Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Angela Strehli. Enjoy!

"The warmongers in the United States Congress are not aware of, or they're blind to the fact that what they are doing will bring about the type of war that will end America completely as a power in the world."

-- Louis Farrakhan

News and Opinion

“An Inquiry Needs to Take Place”: Jeremy Corbyn on Afghanistan & Preventing the Next War

Who’s to blame for the Afghanistan chaos? Remember the war’s cheerleaders

Everyone is to blame for the catastrophe in Afghanistan, except the people who started it. Yes, Joe Biden screwed up by rushing out so chaotically. Yes, Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab failed to make adequate and timely provisions for the evacuation of vulnerable people. But there is a frantic determination in the media to ensure that none of the blame is attached to those who began this open-ended war without realistic aims or an exit plan, then waged it with little concern for the lives and rights of the Afghan people: the then US president, George W Bush, the British prime minister Tony Blair and their entourages.

Indeed, Blair’s self-exoneration and transfer of blame to Biden last weekend was front-page news, while those who opposed his disastrous war 20 years ago remain cancelled across most of the media. Why? Because to acknowledge the mistakes of the men who prosecuted this war would be to expose the media’s role in facilitating it.

Any fair reckoning of what went wrong in Afghanistan, Iraq and the other nations swept up in the “war on terror” should include the disastrous performance of the media. Cheerleading for the war in Afghanistan was almost universal, and dissent was treated as intolerable. After the Northern Alliance stormed into Kabul, torturing and castrating its prisoners, raping women and children, the Telegraph urged us to “just rejoice, rejoice”, while the Sun ran a two-page editorial entitled “Shame of the traitors: wrong, wrong, wrong … the fools who said Allies faced disaster”. In the Guardian, Christopher Hitchens, a convert to US hegemony and war, marked the solemnity of the occasion with the words: “Well, ha ha ha, and yah, boo. It was … obvious that defeat was impossible. The Taliban will soon be history.”

The few journalists and public figures who dissented were added to the Telegraph’s daily list of “Osama bin Laden’s useful idiots”, accused of being “anti-American” and “pro-terrorism”, mocked, vilified and de-platformed almost everywhere. ... Everyone I know in the US and the UK who was attacked in the media for opposing the war received death threats. Barbara Lee, the only member of Congress who voted against granting the Bush government an open licence to use military force, needed round-the-clock bodyguards. Amid this McCarthyite fervour, peace campaigners such as Women in Black were listed as “potential terrorists” by the FBI. The then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, sought to persuade the emir of Qatar to censor Al Jazeera, one of the few outlets that consistently challenged the rush to war. After he failed, the US bombed Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul. ...

You can get away with a lot in the media, but not, in most outlets, with opposing a war waged by your own nation – unless your reasons are solely practical. If your motives are humanitarian, you are marked from that point on as a fanatic. Those who make their arguments with bombs and missiles are “moderates” and “centrists”; those who oppose them with words are “extremists”. The inconvenient fact that the “extremists” were right and the “centrists” were wrong is today being strenuously forgotten.

Sarah Chayes: Afghanistan Was an “Afterthought” for U.S. as Bush Was “Hellbent” on Invading Iraq

Up to 1,500 US civilians may still be in Afghanistan as evacuation nears deadline

There could be as many as 1,500 American civilians still in Afghanistan, the US secretary of state said on Wednesday, as the evacuation entered its last few desperate days and planes took off almost every half-hour from Kabul airport. The US embassy in Kabul later warned Americans against traveling to the airport, citing “security threats outside the gates”. The alert read: “US citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate now should leave immediately.”

The Pentagon said it was still working to a 31 August deadline to complete the airlift but had contingency plans in case that deadline had to be extended. In 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, a total of 19,000 people were flown out of the airport on 90 planes, at a rate of one aircraft every 39 minutes. It was the most departures a day of the vast operation so far, which could surpass the 1975 evacuation of Saigon to become the biggest airlift in history.

As of Wednesday afternoon Afghan time, 10,000 people were at the Hamid Karzai international airport waiting to board flights, and many thousands more, foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans, were still trying to get there through Taliban checkpoints and through the airport gates, manned by soldiers, marines and consular officials. ...

