Martin Longman argues that Jeb Bush seems out of his depth when it comes to knowing what to do about Donald Trump. That seems to be a common for the Republican party as a whole but it is more dangerous for the presumed front-runner and establishment candidate to have such an unpredictable element in the contest.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that 2014 was the warmest year on record.
In 2014, the most essential indicators of Earth’s changing climate continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several markers such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse gases ─ setting new records.
…The report, compiled by NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information is based on contributions from 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world.
…The report’s climate indicators show patterns, changes and trends of the global climate system. Examples of the indicators include various types of greenhouse gases; temperatures throughout the atmosphere, ocean, and land; cloud cover; sea level; ocean salinity; sea ice extent; and snow cover. The indicators often reflect many thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets.
The conventional wisdom on the 2016 presidential race seemed to be settling into the media narrative of a romantic metaphor, that what we are seeing is the supporters of each of the two major parties having a fling with the one who has swept them off their feet with his dashing attitude (Donald Trump for Republicans, Bernie Sanders for the Democrats) before they settle down later with the more boring, sedate, and reliable partner (Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton). Parallels are being drawn to Herman Cain and Howard Dean to suggest that Trump and Sanders will also fade away.
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Like many a parent, when my children were little, I must have read the book Goodnight Moon to them about a million times. As with all such books that required multiple readings, in order to stave off the boredom of repetition, over time I developed a dramatic style and became so absorbed in the theatrical effects that I never noticed all the major problems with the room that The Ugly Volvo points out regarding the nursery room.
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In yesterday’s press conference held by president Obama, much of the attention was naturally paid to the deal reached with Iran. But for reasons that mystify me, US presidents are often asked about other things that have nothing to do with their role in office and, even more mystifyingly, actually answer them instead of asking why the hell they are being asked such random questions.
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Glenn Greenwald writes that he and First Look Media, the parent company that publishes The Intercept that he and others write for, has announced a $60,000 matching gift to help Chelsea Manning in her legal defense. We should never forget Manning’s heroic actions and revelations that preceded those of Edward Snowden, and had such a major positive impact. Her release of the video that showed a US gunship mercilessly and gleefully mowing down Iraqi civilians in the street in broad daylight horrified the world and exposed the brutality of the US occupation.
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I have been amused by the reactions to the deal arrived at between the P5+1 nations and Iran. Even before the full text of the final deal was released, some people had denounced it, invoking as usual the tired example of Neville Chamberlain at Munich. When reporters have interviewed these critics about it, you may have noticed that they never ask the question “Exactly what sections in the text of the deal are you objecting to and why?”. This is because it is understood that neither the politician nor the reporter have likely read the agreement at all or if they have, they merely skimmed through the document and have not fully understood it.
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One of the things I hate about professional sports in the US is the way that wealthy team owners extort public money for fancy stadiums that not only do not benefit the public but actually siphon money away from much needed and better services that many more people would benefit from. It is one more of the many ways that money is diverted from the poor to the rich.
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The Indianapolis-based Church of Cannabis is giving the New York-based Satanic Temple a run for its money in showing the absurdity of providing all manner of breaks for religious organizations. We already saw that they filed for and were granted tax-exempt status by the IRS. They then filed a lawsuit for the right to use cannabis, using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as the basis for their suit.
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The Boy Scouts seem to be slowly inching their way towards modernity when it comes to dealing with gays. After initially rejecting gay scouts, and then having a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude, they decided in 2013 to accept gay scouts but not gay adult scout leaders. But now they have reversed that policy too. On July 10, the Executive Committee unanimously adopted a resolution that “will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation”.
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