More than a billion animals are feared dead in Australia's bushfires

https://www.insider.com/australia-bushfires-one-billion-animals-feared-dead-2020-1?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral

Kelly McLaughlin
Jan 7, 2020, 11:07 AM

The number of animals feared dead in Australia's devastating bushfires has soared from 500,000 to more than 1 billion.

Chris Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told HuffPost that last week's estimation that 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles were feared dead was a conservative estimation and exclusive to the state of New South Wales.

He said as of now, 800 million animals were feared in New South Wales alone. Dickman said researchers don't have population data for multiple animals, including bats, frogs, and invertebrates, which makes it difficult to know how many have died.

Outside New South Wales, Dickman says, millions of others have likely died.

"Over a billion would be a very conservative figure," he told HuffPost.

•••••

https://news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-photos-show-animals-impacted-122857758.html

Heartbreaking photos show animals impacted by Australia's bushfires

Ben Mack
,INSIDER•January 8, 2020

Tao Shelan/China News Service/VCG via Getty ImagesWIRES volunteer and carer Tracy Dodd holds a kangaroo with burnt feet pads after it was rescued from bushfires in the Blue Mountains on December 30.



•••••

Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Services (WIRES) volunteer and carer Tracy Burgess holds a severely burnt brushtail possum rescued from fires near Australia's Blue Mountains on December 29.



•••••

Congressman defends posting fake Obama photo: 'No one said this wasn't photoshopped'

So that means it would be ok for someone to post a compromising photoshopped picture of Gosar, as long as they don't say it isn't photoshopped?

https://news.yahoo.com/congressman-defends-posting-fake-obama-photo-no-one-said-this-wasnt-photoshopped-221729914.html

David KnowlesEditor
,Yahoo News•January 6, 2020

A Republican congressman who tweeted a picture of former President Barack Obama shaking hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Monday defended it as making a valid point after commenters pointed out that the two had never met in person.

•••••

Gosar, a former dentist who now represents Arizona’s rural Fourth District, defended posting the doctored image, writing, “no one said this wasn’t photoshopped.” But his original post did not indicate that it was faked.

CNN's Andrew Kaczynski reported that the original photo showed Obama shaking hands with India's prime minister, Narendra Modi. The doctored image appears to have first been used in 2015 by a super-PAC supporting Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

•••••

Gosar became briefly notorious in 2018 when his own family made an ad urging people to vote for his opponent.

•••••

Boy made up story that he died and went to heaven

Why we should be willing to change our minds with new evidence.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/i-did-not-die-i-did-not-go-to-heaven?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Slate | Ruth Graham

•••••

On the drive home, Kevin answered a call on his cellphone just as he approached an intersection with a blind spot that locals knew to fear. He didn’t see the other car coming. Kevin was thrown from his vehicle but was unhurt. Alex was taken in a helicopter to Columbus Children’s Hospital. (The occupants of the other car were not seriously injured.) Alex had suffered an “internal decapitation”—his skull essentially separated from his spine. His injuries were so serious that the coroner was called to the scene of the crash.

Six years later, a book was published that would become a sensation. The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven—with Kevin and Alex listed on the cover as co-authors—tells the saga of Alex’s improbable survival. But it wasn’t that medical miracle that launched the story to fame. In the book, Alex claimed he had spent time in heaven after the accident, and continued to be visited by angels and demons after he emerged from his coma two months later. He wrote that he traveled through a bright tunnel, and was greeted by five angels, and then met Jesus, who told him he would survive; later, he saw 150 “pure, white angels with fantastic wings.” Heaven has lakes and rivers and grass, the book says. God sits on a throne near a scroll that describes the End Times. The devil has three heads, with red eyes, moldy teeth, and hair made of fire.

The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven sold more than 1 million copies and spent months on the New York Times’ bestseller list.

•••••

The cover of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven calls the book “a true story.” But the boy himself now says it was not true at all. Four years ago, Alex sent a letter to a conservative Christian blog dramatically renouncing the book. “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven,” he wrote. “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. … People have profited from lies, and continue to.”

•••••

Alex told me that in reality, he doesn’t remember anything about the accident, and the whole idea that he saw angels started as a mix-up: He awoke alone in his dark hospital room, and looked groggily into the bright hallway, where he saw his father talking to someone. “I thought it was an angel, because I thought I was dead,” he told me. “I don’t know why I thought that, but I did, and that’s what I remember.” He has said he told those supernatural stories as a child because he thought it would get him attention. The whole thing “got blown out of proportion,” he told me. Yes, his father would ask him questions and write things down, but he had no idea why. “I thought he was writing down something to talk about at church or something,” Alex said. “I didn’t even know it was going to be a book.”

•••••

A new high of over 9,300 stores closed in the US in 2019, almost double the number that closed in 2018

https://www.businessinsider.com/store-closures-reached-new-high-in-2019-2020-1?IR=T&itm_source=facebook&itm_medium=social&itm_content=briefings_post&itm_campaign=1-6-2020&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=sf-bi-main&fbclid=IwAR0xmfv-PbO_0z_bIWrPrLfQmO4lC0pkL1mYspI8Hj66zjOfX_Ybd2vot8w

Daniel Keyes
Dec. 6, 2020

The US retail industry saw 9,302 stores close last year as of December 20 — a figure that more than doubles the 4,454 openings that occurred during the same period, according to data from Coresight Research cited by Retail Dive. The number of closures is up from 5,844 in 2018 and 6,955 in 2017, with 2019 posting the most closures since Coresight Research started tracking the data in 2012, per CNN.

•••••

While 2019's surging number of shuttered stores was driven by just a few retailers, nearly half of all store closures in 2019 came from retailers that closed fewer than 400 stores each, so brick-and-mortar's struggles extend beyond this handful of retailers. And with 729 stores already closing in 2020, per Coresight Research, store closures appear to be set to persist in the future.

•••••

Shutdown of coal-fired plants in US saves lives and improves crop yields

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/uoc--soc010620.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
University of California - San Diego

The decommissioning of coal-fired power plants in the continental United States has reduced nearby pollution and its negative impacts on human health and crop yields, according to a new University of California San Diego study.

•••••

Burney found that between 2005 and 2016, the shutdown of coal-fired units saved an estimated 26,610 lives and 570 million bushels of corn, soybeans and wheat in their immediate vicinities. The inverse calculation, estimating the damages caused by coal plants left in operation over that same time period, suggests they contributed to 329,417 premature deaths and the loss of 10.2 billion bushels of crops, roughly equivalent to half of year's typical production in the U.S.

•••••

Processed foods highly correlated with obesity epidemic in the US

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/gwu-pfh010620.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
George Washington University

•••••

The rising obesity epidemic in the U.S., as well as related chronic diseases, are correlated with a rise in ultra-processed food consumption. The foods most associated with weight gain include potato chips, sugar sweetened beverages, sweets and desserts, refined grains, red meats, and processed meats, while lower weight gain or even weight loss is associated with whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Other food trends outlined in the report include insufficient dietary fiber intake, a dramatic increase in food additives like emulsifiers and gums, and a higher prevalence of obesity, particularly in women.

•••••

Plasticizers may contribute to motor control problems in girls

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/cums-pmc010620.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health


Scientists at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) have uncovered a link between prenatal exposure to phthalates--a ubiquitous group of plasticizers and odor-enhancing chemicals--and deficits in motor function in girls. Phthalates are widely used in consumer products from plastic toys to household building materials to shampoos and are thought to disrupt endocrine function, and possibly interfere with brain development in utero.

•••••

Study links Medicaid expansion and recipients' health status

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/vumc-slm010620.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

In Southern states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, adults experienced lower rates of decline in both physical and mental health, according to research published this month in the journal Health Affairs.

•••••

2017 San Diego wildfire increased pediatric ER visits for breathing problems

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/ats-2sd010320.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
American Thoracic Society

A small wildfire in San Diego County in 2017 resulted in a big uptick in children visiting the emergency room for breathing problems, according to new research published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

In "Increase in Pediatric Respiratory Visits Associated with Santa Ana Wind-driven Wildfire Smoke and PM2.5 levels in San Diego County," Sydney Leibel, MD, MPH, and co-authors report that the Lilac Fire, which burned from Dec. 7-16, resulted in 16 more visits each day to the ER by children under the age of 19 for breathing complaints. The complaints included difficulty breathing, respiratory distress, wheezing and asthma.

