretariat in Jakarta inadvertently confirmed its laggardly response with a press release titled: "ASEAN joins movement to beat plastic pollution."
Lim noted that ASEAN has no official campaign or regional mechanism to compel ASEAN's 10 member states to address the problem. "The pollution cannot be addressed at the national level alone, as marine debris moves across political boundaries," Lim said.
She hopes senior environment officials meeting in Singapore later in the year will "formalize the adoption of coastal and marine biodiversity protection as a priority for the center."
Asia tackles its plastic problem with a mix of tradition and tech
China's scrap plastic ban saddles neighbors with piles of problems
But, for now, the collective response to the plastic problem in Southeast Asia is inchoate, inadequate, and uncoordinated.
Brunei has plans to ban plastic bags outright by 2019, and some vendors in the Philippines have mounted a Bring Your Own Bag campaign. Malaysia has moved against polystyrene containers and promoted recycling of household waste, but households continue to use shopping bags for trash that goes into landfills in the absence of incinerators.
Thailand has a number of plastic awareness programs, yet many of its fuel stations continue to woo motorists with free water in large, single-use plastic bottles.
The shellfish farms of Sriracha, the Thai seaside town that gave the world its eponymous hot chili sauce, are awash with plastic. Inland, dogs and monkeys rummage through overturned garbage, scattering plastic refuse to the winds.
It is estimated that Thailand fails to manage more than a third of the 27 million tons of waste it generates each year. Much of this ends up in rivers and canals that flush into the sea, particularly during the monsoon -- up to 60,000 tons each year, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources estimates.
The "pristine" resort island of Koh Tao?has a 45,000-ton garbage mountain. Phuket's Maya Bay, where the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach" was filmed, has been closed for four months to recover from tourism excesses and pollution. Koh Larn off Pattaya receives 10,000 visitors per day and has accumulated 50,000 tons of rubbish.
Other countries have been precipitate in their approach. Maharashtra, which accounts for about 15% of India's gross domestic product, is the 20th Indian state to introduce some form of plastic ban. On June 23, it imposed a blanket ban on plastic bags, bottles, disposable cups, plates, cutlery, wrappers and polystyrene containers.
With companies like Coca-Cola and Amazon banging at its door, the state government relented a week later on bottles of drinking water over 200 mL, medical packaging, wrapping materials thicker than 50 micrometers and garbage bags. Most shops in Mumbai, the state capital, are so far complying with the ban, and offer paper or textile bags at the checkout.
Use once, throw away
Between 1970 and 2016, Singapore saw a sevenfold increase in its solid waste generation to 8,559 tons a day. With only one landfill option, it opened one of the world's largest incineration plants in 2000 with a capacity of 4,320 tons per day. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the facility in just 38 months, has since opened a regional base in Singapore and sees significant business opportunities in the region.
Waste-to-energy incinerators have the virtue of congregating bulky waste and reducing it to ash using self-generated power; surplus power generated by steam turbines can then be sold to the national grid. As landfills become fuller, more incinerators are likely to appear in the region.
Thailand operates incinerators in Phuket, Songkhla and Phitsanulok, but not Bangkok. Last year, the country generated 171 megawatts from waste, equivalent to 1.7% of its total 10,013 MW. The modest target for 2036 is 550 MW, or 2.8%, according to the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency.
A mountain of recyclable bottles is piled up in Xa Cau Village, outside Hanoi. © Reuters
Properly designed and operated incinerators can burn off plastics at the correct temperatures, handle dangerous byproducts like dioxins and nitrous oxide, and filter out other noxious fumes. On the negative side, they produce carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming.
Tamelander believes incinerators should not be regarded as a panacea. "As a transition strategy to a lower waste society, incinerators certainly have a role to play," he said. "We must absolutely reduce waste generation, increase recycling -- and effectively stem the flow of fuel to those incinerators."
Better management and more efficient recycling will clearly be core to resolving the world's waste plastic crisis. According to the National Environment Agency of Singapore, the recycling rate for plastics in 2017 was just 6% out of 763,400 tons of plastic waste disposed.
Globally, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates only 14% of plastic is recycled, and that between $80 billion and $120 billion is lost each year to one-time use. The foundation estimates that a third of all plastic packaging leaks into ecosystems.
Plastics contain chemicals, heavy metals, and compounds known to be harmful to humans, but the consequences of eating from a manifestly contaminated food chain are still unclear. And this is where the longest-lasting effects of today's plastics crisis come into view, according to Michael Gross, an Oxford-based science writer.
"Seabirds with stomachs full of plastic waste and turtles entangled in plastic bags have become symbols of the marine litter problem, but the impact at the smaller, less visible scale may be even more severe, and science is only just beginning to explore this problem," he said.
