Recent comments

  • How Can the GOP Run American Government If They Hate It?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    As usual, Thom is right on.

  • Dear Bernie or Bust - if Hillary is the Nominee - Can She Earn Your Vote?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    The only way Bernie will not get the nomination is if he is cheated out of it, which has been in the works this whole primary/caucus, before that was played I may have held my nose and vote for her, but I wont now, no way, in 92 I voted for Bill Clinton, saw his campaign was a lie, he was no progressive, in fact a republican with a D in front of his name was all,I refused to vote for him again in 96, in 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader because I saw Gore as 3rd term of Clinton, at which Gore should have won, now in 2008 i did not want to vote fo rhillary because I saw her as 8 more years of Bill Clinton, I still feel the same and refuse to vote for her now,I think if bernie either ran as an Independent,now that people know who he is,or tem up with Jill Stein in the green party, either way I will not vote for Hillary.

  • How Can the GOP Run American Government If They Hate It?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Wow... ponderring Thom's news makes it hard to see a silver lining.

    Since the dawn of agriculture, non-natives have had a growth mentality and growth economies.

    There is one thing completely absent from debate, even in Bernie’s campaign. We are at the absolute maxed out phase of an infinite growth economy. Even w/out climate change, we need to move an egalitarian resource based economy to survive as a species, and be capable of having a rational discussion of how to limit the growth of human population.

    Ok, here goes..Since it’s anything goes Fri, I wanted to discuss a podcast from Guy McPherson’s show ‘Nature Bats Last’ as it may relate to Zika. There was a story a few weeks back that I believe Thom also commented on to the effect that Zika was very prevalent all over So./Central America. w/ little to no consequence and that the microcephaly epidemic unique to Brazil was possibly caused by chemicals dumped in the water to kill mosquitoes ahead of the summer olympics. I’d like to remind people that before 9/11, conspiracy theorists were considered critical thinkers, as long as they didn’t promote their theory as fact. Here is a link to Guy McPherson’s podcast in which Mark Austin, former homeland security scientist turned whistle blower discusses what the Gov. plans to do in the event of financial, climate, nuclear or civil collapse. 25 min. into the broadcast, he begins to discuss a pandemic potentially planned for North America this summer. I live on the OH river. usually we have lots of mosquitoes. We have had a very wet spring… and yet, not one mosquito, not a single one. What have they dumped in the river?

  • How Can the GOP Run American Government If They Hate It?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Blame belongs to the foolish American public that never comes together to oust the status quo/establishment! I'm in my 50's and nothing has changed to help, and I mean truly help the working class. This government works for lobbyists and corporations. The people get screwed and we do nothing to correct the injustice! The public are ill informed and they don't give a damn! They continually vote against their best interest. I'm tired of blaming the a##holes in office, it's the stupid public! The people can make the change but they don't take the time to enforce our politicians to do the job they have been elected to perform.

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Wow... ponderring Thom's news makes it hard to see a silver lining.

    Since the dawn of agriculture, non-natives have had a growth mentality and growth economies.

    There is one thing completely absent from debate, even in Bernie’s campaign. We are at the absolute maxed out phase of an infinite growth economy. Even w/out climate change, we need to move an egalitarian resource based economy to survive as a species, and be capable of having a rational discussion of how to limit the growth of human population.

    Ok, here goes..Since it’s anything goes Fri, I wanted to discuss a podcast from Guy McPherson’s show ‘Nature Bats Last’ as it may relate to Zika. There was a story a few weeks back that I believe Thom also commented on to the effect that Zika was very prevalent all over So./Central America. w/ little to no consequence and that the microcephaly epidemic unique to Brazil was possibly caused by chemicals dumped in the water to kill mosquitoes ahead of the summer olympics. I’d like to remind people that before 9/11, conspiracy theorists were considered critical thinkers, as long as they didn’t promote their theory as fact. Here is a link to Guy McPherson’s podcast in which Mark Austin, former homeland security scientist turned whistle blower discusses what the Gov. plans to do in the event of financial, climate, nuclear or civil collapse. 25 min. into the broadcast, he begins to discuss a pandemic potentially planned for North America this summer. I live on the OH river. usually we have lots of mosquitoes. We have had a very wet spring… and yet, not one mosquito, not a single one. What have they dumped in the river?