According to Pentagon figures, 88,000 people have so far been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took control, and Blinken said later in the day that more than 45% of the exodus were women and children. The secretary of state said that so far 4,500 Americans had been flown out while diplomats have been in contact with 500 more, “and provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely”. Another approximately 1,000 US citizens had been in touch but it was not clear how many of those really had American nationality, and how many were still in the country.

Grandson of Notorious Warlord: My Family Is Celebrating the Taliban, I Fear for My Friends’ Lives

Breaking: Afghanistan War Costs Rise to $2.313 trillion. https://t.co/rg3aOvrNIb pic.twitter.com/qpQLIBxFkj

— The Costs of War Project (@CostsOfWar) August 25, 2021

The Pentagon estimates the war in Afghanistan has cost less than $1 trillion. But that only includes emergency war funding — not interest on war borrowing, veterans care, or increases to the Pentagon's annual budget.

— The Costs of War Project (@CostsOfWar) August 25, 2021

Erik Prince Reportedly Charging $6,500 for Seats Out of Kabul

Blackwater founder Erik Prince on Wednesday faced fresh accusations of being a war profiteer in response to reporting that he's charging $6,500 per person for a seat on an evacuation flight out of Kabul.

The reporting by the Wall Street Journal comes amid ongoing evacuations from Afghanistan of civilians, including at-risk Afghans, and follows President Joe Biden's Tuesday statement he still wants an August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The Journal said that "chartered planes are flying out of Kabul with hundreds of empty seats," further reported that Prince would put an additional charge to get those trapped in their homes to the airport. However, it was unclear he had the capability to execute the flights.

"After making millions of dollars off the Afghanistan war, Erik Prince is back at it, exploiting people's desperation for cash," tweeted journalist Maria Abi-Habib. "Prince is charging $6,500 a person to get people out of Afghanistan while planes organized by NGOs leave Kabul empty."

Prince—the brother of former President Donald Trump's billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—previously pushed Trump to privatize the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Last year, Trump pardoned four contractors of the now-defunct Blackwater who were convicted of killing over a dozen unarmed citizens in Baghdad's 2007 Nisour Square massacre. Earlier this year, a United Nations report accused Prince of violating an arms embargo by sending weapons to Libyan warlord and former CIA asset Khalifa Haftar.

Explosions Reported Outside Kabul Airport, Pentagon CONFIRMS Casualties

Israel's trigger finger is itchy as always:

Israel accelerates preparedness for military strike on Iran

The Israeli military was accelerating plans for a possible strike on Iran, IDF Chief of staff Aviv Kochavi said in a press briefing on Wednesday. ...

The military chief's briefing took place as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett began his first official visit to Washington.

Bennett will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin later in the day, as well as President Joe Biden on Thursday.

Kochavi said that a dedicated team has been assembled to increase the military preparedness to strike Iranian nuclear facilities should the government order such military action.

Fauci says US could be back to normal by spring 2022 – if vaccinations take off

The US could have the Covid pandemic under control and achieve a return to “normality” by next spring, Dr Anthony Fauci said, if the “overwhelming majority” of the population is vaccinated.

The chief White House medical adviser was speaking to CNN on Monday night, after the federal Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer vaccine.

More than 400,000 people have been vaccinated in the US each day in August, with 171.1 million now fully protected.

“We hope we’ll be there” by spring, Fauci said, adding: “But there’s no guarantee because it’s up to us.”

Gosh, I thought the problem with the Canadian health care system was the long waits for medical attention. I guess there's less difference than one might have thought between a national health system and the U.S. private system. Much more at the link:

Long Covid limbo: some US patients wait months for diagnosis and treatment

For months, Andrea Tomasek suspected she was suffering from debilitating symptoms brought on by a Covid-19 infection. She had a fever and her breathing was so labored she said it felt like her “lungs were sponges full of fluid”. She later experienced dizziness and periods where she would pass out.

But when the 37-year-old first started to feel sick in March 2020, the pandemic was still in its early days, so she couldn’t access a test in her home city of Savage, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Without that initial Covid-19 diagnosis, physicians repeatedly discounted the connection between her symptoms and the virus. ...

It wasn’t until October, when her symptoms still hadn’t let up, that she said a doctor made the connection between her illness and Covid, and referred her to the Mayo Clinic’s post-Covid care clinic. But even with the referral, the clinic wouldn’t see her without a documented positive Covid test. Tomasek said a different doctor finally referred her to the Mayo Clinic. It was there that she was finally diagnosed with post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC).

