IBI Watch 5/27/12

Disease Pervasive; Cure Renounced  //

Each of the financial crises that have roiled the world in recent years – the cascading Euro zone problems in Greece, then Spain and Portugal and others, the US financial collapse in 2008, the massive budget deficits in California and many other states – has its own unique facets.

But still, there is a common thread.  That is, when times are good – or at least appear that way – the very wealthy and powerful lobby for and secure reduced taxes and relaxed regulations.  The result is that they keep more money out of public coffers – much of it invested overseas. Some also use this ‘opportunity’ to take bigger risks – risks that are made possible by those relaxed regulations.  They also lure the less wealthy and powerful into their schemes.  Then, when the bubble inevitably bursts, the largest of them must be bailed out – they are, after all, ‘too big to fail.’

And what are the proposed ‘solutions’?  Austerity and privatization of public assets, of course.  The taxes on the wealthy stay at their historic lows (see the upcoming battle on renewing the W tax cuts).  The austerity beats down those who need the help most.  As for privatization of shared resources, who can buy?  Well, the wealthy of course, the vaunted ‘job creators.’  This vicious cycle – creating and exploiting crises to the benefit of the already wealthy and mighty – is documented in Naomi Klein’s brilliant book The Shock Doctrine.  And of course that’s far from the last word on the austerity question – listen to this Marketplace piece from this week.  And after you check that, give a look at this rejected TED Talk.  You will look long and hard for a more succinct, on-target critique of the wrongheaded, ideology-bound policies of today’s GOP.  Nick Hanauer explains how we all benefit from reasonable taxes on the wealthy.  (And that includes the wealthy!)   He also heaps scorn on the ‘job creator’ mythos.  Kinda makes you wonder why TED rejected this presentation, so it had to be posted elsewhere.  Could it be the same financially-driven rejection of another wise critique, that of Mann and Ornstein?

Though an ungodly crowd seems to have drunk the Milton Friedman-brand Kool-Aid about lowering taxes on ‘job creators’ so those jobs can tinkle down on the lowly, underemployed masses, some experts keep fighting the good fight.  Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman has a new book, End This Depression, Now!  His arguments would not be radical in any era except today, when the Republicans are basically either part of the Tea Party or terrified by it.

In this wide-ranging interview by Joshua Holland, we see many of Krugman’s strongest ideas.  Krugman decries the near-universal embrace of ‘voodoo economics,’ and says “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

But back to that theme connecting all the crises.  It can be summed up this way – profits are privatized, losses socialized.  It’s as if the most titanic of the corporate titans say, “My successes are all my own doing, damn your taxes and regulations.  When my enterprises and schemes falter, y’all have to bail me out.  After all, those are too big to fail.”  Isn’t it about time that ends?

 

Congress: Dysfunction R Us

Mann and Ornstein’s work – which I covered extensively a couple of weeks ago in this post (‘Obstructed by Elephants’) – calls out Congress for working against the public interest in the service of a narrow, plutocratic ideology.  Here is another piece, asking an important question about the most effective weapon of mass dysfunction, the filibuster.  ‘Originalism,’ indeed!  And I know this may be shocking, but a new study suggests that Congress may be dumbing down as well . . . or just talking more simple.  Your choice.

 

Burn, Baby, Burn

The Arctic is melting, and we just can’t wait to get at all that magic juice hidden under the ice down through the ages, so we can burn it up and melt more ice, so we can get at more oil, and, well, you get the picture.  Here’s the latest on the race way up north.  OK, it wasn’t the latest – that is here.  It is green lights all the way to the next petro-nirvana.  I think it’s time to revisit our friends, the Austin Lounge Lizards.  Toast the Earth!

 

Global Warming Predictions Wrong

If you watched that Lizards video, you may have heard the opening line, ‘The Earth is slowly warming . . .” Actually, that’s where the predictions are wrong.  In fact, it is about the only way the predictions have been wrong – the warming of the Earth by our greenhouse gases is actually proceeding more quickly than even the worst-case forecasts from five or ten years ago.  John Atcheson’s piece effectively sums up what is on the line.  And check this Climate Progress piece that extrapolates from record 2011 greenhouse gas emissions.  We are toying with a methane time bomb, and, as the Natural Resources Defense Council reports, setting the stage for supercharged heat waves.  This concise Scientific American article asks a question for this age – have we already passed the environmental point of no return?  Check the Wile E. Coyote image.  And James Hansen, the famous NASA meteorologist and early prophet of the climate crisis, is waving his arms more energetically than ever about the growing crisis.  I am reading and can recommend his latest book, Storms of My Grandchildren.

 

Rational Climate Policies – Elusive, So Far

With the gravity of the crisis facing the world, one would think that we would be charging our best scientific minds to suss out the story, and craft policy based on their best assessments. Pipe dream, that.  But why?  In the US, which should be the leader on this issue, but instead chooses to be pignorant (pretend-ignorant), at least part of the credit goes to these guys – the talking suits who, night after night, ignore the reality of the climate crisis as they happy-talk their way through empty weather forecasts.  You will not believe the percentages of media meteorologists who choose pignorance over science.  We have one right here in the Twin Cities – Dave Dahl, our local prince of climate pignorance.  Fortunately, Dahl’s delusional damage is more than offset by the excellent work of Paul Douglas – his blog is frequently updated, and collects information from an impressive variety of sources.  Just as fortunately, it is really not all pignorance out there.  The American public is making the connection between greenhouse gases and more and larger weather disasters.  And dedicated science teachers are helping young people understand what’s happening and what is at stake.  City officials – wherever Tea Party-addled wreckers don’t derail the work – are preparing for the inevitable effects of more frequent extreme weather events.  And real, solid information is available in plain sight from so many sources.  Here is a favorite.

 

Environmentally Friendly Ideas – Moving and Stationary

I had not heard of Earth-ships, and I am sure I am not the only one.  Eco-friendly construction to be sure.  And it is always a good time to consider bicycle commuting, and coexisting with all those fossil-fuel-burning vehicles we must share the road with.  But there is no better time than the approach of Bike-to-Work Week.

 

Native Gardens – A Cautionary Tale

Jeanine and I have been gradually transforming swaths of our yard space from grass to native and rain gardens.  We are working to keep this from happening to us.

 

 

“Peace is the only battle worth waging.”

 – Albert Camus

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Mark Goldberg, Allyson Harper

IBI Watch 5/20/12

Glass-Steagall, Volcker or Milton Friedman?  //

It would be incredible if not true.  Here we are nearly four years after a gigantic banking crisis and economic collapse that occurred mainly because of wildly unregulated speculation and risk-taking in  banking and investing, and what has changed?  Nearly nothing, thanks.  Why is this?  Not for a lack of talking or arguing.  Could it possibly be the political clout of those very speculators and wild risk takers?

The idea of returning regulation to banking – essentially, making it ‘boring’ again, is back in the headlines since the latest revelation of anything-goes investing at a financial institution thought to be solid.  And the meter is still running on the total loss in this fiasco.

