U.S. mining sites dump millions of gallons of toxic waste into drinking water sources – Chicago Tribune

The records show that at average flows, more than 50 million gallons (189 million liters) of contaminated wastewater streams daily from the sites. In many cases, it runs untreated into nearby groundwater, rivers and ponds — a roughly 20-million-gallon daily dose of pollution that could fill more than 2,000 tanker trucks.

via U.S. mining sites dump millions of gallons of toxic waste into drinking water sources – Chicago Tribune

After Standing Rock, protesting pipelines can get you a decade in prison and $100K in fines | Grist

Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed HB 727 into law last spring, making trespassing on “critical infrastructure” property a much more serious crime than garden-variety trespassing. What was once a misdemeanor is now a felony. The law takes a broad view of what’s “critical”: pipelines, natural gas plants, and other facilities, as well as property on a proposed pipeline route, even if the pipeline isn’t there yet.

Foytlin is one of at least 16 people in Louisiana who’ve been arrested and charged with felonies under the new law, according to Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley, who’s representing Foytlin. All of them were jailed and had to post bonds, some as high as $20,000 to get out. The district attorney hasn’t officially charged any of them yet, Quigley said.

“These are people saying let’s make sure we have something left for future generations in the most beautiful swamp in the world,” Foytlin said. “And for that we were charged with felonies, we were beaten, we were stepped on, I was choked.” To her, the law allows the state to jail people for unpopular political views. (Messages left with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office weren’t returned.)

via After Standing Rock, protesting pipelines can get you a decade in prison and $100K in fines | Grist

Senate Finds NRA Provided Russians Access To Republicans For Money

The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of “lucrative personal business opportunities.”

These are the results of the Senate investigation that was first reported at PoliticusUSA in February 2019.
“The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset,” report explains A LOT.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-ORE) released the results of his 18-month investigation into the NRA’s relationship with Russia, which reveals that the NRA has may have violated numerous tax laws and most importantly, given the current situation with Republicans defending Donald Trump from proof that he worked with the Russians to cheat in the 2016 election and has tried to extort Ukraine to help him cheat in 2020, accuses the NRA of promising access to U.S. officials in exchange for Russian business.

via politicususa Senate Finds NRA Provided Russians Access To Republicans For Money

If you really listen, can you hear the plants speak? This researcher says yes.

At the University of Sydney, Gagliano researches whether plants can learn behaviors and communicate with one another about survival skills, such as accessing water and fending off predators. In one study, she noted that the mimosa pudica, a plant which contracts when touched, stopped responding after being repeatedly exposed to non-harmful foam. The plant altered its behavior not because it was tiring, but because it had learned not to fear the foam. Other plant scholars, such as Michael Pollan, have praised her work, acknowledging that there is much we still do not know about the flora around us. Critics, however, have warned against upsetting their understanding that consciousness and intelligence require the nexus of a brain.

via  optimistdaily If you really listen, can you hear the plants speak? This researcher says yes.

Disabled Child with Doctor’s Medical Exemption to Vaccines Denied an Education in New York Under New Law

Disabled Child with Doctor’s Medical Exemption to Vaccines Denied an Education in New York Under New Law

New York and California are two states that revised their laws this year regarding mandatory vaccines as a requirement for school admissions.

A medical doctor’s exemption for vaccines for medical reasons is no longer accepted in these states. Instead, public health officials, politicians, basically now make those decisions.

Predictably, many medically fragile children who cannot receive vaccines for medical reasons are now being denied an education, which appears to be a clear violation of the American Disabilities Act.