“It was a huge relief because no doctor is going to tell me I don’t have it when the Mayo Clinic diagnosed me with it,” she said.

Post-acute sequelae of Covid-19, or long Covid, affects about 10% to 30% of people infected with the virus. Research indicates it can last more than a year and can come with more than 200 possible symptoms, including extreme fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath, and affect 10 organ systems. But for people like Tomasek, who got sick early in the pandemic when Covid tests weren’t widely available or weren’t always accurate, or for those who weren’t able to access a doctor or a test for financial or logistical reasons, seeking treatment can feel a lot like being in medical limbo.

Florida teacher with leukemia dies from COVID-19 after being forced to return to class

Kelly Peterson, a Florida elementary school teacher, died on Monday from complications due to COVID-19. She was 41 years old and had been undergoing treatment for leukemia. Kelly’s doctor had advised her not to be vaccinated.

Peterson taught fifth grade math and science at Lake Shipp Elementary School in the Polk County Public Schools and contracted the virus after returning to the classroom on August 10. Dozens of tributes to the beloved teacher and condolences to her family were posted by coworkers and parents of students on social media recognizing Peterson as an “amazing” and “awesome” educator.

Kelly’s sister Christy Peterson told KTVU, “Because her leukemia was so bad at this point, their concern was by getting the vaccine that potentially could put too much stress on her body.” Christy said her sister had considered going against the doctor’s orders and getting the vaccine before school started, but decided to hold off, “She had voiced concerns many times that if she contracted COVID, she was afraid that it would kill her, and unfortunately that’s what happened.”

During the previous school year, Peterson had worked remotely but was forced to return to in-person learning this year despite being immunocompromised. Christy Peterson told The Ledger, “With all the COVID cases this year and her medical situation, she should have been a virtual teacher this year. The school didn’t offer that. She did do everything she could to stay safe. She took all the precautions, always wore a mask, but, yes, in the end it wasn’t enough.”

Polk County Public Schools, located approximately 50 miles southwest of Orlando, is the seventh-largest district in the state and does not have a mask mandate. After just one week into the new school year, 343 students and 198 staff in the district had verified or suspected cases of COVID-19 and 2,200 students and 137 staff have been quarantined.

Fate of Bernie's Bill LIES IN PELOSI's Hands

Progressives Vow to 'Hold the Line' on Democrats' Infrastructure Agenda

In the wake of Tuesday's House vote on a pair of packages that would invest in U.S. physical and human infrastructure, progressives within and beyond Congress reiterated their commitment to advancing Democrats' bold agenda, despite sabotage threats from right-wingers in both major parties.

The House's party-line vote passing the Senate-approved $3.5 trillion budget blueprint—which allows Democrats to begin crafting legislation to implement President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" campaign promises and other progressive priorities—followed intense negotiations with a handful of lawmakers, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who threatened to hold up the process unless the lower chamber first voted on a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ultimately appeased the "Gottheimer gang" and secured unanimous Democratic support for the Tuesday resolution by including a September 27 deadline for considering the Senate-approved bipartisan bill, progressives continue to make clear that they won't back that measure without first passing the $3.5 trillion package.

"We made it clear then and we're making it clear now," tweeted Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), sharing a post-vote statement from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC).

"We won't support the infrastructure package without first passing a reconciliation bill that delivers lower prescription drug prices, comprehensive climate action, universal pre-K, and expanded Medicare," Bush said.

Other top priorities for the $3.5 trillion package—for which Democrats are using the budget reconciliation process to avoid a Senate GOP filibuster—include investments in affordable housing, child care, paid leave, and a roadmap to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also took to Twitter after the House vote to echo the CPC statement that "our position remains unchanged" on passing the reconciliation bill first.

David Sirota: Reconcilation UPDATE, Rahm Emanuel CORRUPT Sweetheart Deal

Krystal Ball: MILLIONS Face IMMINENT Eviction Amid Rental Relief DISASTER

US Treasury Says 89% of Rental Aid Still Not Disbursed

As the White House prepares for a U.S. Supreme Court order that could invalidate the new federal eviction moratorium, data released Wednesday revealed that state and local governments have disbursed just 11% of the funds that Congress allocated to help pay off debts accrued by renters during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, only $1.7 billion was distributed in July. The New York Times reported that last month's amount "was a modest increase from the prior month, bringing the total aid disbursed thus far to about $5.1 billion." That's a small fraction of the $46.5 billion that Congress appropriated for rental assistance in two coronavirus relief packages passed in the last year.

