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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:38:50 GMT -8
My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate. You Don't Want to Belong to the 50°C (122°F) Degree ClubTemperatures of 50°C will become much more common around the Mediterranean Spikes above 45°C are likely every year by 2100 Spring was a scorcher in the Mediterranean. A heatwave in April saw temperatures up to 20°C higher than usual in Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Spain. Scientists used to hesitate to blame a particular piece of weather on climate change. These days they are more confident. World Weather Attribution, a network of climate modellers, reckons that the heatwave was made around 100 times more likely by the greenhouse gases that are piling up in the atmosphere. In a paper published on May 26th in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Nikolaos Christidis, a climatologist at the Hadley Centre, a branch of the British Met Office, look at what might be in store for the Mediterranean and the Middle East in a future, even hotter world. They were particularly interested in how often the region can expect to see days in which the mercury rises above 50°C. Dr Christidis and his colleagues used data from a dozen sites around the region, from Turkey and Spain to Egypt to Qatar. They first simulated a pre-industrial world, in which humans had not yet begun to significantly alter the atmosphere. They found that 50°C days were virtually impossible under those conditions. Only in Saudi Arabia and on the coast of Tunisia could they happen—and even then, only once a century or so. The team then re-ran their models using a standard “middle-of-the-road” scenario for future emissions. It assumes countries will make some effort to curb climate change, but few truly radical adjustments. In that world, the level of carbon dioxide in the air levels off at around 600 parts per million by 2100, up from around 420ppm today.  They found the likelihood that at least one day each year will exceed 50°C increased rapidly by the middle of the century for all but the coolest Mediterranean locations, such as Spain (see chart). By 2100, such days will become once-in-a-decade events across the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Spikes above 45°C are likely every year. That means more droughts and fires (2022 was the second-worst European wildfire season on record, and most were in the Mediterranean). Extreme heat melts roads, buckles railways and makes outdoor work dangerous. Heatwaves already cause 8% of all weather-related deaths. Very high temperatures and humidity can even prevent people shedding heat through sweating, which can eventually kill them. Countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle East are used to the heat. But the future will be very different from the past. |
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:41:29 GMT -8
When He Says "Pull the Trigger", He Means Pull the Trigger.
Retired Major League Baseball pitcher-turned-right-wing commentator Curt Schilling told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Friday that "somebody is going to have to pull a trigger" in retaliation to the criminal charges that were filed against former President Donald Trump by United States Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.
"The problem is Jesse, you know, if you look at, you know, I love coming on this show. I love talking to you. I love what you've done, what you're doing with your voice, but the fact of the matter is, you know, I'm tired of listening to Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and Dan Crenshaw and these people talk. Talk. Talk — that's all they're doing. They're talking," Schilling crowed on Jesse Watters Primetime.
"We're up against a side and a force that doesn't play by the rules, refuses to play by the rules, just look no further than the unconstitutional thing going with former President Trump and we're not doing anything about it. We're talking about it, and we get excited and we get emotional. That's it," Schilling carped. "They break the law and they do the things they need to do to ensure their agenda is driven forward and we're watching them gut our nation from the inside out. And I don't know where the rubber is going to meet the road because it's a true sacrifice. mean, you look at the guys, the young men that signed the Constitution and all the things that they sacrificed everything to come out from under a tyrannical government, and then eventually at some point, there was a man at Concord who decided he was going to pull the trigger. And I feel like we're getting back to a point where somebody is going to have to pull a trigger because everything we hold dear, everything this country was founded on is being just dragged through the mud and mocked and made fun of. This country was founded on Godly principles. No matter how offensive that is to the left, it's true."
Watters was momentarily taken aback.
"Well, I'm going to assume you mean 'pull the trigger' metaphorically?" he asked.
"Absolutely, well, no," Schilling replied. "I mean, it doesn't matter if I say metaphorically because they're going to run with that quote no matter how I put it. I could have phrased it in any possible way saying, 'Stand up and fight and blah blah blah,' and I would be inciting a riot while Maxine Waters says, 'Get in their face and beat the hell out of them' publicly."
