A TrumpWorld Cabinet of Curiosities

 

Pictures often are worth a thousand words--take a look at the picture above of Elon Musk, standing, not seated at the table, while Donald Trump is not even at the head of the table, but slumped, unnoticed by anyone, apparently drifting off to sleep. Just a podgy senior citizen with his hands in his lap, while everyone is listening to the real boss, who has not even bothered to put on a suit for the occasion but is dressed, as he generally is, like some close approximation an adolescent might make at adult clothing. He threw on a big-boy jacket over his play-clothes. 

It's not exactly The Last Supper, but what if I told you one of these folks assembled would betray Trump and every last one of them had eaten of his body and blood? 

We are getting on to a political Carnival. Lent for you, and Fat Tuesday for rich motherfuckers forever, so I felt like sprinkling a little Catholic consciousness over the above tableau. Also, I am very, very mean. 

I thought to myself when I perused Twitter's commentariat regarding the first cabinet meeting that what we were looking at was a Dunning-Kruger Group Therapy session where no one realized what their problem was and no one was getting any better. 

The Touch, the Feel of Cotton

 

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Commander of the Russian Armed Force’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Unit, as well as one of his Deputies were Killed in a Bombing earlier tonight at the Entrance to an Apartment Building in the Ryazansky District of Moscow. pic.twitter.com/FhbzUuwwlj

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 17, 2024

I'm sure this guy has a family and all that, but so you know, the term you see online regarding explosions: Bavovna!  has to do with cotton, and this is really interesting to me at the moment. 

So anyway, I was thinking when I first started seeing "Bavovna!" that it was like some onomatopoeia thing. The sound of an explosion. We say "BOOM!" So why not? "Ba-VOV-na!" ka-BOOM! 

It means "cotton".  Little puffy cloud. RU colonizing language and people--you'll see.

Anyway, Ukraine gave some Bavovna fuel to Syria. Even RU says so.  (Sell our weapons to end Assad--I am not even MAD!)  And RU has to withdraw when they were having such an influence in Africa:

There Will Be No New Normal

 

At least five people have been found dead in Italy following violent storms in the north and wildfires in Sicily.

The government is considering declaring a state of emergency in the hardest-hit regionshttps://t.co/5JRVjmA9jv pic.twitter.com/sWzTqYBRHV

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 26, 2023

I've been to Sicily a couple of times and it is fiercely beautiful. I am heartbroken for what is happening. The temperature in Palermo a couple of days ago was 47°C, which is astonishing not only because it is a local record, but because it is a record likely to be demolished soon. 

(Giorgia Meloni has said fine things about environmentalism that she certainly doesn't believe because the fascisti attitude is ne me frego.)

Algeria is facing wildfires and temperatures of about 120° F. The heat index at the Persian Gulf airport in Iran reached 152° F. These are conditions that suggest an unlivable future. 

Scientists are saying that there is no "new normal"--the term is a lie. We won't really have time to acclimate to anything we are seeing because it will just change faster than we can get used to it. I've been staring at this idea unable to strike another mode than elegiac. Or at least poetic. I don't want to succumb to "doomerism". The problem is that I understand enough of biology to know that if ocean temps are over 100° F this is very bad for cold-blooded things. And then, warm-blooded things. It's like feeling a mass disturbance in the Force. 

But back to the presentiment of doom--I don't know how we walk back tipping points we might have already crossed. The idea that the Gulf Stream collapses during my lifetime is not something I have words for. Poetic or otherwise.

Those things are hard to fathom (though we need to figure out how to), but in the meantime, if we value eating, if we value culture, if we value any of the standard of living we associate with civilization, we need to reckon with the idea that some sacrifices must be made now to prevent the losses of things beyond price. Not for the sake of our great-grandchildren. I'm talking about the intolerable conditions we will spend what we have of our old age in. 

Famine of Choices

WATCH: As California farmers make the hard decision to plow through crops no one is buying, analysts say the drop in food supply will be felt in a few months by consumers eager to buy produce at grocery stores https://t.co/F4LVLT5Gct pic.twitter.com/ecrWcGja7c

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 16, 2020

Some portion of my ancestors came to the US because there was, quite purposefully, no food where they came from. The one crop poor people mostly ate, failed. Just about every other kind of food a rich land produced, was exported. If it mattered enough, just a tweak of economics could have saved lives (a million people may have died, maybe a million more were saved by leaving). It wasn't that they couldn't have lived off what the land provided--it's that that nourishment was intended for other paying customers' tables. This sort of thing happens the whole world round. People starve not for a lack of food, but because the political climate doesn't allow it to be on their plates. It's either deliberately withheld, as can happen where the government is oppressive, or because there is no foresight on a government's behalf that food insecurity is a national security issue.

