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"Alliance - in international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third."

-- Ambrose Bierce

News and Opinion

Israel said again mulling raid on Iran; thinks Trump, unlike Obama, won’t oppose

Israeli officials are currently considering the possibility of conducting a military strike on Iran, with or without the approval of the United States, The New York Times reported Wednesday. They believe US President Donald Trump could decide not to stand in the way of such an attack, unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, the paper reported Wednesday in an exposé that detailed the lows and highs of the Israel-US relationship in the face-off against the Islamic Republic over the past decade.
“Once again, more than a decade after they first raised the subject with American officials, Israeli officials have been considering the possibility of a unilateral strike against Iran,” said the report. “Unlike with Bush and Obama, there is greater confidence that Trump wouldn’t stand in the way.”

The report, “The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran,” which focused on Israeli-US efforts to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, did not specify which targets Israel was now said to be contemplating attacking. It noted that “hawks in Israel and America have spent more than a decade agitating for war against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program,” and asked: “Will Trump finally deliver?”

“The threat of war could be a bluff, or an election ploy,” it added. “But it also represents a dangerous confluence of interests: an American president often reluctant to use military force and an Israeli prime minister looking to deal with unfinished business.”

“I think that it’s far more likely that Trump would give Netanyahu a green light to strike Iran than that Trump would strike himself,” the Obama administration’s ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was quoted as saying. “But that, you know, is a big risk.”

A decent nation would find President Bolton to be embarrasingly thuggish.

Iran to develop nuclear centrifuges as US dismisses French plan to ease tension

The US state department has shrugged off a French initiative aimed at defusing tensions with Iran, and stepped up economic pressure once more, offering a reward for information that helps disrupt Iranian oil smuggling. A few hours later, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said that the country would expand its development work on new centrifuges for enriching uranium, in a third phased step away from compliance with a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, likely to escalate the standoff with the US even further.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, had sought to mediate in the standoff, and tried at last month’s G7 in Biarritz to persuade Donald Trump to accept a confidence-building proposal, by which Iran would return to compliance with the 2015 deal in return for partial relief from US oil sanctions, and a $15bn credit line to finance oil sales. Trump responded positively in Biarritz, suggesting he would accept the scheme if the US did not have to contribute to the credit line. However, on Wednesday, the state department’s special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, called into question the very existence of the French proposal. Asked about the initiative on Wednesday, Hook said: “There is no concrete proposal. We have no idea if there will be one. So we’re not going to comment on something that doesn’t exist.” ...

As he was making the announcement, the Financial Times reported that Hook had personally emailed the captain of a tanker carrying Iranian oil, and offered him millions of dollars if he would steer the ship, the Grace 1, to a country where it could be impounded. According to the account, which was confirmed by the state department, the first email was sent 11 days after the ship (now renamed the Adrian Darya 1) was released by Gibraltar, where it was temporarily held on suspicion of shipping oil to Syria.

“With this money you can have any life you wish and be well-off in old age,” Hook, the head of the state department’s Iran Action Group, emailed the ship’s captain, . It warned him: “If you choose not to take this easy path, life will be much harder for you.” ...

The story was retweeted by Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail – deliver us Iran’s oil and receive several million dollars or be sanctioned yourself,” Zarif said. He had previously claimed he was threatened with sanctions if he did not go to the White House to meet Trump.

Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail—deliver us Iran’s oil and receive several million dollars or be sanctioned yourself.

Sounds very similar to the Oval Office invitation I received a few weeks back.

It is becoming a pattern.#BTeamGangsters pic.twitter.com/B1oQTLghWZ

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 4, 2019

How Mike Pence shat on the new carpet in Ireland’s spare room

The hospitable hosts buttered up their important guest and made a big fuss of his family and hoped he would say nice things about them to the important people he would meet after his visit to Ireland. And he told them they were wonderful and that he loved them. He even said a special prayer for everyone and then, just before he left, he turned around and kicked them where it hurts.

It came as a shock. Like pulling out all the stops for a much-anticipated visitor to your home and thinking it has been a great success until somebody discovers he shat on the new carpet in the spare room, the one you bought specially for him.

US vice-president Mike Pence met President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Tuesday during an official visit. His Irish hosts, up to their oxters for the last three years in Brexit worry, hoped to impress upon him Ireland’s fears about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit for the country. He could, maybe, stick in a supportive word for us in his talks with Boris Johnson in London – his next port of call. ...

