Wed: Life Expectancy Went Down Under QOP & Rose Under ...

Sikh and Ye Shall Find ... A Murder Plot

The US has said it foiled an alleged plot to assassinate an American citizen in New York who advocated for a Sikh separatist state.

Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, was charged with murder-for hire over the plot on Wednesday. He was allegedly directed by an Indian government employee, according to the indictment.

That government official was not named or charged.

The alleged target was also not named by the justice department's indictment.

But US media reported the target was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen who is a member of a US-based Sikh activist group.

Sikhs are a religious minority that make up about 2% of India's population. Some groups have long called for a separate homeland for Sikhs.

Forecast:  This Winter Will Be Either Wet or Dry

In 1983, El Niño brought historic flooding to parts of Southern California, toppling sections of fishing piers and inspiring some to travel submerged streets by surfboard. In 1998, it returned, dusting regional mountains with snow through May.

For Californians' collective mind, the weather phenomenon, defined by an eastward-moving, warmer-than-normal sea surface along the equatorial Pacific, is shaped by those traumatic, potent winters with record precipitation.

But as some earth scientists see a bit of 1983 or 1998 in the coming winter's strong El Niño, they may be neglecting a new reality: A stormy, wet El Niño of that vintage hasn't struck California this century.

University of California, Irvine, earth system science professor Jin-Yi Yu, whose doubts about a predicted "Godzilla El Niño" in 2015-16 were confirmed, sees the phenomenon permanently changed.

"El Niños in these respective centuries are distinct," Yu said in a series of emails. "Recent El Niño and La Niña events have behaved differently from what we initially expected."

While Yu is once again a rare voice discounting the chances of a wet El Niño for California this winter, many of the state's most influential weather watchers are not wholly opposed to his bearish outlook.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the current El Niño is “strong” by its measurements, which could translate into strong storms affecting parts of the state.

State Climatologist Michael Anderson, who also expressed some doubt in 2015's "Godzilla El Niño" predictions, has called on Californians to essentially be ready for anything.

"Until better seasonal forecasts are available, California is preparing for both extreme wet or extreme dry conditions," he said by email.

That may be wise in a weather world that sometimes seems upside down.

So Far, California Precipitation is WELL Below Normal

Previous Guy Asks Prosectors to Turn Over EVERYTHING.  Absolutely EVERYTHING.

The latest news in the criminal case against coup-attempting seditionist Donald Trump—and this would be the federal case filed in Washington, D.C., charging Trump with attempting to obstruct the 2020 election we're talking about, since Trump is under multiple indictments in multiple jurisdictions at this point—is another demand from Trump's lawyers that the federal government turn over basically every scrap of info related to the insurrection, from multiple branches of the government.

In court papers filed Monday, Trump’s legal team sought permission to compel prosecutors to turn over reams of information on the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack from the FBI, national security and election integrity units of the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Capitol Police, the Defense Department, the D.C. police department, the National Guard, and members of Congress.

There's some surrounding hokum about how this is allegedly part of a Trump defense plan to show that the election was too stolen, or the violent insurrection he fomented was actually a false flag operation meant to make him look bad, and none of that matters even the slightest little bit. This is just another showboating delay tactic from Trump's lawyers, almost certainly on Trump's own orders, as he tries desperately to delay each of the trials against him until after the November 2024 elections and a possible election victory that would allow him to pardon himself for any federal convictions and simply ignore the charges in New York, Florida, and Georgia.

The point of dumping this 370-page dead whale on U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's doorstep is that the judge now has to spend at least a little time cleaning it up, adding another delay to the trial. Trump probably won't even get that, though; by making the requests so broad and open-ended, he's made them easy for the judge to reject.

Here is a tip: Prosecutors aren't required to turn over information they don't have. They're also not obligated to do the defense team's work for them.

Federal criminal defendants typically can and often do file shotgun-blast requests for information in hopes of finding gaps in the prosecution’s case or at least slowing down the push toward trial. However, courts give U.S. prosecutors broad discretion to decide which evidence reasonably may be helpful to the defense and thus must be turned over. Their obligation to produce evidence is also limited to information available to the prosecution team — not everything known to the U.S. government at large.

The Trump move purports to demand that federal prosecutors turn over documents about the election and insurrection from every part of government, including the Defense Department and Congress, and ... no? Those are separate parts of the government. Trump would have just as much luck demanding that special counsel Jack Smith’s team turn over Walmart sales records for Lincoln, Nebraska. If his lawyers want to see Walmart’s records, it's on them to either go get them from Walmart or to convince the judge to issue a subpoena obliging Walmart to hand them over.

Early Polls Don't Mean Much, But This Might Save You a Bit of Anguish.


What Happened In Mississippi?

On a night of surprisingly strong Democratic performances in the 2023 elections, Brandon Presley’s 3.2% loss in Mississippi’s gubernatorial election stands out. Facing an incumbent governor in a Trump +17 state in the Deep South, most had already written off the Presley campaign. Then, a catastrophic October Democratic underperformance in demographically-similar Louisiana made Presley’s chances look even slimmer.

Presley’s surprise overperformance was powered by three factors: strong Black turnout, exceptional Black support, and relatively strong white support. Tapping into the white electorate was one of the biggest reasons that Mississippi was so much closer than Louisiana. Furthermore, while Black turnout was abysmally low in the latter state, it was remarkably robust in the former.

What Do You Expect When You Have a Climate Summit in the Middle East?

The president of the United Nations’ annual climate summit planned to use the talks to lobby dozens of countries and business leaders to increase exports of oil and gas, according to leaked documents obtained by media outlets this week.

Dubai is preparing to host the 28th Conference of the Parties, or COP, this week, which will see hundreds of world dignitaries and envoys meet to discuss the growing threat of a warming world. The president of COP28 is Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, which provides about 3% of the world’s oil.

The Centre for Climate Reporting and the BBC obtained briefing documents from a whistleblower that suggests Al Jaber and his colleagues planned to discuss fossil fuel exports with nearly 30 foreign nations between July and October. It’s unclear how often those interests were discussed, but the outlets report at least one nation followed up on the commercial discussions.

GM Can Actually Afford to Pay Their Workers a Better Wage.

Shares of General Motors climbed as much as 10.7% on Wednesday following the company's plans to boost shareholder returns.

The automaker announced a $10 billion accelerated repurchase program and said it will increase its common stock dividend by 33% beginning in 2024.

The moves come as GM pulls back on its electric vehicle and autonomous driving ambitions, while also navigating higher labor force costs amid its new contract with the United Auto Workers.

"We are finalizing a 2024 budget that will fully offset the incremental costs of our new labor agreements and the long-term plan we are executing includes reducing the capital intensity of the business, developing products even more efficiently, and further reducing our fixed and variable costs," GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "With this clear path forward, and our strong balance sheet, we will return significant capital to shareholders."