•••••

Health care paperwork cost US $812 billion in 2017, 4 times more per capita than Canada

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/pfan-hcp010320.php

News Release 6-Jan-2020
Physicians for a National Health Program

A study published today (January 6) in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that health care bureaucracy cost Americans $812 billion in 2017. This represented more than one-third (34.2%) of total expenditures for doctor visits, hospitals, long-term care and health insurance. The study estimated that cutting U.S. administrative costs to Canadian levels would have saved more than $600 billion in 2017.

Health administration costs were more than fourfold higher per capita in the U.S. than in Canada ($2,479 vs. $551 per person) which implemented a single-payer Medicare for All system in 1962. Americans spent $844 per person on insurers' overhead while Canadians spent $146. Additionally, doctors, hospitals, and other health providers in the U.S. spent far more on administration due to the complexity entailed in billing multiple payers and dealing with the bureaucratic hurdles insurers impose. As a result, hospital administration cost Americans $933 per capita vs. $196 in Canada. The authors note that in Canada hospitals are financed through lump-sum "global budgets" rather than fee-for-service, much as fire departments are funded in the U.S. Physicians' billing costs were also much higher in the U.S., $465 per capita vs. $87 per capita in Canada.

•••••

Time for a closer look at Pyrethroid insecticides

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/cums-tfa010320.php

News Release 3-Jan-2020
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

•••••

a recent study on Pyrethroid, among the most widely used insecticides in the world for public health control of vector-borne illnesses, including West Nile virus. While the insecticides are generally regarded as posing low health risks to humans in ordinary exposure situations, a recent study reported a 50 percent increase in total mortality and three-fold increase in heart disease deaths in persons with high urinary levels of 3-PBA, a metabolic product of pyrethroids indicative of human exposure.

•••••

Kids twice as likely to eat healthy after watching cooking shows with healthy food

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/e-kta010220.php

News Release 3-Jan-2020
Elsevier

Television programs featuring healthy foods can be a key ingredient in leading children to make healthier food choices now and into adulthood.

A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, found kids who watched a child-oriented cooking show featuring healthy food were 2.7 times more likely to make a healthy food choice than those who watched a different episode of the same show featuring unhealthy food.

•••••

How diet affects mental health -- what's the evidence?

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/econ-hda010320.php

News Release 3-Jan-2020
European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

A new expert review confirms that diet significantly influences mental health and wellbeing, but cautions that the evidence for many diets is comparatively weak. This, the most up to date overview of the new field of Nutritional Psychiatry, is produced, by the Nutrition Network of the ECNP and is published in the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology (see download details below).

•••••

The researchers found that there are some areas where this link between diet and mental health is firmly established, such as the ability of a high fat and low carbohydrate diet (a ketogenic diet) to help children with epilepsy, and the effect of vitamin B12 deficiency on fatigue, poor memory, and depression.

They also found that there is good evidence that a Mediterranean diet, rich in vegetables and olive oil, shows mental health benefits, such as giving some protection against depression and anxiety. However, for many foods or supplements, the evidence is inconclusive, as for example with the use of vitamin D supplements, or with foods believed to be associated with ADHD or autism.

"With individual conditions, we often found very mixed evidence", said Suzanne Dickson. "With ADHD for example, we can see an increase in the quantity of refined sugar in the diet seems to increase ADHD and hyperactivity, whereas eating more fresh fruit and vegetables seems to protect against these conditions. But there are comparatively few studies, and many of them don't last long enough to show long-term effects".

•••••

The scientists confirmed that some foods had readily provable links to mental health, for example, that nutrition in the womb and in early life can have significant effects on brain function in later life. Proving the effect of diet on mental health in the general population was more difficult.

•••••

Deceased GOP Strategist's Daughter Makes Files Public That Republicans Wanted Sealed

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/785672201/deceased-gop-strategists-daughter-makes-files-public-that-republicans-wanted-sea?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2DU-qjjzjtSNxZAuKx2XwXfRKv0K6jFPWqI-w5Ztfo5Y7zKQ3QKzyDfWU

January 5, 20201:51 PM ET
Hansi Lo Wang

More than a year after his death, a cache of computer files saved on the hard drives of Thomas Hofeller, a prominent Republican redistricting strategist, is becoming public.

Republican state lawmakers in North Carolina fought in court to keep copies of these maps, spreadsheets and other documents from entering the public record. But some files have already come to light in recent months through court filings and news reports.

They have been cited as evidence of gerrymandering that got political maps thrown out in North Carolina, and they have raised questions about Hofeller's role in the Trump administration's failed push for a census citizenship question.

•••••

Lawyers with the law firm Arnold & Porter — which represented both Common Cause and some of the citizenship question's challengers — uncovered an unpublished study in which Thomas Hofeller concluded using responses from such a question would be "advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites" when voting districts are redrawn. The revelation came weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in June, affirming a lower court's decision against the question, which has been permanently blocked from forms for the upcoming national head count.

•••••

The files document the wide reach of Thomas Hofeller's work on political maps across the country — including in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as New York's Nassau County and Texas' Galveston and Nueces counties.

•••••

As a longtime strategist for the Republican National Committee, Thomas Hofeller was known for his warnings to keep redistricting work under wraps.

•••••

Shutdown of US coal power facilities saved over 26,000 lives, study finds

But gas still is polluting and bad for health, even though an improvement over coal.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/06/coal-power-pollution-gas-saved-lives-study

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Mon 6 Jan 2020 11.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 6 Jan 2020 11.02 EST

The human toll from coal-fired pollution in America has been laid bare by a study that has found more than 26,000 lives were saved in the US in just a decade due to the shift from coal to gas for electricity generation.

The shutdown of scores of coal power facilities across the US has reduced the toxic brew of pollutants suffered by nearby communities, cutting deaths from associated health problems such as heart disease and respiratory issues, the research found.

An estimated 26,610 lives were saved in the US by the shift away from coal between 2005 and 2016, according to the University of California study published in Nature Sustainability.

•••••

“When you turn coal units off you see deaths go down. It’s something we can see in a tangible way,” said Jennifer Burney, a University of California academic who authored the study. “There is a cost to coal beyond the economics. We have to think carefully about where plants are sited, as well as how to reduce their pollutants.”

•••••

The natural gas that is replacing coal is “not entirely benign”, Burney’s research points out. Gas is, like coal, a fossil fuel and its production involves the release of vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Previous research has shown that both coal and gas will need to be rapidly replaced by zero carbon alternatives such as solar and wind, or to at least deploy technology that captures emissions, if the world is to avoid more disastrous global heating.

•••••

Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/06/severe-childhood-deprivation-reduces-brain-size-study-finds

Nicola Davis
@NicolaKSDavis
Mon 6 Jan 2020 15.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 6 Jan 2020 15.10 EST

The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Now experts say that despite the children having been adopted into loving, nurturing families in the early 1990s, the early neglect appears to have left its mark on their brain structures.

“I think the most striking finding is … that the effects on the brain have persisted,” said Prof Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a co-author of the study from King’s College London, who added that the results showed neuroplasticity had limits.

“The idea that everything is recoverable, no matter what your experience … isn’t necessarily true – even with the best care you can still see those signs of that earlier adversity,” he said.

The plight of the undernourished children, who had little social contact and received insufficient care, shocked the world when it came to light after the fall of the communist government in 1989. Ceauşescu’s oppressive policies had banned abortion and contraception, while those without children were taxed. As a result, large numbers of children ended up in orphanages living in terrible conditions.

Previous studies involving the adoptees have shown they had marked cognitive difficulties as children – although these improved considerably into adulthood – while they also had high rates of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, as adults, high levels of anxiety and depression.

•••••

The team proposed a number of possible mechanisms including the absence of experiences that are important for normal brain development, and chronic stress that could damage the developing brain.

However Sonuga-Barke said it remained unclear which features of deprivation were responsible, and that poor nutrition did not appear to explain the link.

“We are fairly confident that there are psychological routes to these effects as well, linked to lack of stimulation, lack of social interaction, and lack of attachment and bonding,” he said.

•••••

Dec. 5, 2020

Trump was born very rich, has lived his life being able to get his way by cheating and bullying those with less power. He thinks he can continue to do the same to the world, where he has to deal with other leaders, some of whom are as ruthless, self-centered, power hungry as he is.

Australia fires: Blood-red skies over NSW after 'one of worst days ever'

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-fires-fire-map-5-questions-answered-how-many-hectares-have-burnt-where-are-the-fires-burning/



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/causes-disaster-relief/australia-fires-blood-red-skies-over-nsw-after-one-of-worst-days-ever/ar-BBYCANx?ocid=wispr

By Hilary Whiteman and Adam Renton, CNN
Dec. 5, 2019

•••••

A total of 146 fires are burning across the state, with 65 uncontained, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS). About 2,700 firefighters were tackling the blazes on Sunday. [And there are other states with fires.]