But, after he said all these nice things about the “Emerald Isle” and how much his boss Donald Trump – he sent his best wishes, by the way – appreciates us and all we do to help American security in Shannon, he delivered a very strong endorsement of Boris Johnson and Brexit. No room left for doubt. As Pence read from the autocue and Irish eyes definitely stopped smiling, it was clear he was channeling His Master’s Voice. Trump is a fan of Brexit and of Boris.

and EU Parliament #Brexit Steering Committee member @ph_lamberts v critical of @BorisJohnson, accusing UK PM of “lying”, tells BBC “when in Biarritz he said at the G7 tremendous progress was achieved, he was just lying… no progress had been achieved”

— Damian Grammaticas (@dngbbc) September 5, 2019

So @ph_lamberts on Euro Parliament Brexit Steering Group believes Boris Johnson wants a no-deal “they claim they want a deal” but “their whole strategy.. is to force a no-deal Brexit, for which he knows there is no democratic majority, that was proven in the Commons yesterday”

— Damian Grammaticas (@dngbbc) September 5, 2019

'This Is Incredible,' Says Corbyn, as Voter Registration Surges Amid Boris Johnson's Chaotic Lurch Towards UK General Election

Labour Party politicians and pro-democracy groups celebrated Wednesday as more than 100,000 people reportedly registered to vote in a 48-hour period this week amid mounting chaos in the U.K. government in anticipation of a possible general election in October.

On Monday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced harsh criticism within his own party, about 52,000 people registered, followed by more than 64,000 on the following day.

Nearly 60 percent of the newly-registered voters are under the age of 35, giving hope to the Labour Party that the surge in registrations is closely linked to widespread outrage over Johnson's push for the U.K. to leave the European Union by the end of October, with or without a deal.

"No-deal Brexiteers' greatest fears are new voters and young voters," tweeted actor Rob Delaney, who lives in the U.K. and is a vocal critic of the Tory Party and Brexit.

As Common Dreams reported, Johnson is rapidly losing the confidence of lawmakers following a 329-300 vote in Parliament on Wednesday rejecting his no-deal Brexit plan. On Thursday, his brother Jo Johnson announced his resignation, saying the prime minister's singular focus on pulling the U.K. out of the E.U. with no regard for how it would impact the country's economy had caused an "unresolvable tension" between family and politics.

Also Remainer heavy..?
More than half of the applications in the past two days were from people aged 34 and under pic.twitter.com/NBzGgajL5Z

— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) September 4, 2019

Experts on voter turnout say the surge in registrations could be partially linked to students who are registering in new locations as they begin school, but the high numbers reported on Monday and Tuesday—compared with the average daily registration of 27,000 in recent weeks—gave hope to the critics of Johnson's plan and leadership.

Brexit showdown: No deal only 'hypothetically' off the table

The Tories’ key funders are split, and Johnson’s performances have been dire. Meanwhile, Corbyn has regained his mojo

Imagine the scene in parliament late last night: a scruffy man with a ruffled open shirt, swinging a plastic carrier bag, staggers up to the escalator near the Palace of Westminster, yelling wildly at the leader of the opposition: “Jeremy, let’s have an election!” Corbyn was on a phone call, but a bewildered phalanx of shadow ministers clocked who it was: “career psychopath” (in the words of David Cameron) Dominic Cummings, the UK’s co-prime minister. “I thought he was a drunk tourist,” reports Cat Smith, one of the shadow ministers present last night. ...

Whether Cummings is a clever man, or just a man who wants us to think he is clever, remains unproven. What is clear is that Cummings and Boris Johnson are gearing up to run an election on a manifesto promising what the cultural theorist Stuart Hall once described as “authoritarian populism”. Such populism, wrote Hall, “unlike classic fascism, has retained most (though not all) of the formal representative institutions in place, and ... at the same time has been able to construct itself an active popular consent”. This was Hall’s description of Thatcherism, but it is a more apt description of a Johnson regime attempting to implement what the Tory hard Brexiteers always craved: to use the 2016 referendum result to craft a national-conservative revolution.

After four years of press panic about the “Stalinist authoritarianism” of Labour, not one of its MPs has been deselected. Yet after assuming the premiership just six weeks ago, Johnson has already shut down parliament, purged 21 of his opponents, and called into question whether he’d obey the law.

