Friday Talking Points -- The Calm After The Storm
We've long thought that America is at her best when disaster strikes. We've thought this since the massive 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, in fact, which we rode out in San Francisco. And we saw firsthand that when life is disrupted, it is disrupted equally. Everyone is affected, so everyone puts aside all their differences and just pitches in to help in the immediate aftermath. Maybe this is a rosy-tinted view, but it still holds mostly true.
Case in point is Hurricane Ian, which just devastated Florida and seems on its way to devastate the Carolinas next. Ian has been one of the biggest hurricanes in American history already (fifth-largest, from one news report) and we haven't even begun to comprehend the scope of the damage or how long it will take to recover from it. The damage isn't even over yet, and most of the East Coast will at least get some heavy rains before Ian disintegrates.
But already, some of the "We're all in this together" spirit has been showing. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis actually had some words of praise for President Joe Biden, which is downright astonishing since DeSantis yearns to run for Biden's job in two years. But there DeSantis was, praising the Biden administration's handling of the crisis so far. DeSantis is also heavily supporting the concept of federal disaster relief money flowing into his state, to help his constituents recover and eventually rebuild.
Of course, there are always those who are too mean-spirited to help their fellow Americans in any way. With every disaster relief bill that comes up for a vote in Congress, there is almost always a faction -- usually comprised almost entirely of Republicans -- who refuse to vote to help people out after a natural disaster of epic proportions. Here is a reminder of that, in a story about a man who used to hold a House seat and opposed storm relief for the region around New York City:
A federal bailout for the New York region after Hurricane Sandy was an irresponsible boondoggle, a symbol of the "put it on the credit card mentality" he had come to Washington to oppose.
"I sympathize with the victims," he said. But his answer was no.
That congressman? Ron DeSantis.
Funny how people change their tune when it is their own state that got hit, eh? Here is DeSantis on Fox News this week, encouraging his fellow Republicans to support disaster aid:
[W]e live in a very politicized time. But you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they've lost everything -- if you can't put politics aside for that, then you're just not going to be able to.
Except, you know, when those people live in New York.
Republican hypocrisy aside, we have to say that so far President Biden has been doing the job we all hoped he would when we elected him. He is the calm after the storm. FEMA pre-positioned water and fuel and other supplies so they'd be in place afterwards, and hopefully not even Puerto Rico (which got hit by Hurricane Fiona) will get ignored in the rebuilding effort. Biden said he would be travelling to the affected regions as soon as their infrastructure had been repaired enough to handle a presidential visit, and it's a pretty sure bet that he won't spend his time chucking paper towel rolls at desperate people while the cameras whirr and click. That's a big difference, obviously.
In other calming news, Congress has now passed a stopgap budget bill which Biden will sign before midnight tonight (he may have even already signed it), averting a government shutdown. They have successfully punted the budget ball to mid-December, which means a lot of work at the end of the lame-duck session. Passing the bill wasn't entirely drama-free, because initially Senator Joe Manchin was allowed to attach his pet bill on loosening regulations on big energy projects (which would have directly benefitted a pipeline project in West Virginia) -- but then he was forced to pull his part of the bill when he couldn't get enough Republicans on board with it. We wrote about this earlier in the week, how it was a comeuppance Manchin oh-so-royally deserved. But Manchin was at least gracious in defeat and pulled his bill with plenty of time for the Senate to pass the remaining budget bill.
Biden made some other notable moves this week, such as announcing a new plan to tackle hunger in America. His student loan forgiveness plan had to be dialled back a bit, to avoid lawsuits, which will adversely affect at least hundreds of thousands of students (if not a few million). This is a small percentage of the people overall who will be helped, though, so let's not blow it too far out of proportion.
The debt forgiveness program is already being sued, in two different lawsuits. Both will likely fail badly on proving they have "standing" to sue. Standing means you have suffered an actual injury somehow (mentally, physically, financially, whatever), and neither party has a very strong case to make. The first one is a guy in Indiana who insists that he will be harmed if $20,000 of his debt is cancelled, because then he'll be forced to pay $1,000 in state income taxes (which tax this benefit as "income"). Except for the small fact that he could refuse the forgiveness if he wants to (he is having his college debt forgiven under a different program, so either way he'll be off the hook for the money -- in other words: refusing the Biden plan wouldn't harm him, either). Nobody's going to be forced to take part in the Biden plan, in other words. He's got such an obvious solution the courts will likely quickly dispose of his case: "Think the benefit will harm you? Then refuse it, it's as simple as that." The second case is brought by a handful of Republican-run states, and will likely fail since they have no real direct standing either.
In other legal news, Donald Trump's pet federal judge in Florida overruled the special master and gave Team Trump more time to dither and delay. She also told the special master that he can't require Trump's lawyers to actually prove (or even "commit to") the wildly-unfounded claims they've been making, which avoids having the lawyers being caught by perjury.
A story which didn't get nearly the attention it deserved this week was all the revelations about life inside the Trump Department of Justice, when -- from Bill Barr on down -- the entire department was politically weaponized. Trump enemies were to be punished, on orders from the White House. Which everyone largely suspected anyway, but it was good to hear an inside account of it.
Another Trump-era revelation: yes, it was also on orders from the White House that the Navy ship U.S.S. John S. McCain had its name covered up and obscured while Donald Trump visited the ship next to it in dock. Because Trump is that petty. This was nine months after McCain died, mind you.
And one last tidbit from Trumpworld: the company that puts on speeches by Trump (which are exactly like his rallies, except people have to actually pay Trump to attend) seems to be heading for bankruptcy. One assumes that Trump got paid first, but the investors are being stiffed. What a surprise! A grift from the get-go? Who could have ever predicted such a thing!
There are so many other examples of Republicans being idiots this week that we're going to have to just quickly whip through them all, here.