•••••

In the neighboring state of Victoria, three fires have combined to form a single blaze bigger than the New York borough of Manhattan. The fires joined overnight Friday in the Omeo region, creating a 6,000-hectare (23 square mile) blaze, according to Gippsland's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

The country's capital, Canberra, smashed its heat record of 80 years, reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, according to the country's Bureau of Meteorology. In the western Sydney suburb of Penrith, the mercury climbed to 48.9 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) -- setting a new record for the whole Sydney basin.

•••••

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/04/australia/australia-red-sky-fires-intl-hnk-scli/index.html

By Hilary Whiteman and Adam Renton, CNN
Updated 5:46 AM ET, Sun January 5, 2020

•••••

in the state of New South Wales...

A total of 146 fires are burning across the state, with 65 uncontained, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS). About 2,700 firefighters were tackling the blazes on Sunday.

•••••

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season

The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season are a series of wildfires that are currently burning predominantly in south-east Australia, which is currently undergoing its annual bushfire season stretching from December to March. Of notable intensity compared to previous seasons, it has burned an estimated 6.3 million hectares (16 million acres; 63,000 square kilometres; 24,000 square miles), destroyed over 2,500 buildings (including over 1,300 houses) and killed 25 people as of 5 January 2020, with a further six missing in the state of Victoria.[5][6][7][8][9][10] The bushfires are regarded by some as one of the worst bushfire seasons in memory.[11] In December 2019, the New South Wales Government declared a state of emergency in New South Wales after record-breaking temperatures and prolonged drought exacerbated the bushfires.[12][13] It was estimated that close to half a billion animals were impacted by the ongoing fires.

•••••

tags: severe weather, extreme weather

How to help victims of Australia's apocalyptic wildfires

See the link for ways to help evacuees, evacuees, firefighters, and wildlife:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-fires-how-to-help-victims-evacuees-firefighters-animals-wildfires/

By Sophie Lewis
January 4, 2020 / 3:28 PM

Devastating bushfires have been spreading across Australia for months, and they show no signs of slowing down. So far, about 12.35 million acres have burned, destroying more than 1,400 homes and killing at least 23 people.

It is estimated that more than half a billion wild animals have perished in the flames — a number that is expected to exponentially increase. Entire towns have evacuated to the shores and volunteer firefighters have left their families and careers behind to fight the flames around the clock.

•••••

In this image released Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in Gippsland, Australia, a massive smoke rises from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria. DELWP Gippsland via AP

Trump tweets he has targeted civilian Iranian sites

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112

Thread
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Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
2h
Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently....
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
2h
....hundreds of Iranian protesters. He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have.....
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
5:52 PM · Jan 4, 2020·

Denmark sources record 47% of power from wind in 2019

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-denmark-windpower/denmark-sources-record-47-of-power-from-wind-in-2019-idUSKBN1Z10KE

Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
January 2, 2020 / 4:39 AM

Denmark sourced almost half its electricity consumption from wind power last year, a new record boosted by steep cost reductions and improved offshore technology.

Wind accounted for 47% of Denmark’s power usage in 2019, the country’s grid operator Energinet said on Thursday citing preliminary data, up from 41% in 2018 and topping the previous record of 43% in 2017.

European countries are global leaders in utilising wind power but Denmark is far in front of nearest rival Ireland, which sourced 28% of its power from wind in 2018 according to data from industry group WindEurope.

Across the European Union, wind accounted for 14% of consumption last year, the group says.

•••••

Denmark aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030, with a new climate law passed late last year targeting an increase in the share of electricity sourced from renewable power to 100%.

•••••

Science Panel Staffed With Trump Appointees Says E.P.A. Rollbacks Lack Scientific Rigor

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/climate/epa-science-panel-trump.html

By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman
Published Dec. 31, 2019
Updated Jan. 2, 2020

A top panel of government-appointed scientists, many of them hand-selected by the Trump administration, said on Tuesday that three of President Trump’s most far-reaching and scrutinized proposals to weaken major environmental regulations are at odds with established science.

Draft letters posted online Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board, which is responsible for evaluating the scientific integrity of the agency’s regulations, took aim at the Trump administration’s rewrite of an Obama-era regulation of waterways, an Obama-era effort to curb planet-warming vehicle tailpipe emissions and a plan to limit scientific data that can be used to draft health regulations.

In each case, the 41 scientists on a board — many of whom were appointed by Trump administration officials to replace scientists named by the Obama administration — found the regulatory changes flew in the face of science.

•••••

Many scientists on the advisory board were selected by Trump administration officials early in the administration, as President Trump sought to move forward with an aggressive agenda of weakening environmental regulations. During the first year of the Trump administration, more than a quarter of the academic scientists on the panel departed or were dismissed, and many were replaced by scientists with industry ties who were perceived as likely to be more friendly to the industries that the E.P.A. regulates.

•••••

Greenland’s Nearing a Climate Tipping Point. How Long Warming Lasts Will Decide Its Fate, Study Says

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23122019/greenland-ice-sheet-climate-tipping-point-temperature-duration-sea-level-rise-pnas-study

By Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News
Dec 23, 2019

There's new evidence that, in past geologic eras, much of Greenland's ice melted when Earth's temperatures were only slightly warmer than today's, and that human-caused global warming will push the ice sheet past that tipping point in the next few decades.

Exactly how much of the ice melts, and how fast, depends in large part on how long temperatures stay above that threshold, scientists write in a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings are a warning that we are probably overestimating the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet, said University of Bergen paleoclimatologist Ulysses S. Ninnemann, a co-author of the study.

•••••

Sea level rise is not the only reason to be concerned about melting on the Greenland Ice Sheet. There is increasing evidence that the growing discharge of cold, fresh water is also disrupting an ocean current that helps balance the global climate by circulating deep, cold water from polar regions toward the equator.

•••••

A recent study explored how the melting ice sheet may be contributing to a slowdown of the entire circulation system. If it were to slow significantly or collapse, research suggests it would lead to widespread cooling throughout the Northern Hemisphere and large changes in precipitation and strengthening storms.

•••••

The quiet hero: how Japan’s Schindler saved 6,000 Jews

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/chiune-sugihara-my-father-japanese-schindler-saved-6000-jews-lithuania

Jennifer Rankin
Sat 4 Jan 2020 16.04 EST

As a child in Japan in the 1950s and 60s, Nobuki Sugihara never knew his father had saved thousands of lives. Few did. His father, Chiune Sugihara, was a trader who lived in a small coastal town about 34 miles south of Tokyo. When not on business trips to Moscow, he coached his young son in mathematics and English. He made breakfast, spreading butter on the toast so thinly “nobody could compete”.

His son had no idea his father saved 6,000 Jews during the second world war. Over six weeks in the summer of 1940, while serving as a diplomat in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara defied orders from his bosses in Tokyo, and issued several thousand visas for Jewish refugees to travel to Japan.

•••••

Now the life and legacy of his father will be celebrated in Lithuania, 80 years after he issued “visas for life” to refugees who sought his help. Lithuania’s government has declared 2020 “the year of Chiune Sugihara”: an official programme promises an exhibition of photographs in Lithuania’s parliament, as well as concerts, conferences, films, postage stamps and a monument erected in Kaunas, Lithuania’s former capital, where Sugihara was posted in 1939. It is all part of the burgeoning memorialisation of Sugihara, who in 1984, two years before he died, was declared “righteous among the nations” by Yad Vashem, the Israeli state organisation that commemorates the Holocaust.

•••••

Beyond the record of 2,139 names Sugihara filed belatedly to Tokyo months after issuing visas, there is no certainty over how many lives were saved. The estimate of 6,000 comes from assuming each holder of a transit visa travelled with two other people, a wife and child. Other researchers have suggested that 10,000 people were saved.

In an undated letter to a Polish scholar written after the war, Sugihara said 3,500 people might have benefited from his visas. “The actual numbers nobody knows,” said his son.

Fresh Cambridge Analytica leak ‘shows global manipulation is out of control’

Is it a coincidence that Suleimani was killed on Jan. 3, a couple of days after fresh Cambridge Analytica leaks started coming out, and of course during Trump's impeachment, taking attention away from the Cambridge Analytica information?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/04/cambridge-analytica-data-leak-global-election-manipulation

Carole Cadwalladr
@carolecadwalla
Sat 4 Jan 2020 11.55 EST

An explosive leak of tens of thousands of documents from the defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose the inner workings of the company that collapsed after the Observer revealed it had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles.

More than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries that will lay bare the global infrastructure of an operation used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale” is set to be released over the next months.