The outrage at his assault on democratic norms will mean nothing to the political coalition Johnson seeks to craft in the coming election. The Brexiteers claim they want to turn Britain into a low-tax and low-regulation trading island like Singapore; but the direction Johnson and Cummings are heading in looks more like Hungary, a nation ruled by an authoritarian, anti-immigrant, antisemitic regime which the Tories have voted to defend. The trappings of democracy are maintained, but the substance is hollowed out: what its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, lauds as an “illiberal democracy”. Opponents are vilified as enemies of the people and George Soros is cast as a rootless Jewish financier wielding disproportionate and sinister power. Media opponents have been stifled. The Tories won’t borrow the antisemitism, but a government whose leader described Muslim women as “bank robbers” and “letterboxes” will likely fuel bigotry. Migrant-bashing will be combined with law-and-order authoritarianism and targeted spending hikes on austerity-ravaged education and healthcare. Just as the Tories in the 1980s incited bigotry against gay people for political gain, it’s now reported in the Times that No 10 has “been polling ‘culture war issues’, such as transgender rights, to see whether they can be weaponised against Labour in northern working-class constituencies”. ...

The polling shows that, while most remainers are repulsed by no deal, leave supporters are lukewarm and conflicted. There are early signs – in polling and on the streets – of remainers coming back to Labour. In an election, a binary choice in most constituencies between enabling a no-deal Johnson government, or a Labour administration offering a public vote with the option of remain – perhaps an immediate referendum with the other option of “renegotiate” – could cut through. Johnson’s dire performances this week in the House of Commons, and his bumbling bluster when under pressure in the Tory leadership campaign, have challenged the myth of his charismatic, campaigning selling point. Corbyn, meanwhile, has regained his mojo as an election campaign – where he’s in his element – approaches.

Poisoned apples and the emperor’s new clothes: Corbyn hits back at PM's election demand

Conservative Revolt Against Boris Johnson Exposes Republicans’ Complicity in the Cult of Trump

“Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, brothers in chaos,” read a headline in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend. ...

On Tuesday, though, one key difference emerged between the men: Johnson still faces resistance on the right. Conservative Member of Parliament Phillip Lee, for example, deprived the prime minister of his razor-thin majority when he walked across the floor of the House of Commons and defected to the Liberal Democrats, the third party of British politics, while Johnson was mid-speech. Then, 21 Conservative MPs, including two former finance ministers and the grandson of Winston Churchill, voted with the opposition to wrest back control of the parliamentary agenda and try and delay Brexit, for which they were promptly expelled from the party. “This is not how any of us expected our careers in the Conservative Party to end,” said former Conservative minister Sam Gyimah, before adding that he was “proud” of his role in helping to halt a “damaging” no-deal Brexit.

Compare and contrast such behavior with that of the congressional Republican Party, which has been shamefully complicit in all of Trump’s open bigotry, dishonesty, corruption, and authoritarianism.

Take the U.S. Senate, where Trump’s former GOP opponents have either left the scene or rolled over. John McCain is dead; Bob Corker and Jeff Flake have retired; Mitt Romney likes to issue pained statements but little else; Ben Sasse long ago went quiet online; and Lindsay Graham and Rand Paul have morphed from Trump critics to Trump apologists. Ted Cruz, whose father and wife were smeared and mocked by Trump, now hosts rallies with the president and gushes over his “achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans” and — don’t laugh — “strong stand against North Korea.” In the House, Rep. Justin Amash quit the party after becoming the sole Republican to call for the president’s impeachment, but the rest of his (former) GOP colleagues have stayed in the party — and stayed silent. Racist tweets about “the Squad”? See no evil. Crying kids separated from their parents at the border? Hear no evil. Condemning American Jews as “disloyal” and Latino immigrants as invaders? Speak no evil.

These are the spineless sycophants who have allowed a former reality TV star to hijack their Grand Old Party. In the coming days and weeks, as the Brexit saga continues and a possible general election is held, Johnson could find himself out of a job (which would make him, incidentally, the shortest-serving prime minister in U.K. history). If he’s ousted, leading British Conservatives can justifiably take some credit for it.

Bolsonaro taunts UN rights chief over her father's torture by Pinochet regime

Jair Bolsonaro has taunted Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, over the Chilean dictatorship that tortured her and her parents, after she criticised rising police killings and a “shrinking” space for democracy in Brazil.

“She is defending the human rights of vagabonds,” the Brazilian president told reporters on Wednesday. “Senhora Michelle Bachelet, if Pinochet’s people had not defeated the left in 73 – among them your father – Chile would be a Cuba today.”

Bachelet’s father, Alberto, an air force general, was imprisoned and tortured for opposing the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, and died of a heart attack in prison. In 2014, two retired Chilean military officers were handed prison sentences for torturing him. Bachelet and her mother, Ángela Jeria, were also imprisoned.