Here is something that has truly been bipartisan in recent decades – deregulation of the finance industry.  That’s right, back in the 90s, most politicians in both parties thought it a boffo idea to take most of the controls off of finance and banking – including those put in place because of hard, painful experience.  This All Things Considered piece, aside from the last source (an ex-Bush II official who basically pooh-poohs the whole notion of restoring regulation) is very enlightening on the chain of events from 1999 to 2012.  Listen for those who ‘get it’ today – Elizabeth Warren and Senator John McCain to name two – and the smaller club of smart people who ‘got it’ way back when – former Senator Byron Dorgan (since un-elected of course).

Will this latest revelation of risk-driven losses finally bring action?  Don’t bet on it, as money rules.  Learn more by watching this highly recommended documentary, An Inside Job.  Just don’t hold any heavy projectiles while watching – unless you really want to replace your TV or computer.

 

Spend Now, Save (and Thrive) Later

That’s the doctor’s prescription to cure what is ailing our economy.  The doctor in question is Nobel economist Paul Krugman.  In this interview with Amy Goodman, he explains that his ideas are not radical, but straightforward Keynesian economics.  But then, in this era of false equivalency launched by media coverage of the Tea Party, anything that does not adhere to the ‘government is the enemy’ script is radical.  Krugman says a proper stimulus program – going beyond the stunted effort of the early days of the Obama administration – could lower unemployment to 6.5 percent.  He also points out the REAL reason for today’s ballooning deficits, and prescribes rehiring thousands of public-sector workers –who can then spend money, really stimulating the economy.  Hey – why can’t THIS guy be president?

 

Supremely Important

Big money runs our politics, with ever more power.  Sorry, but there is no improvement on this key issue – none.  And right now, there is no better way to keep us moving backward, i.e., further into America as Moneyland, than to elect Willard Mitt Romney as our next president.

I am no huge fan of President Obama.  I think his policy positions have generally been closer to a virtually extinct type – a liberal Republican – than my idea of a progressive Democrat.  To add to that, nearly any time he has tried to do something progressive, he has been blocked by the ideologically ‘pure,’ obstructionist Congress.

Further, I don’t think calamity will ensue if Romney takes it.  That is, except for one crucial issue.  The next American chief executive will almost certainly appoint one Supreme Court justice in the 2013-16 term, maybe several more.  Since the next retirement will very likely be Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it is easy to see what is on the line – a generation or more of Scalia/Roberts/Alito/Thomas-enabled corporatocracy.  Lately, it seems more are taking note of this lopsided, right-leaning supremely corporatist court, and recognizing that these are the true ‘activist judges.’  This piece calls out the great Justice Scalia’s apparent political bias.  And though many – myself included – see Scalia as the standard-bearer for this heavily right-leaning court, this in-depth New Yorker article points out that John Roberts gives little ground to Scalia in partisanship.

This Court is not done endorsing corporate power over the common good.  Citizens United will be just the beginning as it likely demolishes the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and moves onto other decisions that empower the wealthiest.  With that in mind, I see no alternative in 2012 than supporting President Obama for re-election, and doing everything we can to help him to a second term.  Then of course comes the hard part – holding his feet to the fire in the name of progressive principles and the common good.

Lately, many have said that the president will easily win re-election.  I say, ‘Not so fast.’  Remember 2000 and 2004.  A national election has only to be close – as this one sure looks to be.  Then, the modern Republican ‘magic’ kicks in – voter ID laws, fewer voting machines in poor precincts, Election Day dirty tricks.  The only solution is to make the margin of victory such that these ‘enhancements’ are not in play.

 

 

‘Clean,’ Remote-Control Warfare

Tom Engelhardt asks interesting questions about two growth industries – our United States’ security apparatus (Who knew we had so many people involved?) and our least-appreciated war strategy – drone aircraft (When will those things be used against American interests, and what will we do about it?)

 

Burning Like There’s No Tomorrow

Scientists – led by, among others, NASA’s James Hansen – continue to wave their arms around.  And the public continues to lag in interest.  But that may be changing . . . we can only hope.  This short LA Times piece details global temperature trends.  It includes what I found to be a shocker.  It’s one thing to have the warmest 12-month period on record, but check this – “The last time the globe had a month that averaged below its 20th century normal was February 1985. April makes it 326 months in a row. Nearly half the population of the world has never seen a month that was cooler than normal, according to United Nations data.”  Do you think that could be a trend?  27 years?  This chart that I clipped from the excellent Paul Douglas blog gives another perspective – how hot records just overwhelm cold records these days.  Must be those damned sunspots again!

Manmade climate chaos will hit all of us eventually, and if the worst scenarios play out, our civilization could ultimately be threatened.  And just as with so much else in life, those least responsible and of lowest means will suffer the most, at least in the near to mid-range future.  The cases of islands like Tuvalu and the Maldives have been told in many places.  But islands to be inundated by rising oceans are far from the only human story.  Desertification threatens the nomadic lifestyle of Mongolia.  This new story from PRI’s The World tells that sad tale well, and includes an imbedded video.

Some think geoengineering will save our necks.  The wildest ideas include pumping sulfur into the upper atmosphere, to block some solar radiation.  I have also read about schemes that involve launching giant solar mirrors.  But the problem is truly global, and, as this story details, goes as far as changing the chemistry of the oceans – and possibly endangering the entire food chain.  And of course, simply working on cooling the earth does nothing to fight the root cause of the climate crisis and virtually all other environmental challenges. That would be our inexorably expanding human population – all those people and all their appetites for food and creature comforts.  This article details how we are already using the world’s resources 50 % faster than they can be replenished.  And we add about 75 million people each year!

Can’t leave this topic without some hope.  First – this is essentially an open letter appealing to President Obama to take this issue on with courage.  A good time for that would be about now.  Next, this is one of the best climate blogs I am aware of.  And finally, this organization – which I support – works tirelessly to educate on the worldwide population problem.  I recommend the video on the home page.

 

Three Birds, Three Tales

Somehow, I thought these three current stories about three different large birds that make Minnesota home somehow belonged together.  First, this MPR story on great blue herons’ resilience in the wake of the 2011 Twin Cities tornado was an inspiration.  Second, I have seen huge flocks of migrating pelicans in our state in some years.  The 2012 crowd, sadly, shows evidence of a major pollution event in a state well to our south.  And finally, sad evidence that we still have a lot to learn about sharing the landscape with nature.  Note the ‘playing dumb’ tone.  ‘Biologists are puzzled. . .’  It couldn’t be all those birds we shot, now could it?  Somehow, that last story reminded me of a key lesson from one of my all-time favorite reads, The Song of the Dodo, by one of the best popular science writers around, David Quammen.  The lesson is that of the passenger pigeon.

 

The Sound of Silence

To my mind, the further Krista Tippett travels from personal-god religion in her excellent radio show, On Being, the better.  Last week’s edition was one of the best.  Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton calls the Earth a ‘solar-powered jukebox.’  Here’s a list of his ten most inspiring places to listen.