•••••

The release of documents began on New Year’s Day on an anonymous Twitter account, @HindsightFiles, with links to material on elections in Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. The documents were revealed to have come from Brittany Kaiser, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and to be the same ones subpoeaned by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Kaiser, who starred in the Oscar-shortlisted Netflix documentary The Great Hack, decided to go public after last month’s election in Britain. “It’s so abundantly clear our electoral systems are wide open to abuse,” she said. “I’m very fearful about what is going to happen in the US election later this year, and I think one of the few ways of protecting ourselves is to get as much information out there as possible.”

•••••

Kaiser said the Facebook data scandal was part of a much bigger global operation that worked with governments, intelligence agencies, commercial companies and political campaigns to manipulate and influence people, and that raised huge national security implications.

•••••

“There are emails between these major Trump donors discussing ways of obscuring the source of their donations through a series of different financial vehicles. These documents expose the entire dark money machinery behind US politics.” The same machinery, she says, was deployed in other countries that Cambridge Analytica worked in, including, she claims, Britain.

•••••

“There’s evidence of really quite disturbing experiments on American voters, manipulating them with fear-based messaging, targeting the most vulnerable, that seems to be continuing. This is an entire global industry that’s out of controlbut what this does is lay out what was happening with this one company.

The true cost of cannabis: Why don't its illnesses, deaths command media headlines?

What a coincidence. I saw this a few minutes after a segment in "Wait, wait, don't tell me", an NPR program which had an interview with a popular hip hop artist who got a big cheer from the audience when he said he smoked marijuana in high school, as if that were some wonderful thing to do. Unfortunate that so many adults, liberals and conservatives, are still stuck in that mind set of exulting in doing things not because they are rational, but because they will upset another group of people.

https://news.yahoo.com/true-cost-cannabis-why-dont-081503193.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/01/03/marijuana-pot-thc-vaping-psychosis-mental-illness-media-column/4299001002/

Jayne O'Donnell
Jan. 3, 2020

•••••

We reporters covered the heck out of vaping lung illnesses starting in August. Once it became clear the culprit was THC and not nicotine, however, the news media seemed to lose interest, said former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb at a breakfast event I attended in early November.

Indeed, a search on the news archive Nexis shows that the number of stories mentioning "vaping" and "lung illness" went from 953 in September to 584 in the first 30 days of October, a nearly 40% drop.

•••••

Former New York Times business reporter Alex Berenson says that the human cost of cannabis is too high — and that the press is too pro-pot. When his latest book, "Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence," came out early last year, Berenson knew marijuana proponents wouldn't like it. He just didn't think there would be what he calls a "media brownout." No major publications reviewed it.

•••••

Reporters from major U.S. newspaper companies never contacted him for stories, although those in eight other countries — including Japan, Italy and Australia — did. (USA TODAY interviewed him for a March article.) Public radio and a suburban New York school system canceled appearances.

Berenson, a registered independent who didn't have strong feelings about marijuana legalization until he researched his book, has become an unlikely favorite of the conservative media and think tanks. He blames what he says is "a genuine misunderstanding of the strength of the science supporting the cannabis-psychosis link," which is worsened by "the endless industry/advocacy yelling about 'Reefer Madness.' "

•••••

tags: drug abuse, drug use

'Cancer clusters' are popping up in towns across the US and the environment may be to blame

Pure chance means that there will be some cancer clusters. The question is whether there are more then would be expected by chance. Of course, we know that some places will have cancer clusters because of pollution, eg., mining communities will have more lung cancers than average.

https://news.yahoo.com/cancer-clusters-popping-towns-across-184306169.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/cancer-clusters-in-neighborhoods-cdc-treatment-plan-environment-2020-1?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral

Weng Cheong

•••••

Wind's home in Mooresville, North Carolina, may be on its way as one of the 1,000 suspected cancer clusters reported to state health departments each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a cancer cluster as a geographic region in which cancer cases are more concentrated within a group of people.

A similar case of the north Houston neighborhoods in Texas identified a cancer cluster near a rail yard site with creosote, a potential cancer-causing chemical, reported the Houston Chronicle. Though the state department assessment found plausible evidence of the contamination in August, residents weren't notified until December. Some other ongoing cluster investigations are located in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and Waycross, Georgia.

Substantial research suggests that certain jobs like firefighting and rubber manufacturing come with more health risks.

•••••

Certain cases of cancer are out of our control, Business Insider reported. They are determined by genetic defects that are passed down from one generation to the next. Some external factors or lifestyle factors, like tobacco-smoking or a high sugar intake, can also increase our chances for a diagnosis.

However, environmental factors are harder to avoid. The air we breathe, the water we drink, or our job demands are often underrated contributions to our health.

In Susan Wind's case, the presence of two power plants and coal ash, a potential chemical contaminant, may have contributed to the unusual cases of thyroid cancer in Mooresville, but researchers aren't certain of its direct correlation. There's simply not enough evidence (yet) to link environmental pollution with cancer diagnoses. Wind is still waiting for her fundraised research results.

New Zealand glaciers turn brown and 'could melt faster because of Australia's bushfires'

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/australia/new-zealand-glaciers-australia-bushfire-intl-scli/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2Vt9L8XUSFqAs7XRWa4CWtzEAuEQ_1uGYgoKJ88EB-M_4LASv5ADqn-FI

By Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN
Updated 9:33 AM ET, Thu January 2, 2020

Smoke and ash drifting from the Australian bushfires have caused New Zealand's glaciers to turn caramel brown, with one expert fearing this could increase the risk of them melting faster this year.

•••••

That's because of the so-called Albedo effect, Guy explains.
"This is when the whiteness of an object reflects radiation away impacting its temperature," he continues.

"Thus, areas on the planet that are covered in ice and snow do not absorb the radiation as fast because it reflects it, causing lower temperatures than areas with a lower whiteness value which are quick to absorb the radiation and increase and hold on to the temperatures."
Guy added that this year, glacier melt may quicken "since the color will be a little darker than true white."

•••••

While it's too early to say exactly how the particles will affect the glaciers in New Zealand, scientists have found that forest fires in the Amazon have caused glaciers in the Andes mountains to melt faster, with pollutants such as black carbon and dust lodged in the ice, reducing the glacier's ability to reflect sunlight.

The $230,000,000 College Admission Scandal America Ignored

https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/education/magnet-schools-college-admissions-scandal-booker-t-dallas/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

By Lizzy Francis
Dec 30 2019, 10:45 AM

•••••

In the spring of 2019, some five years after his daughter’s graduation, Stegall finally got his answer when the Advocate reporter Keri Mitchell broke a story about how elite, suburban, wealthy parents had gamed the admissions system at Booker T. Some parents had rented apartment, others had taken out water and utility bills in their name at friend’s properties. This was not dissimilar to the College Admissions Scandal that made national news thanks to a few famous names, but it was far more extreme: Discounting the value of an exceptional high school experience, math suggests that out-of-district parents conspired to loot an eight-figure sum from a community resource, pulling millions and millions out of a lower-income community for the monthly installments of the $1,200 needed to rent an empty apartment.

•••••

Wealthy parents in Dallas — and in many other cities across the country — steal access to opportunity and to colleges from members of communities that finance great public institutions. These acts of class warfare, perpetrated by rich and nearly rich parents, rarely grab national headlines, but the monetary value of these abuses dwarfs that of a few spots bought by celebrities at a handful of elite universities.

“My bigger thought was how incredibly unfair it was to less privileged kids with talent who lived in-district, and who couldn’t get into the school,” says Stegall.

•••••

The money issue is less nebulous and has to do with the way that school districts are funded by property taxes, a system that works well for the well-off and poorly for the poor. Magnet schools represent such a significant resource because they provide a rich-school opportunity in poor school districts. Dallas doesn’t have many great schools. Booker T. is a standout. But the people it was designed to serve aren’t in an economic position to counter raids from the suburbs, where events like PTA auctions already subsidize school spending.

•••••

This sort of privilege hoarding has led to a few stories and maybe some social awkwardness, but zero prosecutions. The parents of the 30 students who didn’t show up to Booker T. this year have not been jailed. Their names are unknown outside the small community that abetted their actions.

•••••

On land, Australia’s rising heat is ‘apocalyptic.’ In the ocean, it’s worse.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/climate-environment/climate-change-tasmania/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

By Darryl Fears
Dec. 27, 2019

Even before the ocean caught fever and reached temperatures no one had ever seen, Australia’s ancient giant kelp was cooked.