Bolsonaro has frequently praised Brazil’s 21-year military dictatorship and expressed admiration for rulers such as Pinochet, whose regime killed more than 3,000 people from 1973 to 1990. His comments came after Bachelet criticized the increase in police killings in Brazil’s two biggest cities. ...

On his Facebook, Bolsonaro said Bachelet was following France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, who he accused of “meddl[ing] in internal affairs and Brazilian sovereignty” after he spoke out over the Amazon fires crisis.

Nearly 2 Million People in India Could Lose Citizenship in Biggest Disenfranchisement in History

YouTube fined $170m for collecting children's personal data

Google’s video site YouTube has been fined $170m to settle allegations it collected children’s personal data without their parents’ consent.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Google $136m and the company will pay an additional $34m to New York state to resolve similar allegations.

The fine is the largest the agency has yet levied against Google, although it is tiny compared with the $5bn fine the FTC imposed against Facebook this year for privacy violations.

The FTC has been investigating YouTube for the way it handles the data of users under the age of 13. Young children are protected by a federal law that requires parental consent before companies can collect and share their personal information.

“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” the FTC chairman, Joe Simons, said in a statement. Yet when it came to complying with the law protecting children’s privacy, he said, “the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law.”

Trucking 'bloodbath': What the freight industry tells us about the US economy

Hong Kong's Leader Finally Withdrew Her Controversial Extradition Bill. Protesters Say It's 'Too Little, Too Late.'

Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam announced Wednesday that her government is formally withdrawing a controversial extradition bill, a major concession to the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been flooding the streets of the city in recent months.

But protesters say the move is “too little, too late.”

Lam outlined four steps her government is planning to take to address protesters’ concerns:

As well as withdrawing the extradition bill, she is setting up a commission to investigate society’s ills, allow the public to directly air their grievances with her office, and support a police-led inquiry into the violence in recent weeks,

But, in a chilling message to protesters, Lam warned: “It is our foremost priority now is to end violence, to safeguard the rule of law and to restore order and safety in society. As such, the Government has to strictly enforce the law against all violent and illegal acts.”

Some now fear that Lam’s concession to protesters will be used to take more drastic actions against the protesters.

Former Obama counsel acquitted in case originating from Mueller's investigation

Greg Craig, a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, was acquitted on a felony false-statement charge in a case that grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The Wall Street Journal has more:

The jury acquitted Mr. Craig, who served as a top counselor to two Democratic presidents and a secretary of state, after a day of closed-door deliberations at a courthouse in downtown Washington, D.C.

The acquittal lifts a pall over Mr. Craig’s otherwise distinguished career at the upper echelons of law and politics, and represents a major setback for the Justice Department, which sought to make an example of Mr. Craig as it ramped up its enforcement of the laws governing work on behalf of foreign governments.

The charge against Mr. Craig stemmed from legal work Mr. Craig performed for the government of Ukraine in 2012. He and his then-law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP were hired to write an independent report for the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice evaluating the fairness of the trial of an opposition politician. ...

The investigation into Mr. Craig grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and was referred to federal prosecutors in Washington.

Mentally ill US prisoner held in solitary lost ability to speak, lawsuit alleges

A prisoner with a history of mental illness was held in solitary confinement at a prison in Virginia for over 600 days, leading to a collapse in his physical and mental condition, a new lawsuit alleges. Tyquine Lee, 26, is being held at Red Onion state prison and lost over 30lb, the ability to speak, recognize his mother or even remember his own name, the lawsuit states.

Between 26 May 2016 and 31 January 2018, Lee spent more than 22 hours a day in an 80 sq ft concrete cell behind a steel door. His only time outside of the cell was three showers a week and an hour of recreation each day in a steel cage the size of a parking space.

“He went from talking regular to talking in numbers, and a whole other language which I nor anyone else could understand,” said Takeisha Brown, Lee’s mother and legal guardian who filed the lawsuit with the MacArthur Justice Center.

Prison reform advocates in the US have called for solitary confinement to be banned because they say it constitutes torture. Studies have demonstrated its destructive psychological effects; reformers say there is little to no evidence the practice reduces prison violence.

Brown explained that when she was permitted to visit her son during his confinement, his ribcage was visible, his teeth had visible decay, his clothes were dirty and his prison uniform was falling off him because of the weight he had lost. “Before we left, Tyquine would start to growl and bark like a dog,” Brown added.