The Vaccine Reaction reports on one case out of Buffalo, New York, where a 9-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and with a medical exemption for vaccines from his neurologist has been kicked out of school because he is not fully vaccinated.

via vaccineimpact Disabled Child with Doctor’s Medical Exemption to Vaccines Denied an Education in New York Under New Law

Soul Retrieval: 3 Deep Ways to Heal Soul Loss ⋆ LonerWolf

So what causes Soul Loss? Here are some common examples:

Any form of abuse, e.g., sexual, emotional, physical or mental
An event of prolonged grief, pain, and fear that made you feel helpless or impotent
Deep-seated addictions e.g., substance dependency, gambling, eating
A near-death or out-of-body experience
Being forced to act against your morals
An experience of intense rejection or abandonment
Witnessing the unexpected death of someone
A sudden and shocking accident
Entering a relationship without strong personal boundaries (resulting in an unhealthy relationship and losing your personal power)
Soul Loss, or dissociation, are devices that the brain uses to survive potentially destructive traumatic events.

In other words, Soul Loss happens to protect you initially, rather than to hurt you. This is a natural protective mechanism.

However, every wound must be healed, otherwise, it festers. When we neglect to heal these “blocked off” parts of ourselves and give them air, we are left with a chronic feeling of unwholeness. Eventually, we can suffer from chronic issues such as anxiety, depression, physical, and mental illnesses as a result.

via Soul Retrieval: 3 Deep Ways to Heal Soul Loss ⋆ LonerWolf

Home Depot billionaire Bernie Marcus decided how to donate his fortune – Business Insider

Marcus was one of Trump’s largest donors in 2016, giving $7 million to Trump’s campaign through outside groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Marcus said he planned to financially support the president in the 2020 election, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

via Home Depot billionaire Bernie Marcus decided how to donate his fortune – Business Insider

SWITCH OFF SINCLAIR NOW: Add your name to pledge to stop watching Sinclair television stations!

Sinclair Broadcast Group is buying up television stations across the country and then forcing them to air right-wing propaganda pieces.

Right now, Sinclair stations reach almost 40% of American households across the country. Instead of broadcasting objective, nonpartisan news, Sinclair forces stations to run pro-Trump messages and downplay news stories that would hurt his administration or other conservative lawmakers.

via SWITCH OFF SINCLAIR NOW: Add your name to pledge to stop watching Sinclair television stations!

Due To The Weather, Midwest Farmers Fear Widespread Crop Failures And A “Record-Low” Harvest In 2019

Snow usually blankets the Upper Midwest around the first week of November, and so that means that many farmers in the Midwest only have about two weeks to salvage what they can before everything is lost.  The unprecedented October blizzard that we just witnessed dumped massive amounts of snow on millions upon millions of acres of crops from Colorado to Minnesota.  Even if the weather is absolutely perfect between now and November 1st, farmers are still “expecting massive crop losses”. In fact, one South Dakota lawmaker told the press that the crop losses will be “as devastating as we’ve ever seen”.  And as you will see below, even parts of the Midwest that didn’t get hammered by the recent blizzard are potentially facing “record-low” harvests this year.  We have never seen a year this bad for Midwest farmers in modern American history, but if the weather does not cooperate things could rapidly get much, much worse over the next two weeks.

Because of all the rain and flooding earlier in the year, many Midwest farmers faced serious delays in getting their crops planted, and so they were counting on good weather at the end of the season so that their crops could fully mature.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and the recent Midwest blizzard was definitely a nightmare scenario…

via theeconomiccollapseblog Due To The Weather, Midwest Farmers Fear Widespread Crop Failures And A “Record-Low” Harvest In 2019

Slavery in the Quaker World – Katharine Gerbner

These documents reveal some misunderstood aspects of colonial slavery. English slave owners thought of Christianity⁠—and especially Protestantism⁠—as a religion for free people, and they worried that a baptized slave would demand freedom and possibly rebel. As a result, they excluded most enslaved people from Protestant churches.

I felt that this was an extremely important aspect of early colonial slavery and that it had not been fully recognized. So in my book, I gave it a name: Protestant supremacy. Protestant supremacy, I came to understand, was the forerunner of White supremacy. White supremacy uses racial designation to create inequality. But in the seventeenth century, the concept of race, as we know it, did not exist. And most significantly, the concept of “Whiteness” had not yet been created. So slave owners created the ideology of Protestant supremacy, which used religion to justify slavery.