"This is unacceptable," Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) said in response to the new figures. "We fought to extend the eviction moratorium to give states a chance to distribute these funds, but time is of the essence."

Just weeks ago, a group of progressive lawmakers led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) held overnight rallies outside the Capitol to pressure President Joe Biden to extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's nationwide eviction moratorium. While Biden let the previous CDC order lapse on July 31, sustained direct action pushed his administration to implement on August 3 a new, more limited 60-day ban on evictions to give state and local governments more time to distribute rent relief.

Jones said Wednesday that "states... must immediately get these funds to renters with the urgency this crisis demands."

The Times noted that the new data came as the Biden administration "mapped out policy contingencies if the Supreme Court strikes down the moratorium, which is the administration's principal safeguard for hundreds of thousands of low-income and working class tenants hit hardest by the pandemic." The White House anticipates a decision as soon as this week.

According to the Times, Treasury Department and White House officials said during a Tuesday night conference call that while some progress has been made this month, states are delivering rental aid at such a slow pace that an eviction surge is likely even if the high court allows the new ban to continue until its scheduled October 2 expiration date.

The newspaper added:

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department rolled out a slate of incremental changes intended to pressure states to move more quickly. But administration officials continue to blame the program's struggles on local officials, many of whom are reluctant to take advantage of the program's new fast-track application process, which allows tenants to self-certify their financial information.

In recent weeks, local officials have complained that moving too fast on aid applications could lead to errors, fraud, and audits; the White House has countered by telling them those risks are insignificant compared with a wave of evictions hitting tenants who did not get their aid quickly enough to keep a roof over their heads.

Journalist Brian Goldstone argued that the unwillingness of local agencies to expedite the allocation of funds, including by giving money directly to renters, means that "they trust landlords—but not tenants—to tell the truth."

The Times noted that many landlords "have rejected the federal aid, arguing that evicting nonpaying tenants is not only their right but the most effective way of ensuring their revenue is not interrupted in the future."

Matt Ford of The New Republic called the situation "a colossal failure of governance."

Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

The US supreme court on Tuesday denied Joe Biden’s bid to rescind an immigration policy implemented by his predecessor, Donald Trump, that forced thousands of asylum seekers to stay in Mexico awaiting US hearings.

The court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected the Biden administration’s effort to block a Texas-based judge’s ruling requiring the government to revive Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program. The court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump.

The brief order by the justices means that US district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling now goes into effect.

The court’s decision referenced its 2020 ruling that thwarted Trump’s bid to end a program introduced by Barack Obama that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants – often called “Dreamers” – who entered the United States without papers as children. Both cases concern whether the government followed the correct legal process in unwinding a previous administration’s policy. ...

The fifth circuit’s decision said the Biden administration must implement the MPP program in “good faith”, which leaves the government some discretion in how to move forward.

Man sentenced to prison after admitting plot to kidnap Michigan governor

A man upset over state-ordered coronavirus restrictions was sentenced to just over six years in prison on Wednesday for planning to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Ty Garbin admitted his role in the alleged scheme weeks after his arrest last fall. He is among six men charged in federal court but the only one to plead guilty so far. It was an important victory for prosecutors as they try to prove the other five men were involved in the astonishing plot.

Garbin, whose sentence length reflected his quick decision to cooperate and help agents build cases against others, apologized to Whitmer, who was not in court, and her family. ...

The government, noting Garbin’s exceptional cooperation, asked US district judge Robert Jonker to give him credit for helping investigators reinforce their case against his co-defendants. He is likely to testify at any trial. The government sought a nine-year prison term, but Jonker went lower at six and a quarter years.

Garbin “didn’t hold back”, assistant US attorney Nils Kessler said. “He would come out and say, ‘We planned to do this and I was knowingly a part of it.’ He sat for hours answering all of our questions.” Indeed, defense attorney Gary Springstead told the judge that Garbin “is going to be a star witness” against the others.

CUOMO's Final Lie REVEALED: 12,000 New COVID Deaths Acknowledged In New York

Apathetic voters could hand California recall to Republicans: ‘Folks seem unaware’

When Gavin Newsom was first elected governor of California in 2018, he captured a greater share of the vote than any other Democrat in state history. And he has remained broadly popular, despite a global pandemic, economic catastrophe, and a scandalously ill-timed visit to the Michelin-starred restaurant the French Laundry.