Men arrested on suspicion of setting fire to Los Angeles homeless encampment

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of arson and attempted murder after a Los Angeles homeless encampment was set on fire, sparking a fast-moving blaze that injured a firefighter, authorities said. Daniel Michael Nogueira and Bryan Antonio Araujo-Cabrera, both 25, were taken into police custody on Saturday, six days after the blaze began in north Los Angeles, according to the city’s fire department. ...

Investigators were able to determine through burn patterns, witness statements and surveillance videos that the fire “was an intentional act related to a homeless encampment near the origin of the fire, and that those living in the encampment were specifically targeted by the suspects”, the fire department said in a statement. ...

Nogueira was being held on $1m bail, but he posted bond and was released Sunday, according to jail records. His father, Michael Nogueira, is the president of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce.

Bernie Pushes Russiagate But Establishment Still Hates Him

After Climate Forum, Biden Heads to a Fundraiser Co-Hosted by a Fossil Fuel Executive

The day after Joe Biden participates in CNN’s climate forum in New York, the former vice president will head to a high-dollar fundraiser co-hosted by a founder of a fossil fuel company.

Andrew Goldman, a co-founder of Western LNG, a natural gas production company based in Houston, Texas, is co-hosting one of two high-dollar fundraisers Biden will attend in New York on Thursday. Western’s major project is a floating production facility off the northern coast of British Columbia designed to provide Canadian gas to markets in northeast Asia.

Goldman and Biden have deep ties: Goldman served as an adviser to Biden while he was in the Senate and was the northeast director of finance for Biden’s 2008 campaign. He’s also an executive at the investment banking firm Hildred Capital Partners. He and his partner at the firm, David Solomon, along with their wives Renee and Sarah, will host a private fundraiser for Biden at the Solomon house, CNBC reported. Goldman also co-founded De Cordova Goldman Capital Management, which invested in “natural resources and energy.”

Biden’s climate plan sets a goal of getting the United States to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. The plan cites human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels — like natural gas — as contributing to the greenhouse gas effect, exacerbating climate events, and playing a part in an overall increase in global temperature. Biden initially had proposed a “middle ground” on climate policy. His climate policy adviser, Heather Zichal, meanwhile, made more than a million dollars from a natural gas firm after leaving the Obama administration.

As Signs of Downturn Loom, Poll Shows 57% of Voters Will Blame Trump If US Economy Goes Into Recession

A Harvard/Harris poll released Tuesday showed that most American voters will blame President Donald Trump if the U.S. economy goes into a recession, a finding that comes amid ominous warning signs of a looming financial downturn.

The survey (pdf) found that 62 percent of voters are concerned that the U.S. economy could enter a recession in the next six months. Fifty-seven percent of voters said they will blame the president over the Federal Reserve or others if a recession hits.

The poll comes weeks after the Treasury bond yield curve inverted for the first time since the Wall Street crash of 2007 and 2008. Observers noted last month that an inverted yield curve has preceded every major economic downturn over the past five decades.

Following that alarming signal, the Twitter hashtag #TrumpRecession went viral as economists and others said the president's trade war with China, tax cuts for the rich, and other White House policies are to blame for growing fears of an economic crash.

After DNC Rejects Climate Debate, Candidates Discuss Green New Deal, Environmental Justice at Forum

Global food producers 'failing to face up to role' in climate crisis

The world’s biggest producers of meat, dairy and seafood are failing to tackle the enormous impact they are having on the planet through deforestation, the routine use of antibiotics and greenhouse gas emissions, a report warns. The Coller Fairr index ranks 50 of the largest global meat, dairy and fish producers by looking at risk factors from use of antibiotics to deforestation and labour abuses. The producers are the “hidden” supply chain, providing meat and dairy to global brands including McDonald’s, Tesco, Nestlé and Walmart. ...

Among other failings, the index says that none of the companies analysed have a comprehensive policy to stop deforestation. And just four companies in the index “have committed to phasing out routine use of antibiotics, widespread in the industry”. According to the report, two-thirds of producers do not even measure all their greenhouse gas emissions let alone set targets to reduce them. These include Hormel Foods in the US, a supplier to McDonald’s. Also included is Cal-Maine Foods. Cal-Maine is the largest producer of fresh eggs in the US and a supplier to Walmart and Nestle. Nestlé, McDonald’s and Walmart have all publicly committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And while Walmart has previously said it wants to achieve zero net deforestation in its supply chain by 2020, the research shows that Walmart suppliers such as Cranswick in the UK have no comprehensive policy on deforestation. McDonald’s have pledged to reduce antibiotics use in their beef supply chains. But the vast majority of beef suppliers do not have a policy to avoid routine use of antibiotics. Only one – Marfrig – does.