I turned to the legal archives to understand this better. I read through all of the laws passed on the island of Barbados in the seventeenth and early‐eighteenth centuries. In the earliest slave laws, I found, colonists didn’t call themselves “White”; they called themselves “Christians.” Protestant slave owners constructed a caste system based on Christian status, in which “heathen” slaves were afforded no rights or privileges while Catholics, Jews, and nonconforming Protestants were viewed with suspicion and distrust but granted more protections.

This is why it was so controversial for Quakers and other missionaries to introduce enslaved people to Christianity: because it threatened to undermine Protestant supremacy. So the next question is, how did this change? How did Protestant supremacy become White supremacy?

via friendsjournal Slavery in the Quaker World – Katharine Gerbner

The Trump administration will launch a human rights panel that stresses antigay ‘natural law’ / LGBTQ Nation

The idea has been used to argue that LGBTQ rights are not legitimate because natural law would indicate that people should identify as their sex assigned at birth, not engage in homosexuality, and restrict sex to marriage.

Tony Perkins, the president of the hate group Family Research Council, argued in 2012 that “same-sex marriage violates reason and natural law.”

The Catholic Church also bases its opposition to LGBTQ rights on natural law.

“That’s based on the complementarity of the two sexes in such a way that the love of a man and a woman joined in a marital union is open to life, and that’s how families are created and society goes along,” Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George said in an interview.

via The Trump administration will launch a human rights panel that stresses antigay ‘natural law’ / LGBTQ Nation

https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo

via Sinclair’s Soldiers in Trump’s War on Media – YouTube

These clothes and accessories outsmart facial recognition tech – Business Insider

It’s also used by government agencies like police departments. More than half of adult Americans’ faces are logged in police databases, according to a study by Georgetown researchers. Facial recognition technology is used by governments across the globe to identify and track dissidents, and has been deployed by police against Hong Kong protesters.

To push back, privacy-focused designers, academics, and activists have designed wearable accessories and clothes meant to thwart facial recognition tech.

via These clothes and accessories outsmart facial recognition tech – Business Insider

Pompeo said that the commission would conduct “one of the most profound reexaminations of the unalienable rights in the world since the 1948 Universal Declaration” of Human Rights. The group will focus, he said, on “natural law.”

Natural law is a philosophical thought that says that certain rights are inherent to being human, usually endowed by God, insisting that universal moral truths can be arrived at by examining religious texts or an imagined “state of nature.” Natural law as a concept is often used by the right to argue against women’s and LGBTQ people’s rights.

via Every member of Trump’s new human rights commission is an anti-LGBTQ activist / LGBTQ Nation

https://youtu.be/_xgUU7j_lPk

via DOCTORS ARE SPEECHLESS!!! The Scientists Can’t Answer Yet – YouTube

Bernie Sanders Calls To Seize the Means of Electricity Production – In These Times

The for-profit companies that reign over our energy system now have shown no meaningful sign of being willing to transform our energy system; they are much more interested in shareholder gains and business as usual. Together, for-profit utilities and fossil fuel companies have created powerful political-economic machines across the country to solidify the status quo of extraction and extortion. In contrast, democratic public ownership of our energy system could prioritize community benefit over profit, paving the way for a just and equitable energy system.

“We will end greed in our energy system,” says Sanders’ climate plan. “The renewable energy generated by the Green New Deal will be publicly owned.”

His plan comes as public power ownership campaigns mobilize across the country. California’s movement took off after the state’s largest for-profit utility, PG&E, requested a bailout after the fire forced the utility to declare bankruptcy under the weight of liability claims. Communities across the state are now demanding public ownership, and the company’s hometown of San Francisco has begun looking into municipalization.

via Bernie Sanders Calls To Seize the Means of Electricity Production – In These Times

How much of the US is socialist?

Trump claims that the US never has been, nor ever will be socialist.

What are your thoughts about this?

How many socialist things or organizations exist in the US today?

