Hot Air

Hothouse Earth

Last week I linked to the Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene, published by leading European climate scientists. Their goal was to assess the risk of cascading climate feedbacks as well as the risk of a Hothouse Earth Pathway.

Since this report, hothouse earth has become a meme which has bubbled up to mainstream news outlets.

As well, there are numerous articles all over the place, due to the hothouse earth meme. This is excellent news because it is now on people’s radar.

And it just could be that Trump is the best advocate, the best community organizer for climate change advocacy. He is the Denier in Chief and his absurd tweets have caused pushback. Pushback is our friend.

The hothouse earth meme, combined with Trump’s climate-change denial, may just be the perfect recipe for the human tipping point. People are waking up. People are realizing that climate change is real, that it is imminent and that there is no denying it. Denial is a river in Egypt.

There are two forces that campaigns organize around, hope and fear. This meme is driving fear and it is driving momentum. (More about hope later.) And so there is potential for rapid change if and only if people work together.

Can we?

My thoughts around this circles back to organizing locally. People trust their local media outlets. We have access to local media outlets and can influence them. This is where we can ask that they link extreme weather and fires to climate change. The more climate change is showcased, the more people will think about it.

And if local media needs material there is this...

Climate Central

This is an organization of leading scientists and journalists who research and report on climate change. They produce weekly weather graphics, animations and videos to aid TV weathercasters.

[video: https://youtu.be/O9J6Svt0dQU]

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP
First a few more words from climate scientists about the recent Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. RT has an excellent interview with one of the two authors. Professor Katherine Richardson starts speaking at 2:49…
RT August 13, 2018
The risk of a hothouse Earth: video: https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/435810-emissions-congo-coloni...

Paul Beckwith on hothouse earth August 12, 2018

They suggest that we are on that path now, and have a decade or two to avoid the worst. I fear that we have already gone over that cliff, and I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions.

And here are some links to mainstream media…
Newsweek August 7, 2018
'Hothouse Earth': Climate Domino Effect Could Lead to Runaway Global Warming

In light of the findings, the authors say we must urgently accelerate the transition toward a greenhouse gas emission-free economy. At present, global average temperatures are hovering at just over 1 degree  above pre-industrial levels and rising by roughly 0.17 degrees Celsius (around 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.

CNN August 8, 2018
Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

Scientists are warning that a domino effect will kick in if global temperatures rise more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, leading to "hothouse" conditions and higher sea levels, making some areas on Earth uninhabitable.

BBC August 6, 2018
Climate change: 'Hothouse Earth' risks even if CO2 emissions slashed

Each year the Earth's forests, oceans and land soak up about 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon that would otherwise end up in our atmosphere adding to temperatures. But as the world experiences warming, these carbon sinks could become sources of carbon and make the problems of climate change significantly worse.

And a small sampling of the many other articles on hothouse earth…

RollingStone August 9, 2018
Hothouse Earth Is Merely the Beginning of the End

“Our future,” scientist James Lovelock has written, “is like that of the passengers on a small pleasure boat sailing quietly above the Niagara Falls, not knowing that the engines are about to fail.”

in Lovelock’s view, the Earth’s self-regulating system is seriously out of whack, thanks largely to our 150-year fossil fuel binge. “You could quite seriously look at climate change as a response of the system intended to get rid of an irritating species: us humans,” Lovelock told me in 2007 when I visited him at his house in Devon, England, for a profile in Rolling Stone. “Or at least cut them back to size.”

And Lovelock did not mince words about the future that we are creating for ourselves by ignoring the warning signs on our superheated planet. As I wrote at the time:

In Lovelock’s view, the scale of the catastrophe that awaits us will soon become obvious. By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe, and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions. “The Chinese have nowhere to go but up into Siberia,” Lovelock says. “How will the Russians feel about that? I fear that war between Russia and China is probably inevitable.” With hardship and mass migrations will come epidemics, which are likely to kill millions. By 2100, Lovelock believes, the Earth’s population will be culled from today’s 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes – Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

Grist August 7
Terrified by ‘hothouse Earth’? Don’t despair — do something.