Tamelander says microplastics are routinely found in tissue samples of filter feeders like mussels and in the flesh of fish, but more research needs to be done to determine "to what extent that is a human health hazard."
"Fish-sourced plastic in humans constitutes an additional vulnerability, an additional pressure above and beyond what we already have," he said. "Does it cause us greater harm? There are more questions than answers, and I am not sure the answers will be the ones we want."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/Asian-plastic-is-choking-the-world-s-oceans
finally,...This Major Republican Donor Just Renounced the GOP
Kanyakrit Vongkiajorn
Sept 15, 2018
“I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party.”
Ohio’s wealthiest Republican donor, Leslie H. Wexner, has left the party, saying he is fed up with its antics, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
“I’m an independent,” Wexner said at an event for Ohio business leaders Thursday night, noting that he had been a Republican since his college days. “I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party.”
Wexner is the founder and CEO of L Brands, a company whose holdings include Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. He’s been a long time and major donor to Republican politicians and committees. Wexner gave $250,000 in 2012 to a super-PAC backing Mitt Romney’s campaign; in 2016, he and his wife Abigail donated more than $2 million to candidates, with Leslie contributing $500,000 in support of Jeb Bush’s presidential bid.
Since the election, the billionaire has been critical of President Trump, noting in a speech to his employees last year that he felt “dirty” and “ashamed” by the president’s response to a white nationalist and far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that turned violent. At the time, Wexner, who is Jewish, said he was unable to sleep because of the incident, telling himself that “I have to do something because the leader of our country is behaving poorly.”
Over the past year, Wexner and his wife have donated to initiatives that foster bipartisan civility, as well as contributing $2.8 million to With Honor, a PAC that supports military veterans running for office. His comments distancing himself from the GOP came soon after former President Barack Obama made a little-noticed appearance at the same event, before heading to a rally in Cleveland to support Democrat Richard Cordray, who is running for governor.
At the event on Thursday, Wexner stressed the importance of speaking up: “If you don’t think things are right, open your mouth.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/leslie-wexler-victorias-secret-quits-republican-party/
This Exhilarating Video of a Rare “Triple Whale Breach” Is a Real Nice Break from Everything
James West
Sept 16, 2018
52 seconds of magic
These days, I’m finding it more and more useful to be reminded of the almighty power of the non-human occupants of the planet. The humans are exhausting. The non-humans are awe-inspiring. Take these three magnificent ocean dwellers for example—humpback whales caught on camera last month by Edmond Giroux aboard a whale cruise off of Nova Scotia:
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/09/whale-videos-triple-breach-wow/
(incredible video's)
The World Has Never Seen Anything Like What’s Happening at the Equator Right Now
Adam Rogers
Sept 17, 2018
Hurricane Florence is really bad. What’s happening at the equator is much worse.
The map looks terrifyingly unfamiliar. Not because of the outlines of the continents; those are comforting in their hooks, tails, splotches, and whorls. It’s the storms. Across the globe’s tropics right now, seven superstorms are swirling over oceans. Hurricane Florence is butting into the Carolinas on North America’s southeastern coast. Tropical storms Helene, Isaac, and Joyce are hovering over the Atlantic like jets stacked on approach to Charlotte. Tropical cyclone Barijat is breaking up as it makes landfall at the Gulf of Tonkin while the Philippines and the rest of southeast Asia girds itself for Super Typhoon Mangkhut.
So, fine, sure, it’s hurricane season. Stormy weather, yes, but climatology said this was going to happen. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that science doesn’t know if a warming planet will have more hurricanes, but its assembled researchers do agree that what hurricanes happen will be worse. More intense wind, more rain, parked for longer over coastal cities unprepared for 100-year-storms that now come once every five years instead.
Still, though, a map of a planet with semi-permanent storms around its belt, with a violently churning equator…that starts to look otherworldly. It’s more like the planet-spanning white storms of Saturn, or the swirling atmosphere of Neptune. It’s the sign of a planet in the throes of change, and those changes don’t look good for the future.
Humans are used to the idea of some parts of their homeworld being all but uninhabitable. The arctic regions, even as they lose more and more of their icy expanses to a warmer atmosphere, are essentially no-go regions without intense scientific support. Yes, there are scattered settlements above the Arctic Circle, and some of the bases in Antarctica are technically permanent, in that there are humans there year round, even in the permanent darkness of austral winter. But no human lives in Antarctica, and even temporary visits require protective gear and technical support. Parts of the world’s deserts are all but uninhabited, and researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have argued that some climate change models put the hottest daytime temperatures in the Middle East and North Africa above survivable levels for humans.