But with California’s gubernatorial recall election under way, Newsom is fighting for his political life. The Democratic governor of a deep blue state could narrowly lose his seat to a fringe rightwing radio host – in large part due to inertia and apathy among voters.

Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one in California – but while the former are distracted and disengaged this year, the latter are riled up, political strategists and pollsters say. By voting at higher rates, Republicans could capture the governor’s seat for the first time in a decade.

Only 36% of all registered voters want to oust Newsom, but that number rises to 47% when polling likely voters, according to a poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. And a recent CBS News poll found that 72% of Republican voters were “very motivated” to participate in the recall, while just 61% of Democrats felt the same. ...

Amid a still-raging pandemic and devastating wildfires, many Californians are too preoccupied to pay attention, said Christian Arana, a vice-president of the Latino Community Foundation. And that’s especially true for the Black and Latino voters who help propel Democrats to power year after year. Polls suggest that white, conservative voters will dominate the recall, while voters of color stay home.

What Is Going On With California Recall Ballots?

Atmospheric CO2 Levels Haven't Been This High in 800,000 Years: NOAA

Bolstering the case for meaningful climate action, a major report released Wednesday found that Earth's atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and sea levels both hit record highs in 2020.

Based on the contributions of more than 530 scientists from over 60 countries and compiled by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), State of the Climate in 2020 is the 31st installment of the leading annual evaluation of the global climate system.

"The major indicators of climate change," officials from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information pointed out in a statement, "continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet. Several markers such as sea level, ocean heat content, and permafrost once again broke records set just one year prior."

"Annual global surface temperatures were 0.97°–1.12°F (0.54°–0.62°C) above the 1981–2010 average" in 2020, said NOAA, making last year one of the three warmest on record "even with a cooling La Niña influence in the second half of the year."

Last year was the warmest on record without an El Niño effect, and "new high-temperature records were set across the globe," NOAA said. The agency added that the past seven years (2014-2020) had been the seven warmest on record.

Although the coronavirus-driven economic slowdown resulted in an estimated 6% to 7% reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020, the global average atmospheric concentration of CO2 increased to a record high of 412.5 parts per million. The atmospheric concentrations of other major greenhouse gases (GHG), including methane and nitrous oxide, also continued to climb to record highs last year despite the pandemic.

According to NOAA, last year's CO2 concentration "was 2.5 parts per million greater than 2019 amounts and was the highest in the modern 62-year measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years." Moreover, "the year-over-year increase of methane (14.8 parts per billion) was the highest such increase since systematic measurements began."

In addition, global sea levels continued to rise, surpassing previous records.

"For the ninth consecutive year," said NOAA, "global average sea level rose to a new record high and was about 3.6 inches (91.3 millimeters) higher than the 1993 average," which is when satellite measurements began. As a result of melting glaciers and ice sheets, warming oceans, and other expressions of the climate crisis, the "global sea level is rising at an average rate of 1.2 inches (3.0 centimeter) per decade."

Other notable findings of the new report include:

• Upper atmospheric temperatures were record or near-record setting;
• Oceans absorbed a record amount of CO₂, global upper ocean heat content reached a record high, and the global average sea surface temperature was the third highest on record;
• The Arctic continued to warm at a faster pace than lower latitudes—resulting in a spike in carbon-releasing fires—and minimum sea ice extent was the second smallest in the 42-year satellite record;
• Antarctica witnessed extreme heat and a record-long ozone hole; and
• There were 102 named tropical storms during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, well above the 1981–2010 average of 85.

LED streetlights decimating moth numbers in England

“Eco-friendly” LED streetlights produce even worse light pollution for insects than the traditional sodium bulbs they are replacing, a study has found.

The abundance of moth caterpillars in hedgerows by rural roads in England was 52% lower under LED lights and 41% lower under sodium lights when compared with nearby unlit areas.

In grass margins, moth caterpillar numbers near LEDs were a third lower than in unlit areas, whereas sodium lights had little effect on abundance. The white LED lights are more energy efficient but produce more blue light, say scientists, which is the colour predominantly seen by insects.

Moths are important pollinators and provide essential food for birds and animals, but the total abundance of moths in Britain has dropped by a third over the past 50 years.