Rodney Dillon noticed the day he squeezed into a wet suit several years ago and dove into Trumpeter Bay to catch his favorite food, a big sea snail called abalone. As he swam amid the towering kelp forest, he saw that "it had gone slimy." He scrambled out of the water and called a scientist at the University of Tasmania in nearby Hobart. "I said, 'Mate, all our kelp's dying, and you need to come down here and have a look.'

"But no one could do anything about it."

Climate change had arrived at this island near the bottom of the world, and the giant kelp that flourished in its cold waters was among the first things to go.

Over recent decades, the rate of ocean warming off Tasmania, Australia’s southernmost state and a gateway to the South Pole, has climbed to nearly four times the global average, oceanographers say.

More than 95 percent of the giant kelp — a living high-rise of 30-foot stalks that served as a habitat for some of the rarest marine creatures in the world — died.

•••••

Nearly a tenth of the planet has already warmed 2 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, and the abrupt rise in temperature related to human activity has transformed parts of the Earth in radical ways.

In the United States, New Jersey is among the fastest-warming states, and its average winter has grown so warm that lakes no longer freeze as they once did. Canadian islands are crumbling into the sea because a blanket of sea ice no longer protects them from crashing waves. Fisheries from Japan to Angola to Uruguay are collapsing as their waters warm. Arctic tundra is melting away in Siberia and Alaska, exposing the remains of woolly mammoths buried for thousands of years and flooding the gravesites of indigenous people who have lived in an icy world for centuries.

•••••

A stretch of the Tasman Sea right along Tasmania’s eastern coast has already warmed by just a fraction below 2 degrees Celsius, according to ocean temperature data from the Hadley Center, the U.K. government research agency on climate change.

•••••

Two of the most severe marine heat waves ever recorded struck back to back in recent years.

In the first, starting in 2015, ocean temperatures peaked at nearly 3 degrees Celsius above normal in the waters between Tasmania and New Zealand. A blob of heat that reached 2 degrees Celsius was more than seven times the size of Tasmania, an island the size of Ireland.

The region’s past heat waves normally lasted as long as two months. The 2015-2016 heat wave persisted for eight months. Alistair Hobday, who studied the event, compared it to the deadly 2003 European heat wave that led to the deaths of thousands of people.

•••••

Trump Rule Would Exclude Climate Change in Infrastructure Planning

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/climate/trump-nepa-climate-change.html?fbclid=IwAR3mKJIZIfSufHSotYemadAPNSTCYnXR_LbvAMjZLwChotFritVzo3UpY7s

By Lisa Friedman
Jan. 3, 2020 Updated 5:30 p.m. ET

Federal agencies would no longer have to take climate change into account when they assess the environmental impacts of highways, pipelines and other major infrastructure projects, according to a Trump administration plan that would weaken one of the benchmark environmental laws of the modern era.

The proposed changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act could sharply reduce obstacles to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and other fossil fuel projects that have been stymied when courts ruled that the Trump administration did not properly consider climate change when analyzing the environmental effects of the projects.

•••••

According to one government official who has seen the proposed regulation but was not authorized to speak about it publicly, the administration will more narrowly define the type of project that requires an environmental review. That could make it likely that more projects will sail through the approval process without having to disclose effects like hazardous waste discharges, the removal of trees or increased air pollution.

The new rule also would no longer require agencies to consider the “cumulative” consequences of new infrastructure. In recent years courts have interpreted that requirement as a mandate to study the effects of allowing more planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. It also has meant understanding the impacts of rising sea levels and other results of climate change on a given project.

Once the proposed rules are filed in the federal register, the public will have 60 days to comment on them, the official said. A final regulation is expected before the presidential election in November.

•••••

Study: People Who Only Drink Bottled Water Ingest 90,000 Microplastic Particles Per Year

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/07/31/bottled-water-microplastic/?fbclid=IwAR10DUA0q3V0SLcY7HIzfBsZQmn22hirSC05FVI9AG34VRMQT98Zw7_-7ys

July 31, 2019 at 8:42 am

•••••

A new study published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal found Americans ingest between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year through what they breathe in, drink or eat depending on age or sex.

For someone in Lendra Brown’s shoes, who primarily drinks bottled water, the intake of microplastics jumps to 90,000 particles annually. Compare that to 4,000 microplastics annually for those who drink only tap water.

•••••

“It is well known that plastics give off chemicals, outgas chemicals, from what they’re made from, and the plastic does deteriorate over time,” said Dr. Alfred Johnson.

•••••

Sikh group giving free hot meals to bushfire victims hailed as 'legends'

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sikh-group-giving-free-hot-meals-to-bushfire-victims-hailed-as-legends?fbclid=IwAR1I1az6daiKmrMzUiY3mJm2AzMpkxvUhvvG2wWYYTiSZfpGCFsdwDsbdio

Jan. 3, 2020

Sikh volunteers who are providing free food for bushfire victims in Victoria have been hailed as "legends".

Members of the Melbourne-based Sikh Volunteers Australia have crisscrossed the fire-affected regions throughout the week, serving hundreds of people.

•••••

The group usually provides food twice a week for those in need around Melbourne.

But member Jafwinder Singh said this "disaster" was too big to ignore.

•••••

The Emotionally Intelligent Way to Resolve Disagreements Faster

I suggest reading the whole article.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-emotionally-intelligent-way-to-resolve-disagreements-faster?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Fast Company | Josh Davis, Hitendra Wadhwa
This article was originally published on July 24, 2018, by Fast Company

Josh Davis, PhD, is the author of the international best-seller Two Awesome Hours. He is faculty and senior director of research at the Institute for Personal Leadership, and he teaches “The Art of Public Speaking” at the NLP Center of New York.

Hitendra Wadhwa, PhD, is professor of practice at Columbia Business School and founder of the Institute for Personal Leadership.

•••••

What should you do? What you should’ve done much earlier: Find something—anything—to agree on, as long as it’s meaningful.
Agree on Something (Other Than the Solution)

It’s natural during conflicts to feel you have to prove that you’re right, but this only escalates things. One party may give in, but it will be at the expense of wasted time, energy, and morale. However, a surprising thing happens when you take the opposite approach. By finding some common ground as soon as you detect the first signs of tension or conflict, you can start working quickly toward a mutually agreeable solution.

There’s always something true in the other party’s thinking. It may be their intention, premises, logic, concerns, or the factors they’re weighing.

•••••

When you find a way to agree with something other than the solution to the problem you’re debating, you can shift the frame of the conversation to include a factor you both see as true and relevant. That makes it easier for the other person to lay down their arms and stop fighting. Instead, they start listening.

•••••

There’s one more, often unexpected result of this approach. Agreeing tends to bring out the best in other people, but it can also bring out the best in you. By pushing yourself to find common ground, you can shift your own thinking in a more collaborative direction, too. A little more flexibility and understanding–on all sides–is surely a good thing.

Jakarta floods: 'Not ordinary rain', say officials

Global warming has caused an increased amount of water vapor in the air, leading to more frequent and more severe occurrences of flooding.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50969418?fbclid=IwAR1hrMoCAr1x7sPad7k1jsRACanyVLoxyAyOiyQaiEjctb9DOtkr9CUKhus

2 January 2020

At least 21 people have died in flooding in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, after the city had its most intense rainfall for at least 24 years.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) measured 377mm (14.8 inches) of rainfall in a day at an airport in East Jakarta.

That's the most rain in a single day since at least 1996, when records supplied by the agency began.

"The rain falling on New Year's Eve... is not ordinary rain," said the agency.

The agency said the intensity of the rain was due to several factors, including the monsoon season, as well as a high amount of water vapour in the air.

At least 62,000 people have been evacuated out of the city. Some people spent the night on the roofs of their buildings while awaiting rescue.

•••••

tags: severe weather, extreme weather

Norway records warmest ever January day

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50971446?fbclid=IwAR2MQWC4A-x2dxpeizOKjdzcbewZACeAuv2rfHL9nhYU1FgfkNYFYH8y0mM

2 January 2020

Western Norway is experiencing a rare heatwave for early January, at a time when temperatures should normally be below freezing.

The highest temperature of 19C (66F) - more than 25C above the monthly average - was measured in the village of Sunndalsora.

This makes it Norway's warmest January day since records began.

While many were enjoying the warm weather, there are concerns that it is another example of climate change.

•••••
BBC forecaster Peter McAward said the previous January high in Sunndalsora was 17.4C.

It also breaks the record for any winter month (December to February) in Scandinavia, he adds.

•••••

tags: extreme weather, severe weather

What Biden said about running mate, in response to a question

Some people have been posting a small excerpt of what Biden said w/o giving context, and of course blowing it up as something big.