“What is certain is that the coming changes will be very, very inconvenient to human society and be of enormous cost to human infrastructure.”
To be clear, scientists tend to dismiss the idea that climate change and other human interventions could render the entire planet uninhabitable. “This is, of course, nonsense,” emails Christopher McKay, a NASA planetary scientist who studies terraforming and life in extreme environments. “What is certain is that the coming changes will be very, very inconvenient to human society and be of enormous cost to human infrastructure. Fires, floods, sea level, heat waves, etc … Although a cynic might say that the Earth overall will benefit in direct proportion that all things human are decremented.”
It’s true that an absence of people in the region might be a boon for all the other living things; editing people out of a landscape tends to make that landscape healthier in the end, if the people didn’t poison it or burn it down before they left. If people can’t live in the tropics anymore, that might increase the biodiversity of everything else there. “A dispassionate observer would ask the question: would the total biodiversity on Earth be higher before climate change or after climate change?” McKay says. “My off-the-cuff intuition is that total biodiversity on Earth would be higher after.”
That won’t be of much comfort to the people living in the tropics, of course. And that change is already happening. US government scientists have warned that millions of people are going to have to leave the atolls of Micronesia by mid-century—just 15 years away!—as climate change raises sea level and floods their islands. As usual, climate change affects the poorest people disproportionately.
Still, though, that’s not “uninhabitable.” In fact, the people who study the possibility of life on other worlds talk about grades of habitability—somewhere else might have even more diversity than Earth can currently support, or could support before humans started mucking about with things. “Using this astrobiological definition of habitability, climate change on Earth today is likely to affect how habitable our planet is. However, even the worst-case scenario won’t make the planet uninhabitable for all forms of life. That’s the positive part,” says Jack O’Malley-James, an astrobiologist at Cornell University. “The negative part is that what we’re doing to the planet is making it less suitable for our own survival. Human civilization has depended upon millennia of fairly stable and predictable climate conditions.”
That’s what we don’t have anymore. The hallmark of the Burning World is more extreme weather at less predictable intervals. Hurricanes can do more damage due to rainfall and storm surge than high winds. People build along coastlines and in low-lying areas, covering the ground with impermeable concrete and asphalt, magnifying the effects of storms; in many ways, cities are giant machines for moving water away from buildings, but under hurricane conditions, the water overwhelms the machine.
When that happens more than once in a while, it should be hard to ignore. When it’s happening in more than one place on Earth at the same time, it’s even harder. What that belt of swirling storms girdling the planet’s midsection says is that the climate is not changing; it’s that the climate has changed. None of the countries on the map are undiscovered. The storms show exactly where we’re headed, and which parts of the world may not belong to humanity any longer.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/09/the-world-has-never-seen-anything-like-whats-happening-at-the-equator-right-now/
==============
Many Evangelicals Swear Climate Change Isn’t Real. Meet the Christian Scientist Proving Them Wrong.
Claudia Dreifus
Sept 16, 2018
Katharine Hayhoe answers five questions.
https://undark.org/article/an-evangelist-for-climate-science-five-questions-for-katharine-hayhoe/
Scoop: GOP plans to play hardball on Kavanaugh
axios.com
Sep 17, 2018
Strategists advising Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh plan to use aggressive tactics this week in response to the public accusation of a "stumbling drunk" sexual assault in high school that instantly imperiled his confirmation, top sources tell Jonathan Swan:
Some involved in the process are going to urge Senate leaders to call on the accuser — Christine Blasey Ford, who went on the record with The Washington Post's Emma Brown — to testify publicly this week, ahead of Thursday's scheduled Judiciary Committee vote. This gambit basically bets that she will decline, and Republicans can then say that they tried to investigate further.
A source close to the process said that if Democrats sink Kavanaugh "we’ll just bring in someone more conservative."
There was extreme queasiness in Kavanaugh's camp last night:
Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, is represented by Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer specializing in sexual harassment cases.
Republicans won't be surprised if Ford holds a press conference or gives a TV interview, which would raise the stakes considerably.
The initial news coverage was brutal ... N.Y. Times: "thrown into uncertainty” ... WashPost: "nomination suddenly in doubt” ... Wall Street Journal: "injecting immediate uncertainty” ... AP: "thrust into turmoil."
The senators to watch:
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the most crucial swing vote, told CNN that she was "surprised" by the accusation, but: "I don't know enough to create the judgment at this point."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the other critical vote, told CNN the committee "might" need to consider a delay.
Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who isn't on the committee "but whose vote is critical to Kavanaugh's confirmation," told Politico that the committee should pause.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for an FBI investigation and a postponement of the vote.
