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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:03:30 GMT -8
I was born to be a pessimist. My blood type is B Negative.
Colbert Recaps the Summer After Returning From the Strike
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:10:32 GMT -8
Gates Says "Timber!" To Tree Planing
Bill Gates is emphatic: "I don't plant trees," he declared recently, wading into a debate about whether mass tree planting is really much use in fighting climate change.
The billionaire philanthropist was being probed on how he offsets his carbon emissions and insisted he avoids "some of the less proven approaches."
The claim that planting enough trees could solve the climate crisis is "complete nonsense", he told a climate discussion organised by the New York Times last week.
"Are we the science people or are we the idiots?"
Gates' polemical pronouncements made headlines and prompted criticism from backers of reforestation (planting trees in damaged forests) and afforestation (planting in areas that were not recently forest).
"I have dedicated the last 16 years of my life to making forests part of the climate solution," wrote Jad Daley, head of the American Forests NGO.
"This kind of commentary can really set us back," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mass tree planting schemes have been gaining ground for years as a way to suck carbon from the atmosphere at scale.
Even notoriously climate change-skeptical US Republicans have introduced legislation to support planting a trillion trees worldwide.
But Gates is far from alone in doubting the benefits of such ambitious plans.
A group of scientists warned on Tuesday that mass tree planting risks doing more harm than good, particularly in tropical regions.
That's primarily because it can replace complex ecosystems with monoculture plantations.
"Society has reduced the value of these ecosystems to just one metric -- carbon," the scientists from universities in Britain and South Africa wrote.
Carbon capture is "a small component of the pivotal ecological functions that tropical forests and grassy ecosystems perform," they said in an article in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal.
Jesus Aguirre Gutierrez, an author of the paper, pointed to examples in southern Mexico and Ghana, where once diverse forests "have now transformed into homogenous masses".
This makes them "highly vulnerable to diseases and negatively impacts local biodiversity," the senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute told AFP.
Major tree planting commitments often involve agroforestry or plantations, where the trees will eventually be felled, releasing carbon.
Reforestation projects often target areas that have been devastated by firesReforestation projects often target areas that have been devastated by fires © Michael Dantas / AFP/File
And they are dominated by five tree species chosen largely for their timber and pulp value, or growth speed.
Among them is teak, which can overtake native species, "posing additional risks to native vegetation and the ecosystem", said Aguirre Gutierrez, who is also a Natural Environment Research Council fellow.
Other critiques include the lack of space globally for the many proposed mass planting projects and the risk of competition between smallholder agriculture and planting.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:12:17 GMT -8
Uncle Thomas Loves Crown
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday recused himself from a decision—but the rare move from the embattled right-winger came as he weighed in on another case involving his billionaire benefactor, which outraged one watchdog group.
The high court declined to hear Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) v. City of New York, New York, a landlord-backed constitutional challenge to the massive city's longtime rent stabilization policies for about a million apartments.
"It is a travesty that Clarence Thomas failed to recuse himself in yet another case from which his right-wing donors could directly benefit," said Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser in a statement. "Justice Thomas' billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow has a vested interest in weakening rent control laws across the country to buttress his real estate empire's profits."
The Supreme Court in recent months has faced calls for new ethics rules, a U.S. Department of Justice probe, and Thomas' resignation in response to revelations about his relationship with Crow and other rich GOP donors. In addition to treating Thomas to luxury vacations, Crow bought his mother's house and contributed to the private school tuition for a great-nephew he raised.
"Justice Thomas' billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow has a vested interest in weakening rent control laws across the country to buttress his real estate empire's profits."
"Crow's industry lobbyist of choice, the National Multifamily Housing Council, filed an amicus brief urging the 2nd Circuit to take up the challenge to New York City's rent control law in 2021," Hauser noted. "While the NMHC did not file a brief for the case before the Supreme Court, there should be little doubt that Thomas and his clerks are aware of NMHC's, and therefore Crow's, interest in the case."
As The New York Timesreported Monday, "Other petitions asking the Supreme Court to rule on aspects of the regulations are pending, and the justices may yet agree to consider one or more of those cases."
Given that, "the threat from the Thomas-Crow relationship remains imminent," Hauser stressed. "We call on Thomas to immediately recuse himself from two additional challenges to New York City's rent control law relisted for the October 6th conference by the court: 74 Pinehurst LLC v. New York (22-1130) and 335-7 LLC v. City of New York. Crow's interest in these cases is unambiguous, as is the depth of Thomas' relationship with his patron Crow."
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:16:44 GMT -8
Here's a Little Ditty About Matt and Kevin
Speaker of the US House Kevin McCarthy's job is on the line. (Actually he will have a job, even if he is no longer Speaker.)
On Monday night, one of the speaker's chief right-wing antagonists, Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida, dropped the hammer, trigging a vote on Mr McCarthys' fate.
There are three possible outcomes:
Kevin McCarthy holds onto his job - without help from the Democrats
Sometime in the next few days - perhaps as early as Tuesday afternoon - the House will consider Mr Gaetz's effort to remove Mr McCarthy. In Congress-speak, it's a "motion to vacate the chair".
The speaker's allies may try to scuttle the motion ahead of a formal vote, but whether it is one vote or a series of votes the bottom line is the same. Mr McCarthy needs the support of a majority of the voting members of the House of Representatives in order to hang on to power.
