Millions May Survive The Pandemic - But Will They Be Prey To The 'Infodemic'?

"The inability of so much of the public to remember what Trump was saying just a month ago suggests that, in addition to the coronavirus crisis, we’re also experiencing a national amnesia pandemic."   - Bret Stephens, NY Times  

"The  Enlightenment is actually on trial now in the U.S. And whether truths, facts and objectivity matter. What we are seeing is a partisan pandemic, and this shouldn't be." -  John Meacham, this morning on 'Morning Joe', MSNBC

"The Trump administration's response to the coronavirus has been defined by incompetence and deceit from the beginning. While they claim to be focused on the crisis at hand they have also been using the last month to pursue all kinds of ideological and policy vendettas." - Chris Hayes, Wednesday night 'All In', referring to what Trump and his cabal are doing while we're preoccupied with COVID-19  - and their goofy happy talk.

"The idea that the number of people infected in all these (rural) places won't be the same as we're seeing in other places defies logic. The virus will spread. It might go a little bit more slowly in a rural area than it does in a dense city, but it's coming  to a town near you."  Dr. Ashish Jha, Harvard University, last night on 'All In'

"Trump says we’ve got plenty of tests available, when we don’t. He declares that Google is building a comprehensive drive-thru testing website, when it isn’t. He sends a Navy hospital ship to New York and it proves little more than an excuse for a campaign commercial, arriving and sitting almost empty in the Hudson. A New York hospital executive calls it a joke.  ....Every aspect of Trump’s crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings" -   Jennifer Senior, 'This Is What Happens When A Narcissist Runs A Crisis',  NY Times, 4/5


Watching the ABC News  Wednesday evening it was appalling to learn of the death threats made against the indefatigable Anthony Fauci.  But that tells you all you need to know concerning the parallel disaster of the ongoing "INFOdemic'.  In the case of Dr. Fauci, assorted trolls from right wing blogs like "Gateway Pundit" and others decided to try to make an example of him. Why? Because in a serious time of national emergency and health crisis he had the cojones to correct the clown and buffoon spewing lies and misinformation - often downplaying the virus - even calling it a "hoax" for the first two weeks.  (Trump apologists like Kim Strassel - WSJ today, p A15-  insist Trump never said that and Joe Biden is lying about it, but hold strain. Trump originally did bellow that on a FOX n' Friends appearance then altered it during a presser to claim "I meant the Democrats are using this as a hoax against me!")  Nice try, Swine, but more of us are onto your deceptions!

After that, anyone with half a brain could see Trump's briefings at the White House on COVID-19 have been a daily circus of lies and misinformation, and right when the public, in a time of crisis, deserves the simple, unvarnished  truth.   Making it worse, too many media outlets insist on broadcasting it live, which merely reinforces the bilge coming out while it elevates Trump's profile to a quasi-leader,  or as he calls himself,  a "wartime president".  Of course, he's been nothing of the sort, only  a yellow bellied coward who still believes as author Michael Lewis ( 'The Fifth Risk') told Chris Hayes on 'All In' Wednesday night that "storytelling can make up for lack of honesty".  What it's done thus far is bumped Trump's approval numbers up a bit but that is only temporary and will crater when people - even in Trumpie red states- see the body bags piling up because their great hero Dotard didn't do squat to prepare.  Worse he lied, making them believe they'd have critical supplies, when he didn't do jack shit.  All an act, a performance, like on his Apprentice TV show.

Another aspect is the media - mostly corporate mainstream - still  insist on sending political reporters, who focus the questions on Trump rather than Fauci and his sidekick, WH  coordinator Deborah Birx.  This misdirection  results in outlandish ideas like a quarantine on New York, and ending social isolation by Easter.  In other words, by giving this asshole the chance to grandstand he blows out brain farts by the score - which the reporters then studiously write up to regurgitate later on the evening news. Instead, they ought to be assiduously ripping each claim apart.

This is also why many believe the press should instead send medical reporters, who will ask medical experts fact-based questions about the coronavirus—and what the government is doing to contain it.