Watters concurred.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:44:18 GMT -8
Hurray! Now FLorida Residents Will Know With More Accuracy If Their Home Will Be DestroyedForecasting hurricanes is a tricky science. Whether a storm forms, strengthens or turns in a specific direction can be decided by dozens of factors, from ocean temperatures to the direction of winds to the amount of dirt floating in the air. But hurricane scientists are better than ever at predicting where these storms are going and what kinds of impacts they’ll bring. Forecasters can now offer a two-day forecast that is as accurate as a one-day forecast was a decade ago, and a five-day forecast that’s more accurate than a three-day forecast was two decades ago. A big part of that is due to the technological upgrades from hurricane models — programs run on some of the fastest supercomputers in the world based on thousands and thousands of scraps of data. And this season, that technology takes another leap forward with the introduction of a new, more accurate hurricane model that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spent the last three years developing. This year, forecasters get a hurricane model upgrade. Will better predictions follow?
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:46:48 GMT -8
Meanwhile Gov DeathSentence Makes It More Likely That Their Homes Will Be Destroyed.Florida Governor DeSantis decided to veto flooding projects in Democratic districts of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. The $3.14 million in reductions — all having to do with flood control and drainage — were among the half-billion that Gov. Ron DeSantis excised from the 2023-24 budget Thursday. -An appropriation for $800,000 to improve Lauderhill Maple Run drainage that Democratic Rep. Lisa Dunkley proposed accounted for the biggest chunk felled in the tri-county water-handling vetoes. It would have provided pipes and discharge control structures to remove water from roadways in the Maple Run neighborhood. -Next came an appropriation Republican Rep. David Borrero requested to resurface Southwest Fifth Street between Southwest 112th and 113th Avenues and add new drainage structures. -Improving drainage on Southwest Ranches roads failed in two places. DeSantis vetoed the $340,200 Democrat Mike Gottlieb requested to improve Southwest 69th Street, as well as the same amount for drainage improvements Democrat Robin Bartleman requested for Southwest 57th Court. -Bartleman was dismayed the Governor cut $262,500 that would have rehabilitated deteriorating drainage culverts along the South Broward Drainage District’s (SBDD) C-1 Canal. -A $200,000 flood mitigation project in Parkland that Democrat Rep. Christine Hunschofsky requested was stripped from the budget as was $150,000 Republican Rep. Rick Roth requested for South Bay stormwater and flood control management. -Roth also saw the Governor veto his request for $1.5 million that would have improved sanitary sewer overflows for the Glades Community, but that’s not just water that falls from the sky. It would have involved better stormwater handling too, however, the request said. Just in TimeWeird El Niño Heating N Atlantic to Record Highs, Extreme Atlantic Hurricane Season AheadA rapid warming of global temperatures in the early months of El Niño is a known phenomenon caused by the slowing of the trade winds that cool the subtropical and tropical oceans and seas. What’s unusual about this El Niño is that the trade winds slowed more in the tropical Atlantic than in the tropical east and central Pacific. Normally, the opposite is true. This spring, trade winds have stayed strong along the coastline of Baja California, keeping the California current strong and the waters cool between Baja California and Hawaii. Moreover, the slowing of the trade winds has led to less dust formation over Africa and very little dust blown over the eastern north Atlantic. This lack of dust has amplified the warming of the North Atlantic according to Professor Michael Mann. ... If you live in Florida you need to be ready for the worst.And Good Luck Getting InsuranceDroughts and wildfires. Floods and hurricanes. As the losses from these natural disasters skyrocket, a growing number of insurance companies are declining to offer or renew coverage in California and Florida, leaving 60 million Americans with dwindling options to comprehensively and affordably protect their livelihoods. The numbers tell part of the story: In California, there have been eight disaster events since 2020 that have caused between $20 billion and $50 billion in damages combined. In Florida, 16 severe storms or hurricanes since 2020 have caused between $100 billion and $200 billion in damages. That includes Hurricane Ian, which has emerged as the third-costliest storm in U.S. history. The retreat of household-name insurance companies is one reason homeowners in Florida and California are seeing eye-watering increases in premiums — raising fresh questions about whether the already oaring cost of living in these two states is sustainable for its residents. In California, the average annual home insurance premium is now $1,300 — up 16% from 2019 levels, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a group that represents the insurance industry. As more insurers have exited California's borders, the state's FAIR Plan Association, which was established for California homeowners who are not able to find insurance in the traditional marketplace, has seen enrollment numbers approximately double since 2019. If that sounds like a lot, it's got nothing on Florida, where the average homeowners insurance premium is now $6,000 — up 200% from 2019, according to data from the Insurance Information Institute. Homeowners in states hobbled by extreme weather are running out of options to protect their homes