This articles dives into the above questions and answers them.

via Public (Social) Ownership Of Banks, Parks, Healthcare, Highways, Transportation, Amtrak, Buses, Trolleys, Fire Department, Police, Social Security, Utility Companies, Dams, Bridges, Infrastructure, Medicare, Medicaid, Public Schools, Military, Libraries, CIA, FBI, Politicians, Weather Service | A Green Road Journal

Could California Take Public Ownership of PG&E? – Pacific Standard

In Providence, Rhode Island, activists have called for the nationalization of electricity provider National Grid. After protesting proposed rate hikes, the Providence chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America launched the #NationalizeGrid campaign, a multi-tiered effort aimed at ending utility shutoffs, limiting rate increases, and establishing democratic control over the primary gas and electricity provider in the state of Rhode Island. “We believe wholeheartedly that the state’s utility system should not be in private hands and making profits for shareholders,” says Will Speck, a member of the group and spokesperson for the campaign.

While the campaigns in Rhode Island and California may seem fledging, they’re not without precedent. There’s already one state in the union that provides electricity to its businesses and residents via community ownership rather than for-profit corporations: Nebraska.

Despite its status as a Republican stronghold, Nebraska has long been a pioneer of the socialization of energy distribution. It’s home to some 166 different community-owned utilities, servicing its population of nearly two million. And public ownership has not proven to be an expensive luxury: Public power rates in Nebraska are lower than the national average, with the cost per kilowatt hour lower than all its neighboring states. “That’s because local, not-for profit utilities have the power to put their neighbors first,” reads the Nebraska Power Association website.

via Could California Take Public Ownership of PG&E? – Pacific Standard

Backlash erupts at video depicting Trump killing media, critics | TheHill
A video depicting President Trump shooting and stabbing media organizations and some of his most prominent critics drew widespread backlash after The New York Times reported it was played at a conservative conference over the weekend at Trump’s Doral resort.

Democrats and media organizations warned as the video circulated on YouTube and social media that it could incite further violence, with some calling on Trump to speak out and condemn the clip.

“At a conference of Trump supporters, they played a video of our president murdering journalists in a church. Last year, a Trump supporter sent bombs to CNN—and a shooter entered a church yesterday. This video isn’t funny. It will get people killed,” tweeted former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

via Backlash erupts at video depicting Trump killing media, critics | TheHill

John Pilger was banned from South Africa for his reporting during the apartheid era. On his return thirty years later with Alan Lowery, he describes the extraordinary generosity of a liberated people, but asks who are the true beneficiaries of a democracy – the black majority or the white minority?

via John Pilger; Institution, History, Current State Of Apartheid; Natural Law Violating Apartheid In Africa, Other Nations, USA – Ethnic Cleansing, Apartheid, Slavery And Genocide Against Indigenous Native American People Are Part Of Racism, White Supremacy, Eugenics, Fascism | A Green Road Journal

Most people know that Columbus Day is worth celebrating, because it means community parades that ‘honor’ Columbus, no school, no work and lots of shopping at places that announce ‘BIGGEST SALE EVER’ with huge signs, ads plus displays. Beyond this very shallow surface layer definition, what does Columbus Day mean? Who was Columbus? What is underneath this tinny pro corporate holiday definition based on money, profits and greed?

Today is also Indigenous People’s Day. What does that mean and why should it be celebrated instead of Columbus Day? This article dives into both holidays, their meanings, plus definitions. This article also dives into the many myths, fables and misinformation taught in schools and colleges around Columbus Day. If you want to know the truth, go deeper.

via Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day Oct 8 – Columbus Day Historical Myths; Racist Columbus Did Not ‘Discover’ America, He Made Slaves Of Native Population, Then Killed Most Of The Inhabitants – Vikings Explored America Before Columbus – The Canary Effect (FULL MOVIE) | A Green Road Journal

If Only I still had Faith! | ~Burning Woman~

If only I still had my childhood faith!
If only I could still believe as I did then!
I would storm the gates of heaven,
I would be a Greta Thunberg

via If Only I still had Faith! | ~Burning Woman~

When Did Capitalism Become Our Religion? – O Society

Capitalism, in other words, is the new religion, a system full of enchanted superstitions and unfounded beliefs and beholden to its own clerisy of economists and managers, its own iconography of advertising and public relations, and its own political theology—a view of history and politics premised on the inevitability of the capitalist system spreading across the world.