It isn't difficult  to see that in this information cesspool - much of it emanating from a "leadership" that ought to be straight up with its citizens-   we have to be much much smarter as information consumers. The sad fact is we are not, else Trump's poll approval numbers would be plummeting, not rising. Part of that is a state of national amnesia (or perhaps suspension of disbelief, skepticism). In the case of the former too many are mesmerized by his daily snake oil salesman act and can't recall what Trump has said or claimed from one week to the next. Hence, when a poll or survey is asked of us, they forget how many outright lies the orange maggot has already unleashed.  See, e.g.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump's misfires on virus death rates, tests

In the case of the latter cognitive impairments too many Americans sit spellbound - gulping down what he spews out with hopeful eyes- but failing to process it's all a big act. There isn't a damned bit of truth or substance to any of it. He invents garbage on the fly, like vaccines "will be ready in weeks", or he will "use the defense production act" - then just lets it sit like an odious vapor. After which it all dissolves and there is still nothing to address the national crisis including medical workers crying and begging for help. And what does the illustrious traitor do? He calls them and their state governors "complainers" for demanding he step up to the mark and act the part of the big shot leader he professes.

The best thing is for people to just stop watching this charade.  That's because it isn't about helping people, only about Trump''s passing BS off as fact to secure his re-election.  And you don't even have to watch it to see what Anthony Fauci says or opines. He is on almost nonstop in various venues and even if you miss him in real time you can Google Youtube segments where he speaks on one or other aspect of the pandemic. 

In her WSJ article 'How To Avoid The Infodemic',  March 23, p. B4, Nicole Nguyen has good solid advice for information seekers to negotiate the online info universe without being mindfucked at every turn.  The recommendations include:

1)Focus on factual information from official channels

That means focusing on facts from official sources, like the Centers for Disease Control.  The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) is also a solid source, and btw, one can find extensive material from each of these in reputable news sites, including The Financial Times and New York Times. The Wall Street Journal is also excellent, provided you ignore the op-ed pages.  (CDC also has a mobile app which delivers the real time info right to our phone).

2) Avoid private social media sites:

These include Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.  They are to be avoided because there's little or no oversight on what they churn out or what their denizens share. (Some of whom actually obtain misinformation from dreg sites like 8chan, 4chan or Gateway Pundit then share it).   Why take such precautions? Because as Ms. Nguyen notes, the more people are exposed to a falsehood, the more likely they are to accept it.  Just as exposure to a huge  COVID-19 viral load can destroy one's lungs, these mind viruses can destroy the brain, it's critical thinking capacity. This is also why it's advisable to stop watching Trump and his phony,  pretend briefings - which are really propaganda performances.  They are designed to try to enhance his re-election chances, not provide relevant policy updates or information to help distraught citizens..  Proof? What he is doing beneath the surface to wreck our lives, while he diverts with his  officious blather on TV.  (See below for examples.)

3) Look up which outlets covered the news.

Before sharing any information, do a quick search to see if reputable outlets reported the same thing (e.g. NY Times, Financial Times etc.)  This is the advice of Jon Keegan, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University School of Journalism.  Keegan suggests using GroundNews, an app and website that shows how many outlets covered top stories at a glance. Most importantly, look at the sources names in the outlets' reports. If multiple reports link to the same questionable story - instead of citing primary courses- then be skeptical.

And, of course, it goes without saying that if you feel deluged by any sources - or stressed by the news- feel free to bail out. Don't click on a headline or blog post that may stress you further. (I also get this, which may be why blog readership appears to dive for several COVID-19 posts in a row, showing followers may have reached their 'saturation' points.  This is also why I try to scatter other subjects in between, i.e. like recent ones on entropy and humanist challenges to Xtianity).

4) Pause before you share anything.

Use your logical, critical thinking faculties and ask if it really make sense. If a source or video is provided, then watch it to see if the information given makes logical sense and especially if external support for any claims is provided. Are there journal citations, newspaper citations? If so, from where?

My take is the same as that of Prof. Claire Wardis of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, quoted in the piece:

"If people stopped sharing entirely and just relied on official sources we'd be better off. It's like washing hands. We have to get into new habits about only what we know."

In this sense, we are being responsible information users and patrons and avoiding the spread of mind viruses, which can be almost as debilitating and destructive to one's cognitive ability as the COVID-19 is to the physical body.

It is abundantly clear that yet another attribute of the astute information user is to be aware of diversions, and especially what the bad guys are doing to us while they baffle us with bullshit at each COVID-19 briefing.  This is why Maddow often uses the axiom "Watch what they do not what they say."

How so? For example, over  this two month span while Trump has had too many of us mesmerized by his happy talk, exaggerations and lies, the following have been done:

-  They revoked the reservation status of a native American tribe for which Trump opposed a casino - to help with debt as many other tribes have.

- Trump has now given the green light to the Keystone pipeline. He issued a "permit" which now allows this project to move forward "without any further government review." (WSJ, yesterday, 'Keystone Pipeline To Be Built With Alberta's Help', p. B3)  The deal is for 20 years and allows up to 830,000 of tar sands crude to be pumped per day, and through farmlands that could be devastated in a spill or other catastrophe.