 

“The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.” – Rachel Carson

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Richard Cornell, Mark Goldberg, Allyson Harper

IBI Watch 5/13/12

Magical Mystery Tour  //

Today’s Republican Party is a big, well-appointed express bus.  It travels from place to place, picking up passengers at various stops with various itineraries.  The passengers at the first stop read the overhead sign:  ‘We hate abortion.’  They gladly board.  At the second stop, the overhead reads ‘No gay marriage, no way, never.’ The second enthusiastic bunch boards.  At the third stop, a different crowd reads ‘No gun control.’  Weapons fans loaded, the bus is full.  The happy passengers can’t read the overhead now.  Good thing.  It reads ‘Plutocracy Forever.’

That trip to permanent plutocracy is not merely succeeding.  If anything, it is accelerating. This latest, very well researched Joshua Holland piece details the top dogs’ victory, and its continuing further consolidation.  Remembering that plutocracy is all about income and wealth inequality makes this recent Paul Krugman column so much more relevant and insightful.  The Nobel-winning economist notes that political polarization – the hallmark of contemporary America – has always matched income inequality.  Here, he discusses how the Republican Party has managed to institutionalize inequality:

“So how did that happen? For the past century, political polarization has closely tracked income inequality, and there’s every reason to believe that the relationship is causal. Specifically, money buys power, and the increasing wealth of a tiny minority has effectively bought the allegiance of one of our two major political parties, in the process destroying any prospect for cooperation.”

Krugman goes on to argue that this fixation on protecting the power and wealth of our country’s true elite has effectively stymied efforts to get the economy moving again in the lingering aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse.  He details what he believes we should be doing here and here.

Many are aghast at the country’s burgeoning national debt.  Krugman would argue that the debt should not be the top concern right now, and that a pure austerity program risks outright depression.  A balanced approach, long-and short-term, would include partial restoration of income taxes on the wealthiest.  But balance is not what we are about today.  One of the most frequent Republican specters goes this way – if you raise taxes, the wealthiest will leave the country.  At least one expert believes that fear overblown.  And this is no radical lefty.  Bruce Bartlett was a key advisor to two Republican presidents (though not W).

 

A $2 Billion Oops

It was a bad day at the office for JP Morgan Chase this week.  You no doubt heard about the massive loss that sent their stock price way down.  And this is the large bank that escaped the 2008 crisis seemingly unscathed.  This could not happen at this master-of-the-universe, too-big-to-fail institution.  Until it did, of course.  The latest failure has rekindled talk of the Volcker Rule – designed to curtail banks’ risky investing with their own money.  This New York Times article actually appeared a few days before the Morgan Chase revelation.

This recalls two things – a concise, 60-minute This American Life edition that got to the heart of the events that led to the 2008 collapse; a more in-depth look at the whole banking system and how it got so out of control – the documentary An Inside Job.

Failed attempts to apply sensible regulation to prevent future crises like 2008 and worse seem incomprehensible except for one fact.  That would be, of course, that big money rules our entire political system.

 

AynLand

The anti-government philosophy of Ayn Rand underlies the extreme positions of today’s Republicans.  Some of the party’s most prominent figures have long sung the ubercapitalist,  atheistic Russian émigré’s praises.  That’s what makes Paul Ryan’s public comeuppance so satisfying.  The Wisconsin congressman and Republican budget guru has been known to make Atlas Shrugged required reading for his staffers.  But now, his eyes on possible national office (Romney’s VP), he has been forced to heed criticism from the leaders of his church.   He can collect those books and go to confession, but he can’t erase this Rand- praising video.  Say what you will, the Catholic hierarchy is nothing if not consistent (pedophile priest scandals notwithstanding of course).

This AlterNet piece effectively sums up a huge contradiction between two driving forces in today’s Republican Party.   Sara Robinson offers an interesting take on the Rand matter.  She even works Mother’s Day and George Lakoff into her commentary.

 

Warming World, Waking Public?

Some denialist pundits have argued that manmade warming of the Earth – and the consequent perturbation of climate – has slowed or even reversed in recent years.  But the numbers don’t back that up.   Yet, despite mounting evidence that changes are already disturbing ecosystems, this issue still does not excite a lot of interest in the public.  While we still have a long way to go before building enough public interest and political will to take on this monstrous issue, some dedicated experts are working hard toward those goals.

NASA meteorologist James Hansen – who first brought manmade climate change to Congress’s attention (only to be thwarted by the pignorant (pretend ignorant) Bush-Cheney administration) has a new arm-waving article about the folly of exploiting tar sands. And activist Bill McKibben recently scheduled a worldwide awareness event.  The result was this short, inspiring video collection of people taking part in this ‘dot-connecting’ activity.

For just a little more inspiration, check this optimistic prediction of the growth of  renewable energy sources.

 

Numbers, Religion and Food

While it is supremely important that the world attack the manmade climate chaos problem with intellect and vigor (it will start anytime now), a root cause analysis of global warming and many other environmental challenges would finger one culprit – unfettered continued growth in the human population.  It is the most important environmental problem, long-term.  And it is hardly discussed at all.

It turns out that, under direction of President Nixon, this country thoroughly analyzed population growth and its security implications in the early 1970s.  And the researchers got it right.  Read about the NSSM – National Security Study Memorandum 200 – right here.   Just look at these laudable and reachable goals.

• The U.S. would provide world leadership in population growth control.
• The U.S. would seek to attain its own population stability by the year 2000. This would have required a one-child family policy for the U.S., thanks to the phenomenon of demographic momentum, a requirement the authors well understood (the Chinese did not adopt their one-child family policy until 1977).
• Have as goals for the U.S.: making family planning information, education and means available to all people of the developing world by 1980, and achieving a 2-child family in the developing countries by 2000.
• The U.S. would provide substantial funds to help achieve these goals.

So what has hindered progress since?  Hint – the institution was mentioned earlier in this post.

One thing is very clear – as the human population continues to grow, more and more food will be needed.  Experts say diverse seed stock – yielding a wide variety of vegetables – is one of the best ways to defend the food supply.  This article explains the loss of variety and perils of monoculture very well, particularly with a graphic image that shows the numbers of strains that have been allowed to vanish.

There are at least two organizations trying to help wake young people up to these problems:  http://www.seedsavers.org/   and the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway

 

Two Baseball Stories – One Sickens, One Inspires

How would you like to play on a school baseball team, qualify for a key game, and then have your team forfeit the championship game based on archaic religious dogma worthy of the Taliban?  That story is so disgusting, it requires an antidote – an inspirational video.  This one is that, big-time.

 

Evil Pursuit

Can you think of a young person who deserves a traumatized, awful birthday experience?  Of course you can’t.  But if you did, you might consider this outfit.

 

 

“Climate change isn’t just a scientific question. It’s a moral, a religious, a cosmological question. It involves everything we are and what we have a right to do.”
- Richard Cizik

 

 

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Allyson Harper, Lucinda Plaisance

IBI Watch 5/6/12

Send in the Clouds  //

Isn’t it rich?  It’s magical thinking at its finest.  One of the most prominent of the stalwart climate change denialists, Richard Lindzen, has revealed the phenomenon that will save us from our gases – our greenhouse gases of course.  It’s not firing sulfur into the atmosphere, it’s not gigantic airborne sunshades, it’s not dumping iron into the ocean.  No – it’s simple, it’s natural, and it’s magic.  It’s cirrus clouds, that will, like so many Casper the Friendly Ghosts, start flying away from tropical regions, allowing more heat to radiate into space.  Whew!  That was a close one!  Praise the clouds and pass the coal!