  • How Can the GOP Run American Government If They Hate It?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Blame belongs to khazar bankers

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Check out researchgate.net publication 46490716. There is a published study there by the Institute of Social Ecology (Erb & Zika) from Austria which shows how much net primary productivity (NPP) has fallen in major geographic regions on the planet. NPP is essentially the "currency" of ecosystems. If it goes down and it is, then everything above it in food chain goes down as well. For example, the Russian Federation and Central Asian area has lost 26% of its NPP since the 70's. This means that, that area will have more hungry people and that the vegetation/land complex will not fix as much carbon as it once did in a time when we need as much photosynthesis as we can get. A kind of double "whammy" force upon us by the corporate sector.

    The poorer, hungrier people are being forced to use up the resources even faster which causes soil damage and over-grazing etc. so that the NPP will just continue to drop. Not to mention social unrest which is also occurring in thoses areas.

    I think all the CEO's of the major petroleum corporations should be put on a chain gang and made to plant trees by hand for the rest of their lifes.

  • Daily Topics - Friday May 27th, 2016   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Review Chapter 28 of the TPP. (posted online) Its provisions clearly surrender national sovereignty to any corporate entities which might think their profits actually or potentially compromised by pesky things like environmental protection laws, etc.

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago
    Quote Queenbeethatsme:The IPCC stated in their last analysis of climate change (after the NASA discovery of a 150km wide methane vent in 2013) that as early as 2020 up to 90% of all species of plants and animals would be extinct and up to 60% of all humans now on the planet may very well be dead. ...
    Do you have a direct link to this statement?

  • Full Show 5/26/16: Trump Agrees to Debate Bernie   8 years 40 weeks ago

    An Amendment to Current History

    {… a limerick …}

    May current history be amended: -

    - the Trumpian progress suspended,

    his appeal dead-ended,

    his ambition upended.

    And please let’s see Bernie ascended.

    ===============================

  • Full Show 5/26/16: Trump Agrees to Debate Bernie   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Obtuse Self-Abuse

    {… a rhyme …}

    About the changing climate,

    here is how we might rhyme it: -

    - With a hangman’s rope we make a noose

    for hanging ourselves with carbon’s mis-use.

    Obtuse in our self-abuse.

    ==================================

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago
    .

    .

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    According to many climate change experts, there is a lag time between our consumption and any negative environment impacts we can see. That lag time is about 35-40 years later . This means what we see now is the result of actions of our country around 1976 or so.

    Based on this lag time, we will be well above the upperlimits of 6.0 degrees C (life is generally believed to be unsustainable above 4.0 degrees C increase) by the time we reap the fallout from our usagein the early part of the 2000s.

    According to Bill Mckibben(in the book "eaarth") even if we had stopped ALL carbon emissions all over the world in 2009, it would take about 1000 years to get the planet back to around 350ppm which is what the planet needs in order to be a home to the plants, animals and humans that inhabit it now.

    We don't have 1000 years, we may not even have 10 years. More and more Guy McPhersons, "the sky is falling" rhetoric rings ominously true...

    In other words, it is too late and we did not stop or even slow consumption in 2009, we accelerated it.

    The IPCC stated in their last analysis of climate change (after the NASA discovery of a 150km wide methane vent in 2013) that as early as 2020 up to 90% of all species of plants and animals would be extinct and up to 60% of all humans now on the planet may very well be dead. The game changers? The usual, drought, famine, disease and pestilence and wars as countries and people fight over resources and these 4 horsemen would not be limiting their rides to Africa and Asia. America will be hit, as will parts of Europe and Micronesia and elsewhere.

    Now what were you saying about your carbon foot print and having no kids? Toothpaste goes poorly back into the tube.

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Well Thom... glad to see you finally are considering that we have already passed the point of no return. But why the fingerpointing?

    Surely it is not the industry who is trying to sway the government that is responsible, it is that government and all the citizenry too lazy and self centered to ever find out what was really going on.

    We have met the enemy and it is US.. but that aside, IF the world is trending toward extinction.. at THIS point, does it really matter who is at fault? It won't change anything and jailing or fines is paltry and moot at this time.

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    This is the reason Thom ought to embrace Bernie or bust. Hillary, like Trump, wants to fracking accelerate climate change; and she will!