-  They are suspending the enforcement of a range of health and environmental laws.

- Trump has allowed son- in -law Jared Kushner to run a "middle man" operation to screw the states out of emergency medical supplies, and forcing them to bid against each other.  Jared admitted in one FOX interview: "These national stockpile supplies are not for the states but for US."  Who is 'us'?  The Trump family and its extended racketeers, gangsters??   See e.g.

Coronavirus | Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner Warns States to Get Their Grubby Hands Away from 'Our Stockpile' of Medical Equipment

And:

Opinion

Michelle Goldberg

Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed

- They are unilaterally rolling back fuel efficiency standards.for cars.  ("Because that's going to keep sick people's lungs healthy when they're gasping for air.". - Chris Hayes' sarcastic response Wednesday night's All In)

-Trump's Department of Justice is currently in court suing to scrap the entirety of the Affordable Care Act.

- Trump announced in between his lies and accusations last night there will be no special open enrollment  period for the ACA - denying access to exigent care for 28 million with no insurance and who may well get infected, or worse. Consequence? They may be left on the hook for $31,000 to $74,000 in medical bills depending on the severity of rhe disease and need for ICU, extended care.  

When Pence was asked what Americans without access to the ACA could do, he had no answer. If you judge these vermin by their actions the take is simple:  They genuinely do not care. You can go pound sand or scream at the sky as your loved ones die, for all they care.

Yes, folks, that is our great government at work in this crisis, a band of vipers, traitors and  maggots - out to make things much worse while they are claiming to do "God's service" for you in this pandemic.  Don't fucking bite!  Be smarter than that!

See also:

Coronavirus | Donald Trump

Trump Empowered Conspiracy Theorists: Now They're a Major Threat to Public Health and Safety.

And:

Coronavirus | Donald Trump

No, President Trump, You Can’t Bomb a Virus. We Need Expertise and Empathy — Not a War.

And:

Coronavirus | Fox News

Fox News Has Been Lying Its Aging Viewers Into Early Graves

Excerpt:

"Thus far, COVID-19 has spent its wrath in places like New York, Seattle and Detroit. The storm is now coming to the farther reaches, to Fox News, to the doorstep of Trump’s most devout adherents, and it will be a horror when it happens."

And:

The Trump Administration | Coronavirus | Donald Trump

Laissez-faire Genocide, but by a Removable Administration

Excerpt:

"The sheer incompetence, or indifference, or even active malice toward those in domestic need by this most wretched of administrations should be more than shocking. It should call for the immediate impeachment and removal of Trump-Pence."

How Fracking Drives The Proliferation of Plastics & Ocean Pollution, Acidification

Fracking operation in Colorado and a seal pup partially strangled by plastics.

   Humans produce roughly our own weight in plastics each year. How much actually ends up in the oceans is still a matter of debate but scientists in one study have estimated between 4.8 and 12.7  million metric tonnes (in 2010 alone).   Three- fourths of the plastic waste on Earth comes from uncollected litter,  the  leaked from assorted dump sites over the years.  Most of the drastic increase between 1950  and 2015  has been documented in the Journal  Science Advances, i.e.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318567844_Production_use_and_fate_of_all_plastics_ever_made

We're now much more aware of how the fracking process is powering a dangerous plastics bonanza,  with the plastics and fracking industries working hand-in-hand to prop up their respective pollution models.   Basically, the fracking industry requires a new source  for yearly demand to sop up its excess gas.  This is to justify more drilling while the plastics industry needs a new source of  low -cost ethane, a fracking byproduct used to manufacture plastics.  As I showed in a previous post, much of this  plastic refuse ends up in our oceans threatening sea life as well as humans - both  ingesting vastly more micro-plastics than ever before.

Apart from that micro-plastics impact, bear in mind  the role of the industrial plants that convert natural gas into petrochemicals emit massive amounts of air and climate pollutants - including carbon dioxide (CO2).  When rising levels of the gas are absorbed in the oceans it exacerbates ocean acidification, i.e. based on the chemical reaction:  CO2  +  H2O ->   H2CO 3

Where H2CO3 is carbonic acid.

How was this produced?  Well, the rapid expansion of fracking created a natural gas glut that drove actual gas prices to the lowest levels in decades.  The plastics industry then rode to the rescue of the gas frackers.  According to Plastics News: "Fracking represents a once -in -a generation opportunity for the plastics industry".   At the same time, a renewed push for plastics manufacturing provides the frackers with a polluting partner to absorb the ever increasing quantity of fracked gas (e.g. methane, much of which is already allowed to be burned off in situ, thanks to altered regulations by the Trumpites.)