Be smart: The hardball tactics are designed to muscle through the confirmation before it can be further imperiled.
Republicans got more worried as the evening went along, but privately were optimistic about winning the P.R. fight: It's her word, backed by her therapist's notes, versus Kavanaugh and another man alleged to be in the room.
Kavanaugh re-issued his previous statement: "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time."
The other participant named by Ford, Mark Judge, said he has "no recollection of any of the events described."
https://www.axios.com/brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-strategy-sexual-assault-allegations-5dc354ff-73d6-49f0-b5b4-5971b6a76051.html
=======================
Kavanaugh accuser willing to testify before Senate Judiciary Committee
Debra Katz, the attorney for Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in the 1980s, told NBC's "Today" that Ford believes the incident was "attempted rape" and is willing to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"She's a credible person. These are serious allegations. And they should be addressed."
The big picture:
As Axios' Jonathan Swan and Mike Allen reported this morning, some involved in Kavanaugh's confirmation process were set to call on Ford to testify publicly this week, betting that she will decline.
https://www.axios.com/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-christine-blasey-ford-testify-387fac73-6291-46fe-861b-9e27134c6fd2.html
fuagf,...you also,...you just can't let it go.
we agree to disagree.
i will not address this absurd crap any longer.
fuck off. i don't need your simple mindedness. you simply can't let it go.
how grown up of you. ROTFLMAO
Look, punk, you do not end a thread with passive aggressive snark. In your own words, grow up.
i totally disagree with your assessment. once again,...i was not "set off". i answered an arrogant mind that thinks he is a know it all. simple and clean.
but appear to have the need to be right,...so have it.
===========
good,...lets drop it and move on.
great. there always needs to be a hero when matters get tense,..thanks for stepping forward and moving on the suggestion.
================
what i find interesting about the Kavanaugh situation is it has been reported that he was a "black out drunk",...so how could he state empirically that he totally denies this event ?
fuagf,...you are creating a "case". there is no case. this isn't a court,..its a freaking forum.
so what ! whats your point ?
oh,..so little DesertDrifter got his feelings hurt and now you're coming to his protection?
=================
nlightn, your case is that this tirade
what an arrogant prick you are. you think you have the answers,...f'off !
grow up your little mind.
time to expand your self.
but that appears to scare the shit out of you.
you're trapped,..and you don't even know it.
suggestion,...make sure you have a roll of toilet paper near you,..your mind masturbation juice is getting all over you.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=143594675
of yours was warranted, or justified. That's your case, i'd say you lost it with that one.
probably the only accurate item DD presented is everyone "sleep it off".
i highly suggest everyone cease taking matters so seriously.
it's another awesome day tomorrow.
i'm not presenting "a case" as you are suggesting. you're creating the scenario of a "case."
what is this ???,...a trial. OMG. this is getting comical.
like Jay Leno has stated,.."You can't write shit this funny."
some words and debates are given back and forth and all a sudden there's the bad guy.
fuagf,..i did not lose it as you are attempting to push. this was a simple debate.
call it what you want but most of the time i was posting and replying i was laughing at the denial and ignorance and arrogance.
fuagf,...do you realize how ridiculous you are being. debates are debates that is all.
i'm willing to drop it all,..but you and DD keep picking the scab.
drop it,...its getting very immature.
arizona,...it appears that visual evidence like that is not a fact. but the official BS story from a corrupt government stands without challenge.
this scares the crap out of people that they would have to admit something other than the story.
i get it,..it's a HUGE leap for small minds.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=143595736
again,....a simple post that is causing all this disturbance.
don't you find that amazing. it appears not.
yet you are attempting to make me the nemesis.
wow,...just wow.
The mind is like a parachute. It functions best when open.
grow up. more of your mental gymnastics. sheeeeeh.
you undoubtedly have me confused that gives a shit about your point of view.
it's obvious you are just finding a reason to ban me so you are placing posts that support your country club mentality.
pathetic.
what i find amazing is a post that was entered has started up all this discussion. a discussion that you requested be dropped and i did.
it was DesertDrifter BullnBear and newmnender who kept adding to the thread and i responded after being attacked.
we undoubtedly see matters differently.
what is being brought up for individuals is they can't accept another point of view and they are having deep trouble with it. why,...i have no idea,...but its obvious the closed minds that are here that are in major denial.
i did address it,..i stated is was total BS.
and don't pull the 'you got personal' card.
i don't know anyone personally on this forum so how can i get personal with an anonymous individual ?
its a bunch of anonymous individuals going back and forth,...that is not personal. now if i'm sitting across from an individual that is personal.
so i think your example is mute.
that's the issue SoxFan. individuals addressing a topic without conducting thorough due diligence. and then addressing it as if they are an authority on the topic.
that's like going to a doctor for facial reconstruction who took a course over the weekend.