Yes, the prospect of runaway climate change is terrifying. But this dead world is not our destiny. It’s entirely avoidable. As the authors of the paper have argued in response to the coverage, implying otherwise is the same as giving up just as the fight gets tough.

Other climate news…
Mashable August 10, 2018
Why the ocean is cooking off the coast of Southern California

On Wednesday, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego recorded its highest ocean temperature ever, of 79.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists have taken measurements off the marine institute's pier for over a century, since 1916.

"Global warming is really ocean warming," Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an interview. "The heat being trapped is almost all in the ocean."

The initial driver of Southern California's heating event, however, was weather. A big mass of warm air, or a high-pressure system, has settled over the region, which has curbed the strong winds that blow from the north, explained Willis. 

Inverse August 10, 2018
The Strange Role of Chemtrails in the Debate About Fixing Climate Change

…it turns out that seeding the sky with sulfate aerosols to curb climate change isn’t the solution we’re looking for. But it sure took us a shockingly long time to get here.…“We are the first to use actual experimental and observational evidence to get at the total impacts that sulfate-based geoengineering might have on yields,” according to the study’s lead author Jonathan Proctor, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, in a statement. “Before I started the study, I thought the net impact of changes in sunlight would be positive, so I was quite surprised by the finding that scattering light decreases yields.”

Overall, Proctor thinks that there are a lot of risks and a lot of unknowns surrounding the idea of large-scale geoengineering — and that a great deal more study is needed before even thinking of implementing something that would tweak the whole world’s atmosphere.

There is some hope…
I went to a presentation this last weekend on solutions for mitigating climate change. They presented a number of complementary strategies for driving down carbon emissions: carbon pricing, community control of energy delivery, and regenerative agriculture. The presentations were by Monterrey Bay Community Power, Citizens Climate Lobby and No Regrets Initiative.

The event was held just after the hothouse earth report hit the press and it was packed. Standing room only. It felt different. People wanted to know what they could do. It was refreshing. Taken together they are making a difference. Is it enough…

I particularly enjoyed the presentation about the No Regrets Initiative. Sixty percent of the non-water surface of the earth is grasslands. They are working to make that a carbon sink.

Soil is a bit of a magician. It has the ability to re-balance the carbon cycle beyond reducing emissions, in a way that benefits the oceans and agriculture; it can ensure that the water cycle is thriving, and prevent the dangerous extremes of flooding and drought; it can build the nutrient content of food and take a truly holistic approach to food security. We’ve fallen in love with soil and its capacity to solve the majority of our ecological destruction problems if treated well. 

The #NoRegrets Initiative is a Regenerative Assets Strategy that deploys human, ecological and financial capital toward soil health and its effect on climate change. Their mission is to improve soil health and grow soil carbon in the agricultural soils of North America.

Economically, ecologically, and socially, our relationship to land and nature is a profound human touchstone.

• regenerative agriculture could draw down the 50 parts per million of CO2 we need to get back to 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere.

• With global adoption of conservation agriculture, world cropland could sequester 40 million to 1 billion tons of carbon annually over a period of 50 to 100 years. That’s a lot of carbon.

• Grasslands alone could sequester 54 to 216 million tons annually by 2030 according to the IPCC. Soil is our climate change

Monterey Bay Community Power’s presentation was about our local carbon-free electric company. They provide locally-controlled, carbon-free electricity to residents and businesses in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties via existing PG&E power lines. They expect to have another county on board in several months.

Citizen's Climate Lobby (CCL) spoke about pricing carbon--Carbon Fee and Dividend.

Then there is this...
The Guardian August 13, 2018
Blow for coal power as EU carbon emissions price hits 10-year high

However, observers said the carbon price rises and further anticipated increases would begin to hurt coal operators’ profit margins and influence investment decisions.

Phil MacDonald, the head of communications at Sandbag, a group that monitors the carbon market, said: “It will already be cutting into coal profits … Renewables get a big win from this and so does nuclear.”