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Mind you, it is not the fossil fuel industry that is culpable, but ourselves for using that energy, and above all our unwillingness to curb our consumption to a sutainable level.

    The U.S. could cut its energy consumption in half overnight without too much of a hardship, my carbon foot print is under half of the average and life perfectly confortable. But, no kids, no flying or uneeded driving and keeping A/C high and heat low etc...

    Two most inflential books I read in my youth were Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) and Limits to Growth (1972) which both described and predicted our present dilemma.

    Again "man's destiny is to drown in his own feces"

  • Are we in an extinction event right this moment - due to climate change?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    As a retired earth scientist specialized in past climates I hear too much optimism for a correction of our present course, as we sail through the point of no return. We are curently witnessing the end of capatism and demise of civilisation as we've known, all this in the name of greed.

    Man's destiny is to drown in his own feces.

    MissQuote from Chief Seattle

  • Did the Fossil Fuel Industry Bring Us to the Point of No Return?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    A geophysical solution not dependent on emissions control to succeed restoring sea-ice for a longer season to delay melt-out north into the Chukchi & Beaufort Seas.

    Restoring Arctic sea-ice in the Beaufort Sea, it was 4-9 year-old ice now mainly fast-ice, first year so weak and salty and easy to break up, there were no big storms and it melted out last month a new early record: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88065

    The albedo heat is now equal to 20-years of heating from emissions of CO2 because it's so efficient, that's implies Paris commitments need to be halved or 1/3rd the timelines proposed to accommodate how much heat this is and how fast it's growing.

    So with global scale in mind a forum thread on creating a dam with a large weir section to allow a much reduced volume in from the Pacific south of Bering Strait at St. Lawrence Island, the proposal: http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?topic=1545.0

    Image of the proposed route: http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/aleutian-currents3.jpg

  • Are we in an extinction event right this moment - due to climate change?   8 years 40 weeks ago

    It seems that communication could solve this problem. The people in Alaska have seen enough that if they could express themselves on MSM we all would feel it in our gut. Once again it is billionaires in action. The fossil fuel billionaires paying the media billionaires.

  • CO2 Levels Go Over Tipping Point   8 years 40 weeks ago

    The loss of albedo today equals about 20-years of CO2 heat-retention from emissions, 0.21-watts/m^2, it's a huge amount of direct heating.

    No mention of this in Paris, it means all commitments must be doubled or tripled to meet stated goals, it's a huge deal to restore the Beaufort, it's the battleground lost in areal extent that was old ice before now too thin & already broken from shore this year.

    The issue is a tipping point passed on the Beaufort Sea gaining too much heat exposed too long for fall cooling to remove it such it's melting out and degrading a huge area that until quite recently was old ice, 4-9 years and tens of feet thick to "rotten" ice over this entire area.

    This season began weeks too early and exposed a huge amount of shoreline water, this shows the sequence in April: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88065&eocn=home&eoci=i...

    This is a short video Applied Physics Lab, Unv. of Washington voyage last fall mid-October when the area was freezing up, a storm blew in and froze the surface also creating huge swells, it all melted off in very cold air the next day, surprising everyone aboard.

    They found a warm layer only 20m down that mixed up in the swells, winds only 30-kn; 5:12; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDmM5zsxd4E

    Next is on "rotten" ice and correlating that with satellite interpretations, starts ab'ut 4-mins in of 9:49 [Dr. Barber is Canadian]; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGVgrRAyQmw

    Last one is Jullienne Stroeve, Nat'l Snow & Ice Data Center, commenting on the melt season ending. Audio-only, the ice was 18% below normal; 6:14; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdnqWL1YkY

    Basically there's no way this area will recover without a focused attention by the global community.

    Latest on the dam is a revised construction strategy moved to St. Lawrence Island to make a seive-dam on the south side north side closed off to allow about 1-2 Yukon Rivers in flow volume and the rest is dammed off this allows nutrients & marine life to migrate freely and closes with less current.

    This is a link to a large-scale current map of closing the northern channel as a first phase of construction. Notice how it extends the current flowing SE along the island, this will fight any northern flow in the narrower gap so overall the total flow will be much less arriving at Bering Strait: http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/aleutian-currents2.jpg

    Large pipes like used by the Army Corp for the New Orleans revision have foundations pre-cast and lowered the tops then added with a wire-rope net that rolls up from the bottom.