"No problem, just lean back in the chair,...I have my instruction manual right by my side in case I get in trouble."
insane !
fuagf,...that would be your point of view,...which you are privy to and which i don't agree with that perspective.
its only "unwarranted ridiculous vitriol" if the truth is smacking someone and they can't take it. i'm not saying i have the truth but it appears that for some reason this rattled many,..i know not why,...but what was exposed is the limited thinking many on this forum have and are also in denial how open they are for debate.
i respected your request and did not bring up any more about 9-11. it was desert drifter and bullnbear and newmender who attacked the thread. they could have not responded and the topic would have not been addressed by me.
the finger is pointed at these individuals as they did not respect your request to drop the topic.
so,...what you are saying is this forum is a country club only for members that agree with each other. the entry fee is patting each other on the back.
so this really isn't a forum for debate and discussion,...that is a false claim.
sorry you feel that way,...i thought you were a much more open individual.
only in your little mind is that a reality. i don't and no one else lives for your reality.
grow the fuck up.
you sound like a high school boy.
time out,...
am i going to have to stand in the corner next ?
sheeshhhhh.
I have no problem allowing someone to make a total ass of themselves. And you are doing a stellar job.
you're once again fighting for your limitations,...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
run your mental gymnastics all you want,...like the individual that got taken out by the stealth bomber,...you're still fucking trapped in your own mental masturbation.
so,...fuck off. place me on ignore.
an atheist claims there is no God, no Divinity, no Universal Mind,..do you really think God says "Oh well, I'm told I don't exist so I'll have to go along with that."
It's only the atheist that misses out on Bliss Consciousness.
there is a cloaking technology that allows fighter jets and bombers to take flight over (enemy) territories without detection,...and kill the inhabitants of that country,...do those people of that country say,.."Hey, we didn't see or detect the presence of that stealth fighter/bomber,..we can't be dead if we don't know about it ".
the technology doesn't give a shit,...you're fucking dead !
if you don't own an air balloon does that mean that others that do have possession of an air balloon and report back with incredible phenomena they have seen from higher up,...does that mean it doesn't exist because you can't see it or have the tool to view it with.
it's only you missing out,...the vision they have is far more expansive.
have an excellent night all.
hookrider,...let's get this really, really straight.
all i did was post an article and did nothing else.
it was others that followed the post with their input. i did not prompt the other replies,..these individuals hit the SUBMIT POST with their finger.
i was more than willing to honor fuagf' request to end the discussion as it has already been discussed and dropped.
but,... Desert Drifter appears to not honor fuagf's request.
so in no way did i create this further discussion,...it was newmender, DersetDrifter and BullnBear,...
man,..you are really sounding stupid now. and thats not personal,...it's a FACT.
all you are doing is fighting for your limitations,...
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=143593187
thank you for some intelligence on this thread SoxFan.
hey,...maybe thats why DD's theory that a blowtorch can bend a horse shoe because,...drum roll please,..
it has aluminum in its content.
yea,...DD sure has a way of exposing himself.
he's just like Trump,...
anything that disagrees with his FACTS are FAKE FACTS.
sheeesh,...
what the fuck do you not get ????
those are YOUR facts.
I DO NOT AGREE WITH THOSE.
i have MY OWN FACTS.
are you that stubborn and trapped by your own thinking that you can't see that,..hey heres a news flash,...that other people can actually operate their life without you controlling it with your facts.
then you go immature and pull the "you got personal"
that is the first sign that you lost the discussion.
grow some balls little mind.
you're pathetic. you really can't debate so you pull the "get personal card" to protect your mind crap.
have a good night.
a total hypocrite.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=143593187
no. you are completely wrong. the more accurate post would be,...
way to avoid YOUR facts.
your FACTS are not my FACTS. and your FACTS are no more solid than my FACTS. if you think differently you are deluding your self.
maybe you impress your self,..but i'm not at least impressed. not one bit. i actually have empathy for you. you are stuck, it appears in cul-de-sac thinking. round and round and round and going nowhere.
that is what i'm referring to,...
you appear to think because you think in a certain way that that way is the only way to view information,...period. so basically you are discounting everyone who does not agree with you. how immature.
here's what i know;
“The More I Learn, The More I Realize How Much I Don’t Know.” – Albert Einstein
call me crazy but i'd much rather follow the percepts of Einstein than DesertDrifter.
when you walk by a mirror,..also notice the frame, not just your image.