Mark Lewis, the head of research at the Carbon Tracker thinktank, said although coal plant owners were bearing the brunt of the higher carbon price, they would pass it straight through to consumers.

The price of carbon would need to go much higher, to as much as €30 (£27) per tonne, to trigger large-scale switches from coal to gas and renewables, he argued. “I don’t think we are at the stage yet where the carbon price will have a major effect.”

Enjoy!
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Lookout's picture

but the corporate oligarchs are fighting us tooth and nail. I thought perhaps Standing Rock would be our pivot point, but poor media spin and jack booted mercenaries in police uniforms said otherwise.

Bottom line, we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground...and I don't see it happening. I'm trying to move there as an individual. My next car will be electric, powered by solar charged batteries. I keep waiting for salt water batteries to come back on the market.
https://www.solarelectricsupply.com/solar-batteries/aquion-energy-aspen-...

This is another trick of the corporations...buy up the patents for alternate technology and don't let it be manufactured. Ever see "death of the electric car"?

As we discussed the other week, planting trees is another positive action we can take. The system is against us, but we can still act for ourselves.

All the best to all of you!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout @Lookout
Good morning LO,
Can it happen fast enough... meh...

Standing Rock was a hope for me and the corporate machine ground it up and spit it out in little pieces. We had a lot of support for that.

But what I saw this weekend was that everybody was out. Not just the activists here, and there are plenty. This gives me a glimmer of hope.

However, I am with Paul Beckwith. It's a mess.

we have already gone over that cliff, and I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face

Not sure we can stop the machine. Not sure people who want to help understand that we must go cold turkey on fossil fuel.

On some level I wonder if the ptb are pleased as punch that elon musk, as much as I dislike his drama, is having a bad day. Do the math.

Wait, corporations are people too... Just really bad, greedy, unethical people. Who are not just buying up patents but trying to figure out how to make a profit on biofuckingengineering.

My two trees are still waiting to be planted. Thanks for the reminder. Smile. Trees, grass... that is why I got so excited about the #NoRegrets. Those people are amazing and inspiring.

Thanks for all your thoughts and have a good one...
edit word

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

magiamma's picture

@The Aspie Corner
a lot worse before people revolt. Certainly global warming will expedite that process but then can people organize to overcome the machine? After all we are just useless eaters at best.

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k9disc's picture

Scary concept.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

magiamma's picture

@k9disc
Thanks for bringing this up

Follow up from the film Global Dimming by BBC

DR DAVID TRAVIS: We found that the change in temperature range during those three days (after 911 when all planes were grounded) was just over one degrees C. And you have to realise that from a layman's perspective that doesn't sound like much, but from a climate perspective that is huge.

NARRATOR: One degree in just three days no one had ever seen such a big climatic change happen so fast. This was a new kind of climate change. Scientists call it Global Dimming. Two years ago most of them had never even heard of it, yet now they believe it may mean all their predictions about the future of our climate could be wrong. The trail that would lead to the discovery of Global Dimming began 40 years ago, in Israel with the work of a young English immigrant called Gerry Stanhill. A trained biologist, Gerry got a job helping to design irrigation schemes. His task was to measure how strongly the sun shone over Israel.

Then there is this...
Fires are releasing a large amount of carbon Science Daily 2007

Large-scale fires in a western or southeastern state can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the state's entire motor vehicle traffic does in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

More linkies...
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-global-dimm...
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dimming_trans.shtml

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k9disc's picture

@magiamma

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Large procession escorts fallen Utah firefighter home from Ukiah

Matthew Burchett

Once the large procession left the funeral home around 2:35 p.m., the vehicles headed first to the Ukiah Incident Command Post, then south on Highway 101, where Ukiah Valley Fire Authority Capt. John Corippo said they would see “a fire engine on every overpass” until they reach the airport near Santa Rosa.