It's no surprise then that Wall Street's greedy investors are lining up to build new factories that transform fracking byproducts into plastics. They see more profits pouring in - to pad their bottom lines- but are blind to the toxins pumped out to defile the environment and ruin public health. So now, not only is fracking polluting our air, soil and water, it's also directly affecting the oceans - which harbor the greatest oxygen source on the planet in the form of plankton.

Let's also process  - from the industry's own projections  -   that the global plastics industry is expected to increase production by 40 percent over the next decade.  This is driven by dropping prices for fracking byproducts as well as massively scaled -up production.   This is given that most of the  industry manufactures packaging materials that are immediately discarded.

For perspective, each human on average (globally) disposes of 110 pounds of plastic annually. Process that! It's the weight of a small frame woman.  Much of this ends up in the oceans where it strangles the resident sea life (like sea lions) or ends up accumulating in their stomachs causing them to die of starvation.

Since 1950, the  plastics industry - which had its major shout out in the 1967 film 'The Graduate' ("One word for you, Ben: Plastics!") -   has produced 18.3 trillion pounds of plastics, of which only about 9 percent has been recycled.   That translates into 16 trillion pounds tossed into landfills of which a significant proportion  (30 %) ends up in the oceans.

Less  well known:  Plastic products are inherently toxic and can become a vehicle for other pollutants. Many plastics contain hazardous chemicals and thousands of different additives, which can leach out as the plastic ages.  Such additives can comprise up to half of the object's  weight and be extremely toxic - including endocrine disrupters which affect hormone function.

Once created,  plastics can last for hundreds to thousands of years and the toxic remains of plastics pose serious challenges.   Meanwhile, the microplastics are ubiquitous, finding their way into the food we eat, soil and air we breath. Even indoor air can have high concentrations of microplastics from household products and synthetic textiles. 

We are basically awash in plastics, microplastics even as the fracking industry is making the situation much worse.

Let us also dispel (for the last time)  the cockeyed notion that natural gas is a "clean" fuel source. While it might be "clean" relative to the tar sands oil from the Keystone pipeline, it's not in any way clean standing on its own.  It is another fossil fuel - cheap but still dirty  -  and if you doubt it ask the homeowners who have frack wells near their homes in the Colorado suburbs.  See, for example, this item which greeted us in today's news paper:


The conclusion is self-evident: Rather than investing in fossil fuels and their ancillary chemical industry we need to invest more in renewable energy, including solar, geothermal, wind.

Keystone Pipeline - A Casualty Of The Oil Glut - As Opposed to Environmental Activists

Massive fire on fracking train in Fayette Co., West Virginia in 2015. This scene has become emblematic of the oil glut and some of its most horrific consequences.


Proposed by a Canadian firm (Trans Canada Corp), the Keystone pipeline had been planned to carry 800,000 barrels a day from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf coast. Republicans and some Democrats argued that the project would create jobs and expand energy resources, while environmentalists said it would encourage a form of oil extraction that produces more gases that warm the planet than normal petroleum

As noted in an earlier blog: http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/11/bill-mckibbens-prediction-of-nightmare.html

Climate scientist Bill McKibben has developed models disclosing mathematical limits showing we have roughly 550 gigatons (gT) left of carbon we can deposit anthropogenically into the atmosphere before earthly Hell is unleashed. That “hell” includes the runaway greenhouse effect, to turn our planet into an endlessly burning pile of ash and refuse.

As it turned out the protests did work to stop Keystone during the Obama administration. But once the sleazy Queens real estate dealer got into office - thanks to the Russkies- government approval of the pipeline followed.

Now, Keystone's fortunes appear to have changed again, for the negative.  According to a front page story in the WSJ 'Business and Investing' section ('A New Problem for Keystone XL: Oil Companies Don't Want It', June 30):

"Keystone XL is facing a new challenge: The oil producers and refiners the pipeline was originally meant to serve aren’t interested in it anymore. Delayed for nearly a decade by protests and regulatory roadblocks, Keystone XL got the green light in March from President Donald Trump. But the pipeline's operator, TransCanada Corp, is struggling to line up customers to ship crude from Canada to the U.S. Gulf coast."