It's not just in light of the above story I consider that--it's a painful thing for farmers to produce good food and watch it go to waste and also know that it isn't just money they are out for their labor, but that the demand exists (people still need fed), it only needs a different path to the ultimate consumer. It's in light of images like this:

image of the line of cars waiting for food aid. Surely, they has to be a way for other plans to be made for more produce to be canned, dairy to be powdered, etc. possibly by an act of government, to make food more available for the people temporarily in want? The logistics for such a thing must exist. I know when I was a kid, people talked shit about government cheese (but it was good for grilled cheese) but that was a staple. We need the USDA to get it's top game on.

I'm not a logistics kind of person that knows exactly how to translate not plowing crops under into filling the bellies of people who just need tiding over until this virus crisis is licked, but taking inspiration from folks like Chef Andres, I know if the will existed we could find a way to do it.

That's the kind of thinking we should want in government. And the sort of thing I think government can make happen on a meaningful scale--but which shouldn't stop food relief groups, local governments, etc. from trying to manage, because I think the crisis is still unfolding, and future food shortages could drive inflation and just some really fucked-up realities. Basically, capitalism Venezuela. I could be wrong about that part, but I am not wrong about feeding the people and subsidizing the farmers. We all need to eat and we all need to take care of one another when things are rough. We are all in this together.

That is what makes a nation great.

Thankful

I think taking the time to take stock of your blessings in life is a great thing. The troubles of the world weigh on us, sometimes lighter than they should. If I am thankful for my full plate, I have to also know that there are people whose larder has been bare. If I am thankful for my heat and light and access to the world through the internet, I also have to understand what it is to be without these things. If I am thankful for my health, I have to also remember those who are without health care, or who soon could be. If I am thankful for the safety of my home, I have to also think of those who might have no home, or might lose their home. If I am thankful for the love I have enjoyed in my life, it needs to be balanced by knowing the love that has been denied  (and is still being denied). If I am thankful for my education, I need to acknowledge that getting a good education is still a struggle for so many.

What I am thankful for, and humbled by, is the gift of perspective. I could be unhappy about the things I do not have, but find the only desire I should by rights want is the ability to work to make anything better for anyone else because of the gifts I do have. And understanding that creates purpose to me, and a better appreciation for all of it.

I could almost pity someone with no perspective, or empathy, or appreciation of the power and wealth dumped in their lap, lacking all capacity to better the life of a single deprived soul because knowing how isn't in them. But of that particular knowledge and blessing, I find myself bereft. And perhaps, it's just as well. Recognizing obstacles that need to be removed is also a kind of perspective.

Puerto Rico Is Incognito on FEMA's Website

There's something to be said for the Trump Administration's response to the devastation in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, but FEMA's website does not care to say it. 

FEMA spokesman William Booher noted that both measures are still being reported on a website maintained by the office of Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, www.status.pr. According to that website, which is in Spanish, 9.2 percent of the island now has power and 54.2 percent of residents have access to drinking water. Booher said that these measures are also shared in news conferences and media calls that happen twice a day, but he didn't elaborate on why they are no longer on the main FEMA page.

“Our mission is to support the governor and his response priorities through the unified command structure to help Puerto Ricans recover and return to routines. Information on the stats you are specifically looking for are readily available” on the website maintained by the governor's office, Booher said.

Maybe it's just me, but that sort of seems like the Trump Administration would prefer not to make notice of how slow things are going. See, in Trump's photo op the other day, he was in a place that wasn't as terrifically impacted by the storm, and wasn't really directly confronted with the full extent of the privations these folks were experiencing. I can't 100% say why Trump's response to Puerto Rico's situation was different from how he responded to Hurricane Harvey in TX or Hurricane Irma in FL, but there seems to be a difference. And if there was measurable good being done there by FEMA and other US agencies in the aid effort, I know, that I know, that I know, that Trump would be ready to witness their good deeds, and would be happy to spread that word.

But that is not what is happening. It is almost like FEMA already knows this story is not going to be a great success story regarding government effort, just like Oxfam knows that they need to step in to make sure pressure is put on to ensure government effort is coordinating with NGO relief agencies to do all they can.

I just feel like doing right by Puerto Rico in the first place would have been the best play if the Trump folks were so concerned with appearances. But there I am, giving shits.