I grabbed my CCC patch, put on a collared shirt and pedaled my bike down Asti Road to the overpass at the south end of town. At first I was on the overpass with about twenty or thirty others, but when a lot more people and the fire department showed up I went back and paid my respects from the berm on the west side of 101. More people stopped where I stood and asked what was happening, most of them stayed to honor this guy who came here to help us. Thanks Matt. RIP brother.

Anyone else here ever fought a wildfire? I did once when I was 18 in the CCC. They bussed us from the Yountville camp in Napa to Humboldt county and we were not so helpful on the front line, but put everything out behind it (mop-up). Woo twelve hour shifts digging hot dirt and putting out stumps for ten days, had to have vibram soles or your boots melted. Stayed in a Con Camp with the prisoners, ate meals with them, worked beside them. I love firefighters, almost as much as I love forest.

--- Trust the Timber Industry as far as you can throw it

The details and history explaining California's destructive wildfires. Juan Browne Nevada City, Ca.

LOL! I like Juan Browne but he is full of shit talking about trees and the timber industry in California. He's a corporate tool trapped in a "whoever has the most toys wins" mindset. I like watching him fly his tin can airplane in Berkies, that cracks me up. Juan Browne is the epitome of stupid smart people with money. He still makes good videos I think, even with his one-sided opinions about "renewable" resources and our fucked up water system.

California Wildfires 2018 - California's Unsustainable Legacy

And another thing! More debris than the '06 SF quake destruction, that is what went to the Sonoma County dump after the wildfires last year. Where do we get the wood to rebuild those homes? Someone is clear-cutting it somewhere, or will be soon enough. 5000 homes lost last year, this year it is already over 1000 more up in Redding, where do we get the wood? It has to come from the forests, that's the system.

peace

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snoopydawg's picture

@eyo

I just finished reading and watching the video of the firefighter returning home.

Body of hero firefighter returned to Utah

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg thanks {snoopydawg}, sorry about the dumb sounding Subject lines, I keep blanking on what to say. I can't write poetry but I know there's a haiku for Matt just waiting to appear from somewhere. what a huge loss for the whole country, people don't even know.

"The Burchett family would also like to remind everybody to reach out to those you love and care about. Put your arm around them. Hug them tightly. Don't take the time for granted. Reach out to those you love. Take advantage of all the time you have and live every day to the fullest. That's truly what Matt did, and that's truly what he wishes for all of us."

{{{ c99 }}}
Peace & Love

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
fly Matthew Burchett
a smoky sky clears for you
wind sounds sing for you

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@eyo

at EB the other evening. Was hoping that you weren't being impacted by the wildfires.

Take care.

Mollie/Blue Onyx

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

magiamma's picture

@eyo
Firefighting is such hard and difficult work and is getting harder because of global warming. Inmates really need to be paid more than a dollar a day.

Inmates make up 13% of the California fire fighting force. There are 200 female inmates fires fighters in California. They make $2 per day plus $1 per hour for time on the fire line.

About 3,800 inmates, both women and men, fight fires in California, making up about 13 percent of California’s firefighting force. The fire program saves taxpayers $124 million per year, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Juan Browne... meh, cat hairballs

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despite worldwide acceptance and cleaner air

“The dust pollution problem in California is widespread and severe. People in California are exposed to more unhealthful levels of PM10 (dust particulates 10 microns or smaller) than any other air pollutant”
[...]
Although most countries and more than 35 percent of America’s farmlands are using no-till, California lags far behind with only 3-percent utilization, according to Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell, a cropping system specialist and no-till expert at UC Davis. Lack of knowledge and a reluctance to change management techniques are two key reasons, says Mitchell.

That's the system. Corrupted by BigAg lobbyists and their politicians.

--- make dirt not war

Differences in Tilled and No Till Soils

Hope? NOPE
Central Valley Farmers Learn about Clean-Air Farming

omg I can't even quote that stupid article, those insane clown "farmers" are the system we have. Someone probably should have mitigated something somewhere, instead of trading fake credits for more corporate death pollution, but go on Jerry. "As California goes, so goes the nation."

just keep flushing

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enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo pushing no-till since the mid-seventies, if not before. It has generally gone nowhere, I suspect that field stubble makes it rough to use those huge center-pivot and linear move irrigation systems, which means getting out of the pick-up and laying a few miles of drip hose.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
The glass looks very much half empty on all fronts. I want to see a sea change at mach 9. That's the only way anything is going to change.