Kevin McCarthy holds onto his job - with Democratic help
The problem for Mr McCarthy is that five House Republicans - including Mr Gaetz - have said publicly that they will vote to oust the speaker. And there are up to a dozen or so more who may join this band of conservative rebels.
So unless some of them change their mind, the speaker is going to need some help from Democrats to avoid losing his job.
Kevin McCarthy is ousted - for now
If Mr McCarthy loses the removal motion, it triggers a new election for Speaker of the House. A temporary speaker (from a list privately provided by Mr McCarthy earlier this year) takes control of the chamber, and the balloting drama from the beginning of the year starts all over again.
In the meantime, the clock would be ticking toward 17 November, when the US government once again threatens to shut down if Congress does not act to keep it funded.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:20:27 GMT -8
A Writer Speculates About NDAs Dying.
Pretty sure that if all those NDA's Trump has bragged about using to silence... well, pretty much anyone with something interesting to say about Trump... were agreements between "insert individual or company name here" and one of the Trump business entities that in the court order to be dissolved - well let's just say it could be quite the avalanche of Trump history on the way. Employees with dirt, payoffs to who knows who... Trump used the NDA for all purposes, and wielded it like the executioners axe. Violate the NDA, and the axe (lawsuits from Trump back when smart lawyers would still work for him) would fall. Financial ruin to defend against and lose, and very very costly to fund a defense, even if likely to win, as cases drag through the system.
I don't believe those agreements would survive dissolution of the entity they were entered into with - it's not like an M&A where rights transfer to successors/ heirs/ assigns/ etc. A receivor is appointed to dispose of the assets of the dissolved entity, and when finished the receivors job is done. No one left for NDA protection to transfer to.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:21:54 GMT -8
Previous Guy Shows That Predictions Are Easy, When They Are About the Past.
Trump is going to lose this trial. Know how I know? Judge Engoron already ruled against him!
But most of Trump’s followers don’t know that. Most of Trump’s followers believe that Chris Kise’s comments about valuation were still at issue. Most cult members will see Trump’s comments today — it won’t be hard, because every outlet is carrying them — and remember that before the trial, Trump “predicted” that The Corrupt Judge and The Black Woman Prosecutor would gang up on him.
Reality TV Show Actor Donald Trump used his presence at the trial to create a reality in which he will have correctly predicted a loss that was baked in last week. Because he “predicted” such an outcome, his millions of cult followers will not only treat him as more trustworthy than the journalists playing some role in Trump’s Reality TV Show, cluck-clucking about his attacks on justice without focusing on the fraud and the more fraud and the already adjudged fraud.
And in the process, Reality TV Show Actor Donald Trump will have continued the big con, the very same fraud of which he has already been adjuged. He will have once again distracted from his own fantasy self-worth and instead led people to report on his golden brand.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:23:17 GMT -8
Those Damned Activist Judges
All of the court’s highest-profile cases involve debates over where the power to address pressing societal problems ought to be located in our constitutional order. The traditional answer — and indeed, the American ideal — has been to vest that power as close to the people as possible, in elected officials who are responsive to us for the simple reason that we can throw them out of office.
Yet in three very different cases this coming year, the court may arrogate that power for itself, taking it away from our elected lawmakers, a politically accountable president, and possibly even juries of ordinary Americans. In other words, all three cases set up the possibility of a power grab by the country’s highest court.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:24:30 GMT -8
Our Allies ARE Doing Their Part
How much are we actually spending supporting Ukraine? In the 18 months after the Russian invasion, U.S. aid totaled $77 billion. That may sound like a lot. It is a lot compared with the tiny sums we usually allocate to foreign aid. But total federal outlays are currently running at more than $6 trillion a year, or more than $9 trillion every 18 months, so Ukraine aid accounts for less than 1 percent of federal spending (and less than 0.3 percent of G.D.P.). The military portion of that spending is equal to less than 5 percent of America’s defense budget.
Incidentally, the United States is by no means bearing the burden of aiding Ukraine alone. In the past, Donald Trump and others have complained that European nations aren’t spending enough on their own defense. But when it comes to Ukraine, European countries and institutions collectively have made substantially larger aid commitments than we have. Notably, most of Europe, including France, Germany and Britain, has promised aid that is higher as a percentage of G.D.P. than the U.S. commitment.
But back to the costs of aiding Ukraine: Given how small a budget item that aid is, claims that aid to Ukraine somehow makes it impossible to do other necessary things, such as securing the border, are nonsense. MAGA types aren’t known for getting their numbers right or, for that matter, caring whether they get their numbers right, but I doubt that even they really believe that the monetary costs of helping Ukraine are insupportable.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 3, 2023 9:26:24 GMT -8
This is One Sick Puppy
A communications official in the Defense Department was arrested for allegedly running a dogfighting operation in which he electrocuted the losing dogs that he trained, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., 62, of Arnold, Maryland, trained the dogs, fielded bets on the matches and used jumper cables found at his home to allegedly execute the animals that didn’t die in the ring, according to court records cited by the newspaper.
In an early September raid on his home and that of an alleged accomplice, Mario D. Flythe, the FBI and other agencies said they also discovered about a dozen pit bull-type dogs, veterinary steroids, weighted vests, collars and chains to increase the animals’ strength, and “an apparatus that is used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs,” the Post and CBS News reported.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland noted that Moorefield, a deputy chief information officer, and Flythe were charged with promoting and furthering animal fighting ventures.
And He Was Named After Frederick Douglass
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