Shed a Tear for the Reefs – The New York Times

“Reports that the Great Barrier Reef is dying come ever more frequently, ever more urgently. There is no mystery about the reason — it’s global warming, caused by the fossil fuels we burn. If we stopped heating the oceans, parts of the great reef off Australia’s north coast and other spectacular coral reefs around the world could still recover. The alternative is to weep at the loss of one of the most spectacular sights on earth, as the author of the latest report and his students did on examining charts of the damage.

The death of coral reefs is a tragedy on many levels. There is the sheer beauty of the forests of brightly colored corals and the equally kaleidoscopic fish they harbor, a panorama that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. There’s their extraordinary variety and value: Coral reefs are found in shallow waters in only 0.2 percent of the oceans, yet they support a quarter of all marine life and provide protein for millions of people. Finally, there is the role of the coral reefs as the alarm system of the oceans: Highly sensitive to the temperature of water, the reefs can die from an increase of only two or three degrees Fahrenheit. The vast stretches of bleached coral speak to oceans in deep trouble.”

“Researchers led by Prof. Terry Hughes of James Cook University in Australia, the lead author of a report on the reef in the current issue of the journal Nature, were surprised at the extent of the damage. “We didn’t expect to see this level of destruction to the Great Barrier Reef for another 30 years,” he told The Times. In the north, he said, two-thirds of the reefs are dead. And Australian government efforts to curtail dredging and pollution were not helping. “The reefs in dirty water were just as fried as those in pristine water,” he said.”

President Trump’s Wheezing Jobs Effort – The New York Times

“According to an analysis by BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership between labor unions and environmental groups to expand “green economy” jobs, the standards that Mr. Trump now proposes to reverse would create an estimated 570,000 jobs in the United States by 2030, including 50,000 in light-duty vehicle manufacturing. Right now in Michigan, nearly 70,000 workers are working on components and materials to improve fuel-efficiency in cars, trucks and SUVs.”

Strong and true. Good paragraph asking, where is Wilbur Ross?

Here is a comment I support:
Christine McM is a trusted commenter Massachusetts 21 hours ago

I think the cuts to the job retraining programs are the most heinous part of the Trump budget. Aren’t these the programs designed to prepare coal miners (no, those jobs aren’t coming back, because no one in their right mind is going to re-open a shuttered mine when gas is so much cheaper to produce) for the energy jobs of the future?

Like most things Trump, the items cited in this editorial reflect more the disorder in Trump’s mind than any cohesive strategy. I mean, it sounds like a series of opposing actions, that taken together, produce a net zero change in the status quo. How can you promise jobs when tariffs, trade wars, and gigantic walls will exert a tax on the movement of goods, services, and component parts?

The president’s proposals on jobs to date remind me of his actions on healthcare: take a system that greatly expanded access but didn’t go far enough in mandating participation or regulating the insurance market and replace it plan that coverers fewer people for more money. A lot more, particularly for the old.

In other words, if it’s not broke, just fix it anyway by breaking it. Trump is taking an economy that was finally investing in new technologies and virtually guaranteeing that all that progress would be thrown out the window, replaced by a return to dirty water, polluted air, unsafe products, and corrupt (and unaccountable) capitalism.

Call it the Trump doctrine: Nothing is so good that we can’t make it far worse.

395 Recommended

Washington’s Army Celebrated St. Patrick’s Day to Cure Winter Blues | Smart News | Smithsonian

Washington declared the day a holiday in an attempt to raise morale and acknowledge the army’s many soldiers of Irish descent

Source: Washington’s Army Celebrated St. Patrick’s Day to Cure Winter Blues | Smart News | Smithsonian

What to Ask About Russian Hacking – by Louise Mensch

“On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee holds its first hearing on Russia’s hacking of the election. (No date has yet been set for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s parallel investigation.) The list of initial witnesses does not inspire confidence in the House committee’s effectiveness.

It should be relatively easy to get at the truth of whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia over the hacking. I have some relevant experience. When I was a member of Parliament in Britain, I took part in a select committee investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News Corporation. Today, as a New York-based journalist (who, in fact, now works at News Corp.), I have followed the Russian hacking story closely. In November, I broke the story that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court had issued a warrant that enabled the F.B.I. to examine communications between “U.S. persons” in the Trump campaign relating to Russia-linked banks.

So, I have some ideas for how the House committee members should proceed. If I were Adam Schiff, the leading Democrat on the committee, I would demand to see the following witnesses: Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Richard Burt, Erik Prince, Dan Scavino, Brad Parscale, Roger Stone, Corey Lewandowski, Boris Epshteyn, Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Flynn, Michael Flynn Jr., Felix Sater, Dmitry Rybolovlev, Michael Cohen, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, Stephen Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Michael Anton, Julia Hahn and Stephen Miller, along with executives from Cambridge Analytica, Alfa Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Spectrum Health.”