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@magiamma heh, my term for cat hairball is a Bill the Cat ack! but meh will certainly do. I just purchased four pounds of organic Lundgren short grain brown rice, sorry about that.

California Rice Farming below Oroville Dam

Did I mention we have a fucked up water system? "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."

peace

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
infrastructure r us lol

Canadian tar sand oil production
[video:https://youtu.be/dwaejPBlnqc]

ack!

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MSNBC folk this morning--and am I glad!

According to what I heard, the ONLY important things going on in the world right now are (1) the latest drivel about Amorosa, a former reality and dubious White House "personality," allegedly fired from the White House a while back for "multiple integrity issues; and (2) revocation of the security clearance of a former CIA head who no longer works for government anyway. (Because of its possible First Amendment ramifications, the Brennan story is, by far, the most important of the two, but that's not saying much.)

What a relief that these two nothing burgers are the biggest stories in the US and the rest of the world today. No wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, floods, bombings of school buses, etc., just Amorosa and Trump and Brennan and Trump.* /s

*Inasmuch as Goddess Aretha Franklin passed while I was MSNBC's captive, I must add that MSNBC left off covering Amorosa and Trump and Brennan and Trump to eulogize her.

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@HenryAWallace
What Trump did is unusual for Presidents and wrong.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Timmethy2.0
should have lost his security clearance long ago. They aren't like a college degree, one doesn't get to keep them for life. When you are no longer employed in a position requiring one, you lose it, at least, if you are a grunt. His employment first as part of a private spook firm, and then as a media talking head both should preclude him from having access to sensitive information, let along classified stuff. As a war criminal, under two administrations, he probably shouldn't have one in principle because he is morally challenged and one cannot be sure that it is purely based on chauvinism, or where such chauvinism might lead him in the future.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris level person gets to keep full access to classified info after leaving a job that requires a clearance. And once you leave that job if you get another one that requires a clearance you do the whole background check over again.

I read a good article on this by Kirakiou (sp?) who also pointed out that these people sit and talk to media all day long and still have access, which certainly entails at least some risk of disclosure as well.

I'm not sure Trump or anyone can revoke the actual clearance but the access to information should certainly be revoked. And Brennan is just one more filthy liar who's First Amendment rights must be protected? Not in my opinion. But Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, unfortunately and America will no longer use logic, fact or even common sense as long as that disease is rampant. So don't look for Impeachment, TDS works out extremely well for our owners, he ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris

Had Trump revoked the security clearance of everyone whose security clearance is no longer relevant, of course, no First Amendment issue would have arisen. Instead, he singled out Brennan (for now--more to come, supposedly) because Brennan, now a private citizen, engaged in political speech, namely, criticizing the President. And Sarah Sanders stupidly made it very clear that his allegedly baseless criticisms of Trump were the reason for the revocation. When it comes to the Bill of Rights, motive matters.

On the other side, Brennan has no business yapping about anything he may know because he was once CIA Director.

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k9disc's picture

Seriously. CIA Chief leaves and gets hired at a national news company. He speaks, quite authoritatively, on security, shading HIS dirty work in Syria and Libya and the calls the President of the United States a Traitor, capital T for talking to a foreign head of a nuclear state we are at odds with and not accepting a gotcha question in front of that foreign head of state that dealt with trusting people like Brennan - who spied on Senators in 2014 - who then immediately called him a traitor. (probably my longest run-on sentence ever.

Seriously. WTF!? That is NOT how America is supposed to work.

Brennan, IMO, is a war criminal, a propagandist, and a clear domestic threat, IMO. His work at CNN, or is it NBC (who knows each has their own staff CIA Director), is openly seditious. Nothing like bringing his tradecraft home to the American airwaves.