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:49:49 GMT -8
New Flash!! Previous Guy Lies!!Late yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump published an item to his social media platform, declaring that he’s been “totally exonerated” in the classified documents scandal that led to his federal indictment. Of course, the former president has long struggled with the meaning of the word “exonerated,” so the missive wasn’t too surprising. But as part of the same all-caps message — which included Trump suggesting the authorities should give him back the documents he stole from the White House — the Republican said he should now be in the clear thanks to “the Clinton Socks case.” He made the same point during his weird speech on Tuesday night in New Jersey: “I had every right to have these documents. The crucial legal precedent is laid out in the most important case ever on the subject known as the Clinton socks case.” When Trump references this in writing, as he often does, he invariably capitalizes “Socks.” This, of course, has led to questions about whether he’s confused about the grammatical rules — the former president tends to capitalize random words he finds important — or whether he thinks the story relates to the former Clinton family cat. Either way, if Trump still thinks the “socks” case helps him, he’s mistaken. Revisiting our earlier coverage from last summer, Bill Clinton, during his White House tenure, spoke at some length with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, and as part of the project, there were many recordings of their conversations. According to one 2007 account, tapes were at one point stored in a sock drawer. A conservative group called Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit, demanding that Clinton be forced to turn over the recordings. In 2012, a federal court rejected the organization’s claims, concluding that the tapes were personal records, not official presidential materials. Trump would now have people believe this precedent helps him. It does not. As NBC News reported last year, the 2012 court ruling “explicitly states that the Presidential Records Act distinguishes presidential records from ‘personal records,’ defined as documents that are ‘purely private or nonpublic character.’” What Trump doesn't (but should) understand about the 'Socks' case
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 7:51:44 GMT -8
News Flash!! Attacking Previous Guy Helped a Competing Candidate.Chris Christie enjoyed a surge in support Friday as a second straight New Hampshire poll showed him gaining ground with voters after he announced his 2024 presidential campaign by fiercely attacking former President Donald Trump. Christie scored 9% support in the poll of the first-in-the-nation Republican primary state — within striking distance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who drew just 13% and has slumped in recent polls. The former New Jersey governor has apparently grabbed support from DeSantis as well as from some Granite State voters who planned to back favorite son Gov. Chris Sununu, who has decided not to run. Christie credits his rising support to his willingness to openly criticize Trump, while other candidates have either kept quiet or openly backed the former president. Chris Christie gains ground with voters in second N.H. poll after launching anti-Trump campaignAt Least in New Hampshire. Nationally He is Around 2%.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:00:31 GMT -8
One of My Family Members is Dealing With This. treating Cancer and Protecting Fertility is HardCancer was once considered a disease of aging, but a 2020 study led by researchers at the Penn State Cancer Institute found that rates of all cancers among this younger age group have risen 30% since the 1970s. There over a million adolescents and young adults, ages 15-39, who are diagnosed with cancer every year worldwide, according to research. The number is expected to grow. "People think that once you finish treatment, you're done, you're good," said Gwen Schmidt.Courtesy Gwen Schmidt Scientists aren’t sure why, but it's most likely connected to better screening, as well as lifestyle factors like obesity, lack of exercise and alcohol. With improvement in cancer therapies, an estimated 86% of young adults diagnosed with cancer are expected to survive, according to the National Cancer Institute. That means more young people are dealing with the aftermath of the disease. “Once you finish the active treatment, like the surgeries and the chemotherapy, that’s when the hardest part comes,” said Schmidt, who survived through multiple operations, radiation and chemotherapy. “Because then you have to sit with your new reality and figure out what that looks like now.” That reality can be an emotional and physical roller coaster. Research has found that young cancer survivors had a higher risk of 24 health problems, including heart failure, kidney and liver disease, hearing loss and even stroke. They also face unique challenges in navigating dating after cancer, school and careers — and potentially decades of nerve-wracking screenings and scans to determine whether the cancer has returned or whether lifesaving treatment has triggered other diseases. How young cancer survivors navigate dating, fertility and health
