crazytown
crazytown's JournalNYT: Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide
Australia Is Committing Climate SuicideAs record fires rage, the country’s leaders seem intent on sending it to its doom.
BRUNY ISLAND, Australia — Australia today is ground zero for the climate catastrophe. Its glorious Great Barrier Reef is dying, its world-heritage rain forests are burning, its giant kelp forests have largely vanished, numerous towns have run out of water or are about to, and now the vast continent is burning on a scale never before seen.
The images of the fires are a cross between “Mad Max” and “On the Beach”: thousands driven onto beaches in a dull orange haze, crowded tableaux of people and animals almost medieval in their strange muteness — half-Bruegel, half-Bosch, ringed by fire, survivors’ faces hidden behind masks and swimming goggles. Day turns to night as smoke extinguishes all light in the horrifying minutes before the red glow announces the imminence of the inferno. Flames leaping 200 feet into the air. Fire tornadoes. Terrified children at the helm of dinghies, piloting away from the flames, refugees in their own country.
(snip) Since 1996 successive conservative Australian governments have successfully fought to subvert international agreements on climate change in defense of the country’s fossil fuel industries. Today, Australia is the world’s largest exporter of both coal and gas. It recently was ranked 57th out of 57 countries on climate-change action.
In no small part (PM) Morrison owes his narrow election victory last year to the coal-mining oligarch Clive Palmer, who formed a puppet party to keep the Labor Party — which had been committed to limited but real climate-change action — out of government. Mr. Palmer’s advertising budget for the campaign was more than double that of the two major parties combined. Mr. Palmer subsequently announced plans to build the biggest coal mine in Australia.
(snip) With no effective opposition from a Labor Party reeling from its election loss and with media dominated by Rupert Murdoch — 58 percent of daily newspaper circulation — firmly behind his climate denialism, Mr. Morrison appears to hope that he will prevail as long as he doesn’t acknowledge the magnitude of the disaster engulfing Australia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/australia-fires-climate-change.html
Elections bought by the fossil fuel billionaires; the MSM poisoned by Murdoch. Sound familiar? There a Bill before the legislature criminalizing environmental boycotts, so I won't suggest that tourists give the place a miss for the sake of the planet - the fact that wildfire smoke is creating a public health emergencies in Sydney, and elsewhere, is reason enough.
In other (not news) Murdoch moves wildfire reports off the front pages of his newspapers.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/04/the-australian-murdoch-owned-newspaper-accused-of-downplaying-bushfires-in-favour-of-picnic-races?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
There's a fire in Australia the size of Manhattan
Source: CNN
(CNN)Three fires have combined to form a single blaze bigger than the New York borough of Manhattan, as Australian firefighters battle what has been predicted to the most catastrophic day yet in an already devastating bushfire season.
The fires joined overnight in the Omeo region in Victoria state, creating a 6,000-hectare (23 square mile) blaze, according to Gippsland's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
In neighboring New South Wales state, a fire in the Wollondilly region south of the capital Sydney remains "out of control," according to the Rural Fire Service. It has burned 264,000 hectares (1,020 square miles) of land in recent months.
Weather conditions are deteriorating rapidly on Saturday, with the country's Bureau of Meteorology warning that winds are picking up and temperatures increasing. "Today will be a day of severe to extreme fire danger through many districts," the bureau said.
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/03/australia/australian-fire-inferno-intl-hnk/index.html
West Sydney recorded record temperatures of 120F. Likewise the nation's capital, Canberra. 23 people dead, the biggest peace-time evacuation is underway.
Bolton: 'I hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran'
https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1213044218689720321John Bolton
?Verified account
@AmbJohnBolton
Congratulations to all involved in eliminating Qassem Soleimani. Long in the making, this was a decisive blow against Iran's malign Quds Force activities worldwide. I hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran
'Long in the making'? Think how much this man is suffering being far from the situation room.
Why War With Iran Is Just....A Horrendous Idea
"The polls are what the polls are": A reminder from 2008
Then came some actual votes - in Iowa.
Statement by Elizabeth Warren: No More Middle East Wars
No More Middle East Wars
We’re on the brink of yet another war in the Middle East—one that would be devastating in terms of lives lost and resources wasted. We’re not here by accident. We’re here because a reckless president, his allies, and his administration have spent years pushing us here.
Donald Trump ripped up an Iran nuclear deal that was working. He’s repeatedly escalated tensions. Now he’s assassinated a senior foreign military official. He’s been marching toward war with Iran since his first days in office—but the American people won’t stand for it.
All three of my brothers served in uniform. I know the sacrifices we ask of them and their families. Trump’s actions put every service member and diplomat in the region at risk. This is a moment for vigilance—for Americans to speak up and speak out. No more Middle East wars.
Twitter : https://bit.ly/2rTFZTV
All right DonBrain - I'll see your $46m and raise you $116m
Bernie $34.5m, Joe $22.7m, Pete $24.7m, Warren $17m+ late Dec, Yang $16.5m.
And Amy's got more where that's coming from. BTW, Our guy, President Barack Obama, raised $42m in Q4 2011, and he didn't have to bleat about being impeached, to do it.
Trump campaign credits impeachment for massive $46 million fundraising haul
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/trump-campaign-fundraising-46-million-092579
Trump Justice Department sues to seize private property for border-wall construction in Texas
Trump Justice Department sues to seize private property for border-wall constructionHOUSTON (AP) — Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to seize private land in Texas to build a border wall.
Trump’s signature campaign promise has consistently faced political, legal, and environmental obstacles in Texas, which has the largest section of the U.S.-Mexico border, most of it without fencing. And much of the land along the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border in Texas, is privately held and environmentally sensitive.
Almost no land has been taken so far. But Department of Justice lawyers have filed three lawsuits this month seeking to take property from landowners. On Tuesday, lawyers moved to seize land in one case immediately before a scheduled court hearing in February.
The agency says it’s ready to file many more petitions to take private land in the coming weeks. While progress has lagged, the process of taking land under eminent domain is weighted heavily in the government’s favor.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-justice-department-sues-to-seize-private-property-for-border-wall-construction-2019-12-27
'm dreaming of a Blue Texas, just like the one I used to know
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Member since: Thu Sep 27, 2018, 06:37 PM
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