Senator Josh Hawley is apparently confused. In a fundraising letter, he warns of those dastardly woke liberals who want to "teach young children there is more than one gender." Um... OK, Josh... which one is it? The internet had all kinds of fun pointing the obvious out....
That one was amusing, but the rest aren't. The Michigan candidate for governor apparently thinks the current governor being the target of a kidnapping plot is somehow worthy of a punchline. Republicans continue to play the "Who can go lowest?" game, in reprehensible fashion.
Over in Pennsylvania, the GOP governor candidate believes that all abortion is murder and should be treated as such by the law. This means charging women who get abortions as murderers. This is more an entry in the "Who can be most extreme?" category.
A county commissioner appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had to hastily quit, after a photo surfaced of him in full Ku Klux Klan regalia. It could have been a Hallowe'en party, but even so....
And finally, we are learning more about how dangerous a character Roger Stone truly is. He will reportedly be featured in the next January 6th committee hearing, with video taken from a documentarian who was following Stone around through this period. Stone had plenty of downright frightening things to say, but possibly the worst was how he thought Donald Trump should handle the election -- by just declaring victory no matter what the vote was. And then Trump should tell anyone who complains: "I'm the president. Fuck you. You're not stealing Florida, you're not stealing Ohio. I'm challenging all of it, and the judges we're going to are judges I appointed." Because this is how the Trumpistas think things should really work in America. As we said: frightening.
The House Select Committee on January 6th did have a public hearing scheduled (now being referred to as "the last hearing before the midterms"), but they postponed it due to Hurricane Ian arriving right when they scheduled it for. This did allow them the time to get Ginni Thomas to testify, however.
And finally, some lighthearted news. NASA successfully crashed a small probe into an asteroid -- the first planned impact of its kind ever. It was done to test a theory about diverting asteroids off course if one should ever threaten Earth, so it is an important experiment. It'll take a few months of close observations of the asteroid's new orbit to see whether it worked or not, so stay tuned....
Speaking of space, a U.F.O. made a surprise appearance in a government logo (of the "National Intelligence Manager for Aviation") this week... or maybe not? It could have been pranksters, but the photo is pretty amusing to see.
And what seemed like a prank but was actually just a bit of fun in Washington... the musician Lizzo toured the extensive flute collection at the Library of Congress (who knew?) and got to play several rare specimens, but the best one was a crystal flute given to James Madison by a French artisan. Reportedly, the flute had never been played before. Lizzo asked for, and got permission to break the rule of silence in the Library, and had fun playing in a very echoey hall. Then she also got to play a few notes on it in the middle of one of her concerts, where she obviously enjoyed the experience no end.
There's no political facet to that story, it's just a rare feel-good event in the Nation's Capitol. We thought it was a perfect item to end this week's news on, that's all.
President Biden, as we've previously mentioned, was a welcome bit of calm in the White House in a time of natural disaster. He's also done a good job of standing up to Russia without (so far) provoking them into escalating their war to unacceptable levels (like using those tactical nukes Putin keeps threatening to use).
But this week we have to give the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed a bill this week that will make it easier for farmworkers to form Unions. This was news, since Newsom had earlier indicated that he was going to veto the bill that the legislature had passed.
Here's the story:
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday making it easier for farmworkers to unionize in California -- a reversal from earlier threats to veto the bill that came after President Joe Biden and other Democratic heavyweights threw their support behind it.
Newsom walked outside the sunbaked front steps of the state Capitol and signed the bill in front of a small gathering organized by the United Farm Workers, the iconic union founded by the late Cesar Chavez whose members had kept up a monthslong vigil in Sacramento in support of the bill.
"California's farmworkers are the lifeblood of our state, and they have the fundamental right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace," Newsom said in a statement Wednesday.
Newsom made no mention of the fact that he had said he could not support the bill in its current form just before it passed near the end of the legislative session. His office said it had reached a "supplemental agreement" with the UFW and the California Labor Federation on future legislation that would enable labor regulators to "adequately protect worker confidentiality."
The agreement with the governor's office eliminates a provision of the bill that would allow mail-in union elections. In its place, workers will be allowed to join UFW by signing a card, a system long sought by organizers.
So in the end, the bill will be improved, due to Newsom working out a compromise with the Unions and the legislature. That's a win-win all around.
Newsom has a habit of playing it coy on big bills, and sometimes he vetoes them for what seem like bizarre reasons. Joe Biden and plenty of other Democrats had been urging Newsom to sign the bill, but nobody knew until this week whether any of it had worked or not.
Less than one percent of California farmworkers have a Union. This new law should allow that number to rise. Farmworkers do the hardest work you can imagine, in the hot sun all day (for the most part), and they are routinely treated incredibly badly by the agribusinesses. So it's about time the playing field got a little more level for them.
Which is why this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week is California's own Gavin Newsom, for doing the right thing.
[Congratulate California Governor Gavin Newsom on his official contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]
The category doesn't exist, but if it did Joe Manchin would definitely win the title of "most disappointED Democrat of the week." Manchin cut a deal with Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democratic Party. He would vote for the Inflation Reduction Act if Schumer allowed him to bring up a pet bill to greenlight an energy pipeline in West Virginia, in fairly quick order. You know, just like the deal Manchin urged on the rest of the Democratic Party last year, when they all voted for his bipartisan infrastructure bill while Manchin promised he'd allow the Build Back Better bill to move forward too.
Manchin reneged on that deal, in a big and embarrassing way. So it's hard not to use the word "comeuppance" to describe what just happened in the Senate. Republicans wanted to punish Manchin for his vote on the I.R.A., so they refused to support his pipeline deal (even though normally they'd be in favor of reducing regulations and red tape for energy projects). Democrats didn't fully support Manchin either. So his pet bill had to be withdrawn.