Reports of plunging insect populations have alarmed scientists, with the destruction of wild places, pesticides and the climate crisis being major causes. Light pollution is increasing globally and was described by a recent review as an “important but often overlooked bringer of the insect apocalypse”, as it makes insects more visible to predators and disrupts feeding and reproduction.

An interesting article with far too much information to abstract. Here's a snippet:

Meat wars: why Biden wants to break up the powerful US beef industry

Both the planet and US politics have heated up in tandem over recent decades, but few sectors have stewed in controversy quite like America’s beef industry. Four super-powered meatpackers control more than 80% of the US beef market, an extraordinary concentration of market power that the Biden administration is not happy about.

A recent executive action signed by the president aims to increase competition in the beef industry, with the White House noting that, over the past five years, “farmers’ share of the price of beef sales has dropped by more than a quarter – from 51.5% to 37.3% – while the price of beef has risen”. ...

As pandemic-driven changes to the food system continue to play out, experts will be carefully watching how the Biden administration attempts to tackle consolidation in the meatpacking sector. Austin Frerick, a Yale-based competition and antitrust expert, is optimistic that some meaningful steps will be taken soon, but says what he’s seen so far does not break with the historical trend.

“The state of play for the last 40 years,” Frerick says of political efforts to break up the big meatpackers, “has been empty words. This is a question of political courage.”

‘Fire weather’: dangerous days now far more common in US west, study finds

The hot, dry and windy weather conditions fueling the huge wildfires that have besieged the western US this summer have increased in frequency over the past 50 years, a new study has found.

Since 1973, global heating has desiccated the west, driving increases in “fire weather” days from the Pacific coast to the Great Plains, according to research by the non-profit Climate Central. It found that the number of fire weather days increased steeply in parts of Texas and in California’s interior, and that southern Nevada, south-east California and swathes of New Mexico had the highest number of average annual fire weather days – with nearly a quarter of the year in some regions being characterized as having elevated risk.

Southern Texas, which saw about four annual fire weather days in 1973, now sees about 15 fire weather days a year. The Sacramento region in California, which used to experience about seven fire weather days, by 2020 was experiencing an average of 19. The latter region is where the devastating Camp Fire leveled the town of Paradise in 2018, and where the Dixie fire, which scorched the town of Greenville this year, was sparked. ...

The study’s findings, based on data from weather stations across the region, are consistent with other recent research suggesting that in many parts of the west, increased temperatures from human-caused climate breakdown are leading to more parched summers. Last year, climate scientists also found that in parts of California, fall fire weather days are expected to double by the end of the century and increase 40% by 2065. Fire season, which in many parts of the west peaks in the late summer and autumn, has been expanding.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

No Insight After Afghanistan

Afghan Refugees’ Long Search for Sanctuary

Where Do Afghanistan’s Refugees Go?

Separated by a century: The doomed narcissism of Generals Petraeus and Miles

Is democracy getting in the way of saving the planet?

'Blood for Blood': On Jenin and Israel’s Fear of an Armed Palestinian Rebellion

Russian And U.S. Prison Tales

According to US Supreme Court, Right to Buy an Election More Protected Than Right to Vote in One

'Democracy for Sale': Analysis Ties Corporate Consolidation to Increased Lobbying

Does Covid immunity wane and will vaccine booster jabs be needed?

China is “Totalitarian”, We Couldn’t Do Zero-Covid

Disturbing review of California sheriff’s department finds serious abuses

‘How is it sustainable if only 1% can afford your food?’: the man on a quest to change farming

PREENING Congressmen Who Sought Photo Op In Kabul UNITE Nation In Disgust

Kim Iversen: My Family’s Firsthand Experience As A Refugee Family, What Afghan Refugees Can Expect

Ryan Grim: Dark Money Plot EXPOSED In Fight Against Nancy Pelosi

A Little Night Music

Angela Strehli - Mean Mistreater

Angela Strehli, Marcia Ball and Lou Ann Barton - A Fool In Love

Angela Strehli - The Sun Is Shining

Angela Strehli - Lonely Teardrops

Angela Strehli - Neighbor, Neighbor

Angela Strehli - Soul Shake

Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton - Good Rockin' Daddy

Angela Strehli Band - Stranger Blues

Angela Strehli - Cut You Loose

Angela Strehli - Wang Dang Doodle