On what planet is it NOT right to revoke his clearance?

I don't like Drumpf at all, but Brennan is WAY out of line. I'm an ethical opponent. I'd rather lose than win on a bad call. I'd rather Drumpf serve and trash the country than participate in a coup. The former we can recover from. The latter is the end.

@enhydra lutris

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@Timmethy2.0 @Timmethy2.0

not at all sure that other Presidents have not been punitive, in one way or another, to those who spoke out against them publicly. Moreover, as penalties go, losing a security clearance one no longer needs and could get again in the future (during a different admnistration, presumably) is not on the level of getting fired or getting investigated by the IRS, etc. And, compared to using US furnished weapons to bomb a school bus, global warming, wars in half a dozen or more Arab nations, etc., it is a relative nothing, IMO. ymmv

If this were a President other than Trump, MSNBC would not be all over it 24/7. It might not even get mentioned.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@HenryAWallace

and was exceptionally open about it.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

his more vocal and critical insiders as well. And, if not Obama himself, then certainly chiefs of staff Rahm and Daley.

Trump is a classless thug. That said, I've never seen media act as though its hair is on fire every time the President inhales or exhales. And a tweet is treated as though it were on the same level as declaring World War III. Hard to tell which is more ludicrous, Trump or media coverage of Trump.

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lotlizard's picture

@HenryAWallace  
It was the media who made Reagan the Teflon president.

My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

Reagan actually joked about starting World War III and got away with it.

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@lotlizard

They seem to be a very accommodating lot anymore, no? Well, as long as the POTUS is an establishment pick, anyway. Hell, if were ever interviewing Hillary during her "What Happened?" book tour, I would have alternated between laughing at her and shredding her--even before she put her allegedly (and improbably) sprained ankle in a space boot.

I wonder if Andrew Johnson was backlit after his impeachment, as Bill Clinton as been? (In fairness, I'm sure Bill was the pick of the Democratic Party PTB for nominee, but I rather suspect that then incumbent and Reagan heir, Poppy was the establishment pick for POTUS in 1992.

Then, along came Perot, whom media may have sneered at even more than they sneered at Senator Sanders. Still, Perot made sense to a number of voters, even after what at least seemed like paranoia manifested. Yadda, yadda, Clinton became the only US President to date elected twice by only a plurality. (Don't get me started on the Democratic Party spun his re-election to justify making the Party's conservative wing its only wing.)

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magiamma's picture

@HenryAWallace
is just squirrely, squirrel food, squirrel cages, squirrel behavior, squirrel attire, famous squirrels, rich squirrels, electric car ceo squirrels...

[video:https://youtu.be/YaAxzIFgNso]

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@magiamma
just to monitor the respective coverage of Hillary, Trump and Sanders. Since then, I've watched or listened only when I have no choice, as was the case this morning. No, that's not true: I also watched 2016 Presidential election coverage voluntarily, all the way into the wee hours of the morning.

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detroitmechworks's picture

So, here's my fighting back at the corporate media. The Logos of Antisthenes is DONE. And I'm releasing it for free. No financial goal. Copyleft, all the way. Distribute, print, do whatever you want, just give credit for the work. I'm giving credit to the muses and the gods. Hell, I'm half tempted instead of claiming author credit claiming transcriber credit.

Letting go of ego. That helps a lot. Helps me see much clearer what's going on in the world and what I'm doing. So I'm volunteering for the Japanese Cultural event in Portland this weekend. Going to be setting up and maybe doing a little of the Judo demonstration. (I look scary enough to be the "Big Scary Guy" who the smallest sensei will be able to take down with only a few deft movements. I understand drama a bit. Smile )

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWrjYdD0Tg0]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

magiamma's picture

@detroitmechworks
Thanks for keepin' on. Thank you for The Logos of Antisthenes! Will read this missive later. And enjoy the throws of the weekend . Smile

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smiley7's picture

plant trees. Purchased one last year on sale at superstore and a friend helped me plant it in Mom's yard to honor her; it seems healthy a year later; but normally it appears the cost is about $100 per tree.