Turn about is fair play. Hoist by his own petard. What goes around comes around. Choose your metaphor, there are many.
A little-known longshot candidate for a House race in New Jersey was caught this week ripping off a logo familiar to his district. It seems Matt Jenkins ripped off the "Wawa Goose" and stuck it on his campaign signs. As mentioned, he is a total longshot in a very Republican district -- he's only got about $10,500 cash in his campaign account -- and as he put it: "This is going to cost me money to change. Everybody knows my finances. I don't have any. To go out and reprint my signs, all my literature." Wawa, a regional convenience store chain, has sent Jenkins a cease-and-desist letter, so he may have no choice. But at best "theft of a convenience store's logo" is only worth a (Dis-)Honorable Mention.
Joe Biden earned his own (Dis-)Honorable Mention this week, by appearing in front of a crowd of people and asking "Where's Jackie?" To a woman who died in a car crash last month, Representative Jackie Walorski. To be fair, Biden's got 535 members of Congress to keep track of, so this might have been the fault of some staffer not updating him on the situation, but even so it was pretty bad optics.
But this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week goes to Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who apparently (once again) was jealous of the limelight Joe Manchin was enjoying, so she went off and gave a speech. With Mitch McConnell. Where the two praised each other so much that "lovefest" seems entirely appropriate. See for yourself:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Monday engaged in a mutual admiration exchange with the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), expressed support for restoring elements of the filibuster and suggested that Republicans might win control of the House or Senate in the midterm elections.
Several Democrats were unhappy, criticizing not only her remarks but her timing.
Sinema made the comments during a speech at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, speaking and answering questions at the invitation of McConnell. There, McConnell effusively praised Sinema in his introduction, saying she is the "most effective first-term senator" he's seen during his 37 years in the Senate.
"She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate and a dealmaker," he said.
Sinema, for her part, spoke highly of McConnell. "Despite our apparent differences, Sen. McConnell and I have forged a friendship, one that is rooted in our commonalities, including our pragmatic approach to legislating, our respect for the Senate as an institution," she said.
Sinema went on to predict Republicans would do well in the midterms: "As you all know, control changes between the House and the Senate every couple of years. It's likely to change again in just a few weeks." She also went out of her way not just to defend her defense of the filibuster, but to say she supported bringing it back for judges and appointees as well:
"Not only am I committed to the 60-vote threshold, I have an incredibly unpopular view. I actually think we should restore the 60-vote threshold for the areas in which it has been eliminated already. We should restore it," Sinema said.
"Not everyone likes that," she continued, "because it would make it harder for us to confirm judges and it would make it harder for us to confirm executive appointments in each administration, but I believe that if we did restore it, we would see more of that middle ground in all parts of our governance, which is what, I believe, our forefathers intended."
Yeah, like all that mythical "middle ground" Barack Obama got, when he nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, right Kyrsten?
Now, speaking at McConnell's namesake university center isn't automatically a bad thing. Plenty of other Democrats have done so (including Joe Biden when he was vice president and Amy Klobuchar who spoke there this April). But please note that neither of them did so weeks before a midterm election. Sinema, of course, does not care what damage she does to fellow Democrats or the Democratic Party, since she has made it crystal-clear that the only thing she cares about is herself (and fattening her campaign accounts).
For going out and waving a white flag of surrender a little more than a month from a midterm election, for praising the leader of the opposition in the Senate, and for her general insistence that moderation will bloom in the mythical "middle ground," when that ground has been trampled into a muddy battlefield full of land mines, Kyrsten Sinema is easily our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week this week.
[Contact Senator Kyrsten Sinema on her Senate contact page, to let her know what you think of her actions.]
Volume 679 (9/30/22)
Another mixed bag this week. We start of with two bits of good news Democrats should be touting, and finish with more of a focus on the midterm campaigns.
Manufacturing rebounds
The New York Times had some good news for President Biden.
"American manufacturers have now added back more jobs than were lost in the COVID slump. When the economy shut down in early 2020, factory workers saw 1.36 million jobs disappear. But now, 1.43 million factory jobs have returned. There are now 67,000 more factory workers than there were pre-COVID, to put it another way. Thanks to Joe Biden and all the efforts by Democrats to convince American companies to bring their supply chains back home, America now has more manufacturing jobs than before the crisis. That is something to celebrate!"
No more nickel-and-diming
This is a small-bore change, as Washington and the punditocracy see things, but it is also one of those things which people will personally experience in a good and very direct way, since it'll end an enormous amount of frustration and anger at being nibbled to death by ducks.
"Back in the old days, you would go to buy an airline ticket and you'd be given a price. That was the price you paid. They gave you a seat assignment sitting next to your own children, they checked in a reasonable amount of luggage, and you even got to deal with a human being when you checked in, who would help you get what you needed. These days, of course, all of that costs extra. Little fees are added at every step of the way. The price you thought you were going to pay to fly somewhere turns out to be just a fraction of the total bill. It is annoying, but if Joe Biden has his way, this is all about to change for the better. If Biden gets his rule through, then the airlines will have to disclose the full price of flying immediately and up-front on any website that sells tickets -- so you can accurately compare the actual costs between airlines. Tens of millions of consumers will benefit from reining in the greed of the airlines -- or at least making this greed a lot more transparent. If all goes well, this big change could happen within months."
Da, Comrade!
Hoo boy. Talk about an "own goal."
"House Republicans, with great fanfare, unveiled a vague and nonspecific document as their midterm platform last week. They even created a video, with what they presented as typical scenes of the lives of various red-blooded Americans. The only problem? The stock footage they used was actually shot in Russia and Ukraine. So all those 'gosh darn it, what a fine upstanding American' vignettes actually showed Russians and/or Ukrainians. I mean, it's already pretty obvious which American political party Vladimir Putin is a big fan of -- do they really need to butter him up like this? I mean, what would Ronald Reagan have to say about this, one wonders...."