    This is a porous "dam" restricting flow so much the water is higher on the Pacific side and that creates a pressure front that encourages the main flow-mass to continue past the island to the SE end where it fights the northerly flow to restrict it with this first phase of construction.

    The wire nets give protection to place dredgings behind for the layers, flow restricted permanently as it rises by the time it's near the surface there will be very little overflow as the nets have closer spacing near the top.

    Working on a soda straw & hot glue conceptual model ... few people take all this seriously it's like a last hurrah for Beaufort Sea ice to them, a geophysical, on-the-ground view of how to fix it by giving a still-water area to sustain a key melting point.

  • Two Thirds of all Americans would struggle to cover a $1,000 crisis   8 years 40 weeks ago

    I've been coming down hard on Bernie or Bust'ers and the NeverHillary crowd for the last few weeks.

    I want to reiterate that I understand where you're coming from and why. I've voted 3rd party in outrage many times. After decades of doing so, I've concluded that it is an ineffective tactic. In the larger sense of making long term change, I totally concede that voting for the 'lesser evil' is ineffective as well. For the purpose of this election, my point has been that it is the best we can do and although unsatisfactory as far as systemic change is concerned, it has real short term benefit in respect to preventing the greater evil. My point today is about what can be done long term to bring about change. I have come to think that the ballot box is not the solution, at least not by itself. Neither is violence, of course, and street theater will never do it. I think that the fault in my thinking and I project others' is that we are looking to taking the reins of government to bring about change. I think it may be time to turn that upside down. Maybe the solution is to create democratic socialism in an extra-governmental form and create a political movement around that. In other words, create an alternative socialist economy with an associated political movement and democratic structure independent of any state sponsorship. That way perhaps we can start solving real problems for real people right now without waiting for the political victory that may never come. But also doing so may increase the likelihood of such victory down the road because tying political action directly to economic benefits may increase the effectiveness of political recruitment and loyalty in ways that current organization does not. This would be similar to union organizing but the weakness in that movement has always been that unions tend to be dependent on capital even as they oppose it. Common interest with management can put union leaders or even rank and file in bed with corporate management increasing public cynicism and disillusionment. So in short, I'm talking about workers' cooperatives. Full disclosure - I have NO IDEA how to make this happen. I'm hoping you do! But parallel to that, I would want to see the new movement Bernie has started continue to work on changing the Democratic Party between elections to limit state harm and create as beneficial an environment as possible for real change. And as I've said elsewhere (parroting Thom Hartmann) start by adopting Tea Party tactics - become Democratic precinct committee people - and take the party back from the corporatists.

  • Full Show 5/24/16: Bernie: The Convention Could Get “Messy”   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Tops among my heroes has been Jim Hightower, beginning in my youth {me born mid-‘30s in the middle of Texas}. The old Texas lefty-Populists were-are wunnerful.

  • Two Thirds of all Americans would struggle to cover a $1,000 crisis   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Much of the financial struggle Americans face can be blamed on free trade. Outsourcing jobs to countries without good labor laws promulgates a global race to the bottom, with only a relative few aggressive and greedy individuals winning. Labor unions remain the solution for the many to temper the greed of the few.

  • Two Thirds of all Americans would struggle to cover a $1,000 crisis   8 years 40 weeks ago

    Im up at 4am everyday and work 13 hour days and work at a Union job for over ten years and god willing another 16. My 401k is the biggest joke their is. I will never have enough to retire. Thank god we have no kids. I have no way of providing for my wife and I to the same standard of living that we scrap by now at. We eat out once a month and have the cheapest house we could find with the lowest taxes and have both have cheap used cars. In our retirement years I cannot retire and exspect to not to work unless we suffer financially. I cant not see this country collaspsing. You cant push people that far and exspect any different. Yet we could spend an extra unexspected thousand it would hurt.

  • Two Thirds of all Americans would struggle to cover a $1,000 crisis   8 years 40 weeks ago

    I am thankful that I can afford your subscription. I don't afford another. You educate which is a tremendous contribution to the poor and working class. I have an MBA, a pension and security but I learn from you when I listen.

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