Perhaps a simple inexpensive campaign would be to purchase seeds and distribute them to folks wishing to grow a seeding for later transplanting.

Haven't done a through search of plant a tree non-profits as to know which organization is best ... thinking on a creative way.

Thank you for today's OT and please keep on trucking.

Have a good day, everyone.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7
and maybe county/state DNR sources. The National Arbor Day Foundation sells and ships bare root stock at pretty reasonable prices too. Go to www.arborday.org - the "Trees" tab's first sub-heading for tree shoppingdoesn't work, but the ones on selecting, planting and caring for trees do, and there is a separate tab shopping. "Tree Nursery" and "all trees" let's you browse, or there are other search (and advice) tools.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris
https://shop.arborday.org/product.aspx?zpid=960 ?

The $100 average cost i got from a tree foundation includes labor of planting one tree; planting root seedlings is an excellent idea as i've read that scam organizations plant seeds, cover with dirt, and never return to care for them.

I recall our town council passing a protect tree ordinance using circumference as a guiding principal for developers in city limits; but don't think we have a plant a tree effort going on. I can start by raising that question with a council member.

Launching a c99 specific campaign to plant trees began the conversation and with a little luck and all the resources and ideas everyone brings, c99 could possibly make a spur of the moment idea a reality.

Cheers!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7
I just went to the "shop" tab and selected tree nursery, which is more for smaller purchases.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@smiley7

In our part of the world Nov-Feb is the best time. With your winter I bet March works too. Here's a source for less than $1/tree (of course you've got to buy at least 50...)
https://shop.arborday.org/product.aspx?zpid=960

Here's perhaps a better source for you.
http://nc-forestry.stores.yahoo.net/cupl.html

We dibble in these small trees, and it is easy to plant hundreds in a day...(2 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQ1Uuq48ew]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

@Lookout
idea. locally, i've friends in the Xmas tree industry, (light blub, duh) they could provide valuable info, i'm sure.
Must admit to a little excitement about this conversation as i've been frustrated by health these past years and not writing for newspapers and magazines, feeling a numbness in not being proactive and searching for something i can do.

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magiamma's picture

@Lookout
What a great tool...

I have a bunch of willow branches I rooted to plant in the fall by the creek in the wildlife preserve down below us to help hold the banks. I have been doing this for about tree years. A few make it so over time I am 'winning'.
The cut branches root really easily in water.
Will branch roots.jpg

Willow Tree in pot.jpg

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magiamma's picture

@smiley7
And good day. Left some pictures below of willow branches I rooted which I will plant in the fall. It is really amazing to watch trees grow. I planted some maples (one I dug up and transplanted) and a clump bamboo about 25 years ago and they are big now. I had no idea. We have shade now, and birds and frogs and salamanders. This is what I care about. The biodiversity that is disappearing. People, not so much, though I try my best.

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smiley7's picture

@magiamma
greenway project, miles long and in process of connecting two villages seven miles apart; perfect place for future tree-planting. Cheers.

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travelerxxx's picture

@smiley7

Haven't done a through search of plant a tree non-profits as to know which organization is best ... thinking on a creative way.

Well, they're not non-profit, but this German-based search engine claims that 80% of their "surplus income" goes to planting trees:

https://info.ecosia.org/what

I often use them. It's more or less a Bing search.

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smiley7's picture

@travelerxxx

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

the other day that made me think of our many pet lovin' C99'ers. Hope it brings a smile to your face, as it did to mine.

Wink

Thank you for another informative OT--love the tagline "Hot Air," BTW!

Blue Onyx


"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
~~Lao Tzu

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

magiamma's picture

@Unabashed Liberal
smile

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mhagle's picture

Great essay and comments.

Yes . . . I posted that study on Facebook last week. Sort of afraid to go back and look at comments!

Thank you for the info!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

magiamma's picture

@mhagle

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