Extremism makes you less safe
This was inspired by an interesting article on an ad being run against Herschel Walker, to give credit where it is due.
"Republicans have gotten so extreme that they are now making life more dangerous. They refuse to enact commonsense gun safety legislation, even though a vast majority -- including a majority of gun owners -- favor such reasonable laws. Every time you hear of a school shooting, remember that Democrats are trying to fix the problem while Republicans have staked out such an extreme position that it endangers all our kids. And they're moving backwards on women's rights, too, by taking away the freedom of body autonomy and instituting forced-birth laws that don't even have exceptions for rape or incest or the life of the mother. This puts women's lives and health at risk for political reasons, plain and simple. The Republican Party has gone too far. Their extremism is making us all less safe."
Dr. Oz blows it again
Need some comic relief, after that last one? Here you go....
"Mehmet 'Dr.' Oz just shot himself in the foot again. He whined about John Fetterman's sartorial choices, saying that him wearing a hoodie was 'not an accident. He's kicking authority in the balls.' Oz accused Fetterman of signalling: 'I'm the man. I'll show those guys who's boss.' This led to Fetterman gleefully embracing the meme, tweeting out 'DC could use a kick in the balls.' It led New York Magazine to run an article titled: 'The Fetterman Campaign Should Just Hire Dr. Oz.' In other words, once again Dr. Oz has provided Fetterman with a dandy campaign slogan which will resonate with the voters. It's almost like this guy has never run a political campaign before or something...."
Nothing but the straight poop
Literally....
"Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is being honored in the most appropriate way imaginable: with a life-size statue of him made out of poop. Previously, Johnson had publicly stated that he thought that climate change was, and I quote, 'bullshit.' So some enterprising folks in his state carved a statue... or, as they call it, a "scatue"... of Johnson, out of cow manure. A spokesman for NextGen Pac explained: 'The people in Wisconsin deserve a senator who believes in climate change and won't take money from the fossil fuel industry to get richer himself. That's why we joined MoveOn in Milwaukee today to call out Ron Johnson's bullsh*t... literally.' This is so appropriate and so funny that we wouldn't be surprised if Triumph the Insult Comic Dog had a paw in its creation, somehow."
Family values!
Is everyone with the last name "Trump" a horrible human being? Decide for yourself....
"Lara Trump set a new low for Trumpologists to study this week, by posting a video of her very small child riding a toy bulldozer during Hurricane Ian. She calls this, in the text she posted, 'character building.' In the audio, she can actually be heard laughing at her own child's distress. The child is visibly crying and is clearly traumatized at being forced to ride his toy in the rain. 'Character building'? Hardly. We have a few other choice terms for this: child abuse, or perhaps torture. This is so horrible and disturbing a video it is hard to fathom a mother who would proudly post it for the public to see... unless, of course, their last name was Trump."
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground
I seem to remember Gov. Chris Christie praising President Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy for his state and the Republican Party acted as if he suggested raising the taxes on their biggest donors. Their heads exploded over his daring to compliment a Democrat! Of course this was in 2012 in the run up to the general election when the GOP only allowed negative comments about Obama to be uttered in public. It was one of those rare moments where Christie stood up and did the right thing and didn't care what his party thought. He's had one or two of them... wish he had more of them.
Now we're going to hear how this disaster is the result of "Global Warming", and that hurricanes are now "far more frequent" than in earlier times.
Big phuqueing lie!! Hurricanes are not the slightest bit "more frequent", nor "more severe" than they ever have been.
What hurricanes are is far more damaging than ever before, because as the U.S. went from 140 million people to 240 million within my lifetime, there is just a HELLUVA LOT MORE THINGS TO DAMAGE, but NOT because they are "more severe"! Simple demonstrable statistical fact!!
Radical socialist Christie actually hugged the black guy. Then he said he didn't hug him (despite the video). I wish he would go away forever.
Even Rant Paul is a communist when it's convenient.
My expectations are set super low for Sinema, so I wasn't disappointed.
Short Fingers has now resorted to making death threats against Old Crow McConnell, so he's finally shown himself to be good for something.
@crs,
it's a fact that ocean temperatures have risen. it's also a fact that warmer oceans tend on average to increase the severity (wind speed and precipitation) of storms. so, the prediction that hurricanes (tropical cyclone with winds greater than 74 mph) will be more frequent and more severe has a clear basis in known and proven facts. whether that prediction will come to pass sooner rather than later is a matter of probability and random occurrence. That the conditions exist to support the prediction is true.
JL
It's some of both, probably--climatic conditions for more severe storms and more people living in storm zones.
[2] C. R. Stucki wrote:
"Now we're going to hear how this disaster is the result of "Global Warming", and that hurricanes are now "far more frequent" than in earlier times.
Big phuqueing lie!! Hurricanes are not the slightest bit "more frequent", nor "more severe" than they ever have been.
What hurricanes are is far more damaging than ever before, because as the U.S. went from 140 million people to 240 million within my lifetime, there is just a HELLUVA LOT MORE THINGS TO DAMAGE, but NOT because they are "more severe"! Simple demonstrable statistical fact!!"
Stucki, I have a minor in meteorology from none other than Florida State University itself, and I can tell you that your assertions that hurricanes are neither more frequent or severe than before due to climate change and global warming, and to say otherwise is a lie, is based neither in science or fact on your part. So please in the future refrain from making sweeping statements based on your utter lack of knowledge in an area and such obvious complete reliance on your own ideological bias regarding climate change and global warming. Thank you.