By Arlette Saenz and Sarah Mucha, CNN
Updated 4:34 PM ET, Mon December 30, 2019

Joe Biden told voters in New Hampshire on Monday that he would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate, but added, "I can't think of one right now."

Biden discussed the possibility after a woman told the former vice president that if he is the nominee, he will "have to pull out all the stops."

"Our 21-year-old son said the other night, 'I wonder if Joe Biden would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate," the woman added.

"The answer is I would, but I can't think of one now," Biden replied. "Let me explain that. You know there's some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here's the problem right now ... they've got to step up."

•••••

"Whoever I would pick for vice president, and there's a lot of qualified women, there's a lot of qualified African-Americans. There really truly are. There's a plethora of really qualified people. Whomever I would pick were I fortunate enough to be your nominee, I'd pick somebody who was simpatico with me, who knew what I, what my priorities were and knew what I wanted to," Biden said in Exeter on Monday. "We could disagree on tactic, but strategically we'd have to be in the exact same page."

•••••

'The rich should pay more' — Bill Gates calls for higher taxes on the wealthy in New Year's Eve blog post

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bill-gates-calls-tax-hike-wealthy-new-years-eve-blog-2020-1-1028791394

Theron Mohamed
Jan. 2, 2020, 08:36 AM

Billionaire Bill Gates wants rich people to pay higher taxes.

"I've been disproportionately rewarded for the work I've done," the Microsoft founder and philanthropist said in a blog post titled "What I'm thinking about this New Year's Eve."

"The rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me," Gates added, referring to his wife and cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

•••••

The government primarily taxes labor, but it should tax capital more. It earns about 75% of its revenue by taxing wags and salaries at up to 37%, while taxing investments — which generate the bulk of rich people's incomes — at 20% if they're held for more than a year.

"That's the clearest evidence I've seen that the system isn't fair," Gates wrote. "I don't see any reason to favor wealth over work the way we do today."

•••••

Gates pointed out that higher taxes didn't dissuade him from founding and building a business.

"In the 1970s, when Paul Allen and I were starting Microsoft, marginal tax rates were almost twice the top rate today," he wrote. "It didn't hurt our incentive to build a great company."

Big oil asks government to protect its Texas facilities from climate change

So our tax money is supposed to go to protect them from the climate crisis they have been working to block action on.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-protect-oil-facilities-from-climate-change-coastal-spine/?fbclid=IwAR3snk404tU5WDvoLVGDPNeZ_-dNmbMnIgsq-bmHl57amfM7lH0NU6hwEmg

August 22, 2018 / 3:04 PM / AP

As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out: an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60-mile "spine" of concrete seawalls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast.

•••••

The plan is focused on a stretch of coastline that runs from the Louisiana border to industrial enclaves south of Houston that are home to one of the world's largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities, including most of Texas' 30 refineries, which represent 30 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

•••••

Texas is seeking at least $12 billion for the full coastal spine, with nearly all of it coming from public funds. Last month, the government fast-tracked an initial $3.9 billion for three separate, smaller storm barrier projects that would specifically protect oil facilities.

That followed Hurricane Harvey, which roared ashore last Aug. 25 and swamped Houston and parts of the coast, temporarily knocking out a quarter of the area's oil refining capacity and causing average gasoline prices to jump 28 cents a gallon nationwide. Many Republicans argue that the Texas oil projects belong at the top of Washington's spending list.

•••••

But the idea of taxpayers around the country paying to protect refineries worth billions, and in a state where top politicians still dispute climate change's validity, doesn't sit well with some.

"The oil and gas industry is getting a free ride," said Brandt Mannchen, a member of the Sierra Club's executive committee in Houston. "You don't hear the industry making a peep about paying for any of this and why should they? There's all this push like, 'Please Senator Cornyn, Please Senator Cruz, we need money for this and that.'"

Normally outspoken critics of federal spending, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz both backed using taxpayer funds to fortify the oil facilities' protections and the Texas coast. Cruz called it "a tremendous step forward."

•••••

Texas has not tapped its own rainy day fund of around $11 billion. According to federal rules, 35 percent of funds spent by the Army Corps of Engineers must be matched by local jurisdictions, and the GOP-controlled state Legislature could help cover such costs. But such spending may be tough for many conservatives to swallow.

Texas "should be funding things like this itself," said Chris Edwards, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute. "Texans are proud of their conservatism, but, unfortunately, when decisions get made in Washington, that frugality goes out the door."

•••••

Poverty in America a Literal 'Death Sentence,' Says Sanders, Following Devastating GAO Report

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/09/poverty-america-literal-death-sentence-says-sanders-following-devastating-gao-report?utm_campaign=shareaholic&fbclid=IwAR32DLDED_Is5Tf5NNZ90rLO56tTVtpU2BfCAbTC3GBXCetyH-00h7yZYIc

by Jake Johnson
Monday, September 09, 2019

A comprehensive Government Accountability Office study commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders and published Monday found that low-income Americans have significantly shorter lives than the rich, leading the Vermont senator to declare that poverty in the world's wealthiest nation is a "death sentence."

•••••

"For three straight years, overall life expectancy in the wealthiest nation in world history has been declining, often driven by deaths of desperation and despair: liver disease, drug overdoses, and suicide," Sanders noted.

•••••

According to the GAO, the average wealth of the richest 20 percent of older U.S. households more than doubled between 1989 and 2016. Meanwhile, between 1989 and 2013, the average wealth of older households in the bottom 20 percent fell from $4,500 to negative $4,300.

•••••

Why does media ignore Tom Steyer

Jan. 2, 2020

Mad at media for totally ignoring Tom Steyer, who says “On day one of my presidency, I will declare the climate crisis a national emergency.”, He polled well enough to participate in the Dec. debate, but you wouldn't know it from the news media. Eg., today, when NPR was discussing the candidates, there was ZERO mention of Steyer, while they did discuss Bloomberg. And they reported today on Castro dropping out of the race, and he didn't poll well enough to get in the Dec. debate.

Seems like it's related to the way the debates run by news networks allowed almost no time to discussion of the climate crisis and how candidates would deal with it.

I don't understand why so many people still don't know this. It has been known for a long time.

When a person carries the gene for sickle cell anemia on one chromosome, they have the sickle cell trait, which protects against malaria. When they have it on two chromosomes, they have sickle cell anemia, a serious disease. This has resulted in an incidence of the sickle cell gene that results in the highest rate of survival, balancing the benefits and risks.

See the tab "Human Factors and Malaria" at the following link

https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/index.html#tabs-1-3

Page last reviewed: November 14, 2018

•••••

Two genetic factors, both associated with human red blood cells, have been shown to be epidemiologically important. Persons who have the sickle cell trait (heterozygotes for the abnormal hemoglobin gene HbS) are relatively protected against P. falciparum malaria and thus enjoy a biologic advantage. Because P. falciparum malaria has been a leading cause of death in Africa since remote times, the sickle cell trait is now more frequently found in Africa and in persons of African ancestry than in other population groups. In general, the prevalence of hemoglobin-related disorders and other blood cell dyscrasias, such as Hemoglobin C, the thalassemias and G6PD deficiency, are more prevalent in malaria endemic areas and are thought to provide protection from malarial disease.

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Australia Faces Extinction but its Leaders Still Don’t Want to Know

If we continue to elect leaders like this, and like Trump, does our species deserve to continue to exist?

https://news.yahoo.com/australia-faces-extinction-leaders-still-163851215.html

Clive Irving
,The Daily Beast•January 2, 2020

•••••

As the apocalypse closed in on Mallacoota the prime minister, Scott Morrison, was AWOL: At first his office denied he was on holiday in Hawaii but when a picture emerged of him there, drinking beer with tourists on a beach, he was forced to head back home.

In New South Wales, the state that includes Sydney, nine million acres have been burned up since November, and 900 homes destroyed.

•••••

Australia’s politicians seem to have no learning curve. Morrison, declaring that this was no time to discuss climate policy, said “We have been through these terrible disasters before, and we have come through the other side.”

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack said climate concerns were being stoked by “raving inner-city lefties.”

Australia remains heavily committed to coal-fired power stations and has one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emission rates.

•••••

At the same time, Australia is actually planning increases in fossil fuel production that would mean that by 2030 Australia, with 0.3 percent of the global population, will be responsible for 13 percent of the globally generated greenhouse gases.

One of the people pushing this program is Gina Rinehart, the 65 year old chairman of a mining and extraction conglomerate with a net worth of $14.8 billion.