You can learn more about this phenomenal salvation, that’s just around the corner (but before the Rapture) right here in this in-depth New York Times piece by Justin Gillis.  It is important to note that Lindzen is a denialist standard-bearer.  He figures prominently as a foil in James Hansen’s book Storms of My Grandchildren – which I am now reading.  Unlike many other loud denialists, Lindzen is a scientist.  He is also public-minded.  He has lent his voice to previous scientific debates, for example, helping the tobacco companies cast doubt on the evidence linking smoking to disease.  Remember how well that one worked out?  He is also clearly part of the 3 percent of scientists who ‘doubt’ the scientific consensus on climate change shared by the other 97 percent.  That provides the context for a great letter to the editor published soon after the cloud revelation:

Let’s say you had a fire in your house. It is your most important possession, and you feel that it is irreplaceable. You want to find out what caused the fire, so you hire 100 expert fire investigators to investigate and report to you.

Ninety-seven of them tell you virtually the same thing: the fire was caused by faulty wiring, and if you don’t invest in upgrading the wiring you will almost certainly have another fire — and the next one could destroy your house.

Three of the experts tell you that you don’t have to do anything, and you shouldn’t worry about it at all. What would you do?

BOB SHAMIS
New York, May 2, 2012

 

But back to the cloudiness.  Because this is a new ‘theory,’ I could not immediately find a solid scientific explanation.  But here is something almost as good – a debunking of another Lindzen assertion (aka soothsaying).  If you visit that link, check the impressive list of magical-thinking skeptical ideas that are scientifically debunked.

 

As the Times article points out, fading clouds are the last (at least until the next) refuge of the denialists who have effectively stalled meaningful policy steps to get manmade climate chaos under control.  But here is some much-needed good news. It may have taken 14 billion-dollar-plus weather disasters across America in 2011, but a critical mass of Americans of all parties now recognize that climate chaos is a huge and growing problem, and that our smokestacks and tailpipes are the cause.  As NPR Science Friday reported, that is even true of Republicans, whose party has been taken over by pignorant (pretend-ignorant) plutocrats.  And just to prove that not all Republicans drank the know-nothing Kool-Aid, here is blog post from a Republican who dares to be skeptical of the skeptics who have taken over his party.

A large share of the manufactured skepticism – which I prefer to call denialism – can be credited to Exxon Mobil’s ongoing disinformation campaign.  That oil and gas giant is the subject of a new book, aptly named Private Empire.  Author Steven Coll did two interviews this week – a concise one on Democracy Now and an in-depth on Fresh Air.

To finish, here is a favorite song with animation that spotlights Exxon-Mobil’s achievements.  And even the late great Dr. Seuss gets into the truth-telling act, or at least his Lorax has been brought up to date:

 

“Lorax Redux” from Wired Magazine, March 2012

“Great to be here on Hardball,” the Lorax said drily.
“Chris, you’re so much more polite than that blowhard O’Reilly.
I am the Lorax, I speak for the climate
which you have been warming, you pale hairless primates!
It’s anthropogenic, this crisis we’ve got!
The carbon you’re burning is making us hot!
This decade was warmer than even the last!
Three eight five parts per million and going up fast!”

“Hush, Lorax!” said Onceler
“You socialist fraud!
Only one guy makes climate,
and His name is God.
This cycle is natural, there’s no need to fret.
It’s your job-killing antics that’ll screw us up yet!
Those quote ‘greenhouse gases’ that have you all bent?
We’ve caused just a fraction – 0.28 percent!”

“You’re a fool!” yelled the Lorax, his anger now showing.
“Once this process speeds up, there’ll be no way of slowing.”
The tragic thing is, it turns out he was right;
too bad for us all that real facts don’t win fights.

. . . But the battle’s not over yet.

 

Obstructed by Elephants

After magical thinking, I think the thing that annoys me most is false equivalence when it comes to political extremism.  You’ve heard this before – both major parties keep moving to the extremes, there’s no one left in the middle, and on and on.  I have long believed this to be totally untrue.  Now two smart guys – one conservative, one liberal, have joined forces to write a book with a great title – It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. This pair with different political affiliation have arrived at the same conclusion – the problem is really what has happened to the Republican Party – it’s been taken over by extreme right-wing ideologues, and it really is wrecking the country.  No kidding.  No equivalence.  Listen to this brief interview with the authors.  Then try this Daily Kos perspective on the authors’ work.

For analysis of how and why the Republican Party has been taken over by extremists, and how they have succeeded in gaining the support of working people for plutocratic policies, it’s hard to beat Thomas Frank.  His book What’s the Matter with Kansas? provided credible answers to that frequent question, ‘How can they vote against their interests?!’.  And now his brilliantly titled Pity the Billionaire explains what we are well on the way to becoming – one nation, ruled by plutocrats for the sake of plutocrats, to preserve plutocracy for all.  Here is an interview with Frank posted by Thom Hartman.  As you might expect, the interview offers insights on how today’s very wealthy can play the role of put-upon ‘job creators,’ sort of living an Ayn Rand fantasy.  But it also provides some laughs – including yet another tin-eared misappropriation of a song.  You won’t believe how they are trying to twist the Great Depression anthem, ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime?’

Not all the wealthy are Randians.  Thriller author Stephen King got attention with a potty-mouthed screed this past week that echoes Warren Buffet – asking for higher (i.e. partially restored) taxes on the wealthy.  You have to love a piece that coins the phrase ‘pluted bloatocrats.’

And remember what the Republicans are proposing – austerity.  Just look at Paul Ryan’s budget, and look at what it does to the cost of college.  That, among other problems, has Paul Krugman mighty concerned.

But once again here is a bit of progress.  The national smoke-filled back room known as ALEC is dark no more.  The American Legislative Exchange Council – basically a shadowy (until recently) system for large, powerful corporations to see that cookie-cutter, corporate-friendly ‘model’ legislation is enacted by states across the country – is suddenly shaky.  Some prominent corporations are jumping ship.  You have not met ALEC?  No problem.  This five-minute video catches you up, and points you to a helpful web site.

 

One Island at a Time

This story about an isolated population of wolves and moose illustrates an increasingly common modern-day environmental quandary.  Buffeted by today’s triple whammy of global warming, invasive species and pollution, those wolves – who came to the island in the 40s on an ice bridge (don’t see those much anymore!) are in danger of disappearing.  So the question is – whether and how to interfere with the ‘natural process?’  And in fact, what is a ‘natural process’ in our times anyway?  The article rightly points out how National Parks increasingly resemble artificial islands – wildlife populations are isolated, and when some event or change happens – natural or otherwise – the creatures can disappear.  This is a specific example of a phenomenon described in depth by one of the best popular science authors you will find, David Quammen.  In The Song of the Dodo, he retraces the steps of Darwin and Wallace, and shows how we are creating artificial islands all over the world, to the great disadvantage of wildlife habitat.  Some care about this issue.  Read here about the wildlife crossings movement – which should become more important with further wildlife fragmentation – if we decide to stop taking pledges to guys like Satan and Grover Norquist.