Science and statistics, in fact, prove just the opposite. Hurricane intensity, longevity, and most especially the now frequent phenomenon of rapid intensification of storms, have all gotten demonstrably worse over the past 10 to 20 years, due to the ocean getting warmer for longer stretches of both size and time. It is a FACT, no matter how much you want to deny it. Yes, there has been tremendous construction and population increase in vulnerable coastal areas. BUT, that does not explain why, we had one category 5 storm in 1969 (Camille), then a 23 year gap until 1992 (Andrew), and at least 7 more such storms in the 30 years since then. (Ivan, Katrina, Wilma, Irma, Maria, Michael, Ian) So, we have gone from one every 20 years, a rare occurrence, to roughly one every 4 to 5 years, a now common occurrence. What else would call that???
John M
Google "How many hurricanes occur annually", and look at the charts.
I read a paper recently that said hurricane frequency remains relatively unchanged, generally following a sine wave like cycle but the intensity is the problem. With the warmer waters, hurricanes are definitely spinning up faster. The property damage has population density aspects but also a building codes and enforcement element as well.
JM,
Stucki, I have a minor in meteorology from none other than Florida State University itself, and I can tell you that your assertions that hurricanes are neither more frequent or severe than before due to climate change and global warming, and to say otherwise is a lie, is based neither in science or fact on your part.
The problem with your "minor" JM is that it is Democrat "science" not real science you learned..
How does your Democrat "science" explain the dearth of hurricane strikes prior to 2022???
That's what's so frak'ed about Democrat "science".. ONE storm pops up in the last 5-10 years and hysterical Democrats scream hysterically about Global Warming.. :epic eyeroll:
Of course hurricanes that DO strike cause more damage but that has nothing to do with climate science but rather with the moronic idea that it's a good idea to build up economically in areas that COULD see a hurricane strike..
That's not climate science, that's just human stoopidity...
The simple fact is, the IPCC has already stated that long term climate predictions are all but impossible to be accurate...
The simple fact is, everything you believe can be tied to Democrat "science" (IE activism) and not real and factually accurate science..
So, we have gone from one every 20 years, a rare occurrence, to roughly one every 4 to 5 years, a now common occurrence. What else would call that???
What would I call that?? Out and out BULLSHIT...
Point to the last major hurricane to hit Florida..
The last time Florida had any MAJOR hurricane issues was back in 2004 when a slew of hurricanes hit Florida..
18 years, son... Not every 4 or 5 years :eyeroll:
Lemme ask you.. The biggest storm to hit the US was the Labor Day storm back in 1935..
Was THAT storm caused by global warming??
You see how the FACTS totally destroy ANY credibility you might have over your Democrat Global Warming agenda??
The simple fact here is Democrats never let a crisis go to waste when it comes to pushing their anti-science and Hate America agenda..
"These are the facts of the case. And they are undisputed."
-Captain Smilin' Jack Ross, A FEW GOOD MEN
Jean Luc,
Thanx for the email and the laugh.. I STILL find it hilarious after all these years how much the Democrat bozos obsess over me even when I am not around..
Like their PTDS (President Trump Derangement Syndrome) Weigantians® obsess over me as well..
What have I been up to??? Glad ya asked..
Been in and out of the hospital the last few months.. Had to go to the ER with severe blood clots in my lower leg... That developed into cellulitis which was agonizingly painful..
I am sure many here welcome that.. :D
"You should know that the treatment was excruciatingly painful.."
"Aww, yer just saying that to make me feel good.."
-STARGATE ATLANTIS
Anyways, I was in and out of the hospital for a while then they finally found the right anti-biotic regime.. So I had to walk around for a month with an IV sticking out of my arm and do home IV treatments twice a day..
When THAT finally got better, then it was time to prepare of IAN...
So, all in all it's been a wild few months where Weigantia® and politics was the FARTHEST thing from my mind... :D
But, catching up, looks like the odds still favor a GOP takeover of Congress.. :D
I am still leaning towards a PRO 2nd Amendment shirt for you.. :D
But we'll see what I come across between now and the Democrat shellacking in Nov... :D
JL,
it's a fact that ocean temperatures have risen.
And yet, Odumbo paid 15 MILLION for an island estate..
Obviously ODUMBO isn't worried about Global Warming and sea level rising, eh??
John Kerry et al are still jet-setting around the globe spewing MILLIONS of tons of carbon into the air..
Obviously THEY aren't REALLY concerned about Global Warming, eh??
The fact is simple..
When Democrat morons who scream THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!! actually start ACTING like they believe their own hysterical BS...
Then.... And ONLY then.... Will you have a logical and rational argument..
Because, as of now, even the people who scream the loudest about Global Warming don't even believe their own BS...
JM,
Oh, by the bi... Welcome back!! :D
Haven't seen you since you got yer pee-pee whacked on your abortion BS... :D
Didn't expect to see you back anytime soon.. :D
Honestly? The Link Between Climate Change and Hurricanes Is Complicated
Hurricane Ian shows some symptoms of global warming. But saying anything beyond that is folly.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/09/climate-change-impact-hurricane-ian/671604/
And if there is ANYTHING that Democrats/Weigantians® are full of...
It's FOLLY... :D
Even IF we allow for the completely bullshit claim that climate change is responsible for hurricanes..
So what??
Humans CANNOT control the planet's climate... This is FACT...
When ANY hysterical moron Democrat gives up driving their cars and doesn't use ANY electricity, THEN...
And ONLY then...
Will said hysterical moron Democrat have a moral or ethical platform to stand on...
Humans ** CANNOT ** control the planet's climate...
Period... Fini... END TRANS...
“In sum, a strategy must recognize what is possible. In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.”
IPCC Third Assessment Report
Chapter 14
Section 14.2.2.2
Let me emphasize it so the morons who can't pull their heads out of the Democrat Agenda's ass can understand..