Keep reading at:

Conservative Fantasies- Colliding With Reality – by Paul Krugman – NYT

“This week the Trump administration put out a budget blueprint — or more accurately, a “budget” blueprint. After all, real budgets detail where the money comes from and where it goes; this proclamation covers only around a third of federal spending, while saying nothing about revenues or projected deficits.

As the fiscal expert Stan Collender put it: “This is not a budget. It’s a Trump campaign press release masquerading as a government document.”So what’s the point of the document? The administration presumably hopes that it will distract the public and the press from the ongoing debacle over health care. But it probably won’t. And in any case, this pseudo-budget embodies the same combination of meanspiritedness and fiscal fantasy that has turned the Republican effort to replace Obamacare into a train wreck.”

Excellent summary of what Krugman has been saying for years.

Let Bannon Be Bannon! – by David Brooks – NYT

“I continue to worry about Steve Bannon. I see him in the White House photos, but he never has that sprightly Prince of Darkness gleam in his eye anymore.

His governing philosophy is being completely gutted by the mice around him. He seems to have a big influence on Trump speeches but zero influence on recent Trump policies. I’m beginning to fear that he’s spending his days sitting along the wall in the Roosevelt Room morosely playing one of those Risk-style global empire video games on his smartphone.

Back in the good old days — like two months ago — it was fun to watch Bannon operate. He was the guy with a coherent governing philosophy. He seemed to have realized that the two major party establishments had abandoned the working class. He also seemed to have realized that the 21st-century political debate is not big versus small government, it’s open versus closed.

Bannon had the opportunity to realign American politics around the social, cultural and economic concerns of the working class. Erect barriers to keep out aliens from abroad, and shift money from the rich to the working class to create economic security at home.”

No David. You are in La La Land.

The comments are cutting you to ribbons, appropriately. Here is my favorite so far:

bob tichell

rochester,ny 9 hours ago

Mr Brooks is taken in just like the Trump voters. There never was a plan to aid the middle class and long suffering labor. It’s only all about tax cuts which mostly favor the wealthy. Sure, the middle class may reap some benefit but many don’t pay taxes enough to matter It was all a scam like the full Republican Party is. Cut the taxes and we’ll all be free! I hope the Trump voters suffer enough to know who is causing their increased suffering. Finally wrenching the government out of the hands of the right wing destroyers might be possible at the end of the decade . Warren/ Schumer for 2020. With Bernie majority leader and Barack to the Supreme Court

• 290 Recommended

 

And Jesus Said Unto Paul of Ryan … – by Saint Nicholas Kristof – NYT

Saint Nicholas strikes again!

“A woman who had been bleeding for 12 years came up behind Jesus and touched his clothes in hope of a cure. Jesus turned to her and said: “Fear not. Because of your faith, you are now healed.”

Then spoke Pious Paul of Ryan: “But teacher, is that wise? When you cure her, she learns dependency. Then the poor won’t take care of themselves, knowing that you’ll always bail them out! You must teach them personal responsibility!”

They were interrupted by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and shouted, “Jesus, have pity on us.”

“NO!” shouted Pious Paul. “Jesus! You don’t have time. We have a cocktail party fund-raiser in the temple. And don’t worry about them — they’ve already got health care access.”

Neil Gorsuch Has Web of Ties to Secretive Billionaire Philip Anschutz- The New York Times

“WASHINGTON — The publicity-shy billionaire Philip F. Anschutz inherited an oil and gas firm and built it into an empire that has sprawled into telecommunications, railroads, real estate, resorts, sports teams, stadiums, movies and conservative publications like The Weekly Standard and The Washington Examiner.

Mr. Anschutz’s influence is especially felt in his home state of Colorado, where years ago Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a Denver native, the son of a well-known Colorado Republican and now President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, was drawn into his orbit.”

Trump fuel economy rollback will kill jobs and cost each car buyer $1,650- Joe Romm – Thinkprogress.org

“Trump is traveling to Detroit on Wednesday to announce an executive order with the ultimate goal of rolling back the tough standards that apply to model years 2022–2025. This won’t be a quick process: A year-long review of the standards would be followed by a new rule-making — and then lengthy legal challenges.

Trump’s misguided move to appease the ever-myopic U.S. auto industry would undo efficiency gains that will provide consumers $98 billion in total net benefits, primarily from reduced fuel use. Individual car buyers would lose “a net savings of $1,650” (even after accounting for the higher vehicle cost) as the EPA concluded in its final January “Determination on the Appropriateness” of the standards.”

Source: Trump fuel economy rollback will kill jobs and cost each car buyer $1,650

Merkel ‘explained’ convention to Trump in phone call | World news | The Guardian

“Donald Trump’s executive order to halt travel from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia – has provoked a wave of concern and condemnation from international leaders and politicians.A spokesman for Angela Merkel said the German chancellor regretted Trump’s decision to ban citizens of certain countries from entering the US, adding that she had “explained” the obligations of the refugee convention to the new president in a phone call on Saturday.”

Source: Merkel ‘explained’ convention to Trump in phone call | World news | The Guardian