With her coal mines producing more than 60 million tons a year, Rinehart has opposed carbon pollution taxes and has sponsored trips to Australia by climate change denier Christopher Monckton, a right wing British politician who is also an advocate for quack cures for multiple sclerosis, herpes and flu.

•••••

Nonetheless it would be an act of gross hypocrisy to see their behavior only as an Australian aberration. The country’s obtuse political leaders set an example that other reactionary regimes in countries as varied as Brazil and Poland, are all too ready to emulate as they, too, protect their fossil fuel interests.

And then, of course, there is us. Our continent has far greater ecological resilience than Australia, but our stewardship of it is just as careless as theirs. Under Trump’s calculated demolition of science-based regulations America is on the same path to the apocalypse. It’s simply happening a lot more slowly.

An Australian zookeeper took home monkeys, pandas, and a tiger in order to keep them safe from bushfires

https://news.yahoo.com/australian-zookeeper-took-home-monkeys-065344825.html

(Rosie Perper)
,INSIDER•January 2, 2020

An Australian zoo was able to save all of its animals facing threat of bushfires thanks to a zookeeper who sheltered monkeys, pandas, and even a tiger in his home.

•••••

"Due to the amazing staff here and a well-executed plan, no one is hurt, not a single animal," he told the ABC on Tuesday.

"Any species of animal that was small enough, or was in an area we couldn't protect, we caught up," he told the ABC. "Right now in my house there's animals of all descriptions in all the different rooms with different pet packs so that they're safe and protected."

Sara Ang from the wildlife park told BBC Radio 5 that some of the smaller monkeys, red pandas, and even a tiger were moved into Staples' home.

•••••

Staples told The Canberra Times that the scene staff faced on Tuesday morning looked like "Armageddon."

"The scariest thing was how fast those winds were," he said. "It got so dark it felt like it was midnight which was such a scary feeling."

He told The Times that the team on-site battled spot fires at the 65-acre park for several hours. He thanked his staff for working tirelessly to protect the animals because they "love them like their own family."

•••••

According to the BBC, fires have burned more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of land in New South Wales.

Ecologists from the University of Sydney have estimated that nearly 500 million mammals, birds, and reptiles have been killed in the bushfires since the season started in September.

•••••

Australia bushfires: Residents refuse to shake prime minister's hand as mass evacuation begins

https://news.yahoo.com/australia-fires-now-thousands-tourists-002140260.html

Giovanni Torre
,The Telegraph•January 2, 2020

The Australian prime minister was heckled out of a fire-ravaged town in New South Wales yesterday, as a mass evacuation of the region got under way ahead of worsening conditions.

Video of the visit to Cobargo, on the south coast, showed Mr Morrison insist a woman shake his hand as she criticised him over the government's response to the crisis. “I am only shaking your hand if you give more funding to the RFS (Rural Fire Service),” she said as he turned away. “So many people have lost their homes. We need more help.”

The prime minister was soon ushered to his car by minders when other residents began shouting at him. “You won't be getting any votes down here buddy,” one called out.

Anger over the government's handling of the crisis has grown since the outbreak of wildfires, which have so far killed at least 17 people, including nine since Christmas Day, and destroyed 1,400 homes.

In Cobargo, a 29-year-old dairy farmer and his father, 53, were killed earlier this week as fires swept through the village.

Mr Morrison has overseen more than $12.9m cuts to the state's fire service in the latest budget, and has been criticised for rejecting calls to professionalise the service.

But think of the tax money saved. [sarcasm]

•••••

The navy was called in to assist in getting people out of the town of Mallacoota, in the neighbouring state of Victoria, where 4,000 people were trapped on the beach for days after the fire devastated much of their town.

Rob Rogers, NSW's Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, said firefighters were struggling to combat the fires.

"The message is we've got so much fire in that area, we have no capacity to contain these fires," he told ABC.

•••••

In addition to the loss of human life, homes and farmland, ecologists from the University of Sydney estimate almost half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost this fire season, with the toll expected to rise.

At least 17 people were yesterday reported to be missing across Victoria. The body of Mick Roberts, who had been unaccounted for since Monday, was found dead in his home in Buchan, East Gippsland, on Wednesday, his niece said.

•••••

Brie Kingsely, a Melbourne resident, witnessed the sheer scale of the crisis while driving from Sydney to get home. She told The Telegraph the entire six-hour journey was “smoke-ridden”.

•••••

#MenToo: The hidden tragedy of male sexual abuse in the military

When I was in a class in Huntsville, AL for training to work on the Help line, when they brought up the issue of rape victims, there was laughter and unfeeling remarks by some of the men, joking that they would enjoy being raped. After I spoke up and said that if a man was raped, it would likely be by another man, there was a big silence.

https://news.yahoo.com/photos-men-too-the-hidden-tragedy-of-male-sexual-abuse-in-the-military-005342483.html

December 31, 2019

Last March, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., a retired Air Force combat pilot, disclosed that she had been the victim of multiple sexual assaults by fellow officers, putting the issue of sexual assault in the military on the national agenda. Two months later, a required biannual Department of Defense report found that sexual assault within the ranks had increased by 38 percent over two years. Much less attention has been given to the problem of sexual assault against men in uniform. The report estimated that “20,500 Service members, representing about 13,000 women and 7,500 men, experienced some kind of contact or penetrative sexual assault in 2018, up from approximately 14,900 in 2016.”

•••••

The effects of military sexual trauma (MST) in male victims include depression, substance abuse, paranoia, hypervigilance, anger and feelings of isolation. Victims may turn to alcohol or drugs or end up homeless, even suicidal.

•••••

Our Shortest, Strongest And Strangest Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend. Here’s When To See Fireballs

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/01/01/our-shortest-strongest-and-strangest-meteor-shower-peaks-this-weekend-heres-when-to-see-fireballs/#2147246753a0

Jamie Carter
Jan 1, 2020, 10:00pm

The night sky’s most intense meteor shower will peak this Friday night and Saturday morning—and North America is perfectly placed.

The “Quadrantids” aren’t all that well known. Maybe that’s because they’re named after an old and now unused constellation called Quadrans Muralis.

•••••

A top Google exec pushed the company to commit to human rights. Then Google pushed him out, he says.

I changed my email from Yahoo because they were cooperating with Chinese authorities to find dissidents. Now I am sorry I have gmail, but it would really be an inconvenience to change it, esp. because I need it to get messages for my volunteer work with Tax-Aide. I recently had to spend time getting my current email updated for Tax-Aide. Don't want to try to change it right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/02/top-google-exec-pushed-company-commit-human-rights-then-google-pushed-him-out-he-says/

By Nitasha Tiku
Jan. 2, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EST

For years, Google tasked Ross LaJeunesse with executing its plan to protect human rights in China, after Google announced a decade ago it would stop censoring search results there to safeguard security and free speech.

LaJeunesse took the mission to heart: He later devised a human rights program to formalize Google’s principles supporting free expression and privacy. He began lobbying for it internally in 2017 — around the time when the tech giant was exploring a return to China, in a stark reversal of its 2010 move that made its search engine unavailable there.

Now, the 50 year-old is alleging that Google pushed him out for it in April.

“I didn’t change. Google changed,” LaJeunesse, who was Google’s global head of international relations in Washington, D.C., told The Washington Post. “Don’t be evil” used to top the company’s mission statement. “Now when I think about ‘Don’t be evil,’ it’s been relegated to a footnote in the company’s statements.”

•••••

In his initial pitch to Walker in June 2017, LaJeunesse mentioned that companies like Yahoo put a program in place only after a human rights disaster.

•••••

Amazon threatens to fire employees who speak out on climate change

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/02/amazon-threatens-to-fire-employees-who-speak-out-on-climate-change.html

Jan 2 20201:33 PM EST
Annie Palmer
@annierpalmer

A group of Amazon employees say the company has threatened to fire them for speaking out against the company’s environmental policies.

In a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said that several employees were contacted by legal and HR representatives, who said they were in violation of the company’s external communications policy.

•••••

Power corrupts people's attachment to reality. Given China's treatment of the people in its own country, and Hong Kong, which it promised to allow home rule, anybody who would believe they would not oppress Taiwan the same way would be living in la-la land.

China has to steal western science, and is so intent on keeping Hong Kong and claiming Taiwan because it's oppressive government squashes people's spirits and makes progress hard. If oppressors like Russia and China take over the world, they will be harming themselves because they would lose the innovative capabilities of free people.

https://www.dw.com/en/taiwan-rejects-hong-kong-model-for-unity-with-china/a-51849748

Jan. 1, 2020

The Hong Kong model of "one country, two systems," would not work for Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday.