If you were Wondering--

Is the PR debt the reason Trump isn't rushing any military assistance, like the USNS Comfort,  down there?  He is Commander-in-Chief after all. Also, I would say as a good old fashioned techno-capitalist, if Google isn't shushing on down there with Project Loon and AT&T and others aren't thinking of ways to get them some cell-signal boosts--they are missing out (I am serious, they need this help, but let me talk dollars and cents) on a great display of technical know-how and a great advertising opportunity.

Same deal, you guys who do solar panels and electric generators. If you have the warez, send 'em down PR way. They need it. The Virgin Islands also need your skills. Bring them, and show off what you can do. We are on a warming planet where floods and disasters like these are going to occur more and more. Display that you have the know-how to sort out these technical difficulties. You will get repaid, I can goddamn guarantee.

It looks like the US Government is not the best of us at the moment (except for you civil service professionals that I know are champing at the bit to help)--so it might just be up to the rest of us. No grifters need apply. But these folks haven't just lost domiciles and cell connections--the island of Puerto Rico has had its vegetation stripped and its potable water fubar'd--inventors and investors, bring your solutions. These people need you.

These are Americans, and their status as debtors means not one thing at all. They are our brothers and sisters, and they need help.

Climate Sunday: Ted Cruz, Climate Blasphemer Edition

Via Right Wing Watch, here's a clip of Ted Cruz (I'm sorry I'm on his case as of late) explaining that climate change alarmists are actually in a religion because they "never" argue from facts, and that being called a denialist proves it, because he thinks he's really a "skeptic". Bless his heart.

He's precious. I think it's kind of weird to hear a flat-out statement that people persuaded by climate change theory don't have facts, because it seems to me like I'm stuffing all sorts of observable data into my Climate Sunday posts. I think it's also adorable that he defines the business of a skeptic as being the business of science, which in effect is correct--but he isn't a skeptic, because he himself isn't engaging with the business of disproving squat, he's just ignoring whatever evidence does exist while providing disproved anecdata about an 18 year gap which is cherry-picked nonsense. That there isn't scientific--that's just political Lysenkoism.

In keeping with his idea that being a climate change evangelist makes me a religious adherent, then, I dub Cruz a climate blasphemer. The spit should dry up in his mouth like the Texas drought, and then the sweat should pour from his face like the Texas floods. This is my malocchio against him.

Climate Sunday: In Honor of Ted Cruz

 



I've been remiss in not doing more "Climate Sunday" pieces, but just recently 2016 Presidential Primary Candidate, Senator Ted Cruz explained at the Koch brothers' Freedom Partners' forum that "the facts and data don't support" climate change. He dismissed it as a hoax and also probably worked that "not a scientist" thing in there, too. Cruz isn't uneducated and he isn't stupid--but the only bit of that I'll agree with is, well, no, he certainly isn't a scientist.

So in honor of Ted Cruz and the other politicians hewing to basically that same line--this post's for you!

 

With no further ado:

Climate models are proving to be deadly accurate. We can joke about the accuracy of weather people, but in the broader sense of being accurate about overall climate, we've seen conditions shape up pretty much as climatologists have predicted. They may have actually understated the case on ocean level rising, but it certainly has happened that, while pockets like the US east coast haven't been unusually warm, most of the planet has had successively warmer years. (The impact on oceans from the melting of ice can have impacts well beyond mere water-level rises, as well.)

 

We think of the Middle East in general as pretty hot, but this week Iran's heat index was an enormous 163 degrees. I'm not sure how people can breathe or move in that kind of swelter. In neighboring Iraq, people took to the street to protest electricity shortages that have cut A/C, which is absolutely a requirement to deal with day time temperatures that have reached 120 degrees. (The electricity has never been reliable since the US invasion.) Thailand has also suffered terrible heat and drought this year, with a terrible likelihood of crop failure for their essential staple, rice.

 

Here in the US, despite some rains, the Pacific coast is still suffering from extraordinary heat conditions. It's hot enough to cause a couple hundred thousands of salmon to die. Part of the problem seems to be a "blob" of unusually warm water, which is causing the deaths of many animals in the Pacific NE ecosystem, although this condition seems to be ideal for producing a toxic algal bloom. (The West Coast isn't alone--severe algal bloom is likely for Lake Erie, as well.) Things are tellingly bad when wildfire rips through rainforest. 

Basically, the facts and data from news stories that are pretty current actually very well support the idea that the planet is warming and lots of weird stuff is going on as a result. But I'm sure the comments of Cruz and his denialist coterie sounded awfully nice to the billionaire campaign donors who were likely in attendance at that forum. And the fact that they can buy an awful lot of air time for the candidates that they favor certainly contributes something to the cause--more hot air.