*****the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.*****
So, ANY prediction that moron Democrats make is complete and utter kaa kaa..
The IPCC says so....
So, give it up already...
The SCIENCE is against Democrats
The ETHICAL is against Democrats
And the MORALITY is against Democrats...
Oh What have we here... Dementia-ridden Biden now sees dead people.. :D
BBBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
And ta think there are STILL people out there who actually don't believe that Biden is senile and dementia-ridden!!
How hilarious is that!!??? :D
I can picture the scene now..
Dementia Biden takes the podium on 31 Oct:
"Now I want to talk to everyone about the Great Pumpkin..."
BBBBBWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"The IPCC sees no correlation between warming temperatures and more hurricanes, And we saw that this year. Up until this hurricane, which is massive, it had been almost historically low numbers of hurricanes."
-Expert Reviewer, IPCC
The property damage has population density aspects but also a building codes and enforcement element as well.
NONE of which has **ANYTHING** to do with actual climate science..
So, to claim that global warming is causing more damaging more costly hurricanes is complete and utter bullshit..
That's all Democrats know how to spew... Bullshit..
Welp, I'll give ya'all a chance to catch yer breaths.. :D
Gonna go watch the Jags kick ass over the Eagles!!! :D
"Hasta Lasagna, don't get any onya..."
-Emilio Estevez, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
:D
PICK 6 JAGS!!!!!!!
WOOOOT!!!!!! :D
JAGS SCORE!!!!
14 ZIP!!!!! :D
Hay JL..
Barring any changes, here's yer shirt.. :D
http://mftvc.us/JLshirt.jpg
I'll even pick up the tab for it and drop ship it to you.. :D
No matter how much Democrats backpedal...
Democrats OWN the abysmal DEFUND THE POLICE policy....
Democrat Party is the Hate Cops Party....
This is undeniable FACT...
Anyone who supports Democrats simply CAN'T factually claim they support LEOs...
This is undeniable FACT...
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3670814-new-supreme-court-term-may-be-even-more-partisan/
Elections have consequences, bitches! :D
Former Dem Rep gets 30 month prison sentence in ballot stuffing election fraud case
Myers served in the US House between 1976 and 1980 before being expelled for bribery
A former Pennsylvania congressman was sentenced to over two years in jail for committing election fraud aimed at helping Democratic candidates.
"Protecting the legitimacy of elections is critical to ensuring the public’s trust in the process," FBI Philadelphia Division Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said in a press release last week. "Through his actions, Ozzie Myers pointedly disdained both the will of Philadelphia voters and the rule of law. He’s now a federal felon twice over, heading back behind bars, with time to consider the great consequence of free and fair elections."
Former Rep. Michael "Ozzie" Myers pleaded guilty to frequently stuffing ballots, conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election and deprive civil rights, voting records falsification, and bribery in favor of Democratic candidates, according to a Justice Department Press release. He carried out the schemes in Pennsylvania during the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 elections, the DOJ said.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/former-dem-rep-gets-30-month-prison-sentence-ballot-stuffing-election-fraud-case
And Democrats try and claim there is no such thing as Election Fraud! :eyeroll:
Well, THAT was sure disappointing...
Jags are playing like last years Jags... :^/
Michale,
Just back away from climate change if you can't even bother to understand what you post. First off the IPCC Third Assessment Report was done back in 2001. Over two decades ago. They are working on 6. The science has moved on, you not so much...
Your quote in [19] does not say what you desperately want it to. It is arguing that though we can't predict a bad hurricane in five years or how many or how strong the hurricanes will be in 2024, or the exact average temperature in 10 years, models are useful in projecting and predicting trends and understanding how events manifest. Especially when multiple models using different sets of variables are compared which they call an ensemble.
The header of the section you quote is a subtle hint of what they are covering:
4.2.2.2 Balancing the need for finer scales and the need for ensembles.
Here is the full section. The page interestingly enough also contains the next section which goes in extreme events and has this: One area that is possibly ripe for a direct attack on improving the modelling of extreme events is tropical cyclones.
If you have to take parts of a paragraph deeply buried in the report completely out of context to make your point are you sure pointing the finger at others to call moron rather than looking in the mirror is the correct course of action?
Spin away, Bashi..
Facts are FACTS...
“In sum, a strategy must recognize what is possible. In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.”
IPCC Third Assessment Report
Chapter 14
Section 14.2.2.2
Let me emphasize it so the morons who can't pull their heads out of the Democrat Agenda's ass can understand..
***** the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible. *****
There has NEVER been an accurate prediction from Global Warming morons...
EVER....
Face reality, Bash... Your global warming BS is a joke that NO patriotic American buys into anymore..
When YOU give up your car and your electricity and your petroleum based products...
THEN you might have a moral or ethical or factual leg to stand on...
Until you do, it's nothing but blatant hypocrisy...
You know it.. I know it..
What facts do you have that support your claim that humans can control the planet's climate???
NONE... ZERO... ZILCH... NADA... NONE....
Boom... Yer entire BS con is laid bare....
I will provide said facts when you prove I claimed "humans can control the planet's climate???"
As for humans influencing the planet's climate, the link in [32] makes a pretty good argument though I would really see the 5th or even wait for the IPCC sixth Assessment Report to be released later this year or early in to next...
Boom... Yer inability to read is laid bare....
well then! nice to see you michale. hope you're feeling better. here's a bit of trivia: my younger son is named Ian, and he regularly has about the same impact as his namesake hurricane on our living room.
I will provide said facts when you prove I claimed "humans can control the planet's climate???
So, you concede that humans simply cannot control the planet's climate..
So, all the hysterical calls by moron Democrats about Climate Change is for naught..