McCarraher speks about capitalism’s past and present, the lost radicalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Bernie Sanders’ candidacy, and the rise of a new generation of socialists. The following is edited and condensed for clarity.

via When Did Capitalism Become Our Religion? – O Society

Kurds and President Assad sign deal to allow Syrian Army to joint fight against Turkish invasion | Daily Mail Online

Syrian Kurdish officials say they will work with the country’s central government in Damascus to fend off Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters.

In a major shift of alliance, Kurdish-led forces are to deploy side by side with government troops along the northern Syrian border.

The Kurdish administration said in a statement on its Facebook page: ‘In order to prevent and confront this aggression, an agreement has been reached with the Syrian government… so that the Syrian army can deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).’

via Kurds and President Assad sign deal to allow Syrian Army to joint fight against Turkish invasion | Daily Mail Online

https://youtu.be/DPJqCVj-Li0

via Turkey Moves to Crush Rojava, the Kurds’ Radical Experiment Based on Democracy, Feminism & Ecology – YouTube

Scientists Want to Make Harming the Environment a War Crime

Forests burned to the ground. Rivers damaged by broken infrastructure. Animals slaughtered and driven from their habitats. The environmental impacts of war are staggering, yet they’re often overshadowed by the societal wreckage created by conflict.

Now in a letter published in the scientific journal Nature, a group of scientists is urging the United Nations to make it a war crime to harm the environment during times of conflict. The UN’s International Law Commission is in talks through Aug. 8, and the scientists are calling on attending members to create a framework “to protect the environment in regions of armed conflict.”

via globalcitizen Scientists Want to Make Harming the Environment a War Crime

George W. Bush, Tony Blair found guilty of war crimes … in Malaysia | National Post

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad — a fierce critic of the Iraq war — found the former leaders guilty Tuesday after a four-day hearing.

“The Tribunal deliberated over the case and decided unanimously that the first accused George Bush and second accused Blair have been found guilty of crimes against peace,” the tribunal said in a statement.
[np-related]

“Unlawful use of force threatens the world to return to a state of lawlessness. The acts of the accused were unlawful.”

via George W. Bush, Tony Blair found guilty of war crimes … in Malaysia | National Post

New Bombshell Evidence Reveals Trump Has Known Arrested Giuliani Associates For 5 Years

Trump doesn’t know these guys who committed numerous felonies trying to funnel illegal foreign money into the political system to support him. It doesn’t matter that there are pictures of Trump and the Giuliani associates dating back five years and that Rudy Giuliani has told reporters that Trump was directing the entire Ukraine operation.

Unlike the Russia scandal or the felony hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, there is a mountain of evidence directly linking Trump to potential felonies and abuse of presidential power.

As each day passes more evidence is revealed that will lead to the downfall of Donald J. Trump.

via politicususa New Bombshell Evidence Reveals Trump Has Known Arrested Giuliani Associates For 5 Years

Australian Think-Tank Predicts ‘High Likelihood Of Human Civilization Coming To An End’ Within Next 30 Years

By 2050 there’s a scientific consensus that we reached the tipping point for ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic well before 2°C (3.6°F) of warming, and for widespread permafrost at 2.5°C (4.5°F). A “Hothouse Earth” scenario plays out that sees Earth’s temperatures doomed to rise by a further 1°C (1.8°F) even if we stopped emissions immediately.

At this point, the impact on humans is off the scale. Fifty-five percent of the global population is subject to more than 20 days a year of lethal heat conditions beyond that which humans can survive. North America suffers extreme weather events including wildfires, drought, and heat waves. Monsoons in China fail, the great rivers of Asia virtually dry up, and rainfall in Central America falls by half.