We further learn:

"TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling remains committed to completing Keystone XL and believes it will prove profitable in the long term, say two people familiar with his thinking. But it may be years before the company recoups its investment in the pipeline, these people say.....The lack of interest has put the pipeline's fate in jeopardy. The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, has said it wants enough customers to fill 90% of Keystone's capacity before it proceeds. It started to aggressively court potential customers earlier this year as it seeks to meet that target, according to people familiar with the situation."

But the core problem is "refiners want the flexibility of being able to buy oil from wherever it is cheapest. In a world awash in low-price oil, Canadian crude doesn't look as attractive as it once did. "


So, the Keystone XL is on life support, thanks to the crash in oil prices, now falling nearly 20 percent, making it no longer economically sensible to use the Keystone XL. It's a bigger loss waiting to happen.  As we also learn:

"....uncertainty about output growth from Canada's oil sands has given producers pause about signing long-term agreements for space on a pipeline they may not need, people familiar with the matter say."

Nor is there any inclination to alter the situation, i.e. to make it more practical to use the Keystone XL by rationing the oil extracted..  In another WSJ article ('Despite Oil's Fall, Drillers Won't Stop'. July 8)  we learn:

"Despite a 17 percent plunge in prices since April, drillers are on pace to break the all time U.S. oil production record, topping 10 million barrels a day by early next year, if not sooner, according to government officials and analysts.   U.S. crude fell again on Friday, dropping 2.8 % to $44.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yet the U.S. oil rig count rose Friday to the highest level in more than two years. Operators have now put more than 100 rigs back to work from Oklahoma to North Dakota in the past 18 months."

Who are the real 'bad guys' in spelling the evident fall of Keystone XL? Well, not the protesters for sure, despite the fact they had Bill McKibben and the further consequences of global warming on their side. McKibben,  as early as 2011, noted the major contributor to push us into a CO2-laden hothouse hell was  none other than implementation of the Keystone XL pipeline because of the concentrated carbon it would unleash over years.

According to the July 8 WSJ piece the new bad guys are stock investors,  given they have "furnished companies more capital to keep drilling thanks to $57 billion Wall Street has injected into the sector over the past 18 months."

Adding:

"Money has come from investors in new stock sales and high yield debt, as well as from private equity funds, which have helped provide lifelines to stronger operators. Flush with cash, virtually all of them launched campaigns to boost drilling at the start of 2017 in the hope oil prices could rebound."

In the words of Al Walker, chief executive of Andarko Petroleum Corp.,

"The biggest problem our industry faces today is you guys"  referring to investors at a conference last month,

But would lowering drilling matter? Even if companies cut back right now "it wouldn't stop a new wave of oil from hitting the market  in the second half of the year."

The irony in this whole episode is that it wasn't Left environmental protesters who brought a halt to this odious pipeline, but the greed mongers themselves. Greed mongers not content with the existing share price of oil but who were determined to pump it up even further - as Al Walker pointed out.  Whatever the source let's hope this is finally the end of a project that would have pumped more added CO2 (according to Bill McKibben) than this planet can handle. Well, at least in terms of the humans living and breathing on it.

Bill McKibben's Right Wing Climate Denier Stalkers Are Dolts

It takes all kinds of right wing loons to make the world, such as the ones stalking climate activist Bill McKibben, as he details events in his essay 'My Right Wing Stalkers' (NY Times, Aug. 7, p. 4) According to McKibben, "there are shameful photos of me on the internet - in one series groceries are being packed into plastic bags,  as I'd forgotten to bring cloth ones".  He adds "sometimes I see the cameraman, sometimes I don't, the images are often posted to Twitter, reminders I'm being watched".

Why is this happening and WHO is behind it?  Well, it's happening because a certain faction of climate denier  dunderheads are attempting to show McKibben's "epic hypocrisy" on  climate change and the environment. As most people may know he's behind the climate blog 350.org and was among the first to warn that we have certain oil thresholds beyond which, i.e. if we take them from the ground, we will have hell to pay in terms of climate catastrophes.

As for the stalking group itself, McKibben notes that both Politico and the Hill "reported that America Rising Squared, and arm of the Republican research group America Rising" is going all out - having decided to go after him and Tom Steyer (another prominent environmentalist) with a "campaign previously reserved for presidential candidates."  In other words, a nested cabal of knuckle draggers.

The Hill itself referred to "an unprecedented amount of  effort and money" to try to tar McKibben as an enviro and climate hypocrite.

McKibben also observes:

"This effort has resulted in all kinds of odd things appearing on right  wing corners of the web, out of context quotations from old books, and articles apparently on display to prove I'm a zealot ...mostly they publish these creepy videos to remind me I'm under surveillance."