And for the bigger picture in Minnesota, we just can’t wait to start shooting those damned wolves and those damned moose.  On the other hand. . . and . . .

 

Three Cities, Three Cycling Worlds

As a committed bicycle commuter, I am glad to say that most of my trips are trouble-free. Sure, there was the jerk in the truck who buzzed me within inches recently, and blasted me with his pseudo-train horn when he was exactly abeam . . . and there was that school bus driver who literally ran me up on the sidewalk, gesturing with a finger to prove his point . . . and there was that cell-phone entranced lady who nearly drove right over me, head-on, until I swerved at the last moment (she never saw me).  But those are exceptions.  Far more common are the drivers who wave me on at four-way stops, give me a safe berth when passing, and generally look out for my safety.  Maybe my gray hair earns me some sympathy.  Anyway, there’s a reason why this cold-weather Twin Cities region is a pretty good place for two-wheeling.  Not so in Toronto, whose mayor is not exactly bike-friendly.  I have written about this guy’s animus towards cyclists before.  See if the imbedded video doesn’t remind you of a certain American radio personality famous for bloviating.  And finally, the Asian city that used to be a bicycle capital has lost that status – but may be gaining it back.

 

Ten Commandments and Our Father – Updated

This updated version of the Commandments is not at all new . . . but it is the first time I have seen it.  I think Bertrand Russell’s rewrite is great for our times and beyond.  Susan Werner is a terrific singer-songwriter.  My favorite album of hers is The Gospel Truth.  This live performance of Our Father has a lot to say about modern religious hypocrisy.  Deliver us from the creepy preachers, and the politicians . . . Amen.

 

Funnies – A Fracking Scream

Two cartoons for you.  First – Toles brings the spirit of a certain famous painting to bear on an election season that looms and yet already seems to have been going on forever.  Second – I love it when Edison Lee goes subversive.

 

 

 

“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now.

From up and down and still somehow

It’s cloud illusions I recall

I really don’t know clouds at all”

-       Joni Mitchell

 

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Michael Dolbow, Glenn Gilbert, Allyson Harper

IBI Watch 4/29/12

The Real Conspiracy   //

When President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, I remember saying, “The game starts today.”  The ‘game,’ as I saw it, was to pin all the devastating problems of the Bush era – endless wars, ballooning deficits, collapsed economy, unsustainable tax cuts, etc. – on the new guy.  That is, get a critical mass of low-info voters to believe that Obama caused all these problems.  But it was way worse than that.  On that very day, a critical cabal of Congressional Republican leaders – including Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich (maybe he invited himself) –coached by GOP propagandist Frank Luntz, plotted to undermine anything the new president would attempt.  If you think back to what the country was like three years ago, with the economy on its knees, it is easy to see that this meeting – held during Obama’s inauguration – was virtually criminal in nature.  These guys were willing to destroy the country’s well-being – and still are of course – in order to score political points and bring down the Obama administration. Surprised?  Me neither

Read about it in this Daily Kos commentary that tells the story of the meeting, as described in Robert Draper’s new book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives.”  Note the about-face on using economic tools – namely stimulus and bailouts – that were A-OK under their guy, and suddenly became ‘job-killers’ under Obama.  Can you say ‘politically convenient hypocrisy?’

And since there is no richer hypocrisy than the religious variety, and since the good Wisconsin ‘reasonable’ Congressman Paul Ryan, that rising star, was there at the birth of the plot, how about some coverage of his fact- challenged Biblical inspiration?  The Washington Post’s Dana Millbank has the godly goods on Ryan, who claims that Catholic theology fits nicely with his greed-based, poor-squeezing budget strategy.  Try this quote from that article:

“Your budget,” a group of Jesuit scholars and other Georgetown University faculty members wrote to Ryan last week, “appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.

And while we are on Ayn Rand, I could not resist this briefest of nuggets from Paul Krugman.  Do you know the difference between ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Atlas Shrugged?’

Whether this particular anti-Obama lie was hatched at that conspiratorial confab or not matters little. It is one of the most bogus fairy tales repeated daily by Fox News and its allies – that President Obama has radically grown the government.  Even if you don’t read this Krugman commentary, at least look at the imbedded chart.  It tells a very different story.

 

And if that canard about Obama supersizing the government doesn’t give you your daily allotment of baloney, check this storyteller – Congressman Allen West of California. His recent call for a witch hunt reminded Bill Moyers of a certain Wisconsin member of Congress from the past – actually a Senator.  Here’s hoping that, in the long term, Rep. Ryan is about as successful as his Wisconsin predecessor, and remembered even more fondly.

 

The Next Straw

Look out.  Climate change denialists have a new ‘controversy’ to stoke, and some new ‘uncertainty’ to teach.  James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis – that the earth is a self-regulating system, not unlike a massive organism – is apparently rethinking his direst predictions of man-made climate chaos.  Note that he is not saying that global warming is not happening, but that it may not be as bad or fast as he and other scientists have predicted.  Also note that the famous chemist and author is just one expert – albeit an important one – and is 92 years old.  But if you think those denialists will pounce, you are right.  Try this link, this, and this.  And you can bet they are only getting started.  A veritable anti-science obfuscation frenzy!

 

‘Not too Bad,’ eh?

I am not a scientist, just a careful observer of weather and climate, and an avid reader of popular, fact-based science.  We can delude ourselves, trumpet the climate uncertainty – of course it’s uncertain, the system is so complex! – and exploit that uncertainty as our strongest argument for ‘business as usual.’ That is, maintain an energy policy that can be summarized as: Find lots more fossil fuel, drill it, frack it and burn it all up, fast!  I maintain that is the road to climate disaster, and most experts agree

Paul Douglas – recently revealed to be a Republican – is one of my favorite experts.  And I just love it when  a trained scientist like Douglas reports in detail on a phenomenon that this careful observer has noted for years.  Here is a recent Douglas post in the Star Tribune, called ‘Getting Stuck.

“One of the trends we’re seeing on the weather maps in recent years: weather systems are moving slower, with a greater tendency for the pattern to become “stuck”. Heat waves are hotter; storms move slower, increasing the potential for flooding. Why? Recent research shows the Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of North America. This “Arctic Amplification” has caused the north-south temperature/pressure gradient to weaken by 10 percent since the late 80s; jet stream winds have weakened by 14 percent.

Who cares? The jet elongates, crazy dips and bulges, making drought worse and prolonging storms. The weather, increasingly, is getting “stuck”. That may be one reason why the models we use have become even more unreliable. Predicting weather has never been more challenging.

Note the increasingly chaotic weather and climate.  And note especially his comment about weather systems moving slower.  He did not report on a resulting phenomenon.  When fronts stall, storms keep forming on the front, and sometimes race along the front, resulting in repeat bouts of severe weather in the same area on successive days.  And Douglas is a persistent truth teller.  His blog has been full lately of entries explaining the various ways we will experience the chaos we are building with our relentless changing of the chemical content of the atmosphere.  Here is an extended sample, full of great links and charts:

 

_____________________________________________________________________

Global Warming Makes It Rain More, Except Where It Makes It Drier. New research suggests that the water cycle is intensifying the rate of evaporation, sparking heavier rains, accelerating the drying out regions that are dry to begin with. Here’s an excerpt from an important story at The Atlantic Wire: “The news from a new study on the earth’s rainfall isn’t the fact that global warming is making it rain more in wet areas and less in dry ones, it’s how much scientists had previously underestimated that trend: By half. The finding, published in the latest issue of Science but available without a subscription in Scientific American, means global warming’s impact on the earth’s water cycle is a lot more pronounced than we’d thought. In short, as research leader Paul Durack, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Science, “wet regions will get wetter and dry regions drier.”