Deadly heat conditions across West Africa persist for over 100 days a year, and poorer countries are unable to provide enough artificially-cooled environments for their populations to be viable. Food production is severely affected, and inadequate to feed the global population. More than a billion people are displaced.

via epblog.auxx. Australian Think-Tank Predicts ‘High Likelihood Of Human Civilization Coming To An End’ Within Next 30 Years

Spain’s Supreme Court Puts An End To Torture Of Bulls At ‘Toro de la Vega’ Festival

This time the Spanish Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal and put an end to the almost 500-year-old animal torture tradition once and for all. The bulls are not only tortured with arrows and spears on the celebration but finally also stabbed. Before that, the tail is cut off alive. In the end, the city council gave the person who killed the suffering animal a ceremonial spear and a medal.

This success is an important milestone in the context of a far-reaching movement that is spreading throughout Spain. More and more people do not want to attend festivals and other events where bulls are tortured in the name of entertainment. Over 100 cities have already banned bullfights. According to a survey, 80% of Spaniards are against these cruel events.

via epblog.auxx.m Spain’s Supreme Court Puts An End To Torture Of Bulls At ‘Toro de la Vega’ Festival

Trump is reversing decades of rules and laws that have cleaned up the environment, the water and the air by limiting what huge corporations can dump into the public drinking water supplies, lakes, rivers, streams and oceans.

Billionaires who are at the top of huge globalist toxic product producing industries that are best friends with Trump believe that they have the right to violate Natural Laws with impunity.

They do not consider the negative effect of making short term profits on this or seven future generations, which means that they are poisoning the water, air and ground.

Natural Law consists of the right of the Earth, animals, fish and plants to exist in the same way that humans do. They all have a right to exist, with a clean, pure, unpolluted environment.

Conservatives are supposed to be about CONSERVING the environment, right? What are Republicans conserving these days?

via Fresh Clean Drinking Water Is Life, So Why Do Humans Purposely Violate Natural Law By Polluting It, Making It Disappear, Poisoning It, Deny Global Warming, Water Privatization, Fracking, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power, Toxic Chemicals, Lawns, Flouride, Chlorine, Etc | A Green Road Journal

Sanders Vows, If Elected, to Pursue Criminal Charges Against Fossil Fuel CEOs for Knowingly ‘Destroying the Planet’ | Common Dreams News

During an MSNBC climate town hall at Georgetown University on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders said, if elected president in 2020, he would pursue criminal charges against fossil fuel executives for knowingly accelerating the ecological crisis while sowing doubt about the science to the American public.

“Duh, of course I would,” Sanders said when asked by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes if, as president, he would take legal action against fossil fuel companies.

“They knew that it was real,” Sanders said, referring to fossil fuel CEOs’ awareness of the climate crisis. “Their own scientists told them that it was real. What do you do to people who lied in a very bold-faced way, lied to the American people, lied to the media? How do you hold them accountable?”

“What do you do if executives knew that the product they were producing was destroying the planet, and they continue to do it?” the senator continued. “Do you think that that might be subject to criminal charges? Well, I think it’s something we should look at.”

via Sanders Vows, If Elected, to Pursue Criminal Charges Against Fossil Fuel CEOs for Knowingly ‘Destroying the Planet’ | Common Dreams News

We pump so much water out of the ground that we are killing our rivers – Life Unscripted

In the new analysis, de Graaf and her colleagues found that 15 to 21 percent of watersheds that pump groundwater are already past this threshold (about half of all watersheds worldwide are pumped). As climate change exacerbates droughts in many parts of the world, the stresses on groundwater—and by extension, on rivers and streams—is likely to get much, much worse, they say.

Their predictions might be conservative. As a baseline, they used the global water demand in 2010 and spun their climate model forward to see how stresses on groundwater systems might develop. But as populations swell and the demand for food rises, those stresses could increase for reasons other than climate change, speeding along the extraction from underground water sources.

