At What Point Do We Address Climate Change?

Look at just three things, only three, from the last one year. 

--15 million acres of Australia burned last year, in 2019
--It got over 100 degrees in the Arctic this year
--More than 4 million acres of California burned and that's just so far this year

Are we going to do anything yet? At what point are we going to do things? At what point are we going to collectively change?

Links:

Nearly 15 million acres burned in Australian wildfires

100.4 degree Arctic temperature record confirmed

California milestone: 4 million acres burned in wildfires

This Article Out of Australia Should Hurt and Concern Every American

We are witnessing the fall of a great power

A bit, but most, of the article:

Tragically, American exceptionalism - 'we are the first and best democracy on Earth' - contributes to the self-delusion of indestructibility. There is nothing automatically self-correcting in US democracy.

Look at the US now. Its president is so psychiatrically disordered with narcissism that he is incapable of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis in a coherent, empathetic way. Everything he says and does is through a prism of himself. He has now turned his whole re-election campaign into one of race hate, law and order and a bizarre invention of a threat from "left-wing fascists".

But worse, the US seems to have a national self-delusion that once Trump loses and is gone, everything will return to normal. The delusion extends to a belief that the COVID-19-stricken economy will bounce back to normal in a V shape.

Trump is as much just a symptom of the underlying rottenness as an integral part of it, even if his sucking up to authoritarian leaders in Russia, China and North Korea is unprecedented.

The underlying weakness in present US democracy is that partisanship has become so extreme that the nation is incapable of dealing with the major issues that face it. COVID-19 has illustrated that starkly, with every word and act predicated on party allegiance. Meanwhile, other problems like race, police violence, gun control, inequality, the health system, climate change and energy policy go unattended.

The motives of "the other side" are routinely vilified without evidence. The Democrats are blamed for everything. The Republicans can do no wrong. And to a lesser extent, vice versa. My side of politics, right or wrong.

In a vicious cause-and-effect circle, the imperative of winning at all costs corrodes the political process, and the corroded political process makes winning at all costs even more imperative.

The Trump presidency has made all this worse, but the seeds were there long before. He has appointed incompetent ignorant toadies to the most senior positions in his cabinet and the bureaucracy. He has undermined the Supreme Court with appointments based on politics, not law.

For a long time, the electoral process has been corrupted by state governors drawing unfair electoral boundaries so that the Republican Party is grossly over-represented in Congress compared to its vote, and has won the presidency twice this century with a minority of the vote.

The electoral process has also been corrupted by runaway bribery through political donations.

Another vicious circle has emerged. The politicised Supreme Court from 2010 on has refused to control corporate and individual political donations - thus favouring the Republicans.

Donations from billionaires, mainly to the Republicans, consequently boomed from just $17 million in 2008 to $611 million in 2018 - and rising. This results in policies more skewed to the wealthy and conservatives, and therefore greater inequality. These policies include engaging in wars in remote places where the only real US interests are those of war profiteers. In turn, these policies result in more donations from billionaires, who get repaid manyfold, and who now have as much if not more control of the process than voters.

Tragically, American exceptionalism - "we are the first and best democracy on Earth" - contributes to the self-delusion of indestructibility. There is nothing automatically self-correcting in US democracy. Even the so-called checks and balances are not working - they are causing gridlock, rather than adding a bit of mild caution to a system that is overall supposed to be geared to problem-solving, not political point-scoring.

The system has become so warped that those disenfranchised, disempowered and disenchanted are taking to the streets, questioning the legitimacy of the whole system.

The only question is whether the taking to the streets can break these vicious circles, or whether it is just another step in the decline and fall of a great power.

If that doesn't give any adult American pause, I don't know what would or will.

I say again.

Thanks, Mr. President.

Thanks, Republicans.

Links:

That explains this:

Americans are giving up US citizenship in record numbers

As if to maybe, maybe make we Americans feel slightly better--if even just slightly--this article was at the end of the above.

Joe Biden's VP pick is a watershed moment in American democracy

How Much Do We Have to Lose Across the Planet Until We Accept Climate Change?

Did you see this?

Did you see how many head of cattle, alone, were lost recently in Australia, with their flooding?

Queensland floods: 500,000 Cattle Survived Years-Long Drought Only to Die in the Rain

500,000 head of cattle--or more, if you read the article--died last week in the flooding in Australia.

And this doesn't include all the other animal life that died in their scorching heat waves in the last month. I posted on this earlier.

Australia's Heat Wave Has Been Devastating For Animals

Australia's Heat Wave Is Taking A Toll On People, Animals

'Boiled' Bats Fall from Sky in Australian Heat Wave

Stifling Heat Wave Descends on Australia, Killing Dozens of Horses

And that's just Australia, of late. Check out what it's done in California last year.

California: Wildfires losses at $3.3 billion

Then there is around the world.

2018 Global Disasters Cost $160 Billion

At what point do the climate change deniers actually look, recognize the losses and damage and agree with us we need to do things to change?

