From Giliell, click for full size! 4, 6, and 7 have my heart.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
From Giliell, click for full size! 4, 6, and 7 have my heart.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
From rq, click for full size! In order, Rhododendron, Apple, Black Currant, Pear, Rose, Rowan x Aronia, Blueberry (foreground), and Russian Almond (background).
© rq, all rights reserved.
From rq, click for full size!
© rq, all rights reserved.
Dark-eyed Junco, male. Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
As most people should be aware by now, the scum-sucking assholes who will be in charge just can’t wait to kill off “Obamacare” for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Oh, except for spite. Pretty soon, a whole lot of people are going to find themselves without healthcare, and they’ll be looking at dying much sooner than they planned, because that’s what happens when you don’t have healthcare. The republican thugs want you to believe it’s about saving money, but that really couldn’t be further from the truth. They have no replacement plan, and dismantling the ACA will be costly.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget reveals that repealing the Affordable Care Act will likely cost the federal government at least $350 billion, and that doesn’t include the cost of replacing it.
“Repealing the entire ACA would leave no funds available for ‘replace’ legislation, and in fact would require further deficit reduction to avoid adding to the debt,” the report notes.
The analysis also focuses only on the net cost to the federal government and doesn’t consider the economic burden (which CNBC calls “the far bigger economic impact”) that will face insurers, hospitals, doctors, drug companies, and others in the existing health system. And of course, it doesn’t include an estimate of the financial impact on the 23 million Americans who will lose their health coverage if the ACA is repealed and not replaced.
© C. Ford.
© C. Ford.
CREDIT: Department of Energy (DOE).
Clean energy. It’s the only possible way to go right now, and there’s more promise in clean energy than anything else, but Pendejo-elect Trump is making sure that America will not only miss out on all the money clean energy can bring, but the millions of jobs which go with it. No, much better to commit to filthy energy, which can stuff a few select, already overflowing pockets with more money, making sure that the environment gets destroyed, and to keep on denying climate change. Oh yes, that’s just so much better, by golly, that will make America great again, you betcha. :insert near-fatal eyeroll here.:
A few days ago, Joe Romm at Think Progress had an article up about the clean energy, and how it will be a $50 trillion industry, and how Trump has determined that the U.S. will not be a part of it.
The best charts of 2016 reveal the clean energy revolution is unstoppable. At least, it is unstoppable globally.
But if the United States makes a historic blunder and shifts its focus back toward dirty energy just when the rest of the world has made a $50 trillion (or higher) commitment to a carbon-free future, then it won’t reap the vast job-creating benefits of the remarkable ongoing cost reductions shown in chart above.
That article is here.
Today, there’s an article about all the jobs created by clean energy.
Renewable energy jobs in select countries (excluding large hydropower). CREDIT: IRENA.
China is preparing to go big on the only major new source of sustainable high-wage employment in the coming decades.
Beijing’s newest 5-year energy development plan invests a stunning 2.5 trillion yuan ($360 billion) in renewable generation by 2020. Of that, $144 billion will go to solar, about $100 billion to wind, $70 billion to hydropower, and the rest to sources like tidal and geothermal power.
The Chinese National Energy Administration said in a statement Thursday the resulting “employment will be more than 13 million people.”
China is already doing way better than the U.S. in this regard, and President-elect Trump’s commitment to opposing clean energy will not make things any better. As the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reported last year, China already has over 40 percent of all jobs in renewables, globally, while the U.S. has under 10 percent (see chart above).
We know clean energy jobs are the only major new source of sustainable high-wage employment in the coming decades for several reasons.
If you’re one of those Americans who fell for Trump’s “jobs!” bullshit, perhaps you should look into moving to China, I hear they are hiring. The full article is at Think Progress.
© Richard Misrach. Border Cantos.
It seems that Trump is still determined to waste an insane amount of money on a wall, but as Mexico has rightly refused the offer to foot the bill, eyes are looking elsewhere, to the American taxpayer, specifically. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I do not want one cent of my earnings to go for this gargantuan stupidity. This whole idea is bad, all the way around, and on top of all the bad, makes me feel very claustrophobic, like I might not be able to get out.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is working on making his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, the cornerstone of his 2016 presidential campaign, a reality. However, there is a slight change in plans.
The team told GOP officials the real estate mogul had signaled that the building of the wall be funded by American tax dollars and not by Mexico, as he had previously claimed, CNN reported Thursday citing House Republicans. Officials are looking to fund the construction using the appropriations process as early as April.
[…]
The 2006 law allowed the construction of a “physical barrier” running for 700 miles on the country’s southern border, Politico reported earlier Thursday. The law was never fully implemented and did not include a sunset provision allowing Trump to continue where Bush left off using the funds Congress would allocate for the project.
“It was not done in the Obama administration, so by funding the authorization that’s already happened a decade ago, we could start the process of meeting Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to secure the border,” Indiana Rep. Luke Messer told CNN on Thursday.
[…]
Republicans would have to add millions to the spending bill — which needs to pass by the end of April — to keep the government open, should Mexico refuse to pay for the wall. But the move could irk House Democrats who might threaten the GOP with a government shutdown.
Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, a senior GOP leader in the House, did not say if Congress will pay for the construction of the wall.
“We want President Trump to have all the tools he needs to build the wall,” Scalise reportedly said. “We’re in talks with him on the details of it as they’re still putting together their team. We still got a few months before there’s another funding bill that’s going to move. We’re going to work with him to make sure we can get it done. We want to build a wall. He wants to build a wall.”
The GOP lawmaker said the project would involve “big dollars, but it’s a question of priorities,” citing Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul’s $10 billion border security bill that he proposed last year.“Democrats may well find themselves in the position to shut down all of government to stop the buildout of a wall, or of a barrier, or of a fence,” Messer added.
America: excels in stupid, like building a gigantic wall; never builds bridges.
Via Raw Story.
Weather. We all live with it, complain about it, cope with it. And some people take stunning photos of it:
Credit: Camelia Czuchnicki.
A clash between two storm cells in New Mexico, US in June 2014, each with it’s own rotating updraft. It appeared as though one updraft was anticyclonic, resulting in a very turbulent scene. The curved striations of the oldest noticeable against the new bubbling convection of the newer.
You can see 2016 Weather Photographer finalists here.
Everyone knows the importance of kerning, right? Nope:
Bored Panda has many more fine examples of the fine art of kerning being egregiously ignored.
And, the coolest way to stay safe! Monkey Lights:
Look, no snow! :D From Crimson Clupeidae, click for full size.
© Crimson Clupeidae, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
From rq, click for full size. There’s nothing quite like winter light!
© rq, all rights reserved.