Humans simply CANNOT control the planet's climate..
We are in complete agreement on that point.
I accept your concession.. :D
Same old Bashi..
Thank ya JL...
We had the grandbabies over for a B-Day party yesterday.. So I know EXACTLY what yer talking about.. heh...
Moving on..
Democrats prove once again that they are STILL the Racist Party...
Headboard Harris stated for the record that any and all Hurricane Ian relief and assistance should be provided based on racist priority...
"It is our lowest-income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions. We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity."
-Headboard Harris
Why am I not surprised... :eyeroll:
As for humans influencing the planet's climate, the link in [32] makes a pretty good argument though I would really see the 5th or even wait for the IPCC sixth Assessment Report to be released later this year or early in to next...
So, you believe humans are "influencing" the planet's climate in one direction..
And the hysterical morons want humans to "influence" the planet's climate in a different direction..
"Hello!!?? McFly!!!"
That's called Controlling The Planet's Climate...
Which you have already conceded humans cannot do..
So, what's the point??
Further, have you given up use of electricity or combustion engines in your daily life?? Have you shunned and refused to use ANY petroleum based products??
Of course you haven't.. So, that proves that YOU are part of the problem you claim exists...
The ones who scream the loudest about Global Warming are the ones that are the biggest polluters... The biggest threat to the planet...
Funny how that is, eh?? :D
The culture war flashpoints dividing Latino Democrats
While most Latinos rank the economy as a top midterms priority, their opinions on abortion and LGBTQ Americans are much more varied.
Talk to anyone who closely follows Latino voters — believe me, I’ve talked to a lot in the last few years — and they’ll likely share a similar lesson: America’s political parties, and their candidates’ campaigns, often shoot themselves in the foot by thinking that Latino and Hispanic voters have very different priorities when compared to the average American voter. Voting preference really does often boil down to the economy, health care, and education.
But it’s on social issues where notable exceptions to this consensus arise. Republicans have long claimed they can make inroads among a wide range of Latino voters on these issues. A new Pew Research Center poll shows they may be right.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23378427/culture-economy-abortion-lgbtq-latino-democrats
Democrats are getting their asses kicked by hispanic Americans!!! :D
Remember when ya'all were saying that Texas was going to go blue!!??? :D
BBBBWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
What a hoot that was, eh!?? :D
GOP TAKES CONTROL
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2022/senate/elections-map-rcp-projection.html
It's a forgone conclusion that Democrats will lose the House...
And the odds are that the Democrats will ALSO lose the Senate... :D
And what a frabjous day that will be, eh!? :D
How Weigantians®??
How did the Cardassian 6 Jan Court work out for ya'all??
BBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA
Looks like I have a lot to catch up on..
Dementia Biden and Headboard Harris are STILL flailing and failing all over!! :D
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flopping worldwide
With apologies to an old television comedy, the week that was in America was no laughing matter.
On Wednesday, President Biden asked a crowd whether a dead lawmaker, Indiana Republican Jackie Walorski, was in the audience.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I didn’t think she was — she wasn’t going to be here,” Biden said.
Walorski and two aides died in an August car crash. At the time, the White House issued a condolence statement in the president’s name.
The next day, it was Vice President Kamala Harris’ turn to play the village idiot. Make that the global village idiot.
After touring the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, the vice president forgot whose side we’re on.
“The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea,” Harris said. “It is an alliance that is strong and enduring.”
https://nypost.com/2022/10/01/joe-biden-and-kamala-harris-flopping-worldwide/
Apparently, dementia and moron are contagious.... Biden and Harris epitomize utter incompetence and complete stoopidity... :D
As usual, Democrats can't run on the issues that Americans really care about... They have PROVEN their incompetence on those issues...
So, what do Democrats do??
They double down on hysterical and fact-less fear mongering...
Apocalypse now: Democrats embrace a dark midterm message
Democrat Max Frost, running for U.S. Congress in Florida, has said Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis are trying to build “right-wing fascist power.” Rep. Pat Ryan, a New York Democrat, says America faces “a coordinated domestic attempt to undermine our Constitution.”
And Rep. Chris Pappas, a New Hampshire Democrat seeking reelection in a swing district, paints an Orwellian America if his Republican opponent gets her way on abortion: “It wouldn’t be a woman’s choice — it would be the government’s choice.”
With a tough midterm election about six weeks away, many Democrats have largely settled on a campaign message, and it’s not one that simply emphasizes their accomplishments. Instead, it amounts to a stark warning: If Republicans take power, they will establish a dystopia that cripples democracy and eviscerates abortion rights and other freedoms.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/apocalypse-now-democrats-embrace-a-dark-midterm-message/ar-AA12vklp
That's ya'all's Democrat Party....
Hysterical fact-less fear-mongering...
Not a competent one in the whole bunch of America Hating Cop Hating morons...
Hay JM...
I would love to continue the abortion debate with you..
Let's see, where did we leave off..
Oh yea.. You had claimed that men should be held more responsible for the pregnancy.. I dunno HOW men can be held MORE responsible considering all the laws already in place.. You never really expanded on that...
And MY response to that was, if men are to be held more responsible, then men should be given more rights..
Like being able to have a say in whether his baby is murdered or not..
You ran away and hid before you would address that point..
So, care to pick that up now??
Oh... And didn't you hear???
Baby killing LOST and LOST bigly!!!! :D
There never was a constitutional right to kill a baby...
Go ahead...
Bring up the "privacy" bullshit argument...
I double-dog DARE you!!! :D
JOE BIDEN SPEECH
Amazing the similarities...
Just another example of Hysterical Fact-Less Democrat fear mongering...
And to the moderator of Weigantia® who still owes me an apology...
http://mftvc.us/moderator.jpg
Don't say I never do nuttin' for ya...