Photo credit above: Reuters.

 

Where It Rains It Will Pour, Otherwise Tough Luck. More on the new findings about the acceleration and amplification of the water cycle at Scientific American: “Warmer air allows for more water vapor. So scientists have long predicted that global warming will result in a more intense water cycle—the process by which water evaporates from the oceans, travels through the atmosphere and then falls as rain. Now new measurements of the ocean’s salinity prove that prediction—and suggest that global warming strengthens the water cycle even more than anticipated. “What we found is that regions that are salty in the main are becoming saltier” and areas that boast more rainfall are getting fresher, explains oceanographer Paul Durack of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who led the research to be published in Science on April 27. “It’s another independent estimate of how the climate is changing as we pump out CO2.”

Photo credit above: “READING THE OCEAN: Around 3,500 robotic buoys have been deployed throughout the world’s oceans, delivering unprecedented data on temperature, salinity and other measures. Image: CSIRO: Alicia Navidad.”

 

Changing Ocean Chemistry. As much as 90% of the warming witnessed in the last 30-50 years may be absorbed by the world’s oceans, impacting salinity (salt) levels around the planet. Another perspective on changes in the water cycle at Climate Central.

Map credit above: “Surface salinity changes for 1950 to 2000. Red indicates regions becoming saltier, and blue regions becoming fresher. Credit: Paul Durack.” Map courtesy of Climate Central.

 

Study Indicates A Greater Threat Of Severe Weather. The New York Times has more: “New research suggests that global warming is causing the cycle of evaporation and rainfall over the oceans to intensify more than scientists had expected, an ominous finding that may indicate a higher potential for extreme weather in coming decades.  By measuring changes in salinity on the ocean’s surface, the researchers inferred that the water cycle had accelerated by about 4 percent over the last half century. That does not sound particularly large, but it is twice the figure generated from computerized analyses of the climate. If the estimate holds up, it implies that the water cycle could quicken by as much as 20 percent later in this century as the planet warms, potentially leading to more droughts and floods.”

_____________________________________________________________________

But just as climate chaos is not all about Al Gore, nor is it all about Paul Douglas.  Check this piece on hydrological changes in the oceans, and this one on methane from the steadily melting Arctic.

 

NIMBY on Small and Large Scale

Marketplace’s David Brancaccio did a thoughtful, informative piece on rich, poor and garbage this week.  Just a few NYC subway stops separate the richest from the poorest.  Guess who gets the benefit of everyone’s rubbish?  And it turns out that those benefits include four years less of life expectancy.  Brancaccio’s story made me think of an activist in the Bronx who works tirelessly on issues just like this – what you might call environmental justice.  Majora Carter is a visionary in environmentally responsible urban redevelopment.

And what about the bigger picture?  That is, how much garbage we produce in this great country?  A new book, Garbology, tells the dirty tale.  And the author, made a very interesting interview when he appeared on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air this week.  One tidbit – What is the tallest structure in Los Angeles?  It is a 500-foot- tall landfill.

You may be inspired to toss away less after exploring these links.  If so, read on.  This HowCast is surprisingly helpful.  And while that video offered five tips, this article goes a bit further – 42.  And it turns out that a major American city has plans to be zero-waste by 2020.  One more reason to love San Francisco.

 

Sustainability – More to Learn

I cling to the idea that more people would ‘do the right thing’ when it comes to preserving the environment, and creating an equitable economy for that matter, if only they had the right information.  And of course the fact that all that information is available in plain sight runs up against a key modern problem – info overload.

 

This AlterNet article lists a group of nine recent non-fiction movies and documentaries that inform and motivate.  Just try to sell that ‘climate change won’t be so bad after all’ fantasy to the ‘island president.’  And for readers in the Twin Cities, the Science Museum of Minnesota has a new permanent exhibit covering human impacts on the environment.  Worth the trip (on bus, bike or shoe leather of course).  This also reminded me of a favorite book that is really an extended thought experiment.  Called ‘The World Without Us,’ it answers the question “What changes have we made to Earth, and what would happen if we all vanished tomorrow, without a trace?”  The answers are fascinating and thought-provoking.  If you won’t take time for the book, have a look at this interactive time line.  And by the way, though you have heard this before in other contexts, this book is WAY better than its documentary film counterpart.

 

“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.”

~ Gregory Bateson

 

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Allyson Harper

IBI Watch 4/22/12

Third Way?  Already Seen that Disaster Movie  //

Talk is rising of a ‘radical middle.’  These are people who are tired of the two-party system, tired of the supposed extreme views of the two choices presented by the Republicans and Democrats in the upcoming presidential election, tired of the gridlock that holds back progress.  No, thanks.

In 1980, I was tired of President Carter and his handling of the mess in Iran, and voted for Republican John Anderson, who was running as an independent.  I regretted that in short order.  Then in 2000, many on the left and some in the middle embraced that old consumer crusader, Ralph Nader.  They lamented the ‘sameness’ of Bush and Gore.  Remember the refrain?  There was not a dime’s worth of difference between the two, they said.  I hope those who supported Nader, whose dogged, ego-driven crusade was a major factor in the chain of events that gave us four years of W, share some of my regret from 1980.

And now we have 2012.  Many of President Obama’s supporters are disappointed with a perceived lack of progress on his agenda.  Count me in that crowd.  However, I think that, given our current reality – the strength of the two-party system, supported by gushers of corporate cash – supporting anyone but Obama in 2012 would be progressive suicide.

Here is a quick description of the third way.  I offer some advice – if Fox News cheerleads on something (check the links on the page), it’s a pretty safe bet that it will lead to disaster for progressives.  If this third way business grows, I see it leading only in one direction, and it is not good.  A President Romney who governed like Governor Romney (you do remember that moderate, who instituted universal health care in Massachusetts, right?) would not be the worst thing in the world.  But that is not what we will get.  No, along with the few remaining members of what used to be a big club – moderate Republicans – Willard (his real name) Romney has been forced to choose.  That is, be sidelined by the increasing extreme Republican party, or convince people that you are really one of the right-wing extremists who now run the party.  Romney’s choice could not be more obvious – he has spent most of his waking hours these last couple of years denouncing his moderate past, playing dumb on science, and generally pandering to the right wing.  It is easy to see the kind of Supreme Court justices he will appoint.  With the court already leaning far-right, if Romney appoints a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg – a likely event in his first term – we could be looking at more decisions like Citizens United and strip searches for minor arrests, and overturning universal health care (very likely soon) on into the foreseeable future.  Want proof?  You will never guess who is Romney’s main advisor in this area.  Watch a short video here on the same revelation.