Don't these losers have anything better to do with their time? Evidently not, as they're convinced if they can smear McKibben they can win the climate battles  - but they're dreaming. All they're proving is they are a bunch of would-be fascist Gestapo convinced that surveillance of an opponent will make him stop what he is doing, or writing.

But as McKibben also notes:

"As friends keep reminding me it's all a tribute to our movement's work in helping to kill the Keystone pipeline and highlighting Exxon's climate history and campaigns that cost the industry a lot of money".

But if you pay to produce expensive propaganda and get exposed, that's what you get. 

But where these loopy assholes really go over the top is when they also began taking photos of McKibben's daughter, as when she was to board a plane at an airport.  As he indicated (ibid.) "common decency would suggest otherwise (in terms of such filming) but that seems an increasingly rare commodity".

Well it is increasingly rare when these cheeseballs go after family members who have nothing to do with the climate organization.  All that manner of stalking shows is that they're detestable cowards as well as rank knuckle draggers.

Despite the fact McKibben uses solar panels on his home, and uses an electric car, what has this America Rising bunch with such a bee in its bonnet? Well, because McKibben doesn't demonstrate the enviro life 100 percent 'perfecto'. He does take planes - say to get to rallies - because an electric car doesn't deliver that many miles. As he notes "we also have to live our lives in the real world and none of those things should demand an apology".

Indeed, the apology ought to be coming from the stalkers who still drive SUVs everywhere, adding tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year.  And as McKibben writes:

"Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point. 'Hypocrisy' is the price of admission in this battle"

Indeed it is. One hopes McKibben's stalkers will ultimately learn this lesson but the odds are they won't,  at least not until the horrors of climate change-global warming are right on their own doorstep!

Keystone Stopped For Now - But Why Are So Many Dumb Americans For It?

"Every dollar that we spend today in developing and using more fossil fuels, is another dollar spent in digging the graves of our grandchildren. I don't want to dig that grave anymore" - Sen. Tom Harkin, on the Senate floor in debate over the Keystone XL pipeline

As the news was revealed recently  that the Keystone XL pipeline approval fell one vote short, one wonders just how much longer it will be before this Canadian abomination materializes. How many Dems will hold out before turning whore, and how long can Obama sustain a spine and use veto power - especially come January? These are questions that keep me up at night, and should also keep you up too,  given how the approval of this monstrosity would allow likely deposition -via spills- of some of the most polluted effluent as well as sky high CO2 emissions. If you think the emergency snow event in Buffalo has been a disaster, wait until even bigger and more prolonged polar vortices are formed (as a result of global warming), and the icy air encounters warm lakes!

What is even more incredible to me is how the Democrats could have wasted so much precious lame duck time dealing with this issue (all to try to secure the Senate seat of Mary Landrieu - which is hopeless, imho) when they could have instead been approving Loretta Lynch, Obama's choice for Attorney General. Do they really believe her chances will be better when the Reepos have a 54 vote majority? As Rachel Maddow put it, she'd like to know what they're smoking. I would too, since it sounds a lot more powerful than what's on offer her in Colorado.

Back to the Keystone: Another gripe I have is how many Americans have consumed the bullshit that this pipeline will actually provide any benefit. According to current polls, cited on Chris Hayes' 'All In', some 59 percent of Americans (the 'Dumbo' brigade)  approve of the Keystone XL, and only 31% are against it. Which means the majority have swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker.

These bozos have no clue, not one,  that virtually no benefits redound to our nation's favor- and the few paltry benefits that do, are grossly exaggerated. The pipeline is essentially Trans Canada's and to be put in using OUR land (which will also be at dire risk for spills) and piped to the Gulf where it will be offloaded to tankers and sold ELSE WHERE - not here in the U.S. Most likely to places like China and India. Hence, the crappola that it "lowers energy costs" and "promotes energy independence" is blatant bull pockey. Only a halfwit or ignoramus would buy that! So, it looks like 59% of 'Muricans are halfwits or ignoramuses.

What about the jobs hype? As reported by Chris Hayes, a State Dept. review showed that nearly all the projected jobs (maximum 42,100 or barely enough to satisfy the needs of a town like Pueblo, CO) nearly all would fill only one position for ONE year. In other words, they'd be gone, as in vamonosed at the end of a year. Big deal, all temp jobs! A grand total of 35 permanent employees would be needed once  the pipeline commences service. This is about half the staff needed for your average mid-level department store. Yeah, the pay will be much better, but the health costs will also be a lot higher - and one wonders if that pay will cover all the pancreatic and liver cancers when they appear.