What more does it have to take?

For Those Who Don't Believe in Global Warming and/or Climate Change

For any out there who may still not believe in or accept that the planet is warming and that human activity is having a large role in all of it, please read on. For starters, this winter, this was the middle of last month, January, while much of our nation was in a deep freeze.

Australia heatwave reaches it peak with record temperatures

Australia suffers through searing temperatures

Australia's Heat Wave Is Taking A Toll On People, Animals

Dozens of wild horses die of thirst in Australia's heatwave

Australia: Heat Wave Causes Overheated Bat Die-Off

Hundreds of flying foxes die in searing Australian heat

Naturally, it wasn't simply Australia that was blistering hot, either.

Heat wave scorches Southern Hemisphere with record-shattering temps

Still Australia, this article posted 6 days ago, as if the heat and their losses from it weren't enough.

20,000 homes feared lost in Australia floods

Remember last Summer and the record California wildfires?

California Wildfire Insurance Claims Total $11.4 Billion

We're very familiar with the Polar Vortex that effected so much of our nation in the last few weeks.

Making Sense of the Polar Vortex and Record Cold on a Feverish Planet

This is taking place presently.

Winter storm dumps record snow on Seattle, Pacific Northwest with more to come

Seattle normally gets 0.7 inches of snow per year. A few weeks ago, they got nearly 2 inches. Now, today, they got another 10 inches and as the headline shows, they are apparently going to get still more. Seattle wasn't alone, of course.

Yakima gets 10 inches of snow in winter blast

Then there's the overall picture.

2018 was 4th hottest year on record for the globe

This year is no better and we're not even 1/4 of the way into it..

2019 may be the warmest year on record

Then that's having predictable effects, of course.

Arctic permafrost is melting faster than predicted

Arctic sea ice is vanishing far faster than anyone thought

Finally, if that all isn't enough on our planet, there is this. When all else is deniable or ignored, there is the CO2, the carbon dioxide levels in our planet's atmosphere that comes from what we humans are pumping into it.

Let's do something before it's too late. 

Some things.

How about it?

On This Day In Weapons History

On this day, April 29, 1996, a rampage by a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, killed 35 people. Australians were horrified. Their governmental representatives responded.

It took one massacre: 

how Australia embraced gun control

They quickly and wisely did what we have not done and will not do, no matter how many slaughters of innocents we experience and keep experiencing, repeatedly.

We learn nothing. 

We do nothing.

Thanks, National Rifle Association, NRA! Thanks, Wayne LaPierre!

Thanks, Republican Party!

Link:

Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed

Again, To Missouri State Legislators, Are You Kidding Us Here?

In the face of the latest mass slaughter of innocent Americans, check out what our Missouri State Legislators are doing this week in Jefferson City. Check this out from the Star today.

In wake of mass school shooting, Missouri lawmakers push forward pro-gun legislation

After hearing five hours of testimony Monday afternoon and into the night, lawmakers returned to the Capitol on Tuesday and voted out of committee a handful of bills that would expand where Missourians can carry their concealed firearms. They voted down bills that would have required background checks and repealed aspects of concealed carry without a permit, which lawmakers legalized in 2016.

It's nearly unbelievable.

We keep getting more and yet more shootings and killings and all these Right Wing, Republicans can come up with is the NRA mantra: "MORE GUNS!!"

It's insane. It also goes against every scientific study out there.

Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows 

- Scientific American

Heck, it even goes against Missouri's own experience with guns after they just loosened our laws a few years ago, in 2015, with negative results.

In Missouri, Fewer Gun Restrictions 

and More Gun Killings

They learn nothing.

Check out the data for yourself:

Homicide | Harvard Injury Control Research Center 

Gun Threats and Self-Defense Gun Use | 

Harvard Injury Control

Gun Ownership | 

Harvard Injury Control Research Center

Then, very famously, there is the glaring Australian example of what works with guns.

Massive study of Australia's gun laws 

shows one thing: they work

I'm not suggesting we here in the US are capable of doing what they did. What I am saying is that it proves less weapons are the way to go for reducing shootings and killings. It doesn't even seem it needs to be said but sadly, it does.

How many people have to die, have to be killed, until they realize and then act on the hard fact that more guns is exactly the opposite, wrong way to go? We are the only nation in the world with this many weapons that also has these problems. Does that tell us nothing?

We Need to Reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban

Australia did it.

We could, too.

And we need it.

Las Vegas proved it.

Quote of the Day -- On Our Health Care

Quote of the Day -- On This President

"The most ill-informed, under-prepared, ethically-challenged and psychologically ill-equipped President in United States history."

--Gareth Evans, former Australian Foreign Minister, on Donald Trump

Links:

Gareth Evans on Donald Trump: National Press Club address 2017

'psychologically ill-equipped' US president ever, says Gareth Evans

Former Australian foreign minister sharply criticizes Trump 

- ABC News

Gareth Evans (politician) - Wikipedia

On This Day, 1945

People are forgetting.