The research argues that some of the companies, who between them have a value of $300bn (£248bn), are already suffering the costs of the deepening climate crisis.

Analysis Finds US Corporate Media 'Failing to Connect Climate Crisis to Strongest Atlantic Storm Ever to Hit Land'

While Hurricane Dorian marched up the U.S. Southeastern coast Wednesday after devastating the Northern Bahamas, advocates for ambitious climate action reiterated the global emergency's connection to extreme weather—even as an analysis showed that major corporate news outlets are failing to report on it.

After making landfall as a Category 5 hurricane Sunday, Dorian crawled across the Bahamas Monday and Tuesday—leaving a trail of utter destruction in its wake. ...

"Although Hurricane Dorian exemplifies what climate scientists have warned about, major U.S. media outlets are failing to connect the climate crisis to the strongest Atlantic storm ever to hit land," Public Citizen declared in an analysis Tuesday.

The consumer advocacy group found that "between Friday and Monday, climate or global warming was mentioned in just 7.2 percent of the 167 pieces on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. The top 49 newspapers by circulation didn't do much better. Of them, 32 covered Dorian in their print editions, but only eight papers connected Dorian to climate. Of 363 articles about Dorian in those papers' print editions, just nine (2.5 percent) mentioned climate change." ...

"It is mind-boggling that major media outlets can report about a storm of epic proportions that is exactly what climate scientists have warned about yet fail to mention two key words: 'climate change," said Allison Fisher, outreach director for Public Citizen's Energy Program. "We can't address the looming climate catastrophe if we aren't talking about it." ...

"While the science has yet to come in on the specifics of just how much worse climate change made Dorian, we already know enough to say that warming worsened the damage," Michael Mann, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, and Andrew Dessler, a professor at Texas A&M University, wrote in an op-ed published by The Guardian Wednesday.

After outlining what scientists do know about planetary heating and hurricanes—including the evolving theory that climate change may cause storms to stall, leading to extra flooding and damage—the pair concluded that Dorian is "a preview of the climate crisis to come. The only question is whether we have the foresight to address it."

Floridians still divided over climate crisis as Dorian rages

Florida has a long political history of climate science denial, which culminated in the former governor Rick Scott, now a US senator, allegedly banning the words “climate change” from any internal government communications. Scott is evolving, however.

Now, an unwelcome serving of reality is being delivered to those in power, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to sustain the delusion. The Florida senator Marco Rubio, a sharp skeptic in the past, has called recommended actions in scientific reports are “alarmism” but now admits that climate change is a “real problem”.

As a result of these policymakers and their predecessors, the Sunshine state still gets far more of its power from burning coal and natural gas than from renewables, and mass transit systems have struggled to gain traction.

But the ever-stronger hurricanes and rising seas affect everyone, regardless of political persuasion, so the center ground of the discussion is finally shifting, forcing even science deniers to make statements acknowledging global heating is happening.

The recently elected Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has hired the state’s first chief resilience officer. Her job is to “prepare Florida for the environmental, physical and economic impacts of climate change, especially sea-level rise”.

Also of Interest

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

Boris Johnson’s electoral gamble risks wrecking the Tory party

Police raid Australian official’s home after media raids

WaPo Warns USA Needs More Narrative Control As Pentagon Ramps Up Narrative Control

Federal Watchdog Report Sheds Light on Emotional Horror Faced by Migrant Children Detained by Trump

‘You Can’t Know This Country’s Story Without Learning How Indian Country Fits In’

Wall Street’s Trading Secrets: This U.S. Senator Wants to Keep You in the Dark

The secret to Democrats winning the midwest: fight big agriculture

Which Democrat has the best climate crisis plan? Compare their scores

Is OK Good Enough for an Incumbent in the Face of the Climate Crisis?

A Little Night Music

Bukka White - Black Bottom

Bukka White - High Fever Blues

Bukka White and Napoleon Hairiston - The New Frisco Train

Bukka White - Way Out In Indian Territory

Bukka White - Columbus Mississippi Blues

Bukka White - Poor Boy Long Way From Home

Bukka White and Memphis Minnie - I Am In The Heavenly Way

Bukka White - Bukka's Jitterbug Swing

Bukka White - World Boogie