China had proffered the political formula as a way towards unity between the two countries. However, Tsai said the arrangement had failed in Hong Kong and would not work in democratic Taiwan.

Tsai vowed to defend the island nation's sovereignty during her New Year's speech ahead of a January 11 re-election bid. She promised to develop safeguards against increasing Chinese pressure.
"Hong Kong people showed us that 'one country, two systems' is definitely not feasible," Tsai said.

"Under 'one country, two systems', the situation continues to deteriorate in Hong Kong. The credibility of 'one country, two systems' has been sullied by the government's abuse of power."

"Democracy and authoritarianism ... cannot co-exist in the same country," Tsai added.

•••••

Persistent organic pollutants in mother's blood linked to smaller fetal size

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/nksn-pop121919.php

News Release 30-Dec-2019
NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Pregnant women exposed to persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, had slightly smaller fetuses than women who haven't been exposed to these chemicals, according to an analysis of ultrasound scans by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The researchers also found that the women in their study had lower levels of POPs than women in the 2003-2004 U.S. Health and Nutrition Survey, the most recent comprehensive study of these compounds in U.S. pregnant women. The latest findings suggest that the chemicals, which are no longer produced in the United States but persist in the environment, may have lasting health effects even at low levels.

•••••

Persistent organic pollutants are chemicals once used in agriculture, disease control, manufacturing, and industrial processes. They include the pesticide DDT and dioxin, a byproduct of herbicide production and paper bleaching. POPs are slow to break down, may persist in water and air, and may be passed through the food chain. Their health effects vary, but some compounds have been linked to reproductive disorders and a higher risk of birth defects.

•••••

Extreme heat wipes out almost one third of Australia's spectacled flying fox population

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-19/heat-wipes-out-one-third-of-flying-fox-species/10632940?pfmredir=sm&fbclid=IwAR1KUbepzNUL1B9HnU6jBmTVgDK4w0WMa3wluEaMvjLAlKR0fuLyAuM2pV0

By Sharnie Kim and Adam Stephen
Updated 18 Dec 2018, 9:42pm

An extreme heatwave in far north Queensland last month is estimated to have killed more than 23,000 spectacled flying foxes, equating to almost one third of the species in Australia.

The deaths were from colonies in the Cairns area where the mercury soared above 42 degrees Celsius [107.6 F] two days in a row, breaking the city's previous record temperature for November by five degrees [9 F].

Ecologist, Dr Justin Welbergen from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney University) is collating the numbers of bat deaths and said it was the second-largest mass die-off of flying foxes recorded in Australia and the first time it had happened to this species.

•••••

"Extreme heat events are increasing in frequency, also in terms of intensity and duration, and we can expect more extreme temperatures to occur increasingly frequently further north.

"A certain proportion of such an extreme event can certainly be statistically attributed to climate change for sure. I think the jury is no longer out on that."

Flying foxes dropped dead from roosting trees around Cairns during the heatwave with some residents forced to leave their homes due to the smell from thousands of rotting carcasses.

•••••

I'm using all my strength to fight climate change, says Merkel

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-climatechange-idUSKBN1YY1IF?fbclid=IwAR3Iz4DDCaS5zoXf4ZZHr6n4ebHnJsLQHKgmV3V6wzzWPpmzLPmbAQ33ACM

December 30, 2019 / 6:05 PM

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a her New Year’s message she is fighting climate change with all her strength to enable future generations to live in peace and prosperity.

•••••

“At 65, I am at an age at which I personally will no longer experience all the consequences of climate change that will occur if politicians do not act,” the chancellor said.

“It will be our children and grandchildren who have to live with the consequences of what we do or refrain from doing today. That is why I use all my strength to ensure that Germany makes its contribution - ecologically, economically, socially - to getting climate change under control.”

•••••

Half a billion animals perish in bushfires

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/half-a-billion-animals-perish-in-bushfires/news-story/b316adb4f3af7b1c8464cf186ab9f52c?fbclid=IwAR0vmF6pElcwoQZAc9fGLQZHX0fX5oFsaOFWaAVsNSJDQr7RWKQCapDq-ss

Marnie O’Neill@marnieoneill7
Jan. 1, 2020

There are real concerns entire species of plants and animals have been wiped out by bushfires following revelations almost 500 million animals have died since the crisis began.

Ecologists from the University of Sydney now estimate 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost since September.

That figure is likely to soar following the devastating fires which have ripped through Victoria and the NSW South Coast over the past couple of days, leaving several people dead or unaccounted for, razing scores of homes and leaving thousands stranded.

•••••

Actions speak louder than words

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4504146-before-you-speak-to-me-about-your-religion-first-show

Cory Booker:

“Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children; before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give.”

Zero-carbon electricity outstrips fossil fuels in Britain across 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/01/zero-carbon-energy-outstrips-fossil-fuels-in-britain-across-2019

Julia Kollewe
Wed 1 Jan 2020 03.01 EST
Last modified on Wed 1 Jan 2020 06.46 EST

Zero-carbon energy became Britain’s largest electricity source in 2019, delivering nearly half the country’s power and outstripping fossil fuels for the first time.

•••••

National Grid’s latest data shows that wind farms, solar and nuclear energy, alongside energy imported by subsea cables, delivered 48.5% of Britain’s electricity in 2019. This compares to 43% generated by fossil fuels – coal, gas, and other carbon sources such as oil and diesel. The remaining 8.5% was generated by biomass, such as wood pellets.

Where did the electricity form the subsea cables come from?

•••••

U.S. companies are forcing workers to train their own foreign replacements

Found this on Robert Reich's Facebook page

https://www.axios.com/trump-att-outsourcing-h1b-visa-foreign-workers-1f26cd20-664a-4b5f-a2e3-361c8d2af502.html?fbclid=IwAR0UYRie60HSyZ9vpGZddYKZ2ap8Q02oHUL-SXlJIZXJb1NXp3g8Dhq-lzI

Stef W. Kight
Dec 29, 2019

Opponents of job outsourcing are making a holiday-season appeal to President Trump: Stop U.S. companies from forcing American workers to train the very same cheaper foreign laborers who will soon replace them.

Why it matters: Trump promised voters he'd end abuses of worker visa programs and save U.S. jobs — but as he campaigns for re-election, advocates say he hasn't done enough.

Driving the news: AT&T is poised to send thousands into the new year hunting for new jobs after assigning them to train their own foreign replacements, according to conversations with current and former workers and documents obtained by Axios.

Many have worked for the company for over a decade. They aren't being offered severance or early retirement, and may not easily find a comparable job elsewhere with similar pay.

•••••

Despite receiving a $3 billion tax cut last year, AT&T announced new and expanded alliances with big outsourcing companies to replace workers with foreign or cheaper domestic talent.

Like many major U.S. companies, AT&T has been shifting jobs for years now — but 2019 was especially noteworthy, as workers claimed that as many as 3,000 finance jobs were being outsourced to Accenture. AT&T denied the 3,000 figure, but declined to provide Axios with its own number.
AT&T also signed multi-year deals with IBM, Tech Mahindra and Amdocs this year. Accenture, IBM and Tech Mahindra were in the top 10 companies to request H-1B high-skilled worker visas this year.

•••••

It's a common business model that's been used by other U.S. companies, including Disney, Verizon, Bank of America, Toys 'R' Us and Southern California Edison.
[and Equifax]

•••••

A decade of revolt

Food for thought.
I suggest reading the whole article

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/26/21004797/2010s-review-a-decade-of-revolt-martin-gurri

By Sean Illing
Dec 26, 2019, 9:10am EST

•••••

There used to be something called a “mass audience.” And that meant [that] there were massive numbers of people all essentially looking into a gigantic mirror in which they saw themselves reflected. So most people were consuming the same content and there was a common denominator.

The digital revolution has shattered that mirror, and now the public inhabits those broken pieces of glass. So the public isn’t one thing; it’s highly fragmented, and it’s basically mutually hostile. It’s mostly people yelling at each other and living in bubbles of one sort or another.

Well, my argument is that now the public only really unifies around what it rejects. This has profound political consequences. People can’t organize around a common idea or worldview, but they all seem to agree that they’re pissed off and they’re against ... the system.

•••••

I’m increasingly frustrated with the elites. Look, you can’t run a modern society without some sort of hierarchy. Let’s get real. It can’t happen. So that means that you cannot run a modern society without some sort of elite class. So whatever the public is doing, it’s never going to end up in a perfectly flat society in which we all rule ourselves in some protesting way.

So we need structure, we need institutions, we need elites. But I’ve been astounded by how clueless so many of these elites are. Because of what I do, I’ve interacted with lots of important people, and they simply don’t get it.

•••••