The hype that costs will go down is also bullshit. A study out of Cornell, cited by Hayes, shows that consumers in the Midwest alone could be paying 10 to 20 cents more per gallon for gasoline and diesel fuel if the Keystone is approved.

Obama last week hit the nail on the head when he stated:

"Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability for Canada to pump their oil and send it through our land, down to the Gulf where it will be sold everywhere else."

So, in non-euphemistic terms, one is led to ask why so many Americans (the 59 % for) are willing to bend over and allow their nation to be so egregiously used.  Do they really want our country to be reduced to being a "bitch" for the Canadians? On the future promise of thirty five permanent jobs? Come on! Seems that they do! I can understand the Repukes' stand on this - but 59 percent of the people? Give me a freaking break! And as Chris noted, the biggest beneficiaries of the pipeline would be the fossil fuel companies who are increasingly spooked by plummeting oil prices. Thus, it's evident the approval of Keystone assures them of a way to jack the costs up again, and when dumbo 'Muricans howl it will be too late.

Idiot John Boehner, of course, has warned Obama not to use his veto against it, which is exactly why he must.

Boehner bloviated in a recent appearance aired on Hayes' show:

"A pipeline veto would send the signal that this President has no interest in listening to the American people. Vetoing an overwhelming popular bill would be a clear indication that he doesn't care about the American people's priorities. It would be the equivalent of calling the American people 'stupid'"

Sorry to have to bust your nuts, Johnno, but the American people in favor of it ARE stupid! If they haven't read about the consequences, and don't know enough of who is really benefiting, then why the hell should Obama follow the 'stupid' sector and allow this nutso pipeline to pass?

We the opponents, then, are the ones that need to be listened to, since we know  - based on all the facts available- that it is sheer madness to assume the development of new sources of carbon-intensive tar sands oil. This is when we know we can only burn about one fifth of all the known reserves of existing sources and hope to keep the planet from frying in the runaway greenhouse..

If GOP Wins Big Tonight Will Dems Use Filibusters Come January?

There is the real prospect that the Repukes could seize control of the Senate when the dust settles after this mid-term. Right now the pukes hold 45 seats and the Dems 55 (including Bernie Sanders a socialist who votes with them), so if they gain at least 6 seats - which is possible- they would end up with a 51-49 majority in the Senate as well as a sizable majority in the House which they've held since 2010.

I don't believe this will actually happen, as I instead see the Ds hanging on by their fingernails, with a a 50-50 standoff in the Senate - the tie vote going to VP Joe Biden. So it would be a 'win' albeit a narrow won. But anything is possible. A primary indicator is the North Carolina race. If Kay Hagen wins (assuming too many African-Americans aren't hindered from voting), then look for the Dems to hold on, same if Mark Udall edges by Cory Gardener in Colorado.

But what if, as Nate Silver forecasts (75 % probability) the Repubs DO take the Senate? Then congress will be totally in their hands with only Obama the 'firewall' to act against their insanity using his veto power. (And veto he must, and veto, veto and veto - until his left hand goes into spasm.)

The good thing is that whatever advantage the Reeps manage to secure it won't be sufficient to get any of their wackier legislation passed - including rolling back the Affordable Care Act, increasing interest on private student loans (from 6.8% to 8%) or militarizing the southern border as part of "immigration reform"

However, in order to prevent these nutso laws being passed one of two things must happen: 1) The Democrats need to use the filibuster - demanding 60 vote majorities the same way the Reeps did when they were a Senate minority, and 2) If the Dems punk out with (1) and lose their cojones when it counts, then Obama must be ready with his veto pen.

Indeed, I would argue that if the Reeps do gain the Senate and hold the House (99% likely), the Democrats must become as "obstructionist" as the Reeps were when they had only 45 seats.  That means using the filibuster at every turn to block all legislation issuing from the Reep zone, including any approval of the Keystone pipeline.  After all, the Reeps will have been rewarded for their obstructionism so why not the Dems?

Harder to figure, as Scarborough noted this a.m.,  is why Americans would reward these jerks anyway, given all they've done is block Obama's agenda at every turn.  They have contributed to the worst congress in history with their do-nothingism and have a 20 percent approval rating (this is compared to 42% for Obama in the most recent polls).

Repub pollster Frank Luntz, this morning on CBS, opined the election is not really about Obama at all, but about "Washington", but I am not sure I buy it. Tune in any time to FOX, including Hannity and O'Reilly, and all you hear and see is anti-Obama blather. It's no wonder their viewers (surveys show 47 % of repukes go to no other station) and end up brainwashed Obama haters.