Victory in Europe - May 08, 1945 - HISTORY.com

On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

Victory in Europe Day - Wikipedia

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.

V-E Day 1945: The Celebration Heard 'round the World | HistoryNet

May 8, 2015 - V-E Day was observed on May 8, 1945 in Great Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Australia, and on May 9 in the Soviet Union and New Zealand. V-E Day commemorates the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied forces in 1945, ending World War II in Europe.

We Do Elections Very, Very Wrong, America

Sure, we Americans do and have done a lot of things right and well, absolutely or we wouldn't have gotten where we have, socially, sociologically and certainly economically, without question. (We've a lot--A LOT--of things wrong like maybe Korea but definitely Vietnam and that unlawful Iraq War and too many things about race, etc. but we'll save that for another time and day).

All that said, one thing we do wrong--and by wrong I mean deeply, wildly and very expensively wrong, all, is elections. Check out just a few notes on how the rest of the world does them:

The longest campaign in Canadian history was 10 weeks.

In the U.K., political parties can only spend $30 million in the year before an election.

In Germany, political parties release just one 90-second television ad.

In 2013, over two-thirds of income to Norway's political parties came from the government.

In Australia, voting is compulsory.

In Brazil, Election Day is on the weekend.

We just aren't very bright. 

We need to undo our election system and campaigns and campaign finance and all those "campaign contributions", folks.

We have got to Get the Big, Ugly Money Out of Our Election System and Government 

Links:  The Problems With Our Government--and Our Elections

National Elections: What the UK Does Right and We Americans Do So Wrong

Socialism or America's Capitalism?

In the ever-raging and ongoing battle of what's better? Capitalism or Socialism, I offer you today the Legatum Prosperity Index of world nations for 2015.

Britain leapfrogs Germany in list of world's 

most prosperous

Note two things, ladies and gentlemen.

The US is not "NUMBER ONE!"

And the top nine nations are Socialist.


Huh.

Final continental drought here: Australia

So we've seen there's widespread drought in China, Iran, here in North America here, as I've posted. There is also a very widespread, devastating, years long drought in Australia, as well, ladies and gentlemen:



The polar ice caps are melting, the glaciers are likewise shrinking, melting, the seas are rising and there are widespread droughts on several of the continents, all at the same time.

If that isn't from an overall rise in the planet's temperatures, then what IS it from?

And if it is, shouldn't we--rather wisely--do something about it?

Especially since it's for our own survival, anyway?

America, the world and guns

More data on the US standard of living vs. the rest of the world

We Americans have been pretty well trained, thought to believe "We're number one!" in all things, I think it's safe to say. Of course, what we're finding out is that it's not really true, especially when you consider things like our mortality rates, the cost of our health care, etc.

Another place where, we find, we really aren't "number one!" is in pay.

Did you know there are plenty of other countries where the minimum wage is higher--in some cases, far higher--than ours?  Check it out (click on picture for easy reading):

Data:

Among OECD nations, every single country that pays a higher minimum wage than the U.S. pays upwards of $9.00 U.S. dollars per hour.

Australia, the nation with the best minimum compensation on the list, has a minimum wage equivalent to $15.75 in U.S. dollars.

Japan, which is the lowest paying country to beat the U.S. pays U.S. $9.16 per hour.

All told, the U.S. falls toward the bottom of the pack near Greece, Spain and Israel.

Nice, huh?

Makes a guy proud.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-united-states-is-very-different-from-its-neighbors-when-it-come-to-minimum-wage-2013-2#ixzz2PiANuHwm

9 Countries With A Higher Minimum Wage Than The U.S.

Facts, statistics and America

Quote of the day (on Romney? or Fox? Beck? O'Reilly? Hannity?)

It's Rush Limbaugh, all over, at least.

An outsider on the Republican Party of late

An outsider--a non-partisan third party with a rather huge indictment of the Republican Party in recent years:



"Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican party. Despite President Obama's goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest there was held hostage by the rise of the extreme Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. There can be few things more alarming in public policy than a political movement which was genuinely prepared to see the government of the United States default on its obligations in order to score a political point." --Australia's deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Wayne Swan.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/21/wayne-swan-republicans-cranks-crazies

Arthur Bryant's via Australia

There's an article in an Aussie rag about our own Arthur Bryant's Barbecue: Humble Kansas restaurant Arthur Bryant's Barbecue has some famous fans Don'tch'a just love how people so frequently assume that, because it's Kansas City, that it's also gotta' be Kansas? That kills me. A bit of what they say (link at bottom): "Arthur Bryant's resembles a cafeteria from the 1950s, because it hasn't changed since it catered to baseball players and fans from a nearby (and long gone) stadium." Link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/humble-kansas-restaurant-has-some-famous-fans/story-fn302659-1226254410567

What a hoot

Cute, sure, but I loved it.