How about a few more reasons why electing Romney would be a very bad idea?  Here is a commentary on the real effects on individual liberty and the common good, by AlterNet’s Joshua Holland.  This article in an NPR blog details political scientist Keith Poole’s argument that today’s Republicans are more conservative than they have been in a century. Just check the imbedded chart for the story.  And finally, populist commentator Jim Hightower has Romney’s number.  Whatever it is, it has lots of dollar signs in front.

All this is why Canada will look so much more attractive if Romney manages to take the presidency in six months.  It’s also the main reason I support Barack Obama for re-election.

Give Michele Her Due

Minnesota’s Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has another achievement of sorts.  That would be, showing that the Tea Party’s real name should be ‘Get that Black So-and-So out of the White House’ Party.  Her ‘tar baby’ charge has no racial overtones.  Sure, she would use the same language with a blond European opponent.  Sure, it wasn’t a calculated attempt to keep the focus on the president’s race.  Sure, Bachmann is not a demagogue.  Sure.

All the Money’s Gone . . . Not

You hear this in discussions about all levels of government in America.  We are broke.  The money’s gone.  We have to cut spending.  The deficit is the biggest problem.  We all need tax relief, but especially the ‘job creators.’

Many believe this stuff, and it just enables the further concentration of wealth in the hands of the powerful few at the top.

The truth is, tax rates at the top are lower than they have been in almost a century.  And when you consider that earned income – wages – are taxed at a higher rate than investment income – dividends and capital gains – it is generally true that the wealthier you are, the LOWER tax rate you pay.

This AlterNet piece considers what would happen if we acquired the political will to restore some of the taxes on the wealthy that have been hacked away ( allegedly in the cause of trickle-down prosperity) over the past 30 years.  This article, by Les Leopold, includes some shocking statistics on the growth in the numbers of millionaires at various levels of wealth these past few decades, plus impressive charts to back up the arguments.  And you know things are getting bad for the general good when some conservative commentators call for higher taxes in the Wall Street Journal.  That is what Robert McKinnon did recently in the Wall Street Journal – a ‘modest wealth tax.’  Here is one more perspective – one you don’t see very often – a progressive arguing in favor of a flat tax.  That’s just what Dorothy Brown does on CNN’s site.  Here is a quote:  “First, tax all forms of income at the same rate. Second, repeal the progressive tax system and enact a flat tax. If a flat tax is good enough for Mitt and Ann Romney, it should be good enough for the rest of us.”  As you might guess, Brown’s flat tax is not exactly your corporatist model.

Indian Subcontinent Glaciers in Wars – Military and Scientific

It’s unusual to see two stories about glaciers in and around India surface in the same week.  It’s even more unusual to see two such stories with completely different themes.  The first figures in the longstanding impasse between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir.  Pakistan recently lost 140 people – mostly border soldiers – to a massive avalanche of ice and rock.  That very incident is causing both sides to reconsider – for now- whether it makes sense to make a battlefield of such a desolate, inhospitable place.

The second glacier story feeds into the ongoing war over climate science and its implications.  News surfaced that a major Himalayan glacier may actually be gaining mass.  When a story like this hits the news, it causes an outbreak of trolls on news sites ridiculing Al Gore.  And Fox News starts crowing again – see here and here.  True believers may stop there, but I prefer to look at the big picture.  This Guardian article puts it all in context.  And, despite all the obfuscation by Fox and the army of pignorant (pretend ignorant) pundits, people are increasingly understanding the dangers of letting climate chaos continue to spin out of control.

And there is some climate good news.  Solar power is growing markedly.  GM’s Bob Lutz is ripping the Republicans for stonewalling electric cars,  (Hey, maybe the bailout bought some common sense!)  And finally – what do you know – emissions cap and trade really works!  And – it does no harm to ‘job creators.’ Too bad we keep electing pignorant politicians.

High-Tech Feudalism

To predict the future, just take current trends and extrapolate.  Your vision won’t be perfect, but you have a pretty good idea of the outline.  Paul Ehrlich is ridiculed by the right because his predictions of exploding population have not come true in exactly the way he envisioned.  Still, the population crisis continues unabated, at the great cost of human suffering and a degraded environment.  A favorite dystopia  is T.C. Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth.  It’s a work of fiction, of course, but his predictions – broken climate, mass extinction, battles over vanishing resources – are steadily coming true as well.

This is my way of introducing a column appearing in the 4/22 Star Tribune.  Bonnie Blodgett – a favorite commentator of mine, I might add – bravely wades into the line of fire by taking current trends – increasingly unequal wealth and income distribution, massive but stealthy war spending, proliferating enclaves for the highest rollers– and predicts a future of an ever-wider gulf between the have-nothings and the have-everythings.  She even throws in a sci-fi twist.  Highly recommended.  A wave of troll attacks on the Strib site is predicted – in the immediate future.

Earth Day Music

Here are two celebrations of Earth Day on Sunday.

First – a haiku

One more Earth Day dawns

We take and take from Mother

Now is payback time

Second – a six-pack of Earth Day-related music videos, with short intros that I posted in a music group that I frequent on Facebook.  Enjoy!

Earth Day 1 -   Don’t be fooled by the TED Talk logo that starts this video. This is a funny, subversive song by Jill Sobule that highlights how we ‘enjoy’ what we are doing to the climate. Manhattan in January. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zcSdv3j7zs

Earth Day 2 – Randy Newman’s song Burn On Big River still resonates. The Lord can make you tumble, the Lord can make you turn . . . But you know who can make it burn. Based on an actual event. For the unfamiliar, Randy Newman is one of the most incredible songwriters and movie music scorers on the planet. Forget Short People! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SKGIwsXuA0

Earth Day 3 – A rarely heard song by the Beach Boys. Also performed by the Roches, but I could not find that rendition on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm54l5OEvUs

Earth Day 4 – Red House recording artist Chuck Brodsky is well regarded for his story songs, many of them about baseball. For this one, not a baseball in sight. Fits Earth Day nicely. Gotta keep up the neighborhood! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlF34iU57BU

Earth Day 5 – If you have ever heard the late great Stan Rogers, you remember the powerful voice and impressive songwriting. Stan died in an airplane fire in 1983. His son Nathan carries on the tradition, and sounds eerily like his dad. He also is a writer of his own songs. The Field Behind the Plow is one of Stan’s greatest songs, and celebrates the abundance of the earth and the work farmers do to feed us all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhontgT5OpE

Earth Day 6 – For my money, there is no better song for the day than this one. Dave Carter (also sadly late and great, WAY before his time) and Tracy Grammer perform his Gentle Arms of Eden. Happy Earth Day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGMATHlSK4

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ”

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Allyson Harper

 

IBI Watch 4/15/12

Still Inevitable?  //

The old cliché about unavoidable death and taxes remains true, but it’s a bit  less so for the wealthiest.  The trickle-down theories say that we should just lower the tax rates on everyone – but especially the wealthiest – and – behold – prosperity will leak down onto all of us.  That’s the Milton Friedman way that has become our modus operandi these last 30 years.  This chart shows how that assumption is fantasy.  But you must give credit – this fantasy has further enriched the rich.  Hard to believe, but could that have been the original purpose?!  Here is a more recent piece that features a chart showing the trend line on tax rates for the wealthiest.  And remember that the lowest millionaires’ rate on the chart – 16.6 percent – is still higher than Mitt Romney currently pays.  And if you think the trickle-down scam is going away anytime soon, don’t.  It’s just what friendly, ‘moderate’ Paul Ryan, with the full support of Romney, has in store for us.  Paul Krugman calls out the wolf in sheep’s clothing. And while we are on extremists who pass for moderates, even fiscally prudent populists, how about that rising (helicopter-powered) star governor from New Jersey.  Krugman again calls it right – Christie the Cannibalizer.  As you will see, Governor Christie’s blow for fiscal common sense – canceling the massive Hudson River tunnel project – had more to do with politics than sound policy, and the media tale contained a few not-so- factual facts.  But back to the tax issue specifically – here is a short article explaining top tax rates on top incomes from President Eisenhower to the present.  So what is the connection to Christie the tax-dragon-slaying hero?  Well, it’s damned hard to build, improve and maintain vital infrastructure when we keep cutting taxes.