If in fact it is really about Washington, as Luntz suggests, then it is the Republicans who should lose big because they are the party - via their incessant 'call in' filibusters, who've mucked it up the most. Especially as Luntz said that in his own polling what mattered to voters the most was "accountability and getting things done". Well, Katy bar the door, the Repukes fail on all counts there! Or is it people are really living in a parallels universe where the Reepos have been beyond reproach in their work?

Whatever the outcome in a potential GOP Senate takeover, 51 seats or 54 (making a 9 seat gain and the greatest since 1994 and the 'Contract On America') the Dems cannot allow themselves to be suckered into accepting that any R-takeover translates to a "mandate". It doesn't. It amounts to a temporary advantage that will likely be reversed in the next election. The same as the GOP 2002 gains were reversed in 2006.

The main thing we need is for the Democrats to stand with the people, come hell or high water, and that means filibustering whenever it's needed - which will likely be about every week!

New Data Show Humans Are One Step Closer to Climate Armageddon

The “Keeling curve” derives its name from Charles Keeling who showed, from even his earliest measurements, that there is a continuous, unabated increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. This results from the forcing tied to the Greenhouse effect.  Few Americans knew of the graph, before it was made famous by Al Gore in his documentary "Inconvenient Truth".  But it is the longest continuous record of CO₂ in the world, starting from 316 ppm in March 1958.

When I first saw the  "Keeling Curve" (see attached image superimposed on the Earth in a satellite view) it shook me to my core. It also sent me into despair realizing that nothing would halt the ominous rise of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. To put it bluntly, in the image of the Keeling Curve I beheld the future of our planet: as a hothouse wasteland with little water, barely thousands of people able to survive and with no hope ever for a green or plentiful future.

Now, according to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California-  San Diego, the ratio of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is flirting with 400 parts per million, a level last seen about 2.5 million to 5 million years ago.  Isolated measurements have already peaked at above 400 parts per million in the Arctic, but climate scientists have been more alarmed at steady readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, far from major pollution sources. Those measurements, considered to be the most reliable indicators of Earth's atmospheric content, could breach the 400 level this month, according to Scripps.

Climate scientists aren't sure of the exact threshold at which the nonstop Runaway greenhouse effect kicks in, but most put it at someplace between 450 ppm and 550 ppm. Since we're now increasing CO2 concentration at roughly 2 ppm, that gives us about 25 years before the lowest threshold is met. Of course, if the Keystone pipeline is put through the annual increase in CO2 would be significantly higher, perhaps bringing the year of reckoning closer by 5 or even 10 years.

This is why the speed at which Earth’s atmosphere has reached that density of carbon dioxide, a known greenhouse gas, has scientists alarmed. While climate change-global warming deniers and naysayers (amazingly, still around - skulking behind the cover of assorted think tanks) have often attempted to obfuscate issues by referring to "natural cycles" (such as the Middle Ages 'warming' period), this new data stuffs even their fat, bloviating mouths. 

This is because for the previous 800,000 years, CO2 levels never exceeded 300 parts per million, and there is no known geologic period in which rates of increase have been so sharp. The level was about 280 parts per million at the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century, when the burning of fossil fuels began to soar.

Scientists estimate that average temperatures during the Pliocene rose as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Sea levels during that 2.8-million-year epoch ranged between 16-131 feet higher than current levels, according to Richard Norris, a Scripps geologist.  Norris added:

"I think it is likely that all these ecosystem changes could recur, even though the time scales for the Pliocene warmth are different than the present”

He also warned that heating the oceans probably will cause sea level rises and change the pH balance, affecting a wide array of marine life. We ought to note that already the pH of the oceans is 30% more acidic than at the start of the Industrial Revolution on average. Another 30% increase could wipe out more than alf of all sea life including the phyto-plankton.

Norris added, reinforcing the point:

 “Our dumping of heat and CO2 into the ocean is like making investments in a pollution bank,”

Scripps geochemist Ralph Keeling, who has taken over the Keeling curve measurement from his late father, added: "At this pace we'll hit 450 ppm within a few decades."

Or more likely less!

Tim Lueker, an oceanographer and carbon cycle researcher who is a longtime member of the Scripps CO₂ Group, provides the most somber note:

"The 400-ppm threshold is a sobering milestone, and should serve as a wake-up call for all of us to support clean-energy technology and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, before it's too late for our children and grandchildren,"

The sad part is that it likely already is too late!