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:04:37 GMT -8
Trials, Trials, Trials
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:05:52 GMT -8
The QOP: The Party That Loves to Hate
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:09:00 GMT -8
He's Better Than Previous GuyI Guess They Don't Pay Attention to What He Has DoneIf you want to understand why the Biden administration gets so little credit for its accomplishments ― and why, perhaps, it deserves to get a little more ― pay attention to a little-noticed policy announcement from last Friday. The announcement was a list of 43 prescription drugs that are covered by Medicare and whose prices have risen faster than the rate of inflation. The list included relatively well-known drugs like Humira, which treats a variety of inflammatory conditions, plus some more obscure medications like Leukine, which helps cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy stave off infection. Until recently, such price hikes would have simply meant higher costs for the Medicare program ― and for individual seniors paying out of pocket. Or, to put it more bluntly, American taxpayers as well as American consumers were at the complete mercy of the drug industry’s pricing. But that’s not how things work anymore, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act ― you know, the law that President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress spent more than a year debating before finally enacting it in August 2022 and that almost everybody seems to have forgotten about since. A big focus of the IRA is lowering prescription drug costs, and one way it does that is by penalizing drug companies that hike prices faster than the rate of inflation. The 43 drugs on last week’s list all met that criteria. Because of that, manufacturers will have to give some money back to the federal government, effectively helping to fund Medicare costs. The IRA will also have a more direct effect on seniors. For each drug on the list, the federal government will reduce the “coinsurance” that individual seniors owe when they pay for the drugs, with savings that vary from $1 to $449 per dose, according to the administration’s calculations. Biden Is Having A Very Productive Presidency, And This Win On Drug Prices Shows Why
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:12:26 GMT -8
Straight Out of the Joe McCarthy PlaybookHere’s a hot tip for anyone trying to peddle a lie: Add a number. Don’t make it too big, or too vague, like “millions.” If you’re talking about stealing an election, 450,000 might work. Or 33,000. Or maybe 5,000. But really, all those numbers are a little suspiciously neat. To really make this thing work, the number has to be something solid. Something specific. Like 17. Now there’s a number. If you’ve seen that number in the news this week, it’s probably been as part of the latest “scandal” that Republicans have whipped up about President Joe Biden. If you haven’t seen it, count yourself lucky, but don’t think it’s going to last. Because Republicans, led by pidgin expert Sen. Chuck Grassley and whistleblower-hating Rep. James Comer, are claiming that there are “17 tapes” that document their claims of a bribery scandal connected to Biden and his son Hunter. Have they heard these 17 tapes? No. Have they heard maybe 10 of the tapes? No. How many tapes have they heard? Zero. They’ve heard zero tapes. Because the whole thing is just another part of the extended fantasy tale that Rudy Giuliani brought to them years ago. Like the missing whistleblower and the fake “FBI document,” Republicans know this is all a lie. They just don’t care. The make-believe scandal that Republicans are now pretending to investigate goes back to May 1, 2019. That’s when Rudy Giulani brought a tale of intrigue, bribery, and blackmail to The New York Times, without any evidence, and the Times did what it does when Guilani brings them anything: They ran it without question. '17 tapes’ are latest attempt by Republicans to smear BidenSpeaking before the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator McCarthy waved before his audience a piece of paper. According to the only published newspaper account of the speech, McCarthy said that, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” Putins Has Read the Same Playbook.Since Tuesday, Putin claims that Ukraine has lost 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles. Happily, there are also not 186 dead Ukrainian tanks sitting out there in the roughly 5-kilometer zone along the front lines. If there were, Russia would not still be sending out videos of the same handful of vehicles lost in the first two days of the counteroffensive. The few Leopard tanks damaged so far have been due almost entirely to mines. None of them has been taken out by a hit from another tank.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:18:56 GMT -8
Apparently the QOP Didn't Notice There Are a Lot of Women in North Carolina
When Democratic North Carolina state Sen. Rachel Hunt announced her candidacy this week for lieutenant governor, she wrapped it in a cautionary message for voters: "I’m running for Lt. Governor because the Republican plan isn’t this year’s 12-week abortion ban; it’s next year’s total abortion ban."