 

No One Expects the Douthat Inquisition

As I listened to an interview that Weekend Edition did with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, I could not help but think of the Monty Python spoof of the Spanish Inquisition.  Douthat is the author of a new book – Bad Religion. He wisely decries the hypocrisy of the prosperity gospel – the idea that God wants us to get rich. (Though Al Franken does a much better, and way more hilarious number on that one here)  So what is Douthat pushing?  Just look at the subtitle of the book – ‘How We Became a Nation of Heretics.’  Ah, we need to go back to something like those golden days of the late 40s and 50s, when we were so much more faithfully orthodox.  Right.  Listen for yourself.

 

Trying to Give Credit

I try to be fair to modern Republicans.  Honest.  I try to give credit where they have accomplished, achieved goals on their own.  There was George W.  I first read that he tried to make a go of it, himself – not capitalizing on his famous name – in the oil business.  Then there was that Harken Energy business.  So you look at his try at baseball team ownership.  But the story behind his ‘leveraged’ windfall paints an entirely different picture.  Entrepreneurship?  I don’t think so.  And now we have Willard Mitt Romney, who wants us to believe he is the consummate successful American venture capitalist – growing the economy through wise investing.  Read about it here, or just watch this short video by Robert Reich, who, as usual, tells the story concisely and visually.

 

ALEC’s Exit Doors Spinning Fast

The American Legislative Exchange Council is under fire. This modern equivalent of the old smoke-filled room (on a well-plotted, massive scale), has now been exposed.  Major corporations have for years been crafting ‘model’ legislation that is promoted and enacted in state after state across the country. But the legislation has gone well beyond what you’d expect – tax privileges, deregulation – to for-profit prisons and ‘stand-your ground’ laws.  And now that the light of day has entered the dark rooms – all of them – corporate titans don’t like the glare.  Many are leaving, and it is about damned time.

 

Messing with a Good Thing

Since it’s the 100-year anniversary of that collision of hubris and tragedy – the Titanic’s sinking – it’s a good time to visit with James Cameron, director of the grand movie about the event.  Cameron makes an apt comparison here – we are collectively treating manmade climate chaos in much the same way that White Star Lines treated the iceberg-ridden North Atlantic that fateful April night.  The only difference, of course, is that so much more is now at stake.  Every week, more evidence of current change, and research on the paleoclimate, comes to light.  All this makes warning bells sound ever louder, but who is listening?  More important, who is doing something about it?

 

I first began reading on global warming during the blistering summer of 1988.  Since then, I have read dozens of books and hundreds of articles.  The wisest of them point to exactly what we are seeing today – fading boundaries between seasons, resulting in increasingly chaotic weather patterns, along with a general warming trend.  For anyone who understands math and statistics, March was simply astounding.  Records smashed through a wide swath of the country, a long-running warm spell that began fooling trees, animals and insects that it was really May or June.  Read about it here – and note that even in a wise update like this we have to read the usual hooey about ‘Short-term weather patterns such as the one that affected the United States are poor indicators of global climate trends, however. Parts of the world, most notably Eastern Europe, experienced below-average to extreme cold temperatures this winter.’  (Translated – ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’)  And anyway, what could be bad about a preternaturally warm day, week, month?!  Plenty.

 

Here is one of the biggest risks.  As seasonal structure fades, outbreaks of wildly warm weather occur in winter.  Check.  The warmth that lasts for weeks or months coaxes living things – plants, insects, animals – out of their winter state (dormancy, hibernation) into the artificial summer.  Check.  Then, the hammer falls.  What used to be average weather kicks in, wreaking havoc, mostly with plants – the base of the food chain.  Once again, check.  Listen to this story on cattle food – alfalfa – that the crazy March weather messed with.  Not impressed by alfalfa?  How about apples?  And here is the thing to remember – the cold April weather we will soon have in Minnesota is WAY more typical of this time of year than was 80 degrees on St. Patrick’s Day, or an entire month that saw 15,000 local warm weather records broken.

 

Here is just a little of the latest news.  First, new research links the rising Pacific with our emissions; second, Antarctica’s ice sheet has melted in the distant past, raising sea levels by an ungodly amount.  Yes, that was the distant past, but we are relentlessly creating climate changes that will ultimately produce something like that ancient, inhospitable world.  And we are doing something else to the ocean, besides warming it.  We are turning it steadily to an acid state.

 

Still need convincing that this is worth your attention and action?  Try this Live Science article that skewers denialism as well as pignorance (pretend ignorance).  And if you want more truth, try this site.  Joe Romm’s Real Climate site is consistently excellent, with many charts, stories and guest bloggers.

 

What are the remedies, so we know what to do when we get serious?  Building sustainably produced non-fossil fuels.  Also, though this other seems mundane, it is important – growing trees.  Also – try this site.

 

She’s Baaaaaaaack!

Her district is more conservative than before, thanks to redistricting.  She’s back in Minnesota to campaign for another term of wild theatrics and legislative crusades – like light bulb freedom, voter fraud fraud (i.e. the fraudulent campaign to eliminate virtually nonexistent voter fraud) and anti-gay marriage.  So it is only fair to celebrate the return of Michele Bachmann.  No one can do that like the Onion.

 

Hope for the Future –Young People, if Boomers Give the Chance

Back in the 1970s, I was naïve enough to believe that world affairs, and particularly these United States, would keep progressing toward a rational course.  And then came Morning in America.  Who knew my generation could be so greedy, short-sighted, self-centered, ideologically blind, faith-based, willfully ignorant . . . ?  But don’t get me going.  If we have not totally destroyed the place by the time it is Millennials’ turn to be the dominant generation, it seems they just might run the show more rationally.  An article like this fills me with hope.  Well, OK, it fills my glass part-way with hope.  And here is more hope.  Those who share my enthusiasm for the eco-friendliest form of travel the bicycle – are becoming a political force.  May the force be with us.

 

 

“I can not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I can not conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” 

-Captain E. J. Smith, R.M.S. Titanic

 

 

 

Blogger – Michael Murphy, St. Paul MN

 

 

Contributed links to this posting –Jeff Carlson, Allyson Harper