Ahhh what have we here... :D
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2022-generic-congressional-vote-7361.html
Looks like claims of Democrat ascendency was greatly exaggerated!!! :D
BBBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
After trailing by more than a point in mid-September, Republicans are back on top. And it’s not just because of inflation.
Scroll through the list of polls collected at RCP and you’ll see that it’s hard to find a poll of likely voters that shows Democrats ahead. Of the 45 polls published since August, only two—two—have Dems leading among a sample of likely voters. And coincidentally, those two happen to have the smallest samples in the bunch, which means they also have the highest margins of error.
There’s virtually no evidence that Democrats are ahead among the people who count, the ones who plan to actually get off their couches this fall and vote. Pollsters across the board are expecting a very red electorate. To take one example, a recent ABC/WaPo poll found Republicans narrowly ahead among registered voters, 47-46, but comfortably ahead among likely voters, 51-46. Some 81 percent of Republicans said they were “absolutely certain” to vote compared to 75 percent of Democrats; per Nate Cohn, those numbers were similar in a contemporaneous CBS poll, where the split was 79-74. By no means is it a sure thing that liberals will turn out en masse to express their anger over Roe.
Looks like all the claims that Democrats were on the come-back was just nothing but wish-casting (A meteorological term)... :D
People, people, people...
When are ya'all gonna realize the facts...
Democrats are toast... Plain and simple... :D
And please note..
These are all RealClear Polls..
The ONLY *OFFICIAL* Weigantia® objective and unbiased source for news and polls...
:D
It's good to be on top... :D
"It's good to be king."
-Col Jack O'Neill, STARGATE SG-1
:D
Stargate? Seriously??? That's from Mel Brooks' history of the world part 1
Never said O'Neill was the first one to say.. :D
Only the best... :D
Chicago rocked by another bloody weekend: Dozens shot, including one child fatally
One 7-year-old child was shot in the leg while on the way to church
Chicago saw another bloody weekend, with 34 people shot, including a 3-year-old boy fatally shot in an officer-involved shooting that left a suspect dead.
"We've seen children shot across this city in ridiculous numbers," Chicago Police Deputy Chief Larry Snelling said, according to WLS. "When did we become a society where we stop caring about the children?"
Among the children shot and killed this weekend was 3-year-old Mateo Zastro, who was riding in a car with his mom and three siblings when gun shots struck him during a suspected road rage incident at about 8:30 on Friday night.
"That mother is still grieving. All she's doing is clutching onto two dinosaurs, and this was the baby's favorite toy," community activist Andrew Holmes told WLS.
Another child, an unidentified 7-year-old, was shot in the leg while heading to church on Sunday with his family. A family member saw a person going through his parked car and confronted him before the suspect fired a gun in the family’s direction, according to WLS. The boy is expected to recover, according to local reports, and the suspect was apprehended.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-rocked-bloody-weekend-dozens-shot-including-one-child-fatally
Democrat Party so-called "leadership" at it's finest.. :eyeroll:
This is what Democrats bring to the table with the Cop/America hate and bigotry...
Getting rid of them in 2022 and 2024 simple cannot come soon enough...
Supreme Court poised to keep marching to right in new term
WASHINGTON (AP) — With public confidence diminished and justices sparring openly over the institution’s legitimacy, the Supreme Court on Monday will begin a new term that could push American law to the right on issues of race, voting and the environment.
https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-abortion-ketanji-brown-jackson-us-supreme-court-health-0c7e7f12f32f30fe97d2b9417a24cf69
"Elections Have Consequences."
-Barack Hussein Odumbo
Into this swirling mix steps new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black woman.
Yea??? So??? Only a racist would make that point...
TV SHOW RECOMMENDATION..
The Lazarus Project
It's a Brit show.. Kinda like '7 DAYS' except much more in depth and cerebral..
Very good... Highly recommended...
Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, underscored the long odds facing defenders of affirmative action in college admissions.
“It is most certainly an uphill climb. We’re in a scary place where we are relying on Justice Roberts,” Archer said.
Why would ANYONE want to defend such a blatantly racist program as Affirmative Action??
I mean, look it it rationally and logically..
Defenders of AA are saying that black Americans are too stoopid to compete with others so they need a race-based advantage...
Which simply proves another fact..
Democrats have not fallen far from their racist roots..
Democrats STILL believe that black Americans are inferior..
That's ya'all's Democrat Party.. :eyeroll:
Billy Eichner ripped on Twitter for fuming at 'straight people' not coming to see 'Bros'
Billy Eichner's gay rom-com 'Bros' tanked at the box office
Everyone who ISN’T a homophobic weirdo should go see BROS tonight! You will have a blast! And it *is* special and uniquely powerful to see this particular story on a big screen, esp for queer folks who don’t get this opportunity often. I love this movie so much. GO BROS!!! ??????
https://www.foxnews.com/media/billy-eichner-ripped-twitter-fuming-straight-people-not-coming-see-bros
Get that??
If you don't want to see a stoopid movie, you are a homophobic bigot...
The "respect" and "tolerance" and "inclusive" Democrat bigot on full display... :eyeroll:
Billy Eichner made a big deal about "Bros" having an all LGBT cast, included a joke at straight peoples' expense in the trailer, and is now whining that it flopped because "homophobic" straights didn't see it.
Typical Hollywood Victim Liberalism.
-Rob Smith
What IS it about Democrats that they are so full of themselves?? :eyeroll:
As a Black queer man, I can personally tell you why I didn't go see it in the box office: Because Billy Eichner is obnoxious (and corny) as hell.
The straights didn't go see Gigli either -- perhaps the movie wasn't giving.
-Ernest Owens
The desperate sense of entitlement about LGBTQ+ABCXYZEIEIO groups is so pathetic to witness....