But the effects of overpumping groundwater take years, if not decades, to become visible. Changes in rain have immediate, obvious effects on river flow, explains Gretchen Miller, a hydrologist and engineer at Texas AM University: When it pours, rivers often rage. But groundwater is hidden: changes take much longer to come to light, and don’t always manifest in the place where the pumping occurs. That makes aquifer management issues extra challenging, and only a small fraction of watersheds have plans in place to address the looming problems.

In the meantime, rivers and streams are the “canary in the coal mine,” says Richter. “They’re the signal that says we’re using water in an unsustainable fashion, we need to take a hard look at what we’re doing.”

via We pump so much water out of the ground that we are killing our rivers – Life Unscripted

Must-read Hansen and Sato paper: We are at a climate tipping point that, once crossed, enables multi-meter sea level rise this century – ThinkProgress

Right now, we’re headed towards an ice-free planet. That takes us through the Eemian interglacial period of about 130,000 years ago when sea levels were 15 to 20 feet higher, when temperatures had been thought to be about 1°C warmer than today. Then we go back to the “early Pliocene, when sea level was about 25 m [82 feet] higher than today,” as NASA’s James Hansen and Makiko Sato explain in a new draft paper, “Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change.”

The question is how much warmer was it in the Eemian and early Pliocene than today — and how fast can the great ice sheets disintegrate?

We already know we’re at CO2 levels that risk catastrophe if they are sustained or exceeded for any extended period of time (see Science: CO2 levels haven’t been this high for 15 million years, when it was 5° to 10°F warmer and seas were 75 to 120 feet higher).

via Must-read Hansen and Sato paper: We are at a climate tipping point that, once crossed, enables multi-meter sea level rise this century – ThinkProgress

https://youtu.be/xqwre13T7qI

via Wind Community Officials: Do Wind Turbines Affect Wildlife or Livestock? – YouTube

https://youtu.be/mPJzAl414ps

via The World’s Glaciers: Their Past, Present, and Future – YouTube

Hydrogen Economy Rising Again | Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Large-scale adoption of hydrogen could also fuel an increase in demand for renewable power generation, IRENA’s report finds. In total, IRENA sees a global economic potential for 19 exajoule (EJ) of hydrogen from renewable electricity in total final energy consumption by 2050. This translates into around 4-16 terawatts (TW) of solar and wind generation capacity to be deployed to produce renewable hydrogen and hydrogen-based products in 2050.

However, deployment of hydrogen-based solutions will not happen overnight, IRENA’s report cautions. Hydrogen might likely trail other strategies such as electrification of end-use sectors, and its use will target specific applications. The need for a dedicated new supply infrastructure may also limit hydrogen use to certain countries that decide to follow this strategy. Existing natural gas pipelines could be refurbished, but implications must be further explored.

Rocky Mountain Institute:

Hydrogen is the new kid on the block of low-carbon alternatives, with applications in mobility, industrial processing, and heavy transport. It can also be used to provide electricity and heat, and can be blended with natural gas to help decarbonize existing natural gas grids. But even with these opportunities, across the globe—from corporate offices to industry roadshows—one hears a frequent refrain: it is too expensive and it won’t scale. (Interestingly enough, this is the same reputation solar PV had a decade ago.)

As misconceptions about hydrogen abound, there is an opportunity to dispel

via Hydrogen Economy Rising Again | Climate Denial Crock of the Week

many individuals have deeply held religious beliefs opposing abortion and use of aborted fetal tissue for scientific research or other purposes.

Today, many other types of cells are used as growth mediums during vaccine production, and many of those raise moral issues as well. Vaccine growth mediums include6 animal cell strains from chickens, dogs, monkeys, hamsters7 and insects,8 as well as cells from bacteria or yeast.