Republicans, she suggested, won't stop at the 12-week abortion ban they rammed through the state Legislature last month. They're coming back for more—just as soon as they have the votes to do it.
North Carolina Democrats are betting Republicans overplayed their hand on abortion—not only passing the ban, but then using their recently ill-acquired legislative supermajority to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the measure.
Polls suggest Democrats have a point. An Elon University survey released this week found that 45% of Tar Heel voters oppose "recent changes" to the state's abortion laws, while just 23% support them (33% neither supported nor opposed).
A Carolina Forward poll, conducted by Change Research immediately after Republicans passed the 12-week ban, found that 59% of North Carolinians say abortion should be legal in all/most cases, while 40% say it should be illegal in all/most cases. Only 10% supported making abortion illegal in all cases.
The Biden campaign also sees potential in the state President Joe Biden lost in 2020 by 1.4 points, his narrowest defeat of the cycle.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:20:28 GMT -8
Jumping Jack Smith is FAR From DoneOn the heels of its stunning indictment of former President Trump for espionage, obstruction and conspiracy, the Department of Justice filed a very interesting motion in the case. Prosecutors requested a “protective order” to prevent public disclosure of some materials that must be provided to Trump’s defense team. One basis for the request was that materials “include information pertaining to ongoing investigations, the disclosure of which could compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals.”  Put simply, prosecutors are very likely not done charging. More charges, against more people are likely. The question is who will these charges be against, for what, and of equal interest, where they will be brought. Let’s discuss that last one first, the where, because the answer informs speculation on the who and the what.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:24:41 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 17, 2023 8:28:44 GMT -8
Biden Has As Little to Do With This As With Previous Guy's Indictment.
Sen. Bill Cassidy won’t be buying the new coin commemorating former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment, thank you very much.
The Louisiana Republican posted a video to Twitter on Monday in which he denounces the White House Gift Shop for hawking the “limited edition” trinket, calling it his “outrage of the week.”
“Whatever you think about it, whatever party you are, you’ve gotta admit that it’s poor taste, that it’s capitalizing upon something without his permission,” Cassidy said while walking.
He added, “Have a sense of decency, White House Gift Shop.”
The White House Gift Shop is not affiliated with the White House where President Joe Biden works. It is a private company with an online store that sells White House-themed coins, ornaments, hats, keychains and other trinkets.
The senator linked to the company’s soon-to-come coin featuring Trump’s recent federal indictment in the classified documents probe. The company is also selling a separate coin commemorating Trump’s earlier indictment on state charges in New York for allegedly falsifying business records. Each coin will set you back $100.
It’s not clear from his tweet whether Cassidy understands there is no affiliation between the White House and the gift shop that bears its name. His video makes no mention of the Biden administration ― only the White House Gift Shop ― so it’s possible he’s disgusted with what he knows to be a privately run online store.
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