As just one example, the flu vaccine Flucelvax, introduced in 2014, is grown in kidney cells from dogs.9 Bovine serum (from cow’s blood) is also used for some vaccine components, and trace amounts may remain in the vaccine.10 The use of animal cells doesn’t entirely solve the moral dilemma for all religious faiths though. As noted by Christianity Today:11

“There is a subset of the Christian opposition to vaccines that also takes issue with certain animal cells used in medical research, citing concerns over Levitical guidelines on animals and blood products …”

Other Reasons to Question Human Fetal Cell Line Vaccines
Regardless of whether you believe the use of fetal cells from abortions in vaccine production is morally reprehensible or completely justified, there may be other reasons to object to being coerced or compelled to use vaccines — or give your children vaccines — that were made using human fetal tissue cells.

According to a study published in the September 2014 issue of the Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology,12 rates of autism strongly correlate with the introduction of vaccines using human fetal cell lines.

via vaccineimpact Moral and Health Implications of Aborted Fetuses in Vaccine Production

Has the Gardasil HPV Vaccine Really Eliminated Cervical Cancer in Australia? Statistics Show Increase of Cancer Rates After Vaccine Introduced

The table shows that Gardasil actually increases the risk of cervical cancer by a terrifying 44.6% among women who were exposed to HPV infection prior to vaccination.

If anyone ever bullies you to take Gardasil, look up “Gardasil Vaccine Insert” on your cell phone to see all of the adverse events and show them this table. [From original BLA. Study 013 CSR. Table 11-88, p. 636]

Slide 2: 34% of children ages 2-10 have HPV infection due to non-sexual transmission.
This data shows that nearly HALF OF ALL WOMEN HAVE HAD PRIOR EXPOSURE TO HPV—with 38% being exposed before age 10. (which puts them at an increase of developing cancer if they have the HPV vaccine.) [Journal of Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology, 29(3):228-233, June 2016.]

via vaccineimpact Has the Gardasil HPV Vaccine Really Eliminated Cervical Cancer in Australia? Statistics Show Increase of Cancer Rates After Vaccine Introduced

https://youtu.be/o9HwU10B74c

via Why Shepard Smith abruptly left Fox News – YouTube

https://youtu.be/ST9QwfiIWOo

via ‘Shell Shocked’: Fox Insider Warns More Trump ‘Propaganda’ With Shep Smith Out | MSNBC – YouTube

https://youtu.be/CKnUbT4_uTA

via Monologue: Full Stonewall | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) – YouTube

https://youtu.be/qoMGhvLGtiY

via War in Syria: Can the Kurdish forces fight back? – YouTube

If Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) was one of those people, she’s not anymore. On Wednesday, she lamented the degree to which the attorney general has allowed himself to be co-opted by President Trump. “The American people know that you are no different from Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other people who sacrificed their once decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office,” she told Barr during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hirono spent most of her allotted time reviewing the extent of Barr’s “deep involvement” in covering for the president, from misrepresenting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings to lying to Congress about Mueller’s objections to the “principal conclusions” of the investigation Barr released last month. Hirono’s monologue lasted more than five minutes. There was a lot of ground to cover. She attempted to close with a few questions for Barr, but committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) interrupted her, accusing her of slandering Barr. “I do not think that I’m slandering anyone,” Hirono replied. “Mr. Chairman, I am done. Thank you very much.”

Barr is of course not the only political figure to have prostrated himself before Trump. Pretty much everyone to have served in his administration — as well as most Senate Republicans, none more so than Graham — have tarnished their legacies by catering to the increasingly demented whims of a serial liar and conman who at the very least has trampled over his constitutional duties as president, and at the most is guilty of a host of federal crim

via James Comey Explains Why William Barr Let Trump ‘Eat His Soul’ – Rolling Stone

Nearly 400 House bills stuck in Senate limbo | TheHill

The Senate may be “back to work,” but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of House bills from stalling in the upper chamber.

Of the 518 bills or joint resolutions passed by the House since January 2015, only 122 have passed the Senate, according to Congress’s Legislative Information System, which tracks the status of legislation.

That leaves just shy of 400 House bills stuck in the Senate chamber.

via Nearly 400 House bills stuck in Senate limbo | TheHill